The Danger of Decisionism: Why ‘Signing Up’ Cannot Save

• Baptism and Salvation 00:00:30 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor introduces Baptism Sunday, defining salvation as life transformation by placing faith in Jesus Christ's blood and obedience to His commands.
• Persecution and Gospel Spread 00:03:25 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains how persecution scattered the church in Jerusalem, which ironically caused the gospel to spread as believers went everywhere preaching.
• Divine Pursuit 00:09:31 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor argues that God pursues sinners before they seek Him, using the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch to illustrate divine coordination.
• Evangelism and Discipleship 00:13:19 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor challenges the congregation to 'glue' themselves to others to share the gospel, emphasizing the value of every soul.
• Divine Pursuit and Evangelism 00:13:19 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the Greek word 'cola' (glue) to describe Philip's attachment to the Ethiopian eunuch, illustrating that believers should attach themselves to others to share the gospel because God pursues them first.
• Christocentric Scripture 00:14:52 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, points to Jesus, using the Ethiopian eunuch's confusion about Isaiah 53 to highlight that religion without Christ leads to confusion.
• Religion vs. Relationship 00:16:05 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor contrasts the Ethiopian eunuch's religious efforts (traveling to Jerusalem, buying scrolls) with the necessity of having Jesus in one's heart, warning that religion without Christ only cements one in darkness.
• Immediate Obedience 00:20:24 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor challenges the congregation to stop delaying baptism or obedience by 'praying about it,' arguing that since Jesus commanded it and the means (water) are present, there is no reason to wait.
• Overcoming Barriers to Evangelism 00:18:23 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor lists excuses people use to avoid sharing the gospel (difference in ethnicity, language, socioeconomic status) and contrasts them with Philip's willingness to overcome these barriers.
• Obedience and Surrender 00:26:05 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor challenges the congregation to embrace Christ and walk in obedience to His commands without hesitation, asking rhetorical questions about the impact of full surrender.
• Kingdom Advancement 00:26:28 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor asserts that individual steps of obedience can change lives and communities, turning the world upside down for God's glory.
• Baptism and Life Transformation 00:27:08 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor invites those who have trusted Christ to be baptized as a celebration of life transformation and walking in newness of life.

• Sermon Illustration 00:08:04 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor recounts the biblical narrative of Philip being sent by an angel to the desert road where he meets the Ethiopian eunuch reading Isaiah, illustrating how God coordinates events to reach individuals.
• Sermon Illustration 00:12:48 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the etymology of the Greek word 'cola' (meaning glue) to explain the command for Philip to 'join' the chariot, illustrating the concept of attaching oneself to others for the sake of the gospel.
• Sermon Illustration 00:12:32 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor recounts the biblical story of Philip being told by the Spirit to 'join' (glue himself to) the Ethiopian eunuch's chariot, leading to the eunuch's conversion and baptism.
• Sermon Illustration 00:15:15 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor describes the Ethiopian eunuch as a wealthy, religious man who traveled to Jerusalem and bought an expensive scroll of Isaiah, yet remained confused about Jesus despite his religious efforts.
• Sermon Illustration 00:18:53 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor contrasts the historical example of Philip with modern preachers who might impose barriers to baptism, such as requiring church membership, financial contribution, or moral perfection before allowing someone to be baptized.
• Sermon Illustration 00:22:13 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares a personal reflection on his own fears of disobedience, specifically the fear of meeting Jesus and having to give a 'lame excuse' for not walking in obedience, contrasting this with the ease of the Ethiopian eunuch's immediate response.

• Pastoral Charge 00:23:34 ▶️ 📄
  > Immediately embrace the new life in Christ and publicly demonstrate obedience to the world.
• Pastoral Charge 00:27:25 ▶️ 📄
  > Come forward for baptism if you have trusted Christ and are tired of disobedience.
• Pastoral Charge 00:27:39 ▶️ 📄
  > Go to the welcome desk to be baptized.
• Pastoral Charge 00:27:48 ▶️ 📄
  > Go to the welcome desk and declare trust in Jesus Christ to be baptized.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] Good morning, Genesis Metro Church. How are we today? Give it up for the band leading us in worship. How did you like the new song? They did a fantastic job. What an awesome time that we have to come and worship together. Welcome to the 1130 service. Man, you guys are troopers. But here's a good thing. By the time we get done, all the restaurants are going to be empty, right? You're going to have your pick. Whatever you want, you can go for it.
