SPEAKER_00: My name is Ryan.
SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the pastors here at Impact.
SPEAKER_00: And we are in the middle of a series that we have called God Never Said That.
SPEAKER_00: And what we've been doing the past few weeks is taking a look at some sayings, some different ideas that are very commonly stated, some that we have kind of embraced as gospel or biblical truth that not only is nowhere in Scripture, but oftentimes God says quite the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: And so we've talked about things like, well, God will never give you more than you can handle.
SPEAKER_00: And learn that actually He's just promised not to give us more than He can handle.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about statements like, if you want to know what to do, just follow your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And yet God says your heart needs redemption because it is wicked and deceitful.
SPEAKER_00: Last week, James did a great job of tackling the whole idea of health, wealth, and prosperity, right?
SPEAKER_00: That that's God's plan for every single one of us in earthly terms and earthly speaking, and did a great job of giving us clarity there from scripture.
SPEAKER_00: So today we're gonna be hitting on a new one that maybe may be familiar with you guys.
SPEAKER_00: I hope it is.
SPEAKER_00: But God never said that.
SPEAKER_00: And today we're gonna talk about pray this prayer and you'll go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Just pray this prayer and you'll go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I know the heart and the intention behind this, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's trying to emphasize this decision to give our lives to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But unfortunately, for a lot of people over the years here in Christian and in the church, especially here in the West, what we've done is inadvertently reduced the whole of following Christ to just in a moment of emotion, perhaps, for many people, praying a little prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And now our mindset is I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: That's all I need to do.
SPEAKER_00: We have a mindset of I've got my eternal fire insurance, and now I can live how I want and do the things that I want to do for the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm covered, and so I can just live my life because I'm now fine.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of us even pray a prayer every time someone invites us to.
SPEAKER_00: So we go to different services, we go to an outreach, we'll go to a concert, we go to camps, conferences, wherever it may be.
SPEAKER_00: And anytime someone's like, if you've not given your life to Christ, pray with me right now and give your life to Jesus, we go, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna pray it again just to be safe.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So there's this mindset where it reduces Christianity and the whole of our faith to something that is easy, something that is convenient.
SPEAKER_00: Our world today is all about making things as convenient and as easy as possible.
SPEAKER_00: You guys agree with that?
SPEAKER_00: That's the whole of technology.
SPEAKER_00: It's just kind of pervasive throughout our society.
SPEAKER_00: We want things easy.
SPEAKER_00: That's what technology does.
SPEAKER_00: It's meant to make our lives easier, and it certainly has.
SPEAKER_00: More so the past 20 to 30 years than in centuries before that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the the escalation of technological advance is staggering.
SPEAKER_00: When you look at what we're able to do now and how easy things are.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I remember the days growing up where my mom used to go to the grocery store and to pay for her food, had to either take out cash or she would always bring out her checkbook from her purse, you know, and we'd just be sitting there waiting for her to write the check and the amount and all these things.
SPEAKER_00: You guys remember that?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The first time you start using credit cards, remember the big credit card device, the machine?
SPEAKER_00: And they're like trying to like get an impression, a carbon copy of your credit card number and all the information.
SPEAKER_00: Right, and we see the advancement.
SPEAKER_00: Just a few days ago, I found myself kind of falling victim to this mindset because now everything is just digital, it's all on your phone.
SPEAKER_00: And so all you gotta do is now just tap something and it and it takes it directly out of your account because you just upload your card information to your phones.
SPEAKER_00: Right now, here at church, a lot of you guys are like, oh, I didn't get the bulletin.
SPEAKER_00: No problem.
SPEAKER_00: Tap the little circle in the chair in front of you, just hold your phone up to it, open the little thing, and all of a sudden it's all there.
SPEAKER_00: The bulletin, you can get connected, join groups, you can give, you can do all the things.
SPEAKER_00: We like it to be as easy as possible.
SPEAKER_00: A few days ago, I went to Walmart because that's where all good things are purchased.
SPEAKER_00: And as I'm at Walmart, I've not been there for a while, but I go up and I grab a few things, I'm kind of in a hurry, and I come up to the register, found the shortest line, I get there, they ring everything up, and I got my phone ready.
