All right, here we go. Man, I've been so excited for this moment here with Easter. , and I want to start out with an a a question. , a question about a question.

Hopefully, you're following me. What is the most important question you will ever answer in your life. What is that question.

And I think as I was I was thinking about this, I think it changes with age. I think about my eight-year-old and his most important question or his answer to this is could I get a toy in the toy aisle. Okay, like that's his number one question. As a kid, you don't have to worry too much, right.

But then as an adult, as you enter into early adulthood, the questions get a little tougher, right. Like if you had a graduation party, you know that that question, what are you going to do. Like what's what's your career option. You know, and then you start to ask these questions, who am I going to marry, right. What is going to be where am I going to live.

Where am I going to land. And then these kind of span into adulthood. We ask these big questions that kind of just kind of just bring us forward in life. And then if we've kind of had some hang-ups, those questions become, am I going to get through the next day.

That's the most important question. Or how am I going to get through what I'm going through, this financial pressure, this divorce, this thing that's keeping me up at night. For some of you, I'll tell you my biggest question.

My biggest question is what's for dinner. Okay, that's the most important question. Some of you are wondering what's I don't even know what I'm eating after for Easter brunch. Maybe you do, but I don't. But when I think of the most important question, I think of not one I had to answer, but one I had to ask.

And it was that question of will you marry me to my wife Chelsea. Okay, spoiler alert, she said yes. , but it was one of those moments where it was very intimidating.

Guys, you know that if you've been in the proposal mode, like you're thinking through all of these things, or maybe not, and just kind of winging it. I wish I could have, but I'm a creative guy and I wanted to make it like super memorable. So, I'm coming up with all of these different ideas on how am I going to propose to this woman that I just love so much. How am I going to show her.

And nothing was like hitting the mark for me. And so, I finally landed on this idea, but it was kind of crazy. I I said, "Okay, Chelsea loves to read and write and what if I what if I took a book and I cut out the center of the book inside of it. " Follow me.

And put the ring inside of the book and then I had her open the book and she would see the ring. And then I was like, "Okay, I can't just do this in a normal spot. I got to go to like a historic kind of library. " And so I found this historic library in St. Paul and then I was like, well, I want photos of the moment.

I want I want this to to be remembered and I want people to see this moment. So I need to have a photographer. I need to have somebody to plant the ring there with the book and watch it because my gosh, they're expensive and I saved forever for it.

And so everything had to go right. And so naturally naturally nothing did, right. So this is what happened. We sh I show up and I'm waiting for my friends to arrive with the book that has the ring. They were stuck in the snow.

This was in January. And so they were stuck in a snowbank. So my photographer had to go and pick this up. Shout out Kyle.

Had to go and pick it up and bring it to this library. Well, what we didn't know is that this library closed at like five o'clock. And so, we had to do a rush proposal.

And this is the thing that they didn't tell me either that there was only one door open. This thing is huge. And to find the main entrance to go in, okay, and so at first we thought the library was closed. And so I'm finding I'm making up excuse after excuse.

I gotta go to the bathroom. And then I'm like texting, okay, where where should we go. What's the best spot.

It was not going well. And then lo and behold, we found one door that was open. I told my photographer, I was like, "Get in there.

Get to the music section. " We had this kind of plan. There's this big beautiful balcony up there. And we planted the book and I led Chelsea up there and I was like, "Hey, check this book out.

" and and kind of pulled it out so she could grab it. She grabbed it, opened it, and saw the ring inside. And this is a picture of the moment.

We did capture the moment. And so this was our our engagement story. And here's the best part about it.

For how much I was sweating to death and how many bathroom trips I took for two different reasons. Okay, if you're following me, , for all of that work and effort, she did not know that this was happening. That is the biggest win for me because she didn't know in that moment that what she saw in that book would change her life.

Now, I want you to picture this. Thousands of years ago, people had just witnessed some man that had claimed to be God and claimed to be the son of God and performed all of these miracles. And he died this gruesome death, one of the the worst deaths in human history.

