Raised to Life: Talk 1 – What It Means
builder2024-04-13T16:23:47+08:00Talk BRO. AUDEE VILLARAZA: We're going to take a passage from the Book of Matthew which is very appropriate in celebrating Easter. Most of us are familiar with this story. Before Jesus was crucified, certain events happened… Raised to Life: What It Means I pray that this resonates with you and in whatever stage in your life you are right now. Many times, we have also denied Jesus. complete humility and sincerity, let us pray: Father, we ask for Your forgiveness and mercy for the countless times we have turned against You. In this moment, we pray that Your mercy flows like a river in this place. We receive that forgiveness. We receive that mercy. Thank You, Jesus, for Your love that endures and forgives. Today, we want to know Your love even more. In Jesus' Name. Amen. Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my path We are going to do a four-Sunday talk mini-series before we launch into another long series. This special series is called Raised to Life. We are going to try to answer the question: "What does it mean to be truly raised to life with Jesus?" What is the evidence that you are being raised by Jesus? It's through L.I.F.E: Two Reasons God’s Love Is Not Appreciated Sometime in 2021, when the Coronavirus Disease (COVID) Pandemic lockdown was lifted, we were able to have our first face-to- face Feast session at the Barcelona Academy in Bulacan. We called it FBA: Feast Barcelona Academy. A few months later, I was able to bring to FBA my wife Kristel and our son Ethan. I was so excited for Ethan to experience the Holy Mass. The moment the Mass started, Ethan was silent. He was observing everything. For ten minutes he was silent… Suddenly, he gripped and pulled my hand for me to lean down because he wanted to say something. Once I lowered, he said, "Dad, can we go home now?" Of course, I wasn't expecting him to appreciate the Holy Mass as he was only four years old at that time. I shared this story because I wanted to show you an example of how sometimes we fail to understand or even appreciate the love of Jesus that happens through the Holy Mass. We fail to understand the sacrifices of Jesus for us to give us this celebration. Why? Two possible reasons: We have a broken perspective of We have never fully experienced God's love. You cannot love without getting Even the band Nazareth sings: Love hurts... Love scars… Sometimes, when you love, there is pain. If you get love without getting hurt, then you have never really loved. Even God got hurt when He was rejected by many of us. But the difference between God's love and our love is that even if God gets hurt, He doesn't get tired of loving you. True Love There is no way to love people perfectly. Only God can do that.