Run For Your Life - Pastor Susie Gamez | Sacramento Easter Service

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     Pastor Susie Gamez, Canadian by birth and Korean by heritage, is now Mexican by marriage and American by immigration. With a passion for reconciliation, racial justice, and the Gospel, Susie and her husband Marcos met at Fuller Theological Seminary while getting their M.A. in Intercultural Studies. They are now proud parents of four beautiful LatAsian kids. After serving as a youth pastor and church planter in South Central Los Angeles for 14 years, Susie now resides in Sacramento and serves as the Co-Lead Senior Pastor at Midtown Church.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

It is a really good morning today. It's still morning, right? It's almost 12, but uh, you know, since it's Easter, let's let's do something a little different. Uh if I say he is risen, okay, there's a couple of you who know what to say. Someone from backstage said he is risen indeed. In case you didn't know, this is a call and response that's been said in the church from the early days of the church. And so I think there's even a slide that can help guide you. And when I say he is risen, you say he is risen. He is risen. All right, let's say it like we believe it, right? Because that's why we are here today, because he is risen.

unknown 1:01

He's risen indeed.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

I want you to know that we've been praying for you. Many of us have been praying throughout this week, throughout this month, for a long time now. We've been praying for many things, but particularly we've been praying for those of you who have yet to follow Jesus with your whole heart. We've been praying for you leading up to today, and we've been praying that those who have not yet said yes to Jesus would say yes even today. And we've been praying for those who may be feeling far from Jesus. Maybe for a period of time you've felt like you've been distant from Jesus. And we've been praying that you would feel today that Jesus is drawing you close to him once again. We've been praying that the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit would be unhindered and felt by all of us today. We've been praying for God to fan us into flame. And because we've been praying, we're expectant and excited. And we're expectant and excited because we know that God's not dead, he's alive. And today we celebrate that he is risen. He is risen indeed. Now, whether you know it or not, you're here because God intended for you to be here today. Whether you know it or not, you're here because God loves you. And whether you know it or not, you're here because God has been in pursuit of you. God has been running after you. And in light of that reality, I want to start this morning with a question for you to consider. I want you to ask yourself this. Now, God's been running after you, but have you been running after God? Have you been running after God? If you're being honest, and we hope that you'll be honest, because God knows anyway. But if you're being honest, some of you have been running away from God more than you've been running towards God. Some of you have been running, but if you're being honest, it feels like at times you don't know if you're running in the right direction. Some of you may feel like you've been running in circles. And for some of you, it might feel like life has been running circles around you. So if you've been running in circles, that can leave you feeling tired and confused. It can maybe even leave you feeling dizzy and discombobulated. Now, for me, I actually I really actually don't love running. Um, I know it's good for you, and if you're doing it right, I've heard that like you can experience a runner's high, like the endorphins kick in, and um, and you might have heard me say this before, but when people say they go on runs for fun, I don't believe them. It's not fun, right? Um, and it's not that I don't like being active, uh, I just don't run for fun. My workout of choice, I love doing Pilates, I like doing reform Pilates. Um, hot Pilates is good too, but I like it a little less because it can get stinky in there, but it's a good workout. And and I I I know I'm getting older, so you know I need to up my protein intake and I need to start like lifting weights. And we're working on that, but um, I know that cardio is important too. So I'll do I'll do the stair climber, I'll do the elliptical or the bike, but the treadmill is like only if every other piece of equipment is occupied and I have to get on the treadmill is when I'll get maybe get on the treadmill. And you know, I asked myself this question too, why why is it like they got like five stair climbers at the gym, but like 85 treadmills. Do people really like the treadmill? Anyways, getting off point. I know that running is good for you, and I know after this that some of you are gonna tell me, well, actually, Pastor Susie, you know, if you got bad knees or bad joints, um, walking at a brisk pace can actually be better for you. And and if you're doing it right, you know, timing your walks right, um, run uh walking can be better for you than running. And and trust me, you don't have to convince me. I want to agree with you, but just run with me on this one because um I'm trying to make a parallel here. I'm trying to make a spiritual analogy here. What I want to say is that sometimes we gotta stop making excuses and we gotta shut up and run. Sometimes, even if we don't feel like it, we gotta quit making excuses and run the race that God has set out before us. And believe it or not, the story of Resurrection Sunday actually starts with people running. Turn with me to John 20. If you have your Bibles, you can turn there. Uh if you don't, it's gonna come up on the screen. But John 20, starting in verse 1, says this. Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. Now y'all know that John, the writer of this book, he often refers to himself as the disciple that Jesus loved. Okay, so Peter and John, the other disciple, uh, the one that Jesus loved, said, They have taken the she she she runs to them, Marion, and she says, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him. So Peter and the other disciple, this time he doesn't say the disciple that Jesus loves. So you think he's being humble, but wait, there's more, okay? Um so so Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter. So he still uh seems like he's still bragging on himself here. He's faster than Peter. He got there first. He reached the tomb first. Now, John he bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. And finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. Now I know that the first time the word running is mentioned in this text is not until verse 2, but in verse 1, Mary Magdalene, she still had a runner's type of urgency about her. The fact that Mary was out there early on the first day of the week while it was still dark means that she was wasting no time. Saturday was the Sabbath, and you were not allowed to prepare a body for burial on the Sabbath. So she waited as long as she could. She waited until early Sunday morning, so early that it was still dark out, to start heading toward the tomb where Jesus' body was supposed to be. The other gospel accounts indicate that Mary was not by herself. There were other women who went with her to the tomb. And I'm not trying to stereotype here, but usually when there's a group of women on a mission to do something important together, these women have usually already put together a plan. A plan has already been made, usually, when it's a group of women on a mission to do something important. But we can guess that they must have had some urgency about them, not only because they headed out first thing Sunday morning while it was still dark, but because as they ran to the tomb, Mark's account of this same scene tells us that while they were on their way, it occurred to them that they had not thought about how they were going to move the stone away from the entrance of the tomb. While they were on their way, they stopped and they were like, wait, we got this plan to go and and and and prepare Jesus' body, like get to the body and put some spices there. But who's gonna roll away the stone? They were headed toward the body where they thought Jesus' body was supposed to be, but they didn't have a well-thought-out plan. Not only was there supposed to be a large stone covering the entrance of the tomb where they thought Jesus' body was supposed to be, but in addition to a sealed stone covering the tomb, there were supposed to be guards in front of the tomb as well. The stone itself would have weighed thousands of pounds, and even if left unguarded, it would have taken much more than just a few women to move the stone away. And we don't know how many guards were set in place, we don't know the exact number for sure, but it could have been anywhere between four to sixteen out there. But the guards, they wouldn't have been there to help. They would have been there to deter the women from what they wanted to do. So, like the large rock that needed to be moved, the guards would have needed to be moved too. They would have been an obstacle, a barrier that needed to be moved before Mary and the women could get to Jesus. Now, if you're curious as to what happened to the guards, uh read Matthew 28, where it details what happened and why the guards weren't there. But but you know, you know what might have been the biggest barrier or the heaviest obstacle for Mary to overcome? Though she ran toward the tomb with urgency and passion, the huge rock wouldn't have been the biggest problem to move out of the way. The people standing in front of the rock wouldn't have been the biggest obstacle or the heaviest barrier to overcome. Perhaps what would have been the biggest obstacle or the biggest barrier to move out of the way before Mary could get to the tomb was her pain. It could have been a problem that the rock was there, it could have been a problem that the people were there, but her pain might have been a problem as well. It might have been a barrier for her, it might have been an excuse for her to not go running to Jesus in the first place. Remember, she had just watched her rabbi, her teacher, her savior, the one who loved her, the one who forgave her and invited her to follow after him. She had just days ago watched him die a gruesome death on the cross. Surely she felt the weight of the heartache, the heartbreak, the disappointment, the grief, the confusion, the sorrow. These things are heavy. And these feelings can make it hard to move, let alone run. But early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb with urgency. Mary didn't make excuses, instead, she ran towards Jesus. So, what can we learn from Mary? We can learn from Mary that you can run towards Jesus even when there are problems standing in your way. The heavy stone was a problem that needed to be moved out of the way. And what Mary teaches us is that you can run towards Jesus even when there are problems and people standing in your way. Because remember, the guards were supposed to be there. But as she made her way towards Jesus, God went ahead and moved them out of her way for her. And we learn from Mary that you can run towards Jesus even when you have pain that threatens to stand in your way. Moreover, what we learn from Mary is that you don't need to have the plan all figured out before you start running towards Jesus. Mary followed her heart more than she followed a plan, and her heart posture was bent towards Jesus. So even though she didn't have much of a plan, when Mary did get to the tomb, she saw that the stone had already been moved. When she got to the tomb, the people had already been removed as well. And she didn't let the pain stand