(upbeat music)
- Why don't you go ahead and hug a neck of someone
you don't like as they bring out this table.
Guys, it's Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday.
You do know Jesus is alive, yes?
Jesus is alive and he is worth celebrating today.
And he has changed my life.
I can only speak for my life because I'm living my life,
but I do know some of your testimonies.
I know he's changed some of your lives as well.
And the word tells us that we overcome
by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.
And sometimes you just gotta cry out to God and say,
"Thank you."
Thank you, God, for coming and living
an impeccable, perfect life, and then dying for me,
for pitiful, weak me, and then rising again.
Guys, our God is alive and at the right hand of the Father.
And we celebrate that today.
And I'm glad that you're here for joining us
on a live stream today.
Thank you so much for joining us.
It's a glorious day to be in the house.
It's so good to see some of you.
Some of you are new here.
Welcome if you're joining us for the first time.
And some of you haven't been here for quite a while
and you're here today.
And I just wanna say thank you for being with us
to worship the Lord.
It's good to see all of you in the house today.
A couple of announcements, and I might be reiterating a few
that Pastor Barbie already said,
but the Lee Singers will be here next week
and we'll have our outdoor picnic.
I'm gonna bring a message next week centered around
what the purpose of Springhouse is.
And so if you wanna come and hear more about Springhouse,
next week is a good week to come,
hear about what the Lord's doing here.
And then also Pastor Barbie, she's mentioned
there's no midweek gathering this coming Thursday,
but the following week on April 11th,
she's gonna start a series called
"I Wish Someone Had Told Me."
And it's gonna be great.
So I invite you to come six to seven o'clock
on Thursday nights.
I think there's workbooks already out
in the foyer for that.
There's some workbooks available as a part of that class.
Man, you don't wanna miss that.
So mark your calendars for that.
And then the following Sunday on the 14th,
this guy, his name's Jonathan Evans,
and he is the chaplain for the Dallas Cowboys
and a part of the Evans family,
Tony Evans, Priscilla Shirer, is that correct?
Yes.
And so he's coming to be with us.
He's been with us before,
and he promises to really bring a rich word.
So you'll wanna be here on the 14th for that as well.
God has saved the very best for right now for us.
And we are in the middle of a year-long series
on his life, I'm sorry, his word, his life, and his church.
We're gonna talk about his church in the next few weeks.
We're gonna start that part of the series,
but within the middle part of this series,
we're in a mini series, his death, burial, and resurrection.
Which one do you think we're gonna talk about today?
His resurrection, okay?
Guys, his resurrection is good news.
The gospel of Jesus Christ, literally translated gospel,
means good news.
Anything that has been dead and comes back to life,
that's good, good, good, good news.
And I want us to proclaim and understand
and know Jesus is alive.
Jesus is alive, no question about it.
Guys, there's over 4,200 religions in the world,
and we are the only one who proclaims a God
who is alive today.
And I'm gonna tell you, if I have a God to choose
out of 4,200, I'm gonna pick the one who's alive.
I'm gonna pick the one I have access to.
I'm gonna pick the one who cares about me
and sees me and is brooding over me
and wants to have a relationship with me.
How many have tried to have a relationship
with something that's dead?
Doesn't work too well, does it?
We want a relationship with a God who is alive,
and he is alive today.
He is alive today.
You know, when I was little, I went to a Catholic church.
I was brought up Catholic for the first part of my life.
And I remember going to this Catholic church,
and somewhere around six, seven, or eight,
I went to my first confessional, my first confessional.
So in the Catholic practice, you go to the priest
and you offload your sin onto the priest,
and the priest will then take it to the Lord on your behalf.
And so I went into this house with this priest.
I sat on his couch, and he was looking at me,
and he was like, "Kevin, I want you to tell me
"everything that you've done wrong."
And so I was thinking, all right,
as a six, seven, eight year old,
I think I punched my brother in the face once,
and he said, "Ooh, that's good, tell me more."
And I was like, "Well, I think I took something
"out of the refrigerator I wasn't supposed to."
He said, "Good, good, good, tell me more."
And I was like, "Well, I think maybe I took an eraser
"out of my buddy's desk at school, and I didn't return it."
And he was like, "Good, good."
He was so encouraging about my sin,
I started making sin up.
(congregation laughing)
And I just started to say all types of crazy things
to the point where he just had to shut me off
as if Jesus could only forgive this many sin today.
