If you do want to read along with us this morning, I want to read to you in the book of Psalms, chapter 30. We'll read here in just a moment. Again, the book of Psalms, chapter 30. We'll begin reading here in just a moment. I don't know what it is about the magic of a morning, but there is something magical about the sunrise or the sunlight of another day. It's just magical. And when I say that, it's because it brings hope to us about a new day. It brings hope to us about something that's going to be able to be a day that we overcome all the things that we face. I believe that for each and every one of us that's ever been saved by the grace of God, there was a time in our life when we were in darkness and God allowed us to see the light. You know today I believe that there's a time in our life that all the powers of hell have not been able to put out the light that Jesus gave us when He was victorious over the grave. Today I want us to read about a miracle that's going to happen in the morning. I've thought a lot about the last few days and the last few weeks about how one day we're all going to find that miraculous morning that's going to transpire for all of us. For us, something about a morning just means that we're going to be able to overcome all the things that we have faced in the previous day. No matter how bad a night is, folks, there's a promise of another day. Now, we're going to read about the day star, and we're going to read about some different things in a minute, but you know, in all of this, there's always the promise of the rising of the sun. Scripture teaches us in the book of Revelation that there's no need of the sun, talking about the S-U-N, because we're going to have the sun, being the S-O-N, that's going to give us light for all of eternity. Folks, today I believe in this. I believe that there's coming a day that we're going to close our eyes in this life, and we're going to close our eyes to the darkness of this world, only to open them in the very glorious light of our presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. For those of you that are here today, you think that this light brings darkness. There is no darkness like the darkness of day. Two different extremes that we want to talk about today, but there's a miracle of a morning. It's the bright and sunlight of another day. It's a promise that we are going to be able to overcome. Or let me read you in the book of Psalms, if I may. Chapter 30, and I want to skip down to the 5th verse. For His anger endeareth but a moment, and His favor is life. Weeping may endear for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. To be a little more precisely translated out, It means the shout of joy is going to come in the morning. I woke up this morning like I have many other days, right before my alarm clock went off. Sometimes I set my alarm clock, my alarm clock will wake me up. So in other words, two days pretty much are either I wake up on my own, I'm waking my alarm clock, and pretty much they're all the same. Sometimes I wake up and I can hear the birds singing outside. Sometimes I wake up and I look outside, and just like today, it's pretty much dark outside, or it was dark. Some days I wake up and I see the sunlight of another day, but you know what? I don't just jump out of my bed shouting that, whoo, this day is different than the rest of them. But I believe there's coming a morning for the saints of God that is going to be a day different than every other morning we have ever experienced. It's the morning when we close our eyes in this life and we awaken in a new day and a new dawning of a new day because it's something fresh. We're going to talk about Easter in a minute. We know what Easter's all about. We've heard this all our life in the Sunday school class about how it's about the resurrection of Jesus. But you know, it's the time of the year that we celebrate that. It's the events that's going on, how things were going from death unto life. We're talking about flowers and nature in itself and how it resurrects at a time, folks. Jesus gives us hope that we are not defeated in darkness, but we have the promise that there's a miraculous morning that's going to come. For those of you that are here today, I hope every single one of you can fall out of these doors and leave here today saying, you are looking forward to that miraculous morning. For some of you here today, you've got family and friends that recently, they've gone on to that miraculous morning that they closed their eyes in this life only to awaken another. Folks, if we was to close our eyes in darkness and that's all we got to ever experience, what misery we would have. But thanks be unto God that he says there that weeping may endure for a night, but the shout of joy and happiness is going to come in the morning. You know, the Germans had this idea for a long time that Easter come from the word East. You know, a lot of times our traditions are that when you go to the cemeteries, that some traditions are you face the body where it's going to rise towards the East. The scripture teaches us this. As lightning comes out of the East and heads towards the West, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be talking about how that He's going to