Through the Waters

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

You can go ahead and have a seat if we're never met before.

My name's Ryan.

Absolutely thrilled to have you join us today.

Have you ever tried watching a game that you knew absolutely nothing about?

Yeah, yeah, this means yes, this means no.

Okay.

Like maybe that was your World Cup experience with soccer.

You've never watched soccer, but everybody was, and so you're like, what is offsides?

I don't know why they keep calling this, or maybe it's basketball or baseball or football or cricket or rugby or whatever sport.

Uh the US Open, so there's tennis going on right now.

Um, or it could be like backgammon or whatever game, you know, some you know, settlers of Catan, okay.

Uh because I have no idea what's happening in that.

I tried setting that up once over my head.

You ever just kind of watched it and go like, I have absolutely no idea what's going on.

It's just confusing, it doesn't make any sense, it seems like just chaos.

Uh uh several years ago, about a decade ago, um, my buddy Andre invited me to go see uh a hockey game, invited me to go see the sharks.

Now, yeah, it's awesome.

I've never been to a hockey game, nor have I ever watched hockey ever in my entire life.

Like, I know nothing about it.

So we get there, we get to the rink, he's got these season tickets, we sit down, and I'm watching this game, and I know nothing.

Like it just looks like utter chaos.

The part I got was the fighting part.

I'm like, oh, that makes sense.

I'm like, okay.

And then he did something that was just so brilliant because I'm like, this is like a kid's game.

Why are they getting put on time out?

Like they're little children.

I don't understand the box.

They're put in a box.

And then he said, Okay, so those blue lines, they're not just for decoration, because that's what I thought.

I'm like, oh, that's pretty blue lines, you know, and the little circles with the dots in them.

And he began to explain what icing and the penalty were, all those things.

And all of a sudden, during that time, I was so grateful for his patience with me.

I began to understand the game.

And what turned into just kind of watching something that felt chaotic, I began to become a fan.

I get to watch it, I understood, and I was like, oh my goodness, this is exciting.

Oh, look at that.

I was like, Andre, they did that.

Oh, that's icing, or that's that offside thing, or whatever, however they call it in hockey.

The game didn't change.

My understanding changed.

And as a result, my experience of it changed.

You know, um, sometimes some of the things that we do in church or in Christianity can feel a little bit like a hockey game or your game that you don't fully understand.

You come, you we sing, like, why are we singing?

Some people lift their hands, why are they lifting their hands?

When do I stand?

When do I sit?

Do we ever kneel at this church?

We do at some churches, um, right?

What is communion all about?

My hope and aim and our time together is I hope to get to be Andre for you.

My hope is to help take one of the most ancient practices of our Christian faith that is so central and powerful.

In fact, Jesus commanded the church to do two things for like as long as we're on this side of eternity.

One was communion and the other was baptism.

And I want to talk about baptism today.

I want to help us understand what is baptism, what does it actually mean?

Uh you know, happens in the waters of baptism.

Who is it for?

And uh why this ancient practice is so important and still matters today.

Uh, the sermon title is called Through the Waters.

Would you say that with me?

Through the Lord.

That was pretty good, but we I need a little bit more.

Can you say it again?

Through the Wars.

Well done, well done.

Let's pray and we'll dive in.

Jesus, we thank you for this moment and we invite you here to speak to us.

Would you show up and meet us?

This is not an ordinary moment, this is a sacred moment that you have set aside for those of us who are here or are listening and watching online to encounter you, hear from your word, be changed by you, respond, and become more like your son Jesus.

And so we invite you to have your way in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Through the waters.

Let's talk about through the waters.

Actually, you know, the waters tell a story.

That's one of the things that when we talk about baptisms, I think uh, even if you've been around church, you may miss that the waters actually tell a fundamental story.

Uh, throughout the Bible, water marks where old worlds end and new ones begin.

It often represents chaos to creation, judgment to rescue, death to life.

Let me show you.

Uh, the Bible begins with the Spirit of God hovering over the waters of creation.

In Genesis 1, 2, it says this In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Now the earth was formless and void, or another translation, wild and waste.

There was chaos.

Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and it says, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And so, before there was beauty, order, and life, there was darkness and watery deep, and the Spirit of God hovers over the water and brings life out of chaos.

Then we see, just a few chapters later, in the story of Noah, that waters becomes a place of judgment.

God brings Noah and his family safely through and begins again.

Noah passing through the waters of judgment into new beginnings.

And then fast forward to Exodus.

God's people, uh, Moses is leading them out of bondage and slavery in Egypt.

