Derrick Overholt: Alright, so we're going to dig right on in here to Mark, chapter 16.
Derrick Overholt: Today is the end of our Mark series.
Derrick Overholt: It has taken us a little while to get through it, but we are here at the end of the Mark series.
Derrick Overholt: Next week we start a new series.
Derrick Overholt: It's an Ecclesiastes and it is.
Derrick Overholt: Everything is meaningless.
Derrick Overholt: So that'll be next sermon series.
Derrick Overholt: You guys ready for that one right?
Derrick Overholt: Everything is meaningless.
Derrick Overholt: But today we're going to finish showing up here in Mark.
Derrick Overholt: If you want to go turning your word to Mark, chapter 16, verses one through eight, we'll just begin reading.
Derrick Overholt: When the Sabbath was passed, mary Magdalene, mary, the mother of James, and the solemn brought spices so they might go and anoint him.
Derrick Overholt: I'm waiting for you.
Derrick Overholt: There you go.
Derrick Overholt: Very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb and they were saying to one another who will roll away the stone for us?
Derrick Overholt: from the entrance of the tomb And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back.
Derrick Overholt: It was very large And entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.
Derrick Overholt: And he said to them do not be alarmed.
Derrick Overholt: You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.
Derrick Overholt: He has risen.
Derrick Overholt: He is not here.
Derrick Overholt: See the place where they laid him, but go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee.
Derrick Overholt: There you will see him, just as he told you.
Derrick Overholt: And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them and they said nothing to no one, for they were afraid.
Derrick Overholt: So let's pray, father, god, we thank you so much for your grace and mercy over our lives, and we thank you, lord Jesus, for the words that you give us in your Bible, lord Jesus, words that were given by you, lord Jesus, accounts of your life.
Derrick Overholt: And we thank you, jesus, that over the last 2000 years, that your words still stand true, lord Jesus, that these words did not change, lord, and we thank you that your truths are true forever And God.
Derrick Overholt: We just pray, lord Jesus, that your Holy Spirit would have his way this morning.
Derrick Overholt: We praise you, god, in Jesus name, amen, amen, all right, so this account of the resurrection of.
Derrick Overholt: If you don't know that, this is one of the synoptic gospels.
Derrick Overholt: Synoptic gospel is a grouping of three different gospels that tell the same story.
Derrick Overholt: All right, and this is Mark that we've been reading about over the last little while, and this is Mark's account of what's been going on in Christ's life And he's walked us through so many things.
Derrick Overholt: And today this is Mark's account of him being at, or of these ladies being at the cross, i mean at the crucifixion.
Derrick Overholt: What am I not talking this morning at the tomb?
Derrick Overholt: that morning I'm going to preach my whole sermon in one sentence.
Derrick Overholt: Here we go Right.
Derrick Overholt: But we also found that this account is in Matthew, chapter 28, verse one through 10.
Derrick Overholt: We find it in Luke 24, one through 10, and we find it in John, one through 18.
Derrick Overholt: And there are some differences in each one of them, but it's something that we would kind of expect.
Derrick Overholt: You know, i've heard skeptics and I've read skeptics talk about how they're so different.
Derrick Overholt: But the truth is, if today each one of us were in an area where an accident happened, not all of us could stand in the exact same spot.
Derrick Overholt: We would all be kind of surrounded by it And each one of us would see something a little bit different.
Derrick Overholt: Each one of us think about things differently, so we would be paying attention to something a little more predominantly than something else, so like if it's a car accident.
Derrick Overholt: You know me being a car guy.
Derrick Overholt: I'm going to look at this car crash and see that, well, that car must have been going really fast when he hit that And I can't believe that the cross member broke underneath and even ripped the frame off Right, while somebody else who knows nothing about cars, when they tell of the story they're going to talk about how they saw the person inside get hit by the airbag and how they kind of the skin kind of squished against it and everything.
Derrick Overholt: And it would be a totally different view, but it would be of the same account And that's why we have the gospels And together all of the gospels give us the account of what happened that morning.
