Easter: The Worship InitiativeSample

Everything is Different > Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! 15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil. 16 On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. 17 The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:14–17) If you are in Christ, the God of the universe sings over you. He sings loudly and lovingly  over you as a proud, faithful, and very happy Father. If we know who God really is, and  if we’re honest about who we really are, that should be absolutely stunning. Because of  our sin, we do not deserve to be spared by God, much less to be loved and even prized by  God. We’ll never truly understand God and the gospel until we understand just how little we  deserve from God. Before we were saved, we were enemies of God, earning his awful,  unthinkable wrath with our sin. Every day that we lived for ourselves, and not for God,  we were falling deeper and deeper into a debt we could never repay. Though we didn’t  yet know how serious the situation was, we were thoroughly and eternally helpless and  desperate. There was nothing we could do to remedy our rebellion, and so we were headed for hell, a place of everlasting, excruciating punishment. Now, based on nothing we did on our own, God is singing over us. Instead of spending eternity crushed by his wrath, we’ll be forever wrapped in his loving kindness. And because he is singing over you, everything is different. It has to be. Before Before , you were dead — no life in you at all. Sin had robbed you of abundant life with God, and left you alienated and hopeless (Ephesians 2:12). Before, you were a slave to your sinful desires and the lies of your own heart (Romans  6:6). Sin reigned in you to make you submit to selfish desires, pitting you against God and his love for you (Romans 6:12). Before, you were aggressively and recklessly trying to find life and happiness in the things of this world. When the fountain of living water surrounded you — God revealing himself in all of his creation — you chose the things he had made over God himself. You passed on the life-giving fountain and joined with us all as we “hewed out cisterns for ourselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13). And you were thirsty agonizingly, exhaustingly, helplessly thirsty. Before, you couldn’t see Jesus for who he is, God himself — Lord, Savior, and Treasure.  You were like the crowds that came to Jesus looking for a good show (John 2:23–25), or the disciples who came to the Bread of life worried about bread (John 6:9), or the Pharisees who missed Jesus because they were looking for power, fame, and influence (John 11:47–48). Then, everything was different. Jesus came into your life — alive and real and compelling — and everything about you changed. You could never be the same person again. Now Now, the spiritual Lazarus you used to be, laying dead in your sin, has been called from your tomb. You are alive, as alive as the risen Jesus (Ephesians 2:5). Now , you are no longer a slave to sin, to serve its destructive desires and hold on your life. You are completely, utterly, and eternally free (Galatians 5:1). The Spirit inside of you is fighting with you against sin’s lies and undoing the hold it has in your heart. But the war is over. Sin has lost, and Christ has won. When he walked away from death and ascended into heaven, his life, righteousness, and freedom became yours. Now , you have full, lasting, and unshakeable joy. In God’s presence, ransomed by the blood of his Son, you experience “fullness of joy” and “pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). Lots of things promise happiness in this life, but nothing can deliver like the gospel. You were formed by God in your mother’s womb to enjoy him above all else. Now , you see Jesus for all that he is. “He is the radiance of the glory of God,” (Hebrews 1:3) not reflecting, but actually embodying the holiness and worth of God. He upholds and sustains the universe with words from his mouth (Hebrews 1: 3). And he is the Savior of the whole world — people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation  (Revelation 5:9). He’s not just a good role-model, or a miracle-worker, or a wise teacher. He is the God who was and is and is to come. And he is your life. Now , our God rejoices over us with singing. In Christ, everything is different!