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The 5 Reactions to Jesus’ Resurrection | Luke 24:1-12

April 03, 2024 First Baptist Church Powder Springs Season 2024
The 5 Reactions to Jesus’ Resurrection | Luke 24:1-12
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FBCPS
The 5 Reactions to Jesus’ Resurrection | Luke 24:1-12
Apr 03, 2024 Season 2024
First Baptist Church Powder Springs

This sermon offers not just a retelling of ancient scripture but a mirror reflecting our own quests for purpose and clarity amidst life's tumult. Here, we celebrate the resurrection's enduring relevance, providing a beacon of hope that guides us through the fog of uncertainty.

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Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

This sermon offers not just a retelling of ancient scripture but a mirror reflecting our own quests for purpose and clarity amidst life's tumult. Here, we celebrate the resurrection's enduring relevance, providing a beacon of hope that guides us through the fog of uncertainty.

Thanks for listening! Find us on Instagram or visit our Website.

Speaker 1:

Amen 24, luke, chapter 24, it's actually my, my favorite. It's my favorite passage of scripture that I can't wait to share with you this morning and I pray my prayer is for you that this message this morning would be an encouragement to you. I pray that it would be a blessing to you. I pray that it would empower you for your life, your relationship with Jesus Christ. Let let's pray, heavenly Father, we pray again that you would speak through your word this morning. We love you in Jesus' name and all God's people said amen.

Speaker 1:

Have you ever witnessed something before that was so crazy that it just it demanded a reaction? This morning I'm talking about Jesus' resurrection and through Luke 24, I see that there are five reactions, different reactions, that we can have to the resurrection. I remember being 18 years old and I grew up in the South. It's the only way to grow up, can I get an amen? And I grew up in the South and I got some buddies and they said hey, chip, we need to take you down to see the North Port Ghost. I grew up in Tuscaloosa, alabama. North Port Ghost was just north of us and so they said there's something there called the North Port Ghost, and so at night. They put me in the truck, they drove me down a long dirt road. They turned the headlights out. Driving me down this dirt road, I'm thinking, well, this is where it all ends. They're going to kill me, I'm going to die.

Speaker 1:

And they started telling me the story, and the story went something like this dumb story. They said there was these two men that lived hundreds of years ago and they were about to get shipped out to war. But when the war was over they wanted to come home to a wife, and so this man married this woman and this guy married this woman, and so the two girls were best friends. The two guys were best friends. The two guys go off and the story goes that the wives, the women, never heard from the men again, so they never heard that they died. So every time that a wagon would come down the road hundreds of years ago, the women would run out of the house looking in the wagon to see if they were bringing their husbands home. The dumb part of the story is they told me that because the women never lost hope somehow that they transferred into like ghosthood or whatever. And so today, even when you drive down the road, they come to the edge of the road and they look inside your car to see that you brought their husbands home.

Speaker 1:

I'm thinking that's the dumbest thing I ever heard. What are we doing out here? And so they're driving me down this long dirt road, pitch black, at night, they tell me the story. Headlights driving me down this long dirt road, pitch black, at night, they tell me the story. Headlights are off and I'm thinking this is crazy, this is dumb. When is this thing over?

Speaker 1:

And then I'll peer off into the distance and I see two white glowing floating beings and we get closer to them and they get closer to us and we get closer to them and they get closer to us and we get so close. I see these two white glowing beings. I find myself, as a full-grown man, 18 years old, in the floorboard of the truck, screaming for them to turn that truck around, turn this truck around. And they drive straight up to it, where they're right in front of me. And I am screaming because I'm seeing these two beings in front of me. And they turn on their headlights and it was two white stone pillars. They're on the side of the road that, because it was so dark at night, your eyes adjusted and it looks like that they were glowing ghosts. And I'm thinking this is awesome, let's go get everybody. Let's just go get everybody. So we go and get one of my best friends, dave.

Speaker 1:

Dave was known as the tough guy and Dave, we're like Dave, let's go see some ghosts. He's like, oh, I'm going to beat him up. We're like that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Get in the truck. And so we put Dave in the truck, we tell him the story, we take him down the dirt road, we turn the headlights off. He sees him off in the distance. And you know what happens when guys get scared. I love it, even the toughest of guys. All of our voices go up like ghosts. And Jamie said well, actually there's no such thing as ghosts, there's only angels and demons. When you die, you go to heaven. We're like shut up, get in the truck, jamie. It take him down the long dirt road. We turn out the headlights. He sees the ghost. I'll never forget it. His head goes between his knees and he starts screaming sweet Jesus, take me home, sweet Jesus, take me home.

