Baptism Sunday with Pastor Clayton Tyner

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at MetaChurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

Well, I want to welcome you again to MetaCurch.

My name is Clayton.

I'm the lead pastor here.

And if you're new with us, you have picked a fantastic day to show up.

There are so many exciting things happening at Meta right now.

First and foremost, it is baptisms.

This is the best thing we do.

This is where we get to see just a piece of what God is doing in us and among us.

We have over 20 people signed up to get baptized across our three services.

Many of you have shown up, you're in your purple shirt.

We also have two options.

We're baptizing in service and we're baptizing outdoors in between our services.

And so a lot of options.

And I'm gonna say this again at the end, but I want you to hear it right up front.

If you came today and you had no intention of getting baptized, but God moves your heart, and you'll know it if it happens.

We have everything you need to make today the day to get baptized.

We have a change of clothes, we have a towel.

We can get you in the waters today.

So keep that in mind.

We have some other exciting stuff going on at Meta.

Our movement is moving and our movement is growing.

And they say that imitation is the highest form of flattery.

And there's this small tech company you may have heard of called Facebook who announced this week they're changing their company name to Meta.

It's like Mark Zuckerberg, right?

Always copying us.

It gets so annoying.

We say meet together, move together.

Now they say their new slogan, scroll together, end up hating everybody.

That's the official Facebook slogan.

So they are now called Meta.

Welcome to the MetaFamily or whatever, I guess.

Uh they're gonna, of course, start giving 10% of all their proceeds to us, is what I'm speaking into existence.

So, Mark, if you're listening, consider it.

We also have like some real news, which if you haven't heard, God has blessed MetaCurch with the purchase of a new building.

We have a new permanent meeting space.

We're so, so very excited about.

Yes.

So we are working hard behind the scenes to make this transition.

We're on an aggressive timeline.

We are planning to start having services this December.

So we are really working hard at getting over there quickly.

We're very excited.

Now, I know uh you guys are anxious to get in there to see it, to look at the potential of it.

And so what we're gonna do is on November 14th, that's two Sundays from today, we're gonna have what we're calling our first look event.

It's gonna be on November 14th at 6 p.m.

at the new location.

The new location, and we'll get you all this information, it's at 1207 Richland Hills Drive.

It's right off of 151 and Petranko.

What we're gonna do at the first look event, we're gonna tour the property, we're gonna tour the building, we're gonna show you just all of the potential that we have to really make a difference by using that building as another weapon in our metachurch arsenal.

We're gonna pray over the space and we are going to come together and wrap up our whatever it takes campaign.

You may not know this, but there are a few hundred people who, in addition to giving their offerings, have made a pledge to give to the expansion of this ministry.

If it were not for those gifts, we would not have been able to build out or to buy this location.

And so um, we want to come together, talk about what all that means, thank God for all that he's done and look forward to the future.

November 14th at 6 p.m.

Today, we are here to celebrate baptisms, and I'm so excited.

Before we get into the word, will you pray with me?

Father, we love you, and we thank you for loving us.

We believe you have something to say to us today, and so I'm asking that we would have the humility to have open minds and open hearts.

We are here at all different places in our faith journey.

God, some of us like seasoned believers, some of us skeptics, not really knowing even what we think about all of this.

And you have said, if we seek you, we will find you.

And so we're here together, all different people, and we are seeking you.

We're asking you to speak, and we trust that you will, and we ask all these things in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

It is Halloween, and my message today is called No More Masks.

No more masks.

Now you know the deal on Halloween.

Everyone wears masks, everyone puts on their best costume, and what we're doing is we are trying to, for the night, transform our identity into someone or something else.

And man, some of you go all out on these costumes.

And you know when you have a really great costume because like friends and family will come up and ask if it's actually you.

Like you have really, really nailed it.

I am not good at Halloween.

I do not buy Halloween costumes.

I normally think of who I'm gonna be that night and just have to use something out of my closet.

This year I'm going as the host of Survivor Jeff Propes, which means a tan shirt and a hat and a name tag that says, Hi, I'm Jeff.

So that's my level of Halloween creativity.

We know the deal on Halloween.

We wear masks, we we change our identity, we mask our identity, and everybody knows that's what's going on.

I was at a restaurant yesterday and one of the waiters was a spot on Bob Ross.

You know, the guy who used to paint on TV, Happy Clouds, Happy Trees.

Like, this guy for real nailed it.

But everyone knows the deal.

Nobody at that restaurant was like, I think Bob Ross is here.

We know it's just Halloween.

