I waited for Denny to get up here to crack a joke before I came up, but he chose to sit this one out. Because I have an hour to give many more. It is good to be in the house of the Lord. It's good to be back with you all. Let's get straight to God's business tonight. 15. First Corinthians 15 this evening. Um, we're going to read, um, verse one, um, to verse 22. Let us, when you're there, I'll wait. First Corinthians 15. We'll go ahead and get started. Let me start reading. My daughter always gets on me cause I moved too fast for, I'll wait for you Sydney. All right, let's begin. I'll be in here for a while, Sidney. I'll keep throwing out verses when you get there. Verse number one. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand, by which also we are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I deliver unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. then that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve, verse number six. After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. Verse seven, after that, he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of all, he was seen of me also as a one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles that am not meet to be called a apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. His grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me. Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach, so ye and so ye believed. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ be not written, then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain. Yes. And we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ whom he raised not up. If so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised? And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins. Verse 18. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all man most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for this day. Unto thee, O Lord, tonight we lift up our souls. Unto thee, O Lord. Lord, I pray this evening that you will bless us, Lord, with your presence. We know that you're omniscient. We know that you are everywhere at once. But Lord, we are asking for a special, special and intimate presence from you this evening. Holy Spirit, the Bible says where you are, there's liberty. Lord, give us liberty tonight. Give us liberty of ears this evening. Unclog our ears from the hardness of this world. Unclog our ears from the false teachings of this world. Unclog our ears, Lord, from all that we hear in the media and the news and all that people say is truth. Lord, liberate ears this evening. Liberate hearts this evening, Lord. Some of our hearts are on the troubles of yesterday. Some of our hearts are on the glory days of yesteryears. Some of our hearts are on the troubles of Monday. Lord, liberate our hearts from distractions this evening. Liberate our desires to be elsewhere tonight. To be, whether it's watching a game, or whether it's being with family, or whether it's just being asleep. Lord, liberate our hearts this evening from those affections, and place our affections on holy things this evening. Liberate our minds, Lord, that we may think about what we hear. That we don't just detach our mind from our faith. Lord, let us think about it. Liberate our mind that we will have the mind of Christ. that we will understand spiritual things this evening. And Lord, liberate my lips, that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Do what this preacher and no preacher can ever do, and that save a soul that may be lost, heading into eternal burning hell tonight. In Jesus name I pray, amen. You may be seated, thank you for standing. This evening, we'll look at the title of our message, What If? What if this evening, for those who are taking notes, I give you my three points of succession. What if Christ didn't die? What if Christ didn't rise? And what if you die without Christ? Let us now jump into our test of what if. What does that statement mean? It is to ask the question, if this did happen, how drastically different would my life be? Or if this didn't happen, how drastically different would my life be? It's to ask the question, what if this didn't happen? So we're gonna look at that more central tonight. What if Christ didn't die? Paul here, Paul the apostle, in verse number three in our text, he comes right out the gate. He says, for I deliver unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. It was first things first for Paul. And the first thing off his list, the first thing that was most important to him to teach to the Corinthians was the crucifixion of Christ. There's nothing more important to ministry. There's nothing more important to preaching than the cross. Any preacher that's withdrawn from the cross, that doesn't have the cross at the central of the message is not godly preaching. It is leading towards false doctrine. But why? What is so important about Jesus' death? What if he didn't die? Would life be any different than it is right now? I mean, look at life right now. People are just killing people. School shootings are taking place. Daddies are abandoning their homes. Babies are still being aborted. What difference has Christ made in his death? What have we gained