Derrick Overholt: And so Mark, of course, has his view, and this is what we read today, his view of it, and there are a few things that he talks about that I wanted to mention.
Derrick Overholt: First thing, that he mentions three women's names, and we've read that, and Luke mentioned three women's name as well, but they're not exactly the same names And when we add them all together, we see that five women were there that morning, going to the, to the graveside, and what I like here is that Mark also points out that that morning he remembered the lady telling him about a story and how they were talking about how are we going to open the grave, right.
Derrick Overholt: And so this is really important because we got to ask why and what prompted more I mean, these ladies to go to the grave that morning.
Derrick Overholt: They knew that they couldn't move the stone.
Derrick Overholt: You know, they knew that.
Derrick Overholt: You know, maybe the security guards wouldn't even allow them to move the stone away, right.
Derrick Overholt: So why did they continue going unless they were prompted?
Derrick Overholt: They were urged, and so I love how Mark shows here that the women that morning were urged to go because they were already having this conversation about how are they going to even open this thing.
Derrick Overholt: And so it's really cool how the Holy Spirit is moving in that on that morning And we think about these women.
Derrick Overholt: They were really faithful too.
Derrick Overholt: I mean, we were talking this morning in the elders prayer.
Derrick Overholt: You know they had the disciples.
Derrick Overholt: They were.
Derrick Overholt: They would know that if they got caught here in this section or in this area, maybe they would get in trouble, because they know that these guys are the followers, but the women would have possibly been the same way, but these women still went that morning and because they were so faithful to Jesus, and we know that at least one of these women were there all the way to the end of Christ's life when he said it is finished, he was there at the cross.
Derrick Overholt: And so God Mark was honoring women by calling them out by name, and of course, it could have been a disciple that was urged to go that morning, but it wasn't.
Derrick Overholt: It was these five women, and God shows to reveal himself to them first, and that was so cool.
Derrick Overholt: And then we see, in Mark, he also calls this person not an angel.
Derrick Overholt: He's the only one in the account that called it, called him a man and a young man in a white robe.
Derrick Overholt: Now, again, this could be the way that people see things right.
Derrick Overholt: This happened a couple other times in the Bible where he called the writer would call an angel a man, and so it's not out of the ordinary.
Derrick Overholt: But if we read all of Mark as we've been reading it, we see that Mark's focus was all on Jesus being the Messiah, the Son of God, and he didn't make focus on much other than that, and so it could just be that he was making sure not to put this person that's inside on a level that Jesus is on no-transcript.
Derrick Overholt: We see, though, that overall, he puts the ladies there even though they didn't know that the stone would even be able to be moved.
Derrick Overholt: Mark remembers a conversation by these women, probably because these three women are the one that told him the story, because we got to remember, when we're reading this with Mark and Luke and Matthew, they're just stories to them, right?
Derrick Overholt: They didn't actually see these things happening.
Derrick Overholt: They're remembering the story of the ladies that saw it happen that morning.
Derrick Overholt: And then what I find that's really wild, here at the very end, if you look at your book we even saw it on the screen It says that verses nine through 20 don't exist in some manuscripts.
Derrick Overholt: If you're wondering what a manuscript is, it's the original writings that have been translated to English, and so the majority of those manuscripts did not have verses nine through 20, which is really wild, that the gospel of Mark just abruptly ends that Jesus has risen from the grave and these ladies are in astonishment and are silent, and that's it.
Derrick Overholt: That's where he stops, and so that's been really something I've dug into a lot this week, and I've been wrestling with that, just really wrestling with the fact that it stopped right there, and why did that happen?
Derrick Overholt: Could it be that Mark died and didn't get to finish his writing?
Derrick Overholt: Could it be that Mark wanted to put the focus of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, there at the crucifixion alive, and just leave it there?
Derrick Overholt: He's alive.
Derrick Overholt: This is the Son of God, right?
Derrick Overholt: It could be that pieces were missing that were found later, and that's why it said that some manuscripts say nine through 20s, added later.
