The Unstoppable Message | 2 Timothy 2:8-13 | Pastor Bob Erbig

Well, the Apostle Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2, verse 8 remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead.

2 Timothy 2:8

That's why Christians have gathered for over 2,000 years to celebrate on Easter morning.

Today, that's why Christians all over the world are coming together to worship Jesus Christ risen from the dead, a hope that is offered to all believers.

On Good Friday, Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty of our sins and make us right with God the Father.

But death is not the end because on Easter Sunday, Jesus arose from the grave, the first fruit of the coming resurrection.

Amen.

In fact, I suspect all in this room have experienced the death of a loved one.

Perhaps for some, this is the first Easter after that loss.

Let me ask you something personal before I continue.

Does anybody have a voicemail saved on their phone from somebody who's gone?

Yeah, I see I see a few of you.

Now, if you do, you know exactly what I mean.

In fact, there's a phenomenon that grief counselors began documenting after the smartphone became ubiquitous when somebody dies.

Loved ones cannot bring themselves to delete this voicemail greeting because it's the sound of the voice that's still there, that's still present in that small rectangle of glass.

It becomes one of the most painful and precious things the grieving person owns.

Some call the number just to hear it, some keep the account active for years because the voice remains even when the person is gone.

In fact, this week is the anniversary of my father's passing.

He died before the smartphone existed, and so there's no voicemail to save.

But for years, our family would pull out this.

Do you know what this is?

VHS tape.

We would watch him.

We would just remember.

Different technology, but a same desperate need.

And then in recent years, AI companies have offered a service that goes even further where they'll reconstruct the voice of a deceased person so families can have simulated conversations with them.

Tens of thousands of people have used it.

It's simultaneously the most understandable and most haunting thing that our technology has produced.

We are desperate to keep the dead present.

We'll do almost anything to avoid losing the voice.

But Paul does not say remember the voice of Jesus Christ.

He says, remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead.

Not a recording, not a simulation, a body, a tomb, and a mourning that changed everything.

Now, if you've lost somebody recently, I think you understand the appeal of these technologies.

This is where Easter confronts us in our pain, in our questions.

But the question that Easter puts on the table is not, do we need our dead, do we want our deceased loved ones to return?

I suspect many do.

The question is actually, can somebody rise from the dead?

Not an AI simulation, not a voicemail, but the actual body of the person who died.

See, what Paul tells us, when he tells us to remember, remember Jesus Christ, he is telling us that the resurrection is possible.

Do you believe that?

Can dead things be made alive?

Now let me speak to the kids for just a moment.

I want you to raise your hands.

And when you walked in today, you should have received a seed packet that looked like this.

How about you just shake it around and let us know you're there?

All right, good.

Lot of representation over here.

We had some good shakers in the earlier services.

Right?

Can you hear the seeds inside?

Right?

Okay, good.

We got seeds inside.

Now, throughout the message, we're gonna come back to the seed packet.

So let me just give you a piece of trivia as we begin here.

In 2022, scientists successfully germinated seeds recovered from the tombs of ancient Judean date palms.

They look like this seeds that had been dormant for 2,000 years.

And what they did was they found them near the Dead Sea in the same region where Jesus walked.

They were stored, they were buried, they were seemingly finished, and then someone planted them and they grew.

Imagine that, a 2,000-year-old seed, which we thought was dead, produced new life.

The oldest successfully germinated seed in recorded history came from the soil where the resurrection of Jesus happened.

That's pretty cool.

There's something in the created order that refused to cooperate with death.

Now, passing away results from the fall, but that's not how it's supposed to be.

And so these seeds don't follow the rules, they just grow.

A seemingly dead seed came to life and it points to something, to someone greater than biology.

Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead.

That's the central theme of 2 Timothy 2, verses 8 to 13.

2 Timothy 2:8–13

That's where we'll be this morning, and I invite you to join me there.

This is the unstoppable message of Easter.

So here's my question as we begin.

What if the resurrection is actually true?

If you're skeptical out there today, the answer to that question can change your life.

If you're a Christian out there, it is the foundation of gospel courage.

In 2 Timothy 2, 8 to 13, Paul outlines three implications of the resurrection.

