Saturday was silent
Surely it was through
But since when has impossible
Ever stopped You
Friday's disappointment
Is Sunday's empty tomb
Since when has impossible
Ever stopped You
This is the sound of dry bones rattling
This is the praise make
a dead man walk again
Open the grave I'm coming out
I'm gonna live gonna live again
This is the sound of dry bones rattling
Pentecostal fire
Stirring something new
You're not gonna run out of miracles
Anytime soon
Resurrection power
Runs in my veins too
I believe there's another miracle
Here in this room
This is the sound of dry bones rattling
This is the praise make a dead man walk again
Open the grave I'm coming out
I'm gonna live gonna live again
This is the sound of dry bones rattling
My God is able to save and deliver and heal
And restore anything that He wants to
Just ask the man who was thrown
On the bones of Elisha
If there's anything that He can't do
Just ask the stone that was rolled
At the tomb in the garden
What happens when God says to move
I feel him moving it now
I feel him doing it now
I feel him doing it now
Do it now do it now
This is the sound of dry bones rattling
This is the praise make a dead man walk again
Open the grave I'm coming out
I'm gonna live gonna live again
Open the grave I'm coming out
I'm gonna live gonna live again
Open the grave I'm coming out
I'm gonna live gonna live again
This is the sound of dry bones rattling
Dry bones rattling
Hello and
happy Easter.
Happy Easter 2021 April 4, Easter.
Here
we are.
It is great.
Great day.
You know, I'm looking forward to. Tell me. Cadbury eggs.
I just I'm just saying praise God for Cadbury eggs.
That's what I'm talking about.
Thank you Lord.
They're going to go on sale tomorrow.
No.
No, you can
bring them on in.
In fact, that's going to be Todd's Focus on the Fort for this
month. It's going to be Cadbury eggs.
I am just kidding. I am just kidding.
My wife
hates those things. That's all right.
We'll just eat her portion.
I loved every and I love jelly beans and I love like the
Reese's. Reese's egg.
I'm just all about the food at Easter.
Yes, Lord.
We love you Lord and hey a big welcome.
Yes, By the way we have things we have to do.
Yes, we do.
Welcome to anyone whose brand new with us today.
Happy Easter.
So so glad that you're here actually the challenge for you if
you want to tell them about challenge.
Yes.
Yeah.
It's called a three-point challenge we say hey check us out
three times pray and listen and see if this is where God is
asking you to grow spiritually.
We don't be in charge of it we want God in charge of us
wel just pray and speaking of prayer.
Yeah, you can take that communication card.
You can flip that thing over you.
You can write down a prayer request.
Let us know. What do we do with those prayer requests?
We pray over them.
Listen, we are a Church that believes in the power of prayer
and it just like he said on the connection card
there's a place for you to put your prayer request and be
specific.
I want to see any anonymous things going on.
I want to be able to pray for you by name and if you need a
Pastor to reach out to you this week, let us know on that
same
card of communication.
How can I find a communication card?
Yep, so it's at ThePointeChurch.net/Connect and we just
get those in our email each and every week.
So again love for you to go ahead and do that.
Exactly.
That's really all. I mean, that's all we have.
I'm really glad to be back. You know with me a hot minute in
like a month because you got tried to vote me off the island
and then Chris and I did it last week because I was like look
Deanna
I got voted off.
I heard y'all try to vote me off.
So now old teams back together again,
welcome back to you.
Right, welcome back.
Good
I just pray.
It's
okay.
I'll do it Father God.
Thank you for today.
Thank you for Easter and the resurrection and the power that
that
the Sunday brings Lord and the energy that the Holy Spirit
has just given us today Lord.
We thank you for your sacrifice.
We thank you for your power.
We thank you for the resurrection again, Lord.
I just ask a special blessing to everybody watching right now
that you would use this time to just impact their heart and
the best way God leave us change today completely undone and
change all to bring you glory.
We love you so much in Jesus name.
Amen.
Amen.
