A Little Better // Unfiltered Pursuit

Transcript

Aaron Hixson:  Hey Northridge, welcome to A Little Better, where our goal is to know God better and to do better, so that we can be a little better. 

Well hey, Northridge family, welcome back to A Little Better.  Happy Easter.  We are glad that you're with us.  Today is the day after Easter. I don't know if that has a name, but I'm gonna still call it Easter.  I'm the kinda guy who says "Merry Christmas" well after Christmas is over, so, I guess I'm just that guy. 

Drew Karschner: Do you really say “Merry Christmas” after Christmas is over?  Or before it has happened? 

Aaron:  Yes.  Both, both.  I mean, it's just like the Christmas season.  It's a generic timeframe. 

Drew:  No, the Christmas season ends after Christmas.  It just makes sense that way. You got 25 days that lead to Christmas.  You say “Merry Christmas” all the time. But once Christmas is over, you're not walking around like "Merry Christmas!" December 26th.  That's weird, bro. That's weird. 

Aaron:  I still do.  I don't know.  Okay. Well, anyway, happy Easter. 

[Both laughing]

So, tell me about your Easter, Drew.  How did it go down in the Karschner household? 

Drew:  Well, we had a beautiful day with my mom and my family and my brother and sister.  We watched the services. And we had turkey, so we baked a turkey, and we had some good food, great celebration.  We hid some eggs, and when I say "we hid some eggs," I mean I threw them in the most obvious places for a five, a three, and a two-year old to get them. 

So we had a little Easter egg hunt with candy and little pennies in there, and the kids loved it.  It was great. Yours? 

Aaron:  Awesome.  It was good, it was good.  How many services did you guys watch?  I feel like you're the kind of guy that would watch -- you're always watching other churches and seeing what they're doing.  So did you check out other churches or just Northridge or what did that look like? 

Drew:  I watched every Northridge service and I watched other church services as well.  It's amazing. All day long my computer was full of services, so. 

Aaron:  Yeah, you're like -- you get so many bonus points for how many Easter services you watched. I was present for all three of ours as well, 9, 10:30, and 1.  I guess -- wait, do we have a Monday? 

Drew:  We have one tonight at 7.  Yes. 

Aaron:  Yeah, we have one tonight at 7, that's right.  So I guess I haven't been present for all of them yet.  I've been present for all of the ones that have happened.  But actually we're switching around service times. Have we already talked about that?  Why don't you tell us what's coming this week for service times? 

Drew:  Yeah, we're just moving -- so, Monday night at 7, it's been a great little experiment, and so we're going to shift it to Saturday night at 7.  So, we're gonna take that Monday service. The only thing that's changing with our weekend services is we're taking the Monday night at 7, and we're moving it to Saturday night at 7. 

One reason why, Monday night was just a harder night for people to engage.  I think after Sunday, they kinda move on to the next week, and so, a lot of churches I have worked for have had a Saturday night service, so we're gonna try this out, see if it works, and yeah.  Praying God does cool things with it. 

Aaron:  All right, so it's moving, not adding.  We're just moving. There won't be a Monday starting next week. 

Drew:  Exactly right, yep.  We are moving the Monday night to Saturday night. 

Aaron:  Sounds good.  Yeah, I definitely have never heard of a church with a Monday night service.  I do think it was a cool experiment, but I can't recall ever seeing that before.  Saturday does make some sense. And we have the ability to do it, since we're having to pre-record right now, so that's cool. 

But hey, the big thing about Easter, obviously Jesus is alive, that's amazing.  He is risen. He is risen indeed. Did you guys grow up saying that in church, "he is risen"? 

Drew:  I mean, I think everybody says that.  Even now. 

Aaron:  No, I mean, it was like a call and response.  It was like a real live thing every easter, you'd say "he is risen" and the church would say like "he is risen indeed."  Did you guys -- was it just me? Maybe it was just me.  

Drew:  No comment. 

[Both laughing.] 

Aaron:  Anyway.  So, we're excited.  Jesus is alive. Why don't you tell us a little bit about the response from Sunday?  What are we hearing from our people? And even people placing their faith in Christ. Did you have any of your pi2 people show up?  Talk to me about that. 

