Introduction:
Why Jesus' Victory is the Greatest Victory (1 Corinthians 15:50-58):
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He won the greatest PRIZE . (1 Cor 15:50-53)
1 Thessalonians 4:16 - For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
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He defeated the greatest ENEMY . (1 Cor 15:54-57)
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He gives us the greatest PURPOSE . (1 Cor 15:58)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Open up your Bibles with me please to the book of 1 Corinthians and chapter 15.
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While you're turning there, just take a moment please and pray for me to communicate God's Word clearly and accurately as I should and I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is the Lord wants to teach us in His Word today. Do we have a deal?
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One of you?
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Alright, let's pray.
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Father in Heaven, this church was built on the belief that Your Word does Your work. Your Son made it clear that when Your Word is sown and it falls on good soil, it reproduces. And I'm praying today, Father, that our hearts our good soil.
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And that we would allow your word to take deep root and change us from the inside out.
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Father, we thank you for your goodness.
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We thank you for your promises.
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Be glorified now through your word.
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We pray in Jesus' name.
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And all of God's people said, Amen.
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Amen.
01:34
Sports fans, don't you just love the thrill of a really tight game? I know I do. But you know what I love even better than a really tight game? An absolute blowout. I mean, just a good old-fashioned curb stomping, rubbing your nose in it. Like, I love when it's your team that's doing The dominating. I love that. I like that even way better than a close game. But even better than that is when you're actually playing the game where you're doing the stomping. That is delicious. I've had that experience a few times in my life. One, many, many years ago, I used to be decent at tennis. I mean, I wasn't like, Andre Agassi or anything. But I was decent. And I could keep up. But I remember meeting this guy through a friend of a friend kind of thing. And he found out I played tennis. He goes, oh, I play tennis. I'd like to play you sometime. I'm like, great, let's play. But then he started all the smack talking. He's like, well, you know, I'm going to destroy you. I'm like, okay. He goes, yeah, I'm really going to, he goes, I'm really going to beat you.
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I'm like, aren't we adults? Like, why are you talking like this? But he just like kept us smacked. Okay, so now he's like in my head a little bit. Like, okay, so I'm going to show up and play this guy, and he's going to embarrass me. And I'm like, so I was trying to get in that headspace. Like, how do you walk into that, right? Well, the day came for our big match. And I don't know.
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I don't know how else to say it. He was horrible. I mean, the word is pathetic. It was at the point that I'm not sure he knew which end of the racket to hold. In fact, if he would have been swinging at it with just a handle, I think he might have done a better. He was horrible. Like, how bad was he? He was so bad that I started playing as if I would play against like a five-year-old.
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Just like he would get it over the net and I would like rejoice that he even got it over the net and I would just well in that when you're playing it like 10% obviously you're going to make mistakes because that's not how you're supposed to play and I'd like hit it into the net by accident. He started the smack talk up again like yeah what's up now I'm like oh okay like all right. That's when I proceeded to completely the court with him. Unmercifully never saw him again. I think he moved to Nepal or something. But it was so just exhilarating being on the side of a complete, dominating, crushing, one-sided victory. Oh, and speaking of, today we are going to talk about the greatest, one-sided, overwhelming victory, that's ever happened.
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And that was Jesus Christ defeating death.
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And he did it by resurrecting.
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And that's what 1 Corinthians 15 is all about.
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This whole chapter is about resurrection.
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And we talked about this through this series.
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The whole idea of resurrecting from the dead was crazy.
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to the Corinthians, the Greeks, and Corinth. They didn't believe in a bodily resurrection, so Paul was setting them straight. He goes, no, this is what God said, okay? And there's even people in churches today really don't think about the idea of resurrection, right? Even people in churches today are like, okay, I get like salvation, and I get like heaven, but like this idea that I'm going to bodily resurrect, Yes! According to the Bible, you are literally going to get a new, eternal, indestructible, glorified, resurrected body. You're going to get a brand new body. Some of you should be shouting Amen. I know I am. You know, this is a rental, and I've beat it up pretty bad. So, last week the question we examined was this one.
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What's the resurrected body like? What's it like? And you can go back and listen to that message, or if you weren't here, it's on our website or the YouTubes. But today, we're going to answer this question. This is where the text takes us. When do I get this resurrected body? When does that happen? And the answer is when Jesus returns.
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The dead receive theirs first, then the living receive theirs, and that is going to be the day, according to this passage we look at today, that's going to be the day that we celebrate the greatest one-sided victory of all time. All right, some of you might not be convinced, so if you have an outline, why Jesus' victory is the greatest victory. Why Jesus' victory?