First, there's a person worth remembering.

Number two, there's preaching that cannot be chained.

And then finally, there's a promise that cannot be broken.

So let's let's pray and then we'll look at each of those this morning.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for each person who's here today.

Lord, I ask that you would come and meet us where we are.

Lord, if if there's somebody here today that is without hope, I pray that you would infuse them with the hope that comes from the resurrection.

If there's somebody who's questioning, Lord, I pray that you would meet them, that you would open their eyes, that you would give them ears to hear.

Lord, if there's somebody here today that needs to be more bold, I pray that you would encourage them, Lord God, to share about what Jesus has done, our Savior who has changed the world.

We give this time to you in his name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, kids, you still got those seed packets?

Here they are.

Again, don't lose them because when you get home, I'm gonna give you some homework.

So keep shaking them.

All right, shake them.

Let your parents know you got them.

Good.

Can you hear the seeds inside still?

Good.

All right, good.

We'll come back to those in just a second.

Now, let's look at verse 8 and see if there's anything about seeds.

All right, let's read it.

Verse 8 says, Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel.

So Jesus Christ, yes, is the person worth remembering because he's raised from the dead.

But if you look at that third clause, what does it say?

It says Jesus was the offspring of David.

Is there anything about a seed there?

Well, that word offspring can be translated seed.

Now remember, what does a seed do?

It brings new life.

What Paul is saying is that Jesus Christ is a descendant of the family line of King David.

Do you remember who King David is, right?

Anyone seen the House of David on Amazon?

He was the greatest king in the history of Israel, a man, we're told, after God's own heart, the one whom God promised would always have a descendant on his throne.

And Jesus Christ is that true Savior King.

Now this verse is pretty action-packed, so let's let's break it down.

Remember Jesus Christ is an imperative, it is a command.

Paul's not giving us a suggestion here.

He is commanding his readers to remember Jesus Christ.

Notice he does not say remember the message of Jesus Christ.

He says remember the person of Jesus Christ.

Why?

Because he knows how easily we forget.

In fact, this was a common refrain in the Old Testament when God or his prophets spoke to the nation of Israel, his people, he would often tell them to remember.

Exodus 13, 3, Moses tells the people, Remember this day in which you came out of Egypt.

The psalmist in Psalm 77, 11 says, I will remember the deeds of the Lord.

Now, why do we need to remember?

Because we're a people who often forget.

Do I have some forgetful people out there?

Say amen.

All right, good.

A lot of forgetful people in here.

So you listen, in our distracted, busy, fast-paced world, we forget many things.

Now, what are the symptoms of forgetfulness?

Maybe sometimes you get frazzled, right?

You got you get that brain fog, you're tired, you're overwhelmed.

And while it can feel good to be busy, there's a consequence to forgetfulness.

We never stop to remember the important things.

In fact, we get so distracted, it's very easy to forget Jesus Christ, the reason for living.

How often do you think about Jesus in between Sunday and Sunday, in between Easter and Easter?

Paul says you gotta remember.

Now, why should we remember Jesus?

Well, he says he rose from the dead.

In other words, the resurrection is the single most important event in the history of the world.

And many of us think about it maybe once a year at most.

Now, the resurrection changes everything.

The resurrection takes the world, it turns it upside down, inside out, it reverses death itself.

But how often do we think about it?

Now, if you're a skeptic out there, maybe you're saying, oh, the resurrection, that's such a nice story.

But it's certainly not true.

Well, let me remind you that the resurrection rests on a mountain of historical evidence, and you can go and study and see all the arguments.

Let me just give you a couple.

For example, it was not the powerful people of the day who reported the resurrection, but the powerless, the women and the poor disciples.

Now, if the early church was manufacturing a legend, it certainly would not have made women the messengers because of the culture of the time.

They would not have reported embarrassing details like doubting Thomas.

They would have made themselves look good.

And why would Peter stand before thousands of people in the same city where Jesus was crucified and preached that he is God in the flesh?

This could have gotten him killed.

Because Jesus Christ actually rose from the dead.

And because of this truth, people had gospel courage.

The resurrection is not merely a historical event to remember, but a continuing reality to live by.

Remember it.

Because of who rose.

Courage has a face, and his name is Jesus Christ.

