What's Holding you Back? | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

All right.

You guys go ahead and take your seats.

It is it is so good to see every single one of you.

Could you sh help me welcome everyone who's joining us online and welcome them to celebration?

We want to call it celebration after dark.

We're down here in the downtown streets.

Um, and and today I want to speak to us very briefly uh around the topic of what I believe that today is so sacred, and that's gonna be around the topic of baptism.

But before I get into that, I want to give us a little bit of context.

You know, this this past week leading up to Easter and beyond that, it's just been a time of truly sincerely seeking God and and praying and fasting and preparation for what I believe is gonna be a harvest for today.

So I'm so grateful for everyone that's been participating with us on this journey.

And I believe that we're just getting started.

I truly believe that this is a year that we're gonna see the harvest in all of our lives.

This is a year that we're rooted and rising, rooted in the things of God, and we're rising up.

And what today signifies is people making a massive decision to be rooted in the things of God and watching that turn into a harvest.

So if you are as come on, come on, Susan, that's right, get it going, Susan.

That's right.

I can always rely on Susan to get a good clap going.

We need somebody in the audience to do that.

Um, but if you're in here with us, just be bold.

And if you came here prepared to get baptized, can you put your hands together?

Come on, let's go, let's go.

We are we are so proud of every single one of you.

We're gonna go into uh a brief message, and then towards the end of the message, I'm gonna go ahead and dismiss you so you can go and get changed, and then the rest of us are gonna come out and celebrate and rally alongside you and just be champions for what we truly believe God has for you.

If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to join me in the book of Acts, chapter number 10.

The book of Acts, chapter number 10.

While you're turning there, I'll give you a little bit of context because uh quite a few things take place as we're getting there.

If you're relatively new to Bible engagement, what's happening in the book of Acts, this is after um the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

In Acts chapter 1, in fact, he ascends into heaven, and then in Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit comes down, and that is what we call the birth of the church.

Acts 1 · chapter mention Acts 2 · chapter mention

So a lot of times you'll hear me talk about the early church.

They're kind of like the blueprint for how we do ministry, they're the example that we look to because that was the original design that we see.

And so in the early church, we see a couple of things that are very prevalent.

We see this idea of the of the gospel being spread, that the apostles are declaring the name of Jesus, and more and more people are coming to the fold, and people are being united, and we're seeing unity, and we're seeing grace, we're seeing peace, we're seeing love, we're seeing acceptance, and the gospel is growing, and people's lives are being radically changed as a result of it.

But there is this moment where they're still trying to figure out exactly what it means for the Gentiles.

Gentiles are people who are not Jewish.

We know that our faith is built on the foundation of Judaism, and so there's a moment where they're trying to figure out is the things of God also meant to be available for people who are not Jewish.

Peter, who is a super apostle, he's one of the right-hand men of Jesus, and so he's had access to Jesus in his most intimate moments.

God gives him a vision and shows him that the promises of Abraham are also meant to be extended to Gentiles as well.

This is a revolutionary idea because up until this point, the Jews separated themselves from the Gentiles.

There was a separation, there was a there was a distance that was there.

In fact, they would view the Gentiles as being unclean, the type of people that you don't spend time around, that they have lifestyles that are inconsistent with us.

But but then we begin to see that the grace of God is for those people as well.

I think that's a very prevalent message that we as a church need to recapture even now.

The Bible tells us that a man named Cornelius he gets a vision as well.

This is a man who's a Gentile, and he's he's introduced to the to the gospel concept, and he knows that he needs this next level of revelation for him to embrace Jesus and go into the next season of his life.

Peter shows up to try to get a little bit of understanding as to what Cornelius' story is and trying to figure out what all this looks like, and he begins to share and declare the goodness of God to Cornelius.

The Bible tells us at verse number 44 and Acts chapter number 10, it says that while Peter was speaking these words, those words being the gospel and who Jesus is, the Holy Spirit came down on all those who heard the message.

The circumcised, which are the Jewish people, believers who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, for they had heard them speaking in tongues and declaring the greatness of God.

Then Peter responded, Can anyone withhold water and prevent these people from being baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?

He commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then he asked them to stay for a few days.

Today I want to talk to us for just a few moments on the subjects and the importance of baptism.

And I've entitled today's message.

