First Fruits of the Resurrection
May 12, 2025 · We're Gonna Live Forever
Scripture referenced
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
-
Isaiah 55:9 quoted to show God's ways and thoughts are higher than ours, establishing his holiness
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Keep this verse
1 Corinthians 15:20-23
read aloud by a congregation member to establish Jesus as first fruits of the resurrection
20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep.
21 For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man.
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
John 16:33
cited by Amanda to clarify that believers will have trouble in this life even while destined for total victory
33 I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
read aloud describing the sequence of resurrection events when Jesus returns
13 But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
15 For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first,
17 then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever.
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
1 Corinthians 15:35-44
read aloud describing the nature of the resurrection body compared to a seed
35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised?” and, “With what kind of body do they come?”
36 You foolish one, that which you yourself sow is not made alive unless it dies.
37 That which you sow, you don’t sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, maybe of wheat, or of some other kind.
38 But God gives it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.
40 There are also celestial bodies, and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial differs from that of the terrestrial.
41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown perishable; it is raised imperishable.
43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Isaiah 35:5
quoted to picture the blind seeing and lame leaping at the return of Jesus
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Philippians 3:20-21
cited to establish believers as current citizens of heaven awaiting transformation of their mortal bodies
20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
21 who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Jeremiah 29:11
quoted as God declaring plans for a hope and a future over those who felt their life had taken bad bounces
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Matthew 23:37
referenced as Jesus longing to gather Jerusalem under his wings like a mother hen does her chicks
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Romans 7
briefly referenced by a congregation member noting Paul's words that the good he wanted to do he could not do
1 Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?
2 For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband.
3 So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man.
4 Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might produce fruit to God.
5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law, worked in our members to bring out fruit to death.
6 But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin, except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting, unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
8 But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead.
9 I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
10 The commandment, which was for life, this I found to be for death;
11 for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.
12 Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.
13 Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin.
15 For I don’t know what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do.
16 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.
17 So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.
18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good.
19 For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice.
20 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.
21 I find then the law, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present.
22 For I delight in God’s law after the inward man,
23 but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, the sin’s law.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This was the third and final week in the series "We're Gonna Live Forever," preached on Mother's Day by Pastor Brian. The message stayed rooted in the feast of first fruits and what the resurrection of Jesus means not just as a past event but as a present and future reality for everyone who belongs to him. The core word for the morning was this: nothing less than total victory is our destiny.
What was said
Pastor Brian opened by grounding the series in God's yearly feast calendar, noting that Passover and Pentecost get most of the church's attention while the feast of first fruits tends to get skipped over. Because God chose to include it as one of only seven annual family traditions, it deserves serious consideration. The takeaway carried over from the previous two weeks was that Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection, the very best of the spring harvest presented to the Father, the first one raised from the dead with a body that never dies again.
The key phrase from 1 Corinthians 15 that several translations render as "made alive" or "new life" turns out to be a farming term, the same word a grower would use for a seed going into the ground and sprouting. A seed sitting in a jar stays a seed indefinitely, but the moment it goes into soil, something irreversible begins. That image set up the central encouragement of the morning: if you feel like a seed right now, like your life is transient and unsettled and you cannot see what God is doing, do not judge your destiny by your current circumstances.
Pastor Brian then used the game show Plinko as an extended picture of how a life moves toward its final outcome. Before a person invites Jesus in, the chip bounces with no reliable trajectory toward any good end. The moment Jesus enters the picture, it changes the path entirely, even if the chip still takes unexpected and difficult bounces on the way down. The point was not that life becomes smooth, and someone in the room quickly connected that to John 16:33, where Jesus himself says that in this life there will be trouble. The encouragement was that the final slot, total victory, is still where the chip lands for anyone whose life belongs to him, regardless of what the earlier bounces looked like.
That led into 1 Thessalonians 4, where Paul describes the sequence of events when Jesus returns. Those who have already died in faith come back with him. Their physical bodies are raised to something new. Those still living are caught up to meet him. Pastor Brian noted Paul's own instruction at the end of that passage: encourage each other with these things. That was treated not as a throwaway line but as a direct commission.
The resurrection body itself got attention through 1 Corinthians 15:35-44, where Paul uses the seed-to-plant image directly. The body buried is perishable, weak, natural. The body raised is imperishable, powerful, spiritual. Pastor Brian connected that to Isaiah 35, where blind eyes open, deaf ears hear, and those who could not walk leap like a deer. He described that moment at the return of Jesus as something like confetti, sudden and overwhelming and joyful, with people who never saw color seeing it for the first time, and people who never walked jumping up and dancing.
Philippians 3:20-21 closed the biblical argument. Citizenship in heaven is not a future status but a present one, and the waiting Paul describes is not passive. Pastor Brian offered three kinds of waiting: a doctor's office, a birthday, and a finish line. The finish line kind is what Paul means, the kind where the crowd's energy actually seems to transmit something to the runner still pressing toward the tape. That is the posture believers are called to hold right now toward the return of Jesus and the total victory that comes with it.
Touch points
Things you could actually do this week.
- Read Deuteronomy 26 and Leviticus 23 this week to understand the feast of first fruits that the series has been built around.
- Read all of 1 Corinthians 15 slowly, using Bible study tools to look up words and read the passage from multiple angles.
- Write the phrase 'do not judge your destiny by the current bounce of your Plinko chip' somewhere you will see it when discouragement hits.
- If you have been sitting with a lie from the enemy about a bad season or a bad bounce in your life, say out loud that you reject it in Jesus' name.
- Come to the Saturday evening gathering or Sunday service at the Virginian to hear from Laura Sanger on the supernatural and spiritual warfare.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Brian described the feast of first fruits as one of only seven yearly family traditions God gave his people, and said it deserves more attention than it usually gets. What do you think it means that God built resurrection into the rhythm of the calendar like that, and why do you think we tend to skip past it?
- Brian used the Plinko chip picture to say that the resurrection of Jesus gives us confidence that nothing less than total victory is our destiny, while others in the room pushed back that this life still includes real trouble and that the victory is ultimately future. Where do you land on that tension, and how does it shape the way you actually live day to day?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Resumen en español
El mensaje resumido, en español.
