Easter at Rise 2026 | Pastor Adam Peterson

I wanna look into the camera and welcome our online family that is joining us. We have so many people that watch us week in and week out, and for whatever reason, you cannot be here in person. Maybe it's a health issue. Maybe you don't even live in Jacksonville, Florida. So many of you follow us and you are our church family extended, and so we're so grateful for you. Come on, can we make some noise for our online family? And then you may or may not know this, especially if you are new to our church, but every single weekend, we stream our church services into hundreds of prisons across the country. And so, come on, to the men and women in the correctional facilities, we're so glad you're here. Come on, let her know. Happy Easter. You are our church family. We love you so, so much. Thank you for all of you that are writing in letters, man, just letting us know you're with us. We're so grateful for you. Today, Easter, I wanna teach on this idea that there's some decisions that we need to make in our lives. And we're gonna talk about a very important decision and we're gonna get there in just a little bit,

but I was reading on the internet, just kind of preparing for this message, and I found this article that says that you and I, I don't know how they figured this out, but it says that you and I make 35,000 decisions every single day. Now, that kind of blows my mind, but it also does kind of make sense a little bit. Some of the decisions you're gonna make in your life are extremely important, more important than other decisions. How many of you would say the person you marry, that's a pretty important decision? Come on, the friends you associate with, that's a pretty important decision. I heard a pastor say, show me your friends and I'll show you your future. That goes for teenagers and adults. Come on, the job you work in, that's an important decision. And for all of you that don't like your job, you know exactly what I'm talking about. How you spend your money is important. How you maintain your health is pretty important. There are some decisions that are more important than others, but then there's other decisions that you're gonna make in your life. They're not more important, but they're pretty important. And so you're at Rise Church this morning. We're gonna have a little bit of fun,

loosen everybody up this morning. I'm gonna put two pictures up on the screen and you've already decided what type of person you are. We're just gonna have a little bit of fun figuring out who you are in the room. So here's the first one right here. Some of you have decided that as soon as your gas tank gets about halfway, and I know gas prices are a little touchy right now, but the reality is some of y'all have decided when it gets about here, that's when I'm gonna stop and I'm gonna fill back up again. Go ahead and raise your hand if that's you, you've made that decision. All right. How many of you would say, they put it here for a reason. I'm just gonna take it all the way. Come on, raise your hand proud. Yes, yeah. We are all judging you right now. We're all judging you, but we're grateful that you're here. You need Jesus, and so we're glad you're at our church today. Your best friend, if you have a newer car, is that gas light that comes on now. Your even better friend is that thing that says, 10 more miles until empty. Come on. Now my wife figured out, you can actually go all the way to zero. She took a picture.

Zero, zero miles left. On 295. I don't, one, I don't know why she's on 295 taking a picture while she's driving. Judge her all you want. And she's on zero, and she's like, look, I'm still good. If that's you, and you run out of gas, you better have somebody in your life that loves you. And my wife has me. I love you so much, babe. It's gonna happen one day. It hasn't happened yet, but it's gonna happen one day. Come on, here's another one. Some of you have already decided what type of person you are. There's a reason why they call this man's best friend. And there's a reason why the Bible, maybe you haven't read this, it's in here, that the Bible talks about the pits of hell and the demonic forces that have come out of it. This is not an AI image, people. That's real life right there. How many of you decided I'm a dog person? How many of you decided I'm a cat person and I'm greatly offended? I'm gonna offend you a lot more, so don't worry about it. Here's what I'll say about your beautiful cat that you love. If it was this much bigger, it'd kill you. And it probably already has tried to. All right, now this last one,

