I love coffee. I mean love…
The Light, The Son, The Newness, Being refreshed and restored
Every year at Easter
-I read the story and ask God for the words to speak
-I ask the Spirit to work between my mouth and your ears, so you hear exactly what God wants you to hear
-I ask God, “What can I say that might convince someone that this is trustworthy and good news?“
Addressing the skeptics
I spend so much time working through the sermon, the message, the words to offer a compelling message at the expense of worship and praise knowing that for anyone who believes and follows Christ, while they might want to focus on praise, worship, and adoration of our Lord (like the women who first witnessed the resurrection) they find grace for me because they know there is nothing more important than for someone to receive Christ into their lives — NOTHING. Why? Because it is really Good News. If you have received some other message than God loves you so much that He is willing to go to any length to show His love for you. What do we find in that love? Freedom, Forgiveness, Provision, Healing, Love, never alone, Happiness, and Peace.
Different this year
This year is going to be a little different. I intentionally choose to read verses 11–15 to address the fact that if you want an excuse to NOT believe — here it is… right in the text. The disciples came during the night and stole the body. You can believe it is not true because the cover-up has been happening since the very first day. So rest easy. Today, this morning, will be a day of celebration, worship, and praise for the one who came to set us free. I didn’t work out this sermon to convince you of anything.
Our focus this morning — Celebrating the Risen Christ not trying to convince
This morning is not going to focus on the Report of the Guard or even the report of the women who went to the tomb on Resurrection day, as much as it is going to focus on what brought them to the tomb in the first place. And what got many of us up this morning and every morning?
An error in my thinking year after year is that my words and this celebration would be able to convince anyone that Jesus rose from the dead and if that’s true, then He is the Son of God and everything that goes with it.
Why I Can’t Convince You about Anything
The Phillies are the BEST team in baseball. I can try to convince a Yankee fan, but what’s the point? You are a Yankee fan.
I can’t convince anyone about anything. My words have no power. People who come to worship, who follow Christ, who struggle to be disciplined about their faith, move towards holiness, irradiate sin, love unconditionally — we are here this morning because of earthquakes, eclipses, and lightning.
Celebrating the Miracles in Our Lives — What Gets Us Up In The Morning?
There are experiences that we have in our lives that spoke us to the foundation, that are inexplicable, and so amazing that they have led us to find God. To trust in something unseen, unimaginable, not of this world, but more real than anything we have experienced. Moments in life that are filled with miracles, big and small, that are so undeniable that we have no other choice but to search for something, someone, more than life itself.
What Gets Us Up In The Morning?
1. God does amazing things instantly.
These are the miracles found in the pages of scripture and the pages in our lives. Think about all the miracles listed in the Bible. Jesus has this peculiar state He says — go and tell no one. And what do they do… For me, this points to our inability to not praise God for the amazing love He has shone us. It is impossible to not proclaim, talk about God’s amazing grace and love. It is natural; it flows out of us.
Miracles in the Bible
Covenants God has kept
Prayers God has answered: Psalm 66 — He knows us and hears our prayers
What Gets Us Up In The Morning?
2. God does amazing things over time.
These are the miracles of discipline. We open ourselves to them. They are works that require us to move from this world into God’s Kingdom as we live, die, and receive eternal life beyond the grave. They are hard lesson in life that God’s offers to move mountains, send rock splitting lightening, but we grow to the point where we offer ourselves to the process of bearing our cross, surrendering our lives for the love of the One who loves us even more, trusting in Him who can do immeasurably more than we can think or do. This is the miracle where God purges us of death itself by allowing us to surrender it piece by piece.
Abraham waiting
Joseph — You meant it for evil, but God used it for Good
Peter and the 12
Story of my neck surgery. Finding peace in all circumstances.
What gets us out of bed in the morning?
Knowing this… not because of some persuasive, charismatic compelling motivational speech, but because we have experienced something — gifts, miracles, freedom from God that are so undeniable — we know and have joyfully given ourselves to Jesus and know these words to be true:
John 3:16–17 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Pray.