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He just claimed it was the greatest one-sided overwhelming victory of all time. Why? Why is it? Well, number one, He won the greatest prize. He won the greatest prize. Look at verse 50. He says, I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
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designs special bodies that are suited for eternity, suited for heaven. We talked about that a little bit last week, right? This body that he gave us that we're living in now, this body is suited for earth, right? The way this body functions, it works perfectly in the earth environment, right? This is suited for here. But this body is not going to work in heaven.
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There, we're going to need a new body. So we're going to have to be changed. We saw last week, the Bible says that this body is like a seed. And when we die, we are buried in the ground. And like the seed, our resurrection, we are raised up as something new.
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All right, so here's the question. On the table. Okay, you're saying the people who die are put in the ground, raises something new. What about people that, like, aren't dead when Jesus returns? Like, what about those people? If you have to be buried to come up as a new body, like, what if you're one of the people alive, and it very well could be us, who are alive when Jesus returns? Does that mean that we have to die so that we can be buried so that we can get our resurrected body. Is that what has to happen? And the answer is no. If you're alive when Jesus returns, you do not die. What does happen? Well, he tells us, look at verse 51. He says, behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
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Now when he says mystery here he's not talking like you know Alfred Hitchcock or anything like that. He's the word mystery in the Bible just means something that God never said in past time but now he's revealing it for the first time. It's all through the Bible.
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He says we will not all sleep. That's a nice way of saying die. We will not all die but he says we will all be changed.
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So when Christ returns believers who are alive Christ comes, will not die, but are going to be transformed.
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And do you know how long it's going to take?
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If you're alive when Christ returns, do you know how long it's going to take for this body to be changed into the new body?
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Do you know how long that takes?
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He tells us, this is astounding.
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Look at verses 52 and 53.
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He says, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable. And this mortal body must put on immortality. It's going to be, your change is going to be instant.
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Your body is going to change faster than you can even recognize that it was changing. This is so interesting to me. When he says in a moment, you see that in the text, in a moment, verse 52, that word for moment in the Greek refers to something that is so small that it can't be divided. What I mean is this, if your body transforms in two minutes, that's a period of time that can be divided, right? You can divide two minutes into two one-minute periods or four 30-second periods or whatever. He's saying the amount of time it's going to take your body to change, that amount of time is so small that you can't even divide it. It is that small. Like, well, what does that mean? He just means instantly. When Christ returns, if you're alive, instantly, boom, new body.
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Awesome. He also talked about the trumpet. The last trumpet. Study your Bibles. Trumpets were used all through the Old Testament for what purpose? To call God's people to come and meet God. The day is going to come that God is going to blow that trumpet one more time. He just said, all my people gather together to meet your God. This is exactly what Paul was talking about in 1 Thessalonians.
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4. I encourage you to go home and read this whole chapter because it really complements what he wrote in 1 Corinthians 15 here.
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But he says, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And here it is again, the dead in Christ will rise first. This event that he talks about in 1 Corinthians 4.
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And this event that he talks about in 1 Corinthians 15, you read it in John chapter 14 as well, is called the rapture. What is the rapture? What is this event that happens where we get our resurrected bodies, where the dead come out of the grave and get their resurrected bodies? What is this event? It's when Jesus Christ descends from heaven to gather his people, those who died and those who are living to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air to receive the glorified bodies. Then it's off to heaven. Like, well, when does the rapture take place? Well, I know, you know, when you follow church trends and doctrinal changes and things like that, it's not cool in our day to believe in the rapture, but it's biblical.
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And I'd be more concerned about being biblical than what's trending. So I believe biblically that this rapture takes place before the seven-year tribulation period as described in Revelation. Okay? I believe that Jesus comes to take His church out of the earth before the seven-year tribulation. Why do I believe that? I'm going to give you three reasons why I believe that.
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Why do I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture? Why do I believe Jesus is going to take the church out before the judgment events of Revelation? Why do I believe that? Jot these three things down. The first reason I believe that is it's the most straightforward understanding of the biblical language. Read Revelation 3.10. Read 1 Thessalonians 5.9. Jesus promises to keep His church out of the future time of testing the on all unbelievers. That's just the most straightforward understanding of the language. Jesus says, I'm going to keep you from the hour of trial that's coming on the whole world. I'm going to keep you from that.
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Study that out.
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That's just the most straightforward language.
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Number two, why do I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture?
