Now, I'm going to read this morning six verses of Scripture from the 28th chapter of Matthew, the last chapter of Matthew, the very first book in the New Testament. If you have your Bibles, please share them with one there nearby as we read together from the Word of God. Matthew chapter 28, verses 1 through 6. In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. And behold, there was a great earthquake. For the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him, the keepers did shake and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. Let's all read that sixth verse together. He is not here, for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. The story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most powerful event the world has ever known. Men have always been enamored with the concept that a man could be raised from the dead. Here it happened in the life of Jesus Christ. And it was the most visual demonstration of the power of God working, involved in the affairs and lives of men that has ever been recorded in human history. It is a story that we do not have to approach simply with faith, although we call our religion the Christian faith. It is a story that we can believe by reason as well. When one gives serious attention to the study of the resurrection of Christ, he comes repeatedly to the question, Who stole the body? Where is the body? Why hasn't a body been produced if Jesus, in fact, did not rise from the grave? Where is the proof of his death? Certainly, Jesus did not just resurrect from having fainted in the tomb, drained of blood, and come staggering from the grave, overpowering the guards and pushing aside a 12 -ton tombstone. Certainly, the Roman guards were not bought off, because to accept a bribe or to break the Roman seal was two of the three crimes punishable by trial without death for a Roman soldier. Certainly, the disciples did not steal the body. You will remember that the cross did not make them heroes. It made them cowards. They fled in cowardice, crossing off the whole matter as a bad deal. Or perhaps Mary Magdalene and Martha. Maybe they came and overpowered the guards and stole the body. Two frail women. Or perhaps it was the Jews themselves. But, of course, that's ridiculous. For they, more than anyone else, would prefer to have had a body to produce to refute the story of a resurrection of a supposed Jewish king. It is a story that we can believe because the Bible, because our own experience, because our heart tells us that Jesus Christ rose from the grave. We're here today because we believe it. But more than that, we're here today because we have experienced it. There's a power that's at work in our lives, and the Bible tells us it is the power that brought Christ from the grave. No nation, no society in the history of the world has ever needed answers, has never longed for power as has this one. Now, it's a theological truth. It's an experiential reality, and it's a historical fact. But the question today, 2 ,000 years later, that must be answered is, So what? So Jesus Christ arose from the grave 2 ,000 years ago. What does that say to me today in my crazy, mixed -up society? The world is looking for answers. What does Jesus Christ have to say to this kind of a world? A successful movie recently has declared simply, The Heart is a Rebel. And other describes our impossible dilemma under the title Blood Knot. An MIT scholar said last week that in the library texts of the average university, an average, a smart college student can rig a nuclear formula that has the power to destroy the world. In the last two weeks, communism has taken over as much of the world as it did in the previous 20 years. One of the pop songs of the day says, I want to be evil. The Beatles sing, Help Me. And Joni Mitchell sings, Simply help. Errol Flynn, the swashbuckling celluloid hero of the 40s and 50s and 60s, has written his memoirs in a book entitled, My Wicked, Wicked Life. When Joni Mitchell was sentenced for his part in Watergate, he said, I wish I were on the moon. Amy Vanderbilt, one of the most honored and wealthy women of the world, recently leapt to her death from a tall building. Richard Chamberlain said, I'm laughing on the outside but crying on the inside. The wife of Senator Ted Kennedy said, only two weeks ago, where has all the happiness gone? Prince Charles, at age 26, says that I am lonely and filled with confusion. Three famous astronauts. Buzz Aldrin admits that there's utter emptiness in his life. Ed Mitchell has turned to the occult. What a contrast with the vibrant living faith of astronaut Jim Irwin, who has stood in this pulpit to say that he has found power and excitement in his life through his faith in Jesus Christ. Now, what does the resurrection have to say to us today? What is the answer of the world to the world of men and women who live like this? In the book of Hebrews, the Apostle Paul, in the very closing verses of chapter 13, gives us an answer. I want you to listen. Hebrews 13, verses 20 and 21. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect. That means strong, finished, completed. Make you perfect in every good work to do his will and to work that which is well -pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Listen again. That same power, which brought again our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, worketh in you all to bring you to completion, to bring you to fulfillment. There's the answer. The Bible says very clearly that the power that was the most amazing, stupendous power the world has ever known, that which did the most impossibly marvelous thing the world has ever dreamed of, the power to bring a man to life from the grave is the precise same power that indwells the believer in Jesus Christ. And we don't have to be suicidal. We don't have to be fatalistic. There is power, resurrection power, in the lives of contemporary modern Houstonians in 1975. And it's the power to do the will of God. It's the power to make you complete. It is power to live day in and day out. I've thought a lot this week about the use of that power. But to understand how the power is going to meet our needs, we have to understand what our needs are. And so it occurs to me, and the thought has repeatedly come since last Sunday, that modern young men and women in a contemporary city such as Houston really have two basic needs in their lives. Power to do two things. And pretty much all of life boils down to a need for two kinds of powers. Number one, many times in a seductous, temptation -filled society, young men and women that would dare to be strong, that would stand by what was right, must have the power to let go when they want to hang on. Now, there's a lot of sin in the world. There's a lot of temptation. But you don't have to be weak. You don't have to stumble every time the devil sticks out his foot. There is power, resurrection power, to turn loose when you want to hang on. It was that power that helped Vashti to be true. I read again this morning in the book of Esther, the story of beautiful Queen Vashti. She was the queen and her husband, the king, ruled over a province that included Persia, that included all the wealth of the known world that extended from India all the way down to Ethiopia. Now, she was the queen, sitting on top of all that oil, the most powerful woman in the world. One night, at the end of a six -month celebration feast, there was a week -long party. And when the wine had made the king heady, he demanded that the queen come in and dance naked and display her beauty before all the lords of the king and the queens of the provinces over which they ruled. But Vashti refused to do so. Now, she knew that it would cost her her position. She knew that it was going to cost her her wealth. She knew that it possibly might even cost her her life, which ultimately it did. And there was a strong power, a strong pull in her life to hang on, to do what was wrong, to hang on to the things that were really not important, when all of the virtue and her modesty and her decency said, don't do it. And Vashti had the power to say no, and walked out of that room with nothing left, but her modesty and self -respect. It was the power of the positive no. Many of you this week are going to go through struggles. Many of you have been through them last week. The pull of the world, the power of sin, the temptation inducement to evil. And everything in your base nature, everything in your flesh is saying, hang on to sin, hang on to lust, hang on to the world. And some of you will find the power to let go. And those of you will be the ones who find it in the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit that is in Jesus Christ. That's the only power that's going to see you through. All the psychoanalysis and all the psychotherapy and all the education in the world won't do you any good. When your blood races with the wind, when temptation is strong, when everything inside you says, hang on, and the power of God is saying, let go. It's only the Holy Spirit that can see you through. That's the resurrection power that's available. It was that same power when the three Hebrew children, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were tempted. They were told to bow down and worship the heathen idols. But they were true to Jehovah God. They knew they would lose their life. They would lose their position. They would lose everything that normally was dear. But they had become children of God by faith. And they had an allegiance to a greater God. And they had to find power. Now, God didn't save them out of the fire. Because the king, when they refused to bow, thrust them into a fiery furnace heated seven times higher. They wouldn't bow. They wouldn't budge. But listen, they wouldn't burn. Because when they were thrust into the fire, they found that there was a fourth man in the fire likened to the Son of God. God never promises to save you out of the furnace for your faith in Him. But it gives you the power to turn loose and stand for Him and promises to deliver you in the midst of the fire. It was that same resurrection power when Daniel made his stand. And Moses, what of Moses? You remember the story of how Moses was a Jewish boy. The Ten Commandments was on last night. Moses was pictured rightly as having a struggle. When he grew up, he realized he had an allegiance to God. But he had a strong force that was pulling him. The force pulled him to prestige. He was chairman of the board. He was going to be president of the company. He was going to rule over all of Egypt. But he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. How can a man walk out on that? How can he turn his back on a crooked business deal? How can he turn his back on a beautiful woman? How can he turn his back on the temptation of the world? How can a man find the strength to let go when he wants to hang on? That strength is the power of God. And it is the resurrection power that brought Christ from the grave. That's the same power that's available to you today. But there's another kind of power that men need. And that's the power to hang on when you want to turn loose. I find a lot of folks that go through deep waters. I think this pastor. I think this church staff and our teachers and all of us that meet here every week never have the slightest idea the problems that our people go through. I realize that many of our people go through deep waters and struggle with problems when the windows of heaven seem to be closed. And the voice of God doesn't come. And prayers to answers to prayers don't happen. And we're