For The Person Who Has Everything: The Gospel

Well, my name is Nate Gagne.

I'm the lead pastor of Restoration Church.

Welcome to church today.

Welcome to church today, Dover crew.

Could you do me a favor?

Could you give a huge welcome to our other locations, to

Bethlehem, Milton and Plymouth?

It is an exciting day as we, uh, will be celebrating water baptisms

across all of our locations.

But before we go into the baptisms, before we go into the word.

Uh, it being Christmas season, I've been, uh, taking a moment to have the Pastor

Nate Holiday Gift Giving Guide, all right?

As I said last week, because I have a YouTube channel I don't

want you to know about, uh, we're gonna do it here instead of there.

We, uh, last week I shared something for the guys.

This one is a, is for the parents.

If you have children that are probably under the age of 30,

this is the gift for them.

This is a gift that, uh, I bought.

My son just got his driver's license this week, so he's about that, my

oldest son, so he's about that age.

I probably bought this For him and his, uh, and his second brother,

maybe like, uh, nine years ago.

We still have it.

It's still in the house.

It's still getting used by the younger brothers.

So I'm saying a couple of things.

One, That it's, um, playability, right?

It, it's ability to be used over and over again is very high.

Two, it's durability is very high.

That it's surpr, that it's survived Four boys and toddlers and cousins and

the pastor's kids when they, the other pastor's kids when they come visit.

It's that for you as well.

So here it is.

All right.

It is the Hot Wheels six lane racer, right here.

If you've ever been part of a Pinewood Derby in your life,

obviously those are great fun.

This is that with your Hot Wheels car.

So, uh, six cars at the top.

The thing is huge.

And then at the end, they go through, and then it tells you which car won.

I'm telling you.

So much fun.

We would, and then if we needed, we hadn't used it in a long time, and we needed

a special day, uh, we'd get every kid.

A 1 matchbox car.

And so we'd have six new cars.

And then we'd play for it for another three or four hours that day.

Racing every car until you had a winner's heat.

Racing all the cars until one car was the champion.

I'm telling you, this thing cost 60.

And there is no gift that our children have used more in their life than this.

And I would even include any system that we've owned.

They put more hours on this than on the switch because we

haven't owned the switch as long.

So that is your gift guide.

Ladies and gentlemen, do yourselves a favor, buy it.

You'll like it.

All right, you will like it.

All right.

Now I want to talk about our miracle offering.

Thank you.

At Restoration Church, we give to, um, we give our tithes, and we give

kingdom, and we give to Kingdom Builders.

And Kingdom Builders are projects that go toward local church expansion, to

global missions projects, and helping raise future Christian leaders.

And, a couple weeks ago, we had our miracle offering, which

goes toward Kingdom Builders.

And our one day offering was 81, 097 and one penny.

Absolutely amazing.

And we've highlighted a bunch of different projects, but we've done

projects in Tanzania, in Cuba, locally.

And, um, I, and I thank you for giving absolutely, absolutely

unbelievable, outstanding.

Thank you for that.

And that wasn't one person who gave 80, 000 and the rest of the church gave.

No, it's everybody just saying.

What does God want me to do?

We did our part.

And collectively, it was more than we ever could have imagined.

So, thank you guys for that.

We'll be finishing up the projects this year.

So, uh, uh, if it hasn't already go out, Free International was

here in the beginning of November.

So the money will be going out to them.

This week, if it hasn't already gone out, and any other remaining

projects that we have, we finish out the year, and hopefully

we've accomplished every project.

So, if you still want to give toward the Miracle Offering,

just give to Kingdom Builders.

It goes in the same fund, and it goes toward the same project.

And then in January, we'll share with you our projects for 2025.

If you have your Bibles, there, we're going to be jumping over, um, in a few

different places in Scripture today.

And we, I, I want to look at this verse, and it's probably, if you've gone to

church, a verse you're familiar with.

But I want you to think about it a different way today.

