Jesus is Life: Easter Sunday

Hey Salt Church, it's Matthew West here wishing you a happy Easter and I pray that you guys have a powerful worship service celebrating that He is risen. God bless y'all. Long ago, this is what they felt like when it happened, and today, it's how we should feel too. Because what it meant for them, it means for us. Yes.

We needed to hear that a lot more times, apparently. It bears repeating, as it were. Faith, sing, will lift my hands and sing. Jesus, that you are our King, that you are not just our Savior, but you are our Lord, you are the master of our lives. Thank you, God, that you have freed us from the bondage of sin and death to the most precious freeing slavery to you that could be had.

Thank you so much for the just perfect joy that is getting to rest in you and to follow you and let you be our King. Thank you for letting us worship you today. The one that's here in your house today to celebrate the risen King. And for those who are being exposed to your love for the first time, may it permeate into their soul, Lord, and let them come taste and see just not how good you are, but how great you are. You provide a love that no human being could ever give to us.

You sent your Son in our stead. You paid it all once and for all. And we stand before you spotless, blameless, redeemed, healed, delivered, and so much more. Bless the message that you've given to Pastor Leon. We thank you so much for providing him to be and making him the shepherd of this flock to be a blessing, not just to this church, but to the kingdom to bless you.

To bless Virginia Beach. So, Lord, we praise you and we love you in your name. Amen and amen. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Happy Resurrection Day! I know. I get it, Hunter. I feel you. My husband does the same thing.

He's like, give her a timer. Give her a timer. Thank you for being here. Happy Resurrection Day. We're not dismissing the kids today because, well, there's a few left.

So, if you want to go inside, I wonder if there's someone who could take them. I think they're all already. I see a bunch of hands raised. If you guys want to go in with the big kids. You don't.

You can stay here. But if not, there is an escape room. I don't want to spoil anything, but I think Jesus escapes. Like the tomb. I couldn't be wrong.

I think I gave it away. But pretty sure at the end of it, he comes out of the tomb. And so will your kids. So, they won't stay in there or get lost in the tomb. So, if you want them to go, they can.

Otherwise, we just want to say welcome. Thank you for being here in person or online to celebrate Resurrection Day with us. Please take a minute to greet one another. Say hi. Tell someone you're excited that they're here and that they're risen in the Lord Jesus.

And then we'll move into the next part of our service. Resurrection Day. Can y'all celebrate Jesus Christ? He is alive. He is here.

Wow, so great to have you with us today. Let me adjust my cord here real quick, you know, just kind of hanging out. But I'm so glad to have you with us today at Salt Church in the house today. It's the rush of roaring wind, right? Yeah, it's kind of funny.

This is our second year doing a tent because we're simply just, you know, it's packed out in there and we want to make room for you the days of Easter. And last year it was the same. You know, it could be still all week and the wind comes in. But I see it as, you know, we can we can get like a real enactment of what the Holy Spirit does and what it feels like. Can see Salt Church needs a building.

And we've been praying for a building. I mean, just for weeks now, we've we've we're just not having seats in the theater. And and if you're new with us today, or you've been with us for a while, be in prayer for us about that. You know, we really want to we believe that God is really speaking and moving in our church and doing amazing things. And we've been going through a Jesus is series.

And God's not only restored people through this series, giving us new giving them new faith in Jesus Christ through this series, but he's also saved people through this series. And we've been talking about and I'm not here. I'm not here to give you a big, deep theological talk. OK, I'm here to give you the simple message of Jesus Christ and him crucified and him raised from the dead. And he is alive today.

Jesus is life. We have life in Jesus Christ. We were dead, but now we're living. And I remember the day that I gave my life to Jesus. I was living in an alternative reality for years.

But Jesus is reality. And when he woke me up, I began to see things in a whole new way. And I want that for everybody. And I started Salt Church with that idea that Jesus is reality in my heart for this city and this. And we've been doing this for a few years now.

And and we're just seeing God do amazing things. And he's getting ready to. Hey, let's align with what God's getting ready to do, not only in our church, but in our city and in our nation. God is is is speaking. And we want to align with that.

And I'm inviting you to come on in and align with that as well. Let's be a part of what God's getting already doing. He's beginning that. Maybe this could be the day. So we're going to look at Jesus is life today.

And we walk through different thoughts about Jesus through this through this series. We talk. We talked about Jesus being our friend. He could be our best friend. We talked about Jesus being our pastor.

