Well, I want to welcome you guys here on Easter to this five o'clock services.
Danny said, first time we've ever done this, you were taunted by the weather and
you showed up. I commend you. Awesome job. There's a lot of reasons outside to
find other things, but you are here and I'm excited. We're just ready to go. My
name is Keith. I'm lead pastor here at Resonate Church, dressed up for the
occasion and we're gonna hit it hard today. We're gonna get into this idea of
this resurrection and what Jesus has done. I'm excited about that. One of the
things, it might be crazy for me to say this to you, but today I think that you
are here on purpose. I think that you are supposed to be here in this, in this
place. I think that there's things that happen so that you might be in this
place. You might listen to what is said today because I think that God has been
working all of this for this moment in your life and that might sound crazy,
but I want you to tell you about what God is doing and I want to tell you
about this God who purposely has concealed some stuff so that he might
reveal it to you. Purposefully, the idea of this resurrection and what Jesus has
done, there's some stuff that has been concealed for this. It's not just this
simple. This is just easy to understand thing, but I want you to get why we're
talking about. I want you to understand why this has been hidden in some ways
and so that it might be revealed to us. When we begin to think about things
hidden and revealed, what we begin to get into is kind of this conspiracy
ideology and I want to submit to you that there is a conspiracy that God has
woven into the world and into your life and I want to talk to you about it. I
want to talk to you a little bit about Jesus today. If you are here and you
expected today to hear Jesus, I'm not going to disappoint you. We're gonna talk
about that, right? But I want you to get this idea of this
conspiracy theory that's here in our midst that when we begin to unpack it,
we begin to discover something that's incredibly compelling. You see, most
conspiracy ideologies, basically what happens is there's these events and
these events maybe are compelling on their own. Maybe they're significant on
their own, but what happens that blows our mind, if you've ever had a movie or
show that has these moments of being able to put together these conspiracy
ideas is what begins to really make more sense is when we begin to see
that these events, these people, these transactions, all of this stuff, these
locations, they're not just this thing in themselves, but they're connected to
something bigger and when we have that moment in that TV series, in that
movie, when we begin to have someone there that begins to put all the pieces
together, all of a sudden what was confusing becomes compelling, what was
hidden becomes known, and it becomes something that is incredibly intriguing.
And what I want to say today is we're gonna get into this and what we're gonna
get into is this conspiracy that will change your life, this conspiracy that
will create intrigue in your life that will compel you to a decision today. And
this conspiracy, what we're gonna do is look at when the conspirator reveals
this conspiracy, and that's that moment where the person who put all these
things together begins to connect these things, and every great moment when
we're dealing with conspiracy has this moment where it unravels, where we begin
to see all of these things, and what we're gonna look at today is Jesus who
is the conspirator breaking open the conspiracy and giving you a peek into
what is happening, and I think that this, if you will let it, will change your life,
if you will let it land, if you will kind of focus in on what is happening today,
this is going to be something that that probably will change your life, and so
yeah, a big bar that we set, I think Jesus can reach this. So what we're gonna do is
try to separate this idea of Easter from just an event to something that is
deeply connected to everything else in this world, that is connected not to just
something that happens once a year, maybe you're someone who looks forward to
Easter, maybe this is such something that you're here and this is kind of a
once a year kind of thing for you, but I promise you there is something more. To
do that we're gonna get into this story about Jesus is told by this
guy named Luke, he writes this gospel which means the good news, and this good
news is Jesus, and a part of that he's telling about this interaction between
Jesus and these two dudes that are trying to figure out this event that we
will call Easter from here on out, but they're trying to figure this thing out
and figure out is there a connection, is there a conspiracy, or it's just this
just a thing, and Jesus interacts with them. So we're gonna look at Luke 24 verse
13, if you have your copy of Scripture you can turn with me, if not it'll be up
on the screen as well, so we'll get into it. It says this, now on that same day two
of them were going to a village called Emmaus, it's about seven miles from
Jerusalem, see they had celebrated this Passover, in the Passover all of these
Jewish people had descended upon Jerusalem, and as they descended upon
