The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 6: Bridging the World | Saturated Sunday 2019

Episode Date: September 15, 2019

We are NEVER meant to be a cul-de-sac of God’s grace. We are meant to be a conduit of the gospel to THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.

Amen, amen. You ready for church? You ready to do this? I hope so. Hey, we are in the whatever week we are in on the Bridges series, and we are on the last day of saturated. Anybody come to Saturated? Were you here for any of it? Praise God. And what we've been talking about in our Bridges series is the fact that Jesus builds this bridge and what we're going to spend our time on today, I'm going to attempt to preach for 30 minutes, okay? Some people laugh at me. Whatever, okay? Because the idea is that God has done amazing things in us and through us and to us in the last five days of saturated, but it's not supposed to terminate on us. That we are not to be a cul-de-sac of the mercy and the gospel and the grace of God, but we are to be conduits. And God wants to use us to build a bridge to the very ends of the earth.

If you got your Bible's Matthew, Chapter 28. If you've been around Bible study for a while, you know this. This is the Great Commission. And it says this, Matthew 2816. By the way, I want to thank the dozens of you that gave me readers after I mentioned it was my birthday last week, and I can't see that good. But look, I still got this far to go before I need them, okay? I'm still in the game. Matthew 2816 says now, the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the ends of the age. And so for the last five days, we have been hopefully saturated in the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the way that we want to end our time together is in about 30 minutes or so. If you have never been baptized, these baptism tubs have been warming up for five days.

It's like crispy cream. They are hot and ready for you. And you'll remember that 21 days ago, we gathered together and the elders called us to a 21, day Daniel fast. Can I get an amen? See, nobody amends Daniel because it's awful. I think when 1122 gets to heaven and we meet Daniel, we'll give me like, I ain't talking to him. I don't like that guy. My son, JP, he said next year we should do the Samson fast. That's meat, sweets, and I was like, what are we doing with Delilah? I don't know, but I'm into it, okay? And the idea of this whole experiment every year that we do call saturated, we don't call it a

because I don't know how you schedule a revival. You understand what I'm saying? I don't know how you make an appointment with God to tell him when he's going to revive us. But I do know this. I do know that James 4-8 says, if we will draw near to him, he will draw near to us. That's what this whole thing is. The saturated, starting with the Daniel Fast, 21 days out, is an opportunity for us to turn down the noise of this world so that we could turn up our ears to hear a word from God.

And so on Wednesday night, my man Brian Larritz came in. And he led us to Hosea, chapter 3. Hosea is a prophet in the Old Testament. And in Hosea chapter 3, God tells the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer. And then, after he's obedient and does that, she leaves him, she gives him his adultery on him, she goes back into prostitution, and God, goes back to Hosea, the prophet, and says, I want you to go and buy back your cheating wife. And just when you think that it's a message on how the righteous are supposed to treat the lowly,

then we really find out that every single one of us are the prostitute. That every single time we sin, every single time we look for satisfaction outside of God. we are the ones committing adultery against him. And so, Josea goes and buys back his cheating wife. And it is a picture of what Christ has done for us at the cross over and over and over again. And then on Thursday night, Dr. Crawford-Loritz, Brian's dad, was here. And he took us to Revelation chapter 2. And in Revelation chapter 2, Jesus writes a letter to the church at Ephesus.

And the church at Ephesus was blowing up. the church at Ephesus started in an incredible way. But I don't know if you know this or not, it's not how you start that matters. It's how you finish. I mean, I like to think things here at 1122 are going pretty well, but in the Church of Ephesus, it reshape the socioeconomic structure of that entire booming city. And Jesus says to the church at Ephesus in Revelation in Chapter 2, I commend you for right belief and I commend you for right behavior.

