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[ Music ] [MUSIC] ♪ Oh yes ♪ ♪ He gives me victory ♪

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♪ Oh yes ♪ ♪ Oh what a mighty God ♪ ♪ He's sent ♪ ♪ He opens doors for me ♪

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♪ Oh yes ♪ ♪ Doors I'm unable to see ♪ ♪ Oh yes, oh what a mighty God we serve ♪ ♪ If there's a stage to the mountains ♪

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♪ We know we'll go ♪ ♪ And the twinkling of an eye ♪ ♪ One day he raised the dead ♪ ♪ Oh yes ♪

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♪ Five thousand souls he fed ♪ ♪ Oh yes ♪ ♪ Oh what a mighty God ♪ ♪ A mighty God be served ♪

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♪ He died on Calvary ♪ ♪ Oh yes ♪ ♪ To set the captives free ♪ ♪ Oh yes ♪

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♪ Oh, what a mighty God be served ♪ ♪ Almighty God ♪ ♪ We serve ♪ ♪ He went down in the grave ♪

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♪ Oh yes ♪ ♪ My sinful soul ♪ ♪ To say ♪ ♪ Oh yes ♪

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♪ Oh what ♪ ♪ Almighty God ♪ [music] He can sing to the mountains below, below, at the valley and the stream below.

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One day he raised the deck, oh yes, and five thousand souls he fed, oh yes, for what a mighty God we serve. He rose up from the grave.

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Oh, yes. Got up just like he said. Oh, yes. Oh, what a mighty God we serve.

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Now by his hand we are led. Oh, yes. He gives us our daily bread. Oh, yes.

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Oh, what a mighty God we serve. He gives thanks to the mountain. ♪ In honor you move ♪ ♪ And advantage ♪

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♪ And the sweetly moving hour ♪ ♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ ♪ One day we raise all the dead ♪ ♪ A thousand souls be fed ♪

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Oh, yes, oh, what a mighty God we serve. Oh, what a mighty God we serve. ♪ Oh what a mighty God we serve ♪ - Amen.

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Hear this word. It's recorded in the Gospel according to Luke, Luke chapter 24, verses 3-5. "And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord, but The Gospel according to Luke chapter 24 verses 3 through 5.

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they entered in and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments, and They were afraid and bowed down their faces to the earth and said unto them, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?"

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subject Easter hunt. On the pilgrimage made to the tomb on Easter, John records that Jesus says to Mary, "Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?"

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She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, "Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.

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Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself and saith unto him, Rabboni, which is to say, master. So our message is based on these two passages of scripture,

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Luke 24, verses three through five, and John the 20th chapter, verses 15 and 16. and 16, Easterhook. Sometimes we look for that we hope to find,

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and we look for it in the wrong places. We engage in a relentless search and expend a vast amount of energy and fail to achieve our goal.

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Someone was giving me a philosophy of life this past week and they gave it in these words that when you are in search of your goal, Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.

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Rather humorous, but it has a great deal of wisdom couched in it. How frustrating. How disappointing it is

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not to find what we search for in the place we thought it ought to be. Recently we read of an interracial couple in Georgia whose baby could not be buried in the church cemetery.

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The people of the church did not want that kind of baby buried in their cemetery. And according to reports under the searchlight of media exposure and mounting moral pressure, they recanted and permitted the baby to be buried in the church cemetery.

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And there was another problem that arose. The same interracial couple wanted to be married in the church. And the deacon said no. In each case, at first, they failed to find acceptance, the kind of acceptance that they

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were looking for. But this incident involves most of the significant ventures of life. Birth, marriage, and death. We live in a Good Friday world, a world of darkness, a world of earthquakes.

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We live in a Good Friday world. We live in a world in which belief systems are shaken by the cruel circumstance of human existence. We live in a Good Friday world, a world where people suffer unjustly, where doing good is

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often rewarded with evil consequences. We live in a Good Friday world, a world where innocent people are crushed by powerful and ruthless forces of oppression. live in a Good Friday world, a world in which there are times

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when it seems that God himself has abandoned his people. Dare we engage in an Easter hunt in a Good Friday world? Well it may be Friday when the earth is covered with darkness. It may be Friday when the ground on which we stand is quaking, it may be Friday when pilgrims of faith are covered by a blanket of fear,

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Sunday is coming. That's the day of the Easter faith. That is the time when hope shines in the darkness of despair. When love lives in the midst of hate, when And there is a divine victory over seemingly impossible human circumstances. So it's Friday, but Sunday is coming.

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It's the day of an Easter hunt. do we look for in Easter? Well one thing we in the church is expect larger crowds. In fact we usually have the largest crowd on Easter Sunday. It's the highest of all the holy days on the Christian calendar.

