["Pomp and Circumstance"]
At this time, we pray that you'd bless the service,
the singing, the preaching,
all the special things going on today, Lord,
and that it would bring honor and glory to your name.
We thank you for the resurrection
and what it means to us, that it brings us salvation,
it brings us assurance.
In the matchless name of Christ, we pray. Amen.
Heard a song in 36.
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
We are here because Christ arose, amen?
So let's sing it out on the first.
O Lord, in the grave we lay,
Jesus my Savior,
waiting thy coming day,
Jesus my Lord,
Up from the grave he arose, with the mighty triumph over his toes.
He arose a victim on the dark domain, and wished forever with his saints to reign.
He arose, he arose, following in the Christ alone.
On the second.
Fainly they washed his bed, Jesus, my Savior.
Fainly they sealed the dead, Jesus, my Lord.
Up from the grave he arose, with the mighty triumph over his toes.
He arose a victim on the dark domain, and wished forever with his saints to reign.
He arose, he arose, following in the Christ.
I need a little bit more help on this last one. Sing it out, on the last.
Death cannot keep his prey.
Let's sing it out.
He tore the birds away, Jesus, my Lord.
Up from the grave he arose, with the mighty triumph over his toes.
He arose a victim on the dark domain, and wished forever with his saints to reign.
He arose, he arose, following in the Christ alone.
Amen, all right. Well, let's go ahead and take our bulletins. We'll look at some announcements quickly this morning.
If you did not receive a bulletin on your way in, just raise your hand and one of our ushers can get one for you.
If you need a bulletin, just put your hand up and we will get one for you.
Of course, the verse this week, 1 Peter 1.3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
And that's a good verse there. We like that. If you open up your bulletin, you'll see our service time,
Sunday morning service, 10.30 a.m. And of course, we are thankful that you're with us on Easter Sunday.
And we do invite you to be back tonight at 6 p.m. for the evening service.
Evening service is different than the morning service, different songs that are sung, different sermon that's preached.
Just one more opportunity to be in God's house with God's people under the preaching of the Word of God.
And then of course, if you look at our soul winning times, our main soul winning times on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m.
And soul winning is when we go out in the community, we knock doors, we invite people to church,
and we preach the gospel to anyone who's interested.
We have additional soul winning times on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays at 2 p.m.
There is a little bit of a change to the schedule this afternoon. We'll talk about that here in a minute.
But there will be an opportunity for you to go soul winning this afternoon if you would like.
If you notice there in the bulletins, of course, if you're a first time guest, we're glad you're with us.
I'll have some announcements here for the guest in a minute, but we'll continue on with these announcements.
We, of course, are a family integrated church. What that means is that children and infants are always welcomed in the church service.
We do not separate children from their parents for any reason.
We do have mother baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience.
All of the rooms have comfortable seating. They have monitors set up so you can watch the service and listen to it.
So if you have a child that's been distracting during the service, or if you need some privacy,
we would encourage you to use the mother baby rooms as needed.
And then, of course, if you need to be baptized, please let us know. We'd love to baptize you.
And the baptistry is actually filled. The water is warm and we've got everything you need to be baptized.
We've got shirts and shorts and hair dryers.
And if you need to be baptized, you can, of course, let us know on your communication card.
There's a place for you to let us know about baptism, if you need to be baptized.
And also, if you've already spoken to somebody, you know you need to be baptized,
then all you need to do is at the end of the service, while we're singing the last song,
if you step out that door, one of our staff guys will meet you there
and we can get you situated for baptism this morning or tonight or whenever it's convenient for you.
If you look at the announcements and upcoming events, of course,
we want to wish everybody a happy Easter and we are glad that you are with us
as we are celebrating the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then, of course, today we've got several special things going on.
We've got the VBC choir singing for us and special music from the choir and the orchestra.
We have a gift for every guest in attendance.
And then we have, of course, the Cadbury eggs that we're going to be handing out to all of the children at the end of the service.
You will find there in your bulletin that you have one of these cards in your bulletin.
We want to let you know about a brand new sermon series we're starting on Sunday morning,
this coming Sunday, called Helping People Reach Their Full Potential.
And we're going to be learning over the next several weeks about the potential that you have
and what God expects from you and how to develop it, how to mine it, how to get it out
so that you can reach your full redemptive potential.
And we want to encourage you to be with us next Sunday as we begin this brand new series.
We have this card in there for you as a reminder of the next sermon series starting up.
We hope that you'll be back.
And maybe you can invite somebody to be with us as we begin this brand new Sunday morning series next Sunday.
Of course, this morning is Easter.
I'll be preaching on the subject of the resurrection.
But we'll start a brand new series on Sunday morning, Helping People Reach Their Full Potential.
We're going to be learning about how to reach your personal potential.
We're going to be talking about how to help your marriage reach its full potential,
how to help your children reach their full potential, how to reach your full potential in different areas of life.
