The Christian Two-Step - Pastor Jeff Schreve

[Music] welcome to from his heart with pastor jeff shreeve who's in his new series today called the next step baptism and church membership are they important they are critical and you'll find out why today when he reveals the power of the christian two-step [Music] [Music] the year was 1949 a new television show hit the airwaves it was a western it took off like wildfire people really liked it it was a story of a guy who was part of a posse of texas rangers but all the other rangers died he was almost killed himself but he survived and he became a one-man justice league his name was the lone ranger that show aired from 1949 to 1957 for nine years and then it was in reruns and many of us uh watched it in the reruns and we loved the song the william tell overture uh i think it was the lone ranger that made that song famous but uh here's the thing about the long ranger that they're not making that show anymore all those people are dead but there's still this idea of the lone ranger this one guy by himself that's out there trying to make a difference that is infiltrated into christianity we have lots of people today who adopt this lone ranger christianity they're not connected to a church they're just kind of out there on their own they float in and out they appear then they disappear and they're unattached and they're uncommitted and they're unaccountable now lone ranger christianity is totally foreign to the new testament the new testament doesn't i mean it would be like you're speaking a whole different language that's not the way god has set it up god has set it up for us in the new testament to live in community to live in family to live together so to speak spiritually in the church of the lord jesus christ now we're in a series that we started last week called the next step the next step with a question mark and we're asking everybody in this series hey what is the next step for you what is god speaking to your heart about doing because the christian life is all about growth and change it's about moving forward with the lord if you ever get to the place where you stagnate you never really stay in the same place you're going to move backwards you're either going to grow and glow in the lord or you're gonna dry and die no one stays in the same place and so today last week we looked at the the step into eternal life the most important step of all and that's to receive christ as savior and lord and today we want to look at a message i've entitled the christian two-step it's not the latest dance move on dancing with the stars it's it's the first two things that we do once we give our life to jesus christ and we see these two things so clearly on the day the church was born on the day of pentecost acts chapter 2 peter stands up to preach the holy spirit has fallen upon the little band of disciples 120 of them they all begin to speak in known languages and the people hear them speaking in their native tongue and they said how do how are these people doing this they're all galilean but we're hearing them speak in our native tongue and they ask this question what do these things mean and peter uses that as an opportunity to share the gospel and so he shares about the lord jesus and he says in verse 36 therefore let all the house of israel know for certain that god has made him both lord and christ this jesus whom you crucified that that's really an indictment that is like the worst thing you could possibly do you've been waiting for your messiah and when the messiah came you not only missed who he was but you crucified him this jesus whom you crucified in acts chapter 3 he goes on to say hey not only did you crucify him but when pilate asked you who do you want me to release for you barabbas a known murderer or jesus you chose barabbas as he says you disowned the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you and put to death the prince of life i mean this is serious serious sin it can't get any worse than that and so he says god has made him both lord and christ this jesus whom you crucified it says now when they heard this verse 37 they were pierced to the heart cut to the quick and they said to peter and the rest of the apostles brethren what shall we do the first question was what does this mean the second question was what shall we do and peter said to them repent and let each of you be baptized in in the name of jesus christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the holy spirit for the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off probably meaning gentiles as many as the lord our god shall call to himself and with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them saying be saved from this perverse generation so then those who had received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3 000 souls and they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship to the breaking of bread into prayer and everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles the christian two-step we see it in verse 41 those who received his word were baptized and they were added that day about 3 000 souls the church began with 120 in the upper room and then in acts chapter 2 on the day of pentecost it went from 120 members to 3 120 baptized believers so here's our question today have you taken the two steps that follow salvation so i want to share with you two truths from acts chapter two from the passage that we just read truth number one all those who have been saved are to be baptized every person who is genuinely saved is to be baptized that's what the scripture clearly teaches now peter preached that in your