Easter21
From Easter 01 to Easter 2021 Christians have celebrated the good news as defined by the words of 1 Corinthians Chapter 15:
“Now I would remind you, brothers,
of the gospel I preached to you, which you received,
in which you stand, and by which you are being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance
what I also received: that Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried,
that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time,
most of whom are still alive though some have fallen asleep.
Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”
I encourage you to park on this text next week in preparation for Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Memorize it. Learn the simple outline for presenting the Gospel. Ask God to help you be ready to share it as the opportunities arise.
I’ve been thinking about ways that you can strengthen your Easter21 worship experience seeing that this is now our second year of limited capacity in our auditorium.
- Plan to read through the Scriptures that detail Jesus’ last week before His suffering, asking the Holy Spirit to enlighten your thought reflections.
- Listen to worship songs that draw you into experiencing the anguish of His suffering and His great love for you.
- Plan to join us for the Good Friday services, either in person or livestream. We will celebrate the Lord’s table together (details are on our website).
- Get up early on both days to have sufficient time to be in the presence of the Lord for clarity of mind. Prayerfully retrace the footsteps of Jesus from His arrest to His resurrection.
- Ask for a fresh indwelling of His Holy Spirit so that you will be overflowing with praise when you arrive for corporate worship.
- Get dressed up as if you were joining us at the Living Arts Centre (I bought a new suit just for Easter Sunday).
- Spend time in prayer and reading the Easter story throughout “Passion Week.”
- Pray specifically for our services and the livestream.
- Pray that the name of the Lord will be greatly exalted.
- Pray that our worship will be Spirit-led and Spirit-filled even with all the restrictions.
- Pray for the Word of God to be heard clearly and received fully.
- Pray for the eyes of the blind to be opened.
- Pray that we would have a renewed passion to see lost souls converted.
- Pray for glitch free technical operations (audio, visual, livestream).
- Pray for a full release of the Spirit’s power in revival and renewal.
- If you are planning to attend one of our live services in person, plan to arrive at the church with enough time to pray and quieten your heart to hear from the Lord (make sure that you are registered in advance).
- If you are worshipping from home, consider arranging the seating in your home to aid in focusing just on the worship.
- Silence all devices including your home phone so that you will be undistracted.
- Invite all who live in your home to join you for the service. Invite everyone you know to tune in. This is an unprecedented opportunity to invite our non-Christian friends to learn all about Easter.
- Use your Bible during the preaching of the message entitled “Resurrection Everyday” based on Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ who lives in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Hope that helps! Just wanna give you a brief word of testimony. It’s been very clear to me during the pandemic that when the Lord takes one blessing away, He fully intends to install another. For the time being, the very great blessing of in person fellowship has been restricted. But in the meantime, we can experience spiritual discernment in a stronger way. When the Lord “isolates” us, He does so in order to open our eyes in greater ways. I pray that you will be able to look back on this season of pandemic and be able to tell about victory after victory that He gave to you.
The resurrection guarantees it!
Blessed Easter church family,
Pastor Deric
Let’s Talk!
That’s how I imagine the Father inviting me to pray. Let’s talk. Talk about what, I ask? Everything! The Gospels record that Jesus spent time in prayer regularly. And He commends it as a primary means of not growing weary in faith (Luke 18:1 ff).
You should begin the talk with words that honour Him. Jesus taught us to start talking to the Father by using the words “hallowed be your name.” Pray that His name will be honoured in all ways in your life.
Talk to Him about your life. Take the time to pray for the needs of your faith and the desires of your heart. Tell Him why these things matter to you. Open your heart to Him and pray whatever is in there. Tell Him your fears and ask Him to heal you of everything that is not His will for your life. Tell Him your blessings and give Him thanks for every good gift that He gives you.
Talk to Him about the people you love. Your family. Pray for their well-being. Most of all pray for their salvation. Pray for their protection from the evil one. Pray for them to prosper in grace. From the time I was a young husband and father, I’ve prayed first every day for my beautiful wife and family. I do to this day.
Talk to Him about His church, your church. Ask Him to keep the church faithful to His Word and His will. Talk to Him about the mission and vision of the church. Pray that we will accomplish what He says is the mission of the church. Pray for the people because they are THE church. Pray compassionately for their needs. Pray for the church to be strong and alive in Him.
Talk to Him about His Kingdom. Pray for the church worldwide. Pray for persecuted Christians around the world. Pray for missionaries and mission organizations. Pray as He taught us to pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” I also include praying for many different Christians organizations that serve the needs of the world during this season.
Talk to Him about your country and a big world in need. Name the leaders of our cities, provinces and country specifically. Ask the Lord to save them and to establish righteousness, morality and justice in the policies that they present for parliamentary approval. Pray that many of the ungodly policies will fail. Pray for other nations of the world by name.
Have you caught on? Prayer is our daily talking with God about growing in grace and walking in His world. I often include Bible reading in my different seasons of prayer because that’s how I hear Him talking to me, from the pages of His Word. “Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.” To be as consistent as I can, I walk through 5 different seasons of prayer each day: Personal, Family, Church, Kingdom, and World. I also include times when I only worship. But my goal is to cover those 5 areas as best as I can every day. (And yes, I do keep a list for all areas of prayer focus).
So, next week is our Week of Prayer (March 22 – 26). Our staff have written a daily devotional and prayer guide for you to use as you set aside a time daily to reflect on God’s Word and pray. Please take a moment to sign up online so that we know that you have joined us. You will find the prayer resources on citycentre.today on the top navigation.
Praying with you and for you!
Pastor Deric
