Baptism Sunday | Pastor Brodie Kalamen

Well, we have a tub up front.

It's gonna be a party after church.

That's good.

We have today is our baptism sundae.

This is awesome.

So we have a number of people getting baptized today.

And it's also Palm Sunday.

And Palm Sunday is uh the week before uh Easter is generally celebrated, and we celebrate it here with baptisms.

Um, baptism is very meaningful, it's very personal.

Uh if you've been baptized today, we talked around our table and that we just discussed the times when our children were baptized.

Um at its core, though, baptism, even though it's solemn, it's uh it's an event that's very personal, it's also something to be celebrated.

It's celebrated because it's a movement from death into life, to be buried into a new life, to be brought back into a new life.

And I realize this might be a new experience for some that may be visiting with us today.

Uh, you might be here because someone you know is getting baptized, and and this whole experience is a little different.

Um, I just want to share a little bit about what baptism is just to bring you up to speed.

Uh, it's about new opportunity.

In life today, we have uh the realization that things just break down.

Lawn mowers, paint chips, vehicles break down.

Perhaps your body is breaking down a little bit, but the baptism is all about new.

It's about new beginnings, it's about new and fresh starts, it's about a new home, it's about a new city, a new beginning.

And so when baptism happens, we're saying you're introduced into the new.

We're celebrating the new, the new family, the new hope, the new.

How many of you like things that are new?

That's right.

It's like it's fresh, it's a new beginning.

Um, in church, we love to take this moment and just recognize the new.

Now, baptism, it sounds like a really complicated, uh, maybe uh perhaps religious word like word, but in the day of Jesus, a baptizer was actually a very familiar uh role.

It was something that was familiar to people who were common.

A baptizer uh was someone who you would go to after you've been traveling for a long time.

And after traveling for a long time, perhaps you were walking in sand, riding a camel, a donkey, working every day, working in the mud, working, building bricks, perhaps, and everything you had was getting dirty.

You would take what you had that was dirty and maybe worn and and it looked broken down and it needed repair, and you would take it to a baptizer.

And a baptizer would take that old garment and would realize that like they would you would leave that garment with them, they would mend it, but they would take it into uh your garment into a um a basin, and they would take that garment and they dunk that old garment into this basin and include dye and and different colors, and would pull it out, and as they pulled it out, it would gave it a fresh, new appearance and look.

It wasn't new in terms of the body, the body of it, the frame of it was still old, but something was new about it.

It was fresh into the world.

People would be like, oh, what are you wearing?

You're wearing something new?

It's like, no, I just went to the baptizer.

In that regard, this is much like the symbol, symbol of baptism.

Baptism is much like this moment where you come up out of the, you come, you walk into the water of baptism, you go down to identify with the death of Jesus Christ, where you identify with his death, but also you're resurrected, identifying with his victory.

You go down old and you come back new.

So baptism is all about this new beginning.

Now, it's our choice today, and it's nothing that we compel people to be like we uh move people towards being baptized, but we believe it is something that every believer ought to experience.

Believers, this was oftentimes their response to repentance.

They would repent, they'd say, I'm sorry, God, I'm turning, I'm making, I'm turning over a new leaf, I'm moving in a new direction.

They would repent and then they were baptized.

They were identifying with the rest of the world, that yes, they not only had repented, but they were making a new, they were identifying with the baptism of Jesus Christ, and they were making a new step.

Jesus himself was baptized, and it was a pivotal point in his life where he moved from just being a student where he moved into a point of ministry for himself.

Baptism is often a way we associate with Christ, we identify with Christ, we join with Christ in the water of baptism.

And by being baptized, we we experience something new.

Now, ultimately, you may look in the mirror after being baptized, those of you who are being baptized today may look in the mirror when you get home and you may see the same individual.

But I can tell you your body will be the same, but your spirit will be united with God and in a fresher and newer way.

And I just expect and and I believe every time we go into baptism, it's not just about symbolism, it's not just a tradition that we take, it's actually something that we go into expecting God to do something new and something different in the lives of the people who are going in.

And in order for there to be baptism, there needs to be water.

Water.

