04 Apr MOVE | Part 2 – “When You Know There’s a Resurrection Coming”

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We are actively looking to employ a Worship Leader for our Florida Campus.  If you know anyone that is interested in this position please have them send an email to info@waterschurch.org

Don’t forget The Deep End , is live Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. OR watch later for Bible study on your time!  You can access notes and post your questions too!

We had a great Palm Sunday weekend. Twenty people came to Christ across all of our locations! One hundred and thirty-five people showed up to the Tampa location’s first service and 5 people gave their life to Christ. God always exceeds our expectations. 

This past year, we opened three locations in three states and two countries to the glory of God.   The best is yet to come in 2021!

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Move!: The empty grave changes everything. The empty grave empowers transformation. The empty grave means your life does not have to stay the same. And that’s good news, because, one way or another, your life will never be the way it is right now. You can embrace that or you can fear it. The choice is yours. The simple fact that you cannot stay where you are is a fact of life we try to avoid until its inevitable reality catches us off guard. Then we are asking, “What happened to the good ole’ days?” or “Why is life suddenly so complicated?” Embrace the perspective God wants you to have. Change with the enablement that comes from God. You can move forward into the purposes He has planned for you. Let’s move!

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Do you know there’s a resurrection coming? If you know, life gets easier!  The resurrection changes everything about who you are and how you live. This world trains you to stress out but we need to learn to live life knowing that no matter what the world tells us, we know our Redeemer lives and on the last day we will see Him with our own eyes. The best is yet to come!

From Genesis 22

This is perhaps the most shocking story in the Old Testament.  Abraham is asked to do the unthinkable. This man of God who has been promised to be the Father of Many Nations is asked by God to kill his only remaining son.  This story is shocking and is intended to make you ask questions.

Child sacrifice is nothing new to the human condition.  This story is meant to draw us into a Truth. Abraham is being tested. Abraham is being asked if he loves God enough to follow Him.

QUESTION: If God asked you to do something that you didn’t understand or seemed at odds with your common sense, could you do it? How do you obey God when it doesn’t seem make sense?

We have to be willing to do some things that don’t make sense to the world. Jesus said there will be terrible times in the end. It will get harder and harder to endure. It’s going to challenge you and test your faith.  We have to believe that no matter what we see or hear there’s a resurrection coming for us!

Hebrews 11:17–19 (ESV)

There is a problem in American Christianity.  We are quick to talk about what Jesus can do in this life but often take our eyes off what He can do in the next life.  PROBLEM: You can gather to CELEBRATE the resurrection but live like it’s NOT a REALITY.

When you know there’s a resurrection coming: 1. You can PASS the TESTS of life.

Genesis 22:1-2 (ESV)

Abraham’s first test was about giving up his past, but his tenth test was about giving up his future.  People like to give God what they don’t like about their past but hold on to the things that they love. God wants you to not just give up your past but to surrender your future.

Whatever has you STRESSED is really just a TEST. God likes to test His people. In the times of testing, He doesn’t give you a test for you to fail but for you to grow.

Judges 3:1–2 (NLT)

They went through the test so they could learn to fight in the spiritual realm.  God has put stresses in your life so He can put something into you and pull something out of you that you do not yet have. He wants to make you stronger and give you peace.

QUESTION:  What is causing stress in your life right now? What do you have to give to God: money, relationships, a job, an issue of forgiveness?

A test INTERRUPTS what you WANT so that God can DEVELOP what you NEED. You don’t know where you’re going in life but God knows. He is giving you what you need despite what you may want.

When you know there’s a resurrection coming: 2. You can SURRENDER your BEST.

Genesis 22:2 (ESV)

Surrender your “best” means to surrender your precious. In JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings there’s a character named Gollum who covets a ring called “precious”.  Precious ultimately destroys his life. If we are not careful, the desires of this world will ruin our lives.  It’s not about what you have or what you can achieve, it’s about what you have in Christ.

QUESTION: What is the “precious” in your life that you need to surrender to God and how has this desire or thing changed you as a person? 

Luke 17:26–30 (ESV)

Here Jesus describes the last days.  Notice not a single sin is mentioned. The things listed are actually good and noble pursuits. It’s not the sin of this world that is going to keep people distracted, but the good and normal things that are going to consume people’s lives and keep them from seeing the coming of Jesus Christ.

Your STRESS is usually tied to whatever you THINK you can’t LIVE WITHOUT.  

God says to Abraham if you’re going to be my servant, everything is on the table.  This is what Jesus meant when He said you shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free.  Jesus is The Way, The Truth, and The Life. If you have Him, you have it all!

Genesis 22:3–4 (ESV)

Genesis 22:5 (NKJV)

It’s an act of worship to let go.  Worship= what’s worth it to you.  We have to make sure God is the ultimate “thing” in our lives.

Genesis 22:6 (ESV)

Genesis 22:10 (ESV)

SURRENDER happens when we REMEMBER EVERYTHING WE HAVE comes from God. We need to realize that everything we have is an amazing gift from God.

QUESTION: What is something that you once believed you achieved on your own and now understand that God had actually given it to you? 

Genesis 22:11–14 (ESV)

God intervenes at just the right time, but Abraham first had to let it go. We have to learn to obey God despite what everyone else says. When we understand that the world belongs to our Father, we can live free.

When you know there’s a  resurrection coming:  3. You are BLESSED with INTERNAL and ETERNAL REST.

Genesis 22:14 (ESV)

The Bible says it took Abraham three days to get to the top of the mountain carrying the fire and knife for the sacrifice. He then cut the wood and built the altar.  How tired he must have been! However, he was able to then walk back down the mountain in peace because he gave it all to God.

Genesis 22:8 (ESV)

Genesis 22:13 (ESV)

Notice, there was a ram caught in the thicket, not a lamb.  

John 8:56 (ESV)

John 1:29 (ESV)

Abraham did not see the lamb. Neither did Isaac or Jacob, Joshua or Moses, David or Solomon, nor Jeremiah or Ezekiel…. But, John the Baptist sitting by the river saw Him:  The Lamb of God! 

Romans 8:32 (NLT)

Question:  How does the hope of the resurrection change your life?  What are you able to do now that you did not think you could do before?

Abraham’s son was spared but God’s own Son wasn’t. No matter the TEST we can SURRENDER our BEST and find REST in the REALITY of the RESURRECTION. That’s what Easter does for the human heart. You can give God your life because you know there’s a resurrection coming. You can give God your life because the best is yet to come!

Leader: Have the group pray for each other for the ability to embrace the “tests”, to let go of stresses and temporal things, and to live in the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.