Easter Sunday

What if Easter's power could transform the overwhelmed places in your life right now? Shawn reveals how the disciples, hiding behind locked doors after Jesus' crucifixion, felt completely in over their heads—until the risen Christ appeared with "Peace be with you." Drawing from the 12-step principle "I can't, God can, so I think I'll let him," Shawn shows how resurrection isn't just historical fact but present reality. Whether you're navigating teenage struggles, caring for aging parents, or facing financial strain, this message offers surrender as the pathway to transformation. Watch now and discover how one encounter with the risen Jesus changes everything.

Transcript

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Well, good morning, everybody. Happy Easter. He is risen. He is risen indeed. And it's good for us to remind ourselves of that this morning.

And I'm so glad that you are here to celebrate with us today. And I don't know what the rest of your day holds and family that you're going to be getting together with meals that are being prepared, but I just hope and pray that in this moment, we are able to find rest in our hearts and our souls. And that this story that Maggie read earlier, that we're going to be looking at this, this account of the resurrection, it becomes so much more than just something that we believe or process through, maybe even come to it a little bit this morning, skeptical of. And that's okay. It becomes so much more than just an intellectual thing, but it really settles into something that we experience, because the Resurrection is not just something to be believed, it truly is something to be experienced.

And so all this week leading up to today, that has been my prayer for you in this moment, that we would experience the power and the life and the joy of the resurrection together. Over this last week, like many of you, I've been following the Artemis 2 mission. Absolutely blown away by everything that it took to be able to pull this off. Equally blown away that we were able to do this almost 60 years ago with less technology than what I have on my wristwatch right now, which is incredible. I walked out this morning about 5 o' clock to let Luna out, and I looked up and I saw almost this perfect full moon.

And it was just like, could not even wrap my mind around that. There are four people who are orbiting that right now as we speak. And to think about all of the plan and all of the preparation that went into it, they poured years into this. Thousands of hours of simulations and drills, engineering brilliance behind every single detail of this mission. Everything was calculated and recalculated and tested.

And it wasn't but nine minutes into their mission when they ran into a problem. And if you've been following it all, you know what that problem was. It was with the toilet. And I imagine on a mission like this, like, you don't want anything to go wrong, but that's got to rank up there as something pretty high that you don't want to have go wrong. Like you're orbiting the moon.

You are about to see things that no human eye has ever seen before, before, and you have to call down, houston, we've got a problem. And like, this needs to be fixed. I imagine one of those brave well trained, prepared astronauts thought to themselves, what did I get myself into here? Have you ever been in a place like that? A moment where you thought, man, I am in over my head right now.

Like, I thought that I was prepared for everything. I had. I had, like, trained for this. I have gotten ready. I had studied for it.

And now all of this feels like a lot. Like, I am in over my head right now. And you might not be dealing with a plumbing issue thousands of miles from Earth, but some of us are raising teenagers right now, and that feels like we're in over our heads, right? Like, that feels a little daunting. We.

We may be waking up going, who is this alien that is living in the house with me right now? And you may even think, like, let's trade problems, because at least you have a team of scientists working on your issues. I feel like all alone trying to figure these kids out. Some of you are maybe navigating not the difficulties of raising teenagers, but the difficulties of caring for your aging parents, which brings on a whole new level of challenge. You don't know what to do.

You don't want to overstep your boundaries. But you also know that there are some decisions that need to be made that your parents may not really appreciate or want. And you're just kind of stuck being pulled in this tension of how do you care for your parents at this stage of their life? Maybe you feel in over your head right now. A project that you are a part of at work or your marriage is on the rocks and you don't know how to fix it.

You're dealing with financial stress and strain that just feels incredibly heavy. And it seems like gas prices are just going up and groceries and all of that, and there's no relief. And you just think, I'm in over my head right now, and I don't know what to do. I don't know what you carried in with you this morning. I know what I carried in with me.

And I imagine that in a room like this, even on a day like today, some of us are carrying some stuff. We're feeling it, and it feels hard and it feels heavy. And we're at a point where we are starting to realize I cannot fix this on my own. I imagine that's where Jesus friends were and what they were thinking in the days following his crucifixion. They probably felt like they were in over their heads.

They had. They had left everything behind to follow Jesus. They had left their. Their careers. They had.

They had left their homes. They had left everything that they had ever known to follow Jesus. And now he's dead. And I imagine they. They don't know what to do next.

