Full Worship Experience | September 12 | Mercy Hill Church

[Music] welcome mercy hill we are so excited that you have chosen to join us on this exciting weekend we are celebrating baptisms today as well as the official launch day of our new northeast campus if you're new to mercy hill or maybe it's just been a while we are so glad you're here we would love to say hello or answer any questions you may have so just stop by our first time guest tent on your way out we even have a gift for you just for being here at mercy hill we strongly believe that discipleship happens in community and now more than ever is a great time to join a community group groups start meeting this week and will run through mid-november but it's not too late to join we have groups of all ages locations and times so go online to sign up for a group that works for you now let's stand together and worship welcome mercy hill we're so glad to worship with you guys today let our praise be your welcome [Music] [Music] we are here for you [Music] we are here for you let your breath come from heaven fill our hearts with your life we are here for you [Music] we are here for [Music] is fall down [Music] we are here for [Music] moving power [Music] we are here for [Music] desire only you are worthy [Music] is [Music] we welcome you here [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] we [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] this [Music] we welcome you with praise almighty god and love be welcomed in this place we welcome you we praise we welcome you with praise almighty [Music] desire you alone are holy only you are worthy god let your fire fall down [Music] and how deep the father's love for us how vast and beyond all measures that he should give his only son to make a wretched treasure [Music] the father turned his face away as foods which more the chosen one [Music] bring many sons [Music] behold the man upon the cross my [Music] it was a complex [Music] i know that it is [Music] come on i will not post jesus christ and [Music] is [Music] [Music] restaurant [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] but this i know with all my heart [Music] yes this i know with all my heart [Music] god we are so thankful we're thankful so much for that truth the lord you became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of god that god you see every single sin in our hearts the sin that so often can bring us down god you saw those sins from the cross and still you loved us still you died and still you call us and god we know and we believe that you will finish what you started god we thank you we praise you and god we ask you to continue to move in the service for through baptisms through the preaching of your word god move us every single one of us in this room lord may none of us leave the way that we came god for those who are feeling down for those that are feeling sad feeling isolated feeling lost god you have a word for us god may we grab hold of it lord your word will not return void i pray that you would cut through the hearts of everyone in this room and god that you would be glorified we praise you in jesus name amen you guys could be seated all right hey guys across all of our locations can you join me in giving a huge mercy hill welcome for the first time to the northeast campus all right you guys praise god praise god man it's incredible uh even during coven you can't quarantine the great commission we've been able to send people out uh you guys are over there at the northeast campus right now we thank god for you we're excited for what's going to happen for those of you that might be newer and maybe aren't at northeast and maybe one of our other campuses we've had a desire for this area for years some of the very first college students to ever show up at a at a uh a mercy hill event we're from elon university we want we've had groups in the eastern part of guilford county for a long time so this is a huge weekend for us um y'all it happened because of the generosity of a church in the northeast part of the county northeast baptist church we know that some of you guys foundational members are in attendance this weekend and we just want to say thank you guys for living with open hands and wanting to leverage everything you have in every stage of life for the kingdom it's a story that needs to play out many many many more times across our state and you guys have been an incredible testimony and for the rest of our church for you guys here for you guys at high point and clifton it's also a testimony of you living with open hands okay because we're not able to launch campuses for the glory of god without the generosity of the church you guys know the vision of the church goes about as far as the generosity of the church takes it okay i mean the pastor's got a lot of vision we got a lot of vision but it goes at the pace of the generosity of the church and you guys this year have opened your hands you have leaned in you have i've really dug deep and been able to put something like the northeast campus online so man we're going to see baptisms over there this weekend we're going to have an opportunity to see elon students plugging in over there so it's just an incredible weekend uh for our church so we're excited about that hey if you have a copy of scripture take it out and turn with me to the book of acts today okay we are stepping out of the series that we have been in and made for more we're going to take a quick break from that series and we are going to dive deep into a story that i have loved since i was a kid it is a simple story it is a straightforward story if you are new someone invited you this weekend maybe you're one of our campuses somebody invited you if you are new this is a great way to get introduced to the bible and christianity and all that because it's very simple today there's a guy who didn't know the lord he didn't know jesus christ he didn't know the gospel and there's a word that comes to him in power okay and it changes his life and it changes his family legacy forever and that's what we're gonna look at today all right here's the big idea the gospel changes everything we have a story today um that is filled with uh dungeons and dragons no earthquakes okay not dragons dungeons earthquakes jailers um man people are are casting demons out and being beaten with rods and it's just this crazy story but all of that stuff that happens is not the miracle the biggest miracle man is that there is a message about jesus christ that changes somebody's life forever there is hope in the midst of hopelessness and that's what we're going to end up seeing today all right i don't know where you are i don't know how you came to mercy hill today okay you might be floating this story and this message the gospel that changes everything this message is an anchor okay you might feel like man i've got all these questions about life and purpose and i'm not sure what i'm supposed to be doing in this world and why am i even here this message that changes everything the gospel of jesus christ it is an answer you might be hurting today you might feel hopeless today we're going to meet a guy in this story that absolutely lost hope to the point of wanting to die you might even be there you might be looking down a long dark tunnel today maybe this weekend is even the last weekend you're giving it a shot you