Easter at Rock Point 2025 | Message

That was great. That the the the band, they they wrote that song for for for this Easter. And, the testimonies in the song are all people in our church. It's real people, real life, really here, and I think a lot of us could relate to some of those stories.

As we come to Easter, it's like, what's it all about? And I I think that song and those stories really lands the big idea of what Easter is about.

Really, what the whole story of the Bible is pointing to. Why did Jesus come? What was his mission? What was happening? And I love I wrote down the the one line in the song that I that I loved was, Jesus stepped into our pain and out of the grave so we can do the same. That's really the story of Easter.

That's why we celebrate that Jesus came on Christmas, but he died and resurrected on Easter is this idea that he stepped he's God, but he stepped into our pain. And not just into our pain. He stepped in his own pain because he was God, but he became a man.

He he became a man. Like, not just put on a man outfit costume like it's Halloween. He literally took on the soul and life and the body of men. He's still a man. That's a permanent thing he did. And so when he came into our world, he can understand us no matter where we're at because he's experienced life as a person.

And he came into our pain, and he even went through some pain. And he came to bring the life that's at the end of the tunnel.

And I know you've probably heard the light at the end of the tunnel. We didn't say that wrong. We said it that way on purpose. Because light at the end of the tunnel, if you've heard that phrase, that comes from the eighteen eighties.

Really, right about the time trains started going through tunnels and stuff. And it's it's it's really in reference to, you know what, in life, you're gonna go through a series of tunnels, dark places. Life is hard. It's difficult. It's dark. It might be scary. It might be painful. It might feel lonely.

But then you know that you keep going. Eventually, you get back out into the light again. Circumstances get lighter. They get better. So it's it's light at the end of the tunnel, which just gives a little bit of hope through life. The problem is that doesn't help us with the ultimate problem, that there is a tunnel

that all of us are in that has a big rock in front of it that we can't get past. And it also creates a problem if if you think God came to just bring light at the end of the tunnel.

Matter of fact, some of us are in tunnels right now. You're struggling right now. You're in a a time that's doubtful right now. It might be a relationship issue. It might be financial. It might be a health issue. It might be whatever it is. There might be some things that that you're sitting there and you're wondering and you're like, you know, if you're a faithful, you know, follower of Jesus, you're like, hey, where's Jesus in this? If you're not and you just got dragged here because they said no peeps or ham for you unless you come with me, you might say this is the reason I don't really trust God

is because why do I go through these tunnels? And if he really loves me, why wouldn't he take me around him? And and the problem is we need to understand why Jesus even came, that he didn't come just to give us light at the end of the tunnel.

And if that's what you think, you're gonna get really confused, and you're gonna be fearful and frustrated and angry and doubting so much of your life. But when we understand that he came to give us life at the end of the tunnel, that's something completely different. He came to give us what we really needed.

And so what I wanna do is we look at this day. Instead of jumping right into the Easter story, I wanna start a week before. And I wanna look at three tunnels that Jesus went through with us, and some of them,

it's his own tunnel, his own struggle as a man that what he did and what we can learn from that and take away and hopefully leave here knowing that we have life at the end of the tunnel. And the first tunnel is simply this,

Jesus meets us in our pain so we can overcome it. You see, a lot of times you're thinking, where is he? And why does why didn't he just take me around it? Why does he allow these tunnels? Well, he's gonna they're he's not gonna take us out of it, but he will show us the way through it.

And and he did this. And I wanna go back, like I said, a week before, in John 11, there's a story where it's Jesus' last great miracle, where he made this I am the savior. I am the way, the truth, and I am the life. And and what he did is he had a friend named Lazarus who got sick and he dies.

And Jesus goes back and he's raises him from the dead. That's the end of the story. So a week before he goes back, he's he raised him from the dead to say, you gotta understand, I didn't just come to give you lighter circumstances, the light at the end of the tunnel. I came to bring life where there's death,

something that you desperately need. And so as the story goes, he he he his Lazarus' sister Mary sends word. Your friend Lazarus, he's a friend of his, is very sick. You need to come. Jesus was only a few hours away and he didn't come for a couple days.