We're all pretending to be something.

My message is called no more masks, because the reality is, the other 364 days of the year where we're not putting on costumes, we are still often putting on masks.

The world is a very difficult place to navigate.

The world is full of pain, and we all have pain, fear, frustrations, insecurities.

We have shame.

There are parts of our life that we are simply not happy with.

There are false narratives, these scripts that have been implanted into our minds, spoken in our lives, and all of these parts of our life that we are uncomfortable with or unhappy with, the areas where we don't feel like we measure up to the world's expectations.

The temptation is to mask it.

So, what are some of these masks?

They can be anything that the world offers, bad things and good things.

Some of us truly try to mask our pain, forget about our pain, numb or suppress our pain through addictions or abusing substances.

Some of us try to mask our insecurities by using things like money or success or achievement.

We mask some of our pain through sexual conquest, we we mask through toxic relationships.

There are all kinds of things, almost anything that this world can offer can be used as a mask.

And so, what does a mask do?

A mask works in two directions.

The first thing it does is it protects what we want to keep hidden.

On Halloween, you are transforming your identity, which means if they can just straight up see who you are, it's not gonna be a very convincing costume.

You're trying to protect what you don't want the world to see.

This is the same thing that we do with these mental, emotional, and spiritual masks that we put on day after day.

We try and hide and protect our insecurities, our fears, and our shame.

Masks protect, but they also project.

And so while they are protecting what we don't want the world to see, they are projecting forth the identity that we're desperate for the world to believe.

We put these masks on, they're not who we really are, they are who we think the world wants us to be.

And maybe if we can just fake it till we make it, put on the different masks that the world offers us, we can convince people that we are something that we are not, and we can protect ourselves by hiding the parts of us that hurt the most.

And people use money as a mask.

And they drive cars they can't afford, and they wear clothes and watches that they can't afford, and they eat at restaurants that they can't afford.

And all this while what they are doing is trying to protect an insecurity that they aren't measuring up to the social circle around them, trying to protect the fear that they will never succeed at the level that their parents succeeded, trying to protect all of the anxiety that their brothers and sisters are outpacing them in life.

And so you wear the mask of affluence and money, and every time a new phone comes out, even though you haven't paid off your last one, you grab the new phone because you would just die if someone saw you with an iPhone 11 while the iPhone 13 is out.

It's a mask.

We are protecting and we are projecting.

I can ball just like you can ball, I can spend just like you can spin, I can get it just like you can get it.

And see, we're projecting an identity and we're protecting our pain, and people have no idea that in order to try and project the life you want them to see that you are being buried and crippled under a mountain of debt.

They have no idea that our resources that God gave us as a blessing are now actually a burden.

They have no idea that it is fights over money that is about to end your marriage.

It's a mask.

We protect and we project.

We wear pride as a mask, and there are a few forms of pride.

There's the really obvious one, which is like over-the-top arrogance.

And arrogance is protecting and it is projecting, it is projecting an aura of being better than everyone else, superior to those around you.

Arrogance results in boasting, always letting people know all your greatest accomplishments.

That's the projection, it's what you want people to see because you're protecting what you actually are.

And if you haven't figured it out by now, the higher the levels of arrogance, the deeper the levels of insecurity.

You're protecting that insecurity and feeling like you're not enough.

There's another side of pride, which is false humility, never being able to take a compliment.

And you're projecting a counterfeit form of humility that is meant to focus the attention back on you.

You're protecting from the feelings of needing to be validated, making sure that everyone knows that you're enough.

We are a sexually free culture.

We're a hookup culture.

There's all kinds of sexual conquest.

And what are we projecting?

We're projecting bodily autonomy, doing what feels good, living my kind of life, living in this form of liberation and freedom.

That's what we're projecting, that we are sex positive.

We are protecting.

And for many people, when you get to the core of it, what happens is you have a significant wound, usually from a parent who walked out of your life, and you are protecting a very real, very deep need to finally feel some love, the very love that your parent never offered you.

There's always something on the inside.

There's always something we are protecting.

Anytime we are projecting, we are masking our identity and transforming it into the identity we believe the world around us wants to see.

Even on Halloween, sometimes the masks that we choose, our actual physical costumes, really betray the emotional and spiritual masks that we are wearing the other 364 days of the year.

And this is no surprise if you have eyeballs and you're paying attention, you know that every Halloween is just an excuse to really up the ante and dress just as provocatively and show as much skin as humanly possible.

And so every year we get more and more promiscuous and provocative in our dress.

