SPEAKER_00 0:01

I'm excited to jump back into our series of a baptism of discipleship. A baptism of discipleship. Now we've been at this for many weeks, started out talking about what does baptism even mean. So we looked at a biblical understanding of baptism all throughout the old and new covenants. And then we springboarding our scriptures off of Matthew 16 and uh I mean Matthew 28 and Mark 16, the scriptures we know as the Great Commission. And we've been talking about what does it mean to be baptized in the name. In the name. Matthew 28, 18. Father, we pause to pray and ask you, Holy Spirit, to open our minds that we may understand the scriptures, that we would know you and your word. That we would have revelation knowledge, intimate knowledge of your truth. That we could be who you created us to be and do what you've called us to do. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Matthew 28, 18, Jesus came. Now let me pause here since it is Easter and say the context of this story, the context of this commission, if you will, in Scripture is coming not just from Jesus, but from the resurrected Jesus. And he stands there in front of his disciples as the resurrected Lord of Lords and King of kings, and he makes this decree. Jesus came and told his disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, in other words, in light of the fact that now as the resurrected Lord, I have all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands that I have given you and be sure of this. I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. The fact that he was resurrected from the grave made that conversation possible. Without the resurrection, that conversation never happened. Without the resurrection, none of the ensuing things that we see after the death of Jesus would have happened. The book of Acts doesn't happen. This doesn't happen today in this room. And so as the backdrop of this sermon today, we have the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the reason that this is such a defining moment in Scripture and in our lives as followers of Jesus is because these words are not just coming from Jesus, but from the resurrected Lord of Lords and King of Kings. And he says to those who were following him, his disciples, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Spirit. He gives very specific instructions and he separates each one of the names of God, what we know as the Trinity of God. We've talked about this for weeks, so I'm not going to do a whole lot of recap. You can go back and listen to those messages on our podcast. But he's specifically laying out not a prayer that we pray when we baptize someone, not language for prayer or language for water baptism. But really, he's laying out a discipleship process. And I would even submit to you that it is a therapeutic one at that. So I'm so intrigued by this, and I've really been studying this a lot. And as we've been going through it, I know that these messages and some of these revelations into the text and into what Jesus was wanting us to do with his truth is changing the way that we think. Changing the way we think about the scriptures, changing the way we think about discipleship. What does that look like for me as a disciple? But then for me as one who's been told to go and make them. So he said, go and make them, and then he tells us how to do it. And so we see the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Last time we gathered, I talked about in the name of the Father, and how that is where we get our identity. That's our origin story. That is where we receive love and value and worth, and our self-image comes from that. Your value as a human being is established when you are baptized in the name of the Father. And I'll recap a little bit on what that means. So but baptism into the Father is focused on the person that you are. Baptism into the Son is focused on the position that you occupy. And baptism into the Holy Spirit is focused on the power that you have. So to be baptized in the name means to be fully, and this is all what we got from the weeks that we've been studying this. This is the uh Greek of what these words mean. Baptized in the name means to be fully immersed, submerged under and firmly fixed into Jesus' very own authority, character, and nature. Let me repeat that. So to be baptized in the name of Jesus means to be fully immersed, submerged under and firmly fixed into Jesus' very own authority, character, and nature. All of those words in that definition are the exact words that came from the Greek understanding of that. Remember, when you see an English word in scripture, the reason we talk so much about the Greek and the Hebrew and the Aramaic and all of those different things is because a lot gets lost in translation. And we can't afford to lose anything in translation. We need all that we can get. Amen. So this baptism isn't an event. This baptism that Jesus is talking about was not an event. Yes, it does include water baptism, but it was not, he was not even talking about water baptism. He was talking about discipleship and discipleship in uh the truth that he's been given all authority and power. And so to be baptized in the name means something different than maybe we thought, and it's a deeper process that unfolds in the life of a disciple. So this baptism isn't an event, it's a process of surrender through which you are fully submerged into all that he is, all that he has, and all that is his will for our life. Amen. And so as we're talking about being baptized in the name of the Son, why is that different than in the name of the Father? And why is it different than in the name of the Spirit? If it was, if it was all the