SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning and uh happy Easter to you all and um welcome uh to the online service today.
SPEAKER_00: Man, today is one of the greatest days in the life of Christians because today is the day that we once again set aside just this moment to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, but what's so cool about today is we recognize something today that sets us apart from every other religion in the world, and that is the fact that we serve a risen Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Not only was he born into this perfect birth, uh the perfect conception before that, he lived a perfect life and then died the sacrificial death for us, but then resurrected on the third day, and that is definitely something for us to get excited about.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm I'm telling you today, he is just as alive today as he was the moment that he was born.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he was just alive today before the foundations of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're gonna get into that in just a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: But before we rejoice so much about this resurrection, we've got to be real about something, and that's about what came before it.
SPEAKER_00: Because what I know, and maybe what you know, is that you can't have a resurrection without a crucifixion.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus, when he was crucified, we know that he was laid in a tomb, and that tomb was just a dark place.
SPEAKER_00: He was sealed in this darkness for just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of that darkness that we still experience today.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you think about that, it really doesn't take long for us to realize what a dark and broken world we live in.
SPEAKER_00: Man, you can see it on your phone, you can you can turn on the news and see it.
SPEAKER_00: There's broken families, there's broken nations, and and folks are hurting, people are divided, and it's just because we live in such a dark and a broken world, and if we're real honest about it, sometimes what we realize is that while there's a lot of darkness that's going on out there, sometimes there's darkness in here as well.
SPEAKER_00: In the midst of the Christian life, let's just be real.
SPEAKER_00: There's lots of times that we have to face the reality of fear, stress, uh, loss, and disappointment.
SPEAKER_00: Things that literally leave scars on your soul.
SPEAKER_00: And we have questions oftentimes like, God, why did you let that happen?
SPEAKER_00: And I don't believe there's anyone listening today that's not asked that question.
SPEAKER_00: God, just very simply, my three-letter word, why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, that brings us to the tension that I want you to feel this resurrection morning, because we know that Jesus overcame death, hell, and the grave.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we know that he rose victorious, and through that resurrection, we have a hope, specifically a hope in our future, a hope in our eternity.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the divide, here's the tension in everyone's mind.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus, who we know is the light of the world, really did rise from the dead, if if light really won, then why does everything still feel so dark?
SPEAKER_00: Because the reality is we do live in a broken, in a very dark world.
SPEAKER_00: It's those thoughts that cause us to think deep and maybe even wake up at 2 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: in the morning and sit on the side of your bed and just ponder those deep questions of life.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the answer to that question and many other questions that we may have about this life and the darkness in which we live, the answer is why Easter matters.
SPEAKER_00: You see, to really understand that question, we've got to go all the way back to the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, to the creation account.
SPEAKER_00: And because Easter and the story of Easter didn't start at the tomb, it actually started in Genesis 1.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Genesis 1, the Bible says this, that the earth was formless, it was empty, and darkness covered everything.
SPEAKER_00: No structure, no life, uh, no hope, just darkness in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: And what's the very first thing that God does?
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't create people, he doesn't create all the animals or the trees or the oceans.
SPEAKER_00: He simply is a God of order and he speaks life into existence.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because nothing works without light.
SPEAKER_00: Light brings order to confusion, light brings clarity, light brings truth, and light is actually what makes life possible.
SPEAKER_00: Without light, everything else just stays chaotic.
SPEAKER_00: And what I'll also tell you is without light, everything dies.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if we fast forward into the New Testament, I love how John opens up his gospel in John 1.1.
SPEAKER_00: He takes us right back to Genesis, but this time he shows us something that we really didn't see before.
SPEAKER_00: He says, In the beginning was the Word.
SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute, in the beginning was the Word?
SPEAKER_00: You see, that's Jesus, because if you go a few verses later in verse 14 of John 1, he says it like this the word became flesh and dwelt among us, the glory of the only begotten, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute, the word became flesh?
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the birth of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He says, The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
SPEAKER_00: So in the beginning was the Word.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning was Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The Word was with God, and the Word was God.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, in him was life, and that life, get this, was the light of men.
SPEAKER_00: And the light shines in the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: And I love this part, and the darkness has not overcome it.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what John was telling us.
SPEAKER_00: Before there was a cross, before there was a tomb, even before there was darkness, Jesus was.
SPEAKER_00: And the same Jesus who was is the same Jesus who is still alive today.
SPEAKER_00: And whenever he shows up, what I know and what I pray that you get out of this is that darkness doesn't stand a chance.