It's like nobody can just be a nurse, which by the way, nurses are real life superheroes.

The nurses I see at Halloween, I've never seen one of those in a hospital.

Nurses wear mint green long baggy pants and sketchers.

It's like you can't just be a cat.

You gotta be a sexy cat.

I've told y'all this.

I hated cats my whole life.

I bought Katie a cat two years ago, and now I'm a cat dad.

I love that cat.

It eats off my plate.

It's a real problem.

I'm just letting you know, I know cats.

They are covered, their whole body.

A bikini in cat ears is not a cat costume.

And I know it's an unpopular opinion.

And I know, and it's like, Pastor, you can't body shame us.

You can't shame our bodies.

I'm not shaming your body.

I am questioning your decision to give the rest of the world access to your body that they haven't made a commitment to you in order to actually deserve that access.

It's not body positive.

It's giving something away that God has given to you for a purpose, and we think it's body positivity and it's confidence and its sexiness.

That's what you're projecting.

But every time we're projecting, we're protecting.

A deep need for validation, deep insecurities.

A world where you're desperate to look like the airbrushed photos on the magazine rack.

You see, we all have masks.

And somewhere at the core of all of those masks, I don't mean all of those masks is shame.

And I know this because I happen to know the history of the very first ever costume.

It came like way at the beginning.

Way at the beginning, like the beginning of the world where God spoke it all into being.

And he put the sun, moon, and stars, and he separated the land from the sea.

And it was all good.

In fact, it was more than good, it was perfect.

And he placed in there the pinnacle of creation, man and woman.

And they had everything that they could ever need.

And their lives were perfect.

And they walked and talked with God.

And there was only one rule in the garden.

There had to be a rule because rules establish relationship, and we have a relational God.

He's personal, he actually cares about you.

There was a tree in the center of the garden.

They were not to eat from that fruit.

They were tempted and they ate.

And what happened next is it says, then the eyes of both of them were opened.

And they knew they were naked.

And so they sewed leaves together and they made covering for themselves.

They made a costume for themselves.

These fools had been naked from day one.

They didn't care.

You know why they didn't care?

This brings us to baptism.

They didn't care because from the beginning to that point, their identity was being formed solely by God Himself.

And the moment their eyes were opened, their identity was being formed by the broken, sinful world around them.

They made the first coverings, they made the first costume, they made the first mask.

And we all need to mask our shame because the world is so difficult to navigate, and there is so much pain.

And there are so many things that we feel on the inside of us.

And there are people who spoke things into your life about how you're not good enough and you'll never be loved and you'll never measure up and you're not smart enough, and your learning disability will hold you back, and you'll never make something of your life, and you'll never be as good as your brother, and you'll never be as good as your sister.

We have all of this weight against us.

And if we don't have something that can speak to that pain and speak to that shame, if we don't have an answer to the real, real frustration and suffering in this world, then the best bet we have is to find the right mask to project the right image, to hopefully be accepted by the right people in this world, to get some level of success and try to fulfill the deepest longings of our heart.

And I promise you, if you live long enough, it will fail you.

What does this have to do with baptism?

I was at a church planter's luncheon not long ago, and a speaker there talked about baptism in a way that I think is critical for us to understand.

We have to answer the question: what exactly does baptism do?

This is what we're celebrating today.

And first I want to make it clear what it does not do.

Baptism does not save you, it does not get you to heaven.

Baptism does not guarantee you eternal life with Jesus.

Baptism does not move you from spiritual death to spiritual life.

It is not something extra you add on to your salvation to try and maintain it until your death.

All of that is accomplished.

The moment you put your faith in Jesus, what Jesus did by dying on a cross, rising again, ascending back to heaven, and promising that he would come back for believers in him.

It is enough.

It will be enough.

It was enough.

And it is assurance that you are going to have eternal life.

It is a personal decision to put your faith in Jesus.

It's between you and him.

Nobody can do it for you.

Spouses, you cannot save your spouse.

I know that's difficult sometimes.

They're so skeptical.

They don't believe like you believe.

It is personal.

Parents, you cannot save your kids.

Your grandmother cannot save you for you.

If our abuelas could do that, we would all be going to heaven.

Like it's personal.

And yet, it's a public movement.

We meet together.

We move together.

And baptism is a public display, a public representation of all that occurred when you made that personal decision.

You know, baptism is actually a command for this movement that we call the church.

We read about it right before Jesus left this earth in Matthew 28.

He says this Jesus came and said, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of.