same, Jesus would have said, just go make disciples, baptizing them into God. But he didn't do that, he separated those things very intentionally, and there's a reason why. And so we're talking about the son today, so I'm going to focus on that moving forward. But he says, uh, so you think about acceptance. So the father is about identity, the son is about acceptance, forgiveness, imputed righteousness. It's positional. The Holy Spirit is about power. So you could say it like this: baptism into the Father is a baptism of identity. Baptism in the Son is a baptism of acceptance, and baptism in the Holy Spirit is a baptism of power. So here's some things that I just want to list that are very specific and unique to Jesus in Scripture. Things that Jesus did for us, accomplished for us, and made available to us. I'm just going to go through some of these and just as I read this, just think about how important even just one of them is. The Son. It's about acceptance, and because of that, we have forgiveness of sins. Amen. We have the imputed righteousness of Jesus. We're going to be talking about that more next week. We have relational reconciliation. We have salvation. We have truth with a capital T. We have authority. We have the word of God. We have this concept of being grafted into the family of God. That is a spiritual, powerful reality. And it was the work of Jesus, the Son, that gave us that. We have this thing we call being a new creation. Being a new creation was something Jesus specifically accomplished. Behold, I make all things new. Talk more about that today. There's this reality that we are seated with Christ in heavenly places. We are, that's positional. We're seated with Christ in heavenly places. For you, if you're a if you are in Christ, if you are baptized in Jesus, if you're a follower, a disciple of Jesus, you have a position in heaven, even while you're alive on the earth. You spiritually have a position in heaven. The true you, the real you, the authentic you, is seated with Christ in heavenly places. Only Jesus gave us access to that. We have access to heavenly realms. We're not just limited to three dimensions and five senses in the physical realm. We have access to heavenly realms now as believers and those who have been baptized into Jesus because of Jesus. Discipleship is because of Jesus. Discipleship doesn't exist without Jesus. Commissioning and sending, some of you are familiar with the five-fold ministry: apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral, teacher, those are only because of Jesus. Specifically because of Jesus, the Son, we have those things in operation in the church. And so this baptism of acceptance is a positional. It's a positional baptism. Ephesians 2, verse 1 says, as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live. Listen, when you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the Spirit, who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath, but because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy. Now that's talking about the Father. So you're going to see the Father and the Son in this text. Zoe talked about the baptism into love, baptism in the name of the Father. So he says, but because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ. That's the same word in Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace that you have been saved. Listen, verse 6, and God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. That's positional. That is a positional baptism right there. You have been raised up, that's a position, and seated with Christ in heavenly realms, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. This is a big deal. This concept of being in Jesus, in the Father, in the Son, in the Spirit is a big, big deal. And it's more than just something we tack on to the end of a prayer. Colossians 3, verse 1. Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven. Listen, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand. That's the position. Remember the definition: to be immersed, submerged, under, to be fully fixed is part of that definition. To be fully fixed in Christ. Where he sits at the right hand, think about, listen, think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. I love that. Where are you? You're hidden with Christ. That's a position. That's a position that you occupy. That's a reality that you occupy. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. Come on. Listen, this is for those who are baptized in Christ, fully fixed, submerged under the authority, his very own character, nature, and authority. It's a position. It's a position. Remember, I said for weeks now, I've been saying there is not a specific kind of prayer that God hears. It's a specific kind of person. You can tack in the name of Jesus onto a prayer, and it doesn't make it a prayer that God hears. That's an incantation. That's a spell. That's like the seven sons of Skeva that were casting out demons. They were doing it in the name of Jesus. Remember? And those that Jesus said, many will say, Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name. I'm recapping a little. We've talked about this at length for weeks, so I'm not going to get too much into that. But Lord, Lord. It's the only time in Scripture you see Lord, Lord like that. What it means is name, name. They were name-dropping. They had no relationship. They had no authority. There was no submission to his authority, his very own character, nature, and authority. It was just tacking the name of Jesus onto their life. It was adding Jesus onto their life. Remember that word in meant superimpose? They were imposing. They were superimposing or impostors, where we get the word