Someone needs to go into baptism, and today that would happen to be Pastor Brian and Pastor Malachi.

Thank you, Lord, for Pastor Brian and I didn't come prepared for going into baptism today.

And then there needs to be a witness, and you're the witness today.

So today we're gonna start baptism, and uh, I'm gonna ask for a microphone, and we're just gonna get a little bit of the story before of each individual before they get baptized.

But together, would you welcome up Dylan McClennan?

Dylan.

Look at this guy.

Isn't it awesome?

Dylan's with us today.

Now, Dylan, why don't you share a bit of your uh a bit of the story?

Um, where you're at.

I know you're in a little nervous.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Put the mic up.

We've had one miracle, so I need another one with this public speaking thing.

Yeah, many of you may not know Dylan's story.

I've had just asked him to share a little bit of it this morning before he goes into baptism.

Yeah, so I have been baptized before, but I wanted to do it again because in November 2017 I was in what should have been a fatal car accident by many measures.

Like, for example, the Glass Glow scale, um, where it monitors brain activity as an over to three, which is the lowest you can go besides zero being dead.

Um, and then the accident happened.

Joking.

But um, yeah.

So yeah, as the lowest you can go, I'm pretty sure I wasn't at a zero at one point, but um and then I should have died many times in the hospital after got infections and stuff like that.

So um I know what you're all thinking that like look at this guy, you can't take a hunk of a man down like that.

Or it takes more than a car crash to kill someone that handsome, and like you do have a point, but um this was quite a severe car crash, and it should have used up all my nine lives, but God gave me another one.

So I want to give that life to Jesus.

That's right.

That's what we're doing.

I need more of God's power, God's grace.

Yeah, God's love.

That's right.

That's what we're doing.

Awesome.

So let's just what we're gonna do is we're just gonna pray for him, and then he'll go into the into the uh baptism tank.

Father, today would you just stretch your hand towards him?

Can you do that just as a simple point of contact?

And we just say, Father, we love Dylan.

And we ask, Lord, today that you would uh that as he goes into this water uh of baptism, Lord, that he would leave behind, Lord, those part that that part of him, that nature of him that isn't uh isn't honoring towards you, isn't in any way going to further his his walk with you, Lord, and when he comes out, Lord, to come out with a fresh and new capability and power, Lord, to be able to walk with you with all his strength and all his ability, Lord, and in uh relying 100% on your capability in his life today.

We just bless him and honor him today, and uh as he goes into baptism in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

All right, Dylan, you oh yeah.

Even come out more handsome than you went in.

Wouldn't that that'd be a miracle, wouldn't it?

Well, Dylan, we're excited for you.

And uh the whole church is pretty excited for you.

So Brian and I, we stand here as representatives of Jesus Christ.

If Jesus was here today, he'd be standing in this tub baptizing you.

And uh, Dylan, based on the confession of your faith, we now baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be buried in the likeness of his death and risen to new life.

All right.

Rylan, would you come up?

Let's give him a hand as he comes.

Rylan, why don't you share with us a little bit of your story this morning?

My story.

Hmm.

My friend gave me advice yesterday and he told me to leave out all the bad stuff.

I don't think that would work out too well.

I wouldn't have much of a story.

Well, I guess where to start my story.

The day why the day I was born was May 9th, 1990.

And the funny thing is, my older sister got to choose my first name for me, which is odd.

And of course, I ended up with the last name of my father.

But the cool thing that happened was my mother decided to just open up the Bible and let God choose my middle name, which was Caleb, which means wholehearted.

Yeah, that's great.

So after that, uh, you know, as life progresses, about five years old and destined to be a product of a divided home with a divided heart.

And as life goes on, you become lost.

So I ended up meeting many other youth at risk who were just like me, no father around to guide them properly, and a broken home, who ended up getting involved in to dealing drugs.

So life got pretty pretty crazy for me.

But the crazy part about it all was that Jesus was with me the whole way, and he was there to pick up all the pieces of my divided heart to put it back together again.

So wholehearted I am.

Wholehearted you are, right on.

Yeah, I'm gonna pray for you.

Come on, let's pray for Ryland.

