Greetings in the Name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night Bible Fellowship!

Happy Resurrection Day everyone! Today is a day to let our GRATITUDE flow out of us unchecked, without holding back. If we can seriously contemplate all the things that happened for mankind as a result of the Resurrection of Christ - all the changes, all the victory, all the power, all the authority, all the benefits, all the blessings all the GRACE, the arrival of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, etc. - if we can just stop for a moment and close our eyes to reflect with UNDERSTANING upon the results of that Resurrection, then surely we won't be able to avoid being FULL of the kind of THANKSGIVING we've been studying about together for the past 14 weeks or so.

Hopefully you'll recall that one of the major points we've been making in this series is that our sincere and honest THANKSGIVING has a unique intrinsic POWER within it to produce victory and success in life. THANKING God is not supposed to be just some religious thing we do to acknowledge His authority with our half hearted insincerities or our routine corporate recitations or our rote memorized, oft-repeated prayers. The Word says that God is not impressed by our lip service (Isaiah 29:13-14 and Matthew 15:7-9); in fact, He calls those who engage in it hypocrites who're putting at risk however much wisdom and discernment they have by continuing to do it. No, we can't fake GRATITUDE and we can't work it up; and according to scripture God is not impressed or fooled by it.

On Resurrection Day we ought to be able to find a lot of things to be genuinely THANKFUL for. GRATITUDE should pour out of us once we come to understand what Jesus accomplished that day on our behalf. We just need to take our focus off our problems and move it over to all the GRACE AND EMPOWERMENT AND FAVOR that flow out of the Resurrection and then continue to focus thereafter on all those things instead of going back to our problems. It's a choice one makes and it has to be made everyday perhaps many times each day, but the alternative is to let the enemy continue to direct our focus for us through our flesh to the things that bring fear and guilt and desperation and sickness and insufficiency.     

So in this article tonight let's focus on five of the major things The Resurrection did for us that we can celebrate and focus on indefinitely by FAITH.

The Resurrection Established a New Covenant:

Because of the Resurrection, we don't have to live under the Covenant of the Law that folks had to live under before Jesus came. In those former days everything in life was based on obeying the Law but the biggest problem was that nobody could do it. So nobody could get saved. To man's total frustration, the Law proved that it's impossible to meet God's requirements for righteousness by our own works. But now because of the Resurrection we have a new and better Covenant with better promises (Hebrews 7:22, 8:6), a Covenant of GRACE (God's favor and empowerment) that's based on LOVE and FAITH. All we have to do under this New Covenant is simply by FAITH accept the GRACE that Jesus makes available (Ephesians 2:8).  

The Resurrection Brought Forgiveness of Sins:

Because of the Resurrection, the blood of Jesus was counted as the payment for our sins, and not just the sins of Believers but the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). Under the Law it wasn't possible for all those animal sacrifices to take away anyone's sins (Hebrews 10:4, 11); but because Jesus shed His blood on the Cross and RESURRECTED on the third day ALL our sins past, present and future have ALREADY been paid for (Hebrews 10:12). In fact, the work of Christ was so complete that God has FORGOTTEN our sins (Hebrews 10:17) and in His view of things it's just as though we never sinned. Now that Christ has fulfilled the Law on our behalf our sins are no longer counted against us (Romans 5:13).

The Resurrection Brought Salvation:

Even though all the sins of mankind have already been forgiven, each of us individually needs to finish being reconciled to God. In other words we need to be BORN AGAIN (John 3:3), which is to say we need to get SAVED, we need to RECEIVE our forgiveness. Salvation requires REPENTENCE which means literally to change one's way of thinking and believing by coming into agreement with God. Once we do that the SPIRIT part of us is immediately perfected and reborn as a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) fully REDEEMED (rescued) from the former life and translated to the Kingdom of God (Colossians 1:13). What we have to do to get saved is clearly spelled out in the Scripture:

 "...if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9).

Now the Greek word translated SALVATION also means DELIVERANCE which is more good news to be thankful about because when folks get born again they get DELIVERED from the domination and authority of the enemy and the world system he controls (2 Corinthians 4:4). Those things may still continue to affect us for awhile but we're no longer slaves to them because now we have authority over them by the Name of Jesus and we have the Holy Spirit abiding within us and we have all the FAITH we need to be fully and completely DELIVERED. 

