SPEAKER_01 0:03

Do something different today. And I didn't plan this very good. Because Pastor Clint was talking to me this week and he said, I said, I'd like to have the baptismal out here this week. And so then Clint had this idea. He said, Well, why don't you preach inside the baptismal this week? And I was like, I don't know about that. And he said, I think it'd be great. And so I think it's going to be great. So I'm going to uh preach from inside the baptismal. But I need Clint, if you could set this in there, because I still need it. And then also I wore horrible shoes to do this. So you guys are going to have to see what I go through to get these shoes on and off whenever I wear them. And I and uh uh what with the guitar player, what's his name again? Blaine. Thank you, Blaine. I'm not sure where you are, but thank you for joining us today. Okay, he's going around. Um okay, so we we wanna, we're so thankful. We'll welcome you. Uh we're so glad you're here. It's just such a blessing to have you. And but he said, I like your boots. And I said, Oh my goodness, I have these boots on, and I have to like do all kinds of gymnastics to get these things on and off each time. So here we go. It's like you don't have to hold this for a second. Bowtie socks on today, too.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

You know, I'm hearing a lot of blah blah blah. What I heard him say was we talked about this and knew this was coming, and he should have had his shoes off already before he got here. That's what I'm hearing.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

I thought I could get out of it and just say, like, well, these boots, and then Clint was like, No, I really think you should. I was like, All right, here we go. Of course you should, it's you, not me. See, that was my goal. That was always my role growing up. I was always the little kid, and so I like it's that's cold. This will be warmer next week. I can promise you that. Um, I was always the little guy. I've told you this before. I was four foot nine uh going into my sophomore year of high school, and so I was uh really small. And uh so I was the kid that always thought it's a good idea if you do that. I was that kid. I was like, you know what would be funny? It'd be really funny if you did something. And I think that's what Clint just did to me. I think he got me back. So, all right, here we go. Let's get into the Word of God today. We're gonna be in Matthew uh chapter 3. We're gonna start there. We we've had a boring weekend, haven't we, Pastor Julie? Just nothing exciting going on in our lives. Pastor Julie was off on Friday, and we got to um she got to sleep in. And so I woke up at 6:30 and uh for some reason looked at Facebook. Not sure why I did that, um, right out of the gate, but I did. And I saw there was a newspaper article written about my beautiful wife. We'll affectionately call her Crazy Eyes. Crazy Eyes Julie, um, in the paper. And so uh yeah, I'm getting there. Just yell out, it's okay. It's about you, so you should be able to yell out. Um, but yeah, it was uh the article was outstanding, it was fantastic. I didn't get to read the article at first because I don't pay for the online paywall stuff, but uh I got on Twitter and it allowed me to read it, and the article is beautiful. It was it was really a great article, a great tribute to your your family, your parents, and the adoption agency and just everything that you've worked your whole life for. Uh, and then uh people started commenting on it. And uh I was like getting a little bit irritated uh about it, but then I finally I went and woke Julie up and I was like, you probably might need to know that the article came out and you might want to check your email or something. I don't know if anyone's trying to reach out to you. And so and she was like, What are the people saying? And I said, Well, I mean, it's not like really personal attacks, just stuff like you look crazy, you have crazy eyes. And and I said, So when I made my post, I said, and we're we're we're listening when we sign up for this, we know what we're getting into, right? Amen. We're gonna fight for the Lord, we're gonna fight for life, and we're gonna do what we gotta do. And it's okay, it's okay. I'm I'm trying to be silly and funny. I see some of your faces with disdain in your eyes, and I'm just like, listen, we're good. Amen. We're good. This girl is amazing, and she's a fighter, and she's gonna do what she needs to do. So you don't gotta worry, pray for us, pray for us, but but listen, we're good. Amen. Uh, I do want to set the record clear though. I do love your eyes, I do love your smile, and I have personally never witnessed you eat toenails. Okay? So that's one of the things that said uh that she looks like she eats toenails. So I don't know where that came up, came from, but is it okay to have fun and laugh? Okay, good. All right. Let's dive into the word of God today. Matthew chapter 3. Today we're gonna talk about baptism. I said it a little while ago. I gotta get used to this. This feels weird. Um, we