It's simply this, What's Stopping You?

Let's pray and let's see what it is that God wants to speak to us today.

Lord, we thank you so much for your presence.

We thank you, God, for the opportunity that you've given us to gather here in Downtown Baptist Orlando.

Father, that they've created this space that allows us to come into worship when our other facility isn't available.

So, God, we just pray a blessing over Downtown Baptist Orlando in the name of Jesus.

We pray for their leadership.

We pray for their staff.

We pray for their congregation.

We pray for everyone that's involved in this community, that they will open their doors and allow us to come and declare the goodness of God in the name of Jesus, even in moments when we are in desperate need.

It's in these moments, Father, that we pray also for our own permanent location with a belief that when you give us our own location, that we too will open our doors to other people in our community that need a place of refuge, a place where they can gather and a place to declare the name of the Lord.

As Megan said earlier, it's so much better to give than it is to receive.

So we receive today, but we're looking to give tomorrow.

Father, I pray over the next few moments that you just give us open eyes that we can see you.

I pray for open ears that we can hear you, and open hearts to receive everything that you have for us.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Many of you guys are are familiar with this story, but many years ago, um, I guess it's been back since 2019, um, Megan and I had an opportunity to go to Zimbabwe, one of our favorite places that we've ever been.

And there's a lot of things that we got a chance to participate in, and a lot of outreach and a lot of missional moments that were so powerful.

But in one of our down moments, the thing that I was looking forward to the most was when they were gonna take us to this animal sanctuary.

It was gonna be a place where it was meant to really watch us integrate and connect with these animals that are out in the wild in hopes that they could actually be released fully into the wild.

And so we were told that we're gonna be able to go and see some lions, we're gonna be able to go out and see some giraffes, and then also go out and see some elephants.

So I was really psyched to go and see the elephants.

We watched lions go on a real hunt that was amazing to see, terrifying, but God knew that God was with us.

He's a lion of the tribe of Judah.

So I knew we'll be okay with that.

Um, but if I could be honest with you guys, I did not anticipate that I would be as afraid of the elephants as I was.

Like up until this point, all I know about elephants is Babar.

Anybody old enough to remember Babar?

You gotta be like over 40 to get down with that.

This is from our older folks in the back.

Okay, so all I know about elephants is that they're these huge, majestic animals that are very, very kind.

But when you see them up close and personal, it's a whole different story.

I remember we get out of our of our van, and as they say, okay, walk up, there's these three massive beasts, and we walk up to them.

And so as we're standing there next to them, and everybody's like, okay, pose for the pictures, and and we're doing all that stuff.

As I'm posing next to one, one of the guys runs up to me and says, Hey, don't stand in front of that one.

He doesn't like people.

So all this time, I thought that these were tamed, I thought these were tamed elephants.

I thought these were elephants that had been conditioned and that were used to us and they were expecting us.

But he said, Not that one, that one where he don't like people too much.

So you want to stay as far away from them as that as humanly possible.

It really made me wonder about the safety of some of these missions trips, first and foremost.

I say that jokingly, but but in all sincerity, what it made me think about is how I said, Well, what do you mean that they don't they don't like people?

He's like, Well, these animals are not trained, they're raised around humans, but they're they're not trained.

There's a there's a different way in which we move with them.

And so as we move quickly away from the big angry elephant and hung out with the two nice ones, it made me think about the way that elephants are conditioned.

Historically, whenever an elephant is going to be trained, from the time that they're young, they're tied to a tree when they don't have much strength, when they don't have much stability, when they don't know the power that's on the inside of it.

So no matter how much they pull, no matter how much they try to get away, they are tethered to this item, this item that lets them believe that they don't have the strength to remove it.

But interestingly enough, as they grow older and they become big enough that they could uproot the entire tree, they've been so conditioned in their minds that you can still tie them to a small stake in the ground and they won't move a single step because they've been conditioned.

Interestingly enough, I truly believe that for many of us as followers of Christ, we've been conditioned in a world that has this tethered to things that are so beneath what God truly wants us to be.

We're tethered to fear, we're tethered to insecurity, we're tethered to anxiety, we're tethered to depression, we're tethered to these things.

And when we enter into a relationship with God, God is simply saying that Jesus came to break the tether so that we can walk in the true freedom and power that he makes available to us, but we're still chained in our mind sometimes.

