Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Our prayer on this Easter weekend is that you get to experience that. And then maybe you could even add your story to the list of stories that you've just watched. Once again, Happy Easter, everybody. It's great to see you here in the room. It's wonderful to see you online as well. And we're so glad that you've chosen to join with us in our Easter celebration. If I haven't mentioned before, my name is Grant. I've been the lead teaching pastor here for a long time, and Easter's become a celebration every single year because it's also a bit of an anniversary. I was driving home on Tuesday afternoon, the sun was out. That's why we all remember Tuesday, right? The sun was out. The day was beautiful. Mount Baker was radiant. I'm rolling down my window heading north and I'm breathing in this combination of Alpine and spring and ocean and mountain air that you can only find in watkyn County. And then I hit the nooksack River. Some of you know where I'm going already. And the smell that came into my car was an act of the devil himself. Everything changed in one single breath. My dad worked in the dairy industry. He said that smell was the smell of money. I respectfully disagree with my father. years ago my son and I were coming home from Abbotsford heading south on the border from the border on the guide meridian beautiful day The sun was shining, the trees were blooming, my paper was breathtaking. And as we turned south of the border crossing, Braden lifted his hand and did this he said, wait for it. Wait for it. Okay, breathe and there was again. That smell completely undermines Washington being the Evergreen State. Isn't that the truth? Right. One breath changed everything. Son left Mount Baker turn brown. The trees just drooped. Braden grinned at me and said we're home. We're home. One breath changes everything. Each of us breathes unconsciously, you don't even realize you're doing it. unconsciously, over 20,000 times a day, 8 million times a year, your body needs a single breath followed by another breath just to keep on living. each breath contains 10 sextillion atoms, more than 70% of the toxins in your body leave just because of breathing. If you want to understand how important it is, just stop doing it for a few minutes. You'll understand two different occasions in my lifetime, I actually had to help someone who had stopped breathing. having lunch with a friend and I heard a commotion in the restaurant booth behind us. There was an older couple there. And it was quick. It became very quickly obvious that the lady who was sitting there, could not breathe, she was choking. Her husband tried everything to try and help her he couldn't. He just couldn't do what he needed to do. And I was trying to recall all of those Heimlich courses that we take hoping my brain would catch up with my body. I'm like, God help us in this moment. Her husband had finally just kind of given up. So I grabbed the lady, I don't know, wrap my arms around her middle section from behind, grabbed her my hands and I pulled once twice and then I heard it. That sounded so good. She took a couple of deep breaths. She collected herself and we all went back to eating our lunch. It was great. When she left she stopped by the table. I told her I said I don't usually hug strangers from behind without a proper introduction. So my name is Grant and I got to meet her and her husband. One breath changed everything. I got to do that again with my father. I never want to have to perform the Heimlich again ever. In my life. We've been doing a series called when God breathes. All through scripture we find moments when God breathes in dead situations. We saw God breathed a reality check into a king named Belle shazier we saw God breathed life into a dead relationship. With a guy named Lazarus we saw God breathed life into the dead part of our friend easy kill. And hopefully along this journey, we've also experienced God breathing life into the dead parts of our own hearts and lives. While on this Easter weekend. I'd like to walk through the most important moments in human history when God briefed. before time began before there was anything there was God and God breathed into creation. Genesis chapter two says this. This is the account of the heavens in the earth when they were created. When the Lord God made the earth in the heavens and no shrub of the field, had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up. For the Lord God had not set rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. Then the Lord formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And the man became a living being. You notice what it says there man was not actually living he was not a living being until God breathed life into him. life started with God breathing in life still remains with God breathing. God is the author of life and breath and he determines for every single one of us how long we will breathe every breath you've taken in your lifetime. is a gift from God, our Almighty Savior, God created but man sinned. And when man sinned, God gasped in what's known as scripture is the fall. Now when I say that God gasped, I don't mean in surprise. The definition of gasp is to breathe in sharply in either astonishment, or pain. God is omniscient. God knows absolutely everything. Therefore, there are no surprises