Conformed in the Image of Christ - Leland Zehr

Each one in the class this morning, so that's special

and other relatives and friends and neighbors, We thank you

for coming for this baptism service here this morning, for

Isaac and Karna and Maddie, and I greet you in

the name of Jesus, as revelation says him that loved

us and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

and hath made us kings and priests, and to God

and his Father, to him be glory and dominion forever

and ever.

Amen.

And so of course, as we've already sang about and

heard this morning, it's because of Jesus that we're even

here today. If it wasn't for him, it's hard saying

what would be happening in our lives. And I thank

you Jason for those words onforgiveness, very central theme in

the know in a time of baptism, and what that

represents this morning is a little different service. It's a

special service, and we like special services, but one of

the drawbacks to special services on Sunday mornings is that

the children miss their Sunday school time. And if you

have children in your home, you think about that more.

And we also have a couple more special service Sunday

morning services coming up before too long here over the

next three weeks, and they will miss Sunday school then

as well. And so in light of some of that,

I thought, I'm going to spend part of my time

here this morning with telling a story to you children.

And I think i'd like you to come up this

morning and maybe the baptism class.

If you just want to move back.

One bench to make sure there's room until go ahead,

until children class is over, and then all of you

children are welcome to come up and sit on these

front two benches. I'd like to come down to you,

but I think for the sake of organization and my

notes and the speaking and I want to hold a mic,

it'll be a little smoother, come on up to the

front right here with all these Yeah, if you need

to use the second bench back, just fill in the back.

Yeah, Isaac, Yeah, help him and then he can sit

by those boys there you go.

Well, good morning. It's so nice to see your children

here this morning. It really is adds a blessing to

a service to a community. To have children. I love children.

They're way less complicated than adults, and they're just honest

and bright eyed and genuine, not that adults aren't, but

I want so this morning, children, I want to ask

you a question.

I don't know.

I suppose some of you older ones might know, but

this morning is what we've been talking about is a

baptism class. And I'm wondering how many of you know

what baptism is?

Do you? It's all right if you don't, but if.

You do, raise your hand. If you're not sure, can

leave it down. Okay, few of you know what baptism.

Is, what it means.

I want to tell you a story here about It's

a true story about a boy named Jesse Hernandez. This

happened in the city of Los Angeles, California, a number

of years back, and it was similar to this time

of the year. It was an Easter. It was an

Easter Sunday in April, and Jesse was having a picnic

with his family at a park. And that Sunday afternoon

he was with some other children and as they played

around the park, they decided they wanted to go exploring,

and like children do, it's interesting to go out into

the weeds in the woods, and so that's what they did.

They went exploring near the park. They climbed over a

fence and they found an old, broken down remains of

a building, and there wasn't much there left. I don't

know if anything was left besides the concrete park stem

walls a floor, and inside that floor was planks of

wood laying around, and they were just having a good time.

It had used to be a maintenance building of some

kind for the city there, and as they played on

the top of that surface and on the wood, they

were having a nice time. But they did not realize

a couple things. And one of the things that they

didn't understand or know was that some of those planks

of wood were old and decayed and rotten, not very

strong anymore. And those planks of wood were over holes

that dropped down into the ground. And those those holes

didn't drop down into the ground just a little bit.

They dropped down into the ground a long ways, at

least one of them. And they say it was twenty

five feet And I didn't go measure, but I'm guessing

if you would walk out into our gym where we're

gonna have lunch afterwards, and you would go to the

highest point of that roof and you'd look up at

that I don't know if that would even be twenty

five feet. That might be close to twenty five feet,

but it's quite a ways up there where it was

quite a ways down there, but they didn't know that

it was just wood planks and they played.

Another thing that they didn't know was that.

Down that hole it had been a maintenance building. But

in one of those holes there was a big sewer

line that was active and alive, and that ran underground,

and it was twenty five feet deep, and it was

a big sewer line. It was like four feet in diameter.

So a lot of you children, it would be if

you could stand up in that pipe and it would

be higher than your head. So a great, big, massive pipe.

And I don't know if you know what sewer pipes

are or what sewage is, but sewer is a really nasty, dirty,

yucky runoff water. They call it waste water. It comes

from different places. We don't think about it living on farms,

but in cities. When you go into a big city,

often we're impressed with the big buildings and bridges and

roads and the infrastructure that we see. But one of

the things that I think about often that impresses me

as a builder, and I don't do much of this,

but underneath those cities that you can't see is just

a network of all kinds of other things and pipes

and power and water, electricity, gas, just a maze of stuff.

And one of the things that's under there is these

big pipes that carry this sewage water that comes off

of buildings, roofs, parking lots, sidewalks, and also when you

flush the toilet, water that goes from there goes down

into those sewages, and so it's a really dirty, filthy place,

and they run underground, they run it out to certain places,

and then it's treated process. As these children were playing

on top of these this area, Jesse was walking across

one of these planks and the plank broke and he

fell twenty five feet all the way to the bottom

of that great, big pipe.

And that pipe was.

