Easter Sunday: A Different Story

Good morning, guys. Good to see you. Pleasure to be with you guys here today.

I'm excited, not just because you're such wonderful people and quite attractive, but sure.

But also because today is Resurrection Sunday. It's Easter. I don't know why

we call it either of those two things. I guess Easter is controversial.

But here you go. We're just going to call it Easter.

It's the day that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, the day that the church

around the whole world has set apart to remember that Jesus Christ died on a

cross on Friday and then rose to get again to life. He resurrected on Sunday.

We remember that 2,000 years ago, something happened and the claim is,

and what I'm going to tell you today, is the claim is that that has changed everything.

And for me, my hope is to help us all think through and understand what the resurrection means.

So I actually just want us to pray. We're going to pray and then we're going

to go ahead and talk about it.

And I promised, I have people betting against me, but I've promised that I'm

not going to go along today. So we'll see. Yeah, I know.

We have doubters, but today is a day of faith. So we'll put it to the test.

All right. So let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you so much.

We thank you that, yeah, we don't get closer to you because we're more serious

because we impressed you in some way, Lord.

We get close to you because of what you've done and the way that you've opened

up for us, Lord. And that's what we celebrate today.

So we do, we celebrate, we can celebrate, we can celebrate what you've done, Jesus.

We don't look to ourselves today, but we look to you, your victory,

your resurrection, your hope.

Lord, we just ask you by the power of your spirit, Lord, would you just come

behind your word here and build faith within us, Lord.

Let us get our eyes fixed firmly upon you, Jesus, and what you do.

We pray that in your name, Jesus, amen.

Okay, have you guys ever seen the Apple TV show Sugar? You guys seen it?

Peter Rumbles, that doesn't surprise me. I promise you this message is just

not my favorite binge shows, but it's a good show.

And if you haven't seen it, I'm about to ruin it for you.

So yeah, it's been out for over a year. I'm sorry

that's on you at this point It's not like the score of the game That's being

played right now or something like that Okay so I'm sorry I don't think I'm

going to read it for you Because it's actually so good But just to tell you

a little bit about it Again not just a plug but there's a point Sugar is this

guy Played by Colin Farrell,

I don't know if you like him. I don't know what else he's been in,

but he's good. He's a private investigator in Los Angeles, okay?

And that, I mean, I can tell you that, and you're like, well,

I know what kind of show that is, a private investigator in Los Angeles.

That's a thing. Like, that's a well-worn genre.

And the show starts off, it totally leans into it.

It starts off exactly as you might think a private investigator show would start, you know?

You have this guy, Sugar, he's a loner, but he's the best in the biz, right?

I mean, you know, you're like, oh, okay. Some kind of like savant.

And he's got, again, unsuspectingly, he's got a troubled past.

Like, you know, you've seen this show before, right? You've not seen it,

but you know exactly what I'm talking about. He always wears a suit.

You know, the ladies swoon over him. He drives a classic car.

And he lives in a fancy hotel. All the things that you would expect from this type of show.

It's a total vibe. And you start watching, and Sugar takes on a case of a missing girl.

Again, of course, because that's, you know, that's going to tug at your heartstrings,

and you think to yourself, you settle down, you think to yourself,

I know exactly what's going to happen and I'm loving it, right?

Because it's just that sort of show. It's a classic crime drama.

And the first episodes come in and you start to get little hints.

Maybe this show is a little different than what I would suspect. You get some hints.

You get the sense that Sugar is more than he seems or that something strange

is going on in the background.

And then all of a sudden, six episodes in, and here's where I'm going to ruin

it for you. You get the big reveal.

And I realized, as I say this out loud, how stupid it sounds.

Okay? Here's the big reveal.

Sugar is actually an alien.

Doesn't that sound so stupid? But it's the best show.

It's the best show, I promise you. And that has not ruined it for you.

You need to go and watch it. It's really good.

Okay, but that's actually not the point. It's not the point to get Apple's subscriptions up here.

I just, like, find it so interesting because you realize all of a sudden I'm

not watching a crime drama like I thought I was, even though everything is telling

me crime drama, crime drama, crime drama.

I'm watching a sci-fi show. And suddenly the story that you thought you were

watching The story that you thought you were in It becomes totally different

It's not the story that you thought it was,

Jesus was born Hard segue Jesus was

born into a culture That was built around worshipping God You kind of just know

this in a background sense Jesus was Jewish And as a Jew he lived in a really

well known story Jesus lived in a really well known story A story that his people

of the story of his people and their God, right?