SPEAKER_00: And as soon as she's like, okay, the total will be this, I kind of hold my phone up to the device, and she's like, Oh, we don't do the tap.
SPEAKER_00: And I found myself in that moment going, what kind of organization is this?
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean you don't tap?
SPEAKER_00: And I had to open my little wallet phone.
SPEAKER_00: It's like I got my cards on my phone.
SPEAKER_00: It's like the case.
SPEAKER_00: I had to open a little flap, I had to take out the card, I had to put it into the device and wait.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was a solid three to five seconds, guys.
SPEAKER_00: That I had to wait, just irritated the entire time.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally pull it back out, put it back in, and leave.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I'm never going there again.
SPEAKER_00: That was so inconvenient.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't this the world we live in?
SPEAKER_00: Everything is immediately available, it's immediately accessible.
SPEAKER_00: There's a common knowledge as you look at churches here in the US, and we'll go to conferences and you read articles and books and hear podcasts.
SPEAKER_00: And anytime you talk about church growth, right, how do we see churches grow?
SPEAKER_00: It's always the same kinds of things where they address certain obstacles to church growth.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to throw out there, oftentimes it's about numerical growth, which is not the growth we should be concerned with.
SPEAKER_00: The growth we should be concerned with is not quantitative but qualitative.
SPEAKER_00: It's about fruit, it's about disciple making about these things.
SPEAKER_00: But every time talking about obstacles to numerical growth, the same things always come up.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll be listening to it going, oh, that's that's interesting, right?
SPEAKER_00: So they'll have things like, of course, teaching and the worship ministry, they'll have the kids' ministry blessed there with an amazing kids' ministry here at Impact.
SPEAKER_00: And then they always go to things like, you know, you need to make sure and have enough seats and chairs and space for people.
SPEAKER_00: And you can make sure too that parking is really convenient.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, well, we're out.
SPEAKER_00: We're out, we're done, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because we know that is not a convenient part of our setup here.
SPEAKER_00: But this is the kind of stuff that the church leaders stress over going, we've got to remove these obstacles.
SPEAKER_00: This saturate this mindset is saturated, even the church, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's seeped in to be able to go, okay, we want to make things easy.
SPEAKER_00: Because if we don't make things easy, people aren't gonna want to be here.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm so sorry we're parking in Rancho Family Medical Group in Chick-fil-A parking lot.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we have a shuttle ministry here at Impact that we love our shuttle drivers, right?
SPEAKER_00: Especially in the yeah, see?
SPEAKER_00: Easy.
SPEAKER_00: This is our our mindset.
SPEAKER_00: When I look at what I've experienced in different parts of the world when it comes to the church, guys, it's pretty humbling.
SPEAKER_00: When I've been able to go to Haiti, and I've been able to go over and and be able to speak and preach at a pastor's conference in Haiti, and you've got 100 to 120 pastors from the region of the Central Plateau known as Hinch, and they will come from not just the downtown, the city of Hinch, which is third world even and of itself, but they're coming from these remote villages in the jungles of Haiti.
SPEAKER_00: And these small towns, like villages, pastors are coming, and they're they're coming in their only suit.
SPEAKER_00: They only have one, and it is well worn, and they're walking in 98-degree weather with 98% humidity, and some of them will walk for two to three days to come to a conference to be poured into with the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sitting there going, what do I possibly have to offer these pastors who are shepherding at such great cost when everything is so easy for me here?
SPEAKER_00: Everything's so comfortable for us here.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus only seemed to talk about the cost of what it means to follow him into eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: He never talked about the benefits package of salvation as much as he talked about the cost.
SPEAKER_00: In Luke chapter 14, we read this: the words of Jesus, for which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost whether he has enough to complete it.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 33.
SPEAKER_00: So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus understood something about human nature, how we think about things.
SPEAKER_00: That anything that costs us little or next to nothing is considered by us to be cheap.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we see so many around us a cheap inversion of the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: A cheap inversion of what it means to follow Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Because I prayed the little prayer in this one moment in Sunday school, and so now I'm good and I can do whatever I want to.
