WEBVTT 00:00:01.604 --> 00:00:02.004 Hey, what up? 00:00:02.004 --> 00:00:02.587 It's Mark Carter. 00:00:02.587 --> 00:00:03.870 I'm the pastor of Fierce Church. 00:00:03.870 --> 00:00:04.892 Welcome to our podcast. 00:00:04.892 --> 00:00:07.229 I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today. 00:00:07.229 --> 00:00:16.728 I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you. 00:00:16.728 --> 00:00:17.871 Enjoy the message. 00:00:18.620 --> 00:00:19.984 You've probably seen one of these before. 00:00:19.984 --> 00:00:22.009 You might have gotten one in the mail, like I have. 00:00:22.009 --> 00:00:24.736 It is a traffic violation letter. 00:00:24.736 --> 00:00:25.838 You might have gotten one in the mail like I have. 00:00:25.838 --> 00:00:26.500 It is a traffic violation letter. 00:00:26.500 --> 00:00:27.925 You might have had one of these. 00:00:27.925 --> 00:00:29.626 Yeah, man, they can be rough. 00:00:29.626 --> 00:00:33.369 The especially rough kind is when you didn't see it coming. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:36.529 Okay, so, maybe like you just didn't even know it happened. 00:00:36.529 --> 00:00:38.994 Like I've done, I've pulled up to a red light. 00:00:38.994 --> 00:00:43.420 I'm turning right and instead of completely stop, I get down to like two miles an hour and then go on through. 00:00:43.420 --> 00:00:45.162 Then, three weeks stop, I get down to like two miles an hour and then go on through. 00:00:45.162 --> 00:00:48.426 Then three weeks later, I get a letter that says you owe $100 for that thing. 00:00:48.426 --> 00:00:52.212 And the problem is I'm like I don't even know that I did that for sure. 00:00:52.212 --> 00:00:54.234 Are you sure it's me and I'm like oh, I guess it is me. 00:00:54.234 --> 00:01:04.459 There is a record of my violation of the law and I didn't even know that it took place. 00:01:04.459 --> 00:01:05.509 Has that ever happened to you? 00:01:05.528 --> 00:01:13.284 It might be maybe not with a traffic violation, maybe there's other things that you were supposed to do something and you were legitimately supposed to do it. 00:01:13.284 --> 00:01:17.644 You just didn't know you were supposed to do it until it was already a little bit too late. 00:01:17.644 --> 00:01:23.265 So maybe you started the job and you were supposed to bring your own tools and you didn't. 00:01:23.265 --> 00:01:26.936 First day they expected it but you didn't bring it because you just didn't know it. 00:01:26.936 --> 00:01:29.063 Now you were, it was communicated to you, but you didn't know. 00:01:29.063 --> 00:01:31.381 You were headed to the potluck and it was just kind of understood. 00:01:31.381 --> 00:01:37.001 Everyone was supposed to bring a dish, something you know, kind of your specialty, and you just thought it was a normal potluck. 00:01:37.001 --> 00:01:43.649 Now it was in the email that you were supposed to bring something but really didn't do it, even though you were supposed to do it. 00:01:43.649 --> 00:01:46.512 Not a big deal, but it was still something that you missed. 00:01:46.512 --> 00:01:49.314 Maybe it's a little bit higher stakes. 00:01:49.355 --> 00:01:56.161 Maybe you went to the parent-teacher conference and or sorry, you didn't go to the parent-teacher conference and because you didn't go. 00:01:56.161 --> 00:02:01.272 That was where the sign-ups were for you to serve, for your kid to be able to be in the play. 00:02:01.272 --> 00:02:03.493 But you thought it was just like any other parent-teach conference. 00:02:03.493 --> 00:02:05.754 You're like nothing happens there, so you skip it. 00:02:05.754 --> 00:02:09.336 Now your kid is out for the semester and it feels like a burn. 00:02:09.336 --> 00:02:13.838 But really it was there, it was in the email, you just didn't read it close enough. 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:23.431 Or maybe you're visiting a new city and you're used to the bus just knows when to stop, but you're in a city now that you're supposed to pull the cord, but you don't know that. 00:02:23.431 --> 00:02:25.253 Everybody else knows that, but you don't know that. 00:02:25.253 --> 00:02:26.735 And so you're like man, when are they just going to stop? 00:02:26.735 --> 00:02:27.661 For my thing, I don't know. 00:02:27.661 --> 00:02:30.165 You're going around hours and when are we getting there? 00:02:30.165 --> 00:02:35.042 And it's legit, this is how it's done, this is what you're supposed to do pull the cord. 00:02:35.042 --> 00:02:40.308 But you don't know that, and so you don't do that, but you still experience the consequence of it. 00:02:41.150 --> 00:02:44.254 Now here's something that makes it a little bit worse for all of us. 00:02:44.254 --> 00:02:45.942 There's a thing called sin. 00:02:45.942 --> 00:02:58.762 It's a disease, it is a spiritual disease, it's a moral disease, it's the hell disease, it's the death disease, and this disease is so bad that it blinds us to the fact that we even are sinning. 00:02:58.762 --> 00:03:03.530 Sometimes it will tell us no, that's not wrong, or you don't need to worry about that. 00:03:03.530 --> 00:03:06.314 We can get in situations where we're genuinely sinning. 