Steven Furtick - A Tomb With A View (02/14/2017)
On Easter Sunday, the preacher reads from 1 Peter 1:3-12 and John 20:8, contrasting perspectives on the resurrection: Peter's focus on its ongoing results like living hope, mercy, and resilient faith, versus John's reflection on the event itself at the empty tomb. The message emphasizes gaining a "resurrected perspective"—seeing life through the empty tomb's view of triumph over trauma, producing resilient faith, deeper praise, and real transformation rather than just celebrating a past event.
Opening Scriptures – 1 Peter 1:3-12
First Peter, chapter 1, verses 3 through 12. I actually have two scriptures to read to you from Easter. This is the first one. Peter says, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in his great mercy. Now, let me pause right here. How many are thankful for God's mercy in your life? How many probably wouldn't be here if it were not for God's mercy in your life?
In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you who, through faith, are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
Touch your neighbor and say, He's keeping me. God is keeping me. He's protecting me. There were all kinds of things that should have taken me out by now, but it was God's grace that protected me and held me in the hollow of his hand.
Rejoicing Through Trials
In all this, verse 6, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold, even though refined, which perishes, even though refined by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. For you are receiving... This is why we're happy. For you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
The Prophets and Angels Long to See This Salvation
Now, concerning this salvation... Y'all calm down. I've got to read my Scripture. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to Google the time and circumstances which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing to when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.
It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels... Listen how great your salvation is. Even angels long to look into these things.
Second Scripture – John 20:8 and Sermon Title
Now, I want to read another Scripture. This one's much shorter. Don't worry. You're going to get to sit down in a minute. Now, after you sit down, if you want to, you can stand back up when I start preaching. You know, if I start saying something that gets you excited, you can jump up. You can do it. You can do it. You can do it. You can do it. You can do it.
John, chapter 20. And let me just pick this one, verse 8. It says, Finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went inside. He saw and believed. He saw and believed.
I want to preach to you this Easter Sunday from the subject, a tomb with a view. I want to take you on a journey, and I want to take you to a tomb with a view.
God, open our eyes and our hearts to behold what your spirit is saying and what your hand is doing in our lives today. We want to see it. We want to see Jesus. Reveal him now by your spirit. In his name we pray. Everybody said together, Amen.
Touch your neighbor on your way to your seat and say, Don't miss it. Don't miss it.
Contrasting Perspectives – Event vs. Experience
The reason I put two different texts in front of you today is because they're both describing the resurrection of Jesus, but they're describing it from different perspectives. You've got Peter, who is writing to the persecuted church in modern-day Turkey. He's trying to get them through a perilous time, and he speaks about the resurrection.
You've got John talking about when he and Peter first went to the tomb and discovered that Jesus wasn't there. So, John is giving us a reflection on the resurrection. Peter, well, he's not talking about the event of the resurrection. He's talking about the experience.
So, we've got John going back in time to reflect on the event when they first saw it, and we've got Peter, who's looking back some 20 years before he wrote that letter, and he's telling us about the results of the resurrection. Maybe that would be a way to say it.
The resurrection is meant to produce results in your life. Not just a warm feeling or vague hope, but real results in your life. Real results, noticeable results.
While John is pointing us back to the event of the resurrection, Peter is talking to us about the ongoing experience of the resurrection. They're talking about the same resurrection just from a different perspective.
Same Event, Different Experiences
Have you ever noticed that two people can experience the exact same event in a completely different way? Isn't that interesting? I mean, if you don't believe me, just find somebody after church today and find five people and gather five people together after church and ask them all the same question. What did you think about it?
And one of them will still be so moved. They'll still be crying. They'll have makeup running down their face because God spoke to them so powerfully and it was overwhelming to them, a sense of God's love, and they won't even be able to answer you without getting choked up.
And then somebody else will be talking about lunch or be talking about the tournament or be talking about what's happening next, like church didn't even happen. And somebody else will be talking about, well, it was kind of long. And somebody else will be talking about, well, it was kind of loud. And somebody else will be talking about glowing beach balls. And somebody else will be talking about the video. And somebody else will be talking about who they sat next to.
And so it's the same event, It's not a moment but a different experience, and it's all based on your perspective.
So we have two resurrection perspectives, and they're both important. Perspective determines your experience. It's so important that, in fact, lately in my life I have been praying less and less about events and more and more for perspective.
I've been praying less and less about stuff and more and more about perspective, because I figure that my perspective affects everything.
