Blindside Blessing | Matt Curtis

All right, well if we haven't had the chance

to meet, my name is Matt.

I get to serve the good people

of God's country in Fuqua Verina, North Carolina.

That's right. Uh,

and lemme tell y'all something, God is moving in

and among our church, in our church family.

He is moving in big ways in every single

of the five communities that we are in.

And glory to God for that.

As we all go about the business of being a church

and a family that loves God follows Jesus and shares hope.

Amen. Alright, well we got some work to do tonight.

So I'm just gonna jump in.

First thing I got a confession to make,

I was in a band in high school called Fish Bait.

Yeah, that's funny. Spelled Fish. BATE.

I don't know why we did that.

Uh, my dad, a very sweet man, redneck marketing genius,

made us t-shirts that said Fish bait, the Lord's Lure.

You got that right? Yeah.

We existed to make fishers

of men an extremely mediocre music locally.

We were known in the high school,

we were known as stink bait.

So, you know, and it, and it stung a little bit.

It hurt still maybe.

But we played a total of like three events in two years.

We played three events and the last event

that we played was December 31st, 1999.

Now, I realize that may not be significant to you.

So let me take you back In 1999,

there was this looming threat

that all technology was gonna black out.

And we are going to reenter the Dark Age at midnight,

December 31st, 1999

because the computers across the world

were not prepared for the millennium.

They had a digit, two digits for the year 99,

and they couldn't roll over for the 2 0 0 0.

The computers are like, no way. We're out. We melt.

So, and maybe for the first time,

this is when the media was like, Hey,

we can strike unnecessary fear into all of humanity.

And it worked alright.

There was massive fear that the Y 2K bug would impact any

and all infrastructure in civilization from the financial

world to the healthcare and hospitals, utilities,

transportation, communication, everything.

So much so that Fishbait was invited

to play at a New Year's Eve party

that was nearly like a last chance of redemption

before the digital world ends.

All right, so on December 31st, 1990 9, 11 50 9:00 PM the

clock is ticking, clock strikes,

midnight ding clock keeps ticking.

That was it. We drank some lemonade

and went home like anti-climactic to say the least.

The most significant impact

of the Y 2K fear was this massive e effort.

The expense in preparing and the, for this potential issue.

In all honesty, I was in West Texas,

like we had minimal technology to begin with.

I was a junior in high school

and I was like, oh, I guess they were wrong.

And all of this fear and preparation

and then nothing really happened.

It's been 25 years since the Y 2K bug

and it still gets mocked to this day, right?

But it turns out all that preparation actually worked.

The impact of the bug was minimal.

Software engineers, programmers,

hardware developers addressed the problem

and saved the digital world.

But most of us were like, well, guess they were wrong.

The reality is most people didn't understand the

mission that was at hand.

What was the mission? Well, companies

and world governments spent billions of dollars, billions

of man hours on software upgrades,

testing contingency plans, and the updates.

So when the date turned from 99 to 2000,

the clock just rolled over.

The mission was successful.

That's essentially the experience we're gonna read about

today on the road to Emmaus.

When we don't understand the mission,

then we can miss the Messiah.

All right, we're gonna be in Luke 24 13 to start,

and I'll remind you, this is exactly

where we left off last week.

Mary, Mary and Joanna went to the empty tombs.

Some angels are there in their lightning suits

and they say, why do you look for the living among the dead?

He is not here. He is risen. And the church said, amen.

All right. Then the ladies filled with hope,

understanding the resurrection, went to the apostles

and they said, Hey, he is alive, he has risen.

And the men disregarded the ladies nearly entirely.

So real quick, women were the first to the tomb.

They were first to believe in the resurrection.

They were the first gospel.

Missionaries, girls mature faster than boys.

They break less stuff. At least in my house.

They're way less likely to be incarcerated

or die by playing with fire.

Fellas. Listen to these women. Alright?

And the lady said, amen. All right, there it is.

We're warming up. Luke 24 13.

This is the scripture that very day two of them were going

to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.

And they were talking with each other about all these

things that had happened.

Understand, it is still Easter Sunday.

The sun has not set since the women had seen

the angels since.

Peter ran to the empty tomb and saw the linens laying there.

And these two, these two faithful Jews were walking back

to their village called Emmaus.

A short walk, seven miles, like the distance

between Duke and UNC.

Who are the two that are walking? Who are we talking about?

We learn one of their names in verse 18.

His name is Cleopas,

but we never really know exactly

who the second person is with him.