Drew:  Yeah, so Sunday was an amazing celebration.  So one thing if you watched on our live.northridge platform, you saw a couple unique things that we've been adding.  One of those is you could see when I gave the gospel and people had a chance to respond, you could see people say "raise a hand if you prayed that prayer."  

Aaron:  Yeah, that was a cool thing. 

Drew:  Yeah, it was really cool.  Our team worked hard on that.  Over our three services, we saw 27 people say yes to Jesus Christ. 

Aaron:  Wow. 

Drew:  Plus, three more that came in from a different avenue in that way.  And so 30 people said yes to Jesus Christ. If you think about that, over four weeks, that is 61 people.  61. 

Aaron:  Amazing, amazing. 

Drew:  I mean, how amazing is God?  And you know, we're griping and moaning over this COVID-19, but God is totally using it to draw people to himself.  I know we talked about it, but I hope that never gets old. 61 eternities have been changed because of this, and whew!  Let's go! I'm ready for more, I'm ready. 

Aaron:  I know.  That is very exciting.  And I just love that we were able to capitalize on this season.  You know, not every series and not every timeframe would be perfect for that kind of a shift where we're offering opportunities every single week, but this was just like the perfect moment and God utilized it, so I'm really excited about that.  That's a very high number. 

Of course the number is reflective of stories and people that know and people that we’re following up with.  They're not just nameless numbers. These are stories we care about and that we're checking with. So, that's very exciting. 

Drew:  Yeah, and kudos to the people of our church for inviting.  I got a couple messages from people who texted me and said, "Hey Drew, my friend texted me and said they said yes to Jesus."  And that, just stirs a fire in people's hearts. My contractor. We've been adjusting some things in my basement for my mom to move in, and my contractor texted me this morning, so today, I think it was around 9:30.  He says "Hey, we tuned in and it was awesome. Thanks for that." 

I got a message from my high school sixth grade teacher, who said, "Hey, I haven't felt that much hope in a long time.  Thank you so much." 

Aaron:  Oh my goodness.  Wow. 

Drew:  I mean, again, cool stories of God just working.  He's fulfilling our mission. More and better, baby, more and better.  People are growing closer to God and people are meeting Jesus for the first time.  So, let's go. 

Aaron:  Beautiful.  And Drew, dude, I love that you're living pi2.  I mean, it would be easy in your position, I think maybe mine too.  We've talked about pi2 endlessly, especially back in the Paul series.  It's easy at times to feel like that's outside of our purview because we're, you know, we work with a bunch of Christians and stuff, but I love that you've got names of people that you're thinking about.  I love it. 

I've sent out some invitations, and got some positive responses.  Some people ghosted on me, but, you know, that's gonna happen. And so, anyway, we'll see what comes from that.  I loved getting texts during that morning. Like “Hey, my friend from wherever is tuning in, please be praying.” You know, people just in the moment being like, “I'm so excited they came!”  I love that feeling for people, and just that they're sharing and spreading and praying, and we're all kinda like waiting with bated breath for what God's gonna do. And yeah. It's an especially expectant time because of the sadness and the distress and the fear that people are feeling, but then also of course with the biggest Sunday of the year in terms of people being interested in church. 

Drew:  Yeah. 

Aaron:  Yeah, so let's jump in and talk about the resurrection a little bit.  Let's talk about this sermon from Sunday. I have some random thoughts that I might end up sharing that just were from my own devotional time on Sunday morning before church.  But that's a whole 'nother thing that I'm looking at my notes here. We'll see if that comes up. 

But for now, you talked about how the resurrection should impact our daily life, and I just kinda thought, what does that mean?  What would it mean for the resurrection to, as a believer, impact my daily life? How does the fact that Jesus is alive change what I'm doing day to day? 

Drew:  I mean, if you truly believe in what Jesus accomplished, I don't understand how it cannot change everything.  I mean, it should change your motives for getting out of bed. It should change the way you think about life and eternity.  It should change the way you choose to live and act towards the people you love and the people you don't love. I mean, every fiber of who you are should be changed by the resurrection. 

