To Live a Raised Life | Power for More | Rick Atchley

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Welcome to the Hills. I'm Pastor Rick, and I want to greet our online family and all the people in person at one of our four campuses. We have campuses in North Richmond Hills and in Dallas, in West Fort Worth, and in Keller. And a special shout-out today our campus in Dallas, after a long several-year wait, have finally moved into their new worship center. It's beautiful, renovated, and they've got a big crowd today. So, let's give some love to Dallas today. We're thankful and excited about what God is doing there. And I've got some even better news.

You ready? He is risen. And today, we are celebrating with hundreds of millions of Christians around the world with this incredible, incredible, life-changing claim. So, I start with a story of a man who had a beloved dog. And so, he was understandably distraught to come into his kitchen one morning, and there was the body of his dog lying motionless on the kitchen floor. So, he picked up the animal and rushed quickly to the vet. And he walked in, and the vet said, oh, I'm sorry. Your dog is dead. He said, you can't just say that. You haven't done any test or anything. So, they take the animal back to an exam room and place him on a table. And the vet brings in a cat. And that cat crawls all over the carcass of that animal, and that body never flinches. Took the cat out, brought in a

beautiful Labrador retriever. That dog sniffed all over the body of that dog on the table. Not a muscle moved. And the vet turned and said, I'm really sorry, but your dog is dead. That'll be $600. $600 just to tell me my dog was dead? And the vet said, well, it would have been $50, but that's before you insisted on the cat scan and the lab work. So... Almost 2,000 years ago, they took a body of a man named Jesus from Nazareth off a cross, and nobody was asking, do you think he's dead? Nobody was saying, should we run some tests to see if he really died? That's not the claim of the Christian faith, that Jesus never died. The claim of the Christian faith is they put the dead body of Jesus of Nazareth in a tomb. And when they did, they were

actually just burying a temporary resident. And just a few days later, this most incredible claim began to surface. He has come back from the dead. Now, understand, this claim didn't grow up 300 years later and 300 miles away. In the very place and at the very time when it should have been the easiest to disprove the claim. They said, he's come back from the dead. And no one then and there could prove them wrong. And no one still has. Now, if this claim is not true, Christianity is dead wrong. But if that claim is true, then no power in hell can stop you or me from living the life God wants us to have. You see, Easter was what I would call the ultimate power struggle. And let me explain what I mean. We're enamored. by people with undefeated records. The lawyer who never lost a case, the runner who never lost a race,

that basketball or football team that has gone three years undefeated. A lot of us know that two weeks ago, Chuck Norris, well-known actor, died. And for years, he played this person that could take on any foe. And win. And that's why all those jokes began. Why did Chuck Norris cross the road? He didn't, the road moved out of his way. Why doesn't Chuck Norris need GPS? He decides where he is and the world complies. How many pushups can Chuck Norris do? All of them. Ghosts sit around and tell Chuck Norris stories. Chuck Norris doesn't call the wrong number, you pick up the wrong phone. The flu gets a Chuck Norris shot every year. And when Chuck Norris' parents had nightmares, they would come to his bedroom. Two weeks ago, Chuck Norris met death. Death won again. This is why, even though Jesus told his disciples, I will die and rise again, they didn't take him seriously. Everyone knows that when it comes to champions, nobody has a one loss record better than death. And so that Easter morning, as the sun was coming up, the disciples were not at the tomb counting five, four, three, two, one. They did not go to the tomb to look for a conqueror.

They went to look for a corpse. Nobody expected nobody. And so you gotta understand how strange it was then when what they never anticipated, they couldn't stop celebrating. And they announced it. Acts two, God has raised this Jesus to life and we're all witnesses of it. And this is what launched the Christian faith. Understand, they weren't announcing a philosophy. They weren't promoting a new ethic. They were proclaiming an event. Something happened. Again, same sermon. God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life for death could not keep him in its grip. This is the claim that launched the Christian faith. That death no longer has a perfect record. It met a perfect savior and he was a more powerful champion. And how did he do this? Romans one, he was shown to be the son of God when he was raised from the dead, notice, by the power of the Holy Spirit. When I say the ultimate struggle, actually that's a bit misnamed because it wasn't a struggle. The undefeated champion death met Jesus and Jesus was the clear victor and it wasn't even close. And this is what hundreds of millions of Christians

