Yeah, happy Easter, Southland Howard. Will you ready to go?

Ready to go this morning? Hey, let's do this. Let's pray. And then we're going to get into this.

So pray with me. Father God, we are here for you. We're gathered here today for no other reason,

not just to celebrate who you are and what you've done, but to experience and participate

in life-giving resurrection. Father, that's who you are and that's what you've done and that's what

you are going to do. That's what you're about. And so we are here to be a part of that with you.

Would you tune our ears to your voice today as we dive into your word? It's in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. If you got your Bibles with you today, we're going to be in two places. We're going to be in Psalm 90 and John 20. And I bet you could guess your keyword for today. It is Easter. All right. So go ahead and head there in your Bibles, write that down in your journals. That song we just sang is a great

song, and I have a lot of affection for it for a lot of reasons that we'll get to. But like most

great songs, it has a great story behind it. It was really the anthem of an entire generation.

Now, I could take us down quite the rabbit hole today, talking about all the different

anthemic songs of different generations

that are represented in our church because we're a multi-generational church but suffice it to say

that all of those anthems and songs are just newer versions of a song that came out in 1939

called Somewhere Over the Rainbow. You all know it. It transcended the movie that it was

released with. And if you think about when it came out, it makes perfect sense. I mean, this was

the heart cry of a generation that was leaving behind the Great Depression, but heading into

World War II. So no wonder they were longing for a better place and a better time somewhere

over the rainbow. It tapped into their souls. That's what good songs do. I've been re-watching old

episodes of the show Cheers for some strange reason. And I have very vague recollection of that

from when I was a kid. If you're my age or older, you may not remember the show much, but I bet you remember the song. The song was all about a place,

a bar where everyone knew your what name, where everyone knew your name. You see, it doesn't

matter if you're talking all different genres of singers and songwriters and rappers and rockers. It

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