Speaker 1:

But nothing was as crazy as when we went and got some of our girlfriends and we put them in the truck. We put the girls in the truck and I don't know what happens to you, ladies, but when you get scared, your voice doesn't go up, your voice goes down and you turn for some reason, you, ladies, when you get scared, you turn into a professional boxer. And I want to ask you to stop that because it hurts. And I remember we put the girls in the truck. We're going down the road, we turn the headlights out, we tell them the story, we turn the corner, they see the ghost and we hear turn this truck around, right this freaky voice and they start punching and flailing and we're bleeding. It was awful and the funny thing is we never took anybody to see the ghost where they didn't have a reaction. Why? Because it seemed so real, it was so realistic, it was something it felt like that you could not deny.

Speaker 1:

Well, this morning, the passage of Scripture in Luke 24 that I want to share with you, that God has laid on my heart for you, whoever you are, wherever you are in your spiritual journey, wherever you are in your life. I believe that God has laid this on my heart for you, has laid this on my heart for you, and I want us to look together this morning as what we see here in our Easter sermon as the five reactions to Jesus' resurrection. The five reactions to Jesus' resurrection, because here's the deal, and here's what I believe, is that it is impossible to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and not to have a response and not to react. I know that because I have shared the gospel with people and even in their hearing it for the first time, they look at me like I got three heads. They look at me like I'm from outer space, like I'm an alien.

Speaker 1:

So you're telling me that there is a God who has a son and he remains God and he becomes fully man and he comes to earth and and he lives a perfect life and he never thinks and he never says and he never does anything that is wrong, that is contrary to God's own word. And you're telling me that he suffers and he dies and all of our sin was laid on him, that he not only bore our sin, but the bible says that he became your sin. The bible says that he died because of your curse of sin. The bible says that he was buried for three days he was lifeless, he was dead, and on the third day that his heart starts beating again and his lungs fill with air and he stands up and he rolls the stone away and he walks out and he ascends back to heaven and he's coming back again someday. Yeah, that's what I'm telling you.

Speaker 1:

Why? Because when we hear stuff like that in our modern, natural, scientific world, something that is so illogical, something that is so anti-scientific, something that is so against the human grain within us, when we hear something like that, our mind automatically thinks this that's impossible. And I want you to hear me, and if you think that it's impossible, it's because you're right. It's impossible humanly speaking, but it's very possible divinely, speaking about God. It is only something that the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God can do in everyone's life, and that includes you. It's impossible for us, but hear me, it's possible for God because it is a miracle. And please hear me this morning. I believe that God brought you here today because it may be because of this.

Speaker 1:

I don't know your life and I don't know your background or where you are spiritually, but here's what I know If you have tried everything in life to find peace in life, to find peace, to find joy, to find purpose, to find clarity, to find truth, to make sense of everything that could ever possibly happen in your life. And you know, you know that there is a reason behind it. The only thing that makes sense of all of that is the gospel of Jesus Christ, that he is your Lord and Savior and he is risen from the dead. If you believe that, say amen. We believe that. And we see these five resurrections, these reactions to the resurrection. So I want you to see that your life is actually defined by your reaction to the resurrection. The way you live, your life is actually lived based upon your reaction to the gospel. But also your eternity depends on your reaction to the gospel. So not only is your life defined by your reaction to the gospel, hear me, your eternity depends on it. Your eternity depends on it. So here we go.

Speaker 1:

Let's get into the passage Number one. The first reaction that we see in Scripture is confused. Everyone say confused, and this is all of us, this is me and this is you that we get confused in life because we don't know why things happen the way or why they happen. Luke 24, verse 1, says but on the first day of the week, by the way, that's like today, here we are Easter Sunday. This is the first day. This is a Sunday in the Bible, this is actually Easter Sunday. This is the day that Jesus this is literally the morning, at early dawn, that Jesus physically, bodily, rose from the dead.

Speaker 1:

And it says they. Who is the they? It's the women Mary Magdalene, mary, the mother of James, martha, other women who are with them. These are the women that followed Jesus most closely, along with the apostles, these women. They went to the tomb taking the spices that they had prepared and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they went in the tomb so they were expecting to go and see the body of the Lord Jesus, they were expecting to go and to put spices on his body when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus and they were perplexed about and they were perplexed about this. They were perplexed.