Rushing with sewage water, maybe eighteen to twenty four inches

of water, going at like fifteen miles an hour. And

I don't know if you know how fast fifteen miles

an hour is, but it's faster than probably most of

us in this room can.

Run, even the big people.

So it was like a little creek that was just

running with this terrible, nasty, filthy water, and he hit

the bottom of that and he disappeared. And so right

away they called the fire department, the rescue people, and

they came out and they look down into that hole

and all they could see was water running by, and

there was no Jesse. And of course in that area,

it's dark, it's stinky, it's jermy, it's toxic, and a

person in that environment cannot live. They don't know how long.

But between the toxic fumes and the possibility of drownding,

the likelihood of surviving that is for very long is

not good. And it's sobering. And the other thing when

that pipe underground there there's a crisscross of pipes. There

wasn't just one, but these pipes would go and there'd

be intersections of other pipes that would come into them,

and so it's just this maze across the city and

they would go under freeways and roads, and mister Stadley

knows about this. He drills big holes under freeways to

run these kind of pipes in. And so when this

Jesse dropped in, they weren't exactly sure which.

Area he was going to end up.

At as he went flowing down that pipe, and what

do you do. You can't jump into those pipes and

chase him.

It's all closed.

In and a lot of areas it's hard topped and

there's no way to get in. But every so often

they have these man holes that you can pull up

a lid, but all you can.

See is that spot in the pipe. So they.

Launched an all out rescue effort for anybody that they

thought that could help them. They brought in the sanitary department,

which ran all those pipes and that system, the fire department,

the police, the Department of Water and Power, they brought

the park rangers in all searching for this boy. Trying

to find him. Over one hundred people came. But what

do you do with one hundred people when you're looking

for a boy that's in a pipe somewhere underground. So

what they did was they decided to drop these vendor cameras,

which are like a remote camera that you can drop

down into these pipes. And these cameras can swim, crawl,

make their way through these pipes and have a camera

and the person running them can look. And so they

can go down through these pipes and look for whatever's

in there, so they put cameras in there to see

if they could find him somewhere along the way. In

their search, they found through the camera, in this rushing

water they could see on the sides of the pipe

there was smear marks handprints, and they knew that or

thought that that must have been Jesse trying to stop

himself as he got rushed down through that area. So

that helped them endpoint which pipe he was still in,

and they planned accordingly trying to find him. The afternoon

turned into evening and it got dark and they still

hadn't found Jesse, and so they continued to search all

night long as best they could, and around four thirty

the next morning, one of the rescue workers went to

a manhole to block the lid and put down another camera,

and when he pulled up the lid, there was Jesse,

and he was looking up and he was crying out

for help. Jesse was alive, but he was cold, he

was wet, he was filthy from head to toe, and

he had been washed down out sewer pipe for close

to three quarter of a mile before he caught at

some kind of an intersection where he could hold on

and then he just stood there and he waited. It

was over twelve hours later from when he had fell in.

He had fell in that afternoon and it was the

next morning, at four point thirty in the morning when

they found him and they were able to pull him up,

wash him off with soap and water.

They took him to the hospital.

They decontaminated him, he valued him medically and he seemed okay.

So they put on warm, clean clothes and they sent

him home to his family. Later, when they were talking

to Jesse, I don't know what all he said, but

a couple of the things that he said is when

he fell, he said, the water just took me.

He couldn't stop, and he said, I was praying to.

God to help me not to die. Now what does

that story have to do with baptism. Well, there's a

lot of parallels that we could draw from that story.

But I want to just tell you children a little

bit here that some of you are small, some of

you are bigger. But when you disobey your mom and daddy,

or when you lie to them, or when you hit,

when you do mean things and you do sinful things,

there's something that happens to you. You might not think

about it too much, but you don't feel very good

about it. You get kind of a hard look on

your face. You know you did wrong. You're kind of unhappy.

And that is called guilt. That is that is a dirty,

dirty inner feeling of the inside that God has placed

in us when we do bad things.

And so what when when when sin?

And kind of like when Jesse fell into that sewer

pipe made him filthy from head to toe, accept sin

instead of like a sewer pipe.

It makes us.

Filthy on the inside, and we feel dirty and naughty

and guilty and miserable. And how do you clean a

person on the inside. You know they could wash Jessee

off with soap and water, but.

How do you clean a body and a mind and a.

Heart that is dirty? Does clean water and soap clean it?

If you tell a lie to your mom and dad

and they don't know it, can you sneak into the

bathroom and get soap and water and wash your mouth

and then feel better about it? Doesn't clean the inside,

does it? So what you have to do as children

is go tell your mom and daddy I'm sorry I lied,

and then you can be free and clean again. And

you don't have to worry about it. When people get

bigger into youth and adults and they have sinned, then

it takes the blood of Jesus to cleanse us and

to wash us and to make us clean and whole again.

And there's a little there's a verse and acts to

when Peter was preaching to the people, and it says

that they were pricked in their hearts.

And that's kind of that same idea that you get

a little bit guilty in.