But I have this one thing against you. You have left your first love. And Dr. Crawford reminded us that right belief and right behavior does not equal a right heart. And what it means to leap, anybody else prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love. And so Jesus beckons us to return to our first love. And first does it just mean first in sequence? It means first in essence. And so he tells us that we are to remember and we are to repent and we are to redo,

to do those things that first stirred our affections for the Lord. And then on Friday night, Pastor J.R. Vassar was here. And he took us to James chapter 4 and he let us know that God jealously yearns for you. And yet our enemy wants to steal, kill, and destroy everything good and godly about us. And we have an enemy that wants Christians to live defeated and deflated lives. And yet Jesus has come that we would have a Nike life. Nike is a Greek word that means victorious.

That we would have a victorious life. And in order for us to do that, we have to understand how God sees us. J.R. said, insecurity is the enemy of intimacy. Insecurity is the enemy of intimacy. And we know this, that this is love. Not that we love God, but he loved us, and sent his son as a propitiation for our sin. And propitiation means a payment that satisfies, which means that if you're in Christ, God cannot be dissatisfied in you. J.R. told us that when a baseball player walks up to a plate, he has like walk.

out music? And he says, what is the walkout music playing over you? The Bible said that God sings and delights over his children. That God is singing, I love you every time you step up to the plate. That God has a playlist with you and mine. And then speaking of playlist, last night, our band, along with Shane and Shane gathered in this place that just make much of Jesus. Was anybody here for that? Pretty awesome, right? Now, I don't know about you, man. Like, this is what I do for a living. So after nights like last night, I kind of think, all right, I'm done.

Like, where do we go from here? You know? It's like what I feel like as a Georgia fan, if we could just win one national championship, I'd be good. You understand? I felt like this weekend it's saturated. We won the national championship. This is. Where does it go from here? And it leads us to think, why would God

reveal himself to us like this? Why? Is it about us? Well, God is for us, Romans 5-8. God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were yet still sinners. Christ died for us. So he's for us. It just ain't about us. You see, why in the world would God give us the last five days as a church that he has?

I'm telling you, it is so that we can be a conduit of the gospel, a conduit of his mercy and grace, and not a cul-de-sac. Shame on us. that God is doing and even all the feelings that we have flowing through us, if it terminates on us, then we miss the whole point. You see, when Jesus gathers his disciples together on this mountain in Galilee, it says this this. He says, now. Now. And when the Bible says now, it is a transition term transitioning you from what has happened to what is happening. Now, now we have had an incredible. credible five days, but the previous seven weeks that precede the Great Commission, they're

pretty awesome. They start with like the triumphal entry. Some of you that grew up in church may know it is Palm Sunday. The Jesus gets on a cult to fulfill the scriptures and he rides into town like a king riding into his kingdom. And all of Jerusalem gathers together and lay cloaks on the ground. They get palm branches. They begin waving them saying,

Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And that word Hosanna means, Lord save us. And they think that Jesus is coming in to kick out the Romans and make Israel the national power that it used to be. And then Jesus gathers his disciples together that Thursday in the upper room. And he takes the bread and he takes the wine. And they think they're doing the Passover meal. The Passover meal was to remember when God rescued Israel out of us.

Egypt and the angel of death passed over anyone that had the blood of the lamb on the doorpost of the house and they knew God told him the moment that happens Pharaoh's going to say get out of here so you don't have time to let the bread rise so you just eat some pita bread and so for thousands of years they're drinking the cup and they're eating the bread remembering the Passover and Jesus at the table about to celebrate the Passover and he gets up and he washes his disciples feet to show them the full extent of his love and then he takes the bread and he breaks it and he says, this is my body. To which the disciples are like, no, no, no, no, no, this is the Passover. This is about Egypt. He's like, no, no, no, no.

The Passover, the prophecies, the promises, they are all fulfilled in a person. I am that person. This is my body. This is my blood. I am the Passover lamb that will be slain. At that dinner, Jesus says, one of you is going to deny me. Guess who talks first? Guess who talks most?

Peter's like, I should say words. Hey, hey boss, not me. There's nothing on this planet that would cause me to deny you. Jesus, I would die for you. And Jesus is like, you think so, Scooter, before your alarm clock goes off tomorrow, three times you're going to deny me. And Peter's thinking, no way. Not me. And so then Jesus takes him out to the Garden of Gassimony, the place of crushing.

