So have you ever had something right in front of you that you're just missing? I mean that thing, that's just, it's right there, but you just, you just kind of miss it. Well, last sunday when I got to church, I couldn't find my wallet. I was looking all over the place. I was like, what happened? I don't care any cash. I got a little minimalist wallet, you know, I just keep my driver's license and my health insurance card, my credit card, and my donuts reward card, you know, just the important things I keep in my wallet and and it's just a little small thing. I always keep it in my front left pocket of my trousers. I've never said the word trousers. I just wanted to say the word trousers. So I keep it in my front left pocket. And the reality is if there's a pickpocket here today, I just helped you. I just gave you an advantage front left pocket. If you walk by today, you might be able to get it. So just just a small wallet, but I couldn't find it. And so I thought, well I remember picking it up at the House last Sunday and I thought, but you know, I got a lot of things I pick up, I mean between my car and the church, I usually have like 46 things I gotta carry in. So I was like, well maybe I just left it in the car. So I went back out to my car in the parking lot and I dug around and and I was trying to, you know, look under the seats and everywhere else and just you know didn't see it anywhere? So I came back inside and I thought well my son is still at home, I'll text him. There's only two places I ever put my wallet and I was like, hey will you go? You know look at these two places. He texted back. Neither there, it's not there, it's like all right, okay, so I decided you know what, I just need to focus on church now. So I'm just going to forget about the wallet. You know if I have to catch a palm, sunday Uber, I'll do that, I'll be fine. No big deal. So two hours later I am walking into the church and I'm putting my microphone pack on my belt and I suddenly brush across my wallet in my back pocket. Now here's the thing. I have never put my wallet in my back pocket. I mean never. I mean not even when I was a kid and I got my first velcro wallet, I have never put a wallet in my back pocket. So I was confused. I was perplexed. I walked in the back, I leaned over to my son, I was like I found it. It was in my pocket, but I didn't know that. So here it was kind of right in front of me, well right in the front of the back of me but it was right there and yet I I couldn't see it. I missed it for all that time. What if I were to tell you that the most valuable treasure that you can have in life is kind of right in front of you right now. That that kind of right in front of you in front of your heart and your mind there there is the most valuable treasure that will help you in any moment of life and that you will not be able to find that valuable treasure in your wallet. It's it's somewhere else. Would you at least be interested to think man, The most valuable treasure that I have for any moment of life is kind of right here in front of me. We continue a series, we're calling doors here. It's it's looking at all the different doors that you and I have to face every single day of life. And today we're going to be looking at open doors. Our message today is open doors will be asking Simon Peter to help us out. Be looking in the bible today at second peter chapter one verse 16, If you have your bibles, you can turn there. If not. The verses will be on the screen verse 16. This is what Peter says for. We did not follow cleverly devised tails straight out of the chute peter says, look, I want you to know, easter is not a fairy tale. Easter is not some clever legend that someone made up. It's not something that, that christians concocted as a way to get money from you or a way to to dress up one day a year and eat ham. No, there's there's more to this immediately. Peter brings our attention to the fact that none of this is a fairy tale. You see, unlike other religions, Christianity will give you everything you need to debunk it. Everything you need to prove that it's not true. Gary Habermas has put this into six minimal facts about the resurrection of jesus. Christ, six facts that have been attested through historical sources, authenticated through historical sources. At least one of those sources more than three. And at least one of them someone hostile to Christianity. And there was someone hostile to the whole notion of Christianity says, Yeah, that's true that that that happened in history. So here are six things that you can use to build your confidence in your salvation. Or they could be six things that you may try to use to prove that everything about this church and everything about easter sunday is a bunch of hippie dippy bologna. So here are those six things. Beginning with number one, Jesus was crucified, authenticated, Not a fairy tale, not a hoax. Number two, Jesus died authenticated. Not not a hoax. Number three, Jesus was buried in a tomb Number four, the Tomb was found empty. Number five. Friends and enemies believed that they saw the risen jesus. You know, we we don't have the Polaroids to prove it, but the enemies of jesus even said, yeah, we we saw the risen jesus And # six is the conversion of Paul. I mean think