Suddenly the first service those drums fire me up. I don't know about y'all. Wow That was wonderful. Thank you, choir and happy Easter. Turn your bibles to 1 Peter chapter 1
Looking at 1 Peter 1 verses 3 through 6 this morning
1 Peter 1 verse 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and 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 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 and This you greatly rejoice Though now for a little while You may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. Let's pray Lord Jesus Christ You hear a five You hear us because you're not a figment of our imagination But the tomb was empty and you were seen Not as an apparition or a phantom but fully Resurrected in body Souls spirit a Resurrected body that can never be destroyed Jesus you can never die and you're alive right now and you're interceding for us even as I'm praying Lord, you know the stories of those who've come in here this morning every single one of us You know it's better than we know ourselves and you know what we need to hear this morning You know the hope of the resurrection that we need you know how deeply we yearn and hunger for the restoration Do you know how people are discouraged? You know people are depressed. You know there are people who are weighed down with grief that they can't even put into words You need to comfort them this morning because you're not dead. You're alive
Holy spirit fill this place quiet us Quiet our spirits that we will listen to you and that our eyes will see Jesus by faith and that those who have rejected you Who do not believe in you they will be given new life? You alone can do that because you're not dead you're alive and we will see you again Come Lord Jesus and your name we pray. I'm in Who are these people that Peter is writing to these are real people we come to Easter Sunday First one of first Peter Chapter one says Peter is in the possible of Jesus Christ and he's writing to God's elect strangers in the world scattered throughout Pontus Galatia capidosia Asia and Bethinia these are Christians scattered throughout the Roman Empire that are that are living during the time 80 AD 60 During the time of the rule of Emperor Nero Perhaps one of the the fiercest Most evil Impers hated Christianity more than maybe anyone and he tells them Praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ He's telling these people That are suffering praise be to the God and of our Lord Jesus Christ Do you know what's happening to these people and we'll happen to these people under the reign of Nero Christians are sewn into animal skins and put on spectacle and Fed to wild animals Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ These are the same people that he's writing to that will be placed on stakes and set on fire so that they can light the garden of Nero as a Big wicked joke So what does it mean? How do you say praise be to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the people that are going through this How do you say praise God when you're suffering when those of you are going through real hard things? Is this just another example of Pollyanna Christianity of goodie goodie Christianity smile all the time Christianity Praise be to God and we'll act like nothing's really happening We'll plaster a smile to our face and act like everything's gonna be okay Is that the kind of Christianity that Peter's talking about? Why so many of us have turned off our Christianity because it seems like an escape from reality Peter is not and Escapist Peter's a realist how can Peter say praise God in the midst of this kind of suffering Peter has a different view of reality Peter is living in a different place emotionally psychologically spiritually Then most of us he has a living hope because the Jesus The Jesus that he followed on earth the Jesus that was killed and crucified the Jesus that was laid in the tomb this Jesus he saw walking around and And he ate breakfast with this Jesus and he spent 40 days with this Jesus the reason Peter the great denier of Jesus is Now putting his neck out in the face of Nero and in the face of all emperors that can cut his head off The reason Peter can be crucified upside down is because he has a living hope There is one reason Jesus is not dead. Jesus is alive and everything's changed Peter had a living hope because he had a living Christ that's it It's the only explanation There is no way that someone like Peter or anyone for that matter could go from an absolute coward to the fiercest leader of the church Unless he looked at Jesus Christ in the face and touched Jesus Christ and knew that the one that he served and the one that he followed Had defeated death. What was Nero going to do to him when Jesus Christ had defeated death? And so you come here this morning and I'm with Parker you do look great. I've got a great view
Come here on Easter morning. We're all here together
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is alive?