And then they find out they said he's dead, and his disciples say, well, it doesn't matter. We don't need to go now. He goes, no. We need to go. And they don't understand why. And he goes. And here's what happens when he gets there. It says, when Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet

and said, Lord, if only you had been there, my brother would not have died.

Now that's a statement of faith. She she believed she'd seen him do powerful things. She believed he was the Messiah. She was starting to figure out he's God. And and yet she's like, she says, and I know if you had been here, he wouldn't have died. Great statement of faith, but it's also saying something else. You ever been in a conversation where something said and, yeah, it means what it says there, but it also means something else when they say it? You know, it's called marriage. Okay? So

you'll understand it. And so basically, she might have said she said the words, if you had been here, you wouldn't be dead. What she was really saying is, where were you? Where were you? Have you been there? Are you there right now?

As a believer, if you are, are you there thinking you're going through something tough and like, where is Jesus? Or maybe you've struggled through some things. Where was he? Or maybe you're doubtful on this whole God thing and you're like, yeah, that's exactly why I have doubt. Because where was he when

I was a kid and this happened? Where was he when this happened? Where was he? What's interesting what Jesus does next, it says, when Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. He says, where have you put him? He asked them. So

he looks around and sees him crying, and everyone's sad, and he says he got angry. Is he angry at her? I don't know. Well, I actually do. But and then he says, where have you put him? He asked him. Then they told him, Lord, come and see. Shortest verse in the Bible. Then Jesus wept.

This is weird. So he's angry. Now he's crying. And then it says, Jesus was still angry when he arrived at the tomb. And there was a stone rolled across the entrance because that's what they did. They put the stone in front. You're dead. So that's kinda weird, isn't it? Is Jesus having a weird day? Does he eat a Snickers?

I mean, look. He's like she says, well, if you'd only been here, where were you? Basically, he's like he's like, I'm angry. I'm seeing everybody sad, and it makes me mad. Oh, then he's like, I don't know why I'm so sad. I was just so mad. You know what? That makes me angry again. Is that what he's doing? No.

He looked around. What he was angry at was death itself and the destruction that sin has caused, that this is not what he created us to be, and it's not what he meant. And he sees everyone sad.

And he goes, you know, death is here because of sin, and I've come to solve this problem. That's why I dragged the disciples here. You don't understand. This is why I waited. I wanna show you that death isn't the end if you know me. I am the river of life. I bring life. Where I flow, life comes. And you you believe me, they trusted him, and they were believing in him this far because he made he made sick people well. He did this. He was the God of circumstance.

He was giving them the better circumstance. He was giving them light at the end of the tunnel, but they didn't understand that he wanted to bring life at the end of the tunnel.

And so he knows he's about to heal this guy in forty five seconds, but he was mad at that whole process. And so why does he cry? Not because he's dysfunctional and has low blood sugar. He's not being hormonal. He's not doing any of that. He simply wept because his friends were sad.

He cried with them even though he knew what was about to happen. That's who Jesus is. That's who God is. And I don't know what you've learned about God or what you thought about him or what he did. He's the God that dives into our pain. He stepped into our pain and then stepped out of a grave so we can do the same,

to bring life at the end of the tunnel. Maybe you're here and you're weeping and you're mourning something and you're in pain and you're wondering if God had shown up, this wouldn't have happened. Or you're saying, I don't believe in a God anymore because this happened.

Just hear this. He meets you in the pain so he can take you through it. You can overcome it. You know where Jesus is? He's weeping right next to you.

And He wants you to take His hand so He can take you to the life that's at the end of the tunnel. Not just a light, the life. Tunnel Number 2.

He was alone so we wouldn't have to be.

