But Wait, There's More | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

Amen, amen, amen.

Church, would you mind helping me welcome our online community and those who are joining us in our overflow space as well as in our family lounge?

We are so, so glad that you are here with us today.

If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to join me in the Gospel of John, chapter number 12.

We're also going to flip over to Luke 24.

So if you want to kind of go to both.

And as you're turning there, I just want to just take a moment to just celebrate and acknowledge the fact that you all are here today.

I'm so grateful to see every single one of your faces, even those who are joining us online.

We we recognize that we we live in a world where um that is increasingly hostile to the gospel.

See what I did there, I was rhyming.

Um I'm pulling from my old days as a rapper.

Um we live in a world um that is hostile uh to the gospel, but now I'm an apostle, letting you know that all things are possible.

Listen, it's send me, it's send me.

We'll freestyle outside of the end of service.

Anyway, we we live in a world where we recognize that there's a little bit of distance between um the gospel of Jesus Christ and and there's a lot of blame to be received on all ends, and some of it from the Christian perspective is that people have seen the title of Christ, but Christians haven't necessarily always acted like it.

So as a result of that, people are a little bit distant.

But what we recognize in times like today, times around Christmas, that culture seems to be a little bit more accepting of an opportunity for us to invite and to bring people in, just present them with the gospel message.

So I love what today signifies because it brings us into the purity of what it means to be a follower of Christ, what it is indeed that we are celebrating.

As much as I love Christmas, and and it truly is probably my favorite holiday, um, but I will say that that today signifies my favorite, my favorite celebration as it means to be a follower of Christ.

And let me tell you why.

Because I believe that today is it signifies the the very essence of what it is to be a Christian.

Paul says it this way in 1 Corinthians 15.

He says that if Christ be not raised from the dead, then our entire belief system is in vain.

If Christ is not resurrected, then none of what we do matters.

At the end of the day, Jesus was a great philosopher, a great teacher, a great man, but the resurrection is a thing that sets him apart from everyone and everything else.

And that is what it is that we do indeed celebrate.

That's why today is so significant, is that the tomb indeed is empty.

Looking at the Gospel of John, the thing that I love about the Gospel of John, and it's the first gospel that I fell in love with when I became a follower of Christ, is that John had a very specific purpose in his writing.

He he didn't follow chronology in the same way that the other writers did.

But John wanted to give us a big picture of who Jesus is, what he's done, and then from there letting us know what his life and ministry looks like.

So you'll find on the first line of John chapter 1, he says, In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God.

John 1 · chapter mention

Skipping down to verse number 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

That word that he's referring to, if you do enough study, you'll recognize it's talking about the literal mind and heart of God, that Jesus is the incarnate word of God, that Jesus, that God became flesh and dwelt among us.

John wanted to make sure that we understood that straight off the top.

Hey, now that you guys understand who Jesus is, Jesus is Lord, let me now introduce you into the life that he lived on our behalf.

It's so beautiful.

So when we get to the 12th chapter, John at this point has been reinforcing the power that comes from Christ, the the perfect beauty and the love and the example that he set for us.

And now when we find ourselves in chapter 12, Jesus is landing the proverbial plane of his ministry.

He's been with his disciples now for uh three and a half years.

He's about 33 years old at this point, and and now he's preparing them for the fulfillment of his mission, which is ultimately to go to the cross.

His disciples had a hard time wrapping their minds around this reality, so Jesus would give them metaphors and examples to help them to understand, no, this is actually a good thing that I'm about to do.

Looking at verse number 23 and 24, Jesus replied to them, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Truly I tell you that unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself.

But if it dies, it produces much fruit.

Jesus was using this analogy to give them a glimpse of what his death and his resurrection was ultimately meant to accomplish.

When we fast forward, we know that Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, he had all these trials, he had all these things that he went through, and then ultimately he goes to the cross and he breathed his last breath, and then he's placed inside of a tomb.

And there he was, and scripture tells us that he was in the grave for three days.

But on that third day, Luke tells us first day of the week, very early in the morning.

Probably, you know, probably before the 11 o'clock service, but it's okay, it's still good.

We're gonna celebrate it.