It says, boy's way here. Peter, James John, come on. I need you to pray with me. He falls on his face. He feels the sorrow of the sin of the world. He prays with such an intensity that he's sweating blood and he cries out. Father, if there be any other way. Do you know what he's saying?

He's asking the questions that people ask us all the time. How in the world can you say Jesus is the only way? Jesus is asking the same question. He's saying, Father, if you can just be good enough, If you could just be faithful enough, if you could just obey the law, if you can align your chakra, if you could visit Mecca, if you can meditate into Nirvana, if there be any other way, let this cup, the cup of your wrath pass from me. Not my will, but your will be done. Then he looks up from the garden, you can see over the Kidron Valley to the eastern gate of Jerusalem, and he sees torches and swords and people coming. And then his very own friend betrays him.

You ever been betrayed? So has Jesus. betrays him with a kiss and the guards rush up upon him and Jesus says who are you looking for and they say Jesus and he says I am he and they all fall to the ground and instead of calling in angels

he submits and surrenders to God's plan and then Peter is saying now is my chance and Peter pulls out a sword and chops off a cat's ear he can't even do that right you think he was trying to display his swordship by just taking off the ear huh no He's trying to kill a man and he can't even do that right.

Jesus picks up the dude's ear and puts it back on his head. And then looks at Peter and is like, are you even being serious right now? The crazy thing about that story, in my opinion, the guy with the ear still arrest Jesus. Go figure. So they arrest him. They take him to trial. There's a series of people in charge. Nobody wants to be the final person that slams the gavel down on an innocent man and says guilty.

So he goes from Caiaphas's house to Herod's house to Pontius Pilate's house. Each of them abuse him. Eventually he winds up in front of Pontius Pilate. Peter is kind of sneaking along behind him, seeing what's happening. Somebody comes up to Peter. Aren't you one of his disciples? He's like, no way. A little while later, somebody comes back to Peter.

Aren't you sure? I think I recognized you at one of the miracles. You've got the wrong man. A third time, while Peter is warming his hands over a charcoal fire, a little girl, who, by the way, could not even testify in a court of law in the first century, a young girl comes up to him and says, no, no, no, you're a Galilean, you're one of his. And Peter, the Bible says curses and says no. He says, no, whatever you would put it there. That's what he does. And the rooster crows.

And Peter thinks, what have I done? And so Pilate, after a series of interrogations and beatings brings Jesus before the people and says, we'll put this thing to a vote. And Pilate asked this question, what will you do with this man named Jesus? Church, it's the most important question you'll ever be asked in all of eternity. What will you? Not they, not y'all. What will you do with this man named Jesus?

And the same crowd that gathered on Palm Sunday and said, Hosanna, bless him see who comes in the name of the Lord, now some of those very same people, because he did not give them what they asked for, now they turn on him and say, crucify him, kill him. And he says, I wash my hands of this. May his blood be on your head. You are not afforded the luxury to wash your hands of that question.

Your eternity hangs in the balance of the answer to this. What will you do with this man? name Jesus. And so they hand him over to be flogged with a cat of nine tails to have a crown of thorns thrust upon his head. He carries his own cross to this place called Galgotha, the place of the skull. He is crucified, nails through his hands and through his feet, and he has hung on this cross. And the first thing that he says, he says seven things. By the way, seven in the Bible is the number of completion. And the first thing that he says is this, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. This is why

Jesus came. To be the Lamb that was slain for the forgiveness of sin. Not to just teach stuff, not to just do miracles, definitely not to start a religion. He came for the forgiveness of sin to the glory of God. And then the seventh thing he says,

Jesus pushes up on his nail, pierced feet, and he declares it is finished. And what is finished in that moment is that sin had been paid for. In total The Lamb has been slain for the forgiveness of our sin. And for anybody that believes that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, it counted for you, then your sins are washed away.

