Easter 2026 (John 20:19-29)

We're getting all of that out.

I know I just told you to do something else.

I want you to do me a favor and look inside your worship guide and get out this card right here.

And actually, there's three different things you can do.

You can either get out this analog card, you can scan that QR code right there, or if you are technologically savvy, you can tap the tap back card at any of the chairs in front of you, and it will go to this as well.

Because once a year we do an Easter connect card.

And the reason why is this is the one time of the year when everybody shows up at church on the same day.

Okay.

You look around and go, these are your church family.

You just don't see them every time because we all go to different services.

But it is good to have you with us.

And this is an opportunity for us to be able to update information so that we can pastor you well.

And so what we ask people to do is even if nothing has changed, if you don't mind, either with the QR code, the tap back card, whatever, we'd love you to fill this out.

And there's going to be baskets at the doors on your way out because it just makes sure that we're able to make sure that what we want to send you a happy birthday, or what we want to do, we don't send it to a complete random stranger.

Okay, we want to make sure that we send it to you.

Also on the back is something we do every year called a spiritual survey.

And we're going to do that here in just a few moments at the end of our service.

Just something that we do every year that we absolutely enjoy because we love Easter around here.

And we we love celebrating Jesus 365 days out of the year.

But this is the one time of the year when we really just kind of take the brakes off and just go a little bit higher because this is the day we celebrate that Jesus is not dead, but he is alive.

Look at somebody and say, He's alive.

He's alive, he is absolutely alive.

And here's the scripture we celebrate.

God's word says, early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb.

And then suddenly there was a great earthquake.

For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and rolled aside the stone and then sat on it.

You gotta love that.

I've he's so confident.

Just rolled it down and said, I'm just gonna take a break for a moment.

And then he had to say, don't be afraid.

The reason why the women were afraid is because they'd just seen an angel.

If one of us were to see an angel, I have a feeling the first thing they'd have to say is, get up off the ground.

It's okay, it's all right.

Don't be afraid.

He said, I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.

He isn't here, he is risen from the dead just as he said would happen.

Come and see, which by the way, I love that this is a slightly passive-aggressive angel because he said, By the way, Jesus told you so the whole time.

All right.

That's my kind of angel.

And that's why we celebrate, it's because Jesus isn't dead, he's alive.

And all of us can share that testimony together.

And that's one of the things actually I love about Easter is it doesn't matter where we come from or what our story is, we all have been changed in one way or the other by encountering Jesus.

That's something that I love, and that is this that everybody has a story.

The person to your left, the person on your right, everybody has a story.

And there's some things about our stories that are different.

Here's some things.

There's a lot of things that are different about our stories, but here's some.

One is that we all come from different places.

Like literally, I only know like three people from Bowling Green.

Okay.

Everybody else is from all over the place, and we all have found ourselves here today.

Here's another one, and that is we all have different backgrounds, different cultures.

I happen to think the best culture is the southern culture because that's where I grew up from.

Yours is wrong.

It's okay.

It's all right, you know.

Mine is wrong to you, right?

And here's one more.

I am utterly convinced, this is my favorite thing to aggravate people with around the holidays, that we all think someone in our family is the best cook.

Have you ever noticed that?

You ask, you want to start a fight, you declare that your aunt makes the best Christmas fudge, and you might get hit, you know, because no, they don't.

My grandmother makes the best Christmas fudge.

You may think you know somebody that makes the best biscuits and gravy.

Ask somebody.

They will tell you the devil is a lie.

It's their uncle who makes the best biscuits and gravy.

That's how we are all so very different.

But here's the thing that I love.

Whereas we all have differences, we also have some things that we all share that are similar.

Here, here's one, and that is this: we've all experienced Scottsville Road.

Can I get a better amen in Jesus' name?

All right, yes.

You want to know what discipleship looks like?

Get on Scottsville Road, and the Lord will test your level of discipleship.

Here, here's another one.

We all distrust Kentucky weather.

That was the biggest amen I got all day so far.

Yeah.

Do you realize in the past 24 hours we have had all four seasons?

