Resurrection Sunday: See Jesus!

[0:00] I'm going to take my scripture text from Isaiah chapter 53.! Isaiah chapter 53. Beginning in verse 10.

[0:12] Isaiah 53 and 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.! He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed.

[0:27] He shall prolong his days. And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul.

[0:38] And shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. For he shall bear their iniquities. And then this prophecy, God speaking through Isaiah, comes at a time of Babylonian captivity, but it is a Messinaic prophecy, meaning it has to do with the Messiah.

[1:06] And this is a prophecy of the man, Christ Jesus. In Psalms 16 and 10. You'll turn with me to Psalms 16 and 10. For thou will not leave my soul in hell, neither will thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption.

[1:26] I'll read it again. For thou will not leave my soul in hell, neither will thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. I just want to point out here, this is another prophecy pertaining to the man, Christ Jesus.

[1:40] And that word interpreted as hell in our King James Version Bible. It's the Hebrew word sheol. And sheol is a place of separation from God.

[1:52] It's a place of outer darkness. Being away from God. And so if we read it that way, for thou will not leave my soul separated in outer darkness from God, neither will thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption.

[2:08] Amen. And so from these opening verses, I want us to understand that through his sacrifice, that he did on the cross, through his bruising, through the grief he put upon himself, it is God's intention that we are justified and that we allow him to bear our iniquities, to bear our sins, and that if we allow him to do that, he will not leave us in outer darkness.

[2:36] He will not leave us separated from him, but he will be with us in our lives as we live. But also when we pass from this life, he will be with us and we will be with him.

[2:47] And it pleases God that we would carry our, that he would be able to carry our sins, that we would allow him to do that. See, he died for the sins of the world, but we still have to make the decision to let him do that.

[2:58] We still have to accept him. We still have to accept that. And we know the plan of salvation. And I will say this, it pleases God that we would see and that we would recognize him for who he is and what he has done and what he will do for us.

[3:14] It pleases him if we would see and recognize him for who he is and what he's done and what he will do for us. Help me pray. Lord Jesus, I thank you for this word today. I thank you, Lord, for putting it upon my heart, God, long ago, God, and today, Lord, that I could deliver this word to your people of this city, God, and to this house, Lord, that called their church home.

[3:37] God, I could deliver this word to them, God. I thank you, Lord, God, for this burden. I pray, God, that you help me deliver it, God, in the way that would please you, Jesus, and that it would be received, God, with gladness.

[3:48] God, it would be received in their hearts, Lord, and that we would leave here today blessed by your word, Jesus. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. You may be seated. If I had a title today, it would be Resurrection Sunday.

[4:04] See Jesus. See Jesus. Amen. In the Old Testament, there are several instances and themes where God's appearance is described as restricted or dangerous or intentionally concealed.

[4:25] To be in his presence, it was dangerous to be in his presence. To be in his presence, it was restricted to be in his presence. There were restrictions to that.

[4:36] His presence was concealed many times in the Old Testament. It was a theme in the Old Testament. Those that he communicated with, such as Moses, they weren't allowed to see him.

[4:47] They weren't allowed to see him. This is tied to his magnificent glory and to his power and authority and to his perfect holiness in comparison to our sinfulness and everything that we're not and our frailty and all of our human limitations that we have that we would be separated from the real true presence of God and be able to see him for who he really is.

[5:15] And in Exodus chapter 33, we can read where Moses asked to see God's glory while on Mount Sinai. It was after the deliverance from Egypt and they're on Mount Sinai and Moses asked him to see his glory and God agrees to reveal his goodness but makes it clear to Moses that no one can see his face and live.

[5:35] In Exodus 33, verse 20 through 23, he said, Thou canst not see my face for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me and thou shalt stand upon a rock and it shall come to pass while my glory passeth by that I will put thee in the cliff of the rock and will cover thee with mine hand while I pass by and I will take away mine hand that thou shalt see my back parts but my face shall not be seen.

[6:09] And so God shields Moses from his full presence allowing only a partial glimpse of his back and metaphorically speaking only allowing Moses to see a limited manifestation of his true glory and who he really was.

[6:25] And so this reinforces the point that I'm trying to make from the Word of God today that the fact that God's direct presence is too holy for sinful humans to be able to endure.

[6:36] And so we see the same thing with the Israelites. Moses was leading through the wilderness. In Exodus 19, verse 21, And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down and charge the people lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze and many of them perish.

