What If It’s All True?

Samuel Prime · Tidal Church Moncton · August 24, 2025 · What Do the Miracles of Jesus Mean? series

Samuel Prime preaches from John 19 and 20 on the resurrection, asking what if it's all true. If Jesus is risen, He gives new creation life with peace, purpose and power, and invites us to expect His Spirit to move.

More from Samuel Prime · The What Do the Miracles of Jesus Mean? series

Topics: Faith, Holy Spirit, Easter

Transcript

[0:00] Well, we're almost finished in our sermon series. What do the miracles of Jesus mean? And I have the honor and privilege to be here with you this morning talking about the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus. Now, I'm sure the burning question and the desire that you're kind of just curious about right now is, well, if he's gonna talk about the resurrection, he's probably gonna have to talk about the crucifixion too. And so if he's gonna talk about the hope and the peace and the joy that comes from the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, he's probably gonna have to talk about the crucifixion and the pain and the suffering and the brokenness, all of that. And that is true. We are gonna talk about both of those things together. And so if you are able this morning, we're gonna be in John chapter 19.

[0:47] And if you are able, I'd ask you to actually stand as we read God's Word together. And it's not something that we do here every week, but I, but we believe as followers of Jesus that this isn't just another book. That it's not just a self-help book. That it's not something that can give us some good just information or things to think about. But rather, this is God's inspired Word. The God-breathed Word, as we put it, it's God's living Word. And so as we read it, things jump up off the page at us. And we believe that this book has the power to transform our lives inside and out. And so standing is a form of reverence and respect for God's Word. And so today we're gonna be reading in John chapter 19, starting in verse 16.

[1:34] Then Pilate turned Jesus over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus away, carrying the cross by Himself. He went to the place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha. Man, what a place there. They nailed Him to the cross. And two others were crucified with Him, one on either side with Jesus between them. And Pilate posted a sign on the cross that read, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. And the sign was written in Hebrew and Latin and Greek so that many people could read it. Then the leading priests objected and said, Pilate, change it from the King of the Jews to, He said, I am the King of the Jews. And Pilate replied, No, what I have written, I have written.

[2:20] And then jumping down to verse 28, Jesus knew that the mission was now finished. And to fulfill Scripture, He said, I'm thirsty. A jar of sour wine was sitting there. And so they soaked a sponge in it and put it on a hyssop branch and they held it to His lips. When Jesus had tasted it, He said the words, It is finished. And then He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. You may be seated. Let's pray together. Dear heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You that You still speak to us today and that You desire us to find this transformative power in Jesus, this resurrection power. And I pray that as we open up Your Word and as we study what Your Scriptures say, Father, that we would have humility and humble hearts to respond to what it is You are asking of us.

[3:13] Father God, meet us here today. Send Your Advocate. We pray this in the powerful, the holy, the mighty name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Amen. The question we're gonna be asking today is, what if it's all true? What if it's all true? As I sat here earlier this week with my barber, who isn't a follower of Jesus, he asked, Hey, pastor, what are you gonna be preaching on this week? And I said, I'm gonna be preaching on the resurrection. And he is like, cool, tell me about it. What are you preaching on? I was like, well, we're gonna be answering the question, what if it's all true? And he chuckled a little bit and he said, isn't that the whole point? Isn't that the whole point? And I said, yes, you are right. It is the whole point. And I got an opportunity to share with them a little bit, which is cool.

[3:58] What if the resurrection of Jesus really happened? And the truth is, most people, whether you're an atheist or an agnostic or a Christian or a scientist or whoever, believe that the crucifixion happened. That's actually not a controversial point, that Jesus died on a Roman cross, that Jesus was a real person. And I can say this without exaggeration, that this is the most important question in the world. It is more important than any theological question. It is more important than any economic question. It is more important than any scientific question. It is more important than any governmental argument or question that we could ask. And it is this: did the resurrection of Christ Jesus really happen?

