Easter At TCC - Transformation

So let's look at Ephesians chapter two, verse one through 10.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and we're by nature, children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

But God, shall we stop there for a minute.

But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace.

You have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace, you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

This is the word of God.

Father, we thank you for our time together today.

We thank you, Lord, that this is a day of celebration.

Lord, we are so grateful that you, in your great wisdom and foreknowledge, that you decided that you would send your one and only son to come to live a perfect life, to die the death that we deserve, and to, uh, to be an example to us as you were raised from the dead.

Thank you, Lord, that you have saved us.

And we pray for those that are in this service that may not yet have experienced what it means to be transformed by Jesus Christ.

And I pray that the words that are spoken today, the songs that have been sung and the testimonies given will all be used by your spirit to bring about the desire for change in our hearts and in our minds, and we give you glory for it.

In Jesus name, amen.

So the man who wrote the book of Ephesians was named Paul, right?

We all know him by Paul, but he had a name before the name Paul.

He was called Saul.

And he was a Roman citizen who came from a Jewish family.

Uh, and he was serious about Judaism.

In fact, he became a top-notch lawyer.

He understood the law of Moses and the extension of that law with all of the regulations that were added throughout time.

He understood it better than maybe anybody else on the planet.

And not only did did he understand it, but he was passionate about it.

He, he was, uh, he was a a, a very excitable person.

And what he believed to be true, he believed to be true fully.

And he lived like that.

Um, he was also one of the highest ranking religious leaders of the time.

He was a religious leader.

He was part of a Sanhedrin which were the, uh, the religious leaders of the time when Jesus came to this planet, uh, in Judaism, right?

Most of these religious le leaders had judged Jesus and said that he couldn't be the Messiah.

And there was a few reasons for that, mainly because when he showed up and he did what he did, he didn't do what they thought he should do.

What they thought he should do is come and deliver them from Rome.

So the nation of Israel was underneath the oppression of Rome during the time that Jesus came to this earth.

But over history, we know that there were many times when the nation of Israel would disobey God's commandments.

And so God in his, in his justice, would allow other nations to come in and conquer them and oppress them for seasons of time.

And then the Israelites would repent of their sins.

God would forgive them, and he would bring them back into their land and put them back into the place of rulership and authority only for it to happen again and again and again.

And this is the kind of the final reiteration of this story found here in the story of Jesus.

The Romans had conquered Israel and so they were in charge.

And so the religious leaders believed that the Messiah would make things right politically, that he would kick the Romans out of Israel, and that he would take his seat on the throne of his father David.

The thing is that God had a kingdom that was much greater than that in mind.

He wasn't interested solely in restoring Israel to its place.

He came to save the world from sin and disease and sickness and death, and hell and the grave, Jesus came to make things right.

So here we have Saul who was, uh, he was really ashamed of Jesus in some ways.

Another thing that Jesus did is he was hung on a cross.

We know that.

And the Jewish, uh, lawyers would've understood what the Bible says that cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.

So why would God curse or pour his wrath out, out on somebody who was the Messiah they had discounted and talked him away in every circumstance that they could.

And so we have Saul, and we're gonna look at his story from his own words found in the book of Acts chapter 22, and we're gonna see some lessons from him.

Acts 22 · chapter mention

The first lesson that we learn is that every person has a sinful past that must be accounted for.

Every person that's ever been born on this planet except for Jesus Christ has a history, has a past that must be forgiven.

Do you agree with that?

Yes.

It's, it's absolutely true.

Acts 22 versus three through 35.

Saul at the time is talking about himself.

He said, I am a Jew, born in Tarsus and Licia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gao according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers being zealous for God, as all of you are this day, I persecuted this way to the death binding and delivering to prison, both men and women as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness from them.

I received letters to the brothers and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.

So here we see Sauls before story.

We see the front of his cardboard testimony.

He was passionate and he was a menace and he was destructive.

He did everything that he possibly could to end Christianity on the planet.

He looked forward to it.

He actually believed that he was serving God while he was doing this.

Do you see how easy deception can enter into our lives?

We must guard against deception and understand something that he didn't understand.

And that's what's found in John 14, six.

Jesus said, I am the way the truth and the life know when comes to the Father, except through me.

Saul was persecuting the way he was persecuting those who were in the way, who were trusting in Jesus as the only way to the Father I want to hear, I want you to hear today, if you've never heard it before, Jesus is the only way to the Father.

