Father,

We praise you that your words are true. We can be sure of this because of the fact of the resurrection. Christ overcame death, and we can have great hope this morning.

According to your word, the profile of world history is defined by the massive turning points of the fall of humankind, Christ’s earthly life, death and resurrection, and his future return and promise of a heavenly kingdom.

Lord, so much was lost in the garden when our ancestors chose to reject your good word and go their own way. On that day, death entered our world through their first sin. And subsequently, the beauty and wonder of your world has been stained by pain, suffering, sin and death. All of us know and experience this on a daily basis – and yearn for it to be different.

Today, we praise you for Christ and his work for us.

• He came to into our broken world.

• He experienced it – he cried with us, experienced pain and suffering – and ultimately drank the bitter cup of death itself.

• All this was not merely to empathise with us. He died to deliver us from death.

• We praise you this morning for this boundless demonstration of your love. You offered yourself up to death that we might be freed from death and experience life in all its fullness.

In the event of the resurrection we see a demonstration of Christ’s victory over the tyranny of death. On the first easter morning for the first time since the fall, a human being who would never die again, walked on the earth. And we believe your promise this morning that ‘Whoever believes in Christ, though he die, yet shall he live’ in the same unending way.

Confess, we often settle our hopes and dreams on so much less than the hope of your eternal kingdom.

Forgive us for undervaluing the things that are ultimate in value.

• We confess that we look for life in many wrong places. Against all reason, we hope in tangible immediate things.

• We presume that our physical lives will be long and arrogantly plan as if the time we have is our own.

• We place security in healthy diets, frequent exercise and skilled doctors – as if this life is ultimate. Yet you call us to invest our lives now in the life to come. You tell us: “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

Forgive us for clinging on to our lives – rather than being willing to lose them for your sake.

Father we pray that hope of a better world under you eternal rule would permeate our lives more and more:

• We pray for those amongst us who struggle with hopelessness and depression. Help them Lord. May your promises be a comfort each day and may we as a church to love and support them.

• We pray for those here whose bodies have pain and sickness; we pray for healing and we pray this reminder of the fallenness of our would create in them eager anticipation of Christ’s kingdom where there will be not more crying and pain.

• We pray for the lonely, that they would not despair. May our church increasingly be a place where know, love and care for one another reflecting that we are tied together through Christ in a family tighter than blood.

We pray that the hope of the resurrection would be seen and experienced by the Bedhini kurds of northern Iraq. In a time when their hopes of national identity and independence have been dashed, cause them to hear the gospel, read the bible and draw them to yourself. Encourage and strengthen those who are giving their lives to this end – and may we too partner sacrificially with them.

As we turn to your word in a few minutes, we ask that you would help Nathan as he preaches, and us to listen with eagerness.

Amen