Easter 2022 - Hope Resurrected

1 (2s): Happy Easter. What'd you stand as we worship marking this morning. 2 (2m 23s): I give my to this by the lamb who was 4 (4m 44s): All right. Good morning. Good, welcome. Welcome to Horace church outdoor Easter service. Hey, my name is Jeremy. I'm the youth and family pastor here at harvest church. And we just want to say welcome. Thank you for joining us. And there's been a long standing tradition in the church that is to say he is arisen, and then you respond with, he is risen. Indeed. Can we do that? All right. So he is risen. Amen. That is the, that is the day that we celebrate today. The risen savior. So, so welcome. Hey, just a few announcements this morning. We've got some great stuff on. Normally we meet at 1 0 2 west branch street right there in the village, and that's our normal service, but sooner agree, moving to 1 0 2 west branch. 4 (5m 28s): The something's different location. That's be our new worship center will be in there shortly, but we're excited about that. Just to let you know the lay of the land. We have the info center back here, and you can get all the find out all about CA harvest church and ways to plug in. We have our coffee and water over here as well, as well as the bathrooms are right back there. So you want to know where those things are. That's where they well, that's where they are. But we just want to say thank you. If you're joining us for the first time, feel free to go back to the info center and fill out a communication card. We'd love to find out more about you and ways to get plugged into harvest church. And for those kids that are here, we're so glad you're here in, in service with us. 4 (6m 11s): Normally we have an amazing kids program, but this morning, it's family Sunday. What a great day to celebrate Easter with a family. So kids are in service parents. If you just keep an eye on your kids, that the service has been amazing, but the kids afterwards, we have a special egg hunt for you guys. So there'll be more on that in a bit. And then lastly, Hey, we're going to be having some baptisms today. We're believing that there's going to be some people who are going to make their decision to follow Jesus for the first time this morning. So after service, pastor Steve is going to give the, the invite and we have a baptism tank right over here. We can baptize you today, fully immerse you in water, just like Jesus was. 4 (6m 51s): And it's going to be an exciting Sunday. We already have a bunch of people signed up. So it's going to be a, it's going to be an incredible day to see, see that that take place in the life of the, of the believers. So we're going to have baptisms after service. And if you're thinking, well, I didn't bring my shirt. I didn't bring shorts. I didn't bring a towel. Put those things aside because we have all those things ready for you. We got, we got stuff to go. So if you've never been baptized and you believe in the Jesus as your Lord and savior, we want to baptize you today. So amen. Let's say he is risen. Amen. Let's worship again. 2 (7m 52s): The stars just shy. They're half screen moms to have the words to see There is it time to see Jesus. 2 (12m 24s): This song is food. 6 (12m 55s): I cast my, my two Cauvery with And Todd for me, I see his, his hands, his fee. I say, if you're corsetry His body and dressed, and two, they laid him down and Josephs to the streets. 6 (13m 39s): You buy Haffey stone. 6 (15m 27s): In robes of why the blazing shall Pierce. The hand-eye will ride among the same. My gaze transfixed on Jesus. 7 (17m 55s): We are so grateful. So grateful for sunshine and overwhelmed by your goodness. Every time we do an outdoor service, you just make things happen for us. Thank you, God, that you are in charge of the weather and overseeing all things in life for God. And so we just invite your presence. Lord, we invite you to eat to us, to continue to move among us. God, every person's in a different season of life, dealing with different challenges and struggles. And as we've gathered, Lord, you've got the capacity and the desire to speak to each of us, to minister, to each of us. 7 (18m 39s): And so we invite you to do that and just a powerful and profound way. Do what only you can do work supernaturally in every soul gathered Lord, we prayed. We are so thankful for your love. So, so thankful for your goodness. We bless you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Hey man, he is raised in say seated. He is risen. He is risen. Indeed remain standing. And we're going to read from Matthew 28 drinks. Yes, sorry. Please stay on Matthew 28 verses one through seven. It says this early on Sunday morning as the new day was dawning Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb. 7 (19m 23s): Suddenly there was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord, came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone and sat on it. His face shown like lightning and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him and they fell into a dead faint. Then the angel spoke to the women. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. He said, I know you're looking for Jesus. Who was crucified. He isn't here. He is risen from the dead, just as he said, what happened? He has risen from the dead just as he said, what happened? 7 (20m 4s): Come, come see where his body was lying. And now go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. And he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you? The angel said, don't be afraid. He has risen from the dead. Amen. Amen. Turn and greet somebody. And we will come right back in just a moment. Say hello to your neighbor. We'll come right back. 7 (21m 10s): Alrighty, come on back. Come on back. I'm going to met somebody new today. Somebody, anybody being in a brand new. Good, good, good. That's the idea. Welcome. So I've got a joke to kick us off here as we kind of get things rolling again. I'm told that everybody loves my jokes. And so here we go. Did you hear, did you hear about the Jewish guy who sold his family tomb? His wife was furious with him. This family tomb had been in the family for generations and she assumed rightfully so that she would be buried there, that her husband would be buried there. 7 (21m 51s): And that generations following would be buried there. So she asked him, who did you sell the family tomb to? She said, he said, well, it was this guy named Jesus, but he told me that he only needed it for three days. That's as good as it gets research. Sorry guys, we're talking about hope today. Hope resurrected in order for something to be resurrected, someone or something to be resurrected. And obviously it has to be dead first. So when we talk about hope being resurrected, we're talking about something that has been dead, a person, a plan, a purpose, something has died. 7 (22m 38s): And we're here today to talk about the resurrection power of the Lord, Jesus Christ. As we talk about the resurrection of the person of the Lord, Jesus Christ, the historic person, Jesus Christ. We're also talking about the resurrection of the hope that he is. He is the hope of the world. He is absolutely the hope of the world. So we're talking about Jesus, who is our hope being resurrected from the dead, but we're also talking about the hope we can experience in light of the reality of Christ's resurrection. So hope is a noun and a verb. We have hope and we exercise hope. 7 (23m 19s): We have hope in the person and the work of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And we exercise hope. We put our hope in him. Those who know the Lord, we already have hope. And for those of you who are here today, and you don't know Jesus, if you're here, just kind of checking things out, you can know Jesus, you can choose hope today. Have you ever felt hopeless in your life? I felt that times, maybe my earliest memory of feeling hopeless was in 1980, in 1980, I was 11 years old and we were visiting friends in Ventura. And on the day that we were supposed to leave to come back to this area, my mom sent me off for a quart of milk at the storm. 7 (24m 5s): And so I go to the store. I find my way there. I get the milk and I've got a terrible sense of direction. So I come out the wrong door and I had the wrong direction. And I spend the next 12 hours looking for the place that I'm supposed to be returning to. The street that I was looking for was Amherst. The street that I thought I needed to be heading toward was I, I thought I was heading toward Ash. So if you look on a map, Ash street in Amhurst and Ventura is about four and a half miles apart. So I spent the day wandering, looking for the wrong place. I was looking for the wrong streets. 7 (24m 48s): And when did it occur to me that I could probably find my way back by remembering the store that I had gone to initially I began to have some hope. So I began to ask the question to people around me, Hey, how do you get to this market? I can't remember the name of the market now, but I began to ask, how do I get back to this market? And they said, are you sure you want to go to that market? That's like way across town. I said, no, that is that's the spot I need to get back to that market. And so over time I made my way back to the markets. And from there made my way to my friend's house, where we were staying. And 12 hours later, I made it home. And, but I was completely hopeless until I realized the direction that I needed to head. 7 (25m 32s): And once I had that direction, I just felt revitalized in my hope. And I, I knew that I was moving in the right direction and I knew eventually I would make it back to the place I started. How is hope resurrected in our lives? I believe hope is resurrected in our lives. And we have clarity about the direction of our lives when we're lacking clarity about the direction of our lives. We lack hope. We're not sure what tomorrow brings. We're not sure how to move forward. We're not sure who we are and what we're supposed to be about in this life. Especially given these last two years with COVID, it kind of wrecked the world and we're all kind of wondering and scratching our heads and trying to figure out how does this thing end. 7 (26m 14s): And here we are two years into it. And we're grateful that we can gather as a church, the people of God, people in the community on Easter service. But, but we, we, we, we needed in the midst of all that, to know somehow that this was going to come to an animal. We're so grateful that it's kind of wrapping up hope resurrected when Jesus was born and lives and was crucified and buried in that tomb, his followers were utterly hopeless. They had given everything away, they've sold everything. They had abandoned everything so that they might follow Jesus. 