[6:54] This is Moses again on Mount Sinai. And God tells them to go down into the people and tell them not to come past a certain point unless they would come past that point and gaze upon the glory of God and that many of them would perish.

[7:07] God's presence is too holy for sinful human exposure and it would lead to instant death and the restriction on seeing God is tied to his sanctity and to his pure holiness.

[7:21] And so there is a need for a mediator. A mediator or someone to stand between God and his people. And so a need for mediation. And the Israelites at that time, it was only through Moses that they had mediation and became also the high priest Aaron and the Levites and their ministry and the tabernacles will see.

[7:45] Then there's the tabernacle plan was given to Moses and this was to be the meeting place for God and his people. And so, but the, it is in the, it was in the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle.

[7:57] You go through the outer court and you enter into the holy place. And then beyond that was the Holy of Holies. There's three portions of the tabernacle. And it was in the Holy of Holies that the glory of God would be upon the Ark of the Covenant on the mercy seat.

[8:13] And so it was in that plan of the tabernacle that Moses was going to make a place for God to be able to visit his people in that manner. But in the Holy of Holies, the only, it was only the high priest, the mediator could go in.

[8:28] And only on the day of atonement, there's only one day that he could go into that, in the whole year, into that Holy of Holies because it was in the Holy of Holies that the presence of God dwelled.

[8:39] And in Leviticus chapter 16, verse 2, And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil.

[8:51] Amen. We just sang about the veil being torn. Into the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which is upon the Ark, that he die not, for I will appear in a cloud upon the mercy seat.

[9:04] So he's saying, tell your brother Aaron that you don't come in here all the time. It's only one time a year. It's on the day of atonement and that you would come into the Holy of Holies and beyond that veil, that curtain that separated the holy place from the Holy of Holies.

[9:20] And inside there was the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat. And he said, God said that it was from there that he would appear. Amen. Upon the Ark. And that if he would do that outside of what God was saying, that restriction of being able to be in his presence just at any time, if he would not adhere to that, he would die.

[9:42] Amen. Because he would, God said he would appear in a cloud upon the mercy seat. And so God was very intentional. God was intentionally, did not allow himself to be seen all through the Old Testament and old God's presence in the tabernacle.

[9:57] And then later in the temple was veiled. There was a veil. There was a curtain separating the holy place from the Holy of Holies. And direct access to him was limited to prevent death.

[10:09] And the cloud of the veil, in the cloud, in the veil, it was God working in his plan to obscure his perfect presence from us and to hide his fullness.

[10:24] And although, and all through the Old Testament, his presence was filtered and restricted from us. There was always a filter. And so, but something was to happen.

[10:36] Something was to happen. Something was to change. In Isaiah, the same prophet we open with. In Isaiah chapter 43, verse 19, he says, Behold, I will do a new thing.

[10:47] Now it shall spring forth. Shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and the rivers of the desert. And God had a plan. And we have been hearing it for the past couple weeks in our messages that God's been dealing with me with.

[11:02] And he had a plan before the foundation of the world. The plan was him. It was him that he would be our savior. God himself would be our savior. And at the point, in God's plan that we live today, today, that new thing has been done.

[11:19] It has already been done. And as David prophesied about Jesus, we will not be left in darkness. We will not always be separated from God. The Holy One. And the Holy One will not see corruption.

[11:31] And then it happened. We find in Luke 1.35, And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.

[11:42] Therefore, also that holy thing, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And now, well, I hope you understand what I'm trying to explain is where once we as humans could not see God.

[12:00] God's plan all along was for him to be our savior. And he said, I plan to do a new thing. And what was restricted in the Old Testament, he then allowed in the New Testament because the disciples and the apostles, they got to see Jesus.

[12:16] And when they looked upon his face, they saw the face of God. In John chapter 14, verse 9, Jesus said, He that has seen me has seen the Father. How sayest thou then?

[12:26] Show us the Father. God has performed that which he had promised he'd do. And he has become our savior. But in order for him to do that, he had to suffer a cross. He had to suffer, but he said, it was a pleasure to do so for us.

[12:41] Amen. I thank God for that today. It is Resurrection Sunday, and I just want to tell the story today of the resurrection. So just relax a little bit in your seats there, and let me tell you the story.