imposter. They were adding Jesus to their life. Like an enhancement. No, no. We lose our life in to him. When we are truly baptized in the name of Jesus as a disciple, we get access. Listen, acceptance and access. That's what I want to talk to you about today. The ministry and authority of Jesus provide access to us to certain things. Here's one. The ministry and authority of Jesus provides access to truth about the kingdom of God. It provides access to forgiveness from sins. It provides imputed righteousness. His very own becomes ours. The authority and ministry of Jesus provides access to new life. The old is gone, the new has come. It provides relational reconciliation. We get relationship with God, not religion about God. It provides access to the presence of God. Pastor Jamie mentioned about how that veil was torn. That only happened because of the work of Christ on the cross. We have access to the presence of God. We can go right in to the presence of God anytime without restriction as those who are in Christ. It provides access to the keys of the kingdom of God. Jesus provides access to the keys of the kingdom of God. Listen, you don't just have access, you have authority to receive and release what you accessed in God's presence, binding and loosing. So here's the first thing I want to focus on today, out of all of those things that we could talk about. There's a couple I want to talk about today. The first one is this it is a baptism. So to be baptized in the name of the Son is a baptism into relational reconciliation. First and foremost, at the very, very top, middle, and bottom of the heart of Jesus is relational reconciliation. It was the joy that was set before him. It was not just you. It was that what he was doing was going to re reconcile you to the Father. Because sin separated us. Jesus came, did all that he did so that we could have access to relational reconciliation. Now I can have relationship with God. It's a baptism of relational reconciliation. So I want to talk to you for a minute about a pattern that we see in Scripture. And I'm not going to teach this extensively today because there's so much, there's so many places I could, so many scriptures I could pull up and show you this pattern, and you'll even begin to see this pattern in your own reading. But it goes like this relationship, revelation, authority, power. Relationship, revelation, authority, power. Everybody wants power. Everybody wants power. Everybody wants to see uh to see the sick healed. Everybody wants to see the dead raised. Everybody wants to see blind eyes open, deaf ears open. Everybody wants to see the power of God to deliver people from demonic oppression and uh and oppression and depression and fear and anxiety and all of the things that can hinder us and get us in bondage and ensnare us and cause us to suffer. We all want to see that power operating in our own life and we want to be able to help other people. We want that power to help other people. But the problem is that people try to get to power without going through relationship, without having revelation, and without having authority. And if you try to operate in power without those things, bad things are going to happen. I call this the biblical path to power or the quadrant of demonstration. Matthew 16, let me show you this, a picture of this in Scripture. This is where Jesus was entering Caesarea Philippi with his disciples, and he asks them this question. He says, Who do people say that I am? Who do people say that I am? So it's an interesting dynamic because he's talking to his disciples, talking to people that he has a relationship with, and he's saying, Who do other people say that I am? And they start blurting out and they say, I didn't include this in the text, but I'm just giving you some context. They start blurting out and saying, You're Elijah, you're one of the prophets, you're Jeremiah. People say that you're Jeremiah, you're you're you're John the Baptist. You know, they start blurting out all this stuff, and then he stops and goes, But who do you say that I am? So, okay, you know who other people say that I am, but who do you say that I am? And that's where we pick up this scripture. That's relationship. In other words, he's looking at people who he has relationship with, and he's asking them, Who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, Son of the living God. How many of you know that's revelation? Jesus answered and said, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. So what Jesus is saying is, because you have relationship with me, you have relationship with the Father. And now you have revelation because of your relationship. Flesh and blood. You didn't get that from a man. You got that from God. You've got connection to God. So because Peter had relationship with Jesus, he had relationship with the Father, and the Father was giving him revelation. Listen, and I also say to you, verse 18, that you are Peter. Now that's actually when we see him change his name from Simon to Peter. You are Peter or Petrus, which means rock, and on this rock, so he says, you're a rock, and on this rock I will build my church. Now he wasn't just talking about on Peter, he was talking about what I believe is the rock of that revelation that he just got from God, that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. On this rock I will build my church. Listen, and the gates of Hades, the gates of hell, shall not prevail against it. And listen, and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, that's authority. And whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven, that's power. So you see this quadrant of demonstration, this biblical path to power, it's