Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio. This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
I think the greatest evidence of the resurrected Christ is our stories. What God has done in our life. I mean, I just never ceases to amaze me how God can cause a life to do a 180, a radical turnaround. And that's his power and grace. A lot of breaking news out there every day. But just to let you know, we've gotten word this morning from the Vatican that Pope
Francis has passed away at the age of 88. And, um, a religious figure known throughout the globe and, um, pretty interesting, I think our own vice president, JD Vance, if I'm not mistaken, had an audience with him.
He was there this week or actually was there yesterday? Yeah, I think so.
So the day after Resurrection Day, Pope Francis has passed away. A lot to be said about that. Um, and I might venture into that a little bit at the bottom of the hour. Uh, there's. There's a lot of distinction that the reformers established that I hold true to. And yet we need to be aware of the fact that there are there are a lot of people. Let me just break it down right now. I listened to a clip by R.C. Sproul, and I thought it was one of the best handlings of this whole issue of Catholicism,
and it was so sweet. And I couldn't agree more with R.C. Sproul. At the end of the day, how are we brought into relationship with Jesus Christ? How does that work, Ali?
Well, I mean, because of the blood of Jesus Christ, we celebrated yesterday the death and resurrection. And when we believe, we confess, we believe, we accept, and we turn to him for salvation.
Yeah. I mean, it's just total repentance, abandonment of self, surrendering to Jesus and going his way. And I thought R.C. Sproul just nailed this. It's an old clip. He was asked on a panel, you know, where do you stand with Catholicism? We have a lot of listeners here that were raised in Catholicism. And I want to just proclaim, as R.C. Sproul did, I know that there are many people who are associated with the Catholic Church who love God deeply and believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of
their sins and his work alone. Where this gets a little bit dicey is when you start talking about the priesthood of some men over the priesthood of believers? That's very problematic for me. I think that flies in the face of Scripture, because now it's putting a man between as a mediator, between God and man and Jesus's scriptures absolutely clear on this one. There's one mediator between God
and man, and his name is Jesus. The beautiful thing of the crucifixion and the resurrection is that access to the Holy of Holies, the presence of God, has been complete, and we can seek him wherever we are. I think some of the other things that caused some of the Reformation to occur, without a doubt. If you look at Martin Luther, you see that there was a period of time when there were payments that had to be made
to the church for the remission of sin. And we know that that is not the case that the price that was paid on the cross, the blood that was shed, is all the price that needed to be paid. It's very, very important and the ability that we have to go straight to God, not to a person. The completeness of salvation, justification by faith alone, not by works, so that no one can boast, is another big theological distinction with the Catholic Church. There are other things that I would distinguish
distinguish myself theologically from. I'm not going to speak for anyone else here, but I think it's important to note that things are not as cut and dried as anyone that's over here is lost, and anyone that's over here is saved, insomuch as there's a lot of evangelical churches that, in my estimation, miss the gospel, like the broad side of the barn. So we need to always be drawn back to the Word of God. And what does it say Jesus Christ shed blood? Was the propitiation for our
sin past, present, and future? And there is one mediator between God and man. His name is Jesus. And on this day, my heart goes out for a lot of people who Revere people. Because you know what? That's just real, Ali. I mean, it's it's a it's an honorable thing to to say this morning. Uh, there's a lot of people around the globe that are grieving over the loss of Pope Francis and the the. On a practical note, um, everything that I was tracking with his health is that
he had. I mean, he was touch and go in the hospital with double pneumonia and he was on the ropes. And last I had heard, he was doing well. And sure enough, I saw a picture of JD Vance with him at the Vatican. And I thought, boy, this guy's up and going again. But when you're 88 years old, we just don't know. So Pope Francis has passed away at the age of 88. News coming out of the Vatican Monday morning early. So that's just now getting around the globe today. Got a lot of lot of ground
we want to cover today guys. Because he is risen. He is risen indeed. Where did that start. Anybody got any ideas on that one.
