"His Terms. Not My Terms" | BEAUTIFUL RESISTANCE

so we're so so so so glad you are here thanks for worshiping with us it's been an awesome day across all our campuses 211 oconee here with me at 316. if you're watching online our online audience in a few minutes we're going to celebrate baptism we love celebrating baptism we celebrate people going public with their faith and today's been a great day of doing that and normally we do it during the opening worship set but we actually moved it to the end and you'll see why in a few minutes uh as we're going to get to celebrate with people life change but we've been in a series called the beautiful resistance which is the idea of the church and a culture of confusion and a culture of chaos and a culture of anxiety and a culture of uncertainty that us the people of god the church we actually go the opposite way the church actually goes the eyes the beautiful resistance and what we talked about the promises of scriptures that jesus comes to give us life and give it to us to the full or give it more abundantly john 10 but the flip side of that is that he says the enemy comes to only steal only to steal only to kill and only to destroy that's the way jesus described our enemy and what we've said is you and i are living in a culture where where we've gotten the mess that we're in as a society and you haven't looked out we're in a mess but we didn't just get here overnight he said wake up and go what happened but there's been a systematic deconstruction of some central truths for life and what i mean if there's anything the enemy's done is over the last generation he's stolen he still kill and destroy the idea of truth you and i suck oxygen in a post-truth world where nobody knows what to believe or who's telling us things are true to believe and so we make up our own narrative about life make up our own story about what to believe and how to believe we talked about last week in the middle of that there's a battle happening in our culture over identity what it means to be human to be a man to be a woman right that's a conversation that's candid and what i want to do is unpack the third layer today before we celebrate baptisms because baptism has everything to do with the third layer today i want to unpack and here's the word we have systematically deconstructed as a society the enemy steal kill and destroy there's been a loss of this word right here authority if you're taking notes you've got your bethlehem church app you get the notes when you came in you're going to hang with me because i want to make this argument as easily and quickly as i can but we what i mean by authority is somebody who has authority or something that has authority is the power to give orders to make decisions to steer direction and what i'm telling you is you don't realize how much we push back against the notion of authority in our time and that's every one of us in this room right sometimes there's this tendency to go boy i hope so-and-so's listening i'm talking to you right and i'm talking to me like there's this deal when we got to come to church or when we go to church we think i hope so and so and whoever so-and-so is they're listening because they really need it what i'm talking about today is for all of us the question of authority or the questioning of authority runs deep in us because no longer do we know who's telling the truth or whoever's telling what is true can we actually believe they're a person of character we don't know it but it runs deep in it so what do you mean think about it just just a generation ago in our society in our culture in american culture there were places there were people there were institutions there are organizations that we may not have fully all agreed with but there is a sense of trust of respect for authority i know it's crazy let me take you back you just go back to your generation again can you believe it there used to be an a trust our society as a whole had a trust in the school system in schools i mean what teacher would want any harm schools were a place of joy and happiness but have you not watched how we as a society have made them places of political maneuvering and ideology and so we all question and lord knows you can't trust the teacher you can trust your kid because he's the only person you can trust and now we question schools on every turn law enforcement got a chance to baptize a friend of mine last service who's law enforcement do you remember there was a time in our society whether there was just a respect we had for the level of law enforcement that they were men or women who would sacrifice for others now we think they're men and women if you ask the media or you ask movies or ask entertainment they're men or women who maneuver for their own good instead of serving others look at my profession do you know how many heroes and icons of the faith in the last generation have fallen how many scandals have plagued the church capital c church in the media oh listen my position a position of pastor in our society whether you were somebody of faith or not there used to be respect now we question is he or is she really who they say they are i get it right you keep think about the the the presidency used to be a place that even if you didn't vote for the person you still held it with dignity now it's become if you watch 24 7 news nothing more than a reality show on tv for all of us to watch think about how people change jobs i'm not picking on changing jobs you know people change jobs you know that like people change we change jobs because there's more opportunity change jobs because there's more things out there no doubt there's more opportunities we're aware enough but is it could we change jobs because the minute somebody tells us something we don't like we go look for another job because our boss is a jerk because a manager doesn't get me right that's our society man it's the air we breathe but authority's more personal than that too because for many of us the first authority figure in life was our father and he was absent he was distant for some of us he was abusive and so it's just tough to trust any authority figure many of us can tell stories countless stories of men or women who held authority in your life teacher principal coach pastor boss first employer where where they did something along the way that they lost your trust right and and we live in