You just you're a little nervous, he's anxious to go down.

Father, we thank you for Ryland.

Amen.

Wholehearted one, Lord.

We just asked, like Caleb, Lord, that he would take mountains, that he would go farther, Lord, than he his mind and his perspective and his vision could even take him.

Lord, we ask that you would take him even farther.

Lord, causes causes thoughts on you, his thoughts on himself.

Lord, not to be small, but to be large, large, large, large.

I just see vision over you.

Vision, vision like like you would never even or couldn't even imagine.

Something super, a supervision.

And so, Father, we ask this, Lord, in his heart today, launch him into this new start in his life.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, Rylan.

Brian and I stand here as representatives of Jesus Christ.

Jesus was here with you today.

He'd be baptizing himself.

But based on the confession of your faith in Jesus, we now baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be buried with him in the likeness of his death.

And risen in your life.

Amen.

Let's give him a hand as he comes.

Look at all smiles.

You're ready for this, aren't you?

Yeah.

So how old are you, Nizar?

I'm 12.

12, all right.

And you're here with your family today.

Why don't you wave your hand?

Family?

Yeah, you got a whole row that's here celebrating with you.

So you're 12 years old.

What what kind of led you to make a decision when you thought, man, baptism's happening?

I want to be baptized.

Well, um, I wanted to get baptized because uh one, I wanted to get baptized when I was well, I started wanting to get baptized when I was about nine.

And then I just didn't do it for three years.

And this time I thought that I I want to get baptized like this year.

Yeah.

And um I um it's good.

So three years?

So this year, you felt that prompting since you were nine years old to be baptized, and now you're 12, and you decided this is the time you want to be baptized.

So you made a decision to follow Jesus in your own life.

Well, how old were you when you made that decision?

Um I was uh three or four, I don't remember.

Yeah, but um uh our pastor uh goes, yeah, so I'm from Ukraine, and our pastor in Ukraine, he was uh praying the prayer of salvation, uh and he he told people to repeat after him, and I didn't repeat, but I I was just listening, and then I came home and I I asked my mom about it, and she she told me about it, and I got saved like that.

Right on.

I think it's so awesome that there's this is more than just like an activity that we do as believers.

This is something that God sparks and prompts in your heart.

And so today we just want to honor you for uh for making that that choice, and uh we're gonna pray with you.

Father, today we thank you for Nazar and his family, and Lord, as a young man, who you're making who you're creating him to become.

And Lord, we just pray for an expansion in his heart, Lord, for a knowledge of you.

Lord, that he would begin to know you when he goes to bed, know you when he wakes up, when he's on his own, when he's in groups of people, he would see you moving through in his life.

And Lord, have eyes to see, Lord, what you're doing in his life.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

So I go and I show me that it's supposed to be on a while.

Well, me and Nazar actually, we quickly uh went out for lunch one day, and he was pretty nervous, but he did a great job, didn't he?

Yeah.

Yeah, um, we're really proud of you, Nazar.

I know that this is something he didn't say up on stage, but he wants to be a missionary one day, so we're really excited for him, and this is kind of that first step into that.

So Brian and I stand here as representatives of Jesus Christ with you, Nazar.

If he was here today, he'd be baptizing himself, and that'd be pretty cool, hey?

But uh, you got me and Brian, so that's good enough.

Based on the confession of your faith in Jesus, we now baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be buried with him in the likeness of his death and risen to new life.

Right on.

Now we have the pleasure of welcoming up Jackson Marsiski.

Come on up, Jackson.

And I think uh Roxanne, his mama's gonna come with him.

You can wear your socks in there.

It hasn't been done, it'll be a first time.

Feeling kind of sloppy there.

Jackson, come on over here.

Now, Jackson, how old are you?

Uh I'm 11.

11.

Now you made a decision to follow Christ in your life, is that correct?

Yes.

Yes.

Do you remember that time?

Yes.

Do you want to share it with us?

Uh no.

So I decided to get baptized when I was after I did did some pretty bad things.

So I chose to, I told my mom what I want for Christmas is to get baptized.

So I got a tearful mom up here.

I'm gonna be so she said, okay, well, I'll get you into a meeting after you get back from Mexico.

