Easter Service 2026 | Chad Bruegman

We are so glad that you guys chose to join us this morning. And a big welcome to all of our first times. My name is Liz, this is Ariel, and this is Chad. We love to get our service started by singing some songs together. So y'all ready? Here we go. Come on, let's do this. Oh, yeah I wish I could tell Wish I could describe But I can't contain Can't keep it to myself Not enough color To paint the whole picture And not enough words To ever say what I've found He's wonderful and beautiful And glorious and holy He's merciful and powerful Who we talking about? That's my king He just has a voice And we give him all the honor Altogether worthy Who we talking about? That's my king There's no one before you Yes, we would love you, yeah All of this is for you Who we talking about?

That's my king Hey, Jesus You are my king Oh I'm not letting the rock slide Without joining the chorus Not enough notes to make the harmony, yeah It's the song of the angels Lord of the angels With all of the earth And heaven's symphony, yeah He's wonderful and beautiful And glorious and holy He's merciful and powerful Who we talking about? That's my king He just has a voice And we give him all the honor Altogether worthy Who we talking about? That's my king There's no one before you Oh, yes, we would adore you And all of this is for you Who we talking about? That's my king Come on, the blessed people make some noise Hey That's my king That's my God

Come on, keep it clean That's my shepherd He's my protector Oh, that's my king That's my rock He's my anchor My defender That's my king, yeah That's my God, oh That's my shepherd My protector, yeah That's my king, yeah That's my rock, yeah That's my anchor My defender Who we talking about? That's my king, yeah We declare the glory And we give him all the honor Altogether worthy Who we talking about? That's my king There's no one before you Oh, yes, we would adore you And all of this is for you Who we talking about? That's my king We declare the glory And we give Him all the honor He's altogether worthy

Who we talking about? That's my king Who we talking about? That's my king Who we talking about? That's my king Who we talking about? That's my king Who we talking about? That's my king Who we talking about? That's my king Who we talking about? That's my king Who we talking about? That's my king Who we talking about? That's my king That's my king Hey, that's a good start Hands together like this Happy Easter Come on, let's sing this together Well, come all you weary Come all you thirsty Come to the well That never runs dry Drink of the water Come in first no more Well, come all you sinner

Come find this first Come to the table He will satisfy Taste of His goodness Find what you're looking for Somebody sing it out For God so loved The world that He gave His one and only Son to save us Whoever believes in Him Will live forever Well bring all your failures Bring your addictions Come lay Him down At the foot of the cross Jesus is waiting there With open arms Can you see His soul can dance For God so loved The world that He gave us His one and only Son to save us Whoever believes in Him Will live forever The power of hell Forever defeated Now it is well Now walking in freedom For God so loved God so loved the world He's worthy of our praise

Let's praise Him again Praise God Praise God From whom all blessings flow Praise Him Praise Him For the wonders of His love Praise God Praise God From whom all blessings flow Praise Him Praise Him For the wonders of His love His amazing love For God so loved The world that He gave us His one and only Son to save us For God so loved The world that He gave us His one and only Son to save us Whoever believes in Him Will live forever The power of hell Forever defeated Now it is well Now walking in freedom For God so loved God so loved the world Bring all your failures Bring your addictions

Come lay them down At the foot of the cross Jesus is waiting God so loved the world Then sings my soul My Savior God to Thee How great Thou art How great Thou art Lift your voice and sing Then sings my soul My Savior God to Thee How great Thou art How great Thou art Let's do that again Then sings my soul My Savior God to Thee How great Thou art How great Thou art Thank you Jesus Then sings my soul My Savior God to Thee How great Thou art How great Thou art How great Thou art How great Thou art at Riverpoint and West End Church on behalf of the entire staff and all of the volunteers we want to thank you for being here. We're so grateful you had a choice today and you showed up and that's a big deal for us. This church was built on relationships and God's grace. We believe that God works through relationships so if you're interested we want to connect with you. There's some