That like saying it like that. Yeah.
Come on give me a guess. Sally. Your best shot at this one.
I don't know, I don't know.
Just if you were to guess how old that tradition is now I'm going to I'm going to give you a hint right now, okay? No one can pin it down.
Oh, okay.
All right, I'm going to give a working theory. Let's see. Let's say it started sometime in the early 1900s. It was a Sunday school class with a group of kids.
I guess. Yes.
And the teacher was a senior saint who said he is risen. And the kid said, what? He is risen. And they said, oh, he's risen indeed. That's. Is that. Is that right?
Well, it probably goes back about 1700 more years than that. Okay. But that's okay. You were close. You were within 2000 years.
Give it a good story and go with it.
Yeah. All right. Coming up, we're going to break it down a little bit. What in the world? He is risen! He is risen indeed! How long has that been around? Where did they think it originated from? And what happens after the resurrection? There's some cool points of history that we want to highlight for you this morning.
You can take him out of Alaska, but you can't take Alaska out of him. Carl is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
He is risen. He is risen indeed. We've all said that. It's. It's amazing how cultural that has become, right?
Yeah. And it's usually maybe the pastor or whoever's greeting the church on Easter Sunday says he is risen. And then most of the church will, in response, say he is risen. Indeed. At least that's how I've seen it done.
Now, I had to rally the troops a little bit yesterday, and Jonathan, of course, was there.
And it was.
Because I think if you're going to say he is, what are you laughing about?
Because I remember you rallying the troops.
I said, listen here, if we're if I'm going to say he is risen, you better have a hearty, he is risen indeed, because that's not something you can say weak in a weak manner. Is that fair?
It's fair. I would agree with that.
You got to. You got to belt it out. But let me give you the history behind this as best we can tell. It's probably dates back to the second and third centuries somewhere in there. Now, we don't know what happened three weeks ago, for sure. So history's a funny thing. We're still trying to figure out where Covid started. I mean, my goodness, we don't we we have some problems here. So here's the deal. We've got a early church that had a perspective on Easter. That is something
we need to reclaim. And it was titled Easter Tide or Easter Season. And Easter Tide. You ever heard that term before Easter tide?
Not no, no, not before today.
Okay, so Easter tide I had heard of, but as I'm as I'm drilling down on this a little bit more, it's it's an amazing time and something that we could learn from. It was a 50 day run from the resurrection to Pentecost Sunday. And they called that Easter tide. And I think what I love about this is that Easter doesn't end. Easter is the beginning. Resurrection Sunday is where it all starts, not where it ends. It's not like, oh wow, I got that one behind us.
Why do you like that? um, approach to looking at the church calendar as opposed to Easter Sunday kind of being the culmination.
Yeah, I love the fact that Easter, it's my favorite day of the calendar year because it's the, in many ways, the holiest day. It's the day that our Savior rose from the dead. And it doesn't end there. It begins there. It signifies this abundant life that we can have in Christ. And I love that the early church said, all right, this is going to kick off a new season of anticipation and celebration of the day of Pentecost. So it's
just a really cool thing. I am so grateful for church history because from it, we can learn so much what not to do and what to do, and we need to take what is great. And it's kind of like, chew the meat, spit out the pits.
The bones.
Yeah. Yep. We got to spit out the bones. Chew the meat of the grape or the cherry. And don't swallow that pit. That thing's not good. But what should we do in this season? Today and tomorrow and Wednesday and Thursday, we're going to talk about the joy of rising up right from Romans six. And we're going to break it down for you. Hang on.
A basketball mom who's mastered the dad joke. Ali is in the crew. It's Karl and crew on Moody Radio.