00:03:06.314 --> 00:03:07.725 Now we don't feel like we're sinning. 00:03:07.725 --> 00:03:16.409 I've been in homes of people where there is tremendous violence taking place and they don't even know it because they're so used to it. 00:03:16.409 --> 00:03:19.188 Now you think well, don't their feelings tell them that this is wrong? 00:03:19.188 --> 00:03:22.623 No, they don't, because their consciences have been trained in the wrong direction. 00:03:22.623 --> 00:03:24.246 They don't because their consciences have been trained in the wrong direction. 00:03:24.246 --> 00:03:25.606 So sometimes the conscience is very useful. 00:03:25.606 --> 00:03:38.193 But if the conscience has not been trained according to what actually is morally right, you can be doing something wrong, but it's going over your head and you don't even notice it, and that's the effects of sin on us. 00:03:38.193 --> 00:03:44.366 We can't trust just our feelings any more than I could trust that I could feel when I ran through that red light. 00:03:44.366 --> 00:03:49.092 I didn't feel it, I didn't even know it, but I'd still broken the law and it still happened. 00:03:50.221 --> 00:03:53.993 This is a situation that Peter and his audience are in. 00:03:53.993 --> 00:03:56.181 Peter's preaching is really his first good sermon. 00:03:56.181 --> 00:03:59.574 Okay, the day of Pentecost has just happened. 00:03:59.574 --> 00:04:02.143 This promised person of the Holy Spirit has just arrived. 00:04:02.143 --> 00:04:03.286 Peter gets full of that. 00:04:03.747 --> 00:04:09.805 Holy Spirit of Jesus stands up and he begins to preach, and he begins to detail out to the people who are gathered around this is the Jewish nation. 00:04:09.805 --> 00:04:18.007 He begins to let them know hey, by the way, man, you guys really missed it you put the guy you've been waiting for all this time. 00:04:18.007 --> 00:04:25.980 You just put him to death and you either ignored it or you participated with with it, or you were one of the leaders. 00:04:25.980 --> 00:04:29.146 Are you afraid to stand up for him or whatever? 00:04:29.146 --> 00:04:32.482 Now you are the crew, this nation of the Jews. 00:04:32.482 --> 00:04:39.608 You are the ones who you say man, if you were alive during the time of the Old Testament prophets, you wouldn't have participated in putting them to death. 00:04:39.608 --> 00:04:40.651 You said no, not me. 00:04:40.651 --> 00:04:43.062 I would have kept my hands clean. 00:04:43.062 --> 00:04:47.509 I wouldn't have participated in putting those good servants of God to death like they did back then. 00:04:47.509 --> 00:04:51.261 And then Peter says do you not see the irony here? 00:04:51.261 --> 00:04:58.163 Someone better than those Old Testament prophets was just here and you just put him to death approvingly. 00:04:58.163 --> 00:05:00.809 And he was the Messiah you're waiting for. 00:05:00.809 --> 00:05:06.262 And honestly, it's a little bit obvious when you just trace the story of the Messiah through the scripture. 00:05:06.262 --> 00:05:08.949 You should have seen him, but you didn't. 00:05:08.949 --> 00:05:15.230 And they get man, they get convicted, just like I did when I finally saw my license plate on that violation notice. 00:05:15.230 --> 00:05:18.463 Oh, I guess I did do that. 00:05:18.463 --> 00:05:20.065 Whoops, whoopsie. 00:05:20.065 --> 00:05:22.449 And this is how they respond. 00:05:22.509 --> 00:05:23.511 Acts, chapter two, verse 36. 00:05:23.511 --> 00:05:31.668 Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him Jesus, both Lord and Christ. 00:05:31.668 --> 00:05:40.247 The Jesus whom you crucified, he's Lord, he's King, he's God, he's the one in charge and he's Christ. 00:05:40.247 --> 00:05:46.144 He's the anointed one, he is the one who is to be sent to you, he's the one who can do it, he's the oneointed one. 00:05:46.144 --> 00:05:46.947 He is the one who is to be sent to you. 00:05:46.947 --> 00:05:47.630 He's the one who can do it. 00:05:47.630 --> 00:05:50.541 He's the one whose mission it was to bring salvation not just to the Israelite nation but to all the nations. 00:05:50.541 --> 00:05:56.374 He's the one, that's who he is, and this is the Jesus that you crucified. 00:05:56.399 --> 00:05:59.627 Now there's a little bit of a problem we might find with that. 00:05:59.627 --> 00:06:08.408 Well, they didn't literally do it Like they didn't crucify him. 00:06:08.408 --> 00:06:08.891 They weren't there. 00:06:08.891 --> 00:06:10.300 They weren't pounding the nails into his wrist, were they? 00:06:10.300 --> 00:06:12.721 Most of them were not. 00:06:12.721 --> 00:06:16.245 But here's what's theologically true of them and theologically true of me and you. 00:06:16.245 --> 00:06:23.132 Even if you don't feel it, even if you don't know it, it was our sin that put Jesus on the cross. 00:06:23.132 --> 00:06:26.435 It was our sin that crucified the Messiah. 00:06:26.435 --> 00:06:27.295 It was our sin. 00:06:27.295 --> 00:06:37.125 That's why he was sent to pay the price, so that he would pay the penalty and we wouldn't. 00:06:37.125 --> 00:06:38.608 But let's make no mistake, it's not just like some ancient event. 