face sermon he's filled with the holy spirit he preaches that sermon the people are convicted now one commentator i said i read said this there can be no conversion unless there's first conviction now the holy spirit is the one who convicts as adrian rogers used to say i can preach truth but only the holy spirit can impart truth and so peter preached and he he let it out there i mean he didn't pull any punches he wasn't trying to say well you know you guys are pretty good folks but he kind of messed up here a little bit he said you crucified the messiah like i said that's the word it can't get any worse than that and so they're cut to the quick they're convicted in their heart god the holy spirit was working on them what must i do he says repent and be baptized true salvation involves both repentance and faith if you're going to become a christian you have to repent and you have to put your faith and trust in jesus now when they said peter what shall we do he said just repent and it's implied when he says and be baptized in the name of the lord jesus it's implied that you put your faith and trust in jesus but one of the things you'll find in the bible is when it comes to repentance and faith both of those things are required for salvation but they're used interchangeably and when you say repent that is assuming belief in jesus and when you say believe on the lord jesus you're assuming repentance let me give you an example ii peter chapter 3 verse 9. the lord is not slow about his promise as some men count slowness but is patient toward you not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance so peter is saying if you come to repentance that's the same thing as coming to christ in salvation repentance and a belief is assumed there now in acts chapter 16 verse 31 the story of paul and silas in the philippian jail when the philippian jailer the lord performs a miracle the jail is opened up and the jailer who had responsibility for all the prisoners if they escaped he'd lose his life he pulled out his sword to kill himself and paul said do yourself no harm we're all still here and he fell down before paul and silas and said sirs what must i do to be saved they didn't talk to him at all about repentance they said believe on the lord jesus christ and you should be saved now it's it's just assumed that there's repentance in that belief paul when he was talking to the elders in ephesus in acts chapter 20 he breaks it out and he says these words in acts 20 verses 18 through 21 you yourselves know how i did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you publicly and from house to house solemnly testifying to both jews and greeks of repentance toward god and faith in our lord jesus christ repentance and faith those things are critical now it is so important to remember that you can't get saved without repentance we live in a world today that wants to throw repentance out the door and say well that's that's uh you know past tense that's we don't want to do that anymore we just want to believe in jesus we just want to have all the wonderful things about jesus but we don't want to turn from our sin we don't even want you guys in the pulpit to talk about sin well peter talked about sin he wasn't toning it down john the baptist talked about sin it's very interesting that when you look at the ministry of john the baptist what did he say repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand you listen to the the ministry of jesus he begins his ministry and what does he say repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand peter on the day of pentecost what does he say repent change your mind metanoia change your mind what you think about sin and self and the savior change your mind repent paul preached repentance toward god and faith in our lord jesus christ jesus said unless you repent you will all likewise perish let me tell you what's happening in our world today we have people today who are taking their sin and connecting it to their identity this is who i am and so they meld and weld their sin into their personhood and then they say to you and to me and to the church at large you're going to have to accept me as i am this is who i am and if you don't accept me well i mean my sin well you don't accept me because my sin is myself i i have wedded those things together man that's a serious issue when you do that and that is why if you talk about their sin they will call you a hater well you're just a hater you don't receive me because you don't receive my sin hey the lord doesn't receive our sin the lord loves us but he doesn't love our sin and we have that expression that we've used for years and years and years it's a biblical expression you love the sinner but hate the sin but see in our world today sinners are connecting their identity to their sin and so then that's who i become and so if you don't accept my sin you don't accept me if you hate my sin that means you hate me then you're a hater now why do we talk about this so much because that's what's going on in our culture because the people who applaud those who take their identity and connect it to their sin you are blowing up the bridge of salvation for that person why because they don't repent because once they see their identity and their sin as one you don't repent of your identity and you say well this is who i am so obviously god is okay with who i am so i don't have to turn from that now the bible is very clear unless you repent you will all likewise perish peter told those people repent true salvation involves both repentance and faith now the people responded in our key verse is verse 41 so then those who