THE BIG IDEA OF EASTER
APRIL 17, 2022, 11:15AM
ED YOUNG
Thank you for having the idea to attend one of our many Easter Services at Fellowship Church. How are you guys doing? We all have ideas. You had an idea about the outfit that you have on. I had an idea about the safari jacket. We have ideas about all sorts of things. You have an idea about where you're going to eat afterwards. Maybe you're a single guy and you saw some attractive girl and you're thinking to yourself, “man, I have an idea about how to meet her after the service.” Maybe you're a single girl, and you saw this guy without a wedding ring on, he has a full head of hair and a Rolex watch. You have an idea about meeting him. We have ideas, don't we? We have ideas about our kids, ideas about our future. Ideas, ideas.
I was Googling some ideas recently and I came across The Top 10 Ideas That Changed The World. I thought it was pretty interesting. Number 10, the internet. I'm so glad that Al Gore had that idea. What a brilliant man. Number nine, contraceptives. Got very quiet. Number eight, Penicillin. How many people are allergic to penicillin here? I am. Thank you. God bless you. Hands are going up everywhere. It's weird, isn't it, penicillin? Number seven, the light bulb. Number six, the telephone. Number five, the combustion engine. Number four, the printing press. Number three, the compass. Number two, the nail. And number one, the wheel.
I would have to argue though. I think the number one idea that changed the world is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. I don't think there's any scholar, historian, anthropologist, or scientist who could debate me on that. Whether they believe it or not. The number one idea that's changed the world is this divine idea, this Easter idea.
I'll like to use phrases with ideas in them. “That's a bright idea. Let's just bounce some ideas off of each other.” If I want to sound smart, I'll say, “I'm ideating.” My favorite though is “what's the big idea? What's the bottom line?”
Today I want to talk to you about the big idea. God's big idea of Easter. That's what I'm talking about. God's big idea of Easter. God is the God of the idea. He had an idea to create the earth. He had an idea to make you and me, so an idea created the world. A bad idea condemned the world, and even a greater idea has redeemed the world.
I don't know about you, but I have ideas all the time. Ideas are collections of thoughts that segue into activity. They solve problems, ideas. Most of us have about a hundred thousand thoughts a day and you group those up and you've got some ideas.
The ability to ideate comes from God, whether we give him credit or not. God has a big idea for your life. When God thinks about you, he only has good vibes, good ideas. He doesn't have any negative ideas about you. You've never looked at someone that God is not thinking about. Think about that for a second. You've never locked eyes with someone that God is not thinking about. God is inspired to ideate about you and me. This inspiration comes from his love. God is love. Love isn't God, no, no, no. God is love. God is justice. God is mercy. God is grace. God is good. God is. it's called the is-ness of God, so ideas are intrinsic to who God is.
They are INSPIRATIONAL. I have to have an outside source to be inspired to have an idea. Let me tell you a terrible idea I had when I was a teenager, I'll just confess this. My father is a pastor, he still is, 86 years old and throttle to the firewall. Right now, dad is preaching who knows how many services. In my early teenage years, he pastored a church in a small Southern town. This downtown church had a five-story building, at the top of the building was a basketball court, like a basketball gym. On the fourth and third floors, you had classrooms and things. I'm the pastor's kid. I got there early. We had Sunday night church. Ooh, how bad was that? Anyway, I got there early. I'm hanging out, messing around with some of my friends. Again, I’m 13 - 14 years old.
We found ourselves on the fourth story right before church. And I'm looking outside the fourth story window at people going to church. I thought to myself, what if I spit on them? Could I spit? I mean, am I that coordinated? Could I spit on someone's head? I saw my first target, a lady with the beehive hairdo, she's walking to church. I figured out if I spit three cracks in front of the sidewalk in front of my victim, it would hit the target, pretty much every time. Sure enough, this woman three cracks away, and it was beautiful. She had no idea, I spit, and it was right on the top of her beehive. She went into church. I thought “ha, ha, ha, she had no idea!” My friends said, "You're hilarious, man. I can't believe you did that." I said, "Well, I've got a better idea." I saw a trash can in one of the classrooms. And I went to the nearest water fountain. I'm talking about those old school water fountains where the water was like ice cold, you know what I'm talking about? I filled the thing full of ice-cold water.
I don't know how I did it, but I picked it up, walked all the way to that fourth story window. And I go, "Guys", there were some girls there too. I said, "Don't say anything, okay?" Because, you know girls talk. I said, "Just watch me." You know, I was showing off and all that, so I said, "I'm going to throw this water four stories down on somebody." Some of the girls are like, "No, don't Ed." "Ah, be quiet." I saw this religious guy, carrying the big Pulpit Bible under his arm, had a big bow tie on, hair slick back, just walking. I'm like this guy is just yearning to be hit, so three cracks, I let the water go. And I remember it like it was yesterday watching that water cascade four stories down, it hit him like a tidal wave. It was my first baptism. The guy's bow tie was wilted, and he starts cussing at us. "Who's up there?", yelling. We're like backing off, so he couldn't see us.
