4 Ways to Make Easter a M.A.D. Launchpad

Jesse:
Hey folks, Jesse here, producer for Go Mad. We have Ron Hutchcraft on the show today to help us get ready for Easter. Ron, Brad, and Doug discuss how this holiday is not just for us.

It's for those who have yet to start a relationship with Jesus. Easter is a perfect opportunity to help the people in your life experience the hope that you have. During the podcast, Brad mentions a free resource called 72 Hours That Rock the World.

This is a fantastic tool that can help you share Christ at this time of year. If you'd like for us to send you one or multiple copies, email us at gomadshow at hutchcraft. com.

Ready? Let's go mad.

Brad:
Welcome everyone to another episode of Go Mad with Doug and Brad. If you haven't joined us yet, this show is all about helping people make a difference and be ambassadors. For Christ with the people around them, the people we care about, the people you interact on a daily basis.

And today we have a special guest that's going to be joining us in just a minute, but we're going to be sharing simple steps. to make Easter a life-giving opportunity for those you care about and a launch pad for the rest of a make a difference year. Yeah, because we're here and all the time you hear Hey, invite a friend to church, invite a friend to church.

That's really good. We're gonna talk about that. But we want to help this to be not just a moment in your year But we want to help this be something that launches a great conversation with people you care about because guess what?

We are Easter people, the tomb is empty, and we love to talk about Easter. He is risen.

Doug:
He is risen indeed. Now I just have the weirdest feeling, Brad, that today we're gonna explore four ways to make a difference in the life of someone who needs Jesus this Easter. I If I'm not not mistaken, that's in our future today.

Brad:
With our special guest who is joining us once again in studio. The man himself, Dad, Ron Huxkratch. Hello Hey, Dad, you know Happy Easter.

Doug:
Mom and Dad made a big deal of Easter growing up. I mean as as early as I can remember we were hearing throughout the house on Easter morning. He is risen and we were answering back he is risen indeed.

We do that with our families. We had some great Easters. Uh had one strange Easter morning.

Actually, I think it was, I think you and mom kind of keep the focus on Jesus on Easter morning. I think it was Saturdays, we would do this kind of you know, looking around for candy the the egg hunt. And so we were down at the Jersey Shore actually and we got up and and we were like, All right, let's go look around and We noticed outside there was a bunch of different uh colored yarn that was strewn about the back Yard area and literal so each youngster apparently had been assigned a color, and you were to follow the color.

And I mean talk about a cheat fest. You just followed this thing and it would bring you to the the chocolate bunny or the peeps. or whatever and I was that was the easiest.

That was really pathetic, but I I did find all the candy. I didn't realize until years later what the deal was. I'll tell you what it was.

I was like, Dad, what was what was going on there? And he said, well, Doug, if I'm being honest with you, you're old enough to hear this now. Oh boy.

I was mowing the lawn um a few months after Easter and the the lawnmower stopped. Something had hit the little um blades underneath. It turns out Dad had run over an enormous chocolate bunny that I had somehow missed And it wasn't the first time apparently I'd missed it.

So their idea this time was we're not taking any chances.

Brad:
You know, that may have been the reason. It could have been also that Doug would repeatedly accidentally trip me and steal all my candy. And mom and dad wanted to make sure that no I was amazing.

Doug:
It's amazing how much you can make people slip if you put those peeps right right on in front of 'em. You stretch 'em a little bit, they trip.

Ron:
I think it was uh project uh it was protecting from hijacking of one uh well I mean wow what a way to celebrate Easter. Get your siblings candy. That's not right But the now with the grandchildren, you know, on on rainy Easters, we do it in the house and now guess where I find Easter candy Two or three years later well, I think it was Easter candy.

It is now morphed into an intermediate life form. I'm not sure what it is. Now it's the vacuum cleaner, not the mower.

Brad:
So Jesse, I just have to ask, uh did your parents ever uh have to put out a string for you to find out.

Doug:
Ask them the real question. Did they ever humiliate you?

Jesse:
No, no, no. Empower you. It's just like bumper bowling. It's not it's not it's yeah, it's getting ready for the big leagues.