Jerusalem what they would do is they would kind of go through this feast
for this week or so, and then they would return to their hometowns, and here's
what was happening to these these two people here, so what happened is they
were talking verse 14, they were talking with each other about everything that
had happened, and as they talked they discussed these things with each other,
and Jesus came up and walked along with them, but here's the thing, but they were
kept from recognizing him, I think this is awesome, okay, so here is this
conspiracy thing, he's there, they cannot tell that it is Jesus in verse 17, he
says this, he asked them, what are you discussing together as you walk along, it
says this, they stood still, so they're walking along talking about this, this guy
comes up from behind, he asked them, and you just have to see this moment, they
just stand, they stop walking, and they shoot each other a look, and it says this,
their faces were downcast, and one of them named Cleopas asked him, are you the
only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there
these days, I think this is kind of this amazing thing, you have these, it says
Cleopas was a disciple, wasn't one of the 11, but one of these people that was
around Jesus, and so sometimes with the disciples they'd name them, like you
know, so Peter the Bold and John the faithful, I think this moment we see
that Cleopas might have been named Cleopas the snarky, you know, so here's
he's giving this thing, he's talking to Jesus, he's like are you the only ones,
see, what this tells us is this was no small event, this is a massive event that
went on, when Jesus came and did his thing, when Jesus was killed, this is
something that hundreds of thousands of people would have descended upon
Jerusalem, this wasn't a small event, like some historians would want you to
know, this is something that was known, this is one of those things that
everyone there would have been talking about this event, this rocked the
entire nation, there's been things in our nation that everyone knows about,
that something that you would have to be away from any kind of civilization for
you to not understand what was happening, and this is one of those moments, and
here's what happens, here's the next thing, it says don't you, are you the
only one who hasn't heard this, to which Jesus replies in verse 19, what things he
asked, I think this is awesome, okay so you know the portrait of Jesus that's
kind of stoic on the walls, you know maybe you've seen this kind of Jesus,
you know, I think this to these two words kind of just destroys the stoic
Jesus, like I love Jesus with all my heart, but I like it that he says these
things, this is awesome, this is Jesus who's kind of swiping the smirk off his
face, you know, what things, so here's what he does, he goes on and so he's
like okay let me tell you about these things, it says about Jesus of Nazareth,
to which Jesus, you know, covers up the Jesus of Nazareth name tag he has on, you
know, so they replied, he was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and
all the people, the chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced
to death, and they crucified him, but we had hoped that he would be the one who
is going to redeem Israel, and what is more, it is the third day since all of
this took place, in addition there were some of our women that amazed us, they
went to the tomb early this morning, but they didn't find his body, they came and
they told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive, then
some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said,
but they did not see Jesus, this is kind of this amazing moment, Jesus is
hearing people talk about what he has done, he's kind of third person hearing
people articulate, you know, what he has lived out and kind of how people have
responded to this, kind of an amazing thing, and what happens next, Jesus,
Jesus responds to their articulation of his life, and what he does is, it's kind
of surprising to me just a little bit, it says this in verse 25, he said to them,
how foolish are you, how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken, did
not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter into this glory,
and they're like, hold on stranger, you were the one who asked what things we
told you, and all of a sudden you're saying what fools, but here we have to
understand Jesus, he has told these people specifically what is going to
happen, he's unpacked the entire story, let's go to another account, let's kind
of rewind and hear Jesus' words in Matthew 16 verse 21, it says this, from
that time on, this is this is what had happened before, Jesus began to explain
to his disciples, to cleavus the snarky, that he must go to Jerusalem, right, to
go to Jerusalem, he did that, to suffer many things, he did that, under the hands
of the elders, check, priests, check, and teachers of the law, and he must be killed,
check, and on the third day be raised to life, it's almost as if they have just
quoted what Jesus quoted and told them, word for word, back in Matthew 16, he's
unpacked this thing, and somehow in light of all of this, this idea, this