He's the chief shepherd. He wants to pastor you. Jesus as our healer. Last week, we talked about Jesus as the Lamb of God, that He's our Lamb and He was sacrificed for our sin. He was the perfect sacrifice and He was the blood sacrifice so that we could be made whole and we could be made free.

We talked about that last week and how powerful this series is. But I want to take you to the account of John. And again, I want to say this. I want to preach this message. I want to share this message just like Paul shared it.

And when he said, you'll remember, friends, that when I first came to you, I didn't try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest philosophy. I deliberately kept it plain and simple. First, Jesus and who He is and then Jesus and what He did. Jesus crucified. Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead.

I'm going to keep it very simple for you, okay? And we could just quit right there. We could just say, Hallelujah, praise the Lord, I receive you, Jesus, and you could be made whole today. It's that simple because there's power in the gospel message. But I want to take us to the resurrection account.

We're going to look at John chapter 20. And there's many different resurrection accounts. And we're going to look at this particular one. And it says this, Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciples and the one Jesus loved and said, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they have put Him.

And then it says, So Peter and the other disciples started for the tomb. Both were running. But the other disciple outrun Peter. I mean, John had to put that in there, you know, like, Hey, listen, Peter's a little fat and I got to the tomb first. I mean, every time I read that, I think about that.

Why did you have to put that there? Well, you know, I got there first. Also, he says, I'm the disciple that Jesus loved. I mean, he wanted to state that as well. A little arrogance there, if you ask me.

But the other disciple, which was John, outran Peter and reached the tomb and he bent over and looked in at the strips of linen laying there but did not go in. But then Simon came along behind him, just to make sure he came behind me, right, and went straight into the tomb and he saw the strips of linen laying there. And I love how they're articulate with this because they want to make sure that you know this wasn't a stolen body. This wasn't somebody else's act. This right here happened.

He saw the strips of linen laying there as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head. So you can imagine that the cloth was still in the form of Jesus' face and it was just there. So Jesus just said boom. Whew. Whew.

And he was out. And then the cloth was laying in its place, separate from the linens. Finally, the other disciple who had ran, I just want to say that one more time. Finally, the other disciple who had ran to the tomb first, because I was there first, right, also went in, and he saw and believed. That's the resurrection account, okay?

We all understand that, but there's so much more to this resurrection account. By the way, if you're following with me, you can go to the events page on our Bible app and follow our notes and pull up all of our scriptures. You just go to Bible.com app and go to events, and you can go there. And if you have your Bibles, you can follow along with us there in John 20.

But that's the resurrection event, but there was so much more that happened after that. There's so much more. He appeared to many people, and in fact, he appeared to five different people on that Sunday, and at least ten more after that just kept appearing to people. Why? What does this communicate?

That Jesus loves to be with people. He loved to connect with people. He loved to appear to people and spend time with people and relate to people. And he just couldn't stop doing it. He rose from the dead and immediately went out and started connecting with everybody.

And he wants to do that with you today. Jesus is still appearing today. Jesus is alive, and he's still appearing today. So Jesus is alive and still appearing, and he is as real today as he was then. And that's what I hope you will get out of this message today, is that he is still alive and still appearing to people, and I want you to experience him today.

He wants you to experience him today. Now, let me ask you this. If you were Jesus and you raised from the dead, who would you go see first? Think about that for a second. Have a little fun with this.

Who would you go? For me, I think I would go prove to the religious leaders, hey, you know what? I'm risen. Y'all didn't believe me, right? Here I am.

And I would start there, right? And then you have the Sadducees, who they didn't even believe. They were like modern-day deists, probably. They didn't believe in a resurrection. They didn't believe in an afterlife.

All they believed in is the Torah, the oral-written scripture, and that was it. And they were very material. I would probably go to them first and say, hey, what's going on, guys? Look, there is a resurrection from the dead. I would try to prove them wrong.

How about Pilate? Pilate was the one that was, like, kind of uncertain about whether he should even accuse Jesus or not or put Jesus to trial or not. In fact, his wife, and guys, sometimes, in fact, most of the time we need to listen to our wives, okay? And Pilate got a little note from his wife that said, you need to let this, you need to wash your hands clean of this guy. I think there's something to this guy.

I think there's something to this man. If I were Jesus, I'd probably appear to Pilate and say, hey, you know, Rome needs to know that I'm Jesus. I'm raised from the dead. But he didn't go to any of those people. He went to average people.