uh we're gonna talk about baptism, we're gonna talk about John the Baptist, and then we're gonna talk about Jesus' baptism, and then we're gonna tie that together of how that all relates to us. Amen. And so I know we already have a couple people that are gonna get baptized next week. Uh I believe six people have expressed to me that they would like to get baptized next week. And so I'm excited about that. Seven? All right, then that you're seven, brother. And you're gonna get that cast off? Yes. Listen, this is the Gray family. Get to know them. I'm sorry to call you out, but I just love you guys. Like we have known them for a long time and through cheerleading and everything, and we just have always Julie and I have prayed for them to come to this church for years. And then they started coming about a year, a year and a half ago or so. And uh, and uh, I'm just so happy you're here. I just love you guys so much. So get to know them, please. Get out of your pews and just talk to people. We have some incredible people in our church, absolutely amazing people here. And so we just need to get to know one another and then love on one another and have fellowship together, and and uh that's what it's about, guys. That's what it's about. So, so anyway, sorry to call you out, but I've did it, so here we are. Uh the they're good the couple of the girls are gonna get baptized at Senagu, and and that's awesome. All right, here we go. Uh Matthew chapter 3. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, a voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths for him. John's clothes were were made of camel's hair, and he had a belt of around a leather belt around his waist, his food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan, confessing their sins, they were they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was, uh baptizing, he said to them, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not think that you can say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father. I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the shaft with unquenchable fire. Man, that is again, I am gonna do this. I keep saying it. We have got to do a sermon series called Savage Jesus, where he is just, we see who he is. Like I love the Lamb of God. I love the the image of him as the Lamb of God, but he has a side of him too, where he comes, and it says right here that the axe is in his hand, he's gonna chop down trees that aren't producing fruit, he's gonna clear that threshing floor. Why? Because he wants us to be right, he needs us to be right with him, and and he even he loved us enough, he even sent a man John the Baptist to come to get to get us ready for when he's coming. Think about that. Not only did he send his son that was gonna come, amen, to walk this earth, he thought enough of us to have John the Baptist come to get us ready. And that's our job today. Next week we're gonna have baptisms. Today we're getting ready. Amen. I hope more people want to get baptized. Here's what we know about John the Baptist. We know that he was Jesus' cousin. Uh, we know that his parents dedicated him to the service of the Lord. What does that mean? That means that they they knew he was gonna be used, and so they dedicated him. And so, what many scholars believe uh happened most likely was he most likely grew up in the south, down new cook down near Qumran with a group of people known as the Essings. And raise your hand if you remember me talking about the Essings, the different groups of people that were around at the time. We had the Sadducees, we had the Pharisees, we had the zealots, and we had the Herodians, and then we had this group, the Essings. And the Essings were in the south. They were a group of, uh, we'll just call them like separatists. They wanted to get away from what was going on uh with the Romans, and they also wanted to get away from what they believed as the corrupt, the corrupt leadership of the time, uh the Sadducees, and then I'm not gonna go through each group and tell you all about them, and then also the Pharisees uh were also there was uh, you know, we were talking about this in Sunday school. I think we give the Pharisees a bit of a hard time sometimes. And I think, you know, if I had been exiled off for for hundreds of years, and then all of a sudden I get to come back, you know, and and the reason that we were exiled was because we weren't following the Lord and being right by the Lord, then when I got back, I might try to do everything within my power to do it right, amen. And so I think we can give the Pharisees a hard time. Uh, I think uh for most of them, their heart was probably in the right place. They just didn't have any wiggle room for grace. And I'm a grace guy, I I I appreciate grace because when I get to get to heaven, I I like to extend a lot of grace because I believe when I get to heaven, I'm gonna need a lot of grace. Amen. And so uh, but they just didn't believe in that. They they were it was right or it was wrong. There was no wiggle room for uh anything else. Um other things