Hello everyone! I want to say Happy Resurrection Day!

"..this same power that raised Him from the dead is alive in those who call upon His name this day. "

I know many of us know and realize it, but today is a very special day. It is a day to reflect and to remember what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. He says about Himself in the Word of the Lord in Revelations 1, He says “I am the First and the Last, I am the Living One; I was dead and now look, I am alive forever and ever! I hold the keys of death and Hades.” The Lord Jesus Christ - who was buried, who was put to death on a cross - had defeated death. He had risen from the grave, and this same power that raised Him from the dead is alive in those who call upon His name this day. We rejoice this day! We rejoice because no longer are we defeated by death in the Lord Jesus Christ, but we are able to conquer because He who had conquered death, who holds the key of death and Hades in his hands, also conquers death and darkness and all powers of evil within the lives of those who trust in His powerful Name.

When we think of death, we know today that the coronavirus - when we still look into the news, when we read what’s happening - that this virus has been a terrible thing. It’s caused death in the lives of many family members that are now left alone; many family members that now are mourning because of sickness. This virus has caused a separation - it's caused people to have to stay in their homes; to not be able to leave and go wherever they want and do what they want - even some family members are unable to see other family members. We see death, we see separation and we see all sorts of destruction that has happened because of this virus. Our hearts go out in this time, as those who are able to pray, to call upon the name of the Lord; we do pray that God would send healing; we do pray that God have mercy on this land and on our nation, that God have mercy on this world and begin to call His people back home even in the midst of such trouble and turmoil, that God will bring comfort.

But I also am reminded of something today that we hear about this virus; and yes it is a terrible terrible thing, but I began to think that there is something that has crippled the nations much worse than even the coronavirus; something that has also caused death from ages past, has caused not only a physical death, but a spiritual death. There is a sickness that has been around for ages that causes separation - a separation from the living God that was never meant to be; a separation of family members who are now stuck with hatred and darkness and who are against each other; a separation that cannot be cured by any medication - and it is called sin. Sin has come into the lives of humanity since the day that Adam sinned; we have now inherited this sin. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and sin has caused such destruction. It has caused destruction not only in our personal lives and in our families, but destruction in our nation, and it is a terrible terrible sickness.

"God has sent something for the ailment of our sin! God has sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ."

When we stop, we think for a moment; is there hope for a cure? I can imagine right now people working hard day and night to try and get a vaccine for the coronavirus, to try to find a cure - and I imagine the day that a vaccine is made or a cure is made possible, it's going to be a day of victory, a day of joyfulness. People are going to celebrate because we've overcome this virus. But I want to say today: even greater than looking for a cure for this virus, we must find a cure for our sinfulness, the cure for our waywardness against God, the cure for enmity against the living God - who has created us to worship Him alone - that we have walked away from. But hallelujah! I want to say today: today is a day of rejoicing! This is a day of celebration, because God has sent a cure! God has sent something for the ailment of our sin! God has sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He has resurrected from the grave, defeating the sickness of sin, defeating the sting of death. He is the King, who once was dead but is now alive and calls us also into Resurrection victory this day.

So I ask: what victory is found in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ? What victory is there in trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was once dead but is now alive?

"...we were meant to walk with God, to walk along His side, to follow Him, to love Him all the days of our lives.."

I want to say first off, that just as the coronavirus has sickened people in the body - we know that it attacks the respiratory system - and our body, if we were to get that virus, it affects the body in such a terrible way: we cannot get the oxygen that we need, we cannot function as we need, and our bodies literally begin to face this virus that many people cannot win against. Even some people who are eventually able to overcome it - the pounding, the terrible things that their body goes through - they all have the story of how terrible it is and how bad it is. Sin also takes a terrible toll on our bodies. You see, from the beginning, man was supposed to live forever with his God. We were meant to be in the garden; we were meant to walk with God, to walk along His side, to follow Him, to love Him all the days of our lives. But the moment man had sinned, sin had entered in. In our lives, we can see what sin has done. It has caused us to begin to decay, not only physically, but even within ourselves. Sin causes us to be filled with anger and darkness. The apostle Paul spoke greatly about what sin does to our bodies: he urges us to get rid of sin, he urges us to get rid of those things that decay not only our bodies physically, but especially on the inside where we were meant to worship God, where we were meant to be with Him and to walk with Him.