And then we want to talk through this in Scripture today.

So it is in the book of Matthew, chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

And so, if you don't have a Bible, we'd love to give you one for free.

You can also download a Bible app on your phone.

Or, if the internet's working, you can Google Matthew chapter

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

16 and follow along there.

We want you to read the Bible for yourself, alright?

It is important that we hear preaching.

We want And that we place ourself under preaching, but it is more

important that, uh, you are studying scripture on your own.

God wants to talk to you through your Bible.

So Matthew chapter 16, verse number 26, and I'll have this

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

here on the screen for you.

It says, What do you benefit if you gain the whole world, but lose your own soul?

Is anything worth more than your soul?

This is a great self reflective question.

Because we probably, um, some of us have experienced moments in our life where

we feel like we've lost our own soul.

We've chased something, we've chased something, discovered it was sin,

discovered it was destructive, and then found ourselves hollow, empty,

without hope, without joy, full of depression, full of sin, full of

problem, full of pain, and some of our baptisms today are celebrating that

even in the midst of that despair, Jesus showed up and changed their life.

He changes their lives.

It's a great verse because maybe you're flirting with a co worker.

Maybe you're, you're starting to take office supplies from the office.

Maybe you've begun to pursue partying.

Maybe you're focused more on being, on being popular or on, uh, or on,

uh, You know, on anything really.

But you've, you've started to chase some things other than Jesus.

And you've got to think, what will it benefit?

If you gain everything,

what will it benefit?

If you got everything, but yet lost your soul.

And this is a, again, a great question.

To contemplate, am I doing things that are leading me towards my own destruction?

Have I allowed things in my life that will lead me away from my Savior?

But this Christmas time, and on this message, I want you to reflect

on this verse in a different way.

I want you to reflect on it in a, and think about it in a way that you

maybe haven't thought about it before.

And it's, we'll reword this to this.

What will they benefit if you give them the whole world but they lose their soul?

And I want you to think about this from the perspective of a parent, from

the perspective of a caretaker, from even the perspective of an employer.

What will it benefit if you give those under you, if you give those you're

in charge of, if you give those you're responsible for, what will it benefit

them if you give them everything?

But they lose their soul in the process.

This is what I want us to talk about today.

Our series is for the person who has everything.

Last week, we talked about give the gift of encouragement.

Today, I want to talk about give the gift of the gospel.

And the gospel is a church word that simply means this.

Good.

That the message of Jesus is good news.

And because of culture, because of attacks against Jesus, because of

churches who have not represented Jesus as being good news, it has been lost.

This idea of Jesus as being something worth sharing, Jesus as being something

worth celebrating outside of Christmas, Jesus being something that brings great

things into people's life, that is lost.

Amen.

Unfortunately, not many people know who he is and what he can do, and

you have the opportunity of bringing the gift of good news, bringing the

gift of the gospel in our lives.

And I'm going to talk today, um, mostly to parents, but if you're not a parent,

just put this in your perspective.

Maybe you're a manager, maybe you've got nieces and nephews, But, but, uh,

adopt it to your under understanding because these principles would be true.

For example, I was, um, getting counsel from a therapist for my children.

And the therapist gave me an article to help me in my parenting.

And the article was about prison inmates.

So, the principles aren't the same for running a prison as they are

for running a home, apparently.

And, uh, same thing here with our message today.

I'm talking to the parents, but every single one of us can find our,

the way God wants us to apply this.

We can be wildly out of focus.

And, and I, I'm specifically talking to the Christian parents, because

you have said, Hey, we follow Jesus.

Our house follows Jesus.

We desire for our children to follow Jesus.

But then we're wildly out of focus from that vision.

And we're actually, if we evaluate ourselves, not doing anything

to move toward that vision of helping our children, our

spouse, our family find Jesus.

It's just us.

And that is something I want us to reflect on.

We are focused on getting them every material thing they need,

especially at Christmastime.