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The second reason is, speaking of revelation, You know you never see the church during the tribulation in the book of Revelation? I always found that so interesting. People that believe the church is going to be there. Have you read Revelation? Have you read this? Our youth group just went through that recently. Where was that last year? Revelation chapters 2 and 3. The church, the church, the church, the church, the church. And then after chapter 3 when the events of judgment are described, the 70 tribulation, The church isn't mentioned one time. Not one time. The church, interestingly, is mentioned 19 times in Revelation 1-3. Not mentioned at all during the tribulation. And then after chapter 3, the church's next mention in the book of Revelation is chapter 22. Why? I believe because the church isn't there. Here. The church isn't here during those events.
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The third reason, I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, because people push back on this, and they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, why do you think the church is exempt from suffering? And I would say, well, open your eyes, I don't think the church is exempt from suffering. But, when it comes to judgment, number three, write this down, God has a track record of removing His people before He judges the wicked. Have you ever noticed that? I mean, God has this incredible track record. Study this out. When God judges wicked, rebellious sinners, when God's going to bring His judgment on wicked, rebellious sinners, the first thing that He does is remove His people. He always does that, right? Like, remember Genesis chapter 6? God was going to send a flood. What was the first thing He did?
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provided a way to separate and protect his people. Go to Sodom and Gomorrah. When God was going to burn them from the map, what was the first thing he did? Lot, get out of there, right? What about Israel and Egypt during the plagues? God separating his people from his judgment. What about the Israelites from Korah and the other rebels in the wilderness? You see it over and over. God's going to judge people who are rejecting him.
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The first thing he does is say, I've got to get my people out of there so they're not receiving any of the judgment I'm pouring on the earth. On the sinners, rather. So with the rapture, God will again separate his people from the judgment on sinners by removing the church before the tribulation so that the church will not be the object of his wrath. So when that trumpet blows, understand you're going to finally receive the fulfillment of everything Jesus Christ Forgiveness of sin, eternal life, the promise of heaven, and that glorified body, the things that Jesus Christ has promised and will ultimately deliver to those who love Him. Can you think of a greater prize? Jesus' victory is the greatest victory because He won the greatest prize. And secondly, He defeated the greatest enemy.
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He defeated the greatest enemy.
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You're like, what enemy?
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Well, we studied this earlier, right?
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Verse 26 says death is the enemy.
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You get that, right?
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You felt that, haven't you?
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Death is the enemy.
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By nature of my job, I've been to a lot of funerals. You don't have to sell me on what a monster death is. When you're standing beside the casket with friends and family who are just distraught, gone, life on earth will never be the same. This person is gone. Death is such a monster. It takes people from us.
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a monster that we can't do a thing to stop, right? I mean, as much as we hate death, as much as we hate watching people die, there's nothing we can do to stop it. Realizing also that it's going to happen to me. It's going to happen to me. I'm going to die someday. And you're like, sorry about your luck. You're going to die someday.
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Have you ever thought about how? Are you going to be advanced in years? Are you going to die over time? Are you going to die suddenly? You're going to die someday. Like when? Is it going to be soon? Is it going to be decades from now? Unless the rapture happens before, you're going to die. But you see, that's what we see in this passage when Jesus does come. And when the resurrection occurs, death, death itself is finally completely conquered for God's people.
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Jesus defeats the greatest enemy. We can't gloss over that. Look at verses 54 and 55. Jesus wins the victory. You're like, well, to what degree did Jesus win? Well, Paul tells us that Isaiah tells us. He says, when the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to the saying that is written. And here he quotes Isaiah 25. He says, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? I love this because death isn't just beaten. Death isn't just slapped around a bit. Do you see this? Your Bible says that death is consumed.
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It's swallowed. Meaning gone. He says, death, where is your sting? Where is your sting? You know that word sting, that was a word they used in the Greek for the same purpose that we often use the word sting. It referred to bees. The sting of a bee. You know, death has a sting.
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And when Jesus Christ comes back for us, that sting is going to be gone. In other words, using this word picture, he says death is sort of like the bee, right? Have you ever been stung by a bee? Have you ever been stung by 30 yellow jackets at one time? I have. Not fun. Because of Jesus' victory, Paul's saying, death is the bee. And when Jesus died on the cross, what Jesus did was remove the stinger from the bee. So yeah, death is still buzzing around, but it doesn't have a sting anymore. And then when Jesus returns, that whole bee itself is going to be swallowed. Like this thing is over and done. Do you see the word picture?
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what all these things mean. Well, he does. Look at verse 56. He says, the sting of death is sin. And the power of sin is the law.
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Okay, so death is like a bee. Sin is the stinger. Right? Sin is the thing that causes the damage.
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And I'm here to tell you today, if you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you have not received salvation in Him, death is something that you should be afraid of. You absolutely should be afraid to die and stand before a holy God with unforgiven sin on your record. Because if you do, death is eternally deadly.