[00:00:26] It's a special day today because today is Baptism Sunday.
[00:00:30] Man, we get to celebrate life transformation in response to God's Word in a very visible way.
[00:00:37] We're going to see lives who have surrendered to Jesus in faith, trusting Him to save them by the blood, right?
[00:00:46] It's only by the blood.
[00:00:48] That's how life transformation happens.
[00:00:50] That's what we call salvation.
[00:00:51] it's by placing faith in Jesus Christ who did everything that's necessary for us to be saved and forgiven he went to the cross he suffered he bled he died he was buried in a tomb how much of
[00:01:06] them was buried all of them was buried that's why baptism they go all the way under the water because baptism symbolizes the gospel he was buried and then what happened last Sunday man He rose from the grave. He gives us new life. He purchased our salvation, our justification
[00:01:26] through the gospel. Today is a vivid reminder, a symbolic gesture, and the obedience to Jesus for those who have decided to follow after him. For those who have decided he's not just my savior, he's my Lord. I'm going to take my orders from him and I don't care who knows it. In fact,
[00:01:45] I want everybody to see that I have the uniform of a Christ follower.
[00:01:50] That's what we get to celebrate today.
[00:01:52] These people who have no longer hesitated, these people who have said, I'm going to stop making excuses and I'm going to be obedient to the command of Christ.
[00:02:02] This morning, I wonder if there's anything in your life that you are hesitant to obey, hesitant to do because you're just not sure how it's going to turn out.
[00:02:13] I wonder if there's anything in your life.
[00:02:14] Maybe it's a hard conversation. Maybe it's a relationship with God. Maybe it's the next step up into obedience, whatever it is that you know is the right thing to do, right? But there's hesitation. There's, ah, I just don't know if I should do it or not. Today, we're going to dive
[00:02:35] into the book of Acts in the Bible, Acts chapter eight. And we're going to look at the life of a man whose life was transformed by the gospel, but he was so passionate about the faith that he had. He was so passionate
[00:02:50] about what Jesus had done for him that he sought to obey the commands of Jesus immediately, immediately. Life transformation immediately in response to God's word. We're going to be in Acts chapter eight, and let me set up the
[00:03:07] text just a little bit. We, the book of Acts tells the story of the church that Jesus started and things are going great. I mean, they're baptizing thousands on the day of Pentecost, 3000 people and people are just coming to Jesus. And, and it's a, it's a life transforming
[00:03:25] movement. That's really what a church is. If you want to, if you want to think about it and everything is going great until until those who were enemies of jesus began sabotaging and persecuting the church so you can imagine that because of their faith they were holed up and
[00:03:44] worshiping everything was going great but then somebody who an angry mob comes in and says hey we don't like that you're worshiping jesus and starts and starts arresting christians right arresting christians and and hauling them off to prison just because they worship jesus now that
[00:04:03] might sound strange to you but can i just tell you it's happening right now even as we speak if you turn on the news you can find that there are some countries where the gospel is
[00:04:13] oppressed where christianity is under the thumb of of false religions and they there are christians who are fighting for their lives, even as we speak.
[00:04:24] So the church at Jerusalem was scattered.
[00:04:26] Like everybody ran off.
[00:04:29] The Bible tells us in Acts chapter eight that everybody ran away except for the apostles.
[00:04:33] So it's like this.
[00:04:35] If somebody comes in and scatters, who's gonna stay behind?
[00:04:38] Well, it's gonna be the pastors.
[00:04:40] It's gonna be like, hey, what do we do next?
[00:04:42] But the church is scattered.
[00:04:45] One of those church members is named Philip.
[00:04:48] Everybody say Philip.
[00:04:48] Philip.
[00:04:49] All right, good.
[00:04:50] We've got some participation.
[00:04:51] That's not all the participation we're going to get today.
[00:04:53] Just be ready.
[00:04:55] Philip was a servant in the church.
[00:04:57] So if you think about all the servants in the church right now, give it up for our volunteers.
[00:05:03] Man, a church doesn't operate without volunteers, without people sacrificing their time and their energy and resources to serve so that the gospel can be proclaimed, right?
[00:05:17] So Philip, one of the servants in the church, he runs off.
