All right. That's the sound of what? Celebration, joy, celebration, worship Easter. Some of you're like, that's the sound I've never heard in church. That's what that is. But it's also just the sound of a whole bunch of people working together on something. So lemme just thank everybody who, like all four of our sites now, mid Rivers, grants Trail, Fenton here. Everybody is celebrating that song, doing that song. So, uh, I wanna say thank you to first of all our guest experiences, folks who are getting us in and out with all of these crowds that we've had. This is our seventh service. And so they've just done a great job. Our kids ministry people, those kids are having more fun than you can even imagine right now. Uh, our facilities folks who have kept all of this looking so beautiful, all of the people, the light crews and the sound crews, and the film crews that are pulling all of this off. And then lastly, these musicians and worship leaders at each of our sites. Can we just thank 'em all? Come on. Thank you guys. Um, you can sit down if you want. I got a couple things to say. So, uh, my name is Greg. I too am one of the pastors here. And today what I wanna do is to tell you the story of a good God, an empty tomb, and a risen savior. And that just sounds like what some of us want. That's what we need. That's why some of us came here today, right? The Apostle Paul in one of his letters said, I wanna know Christ, and I wanna know the power of the resurrection. That sounds good to me. Now, the truth is, for some of you, that sounds farfetched. Like you're here today because someone invited you, because you've kind of started nibbling around the edges of this thing. 'cause your parents made you come, 'cause your kids made you come. 'cause the person you're dating made you come. There's a lot of reasons. Some of you actually here at Chesterfield, uh, were, you thought you were going to a basketball tournament and you ended up here. So, you know, if it's, if you haven't figured it out yet, that ain't it. Okay? But I get it. I get it. We are a church that, like, there's so many believers that gather here and, and we celebrate this. But we have people on the journey who are figuring this out. We have people who are skeptical about it. We even have people who cough at it. So if you're any one of those people, welcome to the crossing. It sounds about right to us. Now, I keep using that sound language. Have you noticed that this is the sound of, what's the sound of the, so lemme just say something in a church this size, there are a variety of ways that people experience the physical world. And I wanna say that right now. And I'd like specifically to, to speak to those in our community who are deaf or hard of hearing. Uh, thank you for your graciousness. When I now, uh, use sound illustrations and even talk about the sound of things. And the truth is, we talked about this openly this week, uh, online. And, uh, you know, that, uh, that, that, when I'm talking about like the sound of hope or the sound of forgiveness or joy, I'm talking about an emotional reaction that each of us has. Deep down. It's the thing that resonates within us, which means that we all have that in common. 'cause I think all of us long for the sound of meaning in our life. We, we long for forgiveness. We long for hope. And so we'll do this together. But I wanted to specifically say upfront that I know that many of you know that it's only because he lives that I can face tomorrow. So let's pray and then let's jump into the story. Father, we come before you now, and we're grateful. Many of us are just so excited. Lord, I, as we've said, some of us are whew, trying to figure it out. And you're just so good and so big and so able to draw all of us into this moment. And I pray that you do that right now as we tell the story of your son and our resurrected king Jesus, in whose name we pray now. Amen. So if you've been with us, you know that after a long and controversial week, Jesus was executed outside the city walls of Jerusalem. This isn't just something that you find in the scriptures. This is historical record. You can, uh, read, uh, a Roman like TAUs. You can read a Jewish historian like Josephus. It's just established historical fact. This is what happened. But that was Friday. We're here to celebrate Sunday, you see, without Sunday, Friday is just another sad day in history. But Sunday, oh man, Sunday, John chapter 20 verse one. Early on the first day of the week, Sunday while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene. Now this is a follower of Jesus whom he has rescued. He's healed her earlier, but, but she went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. Now, if you put all the gospel accounts together, she went with a group of women that we're kind of hearing this from Mary's perspective now. So she sees this, she sees the tomb is