Transcription downloaded from https://services.pcumc.org/sermons/27611/jesus-the-resurrected-king-easter-2020/.

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[0:00] Thank you.

[0:30] Thank you.

[1:00] Thank you.

[1:30] Thank you.

[2:00] Thank you.

[2:30] Thank you.

[2:59] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[3:39] There was a violent earthquake, come and see the place where he lay.

[4:11] Then go quickly and tell his disciples, he is risen from the dead, he is risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.

[4:22] Now I have told you. So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid, yet filled with joy, and ran to tell the disciples.

[4:33] Suddenly Jesus met them, and then Jesus met them. He clasped his feet and clasped his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid.

[4:46] Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee. There they will see me. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Welcome to worship at Pendleton Center United Methodist Church and Niagara Falls First United Methodist Church.

[5:03] Could turn down, Come and see the Lord people. Treasure and Visa In order to worship the church.

[5:22] God số 1, In order to worship the church. Lo, in the grave he lay, Jesus my Savior, waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord.

[5:51] Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph for his foes, he arose, a victor from the dark domain, and he lives forever with his saints to reign.

[6:11] He arose, he arose, hallelujah, Christ arose.

[6:22] Dainly they washed his bed, Jesus my Savior, Dainly they sealed the dead, Jesus my Lord.

[6:41] Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph for his foes, he arose, a victor from the dark domain, and he lives forever with his saints to reign.

[7:01] He arose, he arose, hallelujah, Christ arose. Death cannot keep his prey, Jesus my Savior.

[7:21] Death cannot keep his prey, Jesus my Lord. Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph for his foes, he arose, a victor from the dark domain, and he lives forever with his saints to reign.

[7:51] He arose, he arose, hallelujah, Christ arose.

[8:02] Let us join together in professing the Christian faith as contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

[8:17] I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.

[8:33] He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father and will come again to judge the living and the dead.

[8:46] I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

[9:00] Amen. Amen. Amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, World without end. Amen. Amen.

[9:56] There's also a children's link so that you can download all of the activity pages and the kids can be engaged later on in the service as well as we have worship with them. I wanted to encourage all of you to write on your friendship card and to share with whomever you're with right now your praises because God is so good.

[10:17] You know throughout this service you're going to notice different shots where it looks like there's no one in the sanctuary that it's completely empty but you know the church is not empty because we are the church. We are the body of believers who are the church and so we are filled because the tomb is empty. We are filled with God's grace and God's love and God's power and God's glory and so we say amen.

[10:46] Hallelujah this Easter Sunday. Welcome. Thank you for being with us. And so as we reflect on just how good God is Jesus the Christ who rose from the grave for us as we reflect on everything God does in our life for us and with us and through us.

[11:22] We give back an offering. We give back an offering. There are links on there that you can click if you'd like to give in that way or if you want to mail in an offering. We also usually on Easter Sunday take up an extra offering for our outreach ministries. So if you are able to give to that as well I invite you and encourage you to give in that way.

[11:52] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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[17:36] Good morning, Junior Church. Good morning, Junior Church. Wait, not just Junior Church. Good morning, all the church. You know, we are all God's children and we all need to be worshiping God and celebrating what this wonderful and amazing day is.

[17:51] John chapter 20, verse 9.

[18:21] And I wore my favorite team, I wore my family, we are the oyster, realmente, and the way we never 가� but He says we're all I'm done with this.

[18:35] it also has a fish. The fish reminds us that we are the church. It's a symbol. It's a symbol of the way that the people in Jesus' time and after Jesus rose from the dead told people that they were part of the church. And they would put fish, just the outline of a fish, not a real fish, just the outline of a fish on their doors to their houses or sometimes they would wear them like I'm wearing with my necklace and that symbol would let people know that they were Christians. Now sometimes in modern, our modern symbol of the fish, we might put a cross in there too and that's a symbol that lets us know, lets people know that we're Christians. Sometimes today people wear them in a necklace or maybe on a bracelet and sometimes they put them on their cars with bumper stickers.