in her way. She didn't let the pain keep her from moving towards Jesus. But she would not have known all this if she didn't have the faith to get up and moving, get up and get moving herself. Once Mary saw that the stone had been removed, she goes running again. This time she goes running to Simon, uh, Simon Peter and to John to tell them what had happened. She had urgency when she ran towards the tomb. Now she had even more urgency when she starts running towards the other apostles. So then what happens after that? We see that her urgency is contagious. Immediately, Peter and John also start running toward the tomb. Mary's running, John's running, Peter's running. They started their first run club. It was a Jerusalem run club here. And you know, let me break down what seems like a little bit of comedy happening here in chapter 20. I already made note of the fact that John seems to enjoy tooting his own horn or guessing himself up or just being plain big-headed when it comes to describing himself. He describes himself repeatedly as the disciple that Jesus loves. And not once but twice, he makes it a point to say that he outran Peter to the tomb. I mean, it definitely sounds like a kid shouting, I got there first, or I'm his favorite. But I don't think that this is why John adds these details. There are other places in the book of John where John describes himself as the disciple that Jesus loves. And in fact, John says over and over again that he is the disciple that Jesus loves, and if he was saying it in order to puff himself up, well then John would in fact be big headed and kind of immature. But it seems to be more consistent with his character to assume that John does not identify himself in this way because he's bragging, but rather because he's humbled by the fact that he is in fact a disciple that Jesus loves deeply. For John, it seems there is no greater honor in life than to be identified as a disciple that is deeply loved by Jesus. He treasured that reality. And rather than even using his own name in the gospel account that he wrote, he instead chooses to be identified in relation to the one who loves him deeply. In the same way, it could be that John wasn't trying to flex when he mentions not once but twice that he outran Peter. Maybe John was really simply just trying to point out that he got there first, that he ran a little faster than Peter that day, that he had more pep in his step. Now, why would this matter? Why is he pointing this out? It's possible that John was naturally a faster, stronger runner than Peter. But maybe John is pointing this out that his friend Peter was lagging behind that day. Maybe they were both running, but Peter was dragging his feet just a little more than John that day. So think for a moment about the last time that Peter saw Jesus versus the last time that John saw Jesus. John was there at the crucifixion. John was the only disciple that didn't run away, didn't abandon Jesus. John was there at the foot of the cross and he got to look into Jesus' eyes. And it was to John that Jesus turned while he was on the cross. He looked at him in the eyes with love and with passion. And he says to John, as Jesus' mother is right beside him, he says, John, my mom is now your mom. And he essentially says, I want you to take care of her. This was an incredible honor bestowed upon John. That was his last interaction with Jesus. But Peter's was dramatically different. After swearing up and down that he would never leave Jesus, that he would never run away from Jesus, that he would never deny Jesus, Peter ended up doing all those things. He denied Jesus so fiercely that the words that came out of his mouth, I wasn't with the man. I'm not one of his followers. I didn't even know the man. He said it so intensely that those words were probably still ringing in his ears, tormenting him and weighing him down. Like Mary, Peter probably had to move past the pain in order to start running. And maybe he couldn't run past it. Maybe he was actually carrying it with him as he ran. And maybe that's what made him lag a little behind his friend. Because on one side he was carrying regret, on the other side, he was weighed down, dragging shame. Maybe this is why John outran Peter to the tomb that day. Let's give Peter credit for running to the tomb at all. Because he didn't have to. Some of the other apostles had heard what Mary and the other ladies had said, and their reaction was, psh, whatever. That sounds like foolishness. No way. They doubted and discounted the testimony of the women, but Peter and John they were at least willing and wanting to go running to the tomb. One faster than the other. But the others could not even be bothered to go and see for themselves. They were unwilling to run to the tomb to see for themselves whether or not Jesus was still buried in the tomb. Perhaps the other apostles could not be bothered because perhaps they had already buried their hope. They had no more hope left. Like Mary, there are things that we can learn from reflecting on how John and Peter ran. John and Peter ran despite their doubts. Heartache and shame can weigh you down and keep you from running your race, and so can doubt. Doubt grows like a tumor when lies and intimidation and worries and fear, those things that Satan tries to throw at you when they stick you and they start to burn. This is why Ephesians 6 tells us to take up the shield of faith, to extinguish all the fiery arrows of the evil one, because he is going to try to shoot you down with fiery arrows. He wants us to succumb to his intimidation. And he wants us to let doubt grow like a tumor. And some of us, instead of taking up our shield of faith, instead of being armored up, some of us instead are hiding out. Or even worse, running around naked and afraid. From this text, we observe that John and Peter, they they also ran to see from for themselves. They heard the news from reliable