Jungle Cruising - The Deep Dive

[Applause] listen uh so i'm wearing i'm wearing the black shirt that uh our volunteers and staff on the production team wear when they do their stuff so i have no skills i can't fix anything but i want to be one of them because look what they have done with our church look at the creativity look how incredibly undull if you're new to our church we want church to be exciting thrilling uh provocative continually changing as we teach you god's word so thanks for being here today we're in a series of theme called jungle cruising jungle cruising and it's um it's week three week three and i want to pick up a topic i began week number one so i started this week number one i hope you're here with number one and you're confused why not put him back to back well think about this you can understand what i'm gonna do with this teaching if you've ever enjoyed the beautiful simplicity of an oreo cookie anybody enjoy a good classic simple oh yeah now the oreo though consists of three parts of course like the first part is you know the cookie the chocolate cookie so week one was the chocolate cookie i started this teaching on a river you see this series is about water when the bible talks about water or river typically it's symbolic of a blessing favor or a life and there's great water stories in the bible so week one first part of the cookie i talked to you about this this vision that ezekiel had about a river of blessing so he picked it up and then week two week two's like oh i love the creamy icing inside week two pastor judd was in the house what a great job will height did last week at cbg and uh he actually talked about serving god in the middle the people of god were you know between bondage and the promised land so much of life is in the middle and that was man a lot of people the icing is the best part of this cookie and that was a great talk last week and then we come back with more cookie more cookies today is more cookie i will take you back to ezekiel find ezekiel chapter 47 ezekiel chapter 47 what is up church by the glades give it up for your neighbors that are here today whether you're massed up masked off i don't care just thanks for being in the house or logging on right now we'll be in ezekiel chapter 47. if you're like me and you love an old school paper bible yes i use my electronic bible but i love an old school bible with a pen made of paper i'm gonna give you some time because you still haven't found ezekiel yet have you where is ezekiel in my bible uh it's right after lamentations is that any help no help at all all right i'll give you a moment in fact they kill a little time while you're looking for ezekiel in your bible how about a little trivia how about a contest right now we've got this theme of the jungle cruise so how about a pop quiz i got three questions and for somebody at this campus if you get all three questions right i'm going to give you a pass to take a family of five to see jungle cruise all right not sure if you went back to movie theater yet i went back to movie theater the first time about a year and a half this week me and some of the staff went to see jungle cruise so if you're brave enough back to pay for your tickets and your popcorn right here so a little trivia while you're finding ezekiel 47. first question first question oh ambiance thank you production team give me a little oh look at this mood music i like it okay the jungle cruise began a as an opening day attraction at disneyland in 1955 b 1965 of the world's fair c at disney world in 1971 or d in steve jobs garage in 1976. all right i'll let you know your vote by by applause applause who says the right answer it began a in disneyland 1955 who says a a lot of people think a you put your answer right there in the chat if you would uh how about 1965 of the world's fair anybody anybody all right a few people think that's the right answer how about uh disney world in 1971 that's when the park opened all right that's a popular response uh anybody for steve jobs anybody at all okay the right answer actually is a is a now disney world fans you're right it was the original one the original attraction at disney world but about a decade and a half before it's one of the original attractions at disneyland in california how about this how about this next question uh walt disney's original vision for the jungle cruise ride featured a real animals b live actors and stunt people c animatronic wildlife or d escape tiki birds who says it's a who says a lot of a anybody think b live actors some people any b how about c animatronic wildlife anybody see escape tiki birds nobody right answer is if you're listening week number one of the cookie uh a a is correct disney wanted real rhinos real elephants and real monkeys of course they they quickly left that plan how about third and finally the original inspiration for the jungle cruise came from uh spielberg's indiana jones movies uh disney's animated classic tarzan c the african queen starring humphrey bogart or d gilligan's island season two episode 26 who says the right answer is a indiana jones nobody how about tarzan the disneyland tarzan maybe all right good answer uh c the african queen anybody gilligan's island anybody for gilligan's island all right the right answer actually is c the old 1951 classic african queen all right got a question got a question who got all three right who got man y'all are good so smart i only got one of these so how about young lady right here on the front row it's yours give it up enjoy your movie no not you heather herr you're in the last service does it count you know the answers so hopefully you found ezekiel chapter 47. i love verse by verse study of the word of god there are many ways to study the scripture this is a powerful way and again if you missed the first week or forgot the first week because you know the cookie was complex and confused you uh okay so what's