Alright, if you could turn your Bibles with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, we're looking at verse 12 through 19. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 12 through 19. We're going to be looking at the whole chapter, but I want to just read this portion. Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

If there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain. Your faith also is vain. Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.

For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins. And those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

Let's pray. Father God, we pray for your grace, we pray for the Holy Spirit's mighty work, not only in us, but all throughout the world, Lord God, as thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of people who are gathered together this morning to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. I pray, Lord God, that the power of the resurrection will have its effect in our worship, in our fellowship, in the preaching, in the singing.

All of it, Lord God, may bring glory to you. I pray for open hearts. I pray, Lord God, that you would open the minds of those who do not yet believe, that they may see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ this morning. Lord, we ask that you would anoint this time.

May your sweet presence, Lord God, be made known in all that we do. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let me ask you a question. Can somebody claim to be a Christian and yet do not believe the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ? Again, rhetorical question. Can somebody genuinely be a Christian and yet do not believe the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ?

Now, for whatever the reason, there are some people in certain circles and in some liberal churches that argue that the bodily resurrection does not matter, that there is things to be salvaged whether you believe in the real resurrection of Jesus Christ or not. One of these people is Professor Korb, who teaches at the New York University, and this is what he says about the resurrection.

The miracle of a bodily resurrection is something I rejected without moving away from its basic idea. What I mean is that we can reach the lowest points of our lives of going deep into a place that feels like death and then find our way out again. That's the story the resurrection now tells me.

And at Easter, this is expressed in community and at its best through the compassion of others. In other words, what he is saying is even if you do not believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, to him, resurrection is the idea that if you fall into darkness, if bad things happen in life, that we have hope.

And the idea of coming out of darkness and making something of your life is what the resurrection means to him. Is the resurrection the center of Christian faith or it is not? Jesus himself said in Matthew chapter 16, 4, when they kept on asking, "You say you're the Messiah, people are saying you're the Messiah, give us proof," Jesus said, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and a sign will not be given to it except the sign of Jonah," meaning the resurrection.

He pointed to the resurrection as the central activity that was going to prove everything he said. Everything he said, everything he did, everything that he proclaimed that he came to do rises and falls on the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's kind of like Jenga. If you ever play Jenga, you know, you're taking the pieces out and there's that one piece.

You touch that wrong, everything else is going to fall. Well, the resurrection is the Christian Jenga. And if you mess with that, if you reject the bodily resurrection of Christ, everything that you and I do falls apart. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 15, 3 to 8, Paul says, "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I received." Now when he says what is first important, he's talking about what is most important, that in all of his preaching, all of his sacrifices, everything that's been going on in the first century, Paul says, and he summarizes, "In the first importance, what I received, I will give to you," and he says, "that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." And then he says that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

Some will say, "Well, you can say that. That's put in the Bible because these men who have been propagating this for 2,000 years, I mean, first century, these guys basically began to tell this story. Now how are we going to validate that?" Paul says in the previous passage that he appeared to the 12 disciples, his resurrection physically, and then he appeared to 500 men, and then he appeared to the other apostles, and then to Paul himself.

Now if we take that just literally, that alone is about 500 and some people. But again, remember, they didn't count the number of people the way we count today. We have somewhere in this room maybe around 300 to 350 people in the room. That's including everybody, right? And that's typically how we would count people.

At that time, when they counted, they only counted men, and I know that may not sound fair, but the women and children did not have voting rights. They didn't have rights at that time, so they only counted men. So when they said in the Bible that they fed 5,000 people, they're referring to 5,000 men.

So if you count the way we would normally count, it would be probably close to 10,000 to 15,000 people. So here, when it says he showed himself to 500 men, now we don't know the exact number, but he could easily be 1,000 plus. At the minimum, it says that he showed himself to 500, possibly over 1,000 people as eyewitnesses of his bodily resurrection.

Some people just may dismiss that and say, "Well, they're all telling a lie. They're doing propaganda." Let me ask you a question. Why do people lie? Let me ask you a more personal question. Why do you lie? Some of you guys think, "Well, I never lie." That's a lie right there, right?