We're focused on what we can't provide for them at Christmastime.

We're focused on their education.

We're focused on their experiences.

We're focused on, on helping them experience everything

the world has to offer.

But sometimes, we've, we, we, and what I want us to evaluate is,

is our focus, have we set it up for, to help them to know Jesus?

To help them to experience the good news of Jesus.

We can mortgage our home, our future, our retirement to give

our kids the things they want.

The, the education, the college, the, uh, the wedding, the, you know, the homes.

We're trying to give them every material thing.

But again, what will it benefit if you give them everything?

What will it benefit if you gave them every material thing you never had?

But they lose.

their soul.

Somewhere in the list of things that are important for the Christian parent,

somewhere on your list, there is church, there is Jesus, but sometimes

it's at the bottom of the list.

And we've got to look and evaluate and to decide it needs to be the

most important thing on the list.

The most important thing on the list.

One of the values that Michelle and I have for our boys, there's a few, there's a few

things I won't go into all of them today.

I've talked about them before, but one of them is that they

have a work ethic, right?

That's important to me.

I want to make sure that my boys are not the perpetual 29 year old adolescent that

doesn't work, that just plays video games, not even making money from video games.

Like if you're going to do it, at least.

Put me into retirement through it, uh, but, but I want them to know how to work.

If you know how to work, you, you'll be wealthy, right?

If you know how to work, you'll get promotions.

It's a very rare thing, but one of the things, one of the values for us,

for our children, is that they will love Jesus and love His children.

Church, and that's the value for us that we make sure is at the top of

our priority now I have a benefit of being a pastor so I can make sure

that church is such is We are doing church in such a way that they love it.

All right That's why we do some of the things we do here because I don't just

want my children to love Jesus and his church I want your children to as

well, but some on the list of things That we're providing for our children.

On the list of things that we're giving to our children.

The gospel must be first.

So rewrite your list.

Rewrite your list.

Give me a blank screen here for a second.

Rewrite your list.

You've got now, uh, college.

You've got kale.

Um, uh, you've got a high speed internet.

Alright, all the important things you're trying to give to your children.

Let's move the gospel to the top of that list.

The good news of Jesus to the top of that list.

Now, what is the gospel?

I want to give you nine words.

So you can take a picture of this, you can write this down.

But I want you to memorize this.

Nine words to explain the gospel.

The whole scripture in nine words.

So when someone says, well what is the gospel?

What is the good news of Jesus?

That you would know it, you would memorize it, you'd understand it, and

you'd be able to tell others about it.

It is this.

God wants you.

Sin enslaves you.

Jesus rescues you.

If you've experienced that, could you make some noise?

And part of the good news, for some people, the good news

starting place for you right now is the fact that God wants you.

Because you can't even believe that.

No, God doesn't want me.

I'm too messed up.

I've made too many mistakes.

I've done horrible things.

God does not want me.

That is not true.

That is one of the lies of sin that is trying to enslave you.

Don't go to God.

Don't believe in God.

Don't call out to God.

He doesn't want you.

He hates you.

You're dirty.

You're disgusting.

Get your life together first.

Make yourself worth something.

Make yourself appear like something.

Then maybe you'll convince God to like you.

That's one of the lies of sin.

And if you've ever been stuck in addiction, you've ever gone

and pursued something that you can't even believe you've done.

How did I get here?

How did I experience this?

Where, how did this happen to my life?

You know, sin, you recognize this.

Sin enslaves you.

And it's not just the, the sins of, uh, of addiction, but church people are caught

up in the sins of, of religious movement, caught up in sins of religious pride.

And they, they, they, because they won't even recognize it as sin,

they're not even able to repent of it.

And they're just stuck in it, going to church and going to hell.

But the beauty of this whole thing.

That we celebrate Christmas, we celebrate Easter, we celebrate every

single week is that Jesus rescues you.

And all you have to do to be worthy of a rescue is to admit you need being rescued.