today are celebrating. No other world religion does this. No other religion has a day every year where they celebrate the fact that their founder is not dead. This is what makes Christianity different. But for many of us, this conviction makes no difference. I heard about a polar bear, beautiful animal given as a gift to the Denver Zoo a few years ago with the understanding the zoo would build an appropriate home for this beautiful animal. So they had to put the animal in a cage while they built the new home. It was a small cage. All that bear could do is take three steps and turn around and take three steps and turn around. It took three years to build this habitat and it was stunning. It had a waterfall, it had a big pool, it had a cave, it had everything but a Klondike bar. And when they finally put this bear in his new home, this spectacular new reality, you know what he did? He took three steps and he turned around. And he took three steps and he turned around. He had no idea how to live into this new possible world. future. We're just like that bear. We settle for so much less than what Easter makes possible.

We're made for so much more than we settle for. Paul said in Romans, when we were baptized, we were buried with Christ and shared his death. So just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the wonderful power of the Father, notice, we also can live a new life. We can have a new reality. We can step into a new future. I call it the raised life. We now have power to live completely differently. And my goal today is not to convince you that Jesus is raised. Now, there's good arguments to make for that case, and I've made them before. I'll probably make them again. That's not my goal today, to convince you that Jesus was raised. My goal today is to convince you that your expectations of what that means for you need to be raised, that too many Christians affirm the resurrection, but they settle for an entombed

version of themselves that is so much less than what God wants them to know. We do this every Easter. We can't wait to get to church. We can't wait to see old friends. We can't wait to see the kids in their neat clothes. We can't wait for the powerful music. Sometimes we even like the preaching. Right now, somebody is probably texting, "'Preacher Rick is killing it today. Praise hands, praise hands. Fire, fire, fire.'" We love it! And then we go home, and we take three steps, and we turn around, and we take three steps, and we turn around. Because we believe the pardon of Friday, but never receive the power of Sunday. And that's why I'm starting this series today called The Power for More.

For six weeks, we're gonna explore what does it mean when we receive and embrace the Holy Spirit. Why would you start a series about the Holy Spirit on Easter? Because of this verse. The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. Now, I know I'm preaching for a mainly white church, because if you were a black church, you'd be shouting right now. So, I'll try that again. The Spirit of God that raised Him from the dead lives in you. And my prayer as a pastor for you is this. I pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power. Who's it for? For us who believe Him. What's it like? It's the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead. Start praying that prayer that you would understand resurrection power.

Easter's not just promising life after death. It is promising life instead of death. We don't have to live like we are powerless when it comes to addiction or despair or oppression or hard circumstances. We don't have to live entombed like death is still the reigning champion. We were meant for more than we settled for. We were meant to live a raised life. What would that look like? Well, first, it means that we would live above our trials. A raised life lives above trials, because life is hard. Have you noticed? Jesus never said, follow me and you'll never have problems. What He said was, in this world, you will have trouble. And the issue is not the presence of trials. It is the absence of a hope that

trials can't touch. So... Probably the most popular Christian author in the world today. It's a man named Max Lakato. I Actually went to college with Max Lakato. In fact, I even lived in the same house with him as roommates you don't need to know that I just like to name-drop but Max graduated college And he grew up in West Texas and thought what would be cool. I've never seen water in my life So he moved to Miami worked at a church in Miami and thought you know, it'd be cool to live on a boat so he bought a house boat and He's three payments into his mortgage When the word came that a hurricane was coming So what does he do? He's from West Texas. I'm gonna go buy rope And he went and bought all the rope he could buy to tie it down to post and to the dock and the trees And a wise old veteran sailor named Phil came along and said son when that cane comes through It is going to blow away Everything you've tied this boat to He said your only hope is to anchor deep You need to secure this boat By anchoring to something so deep the storm can't move it That's good advice for a boat and that's good advice for a life You see the Spirit of God does not give us a life without pain He gives us the inner strength to endure pain With grace and with hope because the Spirit of God reminds me that no bad thing in my life gets the final word my faith is Anchored to the conviction that everything that happened to Jesus is going to happen to me And this is the living hope within me That is more powerful than anything Going on around me and I'm not talking about being Pollyanna I'm not talking about putting on this goofy smile and saying I'm gonna fake it till I make it