He went to the people that you would not expect him to go to. And one of those people he appeared to first was not the religious, not the important, not the political leaders. It was Mary, the very first one. Mary Magdalene. Mary came to the grave and there she experienced Jesus.

Mary Magdalene was a woman in that day. And if you know anything about women in that day, they didn't have a lot of rights. Men didn't go to women first. They went to men first. But Jesus came to her first.

And not only that, he came to her in a broken state. She was in a broken state. She was crying. Follow with me here in Scripture in John 20. It says, Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying.

As she wept, she bent over and looked into the tomb and saw two angels in white seated where Jesus' body had been. One on the head and the other on the foot and asked her, Woman, why are you crying? They have taken my Lord away, she said, and I don't know where they have put him. And at this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there. But she did not realize that it was Jesus.

She was broken. She was hurting. The very first person that Jesus appeared to was somebody crying. He's drawn. Heaven responds to broken heartedness.

Heaven's response to crying is, I'm there. And as you can see, the angels even spoke to her, why are you crying? Why are you crying? The psalm says it like this, the Lord is close to the broken hearted. He's close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

And sometimes we're so broken hearted, we don't even realize that Jesus is there. But he's there. He's there to relate to us, there to comfort us. Some of you may be going through some pains this season. Maybe you've lost a loved one.

Maybe you have some deep wounds and you're just broken and hurt. Can I tell you that Jesus wants to heal you? Jesus hears all of heaven, responds to your cry. Jesus responds to your cry. Jesus isn't as far away as you think, so look for him.

He's not that far away. In fact, he's right there with you. Amen? And he's available for you. If you're hurting, if you're broken in spirit, Jesus is available to you.

And then we go on down in John and we see another occasion of a man named Thomas. Y'all already know who Thomas is, right? I mean, doubting Thomas. We use that phrase all the time. You're a doubting Thomas because that's a common phrase.

Poor Thomas. He got stereotyped, right? He doubted so much. And he was a very pragmatic guy. No, he does the worst.

He goes to Juliet and now we're not angry so much. He doubted, and Jesus appeared to all the disciples but Thomas. And why was Thomas not there? I think Thomas wasn't there because he was done. He thought that Jesus was going to come back as this conquering king, but he was just done.

He was over it. You know, Jesus, he's dead. He's done. Don't you see? He's been put in the grave.

What more is there? So he wasn't even...the disciples, I'm sure, were like, hey, come and be with us. Come and sit with us. He's just like, no, I'm done.

I'm done. He was a very pragmatic guy. You know, his doubt kept him from experiencing the risen Christ there at first. And the other disciples kind of rubbed it in. You know, they were like, look, you know, I experienced...

man, you missed it. Man, we were all there and Jesus was there. And Thomas still didn't believe. He was like, y'all guys are crazy. There's no...

that just doesn't make sense at all. Unless I see it, I won't believe it. And they're...they think...maybe you're here and you think, man, I'm not quite sure about this Jesus thing.

I'm just here because it's Easter Sunday and my family made me come or whatever it might be. I've just got a lot of doubt. But can I say that Jesus doesn't care about your doubt? Look at John 20, 24, 26. It's okay to doubt.

Here's what it is. Now, Thomas, one of the 12, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see the marks in his hands and put my finger where his nails were and put my hand inside of him, I will not believe. So he didn't...

he says, I don't want to only touch him. I want to put my hand. Have you ever done that? Like, I want...in order for me to believe, I'm going to make sure that, look, I've got to put my hand inside.

I don't want to just touch him. I don't want to just hear about him. I don't want to hear about this event or this thing that happened. I want...I've got to know that I know that I know that it happened, okay?

He's got to be in front of me. And for so many of us, we're like that. But Jesus doesn't stop there. He visits him a second time. It won't keep Jesus away.

Your doubts don't keep Jesus away. Jesus doesn't care about your doubts. He gets it. He gets that you're in a doubting state, whatever it is. In fact, he returns a week later a second time because he hasn't given up on Thomas.

In John 20, it says, a week later, verse 26, a week later, his disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. And though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. Because they were scared to death, I'm sure. They're like, because the door's locked and there he is. He says, it's okay, dudes.

It's okay, guys. It's just me. Don't run away. A fancy way of saying that is peace be with you, right? Peace be with you.

Have peace. Settle down. It's okay. Then he said to Thomas, and let me just say this. He doesn't know.