[19:34] Did you ever see a bumper sticker of a fish? If you see a bumper sticker that's kind of like this with this kind of a fish or a fish with a cross in it, you can know that person is trying to tell you that they're Christians. I was thinking that maybe because we're all celebrating that Jesus rose from the dead and that we can be Christians because of that, I was thinking that maybe we could all draw a fish like this one and put it in our window so that the people in our neighborhood would know that we are Christians too. I also brought my cross. This is a very special cross. Some of you have seen it.

[20:15] I got it in Bethlehem when I went to Israel on one of my trips and it's a cross that has lots of symbols in it, lots of symbols about who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for us. In the cross part, you can see the vines because Jesus says that he is a vine and we are the branches. It also has a cup and bread and that's to remind us of communion and when we get back to church, we'll have communion again. It also has a lamb. Jesus is the lamb who was slain for our sins, but now he's risen from the dead and so we get to be the church. This symbol down here is the symbol of a Jerusalem cross and that's a cross that shows us that there are all kinds of disciples and some of those disciples wrote books about Jesus. We call them gospels. There are four little crosses inside the big cross, one for Matthew, one for Mark, one for Luke and one for John. Isn't that amazing? This cross has all those symbols and it has one more symbol I want to show you. This is a symbol of a heart and I know you know what that means.

[21:38] The heart is about how Jesus loves us. So let's make a heart and remember that when God's love, say it with me, when God's love is in our heart, we can love everybody. That's right. Let's do it one more time all together. When God's love is in our heart, we can love everybody. And now I want you to look through your heart. I want you to look at somebody or look at the screen or look up and look out to your neighborhood and say, Jesus loves you very much. That's right. Jesus does love us very, very much. And now we want to sing that song about how he loves us so much and gives us enough love that we can just give it away to everyone so all of us can share in God's love. And after you finish the worship service today, don't forget to make your fish and put it in the window. Happy Easter, everybody.

[22:45] I'm feeling good, good, good in a crazy way. God's love changed me more than I can say. Can't keep this in God. I let it out.

[23:01] Gonna tell the whole world that your love is spinning me round and round. Yeah, it's turning me upside down. I can't believe the way you love me more than I can do.

[23:16] I'm gonna turn around and give him. Give it away. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. I'm gonna give it away.

[23:28] Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. I'm gonna give it away. I want the world to know just how I feel. They gotta know, don't know.

[23:43] Your love is real You love me just the way I am Gonna tell the whole world that Your love is spinning me round and round Yeah, you're turning me upside down I can't believe the way you love me more than I can contain I'm gonna turn around and give in Give it away Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Your love is spinning me round and round Yeah, you're turning me upside down I can't believe the way you love me more than I can contain I'm gonna turn around and give in Your love is spinning me round and round Yeah, you're turning me upside down I can't believe the way you love me more than I can contain

[24:46] I'm gonna turn around and give in Give it away Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh I'm gonna give it away Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, I'm gonna give it away.

[25:08] And as we move into our prayer time, I want to remind you that there is an online friendship card. You can find it at PendletonChurch.org slash friendship card. And if you find that, please fill it out.

[25:21] Let us know that you are watching and let us know if you have any messages for the staff or any prayer requests that you would like the prayer team and the pastors to be lifting up.

[25:32] Our ongoing prayer vigil, we have been presenting some prayer prompts and almost like prayer stations that you would go to if you came to an actual live prayer vigil.

[25:45] And they come from our prayer team. Last week's was from Marilyn Varney. And this week we have one that came from Debbie Stern. She's quoting John 20, chapter, John chapter 20, verse 18.

[25:58] And she says, it says, I have seen the Lord. I have seen the Lord. A handful of words that Mary Magdalene proclaimed to Jesus' disciples that changed everything.

[26:14] Debbie says, my hope and prayer is that people will see God working in a powerful way at this time and that his people will help others see him too.

[26:25] In my gratitude journal, I have started a page that holds all of the blessings that God is pouring out during this time of crisis. She sees God's blessings everywhere.

[26:38] She says the Holy Spirit is on the move. And instead of focusing on the virus spreading across the world, she thinks that God's Holy Spirit, spreading his truth everywhere, cutting through the darkness, spreading everywhere you go, and reflecting light everywhere, covering the earth, that that's what we need to be focused more on.