might even be thinking man this is sort of my last ride i'm kind of on my last leg here might be where you are today man if that's where you are i want you to hear a story of hope today because there is a story here where there was somebody else who finds himself in that situation and yet there is a story and a message that comes into his life and it changes everything y'all the gospel changes everything and i want to show you that and then i want to call you to commit your life to christ and commit to be publicly baptized so man it's a heavy weekend it's a great weekend all right but let's see what the lord is going to do acts chapter 16 starting in verse 25 about midnight paul and silas were praying they were singing hymns to god and the prisoners were listening to them and suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bonds were unfastened and when the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open he drew his sword and was about to kill himself supposing that the prisoners had escaped but paul cried out with a loud voice do not harm yourself for we are all here now i want to try to transport you for a moment 2 000 years ago to an inner prison in macedonia okay now this is tough i mean this is like you're in the inner prison all right you see a couple of bloodied beaten up missionaries their story of how they got into the prison was that they got through them cast a demon out of a little oppressed slave girl that was probably being exploited in all types of ways and they end up seeing a demon cast out of her it's a very freeing thing but what happens is the guys that own this little slave girl they realize they're not going to make money off of her anymore because they were using the demon possession as a way to tell the future and magic and all this kind of stuff it's a crazy story but they have compassion then the demon comes out of her these guys get mad and they end up starting a riot and paul and silas not only get thrown in jail okay but they get beaten with rods they get put in the inner prison i mean you're thinking inner prison back then you're thinking about you know torture and you're thinking about rats and you're thinking about unsanitary conditions and it's dark and all the stuff okay and they get put you know paul gets put in the stocks uh which is actually a real form of torture even back in the day it still is now if you've ever seen louis zamparini if you ever read the book unbroken or saw that movie i mean you know putting someone in a real tough position is a very torturous thing to do all that is happening to them okay so this is it's sort of a horror movie it's sort of it's sort of like a halloween scene here which walmart's already got all their halloween stuff out by the way i noticed okay so it's crazy but uh it's it's kind of that idea and and you're seeing this but what do you what do you notice what did i say that these guys are doing i've tried to paint the picture the best i can we would expect cursing and groaning right and instead listen because there is a message that changes everything in our life instead of cursing and groaning what you end up seeing is a couple guys in the middle of the inner prison in stocks bloodied up and they're singing and they're praying and they're praising god y'all the gospel helps us sing even in the midst of suffering we thought we would see fretting we thought we would see mumbling we thought we would see god we were just trying to do what you told us to do god we were just trying to help this little girl we thought we would see cursing and groaning and all this and instead you see singing why well the very thing that paul is singing about the very thing that he is uh preaching and the very thing that he is praying through all of that stuff it has changed his heart the gospel changes everything it starts with us it starts with our personal life it starts in our hearts and paul has been changed by this man paul was a guy that god radically saved and he began to get the message in his heart that something about what jesus christ has done from him had done for him has taken away his sin before god it has given him a purpose in life and a future in heaven and it changed everything about paul's life everything that he saw coming at him and all the times that he was pressed in on all sides he was able to maintain a lens that was gospel focused man god you're doing something even in the midst of this suffering and it allowed him to sing no i don't know about you uh but i think this is a pretty tough question for me sometimes where does your heart go amidst suffering and trials where does where do our hearts go man do we sing in suffering or do we slump in suffering do we fret do we groan do we mumble do we complain you know i think about for us many times it takes a lot less than being beaten up and thrown in the inner prison right i mean i told this story i told the story probably five years ago guys still come up to me and they remember this story because you're gonna know the frustration when we built our house all right so if you ever build a house you're gonna know like man there's just nothing but red clay mud everywhere and then you gotta start all the way over with trying to get some kind of yard and you got a dog and kids and if you don't have a yard it's just mud in the house and all that kind of stuff and for like three years every single time i would throw seed out within two hours there's a massive severe thunderstorm that would come and wash it all away that wasn't on the radar okay uh it wasn't on the radar before i put it out and it would come and wash it all away and next thing you know i've got the greenest ditches that you've ever seen okay and and but mud in the yard and and guys i i people bring people come up to me and they're like they remember that illustration uh because you're probably like me it was enough to make me fret and complain and mumble for at least a week right it was just it was so annoying what's in your life just like that a check engine light man a bill that you didn't realize that was coming a babysitter cancelling on you and something that you wanted to do i mean for us in our life there are so much smaller things that can steal our song what do we need to do we need to think about this man that's a good reminder for us all right paul was able to maintain in silas a lens even in the midst of suffering and trial man that god had taken away their sin that he had given them a purpose in life and that he had secured a future for them in heaven and if those three things are true man then we can as one pastor said no matter how hard things get no matter what our circumstances are in we will never christian be without a song and i don't want to trivialize this because i know there's people in our church that are going through hard things man we've got people in our church i know personally their parents are dealing uh with covet or in the hospital or maybe even uh man maybe people have suffered death over the last year with different things that are going on like man there's serious stuff that's going on in our world i heard the story of a persecuted believer coming out of afghanistan i mean today sends the pictures of the marks on his very back for not showing up at the mosque on friday this is a guy that's been connected to the networks that were connected in for a long time and he