In our early rise service, I'm going to read it again before we jump in. "But on the first day of the week at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found a stone and rolled it away from the tomb. But when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, 'Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but he has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.' And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

And it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary, the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in.

He saw the linen clothes by themselves, and he went home marveling at what had happened." Let's pray. Gracious and loving Father, we thank you so much for what this day represents for all of us. We pray, Father God, as we come to remember and to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, that it would have that impact that you desire, that the same power that resurrected Christ that lives in us would renew us and revive us, restore us, that we may live a life truly worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

May your name be honored. Allow our worship to be sincere, and that Christ and his suffering, Lord God, and his resurrection may be exalted. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You know, this week I was on campus on Thursday. We normally do on Thursday, we go out and try to share the gospel with the people.

And usually I'm pretty, I have to be pretty selective because I see an older guy walking on campus, and when I approach them, they immediately like, "What is he doing on campus?" And then when I try to share the gospel, it's not like before where I can just have casual conversations.

So I have to target people who don't seem intimidated. So I was on campus and rarely I see somebody my age there, and I saw a guy, he was an Asian man probably in his late 50s, and I was able to share the gospel with him. And he was actually very interested, and I started having a conversation and found out that he was a man from Nepal, and he was here in some exchange program with UCI, and then it was some sort of a, he's here to learn English, but he was only here for about four or five years.

And he said that there was a group of other people from Nepal who came with him, and in the midst of the conversation found out that he was a devout Buddhist. I've had many conversations with Buddhists before, and I actually even did a paper when I was in college about Buddhism, the beginning of it and different things that they teach.

And I was really intrigued because he knew a lot about Buddhism. He was a very devout, committed man, and he's in his late 50s, so 50 plus years he's been studying, and he takes his faith very seriously. So of course I wanted to share the gospel with him, but I wanted to find out more about what he believed.

And so about 30 minutes straight he just started going off about his doctrines, and it was really intriguing because he was telling me stuff that, some of the stuff I've never heard before, so it was just interesting. Oh, this is what you believe in. This elaborate system of how to get to nirvana, and what are some of the teachings, and how there's three different stages of how to get there.

And so it was very, very interesting, because again, some of it I've never heard before. And obviously I was looking for an opportunity, so okay, now I'm going to break in. You know, when am I going to jump in? And so I just kind of let him finish his story, and it was interesting to a certain degree.

And so when there was a little break, I stopped and I asked him, "So this is what you believe?" He said, "Yes, I believe this." I said, "Well, how do you know it's true?" So you know, he was going on for 30 minutes, and he's like, "Huh, you just have faith." So that's what everybody, I said, "Okay, so I'm just, I'm not questioning you, but I'm just asking, I'm just interested in how you came to this conclusion." So because anybody can just say, "Here's what I believe, you know, like I flew, you know, and I landed here today." And I said, "Well, how do I believe you?

Like how do you believe that?" If you just say faith, then anybody can just say anything, say you just need to believe. And so he just kind of like, "Well, you just have to believe, I guess." I said, I asked him, so I asked him further, "Do you think you believe what you believe because you tested this out and it was proven to you and you really like, this is what I'm convicted about?

Or you just happen to be raised, born and raised in a country that taught Buddhism and your parents are Buddhists?" And he said, "Probably both." You know, so I asked him, "So what part of it have you wrestled with and have come to the conclusion?" And so as we were going back and forth, and again, this was not an argument, I was just asking him a question.

It's like, "How do you know this is true? You're telling me this because if you say you do this and you do this, you're going to get here and you have this elaborate system of how to achieve nirvana, but how do you know if any of this is true?" And so basically his conversation got stuck.

So obviously I asked him, "Well, do you know what the Bible says?" And so I was an opportunity, I found out that he's never heard the gospel before. He's been here for five years. He's never had a conversation with a Christian, ever. You know, from where he comes from, there's no Christians there.

So he's here for five years and he's heard of Christians, so he thought he knew what Christianity was, but he's never had a conversation before. So it was a great opportunity to speak to him. Now, the reason why I bring this up is because even as Christians, if somebody was to ask, "Why do you believe what you believe?" What would be your answer?

Is it because you were raised in a Christian home? You just happen to be in a Christianized culture? And so we just, that's what you are. And that's what, if you go to China or different parts of the world where Christianity is not prominent, that's what most people will think.