information in the seat back in front of you or you can go find anybody, somebody and just ask them a question. If they don't look friendly, ignore them. Move on to the next one. But there's plenty of people in here who would love to tell you how you can get connected or answer any questions. There's also an information desk out there but we would just like to connect it with you. We want to be a good neighbor and a good friend to you. So maybe you consider coming back. Either way we love you. God loves you. Thank you for being here. I'm gonna pray and then we're gonna continue with one more song. Y'all got one more song in you? It's that kind of day we're gonna praise them. Let's pray. Jesus we love you. We shout for joy for the victory you won. You're alive. You have risen and you reign today right here in this moment. You reign. What's our posture to that? What's our response to that? Somehow it's to say we love you back. Even though it's hard sometimes to wrap our minds and our heart around this story of your amazing grace, it's hard, it's difficult. But God would you speak to our hearts today? Would you remind us of your truth and your love? Jesus we thank you for the cross. Jesus we thank you for the resurrection. Jesus we thank you for the unstoppable love that changes everything. It's you and you alone who we worship today. In Jesus name we say amen. It was my cross you wore, so I could live in the freedom you died for. And now my life is yours and I will sing of your goodness forevermore. Worthy is your name Jesus. You deserve the praise. Worthy is your name. Worthy is your name. Jesus. You deserve the praise. Worthy is your name. And now my shame is gone. I stand amazed in your love undeniable. And your grace goes on and on. And I will sing of your goodness forevermore. Worthy is your name Jesus. You deserve the praise. Worthy is your name. Worthy is your name. Jesus. You deserve the praise.

Worthy is your name. Be exalted now in the heavens as your glory fills this place. You alone deserve our praise. You're the name above all names. Be exalted now in the heavens as your glory fills this place. Now in the heavens as your glory fills this place You alone deserve our praise No As you Jesus, you deserve praise Worthy is your name Worthy is your name You deserve, you deserve the praise, God Worthy, worthy, worthy Worthy is your name Jesus, you deserve the praise Worthy is your name Worthy is your name Jesus, you deserve the praise Worthy is your name Yeah, worthy You guys can be seated. Richmond campus, Happy Resurrection Sunday. Are you guys doing okay? Forget you guys, Missouri City Campus. Happy Easter. Are you guys doing okay? I'm sure they're going crazy over there. Everybody at West End, we want to welcome you as well. Everyone watching with us online this weekend, we're so grateful that you get to be with us. And at every campus, come on, let's go crazy for all of the amazing men at our God Behind Bars campus. All you men at the Ramsey unit, worshiping with us.

You know how much we love you gentlemen. Want to wish you a happy Resurrection Sunday. To everybody at the Richmond campus specifically, that is outside or in the lobby, we've got overflow in one of our other auditoriums. It's a bit crazy, you know, and what a good problem to have, man. Everybody, and I'm sure at the other campuses do too, but I can tell you at Richmond, everybody's looking incredibly beautiful, suave, dapper, beautiful. I was watching a bunch of you guys walk in, man, and I love watching everybody getting all dressed up because we have such an incredible reason to celebrate. The tomb is empty. He has risen. The implications of that are beyond even our own human understanding. I know at every campus we've already welcomed so many visitors that we have with us, but I'm going to say it again on behalf of our team. I am so incredibly honored that you guys are visiting with us this weekend, and we just want to say thank you and hope you have an incredible experience. It is really important if you're a visitor with us that you know this, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart. We don't want anything from you, but I will say this. We want so much for you. I know we don't know each other. You don't know me. I don't know you. But we have been praying hard for you this whole week that when you step foot at any one of our campuses that you would feel and experience something that's different than the rest of this world. And it's not us. It's not church. It's not any of the stuff that we do here. It is the power of God who is just welcoming you. And I believe that if you will lean in in these next few moments as we talk about one of the most beautiful things that we have been given through Jesus, which is this thing called hope, I promise you you're going to walk out of the doors of your campus better than you walked in. This is probably almost my 20th year of talking about Easter in some form or fashion, taking the old, ancient, yet very real story and looking at it from another angle.

And no matter what we talk about or how we go about talking about Easter, what I have to do is this every year. I have to do two things. Number one, we have to talk about the eternal implications of Jesus rising from the dead. And we're going to do that, but we're going to circle back to that. because you always save the best for what? You save the best for last. But we also have to talk about the immediate implications of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That matters so much. Like, what's that mean to us right here? Not someday, but right here and right now. And to do that, I'm gonna start with a little bit of confession time. I don't know if you're like me or not. You may be a better human than me, but every now and then, I find myself saying this, usually in my mind, sometimes unfortunately out loud, and it's usually with the people I actually love the most. I find myself saying this. Maybe you've said it before. I say, man, I love them, but I don't like them at all right now. You ever been there? Come on, married people, you've been there. Don't act like you haven't. We're in church, be honest. Parents of teenagers, be honest. We've all been, I love them so much. I would literally die for them.