This is why baptism is so important.

See, Jesus came and he died on the cross and he made his grace available to us, but there's this moment when we have to make a decision to untether ourselves to the things that have tried to keep us limited our entire lives.

Baptism is the place that we're able to enter into this water and we can leave some things in the water and come up in the newness of life, and we can leave all that fear and that anxiety and the past pains and trauma right in the water.

See, scripturally speaking, the idea of ceremonial cleansing is not something that's new to us as New Testament believers.

In fact, what you'll find is that this is something that was very common, particularly for the Jewish people.

As a culture, they were actually very unique in the way that they handled themselves.

That when we look in the Old Testament and we see the laws that were passed down, the rules that were passed down, a lot of times we look at that as this God trying to control them or God trying to give them these rules that don't have any reason to them.

But the reality of it is that God wanted to preserve their lives.

So for the Jewish people, they had a longer life expectancy because God was giving them rules of cleanliness that set them apart from everybody else.

Hey, don't do these type of things because that's gonna damage your life.

So when we look in the Old Testament, these are not rules that are meant to control, but these are boundaries that are meant to enhance their quality of life so they can live longer.

But then when John the Baptist comes on the scene, he then takes these ideas of these ritual cleansings that often took place on the outside, and he said, What if we made that also something that we're doing on the inside?

That now, that same way that we cleanse our hands in preparation for the food that we're about to eat, what if when we go into the water, we had some symbolic gestures that we would do that would say that, hey, the same way that I'm cleansing this dirt off of my hands so that I can live a life that's pure, what if when I'm going into the water, I'm leaving that dirt in the water and I'm coming up in the newness of life?

Repentance.

I'm turning away from to 180.

I I've had a change of mind, I've had a change of heart, I'm going in a different direction.

John introduces this idea from the very beginning, this idea of repent, turn away from.

You've been tethered to some things for far too long and it hasn't served you well.

I know as much as you think that it is, but jumping from one relationship to the next, it's not giving you peace, it's not giving you wholeness, it's not producing what you think it's going to do.

You need to leave that in the water and come up in the newness of life that Christ has made available for you.

It's time for you to change your heart.

But then Jesus comes on the scene, and then Jesus begins to introduce this idea and he builds on that tradition.

He literally says to his disciples in one of his last speeches to them, he says, Hey, I'm I'm going to ascend into heaven, but here's a responsibility that I want you to take on, the church.

I want you to go out and I want you to make more disciples.

I want you to declare my name and let them know that peace and wholeness and freedom and healing is all available to them.

And this is what I want you to do as a part of that discipleship journey.

I want them to leave some things in the water.

I want them to go through this process that we now refer to as baptism.

Jesus thought it was so important that when he's giving them his last statements, he's saying to them, This is what I want you to do.

Make sure that when people connect their lives to mine, that they find themselves immersing themselves in water.

This is what we see picking up in the book of Acts.

From the very beginning, every time someone came to faith, we see immediately accustomed it or accompanying it as people getting water baptized, this idea that I'm having a change of life.

I've had a change of mind, I'm going in a different direction, and I'm connected to a new Lord and a new Savior.

For Cornelius, he he was a man who was a man of influence.

This was a man who was a Gentile, but the Bible also says that he loved God, he was drawn to God, and there was something about him that that allowed him to recognize that even though I'm a Gentile, I see the ways of God and I want to live my life counter to the culture.

Do I got anybody in here that lives counter to the culture?

That when the world is going one way, I'm deciding to go a different way.

I can't imagine the the pushback that he would have gotten from certain people in his community that would have said, Well, why do you walk that way?

Why do you talk that way?

Why do you live that way?

Why do you, why do you serve that way?

Why do you why do you use your money that way?

Because I'm living for a different kingdom.

Cornelius was making a difference even before he had true fellowship with Jesus, but there was something that was missing.

He didn't have a full revelation of who Christ was.

But then Peter shows up, and we see in this powerful moment, the significant life-altering moment, that the Holy Spirit comes upon them.

They get filled with the Spirit, and Peter says, You know what the next step is for you guys?

The next step is for you to get water baptized.

I think there was something significant in there for us as well as for him.

I have three quick thoughts I want to share with us on why baptism is so important for every single one of us.

