The year Bon Jovi made it into the Easter service… and I STILL got hired. I knew I was taking a risk. You ever test the waters in church and immediately realize… “Oh yeah… Sister Linda is NOT ready for this level of ministry.” I’m up there preaching my Easter message—the one that’s supposed to determine if I become the new pastor—and somehow… we took a detour straight through 1987. I said, “Y’all… Easter isn’t the end of the concert… it’s the setup for the greatest ENCORE of all time.” And I could feel it…Half the crowd leaned in…The other half started flipping to the book of Leviticus like, “Where is this in Scripture??” But stay with me… Because everybody understands an encore. The band walks off stage.Lights go down.Crowd starts clapping, stomping, shouting, “ONE MORE SONG!” And when they come back out?It’s louder.It’s bigger.It’s the moment you’ll never forget. That’s Easter. Jesus already did the first set.Lived perfect.Died brutal.And then walked out of a grave like He forgot something in there. But don’t miss this… There’s another moment coming. An encore so powerful… it won’t just wake up the crowd—it’ll wake up the cemetery. I’m talking about a sound so strong that graves won’t be able to hold their occupants anymore. Headstones are gonna be shifting like, “Welp… guess we’re done here.” Can you imagine that announcement? “Attention neighborhood… if you see Uncle Roy stretching in the front yard later… don’t panic. That’s just Jesus wrapping up the set.” This isn’t hype.This isn’t a metaphor.This is the kind of power that rewrites endings. And here’s where it got real quiet… We celebrate the resurrection… but we live like there’s nothing left to look forward to. Oh, but there is. And when that trumpet sounds… it won’t be soft, polite, or scheduled between announcements. It’s gonna be a full-blown, heaven-shaking, grave-opening moment. And apparently… it was powerful enough… …that they still hired me. So if you ever wonder if God can use your story, your personality, or even your questionable sermon illustrations… Just remember… He used a Bon Jovi reference… and gave me a church. - @themickeybell