SPEAKER_00: Mud Creek, how are we doing this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Good, good.
SPEAKER_00: For those of you that may not know me, my name is Jesse.
SPEAKER_00: I'm blessed to be one of the pastors here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the lead pastor, which means, among other things, I am the regular preaching pastor.
SPEAKER_00: And so you'll have to put up with me well until I'm finished in the next few minutes.
SPEAKER_00: But let me express my word of welcome to you.
SPEAKER_00: If I haven't had the chance to introduce you, I will be at this exit on my left, your right.
SPEAKER_00: When you leave, please come by and introduce yourself to me if you would.
SPEAKER_00: And let me just express um again my sincerest, sincerest happy Father's Day to all of our dads, all of our stepdads, maybe all of our dads to me, for anybody, for anybody that is a positive male influence in this world.
SPEAKER_00: You are a hero.
SPEAKER_00: You are a needed hero.
SPEAKER_00: And we thank God for you.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, we thank God for you so much that Mud Creek Baptist Church is going to donate$500 in your honor to the Hendersonville Rescue Mission in honor of our dads here, just so that our community feels the influence of good men.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And personally, I just want to express gratitude to our folks here at Mud Creek.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for how much you have taken care of Amy and myself over the past week.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for all the cards and the texts and the gift baskets and the meals and especially the meals.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for all that you have done to care for us.
SPEAKER_00: Amy is doing some better, but she certainly still needs your prayers.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I have reflected much over the past few months, but especially this past week, that on behalf of Amy and myself, I can say we have never been as loved in any church we've ever been a part of as we are here at Mud Creek.
SPEAKER_00: And thank you for that.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll just say this: I have eaten so good over the past week.
SPEAKER_00: Now I think she should have surgery once a month.
SPEAKER_00: Now she didn't think that was funny, but you guys have gone above and beyond thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bible today, please take it and turn with me to the New Testament book of Acts, chapter number nine.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter number nine, and we will begin reading in verse number 10.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 9 and verse number 10.
SPEAKER_00: As we continue journeying through the book of Acts together, we are now on the heels of one of the most momentous events in the story of Acts, in all of the Bible, indeed in all of human history, and that is the conversion of a man by the name of Saul of Tarsus to the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: He enters into the story of the Bible, very antagonistic and very hostile to the Christian message, but he is dramatically and suddenly converted on the road to Damascus and finds himself a new follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But for the Apostle Paul, his conversion or his being saved, to use a more familiar term, his being saved is not the checkered flag of his Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: It's the green flag of his Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: This is the starting lap for the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: And I think this is very, very important for us because I've known many, many people that have kind of wrestled with questions about faith and struggled to find their way to faith at different points, and they make a profession of faith in Jesus, and then their entire Christian life seems to stop.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, I want to tell you today that the Christian life does not stop the moment we believe in Jesus, it begins the moment that we believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And now, after the apostle Paul has taken this first step of faith, there are more steps to come.
SPEAKER_00: There are baby steps to come.
SPEAKER_00: And so I read this passage of scripture and I think back to the days when my kids were learning to walk.
SPEAKER_00: Since today's Father's Day, if you are a dad, or even if you're a mom, if you're a parent, you know that there are few memories more precious than that time when, usually around a year old, that little one finally lets go.
SPEAKER_00: And they take those first few awkward wobbling steps.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, man, the pride we feel, the excitement we feel, the joy that we feel, we clap and we cheer and we take pictures and we post them on Facebook.
SPEAKER_00: And even though somebody else's kid, somebody else's kid may have got a perfect score on the SAT.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody else's kid may have got a full ride scholarship to play Division I baseball.
SPEAKER_00: But our kid walked.
SPEAKER_00: Our kid ambulated.
SPEAKER_00: And we're so excited and so jacked up about our kid finally walking.
SPEAKER_00: After all that time of pulling up and all that time maybe standing awkwardly still just to crash land on a diaper, finally they let go and they walk.
SPEAKER_00: And those first steps are really only the first of many, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because one day that that toddling little one-year-old is going to be a five-year-old that's going to walk into a kindergarten class.
SPEAKER_00: And one day that kindergartner is going to grow up and walk into a driver's head class.
SPEAKER_00: And one day, sorry, dads, that little baby is going to grow up and walk down the aisle of a church to an anxious groom.
SPEAKER_00: It's a first step.
SPEAKER_00: But as you think about your children learning to walk, they never take those first steps by themselves, do they?