But I see now I have I have kids and I have the same problem where I I hide them outside and then I realize after I hide them I didn't count how many I just hid. Yeah. And so months later, there's another egg.

Brad:
And Jesse, I gotta tell you, we are going to be talking about Easter. Probably some other memories are going to come up as we're going. through this today, but we're gonna be talking about these four ways that Doug mentioned and uh you're excited about this, aren't you?

Jesse:
Oh yeah. I'm ready for this holiday and I'm ready for the s season in general. I think as we listen It's good to keep in mind, uh, you know the people in your life.

I know the people in my life, and you know what's going to apply to who and what kind of relationships you have with the people in your life. So uh there's no one size fits all with how to reach people with the love of Jesus. Think of the people in your life as you're hearing these points.

And think of creative ways. How would that person take this? How might that person experience this?

Doug:
Good stuff. We have Actually more people in our lives than we think. I was uh reading some about uh Easter and social media It turns out the average person get this is connected regularly to a hundred and fifty people.

The average person Wow. And I'll bet if if some of us as followers of Christ and hopefully wanting to be ambassadors of Christ, many of those 150 people are still living without Jesus. Here's the incredible thing about Easter.

It's a uniquely perfect time to talk about the cross, to talk about the resurrection, and why that matters. in your life. So we're talking today about not missing that opportunity.

Brad:
And I would say if you're sitting there saying, well, I already have Easter plans, bringing someone to church or doing whatever That's great. We're also, like I said at the beginning, we're going to be talking about some practical ways to carry that on past Easter. So stick with us.

Dad, I want to ask you, let's just dive on in here. I know you love Easter. And and I realized Doug was sharing the the the we have so much focus on Christmas and everything else.

And Easter people get excited about that the love of the Lord, but it doesn't get the same, you know, decoration and Easter tree, yeah.

Ron:
Yeah.

Brad:
And you know, but we have such great memories from growing up. You I what I remember most, without going into all the details and stuff, is that wherever we are, whatever we were doing You and mom made Easter special. It stands out in our minds and our hearts because there were special memories around it.

What are some ways? Can you give us some ways that people can practically dive on in with those that they care about and be ambassadors? and really use this as a life-giving opportunity for people.

Ron:
Well, you know, uh course um first of all, you know, we didn't have an Easter bunny We had a spring bunny that came on Saturday. We then we had Easter Easter, the day we celebrated the greatest event in all of human history. that split history in two, BC A D, Jesus blew the doors off his grave, walked out of his grave under his own power.

Here's the great news We are, every person that's listening right now who has a relationship with Jesus, you are the designated messenger of that good news. But it doesn't get delivered. It's not good news for them.

They don't know they can't do anything with the living Christ until somebody who has Christ living in them is the one who shares it. So the you know, when you think about this, the first hope story ever told was on Easter morning. Mary Magdalene has a beautiful hope story.

She says, I have seen the Lord. That's the beginning hope story. One thing, deeply personal, not preaching to you.

You need Jesus. She said, I it's for all of it's it's personal. Who can argue with it?

Have seen. I have had a personal experience. There are ways I know Jesus is alive.

So do you. So do all of us. Thirdly, I have seen the Lord.

It's all about Jesus. Not about a religion. It's all about Jesus.

With that in mind, yes, there are ways we can do this. I think the first one and the most obvious one we think of is to invite people to an Easter event. Now the thing is that there are different kinds of there's there's um sunrise services and there's obviously church.

It's the most attended Sunday of the year. And more people go to church on Easter. It's because a lot of people it's like, I think I should do something religious this year and uh probably I know Easter.

Easter would be a good one. So it's it's the easiest time in a way to get them there. Some place where they will hear the good news, but that's not the whole story, the event itself

Brad:
Well, and let me just say sunrise service. I used to think, oh my goodness, who does these? Who would go to who would wake up that early?

Because depending where you live, I or Doug and I, we lived out on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona for a bunch of years, as we've talked about before. And this time of year, sun comes up really early. It comes up really early there.

And for us, I remember going to a sunrise service on top of a mesa there and you saw people at church there that never went so don't be afraid to invite them because it's a special different experience.