received his word were baptized they received his word they welcomed his word and they said yes we will receive christ as savior and lord and they were baptized the greek word for baptized is the word baptizo baptizo used over and over and over again in scripture means to immerse any time you see that in the bible if you want to just take the word baptize out and put in immerse that's what it means and actually those who were translating the bible from greek to english when they ran across that word baptizo they they didn't want to translate it immerse because so many in the culture didn't immerse and especially the writers of the king james version of the bible because they knew hey the king is commissioning us to write this and he doesn't practice immersion baptism and so if we change the word uh or translate the word uh baptizo to be immersed that could get us in trouble so this is what we'll do we'll just transliterate the word and we will call baptizo baptize and then the people can figure it out for themselves but the word baptizo means to immerse so when he says repent and that each of you be baptized be immersed in the name of the lord jesus christ that's what he's talking about and three thousand said yes they put their faith and trust in christ and they were baptized now remember this about baptism baptism does not complete salvation it pictures salvation i get people that will write me from time to time or email and and tell me i'm a heretic typically they're from a particular church they tell me i'm a heretic why because i don't tell people they have to be baptized in order to be saved why don't i tell people they have to be baptized in order to be saved because the bible doesn't teach that and see they will come in with acts 2 38 because that is their uh their killer verse for you have to be baptized to be saved look what it says peter said to them repent and let each of you be baptized in the name of the lord jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the holy spirit i mean black print on white paper it says right there you have to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins you might want to circle that word for interesting little word in greek it's the greek word ice e-i-s ice that word in greek can mean on the basis of on account of or to obtain now let me use it in english and see the different meanings and we all understand these meanings first example he went to the store for milk anybody have trouble with that one why'd the guy go to the store he went to the store in order to get milk he went to the store for milk he didn't have milk he had to go to the store in order to obtain milk how about this question he went to prison for murder that's different right he didn't say well you know i'm not a murderer but i'll go to prison and murder somebody so that i can have the title of murder he went to prison on the basis of the fact that he murdered someone see we understand that he went to the store for milk everybody understands oh he didn't have milk he's going to get milk he went to prison for murder oh we understand that he committed murder therefore he went to prison on the basis of what he had already done when peter is saying in acts 2 38 repent and let each of you be baptized in the name of jesus christ on the basis of forgiveness of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the holy spirit that is what he's saying now i can give you a passage that is so definitive that baptism does not complete salvation it's in the book of acts chapter 10. it's paul or peter i'm sorry when he goes to the home of cornelius cornelius the gentile who was the first to receive the holy spirit he and his family from the gentiles you know acts as a transitional book it's hard to uh put hard and fast doctrine on the book of acts because axe's story and acts as a transition and the holy spirit just came in chapter two and the the uh growth of the church is in jerusalem judea samaria and to the remotest parts of the earth in acts chapter 8 we see the gospel going into samaria sumerians or samaritans they're half breeds they're half jew half gentile the jews didn't like samaritans they thought they were scum they didn't ever want to go through they if you were walking from galilee which is up north to get to jerusalem you would go way east on the other side of the jordan river just so you didn't have to get your sandals in the contaminated dust of the land of samaria because in in between here's galilee here's jerusalem in between is samaria they would walk around because the samaritans had cooties i mean you didn't want to get near those people and so when the gospel came to the samaritans everybody's like wow and then it goes from the samaritans acts chapter 8 to acts chapter 10 to the gentiles and so cornelius who's a gentile he gathers his family peter comes and shares with them and it says this acts chapter 10 beginning in verse 44 while peter was still speaking these words the holy spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message and all the circumcised believers the jews who had come with peter were amazed because the gift of the holy spirit had been poured out upon the gentiles also for they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting god then peter answered surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the holy spirit just as we did can he and he ordered them to be baptized in the name of jesus christ then they asked him to stay on for a few days now you ask yourself this question what does it mean to be a christian what does it mean to be saved well it means two things it means your sins are forgiven and it means the holy spirit of god comes to live inside of you now you can't be a christian and not have the holy spirit it's impossible the bible says in romans chapter 8 verse 9 if any man does not have the spirit of christ he does not belong to him he is none of his paul says to the corinthians do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy spirit who's in you whom you have from god and that you're not your own and the holy spirit has come in that's what it means to be a believer in jesus you're sealed with the holy spirit of promise now cornelius and his family as they were listening to peter preach they believed and the holy spirit fell upon them and they weren't baptized and peter says who can deny the the water for these to be baptized they need to be baptized they were saved and then they were baptized you don't get the holy spirit you can't say well i have the holy spirit but i'm not really a christian yet because i haven't been baptized no the moment you can get the holy spirit you belong to him you are part of the body of christ so baptism doesn't complete salvation it pictures it and that's why baptism is done in a pool of water because the word means to immerse you can't immerse someone in with a with a tablespoon and just keep pouring it over their head that's not going to immerse them they have to go down in the water and that's why when it talks about the ethiopian eunuch in acts chapter 8 when he says to philip he philip shares the gospel with him he believes and then he says look water can i be baptized and they went down in the water and he was baptized philip said to him if you really believe you may because it's believers baptism and here is what it pictures baptism pictures your death and burial and resurrection buried with christ in baptism raised to walk in newness of life that's why you can't picture that with sprinkling and the bible picture is very important some say well it's it's just symbolism it's not very important it's important to jesus the great commission matthew chapter 28 go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them immersing them in the name of the father son and holy spirit now if you want to blow off what jesus said because you think you're smarter than he is that's a scary place to be we need to just say yes lord yes lord this is what you want me to do i'm going to do it baptism doesn't complete salvation and picture salvation and baptism is our public identification with jesus christ we're baptized to publicly identify with him it's the statement that says this is what has happened to me i've given my life to christ i have died spiritually died of my old way of life i have a brand new life in jesus but you can't see that somebody today prays and asks christ to save them to come into their life and forgive them jesus comes in the moment that you ask christ to come in he comes in and you know what no one can see that i got saved i was 17 years old i asked jesus to come into my life and save me and he did and i was there in my room and i didn't see it because it's spiritual it's not physical it's not it's not something that your eyes can see it happens invisibly now bad baptism is something that everyone can see and baptism is a visible picture of an invisible reality and what's the invisible reality i've given my life to christ and i've died with christ and i have a brand new life in him buried with christ in baptism raised to walk in newness of life now the jews who were baptized they were baptized at a personal cost it cost them potential status as a jew because here is this this new religion so to speak this new sect of judaism i mean in the minds of the people they didn't really know what it was all of a sudden it was like well jesus is the messiah but we still have the the judaism that's running on this train and now we have christianity that's running on that train and these seem to be different and the religious the jewish religious leaders didn't like jesus and they don't like christianity they're the ones that got the crowd to say not this man but barabbas and so if i attach myself to this new uh teaching and to this this uh new way where jesus is the messiah i go against the temple i go against the synagogue i go against the religious leaders and so there was a price to be paid for that there was persecution there was the potential to be cut off from family and friends and the synagogue and jewish society they paid a price see some people would say well why didn't they just do it secretly maybe they could have just done it at home in their house and nobody could have seen it because baptism pictures your identification with christ baptism is not to be done secretly it's to be done publicly you know anybody that would do it secretly is saying well i love jesus but i just don't want anyone to know it you know that'd be like me telling debbie well debbie i love you but when we're out in public i'm not gonna stand next to you i'm not gonna wear my wedding wedding ring i don't want anyone to know that i'm attached to you how do you think that would go over not good and if she did that to me it wouldn't go over well and so many people do it to the lord jesus said if you are ashamed of me in this sinful and adulterous generation i'll be ashamed of you when i come in power and great glory hey all who have been saved are to be baptized and baptism is not a sacrament you know people talk about the sacraments of baptism and the lord's supper in the baptist church we don't have sacraments we have ordinances what's the difference a sacrament is a conduit wherein divine life is transferred it's some means of grace and it's kind of mystical it's