Our Destiny is Total Victory

In one paragraph

This was the third and final week of a series called "We're Gonna Live Forever," built around the biblical feast of First Fruits. Brian walked the congregation through 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 thread running through the whole message was this: nothing less than total victory is the destiny...

Read together

1. 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 Read aloud by a congregation member to establish Jesus as the first fruits of the resurrection
2. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Read to describe the sequence of events when Jesus returns and the hope believers have
3. Isaiah 35:5 Quoted to describe physical healings that will accompany the return of Jesus
4. 1 Corinthians 15:35-44 Read aloud by a congregation member to describe the nature of the resurrection body
5. Philippians 3:20-21 Quoted to describe believers as citizens of heaven awaiting transformation of their mortal bodies
6. John 16:33 Cited by a congregation member to clarify that believers will still face trouble in this life even while destined for total victory
7. Romans 7 Referenced loosely when a congregation member quoted Paul saying the good he wanted to do he could not do
8. Jeremiah 29:11 Quoted in closing prayer as assurance that God has plans to give hope and a future
9. Daniel 9 Referenced as a passage that seems to suggest Jesus accomplished nothing, used in the Plinko analogy about the three days before resurrection
10. Isaiah 53 Referenced to describe how observers thought the punishment on Jesus was from God, used in the Plinko analogy
11. Deuteronomy 26 Named as one of two passages where the feast of first fruits can be read
12. Leviticus 23 Named as one of two passages where the feast of first fruits can be read
13. Ephesians 6:12 Paraphrased by Brian when describing what Laura Sanger teaches, we deal not with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers

Talk about it

1. Brian described Jesus fulfilling the feast of first fruits by presenting himself at the temple before allowing anyone to touch him after the resurrection. What does it mean to you personally that Jesus was described as 'the first fruit of the resurrection,' with our own resurrection to follow?
2. Brian used the image of a mother eagle sheltering her chicks through a snowstorm with her wings, then later using those same wings to push them out of the nest. Who in your life has played that kind of role, both protecting and pushing you toward something harder and better?
3. The sermon landed on the phrase 'nothing less than total victory is your destiny,' but Amanda pointed to John 16:33 and said that in this life we will have trouble. How do you hold those two things together in a season when life feels like it is going sideways?
4. Ella pushed back on the Plinko analogy because it makes life feel like chance, while others in the room talked about free will and God's foreknowledge. Where do you land on that tension, and does it change how you think about the hard bounces in your own story?
5. Paul closes the passage in First Thessalonians 4 by saying 'encourage each other with these things.' Is the resurrection something you actually use to encourage people around you, and if not, what gets in the way of that?