Derrick Overholt: It could be that the rest of it did get written, and that is what we read as you read verses nine through 20 in your Bible.
Derrick Overholt: But it's really wild to look at that and see what Mark was trying to do and what he was trying to say.
Derrick Overholt: But we do know that Mark focused on Jesus being the Messiah, on Jesus being the physical embodiment of God and at the cross, even the enemy.
Derrick Overholt: One of the Roman soldiers said that this is the Son of God, and this is amazing.
Derrick Overholt: And so, as I'm reading through this and I'm like God, what is it that you're wanting me to to talk about this morning, my mind continually went to the significance of the resurrection, as everything ends right there with Mark talking about how Jesus was alive.
Derrick Overholt: And so today I want to focus the majority of my time on the significance of the resurrection of Jesus to our faith today, and the faith of a Christian.
Derrick Overholt: So I want to break this down into three different points.
Derrick Overholt: I'm going to first talk about why did Jesus have to raise from the dead at all.
Derrick Overholt: Then I'm going to talk about what happened in eternity when he did, and I'm going to talk about what this means for us today.
Derrick Overholt: So let's begin.
Derrick Overholt: Why did Jesus have to raise from the dead?
Derrick Overholt: You know, jesus did amazing things while he was alive.
Derrick Overholt: We know that he did incredible miracles, that he taught us how to live in amazing ways, and he taught people how to love one another.
Derrick Overholt: And he taught us amazing things about the Father.
Derrick Overholt: And then, of course, he taught us, ultimately, what it meant to sacrifice himself for us Right.
Derrick Overholt: He taught us how to live as servant leaders.
Derrick Overholt: He taught us so much.
Derrick Overholt: And if Jesus was just stepping out to pay our earthly penalty of sin, then he did that by dying on the cross.
Derrick Overholt: Because if you were to go and kill somebody at that time and your sentence was the cross and he took that for you, then your, your penalty is paid.
Derrick Overholt: So then the question is is why did he have to raise from the dead?
Derrick Overholt: Well, the first reason, of course, is because he said he would.
Derrick Overholt: Multiple times Jesus said I will die and rise from the grave.
Derrick Overholt: So first he said he would, and if he didn't he would have been a liar Right.
Derrick Overholt: But God had never lied.
Derrick Overholt: Jesus had never lied And he had been.
Derrick Overholt: He had came through on every word that he had ever said.
Derrick Overholt: But he's not the only one that told us this would happen.
Derrick Overholt: What I find amazing And if you know the entire scripture and how it goes, jesus and God told Isaiah years and years ago, 700 years before Jesus come in the embodiment of a little baby, god had told Isaiah what was going to happen And we see that in Isaiah 52 and 53, that the suffering servant would come in and he would die and he would rise again.
Derrick Overholt: And so here we are.
Derrick Overholt: If he didn't, then he couldn't be the son of God, the Messiah.
Derrick Overholt: So it says here that in Matthew, chapter seven and 22, as they were gathering in Galilee, jesus said to them the Son of man is about to be delivered into the hands of man, and they will kill him And he will be raised on the third day and the disciples were greatly distressed, and it seems that they'd kind of forgotten these things because you don't see much about it.
Derrick Overholt: You know, i was talking again this morning about how, if this is going on and Jesus had told me that he was going to die and then three days later come back to life, where would I be on the third day?
Derrick Overholt: You know, on day number three, am I going to be, you know, somewhere on the other side of the world?
Derrick Overholt: No, i'm probably going to.
Derrick Overholt: If I'm scared, i'm going to be in the bushes somewhere near the grave, right, trying to see, because I want to keep my eyes.
Derrick Overholt: It's like, did they forget about this or something?
Derrick Overholt: It's really wild because, if you think about it, the only one that seemed to be concerned with Jesus' resurrection was the enemy, because we see in Matthew, chapter 27 and verse 63, the enemy was the one who said hey, remember, he said he was going to raise from the dead.
Derrick Overholt: That's the reason why we have the stone in front of the tomb, that's the reason why we have the guard at the tomb.