Okay, it has been absolutely amazing or horrible, depending on your point of view.

How about this one?

I know you've ever heard this before.

Everybody you know has a private battle that only you know about.

If you're from around here, you know exactly why that's hilarious.

How about this one?

Jesus rose again to save us all.

Say amen.

And then Easter gives all Christians a testimony.

That the idea behind this is that no matter who you are, no matter where you come from, everybody, even if you're not a Christian, you have a story about your encounter with Jesus, because whether you receive him or you don't, you never leave the presence of Jesus unchanged.

And Easter is an amazing opportunity when we celebrate that we may come from different places and different spaces and different backgrounds.

We have different favorite cooks, but the thing is, is that we have all, especially if we're a believer, have a testimony about what God has done.

That's one of the reasons why we showed those three testimony videos, is all three of those people or four of those people come from different places in life, and they all had a moment where they needed Jesus, then they had an encounter with Jesus, and then their life was never the same.

And that's what I just want to remind us about today is no matter what's going on in your life, Easter is the wonderful opportunity where we remember that among everything else that's going on, we have a story.

We have a testimony, and it's because of Jesus.

And so what I want to do is I just want to examine one of the testimonies in the Bible.

We're gonna examine a guy by the name of Thomas.

Now, we like to call him doubting Thomas.

I think that's a bad rap because there's actually some really good things about Thomas, but he definitely had his season of doubt.

And what I think I see in Thomas is so many of our stories.

And so, even though what I'd love to do is grab a microphone, have open mic night, and let everybody tell their story, we are definitely not going to do that today.

But I think in his story, we can all identify some of the similarities.

Let's read God's word and let's see what it has to say to us today.

God's word says, that Sunday evening.

So Jesus rose on Sunday morning, and then that evening, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders.

And then suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them.

And I love the first thing he had to say was, Peace be with you.

In other words, calm down.

It's okay.

And if you don't think that, imagine Jesus walked into this room right now.

How many of you would start screaming, like a girl?

Okay, yeah, it's Jesus.

He's like, hey, chill, chill.

All right.

Then he spoke to some of them, and as he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side.

And they were filled with joy when they saw the Lord.

And again he said, Calm down.

Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.

But one of the twelve disciples, Thomas, was not with the others when Jesus came.

And so they told them, We have seen the Lord.

But he replied, No, I won't believe unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my finger into them, and place my hand into the wound on his side.

But eight days later, the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them, and the doors were locked.

But suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them, and he had to tell him again, peace be with you.

And then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here and look at my hands.

Put your hand into the wound on my side.

Don't be faithless any longer.

Believe.

And then his response, My Lord and my God.

And Jesus told him, You believe because you have seen me.

Blessed are those who have not seen me, but still believe.

Wow.

What an amazing testimony.

And I think I see so much of what so many of our testimonies are that I want us to celebrate today in what we see in Thomas' testimony.

And here's the thing I know that Easter can get so caught up in all these other things that we do and celebrating and being with family, and those things are wonderful.

But we never need to forget that the ultimate reality is this, and that is that the resurrection reminds us of the joy for every believer.

That the resurrection reminds us, it brings us back, no matter where we have gone to, wherever's happened in our life, it always has a course correction ability to remind us of the simple joy that every believer has.

Because everybody has a story, and that story is all about Jesus.

Look at somebody and say, so watch the story.

No, no, you got to put the so in there.

If you don't put the so in there, it doesn't sound right.

All right, look at somebody else.

You don't want to talk to them.

Look at somebody else and say, so watch the story.

Perfect.

That was great.

I was like, so, so we've all got one.

Watch your story.

Like, let's let's look at Thomas's, because I think he has got, he's so familiar with so many of us, which by the way, his name was Thomas, but his nickname was Diddy Mus.

Come on, somebody.

All right, come on.

Why is he going by Thomas?

I mean, come on.

You know that he was telling everybody, call me Diddy Mus.

All right, call me Diddy Mus, all right?

But that but here's the thing we like to think of him as doubting and afraid and all this stuff.