[12:56] Just allow me some time to go through this story, and maybe you know it, but maybe you don't, and so I just want to go through this together. Is that okay on Resurrection Sunday? It was on Friday around 3 p.m.

[13:09] after darkness had covered the land for three hours. Jesus on the cross said he was thirsty, and he received a drink of vinegar, and then Jesus said it was finished.

[13:22] And at that moment, the Bible says that he gave up the ghost, and the temple's veil, the temple's veil tore into two pieces from the top to the bottom.

[13:33] There was a great earthquake, and the veil tore in the temple. Why was that? It's because the high priest's job was no longer needed, and the man Christ Jesus in that moment became our sacrifice and our high priest.

[13:49] In 1 Timothy 2 and 5, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. It was the man Christ Jesus, the human side of that divine figure, Jesus.

[14:02] There's only one God, and the Bible says Jesus was the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Everything that God is was in Jesus.

[14:13] He was fully God and fully man, and it's that man, that flesh that he carried, that sacrifice that he was able to make because he had taken on flesh and blood.

[14:23] That's what became our mediator. It was that sacrifice that became the mediator, and now we have a high priest, and we don't need to go through a veil. We don't need to, we're not restricted from the Holy of Holies anymore.

[14:36] We can approach Jesus whenever that we want, and so it was at that moment when the veil tore into two pieces, that we no longer needed that high priest, and we have one mediator, and his name is Jesus, and so the veil is torn, and then a Roman soldier makes sure Jesus is dead.

[14:55] He comes with a spear and pierces Jesus' side with that spear, and blood and water flowed out, fulfilling, it was a prophetic scripture that they would look upon whom they had pierced, and so that scripture is becoming fulfilled in that, and then a man named Joseph, he was a disciple kind of in secret, and he was a member of the Sanhedrin, which is like the supreme court of the Jews, and he was a disciple in secret in a sense, and he hid it from most people, and he asked Pilate for Jesus' body to bury in a tomb, and as it's custom for the Jews to make sure that their dead was buried before the sun went down, so this is going to be late Friday now before the Sabbath begins at sunset, and so on Friday night when the sun goes down, it's now the Sabbath, and it's a holy day, it's supposed to be a day of rest, and so Pilate confirmed that Jesus was dead with a centurion, and so then he let Joseph, and actually Nicodemus was there as well, they took the body from the Romans, and they took them, and they placed them in a tomb, and the Bible says that Joseph and Nicodemus wrapped Jesus' body, and they placed Jesus' body in an unused tomb owned by that same disciple,

[16:17] Joseph, and it was in a garden near the place where Jesus was crucified, and so they roll this large stone in front of the tomb's entrance, and they leave to make it home before sundown for the Sabbath, and this whole time, Mary Magdalene and some of the other women followers of Jesus were observing this whole thing happen, and they saw where Jesus was laid in the tomb, and, but they too went home, the Bible says, to prepare spices and perfumes, to anoint, come back and anoint the body of Jesus, which was a custom, and, but they would have to wait until Sunday morning because it was now the Sabbath, and it wasn't just any Sabbath, remember this is the Passover, so this was a special Sabbath, and so, and so the Bible says that they rested on the Sabbath, which was the Saturday, the next day, and on that Saturday morning, the Bible says that the chief priests and the Pharisees, they went, and they asked Pilate if they could secure the tomb because they were afraid that Jesus' disciples would come and steal his body away and make claims that he rose from the dead, and so Pilate agreed and gave permission saying take guards and go and make the tomb as secure as you can, and so they do, and they seal the stone to the tomb and they post guards there, and that Saturday, the Sabbath comes to an end with no further information in the Bible, we can't find any other recorded activity in the Bible from that day, from the tomb of Jesus, and, but then early Sunday morning, amen,

[17:59] I don't know how I get excited when I just read that, but early Sunday morning, the Bible doesn't describe to us the exact moment of Jesus' resurrection, but it occurred sometime before the sun comes up on Sunday because the Bible says there was an earthquake and an angel came down and rolled the stone away of the tomb, and the Bible says the guards were so scared they froze like dead men, and the Bible says in John chapter 20 that Mary Magdalene went to Jesus' tomb early while it was still dark, and she found the stone rolled away from the entrance, and she saw that the tomb was empty and Jesus' body was gone, and so Mary ran to Peter and John, and she told them someone had taken the body of Jesus, and she didn't know where he was taken, and so then Peter and John run to the tomb, and the women following behind, and just as she said, they found the tomb empty, and the Bible says that Peter and John then returned home, but Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping and crying in grief as someone had taken the body of Jesus, and so then Mary then looked into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus' body had been, and they asked her why she was crying, and she told them because they have taken my Lord away, and I don't know where they have put him, but then Mary turns around, and she actually sees

[19:36] Jesus standing there, but the Bible says she doesn't recognize him, mistaking him for the gardener, and the Bible says that then Jesus asked her, woman, why are you crying?