And the righteousness of God is credited to you. And they take Jesus down and they put him in a tomb and they roll the stone in front of him and a Roman garrison guards. And then the disciples don't know what to do. even though over and over and over in the New Testament Jesus says to the disciples, write this down boys I'm going to be put on trial, crucified, dead buried, and resurrected the third day and somehow when it hit the fan when the disciples see Jesus on the cross when they see the son of God

dying they get so focused on their circumstances that they forget to remember the word of God. Can you believe such a disciple because we all do it when we all get focused on our circumstances. And so on the third day, the women get up, they get spices, they get some cloths, and they're going to take care of the body. Do you know why? Because the men prepared the body for burial, and they're like, I'm sure they screwed this up, like they screw everything else up, and so they had to go fix it.

And they get to the tomb, and the stone has been rolled away. And it's empty. And they bump into what they think is a gardener. turns out it's Jesus, and they say, where is he? And when he calls their name, they recognize him. And so the ladies, they come running back to the disciples or all hiding in this room. And the reason they're hiding is this. The Roman army has killed their leader.

And as go, the leader, so go the followers. They think maybe they're coming, they are coming for us next. And they're afraid, and they're hiding. And the women, the very first evangelist in all the church world, they come running in and they say, well, he's not dead. He's alive. We saw him. And the disciples are like, I don't know if I believe you or not.

so they take off running the gospel of John makes it very clear that John and Peter leave at the same time but three times John wants us to know that John gets there first John's into John he's also the only one that calls himself the disciple that Jesus love that's neither here nor

there they get there they stoop in and look and the tomb is empty and an angel says to the boys why do you look for the living among the dead it's a pretty good question you should ask yourself why do I keep looking to the temporary things of this world to give me life because life is in the temporary things of this world? It says, why do you look for the living among the dead?

Two of the disciples are on their way to Emmaus. It's the town seven miles away. They're bump into a guy and they're all freaking out. And the guy's like, what's wrong with you? The guy is Jesus, by the way. And they say, haven't you heard? And they tell him, they tell Jesus about the Messiah that's coming, but he's been crucified. They don't know what to do about that.

And then Jesus, the Bible says, walks through. through the Old Testament, the law and the prophets to let them know that the whole thing points to the coming Messiah. They still don't get it. It makes me feel so much better as a preacher. Because I preach my face off, and some of you are like, uh-huh, but Jesus preaches in Amas, and the guys are like, do what? Until they sit down at dinner and Jesus breaks bread and gives stinks.

And when he does that, they go, it's him. that Jesus appears to over 500 people all of this time. The boys come back from Amas. They find the disciples. They're like, he's alive, he's alive, he's alive, we saw him, we saw him, he is alive. And Thomas goes, doubt it. No, I got to see some stuff. And then Thomas gets weird.

Thomas is like, unless I see the holes in his hand and put my hand in his side, why would you want to do that? It should be freaky, Thomas, not doubting Thomas. Weirdo? And then in that room, Jesus appears. He doesn't ring the doorbell. He don't knock. He just is in the room.

And he says, Thomas, here it is. Physically resurrected Jesus. He goes, touch it. If that's what you need, touch it. You know what Thomas is essentially praying? I believe, God, I want to believe, but help me overcome my unbelief. Any of you got some doubts? Anybody got some stuff in the book?

and you're like, I don't know what that means, and I don't even like it's in there. Anybody in there? That camp, I got good news. You got a whole bunch of doubts. You can make a great disciple. Pick them up, follow after Jesus. He will make himself known to you. And then he says to Thomas, hey, you believe because you saw and you touched.

Blessed are those who don't get to see in touch and yet they believe. And then he said, I'm hungry. Give me some fish. A few days later. A few days later, Peter says, I'm going fishing. one of the smartest things he's ever said in his old life. I'm going fishing. But here's the thing, man.

It wasn't just a hobby for them. He was essentially returning to his old lifestyle because they didn't know what they were supposed to do yet. And so they're out there fishing, they're fishing all night. They catch no fish. They wake up in the morning, well, they don't wake up because they've been fishing all night. They look and they see a silhouette of a man on the shore of the seas of Galilee, and he says, how many fish you caught?