Hallelujah You have won the victory
Hallelujah You have won it all for me
'Cause death could not hold You down
You are the risen King
Seated in majesty, You are the risen King
Your Name Your Name is victory
All praise will rise to Christ our king
Your name Your name is victory
All praise will rise to Christ our king
By Your spirit I will rise from the ashes of defeat
The resurrected King is resurrecting me
In Your name I come alive to declare your victory
The resurrected King is resurrecting me
The cross has the final word, the cross has the final word
Evil may put up its strongest fight
But the cross has the final word
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
Glory glory hallelujah Jesus You are good
The tomb where soldiers watched in vain
was borrowed for three days
His body there would not remain
Our God has robbed the grave
Our God has robbed the grave
The cross has the final word
The cross has the final word
The Savior has come with the morning light
The cross has the final word
The cross has the final word
The cross has the final word
He traded death for eternal life
The cross has the final word
Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its' grip on me
You have broken every chain,
There's salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Death could not hold You, the veil tore before You
You silenced the boast of sin and grave
The heavens are roaring the praise of Your glory
For You are raised to life again
You have no rival, You have no equal
Now and forever, God You reign
Yours is the Kingdom, Yours is the glory
Yours is the Name above all names
What a powerful Name it is,
What a powerful Name it is,
The Name of Jesus Jesus Jesus
What a powerful Name it is,
Nothing can stand against
What a powerful Name it is, the Name of Jesus
What a powerful Name it is, the Name of Jesus
What a powerful Name it is, the Name of Jesus
Have you ever played the teenage game Truth or Dare. You know
when you play Truth or Dare most people pick dare because you
know, they don't want to face the truth.
They know if they choose truth what are their friends is
going to ask "Who you'd secretly like to kiss?" or "What's the
grossest thing you've ever done or some crazy thing?"
So you say dare give you the dare because you'd rather be
dared to lick the carpet or you know, jalapeno and deal with
the fallout of truth.
Well, this Easter Sunday, I've got three dares for you, but
they're not from your friends know these three dares come
from God himself the very first of which comes right after a
few followers of Jesus found his tomb empty on that first
Easter morning. An angel appeared to these shock followers and
says, this is Mark 16-6.
"Don't be alarmed."
The angel said "You're looking for Jesus the Nazarene who was
crucified.
He has risen!
He's not here.
See see the place where they laid
him."
This is dare number one.
It's a dare aimed right at your mind.
God dares you to intellectually consider the facts of the
resurrection.
Now, what do I mean by facts?
Well, let me give you three facts for you to consider. First.
Why did Jesus death launch the most explosive religious
growth in history?
Is he at this time in history
there were dozens of movements led by men claiming to be the
messiah, but in nearly every case the leader was killed and
the movement fell apart.
Everybody went home.
It was over except this one.
This one has grown to be the biggest faith on Earth how? Well
the Christian Church says that when the leader of this
messianic movement was killed he rose from the dead.
That's why the movement exploded in growth.
No, I accept it many people don't buy that I mean, but if
you're among those that don't buy it, here's the intellectual
challenge.
Why did this one little movement among all the others explode
in growth?
I mean, how do you explain that like intellectually, here's
another many people believe the Bible is just legend and
myth, but if you think it legend, how do you explain that
when Mark wrote about the resurrection that he listed the
names of the women who saw Jesus empty tomb three times in
eight verses and Mark 15-40 15-47 16-1.
Barkless Mary Magdalene Mary the mother of James and Joseph
and Salome.
Hey, here's the mind challenge.
Why did Mark record the names of three women three times?
You say well, maybe it isn't much to say, you know, what Richard
Berkman a professor at Cambridge an expert in
ancient history geography says Marks inclusion of
eyewitnesses is evidence that the resurrection is true
history.
See if you're writing a legend.
You don't need witnesses.
You're just making stuff up but ancient historians included
eyewitness reports because you know you walk over to their
neighborhood and cross-examine them.
