From Cries to Songs

What a cool thing. My hope today is we are in the Psalms this summer. We're going through different Psalms here at Hope, and I was really encouraged recently by a look at Psalm 40. I was just reading through the Psalms and sat in Psalm 40 for a day and was very encouraged. And I just want to encourage you in that. It was a Psalm that reminded me of baptism and my baptism, and then reminded me this day that we're having that was coming up at the time, and now we're here. And so I want to encourage us today in Psalm 40. So if you have a Bible and you want to open it to Psalm 40 or open your phone app to Psalm 40, we'll have the verses on the screen. But it's also one we're going to read the whole psalm and then we're going to kind of look around within the psalm. And so it might be nice to have one.

This is one where I like having my Bible because I can kind of see the whole thing. It's not a real long psalm. But my hope is that we can see this thing we ask are people when they get baptized is what the church has been asking forever.

People, that do you believe Jesus rescued you and saved you? And then also that you want to follow Jesus. It's essentially the idea of justification. You're justified in Jesus's work. And then sanctification, which is then the rest of your life, this work God continues to work in you as you work. And my thoughts today, my hope is that we leave here and you don't just say, today we get to celebrate with Ellie and Cal. a day where they get to say yes to this. But today we're reminded that Psalm 40 and really all of Scripture and every day we get to be reminded in a way we get to restate our baptism every single day. And so in all parts of our life, whether we're hanging out with our families or we're running around in a field or we're at work or we're having a moment alone that feels very heavy or we're maybe just relaxing, all those moments we get to Again, remind ourselves, and again, we get to make that commitment. The thing that changes our lives, the best decision we ever could make.

And as Ellie said so well, maybe not the easiest thing that we'll do, but the best thing, the great decision we'll make.

And so we are in the Psalms, and I'm excited here. Let me just read us through Psalm 40. So if you haven't, you want to follow along, I'm just going to straight read it first, and then we're going to take some time to walk through it. Okay.

together. So let me go ahead and read it here for us. This is Psalm 40, a psalm written by David, who some of you know was a shepherd boy who then took down a giant, and then, because God was with him, and then became king. And lots of stories about David, and he wrote this Beautiful song.

I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire.

He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.

Aaron, you got this for me? And I don't have to click. Thanks. Feels weird to have to click into this.

Blessed is the one who trusts the Lord, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.

Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done and things you planned for us. None can compare with you. Were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare. Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require.

And then I said, here I am, I have come.

It is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, my God. Your law is within my heart.

I proclaim your saving acts in a great assembly.

I do not seal my lips, Lord, as you know. I do not hide your righteousness in my heart. I speak of your faithfulness. I do not conceal your love and your faithfulness from the great assembly. I do not withhold your mercy from— do not withhold your mercy from me, Lord. May your love and faithfulness always protect me. For troubles without number surround me.

My sins have overtaken me and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head and my heart fails within me.

Be pleased to save me, Lord. Come quickly, Lord, to help me.

May all you want to take— may all who want to take my life be put to shame and confusion.

May all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.

May those who say, aha, aha, be appalled at their own shame.

But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.

May those who long for your saving help always say, the Lord is great.

Amen. But as for me, I am poor and needy. May the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer. You are my God. Do not delay. It's a beautiful psalm.

It's one that I read. I was sitting on my deck, and it was one that felt like, man, how can a psalm just feel like it was written for me today in 2026? Me sitting in Columbia Heights on my deck. So many parts of it felt just very true. Words like, I'm stuck in mud and mire, I need your help. I patiently wait and cry out for you.

You've delivered me.

Things like, I want to follow you. I want to follow your will. And then at the same time, save me.

My heart fails me.

Yeah.

There's this, um, you're my help, my deliverer, please don't delay, I'm poor and needy. It just was a— it's a fantastic psalm, uh, for just life.

Um, it, it actually is a psalm that has a certain pattern. And a lot of the psalms, if you stop for a moment and kind of look, they have a pattern they kind of walk us through. And many times they have this kind of a pattern that goes, uh, starts a certain way and then leads back out the cert—

the same way. It kind It kind of goes in and then back out.

So this one has this similar— one of the ways you could see it, it has this psalm where it pleads for God and then there's deliverance talked about. And then there's talk about obedience from that deliverance after we are delivered and we praise the Lord. And then again, there's a struggle and then we hear about deliverance and praise and then pleading again. The end of this almost is the same as the beginning. They're really like a rephrasing of one another. And so the psalm itself is broken in this way where we enter into this place of obedience after we've been delivered and we praise the Lord.

