The Path to New Life | Easter

Well, good morning, hope family and happy Easter.

So excited to be we can celebrate the tomb is empty.

So excited to be spending time here with you in this room

across all of our campuses.

To all of you who are joining in with us online,

a special welcome to our guests.

Uh, whether you were here

because someone from the Hope Family actually invited you,

uh, I know we can be a little pesky with our invites,

or you just made a decision to come check us out.

I want you to know this you have been prayed for

and, uh, we'd love for you to come back next week.

That's our hope. We're kicking off a brand new series.

Just to let you know a little bit about us as a church,

we say around here at Hope, we are a family.

We're like a family of families who love God,

follow Jesus and share hope.

And that doesn't mean like we're a family.

And so you're not a part of the family.

That means like we're a welcoming family.

And so what you'll find here is a place

of belonging, a place of purpose.

And we're just believing that if you hang

around long enough, you're gonna

want to be a part of the family here.

So welcome into that.

Uh, we are gonna hear some good news today,

and I don't know if you know this or not,

but Easter is like the Super Bowl Sunday of our faith.

And so whether you know it

or not, like Easter is built around everything

that we believe that we celebrate, uh, everything,

all the hope that we have as a result of the events

that we celebrate on Easter.

So what is that? This weekend is the weekend

that we celebrate that the tomb is empty,

that Jesus is alive, that sin, death,

and hell have been defeated.

And through the power and the love and the grace

and mercy of our God, we can experience the new life

that Jesus has come to make available to us.

Can somebody, just anybody say amen to that? Amen.

I mean, that is what we are about.

And I wanna share this like right outta the gate

because I know a lot of this can get lost,

like in the tradition of Easter

and all the dressing up, which most of you look really good,

by the way, this weekend, uh, I almost wore pants that, um,

covered my ankles, but not quite.

So I didn't do that. Uh,

but it can get lost in the tradition.

It can get lost in the dressing up.

It can get lost in the bunny suits. I think there's, yep.

So that is, that is me

that when I fell victim to a bunny suit.

So, uh, backstory there, my small group decided

to host a spring fling in my neighborhood.

We put together an Easter egg hunt a few years ago,

and someone told me it would be a really great idea if you

dressed up like the Easter bunny and came out

and, uh, I think two people called the

police on me that weekend.

Uh, so just so you know, the spring fling continues.

Uh, the Easter egg continues,

the bunny suit has been retired.

Uh, but it's been, it's so easy to lose sight of

what the Bible tells us this weekend is all about.

'cause the Bible says, Hey, Easter's not just a normal

day like it is a day.

It's like a linchpin.

It's a hinge in the course

of human history that changes everything.

The backstory is the Bible tells us

that God's original intent for creation was for us

to experience a life of beauty, uh, a life

of peace, a life of blessing.

But our enemy, Satan shows up on the scene

and deceives man to believe that we know better

for ourselves than he actually knows for us.

And then through that deception, sin entered the world.

And then all the brokenness that we know that

around us in our lives entered the world.

So separation from God, death, disease,

depression, hurt, all that enters the world.

But God being rich in mercy and

because of his love for us, he made a promise

that a savior would show up on the scene one day

and put all this back together again.

And that was made possible through

what we celebrate on Easter, is

what the apostle Paul was writing about.

In Ephesians chapter two, he says,

but God, who is so rich in mercy,

and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead

because of our sins and hear that dead

because of our sins,

dead things can't bring himself back to life.

Though we were dead because of our sins.

He gave us life when he raised Christ Jesus from the dead.

Jesus came to earth for the greatest cosmic rescue mission

of all time, to teach all who would listen about how

to live out God's kingdom.

He went to a cross to pay the necessary price

for my sins, for your sins.

He went into a tomb and he stayed there for three days.

And just at that moment where it seemed like all hope was

lost, and I want you to go there like,

because that's where we're going this weekend, that moment

where it seemed like there was no way all hope was lost,

he showed us that even death could not stop the

power and the love of God.

And he rolled the stone away and he said, nice tri Satan.

And he walked out. The tomb is empty.

And that's what we celebrate on Easter.

Now, can we be honest for a minute?

