We start with the question a lot of people are asking in this season, "How can we say Jesus reigns with everything going on in the world?" We address that question with 5 affirmations and a look at the ascension of Jesus.

NOTES --

// SCRIPTURE FOCUS: Acts 1.9-11

// 5 AFFIRMATIONS

1. God is not the source of evil.

2. God is love and the source of life.

3. God in Christ has demonstrated his posture toward brokenness, illness, and evil.

4. God in Christ has demonstrated his posture toward suffering.

5. God has promised that sin, death, and evil will end.

// Heaven is less about where we go and more about where God is.

// Heaven is less about going "there" and more about coming "here" on earth.

// Heaven and earth are not opposites -- they are overlapping more and more.

This is a message for those of us wanting to return to normalcy or move on to the next step. This is a message for all of us who are wondering what the future holds and if God will answer those nagging questions and prayers. We aren't the first people to want and wonder. Yet, it is precisely In the midst of our yearning and questioning that God empowers us to bear witness to waiting world.

// SCRIPTURE FOCUS: Acts 1.6-8

// 3 KEY WORDS: 1. Wanting, 2. Wondering, 3. Witnessings

// To want is to be in touch with the reality that things are not the way they ought to be.

// Turn your yearning into praying.

// 1 PETER 5.7 (NIV) -- Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

In the book of Acts, we don't just get a sequel to the story of Jesus -- we step into an ongoing, expanding saga that invites us to live out the next chapter. Listen for the question, the challenge, and the promise that calls us to take the story of Jesus to everyone everywhere.

// PRAYER: "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life." (Psalm 143.8)

// SCRIPTURE FOCUS: Acts 1.1-5

// THE QUESTION: In which story are you living?

// THE CHALLENGE: To sit with Jesus (start with a few minutes each day for the next 7 days)

// THE PROMISE: God will fill your life with his life.

// "The gate of heaven is everywhere." (Thomas Merton)

The enormity of resurrection can still invade our ordinary places. Just look at Jesus who crashed his friends' dinner that first Easter evening. Jesus is interrupting our fear with a word of peace. Are we listening to his voice? Jesus is showing us that the power of resurrection can invade our ordinary places. So are we going to keep setting the table? We believe the risen Christ is still reaching out to us and the world.

// BREATH PRAYERS:

- Abba Father, Creator and Sustainer, may I live in your love.

- Lord Jesus, God with us, abide in me as I abide in you.

- Holy Spirit, Breath of God, renew me and all the world.

// SCRIPTURE FOCUS: Luke 24.36-53

He is risen, he has gone ahead of us, and we're trying to catch up. Whether we see Jesus or not, we are all on a step-by-step journey of recognizing Christ's presence in our everyday lives. Join two disappointed disciples who are processing the events that transpired on the first Easter weekend and keep walking until you see Jesus right there with you.

BIG IDEA: We are on a step-by-step journey of recognizing Christ's presence in our everyday lives.

// "Enter every church you can. Pay attention to every crucifix you see. Ask this question: What does this mean? Don't be too quick to give an answer." (BRIAN ZAHND, Postcards from Babylon)

// We need to honor questions and process together because it pulls us into a deeper and wider faith.

// Just because you don't recognize God's work it doesn't mean that God's not working.

// Move from "Why?" to "What..."

// "We ride with our backs to the engine. We have no notion what stage in the journey we have reached...a story is precisely the sort of thing that cannot be understood till you have heard the whole of it." (C.S. LEWIS, Christian Reflections)

// What story do want told in this season?

// How are you inviting Jesus into this space that has been created for you?

He is risen! Easter is about new creation bursting forth into the old. Easter is an invitation to new life -- to fresh starts. Join us at the empty tomb and stand in resurrection wonder. God has exchanged death with resurrection, impossibilities with new possibilities, and hopeless ends with endless hope. All because Jesus is alive and he has gone ahead of us. Will you join him?

How do you eulogize the most famous death in human history? You start by recognizing this death can't just be boiled down to one perfect theory or philosophy. The Gospel writers instead give us significant historical snapshots of the crucifixion of Jesus that weave together important threads of the life that Jesus lived on his way to the cross. However we eulogize Jesus, we must remember that the life and death that Jesus lived was the embodiment of the love and reign of God. From that starting point, we can identify at least three reasons that Friday really was "Good."

We kick off Holy Week the way we begin any week -- going one step at a time without knowing everything that's ahead. Jesus knows that we don't know but he's still calling us to go with him to the end. Will we follow in Jesus' footsteps to celebration...confrontation...rejection...suffering...and, ultimately, resurrection? We start off this message with a way of praying by "Filling in the Blank" with the phrases "Thank You..." and "Would You..." (check out our PDF guide at tncgarland.com/resources).

Our world is at a crossroads during this pandemic. Desperation can send us in two directions -- toward despair or toward hope. We're choosing hope. Christian hope is not wishing, it's expectation. Christian hope expects that renewal is not only possible but that renewal is promised. Hope that Jesus can renew their situation is what got two drastically different people moving toward Jesus in Mark 5. (NOTE: This message was streamed live on our Facebook page. Because the audio quality is not as strong, you can find the video at https://www.facebook.com/tncgarland)

In this message we explore an issue and an invitation. Will we see Jesus for who he is? Will we invite Jesus into our boat? When we find ourselves afraid and struggling against the wind, we need to see Jesus as the Calmer of Chaos and invite him into our situation.