an uber consumer society and by uber consumer i mean we consume western societies built on consuming and we struggle with authority and this is me saying not hey you shouldn't struggle with authority this is me raising my hand going we whether we admit it or not struggle with authority and we live in a very consumeristic society which means well i mean think about it we pick and choose we live in a time with build your own burrito franchises who's with me this service i talk about food because it's getting close you know what i'm saying 8 15 i don't get there but this service i get there build your own burrito you get your burrito man the way you want it i am i know i only look like i'm 32 but i'm actually 42. okay and i grew up what are y'all laughing at right i grew up where if you liked a band or you liked a song you had to buy the whole album but now you do your own custom playlist and pick the songs you like and forget the other ones and then throw in amazon algorithms and here's what i'm saying we all are being told and cater to it a million different ways so this is just jason brent's math this is not biblical this is jason brent's math based on everything i just laid out to you here it is we live in a post-truth culture where nobody knows who to believe and so you pick the narrative you want to believe about about current events everybody's skeptical about any and every authority we're skeptical then you throw in there our experience in life is built like a buffet like you're at barbarito saying pico here no lettuce here ormos or chipotle if you work in any of them they're all great right and here's what i'm telling you we live in a culture that says you're the only person you can trust and what i am telling you is no matter how you go yeah that's right yeah that's you too that's me too it lives in us and when the current is flowing downstream the church goes back upstream and let me remind you of this because the core central tenet of the christian faith of what it means to be a follower of christ and we've lost it in our society i want to lay this out to you christianity is a call to submit your will to that of jesus christ at its core what the christian faith is is not a voting block right it's not just a random group of beliefs but it's people saying i submit my will to that of jesus christ first and foremost it's a call to take your trust off of yourself and place it onto jesus heaven is the reward but jesus following jesus is the call i will say that again for some of us who grew up in the south where we sold jesus as our ticket to heaven heaven is the reward but the father the call to follow jesus has always been the call to follow jesus so paul would talk about how jesus right himself paul will talk about it and he says that he's the authority in ephesians 1. if you get your bibles 21-23 he's trying for us to see this authority of jesus in our life and he talks about like this he was far above all rule of authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age but the one to come and he put all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things he's saying god when he said his son jesus put all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church which is his body to the fullness of him who feels all in all let me explain here was the argument there is a god who's above everything he'll always be above everything he's above every ruler he's above every dimension he's above every government not just in this age when paul was writing 2 000 years ago but in our age and here's what paul is arguing in church are you with me the people of jesus are the ones who actually acknowledge jesus as the authority he is whether we acknowledge or not and the people of jesus are those who do the pastor i grew up in and pastors have a way i don't of course but other pastors pastors have a way when they're looking to fill the gap or something when i'm on the spot preaching like this i'm looking to fill the gap they'll drop a line they've dropped before and they'll drop it again you've heard it again but he'll say it again and we do that it's called a filler well the pastor i grew up under still a father in the faith to me and so he would always say there was a line that he just came back to he could be preaching on whatever and when he was lost for words he would just throw this line in the bronze like this right right it was just the way it went did church people he throw a line in there and here was the line he would say it's kind of going on this idea of authority he would say this if jesus is not lord of all then jesus is not lord at all anybody heard that before and that's the idea of authority that is one thing to call jesus savior is another thing to call him lord we struggle with the idea of lord because that's an authority in all of life savior is we're safe from our sin we're going to heaven lord is i got to do what he says and here's what i've learned it's one of the most rebellious beautiful resistant things to do to go against the culture that says you're your only authority and you pick and choose one of the most beautiful things about the church the people of jesus is we acknowledge there's a authority outside of ourself and his name is jesus that's crazy in our time because what i've seen in my life and what i see pastoring people is because we struggle with authority and because we're uber consumers here's what i would say we're conditioned consumers who aren't against god here's what i find we want everything god has to offer without giving anything up you with me make sure you're with me make sure you're with me some of you with me you with me i know you're with me some of y'all got to get with me because that was good we want everything god has to offer without giving up anything we want to buy in without selling out we're afraid that if we don't hold out on god we'll miss out on something this life has to offer so because it's the air we breathe what begins to happen and we're dominated with all these ideas our faith understanding struggles with authority more than we realize we don't struggle with the idea of jesus saving us but from the front to the back watching online we struggle with the idea of jesus our authority let me show you three quick things just simple simple things you find in your life when you struggle with the idea of jesus being the authority like i'm not in control i'm