about this, you're a guy who's murdering christians and all of a sudden you're trying to get people to become christians. Alright, take that one, take the other five, pull those together, turn them upside down inside out with with scholarly research and historical evidence and what we prayerfully hope you will find is the Wall of Truth. We pray that you will hit the Wall of Truth and that wall will lead you down to the door of Mercy and that door of Mercy will usher you into the stadium of Grace where you will discover that all of the truth about jesus are not a cleverly devised fairytale, but they are actually the greatest hope that your soul longs for the most. The truth of jesus. It is extremely hard to find a scholar today that believes in all of the notions that have been tossed out there about the resurrection of christ notions like this. Well Jesus just swooned on the cross. He he just fainted, that's that's all that really happened or that the body of jesus was stolen from the tomb or or that the whole thing was a hoax or that jesus was mostly dead, you know because they would say there's a big difference between mostly dead and and being all dead, you know, all of these notions are out there, but the reason you can't find scholars that hold to those things is because they have seen. There is no evidence, there are no authenticated sources. And yet there is a multiplicity of sources that affirmed through history and eyewitness accounts of the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Gary Habermas goes on to say this. He said, if you see a modern martyr, someone who's willing to die for what they believe in, they are dying for what they believe to be true. In other words, it was said to them communicate to them, this is truth, but not so much with the disciples of jesus. They died for what they saw personal testimony, not what was passed down. They died for what they saw and heard with their own eyes and their own ears. And that's why Peter says, this ain't no fairy tale, it's not. And what did he mean? What exactly was not a fairy tale. Listen, continue in verse 16 when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ. In other words, what they were saying about jesus, what they were singing about Jesus, what they were preaching about, Jesus. Peter says, look, none of it is a fairy tale. And here's the thing, it still isn't what we do today, what we do every sunday is is based on reality, this is not a fairy tale, it's not a legend, we're in the middle of When Peter was writing this letter, he was about 70 years old. So as a senior adult, you know, he wasn't just you know, kick back doing the crossword and playing golf and trying to make it to the early bird special at for telly's restaurant. Now he he was serious about life, he was doing everything he could to make the most he could about Jesus Christ and maybe more specifically, he was making a big deal out of the return of Jesus Christ Today we celebrate the the empty tomb but the empty tomb is not the end of the story. There is more to the story and the more to the story is, jesus is coming again. In his first letter, Peter said this first Peter 47, the end of all things is near Now someone might say, well that guy wrote that 1900 years ago, he's a terrible prognosticator. We can ignore him. He doesn't know what he's talking about. Well think about it this way for hundreds and hundreds of years, everything was about christmas, everything. There were hundreds and hundreds of of predictions, very detailed predictions about the coming of the messiah and people from all kinds of belief systems. They knew about all of those predictions and then jesus perfectly in every detail embodied every single one of those prophecies and those predictions, he made all of them perfectly come true in one person, but christmas wasn't the end of the story, see there was more to the story if you're a parent or a grandparent or aunt, uncle, big brother, big sister, whatever and you're you're helping a child learn how to ride a bike, what do you do? Well, you run along side them, right, you keep running alongside of them and helping them along in a sense for hundreds and hundreds of years, those predictions about christmas, those predictions about the messiah, they were running alongside the actual event in other words, before the foundations of the world, Bethlehem is going to happen and so it was always going to happen. So running alongside the event that was going to happen, were all of these predictions and in the same way easter is similar, we have all of these truths about Jesus Christ and and all of these authenticity ease of what happened in his life and his death and his resurrection and all of those things are running alongside this one truth and the one truth is, jesus is coming again, it's going to happen and all of the truth of what we see now, it's right there next to it. one Theologian put it this way Christ is ever at the door, Ever at the door, someone else said this way when it comes to the return of christ, it's always five till midnight, right? Remember New Year's Eve, you know, you're just trying to stay up, you know, some of you um you know because you go to bed at 7 30 then other of us we never go to bed. And so you know it's five till 12 and and you're