And his message is also worth remembering.

It's worth passing down, it's worth planting in the hearts of every successive generation.

Now, if you've been with us this year, NBC has been celebrating, or if you've not been with us, NBC has been celebrating 175 years of remembering Jesus Christ risen from the dead.

This is our 175th Easter as a congregation.

That's a big deal.

Now the word remember is not a one-time action.

It is an ongoing command to keep remembering Jesus day after day, year after year.

It's a message for everybody.

See, Paul names David because he's appealing to the Jews, but he's also a messenger to the Gentiles.

That's everybody.

Easter is not the conclusion of the story.

It's the starting point for the Christian courage.

And we can have courage because this world is not our home.

We have the eternal hope of the resurrection.

We can face anything because it's not the end.

So let's think about those seeds again.

Kids, again, show us the seeds.

Shake them up, shake them up, shake them up.

That seed represents the message of the gospel.

Say it's the message of the gospel.

All right, good.

It can be planted in dead hearts and made alive.

Some of you today, the seed has been planted in your hearts.

It needs to come alive so that true eternal life begins.

Now there's one final clause in this verse I want to draw your attention to, and that is the phrase, my gospel.

Paul loves to use this phrase.

And people criticize him for it.

They say, Is Paul arrogant?

Is he pompous?

What does he mean by my gospel?

Well, in the original language, it's not possessive, it's actually about accountability.

The Apostle Paul is sitting, remember, in prison awaiting his death as he writes this letter, and he's saying, This is the gospel that I have staked my life on.

This is the gospel that I am now dying for.

So here is the question: Is this gospel yours?

Are you staking your life on Jesus or have you been distracted by the commercialized noise of the world?

Let me give you an example.

How many of you out there like Costco?

All right, some of you, all right.

Listen, Costco, in my mind, is a little slice of heaven, okay?

You get your cart, you walk around, sometimes they feed you for free, amen.

Right?

Everything's on sale.

They greet you when you walk in, they greet you when you walk out, a big smile, hopefully, except on Saturdays when the store turns into a cage match to get out.

Did you know that Costco decided this year to sell a large chocolate bunny for Easter that was advertised as 22,650 calories?

If you're on a diet, this is not what you want.

But they even gave this thing a name.

It's Pete the Bunny, right?

Pete is two feet tall, he weighs 10 pounds, and Pete can be yours for $140.

Costco, come on, right?

Now, as I was meditating on the message this week, songs from Veggie Tales started coming into my mind.

I thought about the bunny, the bunny.

Oh, I ate the bunny.

Listen, if you know, you know.

But the bunny is a distraction.

If I stuff myself with that bunny on Easter, I'm not thinking about Jesus.

I got a big old tummy ache.

My goodness, who thought this was a good idea?

Anyone out there buy Pete?

All right, sorry, sorry if I'm shaming you.

God bless you if you did.

You get about a hundred people and try to eat them today.

Now that's a humorous illustration, but but what I'm trying to point out point out is if we're not careful, Pete the bunny and others like him can distract us from the real message of Easter, Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.

We have too many things like Pete in our lives, and the things of this world so quickly make us forget Jesus Christ risen from the dead.

Remembering Jesus requires constant spiritual warfare because Pete the bunny is right around the corner.

Now, if the resurrection is true, then Jesus is the person worth remembering because it's all about Jesus.

And when Jesus has your heart, when you stake your life on the gospel, your message changes.

That's point number two.

That we have now a preaching that cannot be chained.

A preaching that cannot be chained.

Now, all right, let's let's get those seed packets out again.

I told you we're coming back to it.

I want kids, good, good job.

You're catching on.

Good job.

Now I want you to imagine if you rip this open, don't do it though, don't do it.

If you're if you ripped it open and if you put it into an airtight container, kind of like a Tupperware container, imagine you you took those seeds, you put it in there, you sealed them up, you locked them, you put a chain around the Tupperware container.

Maybe you can try that this week.

Ask your parents.

That'd be pretty fun, right?

I want you to notice that wherever you put the seeds, the seeds don't care.

Life still exists in whatever container you have the seeds in.

Now, if you're as you read verses nine and ten, Paul is sealed in prison.