SPEAKER_00: Not really.
SPEAKER_00: Because you teach a baby to walk by walking with them.
SPEAKER_00: And so often for weeks and weeks and weeks, you'll hold those chubby little fingers, and while they're awkwardly standing on legs that aren't quite ready to go yet, you're walking with them.
SPEAKER_00: Taking step after step after step until they finally let go and walk.
SPEAKER_00: What you see happening here in Acts chapter number nine is a man who's been following Jesus longer than the Apostle Paul taking steps with him.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to have that image in your mind today because every one of you have a next step in your relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you made a huge step just by coming to church today, and I'm glad you've taken that step.
SPEAKER_00: For others of you, your next step may be professing your faith publicly by being baptized.
SPEAKER_00: Paul will be baptized in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you maybe need to take the step of surrendering to the Lord to go to Botswana as a missionary.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what your next step is.
SPEAKER_00: But all of you have a next step in your relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And what I want to show you from this passage of Scripture today is that yes, we all have a next step in our relationship with Jesus, but those steps are best taken together.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody has a next step, and those steps are best taken together.
SPEAKER_00: Read with me Acts chapter 9, beginning in verse number 10.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God says, Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and to him the Lord said in a vision, Ananias.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Here I am, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So the Lord said to him, Arise and go to the street called straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold he is prey.
SPEAKER_00: And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight.
SPEAKER_00: Then Ananias answered, Lord, I've heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine, to bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake.
SPEAKER_00: And Ananias went his way and entered the house.
SPEAKER_00: And laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once, and he arose and was baptized.
SPEAKER_00: So when he had received food, he was strengthened.
SPEAKER_00: Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord abideth forever.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter number nine is best known for the narrative that precedes what we just read.
SPEAKER_00: The sudden, dramatic, and miraculous conversion of Saul of Tarsus, from being an enemy of the Lord Jesus to being the most faithful and influential follower of the Lord Jesus in the 2000 history year, 2,000-year history of the Christian church.
SPEAKER_00: Now, not every conversion is like Paul's.
SPEAKER_00: They're not all sudden, they're not all dramatic, but they are all miraculous.
SPEAKER_00: And yet the miracle of conversion is not the end of the Christian's experience.
SPEAKER_00: There is more to come.
SPEAKER_00: And there's more to come for Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Much more to come for Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Even in this chapter that we're studying together now, there's much more to come.
SPEAKER_00: Paul will preach his first sermon in these verses.
SPEAKER_00: Paul will be persecuted for the first time in these verses.
SPEAKER_00: Paul will have to run for his life for the first time in these verses.
SPEAKER_00: Paul will deal with kind of his first church conflict in these verses.
SPEAKER_00: And yet all of these experiences that Paul has in his Christian life, they all happen after he takes the first steps of faith with a man by the name of Ananias in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: And so today I want to consider this kind of volume two in the Apostle Paul's biography that if I was writing it, I would call baby steps.
SPEAKER_00: What were the baby steps that Paul took as a new believer?
SPEAKER_00: And how did he take them in the presence of another brother who is himself taking steps of obedience?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there are three chapters in this volume of Paul's autobiography, and I want to give them to you here.
SPEAKER_00: The first one, I didn't really know what to call it, so I just called it an ordinary saint with an obvious problem.
SPEAKER_00: An ordinary saint with an obvious problem.
SPEAKER_00: We often think of saints as perfect people, but they never live perfect lives.
SPEAKER_00: Now we meet about a very, very good man who's got a very, very big problem.
SPEAKER_00: And his name is Ananias.
SPEAKER_00: While the apostle Paul has been knocked off of his high horse on the road to Damascus, while he has been blinded by this sudden vision of Jesus, while this man has had his heart and his mind interrupted by the grace of God on his way to persecute Christians in Damascus, we're taken to Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: Into the heart and the mind and in the home of one of these Christians, a man by the name of Ananias.
SPEAKER_00: What do we know about Ananias?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Bible tells us here that he is a disciple.
SPEAKER_00: And at this stage in the book of Acts, often the word disciple is sort of a synonym for Christian, and that's appropriate.
SPEAKER_00: But specifically the word means that Ananias is a learner.
SPEAKER_00: He's a learner who is sitting in the schoolroom with Jesus as his teacher.
SPEAKER_00: The word disciple means a follower.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a man who is walking in the footprints that Jesus has given him.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible also says in Acts chapter number 22 that he's a devout man.