Doug:
Yeah, you know, the the cool thing is um a lot of churches that that we go to even if it's not a sunrise service, a lot of them get that this is the most attended uh church service of the year. So they have kind of kept in mind a lot of times that there are going to be people coming to church that might not usually and so they're going to kind of customize what they're doing. Uh yeah, so invite someone to to something Easter, church, um, maybe an Easter concert.

I was surprised to see Easter, yeah, actually is the most attended church day of the year. Christmas is second, Mother's Day is third. Listen to this.

Um a a uh uh Rainier poll recently said this. 75 to 90 percent of people when asked how they started coming to church, answered because someone invited me. Boy, we think, wow, boy, that they won't have any interest.

Well, that's a whole lot of people saying yes. Give it a shot. You might be surprised, but one thing to keep in mind.

A good person to invite as you're considering this is someone you've already been spending time with. Maybe put them at the top of your list because man, people don't like feeling like projects or objects. They're people.

So if you haven't said hi to Jim in fourteen years, your next door neighbor, and you go over and say, Will you come to church with me, Jim might think, Well Boy, that's nice. I'm his his target. But if it's someone you've been working with, if you someone on a sports team with, I think they'd love and would actually feel like you care about them to invite them to a service.

Ron:
So you by then you're gonna call Jim Charlie. That's the thing. You don't even I don't even know.

Charlie joy us. Hey neighbor. Uh so Charlie's my dog.

But listen, let's let's be clear on this. The event itself, that's good. That gives them a chance to maybe hear somebody else talk about Jesus, present the good news that Jesus is alive, can change their life.

But It's a springboard for you to then take off from there. Uh let me give you a Christmas. Can I mention Christmas on the Easter party?

I think so. Hold on, let me check with our producer Jesse.

Doug:
Jesse gives a go at we can discuss Christmas.

Ron:
Well, uh one of the coaches that you guys played football for Uh we really wanted to share Jesus with them. We felt like we had been uniquely assigned to their lives. So we would invite them to go to the Christmas concert at our church.

They almost always came, but we're like, okay, that's good But this needs to be my Jesus. They need to know that this Jesus they heard about is mine and could be theirs. So we always would invite 'em over for a meal or for some goodies that mom had made or whatever.

So whether you're having a cookout, if it's warm weather, it's kind of weather's getting nicer again, or uh whatever it is, tie something social to the spiritual. So that you have an opportunity then. You might if there's even good Christmas videos and stuff like that.

Oh Christmas. I'm stuck on Christmas. There's some good Easter related videos.

Whatever, get uh an opportunity to be with them personally. Now, how do you how do you bridge? Do you suddenly go, now that I have you here, I'd like to tell you about Jesus.

No. Probably not.

Doug:
Sit there in that couch.

Ron:
Right, Jim or Charlie, whoever he is. What you want to do is uh try to listen at the concert, listen to the sermon, uh listen to the the what the choir does, what the music is. and pick out something that speaks to you.

Then because you've had this common experience, you both went through the same thing, heard the same thing Say, I don't know if you heard anything that was especially meaningful to you. Boy, I sure did. It really hit me when they sang or when he said That gives you an opportunity to begin to say the reason that really hit me so hard is because this is what But also ask them anything in particular that stood out to you that you know So you've got a conversation going and you've opened the door to your hope story.

Doug:
You know, j w and we're gonna get into that sharing your hope story in a moment. Um you might say, you know what, Jim or Joni, if we're talking about um fairer sex. You know, you might say, I've tried that before, or I'm almost positive they've had a bad experience with church.

I don't know if that's the best thing to do. Well, you know what? It doesn't have to be church.

You could do your own Easter thing. You know, we have Christmas parties. Well, why not an Easter party?

Why not get together with a few people? Why not why not invite a friend over? Um, a dinner and a movie night.

There is this movie that um came out a few years ago. It's called Risen. It's an amazing movie.

I bought it. I bought it to hand. Yeah, some great acting, and it's really about Um one a Roman centurion that is hearing the rumors of Jesus' resurrection, it's extremely well made and it really opens the door to some great conversations.