Speaker 1:

Everyone say perplexed. Perplexed means to be confused. Can we be honest for a second? It's not just you, it's me. We get perplexed, we get confused in life. We don't know why things happen the way that they happen. How could God be a good God but yet bad things happen to us? And I'm here to encourage you this morning. If you live in confusion like I can live in confusion that it is only the resurrection that makes sense of your life. It's only the resurrection of Jesus that can make sense of your life. Because here's why Because when you believe in the resurrection, then you never lose hope. When you believe in the resurrection, then you never lose hope. When you believe in the resurrection, then you always believe in the power of God, that he can redeem any situation in your life. When you believe in the resurrection, you believe that God is going to work out everything he promised in the Bible for your good, for your future. You believe with your life that there is always truth, that we can live in this perplexity, we can live in this confusion, but yet God brings clarity, that we never lose faith.

Speaker 1:

I remember one Sunday morning, after I got done preaching, there was a girl that came down front. She walked straight up to me. Her name is Rachel, and I said Rachel, I was a girl that came down front. She walked straight up to me, her name is Rachel, and I said Rachel, I'm sorry, I didn't know her yet. And I said hey, how can I help you? She said my name is Rachel and I said well, how can I help you? And she said well, how do I know that this? I'd never seen her. She said how do I know this isn't just some ancient death cult? I said I'm sorry, I thought you said ancient death cult. She said yeah, that's what I said. How do I know this isn't some ancient death cult? I said because that's weird and I don't even know what you're talking about Ancient death cult. Did we do something? Did we kill something? I didn't know about it. Are there chickens, kittens? I don't know what is happening, rachel.

Speaker 1:

And she said well, every time I come to church, we're always talking about how Jesus died. Jesus died, how I'm going to die and how something's got to happen with my eternity. And I said well, because it's true. I mean, jesus did die for your sin and you're going to die one day and so your eternity matters. And she said well, I don't believe it. I said why not? And she said well, I went to Christian school. In that Christian school, she said, I watched all these other Christian school students. They lived however. They wanted to live. But when it came to chapel, they raised their hand in worship. They'd go on the mission trip. They'd get A's on the Bible test, but they would live however they wanted to live, and so they're fakes and so I don't want anything to do with it. And so she said I gave my life to Jesus a long time ago. But she said it never worked out for me, so I'm not going to live for him anymore.

Speaker 1:

I said you're telling me you felt like you were with Jesus at one point and you left him. She said yeah, and I've always heard if you're able to leave the Lord, then you've left him for something or someone else. I said, rachel, what's happening in your life? What sin are you caught up in? What addiction do you have? And she looked at me, she started crying and she told me exactly what it was. She said I've never told anybody this before. She told me what it was.

Speaker 1:

She said in fact, pastor Chip, all those people I talked about, it wasn't them, it was me. I was the one making A's, I was the one raising my hand, I was the one going on the mission trip and I figured if I could fake everybody else out, everybody was faking me out too. I said, rachel, I'm not gonna lie to. Do you want to really, for real, give your life to Jesus so he can make sense of your life, he can give your life hope, he can give your life purpose. She said that's exactly what I want. And so we sat down and we prayed and she received Jesus there in that moment and today she's a godly wife, she's a godly mom, she's living for the Lord. Put your hands together, because the way that God can change people's lives, we are so thankful.

Speaker 1:

Let's move on here because number two, our second reaction that we can see is to seek. Everybody say seek. It's fascinating here it says in verse four through six it says behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel that's a weird way to put it, but they're angels. And as the women were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but he has risen. Here's the whole point of this passage, right here, what he's saying is that the women went to go seek the living among the dead. In other words, god is saying don't try to find your life in dead things. Don't go trying to find your life in dead things. I've talked to so many people that they are trying to find happiness. They're trying to find hope. They're trying to find fulfillment. They're trying to find satisfaction. Let me ask you a powerful question for your life How's that working out for you? Yet? Have you found it?

Speaker 1:

One of my favorite videos on all of YouTube? You can look it up. It was Tom Brady. I believe he was on 60 Minutes. And they asked Tom Brady. They said Tom, you've won all these Super Bowls. You've made all these hundreds of millions of dollars. You are one of the most well-known people in all of the earth. You are one of the most well-known people in all of the earth. You are married to a super model, tom. Tom, you have what everybody wants, what we're all trying to live for. Tom, would you look in the camera? Would you tell everybody what it feels like? And Tom Brady looked in the camera and he said I feel like there's something else.