up here it's like we participate in this and god's grace somehow is bestowed through this uh situation of baptism or the lord's supper that's not what it is in the bible it's an ordinance it's a practice of the early church and it's a practice for all churches and isn't it interesting the first ordinance the lord gave us was the lord's supper and the lord's supper he said do this in remembrance of me this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me this is my blood which is shed for you do this in remembrance of me and we do that and when we do it we remember his death we remember that he gave his life for us that is the lord's supper he also gave us the ordinance of baptism baptism when we participate in baptism that is are dying for him lord's supper is his dying for us on the cross baptism is our dying with him and giving our lives to him and saying lord i give you my life and he gives his life to you both symbolize the lord's supper and baptism they both symbolize death and resurrection first his death and resurrection then our death and resurrection so baptism is to be done by every christian it's only for christians and it's not for infants because the people that were there that day they understood what he said they had to be old enough to understand and that's why it said those who received his word were baptized they understood enough to receive it second truth all those who are saved are to belong to a local church see that's why i call this the christian two steps so uh you have to receive christ and then when you receive christ you become a christian and then you are baptized and you are become part of the local church and that is important it says in verse 41 and though there were added that day about three thousand souls the bible talks about the church over and over and over again and people in different uh cities were part christians were part of a church paul went out on his missionary journeys and what was he doing he was sharing the gospel and planting churches and when people got saved in corinth or in thessalonica or in philippi or wherever it was they would start a church and they would be members of that church and they would be part of that local church we read in the book of revelation chapters two and three the seven letters to the seven churches how does the lord communicate to people he does it through the churches and people were members of the church now it's important to remember this the the church means act like the ecclesia in the greek it means the called out ones we're called out we're called out of this world and we're uh transformed and our citizenship is in heaven and and uh as as it has been said you become a twice born people a person living in a world of once born people you've been called out and the lord says come out from among them and be separate be salt and light in a lost and dying world and so every christian is a member of the universal church sometimes you read in the bible and when the lord talks about the church he's talking about the universal church he's not talking about the local church other times he's talking about the local church most of the epistles are to the local church it's the epistle to the ephesians that's to the ephesian church uh the the the different ones especially in revelation we have the the angel of the church of smyrna the letters went out to the churches in asia minor to pergamum to thyatira those are all churches and none of them exist anymore but they did exist in the first century and so sometimes you read and it's talking about a local congregation other times it's just talking about the church in general let me give you an example matthew chapter 16 where jesus said to peter you are petros little rock but upon this rock petra the big rock i will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it jesus is building his church he's not talking about local church he's talking about the universal church and every christian is a member of the universal church first corinthians 12 13 for by one spirit we were all baptized into one body whether jews or greeks whether slaves are free and we were all made to drink of one spirit that's true for every true believer now every christian needs to be committed to a local for everybody need to be committed to a local church and he says what happened in verse 42 in this brand new church with these 3 000 brand new disciples and they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship to the breaking of bread and to prayer and everyone kept feeling a sense of awe that's the early church what was taking place in the early church that's the church in jerusalem the first church was in jerusalem the jerusalem church because we're in a baptist church we'd call it first church jerusalem first baptist church of jerusalem they didn't call it that but uh it was just the church in jerusalem that's how they would designate the place church in jerusalem church in philippi church and thyatira church in in ephesus the church in corinth there was just one church and it would be in that city and it was the local church now why is it so important to be involved in a local church because i know i'm talking to some people and you say yeah i don't think that's very important be part of a local church i mean i can see you know i want to be part of the the universal church it's important to give your life to christ so you're part of his family but a local church i'm not so keen on the local church you know to not be involved to be a christian and not be involved in a local church and committed and a member of a local church that's like being a bee without a hive you ever see bees