They feel a little overwhelmed. The same people who crucified Jesus have them on their radar, and they're wanting to squash this nuisance as quickly as they can. And so they're probably wondering, are we next? Like, hope is gone. Fear is starting to settle in.

And so it's not surprising that right after the passage that Maggie read for us this morning, right after that, we find these disciples huddled up together behind a locked door. They are confused, they are afraid, they are. Are left hurting. But while they are focusing on all of the things that they can't do, all of the ways that this situation is now completely out of their control, God is busy doing something that is greater than what they can even imagine. Something that was so powerful, so disruptive, so life changing, that we are gathered here in this room nearly 2,000 years later to celebrate it.

On that first Easter morning, Mary goes to the tomb and finds it empty. The angel is sitting there going, why are you looking for the living amongst the dead? He is not here. He is risen. She runs back, she.

She tells the other disciples, everything begins to change. And this is what we read later on that day in verse 19 John 20. On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace, Peace be with you. If there's somebody sitting next to you right now, will you just turn to them and say those words, peace be with you.

And after he said this, Jesus showed them his hands and his side. And the disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. They were overjoyed. You can't even put into words the magnitude of joy that they were feeling in that moment, that now this Jesus that they thought was dead and that they thought all hope was gone, he's now living and standing in front of them. And they were overjoyed.

And they went out into the streets boldly proclaiming the resurrected Jesus. And they start a movement and that moment that is still changing lives today. And the message behind that movement is what gives us hope on a day like today, that God raised Jesus. God raised Jesus. And in doing so, there is nothing he cannot overcome.

You see, on Easter, we don't just celebrate the miracle of the resurrection. We don't just celebrate an event. We don't just celebrate something that happened, like years ago in history. We celebrate what it continues to mean for us today there is a message of hope behind the resurrection. It is a declaration that continues to change our lives today and bring us life.

Because Jesus lives, sin doesn't win. Because Jesus lives. Your past does not define you. Those things that you live with, guilt and shame and regret, those do not speak words of identity over you. That is not who you are.

And the death does not have the final word because he is risen. And if God raised Jesus from the dead, if he can transform a group of fearful followers into bold witnesses, if an instrument of death that it was used for shame and punishment can be transformed into a symbol of hope, if a tomb that was filled with a body can be left vacant for someone else to use later, that means that the resurrection isn't just something to believe in, it is something to be experienced. One encounter with Jesus. One encounter with the resurrected Jesus changed everything for these first followers of Jesus who felt like they were in over their heads. One encounter with the risen Jesus continues to change and transform lives today.

One encounter with the risen Jesus can change everything in your life as well. When we put our faith in Jesus, Scripture says in Romans 8:11 that the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you. He brings resurrection life into those places that feel like we are in over our heads when we can't do it on our own. He brings hope to those relationships that feel hopeless. He brings courage when we feel afraid.

He brings comfort. When we feel alone and we feel find that peace, we find this power. Not when we try to continue to push and do things on our own, but when we finally say, I can't and God, I surrender to you. Last week we wrapped up a series on the 12 steps of recovery. I've been preaching consistently now for the last 13 years and, and I have to say it was probably one of my favorite series that we've ever gone through, just being able to wrestle with some of these things in my own life.

And these 12 steps of recovery, you know, if you were here at all during that series, you heard us say that they're not just steps for getting clean and getting sober. These 12 steps of recovery, when you look at them, these are steps of, like, how we follow Jesus. We admit that we can't do it on our own, that we need him. We do an inventory of the sin that continues to reside in our life. We confess those things to God, to others.

We seek forgiveness for those that we've hurt. We make amends. I mean, these are. That's what we do as we follow Jesus. And one of the things that I love most in this series was not just standing up here and preaching these messages and listening to Matt and Maggie preach theirs, but it was the study that got to be a part of behind the scenes and just so many things that I was learning.

And one of the books that I read for as a resource for that series was by John Ortberg, and it was a book called Steps. I love the tagline. It's a guide to transforming your life when willpower isn't enough. We've probably all been in that space in life where we've tried it on our own, and we've thought, man, I can just will myself to change. And.

And we just wind up doing the same old things, the same old ways, stuck in the same old patterns. And he lays out surrender like this in his book and becomes this theme that he uses and repeats multiple times. I just want to share it with us. This morning he wrote these words, I can't.