[4:45] But before we ask what the implications are of it, is it true? We have to ask, what? And if it isn't, what if it is not true? What if it's not true? What if the resurrection of Jesus didn't happen? What if that part was just made up? Well, if it is not true, my friends, we are in trouble. If it is not true, we are in trouble. What if the story just ended with the crucifixion, where Jesus was crucified and died on a Roman cross and that was it, that He was not raised up again in resurrection power? Well, the Bible actually gives us an answer to this question. And here's what the Scriptures say in 1 Corinthians 15:17 through 19: If Christ has not been raised from the dead, your faith is futile.

[5:38] You are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we of all people are to be most pitied. How's that for a Sunday sermon for you? As Dr. B would say, how do you like me? Now if the resurrection isn't true, we of all people are to be most pitied. We are in trouble. That's what it says, that our sins are still with us. If the resurrection is a lie, then we have no hope, no forgiveness, no heaven, no future, no relationship with God. And that's what the Bible says. That's what the Scripture says. You can take it to the bank. If resurrection isn't true, man, we are in trouble. And you might be thinking this morning, Hey, couldn't Jesus just be a good teacher or a good example for us?

[6:26] Like He showed up to the marginalized, He showed up to the outcast and showed God's love to other people. He took care of people. And maybe we should just emulate Him in our lives. And it doesn't really matter if He was actually raised from the dead. And you know what? I can agree with that on a certain level, not fully, but a certain level. Jesus was a great example. He loved the outcast. He spent time with the marginalized. He did show them God's love. But if Christ Jesus wasn't raised from the dead, would you really? Would you really wanna follow His example? Do you remember what happened to Jesus? I mean, in the end, they murdered Him.

[7:13] They nailed Him to a cross. Do you really think that Jesus was just a good example if he wasn't raised back to life? I don't really wanna follow His example, to be honest. I'd rather follow the example of someone like Oprah Winfrey. I mean, think about it. Oprah was born in poverty and she had a reason to quit before she ever even started. And then she became a news anchor and worked her way up to one of the most popular and viewed, successful talk shows in history. And she became a global media icon and an actress. And she was a business person. And on top of all of that, she was the most generous philanthropist, one of the most generous philanthropists in the whole world. At every stage of her life, she kept stepping into something new and was successful every step of the way.

[8:01] If Jesus wasn't raised from the dead, if He was just tortured and murdered on a cross and was not raised to new life, do you really want to follow His example? Or wouldn't you rather follow the example of someone like Oprah? And if you think I'm being irreverent this morning, this is what the Bible says. If Jesus wasn't resurrected, if the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. So here's my point. The resurrection matters whether Jesus was really raised from the dead or whether He stayed dead. That really matters. The Bible says that if the resurrection didn't happen, we of all people are to be most pitied. But you might say, "Sam, I'm a Christian. I love Jesus. I believe that He was resurrected.

[8:47] But really, we of all people are to be most pitied? Like, even if it wasn't true, my life's not all that bad. I'm a pretty happy person. I got a lot going for me now." I get it. I've had that thought before too. Even if it's not true, if there's no heaven, well, Christianity still made me a better person. And it kind of makes sense just a little bit, right? And we probably have a tendency to agree with that. Yeah, if we die and there's a heaven, great. If there isn't, well, I still enjoy this life even more because I was a Christian. And to be frank, I believe many of us have actually heard that preached from the pulpit before. But there's one problem with it.

[9:36] The Scriptures say the exact opposite. The Bible doesn't say, "Hey, if we hope that Jesus was raised from the dead and if He didn't, then we still enjoy this life." It doesn't even say, "If Jesus was raised from the dead, but if He didn't, we're still in the same position as everyone else." No, it says, if Jesus wasn't raised from the dead, then we of all people are to be the most pitiable of all people. We are the worst off. Why? Because following Jesus costs you everything. Following Jesus should cost you everything.

[10:24] It should cost you your pride. It should cost you time and energy and effort. It should cost you convenience. It should cost you everything. It should cost you everything. It's a sacrifice. You're following a man who died on a cross, who loved and served others and never even thought of Himself. And He's your model. He's the guy you're supposed to be following. And if you spent your whole life living like Jesus and sacrificing for other people and there was no resurrection and there was no heaven, man, that would be the biggest mistake. You'd be so much better off if you lived for yourself, to eat, drink, and be merry.