Now, that doesn't happen in an instant.  You know, it happens over a life of living in the perspective of the resurrection and how the resurrection gives you victory over your sin.  And so, I think the major way that the resurrection has changed my life is the battle between my flesh and the Spirit. Living in light of the resurrection, man, my flesh wants to do things that I know I shouldn't do, and so the battle that wages within me, it helps me overcome the sin that I was enslaved to but now have freedom over. 

And so my daily choices of how to respond to my wife when she annoys me or how to have patience --

Aaron:  Wait, that's -- I'm gonna have to stop you there.  That doesn't happen. 

Drew:  It's actually usually in reverse, probably for my wife and me annoying her, but every once in a while --

Aaron:  Good clarification. 

Drew:  But I think of patience with my kids, when we're locked in a house all the time together.  I think of just the random emails that you get of frustration of people. Just every area of your life, the resurrection can impact.  From my desire to want people to experience what I've experienced, you know. When you truly see the amazement of the resurrection and how it can change your life, it should create in you a desire for people to experience that as well.  To love your neighbor, to tell your neighbor about Jesus. 

When I look at my life and I think about the resurrection, that Jesus is alive, what it really does is it makes me alive.  It gives me life. And out of that new life, it changes everything I do. 

Aaron:  That's great.  I was thinking even to -- I don't know -- at the kind of really granular level, or really practical level, the fact that Jesus is alive, the reason you're saying it should impact everything is you're walking through the implications almost in an unstated way. 

You're like, if Jesus is alive, that means . . .  and there's like five or six boxes that you're checking as a result of that truth, but like, why would a person 2000 years ago change my life?  It's because what that resurrection means, as you said. That he's conquered sin. That resurrection means every claim he's ever made is true. That means that, if we have victory over death, even now in the midst of COVID, I don't have to be terrified of anything.  I don't have to be terrified of even getting COVID and dying. I don't have to be afraid of people that I love having this disease and dying. I don't have to be afraid of economic ruin, or anything, global conspiracy that's making this whole thing up. Literally name your fear or whatever.  None of it stands a chance against the fact that the worst thing that can happen to you is you lose everything and you die, and none of that can be -- the resurrection is more powerful than any of that. 

Drew:  Right, and you think about this series.  We've talked about, okay, you go back to Jesus' baptism, right?  We talked about that giving him his identity. We talked about the temptation.  It gave him his credibility. I think the resurrection gave Jesus -- it validated him as the son of god.  It just took every claim Jesus had made in his life, as crazy as they were, and they said, check that box off, because that was true. 

You know, I think of even when he was crucified, the soldier, after he died, the veil was torn, the earthquake happened, the soldier says, "truly this must have been the son of god."  It's like yep, checked that box. This was God's son. He did exactly what he said he was going to. 

And out of that, out of his resurrection, whew.  The implications of that are endless in someone's life. 

Aaron:  Yeah, and I don't have to -- if my spouse annoys me or if life isn't what I was expecting or if I never get married or if whatever, none of those things, as disappointing, frustrating, and hard as all of those things are, they're not ultimate.  We have an ultimate truth in the form of Jesus' resurrection that overcomes everything.  

And so, it's kind of one of those "if all else fails" things, like, but it's not just an all else fails, break the glass in case of emergency, like, if your house is on fire, "oh no!"  Quick, grab this last ditch effort. It's like, this is so important, so ultimate, that it actually can be pervasive in every detail of your everyday life. It's not just helpful in the biggest things.  If you allow it to be, it's life-changing in the smallest of things. 

Drew:  Exactly.  And we're not saying that there are times in life where --  you know, life is hard and difficult. Right now, people are dealing with some really difficult things.  And we're not saying, hey, walk around like "Oh, I got COVID-19, but don't worry, Jesus is alive." Like, yeah.  He is alive. But that doesn't take away from the things in life that are hard and difficult. What the resurrection does in the midst of COVID-19, or in the midst of my dad dying or in the midst of anything that happens in life, the fact that Jesus is alive can change my perspective on any situation I go through. 

Aaron:  I love it. 