The word of God is the seed, but it's planted in his heart.

It's alive, it needs to get out.

You can imprison the messenger, but not the message.

Look at verse 9.

He says, I got this gospel for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal, but the word of God is not bound.

Now, what's he suffering for?

The gospel which has gripped his heart.

And notice the brilliant wordplay Paul does here.

Those words bound and unbound come from the same root.

Paul is bound, but the word of God is unbound.

In fact, it cannot be bound.

It's this unstoppable message.

And then he continues with the implications of the message in verse 10.

He says, Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

So that's a missional statement.

What is the mission?

To save lives.

Now that term elect refers to those people whom God knows will come to salvation in Jesus Christ.

It's a biblical category that's all over the New Testament.

Now, some of you out there might say, Well, what is this election?

Right?

Am I campaigning to get voted into heaven?

Now, see, in the human mind, election is a mystery, but God knows.

And he uses human vessels like Paul to bring people to saving faith out of love, Paul obeys.

Why is Paul suffering for the gospel?

Why is he imprisoned like a criminal?

Because God's word cannot be stopped, and the eternal destiny of people is at stake.

Now that word endure carries the sense of holding one's ground in the midst of suffering.

Paul is on this mission from God.

He's enduring prison so the word of God, the gospel, can advance.

It's the same picture that's used of Jesus in the book of Hebrews.

The author there challenges believers to endure amidst persecution, and then he points to the example of Jesus himself.

Look at Hebrews 12, 2.

It says, You gotta look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Now that verse refers to Jesus' work on the cross and his resurrection.

But if you notice, there's that word endure.

It's the same word that's used in 2 Timothy 2, verse 10.

2 Timothy 2:10

And the force in that text in 2 Timothy 2 is not referring to current Christians, but to the future salvation of non-believing people.

So if you're not a Christian here today, there may be somebody in your life who is enduring for you in prayer, waiting for you, hoping that you will give your life to Jesus.

Why?

Because Jesus is the key to abundant and eternal life.

Not only did Paul endure for the sake of people who need to know Jesus, but Jesus also endured on the cross.

He didn't get down, he didn't leave.

Because he loved you, Christian, he stayed.

Where would you be if he had not?

You know, during the peak of COVID-19 in New York City, some healthcare workers left high-risk environments, but others stayed in unimaginably difficult situations.

In fact, one New York City emergency medical resident, Fred Milgram, described working at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, where a hastily assembled COVID-19 unit ran nonstop, and the virus's reality was frighteningly visible in the faces of the patients they saw every day.

He kept suiting up for 12-hour shifts in that unit, not for abstractions or statistics, but for those specific patients in front of him, people with names and families and stories.

And his account in the Atlantic parallels Paul's logic in verse 10.

Paul endured for the sake of the elect, concrete people God had given him to serve.

This New York City doctor endured for the concrete patients entrusted to his care.

Gospel courage has the same specificity.

Who are the particular people by name and face for whom you are willing to endure?

Why did Paul and Jesus and this doctor endure?

Because they had something to give to dying people.

What does Paul say?

He says, I do this, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Now, how do you obtain salvation?

You confess that you're a sinner, that you believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, and you place your entire trust in his saving work on the cross.

You stake your life on Jesus, and the gospel becomes yours.

You repent and you believe.

And when you do, your relationship with God is restored.

You're welcomed into the family of God.

You are free.

And what is eternal glory?

It is the completion of salvation that awaits you in the new heavens and the new earth, the resurrected life.

You live forever with Christ and his people in a perfect, unblemished world.

No more sin or sickness or dying or pain.

Do you want that?

Do you believe that?

Because of what the resurrection unleashed, the gospel has a guarantee.

You know, this past week I was listening to a podcast interviewing Chris Pratt of Hollywood Fame.

You know, Parks and Wreck and Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World.

And uh Pratt, if you don't know, has become known for his Christian faith, which in Hollywood can be a career death sentence.

But he's induced.

In fact, he shared a few stories I thought were pretty insightful.

He came to faith out of a life of drugs and drinking because someone saw him outside a liquor store waiting for beer and told him about Jesus and invited him to church.

He also described his struggles in his Christian life, his failures and trying to live out his faith in Hollywood.