that we know uh that John the Baptist he was preaching his message of repentance, preparing the way for the coming Messiah. We we know his clothing was the camel's hair. You know, it that was a call back to who? Elijah. It was a callback to Elijah the prophet, and he had uh that rough, uncomfortable camel hair garment, and we know that there was a fire to Elijah and also to John the Baptist that was present. And so, because of that, because of the clothing that he wore and the way that he carried himself, people knew. People knew who he was. And I think uh we can kind of and I I've had to reprogram my thinking on some things, and and this is one of them. You know, when you go to Israel and you see the way it is, you know, every Israel's about the size of New Jersey, right? And so you got to think about that in the perspective. Like people knew people, so there wasn't it wasn't like a great secret. And and I also had this idea of like a kingdom, you know, like this vast, huge kingdom from like you know, Middle Ages times, and that's it's huge and it takes over, you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of square miles. And and the truth of the matter is, you know, when you look at the uh when you go to Israel, we were uh last time we were there, we went on this little hillside, and we were and there was like a little uh uh archaeological discovery there in a little town, and they said this was where King, and I can't remember who it was, was king, and this was his kingdom. And I'm like, wait, this hill? Like the hill would sit in fit inside of our church building here. And I was like, wait, this is the kingdom? Like, so I had to re get myself reprogrammed on that. It's just different than what you think. And so I love going to Israel because it just offers that perspective uh on the scriptures that we don't often have. But we know that he and I oh, I said all that to say if he was there, people would have known, right? This is a guy that's wearing camel's hair with a leather belt, eating locusts and honey, and he's preaching this fiery message of repentance, and so that's gonna draw attention. Some people are gonna know uh who he is. Um, I'm gonna talk about baptisms. In the Jewish uh belief system, there's several different baptisms. I'm not gonna get into all of those today, and I'm particularly not going to try to say the names of them. So uh there's different ones. There's a conversion, uh, uh there's a conversion baptism. If someone converted to Judaism, there was a baptism of immersion, uh, which would signify a spiritual rebirth, washing away the past and embracing a new identity as a Jew. And then there was a family purity uh following childbirth. Uh there was temple purification, the priests and worshippers immersed themselves to achieve ritual purity before entering the temple. Uh baptism or washings for preparation for holy days, such as Yom Kippur and Shabbat. And then there was also ceremonial washings, and there's other ones too, and I we just don't have time uh to get into all those. One thing that I love, and I I talked about it in the early service, and I'm not sure if Riker is here today. Is Riker here? Uh when we had our last but where are you, Riker? Way over here, okay. When when Riker, when we had our last baptism service, Riker came up, he wanted to be baptized, and when he got baptized, he said, Can I baptize myself? I was like, sure, sure. And it just I think of that all the time because when I read this, it's funny to me because that's what people did. You you baptized yourself in those times, and so I just always think of you, Riker. You're forever in my brain uh because of that day. Um, but there was the ceremonial washings, like when you go and eat uh dinner, you would there would be a ceremonial washing. So I think uh one of the things to really think about with these washings and baptisms is that a lot of times they were ceremonial. And so, and and I I think we can get a little bit uh I can get irritated with myself sometimes because uh it's easy for me to look at something that is quote un, as we would say, religious or ceremonial as something that's less than. And I think that's really uh it's a bad thing. I think we do our dis uh disservice to ourselves when we kind of get irritated about certain things like that, because really it's up to my heart if something is ceremony. It's up to my heart if something becomes religious. You know, you you just showing up here at church on a Sunday morning every week and don't give a thought about it. You just come and you don't really worship or you don't read your word during the week, then that that's just religious. That's just ceremony. Amen. But he wants so much more from us. He wants relationship with us, he wants us to dive into the word, he wants us to get in small groups and discuss the word and study the word together. He wants us to go to lunch together and just talk about life and talk about the word and the scripture and what I'm learning and what you're learning. That's what he wants. That builds relationship. And so it builds