trying to figure out, I got five more minutes and you're thinking, come on Ryan Seacrest, get this thing going, you know, and you're just wanting everything to happen. Someone said the return of christ, It's always five minutes till midnight. In other words, the clock is always about to strike. It's not a fairy tale. It's not a cleverly devised legend. It's the truth created before the foundations of the world that over and over again keeps getting authenticated even by people who hate christians. See men and women and boys and girls, they can dismiss jesus. They can ignore jesus. They can reject jesus, especially the return of jesus. But Jesus is returning and he is going to claim his own. So are you his own? Are you, are you part of his kingdom? His family? Are you truly saved or to use the words that jesus would use? Have you been born again? What does that mean? How can you be born again? Someone said it's almost like if your uncle Bubba came up to you and said, hey how you know you've been born, what you what would you do? You, you pull out your wallet from your back pocket, right, pull out your license and you said, hang on a second Uncle bubba right there, there's my birthday right there? This is how I know I'm born. No, you know you're born because you're breathing right now. You know, you're born because because you're alive right now and the same thing is true about being born again. You're not going to pull out your wallet and pull out a little membership card and say, yep. Here it is. Right here, I'm a member of the sort of Joshua independent, full gospel baptist Costal assembly. I'll fall on state road 23 on the front of the right here, that's me, that's me, that's me now, you're not going to do that. You know, you're born again because you're alive in christ, jesus is not a story, Easter is not a holiday to you, Jesus is alive. He's alive in your heart and your mind, your soul, your attitude, your actions, it's not a story, it is the truth of your life. And that's what Peter is writing about. He's saying, look, this isn't a fairy tale, this isn't a legend, this is the gospel, this is good news, this is jesus, this is jesus. And how did Peter know it was true? Think of verse 16, There's some verse 16, Peter writes, this but we were eye witnesses of his majesty, majesty, eyewitnesses. Have you ever been in court? And and there was someone who was an eyewitness, a good eyewitness. They actually saw what was happening. But they saw how the event played out. There were hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of witnesses to the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus. And yet here we are, 30 years later and people are going on ah I think it's all made up. You know, What were you doing 30 years ago? Some of you weren't born. It's alright, hang with us. All right, What were you doing? 30 years ago, 30 years ago, I was in college 30 years ago. I was at Clemson University. Now, if you came up and said that's fairy tale, man, you made that up. You know what? I'm going to pull out my phone, I'm going to look, you can call Hugh smith Jack Cleland, Whitney, ross, Jeff Lopez, you can pretty much call half the people on my phone and they'll tell you know that moron was with us right there at Clemson. Yeah, we remember he was there, you know. And so, so 30 years later, it would be foolish for someone to disprove where I was. And yet here, we are 30 years later, after not just some punk in college, but amazing, majestic, miraculous things that can't be explained happened And 30 years later, people like, Nah, I think it's all made up. It's probably just a fairy tale. It wasn't something that someone put together 30 years ago or 300 years ago. There was an eyewitness account. The language that peter uses here is is kind of a play on words a little bit because when he talks about cleverly devised tales, he's he's talking about the way that false religions put on plays back in the day. It was like a pyramid scheme. They'd invite you to the first act of the play. And if you felt like you were dialed in a little bit, like they felt like, OK, they love that kind of got the first act, they might invite you to the second act, you'd earn your way to the second act of the play and then through the second act of the play, if they're like, all right, you know, they're still connecting with, they might invite you to the third act of the play and and then on and on. And then eventually you might even get to be in the inner circle with the playwrights and the cast and and all the false religion leaders. They were cleverly intricate, sophisticated belief systems. And guess what? There's still things like that today. There's still things like that today that if you donate enough money or donate enough art or donate enough books or or buy into their philosophies, enough earn some merit with their leaders, then then you might be able to get to go through the next door and then maybe the next door and the next door and maybe maybe you might get in the inner circle, the more intricate and difficult and sophisticated. The belief system is, the less it is the gospel. Now, that doesn't mean that the gospel doesn't have a lot of deep theological truths. I bought a new systematic theology book this week. It won't be a