"Oh, you were raised in the West, so you're a Christian." That's just part of your culture. Would our answer be any different than that man? See, for Christians, what we celebrate today is at the center of Christianity. If somebody can come out and definitively say the resurrection did not take place, it would unravel everything that we believe.

What happened for the last 2,000 years? Churches, missionaries, the teachings, seminaries, all of this would be for nothing. In fact, from the very beginning, Paul says that in 1 Corinthians 15, 14, "And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain." In fact, the scripture itself says that.

If the resurrection did not take place, all of this is just a hoax. And it's not just us. This morning, hundreds, maybe millions of people around the world woke up early in the morning to commemorate the resurrection of Christ. It means all of that was for nothing. I mean, this is the biggest lie that has ever been told.

In fact, the resurrection was so important in the early church, the primary message in their preaching was about the resurrection. For the sake of time, I'm not going to go there, but in Acts chapter 2, when Peter begins to preach the very first gospel, the central message of the gospel was about the preaching of the resurrection, that this Messiah that you killed was raised from the dead.

Paul says when he was defending himself in front of the Roman governor, he says the same thing. The reason why I am on trial today is because of my belief and the hope that I have in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So the central message of Christianity begins and falls on the reality of the resurrection.

If this is true, then everything that we proclaim, everything that is written in scripture has tremendous ramification. If it is not true, it is all for nothing. In fact, some people may say, "Well, what did you lose? You went to church, had some good friends, got to play softball, football, get to eat gourmet hamburgers after service.

I mean, what did you lose?" Think about all the people who are dying in the Middle East right now, and all they have to do is say, "I deny Jesus. I don't believe in any of that stuff." Think about all the people who forsook everything to go and preach the gospel.

Think about Pastor Alex's family. Think about our friends who went up north to preach the gospel. Think about the countless number of hours that many of you put in to serve this church. Is it all of that is for nothing? See, the central message, central reason why you and I are here is because of the resurrection.

Now, I'm not going to give you an apologetic presentation about the resurrection, because that's not the goal of this morning. If you are interested in that subject, there are many books that you can read on that subject, many apologetical, good scientific, rational reasoning behind why the resurrection. We believe the resurrection.

But again, our point of this morning is not that. We want to talk about the significance. Why is the resurrection so important? And there's three things that I want to look at with you this morning. One, the resurrection is significant because it proved that Jesus Christ was the Son of God.

Let me say that again. Resurrection is pivotal because it proved that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. In Romans 1, verse 4, it says, "Concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead." Jesus Christ, our Lord.

He said his resurrection was a public declaration of his identity. See, Jesus Christ is not like other great men in history. Buddhism comes, if you trace it all the way back, it comes from a man named Gautama. He lived about 2,500 years ago. And so there's various teachings about what he taught about afterlife, what he taught about this life.

But Gautama never professed to be God. He was just observing life and wanted to find enlightenment. But he himself never claimed to be God. Muhammad, the Muslims believe that he was the last and the greatest prophet. And so all of their faith rests upon his teachings. But Muhammad himself has never claimed to be God.

Confucius, he was a great observer of life. There's a lot of wisdom in his teaching. But Confucius has never claimed to be God himself. And we can go down the list of all the great men that are venerated in our culture, in our history. They may have provided some help for mankind, some insight, some wisdom.

But none of them was crazy enough to say, "Well, I'm God. Come and worship me." See, that's the difference between Jesus. Jesus was not just a great man. He didn't just feed the poor. He didn't just help people who were sick. He claimed to be God himself. So if we say that, "You know what?

I believe in Jesus, but he did some great work." So you're talking about a man who claims to be God himself. How can we venerate a man if he really wasn't that? Jesus says in the argument between the Pharisees, asking him, "How dare you confront us?" He claims a title.

He says, "Before Abraham was I Am." That term, that title, "I Am," was the same title that Yahweh, the God of Israel, gave to Moses. And this is how he introduced himself. He says, "I Am." So when Jesus says in the New Testament that he says, "Before Abraham was I Am," he's claiming the same name and same title of that God of the Old Testament.

And the Jews understood exactly what he was saying. When they wanted to kill him, they said, "We're not killing you because of the deeds that you're doing. We want to get rid of you because you, being a mere man, claim to be God." See Jesus didn't just come and do, was a good humanitarian.