This was one of the tunnels he experienced himself as a man. And it's doubly hard because he's God, but he had to go through it in real time as a man and experience the pain, the emotion, the fatigue, the frustration all on his own. It happens the night he was betrayed. He had this last supper where he tries to tell the disciples one more time,

read my lips. This is my body. It's gonna be broken for you. This is my blood. The cup is gonna be spilled for you for forgiveness of your sins. I'm going to die and I'm going to come back. They're like, they don't get it. And so then in the middle of this dinner, so not only they're not getting it,

he spent three years with them. These are the people he's gonna entrust the future mission of the what's going on to. And he says, and by the way, one of you is gonna betray me.

And here's the thing. This is the part that nobody ever notices Bible. Maybe I'm the only weird one because we're always focused on how Judah's betrayed and all that. But all of the others said, is it me?

If the if you had your 12 best closest friends, your family and friends in a room, and you said, one of you gonna betray him, and they all thought it might be them, what does that tell wouldn't you go, wait. Wait. Wait. Why do you think it would be you? What? This is your friends on this night he knows?

And here's the thing is he takes them, and it says it says in verse 36 of Matthew 26, then Jesus went with them to the olive grove, Judas has taken off to do what he's gonna do, called Gethsemane.

And he said, sit here while I go over there to pray. He took Peter and Zebedee's two sons, James and John. He became anguished and distressed. He told them, my soul is crushed with

grief to the point of death. Stay here and watch with me. Now that crushed to the point of death is true because in one of the other passages of the gospels, it shares that he actually at one point while he's praying, starts sweating blood. That is an actual real medical condition that can happen. It's very rare.

It happens when capillaries burst in in in in your forehead and it mixes into the sweat glands and you sweat blood. It's rare because it's only caused by such intense physical, emotional, psychological grief, fear, pressure, struggle, and intense anguish.

A matter of fact, they say, if you get that, you are very close to actually dropping dead just from the stress. And Jesus said, I am anguished to the point of death. He's sweating blood. That's a real thing. Why is he so freaked out? He's God. Because he chose to step into our pain. Think about how hard this was.

He knows exactly what's happening over the next few days. Exactly. Yet he has to experience it as you and I would. That would freak you out. And he says, stay here with me. Keep watch with me. He went on a little further, bowed with his face to the ground, praying, my father, if it is possible,

let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. You don't want your will to be done, not mine. So he's acting like I would. He's like, hey, if there's any other way, I would do it. But he submitted.

Just like God asked us to trust his will. And he says, I know, but he's also God. He knows there's no other way. When people say, how do you know Jesus is the only way? Because Jesus said so.

Because he actually said to the father, if there was another way that we can all know the lord, that we can have life at the end of the tunnel, he would do it. But he says, but not my will, thy will be done. He commits. He's having a spiritual battle. It's emotional battle, a physical battle.

And he's asked his friends to be with him. Then he returned to disciples and found them asleep.

He said to Peter, couldn't you watch with me even one hour? Keep watch and pray so that you will not be given to temptation for the spirit is willing, but the body is weak. Then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, my father, if this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done. Then he returned to them again, and he found them sleeping for they couldn't keep their eyes open.

So he went to pray a third time saying the same things again. Then he came to the disciples, said, go ahead and sleep. Have your rest.

But look, the time has come. So what he's saying is he came back there to sleep a third time. Three times. He one hour. That's all he wanted his friends to be there for. He is crushed. He actually told them they know who he is, and he says, I'm to crush to the point of death. Can you stay up? And they can't stay awake. They don't have time. They're too tired. They go to sleep. You know, of his original 12 disciples, there's only one of them that's still awake this whole time. You just guess which one?

Judas, the one who betrays him. He didn't fall asleep. He went off to betray him and brings people back. Matter of fact, it ends when he says, go ahead and sleep. The time has come. The son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Up. Let's be going. Look. My betrayer is here.

Think about that experience from from if you and I, if we experience that. He he he's asking these people that he's loved, that he's trusting, and and he's pointing to him. And in this moment, he's experienced this as a man, and he knows what he's about to go through, the suffering, the pain that he's about to be in.

