We Are Church | What's Standing in the Way - Acts 8:26-40 | April 20

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North Carolina, where we live as real people who are a part of a real family

serving a real God in the high country.

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Good morning, everybody. You're all seated and ready, and I'm the one walking

in late. I just wanted to make sure, you know, there's no more line at the bathroom

and all the cars have made it in here.

But welcome to Easter Sunday with Mountainside Community Church.

We're so glad that you're here, whether this is your normal church family or

whether you're visiting with us for the first time.

We're so thankful and thankful that God has brought us all together today.

There is one obligatory Easter tradition that we must partake in before we get started.

And so I'm going to say, He is risen. And then you say, He is risen indeed.

All right, everybody clear on what happens.

Okay, so let's try it. He is risen.

Beautiful. That was awesome. You guys nailed it. So thank you for that.

We got to do it. It's something we got to do.

So we gather every year during this season to celebrate the life,

the death, and the resurrection, ultimately, of Jesus. and the resurrection

is the central claim of Christianity.

So much so that the apostle Paul, who wrote many of the books and the letters

within the New Testament of the Bible, he wrote that if Christ wasn't raised

from the dead, then our preaching and our faith is useless.

And all of the apostles are just lying about God if Christ wasn't raised from the dead.

And if Christ wasn't raised from the dead, then he says, your faith is useless

and you're still guilty of your sins. and that anyone who has died believing

in Jesus, believing in the Christ is lost.

And that if we have our hope in Jesus for this life only, then we are more to

be pitied than anyone else in the world.

But thanks be God that Jesus is alive.

Resurrection is real. It is real.

There is overwhelming evidence for the resurrection. It has been the central

claim of Christianity from the beginning.

Nearly every single one of the disciples who were that close to Jesus suffered

and died holding on to disbelief.

They didn't hold on to it because they had stolen his body. They didn't hold

on to it because they lied.

They held on to it because they were convinced that he was alive.

They were convinced they had seen him.

They had experienced him. In fact, thousands upon thousands of people in just

the first few days of the church radically changed their lives and their belief

systems because they had met the risen Jesus.

As the message of Jesus' resurrection spread, thousands of people radically were changed.

And this is something that's documented outside of the Bible as well.

It's one of the most well-documented events in history.

Even skeptics, even enemies of the church were transformed as they encountered the risen Jesus.

And this invitation extends for us as well today.

To come and to be changed as we meet Jesus personally.

There's the invitation here for us all to encounter Jesus today personally.

So maybe this is all new to you.

Maybe this is, you're coming questioning, you're coming curious.

Maybe you're just coming to watch.

And you know, there might be some strange things. You might hear some strange

things, some things that might make you uncomfortable. And that's all right.

You're welcome here. You're welcome to observe, to ask questions,

to engage as you are able and to just press in as you are able.

Because today we're inviting you to experience something real.

We're inviting you to experience the living God.

We're inviting you to experience Jesus.

And if something stirs within you, if something moves in your heart,

if you're overcome with emotions, I don't want you to let go of that.

I don't want you to talk yourself out of it. I want you just to remain open to the Lord.

Just remain open to Jesus this morning.

So wherever you are, wherever you're coming for him, whatever you're feeling

today, if you're coming curious or questioning, if you're coming tired,

if you're coming hurt, if you're coming hopeful, whatever you're feeling this morning,

I just want you to bring your whole self, bring everything that you are,

come as you are. You don't have to clean yourself up. You don't have to pretend.

You don't have to have everything figured out.

You just want to come open and ready because the reality that we're experiencing

today is that God has already done everything through Jesus.

He's removed every barrier. He's taken rid of, he's gotten rid of everything

that's standing in the way so that we can come freely before him this morning.

And so that's what we're inviting you into. And so if you would all just go

ahead and stand with me, we're going to begin by singing to Jesus.

We're going to begin by singing to the one who is alive, to the one who washes

us clean, to the one who brings us into new life,

the one who covers up, who drenches us in his love, and the one who's here with us even today.