Derrick Overholt: It's because the enemy remembered what Jesus is going to say, and so I just find that really wild to think about that.
Derrick Overholt: You know, the enemy realized the significance of the resurrection of Jesus and what that meant for the world, because they knew that if he did raise from the grave what that meant And so if he didn't raise from the grave, the entire Christian faith would be worthless.
Derrick Overholt: That's not my words, i'm actually taking that from Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 7.
Derrick Overholt: And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile or worthless and you are still in your sins.
Derrick Overholt: One of the things you think about is, if Jesus didn't raise from the grave, he would just been like any other cult leader over the last 6000 years Yeah, maybe be like Buddha or something like that, maybe Muhammad or somebody that leads people astray, and you would know about them.
Derrick Overholt: But there's not a huge following of them, right?
Derrick Overholt: But everything that happened it makes us remember all of the world come around it.
Derrick Overholt: So if he didn't raise from the grave, little would be known from him.
Derrick Overholt: But because he was raised from the grave, all of history now has been timed by his life and resurrection.
Derrick Overholt: That is one part that really gets me.
Derrick Overholt: When I talk to people who don't believe that Christ ever existed, that one is like almost like a flat earth or You know, because all of life's timeline is Is around his life.
Derrick Overholt: So if he didn't exist, why are we still counting days by his life?
Derrick Overholt: Everything in history before the last 2,000 years says before Christ And everything after was after his life.
Derrick Overholt: So how in the world would we be?
Derrick Overholt: what would we be counting if he didn't raise from the grave?
Derrick Overholt: Because if he didn't die on the cross or if he didn't raise from the grave, then we would have realized that he's just a lunatic, because he he would have been a liar if he didn't raise from the grave right, and he did call himself God Right a number of times.
Derrick Overholt: He said that he was one with God, that he was on the same level of God, so That would have meant that the world itself wouldn't have counted itself around his life.
Derrick Overholt: Because who was this man from Nazareth then, if he didn't raise from the grave?
Derrick Overholt: So, number two what happened in eternity when he did raise from the grave?
Derrick Overholt: the resurrection of Jesus from the dead Proved that he was Christ, the Son of God.
Derrick Overholt: The resurrection showed that there was nothing Anyone could do to stop him.
Derrick Overholt: No enemy could keep him, every human enemies.
Derrick Overholt: These schemes that they tried was undone at the resurrection.
Derrick Overholt: Everything that the spiritual enemy For all of time was trying to do was undone at the resurrection.
Derrick Overholt: And There's an amazing truth that's found on this day when, on a resurrection morning, when he rose from the grave, everything that Jesus said would happen, everything had been prophesied for all of time.
Derrick Overholt: It was sealed, it was done, it was completed.
Derrick Overholt: You know, we've read in John, chapter 19, verse 30.
Derrick Overholt: He said, when Jesus received the sour rind, he said it is finished.
Derrick Overholt: And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Derrick Overholt: What was finished.
Derrick Overholt: It is To tell us, to tell.
Derrick Overholt: Last day I'm trying to put it together is the word that he used to ETE.
Derrick Overholt: There you go.
Derrick Overholt: And it's an accounting term that means paid in full.
Derrick Overholt: See, when Jesus said these words, it was at that moment that Everything, all of human history, had ever done in the past and in the future, was now paid for Nothing that Jesus had done wrong, it was all us.
Derrick Overholt: Everything.
Derrick Overholt: The debt was paid and it was finished.
Derrick Overholt: And that morning that he rose up from the grave, it was completed.
Derrick Overholt: It was completed because it proved that he had nothing.
Derrick Overholt: Death had no hold on him.
Derrick Overholt: But what debt are we talking about and for just a moment, i know there might be some in the room that don't understand what this debt is they were talking about.
Derrick Overholt: So, over 6,000 years ago, we were in the garden.
Derrick Overholt: God made Adam and Eve and, just in case you didn't know, god, the father, the son and the Holy Spirit were there present, because the world was made in him and through him, and that's Jesus, right?