And he is all alone in it. Oh, he's surrounded by friends. He's surrounded by people that believe in him,

but he's still in it alone.

Do you maybe feel like that? You feel alone. Right now, many of you oh, you're surrounded with people in your life, and they say they're your friends. But you might feel like you're doing it all alone.

It might even be worse. You might be experiencing exactly what Jesus is. One of your friends might have betrayed you, and the other 11 are falling asleep and not there for you. Been there? When we get into tunnels, we often get tunnel vision and not the good kind.

Tunnel vision means you're real focused. Well, when you're in a tunnel of pain, when you're in a tunnel of loneliness, guess that the only thing you can look at is

the hurt, the loneliness, the pain. Just know he was alone, so we don't have to be. And for those of you that feel alone and you're struggling, like, is God? Where are people? Where? It just feels like I can't handle this. You are anguished. You are burdened.

And I know there's some of you in this room that that's you right now. Just remember, he was us alone, you don't have to be. You know where he is if you want him to be, he's right there and he'll take your hand in that tunnel. Because he wants to take you to the life that's at the end of the tunnel.

Not just the lighter circumstance. And that leads us to Tunnel 3.

The real reason why we need him that we we can't just seek light at the end of the tunnel, that our life can't just be a cycle of that, is he suffered so we can be saved.

He suffered so we can be saved. It says in John 19, he's on the cross now. He's getting ready to die. He said some things is the last thing he says on the cross, then he gives up his life and dies. And he says, Jesus knew that his mission was now finished. And to fulfill scripture, he said, I'm thirsty.

A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a high salt branch, and they held it up to his lips. When Jesus had tasted it, he said, it is finished. Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

You realize what did he mean by it is finished and then he dies? Does it mean I'm I'm tapping out. I'm done.

No. He says he gave up his spirit. It's like he almost could have went on. He's just like, I'm done. I've done my mission. I've took on the sin of the world. I've taken this thing on. I'm done. It is finished. Not he is finished. Not we're finished. It. You know what's finished? The thing that made him mad a week ago when he watched everyone cry because Lazarus was dead.

He said, you know what's finished? Death is finished. If you want it to be finished, the tunnel that we can't get out the other side of, the tunnel called death that we go into, we're born into it because we're born into sin, a separation from God because we are not holy and perfect like God. Yes. A lot of sin happens to us, but a lot of sin is generated by us Because sin is simply missing the mark. We don't trust God. We try to make life work our own way. We go around it. We do these things, and we can't be before a holy righteous God with that. So we have a problem. So Jesus stepped into that. God himself became one of us so he could actually take our pain, our punishment, our death for us so he could go to the end of that tunnel called a tomb that Lazarus was stuck behind, he went into it and came out the other side and kicked it open

because he is risen. And what does that mean is we have life at the end of the tunnel because of what he did. And he was willing to do that for us. For us. He suffered.

Some of you are suffering right now,

and it might be you're suffering because of what someone else did just like Jesus.

And you're like, where is Jesus? You know what? He's right there in the tunnel saying, take my hand. Take my hand,

and let me take you to life at the end of the tunnel. So now we're back to the point of where we came here to celebrate. And remember, in Luke 24,

when he's resurrected, we get to the end, and we see what happens when he kicks the stone away from this tunnel. It says this, but very early on Sunday morning, the women went to their tomb,

the the taking spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. So they went in, but they didn't find the body of the Lord Jesus. As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared, their angels, with dazzling robes. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, why are you looking among the dead for someone who's alive? Then they threw a little shade at him. He isn't here. He's risen from the dead. Remember what he told you back in Galilee?