this is probably what I would consider a major decision. Okay, like you need to figure this out. Some of you have already decided. Are you team bangs or team mullet? Okay. How many of you put it on the proper way? It goes over the top. Do we have any psychos in the house today that just under? Come on, that's okay, that's okay. Here's what I would say to you if you put your toilet paper on like this. Here's all I'm gonna say. We're probably not the church for you, okay? And we're just not, and we bless you. We bless you to go find another church. And we're just, it was a good ride. You made it here for a while and it's time to move on. I mean, as a matter of fact, I was just at a hotel. I'm just teasing, man, yeah, yeah, you're good. I was just at a hotel last weekend. I was out of town at another church ministering. And in the hotel I was in, they had it like this. And I took it off and fixed it for them. I was like, Hampton Inn, I got you. This was a mistake, obviously. I actually walked into my kid's bathroom the other day and they had it upside down. And I was like, I am failing as a parent. What is happening? We gotta figure this out.

And so this is the only proper way to do it. And you know, just get your heart right with the Lord. Decisions, 35,000 decisions. You're gonna decide where to eat today. You're gonna decide what to eat. You're gonna decide how much to eat. Some of you are gonna hide Easter eggs for the kids in your family. You're gonna decide, am I gonna make it easy or am I gonna make it really challenging? Some of you are gonna decide, am I gonna hide the egg so hard that even I forget where I put it? Some of you have decided to put chocolate in the Easter eggs that you're hiding. That's a rookie mistake, because that chocolate's gonna melt while it's in the Easter egg. And then when the kid opens it up, they're gonna have chocolate all over their fingers and then it's gonna get on their Easter clothes. That was a mistake. Still time to fix it, though. Some of you are gonna decide right now in this moment whether you're gonna listen to me preach today. You're gonna make a lot of decisions in your life. What we believe here at Rise Church, based on what God's Word says, and this is a beautiful book full of hope and promise, this is truth, that the greatest decision

that you and I could ever make with our lives is simply this, to make Jesus the Lord of our lives. And here's the reality, you ready? You're the only one that can make that decision. I can't make it for you, your friends can't, your family can't, no one can. You're the only one who can. And if you're sitting here and you go, well, what does it mean for Jesus to be the Lord of my life? Here's what it means. It means that he has supreme authority. So you have a decision in your life. Is Jesus gonna be the Lord of your life? Meaning this, are you gonna let him call the shots? Are you gonna let him be in charge? Are you gonna follow him? Are you gonna let him be the supreme authority who has the final word, the final say in your life because his way is better? Or are you gonna be the Lord of your life? Are you gonna call the shots? Are you gonna have the final say? Why, because you think you know what's best for your life. And I don't mean to offend you, but let me look you in the eye right now. You don't. You do not know what's best for, you might think you do, but I promise you, you don't. So I wanna preach today.

We got a lot of people in the room, people in overflow, a lot of people watching online. I wanna preach to three different types of people here today. First and foremost, I wanna preach to the follower of Jesus. This means you have already called upon Jesus to come into your life, to be your savior and your Lord. You had a moment where you realized I'm a sinner and I need Jesus and you called upon him and he has come into your life. Come on, I know you're pumped to be in the house today celebrating our resurrected savior. And the sheer fact that you didn't all clap tells me there's some of you that don't know him yet. So glad you're here. Which brings me to the second group of people, people that are far from God. Here's what I would say to you. You have maybe done life your own way your entire life, whether you're a teenager or you're a grown adult. And here's the really good news. God's not mad at you. He loves you. Matter of fact, he created you. The only reason you're here is because he breathed life into you. He formed you in your mother's womb for the sole purpose of having a real, authentic relationship with you. And if you would be here today and you go,

well, I don't believe in him. I don't want a relationship with him. He wants a relationship with you. He wants to be the Lord of your life. And he has brought you here to church. It's not an accident that you're here. You're like, well, I don't even wanna be here. It's not an accident, we got you here. Somebody bribed you, like, I'll take you to lunch. We will use bribery at Rise Church, let's go. We actually encourage it. Just take him somewhere good to lunch. Listen, we're so glad you're here. I hope that you hear how much God loves you and how much he wants a relationship with you and he wants to be the Lord of your life. The third group of people I wanna talk to is this one. It's the person who thinks they are a follower of Jesus, but they are not following him. Therefore, by definition, are not truly a follower of Jesus. See, I can say all day long that I'm a follower of Jesus, but if I'm not actually following him, am I? Am I truly a follower of him if I keep doing my own thing and going my own way? And so if that's you in this place today, and you're like, yeah, I'm a Christian, are you truly following him? And here's my prayer. that you would have a moment where you're honest