SPEAKER_00: You see, it didn't come in creation in the very beginning, and it didn't come in the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm here to tell you that it still doesn't today.
SPEAKER_00: So when you look at your life and you look at this world and you say, man, where's all this darkness coming from?
SPEAKER_00: Things just feel dark.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you're not wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Because there is still a darkness.
SPEAKER_00: But even in that darkness that we perceive in this broken world, we're not without hope because of those initial words in Genesis, let there be light.
SPEAKER_00: You see, that's the same Savior who walked out of that grave and out of that darkness, and he proved once and for all that light always wins.
SPEAKER_00: So from a bird's eye view, what does this mean for you and me?
SPEAKER_00: What is the significance as we take this very first passage that we see in Genesis, and then it's linked together under the reign of Jesus, the resurrected Christ in the New Testament?
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean for us?
SPEAKER_00: Well, here's the big idea I want you to grasp today is that Jesus came to bring light for us, so his light can change the world through us.
SPEAKER_00: You see, because Easter isn't something that we just celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: My challenge for you today is that Easter is something, maybe for the first time, that you really step into and embrace the responsibility and the stewardship that is upon us to use this light for his glory.
SPEAKER_00: So the Bible says in John 20, verse 1, early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: So this is after the crucifixion and before the realization of the resurrected Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But what's so amazing in this verse is these few words, it was still dark.
SPEAKER_00: And John doesn't just mean it was dark outside because the sun, as we know, the sun hasn't risen yet.
SPEAKER_00: You see, when he talks about darkness, he's talking about the soul.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the moment that was taking place because all of the hope that all the apostles had, it just seemed to turn dark.
SPEAKER_00: That morning, yes, it was physically dark, but it was also dark with grief.
SPEAKER_00: It was dark with the unknowns, it was dark with confusion and darkness with the shattered of dreams, and they were feeling a little bit hopeless and maybe even a little bit lost in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: You see, these people of Jerusalem in that moment, they thought that Jesus was gone.
SPEAKER_00: They thought that he, the one that they thought was going to take on this throne, was dead.
SPEAKER_00: But instead, he took on a cross.
SPEAKER_00: They watched him die, and now they're thinking, were we wrong about him?
SPEAKER_00: You see, that's where Mary Magdalene was, and she shows up at the tomb while it is still dark, physically, and in the moment of their heart, carrying a truckload of grief and a heart that's filled with confusion.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you what this tells me because there's a huge lesson in this.
SPEAKER_00: Point number one, the light of Christ shows up in your darkest moments.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so thankful for that truth.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, have you ever been there where life didn't turn out the way that you thought it would?
SPEAKER_00: Where your prayers didn't get answered the way that you hoped, and maybe you had some dreams that were just turned upside down and you feel like your hope just got buried.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm not talking about church life, I'm talking about real life.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you go to that doctor's appointment and the report says something different than what you were thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe about the marriage that was good for so many years, and then all of a sudden it seems to be in a sense of darkness and confusion.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you're raising your kids and now you're questioning the way that you raise them because they're making decisions that are just breaking your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're that person that's just worked hard your whole life to do everything right, to try to live a righteous life, but you still feel like you're falling behind.
SPEAKER_00: You see, it's in those intense moments of life.
SPEAKER_00: It's when the questions start coming in.
SPEAKER_00: God, where are you?
SPEAKER_00: Why all of this darkness?
SPEAKER_00: Why would you let this happen?
SPEAKER_00: And that tension is that we we know Jesus, we love Jesus, we believe in Jesus, we know that he's resurrected, we know that he is alive.
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is there's still a very dark and broken world in which we live.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I think it it's like this it's what we believe on Sunday doesn't match what we live out on Monday.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's exactly where Mary Magdalene was.
SPEAKER_00: She was showing up to that tomb, carrying a lot of hurt and pain and grief and confusion and unknown.
SPEAKER_00: She was disappointed.
SPEAKER_00: The one that she trusted, the one that she followed, the one that she believed in seemed to be gone.
SPEAKER_00: I believe Mary Magdalene was experiencing exactly what many of us experience today.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the good news of Easter is that when she went to that tomb in this darkest moment is proof and great encouragement to us that we too can go to Jesus in our dark moments.
SPEAKER_00: And I love the fact that she made a decision internally, even in her darkness, to go to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And the result was she she showed that purpose externally.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus had already done his greatest work, even in that dark moment.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty, and death had been defeated.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what that means for you and I.
SPEAKER_00: Is it just because things feel dark, it doesn't mean that God stopped working.