He wasn't there when... No, he wasn't there when... Thomas was making all those comments. Unless I put my finger on them, unless I put my hand in them, I don't believe. He just looked straight over to Thomas.

He says, hey Thomas, put your finger here. See my hands? Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Stop doubting and believe. Stop doubting and believe.

Thomas said to him, my Lord, and what did Thomas respond? My Lord, my God. I just pictured the scene of him just falling to his feet in tears. My Lord, my God. It is you.

And I can relate. I'm a very pragmatic guy. There's nothing wrong with people who have doubts or are pragmatic. We're just trying to figure it out. There's something, I think, but I'm just not sure.

I don't know about you guys. I don't know about this place. Maybe it's me. Maybe it's something that I'm not quite getting. I'm not sure.

So we ask those questions. And I tell you what, God has really been speaking to me lately on that fact. He's told me several times here in recent months, listen Leon, you have got to start believing me and stop doubting me. You've got to start trusting and walking in faith and taking that next step. Believe in me a little more.

But God, you know, you've got all this and got all that. Look at our culture. Look at the world. No, I am the ruler of this world. I control everything and believe.

And you know what? That's opened up a whole new world for me. I've been able to hear God more clearly. I've been able to walk in the spirit more avidly. It's a beautiful thing.

And God wants that for you to walk in his spirit, to walk with him. And he's just asking you. He's not asking you to go all the way. For some of you, you're not even there. You're just trying to figure Jesus out.

Is Jesus real or not? He says, you know what? Take the first step. That's why we build environments like this so that you can come in. You can feel safe.

You can feel comfortable not believing and doubting so that you can take that next step. And all he's asking is just put your finger out. Just reach out. Maybe it's time for you to take the next step wherever you are in your faith walk. You may just be non-believing.

Maybe you are believing, but you need to take another little step down into the water a little deeper. Maybe it's time to plunge all the way down in it. Maybe do a belly flop into the water and just go in with everything that's there. Maybe that's where you are. But there's always a next step.

And maybe God's asking you to take the next step because Jesus isn't bothered by your doubt. So reach out to him. Jesus isn't bothered by your doubt. And this account isn't just about resurrection as we move on a little bit here. It isn't just about resurrection because there's another guy named Peter.

And Peter's having a bad day. He felt like he was far from God. So far from God. Some of you here today, you feel like failures. You're far from God.

You've done a lot of wrong in your life. A lot of sin has tainted your life. Or maybe you just feel like you've disappointed God. You're far from God. And Jesus found Peter in his failure.

He searched out the failure. He didn't go to the Sanhedrin. He didn't go to Pilate. He went to the person that failed him. He went to him.

And Peter at the Last Supper, remember, I'm all in, God. I'm all in, Jesus. Let's do this thing. Let's take it over. I will never deny you.

And he cursed Jesus. He denied Jesus. But that didn't bother Jesus. He came to him and he goes and tells the disciples and Peter. He includes Peter's name in there because he knew the condition.

So there was that failure there. And some feel disappointed in Jesus today. Or you feel like you've disappointed Jesus. Because maybe you feel like Jesus had these expectations and you haven't met those expectations. You know what disappointment is?

The gap between what we expect and what reality is. Expectation and reality, there's that gap there. And maybe you're sitting in that gap and you're just disappointed. You're very disappointed. He comes in the hurt and the failures.

In fact, chapter 21, it says, and when they had finished eating, and I love this about Jesus, because Jesus liked to eat. Eating is a holy practice. Right, Stefan? Eating is a holy practice. We have steak quite often.

And that's a holy practice. So we get together and thank the Lord he allows us to eat steak. Okay? We can have steak. We can have barbecue too, by the way, guys.

Okay? It's okay. But they're eating fish. And this is what he says. And when they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?

Now let me just explain that for a second as I start kind of closing this message a little bit. There are several Greek words. The interesting thing about using the Greek is they can use the same word. It could mean different things. You know, in English, we can't translate all the Greek words.

So we use the word love. Love is just one word. But there were many different types of love that they would go deeper into. Instead, they would just use one word to explain what that love meant. And there were several different types.

And there was storge, which is the love that a child and a parent has for their child. You know, that kind of unconditional love there. And then there's eros love, which is kind of like this erotic. Love like, oh, I love chocolate. Mmm, I love chocolate, right?