[19:48] Who is it that you're looking for? And the Bible says that Mary still didn't recognize him, and she asked him if he had taken Jesus' body, and she wanted to know where his body was, and when I'm putting this together, I'm just thinking this has got to be comical to Jesus.

[20:07] I don't know. It would be kind of funny to me. You know, here I am standing there, and she's wanting to know where I am, and then the Bible says that Jesus called her by name Mary, and hearing her name, Mary then recognized him, turned toward him, and cried out, Rabbani, meaning master, obviously full of joy and the realization that Jesus was alive, and so Jesus told her to go and tell the rest of the disciples, and so they do.

[20:35] They run and go back and tell, and then that afternoon on Resurrection Sunday, that was early in the morning, and then that afternoon there's an encounter with two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

[20:49] Two disciples were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, which is about a seven-mile journey, and they were talking and they were debating about all the recent events that had happened surrounding the crucifixion of Jesus and the reports of the empty tomb, and then the Bible says that Jesus approached them and walked with them, but the Bible says that their eyes were kept from recognizing him, and Jesus asked them, what are you guys talking about?

[21:18] What are you guys, what's going on? And they were shocked that this man who they didn't know was Jesus hadn't heard about what had happened, and the Bible says that they told their story of Jesus' life, his crucifixion, and how the women had found the empty tomb and the angels and seen Jesus, and then they began expressing their disappointment in Jesus, to Jesus.

[21:44] Again, I think this would be quite comical if I was Jesus, and they're expressing disappointment and all the things that Jesus didn't do that they hoped that he would have done in freeing them from the bondage of the Romans and being their king and conqueror of the Romans and delivering back the kingdom to them, and the Bible says that Jesus called them foolish and slow of heart to believe, and then he began to explain the scriptures from the Old Testament showing them how the Messiah had to suffer.

[22:16] Scriptures like I opened with and showed you today, and the Bible says as they approached Emmaus that Jesus acted as if he was going to continue to go on past, and they asked him to stay with them for dinner, and so Jesus stays with them for dinner, and the table set, and he took bread and gave thanks and broke the bread and gave it to them, and then the Bible says at that moment their eyes were opened and they recognized him.

[22:43] They finally saw him for who he was, and then that immediately at that point, Jesus vanished from their sight, and the Bible says the disciples, looking back and reflecting, said, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked about us on the road and opened up the scriptures to us, and so they recognized the impact of his teachings, the spiritual impact of his teachings, and the disciples immediately returned to Jerusalem seven miles back now and find out, and they find the apostles and they tell them everything that had happened, and they shared that with them, and then later on that evening on Resurrection Sunday, there were disciples scared and hiding in a locked room, hiding from the Jewish authorities because they were being persecuted.

[23:34] They were looking for these followers of Jesus, and the Bible says Jesus suddenly appeared among them standing in their midst. They got scared thinking it was a ghost. They didn't recognize him, and Jesus calmed them down, and Jesus showed them his hands and his side and showing them the wounds from that crucifixion experience, and then they believed and they got excited that they saw Jesus, but then the Bible makes it clear that Thomas, the Bible points out that Thomas wasn't there.

[24:04] Thomas, one of the apostles, he wasn't there during that encounter, and he missed out on Jesus' appearance. That's why we got to come to church every Sunday. You don't want to miss an appearance from the Lord.

[24:14] Amen. You never know what you're going to miss in the house of God when God wants to move and work, and the Bible says eight days go by, and there's a similar scenario, and the disciples are in this locked room again, hiding from the persecution of the Jews, but this time, Thomas is with them.

[24:33] Could you imagine all of your buddies saw Jesus resurrected, and you had to wait another eight days? I'm telling you, be faithful to church. Amen. Be faithful to the kingdom, and the Bible says eight days go by in that similar scenario, and then Thomas is with them, and Jesus appeared again, and Jesus directly spoke to Thomas, and we can read it in John chapter 20, verse 27.

