Why the Resurrection of Jesus Matters | April 20, 2025

Super good news.

Welcome to Easter Sunday,

resurrection Sunday.

The place where death dies, right?

Oh, death.

Where is your sting?

Hell, victory.

I don't think so, right?

Church.

Oh, church come stand.

I don't know.

Dance leap in the light.

'cause the glory of God

has defeated the night man.

Trampling over death forevermore.

Easter's an interesting time because

it's a season that a lot of us know

and a lot, uh, familiarity perhaps, but

man, there's some important stuff to

talk about and to celebrate on this day.

This word night is an interesting thing to

throw into the equation because darkness

is a big piece of what we talked about

here together on Friday night, that Jesus

is brutalized and that his blood is poured

out, his body is broken as a payment

for us, and we celebrate that good.

Know that Great Friday where

Jesus rescues all humanity, but we

leave Friday night a little sober.

But we did say it's just

that to be continued, right?

Because Sunday morning, Easter

morning, Jesus is nailed to the cross.

Friday night endures all of

Saturday and then before the light

breaks on Sunday morning, not 72

hours, but three official days.

'cause he had to, he kicks

open the tomb in triumph over

death forever for all of us.

And the story of Easter is

a really important story.

And, uh, I was talking to this

girl that keeps hanging out

with Josiah a lot lately, or

maybe it's the other way around.

I can't tell for sure.

Uh, we were talking about Easter the

other day, and, and she was saying

something to the effect of, like, at

my church that I went to a while ago,

the pastor was trying to get cute.

He was trying to bring a fresh angle.

He was trying to kinda reinvent the story.

And then as only can be said by a girl

in college who's dating your daughter,

she said, just tell the story, man.

Oh, sorry son.

My bad.

That's a different story.

Remind me in a minute, it'll tie in.

Okay.

Um, the story of Easter, we

call it the good news, right?

The gospel that Jesus came to save.

Our sons and daughters, let's say that.

But it's a very, uh, interesting time

to preach because here's the trick.

If you've been around the church

much, you know the story of Easter,

you know it inside and out, I could

probably call on random people to

come stand up here and tell the story.

So we have people who know the story

like crazy, and then we have people who

maybe haven't been to church in a long

time or kind of vaguely remembered, or

maybe it's the first time and they're

like, what story are you talking about?

So it's a really hard Sunday to preach

'cause you got people on both the

ends, but nobody hanging out in the

middle with me where it's fun, right?

So I'm at a, I'm at a i I loss.

Do I have Drake come up and

preach on Easter Sunday?

That would be awkward, but

he sat in the front row.

So I think he wants to, and I

could get out of this suit, right?

Okay, fair enough.

Fair enough.

Hey, I'm gonna talk to you

about the Easter story.

You know why?

Because it's really important.

For thousands of years, Christians

have gathered and they have

celebrated the resurrection of Jesus.

And they've recounted the events

and the story of Jesus and his

death and his resurrection.

And listen, I wanna just say this to you,

and I say this to people in my classes.

I say it everywhere I go.

If you can make the resurrection

just some sort of hoax, some sort of

fancy fairytale, if you can discount

the resurrection, you can throw

Christianity in the toilet, flush it.

It's gone.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Christianity hangs on it, and there's

some amazing arguments to be made for it.

And there are no alternatives to why

the people who had Jesus publicly

executed, put him in a public place

and then couldn't produce a body.

While this huge movement sprang up

for generations, there's a lot of good

arguments for why they couldn't do some

alternative to the resurrection of Jesus.

There's nothing there but lies and

deception for those who would not believe.

Jesus took his body.

He walked out of the tomb risen forever.

And we can put our

faith and trust in that.

But this morning, I wanna talk

through this story a minute with

you, and I want to begin in the

dark at a garden with Jesus.

Because we read that Mary and Joseph

come early in the morning to the

tomb to put some spices or some

burial, ointments on the body of

Jesus, and they go to the garden to

try to find the tomb in the dark.

Where's Jesus?

But I get way ahead of myself.

That's not really where we start,

because where we start is in the

dark with Jesus and a garden.

It was dark and God

said, let there be light.

In over six days, God demonstrated

his ridiculously awesome power to

create land and sea and plants.