Um, but on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices they had prepared.

They found the stone was rolled away from the tomb.

They went in, but they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

While they were perplexed about this, suddenly stood by them were men in dazzling clothes, very similar to what Pastor Keith is wearing right now.

So the women were terrified and they bowed down to the ground.

And I love what they say here.

They say, Why are you looking for the living among the dead?

He's not here, but he is risen.

Remember how he spoke to you about this in Galilee.

Why are you looking for life in dead spaces?

I think that that is a question that I will ponder for all of my days, because if I can be honest with you, there are times I'm looking for life and places that are just incapable of producing it.

But the truth is that the angel said he's not here.

You need to be in a place where he's at.

I don't know who this is for, but I believe that maybe the only reason you came here today is to hear that.

Stop looking for Jesus in the places that he's told you to move on from.

I believe that as we look at this biblical narrative and we celebrate the empty tomb, that we have an opportunity to explore this powerful narrative and see what it means specifically for us.

If you're taking notes and I hope that you're doing that, I want you to write down this message title.

But wait, there is more.

Let's pray and let's see what God has for us today.

Lord, we thank you so much for the empty tomb.

God, we we we humble ourselves and and we're grateful that we have an opportunity to come into your presence and and worship and experience your truth.

Father, I pray over the next few moments that I decrease and that you increase, Lord.

I pray that your spirit is moving amongst all of us, stirring our hearts and encouraging us, inspiring us, but also challenging us to take whatever our next step may be.

So I ask that you give us open eyes and we can see you, open ears and we can hear you, and open hearts to receive everything that you have for us.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

And amen.

Um, over the past, I would say, year and a half, I have found that time has been in very short supply for me.

And uh, people that are part of our community know that Megan and I over a year ago decided to go back to school to get our master's and professional counseling on this journey of really trying to integrate what it means to be healthy in our minds and our bodies and our souls.

And so we've been on this journey now for a little over a year, and it's it's come at an expensive cost, particularly of just like downtime.

That's almost non-existent for me.

So when I have moments where I just don't have anything that is required of me, I'm trying to find out like what's the thing that's a filler for me that I can just that requires nothing of me.

Now, now for me, that would mean not having to leave my house and means that I don't have to make a single decision.

That's a filler for me.

This is a description of my life, not a prescription for your life, because I don't want nobody going home like that.

Pastor said I just need to sit home and do nothing.

That's not what I said.

That's not what I said at all.

I'm saying that works for me.

So so one of the things that that I've noticed is that I just need to find a show that I can really immerse myself in.

I just need a TV show that I can just get lost in.

Now, Meg and I have things that we watch together.

I have things that I watch with with Caleb, I have things that are along those lines, but every now and then you just need something that's just for you.

And so last week I found that show that is just for me.

And y'all, I I don't have the words to describe like the joy that I found on the inside of myself because it's of my favorite genre.

I love sci-fi shows.

Any sci-fi fans in the house?

Four of us.

These are the people with high IQs.

You guys are incredibly smart and you're favorite amongst the Lord.

And when other people are confused, we're the ones that help them to figure it out.

It's this is Littman's test.

But but I I absolutely love these shows that that really challenge me and really make me think about the future and all the potential.

So I really love getting lost in it.

So I found the show that has checked every single box.

And I've gotten lost in it over the past couple of days.

I mean like I'm dialed in, I'm I'm in it.

And then I'm getting the momentum, it's building up, it's complex, it's thought-provoking, great action, and then the show comes to an end.

And when I say that it comes to an end, I'm not talking about like you knew that it was coming to an end.

Like there was this great big reveal, and as the reveal hit, I'm like, oh my gosh, that's amazing.

I stopped, went, got something to eat, came back prepared, like I can't wait to see what happens next in the story.

And then when I hit play, Netflix had the audacity to try to promote other shows to me that I may be interested in.

No, sir, I'm not interested in that.

I need you to finish the storyline that you started.

And I found out that the show was done.

Now, see, somebody's empathizing with their pastor.

When I say heartbroken, that doesn't begin to describe the disappointment that I had.

Like, it was to the point where I'm like, it's a show.