A lot of people think it is his wife.

We're gonna refer to them as these two faithful Jews.

All right? And they're walking back from Jerusalem

to a Emmaus to celebrate.

But they had been in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.

Why are the Jews celebrating Passover?

We're gonna spend some time on this

because I think it's extremely important for us

to understand where we're going.

The Passover celebration commemorates the liberation

of the Hebrew people, the Jews,

God's chosen people were enslaved in Egypt.

God chooses Moses to let his people, uh,

the lead his people to freedom.

Y'all remember the song, right? Pharaoh? Pharaoh. Oh, oh.

I told y'all we were called stink bait for a reason.

I knew you weren't coming with me on that one.

Pharaoh refuses to free Israel.

So God then sends 10 plagues to persuade Pharaoh

there was a plague of frogs.

A plague of flies, A plague of lice

so far sounds like daycare, right?

Shout out to the daycare workers.

They're probably fighting a plague,

a hand foot mouth right now.

Who knows? Then there are boils, a plague of hell,

three days of absolute darkness.

And then the 10th plague was the death

of all the firstborn children in Egypt,

which would include Pharaoh's son.

In Exodus 12, the Jews are commanded to take the blood

of a lamb and put it on their doorframe.

Scripture says The Lord will pass over the door

and will not allow the destroyer into your houses

protecting their firstborn.

If there was a blood of the lamb on the doorframe,

death would pass over them.

And after this plague and the fear of the Lord,

Pharaoh allowed the Jews to be set free.

1400 years later in the lifetime of Jesus, now passed over

to the Jews, was still celebrated, celebrated annually.

It symbolized freedom, liberation, the the provision

of a loving God and self-determination

of God's chosen people.

Jesus himself, born a Jew, had been to the temple

for Passover throughout his life.

In John two, early in his ministry,

Jesus is in Jerusalem for Passover.

And he goes to the temple

and he has this wild interaction I want us

to look at with these Jewish leaders.

This is John two 14. Jesus walks into the temple.

He finds people selling ox and sheep and pigeons, verse 15

and making a whip of cords.

He drove them all out of the temple

with the sheep and the oxen.

Now I picture Jesus probably used this whip of cords

for the livestock, and I kind of wanted

to see him just smack somebody

and he poured out the coins of the money changers

and overturned their tables.

He told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away.

Do not make my father's house a house of trade.

He is not just stirring up the pot,

here he is dumping it on the floor.

The temple was a sacred place designed

for worship, designed for prayer.

Jesus declares that the temple is not a house of trade,

it is not a place of transaction.

And the religious leaders, they respond,

who do you think you are?

And Jesus answers. He doesn't answer

their question, but he answers.

He says, destroy this temple.

And in three days I will raise it again.

And the Jews said, it took us 46 years to build this temple.

You. What do you mean you'll raise it in three days?

And Jesus again doesn't respond to that.

The writer John says this,

but he was speaking about the temple of his body.

For any English majors out there, we call

that foreshadowing.

Jesus has gone into the temple.

He cleans it out of transactional religion.

He foreshadows his death and resurrection.

Three years later, Matthew 21, it's holy week.

Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey.

Momentum is building that Jesus might be the Messiah.

They're calling out Hosanna Messiah, save us. Matthew 2112.

And Jesus entered the temple and he drove out all who sold

and bought in the temple.

This is a different occurrence of this a second time, right?

And he overturned the tables of the money changers

and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

And he said to them, it is written.

My house shall be called a house of prayer.

But you make it a den of robbers.

Jesus is opposing this heartless transactional religion.

The temple was intended for worship and for prayer.

My house shall be called a house of prayer.

But you make it a den of robbers.

You take what is not yours

and you treat it as a place of heartless transaction.

Church. How often do we do this?

How often do we show? We just go to church so

that we can check the thing off the box, we read more,

pray more, give more, serve more just so

that God won't be mad at us.

Jesus has always been after our hearts. That's the mission.

But we misunderstand the mission of God.

And when we do that, we can miss the Messiah.

If Jesus is referring to his body as a temple,

what does that mean for our bodies?

If Jesus' body is the temple

and the temple is intended for prayer

and for worship, what is the implication for our bodies?

Better yet, what does that mean for our church buildings?

Right? Modern day Temple Church is not,

has it never been a building?

We've seen that in Fuqua.

We launched without a place to meet.

The church is a collection of people of God

gathered together to build up the kingdom of God.

Amen. But we sometimes

we misunderstand the mission just like these two on the road

to Emmaus, this Jewish couple walking back home.