In the midst of the story that we talked about on Sunday, there was obviously two guys, they're walking away from Jesus, and from faith.  It's just insane to me. I was reading my Bible on Sunday morning before church in light of what I knew was coming in your content. It's just so remarkable to me how no one was expecting him to come back to life.  Obviously, hindsight is 20/20, and so we know how this whole story ends, but these two guys, it's not like they were walking away because they hadn't heard. They had already heard that the women had come, they had gone to the disciples, it had spread enough through the disciples.  These guys had already heard. There are already claims of a resurrection. They're like, “Yeah, but we didn't see him, so...” They're just walking away. 

And here's what I was struck with as I was reading my bible.  After Jesus dies, Joseph of Arimathea comes. He goes to Pilate.  He gets Jesus' body. He puts him in a new cut cave, puts the stone over the entrance.  So immediately Jesus is buried. First of all, that's fine. It's to be expected. But it does indicate to me at least on some level -- they didn't want him laying out on the ground rotating, but I'm wondering like, why are you doing this?  If you genuinely expect him to come back to life, it might be a little weird, but like, I don't know. Put him in your backyard on a patio chair or something. Like, he's coming back. Just give him a minute. You want to be there when it happens.  But they put him in a tomb. Okay, that's fine. 

But then the religious leaders -- this is what blew my mind -- immediately they go to Pilate and say, “Hey, this guy claimed to say he was gonna be resurrected.”  That's interesting to me. They knew that. Second of all, they said he's gonna be resurrected on the third day. That's what he claimed. So they had comprehended and, at least to some degree, believed it was going to happen.  At least they expected that his disciples would be expecting it and they would try to fake it. 

So they're like, “This dude's gonna try to pull off that he came back to life.  Can we just put a guard and seal the tomb?” And Pilate's like, “Yeah, that's fine.  Do whatever you wanna do to seal the thing.” So they put two guards. And they're standing there.  And then the women go on the first day of the week, and they're bringing -- again, this blows my mind -- they're not bringing party hats and kazoos, waiting for the third day to happen, they're bringing burial spices because they expect him to die and rot, and they don't want him to smell. 

It's like, the only people who took Jesus' words seriously about coming back to life were the Pharisees.  All the disciples were like, "Aw man, he's dead. And now he's gonna be dead forever." And the more I was reading that, I was so confused.  And these disciples, Cleopas and whatever his friend is, we don’t know the name, they're walking away too! I'm like, what is happening? Why did no one comprehend it?  And I would cut them some slack if it weren't for that the religious leaders did!  

Sorry.  I just went on a random rant.  I told you I had stuff from my devos.  But I've never put it together before that the Pharisees were legit like, “Yeah, he definitely thinks he's coming back and it's gonna be on the third day, so let's make sure that doesn't happen.” And the disciples are like, “Well, I don't know what's gonna happen.” 

Drew:  I think the Pharisees were worried that the disciples were gonna come and steal the body.  I don't think they actually believed that Jesus was actually gonna be alive. I think they thought, okay, they're going to try to do some trickery to spread this lie.  But, think about it. It doesn't surprise me.  

Can you imagine if someone came into our world and made claims that Jesus did?  I think this is a really good question. How many of us would have recognized Jesus if he walked on the face of our earth right now?  What's crazy is, the people who claimed to know the most about God were actually the people who killed God. The Pharisees were the ones who walked him through court.  They're literally in a circle, looking at God, and they don't know him. 

Aaron:  I guess the thing that's blowing my mind about it is they knew enough, they had understood Jesus' teaching about the resurrection thoroughly enough that they were taking active steps to prevent him from being able to fake it.  Like you said, they weren't expecting it to actually happen, but they're like, “Let's just post a guard to make sure these guys don't try to fake it.”  

I guess I'm thinking, the disciples, what would have been cool is, even if they weren't sure I'm telling myself -- and I'm being way too generous to myself -- but I'm telling myself, I think I would have gone, "Okay, he said he was gonna come back to life, he said it was gonna be on the third day, it's Sunday, can we just go chill?  Let's just go sit there and let's just see what happens." You know what I mean? "I'm not actually expecting it, I don't really want to get my hopes up, but let's just go."  