The amazing expanse of the universe,

feeling the earth or feeling the water

and feeling the sky with incredible

creatures that could swim and could fly.

And then on day six, creating mankind

and animals, he creates land creatures.

And then he says, let us

make man in our image.

He creates man on day six.

Now, you may be like, why are

we talking about creation?

Well, because I want to tell you

the good news story of Easter,

and this is where it begins.

It doesn't begin on a cross.

It doesn't begin on a triumphal entry.

It begins in a garden

in the dark with Jesus.

John says this in the first

few verses of chapter one.

In the beginning was the word, and the

word was with God, and the word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

Who is this word?

Well, John says, it's Jesus.

Jesus was there.

Come let us make man in our own image.

Jesus, the author of Life.

Through him, all things were made.

Without him, nothing was made.

That's been made in him was life, and

that life was the light of all mankind.

The light shines in the darkness, and John

says, the darkness has not overcome it.

The Easter story starts in the dark

and God said, let there be light.

And Jesus was there in the dark.

The Author of Life himself, and Adam

and Eve are placed in a garden, a

perfect place where they get to hang

out and be in relationship with God

and they make a choice

to rebel against God.

And he says, don't eat from the tree

of the knowledge of good and evil.

You can do anything else

you want, but not that.

And our great great, not so great

grandparents, Adam and Eve made a

choice to sin against God and to

rebel against God's instruction.

And in so doing, they create this

mess for us that now we get to be

born into a human race marred by sin.

They're cast out from the

garden and from God's presence

because of their sinfulness.

And you and I can disagree on

whether ancestral or family lines,

sin kind of stuff seems fair.

I mean, we didn't do anything.

And I'm with you.

I get it.

I feel some of those feelings.

But you and I also have our own

personal sin problem with our Holy God.

God gave us simple things

like 10 Commandments.

Like don't steal, don't lie, don't covet.

We do a lot of that

stuff pretty much daily.

Sometimes every one of

us has made choices.

To break God's holy law.

And in so doing, we're not just guilty of

ancestral sin through Adam and Eve, we're

guilty of our own personal sin before God.

And see, that's what Easter's about,

because if we don't have sin, then why

in the world did Jesus come and die?

If we don't have sin, why do

we celebrate a risen savior?

Why didn't he just show up

to a parade to start with?

See, you and I had a sin problem.

You and I, if we don't know Jesus, have

a sin problem that separates us from

God, A perfect God and sinful humanity.

And the Easter story continues through

the line of Adam and Eve as Cain

their son, murders, his brother and

mankind begins to slip into deeper

and deeper and deeper darkness.

So much so that God is sad that

he made man scripture says.

That the sinfulness and the wickedness

is just always evil all the time.

Trying to invent more and cooler and

more exciting ways to do horrible stuff.

And God says enough and God brings

a worldwide flood of judgment

to destroy humanity and life

and really rip the planet apart.

But the story of Easter stays afloat,

pun intended, with Noah, his three sons

and their wives, and the animals on the

arc, rightfully maybe called an arc of

salvation, where all humanity is saved

through Noah, this one righteous family

who says, even though the world around

me is a dumpster fire, I'm gonna, I'm

gonna follow God and I'm gonna try

to walk in righteousness before him.

And God honors that.

And the story of Easter continues

to build up at the Tower of Babel as

mankind defies God's directive to spread

out around the world and instead start

building towards the heavens to say,

Hey man, we're gonna be as great as God.

And so God disperses them all over

the world in different languages.

And the story continues in a place called

Irv the Chaldeans, through the meanderings

of a guy named Abram that would later

be called Abraham, who had faith in God.

And God credited to him as righteousness.

And through his family line, he

promised to bless all of humanity.

The Easter story takes an interesting

dive from this area of the promised land

down to Egypt, where Joseph is enslaved,

he's almost murdered by his brothers,

but instead sold into slavery and.

God had a plan and a purpose for him

in Egypt where he rises to second in

command and he makes a way for the

Israelites to survive the famine,

and he brings his family down and he

foreshadows a bit of the deliverance

that will come through the Messiah.

One day.

Jesus and the Easter story endures some

hardship and difficulty in this land of

Egypt after Joseph's death when a Pharaoh

comes to power who doesn't know Joseph and

enslaves the Israelites, and they suffer

and they're miserable and hopeless and

despairing feeling as though this promise

of hope one day has faded into the dust

and the clay bricks that they've made.