Now, we often focus on the baptizing part, and that is why we do baptisms a few times a year.

This is why we really encourage you, if you put your faith in Jesus, to take this next step and declare that publicly.

However, we often leave out this simple three-word phrase in the name of, in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Spirit.

We've lost some of this in our current cultural context.

But for most of human histories, names had deep and significant meanings, and names were a key factor in your identity.

Nowadays, I'm not really sure how we're naming kids.

It seems like we're just trying to come up with a name nobody's ever heard of before or spell it in a way where their teachers will never get it right.

And that's fine.

But back in the day, names carried great weight and great meaning.

And even if it was a name that didn't sound good, if it meant the right thing and spoke the right thing about your identity, that was your name.

In scripture, we see people we see God changing people's names in order to better reflect their identity.

And did you know that when we get to heaven, God will give us a new name?

Names are powerful.

This is why when the two become one in marriage, you take on a common name.

It is signifying what is now an important part of your identity.

In the name of equals identity.

And so here's what is so interesting Jesus didn't say making disciples, baptizing them in my name.

He could have stopped there because Jesus is the one who saves.

And he didn't just say baptizing them in the name of the Holy Spirit.

He said in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

And if you're new to Christianity, this may be something that confuses you because we are monotheists.

That just means one God.

We worship one God.

But Scripture reveals that we have one God who operates in three persons.

And there's a lot of nuance to that, and there's a lot that can be debated and talked about.

But the simplest way to understand one God in three persons is to imagine a triangle.

It shouldn't be the hardest thing.

We have a lot of triangles here at MetaCurch.

If you imagine one triangle, that is one object, there is one God.

But every one triangle has three distinct angles.

In geometry, you'd call it angle A, B, and C.

They are not the same.

They have different angles, different measurements.

And the truth is, if you remove any one angle, you no longer have a triangle.

The God of Scripture is one God who operates uniquely in three persons.

He accomplishes his will through means of all three.

And Jesus said we are to baptize in the name of, which means if you have put your faith in Jesus, you are being given by Jesus a brand new identity.

And he says, All three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And what that means is that all three persons of our God has something unique to say about our identity as Christians.

And so, to put it simply, to understand our identity, our identity as Jesus followers, we must begin to understand the Trinity.

In order to understand our identity, we must seek to understand the Trinity.

And we're gonna begin to do that today, to break this down and see what it really means to be baptized in the name of the Father, what it really means to be baptized in the name of the Son and What it means to be baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit.

We're gonna look first at the name of the Father.

We're gonna look in Romans chapter 8, and we're gonna begin immediately to see how these three persons of this one God work in coordination with one another.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

In Romans 8, verse 16, it says, the Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God's children.

Romans 8:16

You see how this is beginning to work.

Jesus, the Son, came.

He died, he rose again, he made a way for us to have access.

And when we put our faith in Jesus, it says the Spirit of God testifies, affirms, secures with our spirit that we are God's children.

We now have a heavenly Father, verse 17.

And if children also heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him.

What does it mean to be baptized in the name of the Father?

When Jesus says in the name of the Father, it identifies our position.

Remember, we are building out our identity, our new identity.

Not the identity that we came up with before Christ, not our BC identity, but now with Jesus as our Savior, we have a new identity and it's expressed in baptism and in the name of the Father shows us our position.

Psychologists have shown that a sense of belonging, knowing where you are and where you belong, is as important to human well-being as the essentials like air, water, and food.

When you're talking about identity, who you are and who you're becoming, before you know who you are, you have to know where you are.

Where is your position?

Where do you belong?

You see, there is this great metaphor throughout scripture, especially in the book of Romans and Galatians in the Christian scriptures, and it talks about what happens when we believe in Jesus, and it uses the metaphor of adoption, that we are children of this world, children of sin.

It even calls us children under wrath, the wrath of God against our sin.

But when we believe in Jesus, that we are adopted by God into his family, and God himself becomes our good heavenly father.

And I know a little bit about adoption.

Ten years ago, I adopted our labradoodle, George, and it cost quite a bit of money.

Way more importantly, five years ago, we adopted our daughter.

Tens of thousands of daughters.

It doesn't really matter.

We also adopted our cat.

But that's enough about the cat for today.

We adopted our daughter.

It was so expensive.

It took us years, over three years to work through the process.

The cost of our spiritual adoption into God's family cost Jesus his life.

His life secured a new position for us and gave us a heavenly father.

And some of you had really, really bad examples in your earthly father.

Some of you only have vague memories of your earthly father before he got out of town and left your life.