They're leaving, fleeing from Egypt.

Pharaoh is pursuing them, and they're trapped.

In front of them is the sea, and behind them is Pharaoh's army.

And it appears to be impossible and no way out, but God opens up, parts the Red Seas, and Moses leads Israel through the waters from slavery to freedom.

And then we see 40 years later, this same story where Israel stands at another body of water, the Jordan River, before they're gonna step into the promised land, as they're waiting to walk over there.

And once again, God stops up the waters of the Jordan, and Joshua led God's people through the waters, through the Jordan, into the promised land.

And then in Isaiah, the prophet, he's speaking of the coming king and the promise of another exodus, an even greater act of rescue through the Messiah.

Isaiah promising a new exodus, an ultimate rescue through the Messiah, through these waters.

Passing through the waters points to God's redemptive activity.

Through the waters in Scripture tells the story of God's rescuing and redeeming work.

A God who brings life out of chaos, brings his people out of bondage, brings them through the waters into something new, and all of this points to Jesus.

Through Jesus, God brings us from death to life, bondage to freedom, and the old life into new.

And this is the story of baptism through the waters.

So the water tells a story, and then we see Jesus actually stepped into the waters for us.

And if you got your Bibles, go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter three, as we're gonna dive in a little bit.

And Matthew chapter three tells us about this character, John the Baptist.

Um, maybe you've heard of him, and he was he was kind of a wild guy, actually.

He dressed in camel hair, which was not in style, by the way.

And he lived out in the wilderness and ate, you know, honey and locust, not really a great diet that you would prefer.

And he began to preach and call the people of Israel back to God, and thousands and thousands of people went out to see this strange man, this strange sight, listen to him and respond to him.

Like a revival was breaking out in this wilderness, in this out-of-the-way place.

And the the message that he preached was repent.

He said, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

The kingdom of God is near.

Now, repentance doesn't mean just to feel sorry or feel bad.

That's not what repentance means.

Repentance is literally a change of mind that results in a change of direction.

It's the picture that many of us have had while driving, uh, where you're driving and you realize I am headed in the wrong direction.

And so what you do when you realize you're headed in the wrong direction is you immediately get off and turn around and head in the right direction.

You take a U-turn and turn.

That's the picture of repentance.

Repentance is, oh my goodness, the way that my life is going, the direction of my life, that is not going in the right direction, and I turn my life towards Jesus.

So he says, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

And then he begins to see all these people step into the waters of baptism for a repentance of their sins, saying, I acknowledge, man, the direction that we're going, and I'm turning to live a new way of life.

And people were coming from all over to be baptized.

Then Jesus is picked it up and says, Came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.

But John tried to deter him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?

And Jesus replied, Let it be so.

It is proper for us to do this, to fulfill all righteousness.

Then John consented.

So John's doing this baptism of repentance, publicly turning from sin, stepping into the waters, visual washing and cleansing and new living.

And so rightfully he's confused because Jesus, the sinless Savior of the world, is coming to be baptized.

He's like, you don't need to be baptized.

And Jesus says, Let it be to fulfill all righteousness.

The author, Matthew, of this gospel uses that word righteous, meaning to follow God's right way of living or in harmony in the will of God.

For Jesus, this is not a baptism of repentance, but it's one of identification with those he came to save.

In doing so, he authenticated John's ministry and foreshadowed his own death and resurrection on the cross.

It goes on.

It says, as soon as Jesus was baptized, he went out of the water, and at that moment heaven was open, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him, and a voice from heaven said, This is my son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased.

Now remember, through the waters tells this story.

This is my son in Psalm 2, speaking of the coming Messiah being a conquering king, the promised awaited king.

And then in whom I'm well pleased, echoes Isaiah 42, which introduces God's servant, the Messiah, as a suffering servant who will ultimately suffer and bear the sin of the world.

In this moment, the sovereign king and suffering servant are one and same in Jesus, who has come to usher the kingdom of God.

There's another incredible connection here, I don't want you to miss.

Isaiah passed through the waters and then uh I mean, Israel passed through the waters and then spent 40 years in the wilderness.

Jesus passes through the waters and immediately spends 40 days in the wilderness.

Where Israel failed, Jesus remains faithful.

Jesus is actually reliving Israel's story, but he's doing it without sin.

He is the faithful son, the promised king, the suffering servant who has come to rescue his people.

This moment is a new creation moment.

At Jesus' baptism, the Spirit descends upon Jesus because through him God is beginning a new work.

The one who brings life out of chaos has come, it brings freedom from bondage, brings resurrection out of death.