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At Easter we look for signs of spring. Nature seems to sing a song of revival and renewal. Fair are the meadows, fair are still the woodlands robed in the blooming garb of spring.

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Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer, who makes the woeful heart to sing. Jesus, the Lord of all life, that's the reason, Father Easterhunt, to encounter the one who makes the woeful heart to sing. familiar with the traditional Easter egg hunt for children, colored eggs and

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rabbits, but the hunt does not end there. When all the eggs have been found and all the participants go home, the hunt goes on. Easter is the time we expect new clothes and I recall on a number of occasions at Easter time I would be out with my mother late on Saturday night where she would be searching for an

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Easter outfit that she could afford so I would be sure to have some new clothes for Easter. The Easter hunt goes on after the new clothes because the new clothes wear out, they become threadbare, but the Easter hunt goes on. The women who visit the grave on Easter expect to find Jesus there. The grave is the end of this

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earthly journey for each one of us. The grave writes finish over all our work. The grave with its sorrow, the grave with its grief, the grave with its note of finality. They go to the grave expecting to find Jesus there. But the wonderful thing about Easter is Jesus identifies with us in all our human experiences.

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He is one of us. He is our elder brother. He cares about us. He identifies with us in our graveyard experiences.

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The women visit the tomb and they do not find Jesus there. And how disappointing it is to look for a person where you think he's supposed to be

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and he's just not there. He has promised to meet them. Now they do not find Him. He has said on three days He

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will arise but they have forgotten about that. Luke tells us that they arrive at the grave site and they find that the tomb is open. They're going there to anoint dead body the stone that was there the door of the tomb that was sealed that

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stone has been rolled away two angels are stationed there amazed and crazed they bow their faces to the earth and the angel speaks saying why seek ye the living among the dead why have you come to the cemetery looking for the living Lord. Why? Could it be that they are hunting for the right person in the wrong place? The

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report of the angel is he is not here. He is risen as he said, "Come see the place where he lay but he's no longer here. The tomb could not hold him. The security guards were not strong enough. The seal on the door of the tomb is broken. You see the the gods did not have enough authority to override heaven's decree. He's not here.

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You may hunt for him here but he is not here. Now those who claim that God is bed cannot find his burial place for that there is no tombstone marking his grave so the Easter hunt goes on the women bring spices to anoint the body for the barrel. There was not enough time to do it on Saturday or on Friday but

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they do not need the spices. There is no dead body to embalm or know it. So the Easter hunt goes on. He's not here. He's risen as he said. This Jesus of history who is our Christ of faith is not here, yet he is there. That's the mystery of of our history he is absent yet he is present he is the divine manifestation

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of the hidden God that's a mystery listen to those words the divine manifestation of the hidden God. Prophet Isaiah says verily thou art a God who hideth thyself. Oh God of Israel my Savior. As children we played a game we called hide and seek. We would hide and the seeker would come hunting for us.

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There's a story of one little boy who was crying and when asked why are you crying he said I hid but nobody came looking for me. I hid but nobody came looking for me. Oh how often have we tried to hide ourselves. Oh we've tried to hide our sins, how we've tried to hide ourselves from God. I hear little voices but nobody came looking for me. Adam tried to hide. He tried to hide among the trees of the

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garden but somebody came looking for him in the cool of the evening calling out Adam, Adam, where are you? Somebody came looking, somebody came looking. Moses tried to hide, he tried to hide in Midian, he left Pharaoh's court thought he'd found a safe hiding place but somebody came looking for him and that night someone

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someone said Moses he tried to hide but somebody came looking for him Saul of Tarshish tried to hide and and and he was going in the wrong direction he was traveling on the Damascus road he tried to hide but he heard a heavenly voice calling his name Saul, Saul why persecutest thou me? Somebody, somebody

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came looking for him. So there are those who come to the tomb hunting for Jesus they don't find him. Zophar, one of Job's friends asks, "Can you by searching find out God?" In the account of the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene gets to the tomb and she sees that the tomb is open and she runs and tells Peter and John she runs

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and she gets there out of breath. Telling them the door, the door of the tomb is open. Can you imagine her excitement? There's no one there. And so Peter and John start running. They're running and they run and one outruns the other. John outruns Peter. Peter and John, Peter outruns, gets there, John runs in, looks and what do they see the grave clothes are left behind. Grave clothes left behind. Me thinks that one of the problems in the celebration of Easter is that we wear the wrong clothes.