Derrick Overholt: and so they're all there and they make Earth and they put man and woman in the garden and God would walk with them every day, which stroll with them through the garden.
Derrick Overholt: Because he loved us, because he wanted to be in Relationship with us, right?
Derrick Overholt: but he also wanted us to have free will.
Derrick Overholt: Well, how do we have free will if he makes everything perfect and tells us how to do it Right?
Derrick Overholt: There's no choices.
Derrick Overholt: So he gave us one choice, one single choice Don't eat of that tree right there.
Derrick Overholt: Whatever comes out of that tree, don't eat it, everything's gonna be fine.
Derrick Overholt: The one choice.
Derrick Overholt: Of course, we know what happened.
Derrick Overholt: You've heard the stories Adam and Eve ate from it, and I used to get so mad at Adam and Eve for eating from that tree.
Derrick Overholt: We wouldn't be here today, everyone for you.
Derrick Overholt: But yet I think about my own life and how many times I have broken God's rules, and I have to humble myself All the way under and go yep, i would have done that too, maybe faster than they would have.
Derrick Overholt: So it's all of us.
Derrick Overholt: All of us have this in our life the propensity to sin.
Derrick Overholt: And so now sin was Introduced into our life, we could no longer walk with God because of his perfectness, so now we're separated from him.
Derrick Overholt: But if you notice story, god Still loved us so much that he didn't just banish us and burn us to the ground.
Derrick Overholt: What you could have done.
Derrick Overholt: Ah, you know what I hate?
Derrick Overholt: this piece of artwork right here.
Derrick Overholt: I'm gonna start over over here.
Derrick Overholt: He could have done that, right, but he hung out like he wanted to still take care of us.
Derrick Overholt: So he put clothes on us and he did set us outside of the Garden of Eden and Then to show us throughout time The weight of sin in our life, he taught us how to sacrifice and what it took to sacrifice for our sin, and that's when we started seeing animals being Sacrificed and blood was shed, and it continued to show us for thousands of years that cost.
Derrick Overholt: The penalty of sin was death and It took blood to cover that sin.
Derrick Overholt: And so then here we are with this debt of sin, and This is what Jesus came for.
Derrick Overholt: And it was a plan all along.
Derrick Overholt: This wasn't a plan to All right.
Derrick Overholt: Well, first one didn't work plan to know this from the beginning.
Derrick Overholt: As Scott talked about last week, jesus knew what he was coming to earth for.
Derrick Overholt: Jesus chose to follow through with the sacrificed And in his very last words he said it is finished.
Derrick Overholt: All of time We were separated completely from the father, completely separated, with no way to commune with him.
Derrick Overholt: But that was finished because the debt had been paid.
Derrick Overholt: And The next, on the three days later, on that morning, when he rose from the grave, he cut the ties of death and hell because nothing had control of him.
Derrick Overholt: So Jesus rising from the dead sealed in all eternity the truth of all the words that he said while he was here.
Derrick Overholt: What does that mean for us today?
Derrick Overholt: Well, it's utmost importance that we understand and believe that Jesus raised from the dead.
Derrick Overholt: You can't be saved without truly believing that in your heart.
Derrick Overholt: Romans 10 9 says because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Derrick Overholt: We must believe this, we must know it, and There's a few things that I thought about Regarding Jesus and the free gift of salvation that I wanted to share with you this morning.
Derrick Overholt: One that was Jesus was born of a virgin, meaning that it is a miracle that Jesus even came at all into a woman.
Derrick Overholt: That Had never happened before in past or in future.
Derrick Overholt: There's never, ever, been another person with immaculate conception.
Derrick Overholt: He was it.
Derrick Overholt: Jesus lived a sinless life, although we had every opportunity to sin, but never once did.
Derrick Overholt: He was the perfect human, and this had never happened in the past and it's never happened since He's it.
Derrick Overholt: Jesus sacrificed himself to pay the debt of sin that no one could pay, so that we could be God's children once more.