[27:03] So pray this week to see the Lord at work in your world and pray that others will see and recognize him too. And now let's move to our prayer requests.

[27:17] We have the Glosser family and Irene Tate, Patrick Hahn and the Falbo family, and Karen Mahalski and the rest of the Mahalski family.

[27:28] All of these folks are in need of prayer for various health issues, things that have happened in their lives and are ongoing. So we'll keep them lifted up.

[27:38] Since this taping, we've experienced some loss within our church family. Please keep the Falbo family in prayer. Gloria's husband, Carmen, passed away this past week.

[27:50] Also, pray for Ed Gemeinder, Betty's husband, as he has been admitted to the hospital with significant health concerns. And I know that you have requests and needs in your heart as well.

[28:03] God also hears and answers those prayers. So let's go to prayer. You're welcome to join me. You can kneel down or just stay sitting in your seat or stand.

[28:16] Gracious Heavenly Father, we come before you in the name of your risen Son, Jesus, who has taken all of our sin from us, who has made us to be at peace with you, who has sent the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth and to remind us of everything that you have taught us, to lead us and guide us as we walk through this world in dark times and in times where everything is just good and wonderful.

[29:07] we know, Lord God, that you walk beside us always and that you call us to pray. And so we do lift up the needs of all of the people that are in our hearts, of those that we have spoken out loud.

[29:25] We just pray in Jesus' name right now, Lord God, for everyone who is sick and infirm. We pray that they would be made well. Make them whole, Lord God.

[29:37] Touch them with your healing power from the tops of their heads to the soles of their feet and their spirits and their souls and their bodies. Draw them into your presence, Lord God, as you draw all people and help each and every one to be able to say, I see the goodness of the Lord even in the midst of this trouble.

[30:01] Father, we pray for all of our health care workers, all of our first responders, grocery store workers, everyone, Lord, who has to be out and working and encountering other people.

[30:17] We just pray, Lord God, that they would be protected. We pray that they would know in their heart of hearts how blessed we all feel to know that they're willing to go out and do this work on behalf of our community.

[30:37] We pray, Father, in Jesus' name for wisdom for each and every one of us that we would know when to go out and when to stay in, when to take that walk and when to hang out in the house or hang out in the yard, when to go to the store and when to be content with what is already in the cupboard and the fridge.

[31:00] And Lord, we pray in Jesus' name for all of those now who are grieving losses. There are so many, Lord. Many people throughout our world are dying because of the effects of this virus.

[31:16] And there are other people, Lord, who are passing on from this world from other causes. Each and every one, Lord, each and every one you are aware of.

[31:30] Lord, we just ask in Jesus' name that you bring comfort and peace to the families and friends of everyone who is enduring trouble. We pray in Jesus' name, Lord God, that you would give us words of comfort, words of consolation, a listening ear, or even just a silent presence, whether it's on the phone or in person at a distance.

[32:05] We pray that the people in our lives that we know who are experiencing loss would feel your love and would feel the love of your church. We pray, Lord God, that you would give us ways to continue to be your church.

[32:19] Show us what you would have us do this week. Show us how you would have us pray and how you would have us put things in our windows to encourage others. How you would have us make those phone calls and connect online.

[32:33] Show us how to be full of your grace and full of your mercy. And now, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name for a quick resolution to this pandemic.

[32:47] We pray in Jesus' name that you would work in it and through it to change the hearts of people everywhere, but that this would be done quickly, Lord.

[33:01] That it would not have to go on. Help us all, Lord. And now we pray in our hearts, Lord God, and with the words that your son Jesus has given us.

[33:18] We pray a line at a time so that those who don't know the prayer well may be able to learn it so that our children can keep up, Lord.

[33:29] Lord, now we pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

[33:43] Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

[34:13] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.

[34:35] Amen. Now, Lord, as we come to hear your word and hear the message that Pastor Tom has to bring for us this day, just open our hearts to receive all you have for us.

[34:52] May the sermon be a blessing to Pastor Tom and to all of us make all of our worship to be a blessing to you because we are worshiping you from our homes, Lord, in our hearts, with our families.

[35:09] And we ask that you would help us to bless you even as you have blessed us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Shabbat set up Amen.

[35:19] Good morning.

[35:48] Happy Easter.