El domingo 12 de mayo, el pastor Brian continuó la serie "Vamos a Vivir para Siempre" con una tercera entrega sobre la fiesta de las primicias, una de las siete fiestas anuales que Dios estableció para su pueblo. El punto central fue este: Jesús es las primicias de la resurrección, el primero en ser levantado de entre los muertos, y eso garantiza que quienes lo siguen también serán resucitados. Así como una semilla parece sin vida mientras está guardada en un frasco, pero al ser plantada en la tierra explota en algo completamente nuevo, nuestros cuerpos actuales son solo la forma semilla de lo que seremos.
Para ilustrar el destino de cada creyente, Brian usó el juego Plinko del programa El Precio Correcto: la ficha de nuestra vida rebota de manera impredecible, y el enemigo espera que caiga en cualquier ranura que no sea la victoria. Pero si Jesús es el Señor de tu vida, no importa cuántos rebotes difíciles hayas tenido, tu destino final es la victoria total. Eso no significa que esta vida estará libre de problemas, como señaló Juan 16:33, pero sí significa que el resultado final está asegurado. La congregación participó activamente en la conversación, aportando reflexiones sobre el libre albedrío, la presciencia de Dios y el equilibrio entre la esperanza y la realidad del sufrimiento en esta vida.
Brian también leyó sobre la secuencia de eventos cuando Jesús regrese: primero los creyentes que ya murieron serán resucitados con cuerpos nuevos, luego quienes estén vivos serán arrebatados para encontrarse con él. Ese cuerpo resucitado no será el mismo que el actual, así como un girasol no es igual a la semilla de la que brotó. Cerró con la imagen de Filipenses 3: somos ciudadanos del cielo ahora mismo, esperando activamente el regreso de Cristo, no con resignación sino con la emoción de quien espera ver a alguien cruzar la meta.
---
Pasajes bíblicos usados:
- 1 Corintios 15:20-23
- 1 Corintios 15:35-44
- 1 Tesalonicenses 4:13-18
- Filipenses 3:20-21
- Isaías 35:5
- Juan 16:33
- Jeremías 29:11
- Deuteronomio 26
- Levítico 23
Read the full transcript 10,390 words
Please. So, you and I can talk to each other.
Can announce people's names.
Good morning, everyone. Are we live, Connor? Okay. Good morning if you're watching on the livestream. We're glad that you're here with us.
There's joy in this place. There's joy. Let's stand together.
Yay.
We'll start worship and there's all these empty seats. I'll open my eyes and there won't be standing room only. In Jesus' name. Oh, Lord, we come before you this morning and we just thank you for the privilege it is to get to meet together like this, to get to worship you, to honor you today. We do not take it lightly, this privilege it is.
We tell you that we're here today for you, Jesus. We're here for you in Jesus' name. Just take a minute and just right where you are, just settle your mind, settle your heart, fix your eyes on him this morning. Jesus, we're here for you. Once again, here we are.
We lay it all at your feet again.
We've gathered in this place to honor you. You and you alone, worship you in spirit and in truth. Oh, Jesus. Oh, Jesus. We we are here with fire.
Oh, yes, Lord. When we tell you we love you this morning, Come speak to us today. Speak to us today by your spirit today. Come rest on us today. Just put your hands out in front of you like you're receiving to.
It's an act of surrender. Lord, we pray this morning that you would silence all other voices this morning. That we would just hear your voice today, Lord. That you would speak over us who we are today. Just let him speak to you today.
We'll just sing a love song to you today, God. As you speak to us, we just we tell you we love you, that we honor you, and we remind ourselves where we would be without you today. Let's just sing this to him today. Just connect with him this morning, whatever you need to do. If you need to sit down, close your eyes, raise your hands, just connect with him today.
I love you, Lord.
Oh, your mercy never fails me
Let's sing of his goodness one more time. Just think about these words. I know we do this song a lot, but just really think about your life and all the times that he's been there. Maybe it was through discipline. Maybe it was through encouragement.
Maybe he spared you from something that you deserved. Just thank him as you sing this this morning. Sing all my life. God. Yes, lord.
We join our voices this morning with every every being, every creature around the throne today that sings holy, holy, holy. You are worthy. Just think about this. A
thousand generations falling down in worship,
Brian, you got something?
So just a moment ago, we were singing a song about the holiness of God, and it's really easy for us to stand here in church and sing that say the words that God is holy. But what does that really mean? And how is that a distinguishing characteristic of the God of the Bible? So the word holy means to be sacred, to be completely set apart, to be different than. Not common, but special.
Like, at your grandma's house where they have, like, the plates that you can only use on Thanksgiving. Right? Those are set apart for something special. God is holy. He's not common.
He is not ordinary. But there are lots of other things that would try to attach itself to the word holy, like his holiness, the Dalai Lama. Oh. Or like the new pope that's American, like his holiness, Pope Leo. So that word holy can be used attached to lots of other things, but it's really only the God of the Bible that is actually holy.
When we sing the words to that song, holy, it means something very special and sacred. Because only, only the God of of the the Bible Bible is actually holy. The Bible says in the book of Isaiah that for my ways are higher than your ways. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. They're completely different.
He alone stands outside of all of creation. He is set apart from all of creation. Everything else that people would try to ascribe as holy is a part of the creation. No god, no deity, no idol, although they would like to claim holiness has a rightful moniker of holy. Only the God of the Bible.
It is a unique attribute ascribed only to the God of the Bible. So when we sing holy, we're not just saying like you could replace those words with some other God because they're not. Only the God of the Bible is holy. So when we sing these words one more time, let's praise him. Let's worship him for being completely set apart, completely different.
There is none like him. He is unique. Let us acknowledge that uniqueness.
Let's sing that Just hold it here for just one second. Gretchen just had a picture while you were saying that before we go into the holy holy. Not the holy of holies, but the holy holies. Or the holy of holies, whichever you choose.
I just got a really clear picture. Like every time I close my eyes, I so clearly see just this room filled with angels and saints ministering to every single one that's in here right now. And so just take a minute for whatever you need ministry to. Anything that's on your heart, anything that feels hard, any illness, any sickness, any heaviness, worries, and just trust that you're being surrounded in this moment and they are ministering to every single need that you have. You're being healed.
You're being given peace. You're being given god's light. You're give being given wonder and awe and beauty and they'll just fill you right now.
Holy forever.
Israel, your name is the highest.
Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above them all over everything. All throats and dominions, powers, and positions. Your name stands above them all.