not the boss life is not mine there is someone i follow his name is jesus let me show you how we struggle with that write this down if you're taking notes you only get relationship with god on his terms now you can take it or leave it but you can't change the rules of engagement let me say that again you only get relationship with god on your terms and in our innate unwillingness to submit to authority here's what i'm telling you one of the primary reasons that's one of the primary reasons people i want you to listen to me right here create their own custom spirituality that works for them because we like relationship with god on our terms and we're deaf so 80 of our country would say we're down with the ideas of god or there's a higher being but we decide the terms in which we deal with god on it's fascinating to me what do you mean like what do you mean terms well i mean you know i just believe there's a god pastor there's a man upstairs and i don't know how it all works but there's a god who's a higher power and i believe in that god that i mean you know i mean that's what it means to be a christian right just believe in god no actually even the demons believe there's a god so maybe a starting point but i don't think you want to end there well you know pastor i mean you know the terms i mean here's the deal i was born and again i see this still tad bit in the south not as much but i was born into a good christian family and i was born into a good christian family right so i've just always been a christian since i was born well okay jesus good to meet you right how does that work you know we knew we believed what was right and wrong we drank drank sweet tea and we'd sit around after church to talk sometimes and we'd go over the granny said praise the lord that doesn't mean anything the terms are not ever have you felt bad for doing something like did you like to turn like how do you the terms are oh you know i felt bad i did something and i wrote the terms are i used to be a bad person now i'm trying to be a good person with god's help that's not the terms the term for a relationship with god are not behavior modification you're trying to be a moral person the term for relationship with god is not your patriot that blows some people's mind but that's not the term for relationship with god the term for relationship with god or not you a charitable person a giving person listen to me church the terms for a relationship with god are his son jesus christ that's the term he sets the term and jesus says i'm the way i'm the truth and the life here's what jesus was saying from the front and the back watching at home i am the terms you have a relationship with god through me in fact paul would explain it when he says this the wages of sin excuse me all have sinned and fallen short of the glory god what paul was saying is all of us have sinned right call it mistake call it i was being dumb call it bad decision call it so in my wild oats we've all done it now what we like to do in our culture where we're on our authority where we're on our authority is we like to debate over what sin and what's not well you know that generation thought it was sin i don't really know if it's sin and even though we debate over what sin listen to me here's how i know this verse right here rings true for every person in this room because you and i can debate about what sin what falls short of god and what doesn't but everybody in this room has felt this one word right here shame shame is a universal feeling of i hope they never find out i can't believe i did that well why do people do that for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god and that's what we feel the wages of sin is death but the gift of god's eternal life through jesus christ our lord what does that mean that's not just that we're separated from god now but we are for eternity but god loves us so much that he sent his son what does john 3 17 say not to condemn the world so that the world could be saved through him god demonstrates his own love for us paul says god demonstrates his own love for us that while we were still sinners christ died for us many of us right now you can look down you have a tattoo you have something around your neck that has a cross on it you have something in your house that has a cross on it because it's at the cross of christ the beautiful exchange where jesus literally says i will take everything you ever did bad and i'm going to give you everything i've ever done good and i'm going to place it on your record that is the gospel that's better than good news that's the best news and paul says this if you confess with your mouth that jesus is lord believe in your heart god raised him from the dead then you my friends will be saved that is the terms for relationship with god and we've made it about other things why do we do that because we've custom built our own spirituality that convinces us we're going to go to heaven even though there's no fruit even though there's no desire for holiness right keep moving here's the second thing how we struggle with authority let me show it to you real quickly trust is a word that we like to say more than it's an action we like to show trust is a word we like to say more this is action-like would like to show i've got three kids my youngest now is ten his name's caleb but when caleb was young learning to talk he was like the quickest one that started jabbering and talking but he was the longest it took for us to understand caleb kind of when he was really little fifth grade now we couldn't understand what he was saying especially carson and i my oldest i mean and me and carson caleb will be jabbering you know we're like i don't know what he's saying but we had claire who's his sister she was the caleb whisperer right dick did claire mean cars would go go get claire to claire mom could understand caleb not dad and carson we never understood what he was saying right get claire down here and she could translate caleb's mumbling and jumbling you know what i mean she could tell us well can i tell you what i've learned as pastoring this church for 10 years of standing on the stage and talking to people i've learned that in america oftentimes people like me as a pastor taking the hard teachings of jesus and translating it so we understand in america and the hard teachings of jesus are the hard teachings of jesus and everybody's