Take A Leap

[SPEAKER_01]: All right, we'll turn with me to Luke chapter one.

[SPEAKER_01]: Luke chapter one.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to start in verse thirty nine.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're just going to read down to through verse forty five.

[SPEAKER_01]: There'll be on the screen if you want to follow that way.

[SPEAKER_01]: Luke chapter one verses thirty nine through forty five.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says this, it says in those days, Mary set out and hurried to a town in the Hill Country of Judah where she entered Zacharias house and greeted Elizabeth.

[SPEAKER_01]: When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped inside her and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then she exclaimed, with the loud cry, you are the most blessed of women in your child will be blessed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Next slide.

[SPEAKER_01]: How could this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

[SPEAKER_01]: For you see, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped for joy inside of me.

[SPEAKER_01]: She who also, as she who has believed is blessed because what was spoken to her by the Lord will be fulfilled.

[SPEAKER_01]: I already know what some of you are asking.

[SPEAKER_01]: What does this have to do with baptism?

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't worry.

[SPEAKER_01]: You just wait.

[SPEAKER_01]: You will find out some of you Bible scholars.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're like, this don't make no sense with baptism Sunday.

[SPEAKER_01]: But if you're taking notes, the title of today's message is take a leap.

[SPEAKER_01]: Take a leap.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on.

[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody say it with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Say take a leap.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, Father, we just thank you, Lord, for your Word this morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you for teaching us something new, Father.

[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you, Father, God Lord, that we glean from your Word, Father, we gain revelation and wisdom and knowledge and understanding today from at Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're excited, Father, God, we thank you, Lord, for what you're going to do in this place today.

[SPEAKER_01]: What you have already started in this place, and Father, we have great expectation for what's to come in Jesus' name.

[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody said,

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, when it comes to this text in Luke chapter one, it's amazing the prophetic utterances and the words spoken over John the Baptist, even hundreds and some thousands of years before he was even born.

[SPEAKER_01]: The book of Isaiah says that there will be a voice coming into the wilderness declaring prepare ye the way of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: in Malachi, which is the last book of the Old Testament.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has also the last prophet of the Old Testament.

[SPEAKER_01]: He prophesied four hundred years before John the Baptist's birth that there would be a forerunner to the Messiah that would be coming.

[SPEAKER_01]: So then in the New Testament, we see the angel Gabriel was sent and he spoke to Zechariah.

[SPEAKER_01]: We just kind of followed up right after this and he tells him, hey, you and your wife and your old age, you're going to conceive and give birth to the one that has the spirit of Elijah and he will be the four runner for the Messiah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then in John chapter one, verse twenty three, the priest and the Levites, they come to John and ask who he was and to which John then responds and he says, I am the voice crying out in the wilderness, make straight the pathway of the Lord, just as the prophet Isaiah has spoken.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so his assignment, John the Baptist's assignment and his purpose before he was ever born, was to tell a generation that he lived in that the Messiah was coming.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said repent and be baptized in water because the Messiah is coming soon.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he fulfilled that prophecy during his lifetime.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what's amazing is that that same prophecy is still for us today that there is a prophecy upon all of us that we are to fulfill to prepare He the way of the Lord, amen?

[SPEAKER_01]: Psalm's chapter one, thirty-nine verse thirteen, it says this, it says, for it was you who created my inward parts.

[SPEAKER_01]: You knit me together in my mother's womb.

[SPEAKER_01]: In my mother's womb.

[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, God knew you, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: He knew you before you were ever born.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Isaiah chapter forty-nine says that your name is amazing, is inscribed on the palms of God's hands.

[SPEAKER_01]: Your name before you were even born was inscribed on the palms of God's hands.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you'd think for just a moment that God doesn't care about you, that God doesn't love you, that God doesn't accept you for who you are.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have misunderstood how good and how amazing the God that we serve is.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because before you were even born, he cared about you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, somebody.

[SPEAKER_01]: He loved you enough to inscribe your name upon his hands.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so let me just say it this way.

[SPEAKER_01]: The same assignment in purpose that was on John the Baptist is actually the same assignment in purpose that is on us today.

[SPEAKER_01]: Nothing has changed.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are called to prepare for the return of Jesus, amen, and we do that very thing by declaring repent and be baptized.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's amazing to me this story in Luke chapter one.

[SPEAKER_01]: Elizabeth is just in her home.

[SPEAKER_01]: She's chilling.

[SPEAKER_01]: She's all by herself and Mary, who literally just had an angelic experience.

[SPEAKER_01]: The angel just came to her, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And she had this whole experience.

[SPEAKER_01]: She comes running into Elizabeth's house and the Bible clearly shows that she is full of joy.

[SPEAKER_01]: She's full of excitement.

