Easter 2026 - God Equation

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well again, good morning. Happy Easter, Happy Resurrection Sunday. Today I'm going to be preaching a sermon from a tradition that's developed in this church. On Resurrection Sunday, on Easter Sunday, we take some time to do what we call an apologetics sermon, which plainly or simply understood is in a sense of defending the faith, giving reason for the hope that is in us, which comes from 1 Peter 3.15. So I've taught an apologetics class on this. This is kind of a quick summary of what I teach my students about, in a sense, why we believe what we believe, and kind of explaining some of that. Last year I talked about the resurrection and the evidence of the resurrection. This year I'm taking a different approach. So my hope is that if you have faith in Jesus Christ, this will strengthen your faith and strengthen the reasons why you believe. And if maybe you don't believe in God and you're here for whatever reason, maybe supporting your family, we're glad you're here. But maybe today you will have reason to believe that Jesus is God. So again, today's sermon will be an apologetics, a defense, a reason for faith in Christ sermon. So this first thing I want to talk about today is something you know, the idea of an equation. So the first equation I want to just focus on you is called the E equals MC squared equation. Hopefully you've seen this before. You might have seen this in one of your science classes back in the day. This again, I believe, is tied to the theory of relativity. It's one of the most famous equations. Albert Einstein came up with this equation. He's well known for it. Again, maybe you've seen it before, and I'm not going to try to explain to you what this equation means. I'm not going to take my time to do that this morning, but hopefully you all understand the idea of an equation. It's a communication of a theory or of a truth and a truth claim. Explaining reality and what is true. And so this equation tries to capture that. Well, I'm just using that as an idea to talk about an equation that I'd like to talk to you about today. And that is what I'm calling the God equation. So here is my God equation. This is not exhaustive, this is just what I'm going to cover today in my God equation. So all these symbols mean something, and I'm going to talk through them each today. But again, what I'm doing is trying to communicate something to you, a truth claim, through this equation. I'm going to talk through all these different letters and symbols and what they mean. And so the subjects that we're going to cover today, we're going to cover all these. We're going to cover science and math and philosophy and psychology and literature. And my hope is that you at least like one of these subjects. Because I'm going to be talking about all of them. So I'm going to be packing in a lot today, just to let you know. So some of this might go over your head. That's okay. Just let it just let it go over you. It's okay. But I'm going to be packing into our sermon time today. And I promise I won't go too long. But I also just want to recognize that you know that God might be bringing strength, might bring an idea, and just surrender to God in this moment. Okay, let's jump in. So the first symbol. This symbol is the infinity symbol. And it's to the fourth power. So I want to communicate something with that. What I'm talking about is really infinities, four infinities, four things that are impossible, or what I will call miracles. So the first one I want to talk about today is something called the cosmological argument. And it says this in Genesis chapter 1, verse 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now you may not realize it, but the very first verse in the Bible is making a scientific truth claim. In the beginning. In the beginning. So for millennia, humans did not know from a scientific perspective whether the universe had a beginning. But it has now been demonstrated and understood that the universe, in fact, does have a beginning. There are many reasons behind that, but it's amazing for me to think about, as Christians who believe the Bible is true, that the very first verse of Scripture makes this truth claim. Something we maybe have glazed over without even realizing it. So what I'm talking about is this. There's a logic in that, and hopefully you understand and believe in. Something called cause and effect. Maybe you've heard of this logic. If something, if we notice something, if something's existing, that's an effect. But something had to cause that effect. You cannot have an effect without a cause. Well, that caused, what caused the universe to exist in the first place? What is that cause? As scientists have come to understand, the universe had a beginning. And the question becomes: what had the power? What had the mind? What had the capacity, the intention to start the universe, to cause it to exist? So not getting into all the details of that, but again, this initial beginning at all. So something can't come from nothing. There must be a cause. So this is illogical if we think something comes from nothing. And yet here we are. What started the beginning? So the universe exists and had a beginning. Something did, in fact, come into being. And there's a well-known philosopher, his name is William Lane Craig, who calls God the uncaused