conspiracy has not been grounded in their hearts, the connections aren't there,
somehow they didn't get it, somehow all that what has happened in this connection
to something more, to something greater, all the events are still kind of
disconnected in this, and here's what Jesus does in verse 27, it says this, and
beginning with Moses and all of the prophets, he explains to them what was
said in the scriptures concerning himself. So Jesus begins to say, hold on, let
me connect all of the dots, let me share with you the conspiracy, what would
have been like to hear Jesus begin to take all these random events that were
kind of meaningless in themselves, that if they were to be seen as random events,
ultimately allowed this person, or kind of caused this person to be discouraged
and distraught with the downcast face, and he begins to put all of the pieces
together, imagine what that moment would have been like. In fact, it might have
been just a little bit like this, take a look. So what does that do to you? How
does that hit you? Where does that land? For them, as they heard Jesus unpack this
story, what would have been like? What would it seem like? How is it that maybe
your hearts are like, yes, that's what I want to hear, that's what I want to be a
part of, that's what I want to cling to, this story, there's something else, and
not only that, this is not all of it, because in the center of this there's
an event, there's an event that has to take place for this whole story to
happen, and that is an innocent man that is killed by the most moral law abiding
society of history, and to this what we begin to see is how Jesus gets in the
midst of this. See, this conspiracy, this big story has a little story, and this
little story is about the last week of Jesus's life, and so over the last few
weeks we've been walking through Jesus's one week to die, this idea that he goes
into this moment with this mission, this mission to get himself killed, to take
people that are moral law abiding people, and lead them to a place where they
would slaughter an innocent man, and so what he does is a week before this
happens, a week before we begin to see Jesus do something that has never
happened before. Jesus, his friend Lazarus, he finds out that he's sick, but what
happens is he waits until Lazarus dies, and Lazarus is four days in the grave,
and it says that he's stinking, and it's obvious that he is dead, and then he goes,
and he cuts to the front of Lazarus' tomb, and what he does is he
overcomes death, and he says, Lazarus, come forth. Death doesn't have a hole in you,
I have more power than death, and in that moment where he began to see there's
something that changes forever, Jesus demonstrates his power over death, and
other people begin to see this. In fact, the other, the people with power, the
people that are in charge begin to realize that everybody is going to Jesus.
This moment where Jesus displays his power is just this crazy thing that
everybody is saying, we want more of Jesus, and what they decide to do is
create this conspiracy to kill him, to eliminate him, so that their power is not
threatened. Not only that, is the next day Jesus goes into the town, Jesus goes
into Jerusalem, and as he goes into Jerusalem, what he does is he sets up
these crazy expectations by fulfilling all of these prophecies that were to be
fulfilled by the Messiah. As he rides into this town, what he does is everything
aligns up with these prophecies that they would have been singing about as they
entered into this town, and they see Jesus as the Messiah, but the problem is
they see Jesus as a political Messiah. The problem is that they see Jesus as
being the answer to the Romans, not the answer to their sin, and so when they
begin to see this, what they see is Jesus walking to the showdown with the
Romans, and on the way to the showdown, what Jesus does is he takes and goes to
their most holy place, he throws the temple tables over, he kind of basically
does this thing where he basically punches the religious establishment in
the throat and says, take that, I'm gonna go into your most holy place and say
this is not God's intent, and all this leads him up to the betrayal that leads
to his arrest that leads to the trials. In those trials, they expected Jesus to
overthrow the Roman government, and he is silent, and they begin to have these
expectations that crumble around the silence of Jesus, and in these moments
we begin to see something happen that is completely in line with Jesus, who's
creating this conspiracy to get himself killed. A conspiracy from outside was
meant to do the same thing, and what happens is on the cross there on
Friday, what we see is Jesus dying as a crucified person, not as a crucified
Christ in the eyes of these guys, but just another guy who claimed to be the
Messiah, and yet in that when they thought they had victory over Jesus,
really Jesus had the final word, Jesus had the victory, in fact Jesus used evil
to break evil, he used death to overcome death. It's this amazing moment, and what
we begin to see as we look closer into this is that this conspiracy is
everywhere, that God wrote this book, and in this book he has these whispers of