Maybe he had some supernatural power, some prophet, and did some great work. It wasn't just that. He claimed to be God himself. Jesus claimed in John chapter 10, 18 that no one could take his life. Can you imagine any sane human being saying that? Nobody can take my life.

I lay it down and I take it up on my own. Have you ever met any human being, no matter how powerful they are, say, "Nobody can kill me." And even if I lay it down, I can get back up. Who could do that but God himself? So you can imagine when some people heard that, they said, "This guy's crazy." But they didn't know what to do with him.

Now if it was just any man saying that, it's like, "Oh, he's crazy." If somebody stood up here and said, "You know what? If I die, I'm going to come back." It's like, "He's crazy. He's smoking something." Right? But they didn't know what to do with him because he was clearly not an ordinary man.

They saw him open the eyes of the people who were blind. They saw him calm the storm. They saw him feed thousands of people miraculously. He performed miracles after miracles. So he wasn't just an average human being claiming these things. He was, seemed like a powerful prophet, and they were fine with him being a powerful prophet, but now that he's claiming to be God, what do we do with this guy?

And he says, not only that, I think one of the greatest statements, one of the clearest statements of his deity is in John chapter 5. He talks about how the father is worshipped, and so the son ought to be worshipped as well. You remember scenes in the Bible where even angels would, you know, if they bowed down to the wrong person or wrong God, I mean, they would be punished.

So that's why any time you see in the Old Testament or the New Testament where people even make gesture of worship, they would stop him. It's like, "Don't do that. I'm a man just like you. Only God can be worshipped. So not only would you be blaspheming, I will be a blasphemer by receiving your worship." But Jesus says, as the father is honored and worshipped, the son is honored and worshipped.

He places himself with equal honor as God the Father. Now either he is crazy, or if he really is, what do we do with this man? So Jesus said, they asked him, "With what authority are you saying these things?" He came and cleansed the temple, and they were like, "What are you doing?

How dare you do this? Where do you get the authority?" And Jesus says in John 2, 19, "Destroy this temple, and on the third day, I will raise it back up." Now obviously he was referring to his resurrection. Again, he was having a conversation with people, with the Pharisees, and they asked him, "Show us a sign.

I mean, you're doing some great works, but we need to see something bigger than that. Show us a sign." Jesus says, "A wicked and evil generation, I will give no sign but the sign of Jonah." And again, the sign of Jonah, referring to his death and resurrection on the third day.

So Jesus himself said, "If you see me come back from the dead on the third day, then you will know that what I said to you was true, that I am who I said I am." And so the day that we celebrate his resurrection, everything that we believe, everything that we practice, everything that we study, rises and falls on your conviction, my conviction, of the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

If you are sitting here in this room and you're not sure if you really believe this, that's where you ought to start. Before you start talking about, "I need to go to church more often, I need to attend Bible study, maybe I should pray more." If your personal conviction about the resurrection isn't solid, and you're not convicted about, "I guess I believe it or don't believe it." See, a lackadaisical conviction of this will overflow in a lackadaisical application in our life.

Christianity rises and falls on this event. And obviously, you and I, or many of us are here because we believe that this to be true. Either Jesus Christ was a crazy man, or he really was the Son of God. If he really was the Son of God, what does that mean?

What does it mean for us? If he really was risen from the dead, and we believe what he says, what does that mean? That leads us to the second point. The second reason why the resurrection is so important is a lot more personal. The resurrection of Jesus paved the way for our resurrection one day.

He conquered death, that we may also conquer death. See, the Scripture clearly says, Scripture clearly says that because mankind sinned against God, death came into mankind. See, let me illustrate it this way to help us understand. People just naturally think, you know, most of the people that you talk on the street, if you ask them, "Do you believe in heaven and hell?" You know, some of them will say, "Yeah, I believe.

I believe in heaven. I'm not sure if I believe in hell." And you ask them, "Do you think you're going to go to heaven?" And they say, "Yeah, I think so." Because most people believe that they're good enough. My father came to the United States in 1974. And I was a small child, and he came here first.

And then he had to stay here for a year. Typically, when somebody is invited to come to the US, you have to have somebody with legal status invite you. So he came here first in 1974 as a student. And so for a year, he had to establish himself and get legal status.

And he got a job, and he changed his visa. And once he had legal status, he was able to invite his family to come. Imagine if somebody stepped up and said, you know, they came to the border, you know, and they're in the immigration office, and they said, "You know what?