relationship amongst us, but when we do that, we also are building relationship with him. Amen. And so I think next time, you know, I've read this book called Tuesdays with Maury, and in it he was talking about that. He said, you know, one of the reasons this this man Mitch album had walked away from his faith was because he said everything just seemed ritual, it just seemed like religion. And he's like, I just, I just didn't want that anymore. And I'll never forget what his rabbi Maury said. He said, Those are the things that connect us to God. It's on your heart as to whether or not you're gonna let it become religious, or it's just simply a ceremony. I'm not sure why I dove into all that, but I just think it's important, amen, that we don't just come to church because it's the thing to do. It's just what we've done all these years or all this time. We should come to church with the anticipation of not leaving the same. We should sing a song and worship and not be able to walk away from this altar the same. We should never ever be able to worship or read the text or sit in church, and it should change us. We should be able to open up our our hearts and who we are so that we can change, because that's ultimately what it's all about, amen. Like God loves you. I want to say this, he loves you so much right where you're at. This is Max Locato. It's good stuff. He loves you right where he right where you are, but he loves you too much to let you stay there. Amen. So it's about transformation in our lives and change. All right. With John, he was preaching a message of repentance. And so because he was doing things a little bit different, the religious leaders of the time, they weren't too crazy about that. And I think you can see simply from the way he addressed them when they showed up, that he wasn't too crazy about them either, was he? Uh right out of his mouth he said, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not think uh you can say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce fruit, good fruit, will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Do you think John means business? I mean, these guys just show up and he means business. He's saying the Messiah is coming and he's about to start chopping down some trees. He's about he's about ready to make some things right. We know that the fig tree in the scripture represents a few different things. One is prosperity and peace, but it also represents the nation of Israel, and it's also used to discern between empty religion and genuine faith. And so what's John saying? John's saying Jesus is coming, the Messiah is coming, he's got the axe in his hand, and if you're not producing good fruit, if you are just an empty religion, he's cutting it down. Because that's not what he wants. He doesn't want that. Right? The scripture tells us that if we just have that, you know, lukewarm faith, he's not interested in that. He wants us to be on fire for him. He wants us to be engaged in a relationship with him. It goes on to say his winnowing fork is in his hands, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the shaft with unquenchable fire. Do you think John means business? You better believe he means business. He what's he saying there? What was built on a threshing floor? Who knows? What was built on the threshing floor? The temple. The temple was built on a threshing floor. So what is he saying? I'm coming and I'm gonna about to make my church right. I'm cleaning it out. We know he fashioned the whip. He was not Jesus was not happy about what was going on in the outer courts, let alone what was going on inside. And so he's here to clean it up. The Messiah is coming and he's gonna clean up the mess. Matthew chapter 3, verse 13 says, Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. I I have a picture that they're gonna pop up there, and I just want to give you an idea of what this looks like because uh Jesus came from the Galilee. Is our person back there? Yeah. Uh if you look up there where it says Galilee, and then right at the top of the Dead Sea, there's a dove on there, if you can see it. That picture is small. That's all that's my fault. Uh that's so small. But that distance is about 80 miles. So that's pretty incredible that Jesus walked about 80 miles that you know in that day to get there. Imagine how long it would have taken him to make that journey to be baptized at that place. And it's not an accident that Jesus got baptized there. Surely John could have gone to Jesus, but there's a reason perhaps that Jesus went to John at that exact place where that dove is kind of positioned. That is a pos that is a place of transition in the scripture. And so all through there's several different places in the scripture where transitional type things happened. One of the things that happened there was where Elijah transferred uh his authority, uh his mantle to Elisha. That happened right there. Another thing that happened there was when Joshua brought the Israelites across the Jordan. That's where that happened in that same spot. And now we find