Jesus, these whispers that everything points to this event in time where an
innocent man must be slaughtered, an innocent man must be murdered by the
most, the most moral law abiding society in the world, and all of these things
point to this. You see, some ways they whisper, other ways they shout it, they
shout it in ways like Isaiah 53, Isaiah 53 tells about what Jesus will do, and
Jesus lines up with this, this specific ideology of what the Messiah would
actually look like, and for me one of the most compelling moments in my life
when it comes to connecting all of these things together and realizing that
there's a conspiracy was in the Museum of Natural Science in Houston, Texas where
I saw the display of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the display of these Dead Sea Scrolls,
if you don't know, are these scrolls that are found, that are the most ancient
writings that we have, they predate Jesus by a hundred years, they're about a hundred
BC, or when these writings were written, and these are copies of scripture that
was, that was hundreds of years before that, and specifically one of the things
that they have is the book of Isaiah, and so I go into this Museum of Natural
Science, I go into this exhibit for the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the thing in my
heart that I want to understand, the thing that I go to see is I want to see
Isaiah 53, I want to see this thing right in front of me, and so I go to this
place where they have this part of the scroll, and it's all in case, and I look
at it and see this document that's a hundred years before Jesus lived
describing the specifics of Jesus' death, and that moment, it was just this
overwhelming moment where just another piece comes together and says this
conspiracy is real, that all of these things, they may seem like events, and
Easter may seem like this, this significant thing, but when you begin to
see that, and all of this thing, it fits together, and all of this thing, God has
been working, working, working to display that he is in control of all of this, it
becomes overwhelming. The theological term for this is God's sovereignty, that
God is sovereign over all, and what we begin to see in connection to this event,
this moment, how this connects to Easter, is that this resurrection, this idea
that Jesus overcame death is incredibly significant, because what it means for us
is that everything has changed, that when we begin to see this overwhelming
Jesus overpowering death, for me that changes everything, and the
idea of the resurrection is that the very center of what you have to make a
decision about, because when we believe the resurrection, when we believe that
Jesus has power over death, to me it changes everything, everything. For me,
how I believe, it's really kind of simple, it goes back to Jesus displaying the
power over death, and what we begin to see in Jesus interaction with Lazarus, as
he pulls him back to life, no one disputed whether that happened, in fact
his enemies knew that it happened, and they figured out we have to kill him, not
discredit him, kill him, because we know that this happened if Jesus has power
over death, if he displayed it in the life of Lazarus, just to portray and
foreshadow him doing it himself, the week later here's the thing, I don't care
about whether archeology can prove Jesus, I don't care about the reliability of the
Bible, or if Jesus contradicts himself, or the hypocrisy of the church, to be
honest, none of that really matters to me, because if he overcame death, I'm with
Jesus, it doesn't matter really anything else, he could say gibberish, right, but
if he has the power over death, he's the guy that I want to align my life with,
because this means everything, in fact, for these guys who heard this, for these
guys who listened to this, what happens is these guys go from these cowardly
guys, these people that are saying, Jesus we don't want to go where it's
dangerous, Jesus we don't want to go where there might be something that would
hurt us, they're saying we don't want to stand up, in fact, at his crucifixion
they all leave, they all scatter because they're scared of death, but when the
reality of resurrection becomes clear to them, what happens is something profound,
these guys go from being cowards to being full of courage, they know that
nothing can touch them, if indeed Jesus is who he says he is, and he did what he
said he was going to do, this changes everything, and these people, if they had
made it up, they would have never had the life change that they would have had, so
this might be the best explanation of the reality of the resurrection, is to see
these 11 guys go out, these guys who are cowardly, all of a sudden change the
world, and you realize the movement of Christianity was started by these few
followers, we know it's less than 120 people who really believed in Jesus, and
these people begin to say we understand something that changes everything, and it
changes everything, and what we've seen over the last 2,000 years is this
movement of Christianity that has not been slowed, because people understood the