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He says the power of sin is the law. Like what does that mean? Just very simply what Paul said in Romans 7. The law defines sin. The law shows us that we're sinners. We can have some vague idea that maybe I don't always do the things that I should. But you see the law of God lays it out for us. You know what your problem is? Your problem is you have a sinful heart that results in doing these things. That's what the law has accomplished. Showing us that we're sinners.
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This is the victory that he's talking about here. That the wages of sin is death and Jesus Christ paid that wage with his death. It should have been me. But Jesus stepped in and died on your behalf. He said, I'll pay. You owe and can't pay. I don't owe, but I will pay on your behalf.
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You see when Jesus did that he satisfied the demands of the law. So when you receive Jesus Christ death to you is the bee without the stinger. Oh it's still around. And it's annoying. And we still might be a little afraid of it but we realize you know what?
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can't do any damage because it doesn't have a stinger. Look at verse 57. He says, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. You should underline that in your Bible. God gives us the victory.
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He won the victory. What did He do with it? He goes, here, I'm going to give this to you. Now you are the winner. He defeated death by rising from the dead and gave the victory to us. And every time I read and think about this verse, I always think of the same thing. Jane Hour knows exactly what I'm going to say. I always think of the same thing. 1990, Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan put up 69 points in one game.
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69 points in one game. It's astounding, right? But on Jordan's team, there was a rookie teammate. And his name is Stacy King. Well, they left this rookie in late in the game. And he made one free throw. He made one free throw. Well, in the post-game press conference, obviously, the reporters were all like wanting to talk to Michael Jordan and they were all swarming him, wanting to hear from the goat, right? Let's hear from Michael Jordan. But Stacey King was able to get in a comment. One of my all-time favorite sports quotes, Stacey King said, I will always remember this as the night that Michael Jordan and I combined to score 70 points.
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And you realize, in a very real sense, that's exactly what Jesus has done for us. You see, Jesus won the victory. Jesus put up all the points. And He gives the victory to us, so we stand here on Sunday, and we're like, Jesus, we won! Jesus, the enemy is defeated! And it really had nothing to do with us.
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But we get to celebrate the victory. That's why we can come to church and say, you know, I'm always going to remember Calvary as the day that Jesus and I gained victory over death. He defeated the greatest enemy. Jesus' victory is the greatest victory. Number three, because He gives us the greatest purpose.
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us the greatest purpose. Last verse. He says, therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Therefore, because of everything that we've studied in 1 Corinthians 15, therefore, because we know Jesus was Therefore, because it motivates our conduct. Therefore, because of the promise that we will be resurrected. Therefore, because of what our resurrected bodies are going to be like. Therefore, because Jesus defeated death. He says, therefore, be steadfast. Steadfast, that word literally means sitting. It means sitting.
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And people are like, you know, sitting is the new smoking. Have you heard that? Sitting is the new smoking. Sitting is my favorite thing. Okay? Don't ruin it for me. But that's what it means. It's being settled. It's not being distracted. Just like, look, I believe in Jesus. He died for me. He rose for me. He gave me these promises. I'm resting in that. I'm settled. I'm not chasing after.
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anything else. I'm settled in Christ. He says, be immovable. You know what that word means in the Greek? Not moving. Bless you. It means being rooted. He's saying, hey, because of all of these glorious promises, hold your position. Don't waver. Keep God's promises on the forefronts of your mind as a motivator.
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He says, always abounding in the work of the Lord, always abounding. Yes, yes, it's going to be difficult at times. Yes, hard times are going to come. Yes, our schedules are going to fill up. But Jesus gave us the greatest purpose in church. Listen, we've got limited time to do it. He says, knowing, knowing, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.
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And church, this is a promise from God that we need to constantly be reminding ourselves of. Listen, everything that is done for the Lord, in the name of the Lord, empowered by the Lord, everything that is done for the kingdom of Jesus Christ, it all matters. It all matters. It says, your labor in the Lord is not in vain. I was thinking about that this week. That so much of life, is spending time doing things that end up being in vain, right? You know what I mean? We spend so much time on things that we're like, wow, that was a complete waste of time. Like, have you ever washed your car? And then, what happens? It rains, right? You're like, well, that was a waste of time. Or, have you ever, like, got this new recipe? You spend, like, all this time making this, making, oh, this is going to be fantastic, and then you, You put it in the oven and you get distracted with something else. You forget about it and you burn it. Have you ever done that? You're like, well, that was a waste. That was a waste. I spent all that time and it's in vain. You ever spend all day at work on a project and when you're just at the finish line, your boss says, oh, you know what? There have been some changes. I'm going to need you to all that and start over.