So I just recently got back from Mazatland, Mexico, and so I'm getting baptized today.

So you're saying you gotta go to Mexico and then come out.

That man, that is so incredible.

So you knew that this was a statement where you're gonna you're taking the things that you had the life that you had lived, and you saying, I'm gonna leave it below, I'm gonna I'm and I'm gonna start fresh with a as a new Jackson, walking with Christ, walking with Christ in my heart and my life and my thoughts, and walking that way.

That's so awesome.

Will you give them a hand?

While your mom's here, come on up.

Roxanne, you're also gonna get baptized too.

So uh that's pretty exciting.

Uh would you just share uh a little bit of what prompted you to to take that step into baptism?

Okay.

Well um what today my son is getting baptized, and it's such an honor to see him and want him, like for him to want to be baptized.

And in our meeting with Brian, he had asked me, What about you, Roxanne?

And I kind of, oh I don't know.

I got really nervous actually.

And um I'm going, well, you might have to hold me under a few more seconds.

Or just the water will turn black.

So I don't know.

Let me think about that one.

Um, no, I'm just I was baptized when I was young, I think around six, six or seven.

Um, but life goes on and we live a life, and I've always had God in my life, and I'm so thankful for his love and his grace.

And I have this opportunity to do it today with my son, and it comes at a really good time.

I'm ready to make that that step again, give my life to God and out with the old and in with the new.

Yeah, so I'm really thankful.

Right on.

Let's pray for them before we go.

Awesome! Isn't that awesome?

That's so great.

Father, mother, and son, father, we just thank you for this family and this home.

And we thank you, Lord, that you bless Roxanne and you bless Jackson, Lord.

We just pray for an enlargement of their influence, an enlargement of their heart, Lord, to receive all that you have for them.

Every spiritual blessing, every gift, Lord, would come from you and into their home and into their hearts.

Lord, so that they would be able to be a blessing to everyone else.

In Jesus' name.

We thank you for the testimony, and we say, out with the old and in with the new.

Amen.

God bless you.

Well, I told Jackson I wouldn't hold him down too long.

He didn't look that consoled when I said that.

I've known Roxanne for a long time, uh, for a really long time.

Her mom was my French teacher back in the day, so I've known her for a long time.

So this is a real honor for me as well.

Um, but you know what, me and Roxanne, we stand here as representative of Jesus.

And if he was here, he'd be here doing this with you, but you got me and your mom.

And so we get the honor of doing this.

So, based upon the confession of your faith in Jesus Christ, we baptize you now in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, to be buried with him in the likeness of his death, and to be arisen with him in the newness of life.

Amen.

It's not as warm as it looks in here.

Roxanne, again, we get to stand here, Pastor Matthew and I, as representatives of Jesus Christ, and be able to do this for you.

If he was here, he'd be with you, doing this with us.

But based upon the confession of your faith in Jesus Christ, we baptize you now in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be buried with him in the likeness of his death.

And risen with him in the newness of life.

That's so great.

And no microphone fell in the tub.

That's awesome.

That was my prompt just to move it out of the way there.

Hey, that's awesome.

That's awesome.

What I like about this uh whole element of baptism is that uh we all have our journey, don't we?

And our journey takes on different different uh avenues and and where where we we go is ultimately the same places where we want to go is the same direction.

But how we get there, oftentimes it's not always smooth, it's not always like one or one direction or the other.

And so, but God's intention is to move us into a place of wholeness, and uh that's what we see today is that God's heart is that we're whole, and that's awesome.

Um, this morning I'd like to take about 10 minutes and just share with you a little bit about Easter.

Uh, just as we prep for this, we have a quick video to show.

Many of us hear a voice that pulls on our hearts.

It's a good voice that speaks to us about the people in our lives.

And it's inviting us to invite them to our church.

But something prevents us from acting on it.

Maybe it's the fear of what they might think.

Maybe it's the feeling that we're in some way disqualified.

Maybe we feel like we don't have all the answers yet, or that we don't want to put our friends on the spot.

But Easter's just around the corner.

And that changes the game.

