Easter 2021

Easter is here! You are celebrating that God became one of us! Jesus is God, He lived, He died on a Cross and we celebrate today that HE rose again!!

Women came on Sunday morning to prepare the body for decay, as was done in the time, sort of like their morticians. But when they got to the tomb, no body!

The basics of the truth, told to us clearly from the ancient eternal word of God

1 Corinthians 15:3–8 The Message

3 The first thing I did was place before you what was placed so emphatically before me: that the Messiah died for our sins, exactly as Scripture tells it; 4 that he was buried; that he was raised from death on the third day, again exactly as Scripture says; 5 that he presented himself alive to Peter, then to his closest followers, 6 and later to more than five hundred of his followers all at the same time, most of them still around (although a few have since died); 7 that he then spent time with James and the rest of those he commissioned to represent him; 8 and that he finally presented himself alive to me.

That is why we are here today. What a great holiday, what a wonderful day.

This is what Easter is all about - The Lord God has destroyed death, He has risen again and He will return for us so that death no longer is the end.

1 Corinthians 15:55–57 The Message

55 Who got the last word, oh, Death? Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now? 56 It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. 57 But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God!

Thank God, this is why we gather, put it on your social media, write in your planners, remember it in your hearts!

Jesus’ Resurrection is the reason we make it a habit every year to gather on Easter Sunday

You’ve made it an annual habit, celebrating no matter what Christ’s resurrection! AS a habit itadds value to your life, right? Look around isn’t this great?

It reminds you of your hope, the greater-ness, big-ness, meaningfulness of our lives doesn’t it?

Because Jesus lives we aren’t just born, we aren’t just here, school, work, retire, dead. We have Hope! We have Faith! WE have love! This life has meaning, this life has purpose, The reason is Jesus!

Today is different too because last year we didn’t get to be together for this annual habit. Easter, came but we celebrated online.

It was weird, it was not that great.

But not this year, even so I hope you did as I did and learned new habits. New ways to live life in this bizarre pandemic world,

One of the first things we did as a church in the pandemic was visit with Alicia Mellinger by video, she has been living at home due to her health for many years now.

She gave us advice from her years of experience in her home. She told us, your going to get lost, every day will seem like every other day. It is vital that we purposefully develop new habits, set up rituals of our days.

Did you set up some new rituals because of the pandemic?

I set up a new ritual, do you have this one. Where you walk up to the store, turn around walk right back to your car after you forgot once again to get your mask.

That was a very upsetting part of this wasn’t it? All of our habits where thrown away and we had to get new ones. Now we have spots where masks are kept in our homes right?

You might have some habits that allowed you to get by in life and some that were just enjoyable, erased because they weren’t allowed or not open or you had to prepare yourself for something different.

I didn’t just hop in my car and go teach every morning, for a long time I had to learn how to teach kids threw a computer screen.

So much had to change, but not all had to be bad, maybe you followed Alicia’s advice and purposefully developed some great new habits, my wife and I developed a morning walk with our dog, every morning. It’s a nice start to our day.

That’s what I want to bring up on this Easter Sunday. This is the literal day of the Resurrection of our Lord, but it is also the beginning of a return to normal life for all of us.

Soon, it won’t be a sign of caring for others when you put on a mask, it will go back to what it’s meant to be, your going to rob the place.

I’m kidding, but don’t you feel that way sometimes, or like the cashier should call you doctor or something. Or maybe someone with an important title, like Nurse!

We will be removing these masks, those social distance stickers, as people get their vaccines, hospitals start emptying, it will change again.

As life changes, I have heard many say I don’t want to go back to the old way of life.

Do you want something better after the pandemic?

I hope that is true for you, I hope you desire to grow. I hope you take this time to purposefully pick out the habits that will make out your new life.

That’s what the Lord promised to us after the resurrection, imagine going through all the trouble of becoming both God and Man, living the perfect life to be followed, then dying for all of us, rising again, only to say, well your resurrected life, it sucks.

No our resurrected life will be completely different, because will remain forcused on different things, so much better than this current life.

1 Corinthians 13:12 The Message

12 We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

1 Corinthians 13:13 CSB

13 Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.

Love will fill our resurrected existence, Hope will fill it, Faith will fill it. But learning that resurrected life can begin now.