Speaker 1:

And the journalist said Tom, let's just rewind for a second. Let me remind you of your resume that I just read to you All these things that you've done, all these things that you have, all these things that you have accomplished, tom, you are the person that we would all love to become, tom. What else could there be? And Tom Brady looked in the camera and he said this I wish I knew, and that's the same thing that's true for you and it's the same thing that's true for me that we can spend an entire life long search, wanting our own happiness in alcohol, in relationships, in dating, in marriage, in accomplishment, in promotions, in money, in retirement, in pleasure, in treasure and in pride. But you will never find it, because you can't find something that gives you life and something that is dead. Because the only thing that can give you life is a person, and his name is Jesus. And the reason you can find life in him because he is the one that is living, because he's already died and he's already come back to life. He's risen from the dead, he's alive, he's real To never die again, which is why you can find life in him. Put your hands together for Jesus because of all that he does in our life.

Speaker 1:

Number oh, it almost got me. It almost got me. Number three forget, forget. Everybody say forget. This is fascinating. I'll resonate with this.

Speaker 1:

In verses 6 through 7, the angel said to the women remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee, that the angel told them to remember, which means that they had forgotten. It is so easy for us to forget spiritual things. You know why? Because we I am a sinful person, I'm a sinful person. It's easy for me to forget the goodness of God. It's easy for me to forget the things that I've learned throughout the word. In fact, this is interesting to me that these ladies were along with the apostles, that they followed Jesus around for the three just three years of his ministry and throughout the gospels you can look it up. He told them over 175 different times that he was going to die and rise from the dead. And yet they went to the tomb and they were confused. They were perplexed. Where is he? What happened? They forgot. They were perplexed. Where is he? What happened? They forgot?

Speaker 1:

In the south, we can grow up in church, hear it over and over and over again and it becomes numb to us. And here's why it becomes numb, because what you don't receive, you don't believe. What you don't receive, you don't believe. What you don't receive, you don't believe. The goal of your spiritual life is not just to hear what is right and true over and over again. The goal of your spiritual life is to receive it so that you can continue to believe it.

Speaker 1:

I had a friend years ago. Her name was Tiffany. Tiffany was known as the craziest party girl of all the town. I mean, she went to every single party. She was always known to getting drunk every time, trying every drug, going from guy to guy to guy. Finally we were friends.

Speaker 1:

I had an opportunity. It was just kind of her and I just sat down. I just said, tiffany, you're just going through this self-destructive cycle and you're miserable. You're miserable and you just keep looking and you keep searching and you keep trying. Tiffany, when are you going to give your life to Jesus? And here's what she told me. She said, chip, I've tried it so many times but it never sticks for me. She said it might work for you and work for other people, it doesn't stick for me. She said I just think well, we're born, we're just born as all God's children, and so when we die, we all go to heaven.

Speaker 1:

I said I had my Bible. I said, check it out. John, chapter one, verse 12, says only for those who have received him, who have believed on his name, they are the ones that he has given the right to be called the children of God. She grew up in church. She forgot, she wasn't remembering, but she gave her life to Jesus and today she's following Jesus again. She has a godly family. Put your hands together for what God has done in Tiffany's life. God can take our forgetting and he can turn your forgetfulness, like he has mine, and turn it into faith Very quickly. Let me wipe this off. Isn't this TV just awesome? Here we go. Number four Disbelieve. Everyone say disbelieve. Another reaction is just simply disbelief. It says so.

Speaker 1:

They, the women, remembered after the angels told them they remembered all of Jesus' word. Oh yeah, he did tell us over 175 times and returned from the tomb that they told all of these things to the 11. That's the apostles, but there were 12 apostles. Judas has already hung himself for betraying Jesus. Isn't it amazing that Jesus knew Judas' heart, but yet he let Judas be a part of it the whole time anyways. But yet he let Judas be a part of it the whole time anyways. And Jesus did everything for Judas as he did for any other disciple. The only difference was that Judas did not believe in him, even though Judas loved Jesus.

Speaker 1:

We see here that the women went and told all of these things that Jesus had risen from the dead his body wasn't in the tomb what the angels had said and told him to all the rest. These women were Mary Magdalene, joanna and Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James, and the other women who were with them, told these things to the Apostles timeout. The Apostles who most closely followed Jesus, more so than any other person on earth. The apostles who heard every teaching, saw every miracle, spent personal time with him when Jesus was not in the crowds, and I resonate with this. And it says but these words that the women told to the apostles, these words seem like an idle tale and the apostles did not believe the women. That's crazy, which means they struggled with doubt.