Some of you were abused by your earthly fathers and still don't speak to them to this day.

And it's difficult because you hear God called father, and your only point of reference for fathers is about as negative as it could be.

And I'm telling you that before you know who you are, you have to know where you are.

You have to know where you belong.

And so it isn't that if you had a bad earthly father, that's why you should discount God as your father.

It actually points to your very real, desperate need and the opportunity for you to have a father, a father who loves perfectly, a father who always gets it right, a father who has everything you need and will provide those needs for you.

I've shared the story quite a few times, but it is such a clear example to me.

It's something I can lean back on when I have my own struggles with my faith.

We adopted our daughter five years ago.

She was already close to five years old.

Her father, biological father, had walked out of her life before she ever knew him.

She had been raised in chaos.

She was completely uneducated, and she had behavior problems like you could not imagine.

I mean, there were times in our first two years we genuinely did not know if we were going to make it.

And there was a moment, almost like switching a light, where things began to shift.

And in this moment, it took us by surprise, but before you know who you are, you have to know where you belong.

And for two years, multiple times a day, and every single night, Kimberly would ask, Are you still my dad?

Are you still gonna be my mom?

Every night for two years, everyone she knew had walked out of her life.

She had no security, she did not know her position in our family.

And one night we put her to bed, did the whole routine, walked out of the room, and realized she never asked if we were still her mom and dad.

And things aren't perfect, but that was the moment of turnaround.

And if you don't know your heavenly father, then you are lost.

You have to know where you belong.

When we're baptized in the name of the Father, it signifies and identifies our position.

And here is our position: we are family.

We are the family of God because we have a heavenly father who loves us, who has a purpose for us, who created us with a calling to do something significant.

We are family.

You have a place where you belong.

And if you have been looking and searching for somewhere that you can come and be a part of something and be loved without condition and pursue your purpose, God has given you his local church where you can come connect with others who are all in the same family and all surrounded by the love of God our Father.

In Philippians chapter two, we read this: adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.

I want to explain what that means real quick.

Jesus, in his essence, in his identity, when he came to earth, he was not someone who was like God or happened to know God.

It is three in one.

Jesus is God.

And he could have come down as God and demanded service.

He could have commanded people to worship him, adore him, to serve him.

And Jesus said in scripture, I came not to be served, but to serve others and to give my life away.

You see what happens with these masks is we feel insecure and we feel shame and we try to project something out to the world, hoping that the world will bite, that we will be accepted and brought in.

And what the world says is the way to make it to the top is to grit your teeth and to stay on your grind and to do whatever it takes to get you up and to the right, to make the right moves, manipulate the right people, to use coercion, to climb the ladder, to step over and on top of people so you can get yours.

That is the message of culture, and the message of Christ is the exact, exact opposite.

Jesus was God, and yet, in verse 7, instead he emptied himself.

He assumed the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity.

And when he had come as a man, God himself embracing the brokenness of humanity.

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even to death on a cross.

And for this reason, God highly exalted him.

This is your new identity.

You are no longer fighting to get yourself to the top.

You are officially retiring from the rat race.

Your new identity realizes that the way up is down.

The way to exaltation is through humility.

Being baptized in the name of the Son identifies our purpose.

And there are layers to purpose.

But at the broadest layer for all of us as the movement of Jesus, our purpose as a family, we are family, and we are a family of humble servants.

It is a countercultural movement.

It is not a movement that demands power and authority in order to have an effect and to change the world around us.

It's a movement of humility.

It is a movement where we win by making others succeed.

It is a movement where we count others as greater than ourselves.

It is a movement where we put others before us.

It's a movement where we follow Christ.

In Scripture, Jesus is called our oldest brother, the one we are to emulate, the one whose footsteps we are to walk in.

This is different.

This is not a call to do what the world is doing with some Bible verses attached to it.

This is a call to a radical transformation of how you view the world, how you view success, how you understand your purpose, and how you navigate your time here on earth in a world that promotes and pushes the prideful worship of self.

We are a family who serves others in humility.

And time and again, the movement of Jesus has changed and transformed the world, not through the use of power, but through the humility of the people of God.

We are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

In John chapter 14, Jesus says something that is just wild.

John 14 · chapter mention

In verse 12, he says, Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the work that I do.

And that's what we're talking about.

He's our oldest brother.

We walk in his footsteps.

That would have been fine.

But then he says, You will do the works that I do, and you will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.

I don't know how much you know about Jesus, but he like brought people back to life, multiplied food, walked on water, not to mention died, and by doing so, living a perfect life, opened the door of salvation to all people in all places.