They've witnessed all the drama of the last week, the arrest

of Jesus, the painful, shameful death of Jesus,

and they're absolutely dejected, discouraged,

disappointed, confused.

If Jesus was the Messiah, how is he dead?

You think they understand the mission that Jesus was on?

Not yet, not yet.

Luke 24 15, while they were talking

and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near

and went with them, but their eyes were

kept from recognizing him.

Jesus veiled their eyes from seeing who he was. That's wild.

But also he was dead yesterday.

Anything is possible at this point.

We know that when we are in a place of pain, of grief,

of disappointment, our perspective is completely skewed.

And that's where these two are.

They're blind to the mission of God,

therefore they are blind to the Messiah.

Verse 17. And he says to them, what is this conversation

that you were holding with each other as you walk?

They've been walking and talking

and they stopped dead in their tracks.

They stood still looking sad.

Then one of them named Cleopas answered,

are you the only visitor to Jerusalem

who does not know the things

that have happened there in these days?

And Jesus provocateur says, what things?

And they say to him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man

who is a prophet, mighty indeed and word before God.

And all the people and all our chief priests

and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death

and crucified him.

But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.

But we were wrong. Our leaders, our chief priests, those

who were supposed to care for us, guide us.

They delivered who we thought was to be our Messiah.

They condemned him to death and they killed him.

The Jews have been counting on a messiah for generations.

The word Messiah is Hebrew. It's part of our theology.

But in the lexicon of language of the world,

it is derived from this idea a savior is coming to save us.

The redemption that they are looking for was

that a messiah would reign on this earth, one

that would align the forces, unify the culture

and establish strength and dominion.

The expectation was

that the Messiah they were waiting on would rule

and carry authority.

He'd be a political power with the military force

and that would bring redemption to Israel.

Ultimately, the Jewish people of that time

and the devout Jews of the day are still waiting on a

Messiah that would validate them as a people.

They misunderstood the mission.

That's why these two feel dejected and disappointed.

And without the Messiah, they are left alone.

They expected redemption, they expected validation.

And in Jesus' death, yet again,

they are unworthy and insecure.

Y'all, we see this same type of behavior

and thought all over our world.

I mean, if we just look at our political system,

if my candidate wins, then I win.

I'm superior. You're wrong. I'm right.

In a sin curse world, our identity, our validation gets tied

to things as silly as a political party

or a political personality.

Now listen to me. It is not my personality to step on toes,

y'all, but stomp, stomp right here.

Our individual validation does not come

from cultural authority.

All of us made in the image of God,

and that is where our value comes from.

But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.

Now that Jesus is dead, their hope of redemption is dead.

Their hope of validation is dead. Their hope is dead.

God clearly had one mission for the Savior, for the Messiah,

but the followers of Jesus, the Jewish people,

the government, the crowds, they all got it wrong.

They missed the Messiah.

And in their sadness they said, oh,

wrong Messiah, false redemption.

We needed a messiah that meets our expectations

and our requirements our way.

They misunderstood the mission

and they are missing the Messiah

who is standing right in front of them.

If there's a live option for us all to do this,

whether you've been in the church for a long time

or you were just exploring who Jesus is

and you've heard have some preconceived notions about

what the church is,

we can all misunderstand the mission of God.

And in so doing, we can all miss the Messiah.

We can make a messiah out of anything.

Our hearts, our idol factories.

When I was in my twenties, I met a guy named Pete.

And Pete was the epitome of the man.

I remember thinking, I just wanna be like Pete.

Do what Pete does. He was manly, he was godly,

charismatic, compelling.

Everything he did turned to gold.

People loved him, kids loved him, everybody loved Pete.

Pete, like all of us subject to sin of our hearts.

And Pete is one of those leaders of the faith

who had a moral failure

and he will finish his life in prison.

We can make a messiah out of any man anytime.

Not just men. Though we can make a messiah out of anything.

Status, income, our ability to provide for our family,

influence, acceptance, education, our accomplishments,

control, self-reliance, autonomy, self-righteousness, look,

you name it, every single one

of those things has popped up in my life in the last year.

We put the, any time we put the weight of victory

on the things of this world, they will always let us down.

We can look for Messiahs in anyone and anything.

If we just had another kid, maybe it would fix our marriage.

If I just had a partner, then maybe I would be happy.

If he would just show me more affection,

then I wouldn't be so bitter.