Praying for Perspective Over Circumstances
So when I pray for somebody who's sick in their body, before I pray for their body I pray for their mind. The first thing that I pray for each week when I pray with people in our church who are sick or lost someone is that God would give them peace, the peace that passes all understanding to guard their heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
I figure if their heart and their mind are guarded, then whatever happens in their body they'll be able to deal with it, because they have a perspective of peace.
In fact, that's what Jesus did when there was a storm one night on the Sea of Galilee. Before he calmed the storm, he calmed their souls. Before he said, Be still to the storm, he spoke peace to their perspective, because if you have peace in your perspective you can deal with any amount of pain.
You need to be praying this Easter that God would give you a resurrected perspective. See, to me, I don't just want to celebrate an event that happened. I want the event that happened to become the way that I handle my life. I want a resurrected perspective.
I want to see my life seated with God, with Christ, in heavenly places, where my enemies are under my feet, and all things are possible. The resurrection is a perspective, and we need it. I need it in my life. I need it in my preaching.
My preaching is no better than my perspective. How can I say it right if I see it right? The first thing I ask God to bless is my eyes, not my mouth. If I don't see it in his word, I can't say it. So I need a perspective.
Perspective in Parenting and Everyday Life
I need a perspective as a parent. God knows I need a perspective as a parent, the perspective to realize that one day I'm going to miss all this noise, and I'm going to miss all this chaos, and I'm going to miss all this fighting. Well, maybe not that, But, you know, I'm going to miss all of these moments.
I don't want to miss them because I didn't have the perspective, and the perspective of your children can actually be helpful to you because, you know, you have experience that they need. You do. That's why it's so frustrating to be your mom or to be your dad because your mom, your dad, they have incredible experience that you have no interest in that would help you in your perspective in life.
They would be able to help you, and I feel like our children give us a perspective. You know, we're trying to give them experience in advance, and they're trying to give us experience in reverse.
So I can remember that it used to be fun to go down a water slide. Not so much anymore, but my kids give me the ability to experience that as if it were still fun because I'm doing it through their perspective.
Perspective. It's a gift. Perspective is a gift. It's a way of seeing things that may not change the things, but if you change the way you look at things, eventually, someone said, the things that you look at will begin to change by your perspective.
Perspective is different between men and women. I find this out even with little kids, because my son and my daughter, my oldest son, and then my youngest child, who is a girl, they have totally different perspectives.
Like, yesterday, we took family pictures, and I thank God for family pictures. I like to look at them more than I like to live through them. Some things in life are like that. They're better looking back. Everybody shout Perspective.
Yeah. And so I was laughing, because Elijah, he hates pictures. He hates taking pictures. He got so mad this year preparing for Easter pictures that he told Holly, he told Holly, he goes, I hate pictures. I hate pictures. I hate Easter pictures. I hate Easter. If I'm ever a pastor, I'm not even having Easter.
The pictures were so painful for him that he has canceled the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Savior, from the dead, just so he doesn't have to take a picture.
Now, Abby, on the other hand, completely different perspective. This is the estrogen perspective. It's a different perspective. I walked by Abby the other day. She was in front of a mirror. We're getting ready to take pictures. She was in front of a mirror with her hand on her hip. You know how y'all do to look 15 pounds lighter.
She had her hand on her hip, and she was cocked a certain way. I said, what are you doing, baby? She said, I'm practicing my pose for the picture.
Now, I got one kid who's practicing her pose for the same picture that's making the other kid suicidal. What made one kid want to kill the Easter bunny, the other one is excited about.
Do you not know that some of the things that you've been through in your life would have killed a lesser person? But it was because God gave you a blessed perspective that you were able to make it through.
In fact, I want all of the people who went through something that only God could have brought you through to give them a praise right now. Give them an Easter praise. Come on, University City. Give them a next-level praise.
Raising Praise to a New Level
See, the resurrection takes me to a new level of praise. That's what Peter said. He started off his prayer, and he said, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is significant because Peter was modeling this prayer after a Jewish benediction that he would have learned in the synagogue. And it always starts with praise.
May I suggest that your day will be better if it starts with praise. May I suggest that even your challenges will be manageable if you start with praise. Enter his gates, I feel like preaching on Easter, with Thanksgiving, and his chorus with praise.
Touch your neighbor and say he always shouts like this. See, to me, Easter is not just a special occasion. It's a way of life. It's a perspective that raises me up to a new level of praise.