They're the best thing that's ever happened to me, but I do not like them right now. We've all probably said it, and if you haven't, we've all felt it, and the reason I bring that up is because we're gonna look at a passage of scripture today that I would categorize in the category of, I love this, but I don't like it. It's kinda like with my wife. I was coming home from work earlier this week, and I had put in a hard, honest day of work, like many of you, and I just wanted to get home to the haven with the people you love most, kick off my shoes, and enjoy the rest of the evening, and that was squandered pretty quickly, because when I got out of my car and was walking up the porch, I saw not one, not two, but three packages from Amazon, and I know we use this word too much, but I was triggered, man. I was not feeling it, and then the top two said this on them and I don't know if I'm saying it right. It said Sephora, and I just started filling my blood, getting angry. I'm like, my whole day of work probably just paid for my wife and daughter's facial regime, whatever that's going on. I'm not happy about it, and I was thinking in my mind that very moment, God, you know I love that woman. She is the absolute best gift apart from you that I have received in this lifetime.

I can't wait to grow old with my wife, but I do not like her right now, you know what I'm saying? It's one of those moments, and I'm about to read you a verse from Romans chapter eight, verse 11, and I would categorize this. We're gonna build from this all day. It's a beautiful passage of scripture. One small sentence has massive implications for our lives, and I would categorize this verse as I absolutely love this verse. It fires me up. It motivates me. It inspires me. It challenges me, but also, there's many times in life when I would equally say, but I don't like this verse, and here it is, Romans chapter eight, verse 11. It says this, the same spirit that what? Raised Christ from the dead. Now, let's stop there for a minute. Can we agree that is a powerful spirit of miraculous proportions, when the spirit of God has the power to literally put breath back into the lungs of someone who has laid dead for the last 72 hours, to reawaken the organs, to get the blood flowing again through the veins, and it says this, the same spirit that did that, that raised Christ from the dead, and you ready for this? Now lives in you. Wow.

Now lives in you. That same resurrection power, it says, now lives in you. Let me tell you why I love that verse, because we humans, we love statements of possibility. Who doesn't love to be told, there is so much more potential in you than you think? It helps get us out of bed in the morning, does it not? It gets me fired up as a competitor in life. I love it. I'm like, man, there's more. Like, Chad, you don't have to play small today. Chad, you can wake up today again, and you can believe for big things, because the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is now dwelling in you, and so like you, I love that, but let me tell you why sometimes I go, but I don't like that verse, and here's why, because sometimes life starts lifing. Can I get an amen? Amen. Sometimes life's telling me what to do instead of me telling it what to do. Sometimes, like my children, life starts acting up, and I love life, but man, I do not like it right now, and here's what I start dealing with mind game-wise during seasons of difficulty, during seasons of what the Bible calls trials, tribulations, difficulties, troubles, even the big S word, suffering. Here's what I start to think.

Maybe that's not true, but I've done this Jesus thing long enough to fully reject that mind game. I stand on the word of God. I stand on the promises of God. I know it's true. I've tasted it. I've experienced it at different times in my life, so I reject that, but you know what the one that gets me even more? Maybe you too. It's this. Well, I'm probably just not living a life worthy of that kind of resurrection power. So that must not be for me. That must be for one of those saints that have done it a lot better than me. But I've done this a while again, and I reject that as well. You know why? Because there's condemnation in that. And a few verses earlier in Romans eight, the same writer said, therefore now there is no condemnation if you've put your faith in Christ Jesus, because Christ Jesus has set us free from the law that came with sin and death that came with sin. We've been set free from that. So I reject that as well.

And the third option that I have come to anchor myself in is simply this. No matter what I am going to go through in life, no matter what you are gonna go through in life, here is the truth. God does not absolve us from all difficulty because we put our faith in him. God doesn't get us out of all of the troubles we sometimes create for ourselves and others because we've put our faith in him. God is explicitly honest with us throughout his word and history. Jesus said it best. He said, in this world, you will what? You will have trouble. I'm so grateful he said that. He says, but be of good cheer because I've overcome the world. In other words, be of good cheer because the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is going to see you through this season. Some of us walked in here and life is going amazing and we celebrate that with you. We're grateful. We rejoice with you, enjoy it. But a bunch of us today, just by the sheer numbers, you come in here and this is one of the chapters being written in the book of your life that you say, I could do without this chapter. And this is the beauty and the power of the empty tomb