And then struggle comes up again and we once again need deliverance and we find ourselves pleading.

That's one of the reasons I really like this Psalm is because it feels like this is how life works. Is that I— God, I need you. And he rescues me and I'm reminded again of this great rescue that he has for me. And I praise him. And then the realities of life are quite Really good.

I might be sitting on my deck and I go, Lord, this is really hard. I feel stuck. And I am reminded how God has rescued me, how he loves me, how he cares for me.

I might be laying in my bed going, there's so much to worry about.

And I'm reminded God is with me. And then in a moment, again, a wave of worry comes over me and I'm reminded there's still a struggle. And then again, I have to be reminded, and again, I have to be delivered. And again, I have to praise the Lord. I get to praise the Lord.

So my hope— really quickly, I just want to walk through these where we see these in this and see this pattern that's happening. This is kind of like if we got to click on the words that we're asking Cal and Ellie to say today. It kind of expands it out a little bit. This is a sense you're asking, right? To say, I need you.

I've been delivered from the Lord.

I praise the Lord. And in that, I want to be obedient to you.

I want to follow you.

And then my life continues to experience sin around and brokenness.

And so I need to continue to be delivered.

So first, we start with this pleading that we see in the beginning and end of this. These words are powerful, right? The beginning and end both have language that talks about being patient, having— asking God not to delay.

There's a waiting in our struggle.

As we sit in the slimy pit, as verse 2 says, Or the pit of despair in the mud and the mire. It's— the language is so good, right? Can you imagine yourself in a hole? It's the same phrase that's used. We saw there's a story in Jeremiah where Jeremiah gets stuck in a cistern, right?

Gross, slimy pit.

And he's asked— and he can't get out. They have to help—

people have to help him out.

This is the picture of this. You're stuck in a hole. It's slimy and gross. Uh, Meyer is such a good writer. It's like, you just imagine thick and muddy and you can't get out. You're in quicksand. You can't get out. You need help out.

Come, Lord, and help me. I need you to deliver me and save me from this.

When I was a kid, I, uh, had a day we were at some type of special event. I believe it was like a school event. And so I was wearing my special school clothes. Molly and I were just talking about this. I had this one outfit that I wore to everything. It was my one, like, look nice outfit that my mom had me wear. It was like a button-up shirt, if you could imagine, uh, Drew, uh, little Drew and, uh, husky Drew with his button-up shirt and his little khaki pants. And I got out of this thing and I said, I gotta go quick and just see my friend. And I ran to see a friend, um, and then for like hours I didn't come home. My parents couldn't find me. And when I— my friend had— when I got to see my friend, I discovered he had just got new Micro Machines.

Oh. I don't know if anyone had Micro Machines, but they're tiny Matchbox cars.

And we decided to go to this hill by his house, which happens to also be where like there's runoff from some kind of road drainage. I don't know, but it's a mud hill. So what happened was, long story short, my dad finds me.

I'm completely covered in mud in a ditch of mud playing with Micro Machines, which is what you do when you're like 10 or whatever, right? Yeah.

I can't get out of the ditch because it's so muddy.

We're like in the mud and we're playing and we're kind of stuck. My dad pulls me out of the ditch.

He's not real excited.

I'm in my clothes.

Drags me home, right? So I'm now covered in mud, Drew, in my nice clothes, excited to tell my parents about the new Micro Machines.

They're not very excited about the Micro Machines. They're very upset that I'm covered in mud.

And I have a long discussion with my dad.

He actually ends up hosing me off. In the yard and describes— explains why that was not a good decision. But there's a very muddy, messy Drew who was stuck because I wandered off and decided to do my own thing.

This is very much this place I see myself in this psalm, right?

Where you're—

there's this like— it's very much the picture of our lives. It's a picture that is even painted in Psalm 40 here. That we kind of— our hearts fail us. We kind of run off to other things. It's the picture we see of how sin is described. I run off. It isn't necessarily even like out of bad intentions. It's just this other thing. Micro Machines, we're excited. These little cars. And then the mud looked fun. And then we slid down the muddy hill. And then we're kind of stuck in the muddy pile. And then it actually kind of was fun to play in the mud.

And we didn't realize how smelly we were and how kind of stuck we were. how much trouble we were in, how much we had messed up these nice clothes, and how much my parents were like scared and like trying to find me and didn't know where I was.