Fellas, don't you hate it when you go fishing all day? and you ain't called nothing? And your wife's like, did you catch anything? You know she's jacking with you, right? That's what Jesus is doing here. He's just jacking with him. He knows all things. Remember?

People would think things in a meeting with Jesus, and he would respond to their thoughts. Do you think he's looking for information? No, he's messing with it. When your wife asked you, did you catch anything, she's just jabbing you. Because you're like, woman, you know how to post it that junk on Instagram, and like this way and that way

and make it look like nine different fists? Stop what you're asking. Okay, well, that's what he's doing. Y'all catch any fish? Uh-uh. Try the other side of the boat. Peter's a professional fisherman. You think he's like,

does this man not know there's not sides of the boat under the water? It's just all underwater. Shunks and that's on the other side. Boom, 153 fish. Do you know why the Bible says there's 153 fish? Because that's how many of the word. That's it. It's just, that's it.

It's in a fairy tale. They're sitting made up. Somebody counting fish. Have you ever been fish? Not counting the fish? Everybody counts the fish. 153. John's like, write that down.

153 fish. Peter's like, this smells like Jesus. Put your shirt back on. jumps in water, swims to go have breakfast with Jesus. Meanwhile, Jesus is sitting on the shore. By the way, the other disciples are dragging in to catch. Peter gets there. Jesus says, come on.

I've built a charcoal fire. By the way, that's the kind of fire. That wasn't a normal. first century fire. That's the kind of fire that he denied Jesus three times around. Jesus, like, come on, let's have some fish. Peter, do you love me? Yeah. Do you love me? You know I do. Do you love me? Peter's like, oh, I get it. I get it. I denied you three times. Now you're going to ask me three times if I love you. Jesus, you know all things. Essentially, what he is communicating is it does not matter how far

you have run. You can never outrun the grace of God. It doesn't matter how many times you you have screwed up. God's grace poured out on the cross is infinitely more than however many times that we need to be forgiven. And so he says, feed my sheep, feed my sheep, feed my lambs. And then Jesus says to Peter, when you were young, you should dress yourself and go wherever you wanted to go. But when you are older, somebody else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.

And then John puts in parentheses, Jesus said this to tell Peter what kind of death he would die. and we know from church history that Peter was crucified upside down. Essentially, he is saying this, Peter, it would be better for you to follow me and it lead to death than for you to run your whole life and be apart from me. And then here's what Jesus says. Jesus looks at him and says these words, two words. Follow me. Pop quiz.

It's not a hard question. What do you think the first two words Jesus ever spoke to Peter were on the shores of the sea of Galilee? Peter comes back from fishing with his dad all night. Jesus shows up on the shores, looks at him and says, follow me. Where I grew up, we call that a do-over. He's like, we're going to start over. But the reality is, we don't need, like, a second chance at life.

We need a new life. God doesn't give second chances. You know why? You don't need a second chance. Why? So you can screw up twice? If I gave a calculus exam to my daughter, Reagan Capri, and say, good luck, how you think she'd do?

Not good. Two reasons. She's a Martin, and she's 10. She's not going to do good in calculus. But if I looked at her and went, in my grace and mercy, I'm going to give you another chance. She would just fail again. No, no, no, no. The gospel says that her dad would take the test for her.

That's the gospel. Jesus looks at Peter and says, listen, your past, your sin, that denying, all that stuff, that is not going to define you. I get to tell you who you are. He says, follow me. And the first thing he ever told Peter is this, follow me, and I will make you a feeling. fisher of men. In other words, this whole bridge's thing we're doing, this is what Jesus is saying. All that you have experienced, Peter, my life, death, and resurrection does not terminate on you.

I didn't do this. I am for you. It's just not all about you. It's not just so that you would be saved. It's so that the moment you get rescued, you become a part of the rescue team, and you go out and you take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Jesus says, or the Bible says, now, now that all All that has happened. See, again, we've had a cool five days. They had an amazing seven weeks. Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped them, but some doubted.