eyewitnesses, but they had an opportunity to go and see for themselves. So when they had the chance to go and see for themselves, they took it and they ran for it. You know, it takes risk, it takes time and energy, it takes determination to go and find out about something for yourself. Sometimes on some things you can take someone else's word for it, but if it's something important, you want to find out for yourself. Unless it's none of your business. But if it's something important and you're invited to come and see for yourself about it, you should. And we are all invited to come and see about God. I mean, it's encouraging that you're here today. It's encouraging that you fought through parking traffic and you made it here. And it's not just because if if there's one day out of the year that you should maybe come to church, uh it's Easter Sunday, but because if you bothered to get dressed, uh, get out of bed, come here, even though you might be fighting through some things, um, or for those of you who are tuning in and watching online, there's at least part of you that's here because you know that you are interested enough to find out more for yourself. See, there's a lot of people who are who are actually banking on grandma's prayers. There are a lot of people who go through life banking on the fact that, yeah, yeah, yeah, I grew up in a Christian family. But is that gonna be enough? God calls you to make your faith your own. He wants you to run your race, he wants you to come and find out for yourself. Yes, there are people praying for you. We have been praying for you, but you gotta pay attention to the signs. You gotta pay attention to the fact that God is drawing you near, that you're not here by accident, that there is a seed that He wants to plant in your Heart in your spirit today, and he wants good fruit to come forth. It's not just enough to get you butt in a seat and dress up for Easter Sunday. He wants you to run after him. He wants you to come and see about him. Come and see for yourself. See, taste and see that the Lord is good. Be still and know that I am God. John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whosoever, you and I, whosoever shall believe in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. These are not just cute sayings that we put on coffee mugs. These are invitations to come and see for yourself. Taste and see. Know that the Lord is good. Be still and know that he is God. Come and see for yourself. Finally, John and Peter they ran because they still had hope. Maybe they didn't have a whole lot left, but they hadn't buried it completely like the others. Mary's testimony was enough to resurrect hope back to life and send them running. So, what can we learn from this? We can also learn that faith is found on the way. Not before you start out on the journey. Not before you start on the journey. It's on the journey that faith builds upon itself. It takes you putting one foot in front of the other to get on that journey of faith. Faith is produced as you put one foot in front of the other, as you start running towards Jesus. Maybe you start out with a crawl and maybe it turns into a walk. But eventually we want to be running hard after Jesus until we are face to face and finally in our eternal home forever with Jesus. And even here, while we're on earth, there is an invitation to run with him. Now, when when John and Peter, when they arrived at the tomb, they found it just as Mary had said, empty. Well, not quite empty. Jesus was not there, but evidence of his resurrection was. In case you forgot John, the disciple that Jesus loved, he got there first. And when he got there, he saw the first piece of evidence. The stone had been rolled away. So when he got to the entrance, he bent over and looked in and saw strips of linen lying on the ground. He also saw a facecloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head. And they were just lying there with no body in it. This sight was shocking for sure. So there's John still bent over, looking into the tomb, observing. And when Peter finally catches up, it's like the Peter that we all know, the one who was usually the first to jump right on in. Peter sees evidence. He sees that the stone is pulled away, and then that old Peter comes back and he just goes straight on into the tomb. He doesn't bother just observing from the entrance. He goes right on into the tomb. And he also saw the strips of linen with nobody in it. Lying there. As well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head. Everything was laying there as if put there, placed there for them to see on purpose, with purpose. Why are these details significant? Well, I told you earlier that if you wanted to know why the guards weren't at the tomb, go back and read Matthew 28 to get more details on what happened the morning of Jesus' resurrection. But let me just tell you a few things real quick. After Jesus was buried, the chief priests and the Pharisees, they went out, they went to Pilate. They went back to Pontius Pilate and they requested that there be security at the tomb. Why would they do this? They did this because they remembered that Jesus himself said he would rise in three days. And they feared that Jesus' disciples, they might come and steal the body so that they could claim that Jesus had been resurrected from the dead. So Pilate ordered that the stone covering the entrance be sealed, and he ordered for there to be guards placed at the tomb. But in Matthew 28, we read that a violent earthquake occurs that morning, and an angel of the Lord descends and rolls back the stone. The guards were so terrified by what they see that they shake and become like dead men. So they either actually passed out in fear or they froze in fear. And after being so shook by this supernatural event, even the guards, they they run. They run away. They ran back to the city to report what had happened to the chief priests. They tell