My mom thought I was like, she would say, dead in a ditch, which was half right at the time. I mean, my mom was very scared when I got home, right? This is where we're at. And I wasn't crying out for help, but my dad did come and actually helped me.

And so we find ourselves in Psalm 40 in this place of mud and muck. I need you, Lord.

Pull me out of the hole.

I can't get out of this thing myself. And the Lord does. He delivers us. This beautiful picture David paints for us here in Psalm 40, like many, many Psalms, like all over Scripture we hear, this is the model that we see. This is a picture of how it works for us. Where people who say, I am stuck, I need you. And God doesn't say, here's some steps on how to clean up, here's some, here's some ways you can get yourself out of the mud, I'll come back and let you know.

The Bible isn't just a book that's like, here's the steps on how to clean yourself up from the mire and the muck.

It's actually a book about the person who comes and pulls us out. The Lord saved me and put a new song in my mouth. And so we hear in the beginning and the end of this psalm, you delivered me.

And then what happens right when we deliver? I love in this psalm there's not a long description of the deliverance. It's just that you rescued me, and the first thing I did, I could not—

my mouth went from crying out for deliverance to singing a song of praise to you. It's beautiful that this language used Of these things at the mouth, the crying out, uh, what happens? I'm crying for you, and now I'm singing for you because you have rescued me.

Because I was in quicksand and I was wiggling and trying to get out, and it made it worse and worse. And you came and you put the branch out, and I grabbed it, and you pulled me out. I was—

thank you for coming. Because I was done without you.

And then the praise that comes out is this— lots of praise we see in the psalm. It's like a series of things of how good the Lord is and all the deeds he has done. And it says this great phrase even, how wondrous his deeds are. There's so many we can't even describe all of them. It's actually very similar to the phrase we see at the end of the book of John. Where at the end of the book of John, there's a moment where he says, I wish I could write all the things Jesus has done, but it would fill like all the books in all the world.

It's such a beautiful picture of like, it opens your imagination. You go, oh wow, what else did Jesus do?

It's this, he's pointing us to Psalms like this to go, because Jesus is God and he does these wonderful deeds, so many we can't even describe. So you're in the muck and then you're in the mud and now you've been pulled out and you've been brought home and you go, so glad that I'm home. I'm so glad that you've rescued me and you've done so many good things. And it actually stirs up all the other things that you've done. and reminding you of all the great things that God has done. And this is the moment, this is the thing that we like are asking our friends as they get baptized.

We're saying, do you believe that you were stuck in the mud and that you couldn't get out, but that God in his mercy rescued you? And you say, yes, he is. He's our rescuer.

We sing this in so many songs.

Today we're going to sing this. We're going to sing a song where we sing the words, great are you, Lord. It's a classic.

It's the breath in my lungs that sings, right?

I love this. It's a classic song we sang at camp a million times, and I got sick of it, and now I love it again.

It's every breath in my lungs.

I can't wait to sing to you because this is true of the deliverance that you've brought.

And not only is it true that you've rescued me and saved me, but I don't just go, that's great, now I'm going to go back to my life. Actually, thanks for pulling me out of the mud. Thanks, Dad. I'm going to head back and go play with my friend. And I'm going to slide back down the hill, back in the mud, back with my Micro Machines, find myself in the same spot, kind of messy, messed up. But instead, we find ourselves going, I want to obey you now. You have shown me that your way is the right way and actually a way of life. You've prepared me. And I delight now to do your will.

We see in verse six through ten as we move to this part in the Psalms where we are called to obedience, which is what this great part—the word obedience sometimes feels like a little.

I don't know if I like that. I don't know if I want someone else in charge of things.

I don't know if someone else—I want someone else to have authority. Sometimes that's hard for us. I think even culture in our culture—it's hard to say someone else might know more than me. But we're saying that the person who created all things.

has rescued all people, that has more deeds than we could even list that are wonderful and gracious.

I want to follow you.

I want to know what you have for me. I want to know how to live a life that is beautiful and wonderful and gracious and lovely.

And so we look to him because he's shown us that he's worth that. And so we get to open his word and learn what he has for us.

I remember getting home and my dad had some choice words that were not very gracious. My mom was very sad that I had been— that I had ruined my good clothes. And my dad said, let's go outside. I walked in the house first and got the house a little messy because I—

of course, right?