I think I deserve to get in." Right? Imagine what response you would get. Imagine next time you go out of the country, or you go to some other country that requires a visa, just imagine walking up there and saying, "I'm coming in." Like why? Because I'm a good person.

Like what authority? I invited you. Well, I invited myself. Right? See, we naturally think, like, if we die, if I did good enough stuff, I'm going to get in. Right? Let me illustrate it another way. Typically, if somebody is going to get invited here, if you have a criminal record in your country, you're not going to be invited.

They're not. They're going to look at it as soon as they see a criminal record and say, "Okay, immigration denied." Imagine if you came to the immigration office and you said, "You know what? I know I have this record and I was in prison for a couple years, but every Saturday I fed the homeless.

For two years I fed the homeless. So that should kind of, my good I think outweighs the bad. So I should get in." Right? Now, I know some of you guys are smirking because you know how ridiculous that sounds. But when you actually think through it, heaven is not, we don't own heaven.

Right? Heaven is a place where it's His kingdom. And so the scripture clearly says, "No one who has been tainted with sin can enter." But the problem is, you and I, a lot of people don't think, "Well, I haven't been tainted. You know, I know my good outweighs the bad." You know, this morning, I don't know, yesterday, those of you guys who are watching March Madness and four teams played and there's only two teams left, right?

Am I right? Yesterday, there was a big game between Kentucky and Wisconsin and a lot of people thought that Kentucky was going to win. They've never lost a game the whole year. And they thought if they win just two more games, they'd have a perfect record. Right? Well, yesterday, they lost to a lesser team, Wisconsin.

And one of the team members of Kentucky, you know, who was obviously upset, Andrew Harrison was his name. And some of you guys who've been watching the news and following March Madness may know what happened. While he was being interviewed, he said some racial slur against another team member in Kentucky.

He was an African-American guy and he was saying some derogatory stuff about the Caucasian basketball player on Wisconsin. Well, he was just mumbling this to his teammate and the mic picked it up. And so he's in huge trouble now. Right? So he's tweeting, "I'm sorry." You know, it was poor choice of words.

He's apologizing. Oh, if you go to talk radio or if you go to ESPN right now, that's the talk right now. What are they going to do with this guy? You know, they're talking about he's supposed to go into NBA next year. So is it going to affect his career?

What team is going to want to pick this guy up? And he just basically, that one simple statement, he blew it. And obviously he's repenting. He's sorry about what he did. But just imagine if that mic that picked up his mumbling followed him everywhere he went. Right? Let's make it broader.

What if that mic followed you wherever you went? Everything that you said in private to your wife, to your husband, to your friends, to your close companions about other people, everything that you've ever said was picked up by this mic. How many of you will be in the same position as that guy?

Let me put it another way. You know, we have some friends who went up north. They planted a church. And I remember when they first got up there, they were kind of like, they were almost in fear. Because down here we have traffic cameras. We have traffic cameras, but it's just kind of all over the place.

But we know where they are. It's not that prevalent. But in San Francisco, found out that some of you guys who are from San Francisco know this. They have a lot of cameras hanging everywhere. And so I remember one of our church members that went up there, and I think within the first month or two, they were getting tickets.

You know, because the pictures being taken, and these weren't cheap tickets. They were not making a full stop and making a right turn. And basically it was running a red light. Those of you guys who know what it costs to run a red light, I know very well how much that costs.

Right? Don't do that. It's over 400 bucks. And so they were getting this ticket, and it's like, what? You know, you almost feel violated when you get a ticket like that. It's like, because you don't remember doing anything. And then all of a sudden they show you a picture.

This is when you did it. Right? Imagine if there was a camera everywhere you went. And they took picture every time you went above the speed limit. Every time you made a right turn without making a complete stop. We would be bankrupt today. Right? Especially me. Right? See what if, we imagine the guy who's in charge of immigration up in heaven was an omnipotent, omnipresent being.

See, that's exactly what the scripture says. See, we think that if we didn't get caught, we're innocent. If we don't have a police record, we're innocent. But what if the God that we serve, as the scripture says, is omniscient? He knows all things. He knows every time you thought something evil.

Every time you violated the law. Every time you spoke evil of someone else. He knew about it. And you were guilty. In Psalm 139, 7-12, the psalmist says, "Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there.

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. If I say surely the darkness shall cover me and the light about me be night.