Yahweh, this God that they worship and how they're like this special called chosen people.

And the Jews' sense of who they were came from their history,

and the way that God had used certain people in their history to shape and to

form them, leaders who would rise up and then lead them forward into their relationship with God.

And this was just like a really well-worn pattern, a very familiar story within

Judaism, this pattern of a leader coming up and shaping and doing something

and bringing them forward.

I mean, so we can think back like a survey of the Old Testament, right?

I mean, the first person called by God to have this relationship that was special is Abraham, right?

He's the father of the nation of Israel, the common ancestor to all of them.

And he followed God. He was a pagan guy over in like modern day Iraq.

And one day God just said, hey, you come on.

And he went and he followed God into this new land. And God made him all these

promises about his family and how God was going to bless him and call him out.

And Israel was born as a result of that.

And then there's like Joseph, right? Joseph, the great grandson of Abraham.

And he was living in the promised land, but through some very interesting circumstances,

he gets carried away and brought to Egypt. And he makes it so that his whole

family can move up into Egypt to avoid a famine.

So God uses this person of God, this man of God, this leader who's called out

to protect his people and to re-situate them and watch over them, right?

And then God just keeps doing this. He does it again. We learn about Moses.

Moses is kind of the reverse of Joseph.

Joseph brings them into Egypt.

Moses brings them out of Egypt, back into the promised land where they had been

enslaved after a couple hundred years.

And then Joshua brings them all the way into the promised land and establishes

them and makes it so that the society that God is setting up in his people can flourish.

And then after years go on, things are up, things are down. God sends more people,

more leaders. This pattern plays out more and more.

King David comes along and he's like the best of all the examples of leaders that we've had so far.

And Israel is really flourishing and it's good and it's wonderful.

And then his son Solomon comes and he's pretty good. but it doesn't end super

great, right? Yeah, but he's still like the pattern.

God is working in people. He's

advancing his people. He's making them prosperous. He's protecting them.

And that story in ancient Egypt was just well-developed.

This pattern of using a special called individual to lead people out of challenging circumstances.

And that is what everyone expected God to do in Jesus's day.

That was just the pattern. It's the story that they lived in.

So in ancient Israel, yeah, They were expecting that to go on.

So when Jesus shows up, right, he starts to teach.

He starts to do this miraculous stuff. We've been recently going through the

book of Matthew and looked at all these miracles that he's doing.

Everyone is just buzzing. They're glowing. They're like, oh,

we've seen this show before.

We know this is good. Because when someone comes in the name of God and someone

can come and teach with authority and power and do miraculous signs and wonders,

we know that God is about to do awesome things.

And we've seen this show before, and we like this show.

This is a good show. They're familiar with the genre.

They get that Jesus is about to bring his people into renewal, and they're excited.

And so they're throwing parades, like we looked at last week,

you know, Palm Sunday. They throw this parade to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem.

They throw parties. They're talking about the buzzing. They're gossiping about

all the things that Jesus is doing, and people are getting excited.

And everyone is waiting to see what Jesus is going to do, because they know

he's going to do something great.

And there's various expectations. You know, he's probably just going to like

kick Israel out or kick, kick Rome out of Israel. Right. Because Rome is an embarrassment.

It's an embarrassment to have Caesar overseeing them and oppressing them.

So probably Jesus is going to kick them out. He's probably going to make us

really wealthy again. Like we're going to, again, be kind of the center of the

universe like we were when David, when David came.

And we're going to, again, be blessed by God like we were when Abraham called

us out. And we are yet again going to like have this giant temple and the whole

world is going to look to us for what it means to follow after and know God.

So they have all these expectations because they know the story. They know the pattern.

They know how God has worked in the past. And what happens?

Well, on Thursday night, Jesus gathers with his disciples.

And then suddenly something he's surrounded by soldiers and the soldiers have

come to arrest him. We read about it in John 18.

It says, Then the company of soldiers, the commander, and the Jewish officials

arrested Jesus and tied him up.

Now, in the genre of ancient Israel and ancient Judaism, this isn't a problem yet.

Because it's setting Jesus up for a big move. Like when sugar gets tied up by the hostage takers.

He's like, ah, he's fine. He's going to be fine because he's going to get out

of it. You know, you expect little setbacks.

I mean, look, Joseph was locked in a prison. God showed up, brought him out.