If she just trusted me, then I wouldn't shut down all

of us on some search for validation,

which also means all

of us at some point living in absolute insecurity,

this couple on the road to Emmaus,

they've lost hope in their security.

They've lost confidence

and they're speaking to the only one

who could give it to them.

It's worth noting we can look

for these things in other people and in circumstances,

and Jesus can be right here the whole time

using hard circumstances, using broken people to reveal

to us the security that comes from only him.

If we misunderstand the mission, his mission,

then we can miss the Messiah.

So here's a question for you.

Who or what is your messiah that you are waiting on?

Verse 21. Cleopas continues talking with Jesus.

He explains, it's been three days since Jesus was killed

with some women went to the tomb and saw that it was empty.

They saw some angels desk dressed and dazzling attire,

and they said, Jesus is alive.

And this is where Jesus kind of, he takes a beat

and he says, I think I've heard enough.

And he says to them, verse 25, oh foolish ones

and slow of hard to believe all

that the prophets have spoken.

Was it not necessary

that the Christ would suffer these things

and enter into, enter into His glory?

You of little faith, you with slow hearts?

Don't you remember, let me remind you, verse 27.

This is my favorite verse in this whole text.

And beginning with Moses

and all the prophets, he interpreted

to them in all the scriptures, the things

concerning himself.

Jesus has their eyes blinded to see who he is.

He acknowledges that their hearts are slow to believe,

but God is patient.

Church Jesus fully intends to help them see.

But notice the priority here.

Before he opened their physical eyes, he wanted

to open the eyes of their hearts.

And he begins to remind them of the 300 different prophecies

concerning Jesus.

Jesus walks them through the scriptures.

They are blind to who he is, leading them to discovery,

to discover the mission of God,

helping them see the Messiah, reminding them

that there was a promise made to Abraham,

the father of the Jews.

I will make of you a great nation

and I will bless you so that you will be a blessing.

And in you, all families of the earth shall be blessed.

Not just the Jews, not just the chosen people of God,

but all families of the world.

And he doesn't stop there.

Jesus explained everything from Moses through the prophets.

John 5 46 says, Jesus says, Moses wrote about me.

Jesus says, I am the true

and better blood of the lamb sacrifice for Passover

and declaring that he is the lamb of God.

Later, Paul writes one Corinthians five, seven, for Christ

our Passover lamb has been crucified.

He explained the prophecies like Isaiah 53 written 700 years

before Jesus was crucified.

We sang it last week, your cross, my freedom,

your stripes, my healing.

Isaiah 53, 5. By his stripes, we are healed.

He explained everything that happened concerning himself,

born of aversion.

He is fully God and fully man. He explained his baptism.

Scripture says this, and when Jesus was baptized,

immediately went up from the water

and behold the heavens were open to him

and he saw the spirit

of God descending like a dove coming to rest on him.

And behold, a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son

with whom I am well pleased.

He reminded them of the healing of the lame,

the sick and the blind.

He said, remember, I stood in the temple.

I turned the tables over,

declared my father's house will be a house

of prayer because of me.

People don't need to go into a tent of meeting

to see the high priest.

I am the better high priest because of me.

People don't need to go into a confession booth

to access the Father.

I'm the way, the truth and the life.

Nobody gets to the Father except through me.

My followers don't need to buy pigeons

for sacrifice at the temple.

I am the temple. They did destroy this temple.

And in three days I raised it.

I am the resurrection and the life. He reminded them.

Yeah, he reminded them that everything

that has happened that made them feel

defeated needed to happen.

I needed to be handed over to the religious leaders.

I needed to be crucified because I am the resurrection.

My death is not final.

The chief priest and the scribes played right into my

father's hands who sent me to do this.

And it's for that reason.

Hebrew says Jesus Christ, for the joy that was set

before him, endured the cross, despising the shame,

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

Jesus understood the mission

and it's in this moment, it's in this declaration

and this understanding that Jesus is vindicated.

Sunday has come church, everything that was said about him.

Every prophecy, every prediction,

every doubt thrown his way,

the religious leaders continually challenge him

over and over and over.

Challenging his authority, challenging his teaching,

challenging through a lens of hypocrisy,

through a lens of legalism.

Ask questions. How can you heal somebody on the Sabbath?

And he is breaking through the law.

He says, I am the Sabbath.

Come to me, all of you who are weary

and heavy laden, learn from me for I am gentle and lowly

and you will find rest for your souls.

Everything has changed.

He is who he said he was.

He has done what he said he would do.

He did not come to just redeem Israel on this earth.