SPEAKER_00: I'm covered, I'm going to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Not understanding the call of Jesus begins here and now and today, and it is surrendering every area, every part of our life to Him.
SPEAKER_00: When I look at the martyrs, the disciples of Jesus, and even throughout the history of the world, even those today in different parts of the world, the price they pay because of their faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's a humbling thing, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Families that are being torn apart still in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Different parts of the world where we see Christians that will not renounce the name of Christ and are murdered on the spot, shot in the head because of their faith in Jesus that they boldly proclaim and profess.
SPEAKER_00: When you look at the disciples and the torture they endured, the persecution, the opposition, all of them giving their lives, being crucified on X-shaped crosses, upside down, being stabbed to death with spears, being dragged behind horses through the city until they died.
SPEAKER_00: Willingly going up to a block and kneeling in front of it and laying their heads down on it, knowing that in that instant they're gonna go be with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: When you hear these stories, it is a humbling thing to know that one day we're not only gonna be in the presence of our Savior, but we're gonna be in the presence of these martyrs, hearing them share their story of Christ's faithfulness even in their demise here on earth.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know what I'm gonna say in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're gonna be sharing about how they they were beaten to death and dressed in animal skins and ripped apart by lions and treated, dipped in wax, boiled in hot wax while they were alive and lit up as human candles.
SPEAKER_00: And they're gonna be sharing these stories and be like, guys, I get it.
SPEAKER_00: You don't understand, too.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there was one time like I flew to Zambia on a missions trip and I had to fly a coach.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the leg room was terrible, and I was stuck in a middle seat.
SPEAKER_00: We got stuck in Miami for an hour and a half, and that airport food was atrocious.
SPEAKER_00: And what does my faith in Jesus ever really cost me?
SPEAKER_00: And this is not a message to say, so go out there and find ways to suffer.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not it.
SPEAKER_00: Because we have the assurance of Scripture that any of us who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, we will be persecuted.
SPEAKER_00: There will be things we lose, people that walk away, that no longer want to be a part of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And we're not willing to do that, to pay any of these prices because of our fear of man, our need to be accepted by this world.
SPEAKER_00: The result of our cheapened Christianity, countless chairs, countless seats and pews and and churches that are filled with casual and coddled, filled with carnal consumer Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a lack of genuine conversion.
SPEAKER_00: There's so many who look the part, they know how to play the part, but they're not following Jesus with their lives.
SPEAKER_00: They're really of no use in their own selfishness that they're we unwilling to let go of.
SPEAKER_00: They're of no use to the Lord, to his kingdom, building into this world, building his church, seeing the lost come to radical saving faith in Christ because of our example.
SPEAKER_00: We're just so focused on ourselves and what we need to do every day, and that's what we're consumed by.
SPEAKER_00: We're like those Jesus describes in Luke 14.
SPEAKER_00: Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?
SPEAKER_00: It is of no use, either for the soil or for the manure pile.
SPEAKER_00: It is thrown away.
SPEAKER_00: He who has ears to ear, to hear, let him hear.
SPEAKER_00: As we are tasteless salt, so many of us.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't look any different.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe some people would look at our lives and they wouldn't know.
SPEAKER_00: The only way is to really taste that salt to go, oh, it's lost its flavor, and now it's good for nothing at all.
SPEAKER_00: Salt is meant to preserve, it is meant to protect against decay, it is meant to add flavor to this world around us to show people, this world, who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_00: And yet we've embraced this cheap form of Christianity where I've got my fire insurance, I'm good, now I can live how I want to.
SPEAKER_00: What can we learn from the first gospel message, the first real gospel invitation ever preached?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to Acts chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: And what we see is this is after Christ dies for the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_00: He raises from the dead and he appears to his followers, hundreds of them, and and then he ascends back to the Father into the clouds.
SPEAKER_00: But he gives them this great commission.
SPEAKER_00: He he tells them that they're gonna be his witnesses when the Holy Spirit falls upon them.
SPEAKER_00: And in Acts chapter 2, we see his words come to fruition.
SPEAKER_00: It's on the day of Pentecost, this Jewish feast and festival, and they're all gathered together and they're praying together as his followers.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit of God, as Jesus promised, falls upon them and begins to empower them.