And then there's phileo love, which is this brotherly love that, you know, you have for your friends, you know, this connection with your friends, and then there's agape. There's the agape love, the unconditional love of God. This is the love that says there's no condition in which I don't stop loving you. I will never stop loving you, no matter what you do. This is the love God has for people, that how far you are in your sin, how far you are in your shame, how far you are in the gutter.

It doesn't matter. Jesus still loves you because he loves all people. And he's talking to Peter and he says, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And he uses that word agape love. And then Peter's response is, yes, Lord, he said, I know I love you, but he uses that term phileo love.

Because Peter, in his heart, he was like, you know, I don't know if I can love you at that level. Because I've already failed you so many times. I keep stumbling, I keep doing this, and I'm not, I can't get to that level. I thought I was there. Man, at the Last Supper, I thought I was there.

That's where I was. I'll do anything for you, but I know I'm not there. So he gives them that statement. I want to agape love you, but I can't. But Jesus says, you know, that's okay, that's okay.

I can still use you. Feed my lamb, feed my sheep. Go ahead and do that. And then Jesus asks him again. He says, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

And he answers, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And Jesus said, take care of my sheep. So he asks him a second time. Same term. He asks him, agape, and then phileo.

He responds with phileo. But then there was a third time, because this is what Jesus does. He continues to come closer to us and closer to us. But the interesting thing, he says, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Phileo love.

So Jesus changes the love, and he says, do you have that brotherly love? What was he doing there? He was coming to where Peter was. I know you're not there yet, Peter, but I'm coming down to where your love is right now, because that's what Jesus does. He comes to where we are.

Jesus isn't giving up on you. So you need to be free to love him. If you feel like you've failed, if you feel like you're too far from him, I mean, I talk to people all the time about the love of Jesus, and I tell you, some of them are like, there's no way, Leon, there's no way that God would ever love somebody like me. I want to love him, but, you know, I'm just so far. No.

Jesus has an agape love. He doesn't care, but he's willing to meet you where you are, in that mess, in that muck. He is willing to be there for you. So be free today. Can you say, be free?

Can we all say, be free? I am free. I am free to love him today, and we can connect with him and love him today. He's reaching out in our hurt. He's reaching out in our doubt.

He's reaching out in our failure. Be free to love Him today. From the beginning to the end, we can see that in Scripture. In the beginning, if we go back earlier in the Old Testament to the very beginning, we see Adam and Eve who was in the garden, and they failed Jesus. Or failed God, rather.

They failed God the Father. And they were fuzzed, and it was hazy, and reality wasn't there. Because Jesus awakens us to reality. And they were walking with God. And they were with them in the Garden of Eden, just completely awake.

And then sin came in and tarnished those things and clouded their judgment. And they began to see that they were naked, and they were ashamed, and they were hurt, and they were fearful. And they felt like failures. Because that's what sin does. It says this, Then their eyes, both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked.

So they sewed fig leaves together and made covers over themselves. But this is what God does. This is what God does. It doesn't matter where you are, whether you're clouded, whether you're in an alternate reality of where you're supposed to be. Because when God comes into the picture, He awakens you.

But He calls you first. He's calling you. He calls you out of the darkness. He calls you out of the thick. He calls you out of those gray areas.

He calls you out. And He says this, Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And they hid from the Lord God among the trees in the garden. But the Lord called to man and says, Where are you? Where are you?

Where are you? Where are you today? The last part of the Bible in Revelation chapter 3 verse 20. It says that, I stand at the door and knock. He's still here today.

He's real. He's alive. He's available. He stands at the door and He knocks. And it says, If you hear my voice and you open the door.

And I love how the NLT says it. And we will share a meal as friends. I'll come in and I'll make my home with you. And I'll be your friend. And I'll walk this life with you.

I will bring reality to the broken hearted. To those who are deserted. Those who are downtrodden. By His stripes we are healed. By His wounds we are healed.

We are healed. We are set free. He's calling out, perhaps he's calling out to you today. Maybe he's calling out to somebody who's ran from God for a long time, and you're hearing his voice today because that's what he does. That's what resurrection does, because he is still real today.

He's resurrecting lives today. And all you have to do is respond to that. Maybe you are walking with God, but you've done some things that shamed, you feel shamed him, but he's here to tell you, you haven't shamed me today. There's no shame. Because when I see you, God the Father says, I see Jesus Christ, and his death, and his resurrection, and he is God, and he is king, and he's here to rescue you today.