He's the only way for a right relationship to be restored between us and God.

And we need to put our faith and hope and trust in him.

So this violent man harassed, persecuted, and killed followers of Jesus.

He was ferocious and Christians began to fear him.

See, the reality was as much as he thought he was serving God, he didn't yet understand that religion without Jesus is false religion.

My friends, we can have conversations with people day and night, left and right and talk about God, and everybody seems to be okay with that.

But if you mention the name of Jesus, something changes in the atmosphere, something changes in the dialogue and the discussion that you're having.

Jesus came to this earth to save sinners, but he also came as a great divider.

And he divides people into two camps, those who put their faith, hope and trust in him, and those who don't and those who don't.

Which side are you on this day?

I hope that you're on the Lord's side, and if you're not, today is your day.

You can choose this day to follow after him.

So why is there a need for a savior?

Why did Jesus need to come anyway?

It's because sin came into this earth in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And when they did that, God had told Adam that in the day that they ate that, that they would surely die.

And true to his word, they were removed from the garden and from the presence of God.

And eventually they died physically as well.

And every person born since them has been born dead in sin and trespasses.

And what I mean by that is all of us have been born not sick, not like in need of a good doctor.

We've all been born dead to God, having no desire for him, having no understanding of him separated from him.

And if you don't believe me, I have three grandchildren and all of them are gorgeous and wonderful and amazing and I I I wouldn't want to do life without them.

But we've, we learned early on and their parents are learning even more that these children need Jesus.

Um, so couple of them are, have learned the Uhoh game.

Do you guys know what the Uhoh game is?

Um, I encourage it, but just because I can send them home, but I shouldn't encourage it.

I just, the Lord's quickening in me right now.

I need to stop doing that.

But the Uhoh game is where they're sitting in their height chair and you're feeding them food.

And mom's cooked the food and gotten it all ready for'em and laid it out for'em.

And um, they decide that picking it up and throwing it over the side and going, uh, oh, it is real cute.

It's real cute the first time, even the first few times, but eventually it doesn't get cute anymore.

And what do we recognize these children need?

Jesus.

They didn't have to be taught to do that.

They didn't have to learn it somehow.

This was something that was in them from birth.

All of us need Jesus.

We all have been born dead in our sins and trespasses.

And the the other thing we need to know is we all continued after birth to be influenced negatively by the culture of this world, by Satan's temptations and the desires of our flesh.

All of us, if we're honest, have cardboard testimonies that we could, if we were real honest with each other, we could understand more fully how important it was for us to, to know Jesus.

Because without him, there is no hope.

Romans 3 23 reminds us for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

All of us have sinned and we know it goes on to say what the wages of sin in 6 23.

It says, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

We all deserve the wrath of God if we're honest.

We all deserve the wrath of God because of the sins that we have committed.

And that's where we have to start.

And that was what Saul was encountered with when he first was encountered with Jesus.

He had to, to, to question everything that he had known and believed before that time lesson than two.

We get from the story of Saul is God in his loving kindness made a way for our sins to be forgiven and our relationship with God to be restored.

Can you say amen?

God in his faithfulness did this in verses six through 11, look at how God intersects Saul's life.

And you can imagine and picture with me the the entourage around Saul at the time and he's probably riding on a horse and he's, you know, he's, he's driven.

They're probably moving pretty quickly.

Um, uh, and they're going to Damascus.

And his whole purpose for going to Damascus is to create chaos amongst Christians in that city.

And as I was on my way and drew near to Damascus about noon, now where's the sun at noon, where's the sun?

Is it overhead?

So it's pretty bright at noon.

But listen what it says about noon, a great light from heaven suddenly shown around me.

Now, how bright must this light have been if it outdid the sun?

You see, the son of God always outdoes the sun of this earth, of this atmosphere.

The son of God is brighter than anything that we can imagine.

And his light is the light of the world.

And so what did he do?

He fell off of his high horse and he fell to the ground and he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And I answered, who are you Lord?

And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting.

Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.

And I said, what shall I do Lord?

And the Lord said to me, rise and go into Damascus.

And there you'll be told all that is appointed for you to do.

And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus.

Want some good news?

That was some bad news coming up to this.

But here's some good news.

God loves to use his supernatural power to awaken people to the truth about who he is and what he does.

And that's what God did here.