Life doesn't always feel like we just

won the Super Bowl, does it?

Um, personally, I lost my dad this year.

And uh, for those of you who know me,

like it's, it was a journey.

Like it's been a tough year.

Uh, I know many of you have had

to say goodbye to loved ones recently.

Uh, many of you have lost jobs.

We have aging parents that are battling diseases,

fear around the economy.

Uh, I didn't even know this. Apparently I'm the only one in

my Facebook friend, my friend group on Facebook

that's not like an expert on tariffs.

I mean, I had no idea. And apparently like that's something

that I've gotta learn a bit more about.

Uh, some of us continuing

to be trapped in the same addictions

and sins we're carrying around the same guilt

and shame that we've carried around for years.

Like this stuff is heavy.

And right about now you're thinking, man,

this changed directions quickly.

Like I thought we were celebrating like what happened

to all the music and the party

and everything we're talking about.

But one thing I know about God, he doesn't expect us to go

through life for pretend and there's not pain.

Uh, Psalm 34 18, it says, the Lord is near

to the brokenhearted and he saves the crushed in spirit.

And for Easter to really matter.

Listen, we, we've gotta acknowledge that darkness is a part

of this world and we're gonna see it was no different

on that first Easter morning.

And so, uh, before we go there though,

I just wanna recognize something like, I believe

that every one of us have that place in our lives.

We have that area in our lives recently.

We're like, man, I just don't know if there's hope.

Like I don't know what's going to happen in the midst

of this brokenness that I'm experiencing right now.

And so I just wanna ask you this question,

what would God have to do for you to have hope?

That's our question for the weekend.

And uh, what we're gonna do is we're gonna look

at that first Easter morning.

And so one of the historical records of

that first Easter morning, it takes place

in Luke chapter 24.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

And so if you have your Bible, as I wanna encourage you,

go ahead and turn there.

Uh, we have been in a series

that we're calling the Way it's kind

of wrapping up this weekend

and then driving us into our, uh,

next series that we're calling now.

What? But we've really been following the way of Jesus, uh,

in the last week of his life before he ends up on the cross

and where we're gonna pick up in Luke chapter 24.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

It's the third day after Jesus was crucified.

And it tells the events of what happened that morning.

So jumping right in Luke 24 verse one, it says,

been on the first day of the week.

I wanna, Sunday at early dawn, first thing in the morning,

they went to the tomb taking the

spices that they had prepared.

So who's the they? Uh, the they In this picture here,

it's three women, Mary Magdalene, Joanna,

and Mary, the mother of James.

These were women that were incredibly close to Jesus.

They walked alongside of them.

They followed him through his ministry.

They even helped support his ministry financially.

Why were they carrying spices? An ancient Jewish tradition.

It was customary to anoint a body with spices

and perfumes as an act of honor for the deceased.

It also helped cover the odor of decay as it,

it wasn't a part of their custom to embalm the bodies.

And so what's the real reason? They were carrying spices.

They believed Jesus was dead.

I mean, they believed he was gonna stay dead.

They, they, these women were not going

to see a risen savior.

They were going to mourn in their pain

and to finish the burial process.

See, Jesus, Jesus died late on Friday night

and in, uh, their religion, there was no one

to work on the Sabbath on Saturday.

And so the burial had been rushed.

And so they show up early Sunday morning really just

to finish the work that they

didn't have time to do on Friday.

And I wanna give you a little more context just

to help you understand these women's, this women's grief,

uh, on that morning, these, these women, they were Jewish.

And so they would've known and understood

and believed what we know is the Old Testament.

And so they would've believed that at the beginning of time

as we know it, that God created Adam and Eve created man

and woman, put them in the Garden of Eden,

and God had beautiful plans for the world.

He said it was very good. They also would've believed

that a serpent shows up on the scene the devil,

and tempted Eve to disobey God.

And she did. And then Adam followed suit.

And through Adam and Eve, sin

and brokenness entered the world.

They call this brokenness, the lack of peace, the things

that we are thinking about just a moment ago,

they became a reality.

So they believe in that moment that God said, Hey, BEC,

as a result of this, like a

curse is gonna fall on the earth.

But they also believe that God said,

but hey, I I, I'm also gonna make a way

for this to become right.