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of us wear the grave clothes that should be left behind. Grave clothes of malice, grave clothes of jealousy, grave clothes of envy, grave clothes of prejudice and bigotry, those grave clothes should be left behind. Leave them there in the tomb. they're not too close for this Easter parade so they depart from the tomb but

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Mary remains at the tomb the Easter hunt goes on she's come there she looked in She ran away told Peter and John they ran down and they looked in and now they've gone away Mary's still there. The Easter hunt goes on. And then she stoops and looks into the tomb and she sees two angels,

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one at the head and one at the feet where Jesus lay. And the angel asks her, "Why are you weeping?" And she answers, "They have taken away my Lord, "and I know not where they have laid him."

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The grave is open, the grave clothes are there, but Jesus is not there in the grave. He's not in the grave clothes. And we try to lock Jesus in the tomb.

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We try to lock Jesus in the tomb when we try to make him serve our purposes. When we attempt to make him a captive of our whims and our fancies, we try to lock him in the tomb. would put him in grave clothes engaging in meaningless rituals by engaging in

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work without any real commitment we put him in grave clothes. So the Easter hunt goes on, it goes on. Mary looks around, she sees one she thinks is the gardener. Now they buried Jesus in a garden, that's where the tomb is in a garden and so she looks around and she sees this man and she thinks this is the

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gardener. She's still hunting, the Easter hunt goes on and she goes to the gardener and she says, "Now, now, now, sir, if you know where they have taken him, tell me, if you know." She's engaged in the hunting, she's confronting this man whom she thinks is the gardener, and she notices that he turns around and he speaks and says, "Mary, it's

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Jesus. It's Jesus. She's surprised. So Easter, the real experience of Easter comes to us as a surprise. It's a surprise. And you see God is full of surprises. Mary and other are hunting for Jesus and Jesus confronts her. You see God, we are hunting for God, the mystery of it all is we can never find it in our hunt, but

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God finds us and that's good news. And we can we can shout, we can praise Him, we glory to God that I was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see. Because God finds us, finds us wherever we are. Psalmist says, "Though I make my bed in hell, even there will He find me and bring us from the depths of hell." the heights of heaven.

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Take us on the journey where we may ascend to the heights of heaven. That's good news, brothers and sisters. That's good news that in this Easter hunt,

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God finds us through Jesus Christ. He finds Mary Magdalene. He finds Peter. He finds John.

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He finds all of the apostles, all of the disciples that have come through the corridors of history. God finds us. That's it.

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These times. We sing it in one of our hymns, I Come. I come. I come to the garden alone.

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While the dew is still on the roses. And the voice I hear falling on my ear, the Son of God, this closes. And He walks. And He walks!

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Yes, and He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me that I am His own. And the joy we share as we carry there none other has ever known. Now that's a personal experience, but can you say that? Can we all say that, that He walks with me?

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That I know He's alive, that for me the Easter hunt has ended because He found me. He embraces me every day. He has fellowship with me because He walks with me. He walks with you. He walks with His people. He talks with us. And He lets us know that we are His home and the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known.

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God is searching now. He takes the initiative. here possibly has not committed to his or her life to Jesus Christ we urge you prayerfully during these moments to do so and to respond to the invitation to

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accept this Jesus this risen Lord who went down to the grave who suffered the agonies of Good Friday but proclaims the victory on Sunday. Accept him as your Lord and Savior. We invite you to come. Jesus paid it all.

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[ Music ] [MUSIC] ♪ Child of weakness, watch and pray ♪ ♪ Find in me the God of it all ♪

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♪ Jesus made it all ♪ ♪ All to Him I owe ♪ ♪ Sin had left a prince so stray ♪ ♪ He watched it by the snow ♪

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♪ For now in thee I find ♪ ♪ Thy power and thine alone ♪ ♪ Can change the land for spite ♪ ♪ And melt the heart of stone ♪

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♪ Jesus made it all ♪ ♪ All to Him I owe ♪ ♪ Sin hath left a crimson stain ♪ ♪ He watched it, why, yes, no ♪

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♪ For nothing good have I ♪ ♪ Where by thy grace to claim ♪ ♪ I'll wash my garments white ♪ ♪ In the blood of Calvary's Lamb ♪

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♪ Jesus made it all ♪ ♪ All to Him I owe ♪ ♪ Sin hath left a crimson stain ♪ ♪ He washed in white as snow ♪

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♪ And with me on the throne ♪ ♪ I sat in him complete ♪ ♪ Jesus died my soul to save ♪ ♪ My lips shall still repeat ♪

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♪ Jesus paid it all ♪ ♪ All to Him I owe ♪ ♪ Sin had left a Christian's day ♪ ♪ He washed it white as snow ♪

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- Amen, amen. Those persons who stood earlier celebrating birthdays, oh yes. I want to present at this time one person who was a visitor. I didn't have the card at the time.

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So Sister Scales, will you present your visitor, please, the person that came with you? from Brentwood Church who's with us. All right, we're delighted to have you

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to share with us in our worship service. [BLANK_AUDIO]