Jesus, another transformational uh moment in time when Jesus was baptized. And I love it, it's so beautiful uh how this reads. It goes on in 14. It says, But John tried to deter him, saying, I need to be baptized by you and you uh and you to come to me. And Jesus replied, Let it be so now. It is proper for us to do this, to fulfill all the righteousness. Then John consented. And as soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment, heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, This is my son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased. I just I just think it's so beautiful. I feel like this is another grouping of scripture that we can just read sometimes and we just read it and we just don't really think about how absolutely amazing what happened happened. It's just hard to even wrap our brains around it, but it's so powerful what went on here. Uh, and before I dive uh too deep into the baptism of Jesus, I want to talk about uh just a little bit more teaching on something else that's going on here. All throughout the scripture, there's a pattern that happens, and I'm gonna ask you to go ahead and pop that other slide up uh up there. Um there's a pattern that happens, and it starts in the very, very beginning of Genesis. There's if you remember if you recall me talking, and I've talked about this uh often, there's a term called tofu vivohu. Amen. You remember me talking about that? Chaotic nothingness. At the beginning, there was chaotic nothingness, and it was hovering over the water. So that's this chaos. But all throughout the scripture, and I'm gonna give you other examples, this pattern exists where there's chaos, there's water, there's spirit over the water, where God speaks, where there's an expected order, and then there's a test. And it happens over and over and over in the scripture. The first one, like I said, is right at the beginning. Uh, that tofu vavohu. The chaotic nothingness was over the water, and then we know what happened. God spoke. Amen. He spoke and it brought order. And then Adam and Eve were created, and we know what happened. There was a test that happened with Adam and Eve, and we know how that ended. Amen. We know that there was a test, and at the end of that test, there was a tragedy that happened. It happened, the same pattern exists again with Noah. The world, the scripture says that the world was in chaos. You know, there's definitely water that happened. Uh, after the water, the spirit was over the water, and then God spoke, and then there was an expected order. The Lord told Noah and his family to uh be fruitful and multiply. And then we know what happened with Ham when he came in and he saw his father, Noah. And then Noah came out of the tent, and what did he do? He cursed his grandson Canaan. And so there was another same exact pattern. We had the chaos, the water, the spirit over the water. God spoke. There was an expected order, there was a test, and then they failed. And it ended in tragedy with the cursing of Canaan. And then again in the Exodus, we had the chaos of the Hebrew people in Egypt. Uh, obviously, there's water when they get to the Red Sea. The Spirit of God split the water. God spoke to Moses and the people. There was an expected order that happened after God spoke to Moses. There was definitely a test that happened. The whole thing was a test, but there was definitely a test that happened. And then we know the spies went into the promised land. They came back with a report. And what happened? They failed the test. Another test that ended in tragedy. Another one, uh, it the same thing happened with Joshua and coming into the promised land. The same thing. There's the water, there's the spirit over the water, there's uh the chaos at the beginning, there's God speaking, there's that expected order when that would happen when the the Israelites got into uh the promised land, and then there was the test. If you remember when they went to Jericho, and then what happened? Achan took what he shouldn't take for himself, and then there was tragedy again, again, again, it's the same pattern, which brings us here to the baptism of Jesus, and we have the same pattern again. We know that the Romans uh were in control of Israel and the Jewish world was in chaos as a result of the Roman control, but also as a result of corrupt leadership, uh, some of the corruption in the leadership of the of the nation. We know that there was water, amen. He was baptized in the Jordan River. After the baptism of Jesus, the Spirit of God descended like a dove, and then we know that God spoke when he said, This is my son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased, which brought would bring order to everything. Amen. That was Jesus' launch, he was ready to launch. His ministry was ready to be launched at that exact moment. And then we have the test, right? Because we know the scripture, we know what happens next next in Matthew chapter 4. It's the test. Immediately, Jesus was led into the desert for this test. It says uh in chapter 