[11:12] So if the resurrection didn't happen, we are the people that are most pitied. If the resurrection isn't true, then we are in trouble. And the disciples knew that too. The followers of Jesus, the ones that had been with Him for three years, realized the weight and the significance of Jesus' death. They saw their friend, their teacher, the one whom they loved, get crucified. And they were devastated. They were confused. They were afraid. Judas had killed himself. Peter, who was the leader of the disciples, had betrayed Jesus three times. If that's the end of the story, then we are in trouble. But three days later, early on Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb of Jesus and something strange happens.

[12:02] She looks inside and there's no body. And this is an aside here for a minute, 'cause there's so many little significant things in John's account of Jesus's resurrection that point to it. It's just incredible. The tomb, the stone that was rolled away, it wasn't rolled away for Jesus, it was rolled away for us so that we could see that Jesus is alive. Like, that's beautiful. Like, that is truly beautiful. And so when she looks inside, there's no body, and she goes running back to the other disciples and tells 'em what she saw. And one of the disciples runs back with her to investigate and they see grave clothes and the strips of linen that were wrapped on Jesus' dead body. And they were not torn up, but they were neatly folded, laying there. And John sees the strips of linen and instantly knows what has happened and believes that Jesus Christ has risen from the grave.

[12:53] He knows what has happened. But some others still doubted later on that day. Mary Magdalene, who loved Jesus because He healed her of seven demons, like, let that sink in, not just one, seven. Like, she had exorcism after exorcism, after exorcism. She's healed of seven demons. And that'll be significant later. She doesn't believe yet. She thinks somebody has stolen the body. So she's weeping outside of the tomb and she sees a man who she thinks is the gardener for the area of the tomb. But the man calls out her name, "Mary," and suddenly her eyes are opened and she realizes it's Jesus. And she runs to His arms. But Jesus says, "Don't hold on to Me. I've got to go to the Father." And so she runs and tells the disciples, and they still don't all believe. So later that night, the disciples are all huddled together and they're fearful.

[13:42] And here's what happens next. In John chapter 20, verses 19 through 23, that Sunday evening, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly Jesus was standing there among them. "Peace be with you," He said. As He spoke, He showed them the wounds in His hands and His side, and they were filled with joy when they saw the Lord. This is an aside, but could you imagine being in that room again? He said, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so I'm sending you." Then He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, they're forgiven." If you do not forgive them, then they are not forgiven.

[14:30] If the resurrection isn't true, then we are in trouble. But what if it's all true? What if the resurrection of Jesus really did happen? What does that mean for you and for me? Well, if it is true, which it is, then we can become a new creation. Then we can become a new creation. It means that we can become a new creature, a new sort of thing altogether. We're no longer wracked with fear. Like the disciples were, huddled together and feared, scared that they're gonna be the next ones that are gonna be crucified. But now we have a peace. We're no longer running around aimlessly like the disciples, just gathered together without purpose or direction. We're no longer weak and ineffective, but now we've got power in our lives to accomplish His purposes.

[15:18] And so look at what Jesus says when He shows up. What is the first thing after He was crucified and raised from the dead, that He says to His disciples? Man, that's gotta be pretty important. What is it that He says? He says, "Peace be with you." He says, "Peace be with you." In fact, He says it twice to them after being crucified, after being raised from the dead. The first thing He says to the disciples is peace. They do not have to be afraid any longer. They do not have to live in fear. They can have peace in their hearts because their sins have been forgiven and they had been made right with God because Jesus wasn't finished on the cross. He was raised again. But He doesn't stop there. He goes on to commission them. In verse 21, He says, "As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you." He gives them peace, but He also gives them purpose.

[16:07] He gives them a mission. He says, "Don't just sit around here and celebrate all day that I've been raised from the dead. But now you must go. You must go and do and accomplish the things that I have been doing. You must go and be My witness. You go tell the world what I have accomplished right here." He gives them peace. He gives them purpose. And finally in verse 22, He gives them power. He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." You understand? He doesn't just send them on a mission like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off, wandering around aimlessly, not knowing where to go. He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit," the same Spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead. You have received.