See, Jesus did not enter the waters because he needed cleansing.

He entered the waters to identify with you and me.

To step into our shoes, to step into our world, to become fully one of us.

And in the waters, Jesus identified with sinners, and on the cross, he took our place.

In the waters, he came to identify with us, and on the cross, in fact, scripture says, He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that in him we might become the very righteousness of God.

It's a great exchange.

His life for our life.

Our brokenness for his righteousness.

And then in baptism, we identify with Jesus.

The Apostle Paul says it in Romans 6 this way.

He says, Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death?

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Baptism tells the story of Jesus, but it also declares what has happened to us through him in faith.

And that's the picture.

Next week we're going to celebrate it.

We always do this as a church because it's the most beautiful, powerful picture of what awakening is about.

And the picture is simply this: is when you go under the waters, it is the symbolic representation of that I have died with Christ, that you have been buried with him.

Galatians tells it, I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me.

And I have been buried with him, and being brought out of the waters is identifying as now I have been brought back to brand new life in Jesus.

Not because of anything you did or I did, but solely because of all of what Jesus has already done.

That I am new and I am forgiven.

And it's not how do I somehow try to be better, do better.

It's I have my life now belongs to him.

And this is why baptism is both deeply personal and profoundly communal.

It's personal because no one else can take uh can place their trust in Jesus for you.

It's communal because baptism was never meant to be a private moment between just between you and God.

You publicly identify with Jesus and his people.

And the church surrounds you.

We get to surround you and say, we see the grace of God in your life.

We celebrate with you and we will walk with you as you learn to follow Jesus.

I think one of the maybe helpful illustrations when it comes or pictures when it comes to baptism is perhaps a wedding ceremony.

This December, Jenny and I get to celebrate 24 years of marriage, and it's really exciting, and we're great.

Yeah, thank you.

And I remember, you know, on that day standing before the altar, uh, I'm madly in love with this woman, still madly in love with her to this day.

And we stood at that moment, and that was a public moment of us, a ceremony declaring our love and our commitment to one another.

Now, uh, years before that, we had fallen madly in love and had this relationship that had grown and developed through all that.

The marriage ceremony didn't make us in love.

It just simply was a stamp in time and a moment where we declared, gosh, word, I'm yours forever.

And I'm saying before God and these witnesses, this is the life I long to live with you.

And I was married from that day forward, and it's been 24 years later, and I'm still learning how to live out that commitment to this day.

I wasn't fully prepared to be married, by the way.

I was not the perfect husband, still am not.

But it was this beautiful moment where we said, okay, we're all in.

That's baptism.

Baptism is the moment where you have it all figured out, you know all the right answers, or you have to be a certain level of maturity in Christ.

It is a moment where after you've already placed your faith in Jesus, it's this beautiful ceremony, this moment where you just go, Oh man, I'm all in.

Best of my ability, I'm gonna walk with Jesus all the days of my life.

And we as a community get to come around and say, We're walking with you.

We're gonna hold you to, like hold you along the way.

We're going to carry you and walk with you.

See, you do not get baptized because you finally know how to be a perfect Christian.

You simply get baptized because you've placed your faith in Jesus and are ready to learn uh to like live out his way of life.

Baptism is not a graduation, it's an initiation.

It's not the finish line, it's just the beginning steps of following Jesus.

Baptism declares that my old life is behind me and my new life belongs to Jesus.

It's the public declaration that my life is now a part of God's redemptive story.

The story of the waters of redemption and rescue that Jesus stepped into, and Jesus, I'm trusting that you stepped into it for me, and I want your story to be my story.

I need rescuing, I need you to be your story of rescue and redemption and forgiveness and healing and wholeness.

I need that death to life, that chaos to bring in beauty and order.

I need that story, and so would you rewrite my story and bring that story to life in me?

That's what baptism declares.

So let's talk about who should be, you know, who should be baptized.

It's very simple.

Every single person who's placed their faith in Jesus.

Peter said in Acts 2.38, uh, repent, there's our word again.

Repent, turn.

There's a direction you're headed, there's things that you're doing, there's things that you, when you realize it's a change of mind that results in a change of direction.

Oh my goodness, I realize I've been living life my own way and it's not working, and I don't want it anymore.

And so I change my mind and as well, I turn to you, Jesus, to be my life.

Repent and be baptized.

What's the next two words say?

So good for like 10% of you.

That was fantastic.

Repent and be baptized.

Everyone.

Every single person.

In the name of Jesus Christ.