SPEAKER_00: He's a godly man.
SPEAKER_00: He loves Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he wants to do everything he can to please the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says there in Acts 22, 12, that he also had a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody likes him.
SPEAKER_00: You ever known anybody that everybody just seems to like?
SPEAKER_00: Drives me crazy, people like that.
SPEAKER_00: But they're out there.
SPEAKER_00: And Ananias is one of these people.
SPEAKER_00: He's a good man.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody loves him.
SPEAKER_00: Everything's great.
SPEAKER_00: He loves Jesus and he wants to serve him.
SPEAKER_00: And then one day the Bible says the Lord comes to him in a vision, speaks his name, Ananias.
SPEAKER_00: And he responds the way all of us should respond when Jesus speaks to us.
SPEAKER_00: Here I am, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, wherever you lead, I'll go.
SPEAKER_00: I surrender all, all to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I surrender.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, there's no price too high that I won't pay it.
SPEAKER_00: There's no step too far that I won't take it.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, whatever you want, here I am.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Lord says, Ananias, what I want you to do is I want you to go to the house of Judas, where Saul of Tarsus is.
SPEAKER_00: Saul has been converted, he's blinded, and he needs instruction in his next steps.
SPEAKER_00: And what does Ananias, the devout?
SPEAKER_00: Ananias, the faithful disciple, do?
SPEAKER_00: Well, look at the text.
SPEAKER_00: Verse number 13.
SPEAKER_00: Ananias says, Lord, I don't know if this is such a good idea.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you know, I've heard that Paul is coming here actually to hurt Christians.
SPEAKER_00: And he's dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, maybe you don't have all the information that I have.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, let me fill you in on some things you may not know about Saul of Tarsus, and then we can re-evaluate where we are on this project.
SPEAKER_00: And you're laughing because you know as well as I do that in our lives, we will call Jesus Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We will say we're fully surrendered to him.
SPEAKER_00: And we will say we'll do anything that he wants us to do.
SPEAKER_00: But more often than not, we actually live like we're on Jesus' advisory committee, right?
SPEAKER_00: That what he really needs from us is information that he doesn't have.
SPEAKER_00: So that when he comes to us and says, My will for you is this piece of obedience.
SPEAKER_00: My will is this step of faith.
SPEAKER_00: We think that our role is to say, okay, Lord, well, let me fill you in on what you don't actually know.
SPEAKER_00: And then, Lord, once you see things from my perspective, Lord, then you will understand a different and a more enlightened point of view.
SPEAKER_00: For instance, there are some of you that are here today that need to take that major step, and it is a major step for most Christians.
SPEAKER_00: You need to take that major step of giving faithfully and of giving systematically through tithes and offerings, contributing to missions.
SPEAKER_00: You need to do that.
SPEAKER_00: You know you need to do that.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible commands you to do that.
SPEAKER_00: We are to embody the generosity of Jesus Himself.
SPEAKER_00: You know that.
SPEAKER_00: And yet when the Lord presses you on that, you come back saying, okay, Lord, let me explain to you why I came.
SPEAKER_00: See, Lord, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: We're in this conflict with Iran right now.
SPEAKER_00: And so they blockaded the Strait of Hormuz.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, well, you may not know, because they blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, then the crude oil prices have gotten really high, and so gas is expensive.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, Lord, I am an Engels Advantage member, so I can get like 35% off when I go to Ingalls, but it's really not enough to offset the cost of eggs, and so, Lord, I can't afford it.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you probably don't know my finances like I do.
SPEAKER_00: And you think it's your job to give Jesus information you don't have.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you need to take the step of, hey, it's Father's Day, let me just go and hit on this while I'm here.
SPEAKER_00: Dads, the Bible says that you are to raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: My good gracious.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Ephesians chapter 6, it's in there.
SPEAKER_00: Paul wrote actually.
SPEAKER_00: Dads, you are to raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Raise your kids as believers and followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Don't outsource it to mom.
SPEAKER_00: Don't outsource it to anybody else.
SPEAKER_00: It's your responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the ways you should do that, I believe, is by making sure your kids are invested and involved in the ministries that we offer as a church for your kids.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Ray has a dynamic student ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Miss Jessica leads an incredible kids' ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And we do things on Wednesday night to teach your kids the word of God, to help them grow in their understanding of missions, things that are important for their spiritual development that you should lead them in.