It's oh, it's uncomfortable. They were pricked in their heart.

And then they asked a question to Peter. They said,

what should we do? And Peter said this, repent and

be baptized, every one of you in the name of

Jesus Christ for the remission or that's for the forgiveness

of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the

Holy Ghost. And so, young children, as you watch this morning,

you can learn more and maybe a little bit more

about baptism. But baptism that we're doing this morning is

an outward sign. After a while, Lord Willing, we're going

to pour water on the head of Isaac and Madeleine

and Karna, but that isn't to wash their.

Hair, wash their head, or wash the outside.

But the Bible says that when you repent and get

cleansed on the inside, you should get baptized as an

outward sign to show what has happened on the inside.

And so that is, in a nutshell, part of what

baptism is to commit to Jesus in a public expression

of that. So thank you for coming up here. You

can go back to your parents. Hopefully this breaks up

your service a little bit and you can sit really

good for your mom and dad.

For the remainder of the service. Okay, you can go

back to your parents.

We could take the remainder of the message this morning,

I suppose and make illustrations from the story of Jesse,

but I have some other things I want to say.

I'll make a couple illustrations. I'm sure you can do

that all in your own mind, and you've already have.

But just a couple.

The realities are that, like Jesse, sometimes when we're playing

around in life not paying attention, we fall into the sewer,

into the spiritual sewer. And when that happens. Once we fall,

we're not in much control anymore. Once we've made that choice,

made that step, we get it into the rushing sewage

of life.

And we didn't mean to go that far.

We didn't mean to get washed down the pipe three

quarters of a mile. But we don't have any choice

in the matter at that point. There's consequences that we

can make the choice, but consequences we cannot choose. Another

thing on the brighter side I would like to just

point out is it's always touching when someone is in

trouble and the rescuers come and Jesse I don't believe

would have made it that night. If someone wouldn't have

came and helped him, he could have sat at the

bottom of that sewer and been.

As sorry as he wanted.

But without Jesus, without other people to help us, at

times we die, we have no hope. So that is

a lesson for all of us. And just maybe a

little bit more on this. King David, one night, one evening,

was out on a rooftop fooling around. I don't know

if he was playing, but he wasn't fighting the war

like he should have been, and he fell, or probably

more likely jumped, into the sin of Bathsheba, and that

sin led him down a dark tunnel of heartache and

despair and death. And when David was finally confronted with

his sin, he cried out to God to cleanse him

and to help him. And I want to read some

of those verses and Psalms fifty one. Jason alluded to it.

If you want to turn there, you can. I'm not

going to read the whole Psalm, but just to kind

of bring some closure to this part about falling into

sin and being cleansed Psalm fifty one, And I'm just

going to read a few of these verses, starting a

verse one. Have mercy upon me of God. This was

a testimony of David as he stood before God and

was confronted with the reality of the sin that he

had done. Have mercy upon me of God, according to

thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

Blot out my transgressions, Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin.

Verse six.

Behold thou desirous truth in the inward parts and in

the hidden part, Thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hissip, and I shall be clean. Wash me,

and I shall be whiter than snow. Verse nine hide

thy face from my sins, blot out all my mine iniquities,

create in me a clean heart of God, and renew

the right spirit within me. The sacrifices of God are

a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. O God,

thou will not despise. David went on and he repented,

and God did walk him, and God did cleanse him,

and God did create in him a clean heart. And

that God will do that for the rest of us.

And you know, it's easier to talk about David. It's

easier to talk about others. It's easier to talk about

Isaac and these girls. But Romans three twenty three says

we have that all have sinned and come short of

the glory of God. And so we either have come

to this place or we must come to this place

at some point in our life for the cleansing blood

of Jesus. And so that is partly what baptism is about,

is that is the symbol of cleansing in the life

of a sinner. Just a few more, just touch on

a few things here about what what are some qualifications

for baptism. I'm not going to go into all of that,

but the Bible teaches that faith. We need to have

faith to have baptism, to be baptized, to believe that

Jesus is the Son of God. We need to repent,

and we'll talk about that a little bit more. And

obed and baptism is obedience. We don't always claim to

understand everything about why God asks us to do things,

but it is a And then what is water baptism?

Because there's different kinds of baptism. There's Bible talks about

baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, but we're talking

about water baptism.

What is water baptism.

It's an outward sign of an inward repenting and cleansing.

It is obedience. It is a public testimony and a

seal of the decision and commitment to follow Jesus. So

that's just a few things on what is baptism. Okay,

so now we come to this. We've been The way

we practice and believe the Bible says is that you repent,

you be cleansed, you be forgiven, and then you do baptism.

But then, what what happens today after the fellowship meal

and when you go home? What happens when you get

up tomorrow and you go to work, and you go

to school, and life goes on.

What does God want from you? Three? What does God

want from the rest of us? Does he just want us.

To wander around down here and be clean, or does

he have a different plan. You know that I'm not

minimizing this step. It's important and it's crucial, but I'm

looking a little bit.

Past it now. And this isn't the end of the journey.