empty, and she hightails it back inside the city walls to find a couple of people. She wants to tell them she's very upset by this. So she runs back and, and she came to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. Now, if you haven't been with us or read the gospel of John before, this is John's way of referring to himself in the gospel. It's not a humble brag, really. It's just him being humble. He just doesn't mention his name in this gospel. So John's basically saying Mary's upset. She sees the empty tomb, she comes running back and she tells the two of us, they, whoever they are, have taken the Lord out of the tomb. And we don't know where they have put him. First big thing to notice, it's the women who had the courage to be there at the foot of the cross. It's the women who had the courage to go to the tomb. First. It's the women who experienced the resurrection first. Now, I said that there was a group of women, and then Mary comes back. Mary might not have been there. Some scholars think when the, the rest of 'em received that angelic announcement that we were just celebrating. He's not here. He has risen. Mary might have seen the tomb is empty. And then just, I gotta go tell these guys. She has an incomplete report. If you read all of this together, you will see chaos. You will see confusion. You will see people kind of helping each other with things. It has the sound of late breaking news. I mean, they're all trying to make sense of it. Remember when you read these gospel accounts, there is no one on that Sunday who's going, you know, Friday was such a bad day, but whew, it's here. He said it was gonna happen. None of them expected this. So she tells Peter and John, and then what we read is that, you know, they take off. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter. Now remember, this is John's way of referring to himself. Do you see this? This is a classic guy move. We both heard the information at the same time, but I took off running and I I got there first. And he looks inside, it says that he bent down and looked inside. I love the details here. You see, sometimes we begin to see something in, uh, in, in, in history and in archeology that we can sort of, uh, put together. There have been like a thousand different, uh, tombs that have been, uh, excavated in and around Jerusalem. And for the most part, this is what they look like. Now, just so we're clear, this is, this is the, uh, this is the tomb area, right? But you can see the entrance here. It was about, most of them were about three feet tall. Archeology just shows you it, it's very small. Now, this, this stone in these wealthy, uh, tombs, the tombs of wealthy families, that would be about four and a half feet tall in diameter, about foot thick, still a really heavy stone. I just want you to picture what archeology is telling us. This would look like. It doesn't look like a lot of the Jesus movies. It doesn't look like the Easter pageants that some of you grew up watching. So when we see John saying that he had to bend down, archeology actually supports this detail. I love it. John looks down. Tomb is empty. Peter May be slower, but he's bolder because by the time he gets there, he goes straight into the tomb. He saw the linen clothes lying there and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linens, but it was folded up at a different place by itself. So the tomb's empty. The linens are there separately. Two, two miracles in that empty tomb that day. First, Jesus was resurrected. Secondly, a man folded his clothes. I usually get an amen from the women at that point, but it's too late now. Yeah. Uh, John eventually gets the courage to go inside. He sees everything that Peter says, and he says, I basically at that point knew a miracle had occurred, but he's honest enough to say that we haven't put it all together yet. Like we haven't connected all the dots in scripture. So that's it. That's the end of the story at this point. So what do they do at verse 10? They just go back to where they were staying. You see, they're trying to figure this thing out. So now it's Easter night. It's Sunday night behind closed doors. All of the disciples, some of these early followers are gathering together. By this point, Jesus has appeared to some people and they're sharing their version, and everybody else is looking at them. Like, have you lost your mind? You can imagine it was an animated conversation. People are like, you gotta believe me. I saw him. I talked to him. Are you kidding me? And then we read that in the middle of that discussion, while they were talking, Jesus himself stood among them and said, peace be with you. They were startled and frightened. You think they were thinking they saw ghost. Now, the first thing to notice here is that Jesus, this is a common greeting. This is a Hebrew greeting. This is exactly how a rabbi would