Maybe you're not in the habit of lying. Maybe that's not what you do. Obviously, we're Christians. We try not to lie. But why? Because we remember, when you did lie, why did you lie? You don't tell lies to make yourself look bad. You don't tell lies that's going to hurt you.

Typically, we compromise, we stretch the truth or exaggerate or outright lie to protect yourself because of personal benefit, whether that may be taxes or whether that may be something that you say to your boss, but people lie and exaggerate to protect themselves. But every single one of these people who are eyewitnesses of Jesus Christ, they ended up, many of them, giving their lives telling this supposed lie.

Many of these people came from very prominent families. Apostle Paul himself may have been a senator of the nation of Israel. His disciple was the greatest scholar of that time, a Roman citizen. He ends up getting his head beheaded. And everybody who was attached to Apostle Paul, helping in his ministry, basically ended their life in the same way.

So what possible motivation would there have been for these hundreds, possibly thousands of people who were supposedly eyewitnesses and went to their grave telling this lie, forfeiting everything that they had before they met Christ? Now because of this, majority of New Testament scholars, Christian and non-Christians alike, do not deny that the early eyewitnesses actually think they saw something.

They don't deny that. They don't deny that these people were making it, because it doesn't make sense for thousands of people to give their life saying they saw the resurrected Christ. So today, the percentages, three-fourths of New Testament scholars, this is Christian and non-Christians put together, three-fourths of New Testament scholars do not deny that the eyewitnesses, at the minimum, believe what they were saying.

But let me ask you this morning, if I could convince you that the resurrection didn't happen, without a shadow of a doubt, right? Maybe you come to Resurrection Sunday and the pastor tries to convince you that it did happen. What if I could convince you it didn't happen? And you left this room saying, "Huh!

It didn't happen!" How would that affect you? What would change in your life if I did such a great job this morning and convinced you that the resurrection did not happen? Some people may say, "Well, you know, it didn't happen, but at least I have good friends. At least I had a community.

At least I lived with a purpose. At least I had some adventure." You know, we live in a culture today where neighborhoods and communities just don't exist. Even at work, you work at your cubicle and you do your job and you may have some connection, but for the most part, community has broken down.

Families have broken down. Communities have broken down. And everybody lives in, you know, pretty much in isolation. You go to your home, how many of you are good friends with your neighbors? Everybody just drives into their, you know, into their garage and shut the door. And then you may make eye contact when you take your trash out every once in a while, but outside of that, neighborhoods don't exist.

So at least we were at church. We had a group of friends, you know, and when you have birthday parties, you have a lot of people come. If you weren't at church, you might have two or three friends, maybe, depending on who you are. But for the most part, this is where you have friendship.

This is where you have community. If the resurrection did not happen, how would it affect your life? Is it just, "Well, at least I had this." Well, that's not what the Scripture says. Paul actually argues, if the resurrection didn't happen, he argues, there's three things that he says in this text that I want to go over today, and why the resurrection is the foundation upon which we build everything.

First of all, Paul says, "If Jesus was not raised from the dead, our preaching and our faith is in vain." First Corinthians 15, 14, and 15. "And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain." We are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised.

The word "vain" basically means empty or hollow. Or in Ecclesiastes, it basically means meaningless. There's nothing to salvage. A couple weeks ago, our family went to Korea, and my oldest son, Jeremy, he had his favorite word that he repeated over and over again. That word was "siregi." That word was repeated out of his mouth probably over a thousand times.

"Siregi." And "siregi" is a Korean word for trash, basically. That's his favorite word. Zachary's favorite word was "jugulhae." That basically means you want to die. And so every opportunity they got, they used their Korean. "Oh, that's siregi. Jugulhae?" Right? But basically, "siregi" basically means it's trash. And that's what "vain" means.

There's nothing to salvage. It is complete trash. If Jesus was not raised from the dead, our faith, our preaching, our life is trash. There's nothing to salvage. It's "siregi." If all it is, is a placebo, like this professor says, if all the resurrection, if all Christianity is simply a placebo to trick ourselves and hold on to it like a security blanket, he said, it is absolutely worthless.

