First Word for April 2025

Easter Sunday is filled with incredible opportunities. Many in our culture are open to attending a church service on Easter. This provides a natural opportunity to invite our unchurched friends and neighbors—not only do we celebrate the day our Savior was raised from the dead, but we provide a powerful opportunity for people to encounter Jesus, some for the very first time. 

The resurrection of Jesus changes everything. He is alive and still changing lives today. The same power that raised Christ is now available to us. We can be raised to new life in Christ. Our lives can go from guilty and condemned to a celebration of freedom.

John 11:25-26:
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.’”

He has chosen us to be his ambassadors. 2 Corinthians 5:20 says, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

Easter is on April 20th. I’m challenging myself and you to invite 3 people on Easter. To pray and believe that God would send each of us to three people who he would want to heal, deliver, save, and set in family. It doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. It just needs to be sincere. Introduce yourself or reconnect with a neighbor or friend. Earnestly listen and learn about that person. Tell them about the difference that having Christ and community has made in your life. Then, invite them to join you this Easter Sunday (or any Sunday). That is it…a simple invitation with zero obligation and the opportunity to see what God might do.

Together we can push back darkness and see lives changed by the love of God.

Let’s go!

- John Privett