greet his disciples. Shalom, Shalom. And they needed them some shalom at this point, because standing before them is someone who was dead on Friday, and they're kind of freaking out. But I want you to notice, as much as he wants them to have peace, he knows that for them to experience peace, they're gonna have to get their doubts dealt with. So the very next thing he does, I just, I just love this. Look at this scripture here. It says, uh, he look at my hands and my feet. It's, it's, it is. I myself, touch me and see a ghost doesn't have flesh and bones the way I, I know y'all think I'm like a ghost. I'm like, here, come on up here. It's, and knowing that they thought that he was a ghost, then he asked, he is so clever and so funny. I love Jesus. He says, y'all got anything to eat? Read the account. And then he finishes off some broiled fish in front of them. He's giving them a tangible way to understand that this is really happening. There's another guy for whom this experience happened, but he wasn't there in the moment. You might know his name Thomas. He wasn't there when this first big meeting happened. And so now he's the one that has to endure all of that. Oh, Thomas, it was so cool. Oh, that's right. You weren't here. So he has to endure all of that. He says, I don't believe any of it. And then he gives a pretty like brutally graphic. I I, I'm gonna have to see those wounds. I, I wanna put my finger in those wounds. That's the way I'm gonna believe. It's now a week later, another closed door meeting. Jesus shows up again. Thomas is there. Jesus goes to him. What I want you to notice is he doesn't berate him. He doesn't come down on him. He doesn't embarrass him and say, how dare you have questions. He goes right to him and helps him with his doubts. It's me. I know what you said you needed. I'm right here. And that we have no record. That Thomas actually took him up on it. I think he had enough evidence. But let's go ahead and say that you and I aren't gonna have that much evidence. Can we just say that out loud? We read these stories and go, oh, I believe it. If I could see that Jesus admits that in the story. He says, Hey, from here on out, nobody's going to get this kind of evidence. They're gonna have to have faith in eye eyewitness accounts. And that's where you and I live. I want you to hear those of you that are figuring this out, there is enough historical evidence that you can go through this logically and rationally and you can begin to believe that that historical event is trustworthy. Just the same way you do other historical events in the past. You put the same rules together. It's happened. There are scientists, there are historians, there are a variety of scholars that have sifted through all of this. And we'd like to help you with that. We had four of our pastors gathered together for a round table discussion recently, and we just turned the camera on and they hit the most beautiful Diego. You guys, it was like five, six minutes of y'all just sharing. This is how you think through the evidence. And if you're interested in that, we're putting it on our, our app. And you can just have it, it's like five, six minutes of starting a conversation. But what I want you to know is that there is evidence. One of the world's leading experts, Dr. William Lane Craig, when it comes to the resurrection, he is an intellectual heavyweight. This guy debates all of the famous atheists, well, all of them, but one who refuses to infamously. He refuses to debate him. But Dr. Craig says this, um, the rational person, when fully apprised of the evidence, can confidently believe that on that first Easter morning, a divine miracle took place. If you'll leave room for there to be a God who is bigger than us. Now, if this is true, I think it has huge implications for who Jesus is for us and for the future. But we need to hit pause now and just kind of digest this. So what I'd like for you to do is to just hang out with some people around you. We do this around here and have a conversation. And let's let this be the topic. And if you don't wanna play along, that's okay. Just tell everybody, yeah, I'm not that interested. Or just fold your arms and give 'em the stink eye. They'll figure it out. But here's what I want you to do. Would you just talk about in one word, oh, by the way, would you use the app? Those of you who have the app, would you use the app and let us know? 