It's not Okay, we got baptized, We're done. It is

more the entrance in the beginning of the journey, the pilgrimage.

God wants to keep working on us. And there's been

a thought on my mind for the last while that

I want to work into this message this morning. And

one of the one one.

Verse or either a couple verses.

One in Romans eight twenty nine says for whom he

did fore know, he also did predestinate to be conformed

to the image of his son, that he might be

the firstborn among many brethren, and Clausians three ten says,

and have put on the new man, which is renewed

in knowledge after the image of him that created him.

And what I want to think about and what has

been on my mind a while. And it has to

do with the baptism class, but just life in general

is being conformed into the image of His Son of Jesus.

God wants to take you and us from here and

conform us into his image. And what does that mean.

I want to look into that a little bit now.

It's an interest and he wants to do that with

all of us and all around the world. And it's

an interesting thought if you stop and think about it.

How can a seventy five year.

Old man at his stage of life, and an eighteen

year old man, and a twelve or thirteen year old girl,

and all of you with different facial features and personalities

and looks, and we could expand to Bangladesh and China

and all around the world with different languages and cultures

and skin colors, how do we all become into the

image of Christ. I'd like to back up to Genesis

just a little bit. From the very beginning of time.

God created man to be the special and crowning creation

of the rest of creation. And in Genesis one, twenty

six and twenty seven, I want to look at these

verses just briefly and go, God said, let us make

man in our image, after our lightness, and let them

have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over

the fall of the air, and over the cattle, and

over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that

creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his

own image, in the image of God created he hint

him male and female. God created. I believe it's interesting.

I don't know what you think about when we talk

about being conformed in the image of God. You know, humans,

I believe are actually physically, in some sort a resemble

God in a physical sense. I don't know what that's exactly,

what that's like, but eyes and ears. And one of

the reasons I believe that is because we had Jesus

that came in the form of a man, and he

was made in the lightness of man. And here God

says he wants to he made all this creation, and

he said, I want to make one that is actually

like there's just a lot of neat things, animals, birds, plants, stars,

But I want to make one creation that's actually in

our image, that's like us. And he made two eyes

and a nose and ears out of the dust of

the ground like a painting.

And then he breathed life into that.

And we think about image, maybe more readily as the

physical looks how tall and what we look like. But

I really believe that there's a lot deeper and maybe

more important meaning to this word. The word image does

have to do with physical features, but it also can

imply like a spiritual likeness or a reflection of God's

character as we live here on earth. And so it

is again the characteristics of God. And I believe I

don't know why it wouldn't be, but Adam and Eve

resembled their heart, their attitude, their spirit, the way they

related to each other was just very godly. Whatever that was,

however you want to imagine that, but sweet and pleasant

and probably the most descriptive that we could get, as

if we would go look at the fruit of the

spirit and you would put that all into a person

without any of the bad that would be in the

likeness and image of God. And then you think of conform,

and conform can mean different words, I mean different things,

but to become similar in nature or character again, and

conforming is often a process, and we could think of

different natural ways.

The potter with the clay, or we.

Stamped concrete, sometimes that's not a very good illustration. You

get wet concrete and you take a stamp that's textured

like rock, and you press it into that, you conform it, and.

You pull that off, and it's the image of that.

But what I don't like about that illustration is that

it's the opposite point of what I'm trying to make.

The point I'm trying to make this morning is being

conformed into the inner image of God and not so

much the outward, but it does affect the outward very much.

It's a process of growth through the influence of whatever

we allow influence our lives. And there's a lot of

different influences in the world, especially today, a lot of voices,

a lot of music, a lot of podcasters competing for

the time with God. And the more we spend with

something on someone, the more we tend towards that image.

And I don't want to get too heavy here in

some of this, but I want to impress upon you

a little bit here.

When Adam and Eve, being in that perfect.

Image or the fruit of the Spirit, when they have

the freedom of choice, disobeyed God.

I believe that is when.

The image of God, in some degree left them, and

they took on a sinful image, and they took on

I don't know if it's too strong to say the

image of Satan to some degree, at least partially. And

then you have all down to the Old Testament stories

and prophets over and over again. You have this cycle

of God's people falling away and coming back, and the sacrifices,

and just this constant back and forth. And God tried

to rein in this nature, this wicked, sinful nature that

was no longer in his image, and he wrote commandments

on a heart on a stone that was fixed, and

you don't do this, and you don't do that, And

if you don't do all those things, that'll get us

back over closer to the image of God. Laws and

commandments on tables of stones, and prophets that came and

warned them and told them. But then you fast forward

to the New Testament, and we have God sent his

son Jesus down to the earth to provide a way

of redemption for mankind.

And Jesus coming to earth in the form of human.

Flesh and relating and living and showing by example gives us,

at least me a much clearer understanding of God and

his character. Without that, if we can even imagine, if

you can imagine living in the day of Malachi, what

would our understanding of God be.

I'm not sure.

I think it could be a high and holy God,

but I'm not sure what we would.

Think beyond that.