Why don't we begin with a game? What are you saying? This is a game that was

created by a Harvard Business School professor, which he plays with his students every year.

And so I thought we might try it out today.

It's a game called What's My Idol or What's Your Idol?

So, you know, maybe some of you were enthusiastic that we were playing a game

at the beginning, but then you're a little less so at this point.

But this is seriously something that a Harvard Business School professor created

because the reality is, is that we all worship something.

The late author, David Foster Wallace, who was not a Christian,

he said that you don't decide to worship.

Everybody worships. The only choice that you get to make is what you worship.

So he's illustrating this idea that all of us are wired to and for worship.

Another author, C.S. Lewis, you may have heard of him. He said something along

the same lines in the sense that we are made for this.

And he said, if I find within myself desires that nothing in this world can

satisfy, then the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.

So not surprisingly, the Bible says something very similar in Ecclesiastes chapter three,

says that God has planted eternity into the heart of man because people cannot

see, they cannot grasp the full scope of God's work from beginning to end.

And so we are made for something more. Each of us, deep down,

we all have this sense that there is something more to life than what we can

see, something beyond all of this.

We all have this understanding. We all have this sense.

We're all wired to seek meaning and purpose and the transcendence.

We've all been created in this way. The question is not if you worship,

the question is what are you going to worship?

Thomas Aquinas is one of the great minds in church history.

He's also a pretty good behavioral scientist, which is why this Harvard professor uses his work.

He said that every human heart tends to run after one of four false gods,

that everybody in this room is prone to wander towards one of four idols, as he called them.

It's money, power, praise, or pleasure.

And so these are the four idols that this Harvard Business School professor

took and made this game out of.

Money, power, pleasure, and praise. And these are the counterfeit gods of the

human heart, which they promise life, but they never deliver.

In fact, they are usually at the root of every decision we've probably regretted

in our life, that we've pursued these counterfeit gods.

Because some people are drawn to money, and this is more than just the desire

to have more than enough.

This is looking for something for security. It's looking to something for status.

It's even that belief, if I just had a little more, then I'd really be happy.

So that's what the pursuit of money is. Some people chase after control.

This is the ability to shape the world around you, to command situations,

to command events, to command people even.

But it's not just about being in charge. It's about being the one who gets to

decide what happens next.

This is what power and control is. For some people, it's all about pleasure,

the pursuit of what feels good.

Maybe we could put it as the absence of pain.

So it's desiring and chasing after things like comfort, like entertainment, like escape.

So this is what pleasure is, and it comes in a variety of forms.

It could just be experiences. It could be things that we seek after.

And it could just be the constant desire to want to be amused or distracted.

This is the scope of pleasure. And then there are those of us who chase after

or who are captured by praise, the admiration of other people.

And this is the desire to be liked, the desire to be appreciated,

the desire for others to feel like we're important, even more so if those are

people that we care to impress, the people whose opinions we value most.

So it's not just about applause, it's making sure that the right people are clapping.

So this is the four idols that every human heart chases after,

money, power, pleasure, and praise.

And if we all spoke Spanish, we could change money to plata or something like

that, or if we were in Mexico, maybe pesos, but then we'd have all Ps, obviously.

But then we'd probably have to change another word.

I don't speak Spanish, so it doesn't work. Somebody can let me know later.

So that money, power, pleasure, and praise. We just keep to the English ones that we understand.

And the way we do this is not by choosing which one is our idol,

because it's too easy to kind of trick ourselves and talk ourselves out of it.

The way that we do this most effectively is by eliminating the ones that are

not our idols, and then we are left with the one that we can't bear to let go

of, the one that captures us, the one that tempts our heart.

And that's the one that might be getting in the way of us, of you experiencing

a real life with God. So these are our idols.

Power, money, pleasure, praise. You've got four. Which one are we going to get

rid of? Let's do this collectively.

Somebody shout one out.

Money. Okay, we're going to get rid of money, right? So maybe that's because

you've realized that all the great things in life you don't really need money for.

Sure, money makes things easier. It gives you opportunities.