That's that's the that's it. We can go now That's all that matters You realize that that's all that matters if Jesus Christ is not alive Then what we're doing here is some weird cultural thing and I'm wearing a black robe and wearing a weird microphone
This is another waste of time of Jesus is dead But Jesus is not a Jesus is alive. I don't I don't really care what you think about this church I would like for you to like this church. I would like for you to like me, but I don't really care about that I don't I don't know what you think about our music. I don't know what you think about even Christianity All those things are secondary all that matters is is Jesus alive and if Jesus is alive Then Jesus is Lord and everything that he said is true If Jesus is alive and he is Lord That means we have to believe everything he said
two points this morning And once or what first point Living hope is rooted in the past and a fact It is rooted in the past reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ If you have a living hope, it's rooted in something that actually happened If not we are delusional as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 we are to be pitted above anyone Living hope is rooted in the past Living hope secondly remembers the future You have an inheritance that can never perish spoil or fade Folks listen today Don't just listen to me listen to what the spirit is saying to you Listen to this living hope and folks you will hear music And it'll be a music that you've never heard before
So get our first point and get started
Living hope is rooted in the past Jesus Christ Rose from the grave everything changed Something started that was alive it was a living organism Jesus Christ's resurrection completely changed the game Changed history an entirely new movement was started basically overnight You went from downcast Broken-hearted people to victorious filled with joy Filled with courage because of one event Jesus was alive something started
There was a seed that was planted and Jesus followers Minus Judas plus a man named Matthias now And this huddled mass of under-resourced broken socially marginalized Jewish people in Jerusalem started this movement known as the way And later on they became to be called Christians And they spread this gospel out and they preach with boldness one message Jesus is not dead Jesus is alive repent and believe in Jesus the preachers in the book of acts are not just trying to have us Listen to Jesus and think about Jesus. They're commanding people to believe in Jesus. They're not joking
And people were converted and by the end of that same century where there was this huddled mass of under-resourced marginalized Jews At the end of that century Christianity was growing all over the Roman Empire because Jesus was not dead He was alive and then all over the known world And then centuries passed into Christianity continued to grow and this thing called the church though it is is messed up as you and I are One message stayed true. It was the message of the resurrected Christ and the church would wax and wane But the message of the resurrected Christ began to grow and they crossed the Atlantic ocean to a new world
their Christians Connected to this seed as the tree grew There those Christians were a part of founding a new country Imperfect Christians they didn't find them they didn't found a perfect country
But there that country saw the first awakening and the second great awakening And people were converted in droves and that it went through the colonies and then out west All the way down to states like South Carolina and through Georgia and Alabama and Mississippi and then finally crossed the river and to a pioneering land known as Arkansas The seed was alive because of one fact Jesus was not dead. Jesus was alive and this church began to grow Do you see it's attached to something in history something that happened until one day in the early 80s a couple Carolyn and Bill Wellens came and rang the doorbell at 1901 Hillsboro in Little Rock Arkansas the home of less and Nancy sessions Parents of three children Chris Ritchie and Spencer a family that was broken a family that had pushed God away a family that never went to church on the brink of disaster another Another broken family of the 80s just hanging by a thread And this family came and brought a plate of cookies and they invited us to a new church They were starting my dad wanted nothing to do with it And they pursued my family this church pursued my family for over a year for over a year until finally This seed that was growing so long ago in Jerusalem because Jesus is alive not dead This seed that was growing had crossed the Atlantic Ocean had gone into the United States had changed people And had gone into Arkansas and then finally at my doorstep both of my parents are converted on the same day in different places For one reason Because Jesus Christ was crucified. He was buried and on the third day he rose again And he appeared to Peter and then he appeared to the 12 And then he appeared to more to 500 people people that were alive at the time of the writing of first Corinthians You could actually go down the street and talk to those people people that lived for decades After the resurrection of Jesus Christ and you could go to them and Paul says you can go to them And you could ask him did you resurrect to Jesus? Absolutely pass the milk They had addresses you can walk down those walk down there You could talk to real people and they would say yes, Jesus was alive And then finally he appeared to James Jesus's brother who denied him while he was here on earth And then finally to the apostle Paul Jesus is alive And he is on the loose He is alive this morning and the only reason I am standing here in front of you today Is because that seed that was planted was connected to a historical event of a resin Resurrected Jesus Christ who is in glory right now Interceding and he is the one that is speaking to you Through his word It is rooted in the past folks It is a historical fact that you and I cannot change your living hope is certain It is secure like the roots of a great oak tree. It is rooted in the past