So by putting their names down Mark was saying all you want
to check the truth of my story talk to these three women go
talk to him
no corroborate everything
I say. In fact in the slam dunk evidence of why these three
women matter comes from a critic of Christianity from the
pagan greek philosopher named Celsus who lived 80 years after
Jesus died Celsus argued
he said this "Christianity cannot be true because the written
accounts of the resurrection are based on the testimony of
women" and he says "We all know women are hysterical."
I mean, that's what they thought back then they thought the
women a testimony of a woman cannot be counted because it's
got an emotional base.
That was their thinking now think if Mark made up the
resurrection story, would he put women if that's what they
thought as the only eyewitness has to it?
No,
the only possible reason women are listed is eyewitnesses
is that the women actually saw Jesus
in other words
this cannot be legend.
It must have happened the way that Mark recorded it or
Marks account of it.
It could exist.
But Ray you say, you know, hey, I mean with the Bible people
like non-scientific.
I mean
like I mean, they could believe in a guy rising from the dead
but I mean, this is 2021.
I mean that can't be true.
Well thank with me Mark records Jesus
prediction about rising from the dead three times Mark 8:31
Son of Man will rise from the dead after three days
Jesus said Mark 9:31 after three days
He will rise
Jesus said. Mark 10:32
Jesus said "They'll condemn him to death and they'll hand him
over to the Gentiles who will mock him and spit on him
flog him and kill him at three days later
he will rise.
So friends, here's the intellectual challenge.
Why
why did Mark tell us three times that Jesus said he'd rise
on the third day? I mean,
why is this even a detail in the story?
I mean cause there's a really odd thing that happens on the
third day
that doesn't fit into a perfect story.
Three times
Jesus says he's going to rise in the third day.
But on the third day
oddly his disciples don't show up.
Okay, except for the women
nobody shows up.
Why because nobody expected a dead guy
to come back to life I mean you think if your
Mark trying to write a believable account and you write
down three times that Jesus said to his disciples that he
rises on the third day.
Why why why once Jesus is killed and buried do you not add some guy
to your story who says to the rest
"Hey guys, it's the third day.
Maybe we ought to go take a look.
I mean wouldn't you go look, I mean, he said third a third a
third day.
I mean he's dead.
It's the third day.
Well, maybe we could take a look, but they don't in the angel
calls him out on it this verse 16:7
He says "There you will see him. just as he told you." In
other words the angel like hey, Jesus like told you
The disciples heard it three times,
but they didn't think that it could actually happen.
Think
why would Mark wright that
I mean if he made the story up he wouldn't but he wrote it
because it happened.
He wrote it even though in their worldview
it was impossible, you know to the Greeks back then salvation
was a soul leaving a body not a body rising from death.
They had no concept of that
and you know, we don't either in our culture
we don't expect a guy like to rise from a funeral casket, you
know, my friends the other day we're talked about what we
want said at our funerals and one friend said well, "I want
people to say I was a great husband and father"
and another one of my friends
he said well, "I want people say that I live life to the
fullest" and then they turn to me and they said Ray when
people see you in that casket.
What do you want them to say?
I told him I wanted to say "Hey, he's breathing!"
you know, we laugh because that's unexpected and nobody back
then expected
anyone to rise from the dead
so why bring this up?
Well, you know, I bring it up because
we're often chronological snaps when it comes to history.
See we file the resurrection away as myth because we think
people back then were privative.
We think we're smarter.
We can't believe in that stuff.
Listen, they couldn't believe in it either.
They had no concept of a resurrection.
Not one disciple went to the tomb on the third day
it was an impossible for them to believe as it is for you.
Yet
they believed it.
Why? Because they had the intellectual integrity to let the
evidence trump their worldview.
Do you
this is the intellectual dare you either believe in the
resurrection?
You better figure out
some alternative explanations.
That's their one.
The secondary is in verse 7.
The angel says go tell his disciples and Peter "He's going
ahead of you into Galilee. There
you will see him just as he told you" This is there to it's a
dare aimed at your heart.
God dares you to receive his grace, you know one verse we've
got two outpourings of Grace first it consider what Jesus
didn't say here.
He didn't say tell those faithless backstabbing cowards that
they better apologize to me if they want me to reinstate them
into my movement.