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Has that ever happened to you?
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It's in vain, right?
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You're like, all that work meant nothing.
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So much time is wasted because of extenuating circumstances, but the thing that really convicts me is when I think about how much time we choose to waste.
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How much time do we choose to waste?
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And I've got to tell you, church, it always astounds me when I talk to people who are like, well, I don't have time to serve in the church.
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It doesn't matter that there's rotating teams for all the ministries, and usually service might be like once or twice a month.
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I don't have time to serve.
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I don't have time to help out in Harvest Academy.
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I don't have time to join a small group. I don't have time to come to a prayer service. And then the thing that astounds me is in the same breath, you can like change the subject and talk about something else and find out that the person had plenty of time to doom scroll or to watch or attend sports all week or they'll say, oh yeah, you know, I love that show Stranger Things. You know, I binge watched that twice last week. And like, really?
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to a prayer service had how many hours to sit and watch and re-watch a TV show? And you're like, hey man, I didn't come here for a guilt trip. Listen, please hear me. I'm not trying to give you a guilt trip. I just want to ask you and I want to ask myself, the stuff that we spend our time on, Can we really step back and say, yeah, yeah, that was worth it. That was worth it. I'm glad I spent all that time. Can we really, church, can we really be content to say, oh, I don't have time, Jesus. I don't have time for small group of prayer services. I don't have time, Jesus. And then fill up our calendars with these other things. Are we okay with that?
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I was wondering, you know, would you be embarrassed if Jesus looked at your Google calendar? If Jesus showed up and he's like, hey, notice you were on a prayer service. Like, oh, I don't have time. Let me see your calendar. Let's see what you did have time for. And you thought your time this week was better spent doing this than assembling with the people of God and crying out.
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out for me. Would you be embarrassed? I mean, church, at the end of the day, when you lie down, you put your head in the pillow, can you look back on your day and say, yeah, you know what? I invested my day in things that matter for eternity. Again, I'm not trying to beat anybody up. I'm just saying, when we say I don't have time to serve the Lord. I think we need to be really careful that the real truth of the matter isn't actually I just choose to spend my time doing other things. Because he says here in the Lord, Your labor's not in vain. Whatever's done for Jesus, it matters. It all matters. And some would say, well, wait, wait, wait, wait. You know, once upon a time, you know what? I did this thing for the Lord. It was a complete waste of time. You know, people didn't respond the way I think they should. Actually, nobody showed up. And it was a complete waste of time. I didn't see any results. Well, it doesn't really matter what you see, does it?
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God has said it matters.
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God says it matters.
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So, so, we disciple our children.
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Why?
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Because it all matters.
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We go to small groups to sharpen each other because it all matters.
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We gather here to serve the Lord by serving people because it matters.
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It all matters.
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We witness at work because it all matters.
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We get involved in LifeWise and Urban Impact and Vision Appalachia. Why do we do that? Because God says it all matters. Because we have the greatest purpose. If our worship team would make their way back up front, you know, we have the greatest prize. It's eternal life.
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We have the greatest victory because the greatest enemy has been defeated. Death? Where's your sting, death? We have the greatest enemy defeated. We also have the greatest purpose. Because God promised that everything we do for the kingdom is from a position of victory. We've already won. In church, the trumpet is about to blow.
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Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready for that glorified body? Are you ready to be in the presence of your Lord forever? When that trumpet blows, may it be while we are laboring Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, we thank You for Your glorious promises.
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You have promised us a body like the body of the resurrected Christ.
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You have promised us that someday death is going to be history.
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And Father, today, today, you have promised that our labor in the Lord is never in vain. That Father, everything we do in the name of Jesus for the advancement of his kingdom, it all matters. So Father, I pray that you would reinvigorate all of us, each of us, collectively, individually, Father. Every home, you would just revive us to this idea that it all matters in your eyes.
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So it should matter in ours. Father, we thank you that we're not scraping by hoping that someday you're going to win. Father, we are operating from a position of victory because Jesus Christ has already won. And his victory is so sure that we operate from the position of already having Having gotten the W. Father, thank you. Father, by your spirit and by your word, move us, motivate us to glorify your name. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Corinthians 15:50-58
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
The believer's resurrection happens at the Rapture (1 Cor 15:52). What reasons do we have to believe the Rapture will happen before the 7 Year Tribulation?
Explain 1 Cor 15:56 in your own words.
Where is the biggest temptation for you to waste time? Are you doing anything to redeem any time being wasted?
Breakout
Pray for one another.