God is nowhere.

I spent the first 5 months of Saturdays at Awaken teaching through the book of Philippians. I loved it. 18 weeks and lots of deep, life-changing truth! We’re now right in the middle of a new series leading into Good Friday and Easter called Premeditated. I’m loving that as well. I’m torn though, because I can’t wait to start our new study through the book of Esther!

I’m calling it God is nowhere.

Esther is one of 2 books in the Bible where the name of God is never mentioned (anyone know the other one?). In fact, some scholars have argued that because you never read about God in the book, it shouldn’t be included in the Bible. I disagree.

When you first look at the title above, you might read “God is nowhere,” but you could also read it “God is now here.” Same with the book of Esther. When you first read it, and you notice that you never read God’s name, you might think that He’s nowhere in the book. It would be hard to read the book and actually believe that though. As you witness God’s invisible hand orchestrating the events of the book and Esther’s life behind the scenes, it’s more accurate to say “God is now here!”

Sometimes our lives are like that. When we look at our circumstances, we wonder if God even cares – if He’s even involved. Yes, He does care. Yes, He is involved. It’s time to begin viewing our lives as “God is now here.” He is intimately involved in the details of our lives and loved us enough to personally visit us and die for us.

Make plans to join us for this study of a young girl that God used to save the entire nation of Israel. This study kicks off Saturday, April 10, so make sure to invite some friends and read ahead!

Sermon Leftovers #2 – Palm Sunday 2.0

Last night was #3 in our Premeditated series. It’s been an incredible series so far as we’ve looked back at how God was evidently in control of the death of Christ – it was all part of His premeditated plan. Here are some leftovers from last night’s message that I was unable to expound on…

Today is Palm Sunday, but we missed the real Palm Sunday by about 2 millennia. That’s more than just “fashionably late.” The good news, though, for those of us who missed it, is that we all still have a shot at making it to the next one. I call it Palm Sunday 2.0. I say 2.0 because it’s the new and improved edition – a major upgrade from the original. We’ll call this future event “Palm Sunday” although I don’t know for sure what day of the week it will be on (there is a 1 in 7 chance though!) What event am I referring to?

Revelation 7:9-10 – After these things I looked, and behold, ​h​a great multitude which no one could number, ​of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, ​clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ​​“Salvation belongs to our God ​who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

And why 2.0? What’s so much better about this one? Here’s 5 reasons…

1) For starters, we can actually attend this one, since we missed the original one.

2) Jesus won’t be about to die, He’ll have conquered death already.

3) Jerusalem is nice and all, but heaven is A LOT better.

3) We’ll be surrounded by people of all nations, tribes, and tongues, singing the same song. Epic!

4) We won’t have to go to work the next day when the worship service is over – this worship service will NEVER stop. Ever.

5) We’ll really understand what we’re singing – salvation will be complete and we’ll have a complete understanding of the lyrics, “Salvation belongs to our God…”

I hope you enjoy your Palm Sunday celebrations today. What a scene to picture Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, fulfilling Zechariah 9:9 – a prophecy made over 500 years prior! God is very detail-oriented and completely in control of all that’s going on!

Happy Good Friday (and Happy early Easter!)!

PREMEDITATED

Easter is probably my favorite day of the entire year.

As a Christian, there’s no better day to celebrate. Our God is alive! I always love the Good Friday service and the Easter sunrise service. I enjoy the family time and most of all the reflection on what Jesus did for us. How profound that the High and Lifted up One, Jesus, would become low and humbled and die the lowest most inhumane form of death possible.

As I thought and pondered and prayed about what I’d teach on this year – my first Good Friday and Easter actually getting to preach – I kept thinking of two verses in John.

John 10:17-18 – “Therefore My Father ​loves Me, ​​because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I ​have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

Jesus’ death was no accident. It was premeditated. Normally, the word “premeditated” fits into the context of a murderer planning out the murder before actually pulling it off. That certainly happened with Jesus – all throughout the Gospels you can read about the Jews planning to kill Jesus. Judas also had it all planned out – down to the kiss. Those parts are interesting, but there’s something even more intriguing to me. It’s the fact that God the Father and Jesus, His Son, also had it all planned out – it didn’t take them by surprise like a normal murder would.

The animal that had to die in Genesis 3 so that God could make a tunic of skin to cover their nakedness – that sacrifice pointed to Christ.

Abraham almost sacrificing his only son, Isaac – that pointed to God giving His only Son.

The book of Leviticus – a gory, gruesome book focused on bloodshed and slaughter pointed toward Christ and His death.

The prophets told of Him.

The Psalmists wrote of Him.

The angels even announced Him as the Savior. He was born to die.

As sinful and deceitful as Jesus’ enemies were in betraying Him and killing Him, they were all just a part of God’s master plan! Jesus’ death was the sacrifice of all sacrifices. There would never again need to be a lamb that was slain, a bull burnt, or a goat that was sacrificed. Jesus took it all for us…BECAUSE HE WANTED TO! Incredible!

Over the next 4 weeks leading into Good Friday and Easter, I’m going to be teaching 5 messages that go with this theme: the PREMEDITATED death of Jesus Christ and the resulting salvation that’s available for all mankind.

Jesus’ death wasn’t an an accident. He died for me and He died for you…because He wanted to. I pray you’ll bring some friends over these next few weeks as we dive into this amazing topic. We’ll be discussing events that were life-changing and world-shaking when they took place and my prayer is that they will be eternity-changing as we re-live them once again.

Saturday, March 13 – 6:30pm at Awaken

Saturday, March 20 – 6:30pm at Awaken

Saturday, March 27 – 6:30pm at Awaken

Good Friday, April 2 – noon at Awaken

Easter Sunday, April 4 – 7:30am – location TBA

Hope to see you and some friends there!