David had to hide in caves from a king who tried to persecute him.

Setbacks like that are expected. They're no big deal. They go with the territory.

But as Thursday turns into Friday, things become more dire.

And Jesus is put on trial. And it's like a complete, completely rigged trial.

It's just a joke. I'm resisting doing a Donald Trump impersonation right now. You're welcome.

Then he's brought before the Romans and Pontius Pilate, like the Roman governor.

And Pontius Pilate is basically strong-armed into having to condemn Jesus because

he knows there's going to be a riot unless he does.

And so he just goes along with it. He lets him be crucified.

We read about that in John 19, verse 16. They took Jesus away.

John 19:16

And carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called the place of

the skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.

And there they crucified him and two others with him, one on either side with Jesus in the middle.

And after this, when Jesus knew that everything was now finished,

that the scriptures might be fulfilled, he said, I'm thirsty.

And a jar full of sour wine was sitting there. And so they fixed a sponge full

of sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it up to his mouth.

And when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished.

And then bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.

So Jesus is there hanging on a cross, condemned unjustly.

And it's a problem because God's people had expected to see this pattern that

they've seen play out yet again.

And death is kind of like the end of the pattern.

Like, yeah, I mean, there's been persecution of prophets and leaders in the past.

There have been difficulty, but none of them died because that sort of seems like the end of the road.

I mean, maybe up to this point, there would have been hope. But as Jesus says,

it's finished and dies. I mean, what hope could they have?

Their expectations are disappointed. And all of Jesus' disciples,

I mean, they're like, they're just in despair.

If you kind of read the narrative of the Gospels, either of them,

like, they basically all have no idea what to do with this. They don't know

how to process the fact that Jesus is dead.

They kind of scatter. They deny Jesus.

They do all these things they said they would never do. They kind of gather

together a couple days later to just, I mean, process together. They're distraught.

And they're mourning the fact that their hopes have been dashed.

And they're grieving because God didn't do what they expected him to do.

And that's a huge disappointment.

God didn't show up to them like he had done for Israel in the past.

And they doubt, they despair, they process, what does it mean?

What should they do here?

And so after two days, some of them just like are sick of probably sitting around

with all these people confused and all their attitudes and all their discouragement.

And some just say, you know, like, we're just going to go out to the tomb where

Jesus was buried because we love Jesus and we want to clean it and make sure it's okay.

And as they get there, they come there, they come to clean it, to mourn.

They discover actually that the tomb has been opened and Jesus's body is gone,

which is just insult to injury at this point, right?

Because they're just thinking, not only are all our hopes stashed,

but somebody's taken his body.

And then like, we can't even mourn him anymore. We can't even like go to the

place where he's at and just like process this. And so it's grief.

And then it's, I mean, just ultimate like betrayal, this feeling of just like,

what can we possibly do here?

But then something unexpected happens. And we read about it in John 20.

So Mary, one of his disciples is there. And it says this, Mary stood outside the tomb crying.

And as she was crying, she stopped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels

in white sitting where Jesus's body had been laying, one at the head and the other at the feet.

And they said to her, woman, why are you crying?

Because they've taken away my Lord, she said to them. And I don't know where they've put him.

And having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there.

But she didn't know it was Jesus.

Woman, Jesus said to her, why are you crying? Who is it that you're seeking?

Supposing that he was the gardener, she replied, Sir, if you've carried him

away, tell me where you've put him, and I will take him away.

And Jesus said to her, Mary.

And turning around, she said to him in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher,

don't cling to me, Jesus told her, since I have not yet ascended to the Father,

but go to your brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my Father,

and your father, to my God and yours.

So at the resurrection, something really unexpected happens.

It's certainly unexpected because dead people don't generally come back to life.

That is a well-worn pattern that we are all familiar with, even though we're

not ancient Israelites, right?

It would be a major surprise if somebody who had died had come back to life.

But that is actually not the most, I think the most compelling fact about the resurrection.

As we read the New Testament, we can actually see that there's a lot more in

the resurrection than that.

It's not just that Jesus has wrote again and wow, what a very impressive thing to do.

When Jesus actually said, it's finished and he died, he actually meant that

all the things that had come before,

God's way of interacting in the world with people through this cycle of coming

and sending someone and for a generation, setting things right and then letting

things kind of fall apart slowly over time, then coming back again and doing this thing.