00:06:38.608 --> 00:06:40.872 My sin did that and it was real. 00:06:40.872 --> 00:06:41.661 It was personal. 00:06:41.661 --> 00:06:44.586 My sin held Jesus to the cross. 00:06:46.370 --> 00:06:48.814 We all have this, we've all done this, we've all done this. 00:06:48.814 --> 00:06:50.598 And we can get out of balance with this. 00:06:50.598 --> 00:06:56.889 We can either say well, you know, that's just life, you know You're born with it. 00:06:56.889 --> 00:06:57.589 That's just how it goes. 00:06:57.589 --> 00:06:58.891 You know you got dark hair. 00:06:58.891 --> 00:07:06.261 That's just what it is, man, that's how you were born, that's how you were born. 00:07:06.261 --> 00:07:09.648 That's minimizing a little bit the personalness of sin. 00:07:09.648 --> 00:07:10.709 So here's some encouragement. 00:07:10.730 --> 00:07:11.511 You and I are not uniquely sinful. 00:07:11.511 --> 00:07:16.483 You're not like the especially bad one, for we've all sinned. 00:07:16.483 --> 00:07:18.728 We've all fallen short of the glory of God. 00:07:18.728 --> 00:07:20.473 We all stumble in many ways. 00:07:20.473 --> 00:07:24.249 No temptation has seized you, but what is common to man? 00:07:24.249 --> 00:07:28.459 So we're all equally sinful. 00:07:28.459 --> 00:07:44.091 None of us are uniquely sinful, but here's what we might miss you and I are also personally sinful, meaning it was an interpersonal exchange between you and your God. 00:07:44.091 --> 00:07:45.814 He takes it seriously. 00:07:45.814 --> 00:07:47.165 It's a relationship he has with you. 00:07:47.165 --> 00:07:48.987 Even when you don't know, you have it with him. 00:07:48.987 --> 00:07:54.204 When we break his law, when we say, god to hell with you, I'll just do it on my own. 00:07:54.204 --> 00:07:57.685 I should be boss when we say that. 00:07:57.685 --> 00:08:02.627 Now he's tough, but he takes it personally because he's like. 00:08:02.627 --> 00:08:11.192 Everything I've ever done and everything I've ever said toward you was for you and for your good, so you could be in the safest, most wonderful place, which is my arms. 00:08:12.983 --> 00:08:19.444 Now, when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles man, brothers, what should we do? 00:08:19.444 --> 00:08:22.110 And Peter said to them repent. 00:08:22.110 --> 00:08:26.829 This word repent, it means turn around in your mind and turn around in your actions. 00:08:26.829 --> 00:08:37.789 Change from what you were doing and go the other way, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 00:08:37.789 --> 00:08:47.510 For the promise is for you and your children and all who are far off, as many as the Lord will call to himself. 00:08:47.510 --> 00:08:50.414 There's so much good stuff in there, I just have to stop and talk about it. 00:08:58.340 --> 00:08:59.426 Okay, the idea that this is not only a promise for you. 00:08:59.426 --> 00:08:59.847 What is the promise? 00:08:59.847 --> 00:09:01.778 It was that you could have your sins forgiven and you would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 00:09:01.778 --> 00:09:03.101 Let's talk about the Holy Spirit for a second. 00:09:03.101 --> 00:09:05.926 The Holy Spirit was the Spirit of God who filled the temple. 00:09:05.926 --> 00:09:07.928 Who left? 00:09:07.928 --> 00:09:17.884 He left the Jewish nation when they'd betrayed him enough that he kicked them out of their own land and sent them into exile, and his presence never came back to that temple. 00:09:17.884 --> 00:09:27.649 But it was prophesied one day he would come back to a newer temple and do a better work, and that temple would be the hearts of mankind. 00:09:27.649 --> 00:09:34.070 So he's saying that promise is for you, this God that abandoned us with his presence long ago. 00:09:34.070 --> 00:09:37.148 His promise is he'll come into you as the temple. 00:09:37.148 --> 00:09:39.664 Right now, not just for in the temple. 00:09:39.664 --> 00:09:44.107 In you right now, you are the recipient of that promise. 00:09:44.107 --> 00:09:58.701 That's pretty dope Now, in an honor and shame culture, it's a big deal to get baptized, see, we don't necessarily know it's a big deal now, but if you were going to be baptized as a Jew, what you were saying was like Jews didn't get baptized. 00:09:59.142 --> 00:10:05.561 You got baptized if you were becoming a Jew, if you were a non-Jew, and be like oh my gosh, I recognize that Yahweh is the true God. 00:10:05.561 --> 00:10:11.465 I'm going to get baptized as a demonstration that I have not been following God's ways, but now I'm coming in to God's family. 00:10:11.465 --> 00:10:16.274 So for a Jew to get baptized was to shame themselves. 00:10:16.274 --> 00:10:19.527 We don't understand honor and shame in the way that they did. 00:10:19.527 --> 00:10:20.990 It's an honor and shame culture. 00:10:20.990 --> 00:10:25.971 There's deep shame attached to things and you can mess up your honor very easily. 