Rise up. It didn't end yesterday. It's going on. And that's the beauty of Resurrection Sunday. It's the beginning, not the end. And you know, in the book of Romans, the apostle Paul. What a theological book. It is so deep, but it's actually rooted and grounded in not only seeing the resurrection of Christ is something to be celebrated, but something to be applied to our life. And Paul goes to great lengths to explain the the truths, the anchors of what it means to be in Christ. And I mean,
it is so chock full. It is meat. And all you got to do is look at the first, uh, the fifth verse in the sixth chapter and it says, for if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. So being united with Christ on the cross means that he took the weight of our sin on the cross. By his stripes we are healed through the shed blood of Jesus and His atoning blood.
By only that can we receive salvation. And that's good news, because any attempt to work our way to God doesn't work. We are justified by faith alone, which is one of the most empowering things. Going at the center of Christianity is a savior at the center of every other world. Religion is a person, you and me, working our way to get right with God. But true biblical Christianity has Christ at the center paying for our sins on the cross.
And then Paul goes on to say, if we died with him, meaning if we died because we've asked for forgiveness of sins and our our sins were nailed to the cross, we have this same resurrection power. But it's interesting because when you speak of resurrection power, what do you think of Ali?
Um, I mean, I think the power to live as Jesus did.
Yes.
Um. Victory over death.
Victory over death.
Where death does not have the final word in our lives. Even though we will die.
Victory over death. Victory over sin. The ability. Now, before we didn't to order our lives in a way like Christ did. Christ indwells us. The Holy Spirit has sealed us, filled us up. But this is funny because I've got some great theologians here with their statements of what this verse five means. So let me give you a few of them. John Calvin said, by his resurrection we are not only raised with Christ, but he lives in us. His power animates our daily sanctification. Big fancy word for
growing up in Jesus powerful statement, right? Martin Luther said the resurrection is not only the future of the body, but the present transformation of the heart. The power of Easter is now, said Martin Luther.
I like.
That.
Charles Spurgeon, Prince of Preachers from Metropolitan Tabernacle in England, back in the good old days. The same power that rolled the stone away rolls sin away from every believer soul. He does not lie in the tomb of guilt. He walks in the garden of new life. Jonathan Edwards says the resurrection is the father's stamp of approval on the son's work and the spark of new birth in the soul of the believer. These are rich, aren't they?
They really are.
Wayne Grudem says Paul uses Christ's resurrection as a model for the believer's sanctified life. It is also the source of power for living in obedience. D.R. Carson says Christ's resurrection is the first fruit of what is to come, but also the power source of a spirit empowered, cross
shaped life in the now more contemporary John Piper. The power of the resurrection is not just the power to be raised at the last day, but power to live now, to love now, and to lose everything for Christ without fear. Tim Keller. Passed on, by the way, um, great preacher out of New York went on to his reward here, I think, about a year ago. Resurrection means not merely that Christians have hope for the future, but that they have power in the present, power to face suffering, to
forgive and to live with boldness. And Michael Horton, I like this one in particular. Christ's resurrection is not just a personal benefit. It's the cosmic turning point. It unleashes resurrection life into history, the church and the believer. Man, that's a beautiful thing.
He's a sports fanatic with a stat for anything you can think of. Young Thunder is in the crew. It's Karl and crew on Moody Radio.
We got a question for you. What's that? A simple one, right?
Yeah. What's that good thing that sometimes, if you're not careful, can crowd out? God, you've experienced the conviction. 805. Five. Five. 78. 98. A couple of what's coming in. Cooking channels, music ministry. Helping my daughter with college planning. Dot dot dot. I get obsessed.
I love this man. This is honest. And it comes right out of Hebrews 12. So the Hall of Fame of faith is Hebrews 11. There's all these people. By faith, Abraham by faith, Moses by faith. These people stood up. Jephthah.
The list goes on and on and on. And then you go into Hebrews 12 now that we're inspired by their lives, therefore, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also meaning they did lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. So here's the implication from the writer of Hebrews. It's clear it's there's there's two key things that are highlighted here that hold us back from running this race
of faith. One is sin. We get that right. I mean, come on. I mean, that's when we're missing the mark and we know it. You know it. And you're like, all right, that's got to get out of my life. But then there's this other one that are good things that too much of can begin to be a distraction from this race of faith. And that's what we're asking you today. Let's go back to the phone lines. Ali, who do we have?