[SPEAKER_01]: And she runs into her cousin Elizabeth's house and basically greets her, and warmly welcomes her.

[SPEAKER_01]: And as soon as the Bible says, as soon as she opened her mouth, the Bible says that the baby within her leaped in her belly.

[SPEAKER_01]: As soon as Mary opened her mouth, the baby that was in Elizabeth leaped.

[SPEAKER_01]: Who was that?

[SPEAKER_01]: It was John the Baptist.

[SPEAKER_01]: The question is, why did the baby leap?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why did the baby leap?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I'll tell you, it's actually quite simple.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's because Mary's voice was connected to the very one that John would preach about.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mary's voice was connected to the very one that would bring life into this earth, that would be the forerunner as we read, and as we saw in prophecies before, that would be the forerunner of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so there was a connection there in the spiritual realm.

[SPEAKER_01]: You might say, a baby at that age within a mother's womb doesn't understand, doesn't know, but I'm telling you, it was spiritual.

[SPEAKER_01]: spiritually, the baby leaped for joy inside of her.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen?

[SPEAKER_01]: And so it was literally a miracle of confirmation.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was a miracle of confirmation and he began doing in the womb what he was born to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was getting excited because Jesus was in the house.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on somebody.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was getting excited even within the womb that Jesus was on his way.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'll just say this today that if an unborn baby in a womb can catch the sound of the Messiah, come on now.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to tell you for those that have been born again, how much more excited should you get when Jesus is present in your life?

[SPEAKER_01]: How much more excited should you get when you are in the presence of God?

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, if a six months old baby inside of a womb can leap for joy and the presence of Jesus, come on, we should be getting excited for what God's going to do, amen?

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why today is an exciting day.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because some people are about to take a leap.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some people are about to take a leap.

[SPEAKER_01]: And because of that, we should get excited today.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, every once in a while, you should get excited when Jesus is in the room.

[SPEAKER_01]: You should leap for a joy.

[SPEAKER_01]: You should shout.

[SPEAKER_01]: You should clap your hands.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on now.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's why around here, we don't believe in a quiet church.

[SPEAKER_01]: There ain't no such thing as a quiet church around here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because let me tell you, in heaven, it ain't quiet.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so if you want nice, quiet, peaceful church, well, I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's not the way it's gonna be.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because when we get to heaven, come on, we are jumping and shouting and cheering and leaping for joy, baby.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, all day long.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I just said, don't wait until you're thirty.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't wait until you're forty or fifty or sixty or whatever.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't wait until you're at your lowest of lows.

[SPEAKER_01]: When Jesus tells you to take a leap, you ought to get excited and take a leap, amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: And let me tell you today that when you take a leap, you're saying yes to the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're saying yes to the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, Lord, I will follow you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, Lord, I'll be obedient.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, Lord, I'll do whatever it is that you call me to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: You give him a yes, Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: So turn to your neighbor and say, take a leap.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, tell them more confidently.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, tell them with some excitement.

[SPEAKER_01]: Say, take a leap.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: I believe that today, my job is to get you shaken up and stirred up to take a leap and say, yes to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just to say, yes to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what baptism is.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's saying yes to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a ritual.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a yes to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not what we tend to make it out to be.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a scary thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a whatever, you know, people may think it's not.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just saying yes to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I'm choosing to follow you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I'm choosing to submit my life to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I will be obedient to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just a yes to the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know the best thing that you could ever do in your life is say yes to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: the best thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: The best thing you could ever do in your life is just to say yes to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen?

[SPEAKER_01]: So how do we say yes to Him?

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we commit and give Jesus our yes?

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're taking notes, there's two things that I want to tell you today.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's two ways to take a leap.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is a very simple message, if you will.

[SPEAKER_01]: A very elementary level message, but this is just something as a refresher for all of us today.

[SPEAKER_01]: But if we're going to take a leap, the first thing is, well, you got to get born again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the first leap that you take.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is recognizing that apart from Jesus, you're nothing, that you can live life and do whatever it is and be successful and make money and have a family or whatever it may be, whatever you call good and whatever you call successful and all that.

[SPEAKER_01]: But nothing compares to being born again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Nothing compares to your yes to Jesus and allowing Him to change and transform your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: People have told me, my life is really good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why would I need Jesus?

[SPEAKER_01]: Your life may be really good, but your life will be a whole lot better with Jesus in it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, somebody.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because anybody in this room that once was blind, but now we can see, we'll tell you, once was lost, but now we're found, can tell you, amen, come on, somebody.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we all have a testimony of the goodness of God where God has brought us from and where we're at now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Aren't you glad you're not who you used to be?

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on now, aren't you glad you're not who you used to be?

