Easter weekend this year at my church was such an incredible celebration of Jesus. God is really moving at my church, Harvest Bible Chapel. Actually, about this week mark 6 years that I've been Worship Pastor at Harvest and more than ever we are seeing the Lord just grow our number, ignite passionate worship, and we are seeing so many people respond to the Gospel. It is His doing, and It is marvelous in our eyes.

So this year we started the weekend with two Good Friday services. As busy of a week Holy week becomes for me, my heart is so gripped and overwhelmed by the events leading up to the cross and then Christ's resurrection. For Good Friday, we focused our hearts on the Cross of Jesus, His death, and weight of the wrath that was poured out upon Jesus because of our sin. You can't have the empty tomb without the cross of Christ, so this is an opportunity in our weekend to be impacted by our own sinfulness and the perfect man that we killed. It was an impactful evening.

THEN, CAME SUNDAY.

It literally took me 3 days to come down from the joy and excitement and passion of Easter Sunday at Harvest. And it goes so beyond the happenings of that morning. The Lord has just been moving within our congregation and there was such a joyful spirit in the room that day and worshipers came to celebrate. Many responded to the Gospel and we are planning a lot of baptisms in the near future! Easter Sunday felt like the Lord just poured out his Spirit on a people who have been passionately pursuing Him, and I've been so humbled to hear stories and see with my own eyes worshipers being shaped and made.

That is the real success of the day, and what gets me fired up in ministry. Now I'll tell you about the awesome celebration we had. Harvest, at least my church, isn't really super "flashy" when it comes to our services. Meaning, we don't have a lot of special effects or things going on for worship. There's a band up there but the house lights are always up and we're not trying to produce a show, but simply trying to steward our opportunity to worship with God's people in the best way we can. But if there is any day that deserves an all out celebration, it's Easter Sunday, because that's obviously the day our culture chooses to really look at and recognize the resurrection of Jesus.

So when our production guy said we were going to do lasers, I just sort of laughed and said "cool." Then we got a week out and he said, "I just had a meeting with the laser guy." I didn't know He was serious a while back when he brought up lasers. Then before long we were all on board with it, and I never even saw it until the day before Easter Sunday. SO, we were about to do 3 services with a lot of elements, but one being a high powered laser, run by an awesome guy that we've met through renting stuff. When I asked where he typically uses this laser, he responded, "not church. To be honest I do a lot of raves." haha.

So long story short, we did 3 services Sunday morning, and I think all of us were shocked at how flawless and impactful every element was in the service, and the spirit of joy and dance and jubilation in the room was amazing. God was so glorified, and I know that not based on a bunch of emotion, but because of the conversations I have had with those who were there. As cool as the elements were that made up the "fun" of this service, our object of worship was Jesus, and His word and His Gospel were faithfully upheld by my Pastor. God deserves our celebration, our attention, our joy, and our hearts.

EASTER 2015

1 Peter 4:11

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