Even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you." Now, if you are a lawbreaker, you don't want the police. The presence of the police will make you nervous. If you're trying to hide something, as soon as the police pulls you over, you know what I mean?

It's like, "Oh shoot, what did I do?" All of a sudden, you're on your best behavior. People who only know God as the law coordinator, the law giver, the presence of God is not welcomed. There's a sense of fear to know that this omniscient, omnipotent God, who knows every thought that you have, that He's going to determine at the end of your life what you deserve and don't deserve.

That is a fearful thought. Any human being who begins to contemplate and understands this should tremble in fear. The scripture makes it very clear in Romans 3.10, "None is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one." And Romans 3.23, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." See, that's the condition of all mankind.

See, but that's where the resurrection is so important to us. See, Christ, the scripture says that Christ came and He took on human form. He walked on earth and He lived a sinless life and He became the perfect sacrifice for us. And when He was resurrected from the dead, He provided hope for mankind.

And Galatians 3.13-14 says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us." All mankind was under this curse and Pastor Mark did a great job this Friday explaining that to us, expositing that. All mankind is under this curse, but it says, "He became a curse for us, for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.'" Let me explain this in this way to kind of help us understand what this day represents.

Ever since the fall of mankind, you and I have been reacting against everything that has happened to us. So whenever you go to a counselor or psychologist and you explain to them what's going on in your life, they're going to ask you, "Well, what happened to you? Why are you abusive?" And they'll say, "Well, my parents were abusive." And they'll say, "Okay, that's why you're doing that, but you've traced it back and said, 'Oh, why were your parents abusive?' It's because they were abused." Or maybe you're an alcoholic and you go to a counselor and say, "Well, what happened?

Well, my dad was an alcoholic. So why was he an alcoholic?" And they trace it back and they'll say, "Well, your grandparents were alcoholics." And so every single person who was born into this sinful world is reacting against a sin that was committed against us. And if you've been kicked, you're going to kick.

And the people who kicked you are kicking you because they've been kicked. And the people who kicked them are kicking because they've been kicked. So generationally, one generation after another generation, sin is spiraling out of control. And all psychology can do is to tell you, "This is why you behave the way you behave." And so, we're kind of like, "Oh, okay, that's why I did it." But here's the problem.

So what? So how is that going to prevent you from, if you've been kicked, how is it going to prevent you from being that way? So all of us has a tendency to react when we're sinned against. And so we sin. But here's where this resurrection comes in. Every single person, if I slap you, you're going to slap me or you're going to slap somebody else.

Jesus Christ came and instead, He was sinned against and He absorbed the sin. Not only did He absorb the sin, He resurrects and He pushes back. So from that moment on, the curse is broken. So no man who has been affected by His death and resurrection can say, "I do this because this was done to me." From that moment on, we say, "I do this because He absorbed my sin." So I'm able to absorb your sin.

And so now the curse is reversed. And now that's what the Scripture says. We are saved and we are being saved. And that's what the resurrection signifies to us. It is the reverse of the curse that mankind is in. That now we can live a new life. See, in 1 Corinthians 15, 20 it says, "But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruit of those who have fallen asleep." See, Jesus Christ, His resurrection means that He paved a way for our resurrection.

Prior to Him, every man who died would have come under judgment. But now, everyone who confesses Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and your sins are forgiven, the curse has been reversed. The third and final thing is a lot more personal. See, our hope of the resurrection isn't simply about the future, it's about today.

It's not simply that when I die, I'm going to go to heaven. But it's our hope for today. You know, when I was younger, you know, I didn't live in California, so until a certain age I've never met an Asian American who spoke English, other than my brothers. You know, so my parents came to the US in 1975 to Philadelphia.

I'm pretty sure we were the only Asians there, so if they said "Chinaman" or whatever, you know, they said, we just assumed it was me. You know, or we went to Kansas and it was even worse. I've never, you know, I've never seen any ethnic group. And so I didn't even know it existed, like other Asians who could speak English existed.

And then we went to Atlanta and it was like each year it got worse. And then I thought if I went to Korea, things would get better, but it wasn't any better there either, you know. But when we were younger, if you were Asian American, the only reference that they had was either Bruce Lee, and some of you guys, most of you guys don't know this, have you ever seen Bonanza?