Here's the first thing baptism is a declaration of faith.

That when you get baptized, that that is you making a declaration of faith.

Baptism publicly announces our faith in Jesus Christ and allowing him to be Lord of our lives as an outward proclamation of an inward transformation.

I think about how baptism is like the ultimate status update.

Now, I've I've been in the game, I've been I've been out of the dating game for a long time, y'all.

My kids always remind me, I've been out of the game for 28 years.

So whenever I'm talking to my son and trying to give him some advice, he's like, Dad, it don't work that way no more.

I'm like, okay, I'm still 28 in the game and you're still trying to figure it out.

Maybe you need to listen to this wisdom.

But I digress.

But one of the things that I recognize is that Megan and I, we we were way before Facebook updates, my space, and any of the other stuff.

That the way that we had to make it official for us was that you would go to the most popular mall on a Friday night.

When you showed up at the most popular mall on a Friday night, that is when you were going public with your relationship.

In fact, the pressure that would often be placed on a guys would be when you gonna take me to the mall.

Not to buy me anything, but to put me on display to show off to let people know that you are with me.

So nowadays it's gotten a lot more complicated.

You updated, y'all say it's complicated that the statuses, the feeds, and all that type of stuff.

Now we got situationships, all these other things.

But I can tell you this I remember over 24 years ago when I walked down an aisle and I said yes to my wife, and that was that moment when she placed that ring on my finger.

That was going public.

Everybody knew.

Everybody knew that she locked me down, she finally won.

She she she she got she locked me down.

But watch this, it was very public.

See, my relationship with my wife, it's personal, but it's not private.

That if I'm in a true relationship with this woman who I love and I share my entire life with, it should not be something that I keep as a secret.

What Jesus is saying in the same way as when you're connected with people that you love and people that you spend time with and you go public with that, why would you not go public with me?

Why would you not make it clear that you're connected to me?

That our baptism is a declaration of our faith.

Cornelius, from the moment that Peter said, Hey, your next step is to get baptized, he didn't have to think about it.

I want to go public with my Lord and my Savior.

Here, here's the second thing I want you guys to write down.

Baptism is an act of obedience.

Somebody say obedience.

I know that makes us feel uncomfortable to say that in today's culture.

To just obey, that makes us feel like we're mindless robots, right?

But but what happened to just doing something because it's the right thing to do?

Just doing something because God said so.

Being obedient.

Baptism is our response to Jesus' command.

Some people are like, why do I get baptized?

Because Jesus said so.

And sometimes that just has to be good enough for us.

And the world that's seeking for answers, and the world that wants to make sure that we got it all figured out, that sometimes because Jesus said so, just has to be good enough for us.

Matthew 28, verses 19 and 20.

Matthew 28:19

These are the words of Jesus.

If you have it in your Bible, they should be in red.

It says, Go therefore and make disciples in all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe, or in my translation, it says, Obey everything I have commanded you.

Jesus is saying that this is not a bad word, but I want you to live a life where you can just know that I'm looking out for your best interests, and I want you to do it because it shows that you're connected with me and you know how to obey.

One of the things that I've had to learn with living here in Orlando for the past five years is that there's different ways to get to different places.

And so the more that I've lived here, the more that I recognize that I may use the map as a guide, but just because the map says that that's the quickest way doesn't mean that that's the best way.

So sometimes when I'm talking to family members or friends who are visiting from out of town and they're telling me, hey, what's the best way for me to get to your house?

I'm saying that I should take I4.

I'm like, no, that is not the best way.

It's the quickest way, Keith.

I said, I understand that it's quicker, but there's a difference between getting there with peace or getting there in pieces.

Okay.

And what I want you to do is just take my word for it that if you could take this side road, it may add five minutes to your drive, but it's actually a better idea.

It's a little bit better for you, it's gonna remove any anxiety and stress.

Just take me at my word.

But Keith, it's gonna save me five minutes.

I understand, but can you just listen to my voice?

Trust me.

I'm not gonna just lead you astray.

Don't do it.

Avoid it at all costs.

And the more and more that people spend time here, they realize, like, yes, there are certain things that we have to avoid.

What if God is saying to us, trust me, I don't want you to go that way.

Trust me, I know that it may seem like that's a better way.

I know it may seem like that's a quicker way.