come in the Eastern sky. Regardless of what your theories and ideas may be about this, I do want to note you know one thing. I believe that there's coming a day that you don't want to call it Easter because it comes from the East, but more importantly is the word Easter that even that we translate out means it's the blooming of something that is new. Do you know what He says when He talks about the word new? The word new, when you look at that in the Greek language, there's two major meanings in the New Testament. One of those is at the Lord's Supper, that He tells us to partake of the fruit of the vine until He's able to take it with us new in the kingdom of heaven. We see that in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea that Jesus was placed in, that it was a new tomb. Now when we use the word new in the Greek, we're talking about something like you've never experienced before. Now I want you to grab a hold about what we're about to talk about this morning. I don't know what your theory and your belief is, but I believe in a miraculous morning that we're going to wake up one day that is going to be like a day that we have never experienced. The greatest day of your life, if you want to write it down and pin the greatest day of your life, I don't know when it was, you got married, had children, the day, whatever it is, do you ever just want to savor that day and wish it could last forever? Folks, the glorious thing about heaven is, and I hope you all will agree with me, it will not end. There's no stopping it. The flip side of that and the sad part of it is the miraculous mourning for the saints of God. It's an eternal damnation for those that know not God and what they are going to have to endure. There's a man by the name of David that wrote these very verses that read to you in Psalms chapter 30. David wrote some very deeply thought-provoking and emotional scriptures when he was running from Saul. He talked about the pain that he went through. He talked about the agony of his enemies that surrounded him and everywhere he went. He talked about all of these things. But notice what he did in this 30th chapter in this 5th verse. He says, But weeping may endure for a night, but joy is going to come in When Jesus conquered over the grave and He arose from that tomb that He was in, the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, it was a new tomb and He resurrected again. And I believe the Bible teaches us He was the firstfruits of them that slept. It just simply means that He's not the only person that's ever going to rise again. I believe there are some people today that are already out of the darkness of sin. I don't know about you, but I believe if we all get personal for just a minute today, we can all admit and understand sin can cause a lot of darkness in our life. Sin can cause a lot of pain in our life. Sin causes all kinds of things. But I want you to think about the miracle that morning. The miracle of a day that no longer is that going to be that which is going to be forever, but that we have the promise of the victory of another day. 1610, I believe it was, 1609-1610, Galileo discovered what was called Venus. You see, a lot of the old A lot of the Greek gods, what they would do is they said they could see five planets, and then they saw the moon and the sun. So they started naming them after the Greek gods, and the Greek god that they were going to name with Venus meant Morning Star. Now, we're going to talk about Morning Star. That's actually in the Bible here in the book of 2 Peter in just a minute. But the Morning Star confused people for a long time, and I'll tell you why, that in the days of old it was so confusing. They didn't have the technology we had. But they would always notice. If you ever go out at night and you look at the planets that are in the sky, the planets don't sparkle, as you might say. Like the others do, they're a little more consistent. But when we're talking about Venus, the reason is there was one star amongst all the others that you may say was similar, but this one was the brightest of them all. Never should anybody say that Jesus was just another man. Folks, He was our bright and morning star. Too many people, if they go out and just look in the sky at night, they just say, well, they all look the same. There is no difference. But there's always one that is brighter than the others. See, when we start talking about Venus and the rotation that it has, and I don't want to get very scientific with you this morning, but it takes 19 months for it to make its revolution. In that 19 months, you'll see it nine months at the very beginning of a night. In the other nine months, you see it the very first thing right before the sunrise. And out of one of those months, it's going to be completely not seen. So what they started seeing was there was one star in the day that were always made a promise. That it's at the beginning of a night, for you and I, as we start getting to that 5, 6, 7 o'clock hour, you see the Venus would come out. It's called a morning star that would come out at night. And I want you to follow with me for a minute. But it's a morning star that would come out at night, but what they knew was this. That at the very beginning of