Genesis three 15 says, I God will put an enmity between you,

serpent and this woman between your offspring, serpent

and her offspring.

He shall crush your head and you shall bruise his heel.

Uh, many theologians refer to this as,

as the first messianic prophecy, the first prophecy

or foretelling of a savior who is actually gonna come.

So God says, Hey, you have messed this whole thing up,

devil, but there is going to be a savior that's gonna come

through her offering that's gonna put

this all back together again.

And then throughout the Old Testament,

there's over 300 prophecies made of a messiah, of a savior.

That's one day gonna come

and put all this brokenness back together.

And like spoiler alert,

if you put the New Testament together,

those prophecies come true.

And so that's what they would've known

and believed God was sending a

savior from that moment.

You fast forward thousands of years,

and we get to Luke chapter two.

So 20 some chapters ahead in the same book

that we're in right now, verse 11.

And we read this verse every year at Christmas, if you're

around a church at all.

And it a and this is an, an angel talking

to shepherds out in the field.

It says for unto you this day

and the city of David,

a savior is born who is Christ the Lord.

And then that baby grows up

and around the age of 30, he begins his public ministry,

he's preaching the good news of the kingdom

of God, he's healing the sick.

He's calling people into following them.

And these women begin to follow him.

And at some point, belief begins to spark.

Maybe this is the one that we've been waiting for,

like maybe this is the Messiah

that's gonna put all this brokenness back together again.

And so they give their life to following them.

But just a week before they're at his tomb,

mourning his death, Jesus had risen.

And we heard about this last week from Aaron.

Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey,

and the people were shouting to him, Hosanna,

which means God save us.

The referring to him is the son of David and the king.

They are believing that Jesus is the one

that was a week prior.

And then just a few days later, again, we heard last week,

Jesus is arrested.

He's given an unfair trial, he's beaten

and he's hung on a cross to die.

And so these women in one week have gone from believing

that Jesus was the promised savior of the world

to now grieving

that their friend died a public and painful death.

Like can you imagine that first Easter morning?

It, it started with grief.

And I know there's many of us in here, um,

in this room right now who have lost loved ones recently.

And, and we know the gut wrenching emptiness

That you feel when you wake up in the morning

and maybe it's on the morning of a funeral

and you realize they're no longer here.

And some of us we're in that place today.

And I asked you this question earlier,

what would God have to do to give you hope?

So we're gonna pick back up verse two.

So these women, they're on the way to the tomb.

They're carrying their spices.

They're expecting to see Jesus there deceased.

What did they find at the tomb?

Verse two, it says, and then they found the stone

rolled away from the tomb.

But when they went in, they did not find the

body of their Lord Jesus.

So the stones rolled away.

Jesus isn't in there and they have no idea what to think.

Like, did somebody steal the body?

That was something they were concerned about.

And maybe they wanted to believe that Jesus is alive.

But you know, as well as I do in the midst of pain,

how difficult it is to assume a miracle.

Like it's so tough in the midst of a feeling of hopelessness

to really believe that a miracle can happen.

And then you get to verse four,

and it says, while they were perplex perplexed about this,

behold two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.

So now all of a sudden there's two men

that are standing on the scene that weren't there before.

Uh, they're not wearing bunny suits, okay?

It's not your normal Easter morning.

It says they're wearing dazzling apparel.

And that word dazzling in the Greek, uh, it's related

to the word lightning.

Like not just like a calm white light,

but a supernatural brightness like blinding.

So these men are angels.

And in verse five, these angels ask these women a question

that I think we need to let set in just a little bit.

And says, as they were frightened,

they bowed their faces to the ground.

And the men said to them,

why do you seek the living among the dead?

Says these angels, like they know that they're there looking

for Jesus, and they ask, why are you looking

for a man who's alive in a place where dead people are?

And you know, if I were to say it differently, I would say,

why have you come to a place of death to look for life?

And as I was sitting in this passage this week,

it dawned on me that we need to ask ourselves this question.

Where in our lives are we looking

for the living amongst the dead?

And you might hear that and think,

well Jason, I don't know that I do that.

Uh, I don't know what you're talking about.