And then finally he told the story about this viral moment he had on the MTV Movie Awards a few years ago.

Maybe you remember this.

You may remember they give they gave him a lifetime achievement award and he took the moment to share about his faith.

And here's what he said: he said, You have a soul.

Be careful with it.

God is real, God loves you, God wants what's best for you.

Nobody's perfect.

People will tell you that you are perfect just the way you are.

You're not.

You're imperfect, you always will be, but there's a powerful force that designed you that way.

And if you're willing to accept that, you will have grace.

And grace is a gift.

Like the freedom that we enjoy in this country, that grace was paid for with somebody else's blood.

Do not forget it.

In other words, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead.

Now, when Pratt shared why he said that, he said he felt like it was time to let people know what mattered in life.

It was time to stand for what he believed in, because for too long he had been silent because he wanted people to like him.

And everybody loved Chris Pratt.

Nobody hated him.

In fact, people would tell him that.

And when he said this, people started to criticize him.

Now that story is a challenge for us because if you're a Christian, is God calling you to be bolder about your faith?

If you stop and you tell people about Jesus, who's to say you're not witnessing to the next Chris Pratt?

If you're not a Christian, perhaps you're standing outside the proverbial liquor store right now and it's time to believe.

Would you give your life to Jesus today?

See, the word of God, the message of the gospel is unstoppable.

The question is whether we will preach it.

Will we tell people about the resurrection life?

Because when we do, we offer people this third point, the promise that cannot be broken.

Now, in the last section, Paul concludes with what most scholars think is a hymn, a creed of the early church.

When we remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, when we preach Jesus Christ risen from the dead, our life becomes this song.

The saying is trustworthy.

For if we died with him, we also live with him.

If we endure, we also reign with him.

If we deny him, he also will deny us.

If we are faithless, he remains faithful.

Now I want you to picture your favorite Easter hymn or song.

What is it?

Can you recite it by heart?

Maybe we sang it today.

Christ the Lord is risen today.

Because he lives in Christ alone.

Jesus paid it all.

Others.

See, these verses penned by Paul are like those songs.

Something believers sang and recited together.

In fact, why don't we recite these verses together right now?

As a memory of it.

Let's do it.

One, two, three.

The saying is trustworthy.

For if we died with him, we will also live with him.

If we endure, we will also reign with him.

If we deny him, if we are faithless, we may be faithful.

See, the trustworthy saying in verse 11 sets these verses off as important.

In fact, this is a formula that Paul uses many times in the pastoral epistles, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus.

In other words, we should pay attention to what comes next.

So now you notice the juxtapositions.

First, he says, if we die, we live.

You say, how?

What does that mean?

Isn't death the opposite of life?

Well, this phrase has two meanings.

First, it points to our union with Christ in his death.

That when we give our life to Jesus, we are dying to our sin and ourselves, and we're covered by his blood.

This is what's pictured in the waters of baptism.

And in this context, it also points to the possibility of martyrdom.

In both cases, death is required for new life.

He says, if we endure, we will reign.

There's again that word endure.

It shows us there's a crown at the end of the fight.

And this word refers to courageous steadfastness, that in the end there will be a crown of glory for all who endure this resurrected life.

If we deny, he will deny.

That's a warning.

That the word for deny is the same word used to describe Peter's denial in the Gospels, the three times he denied Jesus.

It carries a series of warnings.

If we deliberately and repeatedly deny Christ, he will disown us at the future final judgment.

And then finally, if we're faithless, he will remain faithful.

So Paul ends with a word of hope that points to the character of God.

He is showing us that our salvation is not conditional on our faithfulness.

It is grounded in the faithfulness of God Himself.

That even if we are faithless, God will be faithful and will bring us toward Him.

Why will He be faithful?

How can He be faithful?

And Paul concludes with a surprising ending.

He says this, for he cannot deny himself.

He cannot deny himself.

That's the promise to the believer, an unbreakable promise, that when you give your life to Jesus, you are united to him.

You are his, and he cannot deny himself.

And I want you to hear this very clearly.

Your salvation is not based on your good works.

It's not based on how rich you are in this life.

It's not based on how many service projects you've done, how many Sunday school classes you've led, how many Bible verses you've memorized, although those things are good.