SPEAKER_00: But even though the Lord's pressing you on that, some of you are saying, Well, Lord, I know I should be doing that.
SPEAKER_00: But Lord, here's the thing about it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, little Timmy, he just made a travel pickleball team, and the lasers, they need him.
SPEAKER_00: And he needs the lasers.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, we just we just really can't do that right now.
SPEAKER_00: We give the Lord excuses.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, can I say to you today, very, very quickly, that the Lord is not asking you for your advice?
SPEAKER_00: He's asking for your obedience.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't need your advice.
SPEAKER_00: Are you really going to offer him some information about your life that he doesn't already have?
SPEAKER_00: Are you really going to give him some wisdom about how things should be that he doesn't already possess?
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is not asking for your advice.
SPEAKER_00: He's not interested in your excuses.
SPEAKER_00: He deserves your obedience.
SPEAKER_00: But if you dig down deep in this passage of scripture, why is Ananias so hesitant?
SPEAKER_00: The reason he's hesitant is because he's afraid.
SPEAKER_00: He's afraid of Saul.
SPEAKER_00: Saul had come to Damascus for the purpose of destroying the church.
SPEAKER_00: He had been a part of killing the first Christian martyr named Stephen.
SPEAKER_00: He was a violet and a dangerous man.
SPEAKER_00: And Ananias knew that.
SPEAKER_00: And Ananias does not trust Saul.
SPEAKER_00: And I may be wrong when I say this, but he's probably right not to trust him.
SPEAKER_00: But he should trust Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And in faith, he should overcome the fear that is leading to disobedience.
SPEAKER_00: And so I would just pause it today before we move on that some of you are being disobedient right now.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not that you want to be sinful, it's not that you want to be rebellious.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, you're afraid.
SPEAKER_00: You're afraid of what will happen in all these different areas of your life if you're not obedient.
SPEAKER_00: Prince, I can't make all of your fear disappear, but I can say to you today that you can trust Jesus no matter what.
SPEAKER_00: And because Ananias trusts Jesus, he does obey.
SPEAKER_00: So let's move into chapter two.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about this obscure saint with a pretty obvious problem.
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about some family ties.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I would call chapter two.
SPEAKER_00: So the Apostle Paul steps fully into the family of God.
SPEAKER_00: Ananias finally obeys.
SPEAKER_00: And good for him.
SPEAKER_00: Good for him.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, honestly, folks, delayed obedience is better than total disobedience.
SPEAKER_00: It is better now than later.
SPEAKER_00: But it is better later than never.
SPEAKER_00: And so Ananias gets there eventually.
SPEAKER_00: He does obey.
SPEAKER_00: And this is to me one of the most powerful, profound, incredible portraits of the early church in all of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's so simple and it's so beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Think about what happens here from Paul's perspective.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul was an enemy to Christians.
SPEAKER_00: And then he finds out that the Savior they worship really is alive.
SPEAKER_00: That he really is the God of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He really is King of kings and Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_00: And he surrenders to Jesus and follows him.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing, folks.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, for some people, depending on the circumstances of their life, following Jesus is a more radical transformation for them.
SPEAKER_00: It costs them more than it does other people.
SPEAKER_00: Now do not misunderstand what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: Every person that trusts in Jesus is totally and completely a new creature in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You know that, I hope.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture says that Paul wrote that, 2 Corinthians 5.17.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody who's in Christ is a new creation.
SPEAKER_00: But you understand what I'm saying is that there are some people that are raised in church, they believe in Jesus from the time they're a very, very small child and always want to love him because they know he loves them.
SPEAKER_00: And then there are some people that are into hell's angels and they're shooting meth up in their eyeballs.
SPEAKER_00: And for them, coming to Jesus is going to be a very different experience.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I mean for Paul.
SPEAKER_00: For Paul, to follow Jesus means he loses all of his friends.
SPEAKER_00: It means his entire social circle is shattered.
SPEAKER_00: It means that his job is over.
SPEAKER_00: It means that anybody that he had a relationship with is immediately going to cut him off.
SPEAKER_00: And that also means that now he has to build relationships with people that previously he was trying to harm.
SPEAKER_00: On top of that, he's blind.
SPEAKER_00: And even worse, he hadn't eaten in three days.
SPEAKER_00: I hadn't eaten in two hours, and I'm struggling.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this sermon bump up at lunchtime.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them's actually working up here.
SPEAKER_00: So, Paul's hungry, Paul's blind, Paul's life has been shattered.