Maybe you can buy some fun things But all the real meaningful stuff like family

and and and sunsets and Whatever it may be all of that stuff You don't need money to buy, right?

So maybe you can be content without money and it's not necessarily what we idolize

or what what captures our hearts We don't need to feel like we need to control

our circumstances in that way.

Okay, so we have three left Power pleasure praise.

What else we're going to get rid of praise? Okay.

So this is obviously the admiration of others.

And praise is a really hard one because it feels good when others praise us,

when they acknowledge our accomplishments or they clap for us or whatever it may be.

It feels good, but it's fragile. It doesn't always last. The applause fades, the likes disappear.

And pretty soon what we end up finding ourselves is performing for people that

may not know us, probably don't love us.

So praise is a tricky one. All right. So we have two left. This is where it

really starts to get personal.

We're starting to get to the root of our hearts. So we have power and we have

pleasure. Which one are we going to get rid of next?

Power. The kids are really vocal. So hopefully this is lining up with some of

y'all's decisions as well. Power, right?

So maybe we're not driven to control things. Maybe we're pretty content with the way things are.

Maybe even having power over people is a really heavy burden for us.

And these hierarchical systems that we live in make us uncomfortable. Interestingly.

Tend to be okay with other people having power over them are usually the people

who crave power because the system of power feels normal.

So it's not a strange thing for them to have someone have power over them.

Now they want to be the one in charge, but those of us who really struggle to

be under authority probably don't also want to be the person in charge.

It's just a really weird thing that takes place.

So now what we're left with in this exercise together is pleasure.

Maybe we've learned, maybe it's all about instant gratification in our culture,

chasing after the next thrill, the next indulgence, the next thing to satisfy us.

So maybe the root desire of our heart is pleasure. Maybe it's escape.

That's what Netflix and streaming services are all about.

Sit in front of a TV and binge and forget about everything else for a few minutes.

Just constantly being distracted, constantly being amused. Now,

if you're playing along, you may have made different decisions.

Your results may vary, is what I'm trying to say.

But here's the point. The point is that everyone chases idols.

We don't get to choose that. Everyone chases idols.

There's always something that we're looking to for meaning, for purpose,

for our identity, to place our identity in.

There's always something that we're looking to for these things.

And the trouble is that these idols always over-promise and under-deliver.

They always are asking and begging us to pursue them more, and they demand more from us.

But then what they do is they leave us empty.

What they do is they create this cycle that we're locked in where we're craving

more, but they never satisfy.

And so in the pursuit of them, what happens is we often end up making those

decisions that we regret, just to get that next feeling.

So whenever you've felt shame, whenever you've felt regret in your life,

it's probably because you've been chasing your idol, whichever idol that may be.

But here's the good news that you won't find in a Harvard Business School class,

is that we were made for more than these idols.

We were made for something more real, more tangible, something greater,

something better, something more

filling. We were made for more than these idols that we all chase after.

And for Thomas Aquinas, I mentioned at the beginning, for him,

the ultimate fulfillment of every human longing, the key to true happiness,

true and lasting happiness is found in supernatural union with God.

And now this union begins now and it stretches into eternity as we are drawn

into deeper, the deeper love of Jesus.

In the Bible, in the book of Micah, chapter 6.

Micah 6 · chapter mention

It talks about how the Lord has told you, O man, what is good and what he requires of us.

He says to do what is right, to love mercy, to love justice,

and to walk humbly with our God.

That this is what it's all about. This is the deepest longing of our hearts.

This is what we were created for, to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

And so everything else falls short and it leaves an empty spot in our hearts.

That we were created with eternity in our hearts.

So you don't have to exhaust yourself. You don't have to perform.

You don't have to have it all figured out or get it all together.

You don't have to chase these things that will never love you back.

You don't have to, because Jesus invites us into something new,

a new way of living, a new kind of worship, a new kind of freedom that's found in him.

He alone can give us the security we look for in money.

He alone can give us the control that we seek in power. He alone can give us

a satisfaction that you crave and pleasure.

He alone can give you the affirmation that you're looking for and praise.

In his presence, the Bible says, there is fullness of joy and at his right hand

are pleasures forevermore.