happening is ezekiel sees this vision it's not a real river it's a metaphorical river of a river of blessing now the players are this so ezekiel is what he's a priest he's a prophet he's a preacher and a supernatural being he's called a man but probably an angel or maybe jesus before bethlehem shows him that this river this river starts really small as a trickle in verse two but later on it's deep and it's powerful in fact the termination point of the river is very important because the audience the original audience again god intended this for us amen the bible is meant for you and for me so god's word is relevant today yes you understand that but at the same time we're not the original audience ezekiel is prophesying to people in his generation and uh again i covered that week number one but i'll just say it's about his original audience they were displaced and highly discouraged but they were hopeless they were jewish exiles not a living not by their own choice in babylon and they assumed that all god's blessings were back in israel that if you left israel and jerusalem guess what you're beyond the boundaries and the borders of blessings so they live these lives in far away babylon they weren't blessable anymore and ezekiel says no no you're wrong god travels really really well and he can bless you no matter where life finds you and so this river this river starts as a trickle but it ends up in a place called the dead sea and the remarkable thing is about the dead sea the dead sea is appropriately named it is dead behind me are images from a church trip we took in 2017 i took a group of folks from our church to israel and we were checking out uh pat you were there the dead sea and the dead seas you see well it has no life it's called the dead sea because not a single species of fish can survive in the dead sea why is that because it's a large inland lake you think it'd be fresh water to be fish in it well it's in a place called the the cyrophoenesian rift it's a crevice in the face of the earth and it's the lowest elevation uh outside of an ocean on the planet 1300 feet beneath sea level therefore it's really dense in miracles especially sodium chloride salts in fact the dead sea is six times saltier than the ocean itself and so it's impossible not difficult or improbable it's impossible for fish to survive there in fact it's so toxic nothing lives in it or around it you know people like that there is someone so toxic they kind of poison with their toxicity everything around them the dead sea poisons everything you see there's no trees there's no plant life there's no there's there's nothing there but in this vision again to discourage displaced hopeless people god sends a vision to ezekiel of a river that when it invades the dead sea there's an explosion of life and abundance and blessing all of a sudden there's fish not a few fish not a fish like a typical freshwater lake but fish like the ocean that's important because freshwater fish lakes you know maybe two dozen kinds of fish 17 000 kinds of fish in the ocean all kinds of life then the life is contagious around the sea now we have what fruit trees that bear fruit all year long i don't know much about harvesting i'm not a farmer but i don't think that's normal right normally you harvest crops once a year maybe in the fall but january you can harvest in february you can harvest in march you can harvest in april may june july harvest harvest harvest keep on going god provides continually because he's a faithful resource he brings life to the dead sea and that's so critical because somebody here you're hopeless you feel like you've made such mistakes and such tragic decisions that you are beyond the boundaries and the borders of god's blessing you think you cannot get blessed but you're dead wrong if god can bless the dead sea so so here's here's the question today here's the question i covered some of this you know week one of the cookie and this is you know not the white stuff that's the other side of the cookies so here's the question for today so how how how do i how do i get in on this i mean how do i get out on blessing by the way if you think you're new to our church we're like a one-dimensional blessing blessing blessing blessing church that is not true but the theme of blessing is pervasive in the bible blessing shows up in your bible that word about 430 times so we serve a god who's gracious and generous and loving i think would love to get all up in your stuff and bless your life in powerful supernatural spiritual ways how do i get in on it because i want every blessing that heaven has for me that does not make me selfish that makes me smart all right how so how do i because how does god give out these blessings is god just kind of know arbitrary about this is does god you know bless all christians with last names a through m on tuesdays and then christians enthusia how no i think you must position your life to be blessable there are certain biblical prerequisites i must must meet to live in the sweet spot of god's spiritual success so how can i be blessed all right let's go back to this idea of of a river of a river all right every river has three things three things it has it has a source a force and a course a source and a force and of course and by the way if it rhymes it's anointed all right just saying if it rhymes in the sermon let me cover this so what is the source of this river in the first couple of verses we'll put verse 1 on the screen right now here's the origination point of this river of blessing this man this angel maybe jesus ezekiel said brought me back to the entrance of the so the source of this river of blessing is the house of god it's the temple let me just stop and commend you you got yourself to church today you came to the house you logged on you logged on or you actually got yourself dressed up messed up maybe not i don't know dressed up your kids got your kids to