them about everything that they had seen and experienced. And when they report on this, what they were actually inadvertently doing was they were actually bearing witness to the resurrection. They were giving credibility to the resurrection. They gave credibility to the claim that Jesus did what he said he was going to do. But instead of being cut to the heart and choosing to believe that Jesus is who he says he is, the religious leaders respond by bribing the guards. They give them large sums of money and tell them not only to keep quiet about what they saw, but they told them to lie about what happened. And then they told them to circulate the lie that his disciples came at night and stole him, stole the body while they were sleeping. To this day, there are theories that attempt to refute the resurrection of Jesus, including this one. The claims that the tomb was empty, not because Jesus had resurrected, but because his body was stolen. His body was stolen, but after all these years and after all this speculating, the stolen body was never found. Does that make sense? I want you to consider for a moment that this is the most impactful thing that has happened in the history of all history. Nothing has shaped human history, all of our time on earth, globally, across the world. Nothing has had as much of a ripple effect, nothing has been as profoundly important as the resurrection of Jesus the Christ. This is the single most important event that ever happened in earthly history. So as important as the resurrection of Jesus Christ is, you'd think that if there was truth to the lie that this body was stolen, his body or evidence of his remains would have been found by now. But to date, there has never been a credible claim that Jesus' dead body has been discovered, identified, or verified. And it's subtle, but even the folded linens lying neatly in place, and the head cloth folded separately and intentionally placed apart from the other linens, all that was a hint, almost like a little nod and a wink to the people who would come and see it. That this was no robbery. Thieves did not bust into the tomb and raid it. There were no signs of hurry or chaos. Linens weren't ripped off and thrown aside. His body wasn't stolen, and linens weren't ripped off and thrown around. This wasn't a crime scene. There was order, there was deliberate movement, there was peace, not chaos. And God was showing that He is and has been in control of the whole situation. All that happened early that Sunday morning showed that this was planned for, prophesied, promised, and fulfilled. Now, if you think about it, the folded linens lying neatly in place tell us something. They preach a message to us. The folded linens bear witness that Jesus didn't flee death. Jesus didn't escape death. Jesus conquered death. Jesus did not escape death. He did not have to flee death. Jesus conquered death. This was his quiet mic drop before he left the tomb. We could end there, but there's a little more. Can I keep going just for one more verse? Before we go to verse 9, verse 8, the end of verse 8 says something really important. It says that after John had also stepped into the tomb himself, he saw what he saw, and he simply but powerfully states this that he saw and he believed. He saw and he believed. But in parentheses, in verse 9, he adds, but they still but they still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. So John saw what he saw and he believed. But he admits that he still lacked understanding. He saw what he saw, and what he saw was enough for him to believe what he believed, but he still didn't understand all that he saw. It still needed to be understood through the lens of Scripture. And this is why he says they still did not understand. It's a confession. He needed to know that the scriptures were verifying all that he saw and believed. Now, this should be an encouragement to us because how many of you know that you believe in God, but you still lack some understanding? This should be all of us. You know that there is a God, maybe you believe, but but you still lack understanding. No one has it all figured out. Whether you're a seasoned Bible scholar or you're just starting out, the encouragement here is that faith can begin before you fully comprehend. Faith can begin before you fully comprehend. You don't have to wait until you have it all figured out before you start taking steps of faith. And the other good news is that we have an invitation to search the scriptures, to study the word, and through the word we will be deepened in our understanding of who God is and how deeply he loves us and how sovereign he is. John did not yet understand from scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead, but soon his experience and his understanding would come together as he went back and he read and remembered Old Testament scriptures that prophesied about Jesus. Like in Psalm 16, 10 that said, God will not let his holy one see decay. After he saw what he saw and after he believed what he believed, he read that and he's like, Oh, he was talking about Jesus. God will not let his holy one see decay, or Isaiah 53, which says that the suffering servant lives after death. He realized Isaiah 53 was talking about Jesus, or in Hosea 6.2, where it says, On the third day he will restore us that we may live in his presence. All of this was about Jesus. And through Scripture, John would begin to understand that resurrection was not an unexpected plot twist, it was a sovereignly scripted thing right from the beginning. John, Peter, and Mary didn't have it all figured out, but they put their faith into action by running towards Jesus. And here's my last point three subpoints that follow it. But you have a choice to run. You can run. And even if you don't like running, metaphorically, you can choose to run. You can run away from God, you can run towards God, and once you run towards God, you can run