That's not Thomas' story.

He was actually a very courageous guy.

The Bible said in the Gospel of John that some people came to Jesus and said, Hey, listen, in the next town, they're wanting to kill you.

So you probably shouldn't go.

And Jesus said, Well, no, this is why I've come.

I'm going anyway.

The other disciples were afraid.

It was Thomas that said, Let's go and die with him.

That joker's crazy.

Okay.

He's awesome.

He's my kind of guy.

He was like, if Jesus is going and he's going to die, sign me up.

I'm going to go too.

That's the guy.

So it's not that he didn't want to believe.

He was saying, I can't base my belief on your experience.

I need to believe for myself.

Because belief is such a strong thing.

And I know for some of us we have a horrible definition of the word believe because we've seen one too many Disney movies.

But belief is not like hopeless or like or just like reasonless hope.

But actually, belief is not a wish, it's to place trust with confidence.

It's to stake our life on something, it's to believe something and to do it with our chest out.

To absolutely have confidence and trust.

And what they're saying is, is Diddy Mus, you all right, stick your chest out and just trust the Lord with us.

And he's like, No, I got I want to, but I need to have an encounter with him myself.

And so he started one way, he had an encounter with God, and then he ended a completely different way.

And can I tell you, I have I love hearing stories of different people, especially around the time of Easter.

And if there's something that I see so similar in all of our stories, that is that we begin in one place.

We have an encounter with Jesus, and then we don't recognize ourselves when we're done.

That he changes our life from the inside out.

And that's what I want to do is I just want to celebrate through the story of Thomas what God has done in all of us.

And that's the question of the day.

And that is, though we all have different stories, how does Thomas' story remind us of our joy?

Because if if you don't get anything else, my prayer is that the Lord will put in your soul and in your spirit that Easter is the opportunity.

Resurrection Sunday is the opportunity to remind us of the joy that every believer has.

And so look at somebody and say, so what's your story?

What's your story?

What is it?

What is your story of God's goodness?

I guarantee you it probably had three things in it, just like Thomas's.

Here's the first one, and that is that the joyful testimony of a believer admits the reality of doubt.

Praise the Lord.

The reality of doubt.

Actually, I think doubt is a great thing.

We're gonna talk about why, but it admits, like just like Thomas, it admits that I didn't start saved.

Okay, listen, I don't know who you're sitting beside.

And if and if they did, they can go ahead and just polish their halo a little bit here.

I didn't start saved, okay?

I started somewhere way away from Jesus.

But thank goodness that's not where my story ends.

Look at what the Bible says.

They told Thomas, we've seen the Lord, but he replied, No, I won't believe.

Other words, I won't put my trust in that unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my finger into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.

Here's the reason why that's so important.

You ever wonder why why did he want to see the nail wounds?

Why did he want to?

Here's the reason why is Jesus wasn't the only person crucified.

Crucifixion was capital punishment, but it was something that they did to people.

But most of the time they didn't nail their hands to the cross because part of crucifixion was about you were supposed to be there for days on end and then die of exposure.

And so it was rather uncommon for them to nail somebody.

And so Jesus is, or excuse me, Thomas is saying, I want you to, I need to prove that it really was him.

Like, can you prove to me it really was him?

Because I know a lot of people get crucified, but very few people get nailed to a cross.

So I want to know for sure it's him.

And then I want to put my fingers into his side.

The reason why that's important is because they thought Jesus was dead, but they weren't sure.

And so they thrust a spear into his side to make sure that he was fully dead, make sure that he was all the way dead because they wanted to put him in the grave.

And so they did.

And he was saying, not only do I want to know for sure that's Jesus, I want to know for sure that he was dead.

I want to know, but I gotta know.

And here's the thing is that sometimes the enemy will lie to us and he will say that if you've ever had a doubt, God doesn't love you.

If you've ever had a doubt, God could never forgive you.

That is such a lie.

Here's the truth, and that is that doubt is not bad.

Doubt is neutral.

What matters is what you do with it.

Doubt is like picking your foot up.