That's how I imagine I'm saying it. Like, come on. Don't you see what's going on here? And he's right. He's like, why do you not get it? Why do we not get it? He says, why are you looking for the dead among someone who's alive? I think we wonder why they would. Why do we? Why do we look for life

out there in a world that's dead? Why do we try to think our life is made up of these light moments, of these things that we wanna get? We go through a tunnel, and then we think life is really found in getting through this tunnel and then getting to that next light source,

that next lighter circumstance, that next thing that we think is gonna fix it. We sit there and we're in dark. I'm alone. They're like, you know, I wish I had I wish I was married, and then you find someone and you marry them. Then you open dark tunnel and you're like, I wish I was divorced. Then you get out of that. And then you go through a dark tunnel. I wish I had children. You have children. Then you get to another dark tunnel and you go, you know what? I wish they would move out. And then you get to the light on that one. And and and don't know, but there's so many things we do that we just think the next job, that's gonna get it. The next house. I know it's it's tough right now financially, but when I can just get to this point, it'll be okay. When I can get this paid off, it'll be okay. If I can just get to this income level, it'll be okay. When I can get to that, it'll be okay.

Why do we fall for that? Because I think we're all smart. I think every one of us knows that the natural way of this life is you go from tunnel to tunnel to tunnel, and you and you enjoy the light when the circumstances are good. But don't we instinctively know there's always another tunnel?

Why do we keep falling for the lie that says life is found in getting to that next light, that next lighter moment? That's like, that's when it'll be okay. My life will be okay. It'll be fixed. It'll be alright. Has anybody ever got there?

No. That's what Jesus meant when he said there's death at the end of this. There's a way in the book of Proverbs that seems right to man, but in the way in the end, it leads to death. We keep thinking we can find life at that next light source, that next time we get out of the tunnel, that next step we get to, that next thing we're striving for, that next thing, but we weren't meant for that.

That will never fulfill the God sized hole in our life. We were built for eternity. We were built for a relationship with the God who loves us. We were built for so much more, and we look for life amongst the dead.

We keep falling for it over and over and over and over again. And that's why a lot of people get frustrated with Jesus. That's why a lot of people in this time didn't he raised Lazarus from the dead and made some of his enemies. That's when they decided they really had to kill him. Why? Because

you know what? He's talking about all this other stuff. Our Messiah was supposed to get rid of Rome. They wanted the light at the end of the tunnel. Messiah, fix my problem right now. And he goes, no. You got a much bigger problem. You got death waiting for you. You got a tunnel that has no exit, and he came to fix it.

That's what we need. And I get it. I'm there with you guys. On all those stories on the video, I can relate, and I know you can relate too. I had one of those moments of many times, many moments where where I felt like

I had really trusted God the most with my life, did the scariest thing ever, trusted him with my family, my finances, and all of those things to come start this church twenty some odd years ago. But I had a moment in there that I wanted to say, if Jesus, if you are only here.

What I was really saying is, why weren't you here? I trusted you. And why did this happen? And I wanna show you a picture to explain it.

William k Bush, Diana Bush, that's the grave marker for my parents up at the National Cemetery. If you look at the date when they died, 01/29/2003, April 14, ten weeks. Ten weeks apart, they died. My dad died.

A few weeks later, found out my mom wasn't doing well. She went in for tests and found out real world cancer. She was dead within eight weeks of that.

That was right when I had moved with my family and two young children.

Had no guarantee of an income. Barely got the churches. One year that happened right in between My dad died just before our one year anniversary, and my mom died right after the one year anniversary of our church starting. That first year was tough. We had moments like, are we even gonna make it? What's gonna go on here? It

was hard. We're all alone. I felt alone in this. And when we moved back here, I hadn't lived here for, like, twelve or thirteen years, so I thought, you know, my kids are gonna be near their grandma and grandpa. At least we have them to help out. They lived a block or two away, and that'll be nice. But nope.

Now there's a lot of people in the church. I've had people around me, but I felt alone. And I felt, god, why is this happening? I don't even know how to I don't even I can't even describe. I almost shut down for a while.

It was so tough on me that I I mourned my mom, but I didn't really two years later, I woke up in the middle of the night screaming. She's gone, crying. My wife goes, what's wrong? She goes, my mom's dead. It I I I had the mourning for her two years after this happened because I couldn't take it. I understand.