But God raises up a deliverer

named Moses who goes to Pharaoh and

through some amazing, miraculous acts

plagues, God allows the Israelites

to escape the clutches of Egypt.

But hot on their heels,

they face the Red Sea.

But the Easter story passes through on

dry land through the Red Sea, though the

Egyptian army was drowned behind them.

And the story continues wandering through

the desert by God, leading in a pillar

of smoke cloud during the day, and a

pillar of fire at night as God patiently

endures, wandering with people who

struggle to be obedient and faithful,

and ultimately a generation dies away.

But his promise of a Messiah and of hope

and of some restoration to this huge mess

from the garden still remains in play.

It takes on more clarity as we talked on

Friday about this idea of the tabernacle

and temple worship and God's design for

how an unholy people could approach and

have access to a holy and righteous God.

The idea of the Lamb of Atonement

suffering and having to die and

there to be death and blood as a cost

and a payment for sin, which seems

so horrific to us and all the P to

people we just don't understand.

And yet the price of sin is so severe.

The wages of sin, scripture says is

death, but the free gift of God is

eternal life through Jesus Christ.

The story of Easter begins to march

around the walls of Jericho and into the

Promised Land as God brings his people

to a place to set up shop as his people

to be a light and a beacon into the

world of the truth, through the cyclical

mess of repentance and obedience, and

then failure and disappointment and sin.

And then back to forgiveness or repentance

and forgiveness again, this cycle in

the Book of Judges in the period of

time where the Israelites continue

to sort out what it looks like to be

obedient to God, they listen sometimes

to the messages of the prophets about

this hope that Easter is about this

good news, this gospel that there would

be a Savior who would come a Messiah.

They listened sometimes, not too

well, sometimes not at all, but

there was a thread of hope running.

It made its way to a young shepherd

boy and his songs filled the

pastures where he watched sheep.

Songs of this coming Messiah

hymns of this day of celebration.

When the Israelites would experience

salvation, this young shepherd who had

a heart after God was anointed early in

his life as the future king of Israel.

He fought giants and

became the greatest king

in the history of Israel.

Save one.

And God promised that through

his descendants there would be

a deliverer, someone would come.

And the story of Easter lives on

through the period of the kings and

watches as they unravel in disobedience.

And in between the Old Testament

and the New Testament, we have a

period of silence where it feels

like God's just kind of gone dark.

And for 400 years, no prophet

brings a message, no glimmer of

hope for the people of Israel.

A wondering if perhaps God was done,

but in a little, tiny,

insignificant town called Bethlehem

under the cover of Knight.

Back to the dark, if you will.

God sends his son Jesus as a little baby.

Perhaps the greatest covert rescue

mission in the history of mankind

slipped in, in the form of a small child,

the perfect lamb of sacrifice,

the savior of the world,

and the enemies of Jesus, and

the enemies of God want him dead.

And so the Easter story meanders back

down into Egypt and out of Egypt.

Scripture says, through the prophets,

I called my son and he returns after

those who wanted the child dead.

Were gone to a place called Nazareth

and scripture says Jesus grew in

favor with God and men, that he

became strong, that he became wise.

And as he grew, he honored his family

and he honored his father until the

day that he became the Jesus we read

about in scripture all the time.

The one who taught, who preached,

who did miracles, Rickles who came

to, to proclaim the kingdom of God,

to all those who are waiting, and

all those who were just confused.

He came to love and to point the way,

but he didn't really come just to preach

or to teach or to do miraculous stuff.

Jesus came to pay a price for us.

Jesus came for a transaction

because the Easter story.

It is about the darkness in the garden

and Jesus being present, yes, but man

choosing to rebel against God and sin,

and now to be separated for all eternity.

And whether or not you like the

story or you think it's a fair

system, it just doesn't matter.

God is so clear that our sin

equals death and separation.

And for generations, people tried

to be good enough to get to God.

They tried to be impressive

enough to get to God.

They tried to be rich enough or successful

enough or anything enough to get to God.

If you look at religions today,

around the world, every religion

around the world is this crazy intense

effort for mankind to get to God.

And Christianity is the only religion

in the world where God came to us.