Derrick Overholt: That had never happened before this time, and it's never happened again.
Derrick Overholt: We don't hear any other stories ever again.
Derrick Overholt: We don't have a new timeline.
Derrick Overholt: You know that we have.
Derrick Overholt: You know BC and AD, and then we go a thousand years and then we have BT and you know some.
Derrick Overholt: Whatever you know before Tom and after Tom, we don't have that.
Derrick Overholt: It's all about Jesus.
Derrick Overholt: Everything, everything in the Word of God is about Jesus All the way back to Genesis, chapter 1, verse 1.
Derrick Overholt: But then Jesus rose from the grave, not just in spirit but in full body, and he ascended to heaven.
Derrick Overholt: It is on the throne, completing and confirming every prophecy that had ever been made of him.
Derrick Overholt: There was over 300.
Derrick Overholt: That's impossible.
Derrick Overholt: It never happened before and it hasn't happened again.
Derrick Overholt: Jesus Christ, he's it, he's all His resurrection sealed in once and for all, all of everything that he said.
Derrick Overholt: And because of his resurrection we now can have an intimate relationship again with him, just as the beginning, when he created heaven and the earth and he set it in motion and he was walking with us in the garden.
Derrick Overholt: Now he's not just walking with us in the garden, in the world, he's walking in us.
Derrick Overholt: So many times I think about how cool it would have been to just be in person with Jesus as one of the disciples.
Derrick Overholt: But we have it much greater.
Derrick Overholt: He's in us.
Derrick Overholt: We feel him, not just physically but spiritually.
Derrick Overholt: We feel him, we hear him, we're guided by him.
Derrick Overholt: But it was after he rose from the grave that he gave us the Holy Spirit.
Derrick Overholt: It was after he rose from the grave that the day of Pentecost happened.
Derrick Overholt: He gave us the Holy Spirit, the same spirit that was with Jesus, that raised him from the grave.
Derrick Overholt: He now put inside of us.
Derrick Overholt: Just break and loose the fangs of death.
Derrick Overholt: That acts two and 24, because it's not possible to hold Jesus Now because of what Jesus did for us by the resurrection, proving that death could not hold him.
Derrick Overholt: Death doesn't hold us.
Derrick Overholt: We should not be afraid of death.
Derrick Overholt: If we know Jesus Christ today, there should be no fear of death, because it doesn't hold you.
Derrick Overholt: It has no power over you.
Derrick Overholt: The ultimate victory that was provided when Jesus rose from the grave was this is that God adopted us as sons and daughters.
Derrick Overholt: The God of the universe that created us has adopted us as sons and daughters and we will spend eternity with him.
Derrick Overholt: Yeah, there's some really cool stories in the Bible about how we're going to have a mention when we get to heaven.
Derrick Overholt: Jesus told us he's gone to prepare a place for us.
Derrick Overholt: None of that matters as much as Jesus Christ in front of us Put me in a shed in the corner of heaven.
Derrick Overholt: As long as Jesus is right there with me, i'm not going to heaven.
Derrick Overholt: So I could get a mansion.
Derrick Overholt: I don't want that When we truly know Jesus and we understand his resurrection power and the Holy Spirit comes inside of us.
Derrick Overholt: Nothing in the world compares, nothing, none of it compares.
Derrick Overholt: The resurrection of Jesus reminds us that we should be in awe of God's holiness.
Derrick Overholt: He is a holy God.
Derrick Overholt: He is not just here paying our debt anymore.
Derrick Overholt: He's not just fixing our problems.
Derrick Overholt: He's the Son of God on the throne and he should be honored and worshiped that way.
Derrick Overholt: See if he didn't race from the grave.
Derrick Overholt: We talked about all of that, what that would look like, of who Jesus would be but he raced from the dead, proving that everything he said was true, proving that he's the Son of God, the Messiah.
Derrick Overholt: And now, when they saw him and there's so many people that saw him ascend to heaven he's on the right hand of God, he is in the Godhead.
Derrick Overholt: He's not just our buddy, he's not just our boy.