[16:58] He doesn't just send them on a mission and say good luck. He doesn't give them a car without gasoline or a sailboat without sails. He gives them the ability to do what He's asked them to do. In the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, it says that God created the first human, Adam. And when He created the first human, Adam, He breathed life into Adam. And Jesus does the same thing with us. After Jesus has been raised from the dead, He breathes a new life into us, the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, and now we are a brand new creation. The disciples no longer had fear, but they had peace. They were not aimless. They had purpose. They aren't weak and they have power. And like, what does this look like in our lives?

[17:47] What does this look like? How does it play out? And I'm sure many of you have testimonies of what God has made, how God has made you a new creation, how you were living before in fear and in sin and in brokenness, walking around aimlessly without hope where you were weak. But now you have a peace in your heart, a purpose in your life, and a power from God to do it. Pastor Sean talked about this a little bit last week when he talked about Lazarus and he said this, where he said, you know, the reason that Jesus said, "Lazarus, come out," was because if He would've said, "Come out," there would've been a whole, there would've been a party in that grave. Like, I need you to understand the resurrection power that Jesus has, where He says, "Lazarus, come out."

[18:35] The resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead lives within you when you live for Christ Jesus and you commit your life to Him. And so the question that I've wrestled with and that I've looked at as we've studied this passage has been, why is it that so many of us never see that resurrection power in our lives? Why is it that so many come to church and show up and never experience the resurrection power that is talked about in these Scriptures? Why are there so many Christians and churches that live without the resurrection power? Well, too often we look like the disciples before Jesus showed up: full of fear, lacking purpose, doing nothing and living without power. But God doesn't want His people living in fear or without purpose.

[19:22] He has given us the power to live differently. And as a community, we can't become a holy huddle, aimless and fearless or fearful and powerless. Instead, through Jesus, we have peace, purpose, and power, and we can become a new creation. And I think what happens here in the Scriptures is significant. I think of John chapter 20, verses 14 through 16, which says, "At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize it was Jesus. He asked her, 'Woman, why are you crying? Who is it that you're looking for?' And Mary, thinking it was the gardener, she said, 'Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where it is that you have put Him and I will go get Him.'" And Jesus stops. And He says to her, "Mary." He says her name.

[20:11] He spoke into Mary's life. It was just her name, a name that was known to her, a name that, and I think there's just this beautiful moment where Jesus just sees her and speaks life into her. And instantly she knew who it was. And she turned to Him and said, "Rabbi." She knew who Jesus was as He turned and revealed Himself to her. And some of us need to have that moment. We need to have that moment with Jesus where He reveals Himself to us. And can I ask you something this morning? Church, can I ask you to ask for that? To have a moment where Jesus reveals Himself to you.

[21:00] And some of you might be in a place of no hope and you're carrying on, wondering, man, the power that resurrected Jesus from the grave, I need that in my life. I need the presence of Jesus in my life and I'm seeking Jesus just as Mary did. Where did He go? Jesus, I need Him. I need Him. I need Him. Ask Jesus to reveal Himself to you. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you in a way that you would fully understand the love He has for you, that you would understand the presence He currently still has in your life, even when you don't believe it. Ask Jesus and invite Him into the hard moments and say, "Jesus, show me where You are in this stuff that sucks."

[21:45] Let the truth of His resurrection bring hope today. "Jesus, show me how alive You are." You know? And then, and honestly, I don't mind asking you to take that risk. I really don't, asking you to say, "Jesus, show Yourself to me, whether it's by speaking something into my life." that I know it's true, whether it's through circumstances around me, whether it's through somebody in a small group, whether it's somebody in this church who God gives a word of wisdom or knowledge to for something that's going on in your life. Whatever it is, Lord, speak into my life. Speak into my life. Jesus, show up in a way that I can't explain, but I just feel the Spirit of God flood every area of my life like I need it. I don't just want it.