00:10:25.971 --> 00:10:32.229 And so for you to step out and get all wet and say I take the shame, I should have been following God the right way and I wasn't. 00:10:32.229 --> 00:10:37.412 But I'm willing to take the shame, to demonstrate and essentially confess to everybody. 00:10:37.412 --> 00:10:39.245 I should be doing something else. 00:10:39.245 --> 00:10:40.149 I should be repenting. 00:10:40.149 --> 00:10:42.889 I should be following this God. 00:10:47.080 --> 00:10:52.312 Back to Peter and with many other words, he solemnly bore witness and kept on exhorting them, saying be saved from this crooked generation. 00:10:52.312 --> 00:11:00.844 So then those who had received his word were baptized, and on that day there were added about 3,000 souls. 00:11:00.844 --> 00:11:05.154 What does Jesus want all people everywhere to know? 00:11:05.154 --> 00:11:07.981 What does he want all people everywhere to know. 00:11:07.981 --> 00:11:20.528 He wants them to know that just what Peter offered, hey, each of you be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the promise is for you. 00:11:20.528 --> 00:11:36.208 Some people say I don't know if it is for me, carter, it is, it's for you, it's for your family, it's for your posterity, it's for the people that come after you, it's for the people, he said a long way off, which means probably many of us. 00:11:36.208 --> 00:11:37.913 You're Gentiles, you're non-Jews. 00:11:37.913 --> 00:11:43.312 That's the part of the promise that includes you long ago in the mind of God. 00:11:43.312 --> 00:11:44.576 Here's the promise. 00:11:44.576 --> 00:11:45.418 It's going to reach them. 00:11:45.418 --> 00:11:47.846 It's going to reach them in the 21st century. 00:11:47.846 --> 00:11:50.494 The promise is still in action. 00:11:50.494 --> 00:11:52.900 Everyone who God will call to himself. 00:11:52.900 --> 00:12:07.163 He wants us to know Jesus, wants us to know our sin, put Jesus on the cross, and so we need to humbly ask for forgiveness and express our forgiveness through embracing the shame on some of us. 00:12:07.163 --> 00:12:17.568 We don't feel like it's a shame embracing, in some sense a shame of getting all wet of baptism, of saying me I'm the one I should have been following God and I wasn't. 00:12:17.568 --> 00:12:19.293 What does baptism mean? 00:12:19.293 --> 00:12:19.875 I wrote this down. 00:12:19.875 --> 00:12:36.259 Here's, hopefully, a succinct definition Baptism is an act of announcing that you are turning to God, admitting your sin and believing in his personal eternal forgiveness and friendship. 00:12:37.365 --> 00:12:38.650 Doggone, that sounds good. 00:12:38.650 --> 00:12:41.392 That sounds better than a bowl of Captain Crunch. 00:12:41.392 --> 00:12:45.495 Let's read it again Baptism is an active announcing. 00:12:45.495 --> 00:12:50.490 It's an active announcing when people get baptized here pretty soon. 00:12:50.490 --> 00:12:51.716 It's an announcement. 00:12:51.716 --> 00:13:01.558 It's an announcement that they are turning to God and admitting their sin and believing his promise of personal eternal forgiveness and friendship. 00:13:01.558 --> 00:13:04.530 That's what we're seeing and it's beautiful baby. 00:13:04.530 --> 00:13:12.972 It is a fleeing from the sin virus, the death virus, the hell virus, straight into Jesus' arms, knowing he himself is the cure. 00:13:12.972 --> 00:13:19.951 It is a demonstration that I trust Jesus, though my sin did keep him on the cross. 00:13:19.951 --> 00:13:28.057 His open heart of love and affection never stops fighting for me and always is reaching toward me and pulls me in to his chest and loves me. 00:13:28.385 --> 00:13:30.068 And I can't get away from it. 00:13:30.068 --> 00:13:32.615 Somebody say can't, I can't get away from it. 00:13:32.615 --> 00:13:33.837 Who's it for? 00:13:33.837 --> 00:13:36.226 Get away from it. 00:13:36.226 --> 00:13:37.470 Somebody say, can't, I can't get away from it. 00:13:37.470 --> 00:13:37.770 Who's it for? 00:13:37.770 --> 00:13:38.913 It's for you and your children and those who are far off. 00:13:38.913 --> 00:13:40.798 What happens when somebody is baptized? 00:13:40.798 --> 00:13:44.552 Just what he said they're forgiven from all their sin and they get this gift of the Holy Spirit. 00:13:44.552 --> 00:13:47.511 What's happening is another way we talk about it is they get saved. 00:13:47.511 --> 00:13:49.278 They get saved. 00:13:49.278 --> 00:13:53.331 They trust their eternal destiny and their life right now to Jesus. 00:13:53.390 --> 00:13:54.894 And there's really only three things you got to do. 00:13:54.894 --> 00:13:57.652 You have to acknowledge that's true what Jesus said. 00:13:57.652 --> 00:13:58.575 Remember that's what Peter said. 00:13:58.575 --> 00:14:02.131 He said you have to know this, we have to accept it. 00:14:02.131 --> 00:14:03.053 We have to acknowledge it. 00:14:03.053 --> 00:14:05.239 We have to believe that believe is trust. 00:14:05.239 --> 00:14:08.534 I have to trust it that Jesus really can and does want to save me. 00:14:08.534 --> 00:14:21.912 And then I need to confess it, and really you don't have to confess it to all of us, you just need to confess it to Jesus. 