It doesn't mean I don't have to go through anything. It just means I can see it from a perspective of praise.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, even that salutation to me contains an interesting dynamic, because in the Old Testament they would always say, Praise be to the God of Abraham or the God of Isaac or the God of Jacob.
They would mention one of the patriarchs, praise be to the God of Gary Sessions, one of the old guys, and they put it in there.
But this time, Peter has seen face-to-face what the prophets could only point to. That's why he said the prophets of old were searching for what you're standing in.
Do you have any idea how powerful resurrection is? That an angel somewhere is jealous of you right now and wishes that he or she could trade places. Because angels can't praise God for mercy. They never sinned.
It is only Peter who denied Christ standing by the fire who can understand the magnitude of mercy to the point where he says, When I praise God, I don't just praise the God of Abraham. I don't just praise the God of Isaac. I don't just praise the God of Jacob. I don't just praise the God of my fathers.
For me, this is a personal praise. Jesus is personal to me. He is my personal Savior. It's different when it's personal. It's different when it's personal.
I was so worried I wouldn't be a good parent because I don't like kids. Everybody would tell me, Don't worry about it. It's different when they're... See, you might not be a religious person, but it's different when you have a personal relationship with God.
So Peter says, I know who I'm praising. I know who he is. I didn't just hear about him. I saw him. I didn't just see him. I experienced him. And what started when I saw him face to face is now continuing by his spirit.
So I give him praise. I give him the kind of praise that's not for a new car, not the kind of praise that's for a new house, not the kind of praise that's because she called me back, Not the kind of praise that's because everybody liked me.
Not the kind of praise that comes when I get the promotion. This is the kind of praise that can only come when you've been through the fire and you realize that God is still faithful even in the fire.
It's an Easter praise. It's a praise on the other side of pain. It's not a circumstantial praise. It's a resurrection praise. It's a song to sing on Saturday while you wait for the sun to come up on Sunday morning. It's that kind of praise.
Peter is so excited. He can't help it, so he starts praising God. He said, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, verses 3 through 12, which I read you, and you were getting tired because your feet were hurting while you were standing up while I was reading. Peter said all of that in one sentence.
We don't see it in one sentence because the English translators did us the convenience of correcting Peter's grammar. The only problem with correcting his grammar is that it's somewhat misleading in his theology.
See, when he says verses 3 through 12, and he starts with Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, he goes all the way to verse 12 before he puts in a single punctuation Mark that ends a sentence.
So if you could see it, you could see Peter almost breathlessly declaring the blessings of God. In one breath, he's just putting it out there, all that God has done for you and all that God has done for me.
In one breath, he's praising God for not only the inheritance that you have but for the resurrection that gets you there and for the mercy that started it all.
In one breath, he declares the mystery of the gospel and the hope of the resurrection. In one breath, as Jesus hung on the cross when he breathed his last, he forgave and absolved the sins of all who would call upon his name.
In one breath, the Bible says, when he breathed his last, it was finished. In one breath, when he gathered the disciples together after he had risen from the dead and said, Receive the Holy Spirit, he breathed on them.
And in that one breath, every sin you commit, every shame that you've carried, and everything you've been through in your life is renewed and restored and resurrected by the presence of God.
You know, one psalmist said, Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. I wonder, does anybody have breath to praise him with today? If you've got breath, why don't you thank him for breath in your body, for life in your lungs, and for a second chance?
Is anybody grateful he lets you see another day? It's exciting to me. It's exciting to me. This is not the praise that comes before the fire. This is the praise that comes after you've been through it.
Discovering New Proof of Power
And not only do you have a new level of praise, but you have a new proof of power. Can I preach about this? Because what I hear Peter describing is he uses a metaphor, and he says that what fire is to gold, trials are to your faith.
They are not pleasant, but they are. He said, You need a resilient faith. The resurrection gives you a resilient faith. They all left Jesus at the cross, all except John. They all left him.
Something different happened after he Rose from the dead. They all died for him. Their faith became resilient on the other side of the fire.
I read an article in The New Yorker about resilience. The article argued that resilience is not a trait that you have to be born with. It is a skill that you can develop.
To prove it, they had a behavioral psychologist analyze some different kids that were from backgrounds that should have broken them, from situations that should have limited their capacity.
But instead, these kids not only survived and made it through, but they actually became a source of pride in their communities and succeeded on even a higher level than many of the kids they studied who didn't go through anything.