But I would ask this, is it possible that the reason

that we find ourselves in places of emptiness is

because we're looking for life

or we're looking for hope in the wrong things?

Like how often do we go through life

and think, you know what, if I just had a little bit more

money, things would be better.

Like I, I mean, I think

that regularly if I just had a little more money.

But what if, what if money

wasn't actually meant to bring life?

How often do our actions show

maybe just one more drink will ease the pain.

Well, what if that drink is never going to address the pain

that you're using it to cope with?

How often do we think if I could just have my one back,

or if God would heal this disease?

And look, I've been there by bedsides.

I I've prayed for healing.

I've gotten together with elders from this church

and I've seen God heal.

Our staff gets together and pray for things.

And we have seen God move miraculously,

but it doesn't always happen.

But what if physical death on this side of eternity?

What if it wasn't the end?

What if we could have so hope in something bigger?

How often do we continually go through lives

and give ourselves to things that we know the word of God

says will not bring us life?

But what if true life was really found in living life the

way that God designed Proverbs fort,

I believe it's Proverbs 1412.

It says to us in this, this is a verse,

and I've said it a few times throughout the last series.

I know Aaron Nelson said it a couple weeks back,

but I think this is a verse like especially in today's

culture that says, you do, you, you find your own truth.

You seek after what it is that brings you joy.

Proverbs 14 says, there is a way that seems right to man,

but in its end, it's the way to death.

Are we going through life looking

for the living among the dead?

'cause I would argue in those moments, it's, we find it's

where we find ourselves the most hopeless.

But here's what I know. We will never find

life looking in dead places.

And before you start feeling guilty,

so let me encourage you, uh, these women walked

with Jesus in the flesh, okay?

So it's so easy to lose sight of remembering the truth of

what is true and real to us in our lives.

And so we gotta ask the question, where does hope come from?

And you get to verse six,

and these angels say to the women, he is not here,

but he is risen.

And to everyone who can hear my voice, I want you

to hear me say this hope comes from knowing

that the tomb is empty.

And if the tomb is empty and Jesus is risen

and Jesus has risen from the grave, then what

that means is Jesus is who he said he was

and he did what he said he would do.

And so therefore, God is going

to restore his creation back to its original intent.

If the tomb is empty

and Jesus is alive, then he has shown

that he has the willingness

and the power to make a mockery out of even death.

And if that's the case, then how much more certain can we be

that he can?

Can we know that he has what it takes

to see us through our trials?

If the tomb is empty, and if Jesus is alive, then that means

that our sin is paid for, there's no caring around guilt

or shame or condemnation.

And if the tomb is empty, then Jesus is alive.

And that means we still have a God

who is fighting on our behalf, who loves us,

and who we can turn to when we need peace.

And when we need comfort, the tomb is empty.

But we have to remember this truth and we have to trust

and we have to remember that we can only look

for life in the place that it's promised,

and that's in the resurrection of our king Jesus.

I want you to look at what the angels say

Because really this comes down to like, do we believe

and do we remember what God's word says?

And it's like the angel knows these women have trouble

believing they have trouble remembering in the

midst of their situation.

So he says, remember how he told you?

Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee,

that the son of man must be delivered into the hands

of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise?

And you can say, I don't know how they forgot that.

That sounds like a big deal,

but we probably shouldn't judge, right?

'cause the reality is we don't live like

we believe it all the time either.

But I do wanna ask you this question,

what promises do you need to remember today?

What promises do you need to believe today?

Do you need to remember that God is near to the bro,

to the broken hearted and

that he saves those who are crushed in spirit?

Do you need to remember that God uses trials in our lives

to actually develop, uh, to to to grow our faith?

Do you need to remember that, that that,

that we can read in the New Testament where it says

that we don't mourn through the power of the gospel.

We do not mourn as those who have no hope.

And this, by the way, this is why it's so important for us

to continually be filled by the word of God.

This is why it's so important for us

to regularly get together on the weekends

with our church family and be reminded of these truths

because it's so easy to forget.

We get to verse eight, and they remembered his words

and returning from the tomb,

they told all these things to the 11.

So they told the other disciples and told all the rest.

Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna

and Mary, the mother of James

and the other women with them

who told these things to the apostles.