[36:18] Happy Easter. Happy Easter.

[36:50] Happy Easter. Happy Easter. Happy Easter. Thank you, Elizabeth. When I was about five or six years old, my parents did something incredibly special for me.

[37:05] There was this exciting new movie out called Mary Poppins. Some of you might remember it. And they took me downtown. They took me downtown to the biggest, best theater in the world, Shays.

[37:21] And we watched Mary Poppins with thousands of people. This was something incredibly special for me. And I remember it to this day.

[37:32] And as we were getting dressed, and we dressed up back then for this, and getting ready to go, I remember my three brothers and my sisters saying, I want to go too!

[37:45] Now, as a parent, as a grandparent, as just a person living in life, I've heard that from children so many times, I want to go too. We have something like that in the Gospel of John, in chapter 14, where Jesus is talking about his ascension and he says, Do not let your hearts be troubled.

[38:04] You believe in God, believe also in me. My Father's house has many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you.

[38:15] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am. And you know the way to the place where I am going.

[38:26] Thomas, the best-named apostle, said to him, Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way? I want to go too!

[38:38] But I don't know how. We're in the midst of this virus pandemic. It's been described as a war with an invisible enemy.

[38:51] It's changed Easter. Some people are going to ask, why isn't he wearing a tuxedo? I'll wear the tuxedo when we're back. When we can celebrate again face to face.

[39:04] But now we need to celebrate Easter. Even though we struggle with being apart. My daughter said to me, Dad, you missed Christmas Eve and now you're going to miss Easter too.

[39:17] Well, we didn't miss Easter because here we are, celebrating it. It doesn't matter if the churches are closed. The grave is open. But the virus isn't really a war. It's a battle.

[39:33] It's a battle and the human race faces many battles. Heart disease and cancer and strokes cause over 500,000 deaths a year.

[39:50] And then we have Alzheimer's and diabetes and the flu and kidney failure and automobile accidents. And these cause hundreds of thousands of deaths.

[40:01] We battle death every day, trying to stay alive. In the book of Romans, in verse 36, it says, For your sake we face death all day long.

[40:14] We are considered like sheep to be slaughtered. I don't know if you've ever thought about it, but we face death every day. How can we live such a life where death becomes a shadow and not a force that crushes us with fear?

[40:36] The cross is actually at the center of our faith. Because the victory over death occurred on Good Friday, not on Easter Sunday.

[40:48] Jesus died on a cross. And this death, this death was different than billions of other deaths in history because it changed everything.

[41:01] So today we're going to look at an odd book for Easter, the book of Revelation. Revelation is a book where we see what John had revealed to him on the island of Patmos.

[41:14] When he was in exile, much like we're in exile, he received wisdom, a vision from God about all of eternity. In the fourth verse of this, first chapter of Revelation, it says, To the seven churches in the province of Asia, Grace and peace to you from him who is, who was, and who is to come.

[41:37] You see, God lives outside time. It's not he was and he will be and he is. It's that he's in the past, he's in the present, he's in the future because God exists in the whole of it.

[41:51] And when we understand that, we understand that God has all of this in his hands. And in the beginning, in Genesis, it says that God created the world and it was good.

[42:07] The stars and the sun and the moon, they were good. The light and the land and the animals, they were good. The humans were created and he said they were very good, created with a sense of innocence and love.

[42:21] Like little children. The thing I like about little children is they give us a glimpse back into the garden, back to Eden. That sort of innocence about them.

[42:33] That willingness that they have, that ability they have to love no matter what. Unfortunately, we grow up. And when we grow up. And when we grow up, this innocence and this quickness to love becomes replaced by a hesitance.

[42:54] By even sometimes a rejection. We choose evil. We choose sin over love. We choose Satan over God.

[43:07] And we fail. Now the truth is when we fail, all of creation fell with us. It says in the book of Romans in chapter 8, Creation was subjected to frustration.

[43:21] Not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it. And hoped that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay. And brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

[43:34] All of creation was put in bondage. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth, right up to the present time.

[43:45] Creation was corrupted. Do you know all of heaven was broken by our sin? When we put sin into the world, it wrecked everything.

