With the glory of His resurrection, we sometimes overlook the couple of days between Jesus’ death and when He rose again. Churches have Good Friday services to help remind us of this, but it’s still hard to put yourself in the place of the disciples in that moment. As Pastor Ron will point out in today’s message, in this moment, the disciples were reeling in response to losing their friend and teacher, who they believed was the embodiment of hope, maybe even the long-awaited Messiah. 

When you focus your attention on the world around you, hope can feel hard to find. There seems to be a new big controversy every day. Protests in our streets, wars around the world, and we can’t be sure who to trust as we listen to the loudest voices in our society. It feels very dark and hopeless. But, as Pastor Ron will encourage us in today’s message, Jesus is the light of the world. He brings eternal hope. When you simply trust in Him, He brings life and freedom and the promise of eternal rest in Him.

In John 10:10, Jesus tells us that He’s come so that we can have life and have it more abundantly. But wait a second, aren’t Christians supposed to be fun-hating, somber, anti-everything types? Living more abundantly sounds like it might contradict that. Does it mean we should have more stuff? Or that we should party all the time? … Well, that’s not it either. In today’s message, Pastor Ron will examine this verse and help us understand what it means to “live more abundantly” in light of the cross.

Most of us are familiar with the tobacco industry and its demise. This industry was massive and extremely wealthy. But its central product was shown to be causing serious health issues and even death. For many in that industry, the cost of accepting those facts was too great. As Pastor Ron will point out in today’s message, some people responded in a similar way to Jesus. Even when He clearly demonstrated who He was, they denied Him because of what they knew it would cost them.

When you follow Jesus, life still happens all around you. That’s going to include hardship, struggle, oppression, and temptations. That stuff doesn’t stop as long as you walk in this broken world. In fact, there’s an argument to be made that they only increase and intensify when you genuinely live out your faith. But, as Pastor Ron will encourage us in today’s message, because of Easter – because of what Jesus did on the cross – our hope outshines this dark world, and we can walk in joy. 

People seem to forget or overlook the little things that we do. We forget about the small moments and tend to recall only the big things, whether good or bad! Isn’t it comforting to know that God always remembers the things we do in service of Him, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem? These “good works” are not anything that grants us greater value or a better standing before God. Pastor Ron reminds us that these things are evidence of the changes that God is making in our hearts and our minds.

“I know they’re around here somewhere!” The number of times I have said this about my car keys is infuriating, and somehow, I never seem to learn my lesson! It’s comforting to know that God will never lose or misplace us! We can be comforted in today’s teaching from Pastor Ron, knowing that there is no mistake big enough, no sin grave enough, to remove us from the hand of God! Take comfort in knowing that if you trust Jesus with your life, there is nothing that you can do to be removed from Him!

 If you’ve ever gotten goosebumps while watching an excellent film or listening to a particularly riveting piece of music, then you know that feeling that says, “something is different here.” Not just different in what is seen or heard, but in what is felt. Many of us, at some point in our lives, experience this “change in the air” when we are worshiping the Lord. Today, Pastor Ron teaches how this feeling is a natural reaction to the Holy Spirit’s presence in a place, and how that impacts both believers and non-believers.

The 2004 movie “Spider-Man 2” features a scene of Spider-Man stopping a runaway train filled with passengers. We like to envision ourselves as the hero of the story, being brave and saving everyone. But we are really one of the passengers who has no control over the situation, no way of saving ourselves. Pastor Ron explains how we must rely on Christ to save us from our sin and brokenness. Without Christ, we truly are hopelessly on a runaway train to hell. Do you rely on Christ to be the hero of your life?

The pull of the flesh is always present, to some degree, on this side of Heaven. While we know that Jesus has won the war, we still must engage the enemy in battle day-to-day. The spur to pursue practical righteousness is encouraged by the Spirit and hindered by our flesh. We are called, therefore, to put to death the flesh, to pick up our cross daily and follow Jesus! Listen in today as Pastor Ron teaches from this text on how we can better allow the Holy Spirit to renew both our minds and our hearts.