This cycle that Israel had lived in, this pattern that Israel had lived in for

so long, he's saying that is finished.

And now a new kind of story is unfolding.

A new pattern, a new way of thinking about the world, a new way of God interacting

into the world, a new pattern is coming.

God is doing something new. I like how the writers of the book of Hebrews describes

it in the beginning introduction of Hebrews.

It's like this expansive declaration of what God is doing in Christ.

And it says this, long ago, God

spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets.

So the writer of the book of Hebrews understanding, there was this pattern,

this way that God interacted, this very familiar thing.

And now in these final days, he's spoken to us through his son.

God promised everything to the sun as an inheritance.

And through the sun, he created the universe and the sun radiates God's own

glory and expresses the very character of God.

And he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command.

And when he had cleansed us of our sin, he sat down in the place of honor at

the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.

The message of the New Testament focused on the resurrection is that God is

doing something entirely new.

Jesus is not like all the prophets who came before him. He's actually the final word.

He is wrapping that stage up and speaking to all of humanity,

to God's people, Israel, and everyone who would come behind and hear now that

there is forgiveness, that there is hope.

And this is signaling to us that all the things, the cycle of brokenness,

the cycle of futility, especially for God's people, this kind of ups and downs

of, oh, are you going to be faithful enough? Or are you going to be in rebellion?

Are you going to be earning God's favor? Or are you going to be kind of in sin?

God is breaking all of those things.

We're done with God's people needing a rescue and then falling away,

being unfaithful, needing to be rescued again.

And that Jesus shows up in these final days. He is the Son of God.

He is God himself come to effect once and for all.

Salvation and saving and a work that cannot be done any other way.

He radiates God's glory and expresses the character of God.

And that character expressed is kindness and love demonstrated and forgiveness and hope.

These are the things that made Jesus so attractive when he's going around teaching.

They're the things that everybody thought, oh, we've never heard of anyone like

this whose love is so amazing it exceeds any standard for love and kindness

and grace and joy and hope that we've ever seen before.

He's exuding the very character of God.

He's finally taking away the sin, all sin, all separation from God.

He comes and he dies and he's raised again and then he goes and he sits on the

right hand of the father for us.

And that means that the story that we thought we were living in is now totally different.

It is not the same pattern anymore. Because of Jesus' story,

we are now living in a different story.

And the way that the gospel writers and the writers of the New Testament talk

about it, they say this is just like an objective reality.

What Jesus is revealing is just a new way of God interacting with his creation, with his people.

I like how Paul talks about it in 2 Corinthians 5. He says, One died for all, therefore all died.

At one time, we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view.

How differently we know him now.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.

The old is gone. A new life has begun.

See, Paul is talking about his own perspective as like somebody who knew Israel in and out.

Paul was like trained amongst the most elite rabbis of the day.

He was so zealous for the legalistic side,

the covenantal, the obedient side of Israel and their way of thinking about

the world that he actually persecuted Christians because he saw them as a threat

to what God was trying to do because he didn't understand this new work that was unfolding here.

But he had this change. Suddenly, he doesn't see Christ from the human point

of view anymore, but he knows Jesus differently.

He understands that Jesus is not just another prophet.

He's not even a false prophet. He's something entirely different.

He's not in that category anymore.

He's not just another teacher come to Israel to either accept or oppose.

He's not in that category anymore. He's something else.

He's doing something entirely different. He's not another man of God who is

going to just come and help his people, set them free.

He's not like Judas Maccabeus we talked about last week who would lead a rebellion.

He's not like David who's going to go ahead and put all of Israel's enemies to flight.

He's doing something entirely different.

It's a different story. And Paul realizes that the resurrection just changes

everything. It changes everything for everyone.

It is not the story that we thought it was.

See, because Jesus died, right? He disappoints all the expectations that everyone had.

But in his resurrections, he didn't just revive those old expectations.

He introduced something new. And the message that he proclaims now and that

Paul went around proclaiming, that the church has been proclaiming for 2,000

years, is because Jesus died and rose to life.

The old story is gone and a new story has begun for all people.

That God has poured out in Jesus kindness and forgiveness for people who weren't

looking for it, who aren't asking for it.

And he doesn't do it on the condition of like you being perfect and cleaning

yourself up or asking pretty please.

None of that stuff. He says, I'm just going to go and I'm going to affect this

miraculous work of opening up the kingdom of God so that all people could be

forgiven and it's going to be given as a gift because of the resurrection,

the old is gone. The new has begun.