like what do you mean james let me show you if anyone would come after me let him deny himself deny himself in our culture self-indulgence if you dark self-indulgent then you're a fool let him deny him what does deny himself mean take up his cross that sometimes follow in jesus will cost you for whoever would save his life will lose it but whoever who loses life for my sake will find it it is by grace you were saved through faith salvation is a free gift but jesus was clear following him cost something there are things in this life you would like you would have to deny there are times when you want to choose self you choose him that's what he's getting at like you keep on going well i hear what jesus said then in that culture but what does he mean now in this culture look at me right here the same thing you know in john chapter six one of the craziest passages jesus is like if you want to follow me you gotta drink my blood and eat my flesh and everybody's like what you know i mean like they're sitting there listening to him john 6. they're like this is a hard teaching now what was jesus saying just right before he had fed them 5 000 people with five loaves and two fish the next day they chased him to the other side of the lake and jesus goes you don't want to follow me you just want me to fill your tummy so he says to follow me you got to take in all of who i am jesus would say things like this let the dead bury their dead you follow me what if you don't hate your mother if you don't hate your father your brother or sister you're not worth and everybody's going how in the world in our in our culture we're especially in the south where families king where's my family king that you actually have to love jesus makes no sense like pastor tell me what does jesus mean when he says that look at me he means exactly what he says and the disciples struggle with it just like us like the disciples wouldn't go well let's do it no i just danced right there right the disciples wouldn't say third service i'm ready to go right the disciples wouldn't just go oh well whatever you know they struggle too this is a hard saying but sooner or later they figured it out what do you mean when they saw the guy who said these things die for them and then resurrect they were convinced because if you follow the story in a.d 44 john the brother of jesus or john the brother or excuse me james the brother of john in 80 44 king herod ordered that he'd be thrust through with a sword and thus the first disciple was martyred in the name of jesus and that just got the party started see trust wasn't a word at some point that he said it was an action he showed james the just the earthly brother of jesus who struggled with jesus as savior think about it if your earthly brother is savior of the world what's that do to a young boy right james that was great but jesus just did that miracle sorry right james that a was great jesus didn't even show up and he still gets a night you know this guy he had to have a complex so he struggled but when james finally believed do you know how james life ended he was thrown off the pinnacle in jerusalem for his faith he trusted jesus not just with words but they showed up in his actions luke if you know the story about luke he was hung by the neck from an olive tree in greece the guy who wrote luke and axe doubting thomas doubting thomas doubting thomas do you know what happened to doubting thomas he was pierced with a spear and he was burned alive in india the guy who doubted was so convinced that trust wasn't just something he said it was something he showed trust isn't something we say it's something we show you know what i think about this morning look at me from the front to the back i think we all think about the images we've seen this last week in our brothers and sisters of faith in afghanistan because see they read the same scripture and they worship the same jesus that we worship but their trust is going to be shown and it may cost their life and you and i in our freedoms even though our country's going through something right now that i'm not sure how it's going to end to be quite honest with you in our culture there's probably a good chance you will never ever ever 99.999 chance that what happened to the disciples you'll ever face look at me right here what happened to disciples you'll ever face what happened to the church in afghanistan you'll never face but what i'm saying is this if trust for us is just a word we say and not an action that we show then we are relating god with all we are relating with god on our terms not on his trust they just had radical trust they just got radical trust look at me everybody look at me online right now some of you there's no levels of trust in scripture there's just trust we're the one they're radical no they just trust and it may cost them trust isn't something we say it's an action we show now let me end right here because here's the way i see it the most in my own life again you guys are on board how i struggle with authority sometimes and i'm down with jesus being savior but sometimes i'm calling the shots i'm not crazy about here's what i want you to see we are a culture and a generation that likes to here's my word process jesus calls us to obedience about the word think about how we use the word obedience it's always in conjunction with authority like you think hey man what's your favorite color blue what's your favorite football team the bulldogs because i'm a believer right that's why what's your favorite color blue what's your favorite food pizza right what's your favorite word nobody in the history of the world has ever gone obedient obedience is my favorite word nobody says that why because it's in conjunction with authority and obedience means doing what somebody else says and none of us want to do what anybody else says we'll do it as long as we've got to say in it right but remember what jesus said in john 14 if you love me you'll sing songs to me if you love me you'll know bible stories about me if you love me you will obey what i command listen to me obedience isn't yes lord processing is more about well let me think about it don't underestimate how much we use the word process college students 20 somethings teenagers in this room women in this room men in this room don't underestimate how we use the word process we got an opportunity before us here's what we say give