But these words seemed to be an idle tale

and they did not believe them.

Is there anyone that has trouble believing sometimes these,

these were the disciples, these were the followers of Jesus

that had walked with him for three years.

They had heard that this was gonna happen,

but then Peter, I love Peter Peter's like a fireball.

He's like, no, I'm not sitting here.

I'm not taking your word for it.

Peter Rose and he ran to the tomb stooping to look in.

He looked and he saw the linen claws by themselves.

Alright, so put an asterisk beside that in your Bible.

He saw the linein claws by themselves

and he went home marveling at what had happened.

Um, see, Peter saw the linen clause there.

If someone had actually come in

and stolen the body, uh, they wouldn't have taken the time

to unwrap the burial clause just to leave them right.

Uh, there's a, um, I believe it's in the gospel of John.

It gives a little bit more detail

and it says that, um, uh, the burial cloths were there,

but then also the head covering was there

that was folded up and it was separate.

Uh, there's some theologians

that would tell you in Jewish tradition when you were having

a meal, when you were finished with your meal, uh,

you would just ball up your

napkin and throw it up on the table.

But if you were just getting up maybe to go to the bathroom

and have a conversation, but you weren't done yet,

you were coming back, you would fold up the napkin nice

and neat and leave it on the table.

They would say, this is Jesus saying yes

to tell us died the work when the cross is finished.

But I'm actually not finished and I am coming back.

And for those of us that have read this kind of cover

to cover, if you haven't, the Bible tells us

that one day Jesus is going to return

and he is going to put all this back together again.

And he is going to wipe every tear from every eye.

And I believe in this moment when he saw the burial cloth

there, it said he went home marveling.

I believe in this moment, Peter started to believe

maybe our savior is alive.

And he went home marveling.

And I'll ask you, do you,

do you think he was filled with hope?

So what happened next? Uh, when you put, uh,

the recorded accounts from the gospels

and all the New Testament together, you see that

what happened next, over the next 40 days,

Jesus physically revealed himself, uh, to these women,

to the 11 remaining disciples

and even as many as 500 people all at one time.

And you can read about that in one Corinthians chapter 15.

Uh, Paul's basically reminding the church at Corinth

of the gospel and he says, listen,

he's risen from the grave.

And if you don't believe me, there's like 500 eyewitnesses

you can go and ask him for yourself.

And then, uh, but,

but when you, when you really get down to it,

like you've gotta realize Jesus rose from the grave.

He was here for 40 days. He revealed himself to people.

And now what happened after that? He got

together with the disciples.

He sent them on a charge, uh,

to go out into the world to share the gospel.

And then he ascended to heaven.

But it's plain to see that

after these men saw the resurrected Jesus,

everything changed for them

because these men started a revolution

or started a revolution that turned the world upside down,

proclaiming a new way of life, following a risen king.

Um, in fact, I, I don't know if you know this, but all

but one of Jesus's disciples were martyred

for declaring the resurrection, for sharing the gospel.

These are not men that died for what they believed in.

These were men that died for

what they saw with their own eyes.

And so the tomb was empty.

Jesus was alive, they were filled with hope,

and it changed everything for them.

So what would God have to do to give you hope?

Um, how about overcoming sin and death

and the promise of making all things new

through the resurrection of Jesus?

Uh, you know, one thing that I've learned

after, gosh, close to 40 years of following Jesus, is

sometimes we just need

to speak the resurrection over our lives.

Um, the, the the we need to grow in our understanding of how

to speak the gospel into every circumstance

and situation that we find ourselves in.

'cause here's really the bottom line of the message.

This Easter hope is found in the reality

of the resurrection.

And so what if we were a church

that just regularly reminded ourselves

and regularly reminded each other, Hey, the tomb is empty.

And so what does that look like when this situation in this

circumstance comes face to face with the reality

of the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

Um, I have a friend, uh,

here on staff and many of you know him.

Uh, his name was Clay Burgess. He's in this room right now.

And, uh, I didn't tell him

that I was gonna share this story.

Um, sorry, clay.

Uh, Clay's mom, uh, passed away this year.

And, um, my dad passed away this year.