reality of the resurrection, and it changed the way that they lived their
life, for some of you, maybe you followed after Christ for a long time, but you
have forgotten what it means for God to be sovereign over everything in your life,
and so I can say to you, you are here because of the sovereignty of God, you
were listening to this, you think it was because your own control, but when we see
a God who's painted a scenario like this, a conspiracy like this, it's really a
joke, isn't it, us exerting our control? It's really silly when we worry about
things, because if God is in control, it really changes the way that we live our
lives, you see, no one can threaten us if we don't believe that death is the end,
see, no one could threaten these guys, and so they lived in this reckless abandonment,
they lived in this bold proclamation of Jesus, because they thought, what's the
worst that you can do, kill me? I've seen God overcome death in Jesus Christ, it
changes everything, but the reality is I can say this, and you can say, oh that's
interesting thought, that's an interesting idea that this is who Jesus is, and I
think that, yeah, maybe my life can be changed, but this conspiracy often times
is still something that's not close, it's not personal, it doesn't get to where
we are at, and so I want to look at what happens to us when this conspiracy goes
from out there and into our neighborhood, it gets personal in our lives, it
reveals, we look at this and kind of see in scripture by a couple of guys as
they're on the road, what happens when it gets personal? In verse 28 it says this,
it says, as they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued
on as if he were going further, but they urged him strongly, stay with us for it
is nearly evening and the day is almost over, so he went in to stay with them,
when he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began
to give it to them, then their eyes were open and they recognized him, and they,
and he disappeared from their sight, this is kind of this crazy moment, right, we
begin to see how God works, all of a sudden, Jesus, and then they're like,
Jesus, you know, so, where'd you go? So close, this is their eyes were open, that
communicates a ton to us, and the way that deity interacts with us, and the way
that God interacts and comes into our life, and here's what they did, when they
begin to see this moment, they understood there was Jesus, then they ask each other,
here's the thing, we're not our hearts burning within us while he chocked with
us on the road and opened the scriptures to us, that there was some sort of a
reaction when they understood the conspiracy, then they got up and returned
at once to Jerusalem, where they found the 11, and those with them assembled
together, and saying, it is true, the Lord has risen, and he's appeared to Simon, and
then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized them
when he broke the bread, see, all of a sudden, what was what was out there, all
of these events that were disconnected, when they get connected together, there
was a personal moment, there was something that interacted with their hearts, and
they began to say, oh my goodness, if this is true, this has something to do with
my life, and it's the same thing that you have to come into contact with, the same
thing that will come to face to face with your life, when the conspiracy gets
personal, didn't our hearts burn within us? You see, when conspiracies get
personal, it changes everything, and one of the things that when we begin to
think about conspiracies, what I think about is people are involved in
conspiracies, oftentimes there's a conspiracy that it's kind of the way
that we understand, the way somebody would propose to someone, right, and
there's good and there's bad, and the bad is when someone in the same town
calls someone, like the guy calls a girl and say, hey, I was just thinking about
you, wondering if you wanted to get married, if you didn't have anything that
happened, wanted to see if that would be something you would be interested in, bad
proposal, I tell you what, girls don't wake up in the morning wanting the phone
call proposal, like that's just not the way it works, if I was to take a poll,
every girl in here would say, not really what I was thinking, you know, not kind
of what I had in my mind, this is something where you need to woo, you
need to, you need to go and say, here is what I'm talking about, so let me tell
you how I wooed my wife, I want to tell you how I wooed my girlfriend to become
my fiance and later become my wife, you see, it started with me creating this
conspiracy, it started with me putting all of this together, you see, I had this
plan, right, I'd gotten the ring and now I needed to figure out how to get the
ring out of my pocket and onto her finger, and how that happened was me
thinking about going and interacting with her in a way that would woo her, and I
knew that I had to do it because, you know, I'm me and she's her and I had to
make it good for her to say yes, right, so it needed to be good, so I understood
that, I was self-aware, so here's the thing, I lived in Texas, she lived in
Georgia, so I planned two visits to see her, one of which I told her about, one of