Brad:
So what we're saying here is, first of all, if you're one of those people that likes to jot down notes as we're going, number one is invite them to an Easter event. As Doug just said, number two would be Provide an Easter event. Maybe there's not something right in your area.

Maybe you're you're just like, well, I don't know if there's something that'd be a good fit Make something happen because as if you invite some to dinner, even if it's hey, keep it outdoors, a cookout if the weather's nice and everything And if you can show something, Risen uh is one option. And if you've got uh we, you know, there's obviously people think, hey, Easter. I need I'll show them Passion of the Christ.

Here's the thing. Make sure that those are people that that will connect with. Again, as Jesse said early on, know the people that you're talking with because that's a that's an accelerated look.

at the life of Christ there and you at his death and a little glimpse of the resurrection there, but you have to make sure that that's going to be a good fit because there's other options. Maybe you don't have as long with them Hey, pick an episode of the chosen. It introduces people who don't know a lot about Jesus to Jesus, and you can do what dad was saying there.

Hey. Come off of that episode and say, Man, did you see how he interacted with Mary? I feel like in my life And it's a launch pad.

Doug:
Yeah. That was me. And we're dad, we gotta ask you about Hope's story here because you said something so important.

a few minutes ago that hope's story starts with I. It doesn't start with you. You need some you need this God in your life and you're messed up. It all begins with This this Easter thing is very personal for me because there is this uh this uh Jesus who didn't stay dead.

And you know what that has meant for me? Dad, how do we share our hope story with um with someone that we might have over for something like this?

Ron:
Well, you got it. You connect you to the res resurrection. Okay That a lot, you know, there's a lot of ways people look at Easter.

They say, oh, it's a historical event. And for sure is. Testified to by six historians.

Secondly, oh, it's a religious event. Oh yes, we do time for Easter to do this nice eat religious thing. For you, for me, if I'm talking to you about this, Doug.

It's a deeply personal event. And I'll tell you how it became personal. It wasn't always.

It was used to be a religious event, but here's how it became deeply personal for me. And here's what I realized. Now the thing about Jesus being alive, here's why it really matters.

You can't have a relationship with a dead man. You've got to have he has to be alive. And there is only one belief system in all the world that offers A living walked out of his grave under his own power, Savior.

There have been billions of people who have lived on this planet. One out of billions walked out of his grave under his own power. That would be Jesus.

He walked out of his grave So he could walk into our lives. And he did one day. Here's why I learned he came.

Here's why would he even come here? Here's what I found out. No one can argue with your story.

And now here's how I know he's alive. Yes, there's history. Yes, but I have living proof that he's alive.

Because once I was, I used to, by myself, I had been a, when Jesus came, Everything changed. And here's how here's how I'm different because I'm B C A D. My life is B C A D.

Brad:
And Dad, what I would say on that, I I want to go off of what you have taught. Thousands and thousands of thousands of people, including some incredible Native American young people who share their hope story uh all over the place is think through what you want to say. Think through my life before Christ, what the turning point was. And the difference he has made.

Doug:
And even if it's, you know, i it doesn't mean you have to practice it in front of the mirror a thousand times, but that's a great point, Brad, that's Because it it can become something like here's my life story and go in a lot of different directions. What you're trying to do there is is have that person that you love, that you really want to know your savior, have a connection point with you and go, boy, I have felt that exact same way, and I tried everything too And and I found the same dead ends. So the more you can stay focused in and by the way, it doesn't have to be That night, it doesn't have to be that same time.

That's a good point. You could you could say, hey, this is a great time to invite hey, would you you want to go out for coffee sometime? I had a great we had a great time together.

I would hate for this to be you know, last time I see you until Easter. Because you're building a bridge. A relationship.

A bridge, yes.

Ron:
You know, um, you have different hope stories. You don't just have one. You have one story of what changed your life.

That is his story of what happened on the cross in the empty tomb. But for example, I have to I can tell about how I'm a different dad because of Jesus. Different husband because of Jesus.

A different friend because of Jesus. Self-centeredness, control freak, temper. Um, all you know, all the different ways that were changed by Jesus.