4, then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After forty fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Amen. We know the scripture. We know that there were three tests that happened on that day. And we have the same exact pattern that's going on here. Uh we had the with creation, Noah, the Exodus, with Joshua, the same pattern is happening here, but this time there's a different result. Amen. Aren't we thankful that there was a different result? This time, when Jesus goes into the wilderness and he's tested by the enemy, he combats everything that the enemy says with what? The word. He quotes the word back to the enemy. And I have to ask you this question: Do you know the word well enough to be able to stand on it to pass the test? Do you know that every test that the enemy throws at us, we can pass if we know the word of God? Amen. We were just singing about it when we said I exalt him. And I was down at that altar and I was just thinking of all the things that I can can from time to time think of that is bigger. And I just in my mind, in my spirit, God just I just felt the Lord speaking to me and just saying that He's saying, I am greater than cancer. I am greater than any sickness. I am greater than any disease. I am exalted above any financial situation you have. I am exalted above your job. I am exalted over anxiety. I am exalted over fear. These are the things that the Lord is just saying. I'm exalted over any hateful thing anyone can say about me or my family or anybody else or about you. He is greater than all of it. And it was just such a great reminder to me that no matter what this world throws at us, he is greater. So I am so thankful for that time that we just had at this altar to spend today to just be reminded of all the things that we can place in a in a position that might be seem higher than what the Lord, the Lord, excuse me, the Lord can do, but he's greater than every single bit of it. And I just love right here where it says this, where he was every temptation that the enemy threw at him, he quoted the word back, he quoted the word back, he quoted the word back three times. But do you know something else that happened? The enemy quoted the word. But when the enemy quoted the word to Jesus, he tried to trick him, he quoted it wrong. So you have to ask, we all have to ask ourselves, do we know the word well enough that when someone throws it something at us or the enemy throws something at us, they might quote it wrong. Do you know the word well enough to know the truth? Because it's important. It's so important. You know, we I've heard so many people say this, and I I'm sure, I'm absolutely positive, I've probably said this too, that money is the root of all evil. Who's heard that? You heard that scripture? That's not the scripture. Money is not the root of all evil. The love of money is the root of all evil. So it's important for us to not just browse through the pages, but to know the word and get it within us because I'm telling you, this world, there's stuff out there, and we need the word of God. Amen. It's our roadmap in every single situation. All right, let's get back to Jesus' baptism. Verse 16. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment, heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. That is just, to me, some of the most beautiful scripture to even think about. I, you know, Pastor Julie says this all the time that she hopes that when she gets to heaven, there's like a movie room where we can like go in and just see all this stuff. I mean, wouldn't that be awesome? I I think that would be so cool. Um, this is something that I think would be absolutely amazing if I could go and watch a movie. I would love to see David and Goliath, and I would love to see this. This would be absolutely outstanding to witness. To see the heavens tear open and the Spirit of God descend would be absolutely awesome to see. There's there's a word here, and it's called it's Shizo. S-C-H-I-Z-O. It's the tearing of the heavens. Do you know this word is used here? And the exact same word is used one other place. And it's when Jesus was crucified, when the earth shook and the curtain tore in half. Those are the two times when Jesus is baptized and when Jesus is crucified, is when the firmament tore open and the Spirit of God descended upon him. I love that. And you really got to think about that too. The curtain that tore, it was 30 feet wide, it was 60 feet tall, it was four inches thick. They hung it every year, a new one, every single year. And every single year that they hung that curtain up, it took 300 priests to hang it. That's how heavy it was. But they tested it for its strength. They would hook it to horses and pull it in opposite directions to make sure it was strong enough to do its job in the temple. And yet in an instant, in an instant, it tore in two. What did that do? You know, that's something cool. That's something cool. But what did it do? When that curtain tore in half, it gave me and you access to the to the Lord. It gave us access to him. You know, and I've wanted to preach this message