SPEAKER_00: Just because you can't see it doesn't mean that light hasn't already won.
SPEAKER_00: Because light won in Genesis, and light also won on Resurrection Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: You see, before the sun ever came up, the light was already shining.
SPEAKER_00: Before the sun ever came up, light had already won.
SPEAKER_00: I think the problem was is those just didn't realize it.
SPEAKER_00: Please hear this light always shines brightest in your darkest moments.
SPEAKER_00: And today you may feel surrounded by darkness.
SPEAKER_00: You may be living in a place of hopelessness, and you have more questions as you have answers because of the extreme uncertainty that's surrounding your life.
SPEAKER_00: Easter reminds us that darkness does not get the final say, Jesus does.
SPEAKER_00: So this leads us a little bit further in this understanding of the power of this light that we see in Genesis, and then we see it reflected here in the Gospel of John and all through the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Number two is this the real darkness isn't around us.
SPEAKER_00: What we're gonna see is that it's actually in us.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's where it gets real because we like to blame darkness on everything.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we want to find circumstances that we can we can point that blame on, whether it's culture or politics or social media, or maybe we just want to blame it on other people.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's what we do most often.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is gonna bring it closer to home here because in John 3.19, he says something so profound.
SPEAKER_00: He says, this is the verdict.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the gavel has been stamped.
SPEAKER_00: We're done.
SPEAKER_00: He says, light has come into the world.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the truth.
SPEAKER_00: He says, but people love darkness instead of light.
SPEAKER_00: Because their deeds were evil.
SPEAKER_00: Man, that's strong.
SPEAKER_00: And it's extremely blunt, but it's absolutely true.
SPEAKER_00: The biggest problem in your life and the biggest problem in my life, it isn't what's always happening around us, it's actually what's happening inside of us.
SPEAKER_00: Light is coming to the world, but scripture tells us that people loved darkness.
SPEAKER_00: It's talking about our sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's talking about our pride, it's talking about our the brokenness, the result of these things in our heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's all in here, and it's a part of that old sin nature that still seems to linger on.
SPEAKER_00: And we try so hard to clean things up, we try harder, we try to do better.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but here's the thing is that we don't need self-improvement.
SPEAKER_00: What we really need is rescue.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what Jesus came to do.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I am the light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, and I love this part, but will have the light of life.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you can embrace this today is that you don't need a better version of you.
SPEAKER_00: All you need is a savior to rescue you.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what we don't do is that we don't surrender.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, what we do is we try and we strain to just simply to do better, to be a better version of me.
SPEAKER_00: We try harder, we we do better, we make promises, we get in the mix of our fallness and we sin and we make cries out to God and promises that we'll do better, I'll fix this.
SPEAKER_00: We try to sort of white knuckle our way through the sin.
SPEAKER_00: And we think if I can just get strong enough, if I can just be disciplined, if I can just be better, and then I'll finally step into the light and get to experience the light.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell you something that I know and I've experienced, and you've probably experienced it too.
SPEAKER_00: You'll never outwork your darkness.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to always be there.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to never outdiscipline your sin nature because the problem isn't our effort.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is always within our heart.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the Apostle Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament, he even said in Romans chapter 7, he says, wherever I turn, evil is right there with me.
SPEAKER_00: He talked about it warring inside the spirit against the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: That's the same exact struggle that we're dealing with today.
SPEAKER_00: When I was a kid, you got to remember I grew up with two brothers, and we had this game that we always liked to play when mom wasn't watching.
SPEAKER_00: It was called Mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you remember that.
SPEAKER_00: We would take our fingers and all you had to do was hold your hands up, and it was a challenge.
SPEAKER_00: And my brothers, we would interlock fingers, and then all of a sudden we would try to make the other person surrender and just scream mercy.
SPEAKER_00: And your knuckles are popping and you're grimacing because everything is hurting so bad.
SPEAKER_00: But even in all that pain, man, our pride is just not gonna let us say mercy.
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to give in, even when it looks so bad on your face and things look so bad in your life.
SPEAKER_00: That game has taught us a problem, and that's just to not give in.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what I've learned is that's exactly how we live spiritually so often.
SPEAKER_00: God's pressing on our lives.
SPEAKER_00: It's as if He has us locked knuckle for knuckle, and He is convicting us and He is dealing with us and He's calling us.
SPEAKER_00: But instead of surrendering and just saying mercy, we resist and we try to fight back and we try to get the upper hand.
SPEAKER_00: We try to just try harder.