It is in vain. I remember when I was a youth pastor, every once in a while, I would have a parent who would be so angry with me. And the reason why they would be angry was that they would drop off their kids. And these are, you know, many of them from unbelieving parents.

And they would drop off their kids, and they would love it in the beginning. And the reason why they would love it is because they had free babysitting. And I was a youth pastor, and we had a local church, and we had a nice basketball court outside. And so I was a full-time youth pastor, so I just hung around church all the time.

You know, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I just lived there. So a lot of the youth group kids would just come and hang out at the church. They would bring their backpack, and they would do their homework, and in between, they would go out and run and play basketball.

So it was basically just free babysitting. And then the older people, older kids would pick up the younger kids, and if they got hungry, we would take them out to eat. And so parents loved it. So some of the kids who were getting into trouble, you know, they were at church.

We're having prayer meetings. We're doing Bible studies. So the parents loved it, until some of the kids started getting serious. And some of them started talking about going into ministry, possibly going to missions. And all of a sudden, the parents started getting upset. They loved it when they were getting good morals, but we didn't want you to get too serious.

I never took that personally. Sometimes they would tell me to my face, or they would look at me and just walk away, and I knew they were angry. I had a parent, not during that time, but I had a parent get straight up and call me a liar, that people like me are the ones who are ruining society, teaching people lies.

That never bothered me. The reason why it doesn't bother me is because I understand where they're coming from. If you do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then yeah, I'm influencing them to ruin their life. I'm preaching a gospel that challenges them to pick up their cross, to see this world as rubbish, and to look forward to the next world.

So the gospel that I'm preaching to an unbeliever is offensive. What I didn't understand is if a Christian sees their child, and all they see is when their child comes, "Oh, he's getting good morals, he's being protected, and good things are happening to them," then they either did not understand what it is that we preach, or the child was not a good witness at home.

Paul says if the resurrection did not happen, he says it is completely rubbish. In fact, he says in verse 19, "If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are all people most to be pitied." In other words, there's nothing to be salvaged, it's complete "siregi." It's completely empty.

I had a friend back in high school. He was top of the class. He ended up going to Stanford. And then even at Stanford, he made the Dean's List. So at the end of his sophomore year, I mean, it's hard enough to just get in just to get by, but he was on the Dean's List.

And so every once in a while, our friends would talk, and we'd talk about him and how great he's doing, and once that guy graduates from Stanford, I mean, he's made. But then at the end of his sophomore year, we heard that he dropped out of school. And next thing we hear is that he went to missions.

We forgot where he went, but he went to some strange place to become a full-time missionary. And I remember some of my non-Christian friends or people who are very nominal wondering, "What a waste." That guy could have come out of Stanford, and he just automatically, just the fact that he came out of Stanford, he could have gotten any job.

And yet he forfeited all of that to spend the rest of his life living in an uncomfortable area preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. What a fool. If Christ was not resurrected from the dead, he's to be pitied. And that's exactly what Apostle Paul said. He forfeited everything to preach this gospel.

Do you know why the resurrection of Jesus Christ was at the center of the message in the early church? Think about for a while. You can give a theological answer, because theologically, you know, it means this and that. Do you know why in the preaching of the early church, why the resurrection was central and first and foremost?

Because it happened. What else would you be talking about if you saw the resurrected Christ? It was not for theological reasons. It was not because to complete the gospel. It was not to understand the Trinity and his identity. It's simply because it happened. What else would you be talking about?

What else would you be preaching if you met the resurrected Christ? If he was not resurrected from the dead, he said, all of it crumbles. Number two, if Jesus was not raised from the dead, we would still be in our sins. Chapter 15, verse 16, "For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile." Futile is another word for "seregi." Vanity.

It's vain. There's nothing to salvage. Your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Remember when Jesus was going into Jerusalem from Bethany? Something random happened, or at least on the surface it seems random. He's walking by, and he's hungry, and he walks toward the fig tree, and the fig tree doesn't have figs on it.