[00:05:21] But the Bible says that the church members, not the pastors, the church members went everywhere preaching the word of Jesus. Like they were everywhere. They went, they were like, man, we just, we're, we're being, our lives are being threatened because of our faith. But let me tell
[00:05:36] you about Jesus who saved me. And so they're, they're like going everywhere. And the persecution of the church actually had the opposite effect of what the persecutors intended. They did, they wanted to shut it down and all they did was scatter it. And the gospel spread all over the
[00:05:53] place. So Philip finds himself just preaching the word of God, watching lives be transformed by the gospel. And meanwhile, there's another guy, a guy from Ethiopia who had traveled to Jerusalem, but was on his way back to Ethiopia. And that's where we pick up our story. Acts chapter eight,
[00:06:11] beginning with verse 27. It says, there was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch and high official of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to worship in Jerusalem and was sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading the prophet Isaiah
[00:06:31] aloud. The spirit told Philip, right, who's not here, he's elsewhere, told Philip, go and join that chariot. When Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, do you understand what you're reading? How can I, he said, unless someone guides me.
[00:06:54] So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the scripture passage he was reading was this.
[00:07:00] He was like a sheep to the slaughter. And as a lamb is silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who will describe his generation for his life is taken from the earth? The eunuch said to Philip, I ask you,
[00:07:21] who is the prophet saying this about? Himself or someone else? Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus, beginning with that scripture. As they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, look, there's water. What would keep me from being
[00:07:40] baptized? So he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. This is a man whose life was radically transformed by the gospel, and because it was radically transformed, and his passion for Jesus became so great,
[00:07:57] he took steps to walk in obedience immediately. But the story really doesn't begin with the eunuch.
[00:08:04] I started reading in verse 27, but let me read verse 26 because Philip is over here serving the Lord. In verse 26, it says, an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, get up and go south to the road
[00:08:18] that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is the desert road. So he got up and went. So you can imagine the story. I don't know how vivid your imagination is. I know we got some creative
[00:08:29] people in here, but just put yourself in that, in that story, right? Philip's over yonder preaching the word. Anybody use yonder lately? Over yonder. I like using the word yonder. Philip is over yonder preaching the word. Life is happening. Transformation is happening. And the angel comes to him and says,
[00:08:43] hey, I need you to go south. I need you to go south. I need you to go all the way down towards the desert road in Gaza. And without an explanation, without any further comment,
[00:08:54] Philip just says, all right, I'll go. So Philip goes. And what does he find? He finds a man from Ethiopia who's struggling to understand his life in contrast to the God that he is pursuing.
[00:09:09] I want you to see today what God is doing. How is God working? Because I think what we'll discover is that we're more like the Ethiopian eunuch than we might imagine. But understand this, that before the eunuch ever was pursuing God and ever had clarity on the scriptures,
[00:09:31] God was already in motion sending Philip to him. And that gives us a really important principle, and that is this, that God is pursuing you. Everybody under the sound of my voice, listen to me very carefully. God is pursuing you. You are his creation. You are his prized
[00:09:51] masterpiece of all creation he created you and he does not want to sit idly by while we make a wreck of our lives instead he pursues us now some of y'all in here have some awesome testimonies you've
[00:10:05] been you've been introduced to Jesus and your life has been transformed but I want to remind you that your story didn't begin with you seeking God it began with God seeking you is that clear to
[00:10:19] everybody like like it's not about you picking yourself up by your bootstraps it's it's about God pursuing you God not allowing you to make a wreck of your life without sending a messenger sending someone into your life to tell you what life is all about I want you to think about your
[00:10:36] story if you know Jesus I want you to think just real quick somebody ran to you with Jesus somebody introduced you to Jesus maybe it was a friend maybe it was a parent I hope it was a
[00:10:51] parent that'd be great maybe it was a pastor maybe it was a co-worker something but somebody looked you dead in the eye and said you need to know about Jesus so you need maybe it was that
[00:11:03] t-shirt you ever see here that t-shirt it says y'all need Jesus you know maybe it was that kind of conversation but somebody looked you in the eye and said I've got to tell you about Jesus
[00:11:13] You see, God pursued you.
[00:11:15] God created an avenue for you to find him.
[00:11:18] Yes, you're always seeking.
[00:11:19] Of course, we're always wondering.
[00:11:21] But while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.
[00:11:26] While we were still broken, while we were still trying to run our own show, God was furiously chasing after us.
[00:11:34] You see, God is pursuing you.