relationship, revelation, authority, and power. That is part of what the being baptized in the name of the Son is about. And Peter was getting uh uh tapped into that a little prematurely because Jesus hadn't even uh died on the cross, he hadn't even resurrected from the grave yet, but Peter got in a little early. He got an appetizer of this biblical path to power. It's a baptism of relational reconciliation. And then here's here's what you always know that you've been baptized into the Son because now you carry that message of reconciliation. Now it's not just the here's the the secondary consequence of being reconciled in relationship with God is then he begins to reconcile you in relationship with people that you're supposed to be in relationship with, where there's broken relationships. There's broken relationship with God because of sin. When that gets reconciled, now he starts working on our earthly relationships that are broken because of sin. He starts bringing reconciliation to those. It's a beautiful thing. Here's the second thing it's a baptism into total acceptance. It's a baptism into total acceptance. Total acceptance is so important. As I mentioned that, you may be wondering how that doesn't sound maybe sound that important. It's more important than you know. The whole problem that Jesus was coming to fix was the problem of rejection. Because we, Adam, had rejected God's authority, and then they were rejected from God's presence. Right? Satan rejected God's authority and was rejected from God's presence and cast down to the earth. So rejection and acceptance is a big deal. It's the problem that I believe Jesus came to fix, and and I believe there was more than one thing he was talking about on the cross when he said it is finished, but I'm convinced, I'm convinced that he was talking about rejection. It is finished. The work and the power of rejection is finished, it's over. So much of the gospel and the work that Jesus came to accomplish is about us being accepted and not rejected. John verse chapter 1, verse 10 says, He came to the very world he created, but the world didn't recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God, right? That's reconciliation and being grafted into the family of God. It's all about dealing with the work of rejection and the ministry of acceptance, the ministry of reconciliation, of bringing people in and reconciling them with God and reconciling them with their place seated with Christ in heavenly places. That's where we belong. And Jesus reconciled that, and he did it by doing away with the power of rejection and causing us to be accepted by God. Again, note it's when we accept him, then he accepts us. When we accept him and not reject him, then the power of rejection is broken and acceptance just begins to permeate throughout our life. Psychologists say that rejection is the one thing that people simply cannot deal with or control. The human heart has no answer for rejection. Psychologists point out the fact that we are set up to deal with every other facet of life: death, tragedy, loss, disappointments, but when it comes to rejection, we come up empty-handed. Ultimately, it will cause you to be rejected in your mind to be rejected by God. If people don't love me, why would God love me? Rejection will raise up such a strength of emotion in you that your ability to think rationally is completely inaccessible. It will turn your brain power into mush. Just you, you're just you can't do anything. You can't think right, you can't process right, you can't handle relationships right. The rejection completely traumatizes and hinders you from being able to function in a normal capacity, in a healthy capacity. And the reason for all of that is because God never put anything in you to deal with rejection, because God didn't design you to be rejected. He created you to be accepted, to be loved, to be nurtured, to be protected, to be fought for, to be cared for. Like that's what he created you for: for nearness, for closeness, for relational connection. And sin came in and created this rejection, and it cripples us in ways that we cannot overcome. You were created to be loved. Let me say this again. I want this to just really minister to your heart today. Everyone, everybody in this room has felt the hurt of rejection. You were created to be loved, nurtured, accepted, wanted, encouraged, valued, affirmed, protected, fought for, and cared about. You were created for healthy relationships for life and life more abundantly. You were created for the river life. And because love is our greatest need, rejection is our greatest fear. Because love is the most healing thing we can experience, rejection is the most hurtful thing that we can experience. Listen to this. Almost all trauma is the result of rejection. Almost all trauma is the result of rejection. Now, let me give you a better description of that. Anything other than love and acceptance is processed by human beings as rejection. Anything other than love and acceptance is processed by human beings as rejection. And when you are rejected by the people who should have been loving and accepting you, it does the most damage. Parental rejection is the worst kind of rejection that there is. Among parental rejection, you have all kinds of different kinds of abuse and abandonment and neglect, and that is the most damaging kind of rejection that there is. Physical abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, abandonment, divorce, uh, neglect, all of those kinds of things. Selfish people, essentially, all they do is breed rejection. Selfish people breed rejection in others. Anything other than love and acceptance is processed as rejection. Listen to