This changes everything!

Mark spoke on Easter day. He said: When I was a kid I didn't get it... I mean I knew the story...I had grown up in church but actually one day it finally occurred to me: If Jesus rose from the dead... then he's alive! I mean that changes everything! Jesus went through death and defeated it and came out on the other side! He is the meeting place of heaven and earth.

We have the hope of resurrection. This story is told by Luke and we pick it up with the women going to the tomb on Easter morning. The women headed toward the tomb with their spices... But the stone is rolled away and there were 2 shiny men there! They asked, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” Confused, perplexed, astonished, they didn't know what to make of it. The body wasn't there.

They weren't actually not looking for the living. They are looking for a dead Jesus. They couldn't have hoped for a live Jesus so they had settled for anointing a dead Jesus.

Are there times when we have settled for anointing a dead Jesus? We are going through the motions but a dead Jesus has no impact or relevance in my life on a day to day basis.

There is no power in a dead Jesus. There is no relationship with a dead Jesus.

We want life but we don't know where to find it. Jeremiah 2:13 speaks of the human condition. We try to find life in things that cant give us life. We settle for comfort or distraction.

The third category of people are looking for a Jesus who is alive but they can’t find him. They want a powerful Jesus, who wants an interactive relationship with us.

This, for me, is the power of stepping into the church calendar. There's Good Friday and then there's Holy Saturday - the day when you lose all hope.

The disciples, those women, they have lost all hope... everything they believed in was gone. This Jesus they thought they believed in is killed. Everything collapses.

What do you do when everything collapses?

Holy Saturday is part of our story. It is OK to step into that day. Even when we know Sunday is coming.

You might be the one saying 'I know a living Jesus is real... but I'm sure not experiencing a tangible Jesus right now.'

I have had more Holy Saturdays than i would care for. Thus far I have always made it to Sunday... even when I wasn't sure I could.

I know Holy Saturday has been some people’s experience for weeks or months or even years... and you keep turning up. I want to encourage you.

If this is the most important thing - then we have to search for him like we have lost our phone! With that kind of intensity and not give up.

My encouragement, my challenge is that if you are in Holy Saturday is He will come to you if you don't give up.

The story that we believe about who God is and who we are determines everything about the way we live, even what we feel.

If I believe the wrong story, I live the wrong life.

A bird poos on my shoulder. Does this mean all birds are out to get me. they are evil? Does it mean God hates me? Or is it just something that happens sometimes. My boys thought it was hilarious! I must be special! I stepped into that story and had a laugh.

Kate had a story about her baby Evelyn. She is a mother delighting in her child. Nothing Evelyn can do will change that. Evelyn poops and it’s ok. Kate still loves her.

That's the way God sees us. -What if that's true? What if that whole metaphor about the parent is true? What if he loves us! Lets step into that story!