'cause we want, we wanna build a word cloud in one word. What does Easter mean to you? Now, what's your favorite tradition? Not what's your favorite candy, but we're going down into the deep stuff. The meaning in one word. What does Easter mean to you? Okay, y'all talk to each other. We'll be back in a second, Okay? Alright. Uh, sites are gonna keep sending in answers. You guys are gonna keep sending in answers. We're gonna, you know how word clouds work? The biggest answer is the biggest word. All of that stuff. So before that, could I just have a sneak preview here? Somebody tell me in one word, what does Easter mean to you? Anybody got anything over here? Saved. Saved. Oh, purification. You guys are going, wait, okay, you guys have got it all over here. Let me get these guys to, it's amazing what you're saying. Anybody over here resurrect? I agree with all of that. Uh, anybody over here? Salvation. Salvation, rejoice. Yeah, that's a good word. That's a good, these are all great words. Legacy. Legacy. Okay. Wow. Wow, wow. You guys, uh, can I give you my word? Yeah. Thanks for asking. I'm gonna give you my word and you're like, Eh, I need more, right? You need the backstory. Somebody over here said, rejoice. Have you ever showed up and everybody is celebrating something and you have no idea what's going on. It's like you walk into the room and like, why are we so happy? What's going on? And you needed the backstory, right? You needed to know, like, uh, those of you of a certain age, wherever you are, any of our sides anywhere, uh, just quickly raise your hand, nod, whatever you need to do. If I put two words together, do you know what chicken jockey means? Yes. Yes. Some of you do. Yes. Thank you for not throwing popcorn. Okay. Just do that. Yeah. So the rest of you're going, I don't even know what that is. Is that a new sandwich? A Chick-fil-A? You need the backstory? It's a silly celebration. It's a harmless celebration. It's happening in theaters. It's connected to a movie, which is connected to a video game. It's just a moment of joy, right? But you need the backstory to understand what's going on. So what on earth would be the backstory to this? If the resurrection really happened, then yes, Jesus is everything he claimed. Yes, he is the Lord. Yes, he is the king of glory. Yes, he did deal with my sin on the cross. And yes, he lives again. It's all true. One theologian said that, uh, that the resurrection is God's yes to Jesus. Like you look at the crucifixion and it seems like a moment of defeat and horror. And instead, after the resurrection, God is saying, yes, this is my son. Yes, he will rule and reign forever. Yes, pay attention to him. It's a cool thing. And, and by the way, Thomas figured it out real quickly, Thomas, as soon as he's confronted with the evidence, said, my Lord and my God. I mean, he knew. He knew. Now, that is a big thing for us to get to a place of confessing that Jesus' Lord and God, I'm, I'm gonna tell you, it's huge. We all, it's, it's huge. But it'll mean nothing to you if it doesn't get personal. You see, if we just give Jesus kinda like that every, you know, every now and then kind. Yeah. Oh yeah, Lord Jesus. Yeah. Woo-hoo, I'm team Jesus. But it doesn't become personal, then it means nothing. Now we're back to Mary Magdalene. Mary of Magdala. Magdala was a village that was up in Northern Israel, not far from where Jesus grew up. He rescued her from a dark existence. If you look at the story, nobody else, nobody else believed in her. He redeemed her, he healed her. He gave her a new life. And now he's gone. And she can't imagine life without him. All of the chaos, all of the confusion. Mary finds her way back to the tomb. She thinks she's alone. She's weeping. She senses someone is behind her. She turns around. She doesn't recognize him. It's Jesus. Maybe it's because her eyes are full of tears. Maybe it's something else that's going on. She thinks he's the gardener tending the, the, the area there. And she's so overwrought. She's so through her tears just says to Jesus again thinking He's the gardener. Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I'll will get him. I'll go get him. That doesn't even make sense. How is she gonna do that? This is her heartache speaking. Just tell me where he is. And Jesus, in the middle of her, of, of her hurt, her confusion, her panic. Jesus changes everything with just one word. Mary. Mary, when she hears her name, it's you. She rushes to him. She grabs him. There's a whole beautiful story there. We don't have the time to go into, but she hangs onto him so long that Jesus is like, oh, you gotta let me go. And he explains to her what's gonna be happening now. But it was when she heard her name, Mary. Mary, I haven't forgotten you, Mary. You're not alone. Mary, I've called you into this. Mary, I'm not gonna leave you or forsake you. Isaiah 43 says it this way. Do not fear I have redeemed you. I i have called you by name. That's what's going on there. But you gotta hear me. That's what Jesus is doing today. He's calling you by name and some of you're going never heard his audible voice. I'm not saying it happens that way, but Jesus is calling you. You see, sometimes it's so loud that you can't even hardly ignore it. Other times it's so private and personal that it's hard to put to words. Lean over to the