So we want to encourage you to be with us for that.
If you look at the announcements, of course, we've got several things coming up.
All the ladies are invited to a baby shower for Ms. Karen Jimenez this Saturday, April 15th at 3 p.m.
And Ms. Karen is having a boy and she is registered on Amazon.
It is a potluck, so if you can, please bring a dish to share.
And if you'd like to attend, you can sign up on your communication card.
And then, of course, we are gearing up for Mother's Day.
And we've got several things going on regarding Mother's Day.
First of all, we want to invite all the ladies as well to come out to an elegant afternoon tea in honor of Mother's Day.
And this is not just for mothers, it's for all ladies, whether you're a mother or not.
But it is in honor of Mother's Day.
It'll be on Saturday, May 13th at 3 p.m. in our fellowship hall.
And this is a very nice event that my wife puts on every year.
We want to invite all the ladies.
You can sign up on your communication card.
There is a gift basket valued at over $50 that is going to be given away.
And it'll just be a nice time of fellowship and being able to have a time of fun and games and things like that.
You can sign up through your communication card.
And then, of course, we want you to make plans to join us for Mother's Day on Sunday, May 14th at 1030 a.m.
On Mother's Day, we're going to have the children's choir singing for us in honor of Mother's Day.
And then, of course, we'll be giving out the VBC T-shirts for all the ladies.
We've got ladies' T-shirts that we're going to give out to all of the ladies in attendance on Mother's Day.
All the ladies and girls, whether you're a mother or not, everyone will get a T-shirt on Mother's Day.
So we encourage you to be here for that.
And then, of course, we have our men's preaching and pizza night coming up.
This is an event for the men of the church.
All the men are invited for an evening of preaching, pizza, and fellowship.
We do this every once in a while.
We'll have a men's preaching night, and we'll have maybe six or seven, eight guys from our church preach.
They'll preach about 10-minute sermons, and they always do a good job.
It's always a blessing.
And then, of course, afterwards we have a time of fellowship with pizza.
And you don't have to preach at the men's preaching night.
You can just come and hear the other guys preach.
But it's a good time for the men of the church to get together.
So we want to invite you to be part of our men's preaching and pizza night on Friday, April 27th at 7 p.m.
Then, of course, children's choir begins next Sunday, April 16th.
They're going to start practicing.
They're going to be practicing at 5.15 p.m.
That's 45 minutes before the evening service, and they'll be meeting in the break room.
That's the room.
Excuse me, not the break room, the play room.
That's the room right on the other side of the main foyer, and we want to encourage you to be there.
It is open to ages 4 to 12 years old.
So 4 to 12 years old can be part of the children's choir, and they're practicing for Mother's Day.
They'll be singing on Mother's Day.
Homeschool group, they've got a PE class this Thursday, April 13th at 10 a.m.
And we encourage all the homeschool families to be part of that.
We've got a homeschool group at our church that has, I don't know, maybe 90 kids in it,
and we want to encourage you to be a part of that, of course.
So this Thursday, April 13th, is their PE class.
Upcoming cleaning crew, you can check for your name there if you're part of our cleaning crew.
There's other things there for you to look at.
Please don't forget to turn your cell phones off or place them on silent during the service
so that they're not a distraction to anybody.
If you look at the back of the bulletin, birthdays and anniversaries for the month of April,
this week we have Ms. Emily Gessler and Ms. Julia Gessler have a birthday on April 12th.
Also, Daniel Santos has a birthday on April 12th, Ms. Christine Ortiz has a birthday on April 15th,
and Jeffrey Love has a birthday on April 15th.
Praise report, money matters, all of those things are there for you to look at.
And we do have some special things that I'd like to just go over real quickly due to Easter, of course.
First of all, we're trying to have our staff families to be able to have.
Usually they work in between the church services, Sunday morning, Sunday night.
We want to give them a little bit of time this afternoon to spend the afternoon with their families.
So if you're cleaning this afternoon, the staff is going to start cleaning the building
after the morning service for the evening service pretty much right after the morning service.
So maybe 15 minutes after, they're going to start cleaning so that we can get the cleaning out of the way,
and that way they can have the afternoon to spend with their families.
If you'd like to help with that, you can see Brother David El Tezcu and he can get you situated with that.
Also, for soul winning, usually we have soul winning on Sundays at 2 p.m.
We have it every Sunday at 2 p.m., but we want to give the staff some time with their families.
So if you'd like to go soul winning this afternoon, just right after the morning service,
if you can see Brother Shah, he'll be in the foyer.
He'll have soul winning maps, and he can give you the map right after the service.
That way you can have it. You don't have to come back for a 2 p.m. meeting.
That'll be set, and that way they can have that afternoon.
We also have this card in the bulletin, which you might have seen the VBC survey questionnaire.
Usually every Sunday at Verde Baptist Church, we have a communication card in our bulletin.