Let's go to send calling in this morning from Illinois. Give it to us. What is it for you?
Hey, good morning everyone. For me, it's coffee. It's having a cup of coffee as part of my morning ritual. And so starting my day thinking more about just being caffeinated than really trusting the Word of God to be my source of energy. Like, even on the way, like sitting on Lakeshore Drive, I'll be like listening to Scripture or crew and I'll be like, man, it's going to be really good, though, when I get to work and I get to get that cup of Joe in me.
And so I think where my heart is just where my yeah, where my heart is and my energy for the day. Where it comes from.
Ooh.
That's interesting. That's interesting. I love that for me, it's not that first cup of coffee. It's the third or fourth.
Well, and, you know, you could easily hear and go, are you saying it's wrong to drink a cup of coffee? What? Are you legalistic? And it's like, that's not it at all. That's not it at all, right, Carl? I mean, it's not.
No, no. I mean, I love what sin's saying here. It's interesting because to to him who knows what is right and doesn't do it to him it is sin. Yeah. So God can reveal something to one person and not to another. And this is why. This is why we need to have a lot of. We need to have a lot of grace for each other in the body of Christ. Because you may not, you may not enjoy.
And it's easy to almost, um, it's easy to almost demonize or make evil someone who loves watching, uh, let's just say, uh, a YouTube shorts on accessories that you wear with certain clothes. There's nothing inherently sinful about that. Until a good thing becomes so much of a good thing that you're nudging got out. So there you go. Uh, Melissa, first time caller in Tennessee. What do you say, Melissa?
Hey, good morning, y'all. Um, I think mine is, uh, when music gets to the point of obsession. So I write music, and I also perform, and I think it's the obsession side, but it's also when my heart is in the attention seeking side of it or the performance like the validation side of it. Like, obviously it can be a good thing too. So it's twofold. But I was recently convicted. Um, about six months ago during a sermon and just kind of realizing how much of an
idol it had taken my life. Um, I mean, it's caused two moves to Nashville. Um, and. Yeah. That's mine.
Wow, man. That's honest. I can tell by the way you speak. You got good pipes, by the way. I can tell it. Thanks. So how do you know? How do you know when you've crossed that line? Is the Holy Spirit's obviously at work in your life, right, Michelle?
Mm. Yeah. Great question. I think, um, it's definitely a heart posture thing. And, um, I think when it gets to the point of it's dictating my day to day, to the point of I'm not letting the Holy Spirit lead the day, I'm not seeking that. First I'm thinking what the next thing is, or when it dictates my, um, my finances or when it dictates. You know, it's it's a complex thing, right? Because God gifted me with this,
and God gifted me with the creativity. But, um, there's there's a there's a difference between letting it be an act of worship, like writing and doing what, um, he's placed in me and letting it be the thing that I worship. And I guess the easiest thing would just be that it's the Holy Spirit in me kind of checking, checking me of, hey, this is this is becoming an idol or this is an idol. Um, yeah.
It's cool.
That's good.
Melissa, I'm glad you're wrestling with that sister. Stay on the horn. We're sending you Carl and crew prize pack. This is a better topic than I even thought it would be, and I thought it might be a good topic. I mean, this is. It's so great.
It's so real life. And, you know, you you listen to it, and it's going to be different for different people. I mean, because you could you could easily for the next person. Music isn't an issue for the next person. Coffee isn't the issue, but it's something else. And so listening to the power of the Holy Spirit lets you know what that something else is in your life.
Yeah. You know, we're going to blow out what we had planned at the bottom of the hour. We're going to keep cooking here on this question. Ali, let's see it up. I this for some reason, the Holy Spirit has us in a sweet spot here. And this is healthy.