Tim Keller and Tom Wright both 21st century scholars that maybe you've heard of And these words that I will say today they come from them. They are not they are not new to me But we think that the first century world was unsophisticated and superstitious And so we think that somehow they could believe in the reality of a resurrection Somehow since they were so superstitious and so into spirits and things like that That you could dop those people you could fool those people into thinking about resurrection I want to tell you something that is absolutely false
In other words the world that the Christian Gospel came into Was as adverse and as and as disgusted by the idea of resurrection as the 21st century That means only one thing They saw a dead man that was alive
Tom Wright says that Christianity was born into a world where its central claim was known to be false
Many believed that the dead were nonexistent Outside of Judaism nobody believed in the resurrection Homer Who's the equivalent of the non Jew world as the equivalent of their Old Testament Homer was very blunt about his view of the resurrection. It was quite blunt He said it does not happen Escalus another ancient wise man He said once a man has died the dust is soaked up his blood. There is no resurrection Ciceroa also is cleared You see what I'm saying here all the minds of the day rejected the idea of a resurrection They were not unsophisticated people that could be who they rejected the resurrection as much as this world does
Ciceroa says that the body is like a prison house and after living the prison house Why would you ever want to go back to the prison house that is the non-Jewish world That the gospel spread like wildfire into they rejected the resurrection one one There is only one piece of evidence that could explain it Jesus was alive They saw it with their own eyes Their testimony comes to us because it actually happened
The Jews of the day. We're out the Jews, Richie How about the Jews the Jews could accept it and they could somehow they could somehow convince the rest of the world Let me tell you what there was only a small sect of Jews that actually believed in the resurrection There's an entire group of Jews of that day that rejected the resurrection too And even within that small sect they believed that the resurrection would only happen at the end of time Everyone would be resurrected together the idea that one person would be resurrected in the middle of history was unthinkable So here's the way they explain the tomb you followers of Jesus must have robbed the tomb It's empty because you robbed it There were dozens of other messianic pretenders in that day Whose lives and careers ended the same way Jesus did Why would the disciples of Jesus have come to the conclusion that his crucifixion had not been defeat but a triumph? Are you hearing me unless they had seen him risen from the dead?
Why did Christianity emerge so rapidly basically overnight? No other band of messianic followers in that era concluded that their leader was raised From the dead why did this group do so? Why did a group of Jews ever worship a human? Do you know that that never happened before?
Here's the only explanation I'm gonna say it again because this is what Easter is about and you need to hear it again The only explanation is that those people saw Jesus alive
This is how the living hope started It's what you're hearing right now. This is not just a culturally relevant religious day Easter is about the victory of God over the powers of evil and the in breaking of the kingdom of God and the judgment of God on all his enemies
What does that mean for me right now, Ritchie?
Some of you came in here with broken hearts this morning
Some of you have had broken hearts for years Some of you don't know how you can face next week Some of you are suffering physically some of you are suffering emotionally Some of you don't know how you can keep going on. I know that that's what's happening in your life Here's what I'm telling you there is a living hope and it's outside your circumstances It's outside your broken heart. There's a living hope that happened two thousand years ago Jesus is alive and he has conquered everything that conquers you
Some of you have buried your parents Some of you have buried your spouse Some of you have buried your children
The only way that you can look at a casket of a dead loved one And know that it's not the end is because Jesus is alive and he's not dead
Great how can I actually believe this then Do you realize how radical this belief is? Do you honestly believe that? I mean, it's radical to believe in a risen savior How could you actually believe that? Well, I've just told you that it's historically reliable It's actually the only reliable explanation for the church There is no other way to explain the phenomenon of the church and the spreading of the church apart from a risen Jesus. There's just not one People don't risk their lives Peter would even risk his neck for for an hour People don't risk their lives unless they see a dead man. It's alive
How do you believe that? It's historically reliable. It also means you have to be born again Now let's get out. Let's get out of our minds all the baggage of what it means to be born again born again Right preacher talk about born again