SPEAKER_00: And then Ananias comes.
SPEAKER_00: And what does Ananias do in spite of his initial hesitancy?
SPEAKER_00: What does he do?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna let Chris be my Paul here today.
SPEAKER_00: Chris is having a great mustache today, so he deserves it.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that Ananias lays hands on him.
SPEAKER_00: And the first word, the first word that Paul hears from a Christian as a Christian is the word brother.
SPEAKER_00: Brother.
SPEAKER_00: What's Ananias doing?
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Paul, you're one of us.
SPEAKER_00: You belong.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna literally reach out to you, Paul.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna keep you at arm's length.
SPEAKER_00: You can't lay hands on somebody unless you're close to them.
SPEAKER_00: And he's saying, Paul, you're one of us.
SPEAKER_00: And we love you.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's so remarkable as it shows the power of Jesus to overcome old enemies, to overcome old obstacles, and to make people who previously were hostile to each other totally new in the way that they relate to one another.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the reasons I love this is because Ananias, he's still kind of holding a grudge against Paul, right?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus ain't gonna hold his grudge for him.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you love that?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you love that Jesus is not gonna hold somebody else's grudge?
SPEAKER_00: And he says, No, Ananias, I have saved him and redeemed him.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody's beyond my grace.
SPEAKER_00: And so nobody should be beyond your welcome.
SPEAKER_00: But specifically, Ananias uses the word brother.
SPEAKER_00: Brother.
SPEAKER_00: That's a family word, right?
SPEAKER_00: I don't have a brother.
SPEAKER_00: A physical natural brother.
SPEAKER_00: My mom and dad stalked with me, which I think means either they knew they got it right, or they knew they'd got it so catastrophically wrong, they said, we're not going to push this again.
SPEAKER_00: But I always wish I had a brother.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't have a brother, but I do have brothers in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And when Ananias uses this language, what he's saying to Paul is, you and I are now family.
SPEAKER_00: Because they have the same father.
SPEAKER_00: They've been through the same experience, different details, certainly.
SPEAKER_00: They've been through the same experience of coming to faith.
SPEAKER_00: They have the same home to look forward to, the same spirit of God that they sang about just a second ago is inside of each of them.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says, Paul, you're my brother.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you maybe have noticed that we use that word here in our church.
SPEAKER_00: And many of us that have been around this for a long time, we do it, we think very little of it, but we can't take it for granted that everybody understands why we do what we do in a church setting.
SPEAKER_00: So why do we call each other brother?
SPEAKER_00: Now, on the one hand, it is very convenient if you forget somebody's name.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, brother.
SPEAKER_00: Brother, it's good to see you, brother.
SPEAKER_00: Brother, how's your mom and them doing, brother?
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, uh, been praying for you, brother.
SPEAKER_00: But we do it because of what Ananias does here, that we are a family of believers.
SPEAKER_00: And we want to communicate that family to one another.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, we're not a family because we all think the same way.
SPEAKER_00: We're not a family because we all look the same way.
SPEAKER_00: We're not a family because we all vote the same way.
SPEAKER_00: We're not a family because we even grew up speaking the same language, but we are family because Jesus has adopted us.
SPEAKER_00: And he has made us sons and daughters, brothers and sisters in his grace for his glory, and we should be people showing welcome to one another like that.
SPEAKER_00: But let me move on.
SPEAKER_00: There's more than I could say.
SPEAKER_00: Some of this we'll look at again maybe at a later time.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to move into chapter three because I love chapter three, because chapter three is where Paul gets baptized.
SPEAKER_00: So this is chapter three.
SPEAKER_00: I call this wait in the water.
SPEAKER_00: Wait in the water.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I'm so excited about this is because Paul gets baptized, and I'm a Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: Like it's in the name, y'all.
SPEAKER_00: Baptism should be a big deal to us.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul, after Ananias comes and prays with him and welcomes him, the Bible says that the scales fall off of his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: He can see, it's amazing, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Before Paul met Jesus, he thought he could see everything clearly.
SPEAKER_00: And then when he saw Jesus clearly, he went blind, and for the first time in his life, he actually saw things as they were.
SPEAKER_00: Now the Lord causes those scales to fall off, and the Bible says that he can see, and the first thing that he does, seeing clearly as a Christian, with his brother Ananias, is he goes and he baptizes him.
SPEAKER_00: He baptizes him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this to me is so important because this is Mud Creek Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the name.
SPEAKER_00: Baptism is a big deal to us.