[22:31] And my question for you is, are you unwilling to invite Him in? And some of you are scared for what that means because Jesus, if He is really alive, which is He, which He is, that changes everything. If Jesus was truly raised from the dead, which He was, it changes everything. Mary's life from that moment on was changed. And I want you to understand the weight of this. She was given the good news of the resurrection. And in verse 16, or verse 17, sorry, she's sent on her way, and I'm gonna read this. Jesus said, "Do not hold on to Me for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to My brothers and tell them I'm ascending to My Father and to your Father, to My God, and to your God." There's this beautiful moment, and I'll continue here in a second, where Jesus said, I'm not just ascending to My Father, I'm ascending to your Father.

[23:22] I'm not just ascending to My God, I'm ascending to your God. And in verse 18, Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news. "I have seen the Lord." And she told them that He had said these things to her. And if you've experienced Jesus in your life, if God has revealed Himself to you in all of His graciousness and His mercy, do not, do not dare keep that to yourself. Don't believe the lies that you aren't good enough to share what God has done through His resurrection power in your life. You might be in a place sitting here like, "Sam, you don't know what I've done in my past." Great. I have a past too.

[24:08] Like, "Sam, you don't know how badly I've messed up." Great, man, I've messed up too. God gives you this beautiful moment of revealing Himself to you in a way that He knows you need. And if He's revealed Himself to you, He sends you, He sends you what He's done to you, the resurrection power that you've experienced, which has the power to change lives. And it does that thing that you've experienced where He's done to you, He wants to do through you. And my question is this, do you want that? Do you want the resurrection power of Jesus to like do things through you? And I want us to think about this.

[24:55] Even your sin someday is going to bring glory to Him. The sin that you've done in the past, the things that He has saved you from is going to show His power over the same struggles in somebody else's life. And if you aren't willing to share it, you might never find the freedom God wants you to use to help them find. Here's what I mean. If you stand here and you actually share something you've struggled with, like I'm gonna err into a side of probably uncomfortable vulnerability here for a moment. I, in the past, have struggled with a debilitating insecurity. I've been such a people pleaser that I feared man so much that it at times in my life has stopped me from doing what God has wanted me to do.

[25:42] And I share that with you as truth in my life that Jesus has helped me to overcome. And maybe if that's your struggle too, you can find some freedom because you see where Jesus has worked in my life, you can see how God has revealed Himself to me and brought change. And that's what I want for you. I want you to find that same freedom no matter what your past is. Dude, I need you to understand Mary had seven demons in her, like not one, seven. Like, do you understand the weight and the gravity of that? She had seven demons in her. And Jesus chose her to be the one to carry the most important news that was ever spoken on the face of the earth, that He is alive, that He really is who the Scripture said He was.

[26:32] That He truly has power over sin and over death. And that's the real hope for the world. And He used Mary, who had se- who was delivered from seven demons, to deliver that good news. So don't disqualify yourself because of your past. Trust that Jesus wants to redeem it and use it for His glory. When you leave here, take that as a challenge. Like, go home and be like, "Pastor Sam has challenged me. Like, all right, bet, I'm gonna take him up on it. Like, he has challenged me to go out and share what God has actually done in my life." 'Cause so often we think that sharing Jesus with other people is just going into a coffee shop and saying, "Hey, Jesus loves you," but how much more powerful is it?

[27:17] If you share the redemption that God's done in your life, the transformative power that He's done in and through you, how much more significant would that be? Mary, after she recognizes Him as teacher and it changed her life forever. And my hope and my prayer is that Jesus will change you too. And some of you might be sitting here saying, "Like, I don't know. I'm not sure about the resurrection. I want it to be true. But I don't know if I fully believe, or maybe I think I believe, but I don't feel the peace and the purpose that you're talking about. I feel anxious and aimless." So what do we do then? What if we're not sure? What if our lives don't look like a new creation, but rather more of an old one? Well, I'll say this, when you look at the historical record, there's actually some really solid points to believe that the resurrection actually did happen.