Lord, we declare it. We declare it this morning that these are not just words to a song, that they are true this morning. That anything that would try to hold us in bondage this morning, that you are stronger, you are bigger. There are no thrones above your throne, no dominion above you. And anything that we have given permission in our lives right now, Lord, we just ask that you would reveal it to us.
Because your name
is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above them all. Set us free. Oh, thrones
dominions of power and positions your name
set stands above them all. Oh, yeah.
Lord, we just tell you this morning that you are worthy, that you are worthy. We give you all the glory in this place and that these aren't just words, but this would be the cry of our heart. We tell you we love you this morning. Come speak to us through your word this morning. Thank you for the worship in this place.
Thank you that you always come, that you are so drawn to our worship. And when we lift our eyes and lift our voice to you, that you are present in this place so all things are possible today. We give you all the glory. Continue to teach us what it means to truly truly worship you as we practice for eternity. In Jesus name and everybody said, amen.
How about Bethany on the keys today?
Giving sweet Amanda a break where she can actually raise her hands in worship.
Grab a muffin. Thank you, Katie,
for bringing goodies and fill up your coffee and get out his word. Greet somebody if you see somebody that might be a visitor or first time guest, just introduce yourself this morning.
Good morning. Happy Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day. It is on this Sunday and really every Sunday that all moms seated next to their children get unlimited hugs and squeezes.
And so if you are the recipient of a Mother's Day, please avail yourself to today's special offer of lots of hugs and squeezes to your to your children. So let me let me talk about the the mom that I know best that I spent more years now with than than my mom, which is the mom that I know of this mom right here. When Lissa was pregnant with our first little baby, Selah, we were told, hey. Stay at home as long as possible. Like, after her water breaks, you know, you have, eight, maybe twelve hours, and then contractions will start.
And it was 08/17/2003 that our daughter was born. Her water breaks at like 10PM, and we're like, okay, we've got some time. Let's relax. Let's rest. Then contractions for her started almost immediately.
They were almost two minutes apart right from the get go. Liz is like, think we should call the hospital and get moving that direction. I was like, okay, yes, right. Call the hospital. Call the hospital.
Picked up our cordless phone and called the hospital, and I said, yes. My wife is going into labor. I think we're gonna have the baby maybe sooner than later. Contractions are two minutes apart. And she says, okay.
Okay. What is the mother's name? And I said, Bethna Harold, which is my mom's name. Which I was like, why would she wanna know my mom's name? But I don't know, medical professionals, like, they're just being thorough.
And she's like, we don't have Bethna Harold coming in. And I was like, oh, you mean my wife. She I had not known her as a mother. The only mother I ever knew was was my mom. So I'm
hearing this from upstairs thinking, what what in in the the world world? Is it? But
my wife's arms are very strong. Mothers have the gift of really strong arms. They do, among many things, they do two things. They protect and they shield, and they also arouse and energize. And the picture that I get in my mind's eye is of have any of you been into that webcam that's on the eagles nest this spring, and the eagles, like, hatched a couple of babies?
Yeah. Where where was that? Maybe on the West Coast somewhere? There you go. In California.
So this this there was a webcam, like, perfect view of a nest, and then the mom had, lays a couple of eggs, and then she mothers the eggs, and then the eggs hatch. And then there was a big she had her little chicks that you could see if you were watching closely. And then there was a big spring storm that started out as rain, and the mother eagle's like, you know, being buffeted by the wind and the rain. And then the temperature dropped, and she got buried in, like, eight inches of snow. And for several days, all you saw was just snow over the nest, and you're like, oh, boy.
No movement. No nothing. But then after a few days, like, you see her, and she's all wet and waterlogged, but she kept her wings out all through the storm, and her little chicks were safe and dry and warm, and it was incredible. And there will come a time when she uses the the same wings that she uses to shield and protect and cover. She will use those wings to beat them furiously, creating a mighty windstorm to get her to rouse her chicks, to get them to leave the comfortability of the nest and stretch their own wings and fly.
And that's what eagles do, and I will say that is a great picture of what this mom has done to shield and protect our two little chicks in the nest, putting herself at great risk in peril, sacrificing so much to shield and to to nurture our two little chicks. And then as it was time for them to launch the nest, encouraging them. And we just came back from San Diego just yesterday as we were watching our oldest little chick present her senior project before she she'll graduate in December, but she presented her senior project just this last week, and we got to see her new apartment that she has rented and is moving into. And something about the this is in San Diego. Something about the ocean.
Was the ocean very salty or something? Because my all weekend long, my eyes were leaking. And so happy Mother's Day to you, great, great eagle mother. Last week, our conversation about resurrection was so good that we didn't get through all that we wanted to cover and talk about. So I'm calling this We're Gonna Live Forever Part three.
And this is not the beginning of another never ending series. I promise we're gonna land the plane today with this series. Only three weeks. You guys don't seem very confident in me. It's really your fault.
Connor keep it down back there. So let's go to part three. We're gonna live forever part three. And to give you a quick rundown this is where this series is coming from. I have a chart here of the feast of the Lord or as I like to put it, God's family tradition.
And this feast, what we call Easter in the Christian church, but is known in the Jewish world as the feast of Passover, gets a lot of attention, and it's worthy of it. And then the Christian church kind of jumps to this feast, Shavuot or Pentecost, especially in your nondenominational charismatic churches, really big on Pentecost. And there's a great reason to celebrate Pentecost because if you look at Jesus in the feast, it is the arrival of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit given to the church. And so Passover, Easter, and Shavuot, Pentecost get a lot of attention.
But these two feasts usually miss out on their due honor. And so what we have done between Easter and Passover, we're talking about these two feasts. And we spoke about the feast of unleavened bread. You can go back and listen to that podcast, catch up on that. And we spent two weeks in the feast of first fruits, and there's more that I'd like us to get down, not just into our thinker, but deep down into our knower about resurrection.
We think of, yes, Jesus as the the life and the resurrection, and we're like, got that. He is alive. He burst out of the tomb. That is amazing. Good job for Jesus.
And now my job is like, try to live like him. Or maybe someday I will experience resurrection. I don't need to think about it too much because it'll just work itself out when I get there. In the meantime, I've got all this other stuff. Well, if that were the case, god would not have included the feast of first fruits in one of only seven yearly annual family traditions.
This feast is really important to the Lord, and therefore, we should spend some time giving it our our due diligence to honor and recognize that feast. And so we've been talking about the feast of first fruits for a couple of weeks. This is the third week. We're gonna talk about it. We're not going to read these passages, but you can read about these feasts in two places.