The Resurrection Made it Possible for us to Overcome Death:

Keep in mind that death is the result of sin (Romans 6:23) and that it was released on the earth by the sin of the one man named Adam (Romans 5:17). So, all of us who've followed him are subject to the same outcome: physical death. Therefore, if Jesus hadn't resurrected then it wouldn't be possible for us to also be resurrected. If He hadn't been raised from the dead then neither would it be possible for us to also be raised from the dead to receive eternal life. Being born again brings eternal life and to have eternal life we have to overcome death. The victory of Christ is that by His SINLESSNESS He overcame the AUTHORITY of death so that we who follow in His image could be set free from the slavery of fearing death confident that we'll ALSO be resurrected and enjoy eternal life (Hebrews 2:14-15). Following are a couple of other scriptures with Jesus speaking in red letters that make this abundantly clear:

"...whoever believes (in the messiah) will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:15-16).

The Resurrection made it Possible for Us to have a Personal Relationship with the Lord:

If Jesus hadn't resurrected from the grave on that first Resurrection Day Sunday morning then He would still be dead like all the other religious leaders. How do you have a personal relationship with a dead person? How could we fellowship with a Savior who never came out of the grave? I don't know about you but having a close and ever-present relationship with the Lord of Lords and King of Kings is just about the highlight of this present life. Whenever the world or the enemy or the persecutors or the nay-Sayers or the trials and tribulations of life or whatever try to take over my attention, I have a personal relationship with the Creator God of the universe that I can turn to. Non-believers can mock, secular humanism can try to shut down the Church, but no matter what happens I still have my personal relationship with Him because it's permanent. He speaks to me and I know His voice (John 10:4) and because I recognize His voice I know by FAITH that He will come and fellowship with me (Revelation 3:20). Friend, all of that would be impossible if He were still lying lifeless in the grave. 

Some Final Thoughts

Did you know that in a lot of churches they don't believe in the literal Resurrection that the Bible reveals? Or they just look at it as a nice story to bring up once a year. But the RESURRECTION is the dominant event in Christian history. Without it nothing would've happened, nothing could've changed. Mankind would still have to figure out how to appease an angry God with their own works and by their own effort. And unfortunately a lot of folks are still trying to do it that way even though the RESURRECTION has already changed everything. What Jesus accomplished was total and complete and if you're still trying to please God with your good works, you're wasting your time and disrespecting what Jesus has already done for you. The only way to please God is by FAITH (Hebrews 11:6). That's what the Bible actually says so just simply accept it and release your FAITH today that Jesus has been raised from the dead. He's alive willing and able tonight to help you experience His victory in every area of life: spirit, soul and body.

In sum, whenever we're tempted to focus our attention on our circumstances in this natural life, we can always start THANKING God for the RESURRECTION of Christ and remember all the great things it has brought us. This article mentions just five of those things but there were a lot of other blessings we could have mentioned and can easily remember when we need to, when it's time for GIVING THANKS. This isn't just a one-day-a-year RESURRECTION we've been given. It's available to us 24/7/365 and we can be continuously GRATEFUL for it. HE HAS RISEN INDEED and He stays RISEN!

Thanks for stopping by tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on April 27. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing, compelling you to PROSPER in every area of life!

Sinners' Prayer

If you've never invited Jesus to be the Lord of your life, you need to and you can do it today just by saying out loud the following simple prayer:

Jesus I declare today with all my heart that I believe in you and that God raised you from the dead. I acknowledge that my sins have been forgiven and I ask you to come into my life today and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for salvation and eternal life.

If you were sincere as you prayed this prayer, God has already come into your life and you are a new creation, a totally new species recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be equipped to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.

And, when you get a chance have someone help you look up the following scriptures because they confirm what you've done by saying this prayer today and believing what you said:

Romans 10:9

2 Corinthians 5:17

Ephesians 2:8

Prayer Requests

If you have a Prayer Request, please connect to the Link below and follow the promptings. The PLN staff members pray over Prayer Requests every Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM eastern time. Agree with us for God to answer your petition.

http://www.creditcounseling.net/prayer-request.aspx

Donations

If you've been edified by Prosperous Life Newsletter, you may want to consider making a SEED FAITH offering to support the Ministry (Galatians 6:6-7). God has instructed us to simply provide folks with an opportunity to sow seed into good ground so in due season you'll be eligible to reap a harvest and the rest is up to you as the Spirit leads. For your information PLN is a nonprofit gift to the Body of Christ so your financial offerings will usually be tax deductible (consult your tax advisor). Just go to the secure Shopping Cart on the Cornerstone web site by connecting through the following link. We appreciate your support and generosity.

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About Prosperous Life Newsletter

PLN is an outreach ministry of Make A Way Ministries domiciled in Miami, Florida. It is in its 17th year of distribution and has been published continuously since January 1998. It's an e-publication primarily about finances in the Kingdom of God and is sent ONLY to our email list of MINISTRY MEMBERS. If you're reading this and aren't yet on our growing email list, please let us know and we'll be so very happy to add you to the list.

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