[24:56] Then saith he to Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and behold my hand, and reach hither my hand, and thrust into my side, and be not faithless, but believing.

[25:08] And Thomas answered and said unto him, my Lord and my God. And Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet they believe.

[25:22] And if you think about it, that Jesus is talking about us, because we haven't seen him like they got to see him. We haven't seen him like they got to physically see him, they got to touch him, they got to shake his hand.

[25:35] You know, thank you for coming today. You know, but we believe. But we believe. Amen? Do we believe? And the thing that shocks me in all this, in all of our human history, in all of our interactions with our creator throughout all of time, we go from a point in the Old Testament where God would not let us see him in his fullness.

[26:01] Where we could not see God, and we were not allowed to see him, and we were not capable, we were forbidden to see him, we were restricted in seeing him, but then God did a new thing and created an opportunity for us to be able to see him.

[26:16] And those disciples and those apostles got to follow him around for about three and a half years, you know, and follow him in real life, physically see him. and then all these opportunities come and they don't recognize him initially.

[26:33] You know, and so to me, that's kind of shocking to me. In 1 John 1 and 1, it says, that which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life, for the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us.

[27:01] And so that eternal life from the Father, that promise before the foundations of the world, remember, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God. Logos is the plan of salvation, God's plan.

[27:12] It is now made flesh and dwelt among us and that's what they're saying here. We got to see it with our eyes. We got to touch it. We got to handle it. Everything that the prophets or the Old Testament prophesied about, we got to experience it.

[27:28] And then, you know, the Old Testament was all looking forward to this point in time when Jesus would be manifested to save his people and then all of us today are looking back to when Jesus was manifested.

[27:42] So the Old Testament was looking forward to Jesus and we're looking back to Jesus wishing we could see him like that. But, he came unto us and we were, they were, when we say we, I'm talking about humanity, we were able to see him and it pleased him to take away our sins and to give us eternal life and to finally be able to see him.

[28:02] But in all the examples that I shared with you and there are, there's several others that I didn't take the time. It seemed his apostles and his disciples had a hard time seeing him at least at first.

[28:17] And what God has been working on me about with these messages and with this message in particular is those, those who should have known him best had a hard time seeing him on that resurrection Sunday.

[28:34] And this is before his body was glorified. When Paul saw him on the road to Damascus, he saw a glorified Jesus. When John saw him in the book of Revelation, he saw a glorified Jesus. This is different.

[28:45] This was the flesh and blood Jesus that they had seen before with the nail-scarred hands and the, the, the open wound on the side.

[28:56] He ate, ate with them. It was, it was not the glorified body. So they should have been able to recognize him in my mind. It just doesn't make sense to me. They should have known him.

[29:08] They had the best opportunity to, to see him and know who he was. And, and I think it's, they didn't, they, they didn't expect to see him alive. I mean, Mary was, they were going, they went home and on Saturday they made the perfumes and the ointments to take back to put on Jesus' body.

[29:28] When they, when they came to the tomb, when Mary came to the tomb, she wasn't expecting to see him alive. And I, I don't understand. They did not understand the scripture or they didn't understand what God in flesh was teaching them.

[29:41] They, they did not expect to see him alive. They were not expecting him to be alive. And, why didn't they expect to see Jesus alive? Their minds were fixed on the reality of the cross.

[29:53] The perceived death, the perceived defeat, the, the despair of it all. And despite Jesus' repeated statements in scripture of his resurrection that would come, they, they couldn't imagine a world where he was alive for whatever reason.

[30:07] And, and when I look at that, I don't understand how they got so sideways, not expecting what was to come, thinking it was over. But then I think maybe I do understand because I can relate in a lot of ways to that.

[30:23] And maybe you can too. There's, their expectations were limited by their human understanding, their grief, and the witnessing of his death on the cross, a brutal execution.

[30:35] But in each case, Jesus broke through their unbelief and he showed up and he was alive and he was present and powerful, revealing himself in ways that they could understand.

[30:46] And today, God wants us to see him and to see all of his glory in our life. Amen. And just as the disciples didn't expect to see Jesus alive, we often go through our lives somehow believing that he isn't present with us.

[31:02] We struggle to see where he is in our lives as we go through things in life. And we go through life all the struggles that we have to face and deal with and all the burdens and all the pains and the grief of loss and the pressures and the anxieties and the stresses that come in life and the persecution, the betrayals by those that should have never betrayed us.