And then they go to the tomb expecting to find a closed tomb. Just expecting to find just a normal book on a shelf. Just a closed tomb. But they get there and they find an open tomb, not with a diamond ring inside, but with a missing Jesus.

And then in that moment, they had to answer the most important question. Who is Jesus. You thought I was going to say where is Jesus. That is a question too, right. Where is Jesus.

But this question, who is Jesus, is the most important question that you and I and everybody in human history has ever had to answer. Who is Jesus. And so, we're going to answer that question this Easter morning. We're going to do that with the word of God.

So, if you would grab your Bibles, pull them open to John chapter 20. It's on page 933. Just a little bit about us as you do that.

If you do not have a Bible, I want you to take this one home with you. This is our gift to you. This we believe is the thing that will transform your life. So don't let it collect dust.

But open it up, read it. It's got the best Easter eggs inside about how you should be living your life. And so take a Bible with you. And we open the word of God to o answer these big questions.

One other thing that I need to premise too before we dive into these verses here is why do you need to answer this question. Why is this question important. Why is this relevant to you that we talk about this question and the resurrection. Well, because as you answer this big who is Jesus question, everything else in your life starts to make sense. These who will I marry, where will I go, what will I do for a career, how will I get through this.

All of those questions start by answering who is Jesus. Now, usually at destination, we take a lot of time to just dive into a lot of scripture, but today is only two simple verses. So, if you follow the numbers down in chapter 20 to where it says the little 30, this is verse 30, and it says this, "Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these in this book are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. So, this is all we're breaking down today because these two verses pack this really big punch about who Jesus is.

Let me explain. Jesus performed all of these signs, all of these miracles, all of these amazing things that we've been looking at for weeks as a church as we've gone through the book of John. If you have time, take your Bible with you today and go read through the book of John.

Go listen to some of those messages and you'll see miracles, you'll see forgiveness, you'll see healing, you'll see all of these amazing things that Jesus did. And then John is saying, "But wait, there's more. There's so much more that I didn't even put in this book about this savior. But I put these things specifically in this book so that you reader, you listener at destination in 2026 may believe that Jesus is the Messiah and the son of God and that you will come to have life in his name. John is the best wingman ever.

He is building up a a case for Christ's character here. He's like, you know, you ever have somebody talk you up to the the opposite sex, right. Like he's he's that for us.

Like he's telling us all of these amazing things about Jesus. And the way that he presents them is not, hey, I want you to have this so that you have good information about Jesus, although that's part of it. He's saying it as an invitation.

I want you to see who Jesus is because he can change your life. And that's why John is writing this. But here's the struggle for you and I.

The struggle for you and I is that situations get in the way of seeing our savior. Situations blind us to this invitation that John is giving. And it could be that you're looking at the world You're looking at the economy. You're looking at whatever government power is in power that you know, whatever social issue, and you're saying, "Man, if that would just change, everything would be okay. " Or maybe it's like a personal situation like if I just had more money, if I just had more time, if I just had everything figured out, or if I just did more, worked harder, whatever it is, that situation then blinds you to who Jesus is.

And if we see who Jesus is, we will see who we're meant to become. And John says Jesus is three things in here. And we're going to look at all three of them.

The first one he says is Jesus is the Messiah. Now this word Messiah, it sounds like a churchy word, but it comes from a Hebrew word called man, I had it. Okay, there we go.

And and and this word really just has a deeper meaning than just Messiah. This word means chosen one. This word means somebody that they've been waiting for to rescue God's people. And so there's this whole section of this Bible called the Old Testament.

And throughout the Old Testament, they're trying to get free from the from the judgment and the justice of sin. And they're trying to get freedom from oppression. And they keep hearing this story of this coming Messiah, this coming savior that is on the way.

I I'll make it really easy for you and get nerdy for a moment, okay. It is like the Harry Potter Frodo kind of Luke Skywalker before the terrible new trilogies like hero. Okay, this is why we connect with these stories so well is because they show us a heroic arc that is really woven into our hearts that is about Jesus. Because all of these stories, while they're fiction, still show us the heart of a savior, the sacrificial heart of a savior.

And so Jesus is the hero. He is by the Messiah the hero of the story. And it's not a madeup story like Harry Potter or Star Wars.