So that's why we bring our praise to Jesus.

We bring our praise not to a lifeless idol that can never love us back,

but to a living and breathing God.

Because the reality that we're celebrating here this morning is that every other

God is an idol that cannot see, that cannot hear.

Every other God is an idol, but there is one true living God.

There is one true living God.

Would you mind just standing again for the reading of the word?

This is from Acts 24 to 40. Okay.

Then Simon answered, Oh, I'm sorry. Wrong one.

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, Go south to the road,

to the desert road, that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch,

an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake,

which means Queen of the Ethiopians.

This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in

his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. it.

The Spirit told Philip, Go to that chariot and stay near it.

Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet.

Do you understand what you are reading? Philip asked.

How can I? He said, unless someone

explains it to me. So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

This is the passage of scripture the eunuch was reading.

He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is

silent, so he did not open his mouth.

In his humiliation, he was deprived of justice.

Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.

The eunuch asked Philip, Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about,

himself or someone else?

Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

As they traveled along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said,

Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized.

And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went

down into the water, and Philip baptized him.

When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip

away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.

Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about preaching the gospel

in all the towns until he reached Caesarea. You can be seated again.

All right, now we get to the heart of the matter, the heart of the story,

as Lori read for us, and as Julie explained a little bit.

This is what we call the gospel, which is a word that just means good news.

Specifically, it means the good news of a coming king.

But the gospel is just a word that means good news. And so that's what we're going to talk about.

And it's this reality that the Bible is not a book that is about how we have to make our way to God.

It's not a book that tells us and teaches us how we have to what we have to

do to get to god The bible is a book about what god has already done to come to us.

And so this is why it's good news that through the life, the death,

and the resurrection of Jesus, that God has made a way for us to have real life,

to have real and lasting life.

In Acts chapter 8, as we just heard, we meet this Ethiopian man.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

And we don't know a lot about this man.

We don't even know his name. But here's what we do know. We know that he was

a high-ranking official.

He was in charge of all of the treasury of the kingdom of Ethiopia,

Queen Candace. He was in charge of all of her treasury.

We know that he was important.

He was educated. He was successful. He was powerful.

We also know that he was searching. He had a heart that was searching because

he went hundreds of miles out of his way to worship at the temple of Jerusalem.

And when he got there, because of who he is, he wasn't even allowed to enter.

In Deuteronomy, it talks about that no one who is a eunuch is able to be admitted

into the assembly of the Lord.

So he had to worship at a distance. He traveled hundreds of miles to worship

at a distance, but still he had a heart that was longing, was hungry for God.

On the way home, he was reading from the scriptures. He was reading from the scroll of Isaiah.

And this means that he didn't just show up, but he studied.

He learned Hebrew, which is not an easy language, not even for him. He had prepared.

I don't know about you, but I still get all of these passive aggressive notifications

from Duolingo that I have missed my language lesson for the 80th day in a row.

And you can ask me afterwards and I will pull up my home screen and it will

have 80 on it. And then a really sad looking bird.

He had studied, he had prepared, he was longing for God.

So he's hungry. And here's what I believe. I believe that there are people in

this room who are just like him.

Whether you know it or not, you're curious, you're hungry, you're looking for something more.

You're hungry for something more. Maybe you can't quite explain it.

Maybe you don't know what that is yet, but you've wondered, is there something

bigger, something greater, something beyond all of this? This is the eunuch. He was yearning.

He was longing for the transcendent, for the world beyond ours. there's.

And so when Philip hears him reading this passage in Isaiah that he's reading,

he comes up along beside him.

And then he explains to him what this passage is really all about.

And this is the passage that he was reading in Isaiah chapter 53,

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

that he was pierced for our rebellion.

He was crushed for our sin, that he was beaten, that we would be made whole.

He was whipped, that we would be cleansed, that we would be washed because all

of us like sheep have gone astray.

All of us have wandered and chased after these idols. And yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

So Philip tells him that this is about Jesus.