What is that good thing in your life that if you're not careful, it can crowd out God. And you know what it is for you because you get the nudge of the Holy Spirit. It's not some other person saying you can or you can't do this. It's man, this is a good thing, maybe a good thing for a lot of people, but for me it's become a bit too much.
You know, this is good because it gets us good. Have you ever heard the phrase you get you get good answers when you ask good questions, you get great answers when you ask great questions. We've heard a variation of that.
Sure, sure. Yeah.
And this there's the the scriptures are so illuminating and so. Aha! That if we look at it for what it is, we go, man, we got a great question here. And it flows right out of Hebrews 12 verse one and two. Check this out. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, who are these witnesses? It's the Hall of Fame of faith in Hebrews 11. By faith I mean you can go through this Abraham by faith, Moses by faith. The people crossed the Red sea by
faith Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets. And it goes on to talk about some of the hardship they went through by faith. But then we're inspired to look at their lives and go, all right, then the picture is there in the grandstands looking down on us.
That's the picture says, since they're there, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. So there's two things here that the writer of Hebrews highlights.
One is sin. Obviously, we know anyone that's got the Spirit of God indwells, and we understand that sin can totally block our forward movement with God. Are we all together on that?
Yes. Yes, absolutely.
But then you got this other wild one. And I'll never forget, when I first heard this, I was on homiletics class at Multnomah University in Portland, Oregon, and I heard our prof. Exegete this passage and I'm like, whoa. He highlighted this. Let us also lay aside every weight. The writer of Hebrews does not ID this as inherent sin, but it is best captured as good stuff that begins to get in God's way. Isn't that interesting?
Yes, it can become a weight. Good stuff can become a weight.
Yes. So we're asking you a question this morning.
What is that good thing that can become a weight if you're not careful? It can crowd out. God, we've heard everything from watching landscape videos to golfing to coffee. 855 five 7898. What is it for you? 800 555 7898.
Let's go back to the phones.
Let's go to Matthew calling in this morning from Nashville. Matthew, give it to us.
Hi. Yeah, this may not be exactly what you're looking for, but I was immediately convicted upon your question. Uh, church. So many people, myself included, do and have used church as almost an excuse. Hey, I went to church, so I'm good, but we don't actually spend time. We're not actually using that to get closer to the Lord and our relationship with Christ. And I feel like that gets in the way because people say, hey, I punched my ticket. I went to church this week or this month. Yeah.
So that's.
My.
You know what? It isn't spot on with what we're doing here. But I'm intrigued by this. Matthew, the Spirit of God just boom plopped into your heart. This this thing. How have you battled that? You walk in, you don't want to be a a list, you know, checker. You don't want to be punching a time card, so to speak, in your relationship with God. How has God turned that around for you?
Uh, literally just starting with prayer and some days not going, some days just sitting alone in my house with the word open and worship on and doing it there because or gathering with somebody at somebody, say coffee or a coffee shop and where two or more are gathered there, I will also be that's church. And I feel like sometimes we get stuck in the in the ritual so much that it becomes a ritual, and it's not about a relationship anymore.
I love that, by the way, I want to give you a word of encouragement. You might want to get a book by Brother Lawrence called Practicing the Presence of God, because his whole deal was. I mean, I remember him saying this and it just intrigued me to no end. He said, you know, we have these set times of prayers. He was in a monastery, and he said, we have these set times of prayers. But I find the presence
of God in the everyday. He worked in the kitchen scrubbing pots and pans, and he experienced the presence of God, scrubbing pots and pans almost more so than those set times of what could become ritual. And that's a that's a powerful thing, man. Appreciate that. Matthew. Thanks for sharing your heart. So what? Good thing that when you do, too much of it gets in the way of God, it becomes a weight. Right, Ali?