Should I really be feeling this way?

I went through stages of depression, I went through all five stages of grief.

Like, I was literally like, you've got to be kidding me.

Like they just left me hanging like that, like the uh a massive reveal, this momentum that's been built up, all this excitement.

I can't wait to see where the character develops, where everything's gonna continue to go, and just like that, the credits begin to roll, and I have no way to resolve what has been established.

As ridiculous as that sounds, I find myself really empathizing with the disciples.

Because if you think about it from their perspective, three and a half years ago, Jesus saw them and said, Hey, come follow me.

I want to lead you on this incredible journey.

And on this journey, you're gonna be exposed to my power, you're gonna be invited to participate with me, you're gonna do some incredible things, and in that time, they've seen Jesus resurrect dead people, they've seen Jesus walk on water, they've seen Jesus multiply fish and loaves.

So for them, the storyline keeps getting bigger and better, and now they're being able to participate in it.

And just when they think that it's about to go to another level, the credits roll, Jesus breathes his last breath, and he's placed inside of a tomb.

I can't imagine living with that type of a cliffhanger, being in the garden and not understanding why Jesus is filled with such anguish, not understanding why He's He's praying, literally, drops of blood are coming from his cerebral cortex, like all the things that are happening inside of Jesus' body, and I'm like, I don't understand why you're going through this.

I see that he's betrayed by one of our partners, and then all of these things happen, and in a moment of a few hours, he's nailed to a cross, and everything that I believed in, everything that I hoped for, everything that I thought was going to happen didn't, and the credits are rolling.

What am I supposed to do with this?

I find myself wondering what did the disciples do on Friday night?

This night of Passover where Jesus gave up his last breath.

I think about the silence that took place on Saturday.

I think all of us can understand what the silence of Saturday feels like.

It's the moment of in-between the miracle, but they didn't know that Sunday was coming.

Some of us are in Saturday seasons right now where it just seems as if it's silent.

I've dealt with the trauma, but there's silence.

I've prayed as much as I can, but there's silence.

I'm waiting for my breakthrough and my miracle, but there still seems to be silence.

I can't imagine how silent it must have felt on that Saturday.

A day of Sabbath that they couldn't even get around and move.

They just had to sit with it.

But on the next day, on the next day, the Bible says that there were some women that were so confounded that even though they were grieving, even though they recognized something was missing, something on the inside of them compelled them to go back to the place that they last saw Jesus.

As they were on this journey, the Bible says they were not even sure of how they were gonna get access to his body because they knew that they had rolled a tomb over, they rolled a stone in front of the tomb, they sealed it, and they had armed guards waiting.

But as they're walking, there's something inside of them that says, I don't know how we're gonna get access to Jesus, but I still gotta go and see him.

I'm sitting in the silence and I'm still filled with grief, but there's something that still confounds me that I gotta draw closer to my Lord.

I believe that's supposed to be a prophetic declaration for us.

There are gonna be moments where we're sitting in the silence.

There's gonna be moments when we're dealing with the unknown, but there still should be something on the inside of us that's drawing us to still come closer to Jesus even when we don't have all the answers.

They literally said, How are we gonna get access to them?

They said, I don't know, but we're gonna keep on pressing forward.

I think it speaks to the perseverance that is found in us as believers.

When they get there, they're surprised to see that the tombstone has been rolled back and that they have access, but they don't see Jesus where they last thought he was going to be.

And then the powerful words are told to them.

He's not here.

He's risen, just like he said he would.

And then they are given the profound instructions.

Now go back and tell the disciples, but wait, there's more.

You thought that the story was over, you thought that the credits were rolling, you thought that they were gonna leave you on this cliffhanger, but wait, there's more.

And I need you to go back and tell the disciples that God is not done with them yet, there is still yet more work for them to do.

I believe that same message that the angels had given to those women is the same message that God is encouraging us with, but wait, there is more.

I believe there's three principles that it's my assignment to share with us to give us some perspective on what the empty tomb means for us.

Here's the first one I want you to write down there is more life.

The empty tomb means that there is more life.

Jesus proclaims with divine authority, I am the resurrection and the life.