He opened heaven up so that Saul of Tarus could be stopped at in his Gallup going into Damascus and so that he would be confronted with who it was that he was persecuting.

Isn't it interesting that Jesus says that he's persecuting him when he persecutes his followers?

Jesus feels our pain and suffering.

What an amazing thing that God calls Saul by name.

He knew him by name.

He knows us by name.

He's not some foreign entity, some uninterested being somewhere in the atmosphere that is just waiting for us to mess up so he can wipe us out and destroy us.

He is a God that cares, but he is also just and he's merciful and he's full of loving kindness.

God called Saul by name, Saul's surrounded by an entourage.

But it's only Saul that understands Jesus at this time.

You see, Jesus had chosen in, in predestination in the, in his foreknowledge.

He had chosen that Saul would become a follower of his.

And so this voice not heard by others was heard specifically by Saul because God, through Jesus was preaching the gospel to him and drawing him into his kingdom by his spirit.

God chooses and calls those that he is going to save.

And according to Acts nine, this is another example of this.

We're given a window into Saul's existence over the next three days.

So you imagine this man who is leading this entourage to wreak havoc is now being led by the hand because he can't see to put one foot in front of the other as he's completely blinded.

He gets to this home and he stays in the home and he's there in the back room by himself alone for three days.

Blind, no nothing, didn't want anything to eat, nothing to drink.

He's just there standing, sitting, laying, considering everything that had just happened to him.

It's amazing.

Three days in a dark place.

Think about Jesus being laid in a borrowed tomb for three days waiting for the answer.

I wonder if Saul at that time remembered what had happened to Jesus.

Maybe he was there, maybe he wasn't there when Jesus was crucified.

But I guarantee you this, he knew the story.

He had heard the story because it was part of what inspired him to be so vicious against Christians because he was crucified.

Can you imagine how his disdain from the story before now turns to sorrow as he understands maybe for the first time that he was the one that nailed him to that cross.

He didn't hold the hammer or the spike in his hand, but he could have just the same because his sin and our sin, Jesus on the cross.

So he may have thought about the agony of Jesus in the garden.

Judas is kiss leading to his arrest and everyone else leaves him alone except for Peter.

And Peter follows along and there's a trial, some kind of a fake trial going on where he is mocked and spat on Jesus, Jesus's and struck and Peter denies him three times and then the crow and Jesus looks at Peter.

I wonder what was said without a word in that.

Look, Peter goes out weeping.

And not long after that, the same crowd that had yelled Hosanna now yells crucify him.

He's beaten 39 times by a cat of nine tails, a leather whip with nine different extensions on it that have bone and glass and other things in it.

And every time that was hit across his shoulder, as he's tied to a post, it's pulled downward and across his body and he is ripped to shreds.

He may have recalled the story of the crown of thorns being forced down on Jesus's head and evil men hitting him on the top of the head where the crown sat so as to drive it down into his very school.

I can't imagine what Jesus suffered after all of that.

He's forced to carry his own cross until he can't anymore.

And someone in the crowd then is forced to come alongside and help him and carry his cross for him.

This tree that Jesus was a part of creating is laid down on the ground and Jesus himself, the creator of all is laid on top of it.

While soldiers over top of him drive spikes into his nails, into his hands and into his feet, a plaque is secured above him, mocking him, saying King of the Jews, Jesus of Nazareth.

And then he's picked up the whole apparatus of the cross is picked up and is dropped into the hole that has been dug to keep the cross upright.

While Jesus would hang there, two thieves surround Jesus, one on his left and one on his right one asks for and receives forgiveness.

And the other one joins the crowd in mocking Jesus.

For six hours Jesus hangs on the cross, every breath, a struggle having to push up on his feet that have been nailed to try to open his lungs up enough to take a breath.

And yet there he hung the earth has turned to darkness by this point and he finds somehow the breath in himself to be able to say seven things.

He says To all who sin Father forgive them.

For they know not what they do.

He says to the penitent thief, today you will be with me in paradise to John the beloved and marry his mother.

He says, woman, behold your son son, behold your mother to his heavenly Father.

He cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

As he takes the weight of the sins of the world on his shoulders to the soldiers standing near, he cries, I thirst to heaven and earth.

He cries out, it is finished.

And finally to his father, he says, father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.

I think Saul probably spent a lot of time over those three days repenting, acknowledging that his thoughts about Jesus were very wrong.