cause. So God, whom the Bible teaches is timeless, powerful, and present over all time, or holding time itself, caused the universe to begin. So again, this is called the cosmological argument. You cannot have a universe without a cause. And God is the uncaused cause. So in other words, it's infinity. It's actually mathematically impossible. We have to believe that, we have to understand that. It's a great mystery. So this is the first infinity. It's the first miracle. So the second infinity, the second infinity is something called the fine-tuning argument. And this, for a lot of physicists and scientists, is one of the best arguments for God. It says in Psalm chapter 19, verse 1 and 2 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. So what in the world is the fine-tuning argument? It sounds nice, but what does it mean? So the fine-tuning argument is that there are at least 31 different constants, factors, and quantities, things like gravity, that just we exist in and we take for granted every day, things like the expansion rate of the universe, mass, and the even distribution of energy. One quote from a documentary talks about it this way if any one of these constant or qualities or quantities like gravity were altered even by a hair's breadth, no physical interactive life of any kind could exist anywhere. So think about the math and the science of that. And this is before the first second of the universe. Thirty-one different things, thirty-one different numbers, thirty-one different scientifically understood things all happen, had to happen within the first second of the universe for us to even exist. So, again, what in the world does that mean? These are all things recognized again by scientists set before the first second of the universe. Again, that's why it's called the fine-tuning argument. The universe was finely tuned. If the universe was too big or too small, or if gravity were too much or too little, life could not exist. I'm not going to stand up here and pretend like I understand a couple of those numbers, but I'm told by physicists and scientists that this is true. I don't understand the equations of all these numbers, but again, smarter people than I understand them, and they recognize the force of the fine-tuning argument. Even atheists recognize this argument. And again, this is all before the first second of the universe. So we have the uncaused cause starting the universe. And then in the first second, we have this again fine-tuning argument where we can clearly see that something designed tuned the universe. So Stephen Hawking, that name might sound familiar, a famous physicist, theoretical physicist, though unfortunately an atheist, an agnostic, recognized how astonishing this is. And he said this. So in other words, this too is an infinity. That's why I have that symbol. So we've got two symbols, two you know, two powers of infinity. Impossible. But again, what I would call a miracle. So the third infinity symbol is something called the privileged planet. Isaiah 45, 18 says this: For thus says the Lord who created the heavens, he is God, who formed the earth and made it, he established it, he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord and there is no other. So what is the privileged planet? The privileged planet is the understanding that there are around 20 different, and that's at a minimum, 20 different conditions necessary for inhabitable life on our planet. So this is in addition to the uncaused cause, cosmological argument. This is in addition to the fine-tuning argument. You need those kind of miracles to happen first. Now we have this, in a sense, third miracle for this to exist. And now we have this pale blue dot, as once called, floating in the universe that we call Earth. Again, there are around 20 different conditions necessary for life to be on this planet. Things like water, the sun, the mass and temperature of the planet, the size of the Earth, the size of the moon, the fact that we have a moon, the Goldilocks zone within our solar system, and the Goldilocks zone within our spiral galaxy. So what is the Goldilocks zone? I'll nerd out a little bit here. The Goldilocks zone is if we were too close to the sun, we would burn up. If we were too far from the sun, it'd be too cold. We're also in the Goldilocks zone in our spiral universe. We're in between two like arms of our spiral galaxy. And oh, by the way, in the middle of our galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy, is a black hole. So we're in this perfectly positioned right spot in our solar system, in our galaxy to be safe. All of these things are necessary for life to exist on this planet. All of these factors are codependent. Again, there's at least 20 things that all have to happen for life to exist. 