Just like a dead silence. Okay, a couple of you may have seen it. Yes, thank you. So either you had two references, either you were Bruce Lee or you were Hop Singh from Bonanza and he was the cook. And he's the guy who had the typical Chinese ponytail, you know, is walking around and serving people.

So if you were cool, you're Bruce Lee, right? And if you didn't know Kung Fu, then you're Hop Singh, right? So obviously all the Asian people wanted to be, you know, Bruce Lee, so we were like, "Hiya!" You know, even if we didn't know anything about karate or anything, it's like you wanted to be related to Bruce Lee.

You know, Bruce Lee, there's been a resurgence of popularity of Bruce Lee and there's this videotape of him being interviewed and they ask him about his philosophy and Kung Fu and all that. And you probably heard this before, but this is what he says, right? "Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water." Like that's how he says it, right?

I was going to say the whole thing in his voice, but I don't want to distract from the message, okay? Now I can't read it, all right. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes a teapot.

Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. Anybody remember that clip? Okay, so a lot of you guys remember that clip. And you say, "Oh, it's so wise. Be water. We've got to be like water." You know what I mean? Isn't that even biblical? Doesn't Paul say, "Be all things to all people"?

That's what it sounds like, right? That's biblical. Be water, my friend. Now that sounds great, but what if you're a potato? How do you just decide to become water? How do you just, "Okay, I'm going to be water." How? I mean, that sounds great, but there's no way to get there.

You know, that Buddhist friend that I was talking to, he was saying, like, one of the things that central teachings, why people don't attain higher enlightenment is because of attachment. And what he meant by that is being attached to anything prevents you from higher enlightenment because your lust, your desire for material, your desire for fame, all of these things hold you back.

So he says the key thing of Buddhism is detachment, right? Well, that sounds a lot like Christianity. It's like, "Do not love the world or anything in the world," right? And I said, "That sounds wise. That sounds great, but how? How do you do that? How do you detach yourself from these things?" It's just like telling a hungry person, "You know, I have a solution to your hunger.

Stop." Like, "I'm so hungry. I need to eat." Stop it, right? That's basically what it's saying. Okay, here's the problem. Stop doing that, right? You want to be like water. But how do you do that? So it may sound like wisdom, but all it leads to is frustration. Here's a goal that you can't possibly attain.

See, Christianity is not about, like, rules of life, and if you follow these rules, somehow you're going to find attainment, and you're going to find fulfillment. That's not it at all. In fact, the scripture says exactly the opposite. The law was given to us so that you and I would recognize, "Here's what you need to have to get into heaven, and you can't get there." Yes, you need to be like water, but how?

It's the attachment to the things that are destroying us, but how do you get detached from that? You know what the scripture says? You know what the resurrection is? People who are attached, people who see where we need to be and can't get there. You know how do you get a hungry person to not hunger for things that are wrong?

Feed him with what's good. Feed him with what's good. You can't just tell him, "Stop being hungry." Feed him. See, the scripture tells us that Christ came, and he reversed a curse, and he gave us eternal hope, so the scripture isn't simply telling us, "Stop loving the world." He says, "No, if you are filled with Christ, you will no longer love the world." Our safety is not in the world.

Our peace is not in the world. The world is never going to quench my thirst. Jesus quenches my thirst. The hunger that we have, he doesn't just say, "Stop hungering." He says, "No, fix your eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." When the scripture says that Jesus came to bring life and bring this life abundantly, the word he uses there is "zoe." A lot of people think that salvation means that I'm going to live forever, but that's not the word he uses.

See, there's two words for life in the Bible. One is "bios," the other one is "zoe." Bios is the word where if you breathe, you eat, you sleep, you get up. That's bios. Everybody has bios. Even after we die, the Bible says the soul doesn't disintegrate. We live forever.

The word Jesus uses here is "zoe." "Zoe" is equivalent to the word we would use to say we are alive. We were at one point dead. We were existing, but we were dead in spirit. But Jesus Christ came and he made us alive in him. See, our source, our power, and our life is when we are connected to the living water.

So Jesus didn't just come and say, "Hey, now you don't die. You're going to live forever." Right? That's what a lot of people don't understand. It's like, "Well, I don't know if I want to be forever." But that's not what he meant. He meant that that which died because of sin, because of his absorption, he allowed us and he freed us.

So our life is found in Christ and Christ alone. In 1 Peter 1.3 it says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again and to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." See, a person who does not recognize Jesus as a living water and Jesus as a living bread will never understand what salvation is.

