Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list R-014 [Repeat of CLM 823: 07 Apr 1999]

THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF EASTER (Sermon notes)

by John Rallison

Last Sunday was Easter Sunday, the most encouraging holiday of the year. On Easter, God not only proved his love for us, but his power to give us what he promises, by raising Jesus from the dead.

Many people think that the Bible is a downer book. Nothing could be further from the truth. God really wants people to be encouraged. Jesus says, “I have spoken these things to you that you may have peace in Me. You have distress in the world; but be encouraged, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, GLT).

We all have needs and God knows that. He knows our needs better than we do. There are five basic things God wants to give every person…and Easter is God’s guarantee that he wants to give you these things and that he can.

GOD GIVES ME POWER TO LIVE ON

Psalm 138:3 says, “In that day I called you answered me, You encouraged me with strength in my soul.” (ASV) We all need power, motivation, inspiration, encouragement. Jesus often went away by himself to pray. He knew that power to live on comes from having a ‘religion’ but from living in a relationship with God. The Holy Spirit encourages us and gives us power to live on. (Acts 9:31)

GOD GIVES ME PEOPLE TO LIVE WITH

Everybody needs people. One of God’s first observations was that it is not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). Scientific research tells us that relationships are important for our health. People who have close relationships live longer, feel better and have lower stress. God knows that you need people. That’s what the church is all about.

Belonging to a church is an important gift from God to encourage us. “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another…” (Hebrews 10:25, NIV)). “But encourage one another daily.” (Hebrews 3:13, NIV) People to live with are important for our health, growth, and support in difficult times.

GOD GIVES ME PRINCIPLES TO LIVE BY

We live in a constantly changing world. Expert advice about health and well-being (and many other areas of life) seems to shift every year. God offers people stability through the timeless principles of life he gives them in the bible. “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (Romans 15:4, NIV)

GOD GIVES ME A PROFESSION TO LIVE OUT

Every one of us has unique talents, training and experience. Romans 12:6 says, “We all have different gifts” that we can use. Each of us has an important role to play in the world. No one is unimportant. “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ…But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.” (1 Corinthians 12:12,18, NIV).

There is nowhere you can become more you than in the church. One of the basic purposes of the church is to help you discover yourself and use your gifts and talents. God wants you to be all that you can be.

GOD GIVES ME A PURPOSE TO LIVE FOR

You have a purpose. The Bible says that the very hairs on your head are number. You are not an accident. “…you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” (Psalms 139:13, NIV) There is a reason for you being here.

God wants you to be encouraged in your life. He wants to give you power to live on, people to live with, principles to live by, profession to live out and purpose to live for, but there is one catch. You must put Jesus in charge of your life. “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his lief for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:25, NIV)

When we look examine the Bible and the Christian faith, we all face a problem that scientists face in experimentation called ‘expectancy.’ We see what we expect to see. The challenge is to look at the Bible and hear God’s message to you independent of your preconceived notions about the Christian faith.

We all have a father or a brother or a friend who did something to us or treated us a certain way. But we oughtn’t turn God away because he was misrepresented by someone else. God offers you things you really need and can keep forever in exchange for control over your life which is, in large part, something we don’t really have but like to think we have. Turning your life over to Jesus is the best deal you will ever get.

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Rev John Rallison <>