And that's one thing you need to know, that your faith cannot be proven if you never go through any fires. These kids went on to become things that they never should have been and do things that they never should have done, even though they had experienced severely traumatic events.
Types of Trauma – Acute and Chronic
Traumatic events come in many different shapes and sizes. There is what psychologists call acute stressor. An acute stressor is something that happens real quick and it's over, but it stays with you for the rest of your life.
That you can see something so horrific, even early before your cognitive abilities are fully functional. We call it scarred for life, traumatized. Sometimes you don't even remember what you saw or what you went through that made you that way.
And sometimes you don't even discover the effect that it had on you until much later. Some of the kids had witnessed that kind of violence or that kind of abuse.
Other kids in the study had experienced a more chronic trauma. Just because you never saw anybody got shot doesn't mean you're not traumatized.
See, John is dealing with the acute trauma of the cross. That is, in a moment, all of their hopes, all of their dreams, all of their ideas about who the Messiah was were seemingly destroyed on the cross.
And it was traumatizing for all of the disciples. It was traumatizing. That's why Peter went back fishing for a little while afterwards. It traumatized him to go through that. Even his own denial of Christ was traumatic.
Judas was traumatized by the cross. Peter was traumatized by the cross. Judas was traumatized by the cross. Same cross. Different result.
See, Peter is dealing with the results of the resurrection. The cross caused Judas to hang himself, because he dealt with the event, allowing it to become his experience.
But the same cross enabled Peter to preach on the day of Pentecost. Because the study said in the New Yorker that it is not the event that defines your potential. It's not what you've been through that determines where your life can end up.
It's not what they did to you. It's not what they didn't do for you. As a matter of fact, let me get this out of the way. It's not even what you did or didn't do up until this point that defines, limits, or enables your ability to go forward.
The same event that killed Judas became an opportunity for Peter to experience mercy, so that by the time he's preaching to the church in Turkey, he says, Let me tell you about mercy. Let me tell you about resurrection. Let me tell you about triumphs.
See, I found out that the empty tomb means that trauma is subject to triumph. That trauma, whatever you've been through in your life, is subject to triumph.
We call it Good Friday. It wasn't very good from that side of it. We can only call it Good Friday because we see it from Sunday.
My God, I came to pray for your perspective and preach to your perspective. Why are you looking at the cross from Thursday or Saturday when it's Sunday morning, and he got up with all power in his hand and said, I got the keys of death hell and the grave, and there's nothing that can hold you.
It's Easter. It's Easter. Easter is my new perspective. Resurrection is my new frame of mind, and all things are possible to him who believes.
I got proof. I got proof. I got proof of his power. That's why he was three days late to Lazarus' house, because if Jesus would have come to Lazarus' house and healed him, they would have only known him as a healer, but they already knew him as a healer.
He needed to show up in such a way, in a dramatic fashion, that he could say, I am the resurrection. What's he doing? It's a new proof of power.
He wants you to know, not only can he make the sick well, but he can make the dead live. I need somebody to shout in the presence of God.
So I got a new level of praise. How about you? I got a new proof of power. My faith is resilient. Everybody say resilient. I'm resilient.
They don't have to study me in the New Yorker. The fact that I'm standing here today in church is proof of the grace and mercy and power of God in my life.
I was so excited about resilience that I looked it up in Latin. And you know what resilient means in Latin? You can't handle this. I'm going to save it for the next one, because you guys are tired. You're tired. You've been shouting. You've been here a long time. You don't want to hear it.
It means to jump again. It means that all I've been through and I still got to bounce back in my spirit. It means don't count me out yet, because I'm going to jump again.
Man, I got a resilient faith. I got a real faith. I got a proven faith. It's genuine like gold. The fire didn't destroy me. It only revealed the resilience.
It means that it might still be dark in my life, but I'm starting to see some light. I have a new point of view because of the resurrection.
Entering the Tomb – Discovering the View
Should we go to the tomb real quick? Should we go to the tomb? Should we go to the tomb? Should we go to the tomb? I want to go to the tomb. Will you go to the tomb with me? Will you go? Will you go? Will you go? Will you go?
Come on. I need you to go. I need you to go. I need you to go. We're going to the tomb. You're going to go to the tomb? Okay. Come on. Come on. Come on.
You can be Peter, and I'll be John. You be Peter. I'll be John. Peter and John went to the tomb together. The ladies went first.