person next to you really quickly and tell 'em the loudest animal on the planet. Go. You got like 15 seconds. It's a little shoulder conversation. Loudest animal on the planet. All right? We've talked about a lot of animals over the years. According to most scientists, the loudest animal on the planet is a species of whale. Yeah. Some of you got it dives down 35, 3800 feet into the depths of the ocean. I mean, the only way they communicate, the only way they navigate is through cliques. Now, these clicks have been recorded at 230 decibels. For some of you, you won't understand that. Others of you are, whew. Let's just get, let's just get some perspective. A jet fighter that is like within like a close range that's gonna produce like, uh, ooh, I don't know, 130 decibels. Really painfully loud. You get up too close to one of the really big ones. You can get up to 150 decibels at 150 decibels. Your, your eardrums rupture at 230 decibels, which of course we can't stand. It's fatal. It would be fatal to human beings. It's more than we can handle. Speaking of 130 decibels in Helsinki, they recorded, uh, roosters actually crowing at 130 decibels. Again, that's loud. That's loud. And some of you're going, well, thanks for that old McDonald. I didn't know you had a farm. What's the point? Wait one more. For the longest time, nobody really knew how giraffes communicated. Like you got, you got snorts and you got grunts and that's about all you got. And for, for the most part, people just thought, oh, I guess they just don't vocalize and communicate with each other. If you've ever been around them in the wild, they're really quiet. But scientists have now found that they hum and murmur and communicate to each other at such a low frequency that the human ear can't even pick it up. Now what are they doing? Most of it happens at night. Hey, we're over here now lion, he's over there. You're not alone. What am I saying? I'm saying sometimes God's gonna speak so loudly that it overwhelms you, but most of the time pay attention to what God speaks so quietly that you're the only one who hears it. It'll be so powerful, so personal, you won't even be able to put words to it. You wanna take a step out of your boredom these days? You wanna take a step out of your cynicism, out of your hurt, out of your fear, out of your anxiety, your, your loneliness, whatever it is that you're kind of wrestling with that you haven't told your wife about, you haven't told your friends about. Whatever it is. If you wanna take a step, pay attention when God begins to speak to you in really private ways, it'll happen. But words matter too. So let's just look at what your words are. Because they help us. They help us to worship, right? They help us. So, uh, okay, you know how, uh, word clouds work? So hope was your number one answer across all the sites. Those of you joining us, uh, online, um, life looks like it might be in second. And then what salvation are those? Are those the ones you guys are thinking? So, hope, salvation, and life. We're just gonna pick three of them now. Uh, have you ever written a song? Some of you have, some of you have. Y'all just wrote the lyrics to a song. It's a worship song. You ready to sing it? I mean, you just did it. It's your song. Okay, here's how it's gonna work. Your section one, your section two, your section three. Same thing at the sites. You guys just split the rooms up on the floor. You can be one and two, and then in the rafters you could be three. Okay? In the loft, same way you guys just split it up. But one, two, and three. Okay, we good? So section one, here's your, so what's the, what's the first hope we give us a D six. Uh, with that nine in there. Ooh, that's a nice cord. Okay, you ready? This is your, y'all singing. Here it is. There is ho. That's your line. So sing it. There is ho you can do it. A little bit louder. Come on. You got it. There is hope. That's great. That's great. We'll be back. Uh, what's the next one? Salvation. There's salvation. There's salvation. Oh, you got it. Okay. What was it? Oh, life. Okay, here in the middle there is life for me. Okay. So it's basically there is life. There is life. Let me hear you. There is life. Okay, let's go over it. There is hope. Hope there is hope. I love your confidence. But this is the note. There is hope, there's salvation, there is life. And then we'll all say for Me, You know, some of you so badly don't want to do this. You would rather take another offering. I'm like, I can see it on your faces. Um, we can do that by the way, if you'd know anybody. No. Okay. Uh, so I know at this point you're going, well that's not much of a song. 1, 2, 3. Right? And so we'll sing one, we'll sing two, we'll sing three and then we'll sing the backstory. Now you know the backstory. It's the chorus. We're gonna hit the chorus. Okay? So still it's like Greg, not much of a song. Okay? So you guys start. Tim, start Thomas, come on, Ben. Steven. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Come on Mike. I want to hear the horns. Now come on guys, whenever you can. You didn't know you could hear that church, did you? We'll be here all week. Please tip your waitresses. Okay, You ready? Here we go. You're one. There is hope. Is everybody Okay? Let's do it again. I love what Mel's doing. Here we go. There is, there's s there is all of us. Now here's The backstory. Here's how we can sing this be I can worth as smooth as butter people. Thank you. Happy Easter. Easter. Real quickly, what was the last resurrection story you saw? I'm not talking about it in the gospels. You ever seen something, a situation in your life where it's like all hope was gone and then God shows up? Maybe it's a marriage that was saved. Maybe it's a career that you'd left for dead. Maybe it's a dream that you thought was long gone and God said, not yet. Not yet. And God moved in. Anybody had a hell situation somewhere where you're like, yeah, that happened to me. 'cause I'm gonna tell you, when you get up close to those kinds of stories, you know the power of God, the resurrected king is resurrecting me. He hasn't, he hasn't left me. You see, this does get really personal. When you trust in Jesus and you respond to his forgiveness, he walks with you and he's not finished with you. But it also implies something that's gonna happen throughout all creation. God is going to restore all of this. You see, all of the hurt, all of the, the frailties and the, the ugliness and the injustices, all of the pain and the heartache, it will not have the last word in in humanity's story. If Jesus is king and the resurrection really happened, the scriptures tell us that there will come a day when he takes care of it all. And he says that's it. Now, there are many of you here who believe that and you're like, oh man, I am clinging to that. I'm cl but what do I do now in the in-between time? 'cause man, it seems dark. I was in Managua, Nicaragua got a chance to do a little bit of work there. I needed to fly home. There was a hurricane blowing in. There was one flight in the morning and I really wanted to get out. They dispersed us into the, uh, a really, I think probably the most impoverished area of that city. And, uh, this other guy, I didn't know him, but we, we were, we were guests at this woman's house and the meal that she served us of black beans and warm tortillas. I've said this before, but I'm pretty sure it cost her more than any meal I've ever served a guest in my house. I just humbled. But it was time to go to bed 'cause I had to make that flight. So they show us, it's a mud brick house with a tin roof. And, and, and you know, it, it was, they take us to the back of the house and kind of outside. There was a little bit of an addition there. It's a narrow room. They, they put me in this guy. I didn't know him from Adam. He was just there. And we just both, you know, needed a place to stay. So they, they, you know, show us this room and, uh, two cots, there's a bear bulb light. And you know, so I'm tucking my, my backpack underneath the cot. And he must have been working really hard that day. 'cause he fell asleep so fast. I've never seen somebody fall asleep like he was asleep before his head hit the pillow. And when I say asleep, I mean he went into the deep, deep sleep. The kind where like his snoring was a work of art. It was so loud, it was so impressive. I was like, how's this coming out of one man? He sounded like a barrel full of chainsaws. I mean, it was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. And I didn't even have a chance to go to sleep yet. So I thought, okay, well that's my night. I clicked the light off. I, uh, I get in bed or this cot, you know, pull the sheet up over and, and I'm there and he's really going at it. And then all of a sudden I hear the second sound of the evening and all I could say is it sounded like clicks and little ws. So it was like, I was like, well that's weird 'cause it's not him and it seems like it's just coming from this wall. So I turned my phone on, you know, turned the light on just to see what it was not a good idea because what I saw was a wall trembling with life. Every kind and size of insect that you can ever imagine was coming out of the cracks. And in between the bricks and in the bricks and the holes in the bricks. And then they would go back in and it was a nightmare. If you're old enough to know this kids ancient history calls this in 1980s, but in the 1980s there was a movie, an Indiana Jones movie, some of you might remember. It was that I thought that only happened in movie scenes. And it's like right here, narrow room. I've gotten, I can't get any closer to Texas chainsaw. I mean, I'm just like, what do I do? Oh lord, I didn't have earplugs. I reached in, I tore a