me some time to process when we have a weighty conversation with somebody we say i just need a little bit of time so i can process we got options before us option a option b option c we got to make a decision we say i need to process we got a decision to make i need to process we process our experiences we process our emotions we process our relationships we process our you know feelings over and over and over can i be honest with you the staff sometimes they'll go we need a decision you know what i tell them give me a little time to process can i tell you what that's code word for process is me buying time because i'm not sure the right decision i see the process a little bit let me tell you with this code word for i'm buying some time because i don't know the right to see nothing's wrong with processing you don't need today to leave and say anytime you say the word process and you're sinning that's not what i'm saying but can i say this to you follower of jesus across this room we don't have to process the commandments of jesus we obey them be careful in our day and age and here's the reason we process so much we get so much information coming at us so fast all the time it's hard to process we got so many images we got fear missing out we got you only live once we got all these things coming at us i get it what i am saying is simply this you don't have to process what jesus has been clear about there may be low clarity and some things in life you have to process but you don't have to be listen in acts 2 peter filled with the holy spirit got up in the first time ever did exactly what i'm doing he preached the gospel message he gets up and says this is jesus who who died for you and who was resurrected he takes it back to the old testament and said this is abraham this is moses this tells us how we get to jesus this is the first time anybody ever did what i'm doing peter after jesus resurrection filled with the holy spirit when he does this they're so gripped you can read in acts 2. they're so gripped they're like what do i got to do peter looks at him and says this repent and be baptized what does repent mean that you trust take your trust off of yourself and you place it on jesus you turn from the life that you were living you turn and you follow jesus and then he said be baptized that's the first step of obedience what does that mean that you let the world know that you're a follower of jesus can i make sure of something real quick before we celebrate baptism because i think we've missed it baptism is a radical picture of obedience it's not religious ceremony i need everybody to hear me say this i need some of you online right now who are watching not in this room baptism has a radical picture of obedience it's not something that's just kind of religious ceremony or jargon baptism a symbolic picture of our life being buried with christ in baptism just as christ died and was buried our old life is buried we're raised to new life that's the picture of baptism baptism isn't about what background we're from what i find is we have a church that we reach from all types of background people who have no faith backgrounds people have catholic backgrounds people who have methodist baptists pentecost they come all different you know well baptism is like that's the background you're from we think of baptism like we do christening or we think of baptism like we do a child dedication right it's something that's ritualistic my friends look at me right here there's nothing wrong with those things i just said but baptism is a personal decision to let the an outward expression of an inward decision somebody's mate that's what there's no religious ceremony to baptism it's a radical picture of the gospel it's this picture of you know what baptism is not saying you trust jesus is showing the world you trust jesus this is my wedding ring i've had for 20 years now almost this doesn't marry me to my wife this lets you know i got me a woman and she's got me right that's what this lets you know baptism doesn't save you baptism is the declaration of i am safe so in a few moments you're gonna see some people baptized there's two questions we ask every person that's been baptized at bethlehem church the first one is this do you trust jesus for the forgiveness of your sins the second one is this do you commit to follow him all the days of your life in just a few moments you're going to see people who have made that decision in just a few moments you're going to see people across all of our campuses right at 211 oconee who who who were prepared and they're going public with their faith that we're going to celebrate but i got to follow a god prompt today and there are people this morning that came prepared to be baptized and they're about to let you know they follow christ but there are others this morning that did not come prepared but today's your day to be obedient what you tell my pastor some of you like some of you are in this room and god's been dealing with you for some time and there are people who made a decision they're letting the world know and there's other people in this room who've made the decision but they've not let the world know and you weren't prepared today when you woke up but today's the day you're going to go public with your faith now what do you mean pastor i'm going public with my faith today's the day you're going to step out and step into one of these tubs and let the world know you're a follower of jesus wait a second what are you talking about pastor i mean i i god's been dealing with me for some time and there's some people in this room that today is your day not that you were prepared for but you're gonna be obedient i didn't bring any clothes you may not have prepared for today but we're prepared for you we gotta change the clothes for you we gotta change your clothes for you hold on yeah you clap today's not about our schedule today's about god's schedule today's not about what we're prepared for today's about what god is prompting us to do so the first service we had two people scheduled to be baptized ten more went public with their faith in their street clothes at 2 11 this morning we had one two people scheduled to be baptized the first service they're happening this right now they had six more go public with their faith and oh hold on hold on we're gonna clap in a second at oconee they had one skill to be baptized