Because in my mind, I was going to go take a shower. But he's like, no, no, no. And I remember, I can remember standing on our little patio. We lived in like these condo apartment things, sitting on a patio in the backyard. And I remember my dad turning on the faucet and going, what are you doing with the hose?

Of course, of course, he's— we all know what he's doing with the hose, right?

He gets the hose out and he says, don't move.

And my dad hosed me off. And it felt like for a very long time. And it's one of the only times in my life that I got hosed off and I got, I would say, a lesson taught to me at the same time.

He said, listen up. And my dad explained to me how much that hurt my mom that I ran off. He explained to me, like, you shouldn't have done that. That was silly. But then he started explaining to me how much it hurt my mom.

She was so scared that you were gone. She was so scared we lost you. Do you understand how much— how scary that is for your mom? Do you understand how much, like, your mom picked out these clothes and it meant a lot to her that you had nice clothes and you looked nice for her and for whatever— the school thing? And then you go and mess it up. And I remember, though, in the moment, like, listening to him. Like, sometimes it was like, okay, Dad.

But going like, what you're saying makes a lot of sense. There was like a real change in my heart, just at least in that moment. There's something about him being willing to like get muddy and pull me out and him like being gracious in his explanation. I think even in that he was there to like, he was trying to care for my mom, like explain to me, hey, this is like a bigger deal than you realize.

The clothes are muddy, but you actually like really scared your mom and you're hurting her and you're disrespecting her.

And I was like, as I was being like hosed off and the mud was coming off, It was like I had this desire to go.

I want to do what you're saying, Dad, because I want Mom to feel loved, and I want. I don't want to be a kid who hurt makes my mom cry, right?

In the end, that's just like a little tinge of what happens in this bigger picture, right? Of this. I remember getting done, and I was like soaked, but I was not muddy, and I was like went for a hug.

I remember because Dad was like.

Eh, maybe after.

It was awesome. I went and apologized to my mom.

Like, in that, there's such a moment of like— other times, if my dad had just been like, go outside, and he hosed me off, I would have been like, what are you doing? But in all of that, it was like something that changed my heart. I think it's built into us, this like, you were rescued, even though God goes, what are you doing? That wasn't helpful, what you were doing.

Yeah.

You shouldn't have been in the mud and the mire.

You got yourself in there again.

But in his care of his cleaning of me and his teaching of me and him going like, do you understand what you're actually doing to those around you and to yourself?

Do you understand what you're doing to me? I wanted to change. I wanted to follow him. And I think we're led to disobedience in that. It's the same It's just like this daily cycle we get to do. We get to go, Lord, you've rescued me. You've made me clean. I want to serve you. You've shown me your wonderful deeds. There's no one else I want to follow but you. And then we find ourselves sometimes quite quickly in the same moment back in the struggle.

Troubles seem to surround us again. Sometimes they're from ourselves. Sometimes it's just from the outside. Sometimes you feel like, man, I'm such a good place. I'm following the Lord and I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, and then a new thing comes up. You felt this, right?

You think, another thing?

And then another thing. Maybe a health thing, and then a financial thing, and then a person thing. And then this person appears.

You go, Lord, I'm still dealing with this sin and the curse around me and this brokenness around me.

I thought this one time I would be cleaned up. I thought I'd get hosed off and the mud would be gone and then we could just have this wonderful life. But the realities of the struggle are back.

This is why I love Psalm 40, is that Psalm 40 doesn't end, I delight in your ways, and then it says everything was wonderful forever. But it says, troubles surround me. I need your deliverance again. Our friends today will be baptized in Stan's pool and it'll be a fun moment.

We'll all get to surround them and we'll get to cheer and pray for them, and I will remember it forever, and I'll go, how cool! But our friends, before they probably get out of the water, as on the drive home, there'll be new troubles, there'll be new things we get to deal with as a family.

You get home, and one of those families will get home, and one of those parents will go, you just got baptized, what are you thinking? Right? Right? We could take a—

I think we're taking bets on which households. Did you just volunteer? Phil just volunteered.

Yeah.

And then as a parent, you're like, what am I doing?

Right?

It's this struggle. And this is what the grace of God is so good, is that Psalm 40 doesn't go, well, you had a chance. Good luck. My dad doesn't go, hey, you got muddy. I hosed you off and told you to stop, and you did it again.

Find a new house. You can find a new family.

God goes, I will deliver you again.

I will deliver you again. I'll deliver you again. Keep pleading. I will deliver you again.

Amen. Cry out again, I will deliver you again.