Jesus in Luke 10, verse 16. He said to his disciples, Anyone who accepts your message is also accepting me. And anyone who rejects you is rejecting me. And anyone who rejects me is rejecting God who sent me. When the seventy-two disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, Lord, even the demons obey when we use your name. Yes, he told them, Listen, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Look, I have given you all I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes, scorpions, and crush them. Nothing will injure you. Listen, but don't rejoice because evil spirits obey you. Rejoice because your names are registered in heaven. Now, what he's saying, there he had given them power and authority to go cast out demons and heal the sick and preach the gospel. And what he's saying here is they come back and they're impressed at the power that they had. And he said, Don't be impressed with the power that you have, be impressed with the position that you have. Don't be impressed that you have power. Power is going to come and go. Power is going to come and go. The position is fixed. And it's only from the position that we have in Christ that we can rest in him and receive all that he has, including that power. But I love that the whole context of this conversation is acceptance and rejection. Acceptance and rejection. Did you see that? Everything hinges in the kingdom of God on accepting or rejecting. Everything. You either accept him or you reject him. Don't rejoice in the power you've been given, rejoice in the position that you've been given. He said, listen to what he said. He said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. In other words, what he's saying is, he's talking about acceptance and rejection. It felt like he kind of switched the conversation and started talking about something like, where did Jesus just go? He's still talking about acceptance and rejection. He said, I he goes, let me tell you something. When Satan rebelled against my father, he was rejected so fast out of heaven, it looked like a bolt of lightning. That's how fast he was rejected out of the Father's presence. When he rebelled, bam. And what he was saying is, you're operating in acceptance and rejection, and so you're seeing demons leave. You're seeing them rejected from these people. You're seeing them driven out, right? That means they're getting rejected from their occupancy, from their habitation in these people's lives. And he said, that's a result of the position that you have. Not the power that you have. That's a result of the fact that you've been accepted, right? You've been accepted. The power of acceptance has now brought you in and given you access to a position. And that's where your authority comes from. Relationship, revelation, authority, power. You can boast and profit off of the power, but you can only rest and receive in the position. The power can come and go and even change from season to season based on the task at hand and the faith present. But the position you have in Christ is secure and unchanging. Listen to me. If you're in Christ, you are fully accepted. Total acceptance is the only cure for rejection. Total acceptance, not just acceptance, because you can be traumatized and scarred by earthly rejection, by the rejection of men and women, by the rejection of people who should have been loving and accepting you, but they rejected you by not. Here's how rejection happens: it's either the bad thing that was done to you or the good thing that was withheld from you. Anything other than love and acceptance is processed in our soul as rejection. And we can live our whole life as a slave to rejection, just trying to find crumbs of acceptance from somebody somewhere. And it never, ever, no matter how much human acceptance you get, it never heals it. It never fixes it. It's never enough. It's insatiable. Only true and total acceptance from the Father washes away the power of rejection, washes away the hurt and the wounds and the trauma of rejection. You are fully accepted in Christ. Amen. That's part of this baptism in the name of the Son. Why it's so therapeutic is because if it's really happening the way that it's supposed to happen in your life, that total acceptance just washes away the power of rejection. It heals all the wounds that rejection ever created in your life, all the trauma, all the issues, all the emotional health issues, all the mental health issues. It just literally comes in and heals them. Come on, how many of you want some more of that? Jesus' ministry is reconciliation through forgiveness and imputed righteousness. Satan's ministry is rejection through offense and sinful behavior. So sin is always the root of rejection. Some sort of sinful behavior, again, a sin of commission, the bad thing that somebody did to you, right? The bad thing you did to somebody, or a sin of omission, the good thing that wasn't given to you, wasn't like love, like nurture, like whatever it was that you needed and you didn't get. That's how rejection is created. It's sins of omission, sins of commission. Satan is always trying to get you to think and live in a way that causes you to stay in a state of rejection and facilitate rejection in others. So he wants you linked to your earthly life, earthly things. Remember the scripture we opened up with is talking about you're a new creation, you're thinking about heavenly things, right? We're seated in heavenly places. The old is gone, the new is come. We'll read that in a second. And then there's this other kingdom, the kingdom of earth, the human realm, the soullish realm, and it's all rejection based. So you have acceptance-based and rejection-based. And depending