church today how many parents got their kids to church today lisa hughes you got our kid to church today awesome i was here before you that's awesome make it well done why is that so critical listen god can bless us in personal ways but the certain blessings of god he only bestows on us in a corporate context and some blessings he reserves for the house the house and the old testament was the temple but check out ephesians chapter 2 verse 22 the new testament equivalent of the temple is the church of jesus christ now i know a lot of people miss out on church some people right now you're watching the line unless you're watching the line and you've been home for a year and a half you're working from your laptop you have not been out and this is a great way to substitute until you're out and about right thank you for watching online there's lots of people watching on ryan right now don't you log off that you live here in south florida and you're out you're at the mall and you're at publix and you're at the beach and you're at the gym you're just out of the habit of going to church i know cbg people love our church just got out of the hap why is it the tough habits are so hard to break and good habits fall apart so easily and you're just out of the habit you're watching online i would just say this watch it online it's just just not the same it's a supplement not a substitute get back to the house get back just build that healthy habit look why would you cut yourself off from the house and cut yourself off from some of the blessings that god wants to pour into your life this river of blessing starts with divine intent in the house that is the source that is the source what is the force the force what's verses nine and following that's the fullness and the fish and the fruit and the faith all those things that abundance that life we want as he turns the dead sea into a living sea that is the force i want that supernatural touch in my life so it has a source of force what is the course what is the course strategic because i think there are actually two prerequisites two things that must occur in my life to render my life blessable that god can work in a powerful and supernatural way all right i think one is found back in verse one back in verse one let's kind of dissect this i think it's embedded carefully you gotta look for it in verse one step number one it says the man brought me back to the entrance of the temple and i saw water coming from i see out from under the threshold of the temple towards the east the water was coming down from under the south side of the temple south of the altar altar i see two ideas here a threshold and an altar an altar and a threshold what's embedded in this is step number one i think it's something as simple as this salvation salvation question don't answer out loud do you have a personal relationship with god through jesus christ do you know for certain and sure that you are a saved person as you watch right now as you sit in one of our rooms do you know if this is your last day on earth you spend forever with god in paradise called heaven if you don't know that for certain you can know for certain maybe you think you can hope you can wish you can pray that some day when you stand before god you get the thumbs up and knock the thumbs down you take the up escalator not the down escalator the bible says you can be confident in your salvation so here's a question to answer out loud do you know for certain that you are saved i see salvation in this verse let me show you where again i'll put it back on the screen um okay last word last word south of the altar when i say three shout the word alter ready one two three great great put altar in the chat all right what is the altar what are the people in ezekiel's day they knew right away the altar was that centerpiece of the temple where sacrifice occurred see the heartbeat of worship at the temple was not the music or the prayer or the liturgy it was sacrifice when you came to worship with your family you brought an animal to be sacrificed and by the time of solomon to ezekiel hundreds of thousands of of cows and calves and doves and especially sheep especially lambs have been sacrificed blood sacrificed on the altar why did god require old testament blood sacrifices god not like animals or something no well actually the people consumed the majority of the protein the worshiper and the priest would eat most of the sacrifice what's taking place is it's foreshadowing it's the god of the old testament pointing to what he's going to do in the new testament see an altar is where that animal died the altar in the new testament is calvary remember when john the baptist another river story in the jordan when he baptized jesus when jesus walks up this is massive people john identifies jesus but john does not say hey look it's jesus or hey there comes messiah he says what behold the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the earth everybody in that first century audience knew exactly what john was referring to oh he's going to be the one to be the sacrifice and sure enough jesus became that supreme single sufficient sacrifice we went to the altar called calvary he died for our sins romans chapter 5 said but god demonstrates our great love for his great love for us and this well we were still sinners christ died for us done deal christ did the heavy lifting on the altar to arrange for salvation now if you think you've messed up so much and so bad you're beyond the power of god to forgive you really king jesus the perfect lamb of god sinless his death was not enough to pay for your sin dead wrong dead wrong all right all right so do i do anything in response to this well actually you know god did all the heavy lifting salvation is all god jesus accomplished everything needed for our salvation at calvary on the altar but again that other word the other word uh in the middle there saw water