with yourself today. And you would say, I've been claiming it, but I'm not actually living it out. And that today would be a day where God wakes you up and you go, I need to resurrender my life back to him to be everything. Because here's what the message of Easter is. Say it with me. Jesus changes everything. Everything. Meaning this, when you encounter Jesus, you don't walk away the same. We sang it in one of the songs earlier. I don't walk like I used to. I don't talk like I used to. I am a different person. When I encountered Jesus, everything changed for me. I'm so grateful that God rescued me from who I was to make me who I am today. I'm not where I wanna be, but praise God, I'm not where I used to be. And God's not done with me. He's not done with you. When you encounter Jesus, he changes things. I don't know, we got a big room again. People from all different walks of life. Maybe you've never been to church. Maybe you don't know anything about Jesus. Maybe it's been a while. Let me remind you who he is.

He is the King of Heaven. He's the Son of God. He's the Prince of Peace. Meaning he will bring peace to any storm that you're walking through. He is the Good Shepherd who wants to lead your life and he is a miracle worker. When Jesus walked this earth, read about it in the gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, when he walked this earth, man, he said things that people had never heard before and he did things that people had never seen before. One time they brought a guy to Jesus and they're like, Jesus, this guy can't hear. Jesus was like, now he can. Jesus, this guy can't see, now he can. Jesus, this guy can't walk, now he can. Jesus, these thousands of people, they're hungry and they don't have any food. He goes, now they do. Hey, Jesus, this guy's dying, now he's not. Hey, Jesus, this guy's actually dead, not anymore. Jesus, this guy's got some demons in him and it's freaking us out. No, he doesn't. Because when you encounter Jesus, he changes everything. And Jesus himself said these words, this is why he came to earth. For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost. That means it doesn't matter what your past is, it doesn't matter how broken you are,

it doesn't matter how rebellious you've been in your life, you are never too far gone for God. He has come not to beat you up, he has come to rescue and save you and give you a better life. We call that the pity applause. We call that the, hey, that's pretty good, I guess I'll put my hands together for that. Listen, we're in an Easter crowd. Can I tell you something? Sometimes it's tough preaching to an Easter crowd, man. Because some of y'all look like you could not be more thrilled to be here this morning, others of you look like you could care less that you're here. You're like, I'm only here because somebody made me, I didn't even get to pick out my own clothes today. Hey, can we get a little excited this morning? Yeah, man, let's do it. Yeah. Woo! Woo! Woo! We're not a hype church, like I'm not trying to hype you up, I'm just trying to let the joy of the Lord be released in your life because of how good God has been to you. And if you've never experienced the goodness of God, I understand why maybe you can't cheer and you can't clap. It's my hope today that you would experience

the goodness of God and you go, oh, I understand now why everybody's clapping in this place. I wanna get in on that. Here's the message of Easter. Jesus died for our sins. Woo! Which is great news for every one of you in here because you're all sinners. And he died for you. Oh, that's the message. It's not that he's mad at you, he didn't come to get you, he came to die for your sins. Just as the scripture said, he was buried, come on, he was raised from the dead on the third day. Woo! This is it. We couldn't get to God, so God came to us. Jesus gave his life for us on the cross. Second Corinthians says this, that God made him, Jesus, who had no sin, to become sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Here's what that means. God took our sin and he put it on Jesus. God took Jesus's holiness and righteousness and he put it on us. It's the great exchange. It's a gift. You can't earn it, you don't deserve it, but the moment you call upon him to be your savior and Lord, he goes, woo!