with God. That's the goal to run this race with God. But some of you have let the enemy run you off course. Some of you, somewhere along the way, got turned around and started running in the wrong direction. Some of you have stopped listening to the voice that's calling you home and you've stopped running altogether. So I'm gonna borrow from the words of Paul in Galatians 5 when he says to his brothers and sisters, You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? Who did that? Who hurt you? Who lied to you? And why have you allowed the lies to keep you from running your race? Why are you letting the enemy throw you into confusion? That kind of confusion, that kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. So I say the same thing to you today. Don't stop running your race. If you've been thrown off course, yes, young brother, if you've been thrown off course today, April 5th, 2026, the one who calls you is calling you home. Some of you are the prodigal son or daughter, some of you have taken up, run away from home, and you've been running in the wrong direction. But today, God is calling you home. Some of you may relate to the prodigal son or daughter because you know that at one point in your life you were the son or daughter, and maybe somewhere along the way, maybe you've gotten used to staying close to home, so you haven't completely run away. But some of you might relate to the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son as well, the one who stayed close to home but didn't realize how much access, how much power, how much goodness he had right in front of his face. And he's been he's been running kind of dormant. He stopped running, he stopped staying as close to the father and recognizing how good he had it. So maybe your heart has felt distant from God. And today God is calling you home to be close to him again. And the good news about the picture of what we see in the prodigal son is that the father also runs to meet us where we're at. So if you're one who feels like you've been running away from God and you know that God's calling you back to run towards him, know that the father runs towards you and I. And he's gonna meet you as you run towards him, and he's gonna welcome you with love. He's gonna see you and he's gonna say, Welcome home, my son or daughter. And today, as we've been praying, I I've I've had so much excitement about today because I really believe God is calling some prodigals home. God is calling some of us who have felt distant from him, closer to himself. And if you can relate to this feeling of feeling like you've been running life in circles or that life has been running circles around you, I hope you can see some other signs too. I hope you can see this sign. I hope you can see this sign. And I know you're probably like, what the heck is this woman doing? But let me put give you some context. If you know anything about baseball, it's baseball season. What does this sign mean in baseball, right? This sign, if your third base coach is giving you this sign, this sign is run home, keep going, run home, don't stop, don't stop at second base, don't stop at third base, keep running, run home, run home, run home. And so for some of you, you need to pay attention to the signs. Today, God is calling you home. And so, right now, we've been doing this, we've been doing this. The altar is open. If you feel like you need to run home today, maybe you've never said yes to Jesus, but you want to come on home, come to the altar today. If you have felt like you've been distant from God or you've felt some space between you and God, come home. Come, come, run, don't stop. Come to the altar because he's calling you. And there's an invitation for all of us. Maybe you don't feel like you've been running away from God, but you've been carrying in your heart somebody that has been running from God. So you can stand in their place today. You can stand and say, God, I want to carry that person home to you. I'm gonna carry them in my prayers and faith. I'm gonna keep running my prayers up to you so that they will know that they're being called to run home to you. So, Father, we come to you today asking that you would call us home, help us to make our home in you. And as the worship team leads us in another song, um, I'm gonna come back up and pray again, but take a moment right now to pray the prayers that you know you know you need to pray. If you felt far from God, if you haven't said yes to Jesus, don't leave today without saying, Yes, I'm coming home. Sing.

SPEAKER_01 39:22

Say with me if you if you can't be able to get a lot of money.

SPEAKER_00 40:51

A day of declaration, a day that we we say, God has called us home. He ran after us and he put the full extent of his love on display for us, that he couldn't bear the thought of being separated from us for eternity, so he sent his son so that we would be brought back into relationship with him. So, God, we thank you that some people have said, Lord, I want to run after you with my whole heart. And God, we pray that even as we leave this Sunday service, this celebration service, where we're filled with the knowledge, we're filled with the feeling of love, that we're loved by you, that we can face tomorrow because we know who is in control. Uh, we know that that you are not dead, but you're living. God, thank you for filling us with that confidence and help us to look ahead and run with confidence, Lord. To run in such a way that we would receive the prize. Help us, Lord, to never stop running after you and fill us with purpose as we want and tell people to come and run to Jesus along with us, Lord. So continue to fill us, Holy Spirit. We thank you, we love you, and we celebrate those who have come to life in Christ today, those who have come back home to the Father today. We thank you, Jesus, we love you, and we pray that you go with us as we run hard after you. In Jesus' name. Amen.