waste of money. I'm looking forward to diving in and learning more, but but maybe more practically for real life, I have a friend of mine throughout their life, they have always struggled with feeling like God loves them. Do you feel that way? You feel like, well God just doesn't love me. They've struggled most of their life with this feeling that God doesn't love them, but they told me this, they said the one thing that always helps the most is theology. In other words, the study of God, the character and nature of God. It always helps in the darkest moments. It's the deep doctrine, the deep theological truth that brings them out of the darkness. So there's deep, intricate truth and deep theology. Yes, but the beauty of the Gospel, The beauty of the good news about Jesus Christ is someone who hasn't even finished the fifth grade can fully get it fully understand it, fully, embrace it, fully. Follow it fully. Proclaim it. The Beauty of the Gospel is anybody can grab ahold of that grace. It's not a clever, intricate, sophisticated fairy tale. It's the truth about jesus and Peter says, yeah, we didn't give you some clever system, We just told you what we saw, we just gave you what we saw. Now, someone may say, but wasn't peter a fisherman come on fishermen, they tend to exaggerate, you know, I caught a fish this big, maybe Peter, he's just exaggerating. Remember this though? History tells us that Peter was executed for his story. I'm no rocket surgeon, but I'm thinking that there's not a lot of people out there that will be brutally executed for a phony fish story that they made up themselves. It just doesn't make logical, rational sense. But that's the claim that was being made against Peter. You you're just making this stuff up. It's it's all a phony fish story and that's exactly why he wrote this, you know why it's good for us because that claim has only gotten stronger. The claim that this is all just make believe, it's just all a fairy tale, it has gotten stronger and so peter and kindness said, look, I'm an eyewitness, I want you to know these are things that I saw and he wasn't just an eye witness to jesus teaching and and preaching and and healing people and and eating. I mean, it wasn't just that Peter says he was an eyewitness to what, to the majesty of jesus and I witnessed to the majesty of jesus, He saw the splendor of Jesus and it's only been 30 years since he had seen it, but it still felt like it just happened This week is my 26th anniversary. My wife says that to me all the time and you're just so handsome. It feels like it just happened, you know just happened. The reality is for Peter, it did feel like it had just happened. He, he could not believe what he saw. So what Peter is saying to us is look I didn't put easter in my back pocket and pull it out one sunday a year. Peter said, I can't begin to tell you the story, he begins to stop and and think of the places that they walked, the people that they were around, he begins to to relive those moments and he's like man the blind, they were made to see the lame, they were made to walk the death, they were made to hear jesus cast out demons and we didn't understand what was going on, but we saw it and miracle after miracle after miracle was performed and jesus, he he calmed a raging storm, we were, we were out in a boat, jesus, he he walked on water and then there was this night Jesus was arrested, he was condemned, he was tortured, he was brutally executed, he was placed in a tomb and then Peter thought but he emptied his tomb and jesus rose again and Peter never got over it, he didn't like think about it, let me just confess for all of us. Do you know how easy it is for us as human beings to forget about everything we're doing right now, an hour from now when we're eating a taco. I mean serious guys, I'm right there on the left. It is so easy for us to to hear this amazing truth, you know, and just get some Jesus dip and move on. So I just want to encourage you encourage myself, let's have a little more Peter in us. And Peter's like, Gosh, 30 years later, it feels like it just happened. This, this amazing truths. I feel like I just saw them with my own eyes. But here's the thing we didn't right, We didn't see these things with our own eyes. So so why should we believe Peter again? I'm a simple guy. I don't know how to make it difficult. We should believe Peter because it makes no sense for him to be brutally killed for a phony fish story. We should believe Peter because he didn't sign a book deal to talk about jesus, He he didn't make money off this gig. We should believe Peter because there's really no part of his story that screams fairy tale. In fact, even those hostile to Christianity have affirmed what he shares. We should believe Peter because he gave us the only thing he had to offer and that's jesus. He he just he gave us jesus and why did he just give us jesus? Here's why, because that's simple fishermen who knew how to work with his hands, who was fantastic blue collar man in his community, that simple fishermen with no confusion and complete confidence? I saw jesus over and over again and said yes, that guy is the way and the truth and the life. No question, that's what Peter said. What do you say? Who do you say, jesus? Is is he a lunatic? Is he a