And that's what Jesus did.

That's what Easter, this

celebration, this weekend is about.

Good Friday literally is about

Jesus making good on our debt.

Good Friday is a debt consolidation for

all eternity, where you and I couldn't

pay enough, couldn't do enough, couldn't

be enough to be forgiven by God and to

be made right, and to experience eternal

life or any of the things that we hope

for and talk about because our sin

separated us from God and Jesus on that

cross took all of our sin and all of our

shame, and he owned it once and for all.

Like we talked about Friday in the book

of Hebrews, that he became the one time

one sacrifice all people everywhere,

that anyone who had come through him.

Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth

and the life, and no one comes

to the Father except through me.

I am the gate.

I am the door.

I am the way.

Early followers of Jesus

weren't called Christians when

they hung out with each other.

They were called followers of

the way, followers of Jesus

who followed through Jesus into

life, everlasting life, abundant.

And if all Jesus did was come and die

on the cross and pay the price for our

sin, but he himself lay trapped and

entombed in darkness and in hopelessness.

Well, he read it to us outta Corinthians,

we are to be pitied more than all men.

See.

The church understood that if Jesus

was just a great teacher who died.

And that was the end of the story,

and we were wasting our life doing

all this other stuff, trying to be

good and trying to love our neighbor.

Well, what's the point

of any of those things?

If Jesus is still dead in a tomb,

the resurrection is the proof.

It's the stamp, and it's the

victory over death and sin.

It's the good news that Jesus rose from

the dead and has the power, the keys to

death and Hades to unlock eternal death

for all those who would come to him.

He gives us the

opportunity to be restored.

You and I, scripture says, slaves

to sin, no currency we have that

could pay the price for our freedom.

But see, Jesus traded out spots with

the two people back in the garden.

Who chose to rebel against God and

were cursed and faced eternal death.

But God said, I'm gonna send my

son my one and only son, that

whoever would believe in him would

not perish, but have eternal life.

Jesus came and He paid the price for you

and for me that we could be forgiven.

The story of Easter is

some crazy good news.

It's great news.

It's the gospel message, the good

news that you and I who had a death

sentence that we couldn't fix or give

an opportunity to come to Christ,

to confess with our mouth that Jesus

is Lord and believe in our heart.

God raised him from the dead.

To confess with our mouth isn't

just to say this word, Jesus Lord.

The confession is a public statement of

acknowledgement that says, Jesus is the

Lord, that He's my Lord, and my actions

and the way I walk and the way I live are

a reflection of him being Lord in my life.

And to truly believe in my heart.

God raised him from the dead, not to

believe that he was a good teacher and

not to believe that he had good principles

and not to believe that he was a good man

who taught stuff, but to genuinely believe

in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That there's no body.

There's no bones in some crypt, there's

nothing anywhere that can be used as

evidence for the death of Jesus in

the tomb because he's just not there.

He's alive and because he lives,

he gives us the opportunity.

To live as well.

That's some good news.

That's some really good news.

So here's what we're gonna do

is we wrap up this morning.

Rusty's gonna sneak up here with

his guitar, and we're not gonna

do some big heavy thing at the

close of our service this morning.

Most of you probably

know the Easter story.

Some of you, if you only make it to church

every so often, you're probably like,

when am I gonna hear a different story?

That's fair.

Totally get that.

But maybe it's the story that really

matters the most because it's the story

of life or death, and we choose it.

I'm gonna pray for us for just a moment.

Rusty's gonna play a little bit of music.

We're not gonna sing or do anything crazy,

but I wanna invite you in this Easter

service this morning to take a moment and

reflect on these truths of God's worth.

Where do you fit in the Easter story?

Are you somebody at the foot of the cross

jeering at Jesus and saying, that's silly.

Are you somebody hiding in a

room somewhere trying to protect

yourself and avoid fear and anxiety?

Are you one of the disciples who's

running to the tomb in hope, in

anticipation that there's life?

Are you like Thomas, who said, I'm not

gonna believe unless you show me some

scars because I just can't accept it?

Too much of a skeptic.

Here's the cool part.

Jesus knows you.

He loves you,

and God's word says that the cross is

foolishness to humanity, but it's the

wisdom of God for those who know him.

This is the truth.