[43:58] Even the angels. In the book of Revelation in chapter 12, it tells us about a battle. A battle that occurred in heaven.

[44:10] We read about it in chapter 12 of Revelation. It goes like this. A war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back. But he wasn't strong enough.

[44:22] And they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down. That ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to earth and his angels with him.

[44:34] A battle. A war that occurred. And the reason why the battle occurred was because of our sin. And do you know what side we were on in that battle? We chose evil.

[44:47] We chose sin. We were on Satan's side. We were on Satan's side. We were fighting against the angels.

[45:01] In verse 5, it says to us, God loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood. He's freed us because we were bound by sin.

[45:14] The scripture talks about us being sold as slaves to evil, to Satan. We're no longer with God.

[45:26] We're on the wrong side of eternity. Because of our sin, we're on the wrong side of the battle. We are kept from God because of our brokenness, because of our sin.

[45:42] We are put apart from God because our sin keeps us from being in the presence of the one that is all holy. We broke creation.

[45:54] But we weren't going to be allowed to break God. The angels were fighting for our souls. Now, Satan couldn't defeat God.

[46:10] But it was possible he could defeat Michael and his angels. He had already defeated us and drawn us over to the wrong side of eternity.

[46:21] Then God did something that changed it all. God did something that changed it all. Jesus changed the battle.

[46:33] It says that he freed us from our sins. From the bondage, from the evil, from Satan. On Good Friday, on the cross, Jesus said, even though we were sinners, even though we were broken, we would now be welcome with God.

[46:57] It's called the atonement to make God at one with us. Before that, it was impossible to put a perfect God with sinners. But God chose to overcome our sin and accept us even though we were broken.

[47:09] And things changed. It changed everything. You know, many years ago, this nation fought a civil war.

[47:22] It started in 1861. And in 1861, the interesting part is when the South went to war with the North, the people who were slaves, the people who were African American in the South, went to war with the South.

[47:39] Now, they didn't go by choice. They were slaves. So they didn't actually fight the war in general for the South, but they were the ones cooking. They were the ones driving the carts.

[47:50] They were the ones who were doing all the work in the background. Just like us in the battle with the angels, we may not have been in the war, but we were supporting the wrong side because of our bondage to sin.

[48:06] And then Abraham Lincoln did something amazing. In January of 1963, he declared the Emancipation Proclamation, and he freed the slaves from bondage.

[48:19] Hundreds of thousands of people literally shifted sides. You see, before this, even in the North, even if the African Americans had somehow managed to get from the South to the North, they were still considered property in the North that had somehow gotten misplaced because that was the law of the land.

[48:42] They were a people out of place like we were, separated from God. They had no place to go. But when Abraham Lincoln said that they were freed, 180,000 signed up to actually help with that war.

[48:58] Now, I know there were millions on both sides in that war, but 180,000 is a lot of people to switch from one side to the other. In fact, the fellow who built the cottage I live in was the commander of the first African American cavalry unit in the Civil War.

[49:15] Because everything changed. Just like on Good Friday, at the height of the battle, when the devil thought that he was winning and going to take our souls, God changed everything.

[49:32] He was willing to give up his perfection so we could be at one with him. He gave us grace. He gave us grace. Grace and peace to you from him who is and was and who is to come.

[49:46] He gave us grace, forgiveness. He invited us back to his side. And I know that that had to be a great sacrifice for God, to give up his perfection for us.

[50:00] Sometimes we make a sacrifice. And sometimes someone makes a sacrifice for us and we don't really even consider what it costs. You know, my parents were not wealthy.

[50:11] Taking me as a little boy downtown to see Mary Poppins probably cost my parents half of what they made in a week. I never thought about it until I was an adult.

[50:23] The sacrifice they made so that there was a special time for their little boy. And keep in mind, they were always fair to our family. So they had to do something special for four more kids too.

[50:36] I don't know what it was. I'm going to ask them someday. What was your special time? But they sacrificed because they loved me. And God did the same thing for us.

[50:51] And so Michael was victorious and he tossed Lucifer, the devil, to earth. Now, Lucifer knows that his doom is coming.

[51:04] He knows that his end is sure. He knows that he's going to be on the wrong side of judgment. So his goal right now while he's on the earth is to try and take as many of us down as possible.