I know you may be convincing yourself that it's unnecessary, but trust me, can you just listen to my voice and hear what I'm telling you and do it because I'm inviting you to do it, and I only have your best interests at my heart?

The Bible tells us that whenever we get baptized, that is just a sign of obedience.

Here's the third and final thing I want to share with us.

Baptism is a symbol of new life, it's a symbol of a newness of life.

Cornelius' story is a reflection of this beautiful transition of an old life into a new identity that is founded in Christ.

Baptism represents our personal resurrection story where we leave our old behind and we're embracing the new life that is made available for us.

I got a couple of scriptures I want to read to you.

Second Corinthians 5 17 says, Therefore, anyone in Christ is a new creation.

The old has passed away, see that all things have become new.

Through baptism, we we symbolic we symbolically are burying our old self, our sinful self, and we're rising up in the newness and our identity in Christ.

Paul tells us in Romans chapter six, verse number four, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death.

In that order, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in the newness of life.

We see over and over again in the book of Acts, and Paul reinforcing it over and over again, this idea that when we get baptized, that we're burying the old version of ourselves and we're rising up in a new identity.

Last year, my my my youngest son, he um he signed up to go into the military and he has so much favor on his life, and God's been doing some incredible things in his life.

And I'm learning a lot about the military through him.

I really didn't know a lot outside of the surface level things that we all may be familiar with.

But every time I talk to him, he talks to me about like, hey, dad, when I do this, I get a different uniform.

Dad, when I do this, I get a new patch.

When I when I do this, it gives me a new stripe.

When I do this, it gives me a different, it gives me a different hat.

He just recently is now in jump school where he's jumping out of planes, which is like, God be with him.

But he's in jump school right now.

And he says, Hey, when I get done, that I'm gonna have a new uniform.

So that means that when I'm walking on base, people are going to recognize some things in my life and they're gonna recognize some sacrifices that I've made.

They're gonna understand some things that I've gone through.

What if we only understood that when we get baptized in the name of Jesus and we're coming up, that we're putting on a new uniform that is vain, that we're raised in the righteousness of Christ, that behold, the old things are passed away, and behold, the new things are upon us right now.

That I'm Now in a new identity, and now what watch this?

Not only do I now have anointing, not only do I have authority, not only do I have dominion, but now the enemy can recognize that I've been marked by the blood of the Lamb and He doesn't have any dominion over my home.

So now I can walk with more confidence, I can walk with more freedom, I can walk in more boldness because I got on a new uniform, and that uniform has the name of Jesus written on the front of it, and I can walk with the power that God has made available to me.

That is what it means when we find ourselves immersed in the newness of what God makes available for us.

For Cornelius, baptism was a moment that radically changed his life, that he was baptized into the family of God, that he left some old things in the past and he rose up in the newness of life.

I want to invite the worship team to come back up and join me as we go into a moment of prayer and worship.

And then I want to invite some of you to go out and get baptized.

I remember about 25 years ago, if I if my math is correct, when Megan and I had our moment, our God encounter moment.

We came to church, and many of you heard the story.

We found ourselves at the altar and and surrender to God and crying and having this incredible Holy Spirit moment, very similar to what we see described here for Cornelius.

The Holy Spirit fell, and it's just this moment that I felt suspended in the presence of God for what seemed like hours.

After the service was over and I was coming to my, I was coming to my own rationale.

I remember one of the deacons coming up to me and saying to me, Hey man, he said, We got you scheduled for baptism next week.

It's on Saturday at 12 o'clock.

That seemed a little aggressive to me.

No one asked me.

No one, no one, they didn't ask me what my schedule said.

They just came to me and said, Hey, you're getting baptized next Saturday at 12 noon.

Aren't y'all glad I'm not doing that?

Like, hey, you're getting baptized today.

Hey, you're getting baptized.

Okay.

Um, so so it was just told to me, and I remember like my hesitation in that because there was so much in me that was like, Well, hey, man, at least ask me.

That that part of me that still wants to make sure that I have the freedom to make decisions.

You don't just tell me what to do.

So I was like, Man, I don't know if I'm gonna be available.

I I got some other things going on.

He's like, Well, um, you know, Megan already told me that you guys don't work on Saturdays.

I'm like, dang it, Megan, we gotta be on the same page.