I mean, there was the stories that he related, some

real severe judgments and then mercy, but it would have

been much more. I guess vague, I believe, and I

think of it this way. I'm not the best guy

at taking directions and instructions verbally, especially if anything's complicated.

Somebody calls you up on the phone and tries to

tell you to do something. Sometimes it works if they're

clear enough, they're good enough at it, or maybe you

get a written a pack of instructions in the mail

with some complicated assembly peace and again, sometimes they're clear,

sometimes they're not. But there is nothing like maybe I'm

just lazy, but I just love it when a person

comes up beside me and they have the instructions and

then they sit beside me and then they just helped

me and I hand him stuff and they show me,

they talked to me, They show me with their hands,

they explain what they're doing, I can see with my eyes,

and then I can learn and do it the next

time by myself, I understand. I think of that as

Jesus relating to man. Jesus came to earth, he born

as a baby, grew up, lived among us, went through

the temptations, the struggles, all the disappointments, the pain and suffering,

and he just showed us how to live and how

to respond.

And he taught, Yes, he taught.

He gave instructions, but he showed and he gave it.

And what came through on that, I believe is is

and what stood out to him? And have you ever

thought the Bible says that he wasn't comely to look at.

So I don't think of Jesus as a really buff, big, strong,

handsome looking guy. The Bible wouldn't indicate that in the

human sense. But something about him he was magnetic. And

when he would go, people would listen and they were

drawn to him. And it wasn't his clothes, and it

wasn't the length of his beard or lack of beard,

or the or the even necessarily the words.

That he said.

But the Bible says he was full of grace and

truth and I think that combination is a powerful combination

still today, when truth is without, when it's just laws

written on stone, it has its purpose. But a truth

can be used as a weapon, as a sword.

It can be mean. But truth coupled with grace and

mercy and love is powerful.

And I think that's what Jesus embodied, and that was

the image of God. Hebrews eight eight and ten says

for finding fault with them, he said, behold the day

days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a

new covenant with the House of Israel and with the

House of Judah.

For this is the.

Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel.

For those days, Saith the Lord, I will put my

laws into their mind and write them on their hearts.

And I will be to them a God, and they

shall be to me a people.

And I believe that as God.

That was God's vision and prophecy and desire to restore

the fallen image of man back in the garden. And

he had worked with them with stone and law and prophets,

and he said, someday, I'm going to have a people

that I'm going to put my character right into their

hearts and into their minds, and they will be to

me a people, and I will be to them they're God.

The desire of God's heart for mankind to both fulfill

the principles and the spirit of His law. And I

think of it as just intertwined into our very DNA

and into our spirit and into our being and who

we really are. And it's so hard for us as

people for some reason. I don't know why we gravitate

towards it so much, and I am as guilty as

the rest.

I'm sure maybe it's just because it's easier.

But it's easy to disconnect our religion from who we

are and who we really are, who are deep dna is.

But God wants a monolithic and I don't know if

you know what that word monolithic. We use it in concrete,

and if you do a monolithic poor, it's just it's

the floor and it's the foundation, all in one pore.

It's the same concrete foundation and floor completely tied together.

And do it separate, then.

There's a cold joint and it can come apart unless

you tie it with reenforcement. And God wants lives that

are monolithic, that are the same.

On Sunday and Tuesday.

And Friday night, all the way through a people in

God's image. I'd like to continue with a few of

these thoughts here, but shift just a little bit. You

can turn to Luke. I'm gonna spend probably most of

the time here now Luke three and four, with a

few thoughts drawn from there.

This is just.

Passage has impressed me thinking of baptism, and Matthew has

similar but Luke has some details I liked here, So

I'm going to Luke, and.

I want to read some of this here.

But we have the stories some in verse in chapter

three and then in verse four, I mean, sorry, chapter

four of John the Baptist preaching and baptizing and baptizing Jesus.

And then in chapter four is Jesus going into the

wilderness after his baptism. I'm not sure how much to

read here, but I'm going to read part here. Maybe uh,

you just.

Fall along as best you can.

I'm not going to read too much here, but Luke three,

verse three, and he John came into all the country

about Jordan preaching baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

And he talks about the words of Isaiah there that

every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and.

Hill shall be brought low. And John was preparing the

way for.

Jesus, and then he says something interesting. You know, we

have a three people here that came and said they

wanted to be baptized. Well, there was a group here

in verse seven that after they heard John, they said,

then said he to the multitude, what came fourth to

be baptized? That came forth to be baptized? Of him, oh,

general of vipers, who has warned you to flee from

the wrath to come. That is quite a response to

a group of people that come up to you and

ask to be baptized, and you reply, oh, generation of vipers.

It sounds harsh, and I don't claim to understand it fully,

but I think that he was saying here, if you

read down and then into the genealogies here that because

he goes on to say that you need to bring

forth fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say

within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father, I.

Think he was simply saying that.

Entering God's kingdom is not done through lineage, through religion,

through being a Jew, through being born into a good

Mennonite home, whatever it might be. And he says, oh,

generation of vipers, you brood of offspring, you need repentance,

tent into the Kingdom of heaven. It is not just

something that you come in. We're all vipers, we're all sinners,

we're all wicked without repentance. And they kept on listening.