It's unique because most people already want to go to church on Easter.

So what might happen if you ask God, who?

That's it.

God, who should I invite?

Well, answer that prayer.

Just answer that prayer.

We only need ears to hear.

And maybe that voice has actually been his voice all along.

Hey, man, can I ask you something?

Sure, what's up?

I'd like to share a little bit about um our fourth part of our series, the Easter Countdown.

And we've talked about actually taking personal responsibility.

That's not the job of the church, uh, church leadership or pastors, in uh solely to carry the responsibility to reach others for Christ.

It's our responsibility, amen?

It's our responsibility.

God has equipped you, He's gifted you, He's blessed you, He's placed people in your lives and those personal relationships that He's connected you to, that I would never have a window into or access to.

God has placed people in your lives where He expects you to take that response, carry that responsibility to reach them and share your personal story.

And so we learned last week about the value of that personal story, how it really is irrefutable.

And it is uh powerful in your life to be able to reach other people and to share your story is a an ability that we have along with the blood of Jesus to actually bear witness of who God is to the world.

And so, lastly, we carry this not only personal responsibility to share our personal story, but we actually uh make a personal invitation.

And we invite.

And it goes beyond the steps of just holding back in terms of uh this Easter is all about me, and it moves us into a place of opening up the story and the gospel of Jesus to the world.

Um, Ed Stetzer, uh, an authority in reaching people in North America with the culture, uh in the American culture with the gospel, he wrote an article and he said this.

He said, in being faithful to its calling, the church should be faithful at reaching people with the good news of the gospel.

And the church ought to be welcoming them into a local community of believers.

The role of the church is not just to keep it to ourselves, this message to ourselves.

The role of the church is to share, to go out and share that message with as many people as who would be willing to hear.

And so that's really the heart of KCC.

And that is the call of God on our church to actually carry that calling to reach people and make that invitation the most effective tool we have at reaching new people and connecting them to the family of God is our personal invitation to them.

Would you say just personal invitation?

Just invitation.

Yeah, that's that's what it is, that's what it's all about.

Um, Jesus gives us this incredible example in Scripture, and we read about it in Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

And Jesus is at the home of a number of Pharisees.

It's interesting, he's hanging out with these Pharisees, he's in their home, and he begins to share a story with them.

And he says this it's a parable, and the story he shares, he says, the kingdom of God is like this.

In other words, heaven is like this.

A man who goes out and has a great big banquet.

A king is having this banquet, it's a wedding banquet, and he sends his messengers out into the community with it uh with an objective.

Invite people to come in.

Invite them to come.

And so, interestingly enough, the messengers get scattered out and they go to all different places of the community and they start making invitations to the people.

And what they get back is just as interesting, they get back excuses.

One man says, Hey, I just bought a big piece of real estate, I'm super busy.

We know what that's like.

We know what that's like, yeah, so I can't make it.

Another person comes in, he goes, You wouldn't believe the work I've got.

I've got in those days, it was all these oxen and all this work.

I've bought a field and I'm working really hard, so I won't be able to come.

I've I'm working.

And another person says, Well, I just got married.

Like, I've got things to do, whatever married people do.

And they've got they've got all these things to do, and I'm I'm not really settled where I'm at.

And so all these servants come back to the king, and when they come back to the king, they come back with the report of the people who they had invited.

And the report they came back with really frustrated the king.

He said, I made invitation.

I made invitation for all of them to come, but they didn't come.

I want you to go out again and go out again and invite them to come in.

I want the lame to come be invited, the blind to be invited, the deaf to be invited, the everyone.

I want them to come in.

And so the servants go out and they invite everyone, the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame, and they come back and they say, The king wants you at his king wants you at his banquet.

They come back to the king, and the king says it again: go out again and invite them in.

Invite them in because the servant said there's still gonna be a little bit of room.

He said, Invite everyone you can so that the house would be full.

The house would be full.

Now, there's a lesson here in this parable.

Jesus just didn't tell the story for the sake of the story.

He said, I want to tell you the heart and the culture of heaven.

And the culture of heaven is this you're invited.

You've got an invitation.

Facebook, you're invited to this party.

This group is having this event.