I mean if our friends let us down like Jesus friends
let him down we be saying like hey you backstabbers if you
repent I might forgive you,
but, you know, Jesus flip that he says look I forgive you.
So it's possible for you to repent
Jesus flip that and that's Grace and there's an even bigger
dose of Grace
consider who Jesus mentions.
Remember?
He says go tell his disciples and Peter.
Why does he call Peter by mean?
That's Grace.
See if Jesus is message has just been well tell the
to meet me.
If that's the message that the group heard.
Peter would have said well, "Hey, you know you guys go ahead I
can't mean me I mean not after what I've done" remember what
he did?
He denied Jesus three times, but Jesus specifically includes
Peter and Peter ends up being the leader.
Why well, it's Grace since Peter sin was the biggest his
repentance will be the deepest
so his grasp of Grace will be the greatest
which means Peter actually has the most qualified person in
the group to lead the movement.
I mean, that's just Grace at work.
See we think salvation is for people who are morally strong
yet
Peter is morally weak.
So if we're right Peter's weakness hurts his chance at
salvation yet
God says that's not how it works.
He says for it is by Grace you have been saved through faith
and this not from yourselves.
It is the gift of God not by works so that nobody can boast.
See God says that turning to him makes you stronger not weaker,
but we don't like admitting our weaknesses and we like to
blame our failures on others.
But if you let your failure drive you to Jesus then weakness
become straight you become both humbled and boulder at the
same time and nobody else can do that for you
but Jesus. Friends, I'm convinced that the biggest repenters
are the best leaders the best counselors the best parents the
best children the best everything and I know that's upside
down from the way that our culture sees it but that's why
this is dare are aimed at the heart because until you can
admit your failure
you can't ever understand how much grace has been poured out
to you.
You could do focused on trying to make up for your mess ups
with your good stuff.
For example, if you were hauled into court sentence for
robbery and you went to jail, once you completed your
sentence, you'd walk out of prison as a free man because your
sentence was satisfied. Friends that's what Jesus did he went to
jail for you paid the penalty for you.
It was a huge sentence, but Jesus must have satisfied it
fully you know why? Because on that first Easter Sunday
Jesus walked out of the prison of death scot-free. God stamp
paid in full right across history and Jesus walked out free.
Friends.
God dares you to receive his grace.
His grace is evident what he said to his disciples.
It's evident in the very calling of Peter and if you'll
let him it will be evident in you.
Now, if you let God's mind dare challenge your worldview
and if you let his heart dare soften your attitude, there's
one more dare that will reshape the way that you live.
It's found in two words at the start of verses 6 and 7.
It's don't be alarmed but go don't be afraid of the risen
Christ
but go and tell everybody that you know that he's risen don't
be afraid
He says go.
This is dare 3
It's a dare aimed at your feet.
God dares you to go on mission for Him and His amazing
missional dare will give you freedom from the world
and freedom for the world.
Let me explain why is it hard? For you
and I to face suffering and disease and death.
Why is it hard to face the cost of doing the right thing?
Let's hard because we think this world is the only one we get
but the resurrection dares us to consider that not only will
we get back what we lost in heaven, but we also get back
what we've never had.
I heard Joni Eareckson speak and Joni had an accident at age
18 left her paralyzed from the neck down and she said that
every week at church when the priest asked everybody to knees.
She couldn't do it.
So every week she left church in tears because all the church
did was reminder that she was in a wheelchair but one Easter
when everybody went to their knees she decided to pray from
her wheelchair and she realized in the moment of that prayer
that one day because of Jesus resurrection
she too will rise and when she gets to heaven the the first
thing that she'll be able to do on her new legs is dropped
down on those glorified knees and worship before the
feet of Jesus.
She says I'll be able to kneel and then she said once I kneel
and worship, I'm going to get up on my feet and I'm gonna
dance, you know in her talk that day
she said, can you imagine the hope that the resurrection
gives to someone with a spinal cord injury like me or to hope
that it gives to someone who's manic-depressive or to someone
who's friendless and alone
no other
religion no other philosophy of life makes such a promise
only Jesus does
see if you know that this is not the only world the only body
the only life that you'll ever have
then well who cares what people do to you.