When they got there, they saw the body of Jesus wasn't there, and so they came back to the men with a report that they've stolen the body of Jesus. That was their perspective.
By the way, your first impression is not always the correct perspective. Tell somebody, say, look again. Tell them, look again. Look again.
My life might look busted right now, but look again. God is doing something in me. God is working in me. God's not finished with me. God's hand is still on me. Look again.
So John and Peter said, we can't take anybody else's word for it. We got to see for ourselves. You know what the problem with some of us is? We haven't had a personal encounter with God yet.
We've only had faith handed down to us, but a faith that is handed down that you haven't owned yet is not authentic. Peter said, this is the kind of faith that you can't point to. You've got to run to it. You've got to run to it.
So Peter and John got up on Sunday morning, and the Bible says that they set out for the tomb. Watch this in John. You're Peter, and I'm John, and Peter and the other disciple.
Now, this is in John's gospel. John is kind of cocky because he refers to himself in the third person. Now, by the time John is recording this, he's around 90 years old, so he's got that grandpa vibe where he's looking back.
Somebody say, Papa John, and he's looking back, and he's looking back on what happened that day. He's reviewing the event. He's reviewing the event. He's looking at the event, the event that changed history.
He's going back to the tomb, but this is no ordinary tomb. See, normally a tomb stinks. Normally a tomb is dark, but this is no ordinary tomb. This is a tomb with a view.
You want to see it? You want to see it? You want to see it? Here it is. They said, we've got to see this for ourselves.
So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Now, you're not going to like this part. Both were running, but the other disciple, that's me, outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
He got there first. John said, I got there first. Just want you to know. I got there first.
When I got there, I bent over and I looked at the strips of linen. That's what they wrapped him up in. If they would have consulted their scriptures, they could have saved a little money on the ace bandages because he wasn't going to be there long enough for his body to decay, so they could have saved the strips if they had known the story.
He said, I bent over and I looked in, I looked in, I looked in at the strips of linen that were lying there, but I didn't go in.
I wonder, does that describe where some of you are in your faith today? He looked in, but he didn't go in. He was looking, trying to make sense of what had happened. He was trying to make sense of the event from the outside looking in.
But, you know, some things don't make sense from the outside looking in. You can live your whole life trying to look for meaning. You can live your whole life trying to look for purpose. You can live your whole life trying to understand God.
I wonder if I should really believe. I wonder if this is really true. John was an inquisitive type. He was an investigator of sorts. He was not the first one to speak. He was faster than Peter, but he wasn't quite as bold as Peter.
Perhaps he was afraid to be near a dead body because that was prohibited for a Jewish man to touch a dead body or to be in the vicinity of a dead body. He would have been ceremonially unclean. So he didn't go in. He just... We're going to lay it right there. Can't get it dirty because I have to wear it next to him. That's the linen.
He saw it. The Bible says he saw it. He saw it. Now, the Greek word used here to mean see means see, and that's all it means. It's what your eyes do. It's your physical sense of sight. He saw it.
Normally, he wouldn't have been able to look in the tomb because it would have been sealed, but the resurrection reveals what was concealed. Peter said the prophets wanted to get in on what you're in on, but the resurrection broke the seal. This is a tomb with a view.
So he looked in. He looked in. He looked in, and he saw it, and he saw it, and he saw it, but I love Peter. Now, here's your moment to shine.
It says in the next verse, then Simon Peter came along. See, different perspectives, different perspectives. Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb.
No, he didn't touch it yet. He went in. That's what you have to do to really understand worship. You have to go in. Some of you aren't going to get anything today if you don't go in. You have to go in. You have to go in. You have to go in. You have to go in.
Peter went straight into the tomb, and he saw… Now, this word saw is a little different than the word it uses when it says that John saw.
This word saw in Koine Greek means that he scrutinized. He scrutinized. He checked it out. Get a closer look at this. He scrutinized.
It looks like linen. It looks like what they wrapped him in. How many know that sometimes God will leave some evidence in a place to remind you that he's been there with you all along? Oh, man.
I like this next part because it says what John did. John, after standing out there… In fact, the Bible says in verse 7… No, it's verse 8. Finally… That makes me think he stood there a little too long.
When he's looking back on it later, he's saying, I stood there for a while, and I tried to figure it out from the outside, and I tried to make sense of it from the outside.
The article in The New Yorker said that the kids who made it, the kids who Rose above, the kids who were resilient, that grew up to do something… What made the difference was not the event they went through. It was how they experienced the event.