7 (26m 57s): Jesus would call them on the shores of the sea of Galilee. And they would say he was a common follow me. I will make you fishers of men. Like I'm going to change your whole life. Like, I don't want you to focus on what you've been focusing on up to this point. I want you to follow me and I will change your life. And even though Jesus had told them, listen, I'm going to die. And then on the third day, I will be resurrected. When it, it actually happened. His people were confused and lost and even angry. I would imagine. And just distraught at the reality that this Jesus that they gave everything for and were following for three years was dead. 7 (27m 40s): He was crucified unjustly, so and wrapped and put into a tomb. I mean, that's pretty final, right? It's, it's pretty final unless we're talking about God, unless we're talking about God. If we're talking about God, then nothing is final until God says it is final. When, when Jesus came out of that grave, hope was restored when they saw him. And the scripture says that 500 plus people saw him after his resurrection. It's a historical fact that Jesus resurrected from the dead, his disciples, his followers held on to that reality of that truth and gave their lives for the reality of that truth. 7 (28m 24s): They would not buckle. They would not change course because they knew that their savior had been resurrected from the dead. And so they gave their lives so that others might hear that message. Maybe you're here today and you don't know Jesus. Maybe you've never heard a gospel presentation. The gospel presentation is just Jesus. This is it's. This Jesus loves you. God, God lavish you. He's absolutely in love with you. And he wants to forgive your sins and welcome you into his family. He wants to bless your life and challenge you to follow him all the days of your life. I often say it like this. 7 (29m 5s): It's God has made it incredibly easy to walk in new life with him as a believer, as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. But it's the hardest thing you'll ever do. As you follow him, the very, the rest of your life, his grace is a free gift, but walking after him is the hardest thing that you will ever have to do. But it's the thing in life that makes everything in life worthwhile. Maybe you're here today and you don't know who Jesus is. The good news is that you can know him and he wants to know you and he wants to come into your life. But who is this? Jesus let's understand first. 7 (29m 46s): Who is this? Jesus? Well, most people are familiar with the name. Jesus few people truly know who he is and knowing Jesus identity and his mission are important because there are ramifications that are eternal connected to what we know and what we believe about Jesus. The ramifications are eternal. It doesn't just touch this life. Although it touches this life, it touches all of eternity. So the best source of information about Jesus is in the Bible. And the Bible tells us that Jesus is God. 7 (30m 26s): He is not a God. He is the God. Someone say that Jesus was a good teacher. And I would agree with you, but he wasn't just a good teacher. He was the teacher, the very best teacher. He was a rabbi, but he wasn't just a rabbi. He was the eternal God. The magnificent one who has been there since, before the foundation of the earth. He's eternal. He's eternal. He's certainly not just to clear some things up. He's not the new age. Jesus. They just have a different perspective. New agers don't believe that Jesus has God all mighty. And the second person of the Trinity, rather new agers reduce Jesus to a mere man who attained spiritual enlightenment through a cultic activity and involvements new age G new agers reduce Jesus. 7 (31m 18s): And number him among the so-called masters. Like the Buddha who offer a way to offer a way. But Jesus said in John 14, six, he said, I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the father except through me. So Jesus is not just a way. And if we think he's a way, then we're missing the point all together. He is actually the only way to the father. So he's not a Buddha. He's not an enlightened wan. He's not an enlightened master. He is God, some have said, he's a good man, but he's not just a good man. And honestly, he's probably not a good man. If we don't believe what he says about himself, if we don't believe that he is God and he is claiming to be God, then he's probably a lunatic. 