We have allowed sin to come in; hatred and anger and bitterness and all sorts of things that begin to bring a decay, that work as a virus. That rather than us breathing in the oxygen of the Holy Spirit, we are separated from His presence, living and moving in a world full of darkness. When we’re filled with all sorts of darkness, we can't receive the oxygen - the renewal - of the Spirit of God; we cannot receive the love of God that fills our hearts and allows us to function; but we walk in the darkness of the world. We begin to speak and do the opposite of what God has called us to speak and do. These bodies that were meant to live for His glory are now living in decay and in darkness apart from God. These bodies were created to worship the Lord Jesus Christ and no other! We were formed for God, for His own personal pleasure; we were formed to do His work and to do His will. But sin says no, I want to do my will, and when we walk away from God, when we walk away from what God has for our lives, we walk away from the antidote of our sin - we walk away from the only cure.

But hallelujah! The Lord Jesus Christ in His body had taken the penalty that was meant for us and the penalty against our bodies, and He took it on Himself, the innocent Lamb of God, and He was beaten and bruised and killed because of my sin.

"But hallelujah, today He is resurrected!"

But hallelujah, today He is resurrected! Him bursting through the ground and coming forth in a renewed body would now symbolize today that I no longer have to live in the vileness of sin; I no longer have to live under its slavery; but I can now come into the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ; into the Lord Jesus who brings the Spirit, who says in the Word of the Lord that “even in your mortal bodies I will cause you to have life because I am life itself.” He calls us out of sin, He calls us to not go our own way any longer but to now come back to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is resurrection victory! He is victory even in these earthly bodies, and yes these bodies will one day pass away, but I praise God that there is a future for those in the Lord Jesus Christ: a future that one day we will also receive a new body, that the perishable would now be clothed with the imperishable.

This is the victory of the resurrection. In your bodies, with your hands, have you been able to honor God with the things that you touch and do? With your feet, have you walked in the will and in the way that God has called you? Within all the actions and all the decisions that you make within this body, have they been to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ? Have they been submitted and humbled before God to work and to do as He would be pleased?

God is saying today that if you turn from your sins and you turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, there is resurrection victory! You shall not perish, but even this day you shall arise with Me, even this day you will find that there is life and there is light in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Secondly, I began to think about the sickness of sin even more, and sin as a sickness has sickened the minds of many. The Word of the Lord says in Romans chapter 1 verse 28: “furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind so that they do what ought not to be done.” This is the result of sin; this is the sickness that enters into the minds of mankind. Think about this: to reject the knowledge and the understanding of God, to reject Him, is to now receive a depraved mind so that we would do what ought not to be done. There is a great sickness in the world today - it is a sickness of the mind that has been caused by sin. Many men, many even in churches today, live and move according to their own thinking. Now why is that bad? Because many live and walk in the depravity of their own human minds.

What is the human mind capable of? Would we take a minute just to reflect on history - let alone think about what happens today - but all throughout history, we see men against men, constant wars, constant struggles, the inability and impossibility of having peace, because the mind of man is about man. The mind of man is not about God, it is not about the things of God, and the result is depravity of mind: not knowing right from wrong. We look at mental illness today - how prevalent it is in the United States of America - how sad that it is that many are faced with struggles within their minds. Even many Christians today, boggled down by demonic powers over their minds and struggles because of the result of sin.

Yet, there is hope: the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ! He who at one time had thorns placed on His head, covering His head, bleeding, laying there on the cross - was now resurrected from the ground. When He was resurrected, He did not have a crown of thorns on His head - He now was resurrecting as the One who is crowned in victory, the One who is crowned in power. Those who look to Him, those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and turn from the wickedness and the darkness of our mind, we now receive the mind of Christ. The Word of the Lord says that those in Christ now have the mind of Christ: no longer in depravity, no longer in confusion, no longer thinking wrong is right and right is wrong, but now seeing clearly with the mind, because now you have the mind of the resurrected One; the One whose mind is set upon glorifying the Father.

Is your mind set upon God today? Has your mind been filled with the things of this world? As we’re in our homes and as we are in this time of isolation, are our minds just cluttered with what we can do to keep ourselves busy, are our minds set on the latest fad of this and of that? Or, is God renewing our minds in the secret place by His power - the resurrection power where no longer are our minds deadened in our knowledge of God - but we are now alive in Christ; our minds are now alive to God; we can't stop thinking about Him, we can't stop worshiping Him - there is something that has touched this mind where my thinking is beginning to change.