And to make things even worse, in the middle of those two dates, my youngest daughter, Sarai, was born. So at my dad's funeral, my wife's really pregnant. At my mom's funeral, she's holding my baby child that brought more fears and questions. But ultimately, it brought a lot joy. Just like those bagpipes,

they signify some end weddings, but they're also funerals, but they're also played at weddings, new chapters, new life. My parents ended this life, but their granddaughter came into this life. But it's not easy. It's still to this day, I have to make a choice. Because if I think about it too much,

I can get really sad right now because I can go, God, why? Because as my daughter

as my daughter has grown up, she is so much like my mom. And that's a huge blessing, or it could stress me out more in all of those ways because I thought they would have been so good friends. That would have been so awesome for them to be together. I do have a little bit of a theory of the answer why.

They probably would have got into so much trouble that God would have said they can't both be together in this world because they will rip a hole in the space time continuum and end life as we know it.

But I think about those things. So how do I get through it? How do we get through it? This message I just gave. And the coolest thing I can do is look at the last line on that marker.

Says well, it's supposed to say we're dancing in the river, but, apparently, the military doesn't put any punctuation on the the grave sites.

So my sister and I laughed when we had him put that up because when we read it, I'm like, oh, man. Dad would make so much fun of this. Said some idiot's gonna come along looking at and go, this guy survived three wars, and he died because he was dumb enough to dance in a river.

Even think they put the cause of death on their thing. We're dancing in the river. That's why they're dead. Just looks like the wife was a better swimmer.

So humor helps a little bit as you get through stuff, but but that's supposed to say we're dancing in the river.

And what we meant by that is Jesus is the river of life, like I've already said. He's the one that wherever he goes, he brings life into death, and that's what he needs us to know. We don't just need light of circumstances,

lighter circumstance, better things to happen in this life. We need him in all of our circumstances to take us to the life that we need.

And so we put that on there because we had this song we sang way back there in that first year. It's not much of a song. It's more of an ender thing. It was it's called we're gonna dance in the river. And if you said that, that's the only line of the song. And we do that for, like, three minutes. You think we repeat things too often now. Back in the day, woah. It's like we didn't know what else to sing. Let's just do this for three minutes.

But it was built and our worship guy would lead it and this band would swell up and it says, we're gonna dance in the river. Yeah. We're gonna dance in the river. And then as it started to build, he would just start saying stuff like, we're gonna dance to the river of Jesus. What that means is Jesus is the river of life. And he says, we will dance with him for all of eternity. We will live in that life. We will have life at the end of every tunnel if we trust him. There is life in that. We And get to dance in the river. And the coolest thing with that is my mom and dad loved to dance. They were great dancers. My dad danced better than Travolta. It was crazy.

And they used to dance in front of me all the time to mock me because I once asked, well, dad, why didn't you teach me? Why can't I dance like you? And he goes, there's two types of people in the world. Those who got it and those who don't. Sorry, son. And

when we would sing this, my dad would bring his wheelchair in. He could still walk, but he just the plastic chairs we had were so uncomfortable that this wheelchair is more comfortable. He'd roll it in and sit in it. So I don't know if see this old man sitting in a wheelchair,

and then they think a miracle had happened because that song would come on. He loved to dance. He loved Jesus. He'd get up and start dancing. And then he'd grab my mom's hand, and she'd get up. And the two oldest people, by a long shot, were dancing while we're worshiping. Because

they love the Lord. They love to dance, and they knew what it meant. And I think back, and I go, why, God? Why? Why did I have to come out here for them to die? Guess what? I my mom was one of the first people we baptized at the church because my dad already loved the Lord, but my mom was in.

Maybe I was supposed to come here before she died just for that moment. And maybe it's okay that she only held my daughter twice

because they're dancing to the river, and they knew that. They knew that. So when I go visit them, I don't get filled with grief,

shame. I cry because I miss them. I'm crying right now because I love them, but I'm crying with hope because I know I'm gonna see them again. Because just like those angels said, when I go see them, I'm not talking to them like they're there. They're not there.