so badly, and I I just haven't sat down to study enough on it. And so I'm I'm gonna end up ruining it, but uh that's okay. But I love the fact that I don't need Moses to climb a mountain for me. That's great. I love Moses. Moses did some great stuff, but I don't need him to stand in the presence of God for me. I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful that I don't need a priest to go behind a curtain to get in the presence of God for me. I can do it myself. I have access to God on my own. And I love praying for you. I do. I love praying for you, but guess what? You can pray for yourself. And I will pray for you. And I've made it my goal that when any any so anytime someone comes to me and asks me to pray for them, that I do it right then. Because I used to like I would walk around and I would talk to people and they'd say, Will you pray for me? And then I with with good intentions say yes, and then you walk away from that situation and sometimes you don't remember. Has anyone else ever done that? And so, what my my goal now is that if you ask me to pray for you, I'm gonna pray for you. I'm gonna pray for you right then because I don't want to forget because it's too important. So if we're at Target and you say pray for me, guess what? We're getting we're gonna be praying. So if you're gonna if you embarrass easy, then don't ask me. At Target or Meyer, I've prayed at Meyer, I've prayed at Starbucks, I've prayed at Target, I've prayed it many times at Parlor Donuts. I'll pray. I and I'm gonna do it right then because I don't want to forget. Amen. Because we we we should do that for one another in that moment and and and then continue to pray for one another. But and I say all that to say this like I will pray for you, but guess what? You have access to God. You can pray for yourself, you have access to God for me too. So don't stop praying for me. And you don't leave here and think, like, well, I guess I don't need to pray for him anymore. No, I want you to. I want you to. Please continue to do that. But I am so appreciative that I have access to him. Amen. Amen. Okay. All right. So this week, next week we're talking about we're having baptisms. This time, this week we're getting ready. Amen. I I know that I have over the course of the last weeks, and and it's just the Holy Spirit has just placed this on my heart to preach on repentance. I feel like the Lord is calling us to a place of repentance to get right so we can be right. Amen? Because we want to be with him. And I think it's my job and my responsibility as the pastor to make sure to nudge us all, amen, to prick our hearts as much as I need to for us to get right with him, because he loves you so much that he wants you to be with him for eternity. And so we have to get right with the Lord. I know there's probably some of you that are sitting there and you're asking yourselves the question, if should I get baptized? And I know Pastor Rick, he said this for years and years and years, and I love it. He said, even Jesus was baptized and he was perfect, right? So that should answer our question right there. But there's some scripture uh that I want to talk about uh also. Romans 6 verses 3 and 4 says, We were uh we were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Let me just talk about baptism for a minute. For you, I know that I can see several of you that have come to me and said that you would like to be baptized, and I'm gonna speak to you just for just for a moment. This is water, and right now my feet are in it, and it will be clean water next week, I promise. I did shower today, but this is still we'll have clean water in here, and it will be warmer, I promise you that, because I gotta put myself in here too. Uh but this is just water. Amen. We know that this is just water, it's what it represents. When you die go under this water, you're dying out to your past. All those things that you know, I I I want you to think of it as like you're just cleaning your slate, right? And when we repent and thankfully through the blood of Jesus Christ, we're clean, we're washed, we're we're whole. Uh but it's a it's a this baptism in the water is symbolic of that. It's dying out to your old self. It's coming out of the water. And what are you saying? You're saying I'm new, I'm whole. You're showing the world. And you come out of this water and you're saying, I'm gonna do the best I can. Are we all gonna stumble? Are we all gonna fall sometimes? We're gonna mess up sometimes. But what you're doing when you come out of this water, you're showing the world the decision that you've made inside, and you're saying, I'm gonna do the best I can to not repeat those behaviors. I'm gonna do the best I can to be a better relationship with Jesus. I'm gonna do the best I can to be a better person. I'm gonna be the best I can to be a better friend or a better this or a better that. I want to just be better and I'm gonna work hard at it. Amen. You're not gonna go under the water thinking like, yep, well, I'm just gonna leave here and go do that exact same thing. Right? If