Forgiven, all sins washed clean. Even the worst thing you've ever done, completely forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ. And again. You have to decide. Do you want him to be the Lord of your life to do that in you? Or do you wanna continue to be the Lord of your life? I'm gonna show you a video. We use it all the time around here just because it's hilarious and fun and it just hammers home the point. This is what it looks like for you and I to be the Lord of our lives. I know what's best for our life. I know what's best for our life. No, you don't. We think we do, but we don't. And if we keep living that way, we're gonna find ourselves in places that we never wanted to go down and it's gonna wreck our lives and it's gonna probably wreck other people's lives. The Bible tells us clearly that the enemy is out to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus is out to give you life. And some of you just keep going the path of the enemy and it's destroying you and others. And Jesus is like, what are you doing? I got something better for you.

You make a terrible Lord of your life. Get off the throne and let me sit there. Romans six. Says, don't you realize that you actually become a slave to whatever you choose to obey. So whatever you keep following with your life, it's actually gonna enslave you. You're gonna be trapped in it and you can be a slave to sin. And here's the reality, it leads to death. Oh, this sin, it's not that big of a deal. Yeah, it is. Or you can choose to obey God. You gotta decide though. And if you do, it leads to righteous living. Meaning the goodness of God is gonna flow out of your life. And for some of you, you are trapped in some sin right now. You're enslaved to it. And it's taking you down paths right now that you'd ever thought you would go on. Or maybe right now you think it's not that big of a deal. Let me tell you what it is. This is called a story of sin. Oh, this is cute, cute, cute. And then it kills you. That's what sin wants to do. That's the enemy. We do not live in a spiritually neutral world. We have an enemy who hates you. The devil is real.

He doesn't want any good thing in your life and he will use sin and temptation to destroy you. And if you are the Lord of your life, you're gonna live a lifestyle of sin. And can I say this for you? Because I know this to be true in my life. Sin is rooted in selfishness. Sin only thinks about yourself. Let me put it like this. When I'm the Lord of my life, my mind is only set on sin and anything that can bring pleasure to me. And I don't know if you lived that way before Jesus, but that's how I lived. When I'm the Lord of my life, I'm not thinking about God. I'm sure not thinking about others because I'm only consumed with myself. I'm not thinking about how God could use me to make an eternal difference in other people's lives. I'm not thinking about that because sin is rooted in myself. I'm only thinking, what can I get and how can I get it as often as possible? But when Jesus is the Lord of my life, when he's the Lord of your life, then I'm thinking, how can I honor God with my life? This is my life right here. For 17 years, I was the Lord of my life. When I called upon Jesus, I said, I've ruined and wasted 17 years. God, for the rest of my life, I will follow you

and as best as I can, I will honor you with my life. I'm not perfect, I get it right some days, I get it wrong other days. On the days I get it wrong, aren't you grateful for grace, mercy, and forgiveness of God? Come on, but when Jesus is the Lord of my life, come on, I start thinking about others. When he's the Lord, I'm filled with hope, I'm filled with peace. Man, I know I got a purpose in my life. When I am getting Jesus as the Lord of my life, I actually open my heart and my eyes to see hurting people around me and wanna help make a difference in their life. I know my life has meaning because it's not just about me. It's God, how could you use me? I grew up Southern Baptist. Anybody grow up Baptist, any Baptist in the house? Yeah, yeah, any recovering Baptist in the, yeah, let's go, let's go. Y'all liked the hymns, y'all all loved the hymns, everybody else was like, what's a hymn? Here we go. Growing up Southern Baptist, there was this question that always got asked, always got asked, it's a good question. The good question is simply this. If you died tonight,

do you know where you would spend eternity? It's a great question because what it does is it puts things into perspective, telling you, we're not promised tomorrow. And do you know if you died tonight? It's a great question. I actually think I came up with a better question though. No offense to this question. I have a different, I wanna phrase it a little bit of a different way. Can I share it with you? It's simply this. What if you didn't die tonight? What if God actually gave you 10, 20, or 30 more years to live? And I phrased it, it like this, because some of you, let's just be real. You're old, so you ain't got 30, all right? You got about 10, and just being real, praise God. Hey, you live those 10 years to the glory of God. He's not done with you. So what if you didn't die tonight? What if God looked at you and he's like, I got 10, 20, 30 more years for you to live? Let me ask you this question. Would the way you're living right now make any eternal difference in someone else's life? Like literally, if for the next 30 years, nothing changed how you're living right now, would you impact anybody?

