"Help!" Sometimes, that is all we need to say. Life is often difficult, but during some seasons, this life that we are living seems downright impossible! In the first real prayer of the book of Psalms, the author conveys this tone of hopelessness, despair, and even anxiety. What we hope you will feel today is permission... permission to be raw, unfiltered, and honest with our Lord. If we can start here, with the trust of where we are, the Lord can help us.

Serving and knowing God through the person of Jesus is a blessing. And what a joy it is! However, in carrying out this beautiful honor, human beings must acknowledge authority of Jesus, and therein respect the rules and guidelines Scripture sets for us. We are free to live our lives, but life is so much better when we follow His rules and when we are guided by The Word and The Spirit. Genuinely, the "grace" of God is the opportunity to partner with Him prior to His return. Oh what love!

In this life there are two ways of being human - being godly or ungodly. Godly people live by faith while ungodly people live by sight. Godly people possess wisdom from above that helps them navigate life's uncertainties while ungodly people crumble when they are caught by surprise. Godly people bless others simply by their existence, while ungodly people tend to drain others. Our goal, obviously, should be to be godly people, full of faith, love, and joy, and being a blessing to all around us. That is the theme of our text today.

Crisis... This is where many meet God for the first time, and even subsequently thereafter. The writer of the Scripture passages we are reading today found himself in this state after pursuing what seems like every possible venture, and yet still experiencing desperation, hopelessness, and a loss for life's meaning. These feelings are not limited to unbelievers. When not focused on Christ, the saved can experience these same emotions. The good news is, because of Jesus, it doesn't have to be this way!

Our relationship with Jesus should be a priority in the life of a follower of Jesus. We should prioritize his teachings and make ourselves available to him so that we can live and look like Jesus. We can become just as distracted by well-intentioned overactivity as we can by cares, riches, and pleasures of this life. Our relationship with Jesus is the necessary thing in this life. To be a disciple of Jesus is to sit at his feet.

A mother's love is a distinct, sacrificial love noted specifically in the Greek language of the New Testament as "philoteknos." This word translated as "love" implies caring, nurturing, meeting needs, embracing, and befriending. A mother's love is always changing and morphing as children grow, yet Scripture informs us there is always a crucial role for a Godly mother from the stages of "bringing up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," (Eph. 6:4) to "the older women training the younger women how to love their husbands and their children." (Titus 2:5) Each phase along the way is vital to the development of your child, your home, and this church body. Thank you mothers for all you do!

The Lord's Supper and Baptism - the two biblical ordinances that Jesus left us. Today, we are partaking in both here at Hope Church Mill Creek. Let us take some time to observe what Jesus instructed to us before he left this earth. We will partake in Communion with our brothers and sisters in Christ both in this place and all around the world, while we also observe & rejoice with others taking their first big step in the Christian life.

We are so glad you are here with us today on Easter and we hope and pray that Jesus speaks to you through the kindness and generosity of our people. Thank you so much for being here. Followers of Jesus all over the globe celebrate the holiday of Easter because of the life, death, and resurrection of a man named Jesus. It is for us truly a holy day. The questions we'd like to answer today are, why did the resurrection happen and what did that accomplish?

Happy Palm Sunday to you! Even though we dealt with this part of Jesus' story during last Sunday's sermon, we still encourage you to say "Hosanna!" or "O save!" to Jesus whether you never have or you need His grace again for the 100th or 1,000th time. Remember, God resists the proud but He gives grace to the humble. Today, we go back to that final week where everything begins to physically fall apart in our Lord Jesus' life. He's abandoned, betrayed, abused, and broken by the very ones he came to save. But we know that through all this brokenness, God is still working.

Video/Audio credit: Judah Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=2E4Pdik0wuY

Today we begin talking about the last week of Jesus' earthly life in our Easter series we've called, "The Journey." From the manger to the cross, the entire life and ministry of our Lord was full of risk, danger, excitement, joy, sadness, love, and sacrifice. During this week, however, the Christ allowed all eyes to be fixated on Him. Know this would ultimately lead to his death, we see the man Jesus intentionally square up with his opposition, and take aim.