"...but there is an antidote, and His name is the Lord Jesus Christ"

I want to say today, that if you know that your mind has been far gone away from the Lord; that maybe your mind is full of darkness, maybe you can feel a depravity deep within, but there is an antidote, and His name is the Lord Jesus Christ: the resurrection victory that comes through Christ, who again wore those crowns, but is now crowned in victory. He is looking to touch others so that He would fill our minds, that we can pray and say “Father fill this mind today, fill this mind, give me the mind of Christ. No longer will I think of my own thing and think my own way Father, but have mercy and let me have the mind of Christ. Father, that the world would know, that You are alive. Lord Jesus, that You have truly resurrected because You have just resurrected in somebody's mind today. You have just resurrected a deadend mind that was dead to the things of God, that was at enmity with God, that was against everything to do with the truth, now settled, now alive, and now strong because it is strong in the life and the light of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

There is healing today, church, and it's not just the healing of a normal wound. There is healing for those who call upon the Lord Jesus - It is a healing from the sickness of sin that brings us back to the Father. The greatest healing is that we would be healed in our hearts and healed in our minds so that we would give God truly the honor that He is worthy to be given. True healing is that we would turn from our sin and be healed from our iniquities, so that we would truly be made whole to give God all of our hearts, all of our mind, and all of our strength. Today, there is a great healing that even begins in our mind as the Lord Jesus resurrects as we call upon His Name.

Will you call upon His resurrection power today? Will you call upon the Lord Jesus Christ and allow Him to move in a deeper way?

"...there is eternal life found in the One who has risen from the grave."

Lastly, sin - this sickness, this virus - has struck us to the core: beyond causing a death, a bodily death - a death in our spirit. The Bible teaches us that the result of sin, the result of breaking the law of God, of walking our own way, causes death - death within our spirits. The day that we may breathe our last or the day that Jesus comes home, we will at one point face the judgment of God. If we are found empty, dead in our spirits, dead to God, the Bible says that we shall perish. But, He says today that there is eternal life found in the One who has risen from the grave. See, sin is a terrible thing: it strikes deep within our spirits, does something again, that no medication can heal or help. There is no vitamin, there is no nutrient that can make a difference - dead on the inside. But praise the Lord! As it says in Ephesians, “but because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our transgressions; it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”

Right now, I'm praying that we would begin to hear these words and recognize that God has sent the antidote - that even though we were at one time dead in our spirit - maybe today you feel dead on the inside. Maybe today you have lived in enmity against God; you have walked away from His goodness; you have decided that the world was better for you; but all of a sudden there's something in you ringing like an alarm saying, No! I need to turn! I have sinned against God, I have been struck on the inside as the due penalty of my own waywardness and wickedness,” the Lord Jesus Christ is our hope today, that He would make us alive on the inside. That He would make us alive with Him. Just as He burst through the ground, He would take us, we were dead in our sins and transgressions and not just pick us up, but He says ‘seat us in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.’

I want to say that there is hope today: hope in the Resurrection! Many are waiting for the hope of a vaccine for the coronavirus, but we are rejoicing right now because the hope for us has already been given in the resurrection of Jesus! There is no more waiting: He had gone to the cross and He has risen, He has risen this day! But is He risen in you, is He risen in me? Have we received the fullness of the victory of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus? If not, the Word of the Lord says today, “today is the day of salvation.” May we stop, may we look at our lives, may we begin to reflect on this great work that Jesus has done. May we stop, and may we examine our lives and say, Father, open our eyes this day to see that You are the Way, the Truth and the Life; You are the Resurrection and the Life.

"There is victory, there is hope, there is power, there is glory!."

The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is that man has become enemies of God through our sin, through this sickness. It is a sickness that is killing many. It is a sickness that may be killing some of you right now from the inside out. But the Gospel says that if you turn from your sin, that if you turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, if you believe in the One who is risen from the grave and you turn to Him, that He shall bring us into His glory, that He shall rise within us. He will become Christ in me, the hope of glory; Christ the antidote for our illness and our sickness; Christ the hope that God has sent in His love and in His power. So we rejoice this day, and we rejoice that even in such a time of turmoil in our nation, a time of turmoil in our world, yet we who are in Christ can yet celebrate because there is victory, there is hope, there is power, there is glory!

"Father, have Your way"

I'm praying that we would step into the fullness of God. I’m praying that we would turn to Him and say, Father, have Your way, and that His will would unfold for each one of us, and that God would be glorified in this time like never before; that maybe, church, as this season comes to an end at whatever point God may call it, that when we come out, we would be able to transform others just as God has transformed us; that we will be able to hold those who are sick, not just physically, but sick on the inside, so that God would do the work that he has called us to do. That we would one day be able to feed, that we would one day be able to give, just as the Lord had fed us with His Word and His truth, and give out His life just as He did at the cross and rose again. Maybe one day we will also be able to bring this resurrection hope to others as God has called us to do.

I’m praying that all of you and every family would be blessed this day as you spend this time together. As you are eating and celebrating, may we remember the great work and the great victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is hope today! There is hope of the resurrection and it is found in the Lord Jesus Christ!