And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. He says, fellas, I have accomplished it. I died in your place. I put death to death. I have been resurrected so that whosoever would be crucified in me would be resurrected with me. He says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Whatever he says next is the most important thing, and we should do whatever he says. He says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations.

See, Jesus built a bridge to us. us and wants to use us to build a bridge to the very ends of the earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. How, Jesus, here's how, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And he said, when a law you're asking, what's the number one commandment? He said this, hero Israel, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and here's the commandment, and you shall love the Lord your God with all,

all your heart and soul and mind and strength. Maybe this is why he says we should baptize them. You see, when you get baptized, it is a declaration that I am loving God with all. It's part of the reason you go all in. It's because you were saying, I am surrendering all of me to all that I know of Jesus. That's why we've had these baptism tubs warming up since saturated began.

There are some of you, many of you, so far there's been 60 in our first services around all of our campuses that are ready to go public with your faith. That word baptism, it just means to dip, dunk, and submerge. Batizo. You see, when they started translating Bibles into English, they ran into a problem. There was a church tradition where they'd like sprinkle a little on somebody, like salt or something. Except the word means to wash, to dip, to dunk, submerged. So they just transliterated it, made up a new English word called baptism. But the reason that we were, you know, we are dumped, Romans chapter 6 says it this way, do you not know that all of us who have been

dipped, dumped, submerged, immersed into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death. We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in a newness of life. Again, actually, baptizo was a cooking term that the church adopted. Did you know that? In first century cookbooks, it says, here's how you make a pickle. You take a cucumber and you baptizo it in vinegar. That doesn't mean you take a little bit of vinegar and go,

you don't do that. You don't do that. That's just what the word means. And it's for believers. The reason that you get baptized is to declare to the whole world. that your sins have been washed away and you've been adopted into the family of God. There's nothing magical about the tubs in and of themselves and the water. That's J-E-A water.

You will probably be less clean when you come out than you went in. But it is to declare that when Jesus says it is finished, that counted for me. It's like a wedding band. A wedding band is just a symbol. It's an outward invisible. when you used to be skinny or you put it on, of an inward personal relationship. This symbol is so that when any of you ladies see me,

you say, oh, he's taken. I don't know why you're laughing so much, man. You ought to be like, oh, okay? That's it. But it is just a symbol of a covenant and a relationship that I have with Gretchen Martin. And if I take the ring off, it doesn't mean I'm not married. I have to have a conversation about it, no doubt.

But it is my covenant. It is that relationship that is the thing. This is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. The moment you surrender your life to Christ, the moment that you believe when he died on the cross, that counted for me. I want to surrender my life to Christ. That's when the relationship starts. This is going public with it. The other thing that's true, if you get baptized, that doesn't make you a Christian.

Any more than if you put on my ring, you don't have a relationship with my wife. You wish? No way, sucker, that's mine, okay? That is what baptism in. It is for believers. It is a symbol. And just like Romans said, for those of you, they're going to come get in this tub and declare that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, we're going to ask you this question. Romans 109 says that the requirement for salvation is for you to believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead.

And you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. You do that, you're saved. That's Paul's way of saying that you trust that when Jesus died on the cross, somehow that counted for me. And we're going to ask you a question, who is Jesus to you? And you are going to reply, Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. And when you do that, the reason that we dunk you back like this is to signify that we're not trying to be better versions of ourselves. That we are dying to ourselves and we are being buried in this watery grave. And that water symbolizes the washing of our lives, the washing away of sin by the blood of Jesus.

You may ask, how long do we get held under? Depends on how much sins on your Facebook. No, not really, man. but it's a dunking and you have been crucified with Christ the blood of Jesus washes over you and then when you come up out of there

it is to show that just like Jesus was resurrected from the grave so too will all who believe in him so too will we be resurrected in him to walk in the newness of life you see Jesus says now

and therefore because all of this stuff has happened to you. It's not just about you. It's about us being a conduit to take it to the very ends of the earth. But before we take the gospel of Jesus to the public, first we've got to go public about our own personal walk with Jesus. Before we go to the ends of the earth, you go public with your faith by doing what Jesus said and getting baptized.