coming out from under the threshold shout the word threshold when i say three one two three threshold so what do i do to appropriate salvation i don't earn it it's not how much i pray or how much i go to church or how generous i am all i do is threshold threshold jesus said in john chapter 10 verse 7 he said i am the door what do you do with the door you open it up and you step across what the threshold the only thing you must do to be saved is step across the threshold of faith another place jesus said revelation chapter 3 verse 20. behold i stand at the door and i if anyone will hear my voice and invite me in i will come and have fellowship with him jesus said i've died for you i provided at the altar everything to pay for your sin and now i stand at the door of your heart the door of your life and i knock you simply invite me in the threshold of faith all we do is say yes to jesus how do i say yes i love romans 10 9 it's so clear it's so simple says if you confess with your mouth jesus as lord and believe in your heart god raised from the dead look at the last four words you will be you got to read that better time out stop clapping stop clapping got to read that better if you confess with your mouth jesus is lord and believe in your heart that god raised him from the dead now [Applause] now you clap hey that's that's not my promise to you i agree with it it's not our church's policy we agree with it that's the bible that's the word of god here's the way you connect so here's my thought if you don't know for certain ensure that you're saved let's nail it down today here in about 11 minutes i'll finish talking there'll be nice prayer partners by the edge of the stage they'd love to take just a few moments show you some promises in the bible and you can leave this room today knowing with confidence that you are saved that you are forgiven you're accepted by god on your way you can pray a romans 10 9 salvation prayer and nail it down today why would you live one more hour one more day not knowing for certain sure that heaven is your eternal home salvation is so vital so i promise you'll never regret that decision make that if you're watching online just text the word salvation to the number of the screen at the end of the talk and a real live person will reach out to you this week help you navigate life's most brilliant choice salvation salvation all right so step number one is salvation salvation now listen okay so there's some christian up there being honest right now well david i know that i'm saved i was saved some time ago but i i don't feel like i walk in the fullness of this life or abundance i don't feel like god's blessing me is there something i need to do more than salvation great question there is actually but let me drill down a bit more on the idea of blessing because a lot of christians have a very thin one-dimensional view of blessing they think blessing means just live this life or god always protects you put you in a little spiritual bubble and you never get sick and never have hardship and never go through pain and your kids always make honor roll never have pimples right that's not what the bible teaches you can be sick and still be blessed let me show you an example of a blessed person i'm just um if you're a sports fan you probably saw that coach bobby bowden passed away last night head coach of florida state for years iconic coach he's number two all time and college football wins won two national titles i won't tell you the whole story i probably put on my instagram this week because it was really kind of a cool thing through a friend i reached out to a friend of tallahassee we were doing this series back in 2015 i think called red zone about football and i thought it'd be fun to interview coach bowden he's very famous for his faith and i reached out to a friend tommy if you're watching thank you tommy for hooking us up and my friend had just talked to bobby he's like an accountant or something and i said can you get me an interview so he calls me with a phone number and turns out it wasn't bobby bowden's cell phone or his agent it was his home line and so i caught it was like talking to your grandparents and mrs baldwin picked up and she was so delightful and she passed me to bobby and so he arranged to go up there i got to interview him and i just simply tell you about this i want to talk about football and leadership bobby wanted to talk about nothing but jesus it was awesome we're there in his living room of his home that was nice but not a mansion or something here's his awards and all he wanted was talk about his relationship with the savior and i saw when it was announced that he had a terminal disease about a month ago he released this statement i've always tried to serve god's purpose for my life on and off the field i am prepared for what is to come if you live out god's purpose if you live on point for god's purpose with passion that's a blessing if i stand before the lord and he said hey good job living out my purpose i don't care how long or short i'm on the earth that's a blessed life now you look at bobby bless right all those games he won he's iconic in tallahassee he's in the college football hall of fame i said blessed but yeah and he got cancer and he died and now he's more alive than ever before so a christian can be sick and still blessed christians get cancer and can still be blessed christians get coveted and so can be blessed christians die we just go to heaven salvation is critical now having said that i want to be blessed on the earth i want everything heaven has it's not one-dimensional it's all not materialistic it's not all money it might be but don't reduce god and his creativity just just money oh my gosh the best blessings you can't put a price tag on so two things two things one thing is salvation i gotta be a saved person to be blessed like this right have a relationship with jesus christ the way the