And one day every knee will bow and every

tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Every one of us will stand before the

throne of God alone, not surrounded

with our buddies and friends,

not our parents, not our spouses.

And we have to answer for this truth.

Do we know Jesus?

And if you don't know Jesus as your Lord

and Savior, it's not a complicated task.

It's pretty simple to choose to confess

our sin, to confess him as Lord.

The hard part is to follow Him as Lord.

And that follows 'cause You can say a

quick prayer and go home and do whatever

you want, but Jesus calls us to be people.

Who choose to follow the way to

surrender to him as Lord of our life.

We confess our sin to him, and he promises

to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And as we confess him as Lord, and we

follow Him as Lord and the belief in

our hearts that he was raised from the

dead, it'll transform everything we do.

If I make no mistake, it's not

a trade for something dark and

negative or boring and miserable.

It's a trade from walking to the execution

chamber, walking into the freedom and

life and hope that awaits those in Jesus.

So I invite you to bow your

heads with me for just a moment

and to close your eyes and

think on these truths.

And ask God where you

fit in this Easter story.

Lord, there's a lot of us in this

room here today and so cool that

you know each of us inside and out.

You know what we're thinking right now.

You know the things we're wrestling with.

You know the things that hold us back

from surrendering to you as Lord.

And you know the things that we're

scared about and nervous about.

And Lord, you know, the things that

we struggle with trying to follow you.

Thank you that you love us so much.

And Jesus, I pray in this moment here that

you would take your finger and you'd just

poke us in the heart or maybe punch us in

the heart with the truth of where we fit

in your story, the most important story.

And God I pray in this moment, if there's

someone here who doesn't know you as

Lord, someone who feels like they're

not worthy and they're not good enough,

just wipe all that outta their

minds Jesus, and open the door

for them to reach out to you

to say, I confess you as Lord, and I

believe that you were risen from the dead.

Please save me.

There's no more profound

prayer on an Easter morning.

Jesus.

And for those of us who know this

story inside and out and could have

stood up here and told it better

pray you'd help us to take that confidence

and go to work this week and tell the

story where it probably matters more,

where people really need

to hear the good news.

Thank you that we serve the risen Savior.

That's your name we pray.

Amen.

If you took a few minutes to reflect

on that stuff a little bit and talk

to the Lord about it, I want you to

know that he was here and he heard

you and he hung out with you in that

space, and I'd love to talk to you,

maybe answer any questions you have or.

Just hear that God's doing

some good things in you.

It's encouraging stuff, but maybe I'm not

the person you should talk to about it.

Maybe you should tell one of

your friends who's here with

you that might even be better.

Jesus loves you and he is risen.

He's alive forevermore, and we

celebrate that on this Easter morning.

That's why we dress up in these

ridiculous clown costumes and try

to have a little fun at church.

Well, I got two boys in here

who are gonna come join me.

Josiah and Jed, why don't you

sneak up here, if you would,

because as we wrap up our time

together this morning, on this Easter

morning, there's a few things that,

uh, I feel like we should get Josh

and Noah up here too, don't you?

Yeah.

Hey, Josh.

Noah coming up here if you would.

So, yeah, so these are

my, uh, handsome sons who.

We're stuck in a bad spot

this week because I was like,

Hey, we should all match.

See?

See it all match.

You see this lot?

Yeah.

It's pretty legit.

And then Josh and Noah happened to stop

at the store to drop Jed off and Josiah,

and they got some pretty stylish bow ties.

So these guys are gonna grab that mic

right over there and let you know about

some stuff going on because Easter

feels kinda like a culmination of things

and it is kind of a celebratory vibe.

But man, there is so much going on

that you do not wanna miss because

you get a chance to be part of a

crazy group of people trying to

follow this Jesus who is Lord.

So I should probably say this 'cause this

would be too awkward for you guys, right?

You wanna just say, give us your money.

Awkward.

That's true, right?

Hey, uh, tithes and offerings

are available in the back.

If you're here all the time, you know it.

If not.

It's still there.

There's a little QR code.

You could do some digital stuff.

Uh, I don't want you to feel like

you can't give money to the church.

That's fine.

'cause we're gonna put it to use, trying

to share the gospel with lots of people.

And if you're a first time guest with

us and you didn't get a chance to

catch a guest card on the way in, you

can click onto this digital thing.

