UP AND DOWN

0:03 Have you ever had an EKG before? I'm talking about an electrocardiogram. Would you lift your hand if you've had one before? Yeah. It's kind of eerie, isn't it? They put 10 electrodes on your body, and you watch your heart on the screen go up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down. In 2017, a test like this literally saved my life. I was told, because of a checkup, that I had six months to live, basically, and the doctors encouraged me, I didn't need that much encouragement, to have surgery. I was born with a mitral valve prolapse, a little prolapse on one of my valves.

1:03 And I was told throughout my younger years that, you know, I had it, but the doctors were like, you know, it's doubtful if you'll ever have to have any surgery. I mean, you've been athletic, you've tested your heart a lot, you've run marathons. And so I doubt you'll have to have surgery, but let's keep an eye on it. And sure enough, in 2017, because of a test like this, I found myself facing heart surgery. Surgery is a full contact sport.

1:40 I remember thinking to myself, I'm going to have heart surgery? and then someone called me, I think a nurse, she had the audacity to say I'm a heart patient. Me? A heart patient? Well, yes. The surgery lasted five hours, and I have a picture, I think, of it, of my beautiful wife, Lisa. I came out of surgery, and I thought I saw an angel, but no, it was Lisa. Thankfully, I have no limitations after the surgery. I can do anything. That's awesome. But, you know, in some of my conversations with my surgeon afterwards, he told me some really unique things about heart surgery.

2:36 The first was, he said, you know, Ed, I held your heart in my hands. Whew, okay. And then he said, now, you know, we stopped the heart, and the tenuous thing was to restart it, which we did. I said thank you Dr. Lurie for sharing that and then I thought about Jesus because I've really had two physicians touch my heart the first being Jesus of Nazareth because of his death, burial and resurrection and then also Dr. Gerald Lurie from Houston, Texas has God touched your heart?

3:28 has God held your heart? In his hands? Let me ask you the question again. What's your EKG? Your Easter knowledge of God. What is it? Some here would go, I know a lot about Easter. I know about Christ living this pristine life, dying on a Roman cross, rising again, and I live that out, Ed. I'm walking in the power of the resurrection. We have some people like that here.

4:03 Others here would be like, well, sort of. You know, I'm, I don't know, one foot in and one foot out. I mean, you wouldn't say it to other people, but you're kind of a creaster, Christmas and Easter only, and you are not really all in. You know, you've not really surrendered yourself to God. Others here would be flatlined.

4:35 You just don't believe and you have no heartbeat for the Lord himself. So we have different types of people who have all sorts of Easter knowledge. here's what the scripture says about our heart you know we're talking about hearts the bible says in jeremiah chapter 17 verse 9 the heart is deceitful above all things isn't that the truth and desperately wicked who can know it biologists have tried anthropologists have tried psychologists have tried. No one has a solution for our heart problem. The issue of the heart is the heart of the issue. We have a major heart problem.

5:35 what did God do about our heart problem what did he what did he do how did he act about our heart problem because the heart is who you are it's who I am well let's go back to the EKG again I ask you what your EKG was now let me throw another question at you You have to think deeper. Are you ready? What is God's EKG? That's right. What is God's EKG?

6:10 Hmm. What if we could read that on the screen? Well, we can because God's EKG is written out for us right here. God's EKG is this. Up, down, up, down, up. Say that with me. Up, down, up, down, up. That's it. Drop the mic. That's God's EKG. But the question that begs to be answered is, does your heart rhythm sync up with up, down, up, down, up? That's the question. Because what I just described to you is the heartbeat of Easter. Let's start at the top. Up, up. It starts with up. Jesus started up. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Co-existent, co-eternal. They didn't have to act or do anything to be more God.