on where you live, is what you're going to deal with and be affected by. That's why we have to be in, hidden in Christ, in Christ. It's a deep, deep thing. It's a deep work. Satan is always trying to get you to think and live in a way that causes you to stay in a state of rejection and facilitate rejection in others. Listen, the finished work of Jesus breaks the curse and provides an opportunity for you to live in a state of acceptance and reconciliation and to facilitate reconciliation for others. This is why Satan is called the accuser of the brethren, and Jesus is called the firstborn among many brethren, right? Satan is accusing, trying to separate, trying to get you to be rejected by God constantly. Constantly, constantly, constantly. That's his ministry. He was rejected, so his goal is to make sure as many people as possible get the same thing he got, which was rejected from God's presence, rejected from heaven. So his goal, his ministry is the ministry of rejection. Always, always, always. If rejection is present, Satan is there. That and he loves it. That is worship to him. Anytime we reject somebody, we give them something other than love and acceptance, we are partnering with the evil one. And we all do it. We all do it. I tell my kids, I'm working hard to make sure that you, you know, uh aren't traumatized by me as a as a parent. I want to love and accept you as much as I possibly can, but I'm still imperfect. There's still going to be times where they feel rejected by me. Hopefully it's more the omission. It's the good thing that I'm not giving them that they need versus a bad thing that I'm giving that they've got to get healed from. But my goal is to never ever do that. And with God's help, we can live a life where people aren't rejected by us. Our kids aren't rejected by us. Our spouses aren't rejected by us. We're not a minister of rejection. We are ministers of reconciliation. Satan always speaks accusation. Jesus always speaks intercession. Hebrews 7, 24 says, but because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever. Therefore, he is able once and forever to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever. Listen, to intercede with God on their behalf. In other words, we have this priest, this mediator, Jesus, who is interceding for us, intercession, that we would be accepted by God, that we could come before God, that we could come boldly into his presence. Okay, so that's all I can say about that, but I have a lot more. It's a ministry of reconciliation. It's a baptism into relational reconciliation. It's a baptism into acceptance. Acceptance. The last thing is this: it's a baptism into newness of life. Newness of life. In Christ, you are a new creation. God's remedy isn't to patch up the old. By my power and authority I grant you new life. You get a new beginning as a new person in Christ. Second Corinthians 5, 16. I close with this, Pastor Jamie, if you guys want to make your way back up in the next couple minutes. From now on, verse 16, from now on, therefore, we regard, listen, we regard no one according to the flesh. Where's that? That's where rejection rules. The soulish realm. Prince and power of the air, the minister of rejection. That's his realm. That's where he wants you to live. That's where he wants you to stay, forever traumatized by rejection, forever separated from God's love, forever separated from who you are in Christ and the position that Jesus has for you, seated with Christ in heavenly places, hidden with him. Listen to this. That's where he wants you to live. Listen, but we regard him thus no longer. Oh wait, sorry. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, in other words, what we we did what? We rejected him. We regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. All of this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is in Christ. God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. In other words, no longer rejecting them because of their sin and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Now keep that up there. I'm going to go back to that. But what he's saying is if you are in Christ, the work of rejection is finished. All the pain, all the hurt, all the trauma, gone. It's gone. It's not your life anymore. It's healed. Total love and acceptance from the Father. Total love and acceptance because of Jesus. We're in relationship with Him. It's interesting in the end of how he ended Matthew 28. It seemed off script a little bit. He's talking about discipleship and baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and all this stuff. And then he says, and know this. I am with you always. In other words, I'm with you. I'm for you. There's no rejection here. We're doing this together. Nothing could ever separate us from the love of the Father because of the work of Jesus. That's total acceptance. And when we live in that, baptized into that, no longer regarding anyone from the flesh, from the world. We're not evaluating it like that anymore. We're not living like that anymore. We are in Christ, seated with him, hidden with him, grafted into the family, fully, totally reconciled, accepted, receiving love, identity, value, worth. And it just washes out all that rejection. It heals every wound of rejection. We are reconciled. And now we have this ministry of reconciliation. Listen to me. Vow to never again be a servant of rejection. How damaging it is. How many of you have kids that have been bullied and all the garbage that goes on with young people, the meanness and the you know, best friend stuff. And, you know, and you know what happens if you have a best friend? You're a minister of rejection. If you have a best friend, you're ministering