This week, because of Easter, this little survey card is taking place of our communication card.
I'd like you to just take a moment and look at it.
Easter is a unique time in the sense that it's one of the few services where we can have close to 100% of our church family here in one service.
Today, I'm sure there's no exception. We've got about 260 people in church this morning, and praise the Lord for that.
We've got, I don't know, maybe like 30 in an overflow, and our staff families are over in an overflow.
I appreciate them being willing to sit there for the Easter service.
But it's rare that we can get most of our church people here all in one service.
So what we want to do is we want to ask you to fill out this questionnaire, this survey and questionnaire.
And what we want to do is take this opportunity to get as much updated and current information as possible.
And I'm going to ask that everyone take a moment to fill this card out.
If you need a pen, just raise your hand.
We have our ushers who have pens available. I'm going to ask them to come on up.
They've got pens in hand, and they'll be handing those out.
If you need a pen, just raise your hand.
And we would like to have you please take a moment to fill this card out.
And we want to just have your current information, whatever information you're willing to give us.
Obviously, we're not going to do anything odd with your info.
We would just like to have it for our records.
But name, addresses, emails, date of birth, so we can acknowledge your birthdays, things like that.
On the back, you'll notice that there's a little questionnaire.
We'd just like you to take a few moments and answer some of these questions for us.
Have you been scripturally baptized? Have you gone through our new members class?
Have you gone through our discipleship course?
And we just want to be able to have some information regarding you.
We just figure it's the right time, Easter time.
Everybody's here. We can get everybody's updated information.
Now, if you're a first time guest, if it's your first time here at Verity Baptist Church,
I want you to know that we are glad that you are with us.
We have a very special gift for you as well.
When you leave here this morning, if you go out our main foyer,
or if you go out our secondary foyer, you'll see a little table set up.
And on that table, you'll see these little gift bags.
Please grab one on your way out as a gift from us to you for being our guest this morning.
There are several resources in this bag that we'd like you to have.
The one I'd like to highlight is this documentary that our church made.
It's called Being Baptist. And of course, you're sitting in a Baptist church this morning.
And this documentary explains what it means to be a Baptist and why we're Baptist.
We think you'll find it very entertaining and educational.
It really goes through the entire history of Christianity from the time of Christ all the way to now.
And we want to give this to you as a gift.
So please make sure you don't leave here this morning without grabbing one of these gift bags on your way out.
And if you are a guest, we'd ask that you would please take a moment to fill out the communication card, to fill out the survey.
And you can go ahead and when we're done with the announcements, we're going to sing a song.
When we're done singing, we're going to receive the offering.
And as the offering plate goes by, you can drop this card in the offering plate.
If you're a guest or anybody who's filling out the card, you can drop it in the offering plate.
And for the guests, we would really like to have a record of your attendance.
Like I said, we're not going to do anything odd with your info.
We would just like to be able to document that you are our guest.
We actually would like to send you a little gift, but we need your information to do that.
So please take a moment to fill the card out.
And like I said, we usually don't have everyone fill the card out, but if you could help us with that,
I'd like for us to just take a moment and go ahead and just fill this card out.
I'm going to ask the piano to just play for a few minutes to give you just a minute or two to fill out this card.
And we'll go ahead and get this situated so that you can turn it in as the offering plate goes by.
.
All right. Well, we appreciate you just taking a moment to fill this card out.
And go ahead and like I said, you can drop this off in the offering plate as it goes by here in a minute.
Or if you'd like, you can drop it off.
We'll have a box set up in the main foyer where you can drop it off at the end of the service as well.
I think that's it for all of the announcements.
So we're going to go ahead and sing the chorus of the week, which is the insert in your bulletin.
And we're going to sing beyond the cross as we prepare to receive the offering this morning.
We'll sing needing strength for my journey.
I know that the crossing it out on the first as we prepare to receive the offering.
Needing strength for my journey.
I know at the cross where Jesus was died for me.
Is this the place where all the light and pain seems sad to me?
Beyond the cross is a tomb that is empty.
You won't find me there anymore.
And beyond the tomb is life everlasting.
And home forevermore.
Singing out on the second.
And I sought to be a servant.
And I went to the tomb, to the place where God once lay.
May my Lord help me stay.
Is there hope here for me?
There is, I heard Him say.
Beyond the cross is a tomb that is empty.
You won't find me there anymore.
And beyond the tomb is life everlasting.
And home forevermore.
Amen. Good singing. We'll have the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time.
And like I said, if you please, if you took a moment to fill out the questionnaire,
you can go ahead and drop it in the offering plate as it goes by.
And let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love You and we thank You.
Lord, we pray that You would bless the offering, the gift, and the giver.
We pray that You would bless the choir as they sing for us in a few minutes.
Lord, we pray that You would bless the preaching of Your word as well.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
At this time we're going to have our choir sing for us.
.