It's not based on how well your family is put together or how smart you are.

He says salvation is found in Jesus Christ alone and his faithfulness on the cross.

And so you repent of your sins, you place your faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Because Jesus Christ rose from the dead, the gospel cannot be silenced, the mission cannot be stopped, and God's promises cannot be broken.

All right, kids, one last time.

Pull out the seeds.

Give them a shake.

One last shake.

There we go.

Good.

Good.

Now here's your Easter homework, okay?

Ready?

Now you say, I didn't come to Easter service for homework.

All right, it's gonna be a fun, fun homework.

You gotta take those seeds home with you, talk to your parents.

At the right time, you gotta open up that packet and you gotta plant them in the ground or it or in a pot or wherever you want to do.

And I want you to wait and watch for as long as it takes until something comes up.

Right?

Plant those seeds, water them, wait for something to come up.

Because you see, the seeds go in the ground and they seemingly die.

Right?

You don't know what's happening underground.

It looks like nothing, it looks like death.

The seeds went in, they died.

But life is working, right?

Paul says, if we died with him, we also shall live with him.

It's not poetry.

That's what seeds do.

That's what Easter proved.

That dying and rising pattern is not the exception in God's economy, it is the rule.

So use the seeds to help you remember the resurrection.

Now, for some of us in the audience, today is the day maybe you need to die.

Not a physical death, but we need to die finally to ourselves so we can be raised to new life.

There may have been multiple seeds planted in your heart, and today might be the day that new life blossoms.

Maybe today is the day the gospel becomes yours.

As the worship team comes on stage for one final song, let me speak to two groups of people briefly.

If you're a Christian today, praise God.

You know Jesus, He saved you, you've walked with Him.

But let me ask you very directly: would you stake your life on the gospel?

The resurrection is not a doctrine to be admired, it is a fire to live by.

175 years ago, a group of believers planted Millington Baptist Church and preached the gospel of a man raised from the dead.

They staked everything on it.

And this church is the answer.

The question is, what will we, what answer will we be for the next generation?

What we tell them to remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead.

And if you're here this morning and you're walking through grief today, what you need to do is remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead.

That death doesn't have the final word.

If you're ashamed of the gospel and you've gone quiet, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead.

The word is not chained, and neither are you.

If you're enduring something that feels like it's gonna break you, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead.

That dying and rising pattern is not the exception, it's the rule.

And if you've been faithless, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead.

He remains faithful.

He cannot deny himself.

Come back.

Now, if you're here today and you're not a Christian, let me speak to you.

Maybe a seed was planted in your heart many years ago and you keep resisting its growth.

Today I want you to know I think that deep down you already know that you're a sinner in need of a savior.

And that savior is Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.

And if anything in this message this morning or this service tugged on your heart and you'd like to give your life to him today, let me give you an opportunity.

Would you just pray these words after me?

Let's pray together.

Say, Heavenly Father, I come before you, and I confess that I am a sinner.

I believe that Jesus Christ was risen from the dead, that he died in my place for my sins, he paid the penalty for my transgressions, and today I want to give my life to him.

I want to surrender all that I am.

I believe he is who he said he is, and I receive him in my heart and receive eternal life.

Now, if you prayed that prayer this morning or you want to know more about Jesus, you want to have a further conversation, we have a pamphlet out in the back that we'd like to give you for free as our gift.

It's called Who is Jesus?

Stop by the Welcome Center, pick that up, take that home.

If you would like to continue the conversation, I would love to talk with you further about that.

Because Jesus Christ rose from the dead, the gospel cannot be silenced, the mission cannot be stopped, and God's promises cannot be broken, because dead seeds don't stay dead, and neither did he.

Amen.

Can you pray for us?

Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for your goodness, for your grace, for your love.

Lord, thank you for Jesus, for his resurrection, and for the future resurrection that you promised to us.

Father, I pray that you would work on hearts today, and as we leave, we would be bolder about sharing who you are.

And if we're still on the fence today, Lord, I pray that you, Holy Spirit, would be chasing down the hearts of those who are resisting you and bring them to faith in you, Lord Jesus, in whom salvation is found.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.