from this death of a Middle Eastern Jewish Galilean man who died a criminal's death on a cross? So that may be a question that you ask. That may be the question that you may be facing in your life that someone out there will bring to you. Well, I'll tell you the answer we need, if not in the beginning of this epistle. Turn to chapter one with me. Chapter one in this epistle, 1 Corinthians 1.18. This is the answer to that question. What difference or what does it matter if Christ died or not? Verse 18 says, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. Verse 22, 23, he goes one step further. He says, But the Jews required a sign. And the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews, a stumbling block. And unto the Greeks, foolishness. there is no true sign or wisdom in a crucified cross. Crucified Christ, excuse me. But I say to you on the authority of the word of God, there is no greater sign of wisdom in all of creation than the cross. No greater sign. Look with me now, I'm gonna give you three points here. What if Christ never died? Well, we would never know what love is. We would never know what love is without the cross. I tell you tonight that love is not love, God is love. Let me repeat that again. Love is not love, God is love. And there's no greater love, there's no other way to know love without God giving us his son, Jesus Christ. He said in Romans 5, 8, but God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And how did God want to demonstrate his love to us? Not flowers, not a ring. It was a bloody cross. He said, I'm going to demonstrate. I'm going to show my love through humanity by sending my son to die on the cross for their sins. That's how he demonstrated his love to us. 1 Corinthians 13, when I think of these verses, so many times I've heard it applied to us and how we need to have charity. But when I read these verses thinking about this love that Christ has showed us, these verses aren't about us living them out as much as they are about Christ himself. He said, charity suffereth long. Jesus suffered long for us. He's still suffering long for us. He still, it says, loving charity suffers long and it's kind. There's no one more kinder than Jesus. A charity envious not, I've envied people. I've been jealous of people today. I've repented, I've confessed my sins before you, and I've confessed my sins before God. I've envied people, but Jesus never envied not one soul. He never envied, he never looked and said, I wish I had that, I wish I was that, I wish I was that person. He envied not, devontive not itself. I've been puffed up before. It said, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly. Seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked. Jesus died for six hours on that cross and he was not provoked to speak evil of those people. He spoke otherwise. He said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. He never spoke unseemly words. He was never provoked. He thinketh no evil. Christ never thought evil. He rejoiced in not in iniquity. I rejoiced in lies in my life. I rejoiced in iniquity in my life. Christ never did. It goes further. It says, charity. Iniquity, but rejoicing in the truth. Betting for all things, believing for all things, hoping for all things, enduring for all things. Charity never faileth. Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. And now abide in faith, hope, charity. These three, but the greatest of these is Christ. The greatest of these is charity. Christ is the love of God. There's no deeper, no greater sign you will ever find in all of the world than the cross is a sign of love. Not a heart, not a rainbow flag. It is the cross of Calvary. That's a sign of love. What else do we get? What if Christ never died? What else would we be without? We would live in a world without wisdom. We will live in a world without wisdom. And wisdom is understanding a problem and doing the right thing about it. Understanding a problem and doing the right thing about it. First Corinthians 1.24 says, but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. God's wisdom is wrapped up in a cross. It's wrapped up in the death of the Savior. There's no wisdom outside of it. Here's our problem. The problem is sin. We have no solution for it. We try, we're trying, we're still trying to figure out solutions for sin. We can't figure it out, so we don't even talk about it anymore. We take that word out of our vocabulary now because we have no answer for sin. It is the problem that humanity cannot figure out the equation to. But God is wise. And God is all wise. He knows exactly what to do about sin, and he's done that. There's no other solution to sin. No amount of education can stop a man from sinning. Education, environment, talent, good vibes, money, education, none of them, nope, not one of them can stop a man from living wicked. There's a lot of educated wicked people in the world. They're educated. You can find them in the White House. You can find them in Congress. You can find them in the Senate. There's a lot of smart people who are wicked. I mean, Hitler was smart. He was more charismatic in preaching than most preachers could ever be. He was smart. He knew how to captivate an audience. But he did so much wicked. That education, he was Times Person of the Year. If you don't know what Times Person of the Year is, it just shows how blinded America was. Don't let them fool you. They didn't see it coming. They hailed that man as the Person of the Year. He was smart. He was deadly wicked. There's a lot of wicked people. Education can't fix it. There's a lot of talented people who are wicked. There's a lot of talented people who could not stop sin from destroying their lives. Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, two of the most, I think, most talented people, both overdosed on drugs. All that talent, all that singing, all that great artistry, it could not stop sin from destroying their lives. Talent can't solve your sinful problem. That's a lot of people with good vibes. No, that's a lot of things about good vibes today. Gotta have good vibes. Robin Williams had good vibes. Robin Williams was a very, very, I mean, I like Jumanji. Anybody like Jumanji? I can laugh at Jumanji still to this day. He's a very good vibe, comedian, funny guy. You would think, I want to be around somebody like that. He's real funny. He hung himself on a doorknob. Good vibes couldn't stop sin. Being funny couldn't stop sin. He self-destructed. Education, talent, beauty. There was a Miss America a couple of years ago. She worked for Entertainment Tonight. She had thousands of Instagram followers. She jumped off a building to her death. She was a lawyer, she was smart too. beauty, smarts, good vibes, in the industry, making a lot of money, and still could not stop Sam from corrupting her life. There's no other solution. All the money in the world, you young man back there, you know Takeoff, the rapper, all that money he made, all the drug dealers' money, all the rappers' money, it didn't stop those bullets from going through his chest. And sin cannot be stopped by any man-manufactured ways. We have no solution, only the cross. It is the wisdom of God. I could not stand in the face of death without the cross. I could not know what to say in the face of sin without the cross. I don't know what solution to give somebody. Look to the blood of Christ and live. Put your faith in Christ and live. Repent of your sins, repent of your self-sufficiencies and turn to Christ. What if Christ never died? We will not know what love is. What if Christ never died? We will never know what wisdom is. We have no solutions for the problems and the sin and the death in this life. So what if Christ didn't die? Now let's turn, what if Christ didn't rise? The cross, the church would have died spiritually. If Christ never died, the church would have died spiritually. Let's read our verses, verse five to nine. Verse five to nine, it says, and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the 12. After that, he was seen of above 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present. But some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of all, he was seen of me also, as a one born out of due time. Here, Let me explain something to you. When Jesus died, the church wasn't thriving. When Jesus died, the church abandoned him. They left him. You ever watch Rocky, I don't know if anybody's seen Rocky IV in here. Rocky IV, Apollo's out there getting the snot beat out of him. And Rocky, he tells Rocky, don't throw in the towel. And Rocky's standing there like, I need to throw in the towel. The coach saying, throw in the towel. He's getting beat to a bloody pulp by the Russian. And then Rocky gets to throw it, it's too late. You know what Peter and them did that night when they saw Jesus getting beat? They threw the towel in. They said, it's over. This movement is over. This man was out of his mind. He would not let us fight for him. He would not let us put a sword out. We are done. They were hiding and scared in the upper room. They gave up. They threw in the towel. You may be there tonight. You may be at this place where you're thrown in the towel spiritually. You are dead, you are comatose. You have come to the end of yourself in this Christianity. What good is it for you to still be a Christian? I tell you tonight, we have a living savior. When he rose from the grave, they got back in the game. It was the light, the living Christ rising from the grave that put the church back on fire for the mission. So the church would have died spiritually. We would not be today, Christians, if he did not rise. We would not be here today. I would not be in the pulpit preaching to you tonight if Christ did not rise from the dead. The church would have never made it out of Jerusalem. It would have never went forward any longer. It would have left hopeless and dark, those 12, 11 men that were left. Now what else? What if Christ didn't rise? The church would have died physically. The church would have died physically. And let me speak with much reference here, but here I'm gonna look at verse seven and nine. The church would have died physically. It says this, and last of all, he was seen of me also as a one born out of due time, for I am the least of the apostles that am not meet to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. Hall was killing Christians. The man we're reading these