When are you coming?

Are you gonna be there?

You're getting the text message, you're getting the email, you're getting the physical snail mail, you're getting it, the phone call, you're being invited.

The culture of heaven is full invitation.

So why do we invite?

And the hint in this scripture is this number one, we understand people need a personal invitation.

There's a reason why people need to be invited to feel welcomed and wanted.

We had uh the other day on the front row here, we've got Johnny Francis, who just turned 38 years old.

I just want to give celebration to Johnny.

Johnny's wife, Hilda, is, or as he pronounced Hilda, she is a master invite, like she just, I think every day I woke up and my phone was, you're invited to Johnny's roast.

Come on out to his party.

And Johnny kept on inviting and inviting me.

If he hadn't invited me, I wouldn't have felt welcome to come.

I wouldn't have felt wanted to be there.

But the simple fact that I had the invitation was enough for me to think, okay, I'm wanted.

In the world today that we're living in, so many people have this perspective of the church that says, you're not wanted here.

You're not welcome here.

As Roxanne shared, you know, not all of us have lived the life that's like everything went according to our perfect plan.

Uh as those who went through baptism here today, as as Rylan even said, but yet someone came to the point where they said, No, you're welcome.

You're wanted in this place.

And that becomes so valuable.

If you study Jewish culture, or maybe you know some Jewish people, you'll know that that has become their culture.

If you go into that culture, they are constantly inviting you, inviting you into their house, inviting you to eat, and after you've eaten, they invite you to even eat more, inviting you to sing, inviting you to dance.

When you say you don't dance, they grab you by the hand and they pull you in and they do the whatever it is, the circle dance.

And there's constant invitation in that culture because they want their culture to be like heaven's culture.

The culture of the church is the same way.

There wasn't always just one invitation, there were multiple invitations.

The king invited three times.

Go out, go out again, and even go out again.

And he uses this word that here in scripture.

The word is compel.

And he says, go and compel them to come in, persuade them to come in.

Go and just tell them, listen, you're wanted, you're welcome.

We want you here.

We want you here at church.

We want you in this place.

Listen to some of these statistics.

25% of people you invite, the the statisticians say 25% of people that you invite will come.

One out of four.

Seven out of ten unchurched people have never been invited to church in their lifetime.

70% of people in the world, in the rest of the world, unchurched people who've never come to a church, have never been invited to come to church.

And only two percent of Christians, and we heard this last week, it sounded astounding, but I reviewed it so I could check on Pat's actual data.

Is he said, two percent of Christians invite people to church in a given year.

But that's not gonna be the story of KCC, right?

We're gonna walk in a culture, in a spirit of invitation.

So we're persuaders.

We want to be the ones who are actually making that move to help people move towards a church, a culture, and break down the perspective of church that says it's incl it's exclusive to everyone else.

Instead of reaching out and proclaiming the heart of God that says we want to include, we want to welcome, we want to invite.

Number two, God wants his house to be what?

Full.

Isn't that such a great four-letter word?

Full.

He wants it full.

That's the heart of God.

When we go to heaven, we expect God wants heaven to be full.

He wants his table to be full.

He puts together a banquet, and at the banquet table, he wants everyone to be at that table.

Everybody.

It's a big deal for us.

It's a big deal for us at KCC.

I believe that every seat represents a soul.

Every seat represents a person who needs to recognize and needs to experience what encouragement the church can bring and the community can bring, what growing the church can grow and growing in their faith, what that can actually do in their own lives.

I'll tell you, living small, when you come to realize God's plan for your life, your view goes from small, from tiny to grand, from small to large.

You begin to see God and His and His call in your life for the world.

It's the heart that we have.

And the only strategy God gives us in order to do this is to go and tell.

Tell the gospel, like express it and explain it.

So, how do you do this?

I want to share with you how to give an invitation.

Number one, I want you to be confident.

Be confident.

We looked at these statistics.

Some of these uh some people think that if you're not con if you're if you go out, people will reject you.

But the fact is, they're they're open to being invited.

People are actually open to an invitation.

If you take that first step and then allow God to do the rest, that it just takes some boldness, it takes confidence.