He came to redeem the world.

Not just the Jewish people,

but everyone from every background.

Everyone abused, everyone overlooked, everyone over unseen.

He came to redeem us all. And as they hear this,

Their Doubt is waning,

their faith is growing and their hope is exploding.

Verse 29, they say, stay with us for this toward evening

and the day is now far spent.

So he went in to stay with them.

And when he was at the table with them, he took the bread

and he blessed it and he broke it and he gave it to them.

Look, church, it's been 72 hours since Jesus sat

with his disciples for the last supper.

He lifted up the bread. You remember he broke it.

He said, this is my body broken for you.

And now he sits in the home of Cleopas

after enduring the suffering,

after being raised from the grave as a guest in their house.

And he breaks the bread and he blesses at verse 31.

And their eyes were opened and they recognized him

and he vanished from their sight.

They have been with him for hours now. Their eyes are open.

They see him physically for a moment,

and he vanished from their sight.

There's a reason that Paul writes, walk by faith

and not by sight.

Jesus led them to discovery, revealed himself

through the scriptures.

The mission of God is that by grace we are saved

through faith.

Simple belief. And then as they're,

they're left there at the table, they say to each other,

did not our hearts burn within us while he talked

to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures,

they have gone through this whole experience,

this walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus being beginning in doubt

and fear and confusion, misunderstanding the mission

and completely missing the Messiah.

And Jesus comes to them, do you not know you slow of heart.

And here they say, did not our hearts burn,

did not our passion and fire ignite.

The Messiah has come, the Savior has risen,

and he is vindicated.

And all of humanity is now validated.

Everything has changed. Now.

They see their eyes have been open,

their hearts understand the mission that God was on.

And they have seen the Messiah, the lost world now has hope.

The darkness now has light. What was once lost can be found.

Slow hearts can now burn dead spiritually.

Dead people can now be resurrected.

When we finally see the Messiah

and the fullness of God's plan, it changes everything.

The story closes.

They rise up from the table in the middle

of the night returning seven miles back to Jerusalem

to find the 11 disciples so they can declare

that Jesus has risen.

And when they get there, they find out

that Jesus has already revealed himself to Peter.

This is Luke 24, verse 36.

Luke 24:36

While they were talking about these things,

Jesus himself stood among them and said, peace to you.

And they're frightened in that moment by his presence.

And he shows them his hands, he shows them his feet.

He actually asks for something to eat.

And then he clarifies to ensure

that they understand the mission

that their eyes would be opened.

Thus, it is written that the Christ should suffer

and on the third day rise from the dead.

And that repentance for the forgiveness

of sin should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.

When we see our Messiah, when we see Jesus,

then we can understand the mission

that this life is not about our vindication.

It's not about our validation in the life, in the burial

and the resurrection of Jesus.

We are commissioned to go out into the world

and let them know that everything has changed today.

Well, this weekend around the church,

we are celebrating 49 different baptisms.

Amen. 49 souls who are taking a step, declaring a step

of obedience, declaring that they don't understand it all

and they don't have to, but they understand the mission

of God because they're recipients of having a messiah.

And when we baptize people

and we celebrate people, they're lowered into the water

and we say buried with Christ,

symbolizing being buried in the tomb with Jesus.

And then as they come out, there's a declaration buried

with Christ and raised to new life.

And the church will celebrate and the angels will celebrate.

And our father, by faith in Christ will say, this is my son

and this is my daughter with whom I am well pleased

because of what Christ did on the cross

and the power of the resurrection.

So the question for you

is, do you see the Messiah?

Have you believed in your heart?

Have you confessed with your mouth

that Jesus Christ is the Lord?

And if you have, then maybe it's time to leave the table

to run to the river of life, to run to the baptism waters.

And maybe you've been following Jesus for a long time

and you find yourself being slow of heart.

Don't you remember? Do you see the Messiah in your despair?

You see the Messiah in your everyday life?

Do you understand your mission?

That there is a world around us that does not have the hope

that we have, but Jesus has changed everything.

Is it time for you to leave the table run

and tell someone that God so loved the world

that he gave his one

and only son who would ever believe in him would not perish

but have everlasting eternal and abundant life.

Our Messiah meets us in our misunderstanding.

He meets us in our grief

or confusion, our brokenness, even when we are slow

of heart, even when we aren't aware that he's right there.

Because he came not just to redeem Israel on this earth,

he came to redeem everyone.

The overlook, the downcast, the abuse, the anxious.