Whoever believes in me, though they shall die, they shall live.

This profound truth emerges as a triumphant victory over death.

Jesus wants us to understand that as we're on our journey, he doesn't want us to just exist, but he wants us to thrive, that there is still yet more life.

The empty tomb was meant to signify that there's more life.

There's more than the survival that we've been in for the past two years.

There's more than just existing, but God's saying, I want you to get to a place where you can thrive.

The empty tomb means that I'm not done yet, there's more life.

I believe that the narrative found in Ezekiel chapter 37 beautifully encapsulates this principle.

Ezekiel 37 · chapter mention

Because if we look into that passage of scripture, we're given a glimpse into the vision that the prophet is provided with.

And what that glimpse is is a valley of dry bones.

I want us to imagine for a moment, when the prophet is now given the ability to survey the lamb, he sees a bunch of bones that signify decay, it signifies death, it signifies the lack of movement.

Sadly, that may feel like the description of what you may be feeling right now.

I feel like when I look into the mirror of my relationships, I feel like there's nothing but decay.

When I look into my resources, I feel like there's no mobility, there's no activity, there's no traction.

But then God says, But can these bones live?

I believe that sometimes God will challenge us and ask us, as you're looking at the brokenness in your life, do you believe that there's still life yet to live?

Ezekiel's response was to prophesy to the bones, in other words, speak words of life over the dead situation.

And what scripture says is that the bones began to assemble and life was reanimated and it became an exceeding great army.

The Bible tells us that life and death is in the power of the tongue.

Maybe for some of us, we've been looking at dead and sick situations in our lives, and we've just been declaring that this is done.

Let's call it.

It's been a flat line.

But I believe it's moments when we recognize the empty tomb that God is saying, but yet there is still more life.

Dead isn't done when you got Jesus.

So are you looking at your situation the same?

I choose to speak life over this situation.

My marriage is not done.

I will not let bankruptcy be the end of me.

This is not it.

This sickness is not going to end in death.

We have still more life to live.

There is more life.

Jesus helps us to understand that there's more life.

I believe that John chapter 10, verse 10 tells us that a thief comes to steal, to kill, and destroy.

John 10:10

But I have come that you may have life and life to the fullest, or life in abundance.

More life means moving from merely just existing to a place where we can thrive, where everyone is able to tap into their identity and purpose, understanding that their worth and their value is not defined by their past or their pain.

The resurrection narrative provides a framework that allows us to recognize renewal, hope, and transformation is available yet to us.

Embracing more life means going beyond our fears and limitations, engaging fully in the presence of God, recognizing that He has yet so much more for us.

There's more life.

Somebody shout more life.

The second thing that I believe that the empty tomb is meant to signify is that there is more healing that's still to be done.

There's more healing that's available.

The scriptures are filled with tales of the power of God that is found in his desire to bring healing and restoration to every single one of us.

One of the central themes that we find in the resurrection is the way that Jesus overcomes death and sin and showcasing it in its ultimate form.

Isaiah 53, 5 beautifully forecasts and tells us that by his stripes we are come on, y'all know the word.

That by his stripes we are healed, that we are restored, that we're put back in our rightful place.

That Jesus' life, death, and resurrection makes healing available to us, and it transcends just physical, but it also concerns our emotional and spiritual well-beings.

That God doesn't want us just to patch things up, that He wants us to be whole.

It makes me think about a few months ago, Megan had called me into our laundry room.

And when she called me in there, she said, Hey, um, the the the washing machine is leaking water.

Now, I I don't know why she asked me to come in.

I watch sci-fi movies.

I'm not a person that knows how to work on equipment, but nonetheless, I said, okay, babe, I I got this.

So I went and reached for my imaginary toolbox, and um I said, Hey, I got this.

Go ahead and go into the other room.

I'm gonna take care of it.

And I kid you not, what I did is I got a towel, I cleaned the water up, and then I got to the washing machine and I shook it a little bit like this, and I banged it on the top.

I wish I was kidding.

Shook it, banged on the top.

And then after I finished with that, we ran a cycle, and wouldn't you know it, there was no water that was leaking.

I said, It is healed in the name of Jesus.