which I did not, on the one of which I did not, I got her brother to call her and
say that he was visiting her and he wanted to come and hang out with her
and so that she would not have anything planned on that, so late February I went
to, I went and flew from Houston to Jacksonville, which was the Jacksonville
Florida, was the closest airport to where she lived in Georgia, and so I flew in
there and hung out with her for that weekend, she thought it was just this
great time for us to begin to get to spend time together, but I had an
alternative plan, I had something that was going on behind this, I had to kind of
prepare for this conspiracy, I had to put all these things in motion, so what I did
is I got three co-conspirators with me, I got three of her friends, three of
these people to participate in the conspiracy, and their job in this
conspiracy, that their part of this was to kidnap her, to abduct her, so that was
that was their part in that, and also not only that is they were intended that
their point was to get her to identify her favorite dress, the thing that she
felt most comfortable in, that she felt prettiest in, and then to steal that dress
from her house, and then also the last thing was for they were to to take and
put together a compilation of the best 80s love songs, so that was that was
because you have to understand my wife, that's key, that's key to this whole
point 80s love songs is a key part in the story, so and so they that was their
job, so I left went back and prepared for the rest of the of the story, so then
the day comes two weeks later I put the ring in my pocket, drive to the airport
and fly from Houston to Jacksonville Florida, at the same time my page is
driving to Jacksonville Florida to pick up her brother, and we have the three
conspirators driving there as well to participate in the kidnapping scenario, so
we have all of this going down, and so in this place these three girls, we all
kind of get to the airport, these three girls kidnap Paige and demand her keys,
they blindfold her and they put her into a car, and they hand me the keys,
Paige doesn't even know that I exist at that point, they put her
into the car, turn on the 80s love love songs, and are instructed not to say a
word to her, so I get her car, I go ahead and and there's some stuff that I'm
preparing, so we start off in the airport, you might be able to have a picture
here, a picture of the the airport where this started, and then what happened is
from the airport where we end up is is this bridge, the first place I take her
to is this is this bridge, now at this bridge a few months earlier this was this
moment we had on this bridge where I realized that I loved this girl and
wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, and again very inspiring right, but
it was actually real, I actually did feel that regardless of how inspiring the
scenario was, and so what I do is I put on the middle of that bridge, again she
hasn't seen me, I'm going for it, but I put this card on the middle of the bridge
and telling her this is this is the reality, on this in this spot here is
where I decided that I wanted to, I wanted to chase after you in marriage and I
wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, so they took her after I leave, they
released her and and she walks to the middle of the bridge where she finds
this card and it's and it's telling her all this stuff, and then the next place
that they go, the next place that I prepare is a place where I know that
what she wanted to, what she showed up to the airport in to see her brother was
not the, actually I don't need to use the word brother, she actually does have a
brother, but it's not a fake brother, but he wasn't there obviously, and so the
thing is I know that she's not gonna wear what she wanted to wear, what she
wore to see her brother is not what she would want to wear to get engaged in,
right, and so I take her to this place, they do a makeover and they send her to
this dressing room, this dressing room again as a note, and that behind that
note is the dress, and so she gets in there and she is able to put on this
dress, she looks pretty, she feels good, and so the next place that she goes is
Poncher Beach or Beach, Florida, and I had been setting up in this, and maybe
you have a picture of that, so what happens is I get there beforehand and
put this, basically this, all these candles around, this big heart in the
middle of the beach of candles, right, and here I am, I'm standing in the
middle, so they take page and they drop her off and the edge of the beach, and
and they, and they point her in the right direction, they take off the
blindfold and say, go find Keith, and so she walks out onto the beach, there I am
standing, standing in the middle of these candles, she walks closer, and she walks
closer, and then in the candlelight I can see her face, I can see her eyes, her
hands are quivering, her lips are trembling, and she gets even closer,
and then she says something, she said, so where's my brother, and how
do I just gotta find my brother, just kidding, she didn't say that,
there in that moment, here's what happened, in that moment she draws near,
