April 11, 2021 – CountUp

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday April 11TH 2021, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us be joyful on this glorious new day !

Last Sunday was Easter Sunday, or for those of us who are born again we may call it Resurrection Sunday. It was my 15TH Resurrection Sunday of my fantastic journey. My first was in 2007 (April 08TH). I was saved only 7½ months on that first Resurrection Sunday. I had been part of my first church family for only 2½ months. In fact it was only my 12TH Sunday morning celebrating Christ. Back then our church family was small with just one service, but we were on the verge of growing rapidly. We took over the local movie theatre early every Sunday morning at dawn, and we transformed it into our church experience. We built it up, and then we tore it down after the service.

I celebrated 8 Resurrection Sundays with my first church family from 2007 to 2014. Last Resurrection Sunday was my 7TH with my current church family, but that’s with an asterisk. Last year Resurrection Sunday was at home in seclusion during the peak of the global pandemic. It was our 4TH of 10 Sundays in a row in which our church building was closed, and we watched our Pastor preach a short sermon online via video (prerecorded). On May 31ST 2020 we were one of the first (if not the first) church building in my city (Homestead Florida) to reopen and have services LIVE and in-person again. That was a glorious day indeed. We’ve been meeting every Sunday morning since then !

For 10 Sundays (and 1 Good Friday) leading-up to Resurrection Sunday last week I presented an 11-part sermon series here in this space (“Sunday Scripture”). I covered the events of late-Thursday into Friday some 1,988 years ago – the last 2 days of Christ’s life before His brutal death on the cross on Skull Hill. But the story didn’t end there, for then He conquered the tomb, and He rose again. He is risen. He is risen indeed !

My original intention was to convert the 11-part sermon series into a single 35 to 40 minute sermon to preach to my church family on a future Sunday. As I was nearing the climax of the series I realized that God wanted me to do something different with my next sermon.

Titled “Denials & Restoration” I’ll be preaching on Simon Peter’s 3 denials (John 18:10-18,25-27) as well as his restoration from those denials (John 21:15-23). I’ll also be summarizing the Gospel of John – starting with the last 2 verses (John 21:24-25), and then returning to the beginning with the first 18 verses of John 1. Jesus Christ is introduced by John in the beginning.