He didn't scare them away with that. And we'll go

on in verse after verse eight to nine, and he says,

and now also the axe is laid unto the root

of the trees. Every tree thereof which bringeth not forth

good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire.

And I want to read verses ten to about fourteen.

And the people ask him, saying, what shall we do then?

And he answered and said, unto them, he that hath

two coats, let him impart, to him that hath none,

and him that.

Hath meat, let him do Likewise.

Then came also the publicans, which were the tax collectors,

and said, came, no, excuse me. Came the publicans to

be baptized, and said, unto him, Master, what shall we do?

And he said, unto them, exact no more than that

which has appointed you. And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying,

and what shall we do? And he said, unto them,

do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and

be content with your wages.

And I'll just stop there.

And the and the point my first point here I

want to make on this part is to be conformed

into the image of God. The first thing that has

to happen is that we need to repent. And that

word seems harsh, it's kind of it seems maybe in

your face a little bit, but it is the only path.

Repentance is something that maybe and maybe we're saying, well,

we did repent, that's why we're here to get baptized. Well,

repentance is unfortunately something that we need to continue to do.

I wish we could do it once and be done

and for once and for all. But repentance is a

walk in some sense. And the and you know, sin

has its effect and had its effect on us, and

we got conformed into the image of ourselves and of

Satan and all kinds of ungodly things. And to be repent,

to repent means to change, to transform, and to think differently.

That is repent.

So we think a certain way before we repent We

are going a certain path, we do certain things, and

repentance is a change in all of that.

It's a change to the very core.

It's it's we have to reprogram our minds and repent from.

That whole package.

And sometimes we I don't know, in our good we

mean well, but we train our children to say we're sorry,

and then we end up thinking that saying i'm sorry

is repentance, and that's a confession. That's a step in

repentance at times, but just saying i'm sorry it is

not necessarily.

You can say i'm.

Sorry with a hard heart and with every intention to

continue on the path that you're on. And this is

where he says, I think bring forth fruits worthy of repentance,

And I want to think a little bit about that.

The fruits worthy of repentance. Repentance isn't just sin. I'm sorry,

I want to join instruction class. I want to get baptized.

Repentance is a change in Second Corinthians. I won't go there,

but if you want to look at it later, did

you know that there's different kinds of sorrow.

There are people that get into.

Sin, fall into the sewer, and they just feel terrible.

They are just in agony, they hurt somebody, or they're

in trouble or whatever it might be. And in those

initial moments, it's really hard to know if even you

yourself know what kind of a sorrow you have. But

the Bible talks that there is a godly sorrow, and

then it talks that there is a sorrow of this world.

And he goes on to explain the difference of them.

He said, a godly sorrow worketh to repentance, to salvation.

A godly sorrow maybe takes a little time to see

if it actually is godly sorrow, because if it's godly sorrow,

there'll be a repentance, there'll be a change of life.

There'll be a.

Change of demeanor and thinking and action and everything. A

sorrow of this world wears off. It's just terrible guilt,

and I'm so ashamed, and everybody knows. And oh, but

with time, the fruit of repentance is not there. It says,

the sorrow of this world worketh death. And that's something

we need to think about, especially in our own lives,

is when we're sorry, because godly, a worldly sorrow cycles

and we say we're so and we think we're sorry,

but it just continues on. It's not repentance. He's talking

about fruit worthy of repentance. Repentance is a conforming of

my will, my thinking, and my way of living, and

conforming it to the will and thinking of God. It

is similar to the cross Luton nine twenty three. Jesus said,

if any man will come after me, let him deny

himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

And the cross is the intersection of which we choose

if we will live by my own will or if

I will surrender my.

Will to the lordship of Jesus.

And we have to do that time and time and

time again, many decisions, throughout a day, throughout a week,

throughout a lifetime.

We come to the crossroads. Am I going to do

it my way? Am I going to do it God's way? Now?

I want to think about this question. Don't know if

it stood out to you, but if it didn't, want

it to stand.

Out to you.

The responses of the three different people, three different groups

of people in this these verses we just read and

verse three ten. It talks about the people and when

he preached to them and they were filling guilty They

all responded almost exactly the same. The people said what

shall we do? And the public and tax collector said, Master,

what shall we do? And the soldiers said what shall

we do? And if you go to where Saul and

acts was struck down on his way to Damascus. And

he was a hard strong man, and Jesus struck him

down at the bright light, and he had thought he

was doing God's well, but he was blind, and he

was laying on the ground, and it started to dawn

on him.

That this was Jesus.

What Jesus said, told him with that, And when it

sunk again, as soul lay there, he said, what shall

I do?

Lord?

And then it acts too. At the day of Pentecost,

when Peter was preaching to the people, I read this

verse earlier to the children, and they listened, and they listened,

and Peter preached, and they preached, and they finally got

and the people became convicted. And it says that they

were pricked in their hearts, and they said to Peter,

men and brethren, what shall we do? Five different groups

of people with five different occupations or situations in life.