When the helicopter's flying over Mount Washington trying to find

the person who went camping in tennis sneakers and a tank top.

And they're like, I'm fine.

I wonder why that helicopter's up there.

It's because you're about to die.

Wave your hands and let the helicopter know you're there.

That's all you have to do.

Is to have the awareness of, I am dead in my chair.

And I may not be dead now, but I'm going, but I'm going to be dead soon.

I need to recognize that that helicopter, I need to recognize that that Savior

Jesus, He died on the cross for me.

And if you'll say, Hey, actually, I think I need to be rescued.

Then you pray a simple prayer.

Jesus, I believe that you're God's son.

And the reason you came and died on the cross was to forgive me.

And I ask you.

And I am going to follow you now.

That is it.

It'll be the same thing as the helicopter.

Hey, I recognize, I shouldn't have done this.

I recognize I shouldn't be here right now, but there's a helicopter,

and hey, I need to be rescued.

Forgive me, and you know, if you get, get rescued by a helicopter,

there's gonna be huge fines.

You're gonna have to pay huge fines for your rescue.

Jesus doesn't do that, alright?

He does not do that.

You're gonna have to pay the fines to the helicopter company, but, and

to the state police and everybody.

But all you have to do is ask for it.

Ask Jesus.

This is why it's good news.

Because you can't work off the things you've done.

You cannot rescue yourself, but our Lord and Savior rescues us.

My question for you is, for those of you who've received the gospel,

you've received the good news.

Have you shared this with your children?

Have you shared this, teenagers, with your parents?

Have you shared this, everyone, with your friends?

Have you shared what you've experienced?

Have you shared the good news you've received with anybody

else, with anybody recently?

And I'm not talking about trying to convince them.

I'm not talking about trying to convince them or argue them or somehow

turn it into a political debate.

I'm talking about sharing the good news of Jesus.

This is who I was.

This is what Jesus did.

This is who I am now.

Sharing that.

Have you done that?

If we're going to give the gift of the gospel, the first thing we have

to do is we have to know the gospel.

We have to know it.

We have to experience it.

And sometimes we are not able to share the gospel with people.

We're not able to share the good news with people.

We don't even necessarily understand the good news.

It's because we haven't received it ourselves.

And this is probably true for the long time church attender.

You were born in church, you grew up in church, and the worst thing

you ever did was say the B word.

And so you're like, yeah, the good news saved me from my sin.

But if you have a nonchalant attitude about Jesus and what he's

done, then I'm telling you this, you have not received it yet.

We are all sinners.

Whether we're murderers or gossips, we are all in need of Jesus.

And if you think that gossiping's not so bad, you haven't received it yet.

All sin separates us from God.

Sin enslaves all of us, no matter what it is.

You can't free yourself from it.

One of the reasons it could be why we don't prioritize it in our family

is because we haven't experienced it.

Well, I don't want to force my kids to go to church.

Well, I don't want to force my kids to Listen, if you've ever If you ever

go hiking, and you nearly die, and you get rescued, you'll be preaching

to your kids, bring a backpack, bring an emergency blanket, don't

wear cotton, wear wool, and you'll be telling them over and over again,

Do you know what I was rescued from?

And you've got to evaluate yourself.

Am I not sharing it because I've not received it?

Luke, you know, Chapter 18 verses 9 to 14.

I might not read all of this But Jesus is telling a story and he's telling a

story similar to what i've been talking about there's someone who had great

confidence in their religious activity and Not only were they confident in

their own religious activity They looked down on everybody else and you if you've

ever been in part of church now I've been to this church my whole life, but

i've also been part of other churches I've been on staff and done internships

at other churches you meet these people

They look down on you.

And sometimes, they'll do it with a smile.

Oh, look at your Bible.

Oh, look at that.

Your Bible's so cute.

Should be King James Version.

Oh, your church.

Cute, cute.

Wonderful, wonderful.

But we don't believe that.

And actually, you're going to hell.