sent a text and said man i guess i've never looked more like jesus than today there are real hard things that are going on in our world it's not just the trivial and yet man we can have a lens god save me from sin he gave me a purpose in this life and he secured my future in heaven and if those things are true then that we will never be without a song and listen it is contagious okay everybody's listening to these guys like man you're supposed to be cursing out the jailer and you're supposed to be mumbling and complaining and crying and they're singing and they're praying in the middle of the night even in the stalks verse 27 when the jailer woke remember an earthquake came there all of a sudden uh the you know the chains are open and everybody's free and there's there's uh you know the the the doors are off the prison all of a sudden this is what happens when the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open he drew his sword and was about to kill himself supposing that the prisoners had escaped but paul cried out with a loud voice do not harm yourself for we are all here is there a greater juxtaposition in scripture between what paul is going through and his reaction versus what the jailer goes through and his reaction you understand why the bible puts them right up side by side there is something about the gospel lens god saved you from sin he gave you a purpose in this life and he's got a future in heaven okay there's something about that that fortifies us when things are hard and it makes us be able to run into the storm instead of running away from the storm it makes us be able to at times look in the mirror and say man i know this is tough but i also know what the next right thing is and it's praise and it's praying and it's singing well the jailer doesn't know the gospel he doesn't know the god of heaven all right this is the type of guy that has never heard the gospel message before i am sure and look what ends up happening in his life the second that he kind of gets in this moment where there is going to be great suffering and trial see a jailer at this time maybe some of you have heard this before but at jailer at this time y'all if if all these guys go out he's going to end up probably serving their sentences okay or at least he's going to be very publicly humiliated maybe he's even going to be you know executed or something like that and this is a guy who's very practical and he i mean he's a jailer i want you to get in your mind who this guy is okay this guy's probably ex-military all right he's you know he maybe he's a retired officer of some kind he's probably got an awesome mustache okay he he's just this is the who he is okay he lives in stokesdale gibsonville for our northeast campus all right uh man he you know this is the guy that when duck dynasty was a show he watched it every single week okay he's very down to earth salt of the earth practical dude but he doesn't know the gospel he doesn't know god and so what ends up happening what happens is this man if there's no god then there's nothing beyond the moment that we're in and the moment that we're in will dictate all types of emotions to us all of a sudden they're gone i know what that means very practical dude now he's just gonna go last samurai here okay and it's just gonna be like man well i'm not gonna i'm not gonna suffer that i'm not gonna suffer that public humiliation i'm not going through all that i might as well just take it in my own hands and so he's got the sword to his chest and he's about to go through with this and all of a sudden paul cries out to him and paul says what he says man don't don't do this like we're not gone we're all here what does that mean it means we're here it means that the other prisoners have gathered around paul i'm gonna say you do the same thing i know this sounds crazy i mean if somebody's midnight they're supposed to be mumbling complaining growing and fretting instead they're praying and crying out to god and singing praise and then all of a sudden the god who they're praying to sends an earthquake and everybody's chains fall off you don't just run away you're gonna go to that dude and you're gonna be like man what do you know about the world that i don't know like what what is it in your life that you have that i don't have and that's what paul says he says man they're all here we're right here come here i mean basically what he says is man don't kill yourself come join the party like come join in and hear what is going on i love this about paul this ain't the point today okay but listen paul didn't view the miracle as a means of escaping suffering and hardship he viewed the miracle as a means of witness and we listen church i don't i don't have time for all this but we need to be praying more in line with that you know our brothers and sisters in all parts of the world that are sharing the gospel in unreached places literally pray for miracles in order that they would have an open door so that they could share the gospel with people not so that they wouldn't suffer and not so that they'd be able to have a way of escape but so that in seeing the miracle we would be able to share the gospel and you and i can pray those same prayers man it doesn't take transportation around the world to all of a sudden believe in a god who can move all right and we don't have paul didn't see this miracle as a way of escape he saw it as a way of getting the gospel even further into the culture this gospel is an amazing thing it is a message that changes everything even changes somebody into the person who says man i care more about this jailer who may have been the very one that put a rod on my back he's certainly the one that made the call for me to be in these stocks all night okay he decided no no they don't just get to go to the prison they're going to go to the inner prison that's this guy's call and yet what is paul going to do man i care more about your spiritual freedom than i do my physical freedom you know all these people could probably run away we could escape man you know whatever happens to you happens to you oh no not for paul it was all about the mission it needs to be that way for us as well there's a message that is so radical that when understood changes us and it makes us into that type of person now look what happened with the jailer and the jailer called for lights and rushed in and trembling i bet he was trembling right with fear he fell down before paul and silas then he brought them out and said sirs what must i do to be saved i want you to see two words here what must i do to be saved and they said believe in the lord jesus christ and you will be saved you and your household and they spoke the word of the lord to him and to all who were in his house all right man you guys have heard this i've known this since i was a kid fathers why does this kind of say hey you will be saved in your household because the way daddy goes the family goes all right and if if they see that this guy gets saved and preaches the gospel to his family high likelihood here okay that the family is going to be led into kind of a gospel ministry and be led in the right way now what does he say here and this is what i want you to bring out guys what does he say he says what must i do to be saved and they say you must believe this is sort of the big thing uh that people have to get over and maybe