darkness, there was a promise that the sun was going to come up. Aren't you glad to know right now that no matter what season you're in, that if we're beginning to see darkness, we already have the promise that the sun is going to rise? And then there's the other nine months out of the year. And sometimes it's right before sunrise. That morning star, Venus, will appear yet one more time. and it's the promise that we have been through a night, and thanks be unto God, the sun is about to rise. You know what I believe? I believe that the God of the person that's just born in this life, and they've got all their life to live, I believe they have the exact same promise that a person that's about to leave this life, that our hope is in the exact same person. They was confused. They used to think there was just two different stars. For a long time before they really got to studying out the astrology, they thought there was just two different stars. But what they later found out was, it was the same one. Do you remember what happened in the book of Acts with Jesus to sin? You know what he said? He said, why are you standing here all the day gazing? He said, this same Jesus you see leaving is the same Jesus you're going to see coming. Folks, today when you get saved by the grace of God, that same Jesus that you begin to experience sin is going to be the exact same Jesus that we shall see in that miraculous morning. Could you imagine what it's going to be like for the blind? They've gone all their life. They don't know what the color green looks like. They don't know what the color red looks like. They don't know what a sunrise or a sunset looks like. Could you imagine them putting the clay upon their eyes and Jesus wiping the clay and the very first thing they would see is Jesus? Can you imagine what it's going to be like to close our eyes in the darkness of this world only to open our eyes in that miraculous morning and no longer are we just hearing about Jesus, folks. We shall see Jesus. Here in this life, we look through a glass darkly and all that means is a mirror. You know what? You get up and look in the mirror, what do you see? You may say, well, I see myself, folks. I hope that we can see Jesus in our own selves. But you know what? One of these days, we're not going to have to depend on seeing Jesus in the lives of other people. You can't see Jesus right now, folks. It's not going to happen. You're not going to see Jesus as far as a face-to-face. You're going to see Him in the hearts of people as it comes out. But you know what? One of these days, we're going to trade off seeing Jesus in other people, and we're going to see Jesus face-to-face. Did you hear what I said today? One of these days, on one miraculous morning that we've been mayandeering for a night, but joy is going to come in the morning. I look forward to the day that I don't have to look to other people or even an old mirror myself and say, Jesus, where are you? One of these days, we shall see him. Do you think he'll be distinguishable? Oh, he tells us all about it. He says, you'll know me by the nail scars that are in my hand and in my feet. He said, I will be distinguishable, folks. I believe in that brighting morning star that we read about. In the book of 2 Peter. Let me just turn back and read for just a minute. The book of 2 Peter. Let's read if we may. One of only two places we read about this. A bright morning star about the dawning of a new day. Notice what it says here in the book of 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy where unto you do well that you take heed. and to a light that shineth in a dark place." That's what happens to sinners today, folks. You want to talk about that miraculous morning. Spiritually speaking, you experience that miraculous morning where the light begins to shine in the darkness. It says, "...a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your heart." You know, day star. The word Venus means day star. It's what it means. I'm not trying to get into the science of these things, but it's amazing how throughout the history of time, people have always believed that there was one star that shined in the sky above everything else. You may say, well, preacher, there's a difference in stars and planets. In the days of old, they used to consider everything in the sky as a star. Anything that illuminated light was in the sky. That's what they would see. It was considered a star. You see, they knew that there was one different than everybody else. Jesus was not just another human being, folks. I believe He was tempted like you and I were tempted. I believe He got hungry just like you and I get hungry. I believe He hurt just like you and I hurt. But the good thing is in that miraculous morning... Do you remember what happened to Jesus on that day when they went to His tomb? When did they go to the tomb of Jesus? It was early that next morning. It's a miraculous morning. If you remember what Jesus even said Himself, that in the book of Mark chapter 1 verse 35 it says in the early morning while it was still dark he arose and went out and parted to a lonely place and was praying there. You know today I believe that we can seek after the Lord early in the morning. I believe we can go to that tomb early