[51:17] Because just like us, someday he will face that judgment day. And all of us will face it. In Revelation, John talks about that judgment day. Because remember, outside of time, tomorrow is today and yesterday is today.

[51:31] And it's all happening all at once. I know this is a little confusing. But God already knows what's going to happen at the end. And this is what happens on that judgment day. It says, "...what's going to happen at the end of the end of the day?" And the death of Hades gave up the dead that were in them.

[52:19] And each person was judged according to what they had done. And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

[52:31] The lake of fire is the second death. And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

[52:43] So the goal is that we want our names written in the book of life so that we can be on the right side of eternity. So that we're not deceived by the devil.

[52:54] So that we're not in the wrong place, but we're in the right place. You see, Easter is the victory parade. The cross is the victory.

[53:06] It is winning the war, the battle, the whole thing. But Easter is the victory parade. Just like it will be when we can get together and celebrate victory.

[53:17] And we can have a church full of people again. What a day of rejoicing that will be. I'll wear my tuxedo that day. And we'll celebrate the table of the Lord.

[53:30] I had a woman call and ask me, can I give her communion at the end of my driveway? I thought it was a wonderful question. And I told her, I said, if I do that for you, it won't take long before there'll be hundreds of people lined up.

[53:45] We will. We will come to this table again together. And what a day of rejoicing that will be. That's what Easter really is. It talks in verse 5 about Christ being the firstborn to new life.

[54:00] God went first as an invitation to us to get on the right side of glory. I love this verse in verse 7 where it says, Look, Christ is coming with the clouds.

[54:13] And every eye will see him. A lot of people think that means the clouds in the sky. And that very well could be. But I think it's a different cloud. I'm not alone in the church because everyone who's ever sat in these seats in front of me is here with me today.

[54:30] In Hebrews, they say it this way. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

[54:46] We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Everyone who ever followed Christ ever is here with us celebrating Easter today.

[54:57] Our parents, our grandparents, the parents before them, the disciples, Elijah and Peter, Mary Magdalene.

[55:08] They're all here with us today. That's the cloud that's going to come with Jesus. A witness to his victory.

[55:20] And in Romans 13, it says, Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

[55:31] I want to go too. I hope you do too. But Romans says a little more than that. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

[55:42] How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

[55:53] And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? Some don't know. Some don't know.

[56:06] And they won't go. They haven't even been invited. They're not even aware that there's a right side of eternity.

[56:19] Imagine how terrible it would feel to be talking about the victory over the coronavirus while we're also doing funerals for the people who died from it.

[56:33] Some people simply won't know. In verse 7, it says that we will mourn.

[56:46] We will mourn when we see Jesus. And that's not what we think. We think we will rejoice. We'll celebrate. And in some sense we will, but we'll also mourn. Because remember, the books will be read of what we have done.

[56:59] And we will know. It's our sin that caused the nails to pierce His hands. It's our betrayal that pierced His heart.

[57:12] It's our rejection that pierced the soul of the living God. Others will mourn because they deny Christ when He returns.

[57:24] They'll realize that they're mistaken, that they're on the wrong side of eternity, that they're fighting with the devil and they're fighting on the losing side. But what about the ones that don't even know?

[57:37] They weren't even aware. They had a choice. Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, but how can they know if no one tells them about it?

[57:48] I remember years ago, I used to work for a company and it was a place where they would get tickets. They happened to work with selling tickets to people for different events, concerts and things like that.

[58:00] And they would get free tickets. There were two bosses. One was the older boss and one was the younger boss. The older boss would come into the warehouse where I was a manager from time to time and say, Hey Tom, find somebody who can use these tickets and give me the tickets that he wasn't going to use.

[58:17] His son. I would find the unused tickets in his car because he wasn't going to share them with anybody. If he couldn't use them, nobody was going to use them.

[58:29] I want to go. I want to go too. But like Thomas, maybe you're the kind of person who doesn't know how to get there. There's a lot of people like that because we have the ticket.

[58:45] But we're keeping it to ourselves. This message is to the seven churches or to all the churches. That's what it really is talking about. The seven churches. To all of us who call ourselves Christians.