And then as you talk to that person, you have a sense, if you know them especially, of what your starting point, which part of How you've been changed by Jesus, you lead with. But it goes from your story to his story. Oh, yeah.

How his story changed your story and could change their story forever.

Doug:
There you go. And and try to do it without religious language. That's one of the best things Dad I've ever heard you share about the Hope story is is don't use w a lot of saved you know rescued find a couple for Christ died once for all the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God John 316 putting your putting their name in that verse so if you're taking notes We're talking about those four ways to make a difference in the life of someone who needs Jesus this Easter.

Hey, invite someone to something Easter, some kind of cool event. Maybe do your own Easter event, create your own thing, make sure you're sharing your hope story. And I got a fourth one here.

Merge the power of social media with the power of the empty tomb. Nothing more powerful in history than that empty tomb and few things more powerful as far as communicating it than social media. So you'll wake up on on Easter morning and there'll be lots of people, yes.

Who are putting some scripture verses, who are putting pictures of empty tombs and Jesus, and that's really cool. But maybe if you think a step beyond. the usual scripture or empty tomb picture.

Yeah, put that up. But also, and yeah, I'm speaking to guys too who might not always be as thrilled to be as forthright about our relationship with God. But you could post that picture and also one sentence that might, because you need to get people's attention quickly on social media.

one sentence that would get people reading about the hope story you have. Here's an example. So one of these three things changed everything for me.

Was it the Easter Bunny? A religion? or an empty tomb.

One of these three things changed everything for me. The Easter Bunny, a religion, an empty tomb, and then Take a couple paragraphs. Share your hope story.

Why does Easter matter to me? Why should it matter to you?

Ron:
And if whichever one of these you choose to use Do something, please, at Easter. He is alive. He could be alive in them.

But here is whichever one you choose are ones. Learn to pray this way. I call it the three-open prayer.

Colossians 4 says this. Pray for us that God will open a door for our message. that will proclaim it clearly as we should.

Here's the three open prayer. Lord, open a door, which is a natural opportunity, something going on in their life, your life, or the world. A lot of that.

that will give you a chance to naturally talk about him. Lord, open a door. Secondly, Lord, open their heart.

Would you do things in their life to get them ready to hear about you before I ever talk to them? And last of all, hardest one of all, open my mouth. Give me the words, give me the courage, give me the tone.

I want to give you my example in 60 seconds of my hope story. You guys know that it was uh six years ago uh that in May, in a moment, I lost the love of my life since I was 19. The love that I had depended on that had been such an anchor for my life was gone.

I was so glad that there is one love that I cannot lose, and there was only one, and that is the love that is promised in the Bible that says nothing can ever separate us from the love of God. that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus made this incredible promise.

He said, Because I've walked out of my grave, because I live, you will live also. Excuse me, but I put a name in there. Because I live.

Karen lives also. Wow. That's my Easter story.

Brad:
Oh, wow. So there you in such a short time, you can share a powerful hope of Jesus that will connect with people. And what we want to do, we've just got a couple minutes left here on this episode here, but what we want to make sure we do is tell you about how to carry this through.

But before we do that, a special offer. If you're like, man, I know it's last minute, but is there anything that could help me that I could hand to people? I could leave with someone We have a resource called 72 Hours That Rock the World.

And this is something that our ministry has put out a lot of great content from dad. It's a short little booklet. If you would like one of those, just email GoMad Show at Hutchcraft.

com. Good.

Ron:
Or a supply of them. If you can use more than one.

Brad:
Yeah, let us know. We will be happy to get those sent to you free of charge. It's a special offer for our listeners here.

We'll get those sent out to you. But As we wrap up here today, we want to make sure that you know how to keep using Easter as a launch pad, not just kind of a one-off, but here we go. It's two pretty simple steps.

First of all, I'm going to go with stay engaged. Stay engaged with people. You didn't just don't invite them to church and leave them there.

Make sure that you follow up, invite them just to a meal or coffee. Help them with a project that you know they're working on. Good.

Attend one of their man, this is a big one that hit me. attend one of their children's sporting events or school play. We all know we go to the ones we need to or whatever.