The word that he's using here has given us new birth in verse three in his great verse. He has given us new birth into a living hope This is not labor and delivery The word here is conception I'll be I'll be I'll tread lightly Verse 23 he describes this new birth Verse 23 of chapter one you have been born again not a perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and enduring Word of God. Here's what he's saying The only reason that you can believe this is because the Holy Spirit has started a new work. There is something living inside of you And he has given you new eyes. There's actually a new life Folks, you wonder why some people in your family every time they talk about Jesus their eyes light up and they keep going to church And you wonder are they just good people. They just kind of have their life together. They're so distilled discipline No, I'm telling you they have something living inside of them And God in his great mercy has made them see that Jesus Christ is alive the only way that you can see the risen Jesus is if you have been born again
Born from above a new life that has occurred outside of you As John's gospel says not by the will of man, but from God born of God
Folks, it really freaks me out when I see pregnant people Let me tell you why I know it's a glorious and wonderful thing But you have a living being inside of you Does that not that is not weird come on guys that weirdes us out No, the first time that I that saw my wife pregnant and I saw this leg Go across your stomach. How are you okay with that? There's an alien you have been there's an alien inside of you And there's this living creature inside of you. There's something new that's happened inside of you Here's what I'm saying some of you reject the gospel some of you reject the resurrection of Jesus Christ And it's not because you're a bad person. It's because you're dead
That's why But what do I do? Richie in his great mercy
If you don't believe and you want to believe you're here today And you want to believe that the Jesus Christ is alive and not dead. You want a living hope I'm telling you go to the most merciful Father that you could ever possibly imagine the one who sent his only son to die for you And say God make me undead today Change my heart I believe that it's historically reliable But it takes it takes faith for me to believe that because I can't see Jesus folks some of you are dead and you need to come alive And I can't make you come alive boy. I wish I could but I can't Only the Holy Spirit can and he's stirring in some of your hearts Some of you've heard this gospel a million times. You think you have it figured out But some of you need to be born again ask the Lord to change your heart today
Say what's the experience? What does it mean to be born again? What does it mean to have a new birth? What does it mean to have a new life inside of you? Well, here's one description I'll give it to you permit me to have one personal description. I was studying this this week Studying this passage studying this sermon. I was in a library where I like to study And I was leaving the library. It was just a normal thing. I just leaving the library with my briefcase and I was thinking about things And something happened to me I wish I could say it was really really cool and outrageous like I had some vision. I didn't sorry But I just started I started laughing Presbyterians are we okay with that
And it was this kind of laugh it was this kind of laughter that happened and it's not because I'm a special person It's not because I'm smart. It's not because of any of those things It's because of one truth something started welling up inside of me because I was stressed out about my day I was worried about the things of the future. I was worried about the things in the past But something sort of happening and welling up inside of me and it was this Jesus really is alive Jesus really is alive Jesus really is alive and it was a kind of laughter that makes you cry and it was just like the laughter I'm convinced it's the way the men felt in Luke chapter 24 on the road to Emmaus when they realized that Jesus had been walking beside of them and they looked at each other and said did not our hearts burn within us And they burn within us do you know why your heart burns within you right now if you know because Jesus is alive and he's not dead
It is rooted in the past and we can only see it if we have been born again If for some of you got is pursuing you and he's pursuing you and he continues to pursue you Some of you who are here and you are so downcast
And you think how can I keep going
Monday Monday morning may not look any better than it did than last Monday morning. Sorry It may be raining. Don't you love rainy Mondays
Your spouse may die
You may never get what you're looking for you may never have that dream You may never get the pie in the sky you may never get any of those things I'm not promising you any prosperity or any of those wonderful things the American dream None of those things may happen But if you have Jesus and you have the reality of the resurrection The world may take and the world may take and the world may take and the world may take and what Peter is saying is they let him take it Let him take it if you have Jesus you have every day
He'll be comforted this morning by living hope not by a dead hope by living savior I'm living savior that's coming back
So we not only are rooted in the past we remember the future So our second point We remember the future He talks about an inheritance that will never perish spoil or fade We have been born again. We have been given a living hope into an inheritance that will never perish spoil or fade We know what an inheritance An inheritance would sound like a good thing I like the idea of inheritance Someone dies. They work for everything. You get it. I like how it works Dad worked grand dad worked. I'm rich
Thank you for working and then dying
I love it's great What a blessing He uses this language is the same thing when he talks about an inheritance that will never perish spoil or fade What a blessing what a kept do you see what happens Jesus worked Jesus worked Jesus died you get the inheritance That's what he's talking about But this inheritance is different This is an inheritance that will never perish spoil or fade kept kept in heaven for you