[28:08] If you look at who Jesus told, who witnessed it first, of course you look at that and you say, okay, that's pretty crazy. You look at the way the disciples lived their lives and then died, it's like, that's pretty wild. You look at how just kind of the early church just kind of like exploded outta nowheres. And that's pretty good evidence. And there's whole books written on each one of these points and so many more that we could probably sit here for like 25 hours, 24 hours and still never touch all of it. But here's the thing, here's the point. It all points somewhere. Even if you were convinced by every single fact, that's still not the point that Jesus was getting at. You don't just believe in an event. You believe in a person. It's not believing the resurrection happened. It's about trusting Jesus with your whole life.

[28:54] What might that look like in your life? Are you willing to obey Jesus no matter what He asks? Are you willing to evangelize when God actually gives you the opportunity to share what He's done in your life? Are you willing to get outta the boat? I think of Peter when he gets out and he steps onto the water and he walks with Jesus where there's this massive storm around Him, and they're screeching and they have no sweet clue what's going on. And Peter says, "Jesus, can I walk out on the water and can I come to You?" And Jesus says, "Come." There's that moment, I think, in Peter's life where he says, "I'm gonna step outta the boat, and am I either gonna sink or I'm gonna walk on water?" Like, do you have that moment with Jesus where you said, "I'm either gonna sink or I'm gonna walk on water, but regardless of what happens, Jesus, I'm gonna trust You're gonna reach out Your hand and You're gonna pick me up."

[29:40] If you want to have peace and purpose and power in your life, if you really want to be a new creation, you can't just say you have faith and belief in Jesus. You actually have to act and live it out. If you really wanna be a new creation, you can't just have faith in Jesus. You have to act that faith out. You have to put the faith in your belief in action. And as you act on your faith, that's what builds it. That's what builds your faith. The more you do, the more you trust. That is how your faith grows. And I think one reason too why we don't see the resurrection power in many of our lives is at some point along the way, we stopped expecting it. We have this, like, radical encounter with Jesus and we're like, "Jesus, You're gonna change my life.

[30:25] And this is incredible." And then what we do is we go home, whether it's a church service or a camp or a place, and then we stop expecting the resurrection power in our lives. We stop expecting it, we stop asking for it, and we get frustrated and life gets busy and crazy. And we stop spending time on our hands and knees asking God to move, not just in our situations of what we want Him to do, but in us. When's the last time you've asked Jesus to move in you instead of just change the circumstance that you're going through? And this past week, I got the opportunity, the privilege, the honor truly to speak at one of our district camps, or our district camp, Caden's Island. And man, those students came expectant.

[31:14] They came up with an anticipation that God was going to move. And He did. Man, did He ever. Tuesday night, I preached and I sat down and I was looking around the room and just watching what God was doing, and God just poured out His Spirit among that room in a way that I've never experienced before. It wasn't just a camp high. And I'll tell you how I know that spiritual things were happening. Like, I had a student come up to me weeping and she said, like, I have, I believe something to tell another student who is in a broken home situation. And she started to list off specific things in this gentleman's life.

[31:59] And she's like, "How do I know who that person is?" And I said, "Look, you need to get on your knees and you need to pray that God would show you who that person is that you need to pray for." And she gets on her knees. And then 15 minutes, 10 minutes, five minutes later, whatever it was, time was kind of a blur. That student comes up to me and he says, "My family is broken. And this girl started to pray things into my life that I have not told anybody else." God poured out His Spirit among His people because they were expectant of the resurrection power to show up in their lives. And my question for you is, when's the last time you've expected God's resurrection power, His Holy Spirit, the Advocate, to show up and change your life, not just your circumstances?

[32:53] Because it's really easy to sit here and come to a church service and then leave never changed because we don't actually do or expect God to show up 'cause we have this mundane view of Him that He just wants to make our lives better. We won't put our pride aside. We won't put the stuff we carry aside because we want what God can do for us. We don't want God for who He is. And so I think the reason why many people will never and have never experienced the resurrection power of Jesus in their lives is because they don't come expecting. And when they do come expecting and they receive that power, they stop expecting it somewhere along the way.

[33:38] And my prayer for those students was that when they experienced the resurrection power, the resurrection power of Jesus, that they would go home and they would keep expecting God to show up in their families and in their schools and in their lives. And it's easy to say, well, it's easy for a student who doesn't have anything going on in their lives. There were students that came to me weeping because their dad was dying of stage four cancer. And they say, "I need God to move in my life." I had students coming to me saying that their dad killed themselves before they were even born. And they get close to that line of sin 'cause they feel like it's the only way that they can get close to their father.