00:14:21.912 --> 00:14:24.500 I'm the one and I need your forgiveness and I'm so thankful that your arms are wide open and you're willing to give it. 00:14:24.520 --> 00:14:28.823 When you see a baptism, these used to be together okay, in the first church times, when you got baptized, that's what you were saying. 00:14:28.823 --> 00:14:29.667 You're saying I'm getting saved. 00:14:29.667 --> 00:14:34.703 Now, it's true, you don't have to get baptized in order to get saved. 00:14:34.703 --> 00:14:35.886 It really is a heart thing. 00:14:35.886 --> 00:14:39.955 You just come to Jesus on your knees saying I need Jesus. 00:14:39.955 --> 00:14:42.687 Boom, you're forgiven and it's forever. 00:14:42.908 --> 00:14:44.250 The baptism doesn't improve it. 00:14:44.250 --> 00:14:49.371 What the baptism does do is it announces it, and in those times they always went together. 00:14:49.371 --> 00:15:01.600 In our time there's not as much, just baptismals everywhere in the world, and so sometimes we save it for church or we save it for when we're at the lake, but either way it means I'm trusting Jesus for my salvation. 00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:02.643 Here's four changes. 00:15:02.643 --> 00:15:04.971 We're going to go up, walk through them real quick and then we're going to baptize some folks. 00:15:04.971 --> 00:15:06.785 Four changes of baptism announces. 00:15:06.785 --> 00:15:08.528 Number one my identity changes. 00:15:08.528 --> 00:15:10.812 My identity changes. 00:15:11.013 --> 00:15:15.860 For you are all children of God through faith in Christ. 00:15:15.860 --> 00:15:18.870 We all might say, hey, we're all children of God. 00:15:18.870 --> 00:15:22.366 That's true in a sense, but in the purest biblical way. 00:15:22.366 --> 00:15:24.051 We're all creatures of God. 00:15:24.051 --> 00:15:25.394 We're all creations of God. 00:15:25.394 --> 00:15:32.450 But there's a son and daughtership that he invites, a unique, favored son and daughtership that he invites us into when we trust Christ. 00:15:32.450 --> 00:15:39.153 He says and all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ like putting on new clothes. 00:15:39.153 --> 00:15:41.259 It's like putting on. 00:15:41.885 --> 00:15:51.554 We kind of get dirty through life from our sin and we come to Jesus first and he says, okay, get rid of all that and put on me, put on my purity, put on my cleanness. 00:15:51.554 --> 00:15:57.274 But then as we walk through life we still get a little bit dirty, like our heels kick up some dirt because we don't get perfect suddenly. 00:15:57.274 --> 00:16:03.496 And yet Jesus says, even though you don't feel perfect, here's the way the law works the other way. 00:16:03.496 --> 00:16:05.288 I've called you perfect. 00:16:05.288 --> 00:16:08.394 I've changed your who. 00:16:08.794 --> 00:16:17.178 You're still going to do things that aren't perfect and aren't right and that's going to make you feel sometimes like, well, you know, I can't be saved, it must not have taken, it just doesn't work. 00:16:17.178 --> 00:16:20.355 Jesus doesn't really love me because here I go, hurting him again and betray him again. 00:16:20.355 --> 00:16:24.575 I'm sorry, precious, you're going to do that right up until the day you leave this earth. 00:16:24.575 --> 00:16:29.071 That's part of being in this body that still kind of has the disease. 00:16:29.071 --> 00:16:34.879 But there's a higher truth and Jesus says I know you still experience it, but your who has changed. 00:16:34.879 --> 00:16:38.453 Even when you feel dirty, you need to confess I have done this. 00:16:38.453 --> 00:16:39.155 But it's not who I am. 00:16:39.155 --> 00:16:44.937 I am now a prince or princess of the most high king and I have Jesus's cleanness. 00:16:45.245 --> 00:16:52.496 Even though I don't always act like I have Jesus's cleanness and it's a picture of death into life. 00:16:52.496 --> 00:16:56.875 When you see this in a second it's going to be a picture Romans 6, 4, for we died. 00:16:56.875 --> 00:16:58.245 That's what you're going to watch. 00:16:58.245 --> 00:17:07.693 We died and were buried with Christ by baptism, and just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may have new lives. 00:17:07.693 --> 00:17:13.490 It's a picture of us dying but then rising, so we can have friendship of Jesus and the power of Jesus. 00:17:13.490 --> 00:17:17.893 We have access to him in a way that we didn't when I first came to Christ. 00:17:18.755 --> 00:17:23.192 You know before that I was a real partier Like and I did the drugs of the time. 00:17:23.192 --> 00:17:30.935 They're not like what they are now, but it was still wrong, it was still illegal and I was always out partying man. 00:17:30.935 --> 00:17:34.308 I knew whatever God there was out there didn't particularly like it. 00:17:34.308 --> 00:17:37.816 I knew the authorities I was deceiving, didn't like it. 00:17:38.457 --> 00:17:45.597 And when I came to Christ, I began to just have this thing go off saying God's not done with this, he's not down with this. 00:17:45.597 --> 00:17:49.953 He didn't force me to lay it down, he invited me and inspired me. 00:17:49.953 --> 00:17:57.553 You need to lay that down Because, see, jesus says if you seek to keep your life, you'll lose it, but if you lose your life for my sake, you'll find it. 00:17:57.553 --> 00:17:59.185 And that was resonating in my brain. 