Derrick Overholt: You know, i see the picture of Jesus that they've drawn, where he's just like.
Derrick Overholt: You know, i'm just your friend, you know.
Derrick Overholt: Or the old songs that we hear.
Derrick Overholt: It's not just that.
Derrick Overholt: Yes, he does love us.
Derrick Overholt: He is called Abba, father, daddy, right, but Jesus said if you love me, you keep my commandments.
Derrick Overholt: If you love me, keep my commandments And, just like any good dad, his rules in his home are up, kept, they're honored, because they have respect for their dad And my daddy in heaven, who loves me, and I know he's got my back, but he's still God, he's still Father, so we should honor and respect his holy name.
Derrick Overholt: We should honor and respect the things that he says are right and what are wrong, and not try to skew those or make them fit what we want.
Derrick Overholt: The resurrection should remind us that, since we are now in him, every enemy he overcame that day has been overcome for us today and forever Remember.
Derrick Overholt: Jesus said he's coming back.
Derrick Overholt: He said that we have a comforter.
Derrick Overholt: He left that comforter with us, called the Holy Spirit.
Derrick Overholt: He's gone to prepare a place for us.
Derrick Overholt: He were not alone.
Derrick Overholt: Jesus is God, he is on our side and we know this.
Derrick Overholt: Why?
Derrick Overholt: Because the resurrection, because he proved it all.
Derrick Overholt: He proved, and today I want us to search our life for a few moments.
Derrick Overholt: While I was putting all this together this week, i really felt like either someone in this service or someone online maybe someone hearing it later doesn't know Jesus.
Derrick Overholt: That's why I kind of broke it down a little bit and explained what sin was Explained, our need for Jesus, and then we are talking about one of the most important things that we need to understand in salvation is that Jesus Christ raised from the dead, and I want everybody to know in this room that if you confess your sins, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that Jesus raised him from the dead, you too can be saved.
Derrick Overholt: I felt like this morning that at least one or two of you do not know Jesus.
Derrick Overholt: And you hear me today and you're thinking, oh, but I've been going to church for a long time.
Derrick Overholt: I said that prayer when I was a little kid.
Derrick Overholt: That doesn't matter, i don't know if you know, but like saying a prayer is not in the Bible.
Derrick Overholt: You know, that's not the way to get to heaven.
Derrick Overholt: When we give our life to Jesus, our life changes, completely changes.
Derrick Overholt: Now I'm not saying that you can't say a prayer and get saved.
Derrick Overholt: You can, but you must mean it And you must believe that Jesus Christ raised from the dead.
Derrick Overholt: And so today you can have that opportunity.
Derrick Overholt: And listen, i'm not going to call you upfront.
Derrick Overholt: Today, here, in just a few moments, we're going to simply pray and everyone's going to pray with you And today, right where you're sitting, you don't need to come up front, you don't have to do that.
Derrick Overholt: Right where you're sitting, you can talk to Jesus, confess to him your sins, believe that he did come up from the grave.
Derrick Overholt: He's on the right hand of God today and you will be saved.
Derrick Overholt: It's a guarantee And just as we know Jesus Christ raised from the dead, we know it.
Derrick Overholt: It is historically proven, even outside of the Bible.
Derrick Overholt: I don't know if you guys knew that Science only proves the Bible more and more all the time, every time they find something.
Derrick Overholt: A while back they found brimstone burned in to the tower of Babel, like they found the pebbles and everything proving that that happened They found when they dug on the bottom of the Red Sea they found horse and man bones side by side would cherry at pieces.
Derrick Overholt: Everything in the Word of God happened y'all.
Derrick Overholt: It is true.
Derrick Overholt: There were more than 500 people that saw Jesus alive after the crucifixion.
Derrick Overholt: It is medically proven that any man period took the beating that Jesus took and that all those who got crucified.
Derrick Overholt: There's no way you can live through it.
Derrick Overholt: You're almost dead before you get to the cross.
Derrick Overholt: You're in critical condition before you even get there.