And so some of you, right now, the Spirit of God is saying, today's the day, today's the day. Today's the day to go public. And you've got all kind of excuses. I can promise you the excuses do not come from the Spirit of God. Some of you're like, I didn't bring clothes. We got a T-shirt for you, okay? It'll fit me, it'll fit you. I swear, okay?

We'll cover you up, we'll dunk you, you go home with. And then people are like, why are you wet? I've been to church. Imagine that testimony, okay? Or you think, well, I was christened as a baby. Praise God, man. If you were baptized or christened as a baby, your parents were doing a very, very wonderful thing for you. Really, what they were doing is they were dedicating themselves to raise you in an environment where you would hear the gospel.

And what they were hoping and praying for is that today would happen for you. You're not disregarding what they did. You're fulfilling what they were praying for and hoping for. And some of you? or like, well, you know what, I got baptized and I was 12 because everybody else was doing it and I didn't mean it, then you should get baptized. You should proclaim Jesus as your Lord and Savior. If you've never been baptized as a believer, you should do it.

And some of you are like, well, I got baptized last year, but I'm all juiced up. I want to do it again. No. No need. That one took, okay? You're all set. Here's what will keep you from getting baptized. If you know right now, it's time for you to go public with your faith.

it ain't about well i grow with a friend and they won't wait they will wait if they don't they're the worst friend ever tell me who they are and we will discipline them in our church of course they will wait it really comes down to this you're just afraid i don't know what you're afraid you're afraid of what people will think or your fear is gripping you and fear leads to paralysis and faith leads to action and can i remind you the point you the point of Paul told Timothy, God did not give you a spirit of fear, but he gave you a spirit of power and of love and of self-control. Which is maybe why Jesus ends the Great Commission this way. Do you know what cast out fear according to the Bible?

The Bible says perfect love cast out fear. And perfect love is this, the presence of Jesus. It is the presence of the person of Jesus that is the thing that cast out fear. And Jesus says this, and behold, I am with you. always to the very ends of the age. You know, when Jesus got baptized, the Bible says that the heavens opened up, and God the Father spoke out loud and said,

Behold my son in whom I am well pleased. The Bible says that you and I are co-ares with Christ, that all that is His is ours if we are in Him, which means to the dozens of you that are going to take a step of obedience and be faithful and come and get baptized, I want you to hear the heavens crack open, and God the Father say over you, behold.

This one that just proclaimed Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, that one, that man, that woman. Behold, this is my son and whom I am well pleased. And just a second at all of our campuses, the campus pastors give specific instructions or directions. Here at San Pablo, here's what we need. The first four rows right here, if you're sitting in front of the camera, if you grew up Catholic, it'll help because you're going to stand and sit and stand and sit. but we're going to start seated so that the cameras can get on the baptismal so everybody can see. But whoever's ready to get baptized, you just start making your way out here to the outside. And we've got some people that are going to help you.

And they're going to help you into the tub. They're going to ask you this question, who is Jesus? And yeah, if you want to start moving now, just go ahead and start moving. They're going to say, who is Jesus to you? And you're going to answer, he is my Lord and Savior. And listen, church. and when these men and women come up out of the water, we are going to lose our minds to the glory of God.

Amen? All right. So if you would please stand, except this group right here, if you would please stand everywhere else. Let me each y'all stand up, and y'all, there you go, good. You can start moving right now. The band's going to come. The band's going to play.

We're going to sing a few songs. We're going to celebrate baptisms. Let's go. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father God, we love you because you first loved us. And God, I thank you that you wash us, you cleanse us from our sin. Not because of our good activity, but because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross. God, we love you.

And God, we thank you that we get a front row seat to the only eternal miracle, men and women being saved in Jesus' name. And God, may we join with the angels in heaven that celebrate. celebrate when the loss has been found, when the dead has come to life. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.