20 things all happening at the same time, in addition to everything I talked about before this. So, again, the fine-tuning argument, all these 20 plus things, and they're probably even more than that, are necessary for life to exist on Earth. You take any one of these factors away and you do not have not just human life, you don't have any life on our planet. In other words, impossible. From a mathematical standpoint, impossible. And it I would call it a miracle. So we've got three. One more. Okay, I got ahead of myself, sorry. So, and what is even more amazing if you think about it this is not my idea, I heard this or learned about this, but we have this again on cause cause, the fine-tuning argument, this privileged planet, and that's awesome, and that's amazing. That all of this math and all of this science is all adding and multiplying times itself. But what's also amazing is that our planet, our existence, our life has been designed in such a way that we can observe the universe. We can see it. We can see our galaxy, we can see the universe. It didn't actually have to be designed that way. So, in other words, we were created. Again, the heavens declare the glory of God. We can see it. We make that assumption that the fact that we can even see, but God designed us to see it. The heavens again declare the glory of God. The universe, the stars, our earth, our solar system declare the glory of God. They declare that there is a God who created us. Lee Strobel said this. By doing science we find God. Okay, so now on to our fourth infinity symbol. Again, to the fourth power. Four infinities, four miracles is called, the fourth one is called abiogenesis. Job chapter twelve, verses seven through ten says this. But ask the beasts, and they will teach you, the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you, or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you, and the fish of the sea they will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind. So a biogenesis. What does this mean? In other words, this means life from non-life. How did the first, in a sense, cell exist in the beginning? So just as we ask what caused the universe to begin, we can only ask what started the first living cell. I'm not even talking yet about the complexity of the human body, the mind, consciousness, personality, or all the rest. I'm just talking about one single cell. James Toward, who is a Christian who writes on this, says this the complexity of even the simplest cell is so great that it's hard to imagine how it could have risen spontaneously. We can't even imagine how that would happen. And I even did some research this week on this question. What is the probability of life from non-life? There is no probability. There is no math. There are five impossible questions, even for that single cell to exist, again, let alone a human life. Again, for thousands of years we did not know how complex even one cell really is. And James Tour talks about the multiple impossible questions that still remain to this day, even when trying to explain one single cell of life to exist. So and the sad thing is this. When I was growing up, I was raised in the church, I was raised in a Christian family, loving parents who love Jesus. I was raised in a family, and I read in a science book that there was this primordial soup. And then a lightning bolt or a charge of electricity hit that primordial soup that had the perfect conditions, and somehow, from that primordial soup, all of life came from that single cell. And that I had to deal with that. I had to wrestle with that. Like I didn't believe it. But I've come to understand that has not been proven true. That is not replicated in a lab, that's never been proven. There are five, again, impossible questions to even form one single cell. So his uh a nan, a man by the name Francis Crick, another agnostic, atheist thinker, and a Nobel Prize winner and co-discoverer of the double helix structure of DNA, said this about the origin of life. An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle. So, in other words, the infinity to the fourth power clearly communicates the cosmological argument, the fine-tuning argument, this privileged planet that we're floating around in space right now, and a biogenesis. All of these things communicate the miracle of creation. That there is a God who created you, who designed you, and I would argue who loves you. So back to our God equation. We have this infinity to the fourth power. Now, what does the M stand for? I'll go through these little letters a little quicker, don't worry. The M stands for something called the moral argument. Romans chapter 1, verses 19 through 20 says this for what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them, for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made so that they are without they are without excuse. So God's word teaches us that we are without excuse when we look at life and creation. So what is, though, the moral argument as we live in this life? The moral argument is famously talked about by C.S. Lewis. He wrote an amazing book that I would highly recommend called Mere Christianity. And he's one of my favorite authors. He said this if a man says he does not believe in right and wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later. He is really saying, I wish you would behave as if there were such a thing as right and wrong. So he also said this, reflecting on his former atheism. He was an atheist. He said, My argument against God was that the universe seemed to be so cruel and unjust, but how had I gotten this idea of just and unjust? In other words, if there is a moral law, then there must be a law giver. So that is a summary of again the moral argument. If we recognize that there is such a thing as evil, if we look at suffering, if we look at pain, if we recognize that it should not be this way, that we are also recognizing that there is, in fact, a right way, a moral way. Not even getting into what that