HOW TO CELEBRATE EASTER WHEN YOU’RE LIVING GOOD FRIDAY
I have heard dozens of Easter Sermons over the course of my life, and I have delivered many Easter Sermons myself. Each year the preacher tries to find that clever, unique way of articulating the Easter message. Sometimes they are wonderful...sometimes they are not
The joy of preaching on Easter is that the story is so simple and so clear. The difficulty of preaching on Easter is also that the story is so simple and clear. Like any other story we have heard before, it is possible to slip from a listening mode to one in which the words float by. We say to ourselves in a sub-conscious way, "I’ve heard this story before, and I know what it’s all about." Our minds drift, and before we know it, the sermon is over and we are shaking hands and headed for the parking lot.
Because of that preachers tend to struggle with what they preach on Easter.
· The horror of the cross he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities * How do we know he’s resurrected * The scriptures fulfilled
· * The shroud of Turin
But none of those things made my baby leap if you know what I mean. I didn’t want to preach something because it was traditional I never do that so why should I do that on Easter? At the same time, the balance of that is that I don’t want to ignore the day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus
So what’s a preacher to do? When a preacher doesn’t know what to preach what he has got to do every time is seek the Lord and review what the Lord is speaking to him or her about………… a good preacher preaches out of his overflow
I knew what that was. It’s a word about how to hold on when it’s difficult to hold on
A word with three or four very real biblical strategies of what to think on and how to think during those difficult times when you are waiting on the power of God.
Because every single Christian goes through that every single Christian has those kinds of days when its hard to wait on the cavalry, when your doing what your supposed to be doing but your worn out on waiting.
So you know what Iv done? Iv combined the message that God has given me to preach this week with the incredible resurrection story in a sermon im gonna call
“HOW TO CELEBRATE EASTER WHEN YOU’RE LIVING GOOD FRIDAY”
LETS PRAY…………….
ECCLESTATES 3:4
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
Weather you are godly or ungodly you will go through times of weeping and times of laughing. You will have days that you want to mourn and days that want to dance.
The same bible that says in Romans 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Also says in job 5:7 that your are going to have trouble as sure as sparks fly upwards.
It’s not a contradiction it’s simply a fact of life that God has made us to have incredible victory in spite of our miserable failures.
Our Christian experience no matter how powerful is full of good and bad days
Days when the Power of God is obvious and days when the Power of God is not obvious
That’s kind of the Difference between Good Friday and resurrection Sunday
THE POWER OF GOD IS JUST AS REAL ON BOTH DAYS
Good Friday: a day of
Betrayal, false accusations, standing alone when he should have been surrounded by friends, beating, torture, pain, having to keep your mouth shout when your more than able to defend yourself, the sky grows dark, despair, Shame, Anguish, OVER ALL DEATH.
Resurrection Sunday: is a day of
New beginnings, great Hope great JOY, unexpected surprises, your enemies have fallen out, you get a clear word from the Lord, doors that thought would never be opened again have been blown off of the hinges, When the Power of God shows up and is openly made manifest. Its when your blown away at the Power of God. Death gets slapped in the face
BUT ON YOUR GOOD FRIDAYS YOU HAVE TO HANG ON UNTIL SUNDAY
How do you live like he’s risen when you feel dead yourself?
How do you dance for Joy when you’re knocked down to the floor?
How do you celebrate Easter when you’re living Good Friday?
Living in Christ means living beyond your means. The resurrection power that comes from Christ is a life in spite of death power
Resurrection Power means Life in spite of Death power
There is no such thing as a testimony with out a test
There is no such thing a resurrection without a death
There is no such thing as an Easter without a Good Friday.
Realize where you’re at in your walk and bad days are part of it. Don’t ever let anybody tell you your not supposed to have bad days. No, see you’re supposed to have victory in spite of your bad days. Look at the person next you and tell them “its ok to have bad days”.
Its just like the song says, “we are blessed beyond the curse”. The curse is real but the blessing is greater than the curse.
Good Friday is real but Easter outweighs Good Friday.
Your problems are real, but the reality that God keeps his promises will out shine your problem
The trouble you face is genuine but the reality that God’s power is going to change everything is greater than your genuine trouble.
The first thing you gotta do.
After you check your life and make sure that your being obedient to the Lord. Make sure that your where your supposed to be and your doing what your supposed in other words your walking with God in whatever mater that is plaguing you
Once you’ve done that then the number one thing you’ve got to do is realize that if your walking with God then he is leading you to better places. And you’ve got to have hope for that. He is our shepherd and If you remain walking with God he will lead you to a place that is better than this. He will take you into some places of Victory. You need to review your walk with god historically and ask your self has there ever been a time when I walked with God and he took me to a worse place. Has there ever been a time that I trusted him and he tricked me.
We serve a merciful God. Our Jesus is full of mercy. Our Jesus is full of compassion. We have to believe that he wants better things for us. We have to believe that he is planning on better things for us. We have to believe that if he is leading us than as our shepherd he is taking us to green pastures, which for us means prosperous places.
We have to look at the History of Jesus and say has there ever been a time when he didn’t have mercy when he didn’t have compassion when he didn’t want to help us even when no one else wanted to help us.
Now once we understand that the fact that something better is coming and all we’ve got to do is hold on until then there are 4 things I want to show that will help you keep your head right on your good Friday days
(1) Understand that just because you feel like a failure doesn’t make you one. You are not what you feel you are who God says you are.