is that it brings with it this powerful force, this fuel to the human soul and spirit, which we call hope. Easter is a weekend of hope where we re-up on it and we remember it. And so I wanna do this for a few minutes. I, since this is year 20 into preaching about Easter, start running out of material. You know what I'm talking about? And so I'm gonna tell the same precious story over, but I'm gonna go to a place you wouldn't normally in the Bible associate with the Easter story. It's this book, many of you might not even know that it was in the Bible or where it's in the Bible. It's this book called Lamentations. And it's titled Lamentations precisely because it's a guy lamenting about how difficult life has gotten. But when you really start to get into what he is saying, you start to realize in this small obscure book, he's actually giving us a masterclass on what hope is. And he's equally and importantly giving us a masterclass on what hope isn't. Because to fully understand what true hope is, you also have to understand the false definitions that we as a world and we as a culture have put in on this idea of hope. And so I'm gonna start by talking about what hope isn't. And I learned this from the guy who wrote this book. His name is this Jeremiah. He's one of the great prophets

who helped tell the story of God in ancient times. He's famously referred to as the weeping prophet. Because if you think life's hard, I challenge you to read his life and you might feel a little bit better. You'll at least feel seen and heard. And in chapter three, where we're gonna start reading in a few minutes, before we get there, the first 18 verses is this. It is Jeremiah just pouring out his heart to God and he is being brutally honest and he is pulling no punches. And he is unashamedly telling God what's up and what is going on. Jeremiah had been asked by God as a prophet to speak to the nation of Israel when they were at one of their heights of rebellion. And so he didn't have a fun message to give. They weren't leaning in like you guys are. They rejected his message. He lost his friends, he lost his family. He had to be in hiding and on the run because not his enemies, his own people wanted to kill him for the message he gave on behalf of God. He goes on in the first 18 verses to say because of that season of life, his body had also caught up to that stress and he had become very physically ill. And he's talking honestly before God going,

I don't get this, I don't like this, I wanna quit, I wanna give up. There's some points in the book of Jeremiah and Lamentations where he's alluding to just wanting to die and be done with it. And what we learn in those first 18 verses before we get to the really beautiful news is what hope isn't. So I just wanna give you a few thoughts about what hope isn't so we can be very clear about what true hope really is. And the first thing is this, hope is not simply blind optimism or wishful thinking. Hope is not just a principle to live by. Hope is definitely way more than an emotion or a feeling. Hope in its purest form is a person and it has a face and it has a name and it has scars in his hands. and scars in his feet. Hope is not closing your eyes and wishing for a better future. Hope is anchoring yourself to the one who did the ultimate for you and said the reason he was compelled to do it is because nobody on planet Earth can love you the way he loved you. He would say a greater man has no one than this that when someone lays down their life for their friend and this is what Jesus has done. Jesus is our hope.

Hope has a name. Hope has scars. Hope has a face. Number two is this. This is huge. Jeremiah teaches us this. Hope, true hope is not dismissing reality. Go back this week and read the first 18 verses of Lamentations chapter three. Jeremiah is so boldly saying everything that's on his mind before the Lord and if you didn't know this about God, let me be the first one to tell you you have been given full precedent and permission to be brutally honest before God. See, God knew the end from the beginning. Not one of your days is a shock to him. Your seasons of difficulty and struggling and sometimes even suffering, that is not in any way, shape, or form a shock to God. And see, the human soul and spirit only has a certain capacity to hold things and so if you don't feel permission with God to get it all out, there's no room left for it to be replaced with what can move you forward in this life. Hope. And so hope isn't just a denial of reality. Instead, it's letting Jesus Christ lead you and guide you through every single one

of those difficult realities. Third thing is this. Hope is not a get out of jail free card. And here's why I say that. The Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter three, he starts talking Easter language and he says this. Listen to this. He says, I wanna know Christ. And I say, me too, Paul. And he repeats it. He goes, yeah, I wanna know Christ. But then he says this. He goes, and I wanna know the power of his resurrection. And I'm feeling it. I'm going, me too, Paul. Who doesn't? The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead I've been told now lives in me. Let's go. The problem though is Paul keeps writing. And he says this. But I also want to share in his sufferings. And then he says, so as to attain to the fullness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Resurrection by its very definition means this. It has to be preceded first by death. Difficulty. Jesus said some of the sufferings, if you're my disciple, if you're my follower, you're gonna share to some degree

in some of the same things that you saw and witnessed me go through. Of course I wanna share in the resurrection power. But you can't have resurrection power unless it's preceded by something incredibly difficult which Jesus told us we would have. Now, where hope comes into play and is so powerful is knowing no matter what difficulty I am walking through, no matter how hard life can get, God is up to some of his most sovereignly important and significant work in my life. Not when everything's easy, but when everything's difficult. I think it was Friedrich Nietzsche who said it and then Kelly Clarkson who sung it. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Right, I won't sing, because I don't wanna ruin your Easter, but. And it's literally true. The Apostle James put it this way. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Here's why. He says, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. He says, and perseverance has to finish its work. Why? So that we may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 says it this way. He says, in my weakest moments was ironically