bible teaches romans 10 9 what's the other thing the other thing is the word the bible uses too it's called sanctification sanctification i know it's a big theological word shows up new testament several times when i say three let's say the word sanctification ready one two three sanctification what does that mean short answer is this it's after i'm saved i grow i mature uh i step into my divine destiny i i grow here's crazy saying i don't do anything to save myself jesus did all that i just crossed the threshold but sanctification christian god allows you the privilege to proactively partner with him you get to help yourself grow and god bless you with the growth but we get to step into that destiny so here's what it is sanctification is me over the course of time honoring god with my decisions trying to honor his spirit live out the scripture in my life align myself with his commandments and after a while i start looking less and less like david and and more like jesus more of him and less than me and see it's embedded clearly in this this passage right so here's going on we've got this man this angel uh walking walking ezekiel through this river they're probably like waiting in the river and it starts out in verse two it's a trickle it's really small it starts out verse one in the house but it starts out kind of small it's remarkable because this river does what uh it goes from hopeless to health it goes from broken and barren to blessed but it also goes it goes from shallow to deep here's the issue with some of the christians in the room watching online right now who don't feel like god's moving in your life but you're just shallow and god's calling you today let's step into the deep water i have so much for you so listen verse three verse three you're gonna see this progression taking place as he goes from shallow to deep verse three it says as the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand he measured off a thousand cubits it's like a quarter mile then he led me through the water that was ankle deep the water was what ankle deep all right so they start out this little ankle deep just covering their feet now here's what the bible's saying the god life this great river that god has for you it's it's like a thrilling force of us of a four stage rapids it's powerful like niagara's mysterious like the amazon has the abundance of an ocean but some christians sadly you're satisfied to put zinc oxide on your nose put water wings on and put your little pinky toe as you split splash in the shallow end of the kiddie pool and you wonder why is god not blessing me why is god not engaged in my life why has god not you got to go deep let's be honest some of you you've been saved for years now and you've hardly changed you're going to heaven you've not grown it's time to go deep this is your call let's go deep let's go let's go to the next verse first four is on the screen right now verse four they started to go a bit deeper verse four he measured off another thousand cubits let me through the water that was what knee deep okay that's exciting now what when god captures your knees let me say it again when god begins to capture your knees when god begins to bring you to your knees in prayer amazing things begin to reveal themselves in your life god says to pour out his power in your life right you start to be blessed when you start to and i don't mean just like a prayer before your meal on sundays at church i mean this becomes part of your day you don't have to pray for hours but just consistently a little time in the morning or the night as you read your scripture even just 10 minutes and then throughout the day i call them shotgun prayers invite god to invade every part of your day pray while you commute pray at the office pray at class pray away your practice you know whatever it is but invite god in my relationships in my finances in my my anxiety god i want you involved in every part of my life yeah if you wanna wake up at four in the morning and pray for 3 hours awesome please pray for me i need it i'll confess this i'm not often long in prayer but not often long without prayer let god capture your knees now the next part back to the verse this this right here the next part it says okay and then he measured off another thousand and led me through the water that was up to my my way so now the water is like waist deep now i i want this to be helpful today and practical and personal so i'm gonna use a different translation in the order translation it doesn't say waste it uses the words the water now is up to my loins my loins we're going to talk about your loins for a moment uh now that's that's what part of your body that's that's like that's like this region right here that's your loins that's your in case you're watching that log off i think that's inappropriate did you read ezekiel 23 20 a couple weeks ago i gave you a homework assignment so if you think i'm ever provocative or over the top or whatever you check out what god inspired ezekiel to say to his congregation in ezekiel 23 20. don't don't look it up right now don't look at right now when you get home ezekiel 23 20 uh by the way i give you guys assignments and homework all the time i've been there for 23 years i think like two times in 23 years someone's come up and say hey david thank you for that passage i went home and read that there's a great passage oh my gosh the last two weeks about two dozen of y'all found me like wow ezekiel 23 20. yeah i can't believe that's in my bible i can't believe he said that but the crazy thing is it is in your bible so here's what it means we believe in something that called the inerrancy of scripture means we believe the bible literally is god's word and it means god put every word in your bible there on purpose every word's there with divine intent so it's not just ezekiel in 23rd chapter verse 20 going off on his congregation because he's frustrated