You can go backwards or you can go forward.

Doubt is when you ask God, I want to know you.

Can you show yourself to me?

And God says, Absolutely, I will show myself to you.

And for many of us, our story begins in that place where I don't know what I believe.

And I love that God knows that about us.

As a matter of fact, there's a scripture that says, For God who said, Let there be light and darkness, has made this light shine in our hearts so that we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

And we know that we have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure.

This makes it clear that our great power is from God and not from ourselves.

In other words, God knows that the greatness of his glory has been placed within people, a bunch of people.

And people from time to time are so very peoply-ly.

Have you noticed that people are peoply?

Like we have good days, we have bad days, we have every day in between, and God's glory is still there going, I get you, I got you.

That's why I came.

It's to save you and to do more than you could do for yourself.

And so if your story contains doubt, can I be the first person to tell you?

That doesn't disqualify you, but it shows that God is greater than any of those things.

As a matter of fact, one of the greatest women in the entire Bible, Sarah, her testimony includes laughing at God.

Who does that?

Sarah, Sarah does, right?

And if you're reading God's word with us, we're reading through the book of Genesis right now.

And if you'd like to join us, you could text RLC Bible to 94,000.

We are slowly making our way through the whole Bible, and we're in Genesis, and there's this amazing story we're gonna read this this particular week because Moses, or excuse me, Abraham is 100 years old.

She's Sarah's 90, okay?

190.

They have been receiving their social security checks for quite a while at this point, okay?

And they like they are past, can we just all agree?

They are past the normal age of having babies, okay?

But look what happens.

The Bible says, this time next year, your wife Sarah will have a son.

This is God talking to Abram.

Sarah was listening, she was eavesdropping, okay?

And was, she realized she was long past the age of having children, so she laughed silently to herself and said, I love this.

How could a worn-out woman like me?

That's called being self-aware, how could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure of having a baby, especially when my husband is also so old?

So she threw him right under that bus with her, right?

Then the woman said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh?

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

Ow.

So Sarah was afraid and she denied it, saying, I didn't laugh.

But the Lord said, I can want to see the Lord with a smile on his face, go ahead, no, you did laugh, but you better get out the baby clothes because in nine months you're gonna have a baby.

Spoiler alert, in nine months she has a baby and they name him Isaac.

Why?

Because there's nothing too hard for the Lord.

And so God longs and is excited for the opportunity to prove himself to you.

And that's the great news, and that is that the joy of every believer is that the resurrection can overcome any doubts we face.

Somebody say amen.

One of the things I love about the resurrection is it proves to us, it reminds us that no matter what doubts we face, Jesus is greater than any of those doubts.

And I would imagine if we took time right now and we asked you what your story was, it would talk about a time when you didn't know Jesus, a time when you encountered Jesus, and a time when your life was never the same.

Look at somebody and say, So, what's your story?

I guarantee their story is gonna have three parts.

It's gonna start with a time of doubt.

Here's the second one is that this joyful testimony of a believer experiences the truth of the resurrection.

That the joyful testimony of every believer in this room has a moment when there was a dark night of the soul when you weren't sure, but you wanted to know.

You were reaching out for God, and then Jesus showed up in your life in some kind of way.

Look at how it happened to Thomas.

The Bible said eight days later, Thomas was with them, which I love that he's reaching out because when he didn't see Jesus the first time, he didn't walk away, he stayed there.

Suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them and he said, Peace be with you.

Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here, look at my hands, put your hand into the wound in my side.

Don't be faithless any longer, believe, or put your trust in me.

Here is the proof that you need.

Put your trust in me.

You know what I love about that?

Jesus had already shown up for all the other disciples.

He came back for one.

That's how much Jesus loves us today.

Is that Jesus came for one, for me and for you.

And then he shows himself to us and he says that no matter where you are in your life, I want to show myself to you.

And what a wonderful moment that must have been because 30 years later, there was a guy that was in the room.

He's not done with it yet.

30 years later, a guy named Peter, he was in the room when Jesus did this.