Don't be putting me out there in the streets like that.

Says, you know, you you you guys are available.

So, like, man, so it he so he literally said to me, So, Keith, what's stopping you?

And I and I and when he said those words to me, and I began to kind of run through every excuse I could think about, nothing that rose to the surface justified being out of God's will.

What's stopping you?

If if you know that this is the next step for you, what's stopping you?

What's stopping you from doing what God's calling you to do?

What's what's stopping you from being obedient?

What's stopping you?

I know that in my mind I would have waited and I would have lined it up perfectly.

I want to make sure everybody was available, but the truth of the matter is it will never be perfect.

I just need to find myself in obedience with God.

So my question to you, what's stopping you?

What's what's stopping you from doing what God is telling you to do?

What's what's stopping you from from saying yes to the Lord?

What's stopping you if if you've made Jesus your Lord and you haven't gone public yet?

What's stopping you?

There's an open invitation for us to step into this moment where God is simply saying, I think it's time for us to go public, and you'd be amazed at what this gesture will do for your soul.

You're gonna leave some things in the water, you're gonna no longer be tethered to these things of the past, and you're gonna find yourself walking in the newness of life.

With every head bowed and with every eye closed, I want to pose this question to us.

Maybe you're in here with us today, and and you know that your next step is simply to say yes to Jesus.

If you were to do inventory of your soul, you would you would recognize that you are not in relationship with Jesus right now.

And you know your next step is simply to say yes to him.

It doesn't mean you have it all figured out, it doesn't mean that every answer has been provided, but what it means is I recognize that Jesus is Lord.

So on account of three, if you simply want to make Jesus the Lord of your life, I would love to pray for you and include you in a prayer on account of three.

One, two, three.

Amen.

At this time, I want to ask us to come to our feet, and we're gonna go into a time of worship.

For those that came here today prepared to get baptized, this is the time when I want to invite you to go ahead and slip out as we go into worship.

We have a team that's out in the lobby that would love to serve you.

We have everything that you need.

We have shirts, we have shorts, we have change of clothes, we have towels and everything that you may need.

But maybe you came here today and you didn't come prepared to get baptized, but you know that that's your next step.

That you haven't made, you haven't made that next step for yourself personally, you haven't gone public in your relationship with Jesus.

If that's you, I want to invite you to go ahead and slip out as well.

We have an amazing team that would love to serve you if you're if you're in here and you know, like, man, Keith, that that should be me.

I haven't done it yet, but I'm I'm trying to wait.

My question is, what's stopping you?

Maybe you're saying, Keith, I don't I didn't come here with the clothes.

We got clothes, so what's stopping you?

I don't have a towel with me, we got towels for you.

What's stopping you?

I don't want to be ashy, Keith.

I don't I got lotion for you.

What's stopping you?

We try to do everything we can to remove every excuse to keep us from doing what God's calling us to do.

As we go into this time of worship, I want to pray for us.

And I want to pray for those who are making this monumental decision to leave some things in the water, to turn the page so they can go into whatever God has next for them.

As a family and as a community, let us all worship together.

Let's pray and encourage them.

And we're going to give you some instructions at the end of this service, but let's lean into this moment and allow the worship team to lead us into the presence of God.

But let me pray for us.

Lord, I thank you so much for your goodness.

I thank you for your grace and your mercy.

And I thank you for the invitation that you give us to leave some things in the water and to come up in the newness of life.

This beautiful invitation to be rised in the likeness of Jesus Himself.

So, Father, I just pray over every person that is making that sacred decision to enter into the water, God, rising up in the newness of life, God, leaving some things in the past, God.

I pray that we can break the chains that have kept us bound over the years, that you have so much more force.

There's greatness on the inside of us, there's power and dominion and authority that we're going to begin to walk in and function in.

So, Father, I pray over our community and I pray for all of us in this room, God.

We all have a next step that you're leading us to take.

If it's not baptism, it's something else.

So, Father, I pray that you give us the courage, the boldness to step into whatever that next thing is.

Maybe it's to be giving, maybe it's to be serving, maybe it's to be a person who's vocal and beginning to declare the goodness of God in our workplace or with our family.

But whatever that is, God, I pray that we can boldly step into that next step.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Come on, family, let's worship together.

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