I need to set up an account right now, create a cash app, and I can fix anybody's washer right now in the name of Jesus.

It's gonna be up on the screen.

Um, so I'm like, this is amazing.

But then I like a couple weeks later, she would come again, like, hey, it's it's leaking again.

I'm like, okay, babe, I got this.

You go ahead and step out the room.

I didn't want her to know my secret techniques.

You gotta step out the room, I got this.

I would clean up the mess, I would shake it up a little bit, and I would bang it on the top, I would step back, run a cycle, and magically it wasn't leaking anymore.

It was incredible.

Like, I was like, man, maybe I'm on to something, but every two weeks, it seems like I had to I had to go through this process.

Well, then one day our our dryer had broken, and there's nothing I could do about that.

No matter shaking, no matter kicking, it wasn't working.

So I had to have somebody come in and look at it.

And so while they were there, I said, Hey, do you mind taking a look at my washer as well?

I said that I said that part quiet because I want Megan to think I was inefficient.

So I said, Hey, can you look at the washer while you're here?

And so he opens it up, and it turns out there was a crack where the water's supposed to be retained.

And all this time, when I was shaking it, all I was doing was redirecting the water from going in from the front to going towards the back.

So when he moved the washing machine all the way out, there were puddles and puddles that had accumulated literally for like two months.

Like the walls beginning to work.

And all this time, every time I shook it, every time I tapped it, every time I cleaned it up, I thought I was fixing it, but I was merely providing a temporary solution to something that actually needed a little bit deeper examination.

Okay, let me talk to some of us right now.

Many of us are showing up and we're worshiping God at the surface level, and we're content with moving some things around, cleaning up the surface level of our mess, and we're not willing to really take the top off and examine where the leaks are in our lives so that we can begin to.

Experience the wholeness that God really has for us.

And we find ourselves trapped in a cycle where every two weeks it seems like I'm still leaking.

Every two weeks I'm still struggling with bitterness.

Every two weeks I find myself still being triggered by the same things.

But the empty tomb is meant to say that God wants to heal us holistically.

He wants to heal our mind so that bitterness and that anger doesn't have to have any control of us over anymore because he's tired of us leaking all over the place.

He wants to heal our soul so that way we're not triggered and having trauma every time we're dealt with disappointments.

Come on, I'm talking to somebody.

What God is saying is I want to heal you holistically.

The empty tomb means that there is more healing available.

This is why I love the Nehemiah narrative, because when they were rebuilding the walls, Nehemiah would walk around the walls and examine where are the leaks at?

Are there any spots that I'm vulnerable?

And I often wonder to myself, when I look into the mirror of God's word, if I were to take a really deep study and say, God, can you show me my blind spots?

When I have people in my life that I can trust, they could tell me, like, hey, there's a vulnerability right here.

You're going to need to pass that because if you don't, it's going to continue to leak and it's going to leak into your relationships, it's going to leak into your finances, it's going to leak into everything else.

There's more healing available for us.

I believe what the empty tomb is meant to mean for us is that God wants to bring us to a place of wholeness.

And it's a journey for our minds, it's a journey for our souls, it's a journey for our bodies, but don't give up and know that there's more healing available to us.

Somebody shout more healing.

Here is the third and final point.

There is more power.

The empty tomb means that there is still more power.

The resurrection of Jesus is a profound demonstration of God's unmatched power.

A power that was able to triumph over death itself.

I love how the Apostle Paul mocks death almost as if he's in a rap battle where he says, Oh, death, where is your sting?

Oh grave, where is your victory?

That the resurrection of Jesus literally demystified and defanged the very thing that most of us are afraid of, and that is death and the unknown.

But because of the empty tomb, we no longer have to be afraid of this idea of entering into eternity with Jesus.

The Bible tells us that the divine power of God was demonstrated in moments of the Red Sea being parted, or when Jericho's walls had collapsed, and that same power exists within us.

There's more power.

I believe in Ephesians chapter 1, 19, Paul tells us beautifully, he says, Here is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

According to the mighty works of his strength, he exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him in the right hand in the heavens.

Let me paraphrase that.