understand about christianity and for some of you guys maybe understand it even for the very first time this weekend okay because most people put all religions in a bucket and here's the bucket okay and i would say this apart from christianity they really are all kind of this way all right man you do a bunch of things that whatever the holy book tells you to do you you get in line you clean up the outside of your life you don't drink code you know drink cuts smoke or chew or date girls who do okay and whatever it is and you just make sure that that what you do is right on the outside and if you can be right on the outside then god will accept you on the inside like it'll go from outside in if i can produce the fruit then suddenly god will grant me the spiritual inner life and this is what religion is all around the world y'all except for the gospel he says what must i do and they say you must believe we naturally want to earn salvation what do i do what do i do what do i do but salvation is a free gift that needs to be received through belief it is received through faith the reaction of the jailer in other words y'all is totally natural he wants to pile up work he wants to pile up rules he wants to pile up maybe even fear guilt and shame over the past things in his life what do i got to do give me the steps it's very similar to the story in second kings chapter five of the story of naaman okay and i don't have time to go through this whole story but i'm gonna tell you some of you young parents you got young kids at home the first story to teach those little kids in your house is the story of naaman from second kingdom spot second king chapter five because naaman is a warrior he's a soldier of the army of syria he knows what he's doing but he's got leprosy all right and a little slave girl in his kingdom says there's a dude named elisha that can pray to god and maybe see you healed from this well what did naaman do naaman goes to elisha and when he gets to elisha elisha tells him hey all you got to do is go baptize yourself dip dip yourself in the river jordan river seven times now naaman didn't want to do that why because the jordan river is nasty because this is humiliating because this is basically saying all i've got to do is believe in the word of god through this preacher name it didn't come for that naaman came to slay a dragon naaman came with a ton of money naaman came with a bunch of changes to close naaman was going to earn something before god and elisha tells him oh no you won't in your humility and in a humble spirit you go dip yourself in that river he didn't even want to do it naaman's like man i'd rather have leprosy and he goes on and one of his servants finally says man if you would just listen what is it going to hurt and he humbles himself and what happens god ends up healing him of the leprosy it is a story that stands for all time for every one of us the human heart is wired for works righteousness yet what god has for us is that we must believe that what jesus christ has done everything necessary to save us this is the gospel this is what has to get dislodged for even some of us here today that were bent on works righteousness earned salvation i'm coming to church because i'm just trying to clean myself up and become a better person and what's got to happen is you don't need to get better today all right you need to get new the old you needs to to go away and there needs to be a new one that is reborn and that cannot happen through your works it happens through belief and what jesus christ has already done all right here's the gospel as short as i can make it man in our sin we never have a chance to have a relationship with god he is holy and righteous and we are not so jesus christ stepped out of heaven into earth jesus christ took on flesh 100 god 100 man and he went to the cross for us jesus stood on the cross in our place okay all of the wrath of god all of the this is what you deserve because of your sin man jesus took it in our place and three days later praise god he raised from the dead and in that you and i through our belief what must i do to be saved oh no believe in jesus through our belief in what he has not not we got to do but believe in what he has done when we believe in that then all of a sudden god quickens the soul he will wake us up and we will be ones who are alive with christ all right this is the gospel message as simple as i can make it it was hard for the jailer to understand it's hard for us to understand today but after what he had seen the jailer throws himself into this y'all and he is changed he believed the gospel and he has changed here's what i want to call you to at all of our campuses this weekend all right believe the gospel and be changed today all right believe the gospel and be changed today admit that you're a sinner believe that jesus has done everything necessary to save you and confess him as the lord of your life today now for some of you you're like man i've been a believer for 20 years is this message even for me absolutely it's for you okay we never stop needing the message believe the gospel and be changed okay we don't grow beyond the gospel christian you've been christian for 20 years okay all right i've been a christian for 30 years all right that's crazy to say but i got saved at a very young age all right i've been believing for a long time we never grow beyond the gospel we grow deeper into the gospel all right the gospel is not a diving board by which we get into the pool of christianity okay the the gospel is the pool why do i say that because every day we need to go back to this fact jesus christ stood on a cross for us and it proved once and for all time that god loves you he loves you he loves you he loves you what we see in the scripture in first john chapter 4 is that we love him because he first loved us the more we stare at the love of god the more we will be changed i remember when i was on the college campus at north greenville college i was over our athletic ministry this is how immature of a believer i was at that time of my life man i was the one that got to choose the speakers to come and preach for our ministry and sometimes that a name would come up of a preacher and i would say oh no don't get them they're just going to preach the gospel we already did that once early in the semester like what i wanted to do was say man gospel diving board now let's get into something deeper you know let's do something else and it was totally a myth okay we don't grow beyond it we grow deeper into it man we go back and remember it is only because of the gospel that jesus stood in our place believer listen it is only because of the gospel that you right now are not judged by your greatest failures in life it is only because of the gospel that you can stand today and you can say with confidence there is nothing i could do today that would make god love me more than he does right now there's nothing i could fail in tomorrow that would make him love me any less than he does right now it's not up to me it was up to christ and when we begin there every day of our life y'all it moves us in a way that fear and guilt and all this stuff about hey man it's the diving board and now we need to go deep or whatever man if we can go back to that gospel message so believer believe the gospel and be changed but hey for some of you and i