And he just condemns it. Right? That's random. I mean, then he goes to the temple, cleanses the temple, and all this stuff happens, but then it just seems like Jesus has bad temper. Right? He gets angry at the fig tree, and then he goes to the temple, and he flips over tables like, "Ah, he just has a bad temper." I remember years ago, I was trying to share the gospel with this man, and we were going over other parts of the gospel, and he was really coming along.

And he was asking questions about eternity, about the gospel, I was telling him what to read. And then one day, he said, he went into that story, and he said, "I don't understand the story. Why did he kill the fig tree?" So I did my best and tried to explain to him about, you know, berry fruit and things like that, and then he...

You could tell he just didn't fully buy it. We'd move along and read something else, and then a couple weeks later, he would ask me, he's like, "I still can't get over that. Why did he kill the fig tree?" Now, I was thinking, like, all the things that he would stumble over, you know, the Jericho, the walls come tumbling down, or the worldwide flood where everybody dies.

You know, there's plenty of things that I would think that he would stumble over, the teaching of eternal hell and damnation. There's so many things that I could think about, but he just could not get over this tree being condemned. And I think he had maybe a Buddhist background, and he considered that sacred, but he just could not let it go.

Why did he condemn the tree? Because of that, I took some time to really meditate and think about, like, why... Because it does seem random, at least on the surface. You have to understand what Jesus came to do, and especially that week where he was headed. It says in Mark 11, verse 13, that the time of the gathering had not yet come.

In other words, for most fig trees, the harvesting happens sometime in early summer, where it's full bloom and the farmers come and they get all the figs and they put it in a basket and they may eat it, dry it, or sell it. In other words, he said that time had not come.

So Jesus was walking probably sometime late March, maybe sometime in April. In other words, it was probably in full bloom, but not yet ready to harvest. In other words, the tree should have been filled with fig tree, because they didn't harvest it yet. And yet when he walked by, there was no figs on it, and he condemns it.

Now, on the surface, he got caught up. It was like, "Why did he condemn it? It didn't deserve it." Well, think about who Jesus is. Jesus is the creator. He created this fig tree for the purpose of bearing figs. And so it wasn't doing its job. The whole purpose of a fig tree for its existence is to bear figs.

So it wasn't doing its job. So basically, he had every right as the creator of this tree to say, "You're useless." Obviously, that was pointing to something greater than that. How many of us, if we created something, it didn't work, that we would put it in the corner and highlight it and take care of it and put it in the closet, right?

You put it on Craigslist. Give it to White Elephant Present Exchange, bring in couponers, wherever it is. You just put it out, because you have no use for it, because you created it for something and it's not working. You wouldn't think twice about it, right? Get rid of it, because it's useless.

It's not functioning the way I created it, what I created it for. The scripture says that we have all been created to give glory to God. All of creation cries out to His glory, except for mankind. Mankind is in rebellion against God, but instead of condemning us, what did He do?

Instead of cursing us, what did He do? He took the curse upon Himself. What He did to the fig tree, if the fig tree deserved to die, how much more mankind who shakes His fist at God, saying, "I am not going to worship you." Yet instead of condemning mankind, He came, He absorbed sin upon Himself.

He who knew no sin became sin, so that you and I might become the righteousness of God. Scripture says in Hebrews 9.27, "Just as it is appointed for man to die once, after that comes judgment." This is the condition of all mankind. In Romans 6.23, "For the wages of sin is death." What He did to the fig tree is what every human being deserves in his sin.

And yet He says, "If the resurrection did not happen, you are still in your sins." In 1 Timothy 1.15, it is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am the foremost. This is the reason why He came.

He didn't come to relieve hunger. He didn't come to make your marriages better, so that you can have a better retirement or your business would go better, because the primary problem of mankind is inside. Changing the president, changing the society, making better investments, doesn't change anything. There has not been a president in the United States who is not a sinner.

Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, or Libertarian or just confused, whatever you may be, there has never been a president from the beginning till now and in the future who is not a sinner, who doesn't wrestle with his own lust, who doesn't wrestle with coveting. The answer is not the president.