And this is the gospel. This is the good news. This is incredibly good news

for you that God created a world and he created you for it to live in harmony with him,

to live in his love, to live under his authority, to be with him and to then

spread his blessing around the world, to fill the earth, the Bible says,

with his blessing, with his love.

This was his design and this was his plan, but we broke it. We broke the world.

We wanted to be our own gods.

We wanted to decide for ourself what is good, what is evil. This is what we

call sin. When we use the word sin, this is what we're talking about.

We're talking about the fact that we want to decide for ourselves how to live

our lives instead of trusting God.

And the result of sin is brokenness.

Brokenness in you, brokenness around you.

And that's why we live in a world that is marked by division.

It's why we live in a world that's marked by shame. It's why we live in a world

that is marked by pain and suffering.

It's because of sin. And we all try to fix it. We all feel it,

right? We all feel this brokenness and we all try to fix it in our own way.

We all try to fix it in our pursuits of power or pleasure or money.

We all try and fix it in our pursuits of comfort and our pursuits of relationships.

Even with religion, we try and fix this broken problem, but none of us can ever fix it.

None of us gets us out. None of us fixes this brokenness. And that's why God

sent Jesus into the world. He came, Jesus came as God in the flesh.

He came to live the life that we could never live.

Perfect, pure, obedient. And he died the death that we deserve.

But here's the thing. Jesus didn't just die to cancel our debt, to cancel sin.

He died to give us new life.

His blood cleanses and it transforms. It's a weird thing that Christians sing so much about blood.

It's like Christians in metal bands. But the reality is, is that when we sing

about blood, we're not singing about death.

We're singing about the life that Jesus brings us.

We're celebrating that life through the resurrection.

This is the new, this is what we talk about. When we talk about the new covenant

of the Bible that Jesus ushers in, we're not talking about rules.

We're not talking about ritual.

We're not talking about.

Behavior modification. We're not talking about cleaning ourselves up.

What we're talking about is what Jesus has already done.

We're talking about the fact that he has come and he has ushered in to us a new life.

He doesn't just wipe the slate clean and then say, here, try again.

Sometimes we do that with Canaan. If he comes in and has an attitude,

we say, all right, come back and try again.

God doesn't do that with us. He says, he gives you the spirit and he gives you

the life of God in you to be able to live for him.

He doesn't say, impress me with your discipline. He says, let me change you

from the inside out. Let me transform your life.

Let me do it with you. That's grace. That's what we call grace.

That's what we call the Spirit's work. That you don't have to carry the weight of your past.

You don't have to live in fear or worry about messing up your future.

You don't have to do these things. You don't have to put so much effort into cleaning up your life.

The cross was once for all. The record of debt canceled.

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

We don't white knuckle ourselves into God's favor.

We don't do it by cleaning ourselves up, by fixing ourselves.

It's not about being good enough.

It's about admitting that we're not and entrusting in the one who is,

the one who has made a way, that one who has removed everything that's standing

in the way, the one who has done everything we could never do and he offers

us what we could never earn.

That all of your sins, past, present, and future have been forever fully forgiven

through the blood of Jesus.

That no, there's no sin that you've committed that hasn't already been dealt with.

There's no record of debt that hasn't already been canceled.

The cross has dealt with them all.

Jesus doesn't come and lower the bar for holiness just so we feel better about ourselves.

He comes and he deals with the weight of it all. He pays the complete cost so

that we can come home to him.

That all of your sins, past, present, and future have been fully forever forgiven

through the blood of Jesus.

And this is why the gospel is good news. It's good news because it announces

that God has already done for us what we could never do for ourselves.

It's good news because we don't have to climb our way up to God.

He has already come to us.

It's good news because we are all more broken than we care to admit.

But we are also simultaneously more loved than we could ever imagine.

It's good news because Jesus lived the life that we couldn't.

He died the death that we deserved.

And he rose again to offer us new life, to offer us a new life that we don't

get by earning it, but we get by receiving it.

It's good news because we are not defined by our past.

You are not defined by your shame, your guilt, your sin.

You are not defined by what you have done in this life. You have been made new.