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, but aren't you also glad that you're not quite where God is leading you to yet that there is so much more greater and better?

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, things that are yet in front of you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's why we always say around here that the best is yet to come.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have reached our best days yet.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our best days are yet in front of us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I'm older, Pastor.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't matter.

[SPEAKER_01]: Your best days are in front of you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't matter where you are in life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because with God and the mix, everything is better.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so we first take a leap by getting born again.

[SPEAKER_01]: We say yes to Jesus and making Him our Lord and Savior.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the first step really when it comes to baptism.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we ask everybody before they go into the water.

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you saved?

[SPEAKER_01]: because you can't get baptized unless you are, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because baptism, when it comes to baptism, salvation has to come first.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen?

[SPEAKER_01]: I went to a school when I was growing up that they taught that baptism was the way of salvation.

[SPEAKER_01]: That in order to go to heaven, you had to be baptized.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that was false doctrine.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're messed up in their beliefs.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Bible says that if you confess with your heart and believe with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you shall what be saved.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's all it takes.

[SPEAKER_01]: It takes, it takes confessing and believing with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord confessing and believing and accepting Him as your Savior.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's how we get saved.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's how we get born again.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's as simple as that.

[SPEAKER_01]: People think, oh, I gotta do this and I gotta do all that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I gotta jump through all these loops and follow all these rules.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, you don't.

[SPEAKER_01]: All you gotta do is say, yes, to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: You say, yes, I will follow you, yes, I'll obey you, yes, I accept your love, I accept you as my savior, and that's it.

[SPEAKER_01]: We make it so complicated when really it's not.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is a simple message today and you might think that everyone in the room is saved or everyone in the room is on their way to heaven, but that actually is not the case.

[SPEAKER_01]: Wouldn't it be amazing that today on baptism Sunday?

[SPEAKER_01]: People got saved for the first time or rededicated their life to Jesus, come on somebody.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then unexpectedly in their charge clothes, in their charge hairdo, jumped in that tank after service, and got baptized, come on somebody as their next step because they took a leap.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've seen it happen before.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not just saying this to make it sound cute.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm saying this because I've seen it happen before.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've seen people come into church service and it just so happened to be a baptism service and they were messed up from the floor up and they met Jesus and Jesus changed their life.

[SPEAKER_01]: They got saved.

[SPEAKER_01]: They jumped in the tank and their life was never the same again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm telling you, he can do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't need to do all these rules and all these regulations.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's none of that is in here.

[SPEAKER_01]: All he says is, say yes to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just say yes.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I want to tell you today that the purpose and the promise that God has spoken over your life and that He has given you is still alive today.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even though you may be far from God, it's still alive within you.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's still alive within you.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the first leap that we take is we get born again, we get saved.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then the second leap is that we get baptized in water.

[SPEAKER_01]: John the Baptist, the one who baptized many, also baptized Jesus himself in water, would later go to be described as one of the greatest ministers to ever live.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what Jesus said about John the Baptist.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that wasn't just some random person's words.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what was true.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what Jesus even declared.

[SPEAKER_01]: His ministry didn't begin with the next greatest sermon.

[SPEAKER_01]: His ministry didn't begin with the biggest crowd or the most people are having altogether church.

[SPEAKER_01]: His ministry began by simply telling people repent and be baptized.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when you look at that word repent,

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the word meditonia, which means to change your mind.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's all it means is to change your mind.

[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, it starts right here.

[SPEAKER_01]: It starts with the way that you think.

[SPEAKER_01]: It starts with how you see yourself and how you think about life.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says, I want you to change everything that you think about life and everything that you have believed and you've bought a lie about yourself.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to change all that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Change the way you think.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just repent.

[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of times people say, well, in order for me to repent, I've got to do this and I've got to follow my knees and people got to come and pray for me and I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes those things are necessary.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when John the Baptist says repent and be baptized, all he's saying is, change your mind.

[SPEAKER_01]: Change your mind.

[SPEAKER_01]: Get out of your own thinking.

[SPEAKER_01]: Get out of what the world has said or what the world has taught you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Change your mind and just focus on Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: Repent and be baptized.

[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, we can't just say we're going to live differently, but we got to change how we think.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because everything starts with a thought.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can say all day long, I'm going to change my life and live this way and do this and do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: But if you don't clean this up first, your life will never follow.

[SPEAKER_01]: You live your life according to your thoughts.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why the Bible says to take every thought captive.

[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, Jesus understood that the real battle would not be right here, but it would actually be right here.

[SPEAKER_01]: That the battle that we face in life, the battle of life itself and the struggles that we deal with aren't at a surface level and actually all begins right here.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if we can learn how to overcome here first, then the rest will follow.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's why we got to learn how to get our mind straight.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's why the Bible talks about how the word it washes and renews us.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it renews our mind, amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we got to transform every part of our life and it starts with our thinking.