And as surprising as that is, I mean, it's not just surprising. It's just good.

It's amazing and it's beautiful.

Jesus is writing a new kind of story. It's so good because it's not just a slightly

better version of the old story.

I mean, in some ways it completes the old story, but it's also completely different and completely new.

It's not just that Jesus is going to come and he's going to be like better than

David, better than Abraham, better than Moses, like whatever.

It's that he is going to do things that they could never do.

And he's going to make something possible, a relationship with God possible

that Abraham or Moses, for all their wisdom and all their spirituality and all

their empowerment, they could never do those things.

And what Jesus does is he makes it so that we can be secure in God's love.

Because of the resurrection, you are secure in God's love.

At least that's the proposition. That's what's on offer. And Paul talks about

it as a gift. He says this in 2 Corinthians 5. Yeah.

All of this is a gift from God who brought us back to himself through Christ.

We speak for Christ when we plead, come back to God.

For God made Christ who never sinned to be the offering for our sin so that

we could be made right with God through Christ.

Worship team is going to come up here. but I just want to sit here and think about this for a second.

Unless we understand that there's something new going on here,

we're not going to get the invitation.

Like, if I wasn't able to accept at episode six of Sugar that this was just

a different type of story and I need to accept some new paradigms,

I would have just turned it off.

I would have turned it off because it's kind of dumb that a PI show turns into

an alien show unless you're like, oh, but The Alien Show is way better.

Actually, it's like a new thing. It's a new genre. There's something new that's going on here.

And what Paul's message is, is that Jesus Christ has come to demonstrate God's love,

his character, and his kindness to a bunch of people who thought it was their

job to earn God's love and character and kindness.

And they have to stop trying to watch that show and be in that pattern in order

to really see, no, there's something new going on here and it's better.

What we receive from Jesus Christ is this gift of salvation.

And it's kind of silly to say, right?

Like I kind of sometimes, particularly when I was younger, before I really just

understand how great it was, it's sort of an embarrassing thing to explain to

you what the gospel of Jesus Christ is.

Because you could say, oh, the gospel of Jesus Christ is that God so loved the world.

He so loved you and you and you and the worst people you know.

That he gave himself as an offering to pay the price for any of their brokenness

and their sin and all their awfulness and all of my awfulness.

He gave his very self so that there would be just no excuse any longer.

No sitting in the old, trying to impress him any longer.

When he just says, there's nothing to impress me about because like,

honestly, I'm not keeping scores.

We're not doing this thing anymore. I'm actually just pouring out my kindness and my grace.

My character is radiating through the person of Christ and I'm demonstrating

my love for you and my creation and my intention to remake all things into the world.

I'm demonstrating that to you by dying so that you can freely receive this new gift.

And so that in doing that, it's just like God's message to the world,

this pleading, would you come back and would you have a relationship?

Would you know that I created you? And though you've sinned, right?

That's the Christian word for this theological bent we have towards things that

aren't of God. God just says I'm taking care of that She's like We're putting that away now,

And all I want to do is I want you to know that I love you and I care for you

and I have good things for your life.

And that frees me from the old story. That's the thing.

That's the beautiful part of the gospel. You can't compare it to the old because

it frees you from having to prove yourself anymore to God and to others.

It frees you from having to live your life in this way where you're just trying

to manipulate outcomes, right? Right.

And it makes it changes things because it just says, well, if I am securely

in the love of God and he loves me and he watches over me,

then actually like the changes how I think about my family and my work and my

my life and my own like self-esteem, like it changes everything about who I think that I am.

If the one thing that is absolutely true is that I am secure in God's love,

not because of anything I did, but because of what Jesus did.

You understand this? It makes it so that it doesn't depend on you anymore and your performance.

And that remarkably frees you up to be a person who can receive joy and peace

and just become the person God created you to be.

So there's no more proving this side of the resurrection. There's no more performing

this side of the resurrection. There's no more measuring up.

There's no more trying to impress God because he's not going to be impressed

anyway. And that's okay. I'm just going to despair of the whole enterprise.

I'm going to stop trying to do that anyway. I'm just going to turn that show

off and I'm going to tune into the new thing that God is doing.

There's no more navel gazing or just considering what I should feel bad about.

There's no more doubting my worth.

So many things cease because of what Jesus has done.