Speaker 1:

I struggle with doubt, you struggle with doubt. Please hear me Faith in your life never comes with the absence of doubt, but it always comes with the presence of truth. Faith in your life never comes with the absence of doubt. You're always going to struggle with doubt here and there.

Speaker 1:

I can remember being in college, bible college, studying to be a pastor, and something happened, something washed over me in a moment to where it was like it just made sense down deep that none of it made sense and none of it was true, I had doubt, I had disbelief wash over me. I didn't know what to do. I was sitting there at that moment and, all of a sudden, nothing of the things of Jesus made sense. So I did the only thing that I could think of doing. I got up from my chair, I walked over to my bed, I dropped on my knees and I told God.

Speaker 1:

God, I'm having this serious feeling of doubt right now, where I'm doubting you, I'm doubting your word, I'm doubting your existence, I'm doubting your truth. But, god, I'm not going gonna let any feeling override my faith in you. It doesn't matter how I feel. How I feel doesn't make things true or untrue. Rather, it is my faith in God, because he is what is true. So I said God, no matter how I feel, I choose. I choose to believe in you because I believe that you are real, no matter how I feel. And I'm just telling you, it took a little while, but God was able to wash that doubt out of me and to regain my faith again. And I would encourage you if you are someone that is struggling with disbelief, if you're someone that is struggling with confusion, if you're someone that is struggling with seeking, if you're someone that is struggling with seeking, if you're someone that is struggling with remembering, forgetting number five, I believe the answer to all of these is to marvel.

Speaker 1:

Everyone say marvel To marvel. I love this. Luke, chapter 24, verse 12, says this but Peter rose, verse 12 says this but Peter rose. Peter personally, rose and he ran to the tomb and, stooping and, looking in, he saw the linen cloths that once wrapped the body, the dead body of Jesus, and they were all laying there by themselves in the tomb, in the grave. And Peter went home and say it with me. He marveled. Everyone say marvel. He went home marveling at what had happened.

Speaker 1:

I love this word marvel, because marvel is some awesome comic books and superhero movies. Can I get an amen? Well, we're having church now. I don't know who your favorite marvel character, but, man, these movies, these storylines, these comic books, they are incredible. Why do we love them so much? Hear me, we love them, especially men, because we are wired to marvel at someone stronger than us, greater than us, more powerful than us, both men and women.

Speaker 1:

God actually wired us with this need, with this sense, with hear me, a desperation to marvel, not so that we find it in a comic book or in a movie, even though they're awesome, but so that we find it in the true story, in the real hero, the one who actually came and conquered all death. The one who came and conquered all evil, the one who came and hear me, went through your death for you so that you never have to be separated from God again. The one who became your resurrection, so that you don't get depressed enough to think that this life is your only shot. Yolo is a lie, because we will all live again somewhere, heaven or hell, and it all depends on your reaction, your response to the resurrection. So my question for you this morning is do you believe?

Speaker 1:

If you're like me and you're someone that struggles with, at times, confusion, you're someone at times, times that you struggle with seeking after sinful things rather than things of God? Maybe you're like me and you struggle with forgetting things that you should be spiritually remembering, or maybe sometimes you struggle even with disbelief. What is the one response that fixes it all? Here's what I would encourage you to do To run, get up and run for yourself to the word of God and to be reminded who God is, who Jesus is, what God came to do for your life what Jesus did on the cross for you. And hear me me and marvel, marvel at the person and the work of Jesus for you, for your life and for your eternity. I'm gonna ask us all to bow our heads and close our eyes, with every head bowed and every eye closed. Maybe that is you this morning. I know that it's me and I believe that it's everybody in some way shape or form.

Speaker 1:

And here's the deal. If you struggle with confusion, with seeking, with forgetting, with disbelieving, this morning I just want to encourage you. Maybe you're already saved. You're already saved but yet you're struggling. I wanna encourage you to ask God, god, help me to marvel in you again. God, help me to take my eyes off of my situation. God, help me to take my eyes off of my struggle. Help me to take my eyes off of my doubt, off of my fear, off of my hurt, off of my pain. And God, help me to fix my eyes on Jesus and help me just to marvel in him, to be amazed in him again.

Speaker 1:

And maybe you're here this morning and you need to give your life to Jesus. Maybe God has brought you here this morning and you didn't even want to come. You don't even know why you're here. You just came to make somebody else happy. But now you're hearing that God brought you here because he wants to make you happy. He wants to give you joy. He wants to give you peace. He wants to make you happy. He wants to give you joy. He wants to give you peace. He wants to give you life. He wants to give you eternity. He wants to give you love. He wants to give you himself. God himself wants to give you himself, and all he asks you to do is to give him yourself.