[00:11:36] and in this story it's not a it's not a coincidence that Philip comes across the Ethiopian man right nobody's nobody looks at that story and says well isn't it a coincidence that that Philip just
[00:11:50] happened to come across paths with this Ethiopian man no this is not a coincidence this is this is divine coordination this is God moving heaven and earth so that he could reach this one man with the
[00:12:04] gospel. How, how much is one soul worth? It's worth moving heaven and earth. It's worth sending an angel to some dude who's preaching and telling him to get up and go after this dude. It's worth
[00:12:18] the spirit prompting Philip to say, you need to join yourself to that man because he needs the gospel. How much is a soul worth? Jesus said it's worth dying for. God is pursuing you. The spirit
[00:12:32] told Philip, go and join that chariot. This word join, we could put that verse on the screen, please go and join that chariot. This word join is, is interesting and it'll be up there. Maybe
[00:12:48] there we go. Uh, go and join that. That word join is it's the Greek word cola. We get our English word collagen and it means glue. Like it means, it means go to that chariot and attach yourself
[00:13:02] to it because that life is valuable and I've got great things in store for that person, right? So go glue yourself. That means, that means Philip dropped everything and glued himself to this man because that's how important it was for him to hear and understand the, the gospel. So, so this
[00:13:19] morning I want to just ask this question. Somebody glued themselves to you. Somebody attached themselves to you and said, you, you need Jesus and I'm not going to let you go until your life is turned around for the gospel's sake. And so I wonder who you glue in your life to,
[00:13:35] who are you surrounding yourself with? Who is in your home or in your community or at your school or at your job? And, and you, you, you, you sidle up next to him and say, I got to tell you about
[00:13:46] Jesus because that soul is worth it. God is pursuing you and he uses his people to bring life transformation. Your story didn't start with you finding God. It started with God refusing to stop pursuing you. God is pursuing you. You know why? Because God wants you to know Jesus.
[00:14:09] At the end of the day, God wants you. It's, it's, can I introduce you to my son? Can I tell you what Jesus has done? Can I, can you understand who Jesus is? The Bible tells us that this Ethiopian
[00:14:25] man was reading from Isaiah chapter 53, reading from Isaiah. And what he's, what he's reading is describing this tragedy, this traumatic death of this man. And do you remember his question?
[00:14:39] He said, is, is the prophet talking about himself or is he talking about somebody else? And Philip is like, man, I'm glad you asked. Can I, can I tell you who the whole Bible is about? Can I tell
[00:14:52] you about creation and the fall of mankind through sin? Can I tell you that Genesis to Revelation, it all points to one man and his name is Jesus. Let the church say, amen. It's all about
[00:15:06] him. It's all about him. God wants you to know his son. This man from Ethiopia was a religious man.
[00:15:15] You think about it. He had traveled from Ethiopia all the way up to Jerusalem because he wanted to get to know God. I can't imagine what he was going through, but he made all that journey
[00:15:26] all the way up to the temple in Jerusalem. And if they followed the legal custom, this man from Ethiopia wouldn't have ever even been allowed inside the temple. But he goes and makes the trip, trying to find God, trying to find purpose, trying to discover why he's here.
[00:15:44] He makes a trip to Jerusalem. While he's there, he purchases a copy of the Old Testament scriptures.
[00:15:50] He buys a scroll from isaiah. This dude's got money because those things were expensive He's a religious man. He's seeking he's trying but he's confused He doesn't understand that it all points to jesus. Can I tell you?
[00:16:05] You can be religious and still be confused about jesus You you can have all your ducks in a row You can spare no expense to find more and more about god and and go to all the church buildings in the city
[00:16:19] You can go every sunday and every sunday night and every wednesday night. You can check all the boxes but listen If jesus is not in your heart if he's not the lord of your life
[00:16:29] All your religion is doing is cementing you further into the darkness Because it's all about jesus God pursues you god wants you to know jesus And god is inviting you To respond This is the good part. You ready for the good part? This is my favorite part. I love this part
[00:16:53] Because they're driving along in their little chariot, you know And philip the bible says philip started with isaiah 53 and then he just starts preaching jesus to him It's jesus. It's jesus. It's jesus and at some point he must have told him the commands of jesus
[00:17:09] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and the holy spirit teaching them to observe everything that i've commanded you and behold i am with you always to the end of the age at some
[00:17:22] point this ethiopian man heard the gospel and understood that to follow jesus it requires faith a faith that leads to obedience and the very next phrase we hear is this ethiopian man saying hey, look, hey, look, there's some water. What prevents me from getting baptized?
[00:17:49] So let me open my mind a little bit to you, my heart, my exposed mind, because I got some, I may have some former legalistic tendencies. And I just think about the way churches in the past
[00:18:04] have tried to represent Jesus. And I think about how exclusive many churches have become when it comes to ministering and serving to the people in their community who don't look like them, who don't talk like them, speak a different language. Some are richer, some are poorer.