So that's why the early church gathered together.

They were they prayed for boldness to go out and speak the gospel.

So be confident in our your approach.

Number two, be specific.

It's not, hey, would you like to come to church with me?

What does that mean?

Like that leaves people with a lot of questions.

Be specific.

Give details.

Say some things like uh like don't need to use like Christian, Christianese language.

Just be normal.

Just say, I'm gonna.

Would you like to come to church with us?

We have a children's program for your kids.

We've I'll meet you in at in the lobby at our coff, not the foyer, okay?

We it's not a foyer, it's a lobby, okay?

We'll meet you at the lobby at our coffee bar.

I'll meet you in the parking lot, 10 minutes too.

I'll be there.

You can come and you can sit with me.

Like, be specific.

Don't worry about having to sing the songs, know all the words.

We have three screens.

One of those three screens will be in your direction, you'll know the words.

Um, what about to to where to?

Just come casual, just be specific than just a general invitation.

Be specific.

In the invitation.

Thirdly, be prepared.

This week we have little invitation cards.

They're about the size of a little business card.

It says Easter on it.

We're going to have them available as you leave today.

I encourage you to take a bunch of them.

Take a bunch of them.

They're going to be at the coffee station, at the connection bar, at the table out in the lobby, in the foyer, for those of you who've been with us a long time.

And take them with you and just leave people with an invitation.

Leave people with an invitation.

We're ready for you.

We're prepared for you.

We're waiting for you.

And let the invitation be the reminder to people that they're wanted.

And lastly, and this is the difference between being just be persistent.

Break down the barrier that people that people have that like it's you're doing it out of coercion.

No, compel them.

Be persistent.

Listen, I really want you there.

I'd really like you to come.

I really felt honored that Ilda kept, and Johnny wanted me at his party.

So there wasn't one invitation, it was two, it was three.

And they broke down the barrier for Brody to come up into the bush and have a roast with Johnny and celebrate his 38th birthday.

This is this, yeah.

I'm just gonna keep pushing it, Johnny.

You know that.

We want people to feel welcome.

This isn't uh this isn't being pushy.

This is just being persistent and saying, we love you, we care for you, we're prepared for you, we want you to be there.

And that's the part of actually giving an invitation.

How many of you think you can do that this week?

Take that opportunity and go out and make an invitation to someone.

Ask God, who are you bringing my way?

And and and then take that next step to actually make that invitation.

Amen.

Amen.

Is God good?

That's right.

We had a great morning this morning.

Praise the Lord.

Um I'm going to actually transition this morning because um we actually we have a uh I wasn't quite sure how our our pastors would be getting out of the tub there.

So I just wanted to say this morning that we really care for you as a church.

Um the church is made up of more than just pastors and staff and team, but it's made up of people who are going out every day making a difference.

And I just want to tell you from our heart to yours that we just we really value you and we care for the work that you're actually doing in the community.

I know some of you are are are working in businesses and others of you are serving in schools, some of you are just staying at home and you're just you're making a difference in your family and you're in prayer.

Uh others of you are are are looking for ways to actually uh continue to make a difference and you're always open.

And I just want to say that God loves to see the church alive and active and moving and moving forward.

And uh I just want to just say thank you on behalf of our team to you.

We couldn't do it really without you uh to make a difference in this community.

And God has established us in this church, he's established us with the families and the and the influence that we have, and uh by God's grace we're gonna be able to extend that to this message to all others.

So would you just give the Lord a hand this morning?

Amen.

Amen.

Would you just bow your heads with me this morning?

Father, we thank you today for your your presence with us.

We just take a moment just to slow down and just realize that we're not here for our own sake.

Father, we just say today that uh we don't make invitation because we're we're we're told to.

But we're we make invitation because it's now become a part of us.

Like the baptism.

We now carry a different heart, a new heart, and that's the heart of the Father.

And Father, today we thank you for being open to us and inviting us to come close.

And so today, Father, we just we open up our heart and we just say, if you want us to do more, Lord, we're willing to do more.

If you're wanting us to take next steps, we're willing to take next steps.

