It is great to be preaching today following our Reaching Revival throughout April. Throughout the month our church averaged in the high 80’s in Sunday School attendance. Last week our Sunday School attendance was 87 just two shy of our record attendance of 89 this year. We are so close to meeting our goal of reaching 100 every Sunday during Bible study. This revival season demonstrated how close we are to reaching our goal. We praise God for the forward steps we are making in Sunday School.
 
Worship attendance remained consistent every Sunday during the revival emphasis. We normally reach around 52% in Sunday School attendance of what we can expect in worship attendance. Worship attendance averaged in the 170’s during our revival. Last year, the average revival service attendance was in the 60’s. This year God led our folks to triple last year’s performance.  Praise the Lord!
 
I was amazed by the great number of new faces attending our services. Dozens of guests, obviously invited by our people, came each week and were moved by the Holy Spirit to come again Sunday after Sunday. The guests we met in our services demonstrate that God is at work blessing the efforts we make to invite and contact people we know who need to share in the fellowship of God’s people. I rejoice in the movement of the Holy Spirit which draws people to come and learn more about what God is doing at Grace. The Holy Spirit stamped the final victory last Sunday when two ladies stepped forward to become members of Grace, one by Profession of Faith and the other by Statement of Faith. Our Reaching Revival did exactly what it was planned and prayed for to accomplish. It reached people in the name of Jesus. God by his power Reached Down and His people Reached up. God Reached In to our lives as we Reached Out to rescue and restore people to Jesus. I praise God for the awesome Reaching Revival God granted to us.
 
Today, I begin a new series of 10 sermons on the Virtues of the Christian Faith. The virtues of our faith illustrate what it takes to follow Jesus by example. The Bible says;
 
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” (Psalm 1:1-3)
 
The 10 Virtues we will cover include:

                    Love                                    Honesty
                    Sexual Purity                        Trust
                    Kindness                              Faith
                    Hope                                   Charity
                    Responsibility                       Compassion

Today’s Sermon is focused on the Christian Virtue of LOVE. The title of the message is “All You Need Is Love”, from John 13:34-35. You will be amazed by what the Bible says love will do. Love is the one thing we need to show others who Jesus is and what He is ready to do to make lives better. Let the love of Christ dwell in your hearts today. Commit yourself to be an agent of Christ’s love by the way you love others in His name.
 
CHRIST’S LOVE CHANGES EVERYTHING.

Good Words from God’s Word
 
Today is the 3rd Sunday of our Reaching Revival emphasis during the month of April.
 
Easter Sunday, we worshiped around the topic of God’s Reaching Down to release Jesus Christ from death and the grave. Remember our theme was when God raised Jesus from the tomb, He changed everything. The point that day was that we can live every day in the promise and power of the Resurrection.
 
Last Sunday, Danny Jones preached about the opportunities we have to Reach Up to God in repentance and faith to accept and receive forgiveness of sin and eternal life by receiving Jesus as our Savior and Lord. He preached powerfully about turning away from the reality of hell and eternal separation from the promises of God. The cross on which Jesus died is the most convincing evidence of the reality of hell and the consequences of unconfessed sin. It is an awesome realization that when we simply Reach Up in faith to receive Jesus as Savior, we are eternally redeemed from punishment and separation from God.
 
Today, we are privileged to have Reverend Matthew Williams preach to us about God’s Reaching In and transforming us, remaking us into the image of His Son Jesus. Listen to this;
 
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)
 
A disciple of Jesus Christ has a new direction, a new purpose and a new outlook. Believers live for Jesus. It is not enough to just be respectable and decent. The followers of Jesus Christ are to climb to the summit of obedience and character that Jesus himself displayed. That’s why God Reaches In to our business, In to our homes, In to our secret places. He helps you to let Jesus take over.
 
My daddy was a plumber. I enjoyed being together with him watching him work from time to time. I learned that my dad could stick his hand into some pretty nasty places. I watched him get dirty and tackle some of the messiest messes you can imagine. If his tools did not get the job done, we would go shoulder deep. Once there was an exposed wire that he could not see. When he reached his hand up to his elbow to take hold of the problem, the problem took hold of him. He could not shake himself away. I panicked as the electricity began to burn his skin. He managed to get his foot against the wall and push himself away from the dangerous voltage with a push from the strong muscles in his leg. Burnt, his heart palpitating, exhausted from the struggle, he survived the ordeal. In ecstatic joy, I took hold of my dad relieved and grateful he survived.
 