So I like playing Call of Duty with unlimited lives.
I mean who cares if you shot or blown up
I mean, you're gonna spawn again somewhere so you can be
brave.
You can make risky
you can face the worst thing even life in a wheelchair with
joy and with hope so first this mission will dare gives
you freedom from the world and then it gives you freedom for
the world.
What do we mean by freedom for the world?
Well, every other religion offers an escape from Earth your
soul goes off to Heaven you go to another realm of
consciousness, but the resurrection proves God loves this
world.
He wants to save soul and body so Easter proves that God he
must hate disease and poverty and hunger and death because he
hates them we work against them.
I mean, that's the reason The Pointe Church does so much for
the poor and the hungry in our city and our globe because
Easter means this world matters we're free from the world for
the world.
Let me sum this up.
Do you believe that the first Easter that it really happened
do you think it's all this like nice symbols and stories
and if you think that that is symbols, how do you explain
that the early church going out to the cities and the crowds
of the poor and the enslaved and speaking to them.
Do you think they preach that the resurrection was just a
symbol of good over evil.
I mean just a story.
I mean, can you imagine the slaves on the poor the city
saying wow, you know symbols and stories are just what I need
to lift me up out of the grind of poverty and oppression.
No, of course, they didn't preach that symbols and ledges
they don't change lives.
No, the first preacher said we saw him we touched him we have
proof that the power of God has come into this broken world
and that someday God will put everything right
so be filled with hope because the same God that brought
Jesus back to life can bring your relationships back to life
your finances back to life your career back to life your
hopes back to life and one day even your body back to life.
Hey, let's pray together.
God.
We thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for Easter and today if you want to experience
Easter personally in your soul
you just say to Jesus Jesus, forgive me for living my life
without you. God come into my life today.
I believe in Jesus dying on the cross rising from the dead
and today I put him in charge of my life.
I'll take the dare to my mind to my heart to my feet.
I want to celebrate Easter today for the very first time.
So we pray it in Jesus name.
Amen.
Hey friends.
Thanks for joining us this Easter Sunday and Happy Easter
from The Pointe.
Amen Pastor Ray love that Easter message.
Thank you so much.
And if you prayed right now to start a relationship with
Jesus for the very first time wow, like this is an amazing
moment
and we really really want to celebrate it with you.
So let us know hit up that connection card to tell us or give
us a shout in the chat box.
Okay.
I remember doing the very same thing that you did and I was
profoundly excited and profoundly unsure of what to do next
and even saying the name Jesus was weird to me
so I just want you to know I've been where you are and it'll
be really good to celebrate and help you take your next
steps.
If you're brand new with us also today
let us know that as well.
We have a free gift for you just for being you and for you
being here with us.
Give us a shout out on that connection card or again in the
chat box below and let us know how we can get it to you.
Okay, the dare series y'all I hope that you've been enjoying
it if you want to catch up on anything that you may have
missed you can do it on our website at ThePointeChurch.net
or on YouTube Facebook and the Instagram platforms.
It's just nice to catch up or re-watch something right and
totally feel free to share the service with somebody else.
It's really cool
just to see how like you're sharing and like showing love to
someone just by clicking share and inviting others to hear
the same and encouragement that you just hurt and as always
we've made giving super duper easy.
If you're wanting to partner with The Pointe Church
financially head over to ThePointeChurch.net/Give on
that website, you'll be able to give by credit or debit or
text the number below to give with that text to give option.
Go ahead and give it a shot.
Whichever way you choose online text or in person at one of
our in-house services
we are so grateful to be able to partner with you to carry
out the mission of
helping people find and follow Jesus Amen. Don't forget to
like and subscribe to all the platforms
I mentioned earlier
Happy Easter everybody.
He is risen indeed keep the party going in the chat box and
throughout your whole day.
I'll see you back here next time.
Bye.