understand this message is kind of geared this way hey for some of you man that needs to happen today for the first time and i don't want to pull any punches with our church in all of our locations today okay because this is my honest belief and i'm not saying this as a preacher tactic my honest belief is that in our church right now there are literally hundreds of people that need to pray to receive christ give their life over to him and get baptized this weekend all right god has been bringing people to our church there is a great shaking in culture there's a lot of people who are like man man they're coming back around or they've been around church for the first time now in a long time or maybe in a while maybe you had a little bit of church as a kid and now you're starting to try to figure out man is there really actually something to god and all this stuff and and there's people that have have kind of been hanging around doing the southern polite thing about man we're sort of part of a church man today we draw the line okay and what we say is hey are you in or are you out it's not okay to kind of walk out today saying no i'm not really going to make a decision that is a decision against christ that is a decision to hear the gospel and to say no okay that's it what we want to do today is we want to draw the line and we want to say man where are you at and i don't want to pull any punches with it listen guys there is a reason why you were here today at our campuses there's a reason why you are here god has orchestrated this moment maybe for years in your life i don't think you ever thought about how many details in your life kind of all got to come together to be in a certain place you know i think about this ann and i got married uh in 2005 okay and and then we've got kids and a family and we went to seminary together and we came but all that really started okay we because we we met in 2004 and so it's like man i start going back and we started dating and all that and i start looking back and i'm like man all this stuff in our life like i'm the pastor of the church and then uh you know we've got four kids and we have four kids because uh we got married and we got married because we got engaged and we got engaged because we started dating and we started dating because we met each other after a basketball game at north greenville college and it was at the it was the end of a basketball game or whatever me and some buddies were hanging out and um my sister had bought me an air bazooka have you guys seen these have you ever seen one of these okay it shoots like a ball of air through the air it's very uh interesting okay so um she bought me this air bazooka for christmas and i'm like a sophomore in college or whatever and um and so me and me and so me and me and my buddies are just kind of messing around and shooting people and hiding okay so uh so anyway anna's way up on the bleachers i mean she's got to be like 30 feet away from me or something i mean and so they kind of they kind of shield me you know and they they split at the right time and boom i didn't know her at all shot her uh man ma direct hit okay i mean massive air ball boom right in the back you've seen and she got long hair hair goes flying up overhead she almost fell off the bleachers okay uh but long story short she falls in love with me all right and so you know so we're we you know we ended up going like i said you know like kids are married and married and engaged and engaged in dating and dating because of the heir bazooka so then you think well how did you get to air bazooka well it's because my sister was walking through the mall if you guys remember those okay and and and she's walking through and you remember like they have these things and it's like like a demonstration she's walking into a video game store uh to get me like a game for christmas or something and she sees this demonstration where the guy's blowing a candle out from like 10 feet away with air bazooka and she naturally thought he's going to love this you know so so so she buys me the air bazooka and my my point of the story is that i remember a few years ago it's like it dawned on me one day i'm like you know what would happen in my life if my sister would have bought the video game i mean the butterfly effect it's like anna be married to some politician i'm probably living in my parents basement you know i mean i don't know it's like it's like you think about like these little things in your life and all this and here's what i know without that air bazooka i ain't married to anna i promise you this without being married to anna i would not be standing here preaching today i know that and if i wasn't saying her preaching today you wouldn't be hearing this preaching today my point is god is in every break of the game man he's moving every single thing around and for some of you man he's been knocking on the door and knocking on the door and i don't want to pull any punches today what if this weekend is the last time what if this weekend is the last time that he's going to come knocking and have you slam the door in his face again is he drawing you today man there are some of you in here today that you need this message of the gospel because you need an anchor in your life man you are floating as if life doesn't have a purpose it is one bad decision after another and god wants to use this message to put a rock under your feet today to change you to show you that there is a greater purpose that you are made for more to give you a life with purpose and to give you a future in his kingdom in heaven there are some of you today maybe in our campuses that are young families some of you guys are young dads and god has blessed you with a beautiful bride and maybe one or two little small kids he didn't give you those blessings just to play with he didn't give you those blessings of these children just just to have as ornaments of your life being put together he has given you that wife and those kids to shape for his glory through your discipling them you can't do that if you're not even a believer if you've never drawn the line you can't hope to fulfill the purpose in that family for which god has called you if you have never even stepped over man i said this earlier today some of you guys man you might feel like man this is about my last ride you know the difference in depression and suicidal depression is when people are depressed they look down that long dark tunnel and they still see a light flicking and flickering down there and somebody begins to dip into something like like we saw in the jailer something else when they begin to look down that tunnel and there ain't no light flickering down there anymore and some of you guys might be there and i'm going to tell you something i don't want to be overly dramatic but i know multiple stories in my own personal life where god took somebody in that state like he did the jailer and he took them from suicidal to saved in about 30 seconds and it can happen in your life today call my bluff on it man a guy named bruce bruce is a pastor that burns up the roads in montana preaching on ascent boy and crete indian reservations in montana but he wasn't always a believer he became a believer because as a late teenager he was part of the american indian movement and he was going around and protesting all this stuff and all this kind of crazy