It is just, our religious activity is superior to your religious activity.

And this is the story.

And so, uh, verse 18, chapter 10.

Uh, excuse me, chapter 18, verse number 10.

Jesus says this, Two men went to the temple to pray.

One was a Pharisee.

Those were religious elites.

And the other was a despised tax collector.

Whoever is on your list of worst people, that's that guy.

The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer.

The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer.

I thank you, God, that I am not like other people.

Cheaters, sinners, adulterers.

I'm certainly not like that tax, that tax collector.

I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.

Unfortunately, that might be a prayer that you prayed.

I can't even believe they struggle with addiction.

I can't even believe they sin that way.

I can't even believe, oh, I thank you, God, that I'm not like that.

I thank you God that I don't look like that.

I don't act like that.

I thank you God I can't even believe

but verse number 13, but the tax collector stood at a distance This is

this is the bad guy if you recognize yourself as a bad guy who shouldn't be

approaching God This is you in this story.

He stood in the distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven

as he prayed Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, O God, be

merciful to me, for I am a sinner.

And Jesus says, I tell you this, I tell you, that it was this sinner,

not the Pharisee, who returned home justified by God, who returned home

forgiven, who returned home made right.

The sinner was made right.

The sinner was taken care of.

The Pharisee,

he continued.

in his sin.

God, Jesus said for those who humble themselves, those who exalt

themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Religious activity does not make us right before God.

Jesus makes us right before God.

Second thing here is we must share it.

You know it, you receive it, you've got to share it.

It is a command that we share it, but also, why should it be a command?

There's, uh, there's a couple jokes that go around in culture.

How do you know someone's a vegan?

Because they'll tell you, right?

Or how do you know someone's in CrossFit?

Because they'll tell you.

It should be, how do you know someone's a Christian?

Because they'll tell you.

It should be something that's a part of our conversation.

Not because we're trying to convince people.

Not because we're trying to argue people.

Not because we think we're better than people.

But because we've received something that's changed our life and we

want everybody to receive something that can change their life as well.

That's our motivation.

That has to be our motivation.

And we must know and love Jesus in a way that it naturally becomes our motivation.

If you want to go to a movie this week, don't go see Moana 2.

I rate that a 4 out of a 10.

But, but, go see the best Christmas pageant ever.

Amazing.

Amazing.

9 out of 10.

So good.

So just for the record monotube

Share it.

There's a famous passage in Scripture where Jesus is talking

to a lady That's kind of like us.

She's got some sexual history She's got she's part of a group that

people are prejudiced against.

She's not part of the elite She wouldn't be welcome to even have conversation

with the religious elite, but yet here's Jesus God of the universe Searching her

out and having a conversation with her.

He tells her the wrong things she's done, but he doesn't say it pointing his finger.

He just says it like, Hey, I'm talking with you, and don't feel like you need

to hide anything from me, because I know everything about you, and I'm not

going to treat you different knowing the things that you're afraid I might know.

Yeah, you've had five husbands.

Yeah, you're living with a guy who's not your husband.

I know that, but what I want to talk to you about is the good news.

I want to talk to you about the good news.

Change your behavior that's not gonna do anything for you.

But you meet, and he calls himself the living water, you meet the living water.

And it'll change everything.

I won't have to, I'm not going to have to convince you to live differently,

because when you meet the living water, when you experience the good news,

you'll live differently, out of joy.

And if you've ever gone to a church where they tell you, follow the rules, follow

the rules, follow the rules, everybody sing it with me, follow the rules, follow

the rules, that could have been one of the Moana songs, it would have made it better.

Um, What would happen if you, the reason you've experienced church like that,

because unfortunately it's filled with too many people busy with religious

activity, not people who've met a savior.

And so in John 4, 42, the lady experiences Jesus, and she runs to her city, and she's

telling everybody, She's not like, hey, don't go near the well, creepy guy there.

