Easter Worship Night 2021

You're with us tonight, and we had a wonderful time here this morning and both services and so thank you all for everyone who came and was a part of the services this morning, I hope you had a good afternoon. We're looking forward to a little bit of a different service tonight, but hopefully something that is worthwhile and an encouragement to you.

And I hope you're ready to sing some songs. I heard a lot of people kind of still groaning about lunch, still being pulled from lunch. And I'm still kind of full from lunch. So we'll do our best to sing, but we're going to sing praises to our Lord for all the blessings he has bestowed upon us. But the what we're going to do is we're going to start with a video. And after the video plays, then I'll come back up and I'll do a little reading and then we'll sing a song that I believe will go with each one of these stories. So we've tried to put some thought into this. It may be a huge flop. But the chosen season two comes out tonight, so if you aren't blessed by church tonight, you can go home and watch The Chosen and that'll bless you. So what we're going to do our best this evening, and I hope that you'll you'll participate as much as you can. But why don't you hit the lights up here on the platform and get that video started for us?

Because he.

Piquancy. She's called.

Love is one.

First Thessalonians, four versus 13 through 18. The Bible says, But I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning them which are asleep, that you saw, not even as others which have no hope for. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even sew them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him. For this, we say unto you by the word of the Lord, we which are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep, for the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the Trump of God in the dead, in Christ shall rise first. Then we, which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Where for comfort one another with these words. Some of you may be familiar with the name Gary Habermas. He's an author who has wrote several written several books, Christian books. Gary tells the story of losing his wife to stomach cancer. He says, My wife, Debbie, had the flu and she didn't get better. We went to the hospital for tests. The first thing the doctor said to Debbie was, you've got some serious problems. Debbie learned that she had stomach cancer and four months later, she passed away at the age of forty three. During Debbie's suffering, I took refuge in the truth of Jesus resurrection had been my major research area for twenty five years, and I appreciated a student who asked, what would you do now if Jesus hadn't been raised from the dead? I told him that Jesus bodily resurrection is the center of the Christian faith after he died on the cross to pay for our sins, Jesus was raised from the dead. He appeared to many people in his physical body that was now immortal. Knowing that helped me while Debbie was dying.

I imagine what God might say to me in response to my question about Debbie, he would ask Gary, did I raise my son from the dead? Of course you did, Lord, I would say, but why is Debbie dying, Gary? Did I raise my son from the dead? The question would come again.

I imagine God repeating the same question until I got the point. If Jesus has been raised, I can trust that Debbie will be raised someday to it was sufficient to know that because of Jesus resurrection and because Debbie and I belong to Jesus, we will be together again for all eternity, for the man is going to come and we're going to start off by singing because he lives.

Let's all stand and sing this wonderful song here tonight. All three verses because he lives.

Godsends is.

They call it these.

It's Makaziwe.

But grangers.

The risk of.

Let's go to law and order prayer and ask his blessing on our time together here tonight. God, we thank you so much for the wonderful day that we've had here celebrating you. God, I ask that you help us now as we spend the next few moments lifting up your name and singing praises to you, may you fill our hearts with gratitude. And Lord, may we lift our voices in song to you. I pray that you would, uh, remove any trepidation or fear or awkwardness that people may find in singing with others around. And you'd let us just focus on you tonight, Lord, and the blessings that you have given to us. May it, uh, embolden us to to sing out Lord for your glory and your honor. God, we're so grateful for all that you've done for us and we love you so much. Jesus name. Amen. Thank you. May be seated. Let me give you a couple of announcements of some things coming up that you'll want to know about. And we didn't really go over the stuff this morning. But just so that you're aware of some things happening, I'm looking forward to Wednesday night and got the Wednesday night menu there. Beef enchiladas.

Yeah, I see y'all aren't as hungry or as full as you thought you were, because here we've enchiladas, beef enchiladas, cheese dip, Doritos and dessert. What's the dessert, Miss Kathy?

Do we know? Whatever that whatever hits them that day, they'll whip it up. So, uh huh.

More enchiladas for dessert. So you join us for that, that's from five thirty six forty five every Wednesday night, followed by our Wednesday night service, April 10th. Our young people have a youth hiking trip at the Redbud Valley Nature Preserve. They need to be here at the church at nine forty five. You're leaving at nine forty five, be at the church at nine forty five and they'll they'll be out till about twelve thirty. And so a great time for our young people to go out and get in touch with nature. So anyway that'll be fun. It's always fun to take city kids out into the wilderness and into nature and see what happens. Um, pray for our teen workers, uh, for that April. Twenty third we have a senior adult activity. Our retreads are going to go to the Shepherds Cross Sheep Farm, and that is from 10:00 am through lunchtime. Five dollar recommendation donation is recommended to the farm. And so they're going to go and I believe they're going to watch the sheep being sheared. And so they've been talking about that and looking forward to it. If you have any questions, see Brother Ami and he'll be able to give you some more information about that. But that is April. Twenty third at ten o'clock and then May 8th, our teens are going to do another activity. They've got a kayaking trip coming up. It costs us twenty five dollars per person. And Brother Matt will have a meeting on April twenty fifth after the morning service for the teens and parents who would like to go on that kayaking trip. So if your young person is interested in that, please make plans to be there for that meeting on the twenty fifth, the activity being on the 8th, looking out into the future Mother's Day Mother's Daughter, Mother Daughter Banquet. Those are both happening in May and then men's activity coming up May 17th.