Let me get a bit more personal. None of you have been raised by anybody else other than a sinner. None of you. Every single one of us has been raised by a mother who struggles with sin, by a father who also struggles with sin. The answer is not with our family, because we are all sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God.

The Bible describes this as the state of mankind. I've said this before, and I'm going to say this again because people keep reminding me over and over again. I do not dislike Chinese food. I don't like food in China. Let me say that again. That's a lot more food, actually.

The reason why I don't like food in China, and I'm going to say it again, because I've gotten sick so many times. Diarrhea, vomiting, everything that comes along with food poisoning. I've experienced it so many times through traveling that I would go there for a week, two weeks, or three weeks, and if you have food poisoning, it ruins the trip.

It doesn't matter how beautiful the place is. It doesn't matter the company. It doesn't matter the purpose or why I was there. If I get sick, it ruins everything. So I'm hyper-cautious with what I eat in China and in India. Everywhere I travel, I'm very sensitive because I don't want to ruin the trip.

It doesn't matter if you get sick. It'll ruin everything. It'll ruin your companionship. It'll ruin the travel. You can be in the most beautiful place in the world with the most beautiful people in the world, and you're going to be miserable. The state of mankind, the Bible says, is that we're all spiritually sick.

You can have a perfect marriage. You can have a perfect group of friends. You can have the best job. You can have the most obedient child. But when we are sick spiritually, it ruins everything. That's what the Bible says that mankind experiences, and we're running, thinking that if we have the right president, if we have the right politics, if we have the right job, if we can communicate better with my wife, if I can raise better children, if I had better money for the retirement, that somehow that's going to fix things.

It doesn't. Because the only answer to our sins is the resurrected Christ. And that's why it says if Christ has not been risen, we are still in our sins. All our preaching is in vain. Our faith is in vain. It is absolute rubbish. There's nothing to salvage. Third and finally, it says if Jesus was not raised from the dead, death is final.

That's it. I remember I went to one of the saddest funerals. I've been to funerals where there's young children, and, you know, whether they were as young as two or five, you know. And obviously, they're gut-wrenching funerals. But I went to one of the saddest funerals, this young man who died right after he graduated college.

He went out, got drunk, on the way home, he swerved to the right, hit a tree, got thrown out of his car, and then he died. I went to his funeral and filled with unbelieving friends, unbelieving parents. And at the eulogy, his dad came up trying to make sense.

This guy spent all his life, he just graduated UCSD, and, you know, his life is, you know, ahead of him, a bright future ahead of him. His dad comes up and he says, he looks at his son's friends who are sitting there grieving because their friend just died. He said, "Don't be stupid like my son.

Don't be stupid like my son. He died uselessly. Don't do that to yourself." Then he sat. That was a non-Christian trying to make sense. What happened? Poured his life into raising that child. Right when he graduates college and bright future ahead of him, all he can make sense of was, "It's over.

Don't be stupid like him." Paul paused and said, "If Jesus was not resurrected from the dead and this is all we have, let us eat, drink, and be merry." What is this? Morality or make the world better. This is all you have. Let the next generation worry about the next generation.

This is it. If this is it, if death is final, it's it. But Romans 8 and 11, it says, "If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you." This resurrection is not simply about Jesus' resurrection.

He was the first fruit among many who will be resurrected. So when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we're celebrating the hope that one day when we die, we will also be resurrected like him. But death is not final. That whatever it is that you experience here, it is not final.

That's why it says in verse 42 and on, "So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." Perishable body.

Basically, this is describing our current state. You and I have a perishable body. There is dishonor. Yes, we're Christians. We've been washed by the blood of Christ. But let's be real. There's lust in us. There's coveting. There's anger. There's slander. We wrestle and we struggle. And this is what he says.

We will be sown in weakness but raised in power. We'll be sown natural body but we'll be raised with a spiritual body. The word for perishable basically means corruption, decay, ruined, ultimately leading to death. And that's why in 1 Corinthians 1.18, the gospel describes those who are not Christians as those who are continuing to perish.