[31:32] the evil that's around us every day and we fail to see and expect that he isn't present in our lives and in our situations. We know Jesus rose from the dead.

[31:45] We know that. But do we live as if he is alive and working in our daily circumstances? And too often, I believe that we're like Mary, consumed in sorrows or like the two disciples walking through life with their heads down, not realizing who's right there with them and like Thomas, doubting that Jesus could show up in his struggles.

[32:09] We don't expect to see him and so we often miss seeing him. Even though he is always with us just as he promised he would be. He said, I am with you always even into the end of the world.

[32:22] Amen. And why don't we expect Jesus to be alive in our lives? We're too focused on our problems, focused on our bills, on our health issues, on our broken relationships and we forget that Jesus is walking beside us.

[32:38] Jesus, as he did on the road to Emmaus, is walking beside us. Amen. Why do we limit Jesus to some kind of Sunday only Savior instead of the fullness of God that the Bible says that he is, that knows where we are in our present situations and that he's always present with us and we may not have the same manifestation that they had.

[33:06] We may not be able to see him physically like they did and where they got to physically see Jesus and touch him and worship him in that regard but now he is within us, living in us.

[33:19] He goes where we go. He's always with us and so we're so caught up in our routines and in our issues and that we don't look for Jesus in the ordinary everyday moments of life but there's the good news.

[33:35] Jesus is alive today and he's working on our behalf today and even when we don't expect it and we don't see him because of the things that we get too focused on, he's there with us.

[33:47] Amen. Amen. We can be confident knowing that he's there. Amen. Philippians 1 and 6 says being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

[34:01] Until the day that he returns for you, he's going to continue to do that good work in you that he began to perform. Amen. If you will let him today. And so we can, we can with confidence, you can have confidence and see that Jesus is shaping your story even now.

[34:18] Even now, what you're going through, it may not seem like it, it may seem terrible, it may seem like everything's against you, but God is shaping your story. He's alive and he's with us.

[34:29] He's with you. And we can even look back to see him. The disciples often recognize Jesus in hindsight in those examples and in others. The Emmaus disciples realized their hearts burned when he spoke and then they were able to look back in that time that you faced a crisis and somehow you found the strength to get through it and carry on.

[34:54] Jesus was there lifting you up. That moment of provisions when a need was met in the way that you can't really explain it. It doesn't add up.

[35:04] It doesn't make sense. Jesus was there. He was working with you. Amen. He's never going to leave us or forsake us. In Ephesians 3.12, now unto him that is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us.

[35:21] I mean, he's in us today. Amen. Let's all stand. Maybe he intentionally blinds us to his presence like he did those two disciples on the road so that he can reveal himself at just the right time to teach us something like he did them.

[35:37] But that may be sometimes, but I don't think it's every time. And we have to remember that he's in us always. He's always with us. And even in that season of grief and loss, but then that word of encouragement comes.

[35:52] Amen. That word of encouragement comes that even in the season of grief and loss, that scripture is remembered or just a comforting sense of peace somehow breaks through it all.

[36:05] And you now know with confidence everything is going to be okay. That Jesus is calling your name like he called Mary's name that morning, that resurrection morning of the tomb.

[36:18] Amen. Jesus is not dead. Jesus is alive and he's with us today. And he's in us and he's in you. And don't let your circumstances keep you from seeing him in your life.

[36:29] Don't get your focus on your circumstances. God wants to be seen today. He wants you to be able to see him. Expect him to show up. Pray with anticipation, believing he is working even if you don't see it right now.

[36:42] Look back with gratitude to all the things that he's brought you through and all the things that he's taken you through. Live with your eyes open and on Jesus. Amen. He wants us to see, he wants us to be able to see him today.

[36:55] And so see Jesus in your everyday life. Amen. He's with us. And so what I want us to do right now before we leave is I want us to bind together as a church family, men with men, women with women.

[37:09] And I want us to pray and I want us to ask God to help us see him through no matter what situations that we're going through. I want us to be able to depend on God. Amen.

[37:19] God, if you've been baptized in the spirit, then you've got the spirit of Christ in you and he's with you always. And so that's what I want us to do today as we end this service. I want us to bind together and pray that God will help us always see him and through every situation that we go through.

[37:36] Amen. Amen.