Then he was able to watch the church be born in Acts 2.

Then he was able to go all over the world and share the gospel.

30 years later, he's writing to the church while he's in Rome and he says this he says, All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is by his great mercy that we have been born again because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, and now we live with great expectation.

He was saying, Man, you should have been there 30 years ago.

We were we were scared.

We were hiding behind a locked door, and Jesus showed up, messed up our dinner and everything, but we didn't care.

Jesus showed up.

But see, Diddy Mus wasn't there.

And afterward, we told Didymus and he said, Uh uh, I will not believe until I see for myself.

And so one week later, Jesus did it again.

He was scaring all of us, and then you should have seen what he did.

And here's the thing I am not over it yet.

And because Jesus is alive, I live every day with expectation.

Because if he can do that, there's nothing my king can't do.

One encounter with Jesus changes everything.

And that Jesus is not just a wish, but he is someone that we can have confident trust in.

That's one of the things I love about the resurrection is it reminds us that we have a faith, a hope that we can plant our feet on.

Now, how many people know that?

They think that the resurrection is just a wish, just a hope.

Maybe Jesus rose again.

And there's not really any proof that Jesus rose again.

So we just have to hold on to it.

Did you know that's not true?

Matter of fact, I read this this past week.

That guy named E.

M.

Blakelock, very unfortunate last name, it's hard to say, said that the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is better authenticated than most of the facts of ancient history.

Did you know that?

Did you know there's more evidence that Jesus rose from the dead than that Alexander the Great ever lived?

There's more evidence that Jesus rose from the dead than the fact that Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon or got stabbed by a dude named Brutus and a whole bunch of friends, right?

Like there's more evidence of the resurrection.

Like if anybody ever tells you that Christianity is believing where there's no evidence, don't talk to them anymore.

Okay, no, I'm just playing it.

But just tell them actually, there's great evidence.

Let me give you some of the five reasons why that you have a hope in Jesus that is built on more than just blind faith.

Let me give you five proofs for the resurrection.

Number one, the empty tomb.

Where's the body?

Like the the four gospels.

Where eyewitness accounts during the lives of these people.

And they claim that Jesus rose from the dead.

If you're an enemy of Jesus, don't you think the first thing you would have done is produced a body?

No.

You know why?

Because there wasn't one there.

I've heard some people say, well, what about the disciples?

Maybe, maybe they took the body.

You mean the ones hiding in the back room somewhere?

You know?

Those guys who are under Mary Magdalene went to the tomb on the resurrection.

The jokers were hiding in a room.

She had to go find them.

Those guys stole it.

Peter, James, and John were fishermen, not soldiers.

They couldn't have beat down an entire garrison of Roman soldiers and went away.

No, that's not the thing.

The empty tomb is already enough.

Where's the body?

There isn't one.

You know why?

Because Jesus is alive.

Here's the second one: 500 witnesses.

Did you know that 1 Corinthians 15, Paul was actually talking about this and he said, Jesus appeared over 500 people?

And he's saying, go ask them.

They're still alive.

If you don't believe me, go ask them.

Here's the thing.

If somebody stole your car and there were 500 witnesses to know to know who did it, how many of those people would you have to interview before you believed who actually did it?

But 500 people saw Jesus rose at one time.

Here's a third one the changed lives of the apostles.

Something happened in their life that was so amazing that they went from hiding behind a closed door and sending out the ladies instead, to where at Acts 2, they got out in front of thousands of people that had killed Jesus and they looked them in the eye and said, You killed the Son of God, but he's alive and he still wants you to be part of his family.

That's courage.

The only kind of courage that you could get with that is if you believe something bigger than your fear.

They went all over the world and gave their lives for what they believed.

People die all the time for something they think is true.

Nobody dies for something they know is a lie.

They gave their lives for something they knew is true.

Here's another one: the conversion of James.

This is one of my favorites.

James was the half-brother of Jesus.

During the life of Jesus, he actually didn't follow Jesus.

And you know why?

Because what would you have to do to convince your brother that you're God?

Let me say it again.

Think about that for a moment.