when God's power was actually made most perfect. And then he finishes by saying, his grace is sufficient for you. In your weakness is when God's resurrection power is actually up to its best work. And most of the time you won't feel it because you feel like you're surviving, not thriving. But what's the alternative? Getting through that alone? Getting through that powerless? Last but not least, and then we get to what hope is. Hope is not this. Hope is not, and I'm gonna step on a few toes, and please know I do this out of love, zero judgment, because I understand why we do this. But in 2026 America, I think we gotta talk about this. Hope is not closing your eyes, crossing your legs, lighting a hemp candle, and manifesting your future. It's not a conversation with the universe. And I mean that with love. There is only forever and all time one man effestation, keyword man, effestation that you will ever need and it will not disappoint. There's only one hope that does not disappoint and it's not closing your eyes and saying universe bring me that man, it's overdue. Universe get me that job, I need that promotion, universe is going to fill my bank account in 2026, I know because it's on my vision board. Listen, I know why we humans do that, we're desperate for some semblance of control in a chaotic world, are we not? I think God understands but what he desperately wants us to know is the only manifestation that can ever bring life and life to the fullest is the fact that while you don't know your

future, you put your faith and trust and hope in the one who knows the end from the beginning. I don't want to speak to the universe about my future, I want to speak to the man sitting on a throne above the universe about the future because he's already written it all out. Hope again is what I'm trying to say, as a man it's not an idea. I grew up in church hearing pastors get up and I used to think it was cheesy and a bit of a platitude and as I get older in my faith, this is a sacred statement to me, some of you might have heard it before, the pastor would get up and go, I don't know what the future holds but I know who holds the future, can I get an amen? And I'd be like, oh my goodness, get me out of church, when's lunch? But as I've gotten older, I proudly stand before you and say none of us know what the future holds if you're really honest. But here's what you can lean into with hope is that you do know the person who absolutely holds the future. So now let's get to the good stuff, let's talk about what true hope actually looks like. So Jeremiah, he's wrapping up his lamentation by saying, I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall that came with it. He said, I remember them well and here's what that does to my soul, it makes my spirit downcast or depressed within me. And if he stopped there, that would be horrible, no hope at all. But listen to how he concludes the truth about how he's feeling, he says, yeah, that's like I'm about to rev up my soul and my spirit, I'm about to replace hurt with hope. He says, yet I call this to my mind and therefore what do I get, hope. And here's what he recalls to his mind, because of the Lord's great love, not my resume, not my accolades, not my achievements, not my status financially, nothing to do with how many amenities me and my family have accrued over the years, none of those things are inherently bad at all, they're just nothing to put your hope in, they could be here today and absolutely gone tomorrow. Some of you have experienced that before. He says, I have hope because of the Lord's great love over me.

And because of that, he says, we are not consumed. If anyone had a right to say my life has absolutely and utterly consumed me, it is Jeremiah, and he says it's because of the Lord's great and unceasing love that my life, as hard as it is, is not consumed, why? Because his compassion, most of your Bibles will say mercies, his compassion and mercies, I love this, never fail. My compassion, personally, fails a lot. I gotta get a lot better at that. Having mercy for others and having mercy for myself fails all the time for me. But his never fail, and I love this, they're new, how often? Every morning. Every morning you and I take our head off our pillow, knocking at your door is new mercy saying, I would love to walk with you today and every day of your life. I think David said it best when he ended Psalms 23. He said this declaration, surely, God, your goodness and your mercy will follow me all of the days of my life. His mercies are brand new every morning, and then he finishes by saying, great God is your faithfulness. Thank goodness, because I've put my, my hope is not in my faithfulness. I want to be a faithful man. And I think you want to be faithful men and women as well. I don't think you would have showed up today. But my hope isn't in my faithfulness because I'm not batting a thousand, y'all. I don't even know that I have Hall of Fame numbers, not even close. But God is. The Bible says in the New Testament, even when we are faithless, he, God, remains faithful. Because he cannot disown who he is. That's the one I wanna put my hope in. Now, the reason on Easter that I would choose such an odd passage from such a unread,