you're doing it, if you're getting baptized, and that's your the attitude, then maybe you shouldn't get baptized because when you get baptized, you're dying out to your old self, you're coming out new, and you're saying to the world, this is the decision that I made in my heart, and I want everybody to know it. Amen. That's baptism. Acts 228 says, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins. That answers your question. Should I get baptized? I think all of us are included in everyone. Amen. I'm gonna ask uh our band of musicians and singers to come up. Thank you, Clint. That was perfect. Perfect timing. I know we've already been at this altar, but I want to invite every single one of you. You know, there's nothing better than when you're standing at the altar and there's just you can hear people worshiping and singing. I mean, that blesses me. I don't know if it blesses you, but it sure does bless me. I I will have to I will make a request that if there's a song that you guys stop singing and we have to sing, can it please be in a lower key? Because my falsetto voice is not solid at all. So you guys can do me that solid for the future reference. But I want to invite you to just come down to this altar. It's 1156. It's early. Just come down and just spend a couple minutes with Jesus. Take this opportunity to repent. We all got stuff. Every single one of us. Let's take this opportunity to repent. And then I pray that the Lord will speak to you. If you want to get baptized, let us know. We would love to baptize you next week. Uh but let's get right with the Lord first. Amen. Can we stand to our feet? Great to see you, Megan. I'm not even gonna say anything else. I'm just gonna, I just can I just enjoy being in his presence with you. Can we, can we, I'm gonna pray. And for those that need to leave, and then if you don't need to leave and you can just linger here for a little while and just pray and repent and get right with the Lord, let's just take that time. Dear Lord, I thank you. I thank you for this day. I thank you for your word. I thank you that your word is true and that we can stand on it, Lord. I pray, God, that you would embolden each and every one of us, Lord. I pray God that you would give each and every one of us a passion to dive into your word, to not just read it, but to know it, to get it into our heart and into our spirit, Lord, so that when any uh ugly thing comes up against against us, Lord, that we know your word and we can stand on it. And we know that you're exalted above every single situation, every every disease. You're above cancer, God. I lift up my friend Danny to you right now, God. I pray right now, Lord, that you would just move in his life, move in his body, Lord. Give him comfort and peace, Lord, and to the family, Lord. I just love him so much. He's such a good man, God. And we just lift him up to you, God. I lift up uh Valerie, God. I lift her up to you, God. I pray over her as well, Lord, that you would just move in her life in a great and mighty way and show your face, Lord. We believe, God, that you can do anything. We believe that you're a miracle working, God. And I also know, God, that you work through doctors and nurses and as well, God. But we believe in you as our great physician and healer, God. And I just lift up those situations to you and pray that you would move in them, God. I continue to lift up Will and Stacey Goudreaux to you, Lord. We just love them and we miss them, God, and we just want them to get back into this house uh with us and worship alongside of us, Lord. In so many situations. Donna, God, we lift her up to you, God. I'm just so thankful, Lord. Uh if you just love her, she's such a good woman who's been here for so many years, God, and we just lift her situation. You know the details. I don't even know all of them, but you do. And I just pray over her right now. So many things. If something is on your heart, lift your hand up to the Lord, and He can see that He can see your hand, He knows what's on your heart, He knows every one of those situations. And so, Lord, we just lift these things up to you right now, God, knowing that you are exalted above every single one of them. Every situation you're above. And so we lay that thing at your feet right now, God, and we ask that you move in a great mighty way. Show your face in those situations. And now, Lord, we stand before you right now, and particularly those who are choosing to get baptized next week. I lift them up to you, God. I pray, Lord, that you would work in their lives this week. I pray, God, that you would continue to prick their hearts just to get right with you. We stand before you right now at this time to repent of those things in our lives that we need to change and get rid of in our lives, Lord. And we lay those before you, God, and we know that you're faithful and just to forgive. And we're gonna leave this place knowing that we're not gonna tremble and repeat those behaviors and patterns in our lives. So we love you, God, we honor you, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.