[34:25] Those students came expecting for God to change them, not their circumstances. And my prayer for you is, do you come expectant for God to move in your life when you come to church? Do you come expecting God to show up and move in your life in a powerful way? And I was reminded of, of when the Scriptures talk about a childlike faith where they experience Jesus and they just step out and they say, "Jesus, whatever You want from me, wherever You ask me to go, I will go." And the tragedy is there's many of us that think we graduate from a childlike faith expecting to move on to something deeper and better for our lives.

[35:13] But what ends up happening is we stop practicing our faith altogether. We don't graduate from a childlike faith. We move into practicing it. Stop not practicing it altogether. And if you wanna experience the resurrection power of Jesus, the Spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead, the Spirit that said, "Lazarus, come out," the same Spirit that in the Scriptures in Matthew said, when the veil was torn, many holy ones were raised from the grave. Come expectant, not in your hopelessness, not in your situations, not in your diagnostic, not in your, like, marriages, like, whatever it is. Like, yes, pray and bring those things before Him.

[36:02] Become expectant that God will change you. God wants to change you. He wants to give you a hope and a peace, and out of that flows fixed marriages. Out of that flows strength and hope that just bleeds into every area of your life. If you want to experience the resurrection power of Jesus in your life, you have to be expectant. You have to put your faith into action. You have to do what it is He tells you to do when He moves. And you have to stop believing that He's just a good teacher or a good example. But He is King Jesus. And so what we're gonna do together is we're gonna pray and the prayer team will be up here at some point. And if you want to experience the resurrection power of Jesus, do not leave this room until you do it.

[36:53] Because you'll always find another excuse and another reason and another thing to keep busy, and you'll just keep putting it off when Jesus says, "I wanna meet you here." And then tomorrow when it rolls around and stuff comes up again, do it again and again and again and again, and start expecting God to show up in your life and ask Him to. And so what we're gonna do is you can come up and receive prayer at some point. But I'm gonna pray over you and I'm gonna pray over you. Two things. The first thing, and I would encourage you, I'm gonna tell you now so you can pray it in your hearts as we close: God of stillness and of quiet, open our hearts to listen for Your voice, speak into our lives and give us the courage to respond, as Psalm 46:10 puts it, "Be still and know that I am God."

[37:44] Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, Wonderful Counselor, or Almighty God, I once again humbly ask You to pour out Your Spirit among Your people, that You would speak into our lives in a way that maybe we've hoped for or needed or desired, but we haven't seen. Maybe it's just because we haven't asked. Maybe we've been, you know, asking with not the right heart. Father, whatever it is, Father, I pray that we'd put pride aside. I pray that we put our egos aside. I pray that we put our statuses aside, Father, and we come at Your feet humbly and ask for the resurrection power of Christ Jesus to enter into our lives and to give us a peace and a power and a purpose.

[38:45] Father God, may You speak into situations that have felt hopeless for years, maybe because of somebody's decision to come and to seek Your resurrection power and to seek first the kingdom of God. Maybe today, for the very first time, hopeless situations will be turned to hopeful ones. Maybe for the very first time somebody will be healed. Maybe for the very first time somebody will receive a word of wisdom or of knowledge because we have sought first the kingdom of God and the resurrection power of Christ Jesus. Father, I ask with expectancy and anticipation, in the same way that You moved on that island, that You will move here.

[39:31] Speak, Lord, for Your servants are listening, God of stillness and of quiet. Open our hearts to listen for Your voice, speak into our lives and give us the courage to respond. And as Psalm 46:10 puts it, be still and know that I am God. Be still, and know that I am God. And in this moment, all I ask is that we don't clap, that we don't. We don't do anything, but we sit in the presence of God expecting Him to move. I get it. We wanna clap, we wanna celebrate, but sit and listen for the voice of God.

[40:20] As we continue in worship here this morning, we pray all this in the powerful, the holy, the mighty name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.