for him. Nothing happened in your world this past week that caused God to respond. Wow, I did not see that coming. Now I'm referring to the kind of gasp that happens when someone experiences deep pain or when something of known value is broken and shattered. It's a gasp of of heartbreak. laurels grandma passed away at the age of 99 years old. She was amazing. Grandma had a collection of special tea cups and the cups to our family. They hold amazing worth not because of their monetary value, but because of all the memories that they hold in our family, they're precious. They're irreplaceable. And we really really... I never said those were grandma's cups! I actually. actually bought them at the goodwill for like a couple bucks. Some of you in the room gasped because of the perceived value you didn't even know our grammar. The rest of you didn't gasp you are cold hearted people. I'm just saying that. You need to come clean up the cup after we're done. When God's perfect creation was broken by sin, God gasped in pain because this perfect relationship with man was broken in separate. Romans chapter five, verse 12, when Adam sinned, sin entered the world Adam sin brought death. So death spread to everyone. Everyone said a golf a separation came between God and His perfection and man in his sinfulness and all hope was gone until God breathed again. In God actually breathed out a way of sacrifice. We learned a ton about this. In our wilderness series. As we walk through the book of Exodus, God breathed the way of sacrifice in the Old Testament God instituted a system of animal sacrifice in order to bridge the gap between God and people and cover sin. It will make some of you uncomfortable, but a perfect spotless lamb was taken and its life was sacrificed to cover the sins of the people the sacrificial system was kind of like paying the minimum payment on your credit card. The debt was covered for a time but in truth, the debt was still there. The covering even in this system was was temporary. Because people just kept on sinning and sinning and sinning and sinning and we all do. Hebrews chapter nine says, in fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness, of sin. If that sacrificial system bothers you, you're going to be so grateful for Jesus. Once again, in spite of God's love, in spite of the covering that was offered man continued to go his own way. And once again God gasped. God gasped as people continue to walk away in spite of the offer of love that God kept giving in the reality is they didn't just walk away, we still walk away. Isaiah 53 says, We all like sheep, like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord is laid on him being Jesus the iniquity of us all. God says that we are like sheep. That's not a compliment. The Bible says we're like sheep, because sadly, we wander off. Truthfully, sheep are helpless. I've never met an intelligent sheep. I don't believe you're going to meet an intelligent sheep. I don't believe they actually exist. No, they're just mobile wolf socks that wander off on their own, and we're all prone to wander off. We try to find our own way. We try to handle our own pain. We try to run our own lives, and we end up making a mess. I wandered off for the greater part of my adult life. Humanity wandered so far that God's broken heart demanded that he breathed again. So God breathed in the incarnation. JOHN 114 says the Word became flesh and made us dwelling among us. And we've seen his glory, the glory of the one and only who came from the Father full of grace and truth. We celebrate the breath of God at Christmas one of my favorite times of the year. God in human flesh, as a baby of a human, baby. wrapped around perfect deity, a baby that ate and cried and did other things that smell like watkyn County on a spring day. And he came to bridge that gap. To build a bridge once and for all Jesus came in human form to remove the separation between God and man, he came as a pure and spotless lamb to be sacrificed, he came to die. So we might live he came to that never ever ever again, with a substitute be named never ever again what a lamb be sacrificed. He finished the work once and for all. on Good Friday, we remember the excruciating pain of that cross. It's not a pretty picture. He endured such great pain in order to set us free. And at the crucifixion, God gasped. He gasp in physical pain. Luke 23 says this, Jesus called out in a loud voice, Father into your hands that commit my spirit. And when he had said this, he breathed his last. God stopped breathing for you. God stopped breathing for me. With his last breath, he told his father, I trust you into your hands that commit my spirit. Here's the question for this Easter. Will you do the same? into his hands? Will you commit your spirit knowing that he has numbered every breath? Will you trust God with this series of breaths that we call a life? He gave it to you? Will you trust Him with all of that on this Easter weekend? I'm so glad the story doesn't end on Friday. I love that the story doesn't end there. If the story ended on Friday, then Jesus was just another radical who crossed the Roman Empire and lost and there were plenty of those. If the story ends on Friday, then Jesus was a lie or the Bible's not true. There's no hope. And you may as well just go home and eat chocolate for the rest of the day. But the