7 (32m 4s): So we got to figure out what we believe about Jesus. He is God. And that's who he claims to be. He's fully God and fully man in the incarnation. He is not at all. He is here. This, he is not at all the spirit brother of Lucifer. That's not, that's not who Jesus is. You never married. And he never fathered children. He just never did those things. We need to read. The scripture. Charles Spurgeon wrote discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It's knowing the difference between rights and almost right. So we need to open up the scripture and understand who this Jesus is because it's the Jesus that we celebrate on Easter is the Jesus that we celebrate at Christmas. It's the Jesus. 7 (32m 45s): This Jesus, you came into the world so that we might have new life. He is eternal. He existed before his physical birth. And even before time began, he is the creator of everything that exists. He is the perfect reflection of the invisible God we see in Colossians one 15 through 17. It says Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is Supreme over all creation for through him. God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we cannot see such as Thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world, everything was created through him and for him. 7 (33m 32s): He existed before anything else. And he holds listen. He holds all creation together. Jesus is God. Jesus is the eternal king of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is God. He has the power to forgive sins. And his followers worshiped him. He, he is worthy of worship. Think about, think about this. The all-powerful eternal son of God, coming to earth as an infant. Imagine him lying in a manger, built with trees that he created. Imagine him under the stars that he created in flung into space. 7 (34m 17s): He's reduced to an infant child so that he might come and that we might know him and be saved through him. Scripture makes it clear that he was no ordinary baby. He's the savior of the world. The Bible declares that there's only one way to eternal life. And that is through faith in Jesus Christ. As savior acts four 12 says this salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. Jesus was given so that we might be saved. 7 (34m 57s): God is working in the world today. And I'm so thankful that idea, that reality should give us hope that he's Supreme over all things in the earth. He is working in the earth and he's always been working in the earth. He is working to bring us to himself by faith. Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen. It's the assurance of things we can not see. Hebrews 12 two says this through their faith. The people in days of old earned a good reputation through their faith, the people have days of older and a good reputation. So let's talk about a couple of people from days old. 7 (35m 37s): We're going to talk about Abraham and Sarah for a few minutes. So there's a guy in the Bible named Abraham and his wife's name is Sarah. When Abraham was 75 years old, the Lord made a promise to him at 75. The Lord said to him, this in Genesis 12 two, I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous. And you will be a blessing to others. So Abraham is like, okay, but there's a problem, Lord. There's a problem. It's all about impossible. You see I'm an old man. And my wife is barren. She can't have children. 7 (36m 19s): So it's an impossible word from the Lord. But listen, nothing is impossible with God. And when he declares something to be true, it will come to pass again. Abram's wife was barren. She wasn't able to have children. So where with this, where this nation come from, we read in Romans four 18. It says even when there was no reason for hope, have you been there even like, there was no reason for hope. Abraham kept hoping, believing that he would become the father of many nations for God had said to him, that was good enough for Abraham. God had said to him, that's how many descendants you will have. 7 (37m 2s): God's promise of children. Resurrected is hope. Because up to this point, 75 years old, he's got no descendants, nothing that a nation could be built around or be established through. He's got no descendants before then because of their age and inability to have children, they had no hope of children of a future, especially that type of future. But because they chose to believe God, they chose against all odds. They chose to believe God, their hope was resurrected. So number one hope is resurrected. When we choose to believe God against all odds, hope is resurrected. 7 (37m 45s): When we choose to believe God against all odds, where do you need to believe God against all odds in your life? Maybe you're up against a physical infirmity. That seems impossible. Maybe you're in a relationship that seems like it's going to and, and, and not well, where do you need the Lord to speak a word, a promise to you from his word, where do you need to be built up? Where do you need your hope resurrected? I've watched God heal people against all odds. We've seen it happen over and over again. I've watched God restore marriages against all odds. 7 (38m 26s): We've seen it happen over and over again. I graduated from college and grad school against all odds. If you know me, that's a miracle, right? That's a supernatural miracle, but it happened by God's grace. I've been married for 32 years to the same woman. That's a miracle. Again. If you know me, you know, that's a miracle. That's just, that should not have happened. I pastored the same church for 19 years against all odds. And we've watched God do wonderful and supernatural things. Hey Abraham, he waited 25 years for God's promised to come to pass. It's a long time. Sometimes we're in this waiting season where we we've heard something, we felt the Lord leading. 