they had five more they got baptized on the spot at 9 45 we had five or six that were scheduled and we had 19 more that went public with their faith listen to me yeah that's it and across all and across all of our campuses this morning i want everybody to look at me there's some of us that god's been dealing with us for some time and we're religious we're like me when i was a kid where i was a religious kid raised around the faith my dad was a pastor and some of us have just got things out of order and we're not quite sure what do you mean out of order i was a kid who was six or seven didn't understand the gospel but my friends started getting baptized and when they got baptized we'd all go to deer when you celebrate their baptism so i want to go to deer queen i said i'm getting that tub so we got i got i didn't understand but the best i knew how i was but it was i i was a teenager a church i grew up in as a teenager where the gospel made sense to me that i was a sinner i was far from god and i needed salvation that salvation came in jesus christ and i remember walking down and i got saved that day and i looked at my dad my dad and my mom are congratulations 14 years old he's like dad awesome mom we're like awesome and dad my dad looks at me your son now it's time to get baptized i'm like no no dad i got baptized three years four years ago he goes no son you got wept because baptism is the first step of obedience after you let the world know you follow christ others of us in this room hold on a second we're thinking to ourselves are you kidding me man god's dealing with you right now and here's what we think i know i need to get baptized but i'm trying to get my whole family here and my friends here i've been process processing it for some time and i'm trying to get everybody here i get it but can i say this we are the ones in our country in our culture who made baptism a family step celebration instead of the first step of obedience and you're like dude i need to i need to i know here's what i want you to know right now you can text him where you're sitting and say you better turn on bethlehem church.us cause it's about to get fun we're recording this service you could sit and show your family listen to me that i'm going to pick there's other that i'm going public with my faith you could show them this and what you were thinking and how are you going others of us in this room look you right here at me there's some obviously like dude jason i chose to follow jesus but man my things are just a mess i don't know if it's i mean i'm just my life's not right i'm a mess right thing i just need to get things in order i need i hear this oftentimes i need to get things in order i need to get things cleaned up before i'm baptized and i want everybody to look at me right here baptism isn't about bragging on you it's about boasting in christ and there's some of us that's forgotten jesus comes to you as you are not when you're ready but when he's ready he asks us to follow him as he are and as we follow him in obedience he changes us day by day and today's not about going my life's perfect i've made it right i've got everything in order my friend my sister my brother young man old man in the room you're never going to get everything in order the order that matters is you placing jesus first and letting the world know you follow him right letting the world know you follow him see church we don't follow jesus on our own terms we follow jesus on his terms there are some moms in this room this morning that the greatest witness you could be to your kids in a few minutes when you pick them up is they're like mom why are you soaking wet because i was faithful to follow jesus there's some dads in this room that have been struggling and there's god is on you and you can let the world know this morning that you are choosing to follow jesus as a great testimony to your family we uh baptized the older couple over here during the first service the last service a guy i have not seen at this church i went to high school with him i look over there and he's a law enforcement agent athens his first sunday was here and i got to baptize a guy i graduated high school because today he went public with his faith i can remember four years ago a guy named rob rob was life was a mess things were a mess and he was sitting in the back row and that day jesus spoke to him and he said it was like a war inside remember that he goes there was a war going on inside and he said he stood up and he walked over and it all made sense that day for some of us for the first time ever we've understood the gospel like when i laid it out that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory god the wages of sin is death but the gift of god's eternal life that if you confess with your mouth jesus lord and today it all makes sense for the first time what do i got to do you say yes right where you at right there say yes i'm choosing to follow jesus don't need to bow my eyes no just say yes that's what you do just say yes i'm choosing to follow jesus that is the moment of your salvation then what today you get to be baptized some of us today in a moment i'm going to ask us to stand and when i ask us to stand the pastors are getting in place and we're going to celebrate baptism and those who are prepared are going to lead the way but there are others in this room teenager mom dad senior adult single man there are some people in this room that this morning they're going to go i wasn't prepared but you know what i'm gonna be obedient today i i'm not saying i trust i'm gonna show i trust and so in just a moment we're gonna make space and we're gonna celebrate as all heaven celebrates for them so father it's in the name of jesus i pray over this place i thank you as those who are prepared today will lead the way in showing they trust jesus but i pray today that there are many in this room that are going to step out trusting him for those right now that are wrestling in their seat with this decision for those right now that are wrestling that they would know today is the day they let the world know they follow jesus that all heaven celebrates

Channel: Bethlehem Church

Views: 485

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Bethlehem Church, Sermon, Hope, Pastor, Church

Id: 9O804nwbzmY

Length: 37min 50sec (2270 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 22 2021