Being a Christian doesn't mean that life isn't hard That you have to say it's not so bad No, sometimes it's really bad But God is good and the tomb is still empty and that's why I'm still full of hope The scripture says I pray that God the source of hope Will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him and then you'll overflow with confident Hope how? Through the power of the Holy Spirit Spirit It is Holy Spirit power that enables you to live above your trials Some years ago a lady in our church Had her cancer come back She was a spirit-filled lady. I remember being by her bed in the hospital and she said pastor Rick This can put me down But it cannot keep me down and She finished her faith with a kind of resilient joy that her grown Children are living off of to this day The same spirit That got Jesus out of a tomb can get you through anything Life is throwing at you right now You don't have to be unsettled by the world and You don't have to settle for the world Because if you're living a raised life, you're not just above your trials, but you're living over your sins Jesus wasn't raised just so we could be forgiven He was raised so that we could be free And if he's now seated above everything we don't have to live defeated by anything See Easter means the power to finally put to death

What I thought was unkillable, you know what? I mean, you have gritted your teeth You've tried hard this habit this hang-up that is messing up your life And you just don't think you can kill it Listen to Holy Scripture Since we've been united with him in his death We will also be raised to life as he was We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives We're no longer slaves to sin For when we die with Christ, we will set free from the power of sin And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him We know we will also live with him We're sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead and he'll never die again death No longer has any power over him and when he died he died wants to break the power of sin But now that he lives he lives for the glory of God So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus when Jesus Christ died He took care of every legal claim sin ever had on you He paid every debt of that wage that sin was owed Sin has no right anymore to own you or boss you or be your master I'm not saying you can't still live in a prison cell. I'm saying Jesus unlocked the door That there's a way out I'm saying that that temper that has kept your family on edge for years does not have to keep being your master I'm saying that Drive that you've hated late at night to click back on that link does not have to run your life anymore I'm saying that crippling anxiety Does not have to be your identity I'm not saying you can be sinless I'm saying you and I have super natural power to sin less That because he didn't stay where he was we don't have to stay where we are

And if you have not been walking in fullness of the freedom Of the freedom that Easter power is offering You need to redeem the narrative So a pastor I know tells a neat story it's Sunday a 23 year old lady walks up to him Says I was going to put this in the offering plate, but since I see you I'll just give it to you It was an envelope and outside it said careful Sharp objects inside He took it to his office and opened it and there was a note and a baggie full of razor blades and the note said I Started cutting myself when I was 12 My arms are full of scars And One year ago. I was about to cut again when the Spirit of Christ Whispered to me Jesus has bled enough. I Put the blade down I Have not cut in one year But all through my bedroom I kept razor blades hidden For the time when I knew I would start again It's been a year and now I realize I'm not gonna start again Jesus has set me free and These razor blades are my offering to him and to this church for my new freedom This is Easter power

This is reigning over sin and Somebody needs to hear this right now The Holy Spirit in you is more powerful Than any chain that has ever been on you Easter people no longer live confined by their past They live defined by their future Because when you're living a raised life, you're not just over your trials and over your sins But you're living and seeing beyond death Now typically when an underdog beats an undefeated champion the underdog always trash talks You ever wanted to trash talk? I'm gonna give you pastoral permission to do some sanctified To do some sanctified trash talk because it's right there in the Bible who got the last word Oh death Oh death who's afraid of you now? You know a lot of people are afraid Because there's another spirit out there who has another voice it's called the spirit of fear and the spirit of fear prophesies that the future is going going to hurt you. The spirit of fear is everywhere. It is all over your social media platforms. It is all over your favorite cable news outlet. The future is gonna hurt you, so you better be anxious, and you probably need to hate somebody. The spirit of fear prophesies the future is gonna hurt you. The spirit of God testifies the future is gonna reward you.