Speaker 1:

So, right here, right now, I can't save you. If I could, I would. I can't pray this prayer for you. If I could, I would. But I can help you. Pray this and give your life to God. Right now, with every head bowed and every eye closed, you can pray something like this in your own words, from your own heart. You can pray right now and you can say Jesus, jesus, I need you.

Speaker 1:

Jesus, I choose to believe in you Through all of the doubt, the confusion, the hurt, the pain, the questioning. Jesus, I choose to believe in you and you can tell him Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross for my sin. You bore my sin. You became my sin. You died for my sin and, jesus, I choose to believe in your death For the forgiveness of my sin. Jesus, would you forgive me of all I've ever done, all I'm doing and all I'm ever gonna do, and not in perfection but in direction. Jesus, I turn from my sin and I turn and I give my life to you. I choose to give my life to you. You can tell him Jesus, I believe you didn't stay dead. I choose to believe that you rose from the dead, that you're alive and you're real, and I want a real relationship with you. I want the real you. I don't want some fake, cold, dead religion. Jesus, I want you in me and I want to be in you. Jesus, I want you in me and I want to be in you.

Speaker 1:

And the Bible says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So, right here, right now, just confess him and just say Jesus, you are my Lord, you are my Lord, you are my Lord, you are my Lord, you are my Lord In Jesus. We believe that In Jesus we pray, that In Jesus, we just thank you for all that you have done for us, your death and your resurrection, that we get to celebrate this Easter Sunday morning and every Sunday morning and every day of our life. Jesus, we love you. Thank you for loving us. We pray these things in your name. And all God's people said can we put our hands together for anybody that gave their life to Jesus this morning? The Bible says that heaven rejoices every time a sinner repents and gives their life to Jesus.

Speaker 1:

I told you I wanted everybody to fill one of these out. Go ahead and take it. Go ahead and finish it up, put it on the back. I need your response. I need your response. What is a topic that you would like for me to preach on this year? And one thing that I want to show you very quickly here is I want you to write down in the middle box, box two. I want you to write down A, b, c or D. Box box two I want you to write down A, b, c or D. A is. You can write down A. If this is you, I'm already in a salvation relationship with Jesus. B. It could be that you are beginning. Today. You got saved today. You gave your life to Jesus. Today, you're beginning a salvation relationship with Jesus.

Speaker 1:

Letter C wait for it. I'd like to consider it a bit more. I'm just gonna consider it a little bit longer. You can be honest, you can be transparent. I just wanna be able to pray for you wherever you are in your life. Or? D?

Speaker 1:

I don't intend on making that decision anytime soon. We just wanna be a real church. We don't wanna play church. I want you to feel a real church. We don't want to play church. I want you to feel like that you can come as you are. I want you to feel like that you can be who you are. I want you to feel like that it's okay to not be okay. Why? Because God loves us and he just always wants us to take the next step in our life. So I'm going to ask you right now for you to just take those and you can pass those over to the right. Pass those to your right and the ushers are gonna come down the aisles and they're gonna take those up. Right now, it's just an opportunity for me to pray for you and to celebrate your presence this morning. Ushers are gonna come down and they're gonna just go and pass them over to your right, to the end of your row. Pass them over to your right and they're gonna come down the ends of the rows and they're gonna grab those here at this time, right now, let me pray for us as they take those up. We'll continue to worship together.

Speaker 1:

Heavenly Father, we love you and God. We pray in Jesus' name. God, we pray that you would continue to work in our lives. We thank you for Jesus. We thank you that he clarifies our confusion. Thank you that he satisfies our seeking. Thank you that he gives us faith over our forgetfulness. Thank you that he brings belief even out of our disbelief In Jesus. You are so worth marveling over Jesus. We love you In Jesus. We just pray that we would lift the roof off of this place with our voices, that we would sing to you because you have risen from the dead. You have conquered the grave. You have conquered hell. You have conquered all of evil and you have risen from the dead. You have conquered the grave. You have conquered hell. You have conquered all of evil and you have given us life. You've given us hope. You've given us eternity. You've given us salvation, Jesus. You have given us you, so we give you ourselves. We love you in Jesus' name, and all God's people said amen. Let's stand together. Let's sing to him one more time.

Reactions to Jesus' Resurrection
Finding Life in the Resurrection
Remembering Jesus' Resurrection and Marveling
Responding to Preaching Topics and Decisions