And when conviction came and they were ready to repent,

They all had the same common question, same common humble attitude,

same common yielded spirit, and a readiness and a willingness

to surrender their will.

To the Lord.

And that is a fruit of repentance. Self will is gone.

Stipulations and demands and explanations and defensiveness is all gone.

That's simply what shall I do? And we must never

outgrow that question and that attitude and that humble heart,

because it is the law and the fruit of repentance.

If we ever do outgrow that, which sometimes we might

for a while, we tend to become cold, we become hard,

and we're just a religious shell.

Because we quit asking the question what shall I do? Lord?

Conformed into the image of Christ's spirit a little bit

on this. I don't know how big your imagination is,

But I don't know if you've ever wished that Jesus

Christ could come here in the twenty first century and

sit in, go for coffee, sit in at a members meeting, whatever,

and you could just ask him and talk to him. Yes,

we have the Bible, we have all the principles, But

what would he say in this situation? What would he

we got a disagreement, what would he say.

If he was a tiebreaker.

What would he say about doctrinal issues? What would he

say about how to operate a church? What would he

say about the mode of baptism? What if he would say,

I think it's better to immerse and what or too poor?

You know? If Jesus came here, I don't know what

he would say.

I think he might say something different at one place than.

Another, But I'm not sure.

On some issues, I think he would take into the

consideration of other factors. I'm not sure if he would

join Halsey Mennonite Church or not. I would hope he would,

would he want to How would he relate to media

that wasn't around when he was teaching. It's a lot

of practical things it would be nice to talk to

Jesus about. And I don't know what he would say.

And maybe some of those things aren't the most important.

But there's one thing that I feel very confident about Jesus.

If he would come and he would sit in a

Brethren's meeting or go out for coffee or sit to

fellowship Neil, he would be caring, he would be compassionate,

he would be humble, and he would forgive. If people

did things to him that they shouldn't. If there was

a need and he could help, I'm sure he would help.

If there was sick that he could minister too. I'm

people that were broken hearted. I think he would do that.

I know he would do that. And the reason we

know that is because he did that, and he showed

us and Jesus one thing Jesus promised when he was

here to give the gift of the Holy Spirit to

those that follow him, that obey him. And it is

the fruit of repentance and obedience and the gift of

the Holy Spirit that conforms us into His image and

his spirit on the inside. We could talk about the

body of Christ being conformed into the body of Christ.

I'm not going to do that really. Besides that, it's.

That's all part of that what will that have me

to do? Question?

And I think that question, you can take it all

the way back to that basic question. I think is

often one of the things that gets in the way

of being part of a local body of some kind.

Doesn't have to be Halsey Mennite, but it's just that

I really don't want to ask and the question what

will you have me to do? Because when you do,

there's a blending and a giving and a taking and

a surrender and a yieldedness that needs to come with that.

Just like any other relationships in life, spending time with

God in his word consistently helps conform us into His image.

And I know we hammer that thing Bible reading and prayer,

Bible reading and prayer right.

And I'm an advocate of that. I say that I

believe that.

And part of the reason I believe that isn't so

much about the head knowledge that we get.

But I believe that when we spend time and sincerity.

In the Word of God, quiet time, and we think

about it and we're serious about it, it conforms our

inner man, our spirit, even the tone of our voice,

how quick we get irritated. It just has an influence

to where we become more in the image of God.

And it acts four.

Thirteen the people that seen Peter and John that we're

preaching and acting with boldness and whatever all they were doing.

The one thing that says there is that they knew

that they had been with Jesus.

There was something about those men and the way that

they were acting, the way that they were relating to

people that was similar to Jesus.

And so I think about that.

And as I saw here, I looked at a lot

of you, not in a personal way, I don't think,

but just are you if you were the only thing

the world seen that went by the name Christian.

And they related to you? What kind of I What

are you labeling Jesus?

And what does Jesus think when he looks down and

whatever we're doing, it's done in his name that brothers

down there relating to him or her, and he's he's using.

It's like Leland.

It's like, can you guys going around saying I'm a Leland,

I'm acting like Leland? And I'm like, wait a minute,

I don't do that. Are we reflecting the spirit and

the image of Jesus, whether we're a house wife, whether

we're a contract or a truck driver. The way you

know it gets.

It's just like I said, monolithic. The way we have

school and teach school, the way.

We drive down the road and when we get cut off,

just all those little things.

The way we relate.

Is a reflection of something of our spirit, speaking of

spending time with God and that conforming us into his

spirit and his image. Did you know married people that

it is that.

I believe this is right. I've read this.

I can't prove it, but it seems right to me

that married couples over time can start to physic look

more like each other as a married couple. There's been

studies that have been done on this, and they say

that long term partners often mimic each other's facial expressions,

which can shape similar lines and wrinkles over the years.

Over the long haul.

Eating the same diet, spending the same time in the

same weather and environment and climate can make influence the

physical skin structure, shape of the body even in some instances.