in the morning. You want to talk a miracle of a morning? Can you imagine what it was like going to a tomb today that was only borrowed for a little while? In other words, nothing was permanent. It was a fact of, we are going to come out of that grave. Aren't you glad to know today there's a miraculous morning that's coming for the saints of God? Aren't you glad today to know, folks, that there's coming a day that you and I, that that day star is going to appear unto us, just like He appeared in our hearts, He's going to appear to our bodies, and we too shall rise. And you know what's going to happen? We're going to rise to the dawning of a new day. And what I mean by a new day is this, a day that we have never experienced before. A day with the Lord that says a thousand years, and a thousand years is going to be like one day. In other words, this one day that you want to capture and hold on to, folks, here's the glorious saying, it's never going to end. be your family and friends that have gone on and departed this world. You know what the difference in them and us? We're kind of on this roller coaster of life, and we're in and out, and we go through darkness and light, and the sun will come up in a little bit longer. Guess what's going to happen about, I don't know, seven o'clock tonight? Sun's going to set again. Sun's going to rise, sun's going to set. There's coming a day when that sun is going to shine, and it's never going to turn into darkness again. You know what I love about Easter? You know when Easter's decided, I'm not trying to give you a lesson this morning, you know when Easter's decided? It's the first full moon after the spring equinox comes around. When the spring rolls in, it's the first full moon. You ever been out on a full moon night? Absolutely amazing what it's like that in the midst of darkness, that there can be something that can shine so bright. It was not by mistake that Jesus rose right in the midst of all the darkness that man had ever known to give us the promise of a dawning of another day. At a time of the year when everything is lying dormant out and under the ground and we cannot see it, and in just a matter of time and the warmth and the sun, you know what happens in the days in the spring? They're getting longer, they're getting longer, they're getting longer. You know what? When God saves your soul and Jesus comes into your life, He's that day star. He begins to shine down, folks. Your days are going to start getting better and better and better. Why? They're getting longer. You're fighting against the darkness even more. And you're overcoming, you're overcoming, and you're overcoming. And you know what? One of these days we're going to get to that point where we're not going to fight that battle no more. That we are no longer going to live just in the springtime of our life. We're going to live an eternal day with Jesus. It's not a coincidence when that moon is shining in the fullness of its dark sky that man was given a hope of a light. And Jesus said, I'm not just coming to be a reflection of a light. He said, I'm coming to be that light. He said, and that light shines within all of us. This morning, I believe in a miraculous morning that Jesus rose again from that grave, and glory hallelujah, folks, I get to experience that too. You know what? There's a miraculous morning coming. People may think we're a little crazy. People may think we get a little stirred up, but you know what? I can't help but look forward to a day, a morning, the dawning of a day, something that is new like nothing else we had ever experienced. He said, and it's going to be able, to bloom, and I believe that early in the morning, it's going to be the beginning of something that's very, very magical. I want to read to you a verse found in the book of Psalms, chapter 5. Let me turn back and read for just a minute, if I may. Psalms, chapter 5, and verse 3. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning. It don't mean he's just for the mornings only, excluded for just that, but he said, Psalms 5 and 3 says, My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look Hebrews use a word in the New Testament about seeking the Lord earnestly. You know what the word earnestly means? It means early. Can I have anybody here that'll wake up early for something special? Oh, I've seen people get up early for bargain shopping, early to get the hunt in. Early to catch the fish. Early to go somewhere. We wake up early to catch something that's really, really special. I'll admit, there's times I would love to stay in my bed in the mornings, but I've learned there's something magical about getting up in the morning and letting God get involved with that particular day. Folks, when you wake from your sleep every day, you can do one of two things. You can either take off, leave God behind, You can wake up and say, God, here I am. Let's put our feet on the floor and let's walk together through this day that it holds. I don't care how good your day is. You need God in it. I don't care how bad your day is. I think we all know this. You need God in it. And that's why he's talking about here about how there's a time that they begin to seek after the Lord, and they would seek Him earnestly, and they would wait for it because it's worth waiting for, it's worth getting up for, it's worth being a little tired over for. Let me read you, if I may, even in the book of Psalms a little bit later there. Let me turn over and read you Psalms 130. And in verse 6, My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. I say more than they that watch for the morning. Some people just cannot sleep the night before because they're excited about tomorrow. You ever had one of those days? You're just absolutely beside yourself because you're excited about tomorrow. Think about that and listen to this. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. I say, more than they that watch for the morning. Today, folks, there's not an event that's going to be any greater and more anticipated than that miraculous morning when we see Jesus. There's a lot of magical mornings in this life. I will never deny that. There's a lot of things. I go to bed at night and I just can't sleep because I'm excited. I just can't close my eyes because I don't want to oversleep and miss out on what's going to happen the next morning. But you know what? All of those events may or may not happen. I'm looking forward to that one miraculous, magical morning when we see Jesus. I came across a song. Not long ago, written by Bill Gaither, partially. It says, they all walked away, nothing to say. They'd just lost their dearest friend. All that he said now was dead. So this was the way it would end. The dreams they had dreamed, oh, were not so what they seemed. Now that he was dead and gone, The guard in the jail, the hammer, the nail. How could a night be so long? Then came the morning. Night turned into day. The next verse says, now it was done. They'd taken her son. We'll talk about a dark night. Wasted before his time. She knew it was true. She watched him die too. She heard them call him. just a man, just another star, just another something in the sky. But deep in her heart, she knew from the start, somehow, her son would live again. Then came the morning. Night turned in to day. Folks, today, I don't care how dark your night is, there's a miraculous morning that's just over the horizon. There's a lot of people today that are in the darkest hours of their life. And I thank God for that day spring. If you ever remember about a man by the name of Sir Winston Churchill, if you've ever heard the Bugles play taps, you know what that means? It means it's the ending of a life, the ending of a career, the ending of a day. There's a lot of times they play taps because it's ending. Sir Winston Churchill at his funeral, he says, I want to play taps. He says, that's not the last song I want them to play. He says, I want to play Reveille. You know what Reveille is? Reveille means it's time to wake up. It's a new morning. Sir Winston Churchill wanted everybody to know that even though his life was ending in one place, his day was beginning in another. It was Reveille. It was taps to some. It was Reveille to another. For those of us that are saved, folks, I want you to know I believe with all within me. For a lot of people, they close their eyes in this life, but it is not the end. There is a miraculous morning that they are experiencing. And I think God, just like we see in all these places that we're not serving just another man, we serve Jesus. And you know what? At the beginning of every single day, every day of our life, we wake up and His mercies are renewed day by day. You know what I believe? I believe God gave you what you needed this morning. I believe that if time goes through the darkness of another night and you see the sunlight of tomorrow, I believe God will give you what you need tomorrow. But you know what? Those are day in and day out things. The night that the Lord saved my soul, folks, He gave me what I needed eternally. Eternally, folks, that one day I can close and I can lay behind all the darkness, all the sinfulness, all the wrong, all the brokenness, everything this world has. We're going to trade an end for just the opposite of that. for the glorious light of Jesus Christ. And when that light shines in darkness, folks, I don't know about you, but as a child, if I ever was afraid, you know what all I had to do was? Flip on that light. Flip on that light, and your eyes may squint, but boy, you sure felt better in the light. I don't know about you and what you feel like, but folks, I feel a whole lot more comfortable in light than I do in darkness. And that's why in this world, I do not find myself getting comfortable. in the darkness, sinfulness of this old world. But looking forward to that miraculous morning that we read about there in Psalms, where he said, weeping may endure for a night, but joy is going to come in the morning. I want to close out, kind of like what I usually begin, I want to read you now the whole chapter. It's 12 verses. David, the dedication of the house of David. I will extol thee, O Lord, for Thou hast lifted me up. Thou hast made my foes, Thou hast not made my foes to rejoice over me." In other words, He gave me the victory. Oh Lord, my God, I cried unto Thee. He didn't say You ignored me, You didn't hear me, or You had no sympathy. Thou hast healed me. Oh Lord, Thou hast brought up my soul, from the grave. You know