going through singlehood. And we're going through divorce. And we go through the valley of the shadow of death. And we go through things which make us wonder if God's still alive. God, many people come to the very precipice. When like Job of old, whose wife finally said, Why don't you just curse God and die? Job said, Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. When reverses come, I've talked to businessmen this week, two of them, that are facing bankruptcy. Now there's a way out, but there's a crooked way out. And they're vying within themselves to hang on to their Christian faith and their self -respect or let it all go when it'd be so very easy. And they're staying by the stuff. I talked to a young man this week who had been a convert from Buddhism. In the last seven days, he'd become a Christian. And he was so desperately wanting to hang on to his Christian faith, but everything was saying, no, go on back, turn loose. That young man, I'm happy to say, in prayer and the power of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, found the faith to hang on to the Lord. The Bible never said you won't walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but it did say you will be able to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. You won't have to. But it did say you will be able to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. You won't have to run through it. You won't have to pretend it isn't there. You won't have to be a denialist or a fetalist. You can walk soberly through the problems of life, death, death, bankruptcy, temptation, divorce, discouragement, unanswered prayer, whatever it is, when everything inside of you is saying there's an easier way than this, don't trust God. Turn loose of your Christian faith. Let it go. When God gives you the strength to hang on and to say with Job, though he slay me, I'll still trust him. You will find that the power that is available to you to do that is the power that works in all of you, the same power that brought again the Lord Jesus Christ from the grave. Whatever your need is today, the power to let go when you want to hang on, the power to hang on when everything inside of you says, let go. I promise you that the power of Jesus Christ, the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit is available and accessible to you and you can be the kind of man you want to be. You can be the kind of woman that you want to be. The story is told of John Bunyan in Bedford jail and prison for 12 years for his faith in Christ. The guards, the government, his own family had come. His wife had stood by him. His children had knelt before him and all of them had pledged with him to refute his faith in Jesus Christ. They had said, you don't even need to mean it. Just say it with the words. Just walk out. Just say, I don't believe in Christ and you'll be a free man. Go home and write your book. Do whatever you want to. But John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim's Progress, stayed and died in that dark, dank dungeon and hung on to his Christian faith when everything about him was saying, let go. John Bunyan found the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ in his life. Now I want you to know something. You say, preacher, that's too much to ask. I can't do it. I can't be that kind of man. I struggle with the flesh. I can't have that kind of power in my life. Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus Christ didn't have that power in his life until first he was crucified. You say, I just love myself too much. I love my position. I love the struggles of the flesh. I realize the taste of sin is tasty indeed. But let me tell you something. Do you remember when Jesus went to the cross? He didn't crucify himself. He didn't take nails and draw them into his hands. Before the power came into his life, he had to be crucified all right. But all Jesus could do was to give himself willingly to the father to be crucified. You can't crucify yourself. That's not your work. The power is not your power. The power comes in answer to surrender. When you come to Jesus Christ and willingly give him yourself and say, thy will be done. Oh Christ, come and live in me. Yes, it'll cost you something. There'll be a price to be paid. Some of you may have to be crucified in a sense, but the power of God that is available is God's power. And it comes to the man who is willing to give himself to the Lord. I don't care who you are, what your needs are. There's power in God to live the kind of life, to answer the problems of your life, to be the kind of person that you can look at in the mirror every morning and be proud of who you are. I've wondered many times about the resurrected Christ. Have you ever noticed how many times when you view the Lord Jesus Christ, that when you find him in his resurrection appearances, 11 or 12 of them, they're always conscious that it is he, but not at first. There's enough similarity in the resurrected body of Jesus to the old body to recognize him, but not so much as to not bewilder them a little bit. What happened? Well, the resurrected body of Jesus was a different kind of body. It was not a flesh and blood body. It was not a material body. It was not a body that was limited to the limitations of space and physical limitations. What am I saying? Simply this. I don't believe that they had to roll away the tombstone for Jesus to get out. I believe in His resurrected body, Jesus Christ walked right through it. Why then did the angel come down from heaven and roll back the tombstone? Listen to me. The tombstone wasn't rolled back by the angel to let him out. It was rolled back to let us in. So you could walk right in. You see, the power of God is available to all men. There's no secret. The only limitation is the