I waited till the end today to put this

up because I thought there's probably

people who are like gonna fill it out

at the beginning and then they're like,

oh wait, that guy's jokes are lame.

I'm not doing it.

So just trying to have integrity here.

You don't have to fill it out

if you don't want to, but we

love to stay connected to you.

And now from our four person quartet.

Go ahead guys.

You got this upcoming events.

The Easter egg hunt was yesterday.

If you made it out.

Woo-hoo.

Let's go.

Oh my gosh.

Let's go guys.

Oh, it was super fun.

A lot of crazy kids there running around,

picking up all these Easter eggs and

some great helpers who came out to help.

So thank you all for that.

Thank you.

Yes.

Super great.

Now, Jed would love to talk

about this Wednesday night

women's group second and fourth

at 7:00 PM Super excited.

Uh, Saturday, April 26th.

Is that next week?

Yeah, next Saturday.

9:00 AM 12:00 PM Are we, we're

accepting donations now this week.

Yeah.

After, after church.

If you're not too dressed up

and you wanna stack some chairs,

you're more than welcome to help.

We're gonna empty all this space outta

this room, fill it to the max with all

kinds of donations, and get people from

our community in here to, uh, bless

them and try to love on them a little

bit so you can start donating tomorrow.

Woo woo.

All right, perfect.

Uh, coming up this summer, we've got,

gotta hold that real close, Josh.

Sorry.

Oh, my bad.

There you go.

Bow tie gets in the way.

I totally get it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Coming up this summer, uh,

we've got a 2025 summer study.

Uh, it'll be from June 9th to August 15th.

Um, it'll be a 10 week

Bible study, I believe.

See Debbie Bush the for

the details on that.

And this is a kid's study right

through five to 18, 18, 5 to 18, five

to 18, ages five to 18 years old.

You're 19.

You study the Bible on

your own, you're out.

Perfect.

All right.

Now we got men's retreat from

May 2nd through the fourth.

Woo.

Oh yeah, let's go guys.

It's gonna be a lot of fun.

It's somewhere in Ohio.

I already forgot the name.

Good's good.

We'll make it to Lima, Ohio.

Eventually on the first night

we'll go back to wherever it is.

Yeah, about a half an hour for the

rest away from the campground we're

staying at and all those plush cabins.

We're gonna start out at the dirt track

in Lima, which is gonna be awesome.

We get to some pit pass fun,

and then we're gonna have an

awesome weekend celebrating some

cool things that God's gonna do.

Hey, uh, along those lines.

A t-shirt order goes in tomorrow.

So if you're thinking of going like

20 guys I just talked to in the lobby.

Oh yeah, I got it.

Just make sure you jump online

and get signed up so I get you

otherwise, oh look like, yeah,

I'm right there with the QR code.

Fantastic.

Jed, keeping with the

theme women's retreat.

Yes.

The 16th to 18th.

And I don't think y'all are

gonna go to a dirt track.

You might.

I'm not really sure.

I'm glad you didn't get this one.

Uh, you three is gonna be super fun.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Josh Hale will be there.

Yeah.

As of right now.

And that's all I know.

Um, I hope all the youth go,

uh, Hey, which retreat up

there didn't have a QR code?

Did you tell?

The youth retreat.

Oh, youth retreat.

All right.

Okay.

So if you want to go see Josh Hale.

Perfect.

Hey, another QR code.

Josh.

Hey, we've got two QR codes on this one.

Yeah,

uh, we got PBS this year we're gonna be

doing the Knights of White Rock serving

the king from July 21st, 22nd, and 23rd.

Yeah, we haven't brought that back

since 2014 and the last time we

had some huge castles in here.

A catapult, a lot of problems,

but our insurance has changed

since then, so we should be clear.

It's gonna be super, super great.

Alright.

Hey, big round applause for these guys.

Thanks so much for helping

me out with this fellas.

Appreciate it.

So, hey, thanks for being a part of

celebrating the Risen Savior today.

Easter is a super fun time

to celebrate the good news.

And man, if you know the good news and

you live in the good news, make sure

you're sharing the good news because.

Well, it's good news and

everybody needs to hear it.

Love you guys.

Have a great week in the Lord and

we'll look forward to seeing you

at one of these upcoming events.