It is not simply getting rid of the penalty of sin. Jesus Christ came to give life and to give this life abundantly. So when we feel the most alive, when genuine Christians feel the most alive is when you are the closest in connection with Christ. That's why we worship.

That's why we come. And so, you know, the things that you're excited about, you end up talking about. Right? You guys here who are watching the final four and there's final two now, there's going to be, I guarantee you, once this is over, there's going to be some conversation about that.

Pacquiao and Meriwether fight is going to happen in May 2nd. Right? There's going to be some conversation about that after this. Right? Because we're interested about it. We're excited about it. I'm excited about it. Right? Whatever it is that you're excited about, you're going to end up talking about.

Right? And when you talk about it, there's somebody who says, "Hey, how come you're not talking about Pacquiao today? How come you're not talking about the final four today?" Anybody ever confront you about that? In fact, it's all the, "Hey, you've got something better to talk about than this." Right?

We feel almost guilty about talking about it too much. Evangelism happens when people are living in Christ. When we are alive, when you recognize the life that we have in Christ, you tell somebody who's been affected by the cross to tell them to stop talking about Jesus. All those people in the Middle East, all they have to say is, "I don't believe in Jesus," and they'll live.

You try to get them to stop talking about Jesus. Those pastors that we met in India, they're risking their lives, their lives and their family's lives. You tell them to stop preaching Jesus. They can't. Because they found new life in Christ. See, that's what the resurrection signifies. It's not just that our old self has died, but our new self has been resurrected with Christ.

Let me conclude with this. You know, before I met Christ, I was so lost. You know, we had ten brothers and sisters give their testimony this morning at the early rise service. And honestly, I could hear that all day long. It is food to my soul. You know, hearing how God is working in your life.

And every single person, every single Christian has a genuine testimony. I was no different. I was so lost. You know, like by the time that I got into, I think I counted maybe about 11 different schools, from first grade to 12th grade. I went to 11 different schools. So, you know, usually I would go to a new school and typically, it's like, "Hey, Chinaman," or whatever.

You know, it usually starts with that. And then my two brothers, they're kind of, they're more meek and gentle and patient. You know, so they just kind of tick it, but not me. Right? If I hear Ching Chung something, I'm going to do something about it. Right? So every school I went into, I started, sometimes, I got in a fight the very first day I was at school.

That was my record. Right? So first day, second day, eventually I ended up fighting somebody. And then, because I usually made friends by fighting somebody, so the friends that I made were people who thought that was cool. So you can imagine, you know, these were not the straight-A students.

You know? So that's the crowd I ended up, and then, as soon as I felt comfortable, we ended up moving. When I was younger, I didn't really think much about that, because you're young, you just kind of go wherever the parents went. So the first time I really like felt that, the impact of the move, was right when I was hitting puberty.

You know, going from sixth grade to seventh grade. My parents moved back out to Korea, and I got really close to this friend. And to be honest, when my parents said they were going to go back to the U.S., I said, "Oh, okay. You know, we're moving." Like before.

But my friend took it so hard. The first time I really became good friends with somebody, and the moment I told him, until I left, I mean, he cried the whole time. And I remember at the airport, he was like screaming. And obviously that made me sad, and I was crying, and then we got on the plane.

And you have to remember, at that time, if you moved to a different country, I mean, basically you write letters. The phone calls cost way too much. And I knew I probably would never see this guy again. You know? It's not like today. Like Pastor Alex went to China, I'm talking to him more now than he was when he was here.

So by the time we came back to the U.S., I mean, I was completely, completely like lost. And I thought, you know, when I came here, I said, "Oh, I'm Korean." So when we went back to Korea, they told me, "Go back to your country." What? I'm Korean. Right?

They said, "No, you're an American." You know? So I felt completely lost. Am I Korean? Am I American? I don't know anybody who's Asian, who speaks English. And so, again, right around puberty, right around, you know, seventh grade, and that completely messed me up. When I met Christ in 1983, my world got just flipped upside down.

Every anger, every bitterness, I felt so lost. I didn't know where I belonged. And I took it out, you know, every little thing just would set me off. I would be angry. My biggest problem was like I had a bad temper, and I would just, any little thing that I felt offended by, I would get in a fight.