rejection to somebody. If you have a best friend, that is a uh a worldly concept that is a part of the kingdom of Satan. Have you ever heard that before? Some of you are looking at me like, what? Don't ever say the word best friend again. Because let me tell you what you're doing. You're saying, This is my bestie, and you're not it. Everybody but that person, rejection, rejection, rejection, and it's on you. It's on you. Don't play the games of this world. We don't regard people according to the flesh any longer unless you're not in Jesus. Right? Maybe that's just the fruit that you're really not in Jesus, and you need to take a look at that and go, I don't want to think I'm something that I'm not. Maybe I'm really not. I'm playing these worldly games. I'm regarding people according to the flesh. I'm not seated with Christ in heavenly places. I'm not getting healed from the hurt and the wounds of rejection. We want love. We want reconciliation. We want healing. And that's what we want to be ministers of reconciliation. That is what it means to be baptized in the name of Jesus. So listen, he says, all this is from God. Anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that is in Christ. God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Listen, one translation says the ministry of reconciliation. Therefore, because we have this ministry of reconciliation, we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God for our sake. He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Amen. Amen. Let's stand together on this glorious Easter Sunday. One thing I love about prioritizing this gathering in the presence of God and hearing the word of God is it just it just separates stuff. The word divides between what is carnal and what is spirit. It's like a double-edged sword. It just has the ability to just kind of come in and go, hey, did you know that there were two things happening here? Did you know that you could be living according to the flesh, treating people according to the flesh and not in Christ at all? But you could also be in Christ by the Spirit, reconciled, and operating in the ministry of reconciliation. That's the new life in Christ. The old is passed away. I used to reject people, I used to be rejected by God, no more. Now I have this position in Christ because I'm baptized in the name of the Son. I have this position in Christ where I am reconciled to God. I'm receiving the love of the Father, and now I'm sharing the love of the Father. It's the best life. It's the best life. It's a life of healing. It's a life of forgiveness. It's a life of relational reconciliation. It's a life of peace. It's a life of knowing how much you're loved and how much worth and value you have. There's nothing like it. It dispels anxiety. It dispels fear. It constantly pushes out worry and stress and striving and competition and envy and jealousy and all these things. It just constantly dispels that stuff. And you just become this solid person. This solid person, this unwavering person. Listen, if he accepts you, it doesn't matter who rejects you. You can truck through this world in unspeakable amounts of rejection and never be phased because you're living in the love and acceptance of the Father. You're baptized in the name of the Son. You're baptized in the name of the Father. And it just rolls off. It just rolls off. It's okay. The Father loves me. I know who I am. I know where I belong. I know what my position is. And nothing that's the incorruptible seed, nothing can take me out of the hand of the Father. Nobody can snatch me out unless I choose to leave. Unless I choose to live in the soullish realm, in the earthly realm, where the minister of rejection rules and reigns, where the old man is in control, not the new man. And so in this baptism in the sun, I just want us to continue to stay fixed on this. I want to live that life. How many of you want to be baptized in the name of the Son? Maybe today you're here and you've never had the opportunity to make that decision to believe in Jesus and to belong to him. I would just ask if you'd bow your heads, close your eyes if you're feeling a tug in your heart. The Holy Spirit is tugging your heart. The Holy Spirit is drawing you to Jesus today. And you're at a place where you want to be done with all the foolishness in the world, with all the pain, with all the competition, with all the jealousy and envy and striving. You want to be done with the rejection and the belittlement of your self-image, your self-worth, your value as a person, all the games that people play. If you want to be done with that, just raise your hand. Just raise your hand. I want to be done with that. I want to live according to the kingdom of God. How many of you just need the love and acceptance of God to wash some rejection away? Just raise your hand if you need the love and acceptance of God to wash some rejection away. Let's all just pray this prayer together. And maybe there's someone here that's praying this for the first time, and it's going to be a moment for you where you cross over from darkness to light, from death to life. But I want everybody to pray this prayer because it's the prayer of all of our hearts. Say this after me. Say, Jesus, I've heard your truth today. I choose you. I accept you. Thank you that now I am accepted by you and I am grafted into your family. I receive the love of the Father right now. I receive total acceptance right now. Just wash rejection out of my soul. Heal every hurt, every wound, every memory of rejection, replaced with your total love and acceptance. Thank you for forgiving me and grafting me in for reconciling me to the Father. Now make me a minister of reconciliation.