[58:59] And it says in verse 6, God has made us to be a kingdom and priest to serve his God and Father. To him be the glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

[59:13] Kingdom living. We're talking about kingdom living. But kingdom living means that we're to be priests. We're to proclaim the goodness of the kingdom. The magnificence of the kingdom.

[59:24] When I was a child, I was taught that the United States of America was the best nation in the world. And it was our responsibility to share the good and wonderful aspects of our country with the whole world.

[59:37] Because the world would be better off if they could live like us. Now people would say that's ethnocentric. And I won't argue with you one way or the other. But I will tell you, I am a citizen of the kingdom of God.

[59:48] And I know that kingdom living is better for people in this world and the one to come. And so I live to tell the story to people who don't know the story.

[60:03] To witness, as it says, as Christ did to us. To bring the message of salvation that God gives the victory. And God can give the victory for you and for me and for all of us.

[60:15] All we need to do is to turn it back over to God. I invite you to do that right now. Dear God in heaven, I have sinned.

[60:26] Sometimes I choose the wrong side of victory. Forgive me. Change my heart.

[60:37] Help me to be on the right side of eternity. To live the way you want me to live. To love others as you have loved me.

[60:54] Forgive me. In Jesus name. Amen. God wants to give you the victory.

[61:05] If you call on the name of the Lord as you have done in this prayer. He will give you victory over evil. In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven.

[61:18] Glory to God. Amen. Glory forever and ever, the scripture says. Grace and peace to you from him who is and who was and who is to come.

[61:33] Grace, the forgiveness of God, but peace, the assurance that we know we have the victory. Whether it's the virus or heart disease or cancer or diabetes or kidney failure or the flu or any of these things.

[61:50] It can feel like a war. It can feel like a war. It can feel like a war. But victory is not about succeeding to continue our lives in this world forever.

[62:01] That would be to live in a broken reality forever. That would be to live in a broken reality forever. Victory. Victory comes when we live in the new creation.

[62:14] It's a broken reality. It's a broken reality. God reveals what God revealed to him. That there is a time to come. When God will take all the brokenness.

[62:26] And God will cast away all that's evil. And all that will remain is good and a blessing. In Revelation chapter 21 he says to us, I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

[62:41] The first heaven and first earth had passed away. And there was no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband.

[62:55] I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people. He will dwell with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them.

[63:07] And be their God. He'll wipe every tear from their eyes. There'll be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away.

[63:19] And the one seated on the throne said, Behold, I'm making everything new. I want to go too.

[63:30] You can go too. You can go too. God has something wonderful waiting for you. I want to be close.

[63:42] Close to God's heart. Knowing the heaven's real. And eternity's waiting for me. And God wants you to go to eternity too.

[63:54] Amen. Amen. I want to be close. Close to no sight. Heaven is real. And death is on high. I want to hear voices of angels above. I want to be close, close to no sight Heaven is real, death is alive I want to hear voices of angels above Singing as one, hallelujah Holy, holy, God Almighty, brave I am Though He's worthy, none beside me God Almighty, brave I am I want to be near, near to your heart

[65:00] Loving the world, dreaming the dark I want to see dry bones, living again Singing as one, hallelujah Holy, holy, God Almighty, brave I am Who is worthy, none beside me God Almighty, great I am Great I am The mountains shake before you The demons run and feed At the mention of your name In the majesty There is no power in hell For any whom it stands

[66:02] Before the power and the presence The great I am The great I am The great I am The great I am Hallelujah, holy, holy God Almighty, here I am Who is worthy, love is mighty God Almighty, here I am Here I am Here I am

[67:24] One day when heaven was filled with His praises One day when sin was as black as could be Jesus came for a duty, born of a virgin Thou art, dwells among men, my example is He Word, faith, flesh, and light shine upon us His glory revealed Living He loved me, dying He saved me Buried He carried my sins far away Rising He justified, freely forever One day He's coming, O glorious day One day they led Him of Calvary's mountain

[68:29] One day they nailed Him to die on a tree Suffering, languished, despised and rejected Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He And the new nations stretched out on a tree And it took me as for me Living He loved me, dying He saved me Buried He, buried, my sins far away Rising He justified, freely forever One day He's coming, O glorious day A glorious day One day the grave could conceal Him no longer One day the stone rolled away from the door