Why would I look for the living amongst the dead? They are dancing in the river together. Because they have the life that is at the end of the tunnel.

And I know that, so that's how I can get through that. You know that in your own life if you reach out to Jesus and take his hand, he is offering to dance with you. Then when you're in that dark tunnel and it's all alone and it hurts and it feels, he's sitting right there holding out his hand. You could take his hand and it doesn't matter what circumstances you're going through. You could dance in the river right now

because that is the hope. That's what he came to do. And if you just keep trying to look for the light at the end of every tunnel, you're gonna spend your life frustrated until you don't have a life anymore. So here's what I wanna do.

I think some of you wanna dance in the river. Some of you want life at the end of the tunnel. And I'm gonna pray with you, and you can have it right now. Simple. Just turn from yourself. Turn from trying to make life work. Turn from doubting God. And in the even in your darkest tunnel, just reach out and grab his hand

and say, I'm gonna turn from myself and turn to what he did for me and put my faith in him. And if that's you, let's just close our eyes. And if you want that, I'm gonna ask you to hold your hand out to him and say, take my hand. Let's dance.

And just lift your hand up right now. Just raise it if you wanna pray with me just like the hundreds and hundreds of people that already have this week. And I see those hands popping up all over. I see them.

Just hold it up. Say, yes, Jesus. I'm right here. Take my hand, especially if you're in a dark tunnel and you're feeling no hope. You got Jesus with you if you want. So just hold that hand up and just pray something like this. Dear Lord, thank you.

Thank you that even though I was just chasing life amongst the dead, doing my thing, trying to figure out my own way, being mad at you, sinning, missing what you had.

Right now, in the best way I know how I turn to you, I lift up my hand, take my hand. I want life at the end of tunnel. I wanna dance in the river of life with you. And I know that you're with me in this darkness,

And I surrender to your love because I'm sick of being alone. I'm sick of being filled with this pain. I'm sick of the struggle of of of being frustrated, being fearful, being angry, being mad at you, being mad at others, being mad at myself.

I surrender to your love right now, and help me to understand what that means. Thank you, Lord. And, God, I pray for all the hands that are up in this room.

I pray that as as the doubts come, as the attacks come, as another dark tunnel comes that starts to shift their confidence and make them be fearful or frustrated or angry or hurt,

that, Lord, whenever that happens, they will come back to this fact, this moment of what happened on this day, on the resurrection day, on this weekend,

that they will come back and know it's okay. I don't have to listen to those lies. I don't have to listen to those feelings. I don't have to listen to those fears because the cross has the final word.

That your cross has had the final word. When Jesus went to the cross, he says, it is finished. Death is finished. There is hope. There is life at the end of the tunnel. And the cross had the final word, and the final word is this, Jesus wants to take my hand, and we wanna dance in the river for all of eternity. Amen.

Amen. Church, would you stand as we worship together?

Amen. Amen. There is life at the end of the tunnel. Amen? Hey. Can we give it up one more time for all those that gave their life to Jesus?

We believe that you made the best decision of your life. And if that was you in here, please don't leave without letting us know. We wanna connect with you. The best way for us to do that is if you scan the QR code on the seat back in front of you so we can follow-up.

If you need prayer, you just need to talk to someone, our prayer room is open. It's on this side of the auditorium.

We have a wonderful team that would love to meet with you before you take off today. Also, I wanna invite you back next weekend as we launch into a new series called Rhythms of Peace, talking through how we can experience God's presence in our daily lives. You don't wanna miss it. Yes. We love coming together every weekend, but we wanna stay connected throughout the week. And the best place to do that is on our social media, or you can go to rockpoint.io

to find all our upcoming events. But guys, the celebration

is not over yet. No way. When you walk out of this room, we have so many Easter activities for you and the family to enjoy. We've got an egg maze. We've got an escape room. There's no walls, but I promise it's still really hard. So make sure you check that out on your way. Thank you so much for joining us, and have a happy Easter. Happy Easter.