It's interesting. So if you ever think your spouse is.

Frowning too much, I guess you could work on that,

either look in the mirror or just start smiling. But

there's a deeper point in that.

And my point is that who we are with both

God and.

People, and the influences that we rub with and that

we look at and we interact.

With, affects us.

It impacts our image, It impacts who we are, It

impacts our spirit, and sometimes and often it impacts clothes

and shoes and hair and all kinds of things. Okay,

and closing. I'll be done here shortly. I wanted to

make just closing comments on Luke four when Jesus and

I didn't study into this, But in three twenty one

and twenty two we have Jesus coming.

I'm just going to read them.

This is the baptism of Jesus.

Now, when all the people were.

Baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized

and praying. The heaven was open, and the Holy Ghost

descended in the bodily shape like a dove upon him,

and a voice came from heaven which said, thou art

might be loved son in whom I am well pleased.

Why did Jesus get baptized? He wasn't a sinner, he

didn't need cleansed. I don't know exactly. Besides, I think

it comes back to that he was in the human flesh.

He was being an example. Again, like I said, how

someone shows you how to do something in life. I

think he was walking the path of humanity, and he

went through the baptism in that way, not because he

was a sinner, but because of he was an example

to the rest of us sinners. But that's not my

main point. Now in Luke here you have like the genealogies.

Then right after that in Matthew, I don't think you do.

But so just remove them. So then think about this.

I ended with the words of the Father, says thou

art my beloved son in thee I'm well pleased. And

then you go to verse one of chapter four, and

I don't know if there were I don't think there

was much of a gap here.

I don't know how long.

But it says in Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost,

returned from Jordan. Sounds like he just went directly from

Jordan and was led by the spirit into the wilderness,

being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those

days he did eat nothing, and when they were ended,

he afterward hungered, and the devil said unto him. And

I'll stop there. I just want to say that. And

this isn't negative.

I don't believe.

I just think it's a reality for young Christians not

to get your hopes up in an unrealistic way.

But life.

If God grants you life and years to come, you

will experience wilderness experiences. What is a wilderness experience? Well, well,

maybe I'll get to that a little bit back up.

Why did the spirit lead Jesus and the wilderness. I

don't know exactly, but the wilderness experience in the Bible

often represents a period of testing, of preparation for spiritual

growth in the Christian life. It's often a time of hardship, temptations, isolation, uncertainty.

It's a time when God refines and teaches and draws

us closer.

To him, to be.

A time of spiritual battle, a time when our faith

is tested and made stronger, or a time when we get.

Discouraged and we give up.

But wilderness has come and you need to be prepared

for them and expect them. The spirit the devil didn't

lead Jesus into the wilderness. The spirit led Jesus into

the wilderness, but the devil met him there, and the

devil will meet us there in those times, and many

many strong men and way in the Bible and today,

I would say, even through today, have experienced hard wilderness

experiences in their life. And we can just think of

a few of Moses and Joseph and David and Job,

Jesus others. Times they were hurt by their own family friends,

times alone with not much support maybe betrayed that every

right humanly speaking to be angry and bitter and downcast

and self pity.

But instead they cried out to God.

And one of the things that stood out to me

is one of the temptations that the devil promised Jesus,

if he'll just give in to him, was in verse six.

It said the devil said, unto him, all this power

will I give thee and the glory of them, for

that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will

get it. So the devil was tempting Jesus with power

and glory, and he said, if you'll do this, you'll

get it. But if you look at verse fourteen, when

Jesus resisted as the devil and he stayed true, it

says Jesus returned in the power of the spirit into Galilee,

and there went out a fame of him throughout all

the regions round about him. He received an authentic power

and an authentic glory that would have been robbed of

him if he would have tried to do it the

devil's way, and his name is still the.

Number one name all ringing down.

Through history, and his power because he resisted the devil

and the counterfeit power that the devil tempted him with.

And then he went from there and he just went

out with power. And if you read Luke four five

and Matthew five, he did the said the attitudes, He

healed people. He was just active in the power of God.

The one thing I like about Jesus in comparison here

now in closing, I talked about the Commandments of Stone,

the ten commandments that were written in stone when Jesus came.

You notice the difference of the tone of the beatitudes

that the stones where thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt

not steal, thou shalt When Jesus came, he said, Blessed

are the meek, Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are they

that do hunger and thirst after righteous. So it wasn't

that those other thou shalt nots are there, but he

was taken it above and beyond in the image of God.

So God bless you everyone here this morning. Isaac Krena,

Maddie that you can go from here. This is kind

of like a high peak. I imagine that Jesus when

he heard those words. I don't know if he talk

with God in an audible way a lot or not,

we don't know.

But at this point he was maybe thirty years old.

And when he got baptized, his words that might be

a loved son and whom I'm well pleased, must have

just blessed his heart. And then he went into the wilderness.

So today is a high point. Tomorrow might be a wilderness.

But stay faithful. Let's have a song and then we'll

go through the baptism part of it after that.

Sorry, did I catch you off guard? Okay, go ahead

and let's have a song.