And you get to praise him again. This is why we meet every week, because if we—

if this just happened that way, we'd have to meet for one Sunday. We'd have a church that met once and then we'd all go on with our lives.

But we need to meet. I mean, I don't know if once a week is even enough, right?

Every week I got to be reminded of this good news. How do we know this even happens, right? How does this deliverance happen? This is the this is the real key to all this, right?

This this verse, this verse. There's a few verses here in Psalm forty that are actually quoted in the New Testament. They're quoted in a very cool way. This is the real power of Psalm forty.

In Hebrews ten, Hebrews a fantastic book.

Years ago we preached through this that just shows how all of these great things point us to Jesus. Psalm 40 is actually quoted, but quoted in a unique way that really gives like power to Psalm 40.

And this is talking about the sacrifices in the Old Testament. Hey, we gave sacrifices of goats and sheep, and this— the actual like bloodshed of those things isn't what saved us.

It's actually really the heart behind them. It's essentially Hebrews reminding us the faith in the God who did those things is what saves us.

Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said.

Read this right. Hebrews says, when Jesus came into the world, Jesus said, sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body prepared for me. With burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, here I am. It is written about me in the scroll. I've come to do your will, my God.

First, he said sacrifices and offerings.

Burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them, though they were offered in accordance with the law.

Then he said, "Here I am. I have come to you to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second.

By that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. So what is this explaining? There's two things that are important here.

One, it's saying Psalm forty was spoken by Jesus.

Which is interesting.

That means we go back and read Psalm 40. We know it's written by David, but it's giving this like it's it's a moment where we get to read Old Testament and go, it's written by David, but we are here understanding that God says, but ultimately spoken by Jesus. So you can go back and read Psalm 40 and go, what does this mean if Jesus is speaking it? And secondly, it's also saying Jesus is going the offerings that you gave. The sacrifices and offerings aren't what I want.

Actually, what I wanted was my body given so that you can be made holy. This is explaining baptism.

It's explaining the rescue, the deliverance that we've been given through Jesus giving his body. So let me explain. So in Psalm 40, we hear this phrase, sacrifice and offering, but a body of prayer for me. In Psalm 40 that we just read, it actually said, You open my ear.

So it's in Hebrew that we read it originally, and this would be the Septuagint, like the Greek version of it. And what's kind of what's cool is that in Hebrew they're using this other, the Greek translation of it, and there's a little bit difference. And it's saying Jesus says David offers God, you didn't just want me to do some things for you, you wanted me to give My ear to you, like open my ear to you to obey you.

You wanted me to give my heart to you and my ear to you. So if that makes sense, so it's not like just do some things and then I deliver you.

It's give myself to you. I face to you my I believe in who you are.

I want to follow you.

I want to give my heart to you.

And this says not just his ear, not just David giving his ear to him, but in Hebrews it's saying Jesus says. It's not just an offering, but I'm going to give my body for you, which he did. He didn't just come and say, I'd like to obey you, Lord, but he says, I am going to give my body.

So the author of Hebrews actually then explains it to us. It's like a little commentary on the passage. He's explaining, he sets aside, he says it's not just these offerings that were given, but Jesus actually gives himself. this, his body, so that we could be made holy in him. So all of that together helps us understand this beautiful thing that we're about to see today, which is described in Romans 6. Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We're therefore buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through glory of the Father, we too have new life. Look at this picture.

So as Jesus was put into the tomb and he rose out of the tomb in new life, we too baptize. Not because we're dunking them in water, but it's a picture of them.

Cal's saying, I believe this is true.

That as Jesus went in the tomb and came out, he too took my sin and my muck and my mire into the tomb with him. And when he rose, he brought me out of the tomb as well. And so now I can say I, too, have new life.

And so baptism is us proclaiming, yes, Psalm 40 proclaims Jesus' words are true. His body was given so that we, too, could be delivered.

When our girls were little, we went to a hotel—

my brother was getting married.

We went to a hotel and they had a pool.

This is one of the first times we got to swim in a pool at a hotel. It's like the coolest. And Zariah couldn't swim swim, but she was very good at latching onto my back while I swam. And so we spent hours in the pool and we swam back and forth, which meant she held on my back and I swam or walked.

But afterwards, we got out of the pool and we got back to our hotel room and Kelly had been, I think, getting ready for the wedding with the ladies or something.

Yeah.

And she was like, how was it? And Zariah goes, we swam all afternoon.