She's not saying, hey, don't go near the well, a really judgmental, um,

narcissistic religious guy there.

No, she runs to the city and she said, I, I, I, I, I, I think I've

met the, I think I've met Jesus.

I think I've met the good news.

I think I've met the Messiah.

He told me everything I've ever done in my life.

And she's not saying it in a shameful way.

She's not saying it in a condemned way.

He told me everything the reason she's saying that because she's blown away that

he knew everything about her but he still treated her with kindness and dignity.

He knows everything about you and he's still going to treat

you with kindness and dignity.

And she's blown away.

I can't even believe.

I can't even.

And she tells everybody.

They all, I mean, everybody's like, What?

What?

What?

And it's like, It It's like, um, uh, uh, a commercial, people are just coming

out of their houses, and they're all marching down the street to go find Jesus.

And they meet Jesus, and they're like, hey, this lady told us about you.

They have a conversation with Jesus, and they say this, this is so

beautiful, they say this to the lady.

This is the lady with the past.

Now we believe.

Now we believe.

Not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves.

Now we know that he is indeed the savior of the world.

I want to stop here for a moment.

I'd like you to close your eyes for me for a moment.

If you're comfortable, you don't have to.

Some of you, you're putting a lot of activity into bringing

your, your kids to church.

You're spending money to send them to camp.

You're not sure if it's making a difference.

Some of you, you've never shared your testimony, your faith with your kids.

I want you to imagine in this moment, where you share your testimony with

your kids, you, you, you've put in, you're going, you, you've got Jesus

priority at first, not just of your life, but of their life as well.

It's not their decision at this stage yet.

Now imagine them coming to you and saying, Now I believe, not just

because you forced me to go to church, but because I have heard Him myself.

That's the prayer I have for you.

You can look back up at me.

And I know one of our baptisms this morning,

One of our baptisms this morning is, um, uh, a guy in his 20s

whose father dedicated him as a baby on the stage of our church.

And now many years later, after the last couple months, has given his life back to

the Lord and is getting baptized today.

He's saying, hey, now I believe, not just, Dad, because what you told me

to believe, but because I've heard him, We've got to know the gospel.

We've got to share the gospel.

The last thing is this, we've got to prioritize it.

Matthew 6.

33 Uh, this is a prayer people pray when they're single, right,

and they're waiting for a date.

Uh, it says, Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously and

He will give you everything you need.

Listen, that's probably, that's a good dating principle.

That's not what it's talking about here.

It goes much broader and deeper than that.

We tend to only quote this prayer or pray this prayer when we

don't have something we want.

This is a way of living.

It's not a way of being patient to get what you don't have yet.

It's a way of living.

Seek first the kingdom of God.

When it's going good, when it's going bad, in your relationships,

in your finances, in your health, in your business, in everything.

Seek God above all else.

Seek God before all else.

And live righteously.

Live like you say you believe in Him.

Live!

Like he's changed your life, and he will give you everything you need.

Prioritize the gospel.

This means that we put the good news of Jesus first in every part of our life.

When we talk about tithing, tithing 10%, this is the, this comes not

just out of this scripture, but out of a bunch of scriptures.

This is one of those.

The per the, the, the principle of first fruits.

The principle of tithing is God, first, I prioritize God above everything else.

I prioritize him above my mortgage, above my, uh, above my Netflix account,

above my, uh, my, my, uh, my gas, my car payment, eating out before taxes.

God, first in attending church, we start on Sunday.

Some churches are on Saturdays.

But we,

whether this was why it was originally installed, we can

make it the reason we do it now.

It's the first thing, the first moments of the first day of the week.

We put God first.

We come to church and we do that.

Serving, I don't use all my time for myself.

I first decide when I'm gonna serve God and I design my life around that

within our scheduling and our calendar.

We put God first.

We put the things for God first, and then we prioritize

the rest of our life around it.

There's something that is used in, in, in, um, not just in church, you know,

calendar scheduling, but you can use in your personal calendar as well.