[00:18:23] And I think about all the obstacles, all the barriers that Philip overcame to reach this dude with the gospel. Different ethnicity, different language, different socioeconomic status.
[00:18:37] And I think about all the things that could have gone wrong when this eunuch says, well, I want to be baptized. What prevents me? And I think about what some modern day preachers might have said. They might've said things like, well, you need to go to church. You need to get your
[00:18:53] life in order. We're not going to baptize you until you get your act together. We're not going to baptize you until you start giving and start contributing to the church. We're not going to baptize. You still shacked up with that woman, man. We ain't going to baptize you. The Philip
[00:19:04] didn't know nothing about this Ethiopian eunuch. All he knew was that his life was transformed by the gospel and he wanted to walk in obedience to him. And he said, yes. And amen, let's get
[00:19:14] baptized. Think about all the barriers, all the excuses we give to not reach people with the gospel. Oh, they're different from me. Oh, they're from another country. Oh man. I don't even know their language. I don't, you know, they don't make very much money. We're, we're going to just
[00:19:30] reach the one, you know, whatever it is. I hear they're an atheist. Yeah. Then they need Jesus the most. All the reasons we give to not share the gospel, all the things that could have gone wrong
[00:19:44] as Philip tried to minister to this man from Ethiopia, but everything went right. You know why?
[00:19:51] Because he made it all about Jesus. Everything went right because it's all about Jesus.
[00:19:58] Everything went right there just happened to be a pond out there. You think that was a divine pond. I think it was Hey, look everybody We got a pond of water right here You think about everything that could go wrong?
[00:20:16] In in reaching with the gospel, but everything went right because the most important thing Is that jesus is king?
[00:20:24] he has died for your sins when you place your faith in him your answer from that moment forward is yes and amen you ain't got to pray about it you you don't have to think about it you don't
[00:20:38] have to pray about everything i love i love how we delay our disobedience we we we really disguise it pretty well well with this this spiritual air i'm gonna pray about getting baptized what's there
[00:20:53] to pray about. Jesus said, do it. And there's water. And dude, this water is even warm. You know what I'm saying? Like we didn't even, it's probably not warm anymore, but it's here. We're sitting in this nice building. We got air conditioner, we got lights, we got professional
[00:21:09] music that leads our hearts. And we, we, we had everything. Jesus said, be baptized. And we're like, no, man, I want to pray about it. No, there's nothing to pray about. There's a step to take in obedience. That's it. So, so I wonder what it is that prevents us from walking in
[00:21:27] obedience. I'll put a few on the screen. Uh, it could be your, it could be pride. It could be pride. It could be like, it could be fear. I'm afraid. I'm afraid of being embarrassed in front
[00:21:40] of everybody, whether it's baptism or not. I'm, I'm afraid of, of relinquishing control to Jesus.
[00:21:46] I'm afraid of what could happen if everybody knows I'm a Christian. I'm afraid of what might happen if I start reading my Bible in the workplace or at school. I'm afraid of what people might
[00:21:54] think about me. I've got some fears too. You know what I'm afraid of? I'm afraid of breathing my last breath on this earth and meeting my Savior face to face and giving him some lame excuse as to why I
[00:22:13] didn't walk in obedience. That's what I'm afraid of. I'm afraid of wasting my life. I'm afraid of talking about things and platitudes and talking about obedience and couched in spiritual terminology. Oh, we're going to pray about that and say, no, I'm afraid of being disobedient to
[00:22:31] God because of my flesh, because of my ego, because of my pride, because I want to be in control. That's what I'm afraid of. What are the excuses that we give to delay our obedience? What
[00:22:46] prevents us? Confusion, control, timing. You know, I'll get around to it. I'll get around to it.
[00:22:52] what did james say james said your life is like the morning mist and once the sun comes up it evaporates you you you don't know how much time you have left but but we do we think oh no i've
[00:23:10] got plenty of time to get my life on track i got plenty of time to walk in ob i'm going to take care of that later you know i just need to grow a little bit more i just gotta no no today listen
[00:23:20] today is the day of salvation don't wait another minute if you know Jesus died for your sins and is offering you eternal life all you got to do is respond in faith and trust in him why would you
[00:23:34] wait a second longer why would you wait a second longer to embrace the new life that Christ has purchased for you and if you're a child of God why would you wait a second longer to let the world
[00:23:48] know that you belong to him, to walk in obedience. This Ethiopian man, I'll close with this.