7 (39m 9s): We know that God has spoken and directed, but we've been in a season of waiting. This is God's emo. And he's what he does. He, he speaks and in the waiting, he builds us up in our faith. He challenges us to believe and to continue to hope in him and Romans four 19, it says, and Abraham's faith did not weaken. Even though at about a hundred years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead. And so was Sarah's womb. So now he's not 75, he's a hundred and still nothing, but he never wavered. He continued to believe God. 7 (39m 49s): Abraham kept believing God against all odds. Verse 20 says Abraham never wavered in believing God's promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger. Isn't that amazing? His faith grew stronger. And in this, he brought glory to God. Listen, if you wait in your season of waiting and believe God and allow your faith to grow stronger, you will, you will enjoy life more. You will honor the Lord. You will glorify God. And then you will get to see God do what he told you he would do. So open up the scripture and find out what the Lord has told you. 7 (40m 29s): He will do. And we're going to be talking about some of the promises of God here in just a moment. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. Verse 21. Are you, are you fully convinced? I think we, we need to get there. As people, as believers, we need to be fully convinced that God is who he said. He, he is that Jesus is who he said he is. And that he is going to do what he said he would do. We needed to be fully convinced how hope is resurrected when we choose, we have to choose to believe God against all odds. And so it's not easy. It's not an easy thing to do, but by God's grace, if we, as we continue to look to him and believe him and put our faith in him, hope is resurrected. 7 (41m 10s): Hope is resurrected. When we choose to believe God against all odds. Number two hope is resurrected. And when we, when we keep our eyes on God and on his promises, I, I noticed in my life that when there's problems, that's where I'm focused. Like I'm, I'm focused on the problems instead of the one who can bring the solution to the problem we were thinking about this service. We've been thinking about it for months, planning on it for months and, and inevitably, no matter what is happening in the weather, there's always rain like right around, right around the time that we're supposed to gather as a church outside the, you know, the one time a year that we gather outside. And so yesterday or Friday, when I'm writing this portion of my message, it was Friday at 1:29 PM. 7 (41m 56s): And I'm looking at the weather for Saturday because we got out here early yesterday and spent the day setting up and there was a 60% chance of rain. And so we thought, well, we're just going to go for it. And we're just going to pray. And we're just going to believe that God will bring out the sun and part the clouds and allow us to meet. And that's precisely what he has done. We've we believed God and looked to him as the, whether he's the weatherman. He can change the weather. He can do whatever it is that he wants to do. Friday 1 29, 60% chance of rain yesterday. So there's rain in the, in the early, early morning hours, and then we're setting up and then it starts to sprinkle on us. And we're like, you know what? 7 (42m 36s): It doesn't matter. We're just going to keep going. We're just going to keep going. And by God's grace, we set it up. And here we are. The temptation again, is to get our eyes on the problem, the obstacle, the battle, the, the need in front of us. We, we focus on that when we really need to get our eyes on God, who is able to bring solutions for all of those things, we were worried about the weather. We, we didn't get a promise. We didn't get a promise from the Lord that the weather would be good, but we sense that this was the right direction for us. And so we moved in that direction. We believe God not having a promise that the weather would be good, but believing that if God has called us out here, then he would make it plausible for us to have an outdoor service. 7 (43m 23s): So we moved forward. He trusted God for good weather, listen and believing. God doesn't mean we don't have doubts. It means we move forward despite our doubts, because we're all filled with doubt at different times. Like we're hearing something, we're reading the scripture, we're trying to move forward, but we've got doubts and fears and anxieties. So faith having hope is it doesn't mean we don't experience those things, but we have the grace and the strength to move forward. In spite of those things, hope is resurrected. Hope is resurrected. When we choose to believe God against all odds. Number one, number two hope is resurrected. When we keep our eyes on God and on his promises. Now let's look at some of God's promises to people of faith. 