And that guy just said that we will do even greater things.

How could that be possible?

And he explains in the same chapter, verse 16.

He says, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever.

He is the spirit of truth, and the world is unable to receive him because it doesn't see him or know him, but you do know him because he remains with you.

And children of God, followers of Jesus, please listen, and he will be in you.

If you have put your faith in Jesus, our triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that Holy Spirit of the one true God lives and dwells inside of your life.

And one of the most heartbreaking things of modern Christianity is that we have the power of God inside of us.

And we are so distracted, we are so busy, we often have such little faith that with the power to change the world inside of us, we spend our time arguing over the power structures in the world that God created.

The power of God inside of you, and you lose faith and you lose hope because the wrong person got elected.

The God who created this world has placed his spirit inside of you, and you do not need to fear or fret because that God has already overcome this world and all that will happen inside of it.

This is our purpose put in to motion.

Being baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit identifies our power.

And if the people of God would wake up to even a fraction of the power that is inside of them, this world would begin to change at a rapid, rapid pace.

We know our position because we have a father in heaven.

We know our purpose because our oldest brother Jesus Christ has gone before us, and we know our power because the Holy Spirit is promised in the life of every believer.

We are a family.

A family of humble servants who are meant to change the world.

And when you say things like that, you know, people get kind of weird about it, like, oh, here we go, change the world, you know, everyone wants to change the world.

Can I tell you what you're actually called to do?

You are called to live in a way, understanding your position, the freedom of being a child of God, pursuing your purpose, of serving the people around you with humility, and if you will do that, you will begin today to change the world around you.

How could Jesus say that we will do even greater things than him?

It's because Jesus came to earth as one man.

And the same spirit of God that animated and directed every step of his life is now in the life of millions and millions of believers.

It is not that we are more special or more powerful than Jesus, it's just that the movement he started has multiplied.

It's that we now have a worldwide church that if we would just understand, that we don't need any more masks.

If you don't know Jesus, or if you think about your life before Jesus, those masks are your only chance of survival.

Covering up that fear, covering up that insecurity, covering up that shame, covering up that weakness.

You know what Jesus said?

You know what scripture says?

In your weakness, God is shown to be strong.

No more masks.

When you've put your faith in Jesus, you have a new identity, you have a family, a purpose, power.

You have a job to do.

And together, if we will focus on changing the world around us together, we will begin to change the world.

What do we do in baptism?

We make public a personal decision.

We say, buried with Christ, we are burying that old life, that old sin-driven life.

And then we say, and raised to walk a new life.

When you go in, we are not just burying your old sinful ways, we are burying the masks that you needed before Jesus.

When we pull you up, you are raised to live a new life, which means a new identity.

God has given you an opportunity to do something new, to live a life that actually affects change in this world.

That is what baptism demonstrates.

Would you pray with me?

You can close your eyes and bow your head just right where you are.

There's nothing magic about that.

It just creates some space for the people around you.

For those of you who are here today to get baptized, maybe in a minute in service or after service, part of what you're saying is no more masks.

Some of you have put your faith in Jesus, but you've never been baptized.

You haven't taken that step.

I pray that today God will stir your heart and you will have the courage to respond.

We have everything you need to make today the day that you make this public.

And for some of you, you came in today and you've never put your faith in Jesus.

What Jesus asks is that you believe he is who he says he is.

He is God who came to earth and that he has done what he says he has done.

That he died to pay the price of your sins, that he rose again back to life, that he ascended to heaven and has promised someday to come back for his own.

If you believe that, then you have put your faith in Jesus and you are now ready to take the personal decision you've made public.

Let me pray for you.

Father, we love you and we thank you.

We always thank you for loving us.

You proved your love by sending your son.

You proved your love by not demanding that we clean ourselves up and then come to you.

You came down and rescued us right in the middle of our mess.

Life is hard.

And God, we often put on many masks, but today, we are wanting to walk in our full freedom, our full identity, in our position, our purpose, our power as a family of humble servants who are ready, God, we are ready to change the world.

We love you and we pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

If this was helpful to you and you want to help us get the word out, you can subscribe to this podcast.

You can rate and review or share it with your friends.

If you want to get connected further with what MetaCurch is doing, you can go online to metachurch.tv.

There you can learn how to take next steps.

You can learn where our different venues are at if you ever wanted to visit.

And you can also give financially to help push this movement forward.

Man, I love you guys and I hope you have a great rest of your day.