what the word grave means? It's sheol. Sheol in the Old Testament means a place of, when he's talking about there, it's a place of the dead. In other words, Paul said, he says, you were once who were dead and trespassed in sin, hath he quickened? Which means he made us alive. Folks, he gave us life and he said, thou has brought my soul from the grave. Thou has kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit. In other words, I don't have to go down into the grave. I don't know how many of you are going to outlive me. Can I tell you something? We've got a place picked out just on the north side of Huntington right there. Kim and I are going to be married right along with a baby that's buried right in that area. My family's right in that area. I want to tell you something. If any of you outlive me, I want you to know something. That my body may go to the grave, but I promise you my soul will never be kept in that place. My soul is going to be with God. One of these days, guess what he's going to do? He's promised us about that miraculous morning. We're going to come out of that grave. We're going to be given those glorified bodies. And that's why he said, David said, Lord, You saved me from going to the grave. I don't have to worry about dying, he said. Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His. He can give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness. For His anger endureth but a moment, but His favor, His life, God, why are you punishing us with death? Why are you punishing us with the sin and darkness of this world? Why? Joy is going to come in the morning. And in my prosperity, I said, Because of this, he said, I shall never be moved. Lord, by Thy favor, Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong. Thou didst hide my face, and I was troubled. I cried to Thee, O Lord. He said, Lord, my nights got dark. He told him that. He said, Lord, I made my supplications. What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise Thee? Shall it declare Thy truth? Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me, Lord. Be Thou my Helper. Thou hast turned for me my mourning, which is a different kind of mourning. It's the agony of mourning. He said, You've turned my darkness into dancing. Thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness. To the end that my glory may sing praise to Thee, and not be silent. Oh, Lord, my God, I will give thanks unto thee forever. I want to tell you something on the cross. You and I have a wonderful presence right now. We can praise God. We get to praise him. However you want to praise him, you can testify, you can sing, we can lift up holy, whatever you want to do, we can praise him. We're going to say amen and we're going to leave and that praise may kind of subside for a little bit. But you know what's already happening in heaven right now? We wonder what's going on in heaven, don't we? I can tell you what they've already started in heaven, folks. They've already experienced the dawning of a day. We're going to go down to the night and we're going to have to rest for a little while. They've experienced the dawning of another day, folks, and they are crazy healed. And guess what's going to happen? I don't know. What's the statistics now? Every four seconds somebody leaves this world? Three seconds? Somebody else keeps going. Could you imagine how many people just have gone up just while we're here? You know what the difference is? We think that people are leaving us, but our perspective should be, Lord, how many more are you adding to your number that's there? So you see, folks, once you get into heaven, there is no leaving. That number I want to see grow. The number I don't want to see grow is the number of those going to hell. Yeah, let's not exclude that group. Heard that group too is also mentioned in the Bible. It says, hell is enlarging daily. It's sad today that there's more people going to the darkness of the day than to dawn of the day. There's more people going off into the very pits of pain and misery and sorrow than there is to joy everlasting life with Jesus Christ. Today I don't have a clue which number you're in. But I want to raise my hand this morning and say that I will be in that number when the saints go marching in. And when I close my eyes in this life, folks, I'm going to awaken to the dawning of a new day. And that will be my miraculous morning. I want to sing a song this morning if we could. That miraculous morning is going to happen because of that miraculous morning when God saved my soul. You know, March, of the year, a little after 9 o'clock, it was dark outside. But I'm not talking about the darkness of the sunlight. I'm talking about the darkness of my soul. He gave me light. You know what happened in Genesis? Chapter 1, verse 5, it says God divided light and darkness, not to give it a time, but to give it some characteristics and traits. In other words, He distinguished there's a difference in light and darkness. There is a distinguishable difference between nighttime and daytime. There's a distinguishable difference between having Christ and not having Christ. There is a vast distinguishable difference between heaven and hell. Which one are you headed for this morning as we sing this song?