Absolutely. 800 555 7898. I mentioned that for me, it can be I can become kind of obsessed with my kids sports, and that can become a good thing. That can become a weight where I'm starting to fixate on who they're playing and how they're doing and the rankings of teams. And all of a sudden, I get that conviction of this is taking up a lot of time and emotional energy.
You know.
Explain that to me, because I think I love your vulnerability on this, that you are not a demonstrative ref. Yeller.
No, I'm a pretty calm sports parent. In fact, my kids are like the other parents are cheering louder like, do you cheer for us? I don't, I don't I'm not loud at games. I'm usually pretty quiet. I may cheer here and there, but I've noticed, though, that if I'm not careful, my heart can become too invested. Like where I'm really feeling. If they lose a game, I'm really feeling sad about it. Like more so than what I should based on. It's out of proportion to what
it is. And and I've just noticed that sometimes it can be a good thing that I become. My heart becomes too tied to it.
I love I. What a great discussion. And I thought this was going to be a little subplot of our theme today. This is the plot that God has us on. What is the good thing? Not inherently sinful and a little bit of it's great, but what is the good thing that when you do too much of it, it gets in God's way? What is that for you? 800 555 7898 800 555 7898. Uh, real quick, we'll go back to the phones here. Ken in Alabama. What do you say, Ken?
Yes, I'm.
Riding my bicycle. I used to I spent all day Saturday and a lot of times on Sundays, and it was taking me away from church and family, and it wasn't a bad thing. It was really good exercise, but it was something I felt convicted over and nobody brought it to my attention. It just came to me.
Well, the Holy Spirit did. Right? Yes he did. The Holy Spirit. You know what a classic example.
You.
See on the horn, Ken? You're getting a prize pack, by the way. Call everyone else back that I didn't tell him to call back and get their prize pack. I'm. I'm feeling resurrection power today. We're giving away prizes. But what a great thing, Ali.
And you know, I love how you said it. It's great exercise. Like it's not a bad thing. Nobody came to him and said, you know, I've. I'd like to do an intervention. I've been noticing you've been riding your bike. And I really think that's a problem. Nobody's going to say that to you. But that little still small voice, that nudge of the Holy Spirit, like this bike riding thing, it's getting out of hand. It's actually keeping you from church. It's keeping you from time with God.
Do you feel.
Stuck or paralyzed? Are you ready to break free? Here are your questions answered. It's time for ask, Pastor Carl.
A common question that I get asked, and one that comes in very different forms, fits into the big bucket of what in the world does resurrection power look like? And as I was preparing for my message on Sunday, I was blown away at the distinctiveness. Yet the commonality between all these great leaders John Calvin, Martin. Luther, Charles. Spurgeon, Jonathan. Edwards, Wayne. Contemporary. Wayne. Grudem, D.R. Carson, Tim. Keller, John. Piper, Michael. Horton.
And at the end of the day, these definitions that deal with and I love John Calvin's by his resurrection. We are not only raised with Christ, but he lives in us. His power animates our daily sanctification. To me, that's that's the big one. And so I want to illustrate this for you and tell you I am an avid life hacker, Lifehacker. Probably because I'm not in my
30s anymore. I find it an incredible thing to study the human body that God so beautifully designed, and do everything I can to try to take good care of my bod. Sleep. Hydration. I even did a deep dive last night on hydration. And how much water should we get? For crying out loud? All these things that are. I mean, isn't it funny? Lifehacking is a funny thing, isn't it?
Yeah. If you're not familiar with that term, that's just finding kind of new ways to shortcut things to make things a little bit easier. Like life hacks that just make your life go a little bit smoother.
Yeah. And so one of the things that I've done is I've. I think Ali inspired me with this. I years ago. Yeah. With the smartwatch.
Oh, yeah. I mean, I do a Fitbit watch that's about as advanced as I've gotten.
Okay. But you enjoy that, right?
Yeah.
Why do you.
Do you steps.
And you can see, um, mainly for step tracking. See how active you are. Um, you'll get a little, uh, notification if you haven't moved to a certain number of steps in the hour. It'll kind of remind you to get up and get moving.