Like, it's not for some people, it's not for the super spiritual, it's not when you have your act altogether, when you're finally like, oh, I have it down, I'm ready.

Every single person who's placed their faith in Jesus should be baptized.

Why?

Well, then Jesus said in Matthew 28 18 through 20, why should we be baptized?

He said, Yeah, therefore, he's calling his disciples, this is the great commission.

On them, like this is what you're to give your life to, therefore go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Like Jesus, like he says, okay, here's what I want you to give your life to.

Helping people come to know me.

Because I alone am life itself.

Baptism is this public identification into the family of God.

Baptizing them into the name, you know, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

It gives us two things baptizing and then teaching, right?

Teaching them to obey some of the things that I taught you along the way.

No, sorry, that's not what it said.

It said teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you.

You know, um, you know this, many of you know this.

You know why we're called Christians, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Because 2,000 years ago in this town called Antioch, um, some people were making fun of followers of Jesus and they called them Christians because they it means little Christ.

And it's like, oh, you just look so much like your Jesus, you know, and so we're gonna call you little Christ, and it's kind of a put-down term.

Man, I would love if people were putting us down because we look so much like Jesus today.

Wouldn't that be good?

If we're gonna have that be true of us, we actually need to just simply take Jesus at his word and go, you know what, we're gonna start just not picking and choosing the parts we like of what you taught Jesus.

We're not just gonna take the parts of like, you know, oh, when it's convenient, um, but teaching us to obey everything you've commanded.

Like, I'm gonna begin to live my life under your word.

Um one day Jesus taught some really hard things to his disciples, and in result, there's lots of people that started to stop following him because there were some difficult truths.

And he turns to the twelve and he says, Are you too going to leave?

And Peter said, Where else can we go?

For you alone hold the words of life.

Like, friends, if we really understand that repentance is like the most helpful thing in your entire life, that like when you turn to Jesus and there's things in here where you're like, oh, I'm kind of wrestling with these sort of things.

When you turn to him and begin to live life, where else can you go?

He alone holds the words of life, he alone is life itself.

Like the things that you long for, the healing that you hope for, the joy that you just so desperately want in the midst of this crazy wild world, turbulent season, place that we live in, Silicon Valley, anxiety-driven work, performance, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Just turn to Jesus.

Like not as a self-help guru that will help you get better at your life, but that he is life.

And he will give you life.

And you just begin to turn your heart and your mind towards him, and you begin to repent.

I've been running after these things.

I've been filling my mind, I've been just numbing out, I've been doing, and I'm just turning towards you, Jesus, and you allow him to give you the life that you cannot get on your own.

So why should I be baptized?

A couple reasons.

One, just simply follow the example of Jesus.

He stepped into the waters of Jesus.

And if we're gonna follow him, if we're gonna be little Christ, if we're gonna be followers of the way of Jesus, then we're gonna just begin to do the very things that he did.

And if Jesus got baptized, well, I think we should get baptized then too.

And then he commands it, right?

He just told us, therefore, go and be, you know, make disciples, baptizing them.

So we're gonna obey the commands of Jesus, we're just gonna do what he says.

If he really is the leader and rescuer of your life, you just go like, okay, you know what?

I don't know a whole lot, but here's what I do know if a guy predicts his death and resurrection, and then three late three days later does it, I'm just gonna go with him on just about everything else he said.

I'm just gonna go with him.

So I'm just gonna follow what he said because he seems to have it figured out.

And thirdly, it's how we publicly identify as a follower of Jesus.

It is our wedding ceremony, that moment that we publicly uh go, uh we go public as a follower of Jesus.

Well, do I have to be baptized to be saved?

And the short answer is absolutely not.

No.

We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus alone.

Ephesians 2.8 says, for it is by grace you have been saved.

And this, not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

It is by faith alone in Jesus.

Baptism does not save you, it is simply that's a public declaration of what Jesus has done in your life.

Well, when are you to get baptized?

And uh the truth is, as soon as you have placed your faith in Jesus.

Now, I'm I'm like a history nerd, okay?

And I would love to geek out and tell you like the progression of how we've done this in church history, and some of you history guys, we can go have like coffee outside and talk more on this.

Um but one of the things that you'll notice in the scriptures is simply this.

You know, Peter in Acts 2, 41, after he gives this great sermon, it says, Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to their number daily.

That the moment they were saved, we see this so often, they were baptized.

Um and you know, the Bible tells us that the minute you place your faith in Jesus, that you are baptized by the Spirit of God, meaning that the Spirit of God comes into your life.

He does this work called regeneration or making you new.