Then one other thing next Sunday are deacons and trustees are going to have a joint meeting and we're going to be doing a video interview with a potential new youth pastor. And as I've said before, but it's not going anywhere. He's just shifting his responsibilities a little bit. And so we're going to be meeting with this young man through a video conference call. Just ask him some questions. Let him ask him questions. Just get to know him a little bit better. And if all goes well, then we'll schedule a time for he and his wife and their new new young son to come and visit our church. And so please be in prayer for that. I've been very impressed with what I've seen so far, and I have no doubt that our officers will be as well. And nice young man, good young family. And so we're excited about the possibility of bringing them here to be on staff with us and investing in our young people.

So be please be in prayer for that this upcoming week. All right. I believe those are all the announcements that I have for you. I'll see you here. We'll go on to our next song. Um, this is an interesting story that I think you'll appreciate. General Wellington commanded the victorious forces at the great Battle of Waterloo that effectively ended the Napoleonic Wars. The story has been told that when the battle was over, Wellington sent the great news of his victory to England. A series of stations, one within sight of the next, had been established to send coded messages between England and the continent. The message to be sent was Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Meanwhile, a fog set in and interrupted the message sending. As a result, people only saw news of Wellington defeated. Later, the fog cleared and the full message continued, which was quite different from the outcome that the people originally thought had happened. The same is true today when many look at what happened with the death of Christ on the cross, they see only defeat. Yet on Easter at the Resurrection. God's message was completed. The resurrection spelled victory. We're going to seeing victory in Jesus at this time. And I hope you'll sing out to the.

Let's go insane again here. Number five hundred twenty three, victory in Jesus.

Oh, sorry. I was saving him from. Anybody with his redeeming. Out his healing of his cleansing, Lori.

Short story and some sweet and.

As our ushers come forward, will prepare to receive our tithes and offerings here this evening and are very grateful for each one that is faithful to give and support the ministry here, another great offering last week and trust that God will bless you as you honor him with your gifts.

And we're looking forward. Tonight, we're going to hear a special by Brother Grant Myers, and he's gonna be playing the trumpet, a duet with Miss Alicia on the piano. And I heard him practicing. Some of you may have caught a little bit of as well, and he's doing a really good job. And so we're excited about this. Always glad to have our young people participating in the service. I'd like to ask Brother Mike Morgan if he doesn't mind, pray, ask God's blessing on the offering here this morning.

Evening. Thank you for the chance to be in your house. Amen, you may be seated.

Hey, man, great job, first Corinthians 15 20, the Bible says this one now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. In April 2002. There was a well respected Oxford University philosophy professor, Richard Swinburn, who used a broadly accepted probability theory to defend the truth of Christ's resurrection. He did this at a high profile gathering of philosophy professors at Yale University. He said this For someone dead for thirty six hours to come to life again is according to the laws of nature, extremely improbable, Swinburne said. But if there is a god of the traditional kind, natural laws only operate because he makes them operate. Swinburne then used Bayes Theorem to assign values to things like the probability of God being real Jesus behavior during his lifetime and the quality of witness testimony after Jesus death. Then he plugged the numbers into a probability formula and added everything up. The result was a ninety seven percent probability that the resurrection really happened.

Now, ninety seven percent is pretty good.

But I think we know he's alive, you know, what's interesting is they did a study this year to find out how many Americans believe in the resurrection. Only 20 percent of Americans do not believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, only 20 percent.

Now, that's encouraging and discouraging.

At the same time, it's encouraging because it says there's a lot of people out there who are willing to accept the Bible's story of Jesus rising again.

It's discouraging because if 80 percent of Americans believe that the resurrection of Jesus really happened, you would think that it would have more of an impact on our lives. And so we need to make sure that as we're living through this life, we are allowing his resurrection to impact us. And the way we live them.

That's going to come. We're going to sing another song. He lives.

I think we're seeing it. We're a stay seated for this one and three 360. He lives.

I cerveris and say Gordie's in the world today. He is living what they say.

I see his and my hair is always a dream and just the time I get. He's always a little. Jesus, let's take a walk with me and talk with me. I know he lives with them by. I see his clothing.

He has a very.

Today, he walks with me and talks with Darryl.

And he lives with them by.

Rejoice, rejoice over his. Peter.

Lives Crisis's lives today. He walks and talks with Karen.

But.

Romans, chapter five, verse number nine, the Bible says much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Porath When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Not only so we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the Atonement, like to read you a poem called Laughing on Easter.

Let's celebrate Easter with the right of laughter, Christ died and rose and lives laugh like a woman who holds her first baby. Our enemy death will soon be destroyed. Laugh like a man who finds he doesn't have cancer or he does. But now there's a cure. Christ opened wide the door of heaven laugh like children, that Disneyland's gates, this world is owned by God, and he'll return to rule life like a man who walks away uninjured from a wreck in which his car was total laugh, as if all the people in the whole world were invited to a picnic and then invite them. But that's going to come and we're going to sing Hallelujah. What a savior.