7 (44m 8s): Romans 4 22 says. And because of Abraham's faith, God counted him as righteous to be righteous, just means to be in right. Standing with God is not a good idea to like be in right standing with the creator and the judge of the universe and be like, I want to be in right standing with him. But I know in my own ability, in my own strength, in my own works, I can never get there. But by God's grace, he's imputed righteousness to those who believe. And so because of God and his goodness and not because of me and my goodness, because God, in his goodness, not because of you in your goodness, he will impure righteousness. When we believe because of Abraham Abraham's faith, God counted him as righteous. 7 (44m 49s): So again, to be righteous, it's just to be in right standing with God. And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn't just for Abraham's benefit. It was recorded for our benefit to assuring us that God will also count us righteous. If we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus, our Lord from the dead. So, so what are we believing about God? Is it a belief that brings us humbly to a place of acknowledging our need for salvation, for the forgiveness of sins? What are we believing about Jesus? And are we believing in the right Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible. It's important that we understand Jesus from the context of the scripture that we have opened up the Bible and understand Jesus in light of scripture, Romans 4 25 says he, Jesus, he, Jesus was handed over to die because of our sins. 7 (45m 41s): And he was raised to life to make us right with God Romans five one, therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight, there's that word? Righteousness. Therefore, since we've been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God. So that is a promise. That's one of the promises that we can have as followers of the Lord. Jesus Christ. We can have peace. Now, if you've lived at all with any part of your life without peace, you w you really understand and value peace. A few years ago, I was really struggling with a lack of peace and I couldn't figure out what was going on in my life. I was, I just couldn't get happy. I couldn't get satisfied. He couldn't get fulfilled in, in any arena, Amy, any area of my life, I wanted to quit the ministry. 7 (46m 22s): I wanted to just do anything, but do what I was doing. I was just so unhappy. So my wife, with all of her wisdom, she said, Hey, do you have this symptom? And this symptom and this symptom and this symptom. And she went down a list of symptoms that she had downloaded from the internet. And I didn't realize, I thought, man, you've been paying close attention to my life. You know exactly what I'm going through. She said, no, these are just symptoms of depression. She said, I think you're depressed. I'm like, yeah, I think you're right. And so with some therapy and some prayer and some I'm medicated by the way. 7 (47m 4s): So little medication never hurt anybody, but I was able to get back to a place where I could put the full weight of my trust in God and believe him, there was something chemically going on in me. That was hindering me from doing that. So through the wisdom of my wife and doctors, I began to discover what was going on in and by God's grace, by God's grace. The hope of God, the peace of God, the grace of God just began to flow through my life. Once again, therefore, since we've been made right in God's sight, we've been made righteous by faith. We have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. 7 (47m 44s): Listen, I don't care how many meds you're on. If you don't know Jesus as your Lord, you'll never have peace meds. Don't equal peace. It might be meds. Plus Jesus equals peace in my case, but you need Jesus. That's the, you need Jesus. And God is faithful to meet you and, and fill you with hope and to fill you with peace because of our faith. Christ has brought us into a place of undeserved privilege. That's another promise undeserved privilege. What does that look like? Well, we've been saved by his grace and adopted into his family when we, by faith, trust him. So we get actually adopted into his family. That's undeserved privilege where kids of the king, where we now stand and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory. 7 (48m 29s): We understand where we're going. When it's all said and done, those are some of the promises of God. So number one, hope is resurrected. When we choose to believe God, it gets to all odds. Number two hope is resurrected. When we keep our eyes on God and on his promises. And number three, as we get ready to wrap up here, hope is resurrected. When we believe we are made right with God, by faith, maybe you're hearing you're wrestling. Cause you know, you're not right