story doesn't end on Friday. But I think the story just starts getting good on Friday, you see on Friday, and on Saturday, the tomb was cold and dark. The body was cold and lifeless. But wait for it. Wait for it. God's gonna breathe again. God breathed again. In and through the resurrection. Matthew 28. There was a violent earthquake for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. I just love the finality of that right there. One job, roll the stone. Have a seat. Why? Because God's breathing again. His appearance was like lightning. His clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him they shook and became like dead men. The angels said to the women, do not be afraid. For I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. He has risen. Just like he said, just like he said, Come and see the place where he lay, then go quickly and tell his disciples, he's risen from the dead and is going ahead of you in the Galilee. There you will see him. Now I have told you now I've told you what this is the hope of all humanity. God breathed again. Hope breathe again. Love, breathe again. Joy, breathe again. Second Chances, breathe again. Forgiveness breathe again. Mercy breathe to get God breathed again. And that's why 2000 years later, on Easter Sunday morning, millions of people across the globe stand to their feet and proclaim to a world that thinks they're crazy. God came back to life. He has risen. I could spend hours laying out the historical proof for the resurrection. I could talk about the 500 witnesses who saw Jesus alive and would not recap their story. Even on the pain of death. I could share how the disciples were turned from a group of cowards into men of great faith who were martyred for their belief. I could tell you about the final moments of each one of their lives. All they needed to do to stop their own death was to simply say, okay, we faked it. He died. But not a single one of them. Not a single one of them could die. With that lie being on their lips. They died knowing the truth. Jesus said he was going to die. Jesus said he was going to rise again. And he did. The story doesn't end there either. Here's the great news on Easter weekend, God still breathing. Today right here right now God is breathing a new opportunity to experience forgiveness for the past and hope for the future. And it's available to every single one of us. I talked to a pastor this past week, who honestly is he's considering quitting, just exhausted and tired. And he asked me a question. He said, Grant, what do you see when you look out over CTK. Just like the stories earlier of Will, Ali, and Arlene. I see God breathing. I see God breathing new hope into really tired people. I see young women who last year were wearing long sleeves. But now we're wearing short sleeves because Jesus touched their pain, and they don't have to cut anymore. I see people who used to do really nice tidy religion. But they found nothing alive in it at all. And now they're involved in a life giving messy relationship with Jesus. And he's breathing new life into these dead corners of their soul. I see young men who are seeking purity with their minds and their bodies, because Jesus is pure and holy, and they want to be just like him. I see people who are once addicted to any number of things, who now choose to rely on God every day for being clean and sober, because God is both clean and sober. I see marriages that were shattered being put back together again, because that husband and wife are now seeing each other as Jesus sees them to see Rick and Tiffany up on the screen, talking about the miracle that God did and putting them back together again. When I look at CTK, I see transformation, I see the hope of the world. I see a group of people who one month ago, had a challenge laid in front of them. The challenge was to build a restoration home in Belize so that victims of sexual slavery and human trafficking could experience real freedom. Freedom in Jesus, the cost of that entire project was $105,000. Honestly, that amount took my breath away. But God breathed, he breathed through your sacrificial generosity. He breathed through some who could give a little and some who gave God breathed out a miracle. And because of him breathing in you and through you, you did not give $105,000 you gave $420,000. You heard me right. You gave $420,803.54 praise the Lord cents and every single dollar is going to save a life. It's going to give someone a new start. Why? Because God always finishes what he starts. And there are women and children right now in Belize who have no idea that hope is coming and God's gonna breathe new hope and new life. From mine and Laurel's hearts. Thank you. Thank you so much from the people who will be rescued and saved. Thank you from the staff down there who's going to rally together and go out into the streets and give people a new opportunity. Thank you every dollar every single dollar that you gave will go to police and the eradication of the evil of human trafficking. Here's the bottom line you gave more so we get to do more. Praise God. We will keep updating you at every single opportunity because we want you to see the return on your investment. We want you to see your investment come to life. One day, I hope and pray you'll get to see stories of our brothers and sisters. Saying you didn't even know me. You