SPEAKER_00: And they declare the glories of God in different languages, and these miracles start happening, and everyone's gathering around, and there's thousands of people that gather around.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the marketplace, and they're like, What is happening to this group of people?
SPEAKER_00: Something drew them in.
SPEAKER_00: And it's Peter who stands up and he preaches the first gospel salvation message empowered by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And he basically goes through the history of Scripture, just proving that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: And then he looks at everybody, the thousands of people there, and he says, You killed him.
SPEAKER_00: You killed the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the response.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 2, verse 37.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when they, the people, heard this, they were cut to the heart.
SPEAKER_00: And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do?
SPEAKER_00: And Peter said to them, Bow your head, close your eyes, pray this prayer, and you're gonna go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Did I read that wrong?
SPEAKER_00: Peter said to them, What, church?
SPEAKER_00: Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins.
SPEAKER_00: And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself, and with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation.
SPEAKER_00: And those who received his word were baptized, and they were added that day about 3,000 souls.
SPEAKER_00: You notice the response of Peter when they said, What shall we do?
SPEAKER_00: We've murdered the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: How do we how can we be forgiven?
SPEAKER_00: How can we be saved?
SPEAKER_00: And Peter's response wasn't pray this prayer.
SPEAKER_00: It was repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't even an invitation, it was a challenge, a calling out.
SPEAKER_00: The word repent, it means to turn from, to change direction.
SPEAKER_00: Right in our context, it's marked by a recognition and a renouncing of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Can we admit there are so many, even Christians, who don't really understand the magnitude, the severity, the horrific nature, the ugliness of our sin.
SPEAKER_00: And we've reduced it to something that's, yeah, it's not great, but it's really not that big of a deal because we're all about self-esteem.
SPEAKER_00: So we'll minimize our sin and our failure against God.
SPEAKER_00: We'll rationalize it away, we justify it, we dilute it, we try to transfer that blame to everybody around us.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just a product of my society and upbringing.
SPEAKER_00: And we never take responsibility for our personal rebellion against the creator of all things and his holiness and his love for us that we daily spit in his face and say, no, no, no, no, not your will be done from my life, my own will be done.
SPEAKER_00: We never take ownership of it.
SPEAKER_00: The weight of our sin we never confront.
SPEAKER_00: And then we invite Jesus into our life to be our savior, and we don't even really know what we need to be saved from.
SPEAKER_00: We invite him in to save us from our insecurity and to save us from the bad problems that happen in our lives and to save us from hard things.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, Jesus came to be Savior, to redeem us from ourselves, from our own sin, from the wrath of a holy God that we deserve because of our sin against him.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he came to redeem us from, to buy us back because of this infinite debt we could never pay.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody here want to see revival in the church?
SPEAKER_00: We know there needs to be a revolution in our culture, a moral revolution to see just our world change.
SPEAKER_00: Revolution is always downstream from the church's revival, an awakening where we have our eyes opened and we see the reality.
SPEAKER_00: Because part of revival throughout the history of the world, every revival is marked as the people of God pray, and then there is a repentance collectively that takes place.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit comes upon people as they repent and confess their sin before God.
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite stories of Peter Cartwright.
SPEAKER_00: He was a preacher that was an itinerant Methodist preacher back in the 1700s.
SPEAKER_00: And he was one that helped bring on what was known as the second great awakening in our country's history.
SPEAKER_00: And the the story goes that he was staying at this hotel, this tavern type place, and this inn, and the inn had a tavern where there was a dance going on, and he was gone, didn't know the dance was happening, and he returned back to his room, and the dance was in full force.
SPEAKER_00: And this is back in the day where there's plenty of drinking and plenty of people just living the worldly life.
SPEAKER_00: And here comes this man of the cloth, this holy preacher, and he starts to walk to his room.
SPEAKER_00: Well, there was a young lady who didn't know who he was, and so she approached him and invited him, asked him to dance.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone was kind of chuckling, going, There's no way he's gonna do that.
SPEAKER_00: And to their great surprise, he accepted the invitation.
SPEAKER_00: And so he walks with this young lady to the center of the dance floor and he quiets the band and he looks at her and he says, I have never undertaken anything of any kind of significance in my life without first asking God's blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Would you join me?