that are just all by themselves this is the lone ranger b that that lone ranger b doesn't exist he only exists in community he's got a hive and so every christian is to have a home church and why do we need that for reasons we need the biblical teaching of the local church and they were continually devoting them devoting themselves to the apostles teaching great commission go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the father and son and the holy spirit teaching them to observe all that i commanded you and so the apostles would teach they would teach the experiences that they had with the lord the bible wasn't written yet the new testament and so they're teaching them no doubt from old testament scriptures that's what paul would do when he would go into different cities and go into the synagogue he would reason to them from the scriptures from the old testament showing that jesus was the christ and so you have peter and james and john and the apostles and they're teaching the people and they're teaching them sound doctrine and the church is to be a place where there is biblical teaching sound biblical teaching now that's that's on me primarily as the pastor to make sure we're having sound biblical teaching and the rest of our pastoral staff because our church we have bible study classes sunday school classes on sunday morning and we need to make sure that the teachers who are teaching in those classes are teaching sound doctrine solid doctrine and if somebody goes off the rail then it's on us to make sure that we bring them back into sound doctrine uh because that's that's critical you don't want to teach error and it's destiny we are desperately in need of learning and growing spiritually and the bible says of itself that it is milk that it is bread that it is meat that's how you grow physically to eat food how do you grow spiritually you devote yourself to teaching so that is critical so we need the biblical teaching of the local church oh but you say well i can get that in other places i don't have to go to be a member of a local church to get good teaching especially today to in today's world of youtube and podcasts and all that other stuff well we need the local church reason number two for fellowship the fellowship of the local church you don't get fellowship from a podcast you don't get fellowship from youtube you don't get fellowship from just watching on television now i understand some people that's all they have because they're shut in and what we do with our television ministry we encourage people that we encourage them to come come here if you can come here come here if you can't come here find another place that you can go because you need to be part of a fellowship television church is a good supplement but it can't take the place of that and so some of those that watch on television that can't come we say then be a part of our television church family and we'll try and minister to you and call you and contact you and be there for you in other ways but hey fellowship is a big part of the church say what is fellowship it's koinonia in the greek it means a sharing together someone said one time i uh how do you define fellowship they said well it's two fellows in one ship it's like okay in in a sense it's two fellows in one ship but it's much deeper than that it's two fellows sharing the same life we can have fellowship together as believers why because christ by his spirit lives in me and if you're a believer christ by his spirit lives in you and there's a natural connection because we share the same life see we have died and our lives are hidden with christ and god that's why baptism pictures what death to my old way of life i have a brand new life in jesus jeff died in january of 1980 but he got a brand new life in jesus and so the old ways of jeff are still around and they still poke up their ugly head from time to time but jeff shreve died when he put his faith in jesus and jesus is now he's a new creation and jesus now lives inside and so when christians get together there's the sharing of life because they both have the same life the lord jesus and we have fellowship together and and we do things together and we share together and and we do life together that's the whole idea behind the local church you need that i need that god made us to need that and then thirdly we need the support and prayers of the local church see it says that they were devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship to the breaking of bread and to prayer the breaking of bread probably means that they were eating meals together and it probably means that they were celebrating the lord's supper together so those things are probably both included in the breaking of bread and then it says into prayer and we need the support of other believers we need the prayers of other believers now in our church we have bible study classes on sunday morning and bible study classes take the big group and it breaks it down into smaller groups that are in your age and stage of life it's both age and stage sometimes you can be in with older people or younger people depending on your stage if you get married late and have children later you might be in your 40s but you have little kids so you get along better with people that are in their 20s that have little kids because because you both are experiencing the same stage in life but it's really important you'll hear us say often from the pulpit you need to get involved in a bible study class on sunday morning and we have connection classes on wednesday night same thing it's a smaller group to help you get connected because then there is the fellowship