SPEAKER_00: We have a monstrous, I don't know how many gallons, baptistry right behind me.
SPEAKER_00: This is important.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you will allow me, since I'm preaching and you're not, I want to just geek out on baptism for just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Because baptism is the first step of obedience for a new believer.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Apostle Paul taking his first step of obedience, obeying the Lord's command to be baptized.
SPEAKER_00: But it's a remarkable statement because this step is so incredible, because baptism emerged as a Jewish custom after the Old Testament and right before the time of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You remember Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist when he was 30 years old.
SPEAKER_00: And the closest corollary was sort of a ritual ceremonial bath for people that were non-Jewish, that wanted to convert to Judaism.
SPEAKER_00: That was the closest thing they had to baptism.
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist comes preaching and he's telling Jewish people they need to be baptized.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, You think you're in, but you're not in.
SPEAKER_00: You need to repent and believe the gospel and get baptized.
SPEAKER_00: That's what John preaches.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus identifies with those people saying, These sinners, these are who I came for.
SPEAKER_00: I'm right here with them.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus walks through the waters of baptism.
SPEAKER_00: And so now Paul, who is as faithful of a Jew as you could be, he writes this later in the book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Listen, I was the most Hebrew Hebrew that ever Hebrewed.
SPEAKER_00: I was the Jewiest Jew that ever Jewed.
SPEAKER_00: He's Jewish.
SPEAKER_00: But now he's willing to undergo this, saying, I'm receiving a new identity, I'm receiving a new family, I'm becoming somebody new as I profess faith in Christ through baptism.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the reasons that baptism is the first step of obedience to a new believer.
SPEAKER_00: It is their way of identifying publicly with the message of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the reasons as Baptists we believe that it's so, so important for us that we get baptism correct.
SPEAKER_00: Now, getting baptism correct means a lot.
SPEAKER_00: One thing it means is that we do not believe that baptism in any way saves us, in that it does not convert us, it does not somehow wash our sins away, it does not regenerate us.
SPEAKER_00: Only the Spirit of God can do those things.
SPEAKER_00: But one of the problems we have in Baptist churches is the opposite problem.
SPEAKER_00: And see, we don't get this because everybody's a Baptist around here, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like everybody, everybody's a Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, even like the Episcopalians, they used to be Baptists and now they're Episcopalians.
SPEAKER_00: Like everybody's a Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: And so everybody's been baptized.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, like baptized, baptized, not just baptized.
SPEAKER_00: Which is great.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes, because it's so common to us, it loses its importance.
SPEAKER_00: It loses its significance.
SPEAKER_00: It becomes almost purely an empty, empty symbol with no meaning to our lives.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think the early Christians thought that way at all.
SPEAKER_00: They saw it as something very, very important, very, very significant, very, very meaningful.
SPEAKER_00: And I want baptism for us to be meaningful.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if we're going to be Baptists, like historically, that means that we have marked ourselves out because of what has been our unique belief in believers' baptism by immersion.
SPEAKER_00: So, some of you were not raised Baptists.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't get the treatment, you got the treatment, or they had a little seashell and they poured whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And I have deep respect for Christian traditions that baptize that way.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't we do it that way?
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, the word baptize means to dunk.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means.
SPEAKER_00: Like the Greek word means to dip.
SPEAKER_00: That's what baptism is.
SPEAKER_00: And it's really, really hard to dunk babies.
SPEAKER_00: Now you can do it.
SPEAKER_00: There are some denominations that do it.
SPEAKER_00: Google it.
SPEAKER_00: Just Google a Greek Orthodox baptism.
SPEAKER_00: They'll take those kids, but those kids are slippery and they're squirmy when you're dunking them.
SPEAKER_00: I'm serious, y'all.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not joking.
SPEAKER_00: And so for insurance purposes, no, we don't that know.
SPEAKER_00: We believe baptism is immersion.
SPEAKER_00: But personally, and some of my more staunch Baptist brothers may get upset, I'm not so worried about the mode of baptism.
SPEAKER_00: I think immersion's important.
SPEAKER_00: But I think what's crucial as Baptists is that we understand the timing of baptism.
SPEAKER_00: That is, in the New Testament, it always happens the way it happened for Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Always.
SPEAKER_00: He believed in Jesus, then he was baptized.
SPEAKER_00: He believed in Jesus, and then he was baptized.
SPEAKER_00: It always happens that way.
SPEAKER_00: Every New Testament baptism period happens that way.