Derrick Overholt: So there's no way that he stayed alive for three days in tomb Right.
Derrick Overholt: It is all true.
Derrick Overholt: And today, if you're feeling a tug in your heart that today's the day to give your life to Jesus, you've been hearing it for a little while, you've been feeling it.
Derrick Overholt: You're drawn here this morning.
Derrick Overholt: You're not here by accident.
Derrick Overholt: It's because the Holy Spirit is revealing to you.
Derrick Overholt: Do you know how amazing that is?
Derrick Overholt: None of us can give our life to Jesus unless the Holy Spirit reveals it to us.
Derrick Overholt: That means that the spirit of the living God is talking to you right now.
Derrick Overholt: So today, if you're feeling that we're going to give you an opportunity to pray, so let's all pray right now.
Derrick Overholt: Father, god, we do pray for each and every person here and each and every person watching this God.
Derrick Overholt: We pray, lord Jesus, that you would prick their hearts, that you reveal to them their need of a savior.
Derrick Overholt: God, you rose from the grave so that we could be one with you forever, so that everything that you and the Father in heaven had planned would come to pass.
Derrick Overholt: Because of your sacrifice, because of your resurrection, because of your blood, and now, this morning, because of your promise, no one has to leave here without being saved.
Derrick Overholt: God, we believe that this morning And right now, if you're one of those who feel the need right now, you feel the calling to give your life to Jesus, right now, i encourage you to just confess your sins to Jesus, just not all of them I mean, it'd take me the rest of my life to do that for myself But just confess your.
Derrick Overholt: I am a sinner.
Derrick Overholt: Right now, you can say this I am a sinner.
Derrick Overholt: Lord Jesus, i know that what you did on the cross and your resurrection sealed in eternity my salvation.
Derrick Overholt: Please come in and change my life.
Derrick Overholt: I want you to be the Lord of my life.
Derrick Overholt: In Jesus name.
Derrick Overholt: Can all of us right now just pray for just another few moments?
Derrick Overholt: And if you've just given your life to Jesus, right now, just begin to thank Him in your heart.
Derrick Overholt: Just begin to thank Him.
Derrick Overholt: Today is the first day of being reborn, of being born again, of your life being changed.
Derrick Overholt: Thank you, jesus.
Derrick Overholt: Have your way this morning And save people's souls.
Derrick Overholt: We love you, jesus, your name.
Derrick Overholt: We pray Amen This morning.
Derrick Overholt: If you said that prayer, i'm not going to ask you to come up from I'm not going to do that to you What I am going to ask is that you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord of your life, and all that means is turn to someone in your group, turn to someone in your family, or come to the prayer team here after the prayer team is going to be up here in just a few moments or come and see me after service at the coffee bar.
Derrick Overholt: I'm going to come out there and just tell me today I gave my life to Jesus.
Derrick Overholt: Because that's the next step.
Derrick Overholt: We don't be ashamed of Jesus Christ as our Lord.
Derrick Overholt: It's confessing that Jesus is Lord of our life, and we want to get you set up for baptism as well.
Derrick Overholt: All right, well, god, we just thank you so much for this day, thank you for each and every person, and God, we continue to pray for all of the ministry that you're doing in and around this world, lord Jesus, and as we have some of our own in Ukraine and we have some of our own in other states and God, we've got some in you in Columbia And God, we just pray right now that you would move there and have people give their life to you, jesus, and move in their lives.
Derrick Overholt: But, god, right now we have a team here as well, so many that come and want to see your amazing miracles and amazing grace, lord Jesus, and I just pray that you would touch each and every one of them as they're ministering your gospel through action and through serving and through just acts of love.
Derrick Overholt: Lord, jesus, god, i pray for divine times where they can speak your word to somebody and that they would give their life to you.
Derrick Overholt: Jesus, god, that at least half of them would be able to witness someone giving their life to you this week.
Derrick Overholt: Jesus, we just thank you for that, father.
Derrick Overholt: We love you in Jesus name, amen.