Happy Mother’s Day to all our mothers. We appreciate all the women who have given birth to, are raising, or have raised their children. God has a special place for each of you and we pray for an extra blessing for all that you have done and still do for your children

In just a few weeks, May 23rd to be exact, we will be celebrating Pentecost Sunday, when the Holy Spirit came to the apostles and gave them the power to glorify God’s name to all nations. We look forward with anticipation and excitement to celebrate this special day. But, we also have to realize that we don’t have to wait for a particular day for God to move in the same way in our midst.

It is now two weeks after Easter, COVID-19 daily positivity rates hit a record low in LA County last Friday, and California is beginning to open.  We should be celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the downward rates of coronavirus, and the opening of businesses, restaurants, recreation, and other sectors of our lives.  But this is not necessarily happening because of many reasons.

Last week, we had our Easter Celebration.  In my message, I shared that Easter is not only a time of remembering the Resurrection of Jesus Christ but also a time to remember the visits that the Lord made to certain people and their responses to these visits.  Celebration of Easter, therefore, is not just about an event, but about our attitudes and actions in response to Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead.  But just like any other celebration or party, after the event is over is when the real work begins.  Clean up, getting things back in order, returning to normal life are all part of the routine after a celebration.  The apostles and disciples experienced this after Jesus rose from the dead, even after He personally appeared to them.

Happy Easter to all of you! We are glad that you can join us today for this Easter service. This is the most significant day of the year for us as Christians—the day that we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. But since there are so many traditions, practices, and festivities associated with Easter, we really need to know why we are celebrating and how we should celebrate Easter.

Happy Palm Sunday to all of you. It is hard to believe that Easter is only one week away. Today is the day that we traditionally celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem as well as the beginning of the Passion Week. Instead of giving a Palm Sunday Sermon, I wanted to tie into the big picture of what we have been studying for the past few weeks about Pharoah, the plagues, and the deliverance of God’s people from the slavery of the Egyptians. You see, God had this planned all along. He wanted us to have a clear visual picture of what it means when Jesus delivered us from the slavery of sin. The Israelites in Egypt were looking for a deliverer from the oppression of Egypt just as the Jewish people in Jerusalem were looking for a deliverer from the oppression of Rome. Thus, the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday.

We are living in a land and time that has been “plagued with plagues.”  Not just the coronavirus, but other disasters and epidemics that are affecting our lives.  Maybe we are not experiencing the same intensity or severity as in the Old Testament, but it still feels as disastrous and detrimental.

We are living in changing times.  If you don’t believe me, just look around you or check out the news or social media.  Things that were once right are being declared as wrong and things that were once wrong are being declared as right.  In this “cancel culture,” it has become popular and acceptable to remove or erase opposing thoughts, words, or even people that have offended someone.