1983, you know, we go up to a retreat, and I see a bunch of people who are praying, and you know, I grew up in a Christian home. We prayed all the time. But there's these guys who were praying, they were all my age people, and they were praying, they were praying like God's actually listening.

And that was strange to me. It was just because to me it was just a ritual, because I didn't understand. But they were crying out to God, and say, "Is there something that I don't get?" If you asked me at that time, "Are you a Christian?" I would say, "Yeah, I'm a Christian.

Of course, my dad's a pastor. How can I not be a Christian?" But I never gave it serious thought, other than that, until that day. I got on my knees and I prayed, "God, if you're real, open my eyes." And I'm not going to go into too much detail, but that's when I met the Lord.

And when I met the Lord, for the first time in my life, I felt like I belonged. And it wasn't in America, it wasn't in Korea, it wasn't with other Asian Americans. It was as His child. I got citizenship in eternity, and I belonged somewhere. And this life, this emptiness that I felt, thinking that if I did this and had this, and only if my life was different, only if we didn't move around so much, only if my parents weren't pastors, only if we had more money, all these things that I thought would fix my life, the moment I met Christ, all of that got answered instantaneously.

And I knew that everything that happened in my life, God did to bring me to that point. And that's the day that I made a decision, "This is the reason why I'm going to live." And I can honestly tell you that 1983 was my new birth. And I know a lot of people say, "Well, you know, it happened gradually." And people come to Christ in different ways, but for me, it was instantaneous.

So it was so vivid to me what the world looked like before I met Christ and what the world looked like after I met Christ. What the world was like before the resurrection, what the world was like after the resurrection. I pray with all my heart that not a single person in this room, whether you've been attending church all your life and you've just been assuming your faith, or maybe you're here because somebody invited you because they wanted you to hear the Gospel message, that not a single person in this room would miss the greatest gift that mankind has ever been given in the name of Jesus Christ.

That you would consider deeply what this means. If Jesus Christ was actually risen from the dead, what does that mean? If this Jesus that we sing, that we talk about every single week, if he really was the Son of God, what does that mean? How does that change your life?

How does that change your future? How does that change what you value? How does that change your death? I pray with all my heart this morning that at least we would consider deeply, that we would not simply be churchgoers, that we would not just be happy with the fact that we've just put up our name on a list, but that we are true disciples of Jesus Christ.

I'm going to ask the praise team to come up at this time, and I'm going to invite all of you. Again, I know we do this often, but as we think carefully about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I think the people that I feel the most, I don't know if the word is compassion, but people who are like me, you know, live their whole life just assuming that they know Jesus, just because you were raised in the church.

And you can repay, if I ask you any biblical question, you might be able to give me the right answers, but you don't know Jesus. You don't have a personal relationship with Christ. The resurrection is a historical event that affects Christianity, but not you personally. It's just important on paper, but not in reality, because you don't know Jesus.

The greatest tragedy is for somebody to be in church all their life and then meet the resurrected Christ and he says, "I never knew you. These are not my words. Jesus said that." I pray that as we think upon the resurrection of Christ and what it means, that you would make it personal.

Don't be satisfied with saying, "Oh, it means this for Christianity." What does it mean to you? When Jesus asked the question, "What do the people say that I am?" "Oh, you're the prophet. You know, you're John. You're this, you're that." But what do you say? Who do you say I am?

That's the same question that we need to answer. Who is Jesus? Do you know this resurrected Christ? And I pray for those of you who are sitting here who came as guests and maybe you've never heard the gospel or maybe you heard it before, but you just heard it as just knowledge.

You never really thought of it as your own personal savior. I want to welcome you this afternoon. And again, I'm not going to ask you to come out. I'm just going to ask you to sit quietly. You don't have to repeat, you know, some religious ritualistic words when you come to God.

You could talk to him like you talk to anybody else. Just be honest with him. Say, "God, if you're real, I want to know you. If you really did die for me on the cross and you're offering me a new life and you want to forgive my sins, I want to receive you." Just make an honest prayer.

You can, you don't have to use fancy vocabulary. You don't need to know any theology. You just honestly want to come before God. God, if just like I did, I was just curious. Are you real? I invite you to take some time as we pray that again, every single one of us, that this is not just another resurrection Sunday that we're just going to chalk off and say, "Okay, now it's my seventh or eighth or ninth or tenth." But the reality of his resurrection would make a deep impact on each one of us.

So let's take some time to pray as we welcome the worship team to lead us.