didn't even know me. But through you, Jesus saved me. I see God breathing. I see Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. It saved a wretch like me. once was lost, but now I'm found Was blind. But now I see. Here's the truth from now on. we regard no one from a worldly point of view. That's what Second Corinthians five says that we once regarded Christ in this way we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come. new creation. Which means this. I can't put this back together again. But I know someone who can't 18 years of age, this was me. Broken, shattered, hurting, sharp in all the wrong spots. And God put all the pieces back together again, and he's still working on it. It's a long process. I have no idea. What brought you here this Easter weekend, I have no idea what prompted you to jump on the live stream. But like, I don't even know what the condition of anyone's life is here other than my own. But I do know this. You are not here by accident. I can't in good conscience allow this opportunity to just slip by knowing that God wants to breathe life into your soul, so that you can have a new start today. I know some of you were thinking but but grant it can never ever. It can never get back to what it was intended to be. I can actually be better. It can actually be better. And I'm not gonna drop it this time. She's a truth is many of us are broken. Many of us are hurting. Many of us feel alone and abandoned. It's as if we we were dying from lack of life from the inside out. God wants to begin breathing new life into you. And this is what I know is happening right now. God is knocking on your heart and you have a choice to make. Will you accept or reject Jesus? Maybe you said once and then you you wandered away like many of us have done. If that's you today, on Easter, time to come home. Time to come home. She's the one who breathed his last on Friday, but breathe again. So you could have this moment to receive forgiveness for the past and hope and hope for the future. He's actually waiting for your answer. On this Easter, you need to know if you were the only one on the face of the earth, Jesus would have come for you. If you were the only person on the face of the earth, Jesus would have died for you. If you were the only person on the face of the earth, Jesus would have breathed again and defeated death once and for all. Just so you could live. He loves you that much. And I'd like to invite you to say yes to Jesus today. You can receive him today by praying to Him and asking for forgiveness. He will give you eternal life in a brand new start. He will forgive your sin and set you free. He will breathe life into your dead existence. He invites you into that today. God stopped breathing for you. But he started breathing again for you. So I'd like to invite you to pray with me. We're just going to take a moment and come to Jesus the one who Easter is all about if you just tired of doing life your way and missing out on your purpose. Then I invite you to pray this prayer with me right now. Dear Jesus This is my moment of decision. I believe you came and lived a perfect life and died on a cross for me. I believe you hung on a cross and took a penalty that I should have paid. I know that you paid the debt of sin that I owe. And I'm so grateful. So in this moment of decision, I only have one response to give you my past, I give you my presence and I give you my future. I give you everything of me right now. My, my failures, my victories. I give you my whole heart fully incompletely. God, I asked if you would come into my heart and be both the savior of my life and the Lord of my life. I give you all of me right now. I want to live for you. With every breath that you give right now. I receive eternal life. And I reject the sins of my path. God breathes new life into me right now. Jesus, I love you. I don't understand at all. But I love you because you first loved me. Take me God. All of me. Forgive my past. And give me hope for the future. Just take a moment and just be present right now. People online and in the room are choosing Jesus. As we all remain in a posture of prayer. If you If you prayed that prayer, I may not be able to see you at home, but God can see you. Oh he sees you right now. But I can see people here in this room. If you prayed that prayer and received Christ Jesus on this Easter weekend, for we'd love to know about your decision. not going to do anything weird or strange. But would you just slip your hand up right now, if you prayed that prayer this morning, stick it straight up in here. God bless you. God bless you. God bless. God bless you. Those that are at home. God bless you. Those that are online. God bless you. God thank you for breathing new life. Thank you for breathing new life into each of us. Thank you for second chance. Thank you for new beginnings. God you died so we could live and I pray that you would bless my brothers and my sisters with new life in you gotta pray that they would know they're never alone. They don't need to walk this journey by themselves. God I pray that you would give them just this undeniable hope that God sees them and knows them that he's breathing new life into them. So Lord Jesus right now we thank you. Did you always finish what you start? We worship you as the God of Easter. The God who breathed again. All God's people said Amen.