There's a new way that we receive now instead of all those things all those

doubt all of our sin all of our shame all our alienation we receive now from

him life and purpose our creator is coming to us and he's saying that he wants

to renew he wants to renew us.

And what I'm telling you is that there is the amazing news that that kind of

renewal is a gift from God and it's freely given at the resurrection.

You can put away the old and you can lean into the new.

And what the Bible like just consistently says is that we do that by faith,

just by fixing our eyes upon Jesus Christ,

understanding, oh man, he's so good. But he's all these things.

He's the word of God. He is the character of God demonstrated.

He's the love of God. He is the sacrifice for sin. He calls,

he's going to our God and his God.

He's inviting us into his family to have the same kind of inheritance and the

same kind of life that raised him from the dead is going to now live in us.

He's inviting us to partake of his life.

And nothing can stop that.

Only us saying, no, I don't like that show. I don't like that thing.

I would prefer to stay in the old way.

It's the only thing that's going to stop you from that. But if we just simply

say, all right, I'm in for this.

I want to be a part of what you're doing, Lord. Like I want to step into this new thing.

That is where the life begins to come from.

And my final thing on this, okay? So first off, I'm just telling you that Jesus

died so that you could have this free gift and you take it by faith.

You just believe that he loves you, that he died for you, that he took your sin away.

And like, it's by that, that we step into this new life.

But I would just say this, especially if you don't like sci-fi, it can take a while.

Like the Christian maturing life is learning to live in this story because I

am very attached to the old one.

I'm attached to the old one where I try to impress God.

I have muscle memory where I just really want to go in and I want to feel bad

about all the things that I fail in and I want to guilt myself and beat myself

up as if that's somehow going to make me feel better or make God impressed or something like that.

You know, at some point we have to just say, okay, now this is a new kind of

story. And so by faith, I'm just going to accept it for what it is.

And it's that now my life is hidden in Christ.

My hope is in him. And so the work

of Christian maturity is honestly just remembering that more and more.

I think I've said this little phrase before, but it's, to me,

it kind of sums up a lot of what it is to just like have faith.

And it's nothing to lose, nothing to prove. My life is in Christ and nothing else matters.

You have nothing to lose. You have nothing to prove anymore.

You can trust God with your whole life because he loves you.

That's the nature of the story that the resurrection proclaims.

And I just want to take time this morning and to celebrate that with you guys.

So let's do this. Let's stand up. And then I just want us to pray a little bit together really quick.

I did it, but it doesn't matter.

Except for you, matters to you. Okay, Jesus, you can keep playing.

Oh, okay, you're moving your thing. Okay, I thought I did something.

Jesus, you say that as you ascended to heaven,

Lord, you send your spirit into the world to proclaim your gospel,

to proclaim your lordship, to proclaim your salvation.

And so God, I just ask now that we would tune our ears or tune our hearts to

hear from you. Holy Spirit, would you be present among us?

Would you be welcome in this place, Lord? Would you remind us and build up our faith, Lord?

If we've already trusted in you, Jesus, if we have decided that we're gonna

live by the power of your resurrection, Lord, would you reinvigorate, restore?

Would you remind us of the boldness and the hope and just like the reckless

abandon that we can have in trusting you, Lord, and how much peace and how much

joy there is and how much freedom there is in following after you, Jesus.

Lord, build up your church. Build up your people, Lord.

Lord, and if we have never believed this, if we've never put our hope in Jesus,

Holy Spirit, would you impress upon us how true and how good and how right and

how beautiful your gospel is, how it is a new story and a good story.

And Jesus, I pray for those who think maybe, maybe, maybe that's true.

Maybe that could be something.

Oh, Lord, only you, only you can do the work, Lord. We can just speak the words

and proclaim and witness to what's been done.

But Lord, you just minister the gospel in the hearts of men and women.

So Lord, I pray right now for those who are just hearing and considering,

could this be, could I have this life and this peace? Could I,

by faith, just walk into the resurrection?

And Lord, I know the word that you repeat over and over again is yes and amen,

Lord, in you. All the promises are yes and amen.

And so, Lord Jesus, we say along with your word, yes and amen,

Lord, for those who are considering trusting in you, Lord, just teach them that

it's that simple of just leaning into you and knowing you and knowing that they are secure in your love.

So, Lord, send us out today, Lord. Let us celebrate you well.

Let us celebrate your resurrection, God.

And Lord, fill us with all the power and depth and might of your love and your spirit, we pray.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Let's worship the Lord.