[00:24:00] This Ethiopian man was so passionate about this savior that he met. He said, there's water.
[00:24:10] I got to get baptized. What prevents me? And Philip was like, there's nothing. There's nothing.
[00:24:16] let's get baptized this man went back to his country a changed man this man went back to his country he left ethiopia wearing the uniform of candace queen of ethiopia but he came back to
[00:24:31] ethiopia wearing the uniform of jesus the christ he came back to his country changed i think it's so interesting today is actually the day that eastern orthodox christians celebrate easter It's today. Isn't that funny? Ethiopian Christians, in their history, a lot of them trace back
[00:24:55] the history of Christianity in Ethiopia. And guess who they trace it through? The only African convert recorded in scriptures. The first African convert. They trace it to this dude who brought the gospel back to his country. And Ethiopia became one of the first
[00:25:17] Christian nations. So just timeout, hold on, timeout. You're telling me that one dude who met a church member on a side of a road and surrendered his life to Christ can bring about the conversion
[00:25:33] of a whole country? I'm telling you the Spirit can do what the Spirit wants to do through a willing vessel who wants to obey the gospel. I'm telling you it's possible. So the next time you
[00:25:48] think, well, I just don't know the difference I can make. Don't put limitations on the Holy Spirit like that. Don't tell Jesus he can't do something that he wants to do. What would this world look like if each of us embraced Christ? What would this world look like if without hesitation
[00:26:05] we walked in obedience to the commands of Christ? When he says, love your neighbor as yourself, we said, okay, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul. Okay, Jesus, what would this world. Look, we don't know. We don't know what it would look like if all of us were fully surrendered
[00:26:19] to Christ. But today we have the opportunity. We have the opportunity to change our lives.
[00:26:28] We have the opportunity to change our homes. We have the opportunity to change our school and our community. We have the opportunity to turn the world upside down for the glory of God and the advancement of his kingdom. And it all begins with taking one step of obedience.
[00:26:50] we're going to have baptism here in just a minute. And we got a list. Some of y'all are baptized. We know your names. We know your testimonies. We love it when you sign up because
[00:27:00] it gets us a chance to talk to you and hear your story. Oh man, it's so cool.
[00:27:08] But you ain't got to sign up. There's water. There's water. In a few minutes, I'm finna get in that water. I'm going to dunk in the name of Jesus. Whoever comes up there, if you've trusted
[00:27:25] Christ as your savior and you say, I'm tired of not following him. Now's your chance. I'm going to pray for us. And during my prayer, if you're getting baptized, just go out to the welcome desk.
[00:27:39] They're going to line you up. If you signed up, you know what to do. If you didn't sign up, I'm telling you what to do while I'm praying, go out to the welcome desk and whoever's out there
[00:27:48] say, I trust Jesus Christ and I want to follow him and we're going to baptize and we're going to celebrate life transformation. We're going to celebrate walking in newness of life the way that only Jesus can bring about. And the church said, let's pray. Father, we love you. You're so good to
[00:28:11] us. God, forgive us for the times that we delay our obedience. Forgive us for the times that we get in our heads and we think that we got to get it all together. We got to get our lives right before we
[00:28:24] can take that. No, God, forgive us. You love us so much. I want to thank you, God, for those who ran into my life with the gospel. God, I want to thank you for my parents, my grandparents who
[00:28:46] loved me enough to tell me that I needed to follow Jesus. I want to thank you, God, for the man, my father, who baptized me in the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit when I was a
[00:28:58] kid and set me on a path, a course, a trajectory that has changed my life and changed my family and change my outlook and influence so many people through one person.
[00:29:11] That's something only you can do.
[00:29:14] Oh God, I'm so grateful.
[00:29:17] Thank you for Jesus.
[00:29:22] God, you sent people running to us with the gospel.
[00:29:24] Today, we're gonna walk out those doors and we're gonna take this gospel message with us and we're gonna run.
[00:29:32] We're gonna run and we're not gonna grow weary.
[00:29:34] We're gonna run and we're not gonna faint.
[00:29:37] We're gonna run to the person who's lost in darkness and we're going to, with all the mercy and the love that has been bestowed upon us, we're going to embrace them with the gospel and show them that there is hope
[00:29:49] and show them that there is life in the name of Jesus.
[00:29:56] We ask all these things in his name. Amen.