It is a real story that happened thousands of years ago for you and I to have life here on earth and eternal life in heaven. And so that's not just for them then. It's for us now. Jesus is the hero when we need saving. Now, you might think, well, I don't need saving, right.

I don't I don't need saving. But let me ask it like this. Do you ever feel like you're kind of drowning in life. Whether it be priorities, busyiness, time, you're drowning in finances and debt, you're drowning in relationship troubles. We just can't get the friendship or the marriage figured out.

Jesus came to be the Messiah, the savior, to pull you out, to rescue God's people. Listen, men, especially you guys, that doesn't make you weak. That makes you human.

And that's what Jesus is saying that I am the life preserver. When you're drowning, when wave after wave of thing things that come up in your life try to pull you under, I'm going to bring you back up to the surface. I'm going to take you by the hand and I am going to rescue you from when you are drowning in life.

I think about it like this. , I was in a pool recently with my four-year-old daughter and she had one of those like those cute like water wing things, which by the way, parents like make sure those are on fully, okay. Because she follows her brother and just jumps right into the pool and it was not on correctly, okay.

It wasn't on all the way or something and she just like went in the water. And as a parent, your heart just like sinks to your stomach because you're like, and you know, I I went to go grab her and it was not a long time underwater, but I grabbed her and and pulled her out and she was hysterical. She was crying and she was really upset. And then after she kind of came to we got her life jacket all figured out and she looked at me and she said this, "I'm glad you were here to pull me out. Will you stay with me.

" And it was one of those moments. Aw, that will melt your heart as a parent. Here's what you need to know. Jesus will stay with you through the storms of life.

He is the rescuer, the Messiah, the hero. And he gets this superpower because Jesus is the son of God. That's the second thing that that John says that Jesus is the son of God.

Now, first of all, first off, don't don't think about this like, oh, he's God's son. He's just like somebody that like, you know, is like related in that way. No, it was something bigger.

When he said that he was the son of God, he wasn't claiming, "I'm close to God. I represent God. " He was saying, "I am God.

" Now, this was a big deal because back then in Old Testament Bible times, , if you said, "I am God," it would be punishable by death. They would take rocks and they would throw them at you and and stone you to death. And they tried to do this to Jesus several times through the Gospels.

We have recorded accounts of them trying to capture and kill Jesus. And on Friday, they thought they succeeded. They thought that if Jesus was really the son of God, then he could get himself out of this situation.

They even mocked him as he was on the cross. Look at Matthew. The the guards would mock him, saying, "Save yourself. Come down from the cross if you are the son of God.

Have you ever wondered this. Like if Jesus really was who he said he was, why didn't he just like walk off off the cross and heal himself in that moment. What everybody is asking to Jesus is if you really are God, prove it. And here's why that matters to you. Because we maybe I shouldn't speak for all of you.

I am always asking God to prove it. I'm like, God, I I I need this in my life. I I I want to I want to believe that that you're going to do this.

So So just, you know, prove it. And we can come at it with very ill intentions because we live in a world where everything is shifting and we're constantly asking for truth and proof of something. But here's the thing. Truth changes in our culture.

Opinions shift. People let us down. Circumstances don't make sense.

And then when life feels unstable, we carry that to our relationship with God and we ask who or what can I trust. What is actually going to prove it to us. And if Jesus's claim throughout the gospels in John's claim here is correct, we don't have to guess.

We can just walk in knowing that Jesus is the son of God. That he is above all of the opinions. He's not just another voice. He's not just somebody to consider, but he was there with God at creation. He knows every hair on your head.

He sit or not on your head, you know, right. But he knows that you like only half of you caught that for a second. Anyways, he knows he knows that you're beautifully and wonderfully made. He knows because he is the son of God.

And if we have that in our lives, we can start concretting this idea into our heart that the truth that we stand on is the truth that Jesus is the son of God. And if we could have this relationship with the son of God, we have this solid foundation that we can stand on through all of the different storms that come in life. So, not only does Jesus pull us out of the waves and out of the storm, but he gives us something firm to stand on.