that takes place hard to have fellowship in a big room like this this isn't an opportunity to ask questions but your bible study class can be an opportunity to ask questions now you can ask me questions after the sermon but if you interrupt me to ask questions that wouldn't go over so well i mean you could do it but we would ask you to leave no not really well kind of but that would really mess me up if you did that so this is this is me sharing with you and then you can share with me later but uh we need the support and the prayers of the local church and that's how a big church becomes a small uh tight-knit family it's in those smaller groups and they were doing that in in acts chapter 2 verse 46 they were breaking bread from house to house they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart they they had the big group because they had 3120 just like that you talk about a mega church that happened overnight well how do you have fellowship in a mega church like that you go from house to house you have small group time and so we need the support and prayers of the local church and then we need fourthly the spiritual protection of the local church did you know that the church gives you protection spiritual protection paul when he was talking to the ephesian elders and he knew he wasn't going to see them again he said this to them in acts chapter 20. be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the holy spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of god which he purchased with his own blood i know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock and from among your own selves men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them therefore be on the alert hey the devil prowls around like a roaring lion he has savage wolves that he sends in what are they going to do what do they want to do devour you've watched enough national geographic and animal planet shows like that to see when the predator comes what is he looking for he's looking for the stragglers if you're together in the herd then they have a harder time but if you get separated from the herd it's the wildebeest that's out you know he wasn't paying attention he's just kind of like i don't know i'll go over here and he ends up dead why because he gets separated from the herd he's not uh with the group and when you're not with the group you're a sitting duck for the predators to come now i see my job as pastor in these terms i'm to lead i'm to feed and to protect against the wolves we're there to protect the sheep why because there are uh snarling wolves there is the lion uh who the the devil who prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour and the church protects you from spiritual error and protects you from getting getting eaten up the bible says in hebrews chapter 13 obey your leaders and submit to them for they keep watch over your souls that those as those who will give an account let them do this with joy and not with grief for this would be unprofitable for you so we talked about the christian two-step i believe on the lord jesus christ i give him my heart and life i evidence that through baptism and through church membership and those things come together so i ask you today as you search your heart have you given your life to christ have you really repented turned from sin and embraced the savior and since you've done that or if you've done that if you've not done that you can do it today but for those of you who have done that have you followed him in believers baptism i'm not talking about infant baptism i'm not talking about being sprinkled when you're 12. that might have been special for you but listen that is not biblical baptism that might have been something special i'm not trying to downplay it but the bible talks about immersion that's what that word means and it always comes after salvation have you been saved have you been baptized and are you part of a local church those things are critical to your spiritual health your spiritual growth and a pleasing god my friend maybe you're watching today and you're not sure about your relationship with jesus hey the next step for you is to open your heart and receive christ as savior and lord just pray this simple prayer lord jesus i need you i know that i'm a sinner and i'm lost and i can't save myself but i believe that you are god in the flesh i believe jesus that you died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the dead and right now i ask you to forgive me of my sins come into my life into my heart change me and make me the person you want me to be i surrender my all to you my friend if you'll pray that kind of prayer and mean it the lord will come in and your life will never be the same i'd love to hear from you to know that you're watching to know that god is using this broadcast to make a difference in your life to know that you just prayed that prayer to receive christ as your savior and lord please take the time to call that toll-free number write me email me let me know what's going on and how we can pray for you you really are important to god and you're important to us and we're here for you from his heart is the viewer-supported broadcast ministry of dr jeff shreeve who believes that no matter how badly you may have messed up in life god still loves you and he has a wonderful plan for your life find out more about that plan go to promiseheart.org [Music] from

Channel: From His Heart Ministries

Views: 2,038

Rating: 4.9111109 out of 5

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Id: KbwMkcstXHQ

Length: 46min 27sec (2787 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 11 2020