God has so much more for you and your life! Wherever you may be in life, God has more in store for you. You have not experienced all that God has for you.
Is your perception of Christianity simply that God is telling us what we can and cannot do?
Maybe your church experience in the past has framed that perception.
Maybe you have had it preached to you that you are a bad person and you need to let Jesus make you a good person.
- Jesus did not come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people alive.
God wants to take the areas of your life that are decaying and getting worse and make them better.
He wants to take the areas of your life that are dead and make them alive again.
(Romans 8:11 NLT) The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.
He will give life to every area that is mortal: your marriage, your hopes, your dreams…
- The resurrection of Jesus gives you the power to close the gap between the life you are living and the one you could live.
Some may be asking, “How can I pull this off? Is there a catch? After all, I’m not one of the heroes of the Bible…”
(2 Corinthians 1:8-9 MSG) (8) We don’t want you in the dark, friends, about how hard it was when all this came down on us in Asia province. It was so bad we didn’t think we were going to make it. (9) We felt like we’d been sent to death row, that it was all over for us. As it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened. Instead of trusting in our own strength or wits to get out of it, we were forced to trust God totally–not a bad idea since he’s the God who raises the dead!
(Romans 4:17 NLT) That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.” This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing.
- Abraham’s faith was based in believing in the God who brings dead things back to life.
(John 11:1-6 NIV) Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (2) (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) (3) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” (4) When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” (5) Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. (6) So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days,
(John 11:11-16 NIV) After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” (12) His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” (13) Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. (14) So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, (15) and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” (16) Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
(John 11:17-26 NIV) On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. (18) Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, (19) and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. (20) When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. (21) “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. (22) But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” (23) Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” (24) Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” (25) Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; (26) and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
- Resurrection is not an event or a holiday. Resurrection is a Person!
(Ephesians 1:19-20 TLB) I pray that you will begin to understand how incredibly great his power is to help those who believe him. It is that same mighty power (20) that raised Christ from the dead…
The whole meaning of Easter is not based solely on what Jesus did on the cross.
- Easter is about realizing that His death was not final!
Do you believe that Jesus can raise all parts of your life from death to life?
Your marriage, your relationships, your health, your resources, your job, your peace…
All Jesus is asking us to do today is believe that He can resurrect your life from something dead and meaningless to something alive, fruitful and full of meaning and purpose.