What would you have to do to convince your family that you're God?

Exactly.

I have a sister.

There's nothing I could do to convince her that I'm deity.

Okay.

That's not gonna happen.

But you know what the Bible says?

The Bible says after Jesus rose from the dead, he went and met with James.

I wonder what that conversation was like.

Hey, buddy.

But after the fact, he became one of the greatest followers of Jesus, later giving his life for the king.

That's already good enough.

Here's my favorite: the changed lives of us today.

You want to know why?

I can believe in the proof of Jesus.

Watch what happens to somebody when they give their life to him.

Watch what happens.

Watch how their life changes.

You can give your life to Muhammad, Buddha, Confucius, whatever, and all you get's a headache.

You give your life to Jesus and he changes your life.

He changes everything.

That's why the great news is the joy for every believer is the resurrection proves we can place our trust in Jesus.

So can I tell you, whatever you brought in here with you, whatever has happened in your life since the time we celebrated Easter last, don't forget that the hope that we have in Jesus has teeth on it.

That we can actually put a foundation and say, I believe something that is worth believing.

I have a faith that is bigger than all of my doubts.

And the resurrection reminds me that Jesus is alive.

And part of my story is there was a time when I was in my doubts, just like Thomas, and then Jesus revealed himself to me.

Look at your neighbor and say, So, what's your story?

What's your story?

It probably has to do with the fact that you doubted.

Jesus showed himself to you.

And then here's one more, and that is just like Thomas.

The joyful testimony of every believer is that we get the chance to receive the offer of salvation.

We get to receive the offer of salvation.

I love this.

The Bible said that Jesus showed up.

Thomas sees, and I love how Jesus didn't just he didn't just throw him away.

How dare you! He wasn't offended.

How could you?

He didn't do that.

Instead, he said, What else you need?

I got all the proof you need.

And then watch what Thomas says when he sees this.

He says, He says, believe, and then Thomas says, My Lord and my God.

Do you know Thomas was the first person post-resurrection to call Jesus his king and his God?

He wasn't doubting Thomas.

He was, I want to believe, Thomas.

I want to go all in, Thomas.

But I need something more than your opinion.

I need to have an encounter with God myself.

And then when he did, he said, You're not just the Messiah, you're God.

And I give everything I have over to you.

And that's the option that we have been given.

That's the opportunity that we've been given.

Is after we receive all the evidence, we have to make a choice of faith.

And that's what I love so much about God is he gives us that opportunity.

Like here's the here's the difference.

What's the difference between evidence and faith?

You ever thought about that?

What is the difference between evidence and faith?

Here's one way to say the difference.

The difference between evidence is faith is evidence is proof.

Faith is trusting in the evidence.

So evidence is like if I were to sit here and tell you, okay, there's a stool up here.

Well, why would you want to believe that?

Well, first of all, because you can see it.

Then second of all, I start explaining to you how it has four legs and it has these things in the middle, don't know what they're called, but they're awesome.

And then it's dark and it's made out of metal and it should hold me.

And you could be like, okay, I believe you.

There is sufficient evidence that this stool exists.

I can tell you all about Jesus.

Did you know that you can believe Jesus is the Son of God?

You can believe that he rose again and not go to heaven?

Because it's not about what you know in your head, it's about what you trust with your life.

And I can sit here and I can I can believe that that stool is there.

I've got plenty of evidence.

But you know what faith is?

Is when I take that evidence and I sit on it, I put it to the test.

I trust in the evidence.

That's what faith is, is when we trust in what we have heard.

And that's what Thomas did.

When he saw the evidence, he said, Man, I'm gonna put my faith and my trust in the Lord.

And this is what the Bible says.

It says, God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.

And it's only by God's grace that you have been saved.

So, in other words, he said, you know what God did is that he showed us that he was God.

And you know what he didn't have to do?

He didn't have to then make that available to us.

He could have just showed us, look, I'm God, headed back to heaven.

But then he said, No, I'm God and I want to save you.

I came for you.

Will you have a seat?

Will you trust me?