And, um, When I talk to Clay about the passing of his mom,

there, there, there's a few things that I can do.

And one, I can listen to him. Um, I can cry with him.

We've done that. Um, I can pray for him. We've done that.

And I can also say, Hey, I know this hurts,

but scripture tells us that in light of the resurrection,

we don't mourn as those who have no hope.

We will see our parents again one day,

Amen.

But man, it comes down to like, do we recognize

and will we remember the hope

that we have through the resurrection?

Uh, I wanna speak briefly just to four groups

of people I know on Easter Sunday, like thousands of people,

they hear this message and it's gonna be hard

to get everybody in one box.

And so I'm gonna do my best.

I wanna speak to four groups of people.

One, I wanna speak to the one who is hoped filled in Christ.

Okay? Like, you got up this morning, you went to church,

you're like, my life ain't perfect.

But you know what? I know, I know that Jesus went to a cross

for my sins and he rose from the grave three days later.

And I know he is gonna be faithful

to complete whatever it is that he started.

And if that is you in your life,

what I wanna say right now is praise God for what it is

that he has done in your life.

The tomb is empty

and there is a world that is desperate for hope.

And so today, may you be encouraged that Jesus is alive

and working in this world

and he wants to use you to share the hope

that you have in Jesus with other men and women and students

and children and call him into the life that Jesus came

to make available to them.

The resurrection over your life means that you don't have

to grow weary in doing good.

It's not always gonna be easy.

In fact, Jesus tells us in this life we

are going to face trials.

Um, but we can know Jesus is faithful

and he will be faithful to finish

what it is that he started.

Um, Secondly, I wanna speak to the one who's suffering.

And if I had to pick like, which one

of these four boxes do I fit in this Easter

weekend, like this is me.

And so I'm preaching this to myself just

as much as I am to anyone else.

This is what I would say. Jesus sees you.

He knows your pain. He, he's walked in human flesh.

The Bible tells us that he is wept just like you and I have.

We wept and he's suffered just like you and I have suffered.

But he's also shown that through the gospel

that even death is not the end.

And just like the angels reminded those women

and like Paul reminded the church at Corinth,

I wanna remind you where Paul says, oh,

death, where is your victory?

Oh, death. Where is your sting?

And this Easter, may we find hope knowing

that Jesus has gone to great lengths to ensure that one day.

And we see this in the book of Revelation, that one day

every tear will be wiped away from every eye.

The resurrection over your life means that your pain means

that our pain will be healed.

And this life for the next

We can find peace in the here and now.

The true healing will come. This is temporary.

Next, I wanna talk to the ones

who think they're too far gone.

And I kind of get fired up about this one.

'cause this is one that I was in, okay?

I grew up in church and then I spent some time in my life

doing some things really, really well that were not

what this thing calls you to.

And uh, uh, and so to the one who hears all this

and thinks, yeah, somebody brought me this weekend

to Easter, or yeah, this makes a lot

of sense for some people.

Like I understand what you believe, what Jesus did,

but if you knew me in my life, like I am too far gone.

And what I want you to hear me say is

that is a lie from the devil.

Yes. The Bible says that all of sin

and fallen short of the glory of God.

Yes, the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. Yes.

The Bible says that for the forgiveness of sins, there has

to be shedding of blood.

And that's like a picture of like something has

to die in light of sin.

But what the Bible tells us is that blood was shed once

and for all on a cross by Jesus.

And the Bible says that happened while we

were still sinners.

And man, like you might think, that doesn't seem fair.

And again, Aaron incredible message last week on the gospel.

You should go back and listen to it.

He, you know what he said? You're right.

It's not, the gospel is not fair, but the gospel is true.

And God loves you more than you can ever imagine.

It's why John three 16 says that for God's

so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, not

that whosoever was really not as bad as some other people,

but whosoever believed in him would not perish,

but would have everlasting life.

The resurrection over your life means

that you've never gone too far to escape the love

and the grace of our God.

The tomb is empty and you can be forgiven today

and you can be restored back to God simply

by calling on the name of Jesus.

Lastly, I wanna speak, uh, to the skeptic.

And I'm not gonna talk a long time here.

I'm well aware you can't really argue

somebody into the kingdom of God.