Deuteronomy chapter 26 and in Leviticus chapter 23, these are worth writing down so that you can come back and revisit them. Deuteronomy chapter 26 and Leviticus chapter 23. If you're brand new, like, you're kind of just catching up like, wait. Wait. Wait.
We're we're not gonna read these. No. You get to read these all on your own. So you can take you can jot that address down, or you can take a picture. And our takeaway from the last few weeks is this bottom line.
Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection. Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection. Remember, when you harvested your crop from the spring, you were to take the very first cutting. You you didn't have a full day of farming that day. When the crop was ready to be harvested, you took your sickle.
You cut some of the crop. You plucked some of the fruit, and it went from the tree in your hand straight to the temple. And you presented it to the Lord saying, this is the first of the spring crop. And think about this. Let's say, I know that apples weren't in season, but we can all it's kind of one of the easiest crops for us to picture.
Apples come off of apple. See, you got it. And so imagine, you're like, okay. This is the I'm gonna harvest the apples. And I know that apples don't get harvested in the spring, but come on.
Bear with me. So you're going to pull an apple from the apple tree, and you're gonna take it right to the temple as an offering to the Lord. Which apple do you pick? The first one? The easiest one to grab a hold of?
Or what do you do? The most ripe one. What else? The prettiest one. The juiciest one.
The the most, like, delicious looking one. So imagine this. You are an apple farmer, and you have an apple orchard. And Zach Shelton, if you're listening to this podcast, I know that I'm messing up this analogy a lot already. Just bear with me.
Only you know that the real way that apples are harvested, but the rest of us don't, so just bear with me. Zach Shelton is a dear member of our tribe fam. They're living in where? Tennessee? He's so dear, I don't know where they're living now.
Texas? Tennessee. Let's go with Tennessee. And he grew up on Tennessee, and he grew up on an apple orchard farm. So he knows.
The rest of us don't. So imagine you're Zach Shelton, and it's time to harvest the spring apples. You don't just pick the first one, the easiest one, the closest one to the temple. Imagine walking down the lane of all of your apple trees, and you're looking, and you're considering. This has got to be the very best apple.
Like when you're hunting for a Christmas tree. Not just any old tree will do, but I'm looking for just the perfect one. You find the apple. Here it is. This is it.
Pull it off of the tree, and then you go straight to the temple, and you present it to the lord. Here's the first. Here's the very best of my spring crop and harvest. The priest receives it, and he waves it before the Lord to show the Lord. And then the Bible says when you read the go back and read those two passages, that then you get to enjoy the rest of the harvest.
Jesus fulfilled the feast of first fruits because he was first born from the dead, resurrected by the power of God, and he had to fulfill the requirements of that feast. When he appeared from the dead in the Garden Of Gethsemane, he saw Mary. Mary wanted to hug him, and he's like, oh, hold on to that hug not yet. I must present myself to the temple as the fruit of the first feet, the fulfillment of that feast. And so that's where we've been.
Later, during that day, Jesus reappears to his disciples behind a locked door. How did he do that? That was with his resurrected body, which we're going to talk more about today. Appeared in a room that was locked with the disciples. And then he said, all right, now I'm ready for hugs and for you to touch where the nails pierced my hands and my feet and where the spear pierced my side.
And so we think a lot about Jesus and his resurrected body, and we can see towards the end of the gospels and the beginning of the book of acts, like that resurrected body. Pretty cool stuff. But what does that mean for us today? And that's where we're going to we were trying to get to last week, but we had so much great conversation. We didn't get through all of the verses that I wanted to share with you.
So our goal today is to get through more, The rest of those verses. If you have your bible with you, would you turn to first Corinthians chapter 15? The whole chapter of first Corinthians, chapter 15, is worth just a slow stroll through to read and consider and use your bible study tools to look up words, read that passage from multiple angles. There's so much in first Corinthians chapter 15. Well, we are going to only focus for this passage on three verses, verse 20 through 23.
So would somebody please read out loud first Corinthians chapter 15 verse 20 through 23? What do you got? And Kat has a mic in the room so that you can Do it. Do it. But
Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam, all die, so in Christ, all will be made alive. But each in turn, Christ, the first fruits, then when he comes, those who belong to him.
Woo hoo. Is that through 23? Yep. Okay. There's a phrase that, depending on your translation, that same phrase may be said a little bit different ways, but it's a beautiful phrase.
Let's see. In my translation, it says verse 22. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. Does your phrase in your translation say new life, or does it say something different?
Made alive.
Made alive. Somebody's had what else is another way of saying it from your translation? They'll be made alive. Everybody's either says?
Oh, bring
life. Okay. So that phrase is is great. You can underline that phrase in your bible, and then out in the margin, you can you can write the words like a seed. So the new life that we have been given is like a seed.
The word used there is a term used in farming or horticultural practices. New life is the same phrase that a farmer would use when he's planting and putting a seed in the ground, like a seed that sprouts up. Isn't it crazy how you can put seeds in a jar for a long time, and they stay there as seeds? And then you put a seed in the ground, and it's like, oh, here we go. You know that they found seeds in jars from, like, mummy excavations all Egypt and down in Peru, all over the world.
And they're still they're when they're in that jar, they're still just seeds. But the moment you take that seed and put it in the ground, something incredible happens. And here's what we've been talking about for the last couple of weeks. The resurrection of Jesus gives us great confidence that nothing less than total victory is our destiny. Let me say it in terms of a seed analogy, and then I'll say it in an analogy as I was praying through the message this morning, a picture that I got.
So the resurrection of Jesus gives us great confidence that nothing less than total victory is our destiny. In the parable of the sower, Jesus said the seed is good, but it's where the seed falls that makes the difference. Some on stony ground and nothing ever happens, the birds come and eat it. The seed that falls on fertile soil produces a harvest of righteousness. A hundredfold, Jesus said.
Nothing less than total victory is our destiny. Now if you're a high school student, if you're a college student, this would preach really, really, really good what I'm about to say, but it still preaches pretty darn good to those of us in this room. You may feel like a seed right now. When am I going to sprout? When am I going to explode into all that God has for me?
I feel like right now my life is so transient, so temporary, so unsettled, so unsure. Like, what is God's plan for my life? Maybe you would be thinking to yourself. And you may feel like a seed on a shelf. Can I encourage you a seed in a jar?