And so he then took the sin, and he went before the Lord,
and I guess the Lord forgave me.
Do you know that you do not have to go to a priest?
You can go directly to the Lord yourself.
You do not have to go through an agency.
You do not have to go through a person.
You have access to the God who breathes stars.
You have access to the God who set the planets in motion.
You have access to the God who knows
the number of hairs on your head.
He is alive and real today, and you have access to him.
What are you doing with your access?
And so we're going to get into the scripture today.
We are looking at Jesus's resurrection.
So Jesus was resurrected from the grave three days later.
The tomb was rolled away, and John and Peter run
after the ladies had gotten there.
And guess what?
Jesus wasn't there.
He wasn't inside the tomb.
And so they get there, and Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene.
Guys, what it would have been to be Mary,
what it would have been to be Mary Magdalene
and be the first one who sees Jesus.
And Jesus says to Mary, "I want you to go,"
and I'm paraphrasing, "I want you to go
"and tell the good news to your brothers."
Do you know that the woman Mary was the first preacher
on the planet, the first one to deliver the good news,
rather, the first one to give the good news
was Mary Magdalene, what it would have been to be Mary
and be in the position of delivering the good news.
And so she goes back and she tells them,
"The Lord, I've seen the Lord."
And we're gonna pick up on in John chapter 20,
where Jesus is gonna reveal himself to the disciples,
save one, stand with me, let's read together.
There's a typo, it should be peace be with you
instead of peace with with you.
That was a little bit of a lisp there, huh?
All right, on the evening of that first day of the week,
when the disciples were together with the doors locked
for fear of the Jewish leaders,
Jesus came and stood among them and said,
"Peace be with you."
As he said this, he showed them his hands inside.
The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
Now Thomas, one of the 12,
was not with the disciples when Jesus came.
So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord."
But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks
in his hands and put my finger where the nails were
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."
A week later, his disciples were in the house again
and Thomas was with them.
Though the doors were locked,
Jesus came and stood among them and said,
"Peace be with you."
Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here,
see my hands, reach out your hand and put it into my side."
Stop doubting and believe, Thomas said to him,
"My Lord and my God."
Then Jesus told them, "Because you have seen me,
you have believed.
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Father, I thank you for your word
and I thank you that it's transformative.
I pray, Lord, that it would change our lives today.
We love you in Jesus' name, amen.
You may be seated.
Couple of weeks ago, before I was coming to church,
it was around six o'clock in the morning.
And I got downstairs and it was a little bit later
for me, I usually get here a little earlier than that,
but I was going downstairs and my third daughter
was actually awake already and dressed.
And when I went downstairs,
I found her in a peculiar position.
I found her on top the counter near the microwave
with the door flung open with a bag of popcorn in her hand.
And so I looked at her astonished and I said,
"Ruby, what are you doing?"
And she said, "I'm popping popcorn."
And I said, "Ruby, we don't eat popcorn for breakfast."
To which she replied, "Daddy, I don't know what we do,
but I eat popcorn in the morning."
(congregation laughing)
Then I took off my belt, no.
Now that story is true and you laughed at it.
I'm glad you laughed at it because it's a funny story.
But what makes it true right now is my word.
The only thing you have to hold onto about that story
is my word, unless I gave you proof like this,
that the story really happened.
(congregation laughing)
Ruby caught in action.
In Jesus's time, words held gravity.
Whenever you were an eyewitness of something,
whenever you were to tell a story,
when you were in a place
where you were to render information,
the words coming out of your mouth held gravity
and were very important.
And so if you were an eyewitness to an event,
it was important.
The details that are recorded in scripture,
most of them come from eyewitness activity.
Eyewitness activity.
They didn't have cell phones back then.
They didn't have cameras back then.
They weren't taking pictures and drawing these things out.
So you really had to trust and lean on the word
of multiple witnesses.
And so the disciples are gathered together in a room
and the word tells us that the disciples are gathered
and the only one we're told that's not there is Thomas.
So the disciples, multiple, plural, disciples,
were gathered in a room after the resurrection
and Jesus appears to the disciples and says,
"Peace be with you."
Now that's kind of like whenever an angel appears
and says, "Don't be afraid," you know?
And you're like, "Too late," you know?
Jesus appears and he's like, "Peace be with you."
And he appears to the disciples and it is a glorious moment
because everything that Jesus had taught them,
everything he talked about,
about going to the grave and raising again,
all came to fruition in that moment
when he revealed himself to the disciples
and they were all there, save Thomas.