unrecognizable book for so many people is because I am not exaggerating when I say this. This passage of Scripture with these truths we just read, having a couple times in life saved me, literally. I wanted to preach from this passage of Scripture this Easter weekend because of how personal and meaningful and anchoring what we just read is for me, hoping that some of that personal part of it would come out and minister to you guys. If you've been going here very long, some of you know the cliff notes of this about me, but we have so many visitors at all of our campuses that I thought I would want to share this with you guys. So you know when I'm up here spitting and getting all passionate, it's not just because that's what a preacher does, it's because I have experienced the power of resurrection hope. I have made it through, like you, some things I never thought I could make it through, and the only thing I know to do is get up here and go, and here was the source. Not me, not my awesomeness, not my abilities, it was God's unconditional, overwhelming, great love and his compassions being new and his mercies being new every single morning, and I have tasted and seen his faithfulness. For about four decades of my life, since I was a teenager, I've wrestled with something that I hate,

and it's this thing called depression. Some of you, many of you might know what that's like, many of you don't know what that's like, so let me talk about it for a minute. When I start to know I'm going through a really dark season, and they've happened a few times over my life, here's how I know it's getting dark, because getting out of bed, something as simple and normal as that, getting out of bed feels like climbing Mount Everest, and I've been there before, and in some of my bouts with depression, some decades back, I had two different moments in my life where I was struggling with suicidal ideation, and what's so weird is if anyone would have known me in those seasons, on paper, they would have thought I had it all together. One of those seasons I was in ministry then at that point, I'm the pastor, I'm not supposed to be struggling with that, I'm supposed to have graduated out of that, I grew up in an amazing family, not perfect, but amazing, many of you didn't get blessed by that kind of upbringing, I had protection, we had provision, we had unconditional love, all of the things our children need the most, I was blessed to be able to, I hit the lottery, I was blessed to be born into a home

that had all of those things, I did not think I would qualify for all the troubles in life with, of all things, depression, and yet here I was, and I've prayed for it to be delivered, I've prayed for it to be healed, I've read all the books, I've done all of the things that I know to do, and guess what? It still creeps its way into my life all these years later, but here is where I've drawn so much hope, is I've had just enough rear view mirror, I've lived just enough life now to see God's faithfulness through every one of those dark seasons, I have seen his mercy carry me time and time again when I had nothing, I couldn't get out of bed, the reason I wanted to preach that passage of scripture this Easter and talking about hope, is for the last decade, I've made a habit out of getting up every morning, and the first thing I do is go right to the coldest water we have in our house, and I throw it all over my face and all over my body just to wake up, I slap myself a few times, and then here's what I do immediately next,

I look in the mirror, especially the mornings when life's lifing, I look in the mirror and I say, yet I'm gonna call this to mind this morning God, because of your great love that I have tasted and experienced, I am not gonna live today consumed by life, and all of the chaos around me, I'm not gonna do it, and God, I literally say this stuff out loud, you'd think I was losing my mind if you walked in on it, I say God, you promise that your compassions never fail, and I need a failure proof promise this morning, because life is hard right now, so I am trusting that your word is true, your compassions never fail, God you promise that every 24 hours when that sun comes up again, that there is mercy waiting at my door to walk me out and go about my day, and I am going to by faith God, look for mercy and compassion everywhere I go, and in return I'm gonna try and give it to every person I see, and God the only thing getting me out of bed this morning was not my awesomeness, you know what it was, your faithfulness, great is your faithfulness, that's what resurrection hope looks like.

And who doesn't need that? We all need that kind of hope. Jeremiah goes on to say this, and this is a really important thing about what hope is. He says, I say to myself, the Lord is my portion. I love that. He's been through it, and him and God are still here. He's saying as, again, trite and cheesy as that can sound, he's literally everything I need. Man, that's a sweet spot to get to when you can say that with honesty. That's one of those if you know, you know type statements. If you've been there, you know it. The Lord is my portion. And then he says this, and this is the tough part. I love this part. I don't like this part, but it's true. He says, therefore, all what? All that word. Wait. Therefore, I'm going to wait for you. You know how many times the psalmist in the word of God said, how long, oh Lord? Some of you walked in feeling that today. It took everything you had to put on a nice pastel outfit and come to this crazy church where there's not enough seats. I get it. I get it. Been there. But can I remind you, because this is so important about what hope is and what it isn't. The majority of your life on this side of the grave before you breathe your last is spent waiting. We all love the moments where the goal is achieved.