Time to get up and get moving. And sometimes you'll get a it's time to stand. Just. It's time to get up. You've been sitting down too long. And all those things are valuable. And I went and did a deep dive on smart rings. So there's a lot of different brands out there. There's one I won't mention that's got it kind of was first in the pool, and it's got a lot of advertise and now it's going mainstream. It's on cable news. It's all over the place. They're
advertising it like nuts. And I thought, oh, that sounds so gimmicky. And then I started doing a deep dive because I'm a Lifehacker going, all right, what's the advantages of these things? And all the reviews are coming back. It's unbelievable. And the reason is, is that the back of the wrist, the top part of the wrist, where the smart watch is, smartwatches doesn't get the kind of blood flow like, say, an index finger has. And my team in here can see that I've got an index
finger ring going on. Well, that's a smart ring. Now this thing I love. It gives me data points like you can't believe. I mean, let me give you just a few things. I'm going to pull up my app here really quick. I mean, the data points are amazing. In fact, I shared this in the message and I'll give you the punchline here in a moment. But I had a 93 year old woman come up to me after the service and she said, I've been thinking about getting one of those. Tell me more about this. For
which I was happy to help out. Betty, she's a great woman. So it shows. Sleep. Not good. Last night, 77, I got a score.
Out.
Of 100.
Out of 100. Okay, dynamic recovery is 80. Not bad. Stress rhythm. I'm at 99. I'm doing good.
Okay, so a high score there is good?
Yes. Okay.
Yeah. Movement 77. Not bad. Just getting the day started here. And then it's got things about circadian rhythms. It's got caffeine windows when you should be shutting it down. And all these things are designed to give you metrics that measure. How are you doing? Are you treating your body well? And I love it. But there's one thing my ring can't measure. And that one thing my ring can't measure is the resurrection power of Jesus Christ in my life.
You might say, well, how does that get measured? Last week I had a night where I didn't sleep very well at all, and I woke up and I looked at all my indicators on my dashboard for my smart ring. And guess what, Ali? They were ringing. I mean, they were blinking red lights everywhere.
It's like, okay.
Not enough sleep, not enough recovery. You really should get well, I, I know I should get more sleep.
I'm trying.
I'm working at it. But here's what happened. This is what God's had me doing as of late. I grabbed a cup of coffee, went down to a chair in our living room. It was very early, and I began to spend some time alone with the Lord. And the Lord began to just minister to my heart, talking with me from his word. And I was so encountering the presence of God that there was something this smart ring
couldn't account for. And it was this thing called. The resurrected power of Christ in a follower of Jesus who's meeting with the Lord, And me, as John Calvin said, animating me for daily sanctification. And although I was sleepy in body, my spirit was cooking for Jesus. I can't even describe it, except that I got up and I
faced that day. I got a nap in the afternoon because I was way short on sleep, but I faced that day with a level of robustness, optimism of the power of Christ in me and joy in the Lord that my ring couldn't track. To me, that's one of the greatest evidences of resurrection power in my life. There is nothing like. I'll never trade my time alone with God early in the morning for anything. It's better than my coffee. Can you believe I'm saying that, Ali?
Well, that's so encouraging. Because, you know, when you think about the life hack thing and and I mean that that's awesome. But there's so many limitations that can keep us from living our best lives physically. I mean, yeah, illness, disease, so much of life that we cannot control, that comes at us, that keeps us from sleeping well, that keeps us from doing a lot of the things that we know we would like to do for our body. But
for whatever reason, in whatever season, we can't. Well, resurrection power is available to us on sleepless nights when we're in hospital rooms, when we're not at our best physically. And that's what's so encouraging, because the life hack stuff can almost seem aspirational. Man. Resurrection power is existential. I mean, that is absolutely what we need to go through our our everyday lives, regardless of what comes at us each day.
Boom! You nailed it.