Can I encourage you with this? Don't worry. Don't worry. At just the right time, god's going to pull you out of that jar, put you on the ground, take his finger, go and jam you straight into some incredible fertile soil where you will sprout. Look at this promise from the Lord.
I this is not scripture, but I feel like the Lord put this on my heart Type out. Put it on the screen for you. Nothing less than total victory is your destiny. And what's really cool is that this is not applicable to someday. That's really cool for someday.
But you get to start living this reality, grabbing a hold of it right now. Here's another analogy that I saw in my mind's eye this morning. When I was a kid, and I was sick, and I'd stay home from school, you only really had cartoons on Saturday. That was it. And the morning program was like news, and then you would have Sesame Street, which I was really excited about, and then after Sesame Street, it went to the soap operas.
But before the soap operas, after Sesame Street, there was a time called the game show, like morning game show. And the most iconic morning game show, does anybody remember, had to do with buying stuff. The with Price is Bob Barker.
I'm still on. Not a Bob Barker.
Yeah. So one of the games on the Price is Right was called Plinko. Does anybody remember Plinko? Okay. So describe Plinko.
How did how did the game Plinko work? Yes. Yes. And it always made the most interesting, satisfying sound. So you would go up so if you're playing Plinko, that was the game that was selected for you to play, You would get these three like little discs.
Like little you know, they look like drink coasters or something. And they had these little you know, had rubber bumpers on it. And you would walk up behind this large board that had all of these pegs on them, and at the bottom of the board were slots, and it had different number value amounts. You could put your disc anywhere you wanted at the top, and it would bounce around as gravity pulled it down, and then whatever slot it landed in at the bottom was how much money you got. One.
A new car. Does that are you picturing that game? You can you can kind of conceptually imagine it. Alright. So here's your life in terms of a game of Plinko.
There's lots of different slots at the bottom. Total failure. Loser. Pay taxes and die. Obscurity.
Then there's one slot way off to the edge. Total victory. That slot is written just like in the game. Instead of new car it says total victory, and it's written with sparkle letters. Like that was big money cash super prize.
All of these 15 other slots. Mediocrity. Drudgery, not fulfilling your purpose. You can think of fill in the blank. But one little skinny slot that says total victory, you win everything.
Life drops your puck at the top. And it's getting lower. The enemy is like, come on, obscurity. Come on, no destiny. Come on, total loser.
And the enemy and the powers of hell are cheering for anything other than total victory. And if total victory is over here, your putt gets dropped in right above it, and it goes all the way to the other side, bouncing back and forth, bouncing back and forth. Everybody's waiting with bated breath. What's gonna happen? But if one of those little pegs that you bounce off of is, I'm gonna give my heart to Jesus, that alters the trajectory of the whole game.
Now your Plinko the Plinko chip of your life may still have twists and turns. But before that plinko chip drops into the final slot, whenever that may be at the end of your life, If you have invited Jesus into your heart, further away, even if you're three pegs away from your last breath, and it drops into the slot of total, complete victory. It doesn't matter where the Plinko chip of your life has bounced before that. Praise god. Because my Plinko chip has taken a lot of squirrelly bounces.
But if you have invited Jesus into your life because he went first. Imagine, the bible says in the book of Daniel chapter nine that it seems as though his life accomplished nothing to just obscurity. And Isaiah 53, that that we thought that the punishment that we deserved that fell on him, we thought it was a punishment from the Lord. And then it just hovered right there between total obscurity and failure and total victory. For three days, Diplinko chip was like, which way is it gonna fall?
Which way is it gonna fall? All the powers of hell were like, fail. Fail. And then it drops into the slot of resurrection for total victory. Your life is destined for total victory if Jesus is the savior of your life and the leader of your life?
Thoughts about that? Thoughts about that? Let me let me hear from you. And we have a mic in the room so that all of our families that are watching the livestream get to, participate in the service with us. Any hyperlinks in your brain to bible verses or thoughts on what we just said.
I can see your thinking. I love that. So wouldn't there really only be ultimately two slots? Sure. All of those other slots of obscurity, they're all the same color.
And then you've got the really sparkly one. Total victory.
I'm having a hyperlink to John sixteen thirty three, I believe. But it's more of, like, clarifying, like because there is a lot of false gospel now that says, like, if you have Jesus, like, your life will be great. And it's such a tricky question that needs to be defined because John sixteen thirty three says, in Jesus is speaking and he says
In this life.
In this
life, you will have trouble, but take heart because you've overcome the world. So just just kind of clarifying for anybody with who is like, what? Because we won't have, in this life, total victory, how we are defining it spiritually.
Yeah. I love it. That's so great. Don't judge your destiny by the current bounce of your Plinko chip.
Write that down.
And not not meaning that you can't have moments of victory. I think the lord in his grace allows us to have these immense amount of joy here on this earth
Mhmm.
As a type and shadow of what's to come in this total victory that you're describing. So there it's a pendulum swing. You shouldn't be like, not everything's fine. There's no problems. But you also shouldn't be doom and gloom.
If you are, like, please don't say you're a Christian because that's not attracting anybody to the Lord. So there's this beautiful balanced middle space where we have this relationship with the holy spirit who leads us and guides us in wisdom in this life. And we'll have up days. We'll have down days, but this total victory that you're describing is the ultimate. This is when we are resurrected at the seventh trumpet, which is talked about in first Corinthians 15.
35.
While we are while we thank you for the incredible segue. Did you who had something?
Ella did you have something? While
Ella is sharing her thought, to segue what Amanda just said, we're gonna turn next in our Bibles to first Thessalonians chapter four. So you can go there while Ella shares this.
I think I have a slight, like, question slash meh with that analogy because the Plinko chip is so much about chance rather than, like, us, you know? Like yeah. Like, I feel like when you say that, it's like, well, you might end up over here. You might end up over there. But as much as the devil is, like, trying to push our Plinko chip to the unsuccessful, to the failure, like, we have the ability to, like, actually bring it over to the victory if we put our hearts and our minds on the Lord.
So I just I wanted to clarify that too of, like, it's not just chance. Like, we get to choose a little bit where that Plinko chip ends up with where our hearts are aligned, I guess.
I like
it. Yeah. Bring it back. Now we're gonna be doing that. I'm gonna say both because Yes.