How does life get filled? What can you begin now?

Will let’s look at what anyone’s life is like, not what they think it is, or what they want to believe about themselves, but what really is. What is your life filled with now and how did it happen?

Maybe your life is filled with thinks like wake up, use the restroom, brush those teeth, change clothes, your life is filled with these morning habits

Then head to a recovery meeting, head to school, get to work, help get your grandkids to school, enjoy that morning news show. Then on to the next thing, maybe your day means Monday its the doctor, Tuesday its the respiratory therapist, whatever it is, I can promise you that your life is made up of what we all call, Habits.

Our lives are built on Habits.

What you do makes up, the habits you repeat over and over guide your life.

Jesus said we sow what we reap. It’s a farmer way of saying the seeds that are planted are the plants that will grow up. The habits that we do in life will give us the results of our future.

If we pursue hard studies we will get school smarts. If we run everyday, than we will get healthier bodies.

Habits produce a future result.

Our resurrected life will be built on the habits of Faith, Hope, and Love.

As we enter into this new time I encourage you to think carefully, think very purposefully about the new Habits you are creating.

New habits have results, I have to walk the dog with my wife every morning otherwise he is going to poop in my house!

Our habits sow seeds that will produce a result.

I also have to walk the dog every morning because I get to check in with my lovely wife, the partner God has blessed my life with and we are much closer for it. We know a lot more about what we are concerned about, working on, pursuing, and more. It has paid off and it will pay off.

Jesus purposefully built habits into his life so that what is most important would pay off in the future too. He built habits so He could know immediately what God would have Him do.

Think about that, too walk into a situation and know this is the right thing to do. How would that change your life?

If we are going to join him in a resurrected life, that perhaps we should purposefully plan our new habits of after pandemic world to be habits of Jesus.

What would your life be like if your future habits were the habits of Jesus?

Just like brushing our teeth keeps us from losing them, taking our prescriptions helps us live healthier, going to school.work helps us be hard workers, there are spiritual habits that we can form into our lives, and NOW, Right now when everything is becoming new is the perfect time to purposefully form these habits in our lives.

Can you make new Jesus habits in your life right now?

Jesus had a habit that many of you will like. Jesus did not have a habit of reading. Jesus would not have been reading his Bible everyday because he didn’t have access to one. They had big scrolls. He couldn’t carry a scroll around. He might have a piece of a verse written down on a piece of fabric or papyrus but Jesus could not have read his Bible everyday. Reading the Bible is good, listening to the Bible is good, but you know what Jesus did do that you can do.

Jesus talked

Two huge habits of Jesus are based on Jesus talking. We know Jesus did this all the time. These two habits can change your life, Jesus wasn’t just talking, talking, talking. Like somebody was like, Jesus, shut up! And Jesus was like you shouldn’t use my name like that. No that didn’t happen. Jesus built a habit of talking in two important ways.

Jesus talked with His disciples.

When we read the Bible we see Jesus hanging out talking, walking, teaching and encouraging, doing good with his disciples all the time. It was this group that becomes the church. Through a very long line, and many different ways that group of 12 guys who hung out with Jesus comes all the way to this place, this New Day Community Church

As followers of Jesus we should do what Jesus does, we regularly get together and talk with each other. God tells us in his eternal word to gether together

Hebrews 10:24–25 The Message

24 Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, 25 not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.

Gathering together as a church is a habit of Jesus. I don’t know about you but I go through many days where people actually encourage me to complain, join in gossip, do something dumb, and I’ve worked in many places where we were doing good for the community but not for others we worked with. For some of us, it’s hard to stay positive, encouraging, loving. It is easy to be negative, blaming others, or complaining about our problems.

Do you work in a place, or live in a family where it is hard to stay in the right way, loving, doing right, being encouraging?

I do, and the church is to be the encouraging place. I need to gather with you to be encouraged to encourage. I need to gather with you to remind myself to love. I need to know that you have my back as God has my back.

Do you?

A weekly habit, gathering together to be reminded to love, do right as God says is right, be encouraging to other. Is this a habit in your life?

It was in Jesus Life!

Talk with the church, reach out to the church, make communicating with others in the church a habit, make being present a habit!