That his actions that he had performed, even though he was religious and thought that he was serving God, his actions from a young child, all of those things that he had done, all of the things that he had trusted in were nothing but shadows.

Now in the light of the savior's cross, you see God alone has the power to save a sinner.

And he's doing a number on Saul right now.

His encounter with the risen Christ forces him to do some, some true evaluations.

How has he been wrong?

What needs to change?

Jesus died a criminal's death, but the criminal was actually everyone except Jesus in short, one died for all.

Jesus died once for all.

As we read before in Ephesians two, verses four through seven it says, but God, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace.

You have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

So at in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

This is the gospel.

We have sinned.

We deserve the wrath of God.

God sent his only son to take the wrath that we deserved.

And we have an opportunity because of the grace of God, to put our hope, faith, and trust in a risen savior in dying our death Christ has done for us something so immense in love, that we ought to be His and only his forever.

There shouldn't even be a question about it.

There should be no debate.

There's no other love like this.

Love to make us.

His is the very object of his death.

The thing that kept him there we're told in later passages was the joy that set before him.

I believe he looked out through all of history, past, present, future, and he saw us.

He saw those that would come after him.

He was the first fruit of many brothers and sisters who would be restored to write relationship with God.

You notice Saul's response, he calls in the Lord the very one that he hated and was willing to risk his life in opposing.

He now can only find the word Lord, to describe him in the middle of this encounter with him.

When you really are met by the true Jesus, something has to change.

Let's read on in the story goes on to talk about Anais and one Anais, a devout man according to the law well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me and standing by me said to me, brother Saul, receive your sight.

Now, before we get to the rest of that passage, we need to interject something.

An Anais was a strong believer, but he was also a human being.

What do I mean by that?

He had heard of Saul, of Tarus.

And so when God shows up and calls him by name, Anais, I've got a job for you and Anai.

Yes Lord, here I am, send me.

And then he begins, begins to explain to him that he's got this man named Saul that's in this house, that he's blind, that he needs him to go and pray for him, that he might receive sight and receive the Holy Spirit.

And Anai is like, what was that name again?

.

Saul.

Uh, could you, where is he from?

Where was he born?

Uh, he's from Tarus.

Oh, Saul of Tarus.

I know him.

Uh, I don't think so.

, but God pressed him.

Sometimes we as believers don't get our first notice when we're supposed to reach out to somebody else, do we?

It's like he has to come back to us and remind us.

Okay, come on.

Now.

I've been in that scenario so many times and had to go back and say to somebody, you know what?

I missed an opportunity and I need I, I'm sorry.

I need to tell you something.

Jesus loves you.

Whatever it is, you know, take, take that opportunity.

Take that second chance an Anais did.

God told him, I'm gonna let you tell Saul everything that he's gonna suffer from my namesake.

And an Anais said, sign me up.

Cuz he was like, okay, this guy's gonna understand Now what is God's making this man a Christian?

He's going to live like we've been living.

He's one of us.

And so Annia shows up and here's Saul that's had these three days.

We don't know if they've been filled with torment or joy or peace or anxiety.

All we know is that God chose this man an anais to go and pray for Saul.

And he lays his hands on him and he says to him, brother Saul, receive your sight.

Two things immediately happen simultaneously.

His physical eyes are open.

The Bible says that they're like scales.

That fell from his eyes and he was able to see again, like before he had seen the bright light from heaven.

But more importantly than that, his spiritual eyes were opened and he was able to put his hope, faith, and trust in Jesus Christ.

My friends, the power of the resurrection was observed in this house on straight street in Damascus.

When Anais laid his hands on Saul of Tarus, he was changed.

The resurrection isn't just for us to have a day to celebrate.

The resurrection is the very crux of the matter.

It's what makes the difference between our God and every other God.

Jesus is alive.

And now why do you wait?

Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins calling on his name.

So Saul, Saul is now this point on, he's not called Saul any longer.

His name has changed to Paul.

God changed so much about him that he even changed his identity, his name, his purpose, his passion.

And it's so exciting as we know, those of us who have read through the scriptures, we understand that God used Saul who became Paul in such tremendous ways and we'll talk about that in a minute.

But going back to Ephesians two, verses eight and nine, for by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing.

It is the gift of God, not a result.

Result of works so that no one may boast.

What did three days in a room in a borrowed room teach Saul?

He was not capable of saving himself.