SPEAKER_00: And that class is why I'm a Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: Because I believe it's what the Bible clearly teaches.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you were baptized as children, or baptized really as infants.
SPEAKER_00: You may not even remember that.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you grew up trusting in Jesus and grew up loving Jesus, but you're part of a denomination that they did not baptize after a profession of faith.
SPEAKER_00: And you were baptized not so much because of your profession of faith, but because of your parents' profession of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Because they believed that Jesus would save you, that he'd made promises to you, and it looks different, all different denominations.
SPEAKER_00: I understand all that, but they believed that was important and they did that.
SPEAKER_00: I would say to you today that while you should be immensely thankful for your parents' faith, that if you have come to Christ, you need to be baptized.
SPEAKER_00: Really, you need to be baptized.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And if you want to have a theological debate about baptism, man, come see me.
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to have it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to argue with you, I'm going to listen to you because some of my dearest, dearest friends, some of the greatest influences on my thinking, we're not Baptists.
SPEAKER_00: I would love to talk to you about that.
SPEAKER_00: Also, Baptists are weird.
SPEAKER_00: There was going to be a comma there, it should be a period.
SPEAKER_00: Exclamation point.
SPEAKER_00: Baptists are weird.
SPEAKER_00: But Baptists are a weird comma in that we don't baptize infants, but we do baptize a lot of children.
SPEAKER_00: We won't baptize like a two-month-old, but we'll baptize a six-year-old.
SPEAKER_00: And for a lot of us that were baptized very, very young, there's a lot of confusion.
SPEAKER_00: As we look back and we think, well, maybe I really wasn't saved.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I didn't really know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Do I need to be baptized again?
SPEAKER_00: Well, my very, very clear, straightforward answer is it depends.
SPEAKER_00: And here's why.
SPEAKER_00: If you can look back and say, you know, when I was six, eight, whatever, I can look back and I can realize I didn't understand the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: This is what my family may have wanted, or it's what my friends were doing.
SPEAKER_00: There was really no transformation where I wanted to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That happened sometime later, after my baptism, then yes, you need to be baptized.
SPEAKER_00: If, however, you look back and say, you know, I was six or eight and I didn't understand it fully.
SPEAKER_00: None of us understand it fully, y'all.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't understand it fully.
SPEAKER_00: And I really wanted to serve Jesus and walk with him.
SPEAKER_00: And then I went to college.
SPEAKER_00: Boy, some of y'all went to college, didn't you?
SPEAKER_00: And then I walked away from the Lord and lived in a lot of sin.
SPEAKER_00: But then I really got right with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Do I need to be baptized again?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to say you know.
SPEAKER_00: Baptism is ideally a one-time event that happens after a person first professes faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to be baptized again.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, to borrow the line from our Wesleyan Methodist friends, you need to remember your baptism and be thankful.
SPEAKER_00: You need to remember, not just that you have been baptized, but as our Lutheran friends would say, see, I told you I love these people.
SPEAKER_00: As our Lutheran friends would say, it's not just that you have been baptized, you are baptized.
SPEAKER_00: See, it's like this.
SPEAKER_00: I was married.
SPEAKER_00: On December the 15th, 2007, at Calvary Baptist Church in Lenora, North Carolina, I was married.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm never going to say I was married.
SPEAKER_00: Even though I was.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I am married.
SPEAKER_00: Believe me, after this week, I'm very married.
SPEAKER_00: Alright?
SPEAKER_00: You take care of, anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all know, man, you become a caregiver after somebody's surgery.
SPEAKER_00: You married.
SPEAKER_00: You all in, buddies, sickness and health, good, bad, and ugly, rich or poor, that you're in it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in it, y'all.
SPEAKER_00: I'm married.
SPEAKER_00: I promise you.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way as a believer, I can look back and say, yes, at one point I was baptized, but what I should be saying is I am baptized.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because what happens when a believer is baptized is that that person's promises to God, and God's promises come together in the water as that person is buried and raised again to represent how Jesus was buried and raised again.
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, when we're baptized, we are doing that because we have made promises to God.
SPEAKER_00: I trust him, I follow him, and I want to walk with him, and I want to declare that to the church and declare it to the world.
SPEAKER_00: But we can never forget, and this is what a lot of Baptists have missed, we can never forget that when we are baptized, God is making promises to us.
SPEAKER_00: He's making promises that Jesus has washed away our sins.