And I said, did you swim all afternoon? She's like, yeah. She didn't swim all afternoon. She held on to me and I swam all afternoon.

But she swam all afternoon because she was holding on to me. This is what happens in baptism. Jesus gives his body so that we could be delivered and we get to hold on to him. And he goes into the tomb. And he comes gloriously out of the tomb, and we get to join him in that. He covers us, and we get to hide in him in death, and we get to raise with him in life. And today we get to celebrate that picture as they are baptized. This last week I saw this cool picture.

Some of you might have seen this. This is— I don't know if it's cool, it's kind of sad, but all the fires that were happening up in the Boundary Waters, one of the camps, a lot of the camps would, would Sink their canoes so that the canoes don't get burned in the fire. And they're interviewing a guy, actually. He said, so when the fire—

when the flames of the fire come through camp, the waters of the lake will protect our canoes.

Wow, what a cool picture of like flames. If you can imagine, I hope those trees are still here, but flames over this lake and the waters surrounding and covering these canoes. in that water so they will not be touched by the flames. This is what we get to do. This is what Jesus does for us. He comes and covers us so that the flames, the death, doesn't get us. Ultimately, Jesus comes, joins us in the muck and the pit and the mire, and becomes our rock so we can stand on him. And we get to say we swam all afternoon. Because we were on the rock. It's actually the one he swam off to.

So my challenge to us, my encouragement to us is that this pattern of pleading and being delivered and praising and obedience, this pattern ultimately of baptism that we're going to get to see today, that we're going to get to celebrate today. My hope for us is that every day we would do this ourselves.

Every morning when you shower, I don't know if you shower every day, but hopefully you shower at least every few days. I'd encourage you to. Or if you bathe— I don't know if any adults still bathe here—

you're getting in your bath, when you're in the shower, when you're jumping in the pool, when you're swimming at the lake this summer. Each day when you get in your car, you have a moment you could remember your baptism.

You could again remember your pleading and your deliverance and your praise and your obedience each day. It wouldn't just be a one-time moment.

Oh, I got baptized. And I move on. Each day I essentially get baptized.

I remember the death and the resurrection that I get to join with Jesus. I pray that would be our prayer today as we watch and celebrate. We too could remember that good day. I'm going to invite our worship team up so we could praise the Lord with our mouths because of the deliverance he's brought to us.

A couple things I want us to consider, a few questions to ponder as we move to a time of gospel response. Is Jesus your deliverer and Lord? Great day, great moment to say yes to that. Great moment if you're feeling a stir even in this moment of like, I have not been baptized and I believe that's true.

Join us today in the pool.

We'd love to— we'd love it.

Let's get more people in there today. We'd love to see you baptized today with us. Is that true? This is step one. This is the most important thing you can do. Amen.

Maybe consider what pit— not put—

what pit, mud, or mire do you find yourself in? Maybe how did you get there? How are you trying to escape? Are you trying to get out alone? Could you cry out to the Lord who can rescue you? Consider who do you know who needs to know that the Lord is great? I guarantee you know or will run into someone this week who feels like they're stuck in the mire. Will you have the courage to say, I know a Lord who is great, who can rescue me?

Other ways we respond are through communion. Out in the hallways on both sides of our doors, we have tables with communion supplies— bread, crackers, and grape juice— and we invite you, if you are a follower of Jesus, to do that.

It's an opportunity each week for us, our whole service, to move towards a time of remembering his body broken and his blood shed. We remember this good news that Jesus is willing to come down into the pit, into the muck and the mire, so that we could have life, so that a rock could be placed that we could stand on and get out. And so we remember that in community each week. We encourage you to do that.

We're going to sing some songs with our mouths.

We're going to use our mouths not just to cry out, but to praise our God and all his good deeds. People would love to pray for you in the back of the room. There's people on both sides of the room who'd love to pray for you. They have lanyards that are yellow. They'd love to pray for you for everything. You can always give as a response as well to help support our ministry here at Hope. Let me pray for us.

Lord, thank you for your kindness.

Thank you that as we were stuck, you came and rescued us. Thank you that you hear our cry, that you don't leave us. I pray you'd help us patiently wait and cry. And that when we do rescue, that we would cry out in praise to you. I pray that you'd help us, uh, do your will, to follow you. And I pray, Lord, as struggle continues to come, that we continue to turn to you. You're all we got. I pray we keep turning to you. Thank you, Lord, for a day we get to celebrate such great news. And I pray you'd encourage each of us to keep turning. Amen.