specifically is, but just the fact that there is a right way, a moral way. We acknowledge the moral argument. So, and we recognize, some would say this is common sense, but as we know, common sense isn't very common. But hopefully, in a philosophical way, we can understand that there is a right and wrong. There is a way to treat people, there is a way to be kind to people, even regardless of what they believe. There's a common decency, and this foundation is underneath the thought of the moral argument. So if we believe there is a moral law, if there is really a moral right and wrong, then there must also be a God who defines morality, who is in himself the standard of what is right and wrong. And we also recognize that when we read scripture and we read about Jesus. We even looked at this last Friday when we talked about Pilate putting Jesus on trial, that even Pilate recognized that Jesus was innocent, that Jesus was good, and that he did not deserve death. And when we read the Gospels, we read about the life of Jesus and we see that he was in fact the perfect person. He was without sin. He was morally perfect. He had a perfect personality in the way he treated people, the way he loved people, and the way he instructed us. And you think about how radical it is for Jesus to say something like, forgive people. Think about how radical it is for Jesus to say, love your neighbor as you love yourself. And even more radical, Jesus not only tells us to love our neighbor, he tells us to love your enemies. Jesus was perfect morally, personally, and relationally. We see Jesus, and if we really read the story, we we are drawn to him. Again, all this points to the idea that there is a right way to live and a wrong way, that there is such a thing as evil, and if bad people deserve consequences, then there must be a moral law. Now, every religion in some way acknowledges this morality, but the issue that every religion tends to teach is that you earn your salvation, that you overcome your evil, that you overcome your sin, that you overcome the wrongs you've committed by doing more right. So the other religions make the case that you can cancel out your wrongs, that if your good outweighs your bad, then maybe that is enough. As I once heard someone say, I'm hoping I have more plus marks on my chalkboard than minus marks when I get to heaven. In other words, what we're doing when we do that is we're putting our faith in ourselves, we're putting our faith in our good. Works. We're putting our faith in us figuring it out and earning our way to be with a holy, perfect God. But I would say, and I want to say clearly, that there is no such thing as a good person. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, the Bible says. But here is the good news about Christianity. Here's the good news about Jesus. All other religions about what are about what you do. Again, karma, being a good person, canceling out the wrongs you've committed. But Christianity is good news because there's no amount of good things you can do to make yourself perfect. Jesus finished it on the cross. He said, it is finished. He takes our sin, he takes our immorality upon himself. He takes the judgment. The cross takes our injustice upon Jesus and makes us just. He makes us righteous. The Bible says that he gives us the free gift of righteousness. If we want to be with a holy, perfect God, we've got to be perfect and holy. And God gives us that freely. You cannot earn it. He offers it to you freely. And all you simply need to do is believe in it. Believe in the cross. Believe in the resurrection. So again, other religions are about doing. Christianity is about done. It is finished. And we simply receive again the free gift of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross for us. So back to our equation. We have the infinity to the fourth power of four miracles that speaks to the science and the math. We have the moral argument, which speaks to the philosophy. Now C stands for consciousness, your mind, your self-awareness. It says in Genesis chapter 1, verses 26 through 27, then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them. So maybe the science, maybe the math or the philosophy doesn't connect with you. But here we're asking questions like, Why am I here? Why am I on planet Earth? What is my purpose? What is meaning? Why do I exist? What is this all for? Why did this happen? Is there more to life than this? Is there more to life than just being an accident or being just happening to exist? No, I would say to these questions of consciousness. Animals which Scripture speaks, we have dominion over, they're different than us. We're made in the image of God. We're not like animals. Just logically and plainly, we can see that. But here we are asking these big questions. We have this self-awareness, this mind that God has given us. So Descartes said, I think, therefore I am. We also presuppose something. Whether we realize it or not, we assume that we can trust our own thoughts. But why would we trust our own thoughts if they were merely an accident, if they only happened by chance? If we're just random molecules that somehow assembled and formed a mind. No, we would not trust that. But scientists still do not really even understand how we have consciousness and where it comes from. I would say it's another miracle. Again, we are made in the image of God, in