SPEAKER_00: But something in us, ingrained deep within in our humanness, says, Don't say mercy, don't give in.
SPEAKER_00: Please hear me today.
SPEAKER_00: God's not trying to break you, he's trying to save you.
SPEAKER_00: And he's inviting you to step into the light of what mercy really, really means.
SPEAKER_00: Because his mercy is not something that we have to earn.
SPEAKER_00: His mercy is something that we simply have to surrender to.
SPEAKER_00: You see, you don't always have to try harder.
SPEAKER_00: You just need to learn to surrender and just cry out mercy to him.
SPEAKER_00: Because the real darkness isn't the darkness that seems to surround us.
SPEAKER_00: The real darkness that we see is that darkness that we harbor within.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe today, right here, right now, instead of just trying harder and trying to do better, to be the best version of you that you can be, maybe it's time to just call out and just say mercy to God when we feel Him just retching down on our soul.
SPEAKER_00: And what I know is the moment that we say mercy, the moment that that time of surrender comes, that's the moment that his light shines the brightest.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what light does.
SPEAKER_00: It brings light in dark circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: You know, my wife's a science teacher, and when you're married to a science teacher, you learn some amazing physical truths, and we know some things about light is that light always reveals.
SPEAKER_00: In John 8.12, Jesus says, I am the light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus steps in, he doesn't just come to make you better, he shows you what is real.
SPEAKER_00: And we also learned that light sustains life.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't believe it, take a plant that's alive and healthy, put it in a closet and close the door.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna die.
SPEAKER_00: In John 1.4, he says, I uh in him was life, and that life was the light of men.
SPEAKER_00: That's what sustains men.
SPEAKER_00: That means everything you're searching for, everything your soul is craving, all of the nutrients in life comes through Jesus, is found as we stay in him.
SPEAKER_00: He sustains us.
SPEAKER_00: But I'll tell you what else I know is that light is what guides our path.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine living a life in total physical darkness?
SPEAKER_00: The first thing we would do is reach for our cell phones to hit that little light, that flashlight, so we can begin to see.
SPEAKER_00: I love what Psalm 119 tells us that your word, remember Jesus' the word, is a lamp unto our feet and what a light under our path.
SPEAKER_00: Please hear this.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to figure out all of the road ahead of you.
SPEAKER_00: That lamp just lights step by step, moment by moment, that Christ can work in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to tell you what else light does.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the hard part.
SPEAKER_00: Light exposes what is hidden.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not to shame you, but it's to save you.
SPEAKER_00: In John chapter 3, verses 20 through 21, I love this.
SPEAKER_00: This is people avoid the light because it exposes their deeds.
SPEAKER_00: But those who live by the light, those who live by the truth, they come into the light.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, what's brought into the light, it can be transformed.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the beauty of it all the same light that exposes you is the same light that saves you.
SPEAKER_00: And that's hard for us to grasp because we think when something is trying to expose us, that it's trying to condemn us.
SPEAKER_00: But if you remember in John 3.17, Jesus Himself said, I did not come into this world to condemn the world, but through me that the world would be what?
SPEAKER_00: Saved.
SPEAKER_00: That's Easter.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't come to beat us down.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't come to destroy us.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't come to make bad people better.
SPEAKER_00: He came to bring dead people back to life.
SPEAKER_00: That leads to point number three.
SPEAKER_00: So where does this take us?
SPEAKER_00: What do we do?
SPEAKER_00: We receive the light.
SPEAKER_00: We know that the light lives in us.
SPEAKER_00: What does he want you to do with this light?
SPEAKER_00: Number three, when the light of Jesus is in you, you must let it shine through you.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's where it gets powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Here's where it gets convicting, because here's where your story begins to be written.
SPEAKER_00: You see, your story doesn't stop just with you getting saved.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's a big problem that we have is that we think salvation is just a check a box, but it's actually the very beginning.
SPEAKER_00: You see, it doesn't stop just when you step into the light, it's when you receive the light.
SPEAKER_00: I love what Scripture says, the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Ephesus in chapter 5, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: He says, For you were once darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Not necessarily that we lived in darkness, but we were once darkness.
SPEAKER_00: But now you are the light in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So what do we do?
SPEAKER_00: He says, Live as children of light.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you call that.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say that you have light.
SPEAKER_00: He says that you are the light because we are one with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The same light that has shined on you should now be shining through you as we are one with him.
SPEAKER_00: That means when Jesus changes you, man, he puts something in you that the world desperately needs.
