What an incredible weekend. Friday we celebrated the cross of Christ. Sunday we celebrated the resurrection of Christ. And now it's Easter evening when this episode officially launches online. And I love Easter more than any other date in the church calendar, even more than Christmas, to be honest. That move from the cross to the resurrection is just so stark, so stunning.

And it leads to a question from a listener named Becca. Hi, Pastor John. I hope you and your family enjoyed the beauty of Christ this Easter season. I have benefited greatly from all your teachings and the wisdom at Desiring God. I'm a young believer devoted to following Christ daily for the last four years.

For me, each Easter gets richer and richer as I have a more mature understanding and a deeper revelation of the power of the cross. But I'm also coming to the conclusion that, knowing the frailties of my own humanity, I cannot sustain the beauty and the works of the cross and the crucifixion I experienced in a weekend like this one on a daily basis.

This frustrates me. Easter Monday, I'm left dry, feeling almost lifeless and numb to everything I just celebrated, lured back into my brainless media like social media and movies and TV, back to reality, I think to myself. Is this feeling normal? Or how does the cross and resurrection I celebrated this weekend change my life on Monday?

What do I take from Easter Sunday into my Monday morning? Pastor John, what would you say to Becca? The first thing I want to say is that it is biblical and good to think of corporate worship on Sunday as a God-designed weekly high, high point in your spiritual life.

It ought to be something that can't be replicated during the week. Can't be replicated by yourself, can't be replicated in a small group. Individual experiences of Christ and small group experiences of Christ are essential to our walk with God. But Sunday corporate worship under the preached word in the power of the Holy Spirit with Spirit-filled singing of God's people gathered is meant to be an extraordinary work of God in our lives.

So the point of that is, for Becca, don't assume a decrease of that experience is a bad thing. I mean, he meant it to be special. He meant it to be unusually powerful, and that's good. So just be sure you're not setting up artificial expectations for Monday morning as though they should reproduce Sunday morning, because they shouldn't.

Sunday morning is not Monday morning. It is the gathered people of God under the preached word in the Spirit singing, "Oh, my, it's glorious." The things that he's done for me over the years that aren't done any other way, and the way I meet God in those times meet him like no other time, even though I love my personal devotions and I love my small group.

So Becca asked, you asked Becca, if the feeling is normal to be, quote, "left dry, lifeless, numb on Monday after experiencing the glories of the risen Christ on Sunday." Well, Jesus' answer to that question is, for a pretty large percentage of people, it is normal, but it ought not to be.

And I'm basing that on the parable of the four soils. Remember that one? The devil comes, the word is delivered, and then the devil comes. Let's say he comes on Monday morning, maybe Sunday night. The devil comes and snatches away the word from the heart, and then there's this other soil where we hear the word of God with joy, and we have no root, and flourish for a little while, maybe till Wednesday, and bang, it's gone.

The word is gone, choked out or burned up. And then the third soil is the cares and the riches and the pleasures of life choke out the word, and it doesn't bear any fruit. And then the fourth soil is like 25% of the hearers hear the word of God, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

So for three-fourths of the people in this parable--and I don't want to make any claim at all that that's typical of any given church on any Sunday morning, I'm just pointing out that normalcy isn't necessarily a good thing. So for three-fourths of the people in the parable, Sunday morning doesn't last beyond Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday.

That makes it pretty normal and pretty scary. So here's what she's really asking. It doesn't have to be that way. So here's my main exhortation and then three minor exhortations. So the big main exhortation is this. Becca and all the rest of us who share her life, be sure that the spiritual high that you experience on Sunday is a truth high, not merely a music high or a friend high.

Be sure it's a truth high. In other words, as you are singing, reading Scripture, listening to a sermon, make yourself focus on the truth that you are loving. What truths about God, what truths about Christ and his ways and his work, his promises, are especially stirring your heart with joy and trust and hope.

And then later on Sunday afternoon, perhaps, write these truths down. Keep a notebook. Maybe you call it "My Truth High Notebook." One or two or three beautiful things about God, his ways, that was given you in the service on Sunday morning. And the reason this is so important is because if the emotional high, and believe me, I got no problem with emotional highs.