You should. Enjoy it. Enjoy it. Learn from it. Be excited about it. We all love when graduation happens and into a new and better season. We all love that. We all love when our hard work and our faith and our perseverance pays off and there's some fruit that's come from it that is beautiful. You should enjoy that. But those moments in life are the exception. You know what the rule is? Waiting. God's timetable, because he is sovereign, will rarely match our timetable. And hope by, again, its very definition, is precisely the gift of grace that God has given the human heart to wait with integrity. Most of us humans' worst, most dysfunctional and destructive decisions come when we're getting bored in the waiting, when we're getting frustrated in the waiting, when we're getting tired and worn out in the waiting. And the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is a power to allow you to wait with hope and faith and trust that God is up to something underneath what you're experiencing that is for your good. That he's growing you. That he's maturing you. Goes on to say this, the Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the one who seeks him. So let me talk to those of you, as we switch over and end with the eternal implications of the resurrection. Let me talk to those of you who walk through the doors of any one of our campuses today and you are seeking him. You go, well I don't know that I am.

Well you showed up. You took some steps in the right direction. And I've always said this, you take two steps towards God, he'll take a thousand quickly back to you. He's speaking to you this morning, whether you know it or not. I just want to lovingly challenge you in these next few minutes, lean in. Because the Bible said God's good to and loves those that seek him. Jesus said when you seek me, you will find me. If you seek with your honest heart. When you knock, I'll open the door. He's doing that for some of you right now. You can feel it, you know it. So let me remind us all who have already put our faith in this, I hope you're blessed by it. And I want to talk specifically to those who are seeking God right now. You're searching. You're wondering, you're curious. When Jesus Christ rose from the dead and those grave clothes were sitting in that tomb empty and that man Jesus was not there anymore, the Bible said this about him, he became the first fruits of resurrection. That he finally conquered the last and worst curse on planet earth, which is death. We were never designed for death. I say it all the time, this is why nothing is more difficult to handle in life than grief. Nothing is harder in life than to lose people that you love the most. Because we were never intrinsically hardwired to know what to do with death. Because it was never God's original intent for us. But then this thing happened, this thing called sin, where we humans in our free will that he gave us in order to reciprocate love, we chose differently. And the Bible says sin entered the world and the punishment of sin is what? It's death.

thing we don't know what to do with. And so what's Jesus do? He gets off of his throne in a place of perpetual peace and perfection, and he enters into our existence. The Bible says, Jesus, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. And he lived amongst us, the Bible says, so that he could not just come to fix the problem, but he could come to fill the problem. He could relate to us. He could know what it was like to be us living in a sin-stained, fallen, and very chaotic and broken world. And then ultimately, we know, we celebrated on Friday, he came to do something about the penalty of sin. He came and paid the price in full for every single human being on planet Earth that would put their faith in his finished work and the perfect and divine blood that he shed on that cross for every human being to be redeemed back to him. Why? So that after in this short life, 60, 70, 80, maybe 90 years, if you're fortunate, the Bible calls this life a vapor, a mist. Here today, gone tomorrow, he came back to do that so everyone who puts their faith and believes in his finished work would not have to any longer fear death. We would not longer have to fear the sting of the grave, but instead, no matter what we go through in this life,

we know that we are promised that for an eternity, forever, we are gonna live in the tangible presence of God. And the Bible tells us very clearly, there will be no more death, there will be no more pain, there will be no more depression, there will be no more anxiety, there will be no more mourning and crying, there will be no more bent towards addiction, there will be no more divisiveness amongst us. We are gonna live for an eternity in a perpetual state of sinlessness and complete and total unity with God and with each other. And it will take zero energy from any of us to live holistically like that in the presence of God. That's what we have promised because of the empty grave forever. And you go, if you're seeking, like, that's cool, but why would the cross, why would you go to those kinds of lengths? And Jesus himself told us, you can believe him or not today, but here's what he said. He said, I saw, me and my father so loved the world that my father sent me into this world that whoever would believe in me, put their hope and trust in me would have eternal life. You will not perish, but you will have everlasting life. And he goes on to say this next. He says, I didn't come to condemn the world. I came to save it.

You might be thinking that's beautiful and poetic, but why would he love someone like me? Well, let me explain it this way. I was having a conversation with a staff member this week, and he was just catching me up on life. His name's Marcus. He works with our fourth and fifth graders at the Richmond campus. Him and his wife, Amber, struggled like some of you for many years with infertility. And their family and this church family had been praying for them for a long time. And almost two years ago now, I got news from Marcus first in a text message that they were pregnant. And so we're all just going ham. We're praising God. We're so excited for them. We're loving it. And two months before the baby Chloe was due, she was born. And because it was so early, she weighed two pounds and three ounces. So immediately she was rushed to the ICU. And then within a few days, she had dropped down to under two pounds. That's when it's getting incredibly difficult and dire and vulnerable. And we all just, you know, we had been so happy for them. We're just like, God, please, please, please, please, please, right?