stuff in his life and it was leading them to drugs and alcohol and all this stuff and one morning he's there and he just decides this is it this is my last day i'm not living anymore and he hears a church bell go off and he decides to get up and to go into the church for what reason he still can't even tell you and he hears a message that doesn't really change his heart but the pastor comes and it was an anglo pastor as a white dude and bruce would tell you i hated white people i mean the racism in montana and the things that these guys go through is just it's crazy from the reservation and the guy comes up to him the guy says man i want you to come over to our house for lunch today he's like what he's like i want you to come to our house for lunch he goes to their house for lunch fully planted that this could be his last day on earth the family eats a beautiful lunch together and then the guy says hey man i got to go back for a prayer meeting um here's the keys to our house if you need to take a shower or whatever you got to do man we got to go up to the church maybe we'll see you later it's been great see it radically changed him seeing the gospel put on display by somebody like that he already knew the abcs like i've mentioned but seeing it play out like that radically changed his life and he got saved in the man's shower and now he's burning up the roads right now preaching the gospel on the reservations out there 30 years later i can tell you story john john john at high point campus now when he pulled into the high point campus he had already decided this is it for me and god did something in his life there we told a story over easter y'all there's stories after stories like this and maybe that's the story that you need to see today man that it's not the end and i know you feel hopeless but there is hope and there is a church filled with people right now that would love to enter into life with you and fight this battle of depression with you all right man there are so many places maybe some of you guys have done the polite southern moral thing your whole life and today needs to be different today these would be like man i'm going to make a decision for christ so here's what we're going to do today all right i'm not done uh we've got it all planned out we've got all the time planned out here's what we're going to do today all right i'm actually going to call the band forward and these guys are going to come up and as they're coming up what i'm actually going to do is i'm going to call you to have a moment of reflection before i come back out and really set up a time to commit your life to christ and to come forward with baptism here this weekend okay now what i mean by that is this and all of our campuses our bands are coming up here's what i want to do man for this time of reflection i'm giving you time to decide whether or not you're going to decide all right i'm giving you time to decide man am i going to make a decision for christ today am i going to step over a line is my life going to be forever changed today or is it not all right is god calling me am i going to roll the dice am i going to see if this ever comes again am i going to see if i even make it home all right from this church service or am i going to make a decision that i know god has been pulling me to you are here for some kind of reason okay and my first prayer is that maybe even right now during this time of reflection you would make a decision to decide i'm going to come back up in just a few minutes i'm going to lead a simple sinner's prayer okay give you an opportunity to pray to receive christ and then we're going to talk about baptism and that's going to be my time all right but just for a few minutes here um and guys i didn't tell you all this i think it'd be good man the reflection maybe maybe even turn the lights down a little bit just give people a chance to just kind of be with them in the lord at our campuses maybe you can bow your head you can close your eyes or you cannot man just think about it for a minute is there a decision for christ that you need to make today [Music] come out of sadness from wherever you've been come brokenhearted then rescue begin come find your mercy o sinner come here earth has no sorrow that heaven can't heal [Music] lay [Music] lift up your face [Music] lay down your heart lay down your heart come as you are there's hope for the hopeless and all those who stray come sit at the table come taste the grace there's rest for the weary rest that endures earth has no sorrow [Music] [Music] lift up oh face [Music] lay down your heart [Music] hey at this time at all of our campus i'm actually asked now if you would just bow your head and close your eyes for a moment there's a very spiritual moment and we don't want to be distracted by phones or by people you know walking around or looking around i'm going to be the only one looking around right now at our um at our campuses our campus pastors will be kind of looking around believers here man i need you to be praying there's spiritual battle happening okay um here's the deal man you've had a moment you've heard the gospel proclaimed very very clearly jesus christ died so that you could have a relationship with god he died to cover your sin and it takes admitting your center and believing in what jesus has done and confessing him as the lord of your life and my question is man is today the day that you're going to step over the line is today the day that you're going to stop playing church stop playing around and actually decide for christ i'm driving a stake in the ground my life is forever going to be changed your heart's probably beating fast you know god's calling you he's been after you for a long time like lydia earlier in this chapter in acts 16 he is opening your heart do not slam it shut man do not throw water on what the spirit is doing to quench what he is doing so if you know you're here today and again heads bowed eyes closed i'm the only one looking around if you know that i'm just going to ask that you would pray with me man this is the difference it's life on purpose versus life floating it's god your glory not my glory it's a future in heaven versus an eternity in hell would you pray this prayer with me if you want to become a christian today it's very simple you would say god i know that i'm a sinner you just repeat that in your heart to the lord cry out to him god i know that i'm a sinner and i know that my works cannot save me but i know in your great love for me you sent jesus christ on the cross i believe that he died in my place and i believe that three days later he rose from the dead and proved everything that he ever said about himself to be true and prove that the same spirit that raised him can raise me i believe that and i confess him as the lord of my life with heads bowed and eyes closed did you pray that prayer with me and if you did i'm gonna ask you to take a step now all right because what happens many times that people will say man i take this step i want to pray this prayer and they end up praying the same prayer a hundred times and a hundred different church services but they never take a physical step they never actually nail it down so here's what i ask you to do at all of our locations that clifton at high point at northeast all right if there's college students in the house if there are teenagers i know