Living In The Power Of The Resurrection

Living in the Power of the Resurrection

Have you invited someone to visit church with you only to be turned down for some excuse or other? Here are ten top reasons people give why they don’t go to church.

10 – Can’t find a polyester leisure suit to wear.

9 - Relate more to Rock Band and Any Grant than Handel and Bach type hymns.

8 - Would rather sleep in own bed than in the church pew chairs.

7 - Have not been invited.

6 - Already served time as a child

5 - Have a migraine headache

4 - Can only remember 5 commandments

3 - The weather is too nice

2 - I’m too stressed out and overbooked

1 - Number one reason people don’t go to church is …Because they haven’t tried Willow Vale Church

Last week end we celebrated Easter week-end with three performances of “Bow the Knee.” The musical drama ends with the song, “Celebrate the Victory, Jesus is alive!” This Sunday I want us to apply the message of Easter to our everyday lives, and discover how to live in the power of the resurrection.

Philippians 3:4-11 writes about living in the power of the resurrection. (Paraphrase)

“I followed the Law as well as anyone, and better than any of these false teachers. No one could have looked at any part of my life and accused me of breaking the law. I was, on those terms, perfect. But now I consider all that I did, all my accomplishments, all that striving to prove to God that I was good – I say, I consider all of that garbage, as worthless as manure, compared to the greatest thing of all: knowing Jesus Christ. Indeed, I have given up everything else so I might know him. Once I know him, I will be in him, I will be part of his body, and will be declared good by him, not because of anything I have done, but because I am identified with Christ Jesus.

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in this suffering, becoming like him in death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Paul said, “I want to know Christ. I want to know the power of his resurrection.” Paul’s ultimate goal in life was to know Christ and know the power associated with Christ’s resurrection.”

In Christ’s last appearance he told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they were endued with power by being filled with the Holy Spirit. Waiting does not come easy for most of us. We want instant power and victory. We want microwave success not a long baking process.

Jesus had promised every believer power, the power of the resurrection. To receive the power they had to wait. In fact following the ascension of Christ into heaven they waited ten days in Jerusalem.

We will do anything to save time. When checking out at a store I always quickly count the number of people in line and go to the shortest line. When driving I always look for the shortest route.

Instead of waiting for the power of the Holy Spirit we grit our teeth and try to live the Christian life in our own power and fail. Living on our own strength is miserable and void of joy. The early Christians were characterized by being full of the Holy Spirit and joy.

When we yield to instant gratification we miss a lot. We often miss God’s best plan and have to settle for second best.

This story was written in a “Dear Abby” column in response to someone’s question. A young man from a wealthy family was about to graduate form high school. It was the custom in that affluent neighborhood for the parents to give the graduate an automobile. “Bill” and his father had spend months looking at cars, and the week before graduation, they found the perfect car. On the eve of his graduation, his father handed him a gift wrapped Bible. Bill was so angry that he threw the Bible down and stormed out of the house. He and his father never saw each other again. It was the news of his father’s death that brought Bill home again. As he sat one night going through his father’s possessions that he was to inherit, he came across the Bible his father had given him. He brushed away the dust and opened it he found a cashier’s check, dated the day of his graduation – in the exact amount of the car they had chosen together.

If Bill had only taken time to examine his new Bible, what a difference his taking time might have made. The scriptures say, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings of eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31