words that we are reading tonight, he was killing Christians. He was stamping them out. He had them on the run. He was heading to Damascus to kill more. He killed one of the prominent, well, he was a part of killing one of the prominent leaders. He was throwing them in prison. He was going to kill them physically, wipe them out. But as he was on his way, to kill Christians, he met the physically resurrected, bodily resurrected Christ. And in that moment, in that great moment on the road to Damascus, he stopped killing Christians. The church was able to thrive. It thrived more when Paul was saved than it ever thrived before. There's not no man in history that's done more in planting of churches and getting the gospel out there than Paul the apostle. He's seen him. Christ is alive. He saw the resurrected Christ. The one who was devoted to kill Jesus' followers became the most devoted to preaching Jesus' name. That's a resurrected Christ. I've told you, Christianity is not manufactured by man. The man of this Bible quit. The man who wrote this letter to us, he was killing Christians. We have a living God who gets involved in human affairs. That's what changed the game for the church. Jesus is risen. What if he didn't rise? We will be liars. Verse 12, Let me just jump into the verse right here. I believe it's verse 14. It says, yea, and we are found false witnesses of God because we testify of God that he raised up Christ. You know what Paul was saying there? I would be lying to you tonight if Christ is not risen. I'll be a liar, not just a liar in the simple ways. I would be lying on God. telling you that Jesus is risen. I don't know about you, but in my New Testament Acts 5, the people who lied to Christ, it seemed like a little light lie, they died for lying to him. I'm lying on him, telling you Jesus is risen, if he did not rise. Christianity, it's the biggest game in history. It's the biggest policy scheme. Me and Danny been talking about schemes of being made up in this new scheme by this other man in crypto. Christianity would be the biggest scheme in history if Jesus isn't risen. We'd be straight up liars. Then he says we will be the most miserable. What if Christ didn't rise? He says, verse 19, then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perish. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. You know what we're doing tonight, Christians? You know what we're doing, humans, lost or saved? You're wasting your time being here. I'm wasting my time being here. I don't like wasting my time. You know, Danny, the situation you're going through, you'll be wasting your time quitting if crisis isn't risen. We'll be wasting our time. We'll be wasting our lives, throwing it away. I don't know about you, but gas is high. I don't wanna drive and be wasting my time. You know, I like watching bangle games. I grew up a hardcore bangle fan from a hardcore bangle fan family. I like to watch games. If I'm coming here preaching to you about somebody who is not risen, I need to go home. Because I'm miserable. This is the most miserable thing I could be doing in my life. But he is risen. He's alive tonight. We have a God in heaven tonight who smiles on us who worship his name. We have a God in heaven tonight who gets involved in the church when the church is spiritually dead. We have a God in heaven tonight who gets involved when the church is being physically persecuted. We have a God who is alive. He's not a folk tale. He's not something make believe. We don't just throw around the name of Jesus. I heal you in the name of Jesus. It's not a magical word. When he healed the lame man at the gate of beautiful, Jesus got involved there. It wasn't just a magic word. We have a God who works in our lives. Praise God, he is a lie. We are not man most miserable. We are not to eat, drink, for life is empty and death is coming. To dedicate our lives to a lie. No. If he didn't rise, we'd be hopeless. What's the hope? Reincarnation? I don't know about you, but I don't want to live another day, another life in this life. Better yet another day, Mary, not the Lord. Come, come Lord Jesus. I don't want to have to live another day in this evil world. You're telling me reincarnation to come and live again here? Rich or poor, I don't care. I don't want another life here. I met many people out West that was telling me about reincarnation and they believe they're going to come back as this or as that. And why? Why come back here? That's the hope that we would have? Or to go into dust and become nothing but worm food? No, we have hope. Christ is risen. Since Christ is risen, we have hope. So let me close with our third point. What if you die without Christ? Verse 20 and 22. But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. But since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Two things to end with here. To you who are not born again, to you who do not know the Lord as your personal Lord and savior, to you who, who, who, who live in the, if you live in the doubt, you live in the, the, the, the destructive nature of sin, you are a center by nature and you're on your way to hell. If you die tonight, you will go to hell without Christ to you. I say, trust him. He's worth trusting. He's worthy. To live without Christ is to waste your life. To die without Christ is a waste of life. Don't die without Christ tonight. Don't go out the door and think you're gonna have another year, another day, another moment. You don't know that. You must be born again. We have all been born in Adam. Born once. It won't save you. You must be born again. You must be born again. That means twice. That means you must become a new creature. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. I lived my life for 19 years on my way to hell, practically. I lived a sinner. I was a good boy, you ask my mama, I say yes sir, yes ma'am, I knew how to do that. I came to church. I used to love coming to church for only one reason. My mom would rub my head and I would go to sleep. I got my best sleep in church. Church was boring to me because I wanted to be with my uncles tailgating. Be with my uncles watching the pre-game, pre-game show and the pre-game show and then watching the first and second quarter. Well, my mother would take me to church, and then my mother would talk for an hour at the church, and I would never get out of there. Growing up, the teacher, the preacher to me was like the Charlie Brown teacher. Womp, womp, womp, womp, womp, that's all I heard. I didn't hear the words. I knew scriptures, but I didn't hear it. I didn't know it. I remember, I hated my dad. I'm no son of a prophet. I'm no grandson of a prophet. I'm the son of an alcoholic. I hated him. I remember telling him all the time, I'll never be you. I'll never be you. I hate you. It got so bad, my mother had to move me to Nashville, Tennessee for 10 months of my life. Because it was coming, I was smelling myself getting older. And I wasn't gonna take the verbal abuse anymore. I remember when I turned 18, all this talk about, I'll never be you daddy, I'll never be you. I came home after getting drunk on my 18th birthday. I wasn't supposed to be drinking. I had good friends, bad friends, who gave me alcohol. I remember my mother looked at me and said, I thought you said you'll never be like him. I realized in that moment, I'm cursed. I'm going to be my dad. I'm going to be just like him. I praise God tonight. God had other plans for my life. I know the daddy I'll be. I know the husband I'll be. I had no way out of that. I didn't get saved that night, but I went to sleep realizing I was stuck in a generational curse that I could not break. No matter how much I hate him, no matter how bitter I was to him, I could not stop myself from becoming that man. Praise God. God got a hold of me. He woke me up one Sunday morning. He set me on a new path. I didn't just get baptized. I hate this Christianity that says, come get baptized, get baptized, then go the rest of your life and live the way you want to live. What a lie. What a waste of life. If Christianity is only about coming to church, isn't it sad? If your Christianity is only about coming to church, you are living in one of the saddest Christian you could ever live. He died for us to live for much more than just coming to church. We have to live for him. I call you tonight, repent. Repent. Turn to Christ. Christianity is not just about putting your faith in Christ, saying I believe in him. No, it's about change of mind and change of actions. change your mind, God will change your mind. When you repent, you will turn from your sins. You will turn from your talent, turn from your idols, turn from the world, turn from all that you think is real, all that you think you want. You will turn from it and you will turn to him. You will cling to him and he will give you his wisdom. And he will share his love abundantly on you. I've been all over this country. I never thought I'd ever see the things I've saw in my life this last year. And God protected me every step of the way. He's a mighty good protector. He will give you things that you think only the world can give you, only the devil can give you, only being a football player, basketball player, a talented instrumental artist, only you think only those things can give you that. No, no, no. God will give you a joy, he will give you a peace, and he will even prosper your life if you get in his kingdom. Turn to Christ tonight, call on his name. Don't leave here the way you came here. Get serious about him. We're in the last of the last days. Get serious about him. He's gonna judge everything we do. Get serious, Christian. And get serious about your soul, lost sinner. Because you only get one. You only get one. You don't only get one light. No, no, you get two of those. The second one's going to be in heaven or in hell, but you get two lives because you're going to get two deaths, but you get one soul and the world is not worth that soul. You're worth more than what the world can offer you. Run to Jesus. Let's pray. Heavenly father, thank you for this day. Thank you for your love, grace and mercy. Lord, I ask that you will bless your word tonight. Do what I can never do, but your word. And that's put it in our hearts. Put it in the hearts. Do what only you can do. Move Holy Spirit for your namesake, Lord, not for my namesake, not for when in place namesake for your namesake. Oh Lord, do a mighty work tonight.