[69:35] Then He arose over death He had conquered Now in the standard, my Lord evermore Death could not hold Him, death could not hold Him Praise could not keep Him, I'm rising again Living He loved me, dying He saved me Buried He carried, my sins far away Rising He justified, freely forever One day He's coming, O glorious day Oh glorious day Glorious day One day the trumpet, the sun's far is coming One day the skies with His glory took down

[70:38] One day, one day happy, loving, unbreaking My Savior Jesus is mine Living He loved me, dying He saved me Buried He carried, my sins far away Living He justified, freely forever One day He's coming, forever One day He's coming, O glorious day Glorious day, O glorious day Glorious day Glorious day, glorious day Glorious day the lord be with you lift up your hearts let us give thanks to the lord our god it is right and a good and joyful thing always and everywhere to give thanks to god and especially this day of resurrection as we come to celebrate the wonders of god resurrected from the grave today i'd like to offer a blessing for your day shall we pray dear god in heaven we thank you for all the blessings you give to us even in the midst of brokenness we have joy we pray special blessings on all the meals today whether they're gathered with family or gathered even alone and just with you pour out your holy spirit on the meal and on each person as we gather that we might feel and experience that you are with us be our strength and our peace and our joy lord and in all ways help us to experience the wonders of easter resurrection born in our life in jesus holy name we pray amen easter is a wonderful time for us to celebrate the resurrection of our lord but one of the best ways we could show how much we believe in our god is to share his love your family your friends people that you need to call maybe a cousin or an aunt or an uncle you haven't talked to in years maybe the neighbors across the street you could wave or say hello or maybe you've got a little something that you could share with them safely right we still have people coming down and making chalk drawings in our parking lot you can do that just keep socially distanced or physically distanced anyways today is a day that we want to celebrate the victory god gives to us that we will overcome not only this virus but we will overcome death we will overcome brokenness we will be victorious and god will carry us through so remember that as you celebrate this day even if you're doing it by yourself you are never alone god is with you our love is with you reach out and touch somebody with the love of god shall we pray as god taught us to pray when he said our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever and ever amen

[74:46] are Christ the Lord is risen today Alleluia Earth and heaven in forest say Alleluia Praise your joys and triumph high Alleluia Sing your heavens and earth in light Alleluia

[75:50] Lord's redeeming and disdain Alleluia What a fight, a battle won Alleluia Death and heaven, a written Christ Alleluia Christ the Lord is risen today Alleluia Alleluia Once again our glorious King Alleluia Where all death is now thy skin Alleluia Once he dies our souls to sin

[76:55] Alleluia When thy faith, a battle won't be Alleluia When thy faith, a battle won't be Alleluia When thy faith, a battle won't be Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia

[77:57] Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Hallelujah Hail the resurrection now Hallelujah In the glory so blessed Hallelujah Never last in thy best place Hallelujah Eternal life I don't know Hallelujah

[79:01] Thus do sing and thus do song Hallelujah You know my wife asked me why it takes so long for us to do these services. You know each of these segments is taped separately. We're not all here together. You could tell that by watching the video because we want to be on the right side of this virus. We want to defeat this terrible thing so that our people can go on to celebrate.

[79:24] We want to celebrate again together. God wants to give us the victory. Now there's no question that God would have had victory over the devil. The devil is no match for God. That was never the question. The question was whether we would be on the right side of eternity.

[79:41] Easter is the victory celebration. Easter is the victory celebration that God has given us victory from now unto eternity so we can celebrate. Hallelujah. Praise God. May God bless you. May God make this Easter wonderful. And may God send you into eternity in victory now.

[80:06] And forevermore because this is the day that the Lord has made and we will rejoice and be glad in it.

[80:25] This is the day that the Lord has made.

[80:55] This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day. This is the day that the Lord has made. Happy Easter everyone.

[81:25] We will be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made. Praise the Lord has made. This is the day that the Lord has made.

[81:35] The stehen will be good. The day that the Lord has made. Here we go. Okay. The day that the Lord has made. The third day that the Lord has made this for the days.

[81:46]  It is the day that the Lord has made. You will62.