Does that mean it will never perish the word here means it's an inheritance that is not subject to decay decay is not an option to the inheritance that you will enjoy
It's unable to be worn out by the passage of time Folks just look at our look at us. I know we look good on Easter Sunday, but come on
We're perishing So if you have mentioned how gray my hair is now My hair is perishing Look at our bodies look at our cars look at our houses Look at the streets in our city Look at the do you see that something's happening look all around us look at your family Look at the pictures 10 years ago and look at the pictures of yourself now Look what happens in a decade. Here's the point everything we are surrounded by is perishing And he's saying that you have an inheritance in Christ that will never perish That's not even subject to perishing why because Jesus has it
He said it'll never spoil It's untainted by sin. That's what this word means. It's undefiled. I think about my life I kind of have the opposite of the minus touch. I feel like sometimes You feel like that you get involved in something You're kind of like Tommy boy and you tear it to pieces Some of you understand that And you just everything you do is destroyed. You see that that's our sin. That's what we do We all get together and we make things bad
He's saying here. This is good news. This is good news He's saying here and think about your sin for a second He's saying here that this inheritance you can't even mess this up with your sin I know you've messed up a lot of things in your life with your sin this inheritance It's not even allowed to be tainted by your sin Why? Because Jesus has it. You see what Peter's telling these people In the words of another pastor Rome can't touch this They can kill your body. They can't touch this inheritance Folks, Memphis, Tennessee cannot touch this inheritance. They can touch everything else Boy, can they They can't touch this And to remember the future remember you have something that will never perish I never spoil and it will never fade It's unlike earth it's unlike earthly wealth that grows dim and loses its worth and loses its beauty How many of us have spent things but money on things that just you wish you wouldn't have spent money on You spent all this money and you got it and you're like this is a this is not cool I don't even want this anymore And the idea of wealth how that's changed what it means to have wealth They're all these billionaires now it's like billionaires the new millionaire right All these billionaires I mean who cares if you're a millionaire you have a billion dollars I actually heard someone say that the other day I want a billion Because wealth is constantly changing you can never have enough and it's fading by the way You can't take it with you Do you see how we put our hearts on things that are fading away? They're fading away
But here's the best part Peter says this inheritance is kept in heaven for you literally locked up and guarded In heaven for you And who is it guarded by Jesus Christ I was in Edinburgh this summer Talking to church planners and other things and we were to castle a ran by a castle there one afternoon And it's it's the it's the castle that the queen spends her summer when it gets you hot in the London should come up to the The castle in Edinburgh. I'd like a can I but can I have a castle for a summer home? Be nice anyone else But I ran past this castle and the gates and the walls I mean this things like twice as old three times older than our country right It's so massive and she had just she had just been in Edinburgh and there were these guards around And I could just barely just sort of peek in there and make out a little bit of what it'd been like because I can guarantee you something The people did not want 35-year-old Richie Sessions from Arkansas getting into the castle That was not an option
Because it was guarded It was safe. It was secure. That's the language that Peter's using here Folks you have something in a world that is constantly taking from you and that is constantly changing Here's what a living hope is it remembers that you have something that will never perish never spoil Never fade it is kept in heaven guarded like the queens castle in Edinburgh I can't touch it And not only is it guarded he says in verse 5 you are shielded by God's power by God's power that is you are kept That's good news for me That good news for you I think if we're up to me I probably would I'd probably be a Christian for another five minutes I just don't have it in me But he's saying here That you Richie Sessions are shielded by God's power
So what as we close with this we know we have a lot of lunch to eat today Lot of ham to consume So what Richie what does that mean for us or two things I want to talk about I want to talk about suffering I want to talk about a new reason reason reason for living If this is true and Jesus is alive You have a new view of suffering in your life you have a new view of suffering in your life a new view of grieving in your life All of us are going through something very hard at any given time Christian is realistic For some of you things have blown up for some of you the future looks dark Just the day and day out grind of living in this world the heartbreak the evil the anger in this world You hear what Peter's saying here. It's just a little while
Verse 6 you suffer grief for a little while
That there is a day that's coming Either in your death or the return of Jesus come Lord Jesus come now Either in your death or the return of Jesus that all the suffering will stop and here's what we believe We believe this is going to go on forever if you're in Christ. I'm here to tell you Your suffering is like an afternoon nap that you're going to take It's not going to last forever You're grieving that you have for the one that you've lost the one that's died the grieving that you've experienced with the loss of that That person and your heart is broken every time you think about it There's a hole inside of you that can never be filled That grieving that you experience it's just for a little while