liar? Is he a radical religious leader? Is he a noble guru? Is he an angel dressed up in people clothes? Is he imaginary friend? I'll tell you when I've had a couple of people. Tell me recently, is jesus just like an emotional crutch for you? You know, just something to make you feel better about death. Who is jesus to you? Is jesus and easter just just a fairy tale or is it more, I've always appreciated the eastern philosophy of James Christopher Gaffigan who described easter in a very interesting way. Two people talking, he goes easter the day, Jesus Rose from the dead, what are we going to do? How about some eggs, what does that have to do with jesus? Ah we'll hide them, don't worry about it. I'm not following your logic, don't worry about it. There's a bunny, it'll all work out, is that easter is easter you know just just a fairy tales, Is it just a holiday? Is jesus no different than superman or batman or spiderman or harry potter or the easter bunny or is there something more to this story? Is there more to the truth about jesus. Who do you say, Jesus says, you know, it's one thing for us on easter sunday to say, yes, it all happened. Have these authenticated sources that say it all happened. But but it's another thing in your life in the nitty gritty moments to say. Yeah, the truth about jesus, it matters right now. Robin Claressa had been married for 17 years. They had four young Children Three years ago on July 19 Rob died in a hiking accident. Left Clarissa's life in in every way falling apart. But God in his grace. Over the last three years, he has been using Claressa in a lot of different ways to be a voice of hope for people who are struggling with grief. I encourage you to check out her website. It's Claressa mol M O L L dot com. Uh She's got a couple of great books and some articles and some other things. But last year Claressa was writing about her first easter without rob. And she said as she approached that 1st Easter, she said the thing that became the hardest was the empty tomb of Jesus. The thing that we rejoice over became the hardest thing for her to deal with. She said she just couldn't get over the the audacity of the promises of jesus, I mean really think about it. I mean the promises that jesus has made? They're cuckoo And yet they're true. She said, I couldn't get over the audacity of the promises of jesus. And this is how she describes it. That first painful easter I thought a good christian should rejoice with abandoned in the face of grief. I should stand on the promises of jesus and lift my eyes and unadulterated hope of eternal triumph. I should shout o death! Where is thy sting Instead? She says, all I could do was weep for all that remains unfinished. She goes on. Each year we celebrate easter. We stand beside the empty tomb and if we're honest with ourselves it isn't enough. The world is still such a mess. And as we look around us, we can't help but long for more. And then she gets very real every day since my husband died. I have prayed Come quickly. Lord jesus. But so far the answer is a dramatic not yet so far, only one tomb is empty, she says, as we approach another easter, God invites each of us to trust his plan, his order, his timing. Even when we do not understand. And then she gives this challenge. God asked us to claim this one empty tomb as the promise of all that lies ahead. What kind of open doors are you looking for in your life today? What kind of doors are you hoping will open at work at home Grad school anywhere in life. What kind of doors are you hoping are going to open with with family and friends? Doors that might open with time or or money or or taxes or government or or sports. What kind of doors are you hoping will open in your life? Whatever those doors are on this easter sunday and next Sunday and 10 Sundays from now we will offer you what Peter offered because it's the only thing we can offer for all the open doors you're wanting. We offer jesus And we keep offering him and we keep offering because 30 years from now, if you have Jesus, you won't get over it. And 300 years from now, if you have Jesus, you won't get over it. And I'm serious, every single one of us need to get into this moment. 300,000 years from now. If you have Jesus, you won't get over it that day exists. So we offer you jesus and we offer you the audacity of his promises because they're all true because the tomb is empty. He guaranteed his promises to be true. The one empty tomb is the one open door to every promise that your soul longs for the most. We long for some stuff. Right? We long for a good season for our team college football in the fall we we long for our kids to find good spouses. We long for our grandkids to find good jobs. We we long for our grass to look fantastic. You know, we long for there not to be a long line wherever we go to eat after church. I mean we we long for things, right? We all long for things. But your soul, even if you can't outline it, your soul is longing for what? The one empty tomb, The one open door promises. So today God is inviting all of us all over again. He's inviting us to claim the one empty tomb, The one empty door as the promise of everything that our soul will long for forever. So the challenge for all of us today is simply this. Will we claim it?