7:06 It's the is-ness of God. Jesus was up in the heavenlies. And here's what's so interesting, isn't it, about the other faith systems. All of the other faith systems are about going up. I've got to climb up. I've got to jump through this hoop and that hoop. And we climb and we climb and we climb. yet because our hearts aren't healthy, because of sin, there's this shortfall. The Bible says in Romans 3, 23, all have sinned, not some, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So we got a problem. Jesus is up and we've tried to climb up, yet we can never get to where he is. So what did he do? Because we matter to him, so much, because he loves us so much, because he wants to have a relationship with us so much.

8:05 He did something. Jesus came down, up, down from the heavenlies to the earth. Have you ever seen the ubiquitous picture of the wealthy CEO or entrepreneur at a groundbreaking ceremony? Have you ever seen that? Their hat's on kind of awkwardly. They're in a $10,000 suit and they're shoveling dirt with that gold shovel. What amazes me about these photos is if you look at the people around this icon, this president, this CEO, they're looking like, Wow. Oh. Incredible. it's really a photo op for him do you think he's going to actually build this 1.5 billion square foot building no do you think he's going to wear a hard hat and eat in their lunch rooms No!

9:18 But people settle for an illusion of identity. Our Lord and Savior did not settle for an illusion, did he? He didn't pick up the gold shovel, put on the hard hat, and shovel some dirt and go, Okay, I'm Jesus, and I'm out. No, no, no. The Bible says, I love this in the message, John chapter 1, verse 14, it says, the word became flesh and blood and moved into our neighborhood. Jesus set aside his glory and stepped into our story. He walked and lived life fully God, fully man. We have his behavior. We have his perfect righteousness. We have the pristine path. He walked from the cradle to the cross. Absolutely unbelievable. Jesus came down. C.S. Lewis says it's the greatest miracle. Jesus coming down is the incarnation.

10:37 My wife's sister is named Laurie. She lives in Columbia, South Carolina. And years ago, she received an heirloom, a beautiful diamond ring. One day, the diamond ring was missing, and she figured out who had stolen it, the exterminator.

11:01 So they hired some authorities, and they tracked down the exterminator, and sure enough, he confessed, okay, I took the heirloom. But he said, I got nervous and walked out on the dock, and I threw the ring into Lake Murray. Just Google Lake Murray. Muddy Murray. Dank Murray. Algae-infested, lily-pad-laden Lake Murray. He just tossed the ring out. A diver was hired.

11:39 This diver dove down into that water, that chocolate milk. found the heirloom and brought the treasure back. that's the gospel. That's what Jesus did, didn't he? He jumped into our mess. He dove down.

12:11 He picked up you and me. We're his treasure. We're his heirloom. Because the Bible says we're co-heirs with Jesus. That is how much we matter to God. up, down, up, down, up. Then Jesus went up, 33 years old. He voluntarily, let me say it again, voluntarily laid himself on a cross. He was not a victim of circumstance. He did this for you and me.

12:48 The Bible says in John chapter 12, verse 32, in fact, Jesus speaking, think about up and down again. He said, and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. Jesus suffered and died. He was arrested for a crime he didn't commit. He was abused, tortured, nailed to a cross, and there he flatlined. He died. There was a lot going on in the cross, one being an amazing exchange. Jesus was our and is our atoning sacrifice. Jesus took the brunt of the justice and the wrath of God on the cross that you deserve and I deserve.

13:49 He took it. At the same time, God poured out his mercy on us. What is mercy? When we don't get what we deserve. How powerful is that? I mean, there's something inside of us that says, someone's got to pay. Someone's got to pay. Sin has to have a payment. Jesus, the perfect sinless substitute, was our payment on the cross. And then he meted out this amazing mercy and grace. Are you tracking with me this EKG up, down, up on the cross? Well, then when he died, they took him down, right? They put him in a tomb. death.