she's trembling, and she's speechless, and now if you know anything about Paige,
it must be you don't, but so let me tell you, that is a feat for her to be
speechless, she's standing there so overwhelmed with this moment that she is
speechless, and so I get down on my knee, I tell her that, I can't imagine my life
without her, I tell her why I want to spend the rest of my life with her, and
then I ask the question, will you marry me, and on that beat she screams out, yes,
yes I will marry you, so that's good, yes I will marry you, there's this moment,
even as I tell you this moment, my heart and my stomach is just, I remember that
moment because it was so dear, this moment, we're experienced this, this coming
together, I wooed this girl, I went after this girl, I tried to display, here is
what I think about you, displayed in my effort towards you, and let me tell you
what, I am just a guy, I'm just a human, doing the best that I can, you have a
heavenly Father that created a conspiracy to woo your heart, you have a
heavenly Father that put all of this together, he doesn't need the prophecy
right, he could have just done it, he doesn't need the storylines to point to
him, he doesn't need all of this narrative to be able to assure us, to
assure himself that this is the thing, he does all of this to say to you, I
conspired for your heart, I did all of this, I made this complex, and I concealed
this a little bit so that it can unravel this, so that you could know how much I
love you, so that you could know that I'm after you, so that you could know that
I'm after your heart, see this is beautiful, this is amazing, this is
that thing where we begin to put all of these things together, this cross
actually does equal love, because God who is this amazing, amazing God, this God
who is infinitely powerful, this God that is in control, this God that is woven, all
of these things that has put all of this together, this God is in control of
everything, and not only that, this God is incredibly personal, this God is
coming to us and saying, do you see the conspiracy, do you see what I've put in
front of you, because here's the thing, I want to open your eyes, I want you to see
this, and when you see this, here's the thing, I want your heart to burn within
you, I want something to be elicited, when you begin to see what I've done with
you, if Paige would have just said, whatever, I would have been devastated
because I displayed all of this to communicate her love, and there's some
of you here, they're just gone, whatever, I'll just live my life, and you're
oblivious to the story that has surrounded all of humanity, this story of
God conspiring for your heart, and for us, we have to figure this out, and you
have to come to a place and say, I either believe in it, or it's complete rubbish.
What is it going to be?
Because you have a God who is wooing you, who is trying to open the eyes of
your heart for you to see what He is about, for you to see this story, for
this to be something that begins to take a hold in your life, and He is doing
this, and this is a story that is a part from the very beginning where Jesus
interacts with these guys on the road and said, do not be foolish, you've got
to see this whole thing, and they begin to say, we were foolish, and then all
of a sudden our hearts were burning within us, from then until now, even in
Resonate Church, this is the same story that is being told, the same story of
people being able to go into these realities of finding faith, of being
able to have Jesus at the center because they recognize the conspiracy.
You see, it's happened all this time.
Let me give you a quick glimpse into what it looked like for one person, a
girl named Jessica.
Jessica got invited into Resonate Church, and she'd heard me say, in a
sermon, they said, this world, if you're not a believer in Jesus, this
world is as close to heaven as you're ever going to get, and hell awaits you,
if you do not trust and put your hope in Jesus Christ, and when she heard
that, she was offended.
She was offended that someone would just say, if she didn't believe in Jesus,
that the only eternity she could look forward to is hell, and so she decided,
I'm not going to come back to this place, and yet something was happening in
her heart, something was going on, as she began to process this, it began to
be something that intrigued her, and she asked one of our staff members,
Aaron, to kind of unpack this conspiracy.
And then I'll let Jessica tell you what happened after that.
And maybe your story is a little different.
Maybe it doesn't have dogs, you know, stuff like that.
But here's the thing, some of you are like Jessica.
Some of you are in this moment where you're confused about some stuff.
There's some stuff that's just not clear.
You've kind of been around this Jesus thing, and you're just, there's this
moment where you're compelled, but still confused.
There's some of you who are in this moment where, where there's some
questions that you're like, what's going on here?
There's some of you, like Jessica, who are feeling God begin to open your eyes
and begin to say, this is the thing that I've been after.