I said, "We’ve got to get out of here." I said, "Don't say a word. Don't say a word." We found the staircase and we're calmly walking down the stairs. And we see this guy hauling up the stairs. You can hear his feet sloshing with the water. I mean, he's just totally drenched. He sees me, and he goes "Ed do you know someone threw water down on the four story? Do you know who it could be?" I said, "Sir, I have no idea. That's so terrible. If I have any ideas, I'll let you know." I'm thinking, okay, I've gotten away with it. I've gotten away with this genius idea. Church is getting ready to start, so I'm making my way into church and dad's assistant comes up to me. I'm thinking that's odd. She goes "Ed, your dad wants to see you in his office right now." "What?" Because dad never talks to anyone before he preaches. "Are you sure?" "Yes." I walk into dad's big office, sit down. There he is across the desk. He said, "Son, did you throw water from the fourth story on Mr. Whatever?"
I said "Yes, sir." He said, "Great. That's a great idea. That guy's negative, and he's a cheap skate, and I hope he leaves the church. Great job son." I had to have outside stimulus for ideas.
God is inspired by love. And the Bible's says in Psalm 139:17-18 (NLT) “How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!” God's idea for your life is ideal. But the enemy always has his repeal to God's amazing ideal. We have the opportunity to select God's ideas or not, so God's idea is inspirational. That's the first part of God's big idea.
Friday night, we were at Klyde Warren Park and the park told us we had between 9 to 11,000 people in attendance for our Good Friday service. It was an amazing time of worship, and fun, and community. Well, I hit the stage and I began to talk for about 20 minutes. And while I'm speaking, I hear people on bullhorns, just yelling at me. And I found out after I spoke, these igmo's, that's a good word. I can think of others that would describe them better, so here I am talking about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And they're just bombarding me with all of these words, and phrases, and things of that nature.
Now I've had the opportunity to speak for a long, long time. I've been interrupted a lot, that's just part of it. But I have never, ever, ever been interrupted the entire time I was talking. It was like, I was like, "Lord, just give me the words to say." It was almost like an outer body experience, so I shared the gospel and of course the gospel was shared through the music and through what I said. Even though there was a bunch of noise, even though these people were trying to drown out the gospel, many people became followers of Christ, so I'm going to warn you. The enemy does not want me to share what I'm going to share with you today, he doesn't. You're going to have all sorts of white noise and you're going to have all sorts of things and ideas in your mind, trying to get you off of the big idea. But that is the evil one himself. God though does not create evil; I hope you know that. Sometimes people try to be real smart and go, well, Ed, how could God create evil? God did not, let me repeat, did not create evil.
God's love is inspirational, but the second part of his idea is this DILEMMA. The dilemma is a freedom of choice. Because we have a freedom of choice, we can have evil. We can either choose God's ideal idea, or we can choose our own ideas. The absence of God is evil and yes, there's a dark personal sinister force named the devil. He has his crew. He's working all over the earth. It does not take someone with a high IQ to see that or to understand that. Yet he, before he became the devil chose to follow his own idea, and that's who we're dealing with.
Every time God has a gift, the enemy has a counterfeit. What is the big idea of Easter? It's an inspirational, it's about love, dilemma. What's the dilemma? Sin. I'm a natural born sinner, so are you, we just sin. Sin is something that I do, I'm just a born sinner. The Bible says, Romans 6:23, “…the wages of sin is death,” Isn't that interesting? No one knows when we die. It's so funny to hear people try to explain why people die. No one knows when we die, except the Bible. We die because of sin. We're not made to die. We're made to live forever. Everybody's going to die. 80 years from now no one will be here. I know it's a morbid subject, but that's a fact. Kim Kardashian will die. Justin Bieber will die. Lil Baby, the rapper will die. Jerry Jones will die, I think. Everyone is going to die. Romans 6:23, “…the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Jesus died in our place, so you have the inspirational dilemma. What's the dilemma? Our freedom of choice. What's the dilemma? Man sinned.
The Bible tells us in the book of Genesis when Adam and Eve sinned, that they realized the consequences of their sin, they realized they were naked. In the dirty south we'd say “naked”. They realized they were naked. Here's what God did. God rolled out his redemptive idea. God killed an animal in front of them, spilled its blood. They'd never seen blood before. They'd never seen the unnatural movements of death before. He skinned animal and he used the skins to cover their nakedness, to cover the consequences of their sin.
God was rolling out this incredible idea. It was an inspirational dilemma, freedom of choice, sin, that EVOLVED. It evolved in the Old Testament sacrificial system, and it hit the apex when God sent Jesus to spill his blood on a Roman cross for our iniquities and rise again.
Throughout scripture, God shows us it takes the spilling and the shedding of the blood of an innocent third party to atone for the sins of man. That's the big idea. “Surely God could have come up with another idea.” Please player, there's only one, the sinless one who could take your sin and mine. There's only one who could and can justify us and extend mercy, and grace, and this supernatural love. His name is Jesus.