there are in the house kids in the house all right here's what i'm going to ask you to do i'm going to ask you in just a minute and i'm going to be the only one looking your campus pastor is looking that if you prayed that prayer with me i'm going to ask you to raise your hand okay that's going to be the ask here i'm not we're not filling out cards and all that i'm going to ask you to do that i want you to take a step and then i'm going to pray for you and we're going to take the invitation in another direction so here's the deal all of our campuses okay if you pray to receive christ with me i want you to raise your hand right now let me see praise god praise god i know what the campus is as well you can put your hand down you guys let's pray together father lord we know in this moment there are many people that are coming to christ and wrestling and god i pray right now lord that even more so than a simple hand raise god they would have the courage to step forward today not a year from now not a month from now today god give them the courage let your spirit be all over them god don't let them get away from this moment change their life forever don't let them be like a seed that sprouts for a little while and then it's gone god i pray you would help them nail this down by coming forward publicly today in christ and we pray amen hey we're not done right we got one more part of this invitation and that is um guys that we have filled the tanks at all of our campuses for this reason baptism is the step for a new believer and i don't care if you're a 30 seconds old believer or a 30 years old believer okay if you have become a believer today or 30 years ago or whenever it is but you are not baptized you are missing the first step of obedience i want you to read what happened to the jailer acts 16 33 and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds and he was baptized listen at once right it wasn't a year later it wasn't three months later it wasn't after i do a class it wasn't any of those things he was saved and he was baptized he and all his family then he brought them up into his house and set food before them and he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in god there are two groups of people that need to get baptized this weekend okay the first group of people is i've been a believer for a long time and nobody realizes that i'm not baptized man do not you know i've heard people say like man what are people going to think they're going to celebrate their brains out with you okay that's what they're going to think and that's what they're going to do and they're going to be super excited that you have taken this step all right you've been a believer for a long time but you've never taken that first step of obedience i'm telling you right now there is something supernatural this baptism don't save you but putting on the uniform makes you fired up for the team like you've never been before not being scared to wear the wedding ring does something for your marriage okay something in the symbolism of it man it helps to grow our faith and that's why it's the first step don't rob glory don't rob god of the glory for another second all right that he is due for what he has done in your life whether you were a little kid when he did it whether you were a teenager or whether he just did it in your life right now okay all right so if you've been a believer for a while in just a minute we're going to have a moment and you need to come you need to go to the bat you need to talk to a baptismal counselor and you need to get baptized today okay all of our campuses all the lobbies man today we're set up for this hey the second group of people though is the group of people that are like ma'am i've only been a christian for like a minute and a half okay and and man praise god for you there is a party in heaven for you all over the track can we just praise god for what he's done at all of our location all right i'm telling you there are hundreds of people whether you raise your hand or not there are hundreds of people that man i bet you are praying and wrestling with what they're gonna do right now okay here's the play for you man whether it was 30 years ago or 30 seconds you saw what the scripture said this is one of those moments in your life where you just get to say am i going to allow the book to be the lord of my life am i going to allow that to be what dictates to me what i do or am i going to kind of walk out of here like i've done before and i'm going to keep thinking about it i'm going to keep putting it off and i'm not going to make a decision and all that that's making a decision it's making a decision to say i accepted christ but i'm not going to go public with him praise god jesus christ was willing to go public hang naked on a cross for us and he was willing to put it out there and be and go all the way public and i'm going to ask you to do the same thing that you would come and you would be baptized this weekend okay so here's what's going to happen all right if you need to be baptized and you know who you are i mean it's between you and the lord and obviously i'm pushing hard but man it's god's got to do it the spirit's on you okay if you need to be baptized on our campuses this is what's going to happen in just a minute i'm going to stand everybody and then we're going to start a new song or actually they're going to keep playing the same song and when we jump into that song that is the moment and what you do is you just slip out wherever you are northeast high point clifton right here at regional you slip out and you go right to the back and here's what's gonna happen in all the lobbies there are people that are back there that are normal christian people that are not our staff they're pretty much they're they're small group leaders they're people who love you who are prayed up who have been praying for this moment you're gonna walk out there they're gonna smile okay and they're gonna say man i wanna have a conversation with let's talk what's that what's god doing in your life that's it now for some it's going to be like man this is what's gotta do in my life and it's like dude it's time to get baptized for others of you it might be like hey we need to keep talking about this let's go get coffee let's get you connect to a pastor whatever it is all right but let's go have that conversation with them and if it's right then we'll bring you back in we've got clothes all that kind of stuff we'll bring you back in and during this last song then we're going to have some baptisms all right all over the services man all campuses we're going to see hopefully see baptism and man see what the lord has done so hey i want you guys to stand with me we're going to get ready to sing man you got some of you all are making a decision right now whether you're going to be obedient or not here's what i want you to hear loud and clear if you decide to wait on obedience that is called delayed obedience okay and delayed obedience has another name disobedience all right god wants you right now be obedient do not rob him of the glory that he deserves what he has done in your life and some of you guys are like man i would do it but all these excuses are coming into your mind you're like man i would do it but my parents aren't here well maybe your parents aren't here but your heavenly father sure is okay amen