(2) Learn what God says. Learn those specific scriptures concerning your specific area of attack and fight back with the word. The word always says your getting ripped off)
(3) Share your hurt and your conflict with Godly friends James 5:16 says confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
(4) Make a list (mental or physical of the areas you are walking in victory in the things you have to be thankful for. One of the things we find out is that we devote 95% of our heart and our mind to less than 1% of our life and when the other 99% is completely blessed. A big sign of immaturity.
Your devotion to a particular subject should be proportionate to the importance that thing has in your life. If its not then one little thing will effect all the rest of your life
That means something is bad out of order.
Song of Solomon it says that it is little bity foxes that ruin great big vineyards.
Rehash
If you can do those four things on Good Friday you can make it til Easter Sunday
He is risen
JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY
1917-1963
THE FIRST DATE RECORDS WHEN HE ENTERED INTO TIME. THE 2ND DATE MARKS HIS EXIT. THE CHILDREN HE RAISED, THE EDUCATION HE ATTAINED, THE GOALS HE REACHED, AND THE PEOPLE HE AFFECTED ARE ALL ENCAPSULATED BY ONE HYPHEN BETWEEN TO DATES.
ALL THE THINGS HE OVERCAME, ALL THE MEN AND WOMEN HE MOTIVATED ALL THE LAUGHTER, ALL THE TEARS, ALL HE ACCOMPLISHED IS NOW SEEN AS A SIMPLE LITTLE SLASH BETWEEN TWO DATES.
TD JAKES TALKS ABOUT THIS IN THE INTRO TO HIS BOOK CALLED “MAXIMIZE THE MOMENT”
THE REALITY IS SIMPLE
WE ARE CONCEIVED IN A BLAZE OF PASSION
WE ENTER THE WORLD IN A FLASH OF URGENCY
OUR LIVES IGNITE QUICKLY AND COMBUST INTO VARIOUS LEVELS OF GLORY AND THEN IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE WE BURN OUT.
LIKE JFK WE ARE MORTAL AND OUR LIFE ON THIS EARTH WILL EVENTUALLY END.
THE LIFE WE HAVE IS A HYPHEN LOCKED BETWEEN TWO DATES.
IT’S A GAP BETWEEN TWO APPOINTMENTS THE QUESTION IS NOT HOW LONG THAT GAP IS THE QUESTION IS ANSWERED BY WHAT IS IN THE GAP BETWEEN THE DATES
JESUS SAYS IN LUKE 12:15
THAT A MANS LIFE DOESN’T CONSIST OF THE ABUNDANCE OF POSSESSIONS
HE SAID THAT BECAUSE HE UNDERSTOOD MANS FEEBLE ATTEMPT T FILL IN THE GAP WOULD EVENTUALLY LEAD TO THINGS THAT DIDN’T MATTER.
“HE WHO EVER DIES WITH MOST TOYS WINS”
I PROMISE YOU WHEN YOU MEET YOUR APPOINTMENT WIT THAT 2ND DATE
YOU NOT GOING TO CARE HOW MANY TOYS YOU HAVE
ITS NOT GNNA MATTER WHAT KIND OF CAR YOU DRIVE. YOU WONT BE CONCERNED WITH THE SIZE OF YOUR OFFICE ORTHE TITLE ON YOUR BUSINESS CARD. ALL THAT BECOMES ABSOLUTELY MEANINGLESS ON THAT DAY.
WHEN YOU BEGIN TO MOVE FROM A TIME REALM WHERE THINGS CAN BE CHANGED INTO AN ETERNAL REALM WHERE THINGS ARE FOREVER YOU WILL NOT HAVE COMFORT IN A LEDGER SHEET OR A COMPANY WATCH.
WHEN YOU STAND BEFORE GOD AND THE lord SHINES HIS LIGHT ON YOUR LIFE Another NAME WILL APPEAR ON THE Blank between your two appointments.
AND THE NAME THAT APPEARS WILL BE THE MASTER YOU SERVED
AND FOR SOME PEOPLE THE BLANK WILL BE FILLED WITH THE NAME OF THE MIGHTY DOLLAR
AND FOR SOME PEOPLE THE BLANK WILL BE FILLED WITH THE NAME OF A BOTTLE
AND FOR SOME PEOPLE THE BLANK WILL BE FILLED WITH NAME OF A CAREER
AND FOR SOME PEOPLE THE BLANK WILL BE FILLED WITH NAME CONFUSION OR EVEN STUPIDITY.
MAYBE YOU ARE FILLING IN THE BLANK WITH THE NAMES OF HATRED AND BITTERNESS. MAYBE ADULTERY IS THE MASTER YOU SERVE AND WHEN IT TELLS YOU TO JUMP YOUR A GOOD LITTLE BOY AND YOU SAY HOW HIGH?
BUT FOR SOME PEOPLE THE BLANK IS FILLED WITH THE PRECIOUS NAME OF JESUS. A NAME WRITTEN IN BLOOD THAT FILLS UP THE BLANK BETWEEN THE TWO DATES THAT MARK OUR LIVES. A NAME THAT SUPERSEDES DEATH HELL AND THE GRAVE AND A NAME THAT ENTITLES YOU SAFE PASSAGE INTO THE PRESENCE OF THE FATHER, THE NAME THAT MARKS YOU AS A FRIEND AND NOT AN ENEMY AS FAMILY AND NOT A FOREIGNER.
THE NAME OF THE ONLY PERSON THAT HAS EVER HAD DOMINION OVER DEATH. HIS NAME IS JESUS....... AND HE IS RISEN.
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