And it's the idea of big rocks.

And um, because our ground's frozen, it's kind of hard to just find rocks and sand.

So just imagine this with me.

But if we had a, a, a glass vase here, and we have big rocks, medium rocks, and sand.

If you put the, the sand in first, and the medium rocks in second, there'll

be no room to fit the big rocks in.

But if you go in reverse order, and you put the priority things

in first, the big rocks in first, then the medium rocks, and then the

sand, the least priority things in.

Next, it will all fit in your calendar.

One of the reasons why you can't time, find time for God is because

you're not putting God first.

Put Him in first.

You know, my, my father and mother came, uh, started following Jesus when

they were in their early twenties.

They were in like their first or second year of marriage when

they started following Jesus.

And since then, church on Sundays.

It just was.

It just was.

And so now, for my kids, it's not even anything that we have to like,

you know, someone asks us, hey, you want to come over Sunday morning?

We don't have to, let me check the calendar and find out what's

happening on Sunday morning.

No, we know because the big rock has been put in first.

The big rocks of Of Sunday, the big rocks of youth group for the kids,

the big rocks of summer camp are already on our calendar for next year,

the big rocks of, of, um, big rocks of, of, of dates and of vacations.

You put in those things first!

That way, the lesser important things don't happen.

And when the big rocks are in first, it makes other decisions of, of, uh, of,

uh, of sports, of hobbies, of activities.

It helps them to get in line.

Seek first the kingdom.

Make him the priority.

The band, I welcome, the musicians, I welcome you to get into your spots.

Today, we're celebrating in our church, As we see dozens of people across

our locations declare the gospel to the world through water baptism.

Water baptism is not something that saves us.

Water baptism is not something that, that joins us to a church.

Water baptism is not something that, that, that cleanses us.

It is symbolic of the moment you gave your life to Jesus.

And it is a declaration to the world, a public declaration to the world.

I am his I follow the people getting water baptized today.

They've met Jesus They are sharing it with you and part of the baptism is a

declaration They're making a commitment to Jesus to make him first in their life.

It's a beautiful thing

It's a powerful thing and we're gonna celebrate that together.

But before we do I

Want to take a moment to pray with you.

If you'll close your eyes.

Again, if you're comfortable, if you, if you're not comfortable, just stare at me.

It's fine.

I'll stare back at you.

You, then you'll close your eyes.

I bet, I promise.

But it's these moments where we recognize, maybe, I've gone to

church my whole life, but I've never made a decision to follow Jesus.

I've gone to church my whole life, but I've, I never even

knew that He would forgive me.

Or I'm here today, and this is the first church I've ever walked in and thought

that maybe, maybe God will want me.

He wants you.

Maybe you're here today, and you are just stuck.

Sin has entangled you, it has captured you, it is destroying you, and you

don't even know how to get free.

It is with a simple prayer

to a merciful God, a simple prayer to our powerful Savior.

Jesus, I need you.

Jesus, forgive me.

Jesus, I follow you.

As you pray that prayer and as you make that decision, it is a

dramatic moment in a person's life.

Jesus says that the moment you receive his forgiveness, the moment you decide to

follow him, you start a brand new life.

That's why he calls it, it's like you've been born again.

You're learning how to talk, how to walk, how to act.

You're starting all over.

It's a brand new life.

And today we celebrate that brand new life together.

Jesus, for every person getting baptized today, we thank you.

For every person who just made a decision right now to follow you, we thank you.

For every person in the room just wrestling in their heart because

they want to believe, but they're, but they've got so many questions.

I pray that they will, that they, you, your word says that if they search

after you, they'll find you when they're searching you with their whole heart.

And I pray right now, God, that in their whole heart, they'd say, Jesus,

if you're real, I want to find you.

And they'd start that process.

And we know what's going to happen at the end.

The joy of salvation and a great moment of knowing and following

you and we pray this in Jesus name.

Amen.

Amen