Do you realize Jesus in the garden struggled? Read about his struggle, “Lord, are you sure this idea is what you want me to follow?” And he submitted to the idea. The idea was Jesus, his torturous death, his sacrifice, and his bodily resurrection.
Did you see where Elon Musk is trying to buy Twitter? Have you seen that? $43 billion, 43 big boys. I think it'd be great for him to buy it. Twitter needs a revolution. We need to go back to freedom of speech, don't we? That's another subject. Don't get me started on that. But I saw a line in the media a couple days ago and only the media could come up with a line this idiotic. Here's what they said. “Elon Musk lays it all on the line to buy Twitter.” What? Lays it all on the line? $43 billion. Okay, let's say he takes that out of his net worth. He's got 200 billion left over. I mean, I could cut some corners and live off of that, couldn't you? Laid it all on the line. What a joke. That's hilarious, isn't it? I just died laughing when I saw that.
Jesus laid it all on the line. He really laid it all on the line. God is the God who is just. Sin has to have a punishment. What is it within you and me? We have this justice chip in us, like this whole situation with Ukraine, what Russia is doing. I'm like going, somebody's got to pay. This guy that shot up a subway situation in New York. When I saw that, I said, somebody's got to pay. And then Will Smith slaps Chris Rock, somebody's got to pay. My animals don't have this justice chip in their lives. This morning when our four dogs were running around from a Great Dane to a Maltese and two Goldendoodles. They're not thinking about justice. They really have never thought about it. They've never entertained the thought of justice, but we have that justice chip. Jesus paid for your sins and mine. Something that we do not deserve even after our best day, because sin separates us from God, it creates a Delta.
God's inspiration, love, the dilemma, freedom of choice and sin. That's a dilemma. Then incredible idea evolves into ACTION. Jesus was and is the man of miracles. It's so miraculous, his death, burial, and resurrection affords you and me the opportunity to take action and receive Christ into our lives, to receive the same power that brought Jesus back from the grave. It's on tap in your college, in your career, in your company, in your marriage, as you're a single parent, it's on tap. Jesus had to die. He died in your place, in my place. He rose again. He's the first of billions of believers who will rise again. He has power over the grave. He took it all so we can know him personally. He has a big idea for every person's life that we would personally apply the implications of the resurrection inside of our lives. Because most people intellectually would agree. Oh yeah, Jesus rose again. But have you put personal action on that idea, on that situation.
When I think about action, I think about one more quick thing. Jesus had just rose from the grave and the disciples didn't get it. The idea was over their heads. They had no clue. They thought he was going to set up some kind of a physical kingdom.
Mary runs down to the empty tomb and she begins to talk to this guy. She thinks this guy is a gardener, but it's really the Son of God. And check out this conversation, John 20:14 (BBE), “… she saw Jesus there…” This is early in the morning, dark 30, “but had no idea that it was Jesus.” I believe many of you here, you have no idea you're right next to Jesus. He's next to you in a relationship, next to you in a situation, maybe he's next to you in this service, you feel that tug, that pull in your life. That's the Holy Spirit of God nudging you, wanting you to acquiesce and embrace Jesus.
As you continue in Mary’s conversation in John 20, Jesus called Mary by name, "Mary" (John 20:16) he said. Then she realized it was Jesus and she embraced him. It is my prayer, as Jesus calls your name, as he calls your name, that you would embrace him, and walk with him, and discover what the big idea of a life is all about. Walking with the man of miracles.
Would you pray with me? Every head is bowed. I'm going to pray a prayer right now. And this is a prayer I believe many people need to pray because you know what? Jesus is equally present, but he's not equally resident. If you want to pray, because I want you to, but I can't make you. If you want to pray and ask Jesus Christ to come into your life, you can make that decision right now. You might be going "well, Ed, how do I do it?" Well, I'll be happy to guide you on how to do it, so just simply say this after me. Just say, God, I believe in you. I believe you sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins to rise again. I turn from my sin. Just say that I turn from my sin, and I turn to you Jesus. I receive you into my life. Your grace, your forgiveness, your mercy, your power. I give it all Lord to you. I give it all to you. Jesus Christ come into my life.
Yeah, but man, I need to clean up this first and change this. No, He wants to meet you right where you are. Embrace him, just like Mary did. As our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed. If you prayed that prayer with me, no one looking around. I'm going to ask you to slip up your hand. If you prayed that prayer with me for the first time. Okay, in the back. Just slip your hand up. It's between you, and me, and God. All right. The sides. Yep. In the back, right there. Up there in the balcony. Yep. That's awesome. That's the best thing you'll ever do. That's it. That's the big idea of living. That's the big idea of eternity. Others see your God, maybe others of us who have made that decision before, we've not realized the implications, and the power, and the sheer octane of the resurrection power. As we move and walk each and every day, we don't realize the influence, we don't realize the power, God that you've given us. And I pray that we would seek your plan and your idea like we've never ever done before. We ask all these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