SPEAKER_00: He leads you and me to make a choice that we can let his light so shine before us that they will see our good works, which will glorify our Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Don't take your light and hide it under a basket.
SPEAKER_00: We are a shining city set upon a hill.
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, the problem we have is that we live in darkness and we we know that darkness is here, but so many times we complain about darkness, we fear darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Uh sometimes we even blend into darkness, and I believe it's because we begin to embrace darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's because we've taken light and we have hid it under that basket.
SPEAKER_00: Man, when light comes into you, it begins to shine through you.
SPEAKER_00: So you weren't saved to just sit.
SPEAKER_00: You were saved to shine for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the big question this Easter.
SPEAKER_00: It's not, did the light win or will the light win?
SPEAKER_00: Because it already has one.
SPEAKER_00: The question I want you to take away is this Will I allow Jesus Christ and this light of life to shine in me and then shine through me?
SPEAKER_00: Well, before you can shine it, you've got to surrender to it.
SPEAKER_00: Because listen, you can't reflect light that you never received.
SPEAKER_00: You can't give away hope if you're still holding on to darkness.
SPEAKER_00: And you can't shine Jesus out there if you're still resisting him in here.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where everything we talked about, everything that we should do today comes together because the mission to shine always starts with a decision of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Receiving the mercy that's been afforded to you by proclaiming, God, show me your mercy.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, God never called you to produce light.
SPEAKER_00: We can't do that.
SPEAKER_00: He just called you to reflect the light that he has shined upon you.
SPEAKER_00: You can't reflect what you won't receive, and you won't receive it until you say mercy and just let go.
SPEAKER_00: It starts right here, it starts right now with surrender, receiving his mercy and letting the light in so then it can do its work and shine out.
SPEAKER_00: I want to show you what this looks like.
SPEAKER_00: In our collaboration meeting on Tuesday, there was a powerful story that Pastor Chip shared.
SPEAKER_00: It's a story about a Professor named Alexander Papadeiros, and uh one day he was speaking with a student, and the student said, Sir, can you tell me what is the meaning of life?
SPEAKER_00: And the professor paused for just a moment and he began to think about that.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't answer it right away.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he just simply reached into his pocket and he pulled out a little small round mirror.
SPEAKER_00: It had almost been sanded in his pocket for taking it with him over the years.
SPEAKER_00: And he said these words.
SPEAKER_00: He said, When I was a little boy living through World War II, he said, I saw a German motorcycle that had been wrecked, and thereby that German motorcycle, the little mirror on the side had been broken, and there was pieces all over the ground.
SPEAKER_00: But he found the biggest piece and he took it with him, and over time he began to shape it by rubbing it on a stone, making it a perfect round mirror that he could carry in his pocket.
SPEAKER_00: And after making it into a circle, he began to play a game as he would he would take this and he would take and reflect light and shine it into dark places, places that the sun couldn't reach, down into holes, into cracks and crevices, into the darkest places of life.
SPEAKER_00: And as he grew older, he realized something.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm not the light, but I can reflect it.
SPEAKER_00: You see, maybe that's the meaning of life.
SPEAKER_00: It's definitely something for us to think about.
SPEAKER_00: You see, church, because that's it.
SPEAKER_00: That's Easter.
SPEAKER_00: That's the greatest gift that we have through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Not only is our eternity secure forever, but the picture that we have a responsibility to take that light and reflect that light.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how the world will know that we serve a resurrected Savior.
SPEAKER_00: You see, because there's people out there all around you who will never see Jesus until maybe they can see Jesus through you.
SPEAKER_00: So go out there this Easter and don't just celebrate light.
SPEAKER_00: My challenge for you is to receive the light and then be the light.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I thank you so much, God, for such a simple word that you've given us by the power of light.
SPEAKER_00: God, for everyone that's listening today.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that they will truly examine their heart and God, are they receiving this light?
SPEAKER_00: And what are they doing with this light?
SPEAKER_00: Father, for the person who could be lost today, and maybe for the first time ever, they're hearing about the power of light that was even in the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: It's my prayer that they can see the sovereignty of Jesus Christ, who was, who is, he's present today, and he is seeking, but yet who is to come.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for your words.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for truth.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that you would guide us through this Easter season.
SPEAKER_00: God, through the rest of this day.
SPEAKER_00: Be with my folks that are listening and bless them in a powerful way.
SPEAKER_00: We love you and we praise you.
SPEAKER_00: And it's in Christ's name, the resurrected King, that we proclaim these things.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.