with God. If you will believe by faith and put your trust in God, you can have that sense of security. That sense of peace. That sense of joy, knowing that you're made right with God, Jesus was born. He lived, he died in resin, resurrected from the dead. 7 (49m 10s): So we might have new life so that we might be right with God so that we might have peace so that we can confidently enjoy fully, look forward to sharing God's glory. Whatever has you feeling hopeless God by his grace and goodness can resurrect your hope. Choose to believe God against all odds. Keep your eyes on God. And his promises believe that you can be made right with God by faith. No matter what you've done, no matter what you have done. If you, if you do these things, God will resurrect your hope. When Jesus died and was buried, his followers lost all hope. 7 (49m 54s): When Jesus resurrected, he restored their hope, their purpose and their joy. When I was lost as an 11 year old boy, my hope was restored. When I finally remembered where I needed to go, Jesus is calling you home. He's calling us home. What will you do with that invitation? That opportunity? Well, I want you to go ahead and stand and I'm going to pray you. And as we get ready to wrap up the service with some more prayer and song, I just want to invite you to do something with this invitation to receive the grace and the mercy of the Lord. 7 (50m 41s): Jesus Christ. Maybe you've heard the message over and over again. Maybe you've heard it here. You've heard it. Other places. Maybe you've been told the message, the gospel that Jesus loves you, that he died for you. That you might have new life in him. If you're here today and you want to say yes to Jesus, I just want you to pray this prayer and the quietness of your heart. You say, Jesus, I need you. Jesus. I welcome you into my life. Lord. I want you to be Lord and king and ruler of my life. I need you to forgive my sins. I need you to come into my life. And as you by faith, declare that prayer to the Lord, God hears. 7 (51m 22s): And he responds. He welcomes you into his family and he gives you new purpose for your life. It gives you new purpose, new identity, and he calls you like he called the original 12 common and follow me. That means you're gonna look at your life completely different from now on. You're going to be looking at your life through the lens, this lens. I'm a follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ in my life is for him. If you've done that today, at some point after the service, if you've given your life to the Lord today, at some point after the service, I'm going to direct you over to the baptism tent. Not so that you can get baptized necessarily, but we've got a, we've got a new believers bag of information for you. 7 (52m 5s): But if you like to get baptized, as Jeremy said earlier, we've got t-shirts and shorts and towels that you can have, and we'll baptize you over there. So as we wrap up this part of the service, the band will be leading us. The band will be leading us. And as the band is leading us in worship, we're going to begin to assemble over there for those who want to be baptized and so make your way over there. And then the baptism will actually be on the screen as well. So Lord, with that, we just invite you. We invite you. We invite your presence. We thank you, Lord. We thank you for your goodness. Thank you for what you're doing. Lord in Jesus name. 7 (52m 47s): If you would like to receive prayer, there's, there'd be people over there ready to pray for you as well. People who love Jesus and who will love on you. So if you'd like to get prayer, receive a new believers pack. If you like to get baptized, head over there as we sing this last song. Amen. Let's worship. 9 (53m 7s): Let's sing this together. 6 (54m 42s): Yeah. Strange. His name is one It's a dome that you hoppy trouble. Hold your head up high. Don't feel the Big guys. 6 (55m 24s): 2 (1h 0m 12s): We To the Virgin came though. to that stone was moved forward for the land who was Yes, we magnify Jesus. 2 (1h 13m 46s): This song is a thousand hot and 9 (1h 14m 2s): Thank you Jesus so much for just a beautiful Easter Sunday morning, Lord. Thank you that you are saving us. Thank you that you sent your son Jesus to die a horrible death on the cross so that we could be right with you so we can have forgiveness of our sins. Lord, thank you for the resurrection. Thank you. That you're resurrecting hope in us today. And I just pray that as we go, would you just, would you just do that in, in hearts and minds today? Lord, in our communities and our families, Lord, would you be resurrecting hope where there might not be any? So we thank you for all this in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. 11 (1h 14m 47s): All right. Thank you all for joining us today. Happy Easter. Before you go, we have a for birth to four year olds and five to 10 year olds over here to your left. So be sure to head over there. We're going to be doing the acorns starting in a few minutes. So head on over, if you have kids that are birth to 10 years old, all right. Happy Easter. He is risen.