This is good news. This is good news for you. By the way, this is the series that we are going to be in following this Sunday. And so, I want to invite you back. We're going to do a series called Foundations.

And really, what this is is a demonstration of this lived out in your life. How do you live a life built on the foundation of Jesus in your marriage, in your parenting, in your life, in your prayer, in your worship. And so, we're going to look at that for two months because when we find that we can stand on this truth of Jesus, then it gets us closer to answering some of these big questions in life. And listen, our heart here at Destination is not to tell you to do better and try harder. It's to show you that Jesus is better so you can try again.

We're going to fail at this stuff. We're going to screw up at this stuff. But the grace of the Savior is he pulls us up and gives us a true foundation to stand on because Jesus is the giver of life.

All right, guys. Can we get excited. It's Easter.

Jesus is the giver of life. This is the third thing that John says. He says that Jesus came to give you life.

Do you know how big of a deal that is. That Jesus came so you may have life. Let me just illustrate how big of a deal this is. I used to work as a hospital security guard. By the way, I think everybody should have a short time in the hospital because it'll teach you things about life that you would never have learned in college or different parts of life when you get to sit with people and and experience them at some of their worst days in some of their most questioning moments.

And I remember I got called to a room where a prisoner was in ICU and that's the intensive care unit. And and they brought me in and they said, ", this gentleman is on life support. " And I'm, by the way, like 21 years old.

I I know that there's a thing that's a life support machine. I have no idea what it does. So I'm like, ", can you explain that to me a little bit. Like is he just going to randomly wake up, you know.

" And I wanted to learn more about it. What I learned about a life support machine is that it functions in some of the major parts of like vital things for your survival. And so it kind of takes the place of things that you need like your lungs and different things like that to actually support your life. And so he the doctor is sitting there and he's explaining all of this to me and he ends it by saying so in other words we call this machine we say that machine is the giver of life and I'm a very bold you know Christian and and I just kind of say no that's not the giver of life Jesus is.

And he didn't talk to me after that. So, , but then I just started to ask more questions to the nurse who would talk to me, , and and started to ask questions about this life support machine to learn more. Now, most of us are on life support and we don't even know it.

We're on life support, but it's a different kind of life support. We think that our life is supported by money. That the giver of life is money.

The giver of life is power. The giver of life is the thing that we get to run to when life is really difficult. That addiction, porn, pride, people, places, things, whatever it is that we're filling into that spot to say that is the giver of life.

That is my life support machine. It is playing a very vital role in my life that Jesus should be sitting in. Now, here is what's really, really cool.

Well, maybe not so cool, but really interesting about a life support machine. You can stay on it for as long as you're alive. You stay on it for weeks, months, years, and nothing can change.

You see, you can be supported by things in your life and not even know that Jesus is not the number one thing that you are not living life and life to the full. But you know what's really cool that I learned that day. I asked the nurses, "How long do people usually sit on the life support machine. " And she said that the family and the care team usually makes a decision in three days. A lot can change in three days.

And a lot did change in three days for Jesus. And so Jesus came back and he didn't come back to he didn't come back on life support. He came back to support life and to support your life.

And so Jesus came and says this theme all throughout the gospels to give you life. Let me just show you some of them as we kind of close here. John Jesus says this, "I am the way.

I am the truth and I am the life. No one comes to the father except through me. " Jesus is the way.

He is the hero. He is the way when you don't know where you're going with life. He is the truth. Meaning, he is the son of God. He is the firm foundation that we can stand on.

And he is the life. When you think there are so many other things that can support it when really Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And Jesus wants to give you this full life on earth. But as I said in the beginning, the situations, the things that come up in your life, steal that away.

He says in a couple of chapters before John 14 in John , he says, "The thief, that is the enemy, the the thing that's at work in the world and the in the hearts that those who haven't found Jesus yet, the thief comes to steal and kill and destroy. But I have come, this is Jesus talking, that they, that's you, may have life and have it to the full. That is full life here on earth, by the way. That is not just talking about like the eternity that we get because of his sacrifice in heaven.