In Jesus, through what Jesus has done, we are defined by what he has done.

And through that, we are forgiven. We are made new. We are called beloved.

This is good news because death doesn't get the final word and neither does

our struggle or our pain.

Jesus gets the final word. It's good news because the God who made you wants you.

He doesn't just want you to fix yourself.

He doesn't want you to just clean up and try harder. He wants you to come as

you are and be transformed from the inside out.

This is the good news. This is the gospel that God has made a way that he's

already done everything necessary to bring you back home.

He's removed every barrier. He's gotten rid of every wall that's standing in the way.

That on the cross, Jesus has already done the work on the cross and he made

the statement. He made the statement that my life isn't taken.

I freely give it. I freely give it to redeem, to save, to make new,

to cleanse and heal so that we can follow in his example and freely give of

ourselves, surrender all of us for all of him.

That's the trade. All of us for all of him.

And that's what we've already been singing about. That's what we've already been celebrating.

The trade that Jesus made on the cross, all of us, all of our sin,

all of our guilt, all of our shame, he takes and he removes and he gives to

us his life and his righteousness.

In Acts chapter 8, verses 35 to 39, it says that Philip shared with this Ethiopian

Acts 8:35–39

man the good news about Jesus.

And as they're riding along, they came to some water and the Ethiopian eunuch

said, look, here's some water.

What is preventing me? What is stopping me? What's standing in the way of me being baptized?

So he ordered the chariot to stop. They walked down to the water and Philip baptized him.

And as they came out of the water, the spirit took Philip away,

but the Ethiopian man left rejoicing, is what it says, that the Ethiopian man

had found everything he was searching for, for his whole life in the person of Jesus.

Everything he was craving, everything he was looking for.

It was such good news, personal and powerful, that he couldn't help to worship.

In fact, he turned to Philip and essentially said, what could possibly stop me?

What is standing in my way? And so the question stands for us,

what is standing in your way?

Some of you may not be convinced that this is truly good news.

So let me show you why this Ethiopian man, for him, this hits so differently,

that it hits so hard, it hits so close to home, because just a few chapters

after what he was reading in the scroll of Isaiah.

Just a few chapters later, here's what the scriptures say. This is the promises

that Jesus came to fulfill.

It says, don't let foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord say the Lord

will never let me be part of his people.

And don't let the eunuchs say, I am a dried up tree with no children and no future.

But this is what the Lord says. I will bless those eunuchs who commit their lives to me.

I will give them within the walls of my house a memorial and a name that sons

and daughters could never hold.

That is far greater than sons and daughters.

A name that is everlasting. A name that will never disappear.

I will bring them to my holy mountain of Jerusalem and I will fill them with

joy in my house of prayer.

This is the promise that Jesus came to fulfill. And this is everything that

the Ethiopian man was looking for. What had he given up?

He gave up children. He gave up a family. He gave up a future.

He gave up the right to worship in the house of the Lord.

What did he get with Jesus? He got everything that he ever desired and more.

Not at a distance, but within the walls of God's house.

Jesus brings him home. He gives him a name. He gives him a future.

He fills him with joy. And then when he comes out of the water,

he's not confused. He's not cautious. He is rejoicing.

He is filled to full with joy. So what is standing in your way?

Maybe it's pride. Maybe you just want to fix yourself. You want to do it yourself.

You want to just do better and that will be good enough. But it's never enough.

The harder I try, the more mistakes I make.

Maybe it's shame. Maybe you believe that you're too far gone,

that you've messed up too much, you're too broken.

Maybe someone has made you or made you feel like you have to stand at a distance.

Or maybe that you feel like you're marked by your past mistakes or the mistakes

of other people that they have made that have affected you.

But Jesus has already dealt with everything. He's already come near.

He's always made a way. There's nothing standing between you.

Maybe it's about doubt.

Maybe you're not sure that you believe enough. Maybe you're afraid that you don't know enough.

Maybe you just don't know.

But just a little bit of faith, whatever you have, bring it to him.

He promises that he will overflow his spirit within you.

He can take whatever little bit you have and he can multiply it.