willingness to give your life to Jesus Christ. My wife and I had the privilege of making a tour over to Europe and Israel a few years ago. It was provided for graciously a study tour to the Holy Land by our beloved church. We've been by the tomb. I've seen lines gone by the tomb of many of the world's leaders, as have you. We went to Washington, D .C., and we saw the tomb of Mr. Kennedy, and they said, don't get too close. We knelt down at the tombs of some of the great teachers and philosophers of the world in Greece, and they said, now, don't pick the flowers. And we went into St. Peter's Basilica, and they said, don't touch the beer. We walked down to some of the tombs of the great priests in Rome and the great popes, and they said, don't soil the marble. And we went over to Israel, walked by where Jesus Christ had gone on the Sea of Galilee, stood at the cross where he had died, and walked into the garden tomb. And there, as we approached, there seemed to be a holy sense. And when we came close to the tomb of Jesus Christ, once, those that were there opened the door and said, come on in and walk around. He is not here. He is alive. And we sat on the place where the body lay, and we sensed his power, and it glowed with his presence. And he walked with us and talked with us, and we knew that he was alive. You can search a hundred graveyards on a hundred thousand hillsides, and you'll never find the funeral beer of my Lord Jesus. You'll never find the bones of the Son of God. Because he is alive. He lives today. I serve a risen Savior. He's in the world today. I know that he's living whatever men may say. I see his hand of mercy. I hear his voice of cheer. And just in time, just the time I need him, he's always near. Remember the story of Potiphar? Joseph had been raised to power, a Hebrew boy that loved God with all his heart. He had been exalted to the second ruler in the kingdom. This movie was on TV last week. Very true to the Old Testament. Some of you saw it. When Potiphar was away, his wife, a very beautiful woman, grabbed hold of his clothes, said, come on to bed with me. Come on, lie with me. The husband's away. He won't know. And Joseph left nothing in her arms but the shreds of his coat as he fled for his life and his self -respect. What made the difference? Joseph found the power of God adequate in every situation. Because the tomb is empty, because Jesus Christ is alive today, there's power for your life. You can be the kind of man you want to be. Resurrection power for moderns, it's power to let go when you want to hang on and power to hang on when you want to let go. And it's available to you because Christ lives. Now this morning, he'll come and live in your heart. But the only way that that power to change your life can be a reality is that when you give yourself willingly to Jesus Christ to do whatever he wants to, I don't know what he'll take away from your life, but he'll replace it with a hundred things better. I don't know what cost it'll mean in your life, of what changes socially it'll make. But I promise you that when you give your heart and your life to Jesus Christ, when you willingly lay yourself as Christ did on the cross before the Father and say, Lord Jesus, I love you, I give you myself, I want your life, I want your power, I promise you that the same power of God that wrought again Jesus from the dead is available to work in you and to transform your life. In just a moment, we're going to sing an invitation hymn. I'm going to ask numbers of you to come and just get up from your seat and come here to the front and say, Preacher, I want power. I want Christ in my life. I am willing to give my life to the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. You say, I don't want to join the Baptist Church. That doesn't make any difference. We don't care where you go to church. We care that you're a Christian. We want to know that you know that Jesus Christ and His power lives in you. You'll have to deal with your sin. You'll have to repent of your sin in yourself. That's what a willing crucifixion is. It holds back nothing. It gives itself to Christ. It says, Lord, I give you my all. When you do that, then the power of God comes in that transforms your life. Will you come? Will you just stand from your seat and come and say, I want to know Christ. I want to give my life to him. And you say, what will happen when we get down there? Well, some of our counselors, our associates, the pastor, will talk with you one at a time. We'll just pray with you and show you how willingly and how simply it is that a man can pray and ask Christ to come and live in his heart by faith. And he'll change your life. He'll make you a new person this Easter morning. He'll give you resurrection power. The same power that brought Jesus from the grave. Now, some of you would like to join our church. You're already Christians. You love the Lord. You come here and you like it. You need to be identified with the church. Let me tell you that there's no better time in the world to join the church than on Easter or no church that would welcome and love you anymore. And so, Christian friend, as you come, you can kind of help serve as an escort to our unsaved friends. Your very coming may make it easier for someone who wants Christ to come into their life. Will you trust him today? Will you respond? The Spirit of God is moving mightily in this church. He's been doing so in the last few weeks. Don't let him pass you by. He's willing. He's waiting. Open your heart. For God will change your life. Christian friend, lead the way. Will you come? Will you come and trust Christ? Will you give him your life? His power will bless you and change your life. Let's stand and sing. We're waiting for you. God bless you as you come. Come right ahead. God bless you.