SPEAKER_00: And he goes to his knees and he pulls her down to hers.
SPEAKER_00: And she's kind of pulling away at first, and he just begins to pray.
SPEAKER_00: And he seeks not only God's blessing, but he repents of the collective sin of the people that were there, acknowledges their need for mercy, and he just begins to cry out to Jesus as Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And it was in this moment that this young lady stopped resisting and fighting against, and suddenly the Spirit of God overwhelmed her.
SPEAKER_00: And she begins weeping profusely, falling onto her face, crying out to Jesus because of her sin.
SPEAKER_00: And then someone over here doing the same and the same, and this dance ended up becoming this incredible service of worship.
SPEAKER_00: Where revival broke out, not just in that dance hall and tavern, but throughout the community.
SPEAKER_00: But it's that We need to understand we need saving.
SPEAKER_00: I know the word repent, it seems harsh or offensive.
SPEAKER_00: And guys, I wrestled with this, man.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's one thing I could speak about for the rest of my life, it is the grace we have in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It is his mercy and goodness toward us because it's changed everything for me.
SPEAKER_00: But what the Lord has to keep reminding me is the hope of the gospel and grace is only reserved for those who know the horror of their sin.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, we feel like we deserve his undeserved favor.
SPEAKER_00: We kind of just dismiss it as not that big of a deal.
SPEAKER_00: We like using language like, you know, we we all make mistakes, we all mess up.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody's perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that much more comfortable than having somebody stand up here and say, repent of your sin?
SPEAKER_00: It's so much easier to go, you know, I know you're not perfect, everything's not great in your life, but the grace of Jesus is amazing, and so invite him into your life and you're good.
SPEAKER_00: That is such a better, more uplifting as we leave.
SPEAKER_00: And I wrestled with it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be the hellfire brimstone up here.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm the bad preacher from Pollyanna.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you young people are like, Polly, what?
SPEAKER_00: Just explain.
SPEAKER_00: Your parents will explain.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, we can't, we can't in any way cry out to Jesus to be our savior until we first truly know we need saving.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're like a drowning man, a drowning woman that has the lifeguard swim out to us, and as we're gasping for air, use that air to go, I'm good, I got it.
SPEAKER_00: We have to acknowledge, help me, save me, redeem me from myself.
SPEAKER_00: I know the ugliness that's in me, and I can't change it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, I need you.
SPEAKER_00: No matter how moral I become, how many life changes I try to make, it's not enough.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to save me from me.
SPEAKER_00: Come into my life and take control.
SPEAKER_00: Take over.
SPEAKER_00: I submit all of me to you and your leadership and your lordship.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, this is a lifelong process and it's a journey.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't all happen in a moment, but we can't come to Jesus to save us without any intention or desire for him to change us.
SPEAKER_00: Do you need changing?
SPEAKER_00: When Peter here says, repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, it is so important that we interpret Scripture through the rest of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Because Peter is not saying that it is the act of getting baptized that we get to celebrate here today.
SPEAKER_00: It's the act of getting baptized that saves us.
SPEAKER_00: What does Ephesians 2 tell us?
SPEAKER_00: Paul writes this: he says, For by grace you have been saved through faith.
SPEAKER_00: This is not your own doing.
SPEAKER_00: It is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
SPEAKER_00: Not even the work of getting baptized is what saves us.
SPEAKER_00: Baptism isn't necessary for salvation, but it is a necessary demonstration of the salvation we have in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The picture of baptism goes along with repentance.
SPEAKER_00: It is my old life of sin is dead and gone, and it is buried with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And as I raise out of that water, it's a picture of the new life I have in him.
SPEAKER_00: That the old is done away with, that there's been radical change and transformation.
SPEAKER_00: That's what baptism is meant to convey.
SPEAKER_00: Our need to be transformed.
SPEAKER_00: Consider the story of Zacchaeus, Luke 19.
SPEAKER_00: This sinner and had a terrible reputation, and he was a tax collector who robbed from people and stole from them, and everyone knew it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus comes into his house, his home, and he places his trust and faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what we read, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, said to Jesus, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus here is not saying that Zacchaeus is saved because he is going to pay people back.