Now, at the same time, I recognize it was dangerous for them and blah blah blah, and I'm being way too kind to myself, but it just never clicked to me that the religious leaders were like, "Yep, this is probably gonna at least get faked, so let's work against it," and the disciples were not taking any actions. 

Drew:  But that's exactly what these two guys did, Aaron.  They didn't leave until Sunday. They waited around, I don't know if they waited around because they thought at some level Jesus was going to come back --

Aaron:  That's true, that's a good point. 

Drew:  But they obviously didn't believe it that strongly, because they heard the rumors that he did come back and still left! 

Aaron:  They're like, “Yeah, I know.” 

Drew:  That's pretty pathetic if you really think about it.  Okay. “Jesus is dead. Okay. He's gonna rise again. Oh, he did?  Nah, let's go.” 

Aaron:  I know.  So bold. They're just like, yeah, probably not.  Let's at least go find out. Normally I'm not a disciples basher because I recognize I've got my issues.  I would not have handled this better than Peter or whatever, but some aspects of the resurrection are like, guys, why not just stick around a couple more days and just see if you can at least find out who stole his body or something.  Then you'll be on the inside. Don't just peace out. 

Then I love that Jesus walks with them the whole time, explains the Old Testament scriptures, gets to the very end, and they realize it's Jesus.  I love what you said in the video where you're like, at first they probably were really embarrassed or whatever. I loved that point because I would have just been like, "Oh no. We look so dumb.” 

Drew:  What do you say to Jesus?  I mean, like -- 

Aaron:  Thankfully he disappeared. 

Drew:  I was just gonna say, I betcha they were so glad he disappeared.  Because do you know how embarrassing and how shameful? I mean, in all seriousness, it's funny, because we're not them, but sometimes we are, aren't we?  How many times do we doubt God? Like even right now. You think of COVID-19 and all that we're going through. We say things like this all the time as Christians.  “Hey, but God's got this, he could take this away in a second.” But do we really believe he can? 

Aaron:  I know if he did, and he were standing here, I would be like, “Well, I gotta say I didn't see that coming.”  Like, I intellectually believe it, but I'm fairly certain I don't actually believe it. 

Drew:  And think about how, I mean, it's one thing to take a disease away.  To raise yourself from the dead. Again, we've heard this story so many times that what we say and what we claim feels so normal because we get the repetition of Easter, the repetition, but like to hear it for the first time, to believe someone's actually going to do it, it's hard to put ourselves in their shoes, because we know the story.  We've heard it over and over again. This was so fresh and so crazy in their culture and their day that, if I'm being real, I probably would have been the guy that would've been like, "Jesus, I love you. But you're crazy. You're crazy, dude." 

Aaron:  Yeah.  Obviously my life indicates that I'm no better than these people when it comes down to the details, but it just does sound -- I love what you said on Sunday too, about how it's just another -- I actually can't remember exactly how you said it.  It's just another thing with more traditions that's lost its meaning or something like that. You kinda compared Easter to Christmas. I heard it three times. I should be able to quote it, but I can't. 

But I love that because I do think that that's true, where it's so common.  They're like ah, Jesus rose from the dead. But it actually is a crazy sounding thing.  Cause it is a crazy thing. And I've even found -- I don't know if this is true for you, Drew -- but like, occasionally encountering other religions and studying them a little bit and finding out what they claim, all of their claims sound so audacious, like what?  Like "Mohammed is capable of what?" or you know, whatever. Like that's just ridiculous. But then I go, “Oh no, wait.” That's of course exactly how all the claims I make sound about our God. I just have grown up with them and so it's very kinda, "Oh yeah, Jesus came back to life and that's what we celebrate." 

So, that brings us to how we lost the amazement of Easter.  And I think that's so relevant for all of us to think through whether or not this has just become one more Sunday where we dress up, or where we have a nice lunch.   Have we lost the amazement? 

When do you feel like you've been most amazed, and when were low times for you in terms of amazement of what Jesus did? 