14:47 Because of the resurrection, it was the death of death. We have to understand, though, Jesus died. Now, he told people he was going to come back, but it went over his followers' heads. Yet on that Easter Sunday, Jesus rose again. God raised Christ up. It was like the ultimate comeback. You know what I'm saying to you? So the Lord was even setting up salvation, setting up the resurrection by having Jesus lifted up on the cross. but man the comeback was ridiculous wasn't it have you ever been to a game like a football game a basketball game maybe you're playing pickleball i don't know and you're like oh man the game is over it's done but all of a sudden you hear in the back of your mind come back time come back time And to your amazement, this team that seemed to be down, this player that seemed to be having an off day, suddenly catches fire and they come back.

16:08 Well, this is the greatest comeback in history. Jesus dying on the cross for the iniquities of the world and rising again. God raised him up. I mean, why is the resurrection so important? Let me give you five quick reasons. It proves his identity that he is God. It validates the cross. It defeats death, gives us new life, and guarantees our forever. It's pretty important, isn't it? I mean, this is just miraculous. It's amazing. Ephesians chapter 1, verses 19 and following says,

16:56 his incomparably great power for us who believe that power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ Jesus from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. So, Jesus was flatlined

17:20 And the same resurrection power that restarted his heart can restart your heart and mine. Only because of the resurrection. what's your EKG? because your heart and my heart was made to beat at the same rate, the same pace, the same cadence as the heart of our Lord. Up, down, up, down, up. Up, down, up, down, up.

18:04 Because friends, if it beats for any other thing or any other purpose will never understand what this existence and what eternity is all about. I'll say it again, the heart of the issue is the issue of the heart.

18:28 Ezekiel chapter 36 says, I'll give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I'll take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh what a great prayer that can happen ladies and gentlemen today I'm gonna go back to the heart surgery again. Can't get it out of my mind. When they wheeled me into the operating room, this giant room, I was looking around. My surgeon is a renowned surgeon that I met through a friend of mine. And he's the kind of surgeon that when he walks the halls of the hospital, like 20 people are following him. He has his own posse.

19:22 learning from him. So I kind of look around and see all of them there, and they're just waiting, you know? And the nurses ask me, they go, well, Mr. Young, do you want us to place you on the operating table, or do you want to get up there yourself? I said, I'm going to get up there myself. So I jumped off that gurney, made my way to the operating table, laid back. Scoot up a little bit. Okay. And the operating table was shaped like a cross. Places for your arms and everything. And then, and the next thing I remember, saw my angel wife. what was I doing? I was totally surrendering to this physician. Was I totally sure I'd make it?

20:18 No. What are you totally sure of? Nothing. We don't have certainty in this life. The just shall live by faith. But I look at my surgeon's history, thousands and thousands of surgeries. I look at my family history. I look at my life. I look at my health. I'm like, I'm going to do it. I believe I'm going to make it through. I believe that's what our Lord Jesus wants you to do. Surrender yourself. Lay up on that table. because he will give you a new heart. He will restore and reboot your heart even though it's flatlined.

21:12 What's your Easter knowledge of God? Well, let me change the EKG a little bit because we can take this home. I'm gonna challenge you to examine your heart, E, to kneel before him and to give him your all. Up, down, up, down, up. Jesus was in heaven. He came to earth. He died on the cross for the sins of the world. He was buried in the tomb, and he rose again. The question is, does your heart beat in sync with him? I'm going to ask you if you find a place to kneel all across our worship center.

22:08 The aisles are pretty wide, so we have some room to do so. And while we're kneeling, we're going to go through this EKG prayer. Father, right now as we bow before you in prayer, examine, examine my heart. Just make that your prayer. Lord, examine my heart. Do you have some clogged arteries? Do you have some arrhythmia? Are you flatlined? Lord, we kneel before you as an act of worship, and we give you our all. We trust you. We lay ourselves on that table. The evidence is stacked, but it's that faith journey.

23:10 so many people need to say, Jesus, give me a new heart. Restart my heart. I ask you to come into my heart and restart my heart. Lord, may we never be the same because of this message. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.