SPEAKER_00: We're saved by grace through faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's not our works.
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is the evidence that Zacchaeus has been saved.
SPEAKER_00: It's his desire for restitution to make things right.
SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus' desire to change, to be transformed.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he invited Christ into his home.
SPEAKER_00: Because he knew he needed saving.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I shared this with you guys, but as these young people, night one, were crying out to the Lord and acknowledging their sin and giving their lives to Him.
SPEAKER_00: And it happened, continued to happen throughout the week.
SPEAKER_00: We saw Zacchaeus things going on.
SPEAKER_00: Some of these young people were coming up to our leaders and they were taking out of their pockets their vapes that they had actually used in the restrooms here at church during the midweek studies.
SPEAKER_00: And we had all these conversations.
SPEAKER_00: What do we do?
SPEAKER_00: Do we beef up security?
SPEAKER_00: We got to make sure to keep bathroom doors open.
SPEAKER_00: We can't have them doing that.
SPEAKER_00: And we're wanting to control this wrong bad behavior.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I got an idea.
SPEAKER_00: How about Jesus just radically saves and transforms them to where their heart is different and they don't want to do that anymore?
SPEAKER_00: So they're willingly, voluntarily coming up to our leader saying, Here, take this.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do this anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I think they collected about eight vapes at camp.
SPEAKER_00: One of the students came back home, shared with his friends that were not at camp everything Jesus had done for him, how he had radically been changed, and Jesus saved him, and he took the vape and he trashed it, didn't want it anymore.
SPEAKER_00: His friends were so moved that they wanted the same thing he had.
SPEAKER_00: And so they had a gathering at this young man's house that was a vape destruction party.
SPEAKER_00: And they started doing studies together on a weekly basis, on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_00: A few days ago, I went into Starbucks with Pastor James, you know, suffering for the Lord again.
SPEAKER_00: And as we go in, there's a group of about six of these teenagers from our student ministries, Bibles open in the Word together, just letting the Lord speak to them.
SPEAKER_00: That's revival.
SPEAKER_00: It's the mark, there's an evidence, it's the fruit that is born in keeping with repentance.
SPEAKER_00: And this is not a message today for anyone who is here who is constantly wrestling, like, Lord, I love you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give everything to you, but I still see these areas of my life that need to change.
SPEAKER_00: And am I saved?
SPEAKER_00: And I don't.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a message for us today.
SPEAKER_00: Man, scripture is so clear.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't break the bruised reed, he doesn't extinguish the smoldering wick.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: He meets those of us who know our sin, who are wrestling with our sin, who are broken by our sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's when he meets us with his grace and says, I'm enough.
SPEAKER_00: I'm enough.
SPEAKER_00: It's not you.
SPEAKER_00: But guys, I know that there are some of us here today who have flippantly approached our faith in a way where we just casually go, Yeah, you know, I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: I prayed the prayer, I'm fine.
SPEAKER_00: And there's no urgency.
SPEAKER_00: There's no true awareness of our need for Jesus to save us.
SPEAKER_00: And today, my prayer is that that changes.
SPEAKER_00: Even as we celebrate these baptisms, what an incredible, incredible way to be reminded of what he's done for us.
SPEAKER_00: I want to ask us to do this.
SPEAKER_00: Can we pray together?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna invite the worship team back up, and then we're gonna have our baptizees come up to the front and we're gonna celebrate with them.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to give us a chance today to respond.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we need you.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, if you are here and the word of God, his spirit is bringing that conviction, like those who heard the message of Peter, your heart is, you're being cut to the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Would you just respond today?
SPEAKER_00: And it's not just a matter of praying a little prayer and hear the words you say.
SPEAKER_00: If you're aware of your sin and you know you need a savior, will you just tell your Savior that today?
SPEAKER_00: Acknowledge that, repent, and turn to Him.
SPEAKER_00: There's no other remedy, no other cure, no other solution but Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Father God, as we celebrate the work you've done in these lives, Lord, we just want to say thank you.
SPEAKER_00: We give you all praise and all glory, our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray this in your name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.