We see how those arguments play out

on Facebook all the time.

Um, but look, I get it. You can't see it. It takes faith.

And there's been plenty of men

and plenty of women who have given the church a bad name.

What I can tell you is the hope and the resurrection

and the power of the gospel has changed my life.

The resurrection changed these disciples lives

and it's changed the course of human history.

So the resurrection over your life means that God loved you

before you knew him and he's not gonna stop.

And so my hope and prayer is that you'll keep seeking.

Um, I want you to know we are here for you as a church,

but more importantly, I want you to know

that Jesus is gonna continue to pursue after you.

What would God have to do to give us hope?

How, how about this? How about sending a son

to put on human skin, uh, to walk in our shoes, to teach us

how to live, to experience pain, to pay the price

that we deserve to pay, to set sinners free.

Not to make, not to make bad people good,

but to raise dead people to life

and to make a mockery out of death.

Also, that we could experience the life that we were created

for and have hope in the darkest of days.

Can you imagine if we live life as a group of people

that regularly reminded ourselves

and each other, what is true in light of the gospel?

The tomb is empty. Jesus has risen.

May we not look for the living among the dead,

but may we look for it in the only place

that we will find it.

By putting our trust

and our belief in the resurrection

of Jesus Christ hope is found

in the reality of the resurrection.

My prayer is that you would be filled with the hope

that Jesus has made available to us.

Would you pray with me? God, I want

to thank you for this morning.

I wanna thank you for what it represents.

I want to, and it's not just what it represents.

I wanna thank you for the reality that is true

and is available to us

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And Father, I wanna pray, um, right now for each one

of those folks that I just gonna talk through those boxes.

And there's probably somebody that doesn't even fit in any

one of those boxes and there's no way that I know how

to speak directly to them, but I know the spirit

of the living God does.

And so Holy Spirit, I pray that you would speak to each

and every man and woman and student

and child that can hear my voice.

Lord, you would help them to recognize how the power

of the gospel, the truth of the resurrection,

can bring us hope in our lives.

Lord, may we remember in our darkest moments who you are

and what you did for us so

that we could experience hope and new life in you.

We love you and we pray these things in Jesus' name

and everyone said together.

Amen. Happy Easter God

Come church and

of God

walking in.

He's

the

your cross, my your strives

my praise.

King Jesus, glory, heaven

speaking

Jesus.

Glory,

Jesuses

glory,

Glory, glory,

glory,

glory, glory

A God.

Hallelujah.

Lift your voice. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Jesus.

Surely he bore our grief and carried our sorrow.

Yet we have seemed him stricken, smitten

by God and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed.

For our iniquities upon him was the Chas prize

that brought us peace by his wounds.

We are healed

By His stripes. Come on,

come on cross, come on with me, your

Cross.

Praise,

glory,

praise King Jesus.

You're the Lord, Lord.

Well come on. Let's continue to praise God.

You know, I am so thankful for our time of worship today.

I Easter reminds us that the resurrection

of Jesus changed everything forever.

But what does that really mean for our everyday lives?

Um, well listen, you might be asking the question.

Uh, I made a decision to follow Jesus today,

or I've decided to follow him in a closer way.

But now what?

Well, I'm glad you're here

and I want you to know that you're amongst family.

And next week we are want to, we're gonna walk through

that journey with you together

because we're starting a brand new series

that we're actually calling now What?

And over these four weeks, we hope

to explore the questions you might have, uh, fears,

concerns, uh, things maybe you learned as a child

that you're trying to understand whether this whole

Christianity thing is real or not.

Well, let me tell you it's real.

And also let me tell you that this journey is a journey

that you don't have to do alone.

Because as a church, we wanna walk alongside you.

We want to be a part of the family of God with you.

And we want you to know that hope Community Church is a

family who loves God, follows Jesus and shares hope.

Listen, the tomb is empty, the work has been done

and there is hope in Jesus Christ.

And as we, uh, close our time today, we want you to know

that that hope is real

and can be experienced every single day.

Now what Now? We begin to follow Jesus together.

Church, we love you. It's been a wonderful time of worship

and we do hope to see you back here next week.

God bless you.