And some of you, man, you are selling yourself so short because you think in your mind and in your heart, I don't have anything to offer, and you couldn't be more wrong because there is a God in heaven who, one, loves you, created you for a purpose, on purpose. He sent his son, Jesus, to die for you so that you could have a relationship with him so that he could live in you and so that he could use your life and leverage your life to advance his kingdom. And I'm just telling you, what would it look like for some of you who have been the Lord of your life, doing your own thing, making no difference in other people's lives, to go, God, if there's something better, then use me. And I'm telling you, if you would surrender your life to Jesus and call upon him to be the Lord, your life would turn from going one direction towards him, and you would start to see the kingdom of God advancing. The devil himself would look and go, what's happening? I thought he was on our team. And then all the angels of heaven go, he was, she was, but they woke up that God's a better Lord than you are and they are. And now, here you are. And you were running from God, but now you are running towards God

and you are storming the gates of hell and the kingdom of God is moving forward and you're bringing as many people with you as possible. You're a light in the middle of darkness and you're gonna follow Jesus and you're gonna follow him and you're gonna run after him and then you're gonna breathe your last breath and you're just gonna keep following him for all eternity. That's God's will for your life. Flip side's also true. You're walking away from God. You'll keep walking away from God. You'll keep walking away from him. When you breathe your last breath, you're just gonna keep walking away from him for all eternity. And I love you too much. And if that truth hurts you a little bit, I love you too much to not tell you the truth. I'll give you a verse and I'm gonna have Pastor Jonathan come up and kind of pluck on the guitar so it kind of softens it a little bit because this is gonna be a little intense. Matthew seven. This is the words of Jesus. He says, not everyone who calls out to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my father in heaven will enter.

Meaning it's not enough just to call him Lord in your life. Yeah, he's Lord. What does it mean for him to be Lord? It means he has supreme authority. So you can say he's Lord, but not live like it. And in that moment, Jesus is saying, call me Lord, but your life doesn't reflect it. You say that I'm, well, Jesus, I went to Rise Church Easter. I sang the songs. I put some money in the offering. I prayed a prayer. I went down to the altar. Listen, praying a prayer is awesome, but that doesn't make you a follower of Jesus. That doesn't make you a Christian. Praying a prayer is where it starts. Then it's every day you keep saying yes to him. So saying yes to Jesus is not a one-time moment. It is an everyday decision of, not only am I calling upon you as Lord now, but I'm calling upon you as Lord every day of my life, and I'm doing the will, and I'm surrendered to you. That's what it means to be a follower of Jesus. And I think sometimes, come on, we're in the Bible Belt South, though. Well, I prayed a prayer when I was nine years old. I went down with my grandma, whatever, and I'm good. And I'm good. That's not what Jesus says. I'm not trying to scare you.

I'm not trying to put any fear in you. I'm just trying to preach God's truth to you that wakes up your heart. Because God has so much more. Because the reality is, Jesus says this. He's gonna look at you in that moment. And he's gonna go, but I don't know you. Because your entire life you walked away from me. So I would say like if your whole life here on earth you wanted nothing to do with God, why would you want him in heaven? That God will just let you keep doing what you want. He's not gonna force anything on you. It's a decision that you have to make. Do I want the greatest gift ever in my life? He says, get away, I don't know you because when you lived here on this earth you didn't obey me. You just kept breaking my laws. You kept doing your own thing. So glad you're here today. Some of you need to make a decision today.