Psalm 90 verse 12, "So teach us to number our days that we may present to you a heart of wisdom." You know what he's saying? Say, "Lord, teach me to know that I'm going to die one day." And just how this life is. What a morbid thing to say, especially on a resurrected Sunday.

Many of you, I did not know you owned a tie. It's Resurrection Sunday. You dressed up nice. Because it's supposed to be about life, about resurrection. It's supposed to be happy. He says, "Lord, teach me to number my days." He says, "To gain a heart of wisdom." Now why does he say that?

Because until we recognize that we are living in a perishable body, that we would not look to the Lord who has eternity in His hands. We're going to pour all our energy and our time and our hope in that which is perishable. That's why he says, "To have a heart of wisdom that we need to know how short this life is." I remember my 25th birthday like it was yesterday.

And I know people say that. There's plenty of people in this room who are older than me, so I'm not going to act like I'm old. But it really feels like yesterday. I just got married. It was my first birthday that we were celebrating as a married couple. She threw a birthday party.

All the youth group kids came. And I remember walking into the room and she had this Korean soup that she made for me that she knew I liked. And I remember every part of that. I lived in an apartment in Tustin. And I remember who was there. I remember what we talked about.

I mean, it was just so memorable for me because it was my first birthday with my new wife. That seemed like yesterday. It went by that fast. I mean, we're like a mist that comes and goes. And I know when we're younger, we live like we have all the time in the world.

But one of the benefits of getting older is you know that's not the case. I don't have to convince older people that that's not the case. What I'm saying is not anything unique. You probably heard it from everybody else. He says, "Teach me to number my days so that I may know the preciousness of what it is that I have, that I may look to eternity." We live in this perishable body until we recognize what it is that we have.

We don't recognize what it is that we have in Christ. Paul says in Romans chapter 7, "What I want to do, I do not do. What I do not want to do, I keep on doing." And then he says, "Oh, what a wretched man that I am." Until we recognize the wretchedness of the position that you and I are in, we think that we're going to be here forever.

We enjoy life like everybody else. We celebrate over little accomplishments that in eternity means nothing. We celebrate, take pictures of little nice places that we visited and that keeps us going for a period. We go eat things, experience things, buy things that temporarily causes us to forget the bigger picture.

And we just move on from month to month, week to week, year to year, and from life to life, forgetting about the eternity. But Paul doesn't leave it there. "Oh, what a wretched man that I am." But in the very next passage he says, "But thanks be to God that there is deliverance." And that's what the resurrection is.

The resurrection reminds us that even though we will die with perishable body, we will be raised with imperishable. First Corinthians 15, 52, "In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed.

For the perishable must put on the imperishable and the mortal must put on immortality." We will be sown in dishonor, which means disgrace, lust, covening, anger, pride, and shame. But we will be raised in glory. You know, so much of our life is really about self-glory, right? That's why we spend so much time in front of the mirror in the morning.

So we want to present our best. Sometimes we study so hard because we want to make something of ourselves. We want to get a better job. All of it for greater glory, for improvement, not realizing that our core pursuit of our own glory is what is suffocating the life that God desires for us.

He says, "We are now hidden in Christ." When He comes in glory, we will be glorified with Him. Resurrection is a promise that no matter what happens in this world, that Christ is going to come and bring glory. We will be sown in weakness, physically, emotionally, intellectually, and by our will.

There's a reason why He says, "Do not trust your heart. It is deceitful because our emotions have been tainted." He says, "Do not lean on your own understanding because our intellect has been tainted by sin. Do not make vows because you don't know if you're going to be able to keep it because our wills have been affected by our sin." Even physically.

I remember, you know, in my early 40s, my knee started hurting and I went to the doctors and the doctor looked at my knees and he said, "Basically, stop playing basketball." Some of you guys who are obsessed with basketball may understand. The other people kind of like, "You're going to think that I'm crazy." But I remember when he told me to stop playing basketball, I felt like a part of my life was dying because I played so much basketball when I was younger.

We were obsessed with that. I was maybe a little idle, you know what I mean? This is before internet. So what else you got, right? I couldn't drive to LA to get food. We just played basketball. All our free time, we played basketball. I literally played basketball maybe six, seven times a week sometimes.