He's saying, if you want to know the power of God that's available to you, it's when he resurrected Jesus in the spirit, that same spirit dwells on the inside of you right now.

He builds on that idea a little bit more in Romans chapter 8, verse number 11, where it says, The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

And that God that raised Christ from the dead, he will give you new life in your mortal bodies with the spirit that dwells on the inside of you.

The more power means that it's not just the ability to overcome external obstacles, but it's about recognizing that there's something on the inside of us that allows us to see the potential of what God has called us to be and what God has called us to do.

There is more power.

Many of us think that because we face opposition, that our ability to be successful is limited to our own strength.

But the Bible tells us greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world.

Because of the resurrection of Christ, you have access to that more power.

That power gives you the ability, as scripture says, to tread on serpents and to not be harmed.

That power has the ability for you to say, in the name of Jesus, and demons will go and tremble.

That power that you say in the name of Jesus and begins to make that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess.

That power that God makes available to us allows us to know that no weapon that is formed against us shall prosper because of the power that God has placed on the inside of me, the power that God has placed on the inside of you.

There's more power.

We are called to be humble, but we're not called to be docile.

That God is saying to us that we're supposed to be humble, but at the same time recognize that the power that rose Christ from the grave, it literally lives on the inside of me.

I don't have to walk around defeated, I don't have to walk around deflated, but I'm able to tap into that power.

I think about the story of Gideon, and if you're unfamiliar with it, it's the story of the 300 where he had to go up against more than 30,000 men.

And the Bible says that God continued to dwindle his numbers down till it was just 300 of them.

Why is that?

Because there was something on the inside of Gideon that he didn't see for himself, but God was saying that when you and me are together, it's not a fair fight, no matter what your opposition is.

And what scripture begins to reveal to us is that Gideon with his 300 was more powerful than the countless droves that was coming against them.

I don't know what your opposition is.

I don't know when you take inventory of the name of everything that is coming against you.

But what I do know is in the name of Jesus, you have the authority that God has given you that you can walk with dominion and freedom and wholeness because He's made power available to you.

There's more power.

We don't have to be weak, we don't have to be afraid, there's more power.

We don't have to be afraid of the world, we don't have to be afraid of culture, there's more power.

God has given us this power: power to overcome our temptation, power to overcome the challenges in our relationship, power to become champions of justice, powerful enough to live courageously and to be bold, powerful enough to spread the gospel of hope.

I think about those women who at that time voice and testimony would have had no value at all.

I imagine for Mary and Martha and the other women that were followers of Christ that when they followed Jesus, that was the first time they would have experienced equality with men.

And now Jesus dies, and they're wondering if I have to go back to my subservient role.

But interestingly enough, they were the first ones to the tomb.

Interestingly enough, God gave them the message to preach the gospel first for the first time, and it took courage for them to go back to these men and say, He's not dead, but he's risen.

These men that were grieving, these men who wouldn't want to hear it, it took courage for them to show up and say, I know that you're not going to believe this.

But we had an encounter with Jesus, and he says that there's still more for us to do.

It took courage to do that, but because of the conviction in their encounter, they had the power to do it.

I believe that same thing is true for us.

So going back to my Netflix show that abandoned me, I'm still not over it yet.

At the end of the show, and after probably having a little bit of a uh a tantrum for about a good hour or two, I realized that I had access to the interwebs.

So I began to do some searching.

And as I began to search, I came across one of these YouTube pages that were expounding on the series, and then they had revealed something to me that was so life-giving.

It was literally like my garden moment with Mary.

And I found out that the story wasn't over.

I discovered that the show I was watching was part of a three-book series, and that the books are available so I can continue on in the story.

So I had a dilemma, and that dilemma was do I wait to see if Netflix is gonna read up the contract and then record it and do season two, or I can just go and read the books and see how the story ends.

So I went and bought the books, and I'm already halfway through book number two, and it's amazing to see how the story continued.

That even though the credits had rolled in one moment, I was given access to something that told me there is still more to this story, but you got to be willing to engage it.

Don't clap yet, we're gonna get there.

Wait, give me, give me, give me 10 seconds.