Encouraging those in the church by being present and talking is a Jesus habit.

What difference does the habit of brushing your teeth have in your life? It keeps your teeth healthier, helps them last longer.

What difference could the habit of regular spiritual encouragement from the people of this church have in your life?

It doesn’t stop there, some of us learn best by talking. We learn best when we are encouraging other people.

I had a shocking realization this year. I switched jobs, that isn’t the shocking part. I also teach, and now I teach at an elementary school. I used to teach teenagers and adults with special needs, now I teach 1st through 3rd graders with autism. It’s awesome but what was shocking happened to me in a meeting. I was working and recognized the last name of our school psychologist.

He was new to me. I hadn’t ever worked with him but that last name was rather unique. You see 36 years ago there was a man, who encouraged me all the time from when I was in 3rd grade to 5th grade. He taught me God’s word. He had the same last name as the guy I was working with

Because the man I now work with is his son. Can you imagine that? Someone so encouraging that I haven’t forgot him in 36 years! Different cities, different decades but the power of the Lord and the encouragement that came from this man has never been forgotten.

What difference could the habit of you regularly giving spiritual encouragement to others, you coming to church and encouraging the people you see, make in your life?

What kind of impact could you have in someone’s life by building the habit of being present at church, talking with others, giving and receiving encouragement?

You could have huge impact. The impact will really be God working through you, It will go way beyond you and way beyond your time,

There were two habits of talking though. The other habit of talking that Jesus did all the time, was the habit of prayer.

Luke 11:1 The Message

1 One day he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, “Master, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”

There was one word that caught me in this scripture, it is translated the same way in most English versions of the Bible. “certain”.

Jesus prayed in a certain place.

He went to a place to pray, before anything big happens in the Book of the Bible called Luke, before any monumental event in Luke happens, there will be prayer. Luke tells us that Jesus is praying. What is praying? Prayer is regularly talking with God.

Jesus made it such a habit of prayer that there was a certain place He would be, A certain place where He would be talking with God.

Do you want to make a new Habit in your life that will completely change your everyday existence?

Talk with God.

Talk with God in a certain place.

Make talking with God a habit as much as brushing your teeth or changing your underwear. Make it a habit of health. Make it an often habit, but make a specific habit, so you know that you did it or didn’t do it.

You could write down what you pray about, in a journal or even an app.

There is an app called

https://innerroom.app/

where you can keep track of what you pray for and it even has a timer, so you can see how much just short bursts of prayer throughout your day might take up.

Standing in line at the store, waiting for the zoom meeting to start, you can be praying.

Good habit people say add it to something enjoyable, your morning coffee, your breakfast, your arrival home in the evening.

The app or the journal will allow you to write what God says to you, you can record How God answered.

Because if you take up a Habit of praying things are going to change.

You can change your life right now to make a habit of talking with God. A purposeful habit. A set aside time. This will change your life.

I encouraged you last week to pray and make requests with

Spectacular Boldness

We are concentrating on praying with this spectacular boldness and God is already answering. I’m going to share an answer with you in just a minute.

But have you made a spectacularly bold request of God? Do it!

Build this into your Jesus habit of talking with God. Make more than one request. Pour out your heart to God. Talk with God about it. Listen to God about it. Because on our next big holiday, Mother’s Day, we are going to share the answers God has given to our spectacularly bold requests.

As I began preparing this sermon series last week God made me aware that I have not been praying with boldness in my life. So I began making some requests of God that I have no idea how they will happen.

One request I made is that God allow our church to baptize people, baptism is a sign of a new person who has decided to follow Christ with their life. It’s been quite a while since we had a baptism. I had no idea who, in fact didn’t know anyone even close. I asked you to pray boldly. Perhaps that was your prayer too.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to an answer to prayer.

Fernando

Praying that God would accept Him, and the He could be baptized

He accepted Christ on Good Friday and would like to become a part of New Day, and be baptized.

The Lord hears our prayers. Our prayers could be the answer to others prayers as well.

Will you make a habit of gathering in a certain place and talking with God?

Will you make a habit of gathering with us, the church to encourage each other to love God and love others?

Will you enter this new phase of life, this post-pandemic world and build these Jesus habits in your life?

Jesus Habits: Talk with God, Talk with Others