and if he would call you to obedience right now then we gotta trust him that it's the right thing some of you are like man i got baptized a baby but i got saved later in life or i got saved today is this baptism for me yes it is i'm not saying your family is going to fully understand that what i am saying is what they wanted for you in that symbol this is ratifying it okay some of you like man i didn't bring any clothes we have clothes we have towels we have hair dryers we are ready for you this moment is prayed up it's prepared for we are ready for you some of you are like man i got friends here they're not gonna wait on me they'll wait on you okay and if they don't wait on you we got brand new friends look around okay we got friends all over the triad for you if they honestly won't wait there is no excuse for robbing god of the public glory for what he has done in your life now let's make a decision man don't waffle on this you know what the right thing is if it's for you all right hey the second they start to play you just slip out you go right to the back and man they'll walk you through [Music] seen this with us [Music] lift up your face [Music] to lay down [Music] lay down your birds [Music] love your face [Music] tell you lay down your heart [Music] [Music] [Music] as you know [Music] guys there's still time we're going to sing another song if you know the lord is dealing with you right now or like andrew said you just need to talk to someone and work out whatever's happening in your heart we're going to sing this next song anytime during the song feel free to step out and talk with somebody [Music] between us [Music] and spoke your name into the night then through the darkness your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul the work is finished the end is written jesus christ [Music] [Music] step down from glory [Music] i am forgiven the [Music] jesus hallelujah [Music] [Music] jesus christ [Music] [Music] [Music] declare [Music] come on sing this out [Music] begin to breathe [Music] is [Music] praise the one who set me free [Music] [Music] jesus christ [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Music] jesus christ [Music] holy moly praise god we have a living hope y'all jesus is alive and because he is alive whatever you are going through whatever we're going through we can have victory over not because of who we are but because of who he is what he has done and the greatest victory is over sin death hell and the grave we praise him for that and y'all just want you to know to be celebrating we have one that's being counseled changing clothes right now that we're going to get to celebrate baptism tonight right now but how you be seated for just a moment i'm going to have you be serious small i know there's a lot of anticipation excited i just want to say listen if you're in a place where you're still wondering or contemplating you're like man it's encouraging to hear that there are still counselors out in the lobby that would like to talk to you please even right now you can go and talk to somebody but the hope that we have in jesus may we want to celebrate that we want to be intentional to say god thank you for what you're doing in this church and y'all it is the generosity of god's people that allows for us to have services to have kids events kids week our kids ministry student ministry pouring into people sharing the gospel it's the generosity of god's people that does that it allows for opportunities for us to celebrate in baptism and we praise god for that so if you're partnering with us in giving thank you so much we've tried to make it as easy as possible if you want to jump on so you can see all that information on the screen so thank you if you're willing to do that i we praise god that we're about to see god's glory put on display so right now let's get ready to praise god in this time of baptism [Music] [Applause] man listen y'all when when you go through the waters of baptism what you're declaring is that you know that jesus has done everything necessary for your salvation and that you're going to follow him as lord of your life and that's what was just put on display god's glory through this young man and we just pray that that would happen over and over across all of our services all weekend listen if you need to trust christ there are these f there are these cards in the seat back in front of you you can fill that out drop it in the bucket on your way out you can come up front our prayer team's going to be up front at the end of the service you can text the word baptized to eight one four one one we've tried to make it as easy as possible we want you to feel comfortable but we want you to be able to put god's glory on display for what he has done in your life so i pray i encourage you if god has worked in you do that do that even tonight even right now as the service ends do that y'all as we close this service i want to take a moment and just think about this this weekend it's a his heavy time thinking 20 years ago in our country what happened on september the 11th 2001. and so we think about people that lost their lives families that were forever changed by that tragedy heroes that gave everything think about the unity that came in our country after that happened many of you may remember services and it was just it was special but we want to be intentional even right now to pray for our country pray for that kind of unity but ultimately we know that the unity that we seek is only found in jesus but so let's be intentional right now to go before the lord and pray for our country heavenly father god as we think of what happened 20 years ago this weekend god it was an event that forever changed our country on september the 11th 2001. father i pray lord for the families that have forever been impacted by that tragedy the heroes that that ran in people that lost lives and were forever changed by that event god i pray that even in the midst of that even 20 years later that you would be able to receive glory in and through that difficulty and that tragedy god i do pray for unity in our country there are a lot of things that want to divide us but god i pray that unity would start in the church because we've been changed by jesus that we would be humble and love one another and that that would continue and flow out into our country lord that we would be intentional to lift high the name of jesus father i pray for our country for our leaders god may you work in them and may you be glorified in our country jesus may we as a church lead the charge for you to be glorified in through us for your glory jesus would you please work in your name we pray amen we always been a privilege to worship with you we pray that as you go you'll go in the power of the spirit remember we have a prayer team down front cards and the seat backs if you need to be baptized great habit great having you tonight have a great week mercy hill you are sent out [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Mercy Hill Church

Views: 385

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Jesus, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Bible, Scriptures, Mercy Hill, Mercy Hill Church, Andrew Hopper, online church, baptism, obedience, Acts 16, salvation, suffering, belief, baptize

Id: 110AQB8AsrI

Length: 75min 26sec (4526 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021