See the story of life has changed if you have a living hope The end of the story is different death is not the end folks. We are not just cogs in a machine We are part of the great living story of the kingdom of the eternal God
He are suffering in grief. You know what it's doing? Our suffering and our grief it is melting away all the things that don't matter And revealing the only thing that does matter and that is our trust in the Lord Jesus who has our inheritance The suffering and grief that you're experiencing for a little while is melting away all the garbage that doesn't matter All the anxiety all the foolishness that we think is so important in this world You're suffering in your grief is being used by God to make you holy to make you someone who longs for the return of Jesus You're suffering in grief is actually making you real. That's how great God is It's melting away all that doesn't matter and revealing what really does That's what Peter says later on in this it reminds me of building a snowman I'll explain what I mean by that It reminds me of building a snowman this this you know it it snowed like five or six seven ten times this winter You know that It's like an Arctic blast And one day at snowed and I decided to build a snowman my my children left me after about 30 seconds Because they don't like the cold because I used to it and their hands get cold And I stayed out there in the snow making the snowballs And I think I have mastered the snowman. I'll tell you I know how to make the perfect snowman eyeball
I've taken a golf ball and I take a sharpie and I make one eyeball and a pupil and I put it right there In his ocular cavity that I make and the snowman's head And I can make him look up like this
I can make him look down look like this off in the distance Pensively look like this And I watched and I kept my snowman so that everyone else could enjoy it I'm sure I'm sure they had pictures of it a very popular snowman not at all But I watched it and I watched the snowman just melt Because in a couple days it was 50 degrees and the snowman would just melt and the only thing that Stayed there a few months later. Guess what I picked up snowman eyeball Because as the warm Memphis sun came out it melted away everything that was not permanent And it kept the one thing that was permanent and it was a snowman's eyeball that is a silly illustration for this Everything that you're experiencing right now no matter what it is all you're suffering in your marriage in your family You're broken heart everything by God is being used to melt away what doesn't matter Then the only thing that does matter is that faith in the Jesus who is alive and even one day that faith will go away Because Jesus is coming back and you will see the risen one face to face and everyone that you love in Christ You will see face to face and a great party that is what is waiting for us Cheer up folks Even though your heart is breaking Jesus Christ He gives you hope What about a new reason for living for living If Jesus rose from the grave his kingdom is real. You know what that means We have to be about what he's about If Jesus is alive we have to be about what he's about. What does that mean? It means love Jesus Christ said disciples. Hey, you don't get much It takes you while but I want you to tell you something this is a new commandment I give you love one another He is calling independent Presbyterian Church by faith to love one another How is the world going to know that Jesus alive if we love one another give each other a break love one another and the second thing Love this city. How is God calling you to love this city? Intangible ways where you actually give power away or then take power from people How is God calling you to love this city with your business? How is God calling you to love this city in a way that gives away power that gives away your fortune so that you can see people rise You can see people flourish you can see this city Be a place of peace within a place of destruction Be about what Jesus about how do I do that Jesus alive? I just told you
Jesus Christ came in this world to restore broken creation And there are broken things all around us. There are broken homes and broken bones There are broken hearts. There's a broken legal system. There are broken neighborhoods There are broken schools and there are broken relationships And God is calling each of us to find out what role we play and restoring that broken creation and folks What does that mean? Will you ever see the broken creation come to an end by your efforts? Sorry. No. Jesus does that You're and I are going to probably die in the process. What a great thing to die doing Because one day Jesus Christ is going to put the finishing touch on the restoration Be about what lasts forever I close with this quote from Tom Wright Easter is about God's judgment Calling the world to account and setting up his new glorious creation of freedom and peace And summoning all people everywhere to live in this new world and that's what I'm doing right now I am summoning people everywhere to come and live in this new world Jesus Christ didn't come into this world to make you nice East Memphis people. He came in this world to make you new Let's pray Lord Jesus Thank you for your resurrection Thank you for the truth and for the power that you've established And I pray Lord that there are hearts here that are hard and that you would break them Well, I pray that you would comfort the one that's mourning I pray that you would give you would give peace to the one that is full of anxiety because you're not dead You are alive Lord our hope is rooted in you Help us remember the future and your precious name we pray on the end