Now Thomas, he was not there and scripture does not tell us
why Thomas was not there with the disciples.
I don't know what Thomas was doing.
Maybe he was working, maybe he was in hiding,
maybe he was upset that Jesus had died.
I don't know, it doesn't tell us why he was not there,
but Thomas was a disciple
who really loved the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Thomas really gets a bad rap in scripture
being dubbed and being labeled as doubting Thomas.
And this is because whenever he came to the disciples,
he said, "I'm not going to believe it
"unless I see it with my own eyes
"and I touch his hands and touch his feet."
But I wanna talk a little bit about Thomas
for just a moment because,
and maybe perhaps give you a different perspective
on Thomas this morning.
When we look in scripture, Thomas is mentioned
a few times in scripture,
but two primary times in the book of John,
he is referenced.
And back whenever Jesus was going to raise Lazarus
from the dead, when he was going to raise Lazarus,
this was a point in time when Jesus was really in trouble.
What do I mean by that?
It was a point in time when Jesus,
the Jewish leaders were looking to stone Jesus.
And Jesus said, "My time has not come."
And so he was kind of going incognito around the area
to be in hiding, but also preach the gospel
because his time had not come.
Well, when Lazarus, when the thing with Lazarus happened
and he died, Jesus wanted to go back to where Lazarus was
so that he could raise Lazarus from the dead.
He told the disciples plainly, "Lazarus is dead.
"We're gonna go wake him up."
Well, it was a dangerous journey for Jesus
to go from where he was and travel over to Lazarus.
But Thomas pipes up and says, "If you go, we're gonna go."
He tells the disciples, "Hey, if Jesus, if you're gonna go,
"we're gonna go and we're gonna die with you."
That tells me something about the loyalty of Thomas.
Have you ever had somebody in your life
that'd be willing to die for you?
That's a loyal, man, that's a loyal companion.
That's a loyal friend.
That speaks volumes of Thomas's character.
Then two chapters later in John 14,
we read another little interesting bit about Thomas.
Jesus is talking about how he's going to have to ascend
to the Father and how he's going to have to leave the earth
and come back.
And though they didn't quite understand what that meant,
Thomas pipes up and asks a very important question
that all believers should ask.
And he says, "Lord, we don't know where you are going.
"So how can we know the way?
"How can we know the way?"
That should be a question that every one of us asked.
How can we know the way?
And Jesus responds very plainly to Thomas, to the disciples.
One of the most famous scriptures we have,
he says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.
"No one comes to the Father except through me."
It is here that we realize that Jesus is not just a way,
but he is the way.
Jesus is not a truth that can be changed.
He is the truth.
And for anybody who's looking to find life,
Jesus is the life.
And Jesus conveys this truth in response
to Thomas's question about where are you going?
So we know that Thomas is loyal.
We can assume that Thomas loves Jesus.
Thomas witnesses Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead,
and he's being told that Jesus is the way,
the truth, and the life.
Something tells me that Thomas,
though he is dubbed as doubting in the moment,
I believe something different is going on with Thomas.
And here's what I think it is.
Have you ever been in a situation where you felt left out
because you didn't show up?
Have you ever been in a situation where everyone else
has been privy to something, but you were not there,
and you were not privy to it,
and so it causes an emotional reaction out of you?
Some of you might call it FOMO, fear of missing out.
You know what, I like to replace that
and suggest that we replace that of fear of missing God.
We need to be more afraid of missing God than missing out.
But sometimes when we miss out, we miss God.
Sometimes when we miss out, we miss God.
But Thomas has missed a significant moment.
He's missed a moment where everything Jesus
was talking about came to fruition.
It came, and it was his, he was with his friends
when he approached them and Jesus had gone,
he was with his friends who had an eyewitness account.
Remember, I was telling you, eyewitness,
these weren't strangers.
These were people that Thomas rubbed shoulders with,
spent time with, these were his friends.
So why wouldn't Thomas believe what they said?
I believe Thomas had an emotional reaction
to missing out on something so spectacular,
and he so wanted to see it for himself
that he said, "I'm not gonna believe it.
"I'm gonna choose not to believe it
"until I see it for myself."
I don't know about you, but there are times in my life
where I react out of my flesh
when somebody else has gotten something
or is exposed to something that I wish that I had
or I had been exposed to.
You miss out when you don't show up.