And we ask, Lord, that you would just bring the right people in our direction, the right people across our path, so that we can make a difference in someone else's life.

And today, Father, I I'd be amiss if I just didn't make that invitation public today to the congregation, the group of people who are here today.

Lord, that you want each one to be a part of your family.

And so today, Father, I just I just make this call out and I just say, if if there's anyone in this room today who is been living your life and you've maybe heard the stories of those who were baptized, and you said, Man, that's that speaks to me, that's me.

And you decide in your heart, man, I need to take that first step and make that first change.

I just want to make an invitation to you that God, God's speaking to you, and that he's open, if you're open, and he's open to give you opportunities for a fresh start.

And if you're feeling that prompting in your own heart today, I just like you, just with an outstretched hand.

Everyone's heads are bowed and eyes are closed, but if if that's you, just raise your hand real high.

I'll just be looking.

But if that's you today, for the first time today, you're making a decision.

You said, I just want to follow Christ.

I haven't in my past, but I do today.

I want to make that decision to follow Him.

Is there anyone in the room today?

You want to make that decision?

I just want to extend that invitation to you.

Is anyone here?

Amen.

Alright.

Father, we thank you that you have opened your heart to us.

And today we open our heart, Lord, to you for others.

And we bless you this morning.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's give them a round of applause.

There is uh so many, um, so many heart, like, so many layers today in this service today to be able to celebrate.

I'm sorry if I'm I'm overdoing it, just like cheering, and but I think we're an expressive church.

And when we feel it in our heart that like God is good, we just say it.

And we just do it.

And just you just need to express it.

And so we do it in our worship and we do it in our praise, and uh, we do it in our giving.

And I'd just like to read to you a bit of a scripture as we just prepare to give this morning.

Um the scripture I'm gonna read to you is out of 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 6 to 8.

2 Corinthians 9:6–8

It's talking about generosity because the whole heart is not to hold for ourselves, but it's actually to give to others.

2 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 6 to 8, it says this.

2 Corinthians 9:6–8

Remember, did you say this church?

Remember, remember, like bring it back to memory.

Remember, whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will reap generously.

We're in a season right now where we're sowing, right?

We're planting, and we don't plant sparingly, we plant generously, and we're thinking about the the heart of God for massive harvest.

And if we want to see a massive harvest, and if a farmer wants to see a massive harvest, we can't plant one eye one seed.

We have to literally go out and scatter seed, throw it out there, and actually plant rich and plant deep and plant expecting to see that harvest.

So each of us needs to give what we've decided in our heart to give.

This never in our church do we say, this is what you need to give.

But we take the scripture and we say it this way: we say, each of you needs to step back and decide, what are you telling me to give, God?

And ask God, God, what are you asking me to give?

What are you saying today for me to give?

What's my role to play in actually reaching out?

You don't do it under compulsion, you don't do it reluctantly, but God loves it when you just hear him and you respond cheerfully, and you're like, okay, Lord, I'll do it.

I'll do it with the whole heart, I'll do it with a smile on my face, I'll do it because I expect to see this harvest.

Because God wants to bless you, and the scripture says it this way: abundantly.

Abundantly.

That means pressed down, shaking together, running over.

We're in the year of slurpees right now.

How many of you know what that's like?

You give the kids like you can go in and get a slurpee and they fill it and then they tap it down, stir it around, and they shake it to the bottom, and then they fill it up some more, and then they shake it some more.

That's the way God wants to bless.

He wants to concentrate his blessing on you.

So in our church, we have three ways you can give.

You can give online, you can give on the envelope that's in front of your seat.

Uh, you can also give via the app.

And uh we just believe that God is gonna do great things as we move the church forward.

We can only move at the pace of the church, and uh we're believing that God's gonna help accelerate us into this next into this next year.

So, ushers, would you come forward this morning as we prepare to give.

Amen.

Father, we thank you for the opportunity to give today.

We know, Lord, that you want to bless us and increase us in our hearts.

And today, Lord, we're just so encouraged by the stories that were shared.

And we ask, Lord, that as we give with a cheerful and expectant heart, Lord, we would see abundant harvest.

Lord, people come to know you in a fresh and new way.

In Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.