The ones who made it were the ones who found a meaning in the trauma when they made something out of it. When they said, I didn't go through fire for nothing.
You know, when my dad was dying of ALS, he kept saying to me over and over again, please make sure that you tell the story of how God worked in my life. Please make sure that somehow God gets some glory out of all I've been through.
Because he had been through so much pain, he needed to know that there was a purpose. He needed to know this is not for nothing. God said I would be preaching to somebody today who needs to know it's not for nothing.
These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith might result in praise and honor and glory when Jesus is revealed. Reveal. Reveal your glory.
The Moment of Belief – Stepping Inside
John went in. Watch the verse. It says, the one who reached the tomb first, just reminding you that I beat you there. The one who reached the tomb first also went inside.
That's what I see happening in someone's heart today is you're coming inside. That's why the stone is rolled away to issue an invitation that no matter how long you've doubted or what you've done. Heaven is open. Hope is open. The glory of God is in this place.
He came inside, and the same strips of linen that were lying there all along were still there, but now he could see it from a new point of view.
See, I see my life from the view of the empty tomb. To me, when I see the empty tomb, I don't see emptiness. I see a future that's full of hope and full of possibility and full of endless potential and full of forgiveness.
John said, I could see it when I stepped inside. It says that John saw it, and he believed. He saw it. The first time he saw it, he saw it with his eyes.
The second time he saw it, he didn't scrutinize it. This word means in Greek that he perceived the significance. And then it says that Peter and John, after seeing from the tomb, understood what had happened on the cross, and they went back home.
Their situation didn't change, but the way they saw it changed. When we say that God is going to give you a new life, it's true, but really what he does, he gives you a new lens for your life so that you can see your life in view of the empty tomb.
The Spirit of the Lord is in this place. I want you to stand to your feet. I want to pray for people. I want to pray for people.
I see it now. I see it now because I came inside. Some of you are standing on the outside looking in, wondering if God really has a plan for you.
Some of you are trying to make sense of from a distance what you're only going to understand up close and personal. God wants to make himself personal to you today. He wants to make himself real to you that the proven genuineness of your faith may result.
Some of you walked away from God because of the fire you gave up your faith. God is calling you back in today to step into possibility, to step into grace.
Three times Peter says in 1 Peter 1, 3-12 that God has revealed Jesus to us. That's God's part, but you've got to receive what he reveals.
As long as the resurrection is just an event to you, you've missed the whole point. Peter said when you really get resurrected on the inside, it produces a living hope, access to great mercy, and a new heart.
Final Invitation – Step Into New Life
It would be my privilege today to lead you into a relationship with God. Maybe you were strong with him at one time and you're not anymore. Maybe you've never really had a connection with God by faith like we talked about.
You know you can be religious and still be standing outside looking in at what God wants to happen in your heart. Is he in your heart? Is he in your life? Are you living life from a perspective of resurrection?
I'd like you to bow your head and close your eyes at all of our locations. This prayer is simple. If you're ready today to step in and become a part of what Jesus Christ died to establish in the earth and give your heart to God totally and completely, have your sins forgiven, and follow Jesus the rest of the days of your life, then I want to lead you in a prayer.
Our whole church is going to pray this out loud together for the benefit of those who are coming to God or coming back to God. If this expresses the desire of your heart, the Bible says that it is by grace, through faith, you are saved. Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. With heads bowed and eyes closed, if you're ready to come in today, to come into the family of God, to come into right relationship with him, to come into his grace, I want to repeat this prayer after me out loud. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is your Son, and today I make him my Savior and Lord. I believe he died to forgive my sin. I believe he Rose to give me life. I receive this new life. Make me a brand new person. Amen.
With heads still bowed and eyes still closed, on the count of three, if you just prayed that prayer, shoot your hand up in the air and hold it up on three. One, two, three. Shoot him up. Shoot him up. Shoot him up. Identify your new life in Christ.
I need a church to celebrate. Hold that hand up. Hold that hand up. I have a gift for you. On every location, hold that hand up. Hold that hand up. Don't be ashamed. Come on in. Don't be ashamed. Come on in.
Hold that hand high. We have a gift for you. Hold it high. Hold it high. Hold it high. Hold it high. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Hold it high.
God bless you. God bless you. Welcome to the family. Come on, church. Lift up a praise. It's special every time. Lift up a praise. Lift up a praise.
He makes all things new. All things new!