Listen again to Paul. God put his special mark of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit that he had promised. That Holy Spirit is the guarantee that we will receive what God promised for his people until God gives full freedom to those who are his. Full freedom is on the way. My sin-free, sick-free body is on the way. The new heavens and the new earth are on the way. And every time the spirit of fear tries to control me, I choose to listen to a different voice, the voice of God that says, I own the future, and the empty tomb has settled the matter. This lady in the wheelchair is named Johnny Erickson Tata. She's lived in a wheelchair for over 50 years. As a teenage girl, she had a diving accident that broke her neck. And since that time, she's not

been able to move a muscle below her neck. Amazing lady. She's an author, a recording artist, and a brilliant painter. She paints by putting a paint brush in her mouth and making art. And she sees beyond death. I love how she put it. When I get to heaven, I'm gonna push my wheelchair to the throne of Jesus. Notice, I'll be walking, and I'm gonna thank Him for every character-refining work He did in me and through me because of this wheelchair. And then I'm gonna ask Jesus to sit in this wheelchair straight to hell. You see, God is doing for the whole cosmos what He did for Jesus. And knowing this gives us power to focus on the eternal and not the trivial. You and I have only been given one life to live, just one. I've already lived most of mine.

I don't want to spend the time I have left just trying to build empires that are gonna burn up when Jesus comes back. I want to see beyond that. Colossians, since you were raised from the dead with Christ, aim at what is in heaven, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Here's what that means. It means a raised life is gonna focus on doing now what's gonna matter then. Every time I speak a word of encouragement to a discouraged person, every time I don't speak a word of anger, every time I take my money or my time and I help someone, every time I guard my integrity, every time I guard my sexual purity, every time I give a cup of cold water in Jesus' name, I'm doing something that's going to last forever. This is how the raised life lives. You see, through the Holy Spirit, we've got not just the clarity, we've got the capacity

to live this life we've been given in a raised way and in a way that raises eyebrows. Because I believe the best argument for Easter is raised lives. I cannot explain how a dead man came back to life, but the explainable is confirmed by the undeniable. In other words, there are millions of people in this world and they're living supernaturally. They're living over their sin. They're living above their trials. They're living amazingly selfless, giving lives. Where do they get that power? You see, I think a raised life raises questions about where that power comes from. You are the best argument for Easter. It's not a nice word. It's an Arabic word. It's used for those considered to be infidels, people who don't accept Allah and the Muslim

faith. And the Muslim faith is not monolithic. There are many sects inside it that hate each other quite a bit. And so when the Taliban took over Afghanistan, they began to persecute other sects of Muslims. And there was this huge refugee crisis as thousands of people crossed the border into Pakistan. And they had these huge refugee camps of people just desperate and barely alive. And I heard a great story about a missionary family named the Woodburys, and they lived near these camps. And they felt called to do something to help, especially the children. And so they took sandals and school supplies and some basic But then they heard the spirit of God say, go help their feet. See, these kids had sores filled with pus all over their feet.

Go help their feet. That's kind of a disgusting assignment. But they said yes. And they went back to that camp, and they took antibiotic soap, and they took salve, and they just began to heal the feet of these Muslim refugee children. And the reason they heard about this is because they had a school inside the camp. And the Muslim teacher said to the kids, who are the very best Muslims? And the kids said, the kafir. The kafir! Why would you say that? And one girl said, well, the Muslim fighters killed my father, but the kafir washed my feet. This is why there are hundreds of millions of Christians around the world. This is why the story can't be stopped. This is why people entertain the possibility of Easter. Because the greatest argument for Easter is raised lives.

This Easter, don't settle. I'm speaking to the person at the back, and you never thought you'd find yourself in a church building one day, and here you are. I'm speaking to somebody at the front that's desperate for a word of hope. But today, I'm especially speaking to the big mass in the middle. And you have believed this for a long time, but you've never felt it. And so you're embracing a kind of faith that says the right things about miracles, but goes home and takes three steps, turns around, takes three steps, and turns around. This Easter, don't settle. Don't settle. You were made for so much more than we settle for. You were made to live a raised life. You were made to know the power of God. Listen to Paul.

I want to know Christ and the power that raised Him from the dead. That's how I want to live. I want to know the kind of power that turned everything upside down. The kind of power that tells undefeated champions to go to hell. I want to know the power of the resurrection. Where do you need it? Scripture says you don't have because you don't ask. Bow your head. Ask for it. Think of a place in your life right now where you would like to see some resurrection power and ask for it. Oh, God, all over this place, people are asking for miracles, and You're the God that raises the dead. You're the God that takes down any pretend champion. So do mighty things, God. Do mighty things. I know someday, when Jesus returns, we're going to see what more looks like. But I don't want to learn on that day that I could have had so much more now, and I just never embraced the possibility. And so, God, help us to step into the life that the empty tomb makes possible.

Help us to live filled with the Spirit of God. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.