00:17:59.185 --> 00:18:05.565 Okay, if I, if I keep all this fun that I'm having, jesus says I'm going to lose real life. 00:18:05.565 --> 00:18:10.532 But if I lay it down, I'm going to gain the life that only Jesus can give. 00:18:11.253 --> 00:18:20.369 And so, with his help, it wasn't easy, it wasn't perfect and it wasn't the first time, but, with Jesus' help, there had to be a relinquishing, a dying bye-bye. 00:18:20.369 --> 00:18:28.112 Bye-bye to that saying bye bye and then embracing the new life that was in Christ, and some of them friends, it was really easy. 00:18:28.112 --> 00:18:36.753 It was like boom, that's done, and others were like doggone, this is a walk. 00:18:36.753 --> 00:18:38.365 There's like a magnetism that pulls me back, trying to toward that thing. 00:18:38.365 --> 00:18:44.035 But when I'm in Christ, my who is different, even when my do seems like the old me. 00:18:44.035 --> 00:18:46.833 My identity changes, my access changes. 00:18:46.833 --> 00:18:47.366 That's number two. 00:18:47.366 --> 00:18:48.290 My access changes. 00:18:48.290 --> 00:18:50.373 Oh my gosh, this might be my favorite one. 00:18:50.373 --> 00:18:51.750 My access changes. 00:18:53.384 --> 00:18:58.356 Baptism brings the times of the refreshing from that Holy Spirit that is crazily given to us. 00:18:58.356 --> 00:19:13.256 For by the Spirit, for by one Spirit, all of us, jews and Greeks, everybody, slaves and free, we're baptized into one body and we're all privileged to drink from the Spirit, to experience His renewing and His refreshing and His friendship. 00:19:13.256 --> 00:19:17.054 Imagine that you have had a walkie-talkie that doesn't work. 00:19:17.054 --> 00:19:21.571 Your whole life You've just had it with you, tried to throw it away and it just always found its way back into your room. 00:19:21.571 --> 00:19:24.173 You've moved and it came with you and it just never works. 00:19:24.173 --> 00:19:25.349 You shake the thing, it just doesn't work. 00:19:25.349 --> 00:19:31.238 And then one day it starts to come on. 00:19:31.238 --> 00:19:35.807 Someone on the other side is trying to talk to you and this whole. 00:19:35.807 --> 00:19:37.614 You've had it the whole time but it was kind of like broke. 00:19:38.645 --> 00:19:48.608 When we come to Jesus, he turns on the walkie talkie and he says you're not going to hear me perfectly because you're still riddled with sin, but you're going to begin to sense my direction and sense my leading. 00:19:48.608 --> 00:19:56.067 And when you come to me at the end or beginning of a hard day, I'm going to hold you and soothe you and give you some sense that the world can't see. 00:19:56.067 --> 00:20:01.208 I'm going to give you a piece of me and I'm going to impart my peace into you. 00:20:01.208 --> 00:20:02.431 This is just what Jesus talked about. 00:20:02.431 --> 00:20:04.055 John 14, verse 16,. 00:20:04.876 --> 00:20:08.067 The disciples are kind of like distraught. 00:20:08.067 --> 00:20:11.372 Jesus just told them by the way, I'm going to be killed soon, I'm going away. 00:20:11.372 --> 00:20:12.413 And they're like you're going away. 00:20:12.413 --> 00:20:14.277 What are you talking about, man? 00:20:14.277 --> 00:20:16.519 Jesus, you're the whole mission here. 00:20:16.519 --> 00:20:24.547 And he says it's better if I go away, because if I go away I'll send the Holy Spirit. 00:20:24.547 --> 00:20:26.009 See, jesus is limited to one GPS location when he was on earth. 00:20:26.009 --> 00:20:34.619 He says when I send the Spirit, I'll be with all y'all deeper than I am right now, and I'll get to be with everybody Verse 16,. 00:20:34.619 --> 00:20:42.631 And I will ask the father and he'll give you another helper to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. 00:20:42.631 --> 00:20:51.933 You know him, you know me, and he dwells with you and he will be in you. 00:20:51.933 --> 00:20:52.654 What a promise. 00:20:53.656 --> 00:20:59.034 The privilege to drink from the Spirit, the privilege that some of you have experienced this. 00:20:59.034 --> 00:21:04.906 You thought preaching was really bad and dumb and you thought church was dumb, and then, somewhere along the line, you heard a sermon and the Lord clicked it on. 00:21:04.906 --> 00:21:08.195 He began to cause you to be illuminated and to drink from the Holy Spirit. 00:21:08.195 --> 00:21:10.509 You may not have known what was happening, but you're like oh my gosh, I understand this. 00:21:10.509 --> 00:21:12.050 Oh my gosh, I kind of like this. 00:21:12.050 --> 00:21:14.634 That was him, that was the helper. 00:21:14.634 --> 00:21:15.155 What was he doing? 00:21:15.155 --> 00:21:15.757 He was helping you. 00:21:15.757 --> 00:21:22.519 He was helping you hear him and get it and understand what God was saying, even if only kinda. 00:21:23.162 --> 00:21:26.430 My identity changes, my access changes, my allegiance changes. 00:21:26.430 --> 00:21:28.394 My allegiance changes. 