If only we had a book that we could go to that allowed us to know that the story is not over.

Don't clap yet.

Wait, give me three more seconds.

If only we had a book of truth that when we were looking at our broken situation, that says, I know that you may feel sick, but by his stripes you are healed.

There's still more to the story.

Now you can clap.

If only there was something that we can look to that allowed me to recognize that what I am looking at is not the end of the story, but yet it is just the beginning.

But wait, there is more.

There is more for you, there is more for your family, there is more for your children, there's more for your children's children.

God has more for you.

The story is not done, it is just getting started, but you gotta be willing to jump in.

Many of us, we stay stuck in season one.

We show up, surface level, we come on Christmas, we come on Easter, we engage it at a surface level, and then we step out, we live our lives, and we're still searching for something in the same way that Mary was searching for something.

We're looking for different places and different things and different people and hopes that they're gonna fill us up, and they don't, and then Christmas comes around, and we come and we realize, like, oh, there's hope, there's joy, there's peace, and we get our little feel of that, and then we step back out of it, and yet we still are staying stuck in season one.

And God is saying, When will you recognize that there's more to the story?

There's so much more, there's so much more life, there's so much more healing, there's so much more power that you don't have to live in this place where you're stuck in the cycle that I have so much more for you.

With every head bowed and with every eye closed, I want to lead us into a moment of prayer and reflection and worship.

Maybe as you came in here today, maybe you were invited, maybe you were dragged, maybe you were tricked.

They said we're going to brunch and somehow we're gonna make a quick stop for an hour and a half at this place.

Maybe they told you you're coming to the museum, but they just didn't tell you what time, and now here you are.

But however you find yourself here today, I don't believe it's an accident.

I believe that this is a moment where God is inviting us to recognize that there's more to life.

So if you're in here with us today, and maybe you've been searching, maybe you've been looking, maybe you've been exploring, maybe you've been hoping to find something to bring fulfillment, and you recognize the truth of the matter is no matter where I've gone, it may satisfy for a moment, but it's not fulfilling me.

I believe God is inviting us to something more meaningful and deeper.

So on the count of three.

If you simply want to say yes to Jesus, yes doesn't mean you have all the answers, it just means that you're nowhere you're looking for them.

Maybe you're returning to God for the first time, maybe you're coming back after many years, whatever you find yourself.

I want to pray for you in this moment that today is the day where you recognize that the Holy Spirit is saying, I'm inviting you to pray for more.

If that's you, I want to count a three, but I just want you to boldly lift your hands.

One, two, three.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you, amen.

Go ahead and put them up boldly.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you, God bless you, God bless you.

Church, can we put our hands together and celebrate with every single person that is saying yes to Jesus?

Every one of us in this room who are followers of Christ at some point has come to this valley of decisions.

So you're in good company and we celebrate this with you.

What I want to do is I want to lead us into a prayer, and then we're gonna go into a time of worship.

But as a community, can we all come to our feet as we prepare to worship together?

But I also want to pray, helping along those who may be praying this prayer for the first time.

Repeat these words after me.

Lord Jesus, I'm ready for more.

I believe that you died on the cross and that you rose from the dead.

And it's my belief in that that calls me saved.

Fill me with your spirit and order my steps in Jesus' name.

I want to pray for us as we prepare to go into worship because I believe there's others of us that maybe we're in season one and we're just going through the loops, but maybe God is compelling us to go deeper, but we don't know how to do it.

I'm praying in the name of Jesus that as we believe and declare in this moment that God's gonna help you to know what your next steps are because he wants us to get out of season one.

He recognizes that there is still more, and he's inviting you to participate in it.

Lord, we thank you so much for your presence.

We thank you for the gift of Christ and the grace that you make available for us.

So, Lord, I pray over this precious community that as we've heard the reality of the empty tomb and what it means for us, I believe it's an invitation for us to go deeper and find ourselves in this narrative because there is so much more to life.

So, Father, I pray over our community that as we lift our hands and as we engage in worship, that you begin to stir our hearts, that you begin to stir our spirits and help us to recognize the next step that we need to take to draw closer to you.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Let's worship together, family.

Thanks again for listening.

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