God can. So I think I'll let him. I can't. God can, so I think I'll let him. Will you say this with me this morning?

I can't. God can, so I think I'll let him. If you're tired and anxious right now, if you feel like you are in over your head, if your way isn't working and you feel like the disciples and you are huddled up behind a locked door, afraid of what is on the other side of that floor, phone call, that conversation, that diagnosis, if that's you, maybe this is the confession of surrender that you need to make today. I can't. I can't do this on my own.

I can't fix myself. I can't solve my problems. But God can. God can bring life to what feels like death. God can forgive.

God can restore.

And here's the thing that I've learned in my life. These first two statements are true whether we believe them or not. And I've wasted a lot of time and energy and have added a lot of pain to my life thinking I can and God can't. But when I realized, no, I can't, God can, then this third statement, this is the point of surrender, and this is the point of transformation. And so while these first two things are true, whether you believe them or not, is this third one true for you today?

So I think I'll let him. Like, this is the moment of surrender when you stop trying to manage your own life and you start trusting Jesus with it, that you let go of the things in Your life that you can't fix. And you put your faith in the God who can bring dead things and dead people back. And in this room, there are people who. That is their story.

They stopped trying to do it on their own, and they started trusting Jesus. People who proclaimed, I can't. Who discovered God can, and who decided, I think I'll let him.

And the resurrected Jesus brought new life into those places that felt like death. And right now, we want to share our story with you. These are stories of real people, of real struggles who experienced real transformation through the resurrected power of Jesus. Let's check out their stories now.

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You can be seated. Can we thank our volunteers and those who are bold to share their testimony with us one more time this morning? Thank you, guys. So this is our story. The question for this morning is, what's your story?

When you came in this morning, hopefully you received a little piece of cardboard. And here's what I just want to encourage you to do this week. On the front side of the cardboard, just write something that has felt like death in your life, that felt like you were losing hope, you felt like you were in over your head. And maybe for you, it's not past tense. Maybe for you, it's present.

And you're feeling it right now, something that just feels overwhelming and causing you fear. And write that down on the front side of the card and then flip it over to the back and like, this is the testimony. This is the power of the resurrection. Maybe write the change that Jesus has already brought, or we're all works in progress. I wrote mine in active language because I'm not.

It's not that I learned to rest. I am learning to rest. I struggle with it still. And so maybe put on that other side what God is teaching you, the way that he's bringing new life to you, or a prayer of what you are hoping that God will do in you. And set this card and maybe put it someplace where you can see it and pray through it.

Maybe share it with a family member, maybe share it with a friend. Share it with us. Let somebody else into that with you. The point is, is that the resurrection is not just something to be believed. It's something to be experienced.

And God wants to bring the resurrection life of Jesus into your life.

So maybe today is the day when you say, and you surrender, I can't. God can. So I think I'll let him. If you're here today and you've never made that confession and you've never surrendered Your life to Jesus and you are tired of trying to do it on your own. You are worn out, you're in over your head.

And the power of the resurrection can change you right here, right now, when you put your faith in him. And if you're ready to make a decision, if you're ready to step out and start following Jesus, we want to come alongside of you and help you with that here. In a moment we're going to come into our response time. We'll have some people around the room with lanyards on. I'd love to talk with you, pray with you.

And they're judgment free. You can confess anything to them, lay it down and just say, I need new life and in this area. And they just want to pray for you and help you take your next steps. Your next step may be baptism. And if that's it, we're ready, the water's ready, it's warm, we've got clothes that you can change into.

And if you're ready to step and make that decision today and you can leave here with that new life in Jesus, we're going to come into a time of communion as well. We got some stations in the front and the back. If you didn't grab communion on your way in with you today, just take a moment during this time if you are a follower of Jesus, a believer in him, to once again proclaim, man, I could not save myself. Jesus, thank you for doing it for me. Thank him for the new life that he has brought to your life.

Bring something to him today that maybe feels overwhelming and like death and ask him and pray for him to bring resurrection life to that as well. Let's just take this moment of silence to reflect on the Lord, to reflect on the power of his resurrection that is still at work within us today. Jesus, we give this time to you and we pray that you will meet us in these places and that the stories that we see behind us, that we will know that it's not just something that you do for somebody else, but that you can do it in our life too. When we surrender and say, I can't, you can. So I think I'm gonna let you.

God, may that be our prayer. In Jesus name, amen.