I believe in emotional highs if they're truth highs. Got it? If the emotion is rooted in truth. So if they're not rooted in truth, they're going to be like these air plants that don't go anywhere. They just hang there. A normal plant that ought to have roots would just not survive in the air.

So Monday morning, if you can't recite to yourself and preach to yourself in the power of the Spirit the truths from Sunday, it's no surprise that the effects of the truths won't be there either. So that's my main exhortation. Be sure that the Sunday morning high is a truth high.

Write down those truths and you can rehearse them to yourself through the week. Now here are my three minor encouragements how to nurture the truth high for the sake of significant joy, if not the same Sunday morning joy, all through Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Number one, pray for your heart.

Pray it. Pray for the inclination of your heart. Pray for the eyes of your heart. Pray for the taste of your heart. That's Psalm 119, verse 36, Ephesians 1, verse 17, 1 Peter 2, verses 2 and 3. The inclination, the eyes, and the taste of your heart. Many people are fatalistic about the state of their hearts, as if there's nothing that can be done about a numb heart.

Like, "Oh, I got a numb heart. Que sera, sera. I'm cursed with a numb heart." No! The Bible presents a very different picture than being fatalistic. It presents an aggressive pursuit of God's help for the inclination of your heart, and for the seeing of your heart, and for the taste of your heart, seeing the heart.

Don't settle for anything less than God's intervention to incline your heart, illumine your heart, sweeten your heart. That's God's work. He does it in answer to prayer. So that's my first subordinate exhortation. Pray for your heart. Number two, use Bible regimen, yes, and ransacking. Bible ransacking. Have a regimen of Bible reading every morning, but add to the regimen ransacking.

Regimens are essential. I believe they're essential. But that's not the only way to handle the Bible. The Bible is a gold mine. It's a fountain of life. It's a sweet honey. It's a vine where you can pick grapes and satisfy your hunger and your thirst. It's just full of encouragement and steadfastness.

But sometimes the regimen we have doesn't lead us to the places where that happens. So on those mornings, we need to add to regimen ransacking. In other words, flip through the Bible. Flip, flip, flip, flip, flip, flip. I've got to find a promise. And you look for something you've underlined in years gone by, or something that meant much yesterday, or you've got to ransack this book until you find something sweet and precious and valuable that you can roll around on the tongue of your soul all day long.

So that's exhortation number two, add to regimen ransacking. And the last one is replace spiritual squelchers with spiritual sustainers. Becca, you referred to your own spiritual squelchers. You're not a dummy. You know what they are. You told me what they are. You said, "My brainless media, like social media and movies and TV." Those are your words, not mine.

Well, well, well, well, if you know where the poison ivy is, don't walk through it. We're grownups. Replace poison ivy with flowers that smell good and grapevines that hang along the way with sweet grapes. I'll mention two squelch-avoiding sustainers. One, hanging out with godly people. Two, generously giving your time and effort to some worthy service.

Because we all know that we tend to pick up the enthusiasms of others, and we all know that it's more blessed to give than to receive, and blessedness is what we are eager for. So here's my summary. One, rejoice that corporate worship is unique, special, glorious. Can't imitate it on Monday, even if Monday has its own way of being wonderful.

Two, don't be among the three-fourths who let the word be burned up, choked out, snatched away. Three, be sure that the spiritual high Sunday morning is a truth high, not a music high or a social high. Four, then nurture the truth roots by earnestly praying for your heart's inclination, eyes, taste, and finally by adding Bible ransacking to Bible regimen and replacing squelchers with sustainers.

Amen. Yeah, that's really good counsel for us moving from Easter Sunday back into our Monday routines. Really helpful counsel for every Monday morning, really. Thank you, Pastor John. And thank you for listening to this episode. Find our archives, read transcripts of episodes, or ask us a question of your own.

Go to our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. Well, I want Christ to be the treasure of my life. In fact, I often find the wanting of him to be my treasure a more common reality in my life than the actual act of treasuring and enjoying him as my treasure. Is that normative?

It's a great question. It comes from you, comes frequently from you in the inbox. I'll ask it to Pastor John next time. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you back here on Wednesday.