You know, I find it ironic, more than ironic, I guess,
that people who don't frequent church
and don't come regularly kinda sometimes end up
in situations that are depressing,
sometimes end up in friend circles
that are just not really the right friend groups.
And I don't mean to just be like,
"Come to this church," or whatnot,
but when we gather together like this,
this is a time to praise the Lord.
We enthrone the Lord on the praises of his people,
but also this is an opportunity for you to rub shoulders
and earn friendships and gain friendships of people
who are looking at the Lord,
to be encouraged, to be lifted up,
and you miss out when you don't show up.
I miss out when I don't show up.
My wife and I often plan vacations and things to do.
I won't miss a Sunday.
I do not like not being here on Sunday,
because guess what?
I need Calvin's encouragement.
I need to come when Rob is ready to speak into my life,
or Charlotte is gonna come in and encourage me
and hug my neck, or when Allen has a word.
I miss out when I don't show up.
And so when things are happening and I'm apart from it,
then I make up excuses and I come up with all types
of things that are of my flesh, but might not be true.
We miss out on relationships.
We miss out on what God is doing when we don't show up.
But here's what I want us to understand.
The invitation is for everyone.
Your invitation to come to the table and to come to Christ
is for absolutely everyone.
I remember my sixth grade year of school,
and I was in sixth grade and we were going to PE class
that first week, and I remember going to PE class
and the game was basketball, and they selected two captains
and they started to pick people to be a part of the teams.
The captains did.
Well, I want you.
I want you on my team.
Guess who was left as the very last chosen one?
It was me.
That felt great.
Have you ever felt left out or like you didn't belong?
I was invited to do something about three months ago.
I was invited to go do something about three months ago.
I showed up and there wasn't enough room.
And now because of rejection issues I have in my life,
I'm the first to say, hey, I advocate my role
because I don't want to have to contend with
there's not a spot for you.
Has anybody had to contend with there's not a spot for you?
All of us have faced some type of rejection in life.
All of us have felt at times like we are the ones
on the outside looking in.
The ones that are rejected,
the ones that don't have the inside track.
This is what Thomas was experiencing.
He did not have the inside track though he was loyal,
though he loved the Lord,
though he was right there
when he raised Lazarus from the dead.
Thomas didn't have the inside track.
Here's the truth.
The invitation being for everyone
is that even though you're left out
and it may cause you to react in a way
that you're not proud of,
you cannot badge your way out
and you can't good your way in
when it comes to the kingdom.
Jesus paid the ultimate price.
He laid the foundation.
He did the work.
And I'm gonna tell you today,
no matter where you are,
no matter what you've done or said or been,
no matter what shame you might be dealing with this morning,
the invitation is to come and the invitation is for you.
It's for every one of you.
Now you may be sitting there this morning
like I have been on a number of occasions
thinking, okay, this sounds really great and wonderful.
And it just seems too lawfully really to be true,
but why me?
Why would this Jesus die for me?
And even those who are Christians,
even those in this place who have taken a left turn
and maybe you've engaged in some type of sin pattern
or something in your life you're not proud of,
you might ask the question of yourself sometimes,
why me God?
Why me?
Especially when it comes to God
choosing to use you for something
and you know what your propensity in your mind is to be.
Why me God?
Why would you choose me?
I don't matter.
And can I just tell you,
if you think you are too small to matter,
try sleeping with a mosquito.
(congregation laughing)
Small things make big differences.
And you are not too small in God's eyes.
He knows you.
He wants you.
He has a plan and a purpose for your life.
But I am so bad.
I am so full of shame and pride.
You know, there's the story I heard once told like this.
You know, the thief on the cross
had a small interaction with Jesus.
He gets up to heaven.
He's met at the gates by the angels
and the angels like to the thief, how'd you get here?
You didn't go to church.
You didn't read your Bible.
You didn't tithe.
You didn't give your offering.
You didn't wear the Christian school.
Church, you didn't do any of the things.
How did you get here?
And the thief replies,
the man next to me told me I could come.
Nobody gets to dictate your entrance into the kingdom
except for Jesus.
And Jesus says, it's sealed and it's for sure.
And you have access to this God.
You have been invited to the table.
When it comes to you and your mess,
there's room at the table.
He has never set forth the condition
that you need to clean yourself up before you come.
He just says, come, come and partake.
I've done the work says the Lord.
My blood has washed you white as snow.
So what motivates Jesus's ability
to allow us to have the seat at his table?
One word, love.