because they're being rebellious that's exactly how god wanted him to say it sometimes god's strong to get your attention not crude but clear let's talk about your loins let's talk about your loins because some of you that's the part of your body that god wants you to surrender all right you're like hey god god i gave you my heart god i love you with all my heart god's look great wonderful i care so much about the heart someone's going god i'm renewing my mind remember romans chapter 12 verse one and verse two i'm renewing my mind i'm taking every thought capture god's like great thank you for your heart and your mind how about your loins you get it's the sexual region of the body it's your junk you're with me in jesus name so brothers he walked into this water and now it that's where it is it's his loins hoping the water wasn't cold you're with me so when he walks walks into the water right and what he's doing is it's a sign of surrender it's a sign of submission see here's the big principle god cannot bless what you will not surrender [Music] if you miss everything i'm saying that's the big principle god cannot bless what we do not surrender so let's talk about your sex life there's a lot of christians you head and heart and worship and church and pray and bible but that's the one part of your your life you're stiff-arming god and you're frustrated or you're lonely or you're broken-hearted or you have an std so the team quoted me and they put something on the church instagram something i said that uh it's it's true but it needs context so i said this in a week one first part of the cookie no matter where you are in life god can continue to bless you that was a statement the context was about geography that was about these jews who were far from jerusalem they thought because they weren't in israel that god could not bless them no god can bless you geographically wherever you go but not spiritually see some of you frustrated as far as your romances or relationships here's the reason why you're in the wrong bed you're bouncing from bed to bed wondering why god can't bless you someone's going oh here it is who's the preacher being all tied about sex god's god's anti-sex no god is not anti-sex god invented sex god created hugh hefner didn't invent sex god did to be a blessing and so god created sex god's not anti-sex he's pro-sex sex is not inherently sinful or tainted or dirty or wrong it's actually beautiful it's blessed it's special it's sacred it's big and with anything precious what do you do you put boundaries and protections around precious things so the singular context we express ourselves sexually is marriage what is marriage okay i'm gonna go against the flow of our culture right now the river of our culture is saying one thing if you disagree i love you there are people in this church that we disagree respectfully and i loved in our church but in the bible there's no debate in the bible marriage is a man and a woman in a covenant relationship for life and again i if you disagree i love you and of course come to church here and we we honor you but that's just what the scripture says and when you violate god's his boundaries he tends not to bless god only blesses what we surrender right so you're praying about your my relationship is not going well with this person well you're shacked up you're not married get married and move out oh he's hating this part of the sermon isn't he if you're watching here's awkward in this room watching all that is awkward here let's make it even more awkward what else is in this region of your body what else is so you got you got your loins your sexual part of who you are but the back side that's where you carry your wallet for a gen z you're like what's a wallet okay your money clip with that one credit card or maybe your iphone with your apple pay right how many christians are are frustrated financially that's the one part you've locked god out of you're not doing anything the bible says about how you manage your money you're materialistic you're in debt you have no savings no margin you're not practicing generosity and god says great good luck you're on your own i cannot bless what you don't surrender forget reading ezekiel 23 20. go read malachi 3 10. go read malcolm i shared a promise where god says i'll open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing it won't have room enough for it god never lies funny thing every time i share that promise because the action step is generosity is bringing the tithe every time i do that the offering goes down that weekend it's like somebody like oh yeah i'm not going to give my six dollars good luck jerks by the glaze right really we're fine we'll be fine you'll miss the blessing you're shallow in this area i'm out of time so quickly uh verse 5 verse 5 uh now it changes now they're about a little over a mile away from the temple and it's even the blessing of god in the house is too good to stay in the house it travels it affects your life and your relationships and your business and our culture and now it's so deep it's so deep he has to swim he's all in he's all in it's it's so blessed it's so much he is swimming i thought about swimming now when you swim i don't care if you're michael phelps in the olympics when you swim most your body is under the surface most your body is hidden in the elements very little of you shows what's taking place in this passage is it's the old testament prophet describing a new testament dynamic this the new testament says when you're saved yes you are forgiven and you're qualified for heaven but it says also you become a new creature the moment you're saved a new creature in christ second corinthians chapter five verse seven and so there's a new me a new david hughes the moment i was saved now the old me with his selfishness with his arrogance with his anxiety that man is dead in christ that old man is dead romans chapter 6 dead in christ although the old me is dead that corpse makes a lot of noise sometimes he gives me a lot of grief sometimes so i can have this little competition or this ongoing battle between the new me and the old me who's going to win the one i feed the one i feed so the one i feed i feel i want to immerse myself in the spirit life i want to immerse myself in the scripture i want to immerse my life in the church i want to immerse my life in everything that god has i want to go deep and again the deeper i go the less of me you see you don't see it don't see the old man you see who jesus wants me to be see some of you by contrast you're you're splitchy splashing in the kiddie pool when you're ankle deep we're seeing a whole bunch of you it ain't pretty too much of your flesh biblical word and god can't bless that he can only bless what you surrender so listen so christian if you're not being blessed you feel like god is not involved in your life not engaged in this powerful supernatural way i would just ask this question what part of your life has god said give that to me and you've refused surrender it may be nothing i've been talked about that you're you're sexually you honor god you're generous but there's something maybe it's your bitterness maybe it's unforgiveness maybe you're lazy i don't know what it is just give it to god maybe you're arrogant you're prideful give give it to god he cannot bless pride give it to him today here's one quickly maybe for someone in the room it's uh the whole baptism thing that's two things right salvation and sanctification salvation sanctification right takes both baptism is a beautiful picture believer's baptism of both of those i love we baptize people of course we have a baptism scheduled at the beach today at 6 30. if you have not been baptized as a believer by immersion simple surrender that to god make that your step it's so beautifully immersive right now you're like well david i don't know i've thought about it but y'all baptized with the whole dunking thing and that's kind of weird i don't know you know the church is sprinkled and christened and i was i was baptized a baby you're saying that's bad wrong no listen we respect other churches nothing wrong with being chris as a baby but in the bible it's always after salvation by immersion so quickly why should you be baptized uh well jesus jesus if you think of his ministry as an oreo cookie the the white part the white part is his three-year ministry but he kind of starts his ministry the chocolate part with baptism on both ends he bookends his ministry with baptism uh he's baptized to start his ministry mark chapter one verse nine he's baptized by john in the jordan river right so it's a river story and at the end of his ministry before he goes back to heaven great passage great commission matthew 28 verses 19 and 20 on the screen right now here's what jesus said hey disciples do this therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and the son the holy spirit and teach them to obey everything i like that he said hey i taught you all lots of good stuff teach them all the stuff jesus said i taught you about prayer teaching prayer i taught you about money management teaching that about marriage i taught you that what with your anxiety i taught you on dozens of teach them all the stuff let me highlight one thing baptism so why is church by the glade so big on baptism because jesus is so big on baptism why do other churches sprinkle or baptize babies again no disrespect that those are not wrong but pretty much every biblical scholar will agree in the bible is always after salvation by immersion in fact the word baptism in your bible comes the greek word baptizo baptizo in classic greek simply means this means to immerse or to plunge under or to dunk that's why we baptize that way that's how jesus was baptized how the disciples baptized every time you see baptism they're getting dunked so it's also symbolic of immersing yourself and everything that god has for you hey some things are just better when you dunk one thing makes the oreo better one thing makes it work what is that what is it one thing makes the oreo even better when i was a kid i'd come in and mom had oreos classic oreos and a big cold glass of milk man it was not never one time i think oh my look at milk how do i get these things together i should probably do this i'll just just sprinkle right that no what i did every single time was this oh oreo you do what you you baptizo the oreo you baptizo right oh now now what [Music] that was so good that was so good [Music] god wants to bless you but god cannot bless what we don't surrender so whatever it is give that to god today let me pray for you again if you want to be baptized it's easy this this church is on atlantic atlantic right uh take atlantic till you hit the ocean then turn left you'll see the signs like two lights how easy is that come a little early i'll be there to help you understand in case you've got questions i'll walk everybody through salvation i'll be baptizing i'm gonna wear a mask because i don't know where you've been i'm going to wear a mask and um but we'd love to baptize you [Music] whatever god is asking for you'll be so glad you surrendered father god thank you so much for this great passage story about a river god thank you that you are not arbitrary nor capricious about how you bestow blessing you're always highly highly strategic help us make choices choices of courageous surrender that we will render our lives blessable that's our prayer in jesus name amen

Channel: Church by the Glades

Views: 754

Rating: 4 out of 5

Keywords: church by the glades, cbglades, fort lauderdale, coral springs, tamarac, margate, sample road, lake worth, miami, broward county, church, church service, sermon, creativity, music, south florida, message, fun

Id: GjUP9bsA1qI

Length: 40min 9sec (2409 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 08 2021