Will you trust me enough to do something with what I have given you?

And when we take a seat, that's when we understand truly how powerful God is.

And so I think if Thomas were here today, first of all, he would say, Well, I'd love to tell you my whole testimony.

But Pastor Brandon took up all the time.

I don't have any time left.

Somebody's put it for you, put it to you in one sentence.

He would say something like this.

He would say, Despite my he would say, doubts, because of the resurrection, I choose to believe.

I choose to trust.

That would have been his.

And you know, that's the greatest testimony that we can have on Easter.

Is that despite that I wasn't so sure, despite that I didn't have it all figured out, I chose to trust, and it's made all the difference.

And you know they did.

According to history, what happened was is that he chose to put his trust in Jesus.

In the book of Acts, chapter two, at the birth of the church, Thomas was there.

And then he began to spread out and tell the gospel all over the world.

And eventually, about 30, 35 years later, he made his way all the way to India.

And he was sharing the gospel in India.

And while he was there, one of the local kings said he could not talk about Jesus anymore.

And he said, I can't help it.

I cannot deny what I have seen.

And while he was standing up in front of the king talking about his faith, someone speared him in the back and killed him.

And as he died, he was still saying, But Jesus is still alive and he still wants you.

He was so convinced in Jesus that he was willing to die rather than turn his back on the Lord.

That's the testimony.

Is no matter what I did, because of the resurrection, I choose to believe.

That's my story.

My story is that I wouldn't have said doubt.

I would have said I had too much information.

I grew up in a pastor's home.

I'd heard all about the gospel all of my life, but it went inside my head and never got into my heart.

And one day I was sitting in a church and someone quoted John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, so that if anybody would trust in him, they would not perish but have eternal life.

And the guy said, I want you to take out the word world and put your name instead.

And I did that in my head, for God so loved Brandon that he gave his one and only son.

That if Brandon would put his trust in Jesus, I would not perish but have eternal life.

And I finally had all the evidence I could ever want.

I just never sat in it.

And finally I said, God, if you love me that much, hopefully, I knew you could.

I knew you were faithful.

I knew it in my head, I just didn't know it in my heart.

And he changed my life.

And if you're in here and if you know Jesus, you know this promise is true that says God saves you by his grace when you believe, when you trust, when you take a seat in what God has done.

You can't take credit for this.

It's a gift of God.

That's one of the things I love about our testimonies is that none of it can we celebrate as our own idea.

But it was all because of the goodness of Jesus.

And he says, you were saved by grace when you got it right all the time.

When you thought, well, I got nothing else to do with my weekend.

When you just whatever, no, it's when you went all in and you trusted the Lord only to find out that it was the most solid foundation you can imagine.

That's my testimony.

For so many of you, that's your testimony, is that it began with doubt, with uncertainty, not so sure.

And then you had an encounter with Jesus.

And then he gave you the opportunity to have all your sins washed away.

Can I tell you, we live in a world that wants us to forget about all that?

We live in a world that makes us want to sign up for this team or sign up for that team or declare this or declare that or do this or do that.

Easter is a wonderful opportunity to bring us all the way back to the center to remember that we all have a story.

And we come from different places, different settings, different whatevers.

We all have that private battle that nobody else knows about, but we all have one thing in common, and that is no one stays the same after they have an encounter with Jesus.

So what I want us to do is take a moment, come all the way back to zero and remember Jesus.

Remember who he is.

And so as we end our time together, if you remember, I talked about your connect card.

I'd love for you to get it back out or pull it up on your phone, do your best not to check TikTok, that'll be there later.

But look at that one on the back, it has spiritual survey.

And what it is is an opportunity for us to kind of course correct a little bit once a year.

Because I don't know about you, but it does, it's not hard to course correct to get off base.

If you just get 1% off before you know it, like, how did I get here?

How did I get so far from God one step at a time?

And so it's an opportunity once a year to remember that it's all about Jesus.

And so I'm curious as to which one of these four are you.

And I'd love for you to love you to do this with me.

I'd love you to mark one of these.