Maybe it's comfort that's standing in the way.

Maybe you just want to do it your own way. You're not ready to let go.

You're still holding on to doing life for yourself.

Jesus tells us in the Bible that when we try to hold on to our life,

when we try to save ourselves, that's when we lose everything.

But when we give it up for him, when we let go and give it to him,

is when he overwhelms us with joy and blessings.

The truth is that Jesus has already done everything necessary.

He's already made a way. He's already removed every obstacle.

There's a passage in the book of Romans chapter eight that says,

I'm convinced that neither death nor life, angels or demons,

not the regrets or the fears that we have of today, the regrets of our past,

the worries for tomorrow,

nothing, no power in the sky above, no powers in the earth below,

not even hell can separate us from the love of God.

That there's nothing in all of creation that is able to separate us,

to separate you from the love of God through Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Nothing is standing in the way, nothing, except what we put there, except ourselves.

So here's the invitation, and this is an invitation to life.

It's an invitation that God has already made a way through Jesus.

He's already done everything necessary. He's already torn down every barrier.

He's already removed every wall.

No one can stop you. The suffering servant has already paid the price.

He laid down his life freely so that freely we can come.

So I'm going to ask plainly, will you trust him?

Will you trade in your effort and your striving for surrender?

Will you come back home? Let me just do this. If everybody would close their eyes.

No pressure, no hype.

I just want to remove any distractions.

Nobody's watching. Nobody except God and me. I'm going to keep my eyes open. I don't want to trip.

If you're here today and you never knew that this is what the gospel was really about.

And as we celebrated this morning, something is stirred in your heart.

And you feel like, I want to receive this. I want to be washed clean. I want to be made whole.

I want to be made holy. I want to say yes to Jesus for the first time.

If that is you this morning, I just want to invite you to raise your hand.

Raise your hand as a way of saying yes.

I want to say yes to Jesus for the first time.

Thank you. And if you're here this morning and you've already said yes to Jesus,

but along the way, you've just put up some walls.

You've built some barriers that don't need to be there.

Maybe you've tried to remake God in your own image. You just need to stop and

turn around and trust again. Maybe that's you this morning.

And if that's you, I just also want to invite you to raise your hand as your

way of saying yes. I want Jesus. I want him. I want to say yes to him.

Thank you. You guys put your hands down. Everybody can open their eyes.

I have one more invitation for you. We have one more song, and I know we're

running a little bit behind.

I'm not a military, like, let's do this at this time.

I was like, all right, we're going to get done at 1230, and then we're going

to do our Easter egg hunt, and we're going to eat all the good food.

But I understand there's lines at the bathroom. We can't, it can't be helped.

I'll have one last invitation.

As we sing this last song, for those of you who raised your hand and those of

you who haven't, if you felt God tugging at your heart still,

I just want to invite you during the song, you can step outside.

There'll be some people out there on the porch who are ready to pray for you.

If you came with someone, take them with you.

Just tell them what Jesus is doing in your life.

Pray with them. And if you've never made this decision before or if you've never

made it public, which is what I'm inviting you to do, right?

For those of you who've already made this private decision to make it public,

I just want to invite you to follow in the footsteps of this Ethiopian man who

was brave enough to stop everything and ask that question, what is stopping me now?

Am I going to let things get in the way still? Am I going to put up these walls?

And so we can baptize you today because we have shirts, we have shorts,

we have some really ugly Crocs that we can still take back to Walmart.

You don't have to keep them.

We have everything you need. We have towels, nothing's stopping you.

And so I don't want you to talk yourself out of it because you're going to win.

You're going to harden your heart.

So just remain open to God and say, yes. I'm going to make that private yes

public and respond as we sing this last song.

This is the time for us to stop the chariot and get out it's the time for us to step into that.

All the things that God brings us the incredible more that he adds to our life,

the life that he gives the real life that he gives us this is something we talk

about here at Mountainside is we want to be real people who are part of a real

family and worship and serve the real God,

because our true, real, authentic selves is found in God to just step into real life.

So let that private yes become public.

Music.