Before what you're saying, and yes, it all ties together. Before we surrender our lives to Jesus, we can't choose good.
Yes.
Though we can't okay. We can't choose eternal good. Yeah. So it is out of our control in a way because, like, before we serve the lord, we serve the enemy. So even if it looks like we're doing good, it's not necessarily chance, and I know Jacob's like has a million thoughts on this.
But before we choose Jesus, we can't choose anything eternally good. We can't go into that we can't go into the total victory no matter what, how good of choices we choose before that specific one.
Yeah. The good that I wanted to do, I can't do. In Romans, Paul is talking.
But we do have free will.
We do have free
choose what we wanna choose. So, yes, and it's all it's the intricate dichotomy of free will, and we're predestined for victory Yes. To be held in tension.
I think I think the the because we don't wanna go off, take this detour too far. I think the difference has to do with perspective. The perspective of the Plinko chip, the perspective of the observer, and the creator of the whole game. So so our life can be like the the Plinko chip itself. How well can the Plinko chip steer itself?
It just kinda, you know, and it it it does its thing. That's one perspective. Another perspective is that of the viewer. The viewer can't really like, no matter how much you're cheering for your your friend who got onto the game show who wants that Plinko chip to go over to the grand prize, like, we can cheer and be excited, but we can't affect it either. And in some ways well, perfectly illustrated in this game, the Plinko chip, it's total random.
But in our life, God has two unique perspectives. Number one, he gets to see, because he's omniscient, all the possible outcomes of how that Plinko chip could bounce. And he knows how it will fall until we choose him. He knows when that is going to happen. And then he knows the choices that we will make after.
That's called foreknowledge. The secret to unlocking the tension in a person's mind and heart is this idea of foreknowledge. He just knows. He just knows. He knows all of the options.
He knows what we will choose. And based upon his foreknowledge, he then destines. And without getting too far down that rabbit trail, for the purpose of our conversation today, if you have invited Jesus into your heart, if you've made him the leader of your life, if you steadfastly endeavor to walk in the spirit, your end result will be total victory. And total victory for our conversation today includes includes a new life and a resurrected body, which is where we're getting back on track to right now. First Thessalonians chapter 13 verse first Thessalonians chapter four verse 13 through 14.
Now let me read this through 18. Four thirteen through 18. And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so we will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. We tell you this directly from the Lord.
We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. Amanda Lac said that. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then together with them, we, who are still alive and remain on the earth, will be caught up in the clouds to meet the lord in the air.
Then we will be with the lord forever. And then what's the final thing?
Encourage each
So encourage each other with this. Maybe the church flavor denomination tradition that you have come from speaks and preaches from this passage all the time. Maybe this could be the very first time you're hearing this passage. But we're exhorted by Paul, who kinda knows a thing or two, to encourage one another with this passage. Guess what?
Your destiny is total victory. Your destiny is total victory. Life may have thrown you a couple of odd bounces right now, but your destiny, encourage one another, is total victory. Underline that passage. From that verse in first Thessalonians, those few verses, here's we're not gonna spend a whole lot of time digging into, like like, graphing this out.
But just so you can conceptualize what's happening, there is a sequence or order of events in this. I don't have it on this past I don't have it on the screen, but I want you to keep your eyes on the screen. So here basically is the order of events. Those who have died before Jesus returns will return with Jesus. Right now oh, and it's so hard to talk about time because if if the third heaven I need to define that.
The first heaven is where we are in this physical realm. It's where airplanes live, and it's where Elon Musk and his convertible Tesla is heading out deep into space. That would be the first heaven, the physical world made up of these three dimensions. It includes the full limits of the physical known universe. That's the first heaven.
The second heaven would be a dimension that is similar to this first heaven, this first dimension, but would be considered the spiritual dimension. Okay? And then the third heaven Paul talks about would be the throne room of God. Heaven, the as we think of it as a kingdom, includes the second heaven. But the third heaven is like like the Oval Office.
There we go. The Oval Office. And so when a person dies, either if they were we'll not talk about before Jesus went to the cross because he had to do something when for those three days. Hold on to that. We're talking about anybody that looks backward to the cross for salvation.
Right? So from the cross until this moment because Jesus has not come back yet. Anybody who dies, their spiritual body is with the lord. But first Thessalonians tells us that when Jesus comes back, those who have believed in Jesus, who are experiencing total victory, come back with their spiritual bodies. But their physical bodies will be raised to something new and amazing and incredible.
And we're going to talk about that body in just a moment. Then those of us who are alive will run to meet him, to be caught up in the clouds as he returns. And you can you can see this if you look, not carefully as if it's hidden, but if you read carefully, you can see this. Let's go back to first Corinthians 15 because Paul elaborates on this a little bit a little bit more. This is a long passage, so I don't have it up on the screen, but I have the address.
First Corinthians 15. I gotta go there. While you're turning to first Corinthians 15, let me just this is a bonus verse. Isaiah 35 verse five. And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind.
He will unplug the ears of the deaf, and the lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will sing for joy. Springs will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams will water the wasteland. That has happened once in a spiritual sense at the first coming of Jesus, and we will see it happen again in a very real sense when he returns. And in the same way that, oh, like, people, like, you do the confetti poppers. Like, woah, we're having a really special moment, and then to as an exclamation mark on the special moment, a birthday, a wedding, a surprise, whatever it is, an engagement party, whatever it is, when the confetti goes up, like yay.
It's enough to win the Super Bowl. That's great, amazing. But when it starts, the confetti starts pouring down over the stadium, you're like, wow, that's really cool. I feel like this is the picture that I get in my mind's eye. At the wedding supper of the lamb, when Jesus returns, we'll all be seated together.
It will be the most wonderful, joyous, incredible experience in the history of the world. And then, just like confetti makes things even more special, in that moment, at the wedding supper of the lamb, and when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind. People who, perhaps their earth suit was either born damaged or got damaged, have never seen color in their life. We'll see color at the wedding supper of the lamb with the resurrected body and describe those colors. And unplug deaf ears.
They'll be able to hear people talking. They'll be able to hear Jesus. The lame will leap like a deer. I can picture somebody who had a deformity or through sickness or disease wasn't able to walk, either either ended up not able to walk or perhaps was born unable to walk. And they're like, uh-oh.