Go ahead and remain seated still, if you want to turn to this three hundred fifty four, how are you? What a savior might be new to some of you we haven't seen in a while, but it's a good song here.

Man of Sorrows. What your name for the son of God who came through and said.

Wearing shame and skull.

And my place condemned, he stood still.

Your how many of you this is new to you. Raise your hand if it's new to you. So half of this side is new to you? Well, it's kind of repetitive and it has the same.

You've got your right. I was going to say, do you know hallelujah means. What does it mean, praise the Lord, right, yeah, OK, I just want to make sure because it wasn't that the Praise the Lord wasn't really registering on your faces a little faster.

Guilty by land. Sorry, that's probably actually the right way to go. So here we go, verse three. Here we go.

Guilty, vile and.

Say to. It is, and this was.

Ya wanna save your on the 5th win?

Your name, and that's a triumphant song, I like the way we sing that that was good.

Is going to come here in just a moment and sing a special for us. And before she does, I wanted to do another reading the song that she's going to sing. Mysteria, you sing a lot of great songs, but I think this may be my favorite. She's going to sing a song called Above All, and she sang it a couple of months ago now and just has a great message. I hope you'll listen to the words. She does it beautifully, but pay attention to what she is saying as she sings and acts. Chapter number 13, verse number thirty seven Bible says.

But he whom God raised again saw no corruption, be it no none to you. Therefore, men and brethren that through this man is preached under you the forgiveness of sins. You know, Judy, Judaism has its Cima and Islam, its shahada. But Christians responding to Jesus question who do you say that I am? Have produced literally thousands of statements of faith across the centuries. As a capstone to his lifelong interest in these central texts of the Christian faith. Jaroslav Pelikan edited the book Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition.

It's a four volume critical edition with a one volume historical and theological guide simply called Credo.

In this book, pelican's collection includes several hundred creeds, including the Massai Creed from Nigeria, which African ises Christianity by declaring that Jesus was, quote, always on safari, doing good. And also declares that after Jesus had been tortured and nailed hands and feet to a cross and died, he laid buried in the grave, but the hyenas did not touch him. And on the third day, he arose from the grave. He ascended under the skies. He is the Lord. This creed was brought to pelican's attention by one of his students, a woman who had been a member of a religious work in a hospital in East Nigeria. Pelikan wrote this. He said, She brought it to me and I got the shivers. Just the thought. You know, the hyenas did not touch him. And the act of defiance. God lives even in spite of the hyenas. No matter where you go, every continent there are Christians celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. His name is above every name. And I'm excited to hear Mr Sing this song for us this evening.

Above all, par was above all, above all major and all creative things.

Above all, wisdom and the words of my.

You were here before the war began. A Burger King comes up above.

Above all, wealth and treasures of the.

But there's no way. To measure what your. Lay behind the storm you.

Who's trampled on the. You took the four.

Oh, oh.

Above all, Paul. Apart by nature and all created.

My brother was dumb and. Before the war began.

And treasures of the. There's no way to measure what your. Lay behind the St..

Traveled on the. Rejected and alone by. Traveled on the ground.

And for the. Traveled on the ground. And sort of me. Oh, above, oh.

I'd like to read one last passage for you tonight, Romans chapter eight, verse number 18, the Bible says this.

Four, I reckon.

At the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us, the earnest expectation of the creature waited for the manifestation of the Sons of God. For the creature was made subject of vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who have subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know the whole creation, growth and travail and pain together until now, not only they but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body, for we are saved by hope. The hope that is seen is not hope for what a man. Why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that, we see not then do we, with patience, wait for it? Nineteen ninety five, Philip Yancey made this observation. He said Good Friday and Easter Sunday have both earned names on the calendar. Yet in a real sense, we live on Saturday, the day with no name.

What the disciples experienced in small scale three days in grief over one man who had died on a cross, we now live through on a cosmic scale.

Human history grinds on between the time of promise and the time of fulfillment.

Can we trust that God can make something holy and beautiful and good out of a world that remember, this is in nineteen ninety five includes Bosnia and Rwanda and inner city ghettos and jammed prisons in the richest nation on earth.

It's Saturday on planet Earth, will sun ever come? This last song we're going to sing is soon and very soon we're going to see the king and the things that we are hoping for will become sight.

And just like the disciples experience the joy of Easter Sunday morning, Jesus being made alive, one day we will experience the joy of being raptured and reconciled with our savior that you come and sing us and lead us in this last song.

Let's all stand once this song is over, will be dismissed so I can be near him. But it's going to be on the on the screen soon and very soon.

Soon and very soon. We are going to see the king soon. Mary said, we are going to see the case soon and very soon we are. Going to see the king, hallelujah, hallelujah, we're going to see the cake. No more crying there we.

Hallelujah.

We're going to see the cake, no more lying there. We are going to see the cake.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

We're going to see the king seeing that that first verse again soon and very soon, we are going to see.

Hallelujah. We're going to see the cake.

A menu artist.

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