couple of pieces of paper out of my journal. I put them in my ears for many reasons. And then I prayed and I prayed for the dawn Lord, please just mourning. I guess I must have fallen into a light restless sleep. But at some point I hear the third sound of the evening and then the hum hum hum. And it comes into our room and starts rustling and like underneath my cut. And I'm like, oh wow. Is that a pig? Is that a dog? Please Lord, don't let it be a three pound insect. But I didn't see what it was, it left the sound left. I thought, I gotta grab my phone the next time I know it's gonna be, I just gotta see what this thing is rummaging around. I kicked my light on and caught 'em just as they were leaving the, this, this open door. It was two roosters. I was so grateful. Not just because they weren't some mutant insect for my nightmares, but you know what roosters do? They announced the morning. Now listen to me. It was dark. All the noises were happening. There was no indication that morning was coming. But if I see roosters rummaging around and stretching out, I'm thinking Jesus. And sure enough, they crowed. The morning came, the end of my night was soon over and the morning, one out light pushed back darkness. Listen to me, some of you right now are going through something and it's so difficult and the challenge is so great and it's overwhelming and maybe it's even isolating you and you don't think anybody else can feel it or understand it. And it could be that you are wondering if will this night ever end? Will I ever see hope? Will I ever taste of hope again? And I don't even pretend to know some of the heartache that some of you are going through. I just know that in these moments what we do is we clinging to that story. What if the resurrection really happened? What if the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is going to one day, make things right, once and for all? What if he did defeat death and evil? I know that sounds like a lot, but what if it's the case? But what if right now he's offering you a life where you don't go through anything alone? And he says, I will walk with you and he does call you by name. What if we could be redeemed and I don't have to walk around fearing what will happen when I stand before God? I don't have to wonder, well, was I good enough? I don't have to wonder about any of that. I don't have to live with regret. I don't have to live with the shame because I'm forgiven. What if it was all true? First Corinthians 15 says that if the resurrection really happened, then what you do isn't in vain. So when you love and you serve and you pray and you give and you share, and you let somebody else have the spotlight and you listen instead of interrupting and you come alongside and encourage someone and you worship and you just sit with someone in their grief, Jesus says it all matters. None of it is in vain. And some of you're like, well then what? What do I do with that? You make it personal. He's calling you by name. Well, how does that work? You turn to Jesus. You ask him to forgive you and to lead you. You tell a friend, you celebrate it out loud. You join a faith community. Listen, we're gonna keep talking about this throughout the spring. It starts next weekend with our friend John O'Leary. He and I were talking this week. He can't wait to be here. I'm gonna teach a little bit of the story of Peter and then hand it off to him. You wanna be here, you have friends that want to be here. But if you do show up here, I will tell you that you'll hang out with some people who clearly do not have it all figured out. We don't have it all figured out. We don't have all the answers. We're obviously imperfect, but we live by hope, not like an empty naive hope. Nobody here says that life is all skittle, rainbows and unicorns. We face the darkness. We admit the darkness. There's some days we wake up and we are so aggravated. Our hearts are so frustrated. There are days that we wake up and our hearts are broken. There are days that are, we wake up and our hearts are so full of joy. We, we make a lot of noise. I'm just telling you that the Echo of hope reaches back to an empty, too. The victory of our God is assured darkness is ending. And I, I realize that for some of you that's a, that's a lot because of what you see and feel in this world. But listen to me. The dawn has broken. The tomb is empty. There are roosters running up and down the hallway reminding us that night will not win. Jesus is king. I tell you, he's king and he is worthy of our worship. He's worthy of our trust. He's worthy of us. One more time this day to remind ourselves and the world that he's the king who will rule forever and ever. You see this, Jesus is the resurrected God and he will have the last word. But until that glorious day, never lose hope you children of the dawn. Why? Because he is risen. He has risen indeed.