There wasn't enough religion that he could partake in.

There were not enough commandments that he could memorize or practice.

There was nothing that he could do in his natural flesh to get him to a point of right standing with God.

It was only God that could make a way through his grace for that to happen.

So lemme give you three expressions or three things that we should do when we come to this same knowledge that Paul came to.

First of all, we express our belief in Jesus by changing our mind about who Jesus is and asking forgiveness for the sins that we have committed this cardboard sign, the the sins that have been committed and the things that have led to the things that we have experienced, the sins that have been a part of that, that part of our testimony.

We have to change our minds about Jesus.

He is not some kind of religious figure.

He is not a celestial Santa Clause.

He is the one who came to make us right with God.

And I encourage you this day, understand who he is, experience who he is.

Put your hope in him today.

The second thing is we must call on the name of the Lord Jesus and ask him to save us.

Call on his name.

Cry it out.

Jesus, save me.

It's not a prayer that's a demand based on my what I've done, right?

It's a prayer based on a need for mercy.

And it's a prayer that Jesus answers.

And then finally the Holy Spirit, same spirit that raised Christ from the dead welcomes us into the family of God.

And I think two Corinthians five 17 maybe gives us the best description of all of this kind of put together.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away.

Behold the new has come.

Is that the story of your life?

Do you have two sides to your cardboard testimony?

Do you have the before and after?

Have you been transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ?

I hope so.

The proof of true conversion, my friends, is a radically transformed life.

One of the things that we have done wrong in this nation, in my opinion, is that we have taught in our churches that to believe in Jesus is to say a prayer alone.

My friends, we must pray to Jesus.

We need to pray to him first, second and last.

But we must also be changed by the spirit of God.

We should be progressively changing from darkness to light.

There should be a recognizable difference in who we are yesterday and who we are today.

It is not enough to trust in a prayer or in a religion to save us.

We must experience the change that God brings.

We've been made into a brand new person.

Those of us who used to lie before will not enjoy lying anymore.

Those who have been thieves will not want to steal any longer those who are abusive or abused.

All of those things change.

All of those things change in Jesus.

And it won't be done by you having a strong enough will or will, you know, just wishing for it to happen.

It will only be done by turning and looking upon Jesus who is hanging on the cross and understanding that the proof that that made a difference is the fact that he came out of the grave.

And finally, we follow Christ in baptism as a sign of the change that has happened inside.

We had that last week.

We had several people that were baptized and we're gonna have another one on April 30th coming up.

So if you're in that category and you want to be baptized and declared to the world that you are a follower of Jesus Christ, we'll have a class that's coming up right before that service.

We'd love to have you as a part of that.

The final lesson that we learned from this story today is that we are transformed to share the life of Jesus with others.

How many of you have cardboard testimonies that have never been told?

How many of us have things that God has done in our lives that we've never expressed even to our own children or our grandchildren?

How many of us have experienced the goodness of God and yet so shy when it comes to addressing people who don't yet know Jesus?

My friends, if we don't have the strength to speak, we can at least live our lives differently than the world lives.

Am I right by the grace of God, we can choose to live a Christ-like life and maybe our life will speak and then we'll find our words.

I worked in several secular jobs in my lifetime and every job that I went into my, I had two goals.

Number one, do not let them know that I'm a pastor because something changes.

When you people in the south, when they find out that you're a pastor, it's like all uh, several of the, uh, four letter words go away.

There's like a, a change of, uh, you know, jokes and things that go, and I appreciate the fact that things change, but I wanted to change for the right reasons, not just because I'm there, right?

So that was number one.

Don't let'em know I'm a pastor.

And number two, live a life that gives me a chance to answer their questions.

Because my friends, when people begin to ask questions, that's when you know they're very close to being at a point to where they're ready to believe in Jesus.

And so I encourage you, let's pick up our cardboard testimonies.

Let's show them to the world around us.

Let's live this life that God has called us to live for him purposefully, intentionally.

And for those of us that are here this morning and have not yet experienced the goodness of knowing Jesus Christ as your savior and Lord, would you follow in the the footsteps of Saul who became Paul, would you recognize today that whatever you have put your trust in before now is not adequate, it's not enough.

It will never do the work that you need done in your life.

Will you acknowledge to Jesus today that you believe in him, that you believe that he came to this earth, that he lived a perfect life, that you couldn't live, that he died, the death that that you deserved and that he did it all for us.