That is a full life here on earth. And see, the enemy doesn't want you to have this. He wants to steal the life away with comforts and different things that you run to.

He wants to show you, oh, there's no hero. There's no God that wants to come save you. There's no truth.

There's no foundation that you can stand on. He doesn't have a real life for you. You should just feel guilty that that you can't measure up to what God wants you to to become.

But Jesus has come to destroy the thief, to be the way, the truth, and the life. And so, here is the bottom line. If you don't get anything that I'm saying today, please get this.

The answer to the question, who is Jesus. Is this Jesus is who you need. Jesus is who you need. That's been the point of this message, the point of this series that we've been going to through as a church is that Jesus is who you need.

And maybe you've never tried that before. Maybe you've been in a place where you've tried Jesus and it it just hasn't worked out because you haven't trusted him as the hero or as the truth, as the Messiah, as the son of God, as the giver of life. This is where I found myself at age 15. You see, just because I'm standing up here does not mean I've never struggled with some of these things.

At 15 years old, I didn't even know how to open this. I didn't even know really what a Bible was, what the difference between the Old and the New Testament is. But I knew what it felt like to be depressed, to be anxious, to be bullied, to have suicidal thoughts. So I found myself at a church, barely ever been to church before, and I heard somebody telling their similar to how I'm telling you my story right now.

And before I decided to end my life, I decided to see if Jesus could give me life. I am a living, breathing testimony that Jesus is the giver of life. And I really want you guys to see that to see that Jesus has an amazing plan for your life.

And that is why he came to earth. That is why he performed all of these miracles and fulfilled everything that the Old Testament said about him. All of the prophecies, all of the things that they were talking about this coming hero would be Jesus was. And he came and he suffered this gruesome death on a cross.

And the reason why he didn't just walk down off of it is because he wanted you to see that he is the Messiah. That he is the son of God because then three days later he came back and resurrected and he called his people to give them life. And so we have this this hope found in Jesus. And maybe you're here and you've tried to create this life. You've tried to find this hero.

You've tried to find this hope in your life. And situation after situation, world event after world event, struggle after struggle comes up and all of these questions in your life start to take place over the biggest one which is who is Jesus. You start to ask, "How am I going to get through the day. What am I going to do. How am I going to get to the next step.

" I'm telling you this Easter, make it different. Make your first and most important question, who is Jesus. And answer it today with Jesus is all you need. And so I want to invite you into this invitation that John gives.

Would everybody in this room just for a moment bow your heads, close your eyes just for a moment. This is something we do at the end of each message at Destination. It's our time to sit in reflection. I'm going to invite the worship team up and and I want you just to to think for a moment and to think for a moment about where God might be leading you right now.

Maybe you've never trusted him as a savior before. Maybe you do feel like you're drowning in life and you need Jesus to pull you up. Maybe you're swayed back and forth by all of the different opinions and different forms of truth in life and you've never really trusted Jesus as the foundation. Or maybe, just maybe, you felt like you're on life support, like everything that you've tried to do is not giving you this life that you hear talked about in church.

I want to tell you friends that the first step is Jesus. And so with every eye closed, every head bowed, I want to give an invitation like John gave. This invitation doesn't doesn't come lightly, but it's an invitation that Jesus is giving you this morning to trust him with your life.

To say, "I want to say that Jesus is all I need. I want life to be different. I don't want to try and save myself. I don't want to try and seek the truth.

I want to find the truth in Jesus. If you're here today and you want to make that decision in a moment of boldness, would you just raise your hand so I know who I'm praying for. If you're here today and you want to give your life to Jesus, would you just raise your hand. For those of you who are raising your hand, I just want to lead you in a simple prayer.

This prayer doesn't save you, but it just says, "Jesus is all I need. " And for all of us in here, just because we've given our lives to Jesus does not mean that this prayer is not for us, too. So, pray this in your heart.

God, I confess I'm a s sinner in need of a savior, a messiah. I believe that Jesus is the son of God and the giver of life. God, forgive me and make me new. Jesus, you are Lord and I give my life to follow you in Jesus name. Well, can we celebrate the people that have just said yes to Jesus.

Welcome them to the family.