And I was a youth pastor, so I was always with guys who were more than willing to play. And so I was so... We played so much basketball. So when finally when the doctor said, "Your knee can't handle it anymore. You overused it and you should stop playing basketball." I remember coming home thinking, "I need to get a second opinion." That's the first thought I had.

And then later on when I realized that that was probably the case, a small part of me died. It is a part of me that should have died because I was too competitive. I took basketball way too seriously. And there's probably some people in this room who were stumbled because of it.

So it was a good thing that I couldn't play competitively anymore. So it was a reminder to me that no matter how healthy you are, no matter how strong you are, no matter how young you are, it takes its toll on all of us in time. He said, "We will be sown in weakness, but we will be raised in power." You know the comic books, the Avengers, and all this has become so popular in recent days.

So the common question that people ask each other is, "What superpower would you want?" Like fantasy. People always ask, "What would you do with a million dollars if you won the lottery?" Now it's like, "What superpower do you want? Which character would you want?" I hear some people say, "I wanted the power to be invisible." Or "I want to be Batman." Or "I want to be able to do this and that." And I never understood why people don't say Superman.

Because Superman basically can do everything. Why do you have to be invisible when you can beat everybody up? Why do you have to worry about what other people think? He's fast enough to turn the globe backwards and change time. He's faster than the fastest guy. He's stronger than the strongest guy.

Why not Superman? Anyway, why people even choose anything else, I don't understand. But that's all fantasy. That's not reality. We're just kind of thinking, "Oh, if I was, if I did this." But the Scripture says that when Christ was resurrected and he became the first fruit among many, that Jesus Christ is the heir of all that God is.

The God who controls the universe, who created the universe, who created the universe that contains Superman. That God, Jesus Christ, is the heir of all things. And he said, "Because we become adopted children, we are what? Co-heirs with Christ." So this idea of wanting to be Superman is just a fantasy.

But the reality of his resurrection is when we die and when Christ comes in glory, we are going to be co-heirs with Christ. We don't need to fantasize. If you truly believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, how can we hope for anything less than what Christ has done for us in his resurrection?

It is sown a natural body, but we will be raised a spiritual body. Heaven, never in the Scripture, is described as a place where you're going to go live in a big mansion. You know, when we were little, I don't know about you, but I've heard so many stories about this mansion that's waiting.

So when I was little, I pictured a mansion, right? My parents weren't rich, so we never had a nice house. So I was like, "One of these days, we're going to live in the biggest mansion, and I'm going to work so hard, and I'm going to sacrifice, bring many people to Christ, so when I get to heaven, I'm going to be the rich guy." It's not here.

I look for it. It's not in the Bible. There is no mansion promised us. There's no Lamborghini. There's no promise that when we get to heaven that we're going to be better looking. It's just not going to matter. It's not in the Scripture. The only consistent thing that's mentioned in Scripture is that heaven is a place where God dwells, and there is no sin.

That's it. I don't think it's going to look a lot different than here, to be honest. I don't know if there's going to be brown chairs. I don't know what the food is going to be like. It doesn't describe it, but I don't think it's going to be a lot different than this, because what ruined creation is not the dirt.

What ruined creation is not the weather, is not the depleting ozone layer. It was us. It was the sin in us that ruined it. When he was resurrected, he said, "He's going to take us to a place where God dwells, and there is no more sin. And when there is no sin, there is no more crying.

When there is no sin, there is no frustration. Where there is no sin, there are no empty promises. When there is no sin, there is no more loneliness. Where there is no sin, there is no shame. Where there is no sin, there is no broken families. When there is no sin, there is no more lust, there's no more hatred, no more slander, no more coveting.

All our hungering and thirsting are going to be satisfied. There are no orphans. There is no war. When there is no sin. Let me conclude with this. Some of you, some of you live with physical pain. And you've tried everything. There's some relief, but in the end, it's just for years, you're suffering, you've taken medication, you've done everything possible, and you're slowly beginning to realize that maybe that is it.