Maybe that's you. Or maybe you're just somebody who's been, who's never, just church is the furthest thing from you, man. This is just another religion. This is just another belief system. This is all just that doubt's there, right?

But something inside of you saying, something's real. Something's in this room. Something's going on in my heart. And you're doing everything you can to pull away from it. I was there.

I know. But God is inviting you to respond to his voice. Where are you? Where are you? And he says this, it says, wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead.

Hallelujah. Wake up, sleepers, rise from the dead, so Christ will shine on you. Amen? So I want to give you an opportunity today to give your life to Jesus Christ. I want to give you an opportunity with all heads bowed and all eyes closed, if that's you today, in any of those categories, many different categories.

Whether you're far from God, whether you're where God is almost there, you're just not ready yet, or maybe you've been walking with God and you've fallen away from God. If that's you today, the Spirit of God is here. The Spirit of God is here. So let the Spirit speak for a second. Let God speak for a second.

Because it is the simple message of the gospel that brings us back to life. With all heads bowed and all eyes closed, if you would just pray this prayer. Let's respect this time. I just ask everybody in the house, just give the Lord just this opportunity, because this is life or death. This is eternity.

Would you pray this with me, if that's you? If God speak it to your heart. Father, I believe that you are the Son of God. I receive that, that you died on the cross for my sin, that I no longer have to hurt, I no longer have to have shame, I no longer have to be guilty, because you've paid it all on the cross. Will you come into my heart?

Will you come into my life? Will you give me hope? Will you give me freedom today, Lord? Make me a new creation. I need you, Lord.

I want you, Lord. I'm free to love you, Lord, today. I receive you and I praise you, because now I am made right in you. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Amen. Can y'all give God a hand clap of praise for salvation? Our band is going to lead us in one more song, and I want to give people an opportunity. Maybe, maybe there's something that God has, maybe you need healing. Maybe you have some hurt.

Is there anybody in here that needs healing today? Is there anybody that needs, needs hurt today? That needs a hurt fix? Maybe you're in, in some doubt in your life. Maybe you're, we've got a prayer team up here, and, and we want to give you an opportunity to, to be prayed for.

And if all of you would stand, and we'll let the band begin, y'all can, y'all can, y'all can level down the, the background music, and just let the band play. And I want us to worship together. If y'all just, we're just going to end this with worship and praise. And if you have a need, you need to come up. We have, we have people available to pray for you.

We have this lovely prayer team to pray for you. And we want to pray for you today. Amen. Amen. I think y'all want to, want to begin.

The weight of your sin. Jesus is calling. The end of your sin. Do you thirst for a dream? I can pray for you today, will.

Anything specific. You're�� of as of here. You're open. You're welcome. There is many books outside your world house res combining my music color and turrets.

The altar of fire. Praise. Listen, okay, so just a few little things before you leave. Obviously, we've got the Easter egg hunt. You can go pick up your kids over at the building, and we're going to take them out to the egg hunt.

It's going to be a lovely time. But if you're new with us today, we're so thankful you're here. You can fill out one of those blue connection cards and hand it off to our Next Steps team. They'll be right outside, and they'll have some information for you, as well as we'll send you something in the mail, just kind of give you some more information about our church and what we're about. Also, if you gave your life to Jesus today, let me just say this.

If you gave your life to Christ today, let us know. Fill out that card. Check out that box. Check that little box there. And we've got some information for you to help you along your journey.

You cannot do it alone. You cannot do it alone. Also, baptisms are happening in a couple of weeks. We would love for you to be a part of baptism. You want to be baptized, you can also check that box.

I want to be baptized, and we'll contact you, and we'll get you prepared for baptisms. Amen. My lovely bride's going to end us today, and then I would love to meet every one of you. God bless. And we just want to thank you for being here.

They're always trying to get me off the stage. It's not one thing, it's another. Thank you so much for being here on this Resurrection Day. We don't pass around buckets or anything, but we do have a time of giving if you'd like to be part of that. If you are a first-time guest, we just want to say thank you so much.

We don't want you to give to us. Your presence is a gift to us. We don't want you to feel compelled to give. But if you would like to give to support Salt Church in our local, statewide, countrywide, worldwide missions, you certainly can. There are a few ways that you can do that.

You can always pop something in the box on your way out. You can text the amount you want to give to... Thank you everybody for being here. We're so excited. We can't wait to see you next week.

We hope you have an amazing rest of the weekend and week celebrating our risen Savior Jesus Christ. Happy Resurrection Day!