And I got really good news for you. I just saw Chloe last night and she weighs 16 pounds now, almost a year later, and she's doing so good. So good. And she's about to have a birthday. And I was sitting there talking with Marcus and, you know, he, when this happened, and some of you, this has been your story too, they lived in the ICU for a half a year, literally. They both have full-time jobs. So, you know, they're high-fiving on the way in and the way out. I got Chloe now, you go to work and then I'll go to work and you come back and you get Chloe. They had hardly eaten a dinner at home for six straight months. And Marcus was saying, we're about to have her party. And so Amber and I were putting all these pictures together because we wanted to make a slide show. And we started to realize that the majority of the pictures are all us in the hospital. And he said, Amber looked at me at one point and said, how did we ever get through that? How did we do that? do this. Some of y'all parents, you've been there before, you've felt that, you know it. You don't have to be parents, just things in life where you look back and you made it through and you go,

how did we get through this? But when Marcus said that to me, in a split second, I think I scared him, I leaned forward and I'll go, I'll tell you exactly how you got through it. He's like, whoa, bro, chill out. But I was so excited because I already knew exactly how you got through this because we've been there, done that. I said, here's how you got through this, Marcus, even though you didn't think you could. I said, because she looks like you. Chloe looks like you. Chloe bears your image. Chloe bears Amber's image. That's why it's that simple. And come on, moms and dads, you know what I'm talking about. I love them so much, I would take a bullet for them every day of the week and twice on Sunday. I may not like them right now, but I love them and it's this inexpressible but very real love that just goes to the ends of the earth for somebody simply because you participated in their creation and they now bear your image. They look like you. I picture Jesus after the resurrection when he ascended to heaven. I picture some saints meeting him back in heaven going, why would you have gone through all that?

And I just picture Jesus being simple because they all look like me. I can't help myself. I made them. I created them. I'm the artist with the paintbrush that painted humanity into existence of every color, of every race, of every creed, of every tribe. It's my masterpiece. And nobody gets to mess with my masterpiece without me doing something about it. You are so much more loved than you probably think. If you're seeking Jesus today, hear me, you are so much more loved than you probably think. God is not mad at you. He wants you home. Jesus said, I did not come to condemn the world. I came to save it through me. And some of you, you're ready to make that decision this Easter weekend. And a bunch of us could testify to you. It will game change your life. You will never forget. And so let me tell you what you're getting yourself into. The word of God says, every one of us in the sound of my voice has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But here's the good news.

It says, but you can be justified freely by the grace and redemption that comes through Jesus Christ. The word of God says, there is only one name under heaven with which men can be saved. And it is the name, Jesus Christ. Jesus said this himself. I am the way, not a way. I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. And nobody comes to the father except through me. He would also say this. The entrance into eternal life has a very narrow gate to get in. But make no mistake about it. The pasture is forever. Everyone's invited. Peter would write this about Jesus's statements. He'd say, it's God's will that none should perish. Say, well, I'm not good enough. I don't qualify. None of us do. Jesus qualified with his life for us. And you can literally receive that right now today. So with every head bowed and every eye closed at every campus, let's make this a sacred moment. This is the most important part of Easter right here. If you feel the spirit of God, that same spirit that raised Christ from the dead, beckoning you to let him in, do that right now. The Bible says some framework around that is this.

If you will confess your sins, it's a confession. And if you will truly, authentically believe in your heart that he raised Christ from the dead and then you call on him for salvation, the Bible says you shall be saved. So if that's you, do that right now. We're with you. We're excited for you. So many of us here have been there and done that. And we are so excited about what's about to happen in your life. Jesus promised that when you make that confession, he will then gift you and fill you with that same spirit that raised Christ from the dead. And that Holy Spirit of God will start to make this whole salvation, this whole Jesus thing very clear to you. So Jesus, we pray over these precious souls right now. God, we thank you that heaven just got more crowded. God, we thank you that the angels right now, according to Luke 15, are partying in heaven because Jesus, as you said, people are crossing over right now from death and entering into life. We pray you would solidify that and we pray you would do it in the name of Jesus. And for all of the rest of us who call this place home, I now pray over you that God would bless you this Easter, that he would keep you in the grip of his grace, that he would cause his face to shine all over you

this week, that he would turn his countenance towards each and every one of you, that he would be radically gracious to you and that every single one of us in the sound of my voice would walk out of the doors of our respected campus with a peace that passes understanding, that guards our hearts and guards our minds in the matchless, awesome, risen name of Jesus, we pray this. And everybody said? Amen. We love you guys. Happy Easter. God bless you.