[SPEAKER_01]: So his message was simple, repent, then get baptized.

[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, lay down your old man, leave it in the water and come up a new creation in Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: The word baptize there is the word baptism, which means to be immersed to wash, to be immersed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now I don't want to step on any toes or step on maybe any kind of beliefs in the room or come against what

[SPEAKER_01]: other people may think about baptism or whatever, but when John was saying this and he was teaching this and even when Jesus later on all throughout the word when he talked about baptism, he was talking about this word baptism right here to be fully immersed in water and to wash yourself.

[SPEAKER_01]: So a sprinkling doesn't do that for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's when you are fully immersed

[SPEAKER_01]: in the waters of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you come up out of that water, somebody completely different.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what baptism is.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's immersion within the water.

[SPEAKER_01]: And in that immersion process, there is a washing that takes place.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a cleansing.

[SPEAKER_01]: You lay down your old self and you come up somebody completely new and different.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is why, let me tell you, church.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is why I have seen people go in the water and come up and they got healed.

[SPEAKER_01]: They got set free.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I have seen all kinds.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have seen people who couldn't walk that would have that canes or whatever messed up different parts of their body.

[SPEAKER_01]: They got in that baptism tank and all of a sudden they came out and they were running around the place completely healed.

[SPEAKER_01]: it's because it's because that what God does when he takes you under the water and he immerses you, he washes every bit of you that is not good, that is unclean, whatever it may be and you come out somebody completely different.

[SPEAKER_01]: Completely different.

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember when I was little and I got baptized because I was little and all the other kids were getting baptized.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's just what you do when you grow up in church.

[SPEAKER_01]: When your other little friends get baptized, you get baptized.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whether you know what you're doing or not.

[SPEAKER_01]: Especially if you're in a old school, holy ghost, pin a castle church with everybody running around, shouting and going crazy.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you just, you know, one person goes in that tank.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the place goes nuts.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if another kid jumps in, well, praise God, here we go.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whether they understood it or not.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I didn't understand.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just did it just to do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember going in that water and coming up and then it's like, got baptized.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what happened, but cool, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: And it didn't mean anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: It didn't provoke or change or challenge.

[SPEAKER_01]: It deported my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then when I got a little bit older, middle school high schoolish years, I remember, I was like, you know, we had a baptism service.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna get baptized.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know I did it when I was a kid, but quite honestly to me, I didn't count.

[SPEAKER_01]: So now that I understand it, and now that I know what I'm doing, I'm going to do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember getting baptized in this time, it was different.

[SPEAKER_01]: Josh, I'm not kidding you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I went under the water with my eyes closed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right, because we don't open our eyes in the water.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I go down and I remember as I was down in the water, my eyes are closed.

[SPEAKER_01]: I literally saw everything that was happening.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it was like an open vision, if you will.

[SPEAKER_01]: And even though my eyes were closed, I saw like this figure of me just go, just went like right off of me and just vanished.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then I came up out of the water.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I knew that whoever I was before that moment was left in that water.

[SPEAKER_01]: And a whole new me came up out of that water.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on somebody.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what baptism is.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what baptism should be.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why when we have baptism services, it often challenges people and causes people to reevaluate their life and reevaluate their story and their walk with Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why we always have people that didn't plan to get baptized, get baptized.

[SPEAKER_01]: because all of a sudden they realized in that moment, I got to lay my old man down.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe that's not a leap that I've taken.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe I took the leap of accepting Him as my Savior, but maybe I didn't take the extra leap and go under and be immersed in that water to allow Jesus to wash me clean so I can come up a complete different person.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen?

[SPEAKER_01]: So there's something supernatural.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's something divine about the washing that takes place.

[SPEAKER_01]: We say goodbye to the old us and we say hello to the new us.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are literally washed and made new.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll tell you this today, if Jesus are Savior and are greatest example, understood the importance of being baptized and got baptized Himself, what did you say?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's important for us today.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's important.

[SPEAKER_01]: We follow Him as our ultimate lead, our ultimate example.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus teaches us that we should be baptized.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so for that, we're excited today because there's going to be people that take a leap.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, I said, there's going to be people that are about to take a leap.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, somebody.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to today's message.

[SPEAKER_00]: We pray you were inspired, challenged, and marked by the word you heard.

[SPEAKER_00]: If this message blessed you today, we encourage you to subscribe to the Church of the City podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: There you can find more faith-filled messages to uplift you and help you on your journey of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: For more information about Church of the City, head on over to www.cotcdfw.com.

[SPEAKER_00]: And until next time, remember this, the best is yet to come.