the likeness of God. We are not God, but we are made in his image. We are made to be in relationship with God. God gave us a mind. And sometimes when we talk about the greatest commandment, which Jesus gave us, we forget this. God says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. Love God with your thoughts. Love Him with your mind. To think and to love God with your brain, with your consciousness, with who you are. You are made in the image of God. So I want to challenge you and encourage you that God made you to be in relationship with Him. So back to my God equation. We have this impossible infinity to the fourth power. We have this moral argument. We have consciousness, this mind that we all assume and experience. So now what does the W stand for? The W stands for the Word. It says in John chapter 1, verses 1 through 5, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. And in him was life, and the life was the light of man. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. So the word being referenced here is the person Jesus. And again, Jesus displayed perfect humanity. And there is no greater love than this: that someone would lay down his life for his friends. Jesus is the hero, he's the Messiah, he's the savior. And how does he win? How is he victorious? He willingly dies for us. He dies on the cross for us. This is what Jesus does. This is what God in the flesh does for us. So here we are 2,000 years later, 2,000 years after the events of Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. And I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sin. Jesus, God in the flesh, Emmanuel, which means God with us, died on the cross for our sins. On the third day he conquered death. And the apostles who remained, the apostles who did not betray him, went to their graves to martyrdom, persecution, death, professing this resurrection. And the world has never been the same. The message of Christianity, the good news, the free gift of God's salvation for all who believe, has been spreading throughout the world ever since. So when we have that knowledge today, we have the understanding because, kind of the double meaning of word, we have the word Jesus, but we also have the word of God. We have the understanding because God inspired and breathed his word. So Jesus is the word, and God has given us his written word that testifies to him. We have God's word. We have the good news. We have the story of the life of Christ and the teachings of Christ. One thing I remember writing in my Bible when I was in junior high. I remember and really kind of recommitting my life to Christ at that time was I was, again, reading my Bible, and I still have that little Bible. One of my kids has it now. And I remember writing in it something, and I remember having a moment with God. I remember having a moment with the Holy Spirit where I felt the Holy Spirit resonating my soul. And I remember writing in it, like, whoever wrote this wrote it to resonate my soul. I believe that to my core. God's word, when I read it and I understand it, is inspired. It's inerrant, it's infallible. The Bible says that God breathed it. Like he breathed the stars into existence. How is he he breathed into Adam's lungs to create us? He breathed his word. And this God who breathes the word, who existed with us, is defined as love. And so all of that is presented to you as the truth came. To believe in God. Again, Jesus, perfect morally, perfect in knowledge, perfect in relationship and personality. He's not merely a human, though. Jesus is God. He is God who took on flesh, flesh, the word with us, Emmanuel. So he has revealed his word to us, revealed and resonates in our soul, and he wants to be in relationship with you. So back to the God equation. We have this impossible infinity of the fourth power. We have the common sense recognition of morality and the desire for justice and right living in this world. We have a mind that gives us self-awareness and understanding and consciousness and the capacity to be in relationship with God. And now we have the word, the written word, and the relationship with the word Jesus. And it all culminates in something called GN, which stands for, you can hopefully guess this, the good news. You might have heard it called the gospel. It's actually the name of our church. The good news, because whether you accept it or not, you are facing death. It's an undeniable reality that we all face. That we're going to die. That we're going to have to face this eternally important moment. And we have to deal with that reality. And we have to recognize that reality. So with this good news, we can have hope. We can have the knowledge of God's law being revealed to us. And the reality of death is it's averaging around a hundred percent. We're all gonna face it. So we face it with this truth, truth, and I hope you face it with the good news that I have, that we have, that there is a God that created everything. A God who is good, a God who is perfect, a God who is holy, and a God who wants to be known and wants you to know him. And he has revealed himself to you in his word and by his holy spirit. And I would say you simply need to believe, to trust, to put your faith in him. I hope I've given you some evidence today, some real tangible evidence to believe. But here's the reality. If you noticed it or not, I quoted some atheists in this