He did it all to give us a chance to believe it's by great grace we're saved through faith.

Grace is God's part and faith is our part.

But the good news, ed, is God gives us the ability to trust and believe just as he breathes on Adam, the breath of life.

And just as Jesus' body, his lifeless body was jolted back to life.

When the spirit of God breathes on a lost person, they begin to live.

And I believe, and we've been praying for many of you that are here today and that are watching online, that this would be your day, that this would be your resurrection day, that this would be the part of your story where you could flip that page and write something new on the the other side of it.

That you could stop thinking about your life alone and and living for yourself or living for other people.

And you could begin to understand the greatness of what it looks like and what it means to follow after Christ.

I'm just gonna ask you now just to to pray with me.

You can close your eyes if you feel comfortable doing that.

You don't have to, but I wanna pray and I wanna ask the Lord to give you courage in a couple of different ways.

And I'm asking it for myself as well.

For those who are not yet in Christ and have not yet understood or experienced the transformation that comes through Jesus Christ, I want to give you a chance to respond.

We have people here that are gonna be at the front, including some of our elders that would love to pray with you, that would love to spend some time working with you and helping you to understand what it looks like to begin taking those first steps, those first steps in your new walk with God.

So if you're here and that's you, please come.

You can come anytime you want, you can come now if you want.

You can come in a few minutes, you can come when the team is here.

Just please don't leave this place without talking to somebody about what God's doing in your life.

As powerful as Paul was, he still needed Anne Anais to help him on the way.

How different are we?

We need each other.

We need support.

We need somebody to help us understand what's happening.

So let's do that.

The other thing is, if we're here this morning and we have flipped the page of our cardboard testimony and it is, it has been on this positive side, but as of late, we've flipped it back over.

And from all appearance's sake, it would seem like we're not any, nothing has changed.

Nothing is different from what it was before.

My friends, the good news that I have for you today is found in one John chapter one, verse nine.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful to forgive us and cleanse us from all righteousness.

And when we do that, the cardboard flips right back.

So if you're here today and you have not been living your life for Jesus, even though at one point in your life you've put your faith and hope and trust in him, would you return to him today?

He's not here waiting to scold you or punish you.

Jesus already took all of that for us.

He's looking to welcome you home.

Just like the father ran to the prodigal son as he saw him in the distance and embraced him and said, my son who was dead now lives our heavenly Father is standing here today.

His presence is here.

He's walking amongst us by his spirit and he's drawing you to return to him.

And then the third category, those of us who have firmly had our cardboard testimony in place for some time, but we have for some reason placed it somewhere where it's not in use.

I'm gonna ask that the Lord would inspire us, that he would give us the courage to take it back out again and to display it not for our benefit, not so that people can look at us and say, wow, that's amazing, but so that people can see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven.

Would you stand with me as we pray?

I'm gonna ask the prayer team to come on down and get prepared.

It's been such a pleasure, um, having Easter with you.

What a beautiful day to celebrate the goodness of God.

So Father, I pray for us now, Lord, you, you've given me these words to speak, the songs that have been sung, the testimonies that have been given, father, all of this, uh, is in response to what you've asked us to do for this day.

We believe that we've been obedient to you.

And so Father, we asked to do, which only you can do.

And that's to change hearts, to change minds, to transform lives, to give people the ability to trust in you this day like never before.

We do pray for those who are lost, Who have been searching for something and maybe looking forward in a lot of different places in, in bottles or pills, in relationships or money, whatever it is.

Father, I pray in Jesus' name that just like Saul, that they would have an awakening right now, that you would open their eyes to the truth of who Jesus is in that you would save them.

Give them the strength to respond to that and a comment who received prayer Also, thank you Lord for those who may be here that are have, have backslidden who have been living with the sign, flipped the other way.

Even though we know that at one point in our lives you did radical work in us and you changed us.

Father, would you help us to return to you, return to you with our whole hearts and our whole minds?

And then finally, Lord, we pray for all of us that we would be bold witnesses for Jesus, that we would not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

For it is the power of God to bring transformation to all who will believe.

We ask these things in the mighty name of Jesus.

And Lord, I pray that you would bless everyone who's a part of this service that is online and those that are here, ask that you would keep us and make your face shine upon us.

Would you give us your grace and your strength and go with us this day, father and every day as we follow after you.

In Jesus name.

Amen.

Amen.