00:21:28.394 --> 00:21:30.688 Did you see that in the last verse, 1 Corinthians 12, 13? 00:21:30.688 --> 00:21:45.328 For by one spirit, all of us, all of us, jews and Greeks, any kind of person, no matter where they've been, no matter what their background, no matter what their religious history, no matter what their ethnic history, no matter what, were baptized into one body. 00:21:45.328 --> 00:21:52.423 Everybody who comes to Christ is brought into one body, one family. 00:21:52.423 --> 00:22:03.234 Now, that body is the body of Jesus, yes, but it's also the body of all the Christians who are also one with Jesus, all the Christians alive today, all the Christians in the past who are now in heaven. 00:22:03.234 --> 00:22:05.753 You become one with all of them. 00:22:05.753 --> 00:22:08.627 Imagine so. 00:22:08.728 --> 00:22:12.673 We sometimes talk about baptism like it's a wedding, and that's a helpful illustration because it's that permanent. 00:22:12.673 --> 00:22:15.307 It's's a helpful illustration because it's that permanent. 00:22:15.307 --> 00:22:19.647 It's like Jesus is committing to you, and you're publicly committing to him, the danger of it. 00:22:19.647 --> 00:22:22.076 You can't marry everybody. 00:22:22.076 --> 00:22:25.586 When you marry Jesus, you marry all the people Jesus married. 00:22:25.586 --> 00:22:28.372 You marry the entire body of Christ. 00:22:28.372 --> 00:22:31.478 You're grafted into his body. 00:22:31.478 --> 00:22:38.667 It's a little bit like, instead of like, a person who needs, maybe, a heart transplant receiving a heart. 00:22:38.667 --> 00:22:40.712 It's more like the heart receiving a body. 00:22:40.712 --> 00:22:42.938 You and I are the heart. 00:22:42.938 --> 00:22:46.641 Maybe You're an appendage, you're a piece of it, but really your whole life. 00:22:46.641 --> 00:22:51.011 You haven't been able to find your ultimate purpose until you are in that body. 00:22:51.011 --> 00:22:53.215 You belong in the body. 00:22:53.215 --> 00:22:55.730 It's not that you're not useful, it's not that you can't be used for other things. 00:22:55.730 --> 00:22:59.145 It's just that there's something higher and something better. 00:22:59.145 --> 00:23:05.267 When we come into the family of God, even when they've messed up, even when different ones have hurt you, I know that that's real. 00:23:05.267 --> 00:23:09.553 And yet we're on our way as Jesus sanctifies all of us. 00:23:09.553 --> 00:23:12.497 He says you're now one with all of them. 00:23:12.537 --> 00:23:22.226 Number four, my aim changes Matthew 28, 19 and 20. 00:23:22.226 --> 00:23:24.631 This is Jesus kind of parting gift mission to his disciples before he ascends into heaven. 00:23:24.631 --> 00:23:26.114 And everybody goes about the mission of God. 00:23:26.114 --> 00:23:33.016 Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 00:23:33.016 --> 00:23:37.472 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I've given you and, be sure of this, I'm with you. 00:23:37.472 --> 00:23:42.653 Always, even at the end of the age, when someone is baptized, they receive that exact same charge. 00:23:42.653 --> 00:23:43.675 That was a charge to the disciples. 00:23:43.675 --> 00:23:54.898 I want you to go make disciples and when you're making them, help them get baptized, help them come into the family, help them to announce their salvation, but when they do, they're also receiving that charge. 00:23:54.898 --> 00:23:58.334 So when you get baptized now you have a higher, ultimate aim. 00:23:58.334 --> 00:24:00.471 I want to do what I'm here to do on earth. 00:24:00.471 --> 00:24:14.575 I want to love my family, I want to achieve my goals, but there's also this higher sense of and whatever else I do, I'm supposed to be contributing to making disciples who will then get baptized and make disciples and then baptize others and then baptize others all the way down. 00:24:14.575 --> 00:24:15.145 Do you know? 00:24:15.145 --> 00:24:19.773 I mean, my friend, if you're a Christian right now, there's a link from you all the way back to those first disciples. 00:24:20.486 --> 00:24:23.471 People just kept passing on the truth and passing on the truth, and it got down to you. 00:24:23.471 --> 00:24:26.534 And now it's our turn to pass it on to others. 00:24:26.534 --> 00:24:31.030 And it's really not about us. 00:24:31.030 --> 00:24:37.540 It's about doing what Jesus wants us to Like. 00:24:37.540 --> 00:24:40.021 I was baptized as a kid, doesn't that? 00:24:40.021 --> 00:24:40.806 Isn't that it? 00:24:40.806 --> 00:24:45.282 I think that counts, just so you know, I was baptized as a kid, but here's what I would. 00:24:45.282 --> 00:24:46.326 I would make this pitch to you. 00:24:47.141 --> 00:24:58.542 I'll bet you, if you're baptized as a kid, your parents probably I'll bet you most of them, they probably were saying something in that baptism like we want this kid to belong to Jesus. 00:24:58.542 --> 00:24:59.463 That's what they were saying. 