What's happening? What's happening? And they jump up on the table, and they leap and dance with joy. Just it's like it's like holy spirit confetti, the blind being able to see, deaf ears opening, those who couldn't walk or who couldn't dance, like like jumping up on the table, breaking out into spontaneous dance, confetti, confetti, like, oh my gosh. Those who cannot speak will sing for joy.
I think I've got a song, and they'll burst out into song. It'll be the most incredible thing we've ever heard. Maybe that's just confetti for me. First Corinthians are you picking up what I'm putting down? Okay.
Okay. First Corinthians 15. Would somebody please, we're gonna read verses 35 through 44. First Corinthians 15. Let's read these passages together.
The resurrection body, first Corinthians fifteen thirty five to 44, that someone will ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come? How foolish. What you sow does not come to life unless it dies first. When you sow, you do not plant the body or you you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.
But god gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed, he gives its own body. Not all flesh is the same. People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another, and fish, yeah, another. There are also heavenly bodies, and there are earthly bodies. But the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is yet another.
The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon, another. And the stars, another. And with stars, each differs from star, star to star in splendor. So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable.
It is raised imperishable. It is sown in dish dishonor, but it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, but it is raised in power. It is sown with a natural body, and it is raised with a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
Here's the picture that I want you to get to to have in your mind's eye. These two things look very different, but they're the same thing. One is just the seed form of another. The earth suit that you have right now is just this. It's just a seed.
It has some amazing, incredible potential to reach its fullness. But right now, if your body or let's say the circumstances that you find your life in are like, I have been made for more than this. I feel stuck in this. I feel like I'm not fulfilling what God is calling me to The Bible talks about a groaning. All of creation is groaning, waiting for redemption.
This is plain, boring, uncomely, undesirable. But when this is planted in the ground, that's when this can sprout, when the sunflower can sprout. If the mic didn't pick up what Bethany said, she said, I heard once somebody say that David is like a a great picture of that seed and then the sprouting of the, in our analogy, the sunflower. David was anointed king of Israel at the age of 15. He spent the next fifteen years running for his life, living in the obscurity of the Caves Of Adullam, but there was something happening beneath the soil.
And when he was when he was 15, he was anointed king. When he was 30, he was coronated as king. So our character, we will take with us into the next chapter of our life. That's why the investments that we make today, right now, are so valuable and important. We're living for eternity right now.
Will will you, through surrenderance, obedience, plant deep roots right now? Our destiny is total victory. Our reward is dependent upon the roots that we sink right now. Do we sink roots into this temporal life in the pursuit of pleasure or material gain, or are we sinking roots into and making investments into eternity? Just really quickly, the last verse, and we will have done it, guys.
Philippians three twenty to 21 says this, but we are currently, right now, citizens of heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our savior. We could go off on a fantastic rabbit trail of three different kinds of waiting. What's one of them? Doctor's office. Doctor's office waiting.
You're like, who knows when it'll happen, but when he calls my name, alright. Fine. What's the other kind of waiting? Birthday waiting. Birthday waiting is you're really excited.
There's a date on the calendar. You're really excite it doesn't matter how you trick yourself if your birthday's on Friday, and you trick yourself to thinking that it's, like, Thursday when it's really just Wednesday so that your birthday get your birthday is gonna get here on Friday. Birthday waiting. But then there's another kind of waiting. Finish line.
Finish line waiting. Wow. You guys did so good. Thanks, mom. I'm here for you.
She's always got your back. Finish line waiting is when we're cheering for the runner to break the tape at the finish line, and it's as if the louder we cheer and the more excited we get for them that somehow some way it transmits strength to them so that they can make that final kick to break the tape at the finish line. Finish line waiting is what Paul is talking about in his letter to the church at Philippi, and we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our savior. He were he will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control. Remember that verse that Paul talked about a moment ago.
He so he says, so encourage each other with these things. Total victory is our destiny. We're not gonna go back through the verses, but but just listen to the words coming out of my mouth. First Corinthians 15, we can encourage each other and ourselves with new life. First Thessalonians chapter four, we have a hope and encouragement.
First Corinthians 15 that we just read in 35 through 34 that we will be transformed. And then finally, Philippians three, that we are citizens of heaven. Oh, sunflowers. The Lord sees you as an incredible, beautiful sunflower. That life starts for us now when we experience Jesus regenerating our hearts.
We get to live in eternity now. Our citizenship gets changed on our passport. The moment we get saved from eternal separation and experiencing the wrath of god. That was our our destination to a citizen of heaven. The invitation from the feast of first fruits is to remember and to live as citizens of heaven.
Let's close our eyes, and I'm going to ask that the holy spirit would help all of us to make today's conversation make that 18 inch drop into the fertile soil of our hearts. If it only gets hung up cerebrally, it has that's not where the fertile soil is. The fertile soil is in our hearts. Holy Spirit, speak to me. Show me.
Help me to have an encounter with the truth of the reality that my identity is at a city as a citizen of heaven. Jesus, help us. Help us. Help us. You may feel as though the Plinko chip of your life has taken some really not fun bounces.
Don't worry. Don't worry. It hasn't dropped into the final slot yet. Don't worry. New life is yours.
Your citizenship is that of heaven. Don't listen to that dirty devil who would dare try to tell you, oh, that was a bad bounce. Oh, that was a bad oh, you've made four bad bounces. It's not looking good for you. You can literally tell him to shut the hell up.
You have been bought with the price. Jesus, thank you for the feast of first fruits to remind us that our destiny is nothing less than total victory. I don't do this too often, but let me let me find out in this room today to whom this message was timely. And so here's the question, and you can respond because nobody's looking around right now. Your eyes are closed.
You can respond by just raising your hand. For whom in here it feels as though your life lately in this particular season that either it's taken some bad plinko bounces and or that devil has tried to throw up pegs in your life that you're like, I didn't want this. I didn't ask for this. And it's like, brink it, brink it, brink it, not bouncing in the direction that you know that God has for you, but it's just happened. And you need the encouragement from the word of the Lord today for your life.
I wanna pray for you, but I need to know who I'm praying for. Nobody's looking around right now, so you just raise your hand. Wow. That's awesome. Just yeah.
Yeah. Now you can take the hand that you raised and just kind of hold it out in front of you to receive. Yeah. That's it. That's it.
Oh, Jesus. Ask for a divine encounter from you, the author and perfecter of our faith, the one who says, he who begun a good work in you will see it to completion. Jeremiah twenty nine eleven, this was for Israel, spoken to Israel, but it's for us. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to give you a hope and a future.