Drew:  Well, I think one thing that's been really helpful for me in recapturing the amazement has been my kids.  You know, telling my children, like Joelle, who is really on the cusp of fully understanding the gospel and believing in it.  I think seeing it through her eyes is so refreshing. It takes me back to when I was a new believer. Just explaining to her what Jesus did and that he rose again from the dead, the amazement in her eyes is the amazement that I want, hearing the story like as the first time.  

If you've got kids, I encourage you, share the stories with your kids and watch their reactions.  Listen to their questions. I think this is why Jesus says to have childlike faith, where you can believe in something and you can submit to something even if you don't fully understand it.  And kids, they believe things greater than we do, because they don't have, you know, the logic of life just stripping away from the faith that you have. 

Aaron:  That jadedness that develops. 

Drew:  Yes, and I see the lack of jadedness in my daughter and in my son when I tell them the stories.  Joelle, just looking and watching her listen to the story and watching her eyes and her being in awe that God could do that, I'm like, "God, give me that again."  You know, like just give that back to me. It has really helped me recapture. 

I think I'm in a season now too where I'm emotional cause you know, my dad's dead.  I just think God is refreshing and giving me a new sense of amazement for life. I mean, my mom said while we were watching services, she was like, "I wonder what Easter's like in heaven." 

Aaron:  Ah, yo. 

Drew:  I wanted to cry.  But I also wanted to rejoice. 

Aaron:  I'm trying not to right now. 

Drew:  Because like, man.  Dad is literally with the risen Savior.  It was a hard Easter for our family, but it was also helpful in recapturing how amazing Easter is, and to know Dad is with Jesus.  Again, what are Easter services like in heaven? Come on, you wanna talk about a party, let's go. Jesus is alive! 

Aaron:  I bet they have Monday night services. 

Drew:  I betcha they get a little charismatic in heaven. 

Aaron:  [Laughing.]  Oh man, I had so many other things I was thinking about saying, but I'm fighting back tears right now, so I think we should end on that. 

In fact, I want to use that as a segue to talk about what's coming next.  I'd love for you to just give us a little bit of even just excitement about what's coming in our next series, and I think obviously it's got some ties to what we were just talking about, so what's next? 

Drew:  Yeah, so one, I'm saddened to see Unfiltered Jesus go away.  What an amazing series. 

Aaron:  Oh man, me too. 

Drew:  And you know, again, I wanna just say thank you to the Davidsons, Drew and Meg.  They're volunteers in our church that have put so much blood, sweat, and tears into this series.  They got regular jobs, but they're making and creating these videos. God did some amazing things through these videos, and so, Drew and Meg, thank you for --

Aaron:  I don't think he's done using them. 

Drew:  He's not.  He's not. And thank you so much for your time and energy.  You guys are amazing. I also am excited for our new series.  It's gonna be different, but it's called A Life that Matters. And really, I'm gonna be just kinda teaching you what God's been teaching me in this series, through, you know, my dad's death, through COVID-19, what really makes a life that matters? 

I think death and crisis brings a level of focus to our lives, where we really understand what is important and what's not important.  And really that's what this series is all about, getting us to get back to the place in life where we're not distracted, where we're zooming in on what truly lasts for all of eternity. And so, it's gonna be a fun, and challenging series, but I think it's what we all need right now in this season. 

Aaron:  I love it.  Crisis brings clarity, and I'm looking forward to the clarity you can bring us starting this Sunday.  It's gonna be a great series. Thanks for jumping in and joining us again, and everybody thanks for listening. 

We've got some cool things coming for the podcast, just some updates even just to make it a little more accessible that we're hoping to be integrating, so we'll talk more about that in the weeks to come.  Thanks for listening, sharing, send in your questions, podcast@northridgerochester.com, we'd love to be able to interact with those. 

And especially now that we're in a season where we're recording after Sundays, if you've got things that come up while you're listening on Sunday, if you shoot those off on Sunday, we might even be able to talk about them in the podcast.  We'd love to be able to do that. Please reach out, podcast@northridgerochester.com, or, since Drew puts up his email every single week these days, you might as well just email him. Actually, email whatever you want @northridgerochester.com.  It'll probably make its way to us. That's if you can stay awake long enough to type “northridgerochester.” 

Thanks, guys for listening, we'll see you next week.