This is, this is what I've been hoping for.
There's others of you who are, even in these moments, you're understanding
what it means to, when you hear her talk about that stuff, you're feeling like,
that's, that's me right now.
That's what, that's what I'm experiencing.
I'm not exactly sure what to do, but, but, but I'm hearing this conspiracy.
I'm hearing that God has done this in a personal way for my heart.
And it's something that, that is overwhelming.
There's something I cannot deny.
And this is the story.
This happens all the time.
And what we begin to see is God is at work at your heart.
God is wooing you.
And for some of you here, this, this physical reality, this in this moment is,
is very real. And as you hear who Jesus is, as you hear about who He really is,
more than just a great teacher, more than just a powerful prophet,
but the very Son of God, it does something to you.
You begin to realize what this conspiracy is all about.
And for those of you, maybe you, you have, you've been here and you've,
you've seen what this is about.
You've, you've kind of been a Christian for a while.
What I mean for you to understand too, is that this is perpetually changing.
And when we begin to see this, it changes who we are.
You see, the end of the story is when we go back out from the beach to the car.
And there was no parking really.
And so I had to park in someone's parking lot or in their driveway.
And when I get out there, I look at the car and the tire has been flatted.
And I just think, Oh, this was so close to being perfect.
And so I go there and take off my coat and tie and I get a bicycle pump.
And I'm pumping up the tire.
And I think, Oh, this is a horrible ending to this moment.
But you know what my new fiance was doing?
Oblivious to this.
There's people like walking by and she's telling about the story of our,
our engagement and she's sewn him the ring and, and, and she's like,
this is just amazing that what the reality of the flat tire,
she doesn't even, she doesn't even think about this.
It doesn't even compute.
And when you are conspired for it, what happens is it changes your entire life.
And it changes through everything, stuff that seems like momentary difficulties.
It's a take heart because I have overcome the world you have been conspired for.
And that's what I need for you to understand this is what, this is important.
This is why this is compelling because Easter is not just an event,
but I hope that you get all the strings and you begin to see this big picture
of what Jesus has done.
And so tonight what you have to do is you have to figure out, am I in?
Am I not?
There's a decision to be made because this conspiracy forces us to say,
I cannot just leave this alone.
If God is who he says he is, and if he has done what he says he has done,
then this requires something from me.
This requires me to make a choice.
And I hope today, in this moment, in this time that you begin to feel God at work
in your heart, if that's you, as you, as kind of the doors in the back,
if you feel like I need to talk to somebody about that, we'd love to talk with you.
We'd love to pray with you.
You just have to go up to someone and say, I want to talk about it.
I want to talk about Jesus.
I'm that person.
My heart is burning within me and I have to talk about this.
Maybe that's you today.
I want to give you, not to be weird, but if this is you, I don't want you to miss this.
Again, God of this universe willing you, you should do something about that.
Just saying.
That should be a decision that you make.
It's a big one.
As we begin to see about this sovereign God, I hope we sing and our hearts are drawn to him
because of just how big he is and what he has done to capture our attention, to capture
our hearts and how he's created this conspiracy to woo us in a way that we've never been
wooed before.
I hope you respond to this kind of God.
Let me pray for us.
God, I ask that you would come and make yourself known, that you would reveal yourself, that
today, as we begin to process this reality, that we would understand that you are in the
business of revealing yourself, that you have shown, that you have overcome the world, that
you have shown that you are sovereign, that you have shown that you have the capacity
to control everything.
You can have even the capacity for us here this evening to be able to be here sitting
in the seat, hearing these things, and so Lord, I pray for our hearts right now.
I pray for those who doubt.
I pray for those who are scared.
I pray that you would give courage, Lord.
I pray that you would help people to say, no matter what anybody else thinks, I'm going
to go and talk to someone about this.
I'm not going to live my life the same way because you are not the same God.
You've proven yourself time and time again, and so we sing to you, we participate, we
respond to you, understanding that you are God that controls everything in your holy
name.
Amen.