Plans to bless you and not to harm you. I am so sorry that that Plinko chip of your life has taken a couple of bad bounces. Baby, he speaks to you as his child. You're his baby. But hold on.
Your life has not dropped into that final slot yet. Total victory is coming. Grab a hold of it. Total victory. Total victory.
Right now, with the authority that you have given me as the pastor of tribe and the pastor of those listening under the sound of my voice this morning. I command that dirty devil to shut his filthy mouth. Stop lying to these children about the bouncing of their Plinko chip right now. Your lies, we reject right now in the name of Jesus. The lie of that that the bounce of that chip that says, yeah, you're damaged goods.
The lie of the enemy that says, you have been forgotten. The lie of the enemy that says, it is too late. The lie of the enemy that says you will never recover from this. You will never be healed. Those are lies.
Jesus, replace the lies of the enemy with your beautiful, wonderful, glorious truth. Run to his arms. He says as he speaks over Jerusalem, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that stones its prophets and kills its messengers. How I've longed to gather you under my wings like a mother hen does her chicks. Run under the his strong pinions.
You take a moment. And just be loved by the lord
As we continue in one more form of worship before we get out of here today. I love the wrestle that we have with the Plinko chip analogy because that picture shows us that we have absolutely zero control. And the reality is that we don't. We cannot do enough to receive this freedom. It's not about doing something, it's choosing to lose something.
Surrendering our lives to God. And then he dictates where it goes. And we know we can trust that it will end in that freedom, in that complete and total victory. But there's nothing that we can do besides just give it all to him. And one of the greatest, most practical ways that we can practice that is through the giving of our finances.
To trust God, to lay it at his feet, to be like, here's a piece of me that I give, and it's not just about the tithe of just 10%. It is giving all of us. Saying, God, what do you want me to give? Do you want me to give something above and beyond my tithe? The 10%.
And when we choose to surrender every part of our life, he gets to dictate where that goes. And the more that we surrender to him, the more that we can trust that wherever we're at, whether it's bouncing the way that we want it to or it's not bouncing the way that we want it to, that it is in God's plan. And we can trust that. So bow your heads with me as we pray over the tithe and above and beyond that, the offering. Father God, we surrender everything to you.
We lay down our lives at your feet, and we lay down our finances specifically at your feet, God, and say that it is all yours. Use it how you want to, God. Stir in our hearts what you would have us give of our time, and our talent, and our treasure, God. And take it all and multiply it for your kingdom glory here in this place. God, here in Jackson and to the uttermost bounds of the earth.
Use us, Father. Guide us. We thank you that you are so faithful to show up and use the things, the little tiny bit that we give you, God. A couple loaves and fish and multiply it in ways that we can't even imagine. So use us, Father.
We give you everything. Pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Few announcements. We just started the men's book study on Monday nights last week, but we were just doing an intro night.
So if you wanna jump in on that, we're going through a book called Birthright. I'm super super excited, and last week was such a beautiful beautiful time because I got to see a ton of different age ranges of people all coming together. So all the men of tribe jumping in and doing life together. And so if you wanna join in on that, it's here Monday nights, 6PM. And then next week, Laura Sanger will be in town.
I am super fired up for this. We're gonna have two special times with One will be here Saturday night on the seventeenth at 6PM. That'll be a fun intimate gathering. And then Sunday service will be 10:00 at the Virginian, and we'll get to hear a message from her. I am particularly excited, to have some wine skin stretching going on because she always has some good words to share.
And then finally, it is Mother's Day today and we wanna get to celebrate all the mothers in the room. So we've got a bunch of goodie bags downstairs under the TV. Grab from anything that's on that spread whether it's the gift bags or the snickerdoodles. And
Those are for the gluten free moms.
Mhmm. Those things are
so so good.
Yeah. And we just of you. We love we love you guys. We love you guys so much. So thanks for being here.
You wanna come and pray us out?
Quick show of hands. Who would like to is thinking and planning on attending Sunday evening service with Saturday with doctor Laura? We're she'll do something different. This will be kind of like a little bit of teaching in, like, ministry. Alright.
Okay. So we'll we're we're gonna be here at the TMC. Also, there's a connect card in your seat. If you're new or would like to be added to the text blast, we can I'm working with doctor Sanger, doctor Laura, to do a morning workshop with us Saturday morning. And so, if if that, like, evolves, if that comes about, then, we'll send out a text blast.
If you don't get a text blast about Saturday morning, then Saturday evening, and then Sunday morning at the Virginian. So it as Connor said, it'll be a great wineskin stretcher.
And I don't think we've done a great job. If you haven't gone and looked at what she talks about on your own, we haven't done a great job of telling you what she's about. She's all about the supernatural. Like, supernatural, spiritual realm, spirit beings, Nephilim, like, all biblical. She's like the Jedi of, like, the supernatural.
Like, the things she's seen, the things she's taught on, the books she's written, it's so interesting and will super stretch what you thought. If you've never even thought about the spirit realm and spirit beings and the, you know, the scripture that says we deal not with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers, Like, she goes into a lot of that, like, warfare and just really important stuff for us as believers. So if even just with that, you wanna know more, come on Saturday because you'll be able to ask questions, whereas Sunday might be more just of a teaching. Saturday will be like pick Laura's brain on all the things. At least that's what I'm
gonna And if you don't know her, you know me. And I trust her so you can trust me. Yeah? Stand up. Let me pray for you, and then we'll skedaddle out of here.
Sons are going to, like, mow lawns, and daughters are gonna be, like, in the kitchen cooking, and husbands are, like, loading up the kitchen table with flowers and lunches and hikes. Or I don't know. Maybe you're at the mom stage where you're like, how about being left alone for five hours? That would be
Katie's like, woah.
No touching for five hours. Lord Jesus, thank you so much. I command a blessing on all of the moms that are here and all of the moms to be. Lord, thank you so much for giving us moms. And, Lord, thank you so much that our identity is nothing less.
Our destiny is nothing less than total victory. Father, I command a blessing over each and every person here today. Give us a great week. Help us to live our lives to make your name famous. We pray these things in Jesus' name, the strong son of god and everybody said.
Amen. Amen. I love you so very much. Have a great week and remember moms, you got this.
Don't forget to grab your gift downstairs.
Great job. That was really great.
Share this message
Every word on these came out of the message. Download one and post it anywhere.