00:24:59.463 --> 00:25:03.348 They're saying we set this apart, we're pledging this child Now. 00:25:03.348 --> 00:25:05.211 They knew I can't control what they do. 00:25:05.211 --> 00:25:18.973 They might just forget the whole thing, but I'm asking God to honor this and make him or her his own when we come later in life and we've actually chosen to follow Christ. 00:25:18.973 --> 00:25:22.624 It's an appropriate step in some ways to complete what the parents started To say. 00:25:22.624 --> 00:25:26.050 My parents, they believed that I would want to follow Christ. 00:25:26.050 --> 00:25:27.094 Now I'm going to go ahead and finish it. 00:25:27.094 --> 00:25:33.292 I'm going to ratify the deal that they tried to express a heart for for me. 00:25:34.760 --> 00:25:40.823 Don't let it throw you if you have already been baptized, but you feel the Spirit tugging on you now, because here's what we're going to do. 00:25:40.823 --> 00:25:50.728 In a minute we're going to have some people come out here and get baptized, but there's some of you, I'm willing to bet, are feeling the nudge of the Holy Spirit to get baptized yourself today. 00:25:50.728 --> 00:25:54.749 And if that is you, I want you to think about it. 00:25:54.749 --> 00:25:56.667 But then I want you to go ahead and do it. 00:25:56.667 --> 00:26:00.242 You're gonna meet Laura and any helper. 00:26:00.242 --> 00:26:01.286 She's got out that door. 00:26:01.286 --> 00:26:03.531 She's ready to sign you up right now. 00:26:03.531 --> 00:26:04.945 We've got changes of clothes for you. 00:26:04.945 --> 00:26:06.826 You can go home dry if you want to. 00:26:06.826 --> 00:26:08.405 It's a perfectly sunny day. 00:26:09.701 --> 00:26:16.646 What I'm saying is it won't be hard If God is nudging you to take that step and make that announcement. 00:26:16.646 --> 00:26:18.826 I wanna give you that opportunity. 00:26:18.826 --> 00:26:19.970 What's required? 00:26:19.970 --> 00:26:31.709 Just what Peter said repent, each one of you, and be baptized for the forgiveness of sin, and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, this Jesus whom you crucified. 00:26:31.709 --> 00:26:44.366 The danger is we might feel the Spirit of God piercing our heart, like those original folks did, but we might resist it and push back against it and say, no, not me. 00:26:44.366 --> 00:26:56.112 Can I just encourage you to give in, follow in their footsteps and just give into it, because the promise is for you and it's for your children and all who are far off. 00:26:56.112 --> 00:26:59.441 As many as the Lord will call to himself. 00:26:59.441 --> 00:27:02.430 So let me ask you this question Do you hear him calling you? 00:27:02.430 --> 00:27:04.535 Here's what I want to do. 00:27:04.656 --> 00:27:11.665 First, before we bring out our baptizing people, I want to give you the opportunity. 00:27:11.665 --> 00:27:14.650 If you've never put your faith in Jesus Christ. 00:27:14.650 --> 00:27:16.444 Today's a great day to do that. 00:27:16.444 --> 00:27:21.429 Remember how simple we said it was All you have to do is acknowledge, believe and confess. 00:27:21.429 --> 00:27:24.022 Yeah, jesus, I don't know all the things. 00:27:24.022 --> 00:27:25.647 I just know that you're really who you said you are. 00:27:25.647 --> 00:27:29.085 I believe and trust that you can save me and that you want to. 00:27:29.085 --> 00:27:35.022 And I confess, jesus Christ, you are Lord, you're the King, you're the Christ, you're the one who was sent. 00:27:35.022 --> 00:27:36.884 You're God's answer to my sin problem. 00:27:36.884 --> 00:27:40.088 If that's you, I'm going to pray for us real quick. 00:27:40.088 --> 00:27:43.733 I'm going to give you the opportunity to pray that with me. 00:27:43.733 --> 00:27:48.567 You just pray it in your brain you don't have to pray it out loud and as you pray it, trust. 00:27:48.567 --> 00:27:55.671 Jesus hears you, he loves you and he's saying come to me, I will, I'll hold you and I'll never let go. 00:27:55.671 --> 00:27:58.666 Hey, thank you so much for joining us today. 00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:07.984 If you don't have a home church and you're looking for a Bible preaching community that has its heart set on passionately knowing Jesus and being his witness in our generation, check out fiercechurch. 00:28:07.984 --> 00:28:10.980 We'd love for you to join us, either digitally or in person. 00:28:10.980 --> 00:28:19.479 Also, if you're looking for leadership development related content, don't forget to check out the Fierce Leadership Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts from. 00:28:19.479 --> 00:28:22.710 Special thanks to those of you who give generously to support this ministry. 00:28:22.710 --> 00:28:24.907 It's because of you that this is possible. 00:28:24.907 --> 00:28:29.489 You can click on the link in the description to give now, or visit fiercechurch for more information. 00:28:29.489 --> 00:28:37.906 If you enjoyed this podcast, why not subscribe, share it with your friends, click on the share button, take a screenshot and share it on social media or wherever you would share such things. 00:28:37.906 --> 00:28:43.040 Whatever challenges you're facing, I know you can make it. 00:28:43.040 --> 00:28:43.362 Don't give up. 00:28:43.362 --> 00:28:43.722