Love gives you the ability to say yes
to extraordinary things.
Love gives you the ability to say yes
to extraordinary things.
Have you ever had people in your life
who love you unashamedly?
I don't care what they think, I'm gonna love you anyway.
I'm gonna put my love for you on display
no matter what happens, I want you to know.
Guys, when you get somebody in your life like that,
that is a jewel, hold onto it.
Let me tell you, Jesus is unwavering in that.
Jesus is unwavering in his love for you.
And it's love that motivated him to go to the cross.
And when you hear something that says
that your shame and your sin held him there, that is a lie.
Love held him to the cross.
Love is what held him there
and love is what motivated him to do the whole kit
and caboodle, the whole package.
And now he has risen from the grave
and he lives and breathes at the right hand of Father God
and he bids you to come.
Love continues its work.
It continues faithful.
He continues to show himself, improve himself
over and over and over again.
And so if you think that your life is bad
and you think you're so messed up
and you think you're so full of shame and pride
and all of those things and that Jesus doesn't want you,
then I want you to know today
that you are one of those extraordinary things
that he said yes to.
There's a big fat yes on your life.
Don't let anybody, don't let the enemy especially tell you
that there's a no ready for you.
There is a yes for you and he's bidding you come.
He's bidding you come.
So we had a problem.
Here's the foundation.
We had a problem.
Our problem was sin.
It separated us from this love.
God didn't like that.
So he sent Jesus for God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only son,
that whoever believes,
not if only a certain section of people believe,
only those who look and sound and do this,
whoever believes in him shall not perish
but have eternal life.
Romans 10 says this,
everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Everyone, everyone, do you know
that you're a part of everyone?
John chapter seven, Jesus says,
on the last and greatest day of the festival,
Jesus stood and said in a loud voice,
let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.
Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said,
rivers of living water will flow from within them.
Guys, it is personal.
It is you.
He wants you.
Guys, he knows your name.
He knows your name.
Man has put a shadow over Thomas's life
by reading a story about this man
and saying you questioned Jesus
and so now you're a doubter.
Can I just tell you that when Jesus looks at Thomas,
today when Jesus looks at Thomas,
he doesn't look at Thomas and say doubting Thomas,
he looks at Thomas and says Thomas.
When he looks at Kevin, he doesn't say prideful Kevin,
he just looks and says Kevin.
When he looks at Kevin, he doesn't say shameful Kevin,
he just sees Kevin.
When he looks at your life, he sees Jeremy,
he sees Arwen, he sees Mary Sue, he sees James,
he sees Dana, he sees Justin, he says Ted,
he sees you as completed and perfected.
Now you don't feel that way
because of the muck and mire you've been in,
but his blood covered that.
And so when we come into a space like this,
on a day where we celebrate his resurrection,
guys, can you imagine what it was like
when Jesus healed the blind man
and he saw for the first time?
I don't think the blind man at that moment
was thinking about three days ago
when somebody tripped over him
or how he hadn't been able to have X, Y, and Z
and all of this pain in the past.
He was thinking about I once was blind, but now I can see.
We get to celebrate and we should celebrate,
not just on Easter Sunday, every day of the year,
we should celebrate the resurrection of a living God
because he has written your name in the Lamb's Book of Life.
So you are no longer having to contend with death.
And so every morning, what is the invitation?
The invitation, friends, is to come every day.
Guys, I'm thirsty every single morning and I need a drink.
I need to taste and see that my God is good.
What about you?
Do you need to taste and see that God is good this morning?
I can't go off of yesterday's taste.
I need a fresh taste today.
And he's good today.
And you know, he's gooder today than he was yesterday
and he'll be gooder tomorrow than he is today.
He'll just continue to get good and good and good.
It's so rich and so powerful.
Guys, he knows your name.
Several months ago, I had my car stolen
right out of my driveway.
Months later, somebody calls and says, we found your truck.
We took it to a towing place,
or a towing place came and got it.
Well, do you know the towing place name?
No, we don't.
Do you know how many towing places exist in Nashville?
Hundreds.
I spent a long time looking for my car
because a name is important.
A name is important.
I remember the very first time
talked about rejection issues as a child.
I remember coming to Smyrna Assembly three weeks in,
getting involved with a group of guys
and I went over to my buddy Ryan Davis' house.
And I go in there and I get there
and I'm a little bit nervous.
I'm the new kid, you know, and I'm walking in.
All these guys are a little older than me.