SPEAKER_00: He's making promises that we have been raised to walk in newness of life.
SPEAKER_00: And for some of us that were baptized long, long ago, who have moved on past that and look back and think, man, those were first steps, but I've walked a million miles since then.
SPEAKER_00: Can I say to you today, child of God, that your baptism is still making promises to you?
SPEAKER_00: Your baptism is still promising you that our Lord was washed away on Calvary's cross so that you would not drown under the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_00: Your baptism is still promising you that three days after he died, he rose again from his grave and that his resurrection is your resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Your baptism is still promising you that the Spirit of God has been poured out on top of you so that you can walk in newness of life.
SPEAKER_00: Your baptism is still promising you that God has buried your sins in the sea of his own forgetfulness and he remembers them no more.
SPEAKER_00: So what I'm saying to you is I'm glad I'm baptized.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad I'm baptized.
SPEAKER_00: And my favorite thing to do as a pastor is to baptize people.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you need to be baptized.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have put your faith in Jesus recently.
SPEAKER_00: You want to follow him like the Apostle Paul, you wave the white flag of surrender, and you want to be baptized.
SPEAKER_00: That's your next step.
SPEAKER_00: We are baptizing here at Mud Creek on July the 12th, a few weeks from now, and we would love to talk to you about baptism, what it means, what it means for you, and how we can coordinate that.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of you, though, are like Ananias was early in this chapter.
SPEAKER_00: You know what your step of obedience is, you know you need to be baptized, but you're afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you just don't like being in water.
SPEAKER_00: I get it.
SPEAKER_00: I would not want somebody like moving my head up and down in water either.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to say two things to you.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, I've been a pastor for 18 years and I haven't lost anybody yet.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, this is more serious.
SPEAKER_00: If Flack Ananias, you're being disobedient to be baptized because of fear.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just say to you, if Jesus can be trusted to take you to heaven forever, he can probably manage you for three seconds in a baptistry.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, everybody in the church will be looking at you for a few minutes.
SPEAKER_00: Just believe me, it is as awful as you think it is.
SPEAKER_00: But what a great opportunity for you to say to this church, to family, to the world, Jesus' story is my story.
SPEAKER_00: His death is my death, his resurrection is my resurrection, and I want it for the rest of my life for everybody to know I am a Christian publicly.
SPEAKER_00: For others of you, you've been baptized maybe years ago, you've been visiting with us at Mud Creek, you really feel as if God has led you to our church to serve and to worship, and you want to be a part of what God is doing here at Mud Creek.
SPEAKER_00: Look, I don't blame you, man.
SPEAKER_00: It's a great time to be at Mud Creek.
SPEAKER_00: And we would love to talk to you about that.
SPEAKER_00: So we're having launch point next Sunday, which is our really first step as you enter into our church to learn more about our church and what we do here and who our staff is.
SPEAKER_00: And so you need to register for that.
SPEAKER_00: Literally, you need to register before I finish the sentence so we can make sure that you have something to eat because we will feed you.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are here, and you love coming to church here, and I hope that you do.
SPEAKER_00: But it's just this experience of listening to the preaching and hearing the singing.
SPEAKER_00: It's important, but hear me, it's not everything.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has more for you in our church.
SPEAKER_00: I know some of you are here today because you see like the one-minute preaching video they put on Facebook.
SPEAKER_00: You know I hate those things.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I hate them is because people watch them and they think, oh man, this preaching's alright.
SPEAKER_00: And then they come to church and realize, oh, that's like 40 more minutes of that.
SPEAKER_00: They're hamstring me is what they're doing.
SPEAKER_00: But you like that kind of one minute.
SPEAKER_00: Is that what we want?
SPEAKER_00: This is the way we want to consume church now, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like one minute on my phone, this is this is wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you need to take the step of, like Ananias and Paul do here, of actually connecting to one another.
SPEAKER_00: Next Sunday morning, you need to be in a Sunday school class.
SPEAKER_00: We have some tremendous ones.
SPEAKER_00: And we have some tremendous teachers that would help you connect and walk together the way Ananias and Paul do here.
SPEAKER_00: And if we don't have a teacher that suits you, we got some tremendous teachers that need to take their next step of teaching, so I'll put them to work with a class for you.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you know that the Lord is calling you to a place of obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever that may be, it could be a thousand things, and then you take that step, but you're giving God excuses.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you stop giving God your excuses?
SPEAKER_00: Quit trying to give Jesus your advice and offer him your obedience.