PowerPoint in the sermon. And they were even calling certain arguments that I've been talking about today miracles. They were calling these things that again, if you add it all up, if you multiply it in all the math and all the science, and they didn't believe. They didn't put their faith in Christ. And so there's a reality with that. You know, C.S. Lewis was an atheist. And the reality is we can bring, we can all recognize this as humans, we can bring some hardness to this question if we believe in the good news. Maybe you call it stubbornness. And I would invite everyone in here to acknowledge that. To acknowledge maybe a hardness towards God or a stubbornness towards God, and acknowledge maybe the why. To ask why do I feel this way towards God? If these ideas, of these arguments are being presented to me, why do I feel hard, hardened towards God or stubborn towards God? We all face that as humans. And I recognize it might be anger. Maybe you're mad at God, maybe you're angry at God, maybe something happened to you that you didn't deserve. Maybe there's an injustice in your life, maybe there's a sadness or a pain or a suffering that you've gone through. I believe God can take your anger. I believe in your own prayer life, you can just tell God how angry you are. He can handle it. And whatever you've suffered, God can take your suffering. A humility of your heart, a humility of your mind. Again, the reality is we might be bringing a hardened heart or a stubborn heart towards God. And Jesus promised us an advocate, the Holy Spirit, to convict our hearts and lead us to the truth. And so maybe this is the moment. Maybe this is the moment to put your faith in God, to put your trust in God. It says this in John 3.16. This is the good news. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. This is the good news. Again, I invite you maybe to strengthen your faith today, maybe to recommit your life to Christ today, or maybe for the first time, to believe in Jesus, to put your faith in God, to receive Jesus as your Lord, as your King, and as your Savior. Because again, Jesus, I believe, is God, God in the flesh, who died on the cross for your sin. Again, God is holy, God is love, God is good. He died for us to satisfy the injustice of our sin, to make a way for us to be back in relationship with Him, and to conquer death by His resurrection. So I again encourage you to put your faith in Jesus today. I want to close today by reading from one of the Gospels the resurrection story. From John chapter 20. I'm going to read 18 verses. It says this. Now on the first day of the week, this is John chapter 20 again. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we did not know where they have laid him. So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first, and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there in the face in the face cloth which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed, for as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels white sitting where where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her woman, Why are you weeping? She said to them, They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her woman, Why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be a gardener, she said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Aramaic, Raboni, which means teacher. Jesus said to her, Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father, and your Father to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her. So I want to read that. It is in fact Easter Sunday. I've got to read the resurrection story. I want to read that to close today. But again, I want to end with an invitation. Put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Repent of your sin. Turn from your life of being in control of any hardness of heart that you may have towards God. And let God soften your heart, your mind by his Holy Spirit, and put your trust in him. It starts again by repenting of your sin, inviting Jesus and your heart to take over, not just to reside in you, but to be your king, to surrender everything to him and live your life for him. You won't do it perfect, no one does, but we live in his grace and in his mercy from this day forth. So I invite you to put your faith in Jesus Christ. I'm going to pray and lead us all in a salvation prayer, an invitation prayer to begin relationship with Jesus or to continue in relationship with Jesus. Let's pray together. So, God, we just say thank you for this day. We thank you for this day that we can celebrate your resurrection, God. And I just pray in this moment, God, that if there's anyone in here who has not started their eternity with you yet, God, I pray that in this moment they would say, God, that I'm sorry for my sin. Thank you for dying on the cross for me. Thank you for conquering death for me. I now invite you to get into my heart, into my mind, into my life to take over. To be my king. To be my God. And God, I pray that you would strengthen all of us today, whether we're beans, being followers of you for decades or days, we just pray that you would strengthen all of us today, God, as we go from this place to be your witnesses, your representatives, your ambassadors, God, of your good news. And God, again, we just say thank you for what you've done for us. We love you, God, with all our hearts. In your name we pray. Amen.