Some of you come from broken families, and the scars of being raised in a home where there was constant contention and those memories haunt you. You're afraid of relationships as a result of that. Some of you have been molested. You've been molested by people that you trusted, and you don't know what to do with that.

I don't know how many people that I've prayed for or talked to seeking some relief for what's happened. And there is not. It's not here. And they live with that horrendous memory in their teens, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s. Some of you were raised and you don't know your mom.

You've never known your mom. Some of you were raised and you have no recollection of your dad. Some of you are suffocating because of financial burdens. If Christ was not raised from the dead, that's all you got. You just got handed a raw deal. Just suck it up and move on because that's it.

It just happened. What do you do? And some of you, some of you are living with the shame of what you did in the past, and you just cannot get over it. If Christ was not raised from the dead, my preaching is in vain. There's no encouragement in any of this.

Our faith is in vain. This life is it. There is no hope. And once you die, once you die, that's it. You live with the pain of living in this fallen world, and that's it. And the only hope that you have is that one day you will die, and that's it, and suffering is over.

If Christ was not raised from the dead, that's it. Is this it? All these kids who are sleeping without food in their stomach, children in Kenya, both parents died because of AIDS walking around homeless, young girls who are being forced into prostitution because they just happened to be born in a home that the parents did not have enough money to take care of.

That's it. If Christ is not raised, all we can say is tough luck, tough luck. Thank God that that's not me. Thank God that's not my children. If Christ was not raised from the dead, his resurrection changes everything. It changes everything. He didn't die to give us a placebo, to hold on to this empty blanket, to feel a little bit better about ourselves.

The hope of the resurrection is real hope. It is real life. It is real forgiveness. It is real resurrection. I want to encourage you, those of you who are here who do not know Christ, maybe all the questions that you have and why this life just does not make sense is because you've been separated from the Creator.

God created you for a purpose and you have no idea what that is. And you're just trying to make sense of why you're here, where we're headed, where we came from, and you just can't get the answer. Could it possibly be you're looking for answers outside of the only one who can give you that answer?

What separates us from this Creator, the Bible says, is our own sins. And until we confess our sins, there's a barrier between us and God that we can never get to Him. And that's why Jesus Christ came. What you and I could not do, Jesus did. Instead of condemning us like that fig tree, He put that guilt, He put that shame upon His Son and He absorbed it.

But not only did He absorb it, He was resurrected and given us new life. I met the Lord years ago. I had so much anger and pain. But the moment I met the Lord, everything made sense. A God who is completely sovereign allowed those things to happen to bring me to Him.

To everything that I was angry about, overnight I found my answer in Christ. What could have easily led to years of anger and rebellion turned into source for greater joy in Christ? I want to encourage you, if that's you, you're searching and you're lost, and you've been trying to look for it in your friends, your family, your parents, in government, in education and in money or experience.

Heaven is in Christ, in Christ alone. I believe that with all my heart. I've dedicated my whole life because I believe that with all my heart. Jesus is real. He actually was raised from the dead. Heaven is real. Don't treat Him like a placebo. If you haven't prayed to Him in a while, if you haven't searched Him in a while, if you haven't connected with Him in a while, there's nothing more important for you to do today than to cry out to the Lord and receive forgiveness.

Come to the Lord. There's nothing more important in this world than to receive this Jesus, ask for forgiveness, to be reconciled with the Creator, and then live the rest of your life telling other people the same. Everything else is vanity. Would you take some time to pray with me?

Some of you might be sitting there thinking, "I've heard this so many times, and I believe it. I confess, I do believe it." Let me ask you again. If the resurrection did not happen, what will you lose today? What did you give up? What have you sacrificed? What is it about your life that you would say, "If He wasn't raised from the dead, my life is empty, because I gave everything to follow Him, because I believe this." The resurrection demands, it demands our confession.

Either we believe it and give our life in exchange for His, or we don't believe it and salvage what we can. I pray with all my heart that that is not the case. I pray with all my heart that you would come to the conviction that we celebrate the bodily resurrection, the real resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And one day when He comes, we will be glorified with Him. Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.