And this church is the good news of great joy

for all of creation.

But we have to remember a couple weeks ago

I was feeling despair.

I don't have another word for it.

Defeated might be the actual right word.

I was, am I depressed? What's going on here?

And I was crying out to God.

I was just over the course of several days, God,

what is wrong with me?

And because he is good, he reminded me of a verse.

This is Romans 8 34.

Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that,

who was raised,

who is at the right hand of God,

who indeed is interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ,

shall tribulation, shall distress,

persecution, famine, nakedness, or danger

or sword as it is written for your sake.

We are being killed all the day long.

We are regarded as sheep to the slaughter.

No, no, in all things.

We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels

nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come,

nor powers, nor heights, nor death,

nor anything else in all of creation, will be able

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

Here's the deal. Y'all do not miss the mission

of God because he desperately wants you

to see him as Messiah.

Let's pray. Father,

you are good Lord, we thank you

that you are a God of provision the Passover lamb.

God, I pray that you would open the eyes of our hearts,

Lord, that we might see you for your purposes,

your kingdom to your glory.

Lord, we pray for our communities, the five communities

that this church your bride sits in.

Lord, we pray for a movement of eyes

that are open to who you are.

Not for the credit of this church,

but God who the glory of your name

and for your kingdom to come.

God, that we would be people who our eyes are open to you,

God, that you would manifest in our lives,

that we would be people who walk by the Spirit,

who walk in goodness and kindness

and patience and gentleness.

Lord God, we pray for those who don't know you, Lord,

for opportunity for us to be bold enough

to say everything has changed

because Christ has risen God, we thank you

that you are a God of provision.

Lord, give us steel in our spines, God,

that we would be able to stand boldly

and say, Christ, Jesus is my messiah and he can be yours.

God, we come to you begging open.

Open the eyes of our hearts.

We pray these things in Jesus name. We say Amen.

Would you stay with us as we respond?

You wanna make it your heart cry

the

Holy, holy, holy.

You are holy, holy,

holy, holy,

holy, holy kings, Lord, Lord,

holy,

come on, sing to the

King of kings, the name above all nature.

He's

who we wanna

Come on y'all. Let's give

God some praise. What a time of worship today.

Wow. Wow. Praise God.

I tell you what I'm, I'm a little bit like,

I think we are gonna have to increase our paint budget

'cause uh, pastor Matt preached the

paint off the walls today.

Y'all praise God. Wow.

Uh, I am so thankful that we are a part of a church.

Uh, we're God is moving in so many ways

and we're very thankful for all that he is doing, all

that he has done and all that we look forward to

as we continue to follow him by faith.

If you're new to hope, we want you

to continue on the journey of following Jesus closely.

And so there's an area here at Hope called the Next Steps

area, uh, at our physical campuses.

It'll be out inside one of our hallways

and you can stop there.

Uh, you'll give, you'll see directions

for the places, wherever you are.

And if you're watching online, just let us know in the chat

where you're watching from

and how we can serve you and that you're new.

And we'll encourage you to take many next steps

of faith in following Jesus.

And here's the good news.

You don't have to take those steps alone.

We are the kind of church that wants

to walk alongside you on this journey.

Now, we are very thankful

because, uh, just last week at Easter, we saw thousands

of people take a step of faith

and showing up to a church

to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

And at all of our campuses collected here at Hope,

we saw over 10,000 people.

This just this last week, praise God.

And the celebration is not in the numbers.

The celebration is in the sharing of the good news

of Jesus Christ and the hope that that good news brings.

And we are also glad to share with you that man, hundreds

of people accepted Jesus as their Lord

and Savior for the very first time.

Praise God.

Now, one of the very next steps of obedience

after deciding to follow Jesus is a step of baptism.

Baptism declares to the world around you that you've decided

to follow Jesus and that you will not turn back.

And Matt shared that there are many people at our campuses

this weekend that are being baptized

and we want to invite you into that same step of faith.

So listen, if you've never been baptized before

and you have already made a decision to follow Jesus,

or if you just have questions about baptism, I want

to encourage you to simply text the word baptism

to the number 7 2, 9, 8 9.

And one of our pastors or staff members

or key volunteers here at Hope will reach out to you, uh,

to share with you what baptism is all about,

and hopefully to get you scheduled to take

that same next step of faith.

Y'all, we are so thankful to have the opportunity

to worship like this every single week,

and we do hope to see you back here next week.

We love you. God loves you,

and we're so glad that you're a part of the family of God.

God bless you. We.