Go support them because when you engage with get connected with their whole family, man it opens doors. So keep staying engaged with them as you go through the next following days and weeks. Brad, I love the way you put that.

Doug:
Steps to having Easter be a launch pad. Not just a one-day thing, a one-time thing, but the empty tomb being a launch pad in these relationships and being an ambassador for Christ, for we are Christ. ambassadors as if God's making his appeal.

I love you. I died for you. I want a relationship with you.

He's making his appeal through you. Great. Stay engaged.

Here's another one. That three open prayer that dad just shared, a great way to keep this person or these people in your heart and where you'll keep pursuing a relationship with them is to remind yourself somehow to pray that three open prayer for that same person or those same people every single day. Put their name on your fridge, just their name.

Uh the bathroom mirror, set an alarm on your iPhone if you're like me, and uh, you know, as the days go by it's harder to remember things Sometimes. Sometimes we forget some of the most amazing promises regarding prayer. Prayer this is uh of course, well yes, I know we're so supposed to pray.

Such powerful promises from God and reminders that it helps to remember you do not have because you do not ask That persistent widow that kept asking over and over and over, will you give me what I want? God says, I want to give you what I want what you want, but ask me.

Brad:
So pray that three open prayer. Follow where the Lord goes. And then Dad, finally to wrap us up, uh, if you could just talk for a moment about one other way to have it be a launch pad, keeping it center corridor. You've talked with me about this, with Doug, with others about this. What does that mean?

Ron:
Jesus gave a two-word invitation. I'll tell you what it wasn't. He didn't say follow my religion of Christianity. He didn't say follow my followers.

He didn't say follow my rules He didn't say follow my leaders. He said, follow me. It's all about Jesus.

Jesus made it all about Jesus The guy who knew more Bible than anybody, the Apostle Paul, said, I just w all I wanted to talk about was Jesus Christ and him crucified. Jesus and his cross, and obviously leading to the empty tomb. So stick to Jesus and the things that Christians have believed and center their lives on for 2,000 years.

If Christian, as C. S. Lewis said, if Christianity is a big house and there's a center corridor, we all come in the center corridor, and I would say in that center corridor is a cross and an empty tomb. That's where we all came in. We've got our sins forgiven at that cost, eternal life because of an empty tomb.

Now there's a lot of little rooms off that corridor, and that's where we go then into our this group over here, does it this way, this group does it this way. Listen Stay out of the for for Sharon Jesus, stay out of the little rooms, stay in the center corridor. It's all about a cross, an empty tomb, and them.

Stick to that. That's what changes lives. That's what changes eternities.

Brad:
Dad, before we wrap up, this is also practical, all this input. We want people to know this isn't all the ways you can make a difference. These are just some ways you can make a difference this Easter. Dad, for those people who are saying, Yes, I'm going to do something, would you pray for them and pray for those they're going to be reaching out to?

Ron:
Lord, we thank you that Jesus is alive and because he lives, we can live forever as well. There's only one person who can give eternal life. It's the only person who ever proved he has it.

You. You went there and back. So now, Lord, I pray for our brothers and sisters and someone who's listening right now.

And I'd ask you, Lord, that you would lay a specific person on their heart. And I pray, Lord, that you would open that heart to the good news. And Lord, I pray that you would give to our friend who's listening.

The approach, the words, the courage, and the opportunity, and the open door that they will need. For Lord, it is wrong that we can know A one who can give us a heaven forever and keep it to ourselves. We pray this Easter will be life-giving For someone who's listening right now, to someone who has yet to know that life.

And we pray that there be some who, because of what we will do with Easter will be in heaven with us someday. Because you live. They can live also.

And we pray in Jesus' name Amen. Hey guys, he is risen.

Brad:
He is risen indeed. Dad, thank you so much for being with us. Our special guest, Ron Nutzcraft.

Thank you for being part of this because we are Easter people. Hey, if you've got a couple minutes to hop on over to Apple Podcasts and leave a review. Makes a big difference.

Yeah, we'd really appreciate it. We want more people to hear about ways to make a difference. So from all of us to all of you, happy Easter and go mad