And I remember the feeling when I opened the door
and I stepped foot in there and about 20 guys
with a resounding sound said,
Kevin, it's great to see you.
You want to talk about shock waves
of redemption and restoration in that moment.
And you know why that happened?
Because I showed up.
I showed up and I wonder what it would be
if you would make a commitment every day
to show up and allow the Lord to reveal himself to you
in tangible ways.
Thomas, I'm here.
Eight days later, I wonder what it was like.
Thomas must have been fuming.
He must have been upset.
He must have been angry and anguished
because it wasn't like Jesus, Jesus, listen,
Jesus could have in that moment when Thomas was saying,
I'm not gonna believe it.
Jesus could have been like, here I am.
But he chose to wait.
Are you in your waiting season right now?
Have you been asking the Lord to reveal himself to you
and you just have put everything aside?
You decided not to lean in
because you just have rejected the idea of his reality
because you've asked him to prove himself
and he's not proven himself yet.
Let me tell you something.
There are testimonies all around you
in the community of these believers
that would prove Jesus Christ's reality in your life.
And if you will just wait a little longer,
Christ will reveal himself to you.
Thomas, touch my hands, touch my feet.
But let me tell you what's in store
for those of you who are in the waiting season
before you had the revelation.
The word tells us, Jesus says,
blessed are those who will believe without seeing.
Can you get yourself to a place where you can believe
without having to touch his hands and his feet?
There's a blessing in store for you if you can.
He is so faithful.
He knows your name.
There's an enemy out there.
He wants to kill you.
He wants to destroy you.
He wants to take you out.
The enemy knows your name but calls you by your sin.
God knows your sin but he calls you by your name.
He calls you by your name.
And so guys, would you allow the blood of Christ
to be sufficient for you this morning?
And would you allow yourself to engage in the celebration
instead of standing like this
when everyone around you is jumping up and down
because there's a risen savior?
I once was blind but now I can see.
I once was sick but now I'm healed.
I was a thief on the cross, destined to die,
should have died.
I didn't do anything right.
Didn't even show up to church.
I was a murderer of Christians
but the Lord used me to write so many books in scripture.
The stories are endless.
Would you allow the blood to be sufficient in your life?
And would you celebrate the risen savior
because to do anything less doesn't honor him at all.
Everything is about Christ.
Everything is about centering on him.
This is what Colossians says.
Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
He existed before anything was created
and is supreme over all creation.
For through him, God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
and the things we can't see such as thrones and kingdoms
and rulers and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through him and for him.
Guys, Thomas had a chance to believe in everything else,
to put his trust in everything else.
Can I tell you guys right now,
I don't put my trust in the government.
I don't put my trust in the stock market.
I don't put my trust in my money.
I don't put my trust in people.
I don't put my trust in myself
because when all of those things fail,
my Lord Jesus Christ is gonna still be standing.
The foundation that he's laid is still going to be firm.
I put my trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Where's your trust placed?
Where is your trust placed?
He is a good, good Father.
Can I tell you that the story hasn't ended yet?
Can I tell you that this same God
who revealed himself to the disciples,
revealed himself to Thomas and reveals himself to you,
he is coming again.
He is coming again and he has not forgotten us.
And so as we center in on the truth that God is for us,
that he knows us by name, he hasn't forgotten about us,
he's coming again, we're gonna posture our hearts
with gratitude this morning as we partake in holy communion
with those who are going to serve the elements,
please come forward.
And this morning, as we come,
we're gonna come in a posture of thanksgiving.
Lord, thank you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for the story,
for my name being written in the Lamb's Book of Life,
though I don't deserve it.
We're gonna remember him in his suffering,
but we're gonna remember him in his resurrection today.
Would you stand with me?
It's a glorious day to celebrate the Lord.
Every day is a glorious day to celebrate him.
So here's what's gonna happen.
We're gonna invite you to come take communion.
And once everybody is partaken in communion,
Springhouse Kids is gonna come back
and we're gonna acknowledge where we see Jesus
all through the course of history and in our lives today.
And after that, the worship band is gonna kick back in
and after that, you're released to enjoy the rest
of this glorious Resurrection Sunday.
Guys, I am so grateful that you came today.
My heart is so full right now to see your faces
and to know that there are so many
under the sound of my voice who know Jesus Christ
as their Lord and Savior.
Let's acknowledge him unashamedly today
as he loves us unashamedly too.
Let's worship.
(gentle music)