Number one, maybe you're A.

Today I'm celebrating my relationship with God.

Just celebrating that, man, Pastor, I've got a story.

If you had time, I'd tell you, yes, it started with doubt.

Then I had an encounter with Jesus, and I'm still celebrating my chance for salvation.

Maybe that's you.

And so then, if you're doing the analog just with a flourish, just like Mark, yes, maybe you're B.

Today I'm committing my life to Christ.

Pastor, I don't know Jesus, but today's the day.

Today's the day.

I want to have that encounter with Jesus.

I never heard that there was proof for the resurrection.

I didn't know that just having a head knowledge wasn't enough, but but he actually wanted my whole life.

Sign me up.

I want Jesus.

Maybe that's you.

Maybe you're see today.

I would like to ask questions before committing my life to Jesus Christ.

Can I tell you if that's you, I'm so proud of you.

That was me.

I spent so long in the church having questions, and people were patient with me and they worked with me.

That's a place that we are here today.

We want to give you just a space and a place where you can ask questions.

I want you to mark that down.

We'd love to send you some information so you can make a decision about following Jesus.

And maybe you're D.

I never intend to follow Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

That's okay.

If that's you, I want you to be bold enough to mark that down.

And here's the here's the promise I will make you.

We are not gonna come see you today.

You're not gonna get part of an email blast, and no one's gonna knock on your door at 1 a.m.

Okay, no one's gonna do that.

What we are gonna do is we're gonna start praying for you because God will never quit, he'll never stop.

That's how much he's in love with you.

He will chase you to the ends of the earth and show himself to you.

I'm curious, which one of these are you?

If you're A, man, I'm so thankful.

If you're C, we wanna help you.

If you're D, we're gonna pray for you.

And if you're B, right below our spiritual survey is called the prayer of salvation.

In just a moment, I'm gonna pray over us.

The band's gonna come up and lead us in a song of worship, and that's gonna be your opportunity to make a decision for Jesus.

It talks about how salvation is not simply just telling God, thank you, but it's saying, I'm gonna sit in what you have done.

I give you my life.

Wash away all my sins.

You are gonna be my Lord and my God.

And if you give your life to Jesus, that's gonna become part of your testimony of the greatness of God.

You can either do it in your seat, or we have a prayer table in the back with a prayer team that would love to pray with you about everything, anything that's going on in your life, leads you through that prayer.

But however you need to connect with God, today is your day.

Today is your testimony.

Let's pray together right now.

God, thank you so much for today.

Thank you, God, that you see us and that you know us and that you are with us in this place.

I'm so thankful, God, that even though we come from different places and different spaces, you are real and you are true, and you show yourself strong to us.

God, I pray for everybody who's gonna mark A today, that they are celebrating their relationship with you.

Holy Spirit, I pray that you will just remind them of your goodness, open their eyes to see your faithfulness, remind them that it's all about you, God, that all this other stuff will pass away, only you remain forever.

Lord, for those who are gonna mark B today, I pray, Holy Spirit, that you will be the only voice they will hear.

Hear that you are not mad at them, you're not vengeful toward them, you're in love with them, and that today is the day of salvation.

Lord, for those maybe who are marking C or D, we pray your blessings over them.

Lord, that you will open their eyes to see your goodness and see your faithfulness, to see that you, Jesus, only you satisfy, only you fill the void inside of our heart, and that, Lord, they will have an opportunity to celebrate you soon.

That we celebrate your goodness and your faithfulness.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Would you stand with me all over the house this morning?

The band is gonna lead us in a final song of worship.

I don't know what next step you need to take.

Maybe if you're an A in here, you're just gonna raise your hands with us, you're just gonna worship the Lord for a few moments.

Maybe if you're a B, today's the day for you to make a decision.

Today's the day for you to give your life over to Jesus, the best decision you'll ever make.

If you're a C or you're a D, I want you just to contemplate what we talked about here today and realize that God is after you.

He loves you.

You'll never know peace and joy like you'll know when you give your life to Jesus.

But however you are, let's worship the Lord together today.