God reached in to our mess when He gave us Jesus. Jesus endured the pain of Calvary because of our mess. God continues to reach in to the filth and the stink of our sin to fix whatever needs fixing. Living for Jesus is not a sterile business free from the unsightly, undignified, and unseemly junk that goes on inside. Jesus is ready to Reach In this morning and clean you up. He will Reach in and fix, if you will let Him. Whatever it is, let Jesus Reach In to your situation and clean you up.

Good Words from God’s Word
 
The month of April has been designated as REACHING REVIVAL month. Each Sunday this month, a different preacher will be addressing one of our REACHING REVIVAL topics:
 
Easter Sunday, April 1st, REACHING DOWN, Sermon by Pastor Mike
 
April 8th, REACHING UP, Sermon by Reverend Danny Jones – Pastor at Northlake Baptist Church
 
April 15th, REACHING IN, Sermon by Reverend Matthew Williams – Associate Pastor at Northlake Baptist Church
 
April 22nd, REACHING OUT, Sermon by Dr. Buck Burch – State Missionary, Georgia Baptist Mission Board and Former International Missionary to Russia.
 
Easter Sunday, I began our REACHING REVIVAL emphasis by preaching a message entitled, “When God Reached Down to Raise Jesus from the Dead, HE CHANGED EVERYTHING.” The point of the message was that God not only wants His people to believe in the Resurrection, He wants us to live in the power of the Resurrection every day. Attendance was amazing this past Easter Sunday as 205 people worshipped together at Grace. The spirit of worship was incredible as we all felt the presence of God REACHING DOWN to us and we all rejoiced in praise to Him for the new life we have through our Resurrected and Living Savior.
 
Today, Danny Jones will preach about what happens when we REACH UP toward God in Repentance and Faith. The Bible says;
 
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not of works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8)
 
That’s REACHING UP! When we Reach Up in faith to believe that Jesus Christ lived, died on the cross, rose from the dead and lives today as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, we are REACHING UP! No one can be saved without REACHING UP. The Bible says;
 
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13)
 
That’s Reaching Up! Whenever someone by faith asks Jesus to save them from their sins, come into their lives in order that they may become a born-again child of God, that’s REACHING UP! No one can ever be saved without God first REACHING DOWN to us through Jesus, and then by our faith REACHING UP to receive Jesus as our Savior and Lord.
 
The next time you hear the word BILLION, think about this:

• A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
• A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
• A billion hours ago we were living in the Beginning when Adam first met Eve.
• A billion days ago darkness was still on the face of the deep and the world was without form and void.
• A billion dollars ago was 8 hours and 20 minutes by the way our government spends money.
• A billion years from now where will you be?

 
By REACHING UP today to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord in your life, you can answer that question. By reaching up this morning, you will be with Jesus in heaven a billion years from now, or 10 billion years from now, or 100 billion years from now. Don’t be shy. Go ahead and REACH UP. Jesus is waiting to save you and give you the awesome gift of eternal life.

Good Words from God’s Word
 

The New Testament church is grounded in the truth of the Resurrection. As Paul said, the preaching of the cross;
 
“…is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)
 
As necessary as preaching the truth about the death and burial of Jesus is, our message is incomplete without the reality of the bodily Resurrection of Jesus. We are forgiven through the cross on which Jesus shed His sinless blood for us, and we are saved because the tomb is empty. When saved people are baptized, the picture of death by the immersion of the repentant sinner in water is always followed by the glorious symbol of the resurrection by which the person is raised from the water to:
 
“…walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4)
 
Watchman Nee said, “The greatest negative in the world is the cross, for with it God wiped out all that was not of himself; the greatest positive in the universe is the resurrection, for through it God brought into being all.”
 
The Bible says;
 
“…if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14)
 
Without the Resurrection, what you believe really does not matter.  Paul goes on to say;
 
“…if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in you sins” (I Corinthians 15:17)
 
We at Grace are people of the EMPTY TOMB. We are saved because Jesus was

 
He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. As the hymn writer wrote:
 

I serve a risen Savior,
He’s in the world today;
I know that He is living,
Whatever men may say.
 
I see His hand of mercy,
I hear His voice of cheer;
And just the time I need Him’
He’s always near.
 
He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today,
He walks with me, He talks with me along life’s narrow way;
He lives, He lives, Salvation to impart,
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart.

 
PRAISE GOD! We worship today a living savior. We brought Him to church with us. He resides in us and moves among us. Our worship is not empty. It is filled with the power and eternal hope of our Resurrected Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.