He comes into your life and fills you, awakens you to brand new life in him.

And in the early days of the uh church, those two acts of saying yes to Jesus and being baptized by water happened almost simultaneously all the time.

It was just like so that they became so close.

Years and like several years later, there were some persecutions that broke out, and some people that just kind of all fell away from the faith, and then they were wanting to come back.

So then they introduced this like catechism for people to really understand what they were saying to, and then they made it like you know, you have to be a Christian a year or now two years, and then we only do baptisms on Easter Sunday, and there's all some really good, well-meaning intention for it.

But the Bible tells us as soon as you're saved, get baptized.

It's just a part of that word.

I can't wait.

I can't wait to step through the waters of baptism, the waters that Jesus stepped into me, because it represents his rescuing word, my dead life now come to new life.

And so that's why we do baptisms regularly as a church, and we have them as our birthday next week.

We're gonna have baptisms as well.

My wife really started following Jesus, her freshman year of college.

Now, she grew up in the church, her mom really loved Jesus, but her freshman year of college, one of our dear friends, uh, her sister died suddenly and just tragically, uh, a complication to mono.

And it was through that moment where her faith became her own.

And like she really began to walk with Jesus in a whole new way.

She, freshman year at Cal Poly, got involved with this campus ministry called Campus Crusade for Christ.

Some of you have heard of it, some of you are part of it.

It's called Crew now.

Um at Cal Poly, her freshman year, it was about 50 students that were showing up to this, and she got to be a part of seeing God do some incredible things.

And it went from her freshman year to her senior year from 50 to about 1,500 students.

And it was exciting as they were sharing their faith on campus, telling people this good news.

Like Jesus loves you, and if you turn from your way of life to him, he'll give you brand new life.

And you got to see people just step into new life, and it was an exciting time.

And as she's uh going through her, you know, finishing up that year, she wanted to continue with crew and serve overseas uh for an entire year, helping uh launch a campus crusade for Christ in Sweden at a local campus there in Sweden.

Now, she had to do some fundraising uh to pay for an entire year in advance, and so she's sending out the letters, and some of you done that, and asked our local church.

So she went to go ask our local church that we're part of.

Hey, would you support me on this, you know, year-long mission?

And this old lady that I'm sure was well intended, but it didn't come off great.

She's like, Are you baptized?

And she said, Well, no.

She's like, Okay, well, we can't support you unless you get baptized.

She's like, Okay, well, yeah, no, we you gotta be baptized to get financial support.

And it just yeah, it just obviously kind of rubbed her wrong, felt weird.

She didn't get baptized.

She's like, because it felt transactional, you know?

It's like this weird, like, uh, get baptized, get money.

That's weird.

Um she didn't.

Um she gets back from Sweden.

I I popped the question right away because I was like, man, I I don't want to spend another year away from her.

I want to get married.

Um we get married three months later, by the way.

And um it was during a time that we were at a church in Chicago, incredible pastor, great church, incredible community.

And in a service kind of like this, they practiced something where they would have spontaneous baptisms.

And we do this to this day because of this moment for us as a church.

And in that, at the end of that service, our pastor invited whoever wanted to get baptized to come in.

Literally hundreds of people were coming to get baptized.

And Jenny says she felt like this burning kind of like sensation and just like excitement.

Because baptism shifted from a have to, a transactional, to a want-to.

To a moment where she felt like, oh my gosh, I won.

This is the moment.

And maybe for some of you, your next step actually isn't baptism, but it's all the way back at Jenny's story.

Your next step is making your faith your own.

Saying yes to Jesus, it's that moment of repentance, of realizing I'm doing my life my own way, it's not working.

There is a God-shaped vacuum or hole that I keep trying to fill, and it doesn't fulfill me.

And I'm gonna turn to Jesus and I'm gonna follow you.

And would you be my life?

Would you have my life?

Jesus, save me.

Jesus, would you save me?

Scripture tells us if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is the Lord and believe in our heart that He's raised from the dead, you will be saved.

All who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved.

Maybe that's your moment right now.

Maybe you've done spiritual things for a long time, but you've never said yes to Jesus as your personal savior.

It's just simply the prayer.

The conversation with God, Jesus, would you come into my life?

And today I turn from my sin and I turn to you.

Would you come into my life and make me for others?

Maybe it's the moments where Jenny was in that church.

Maybe you've never been baptized, or it wasn't your decision, and you, it's time for you where you go.

It's not a have to, it's a one-to-like I want that wedding ceremony moment.

I don't like getting up in front of people.

That makes me nervous, but it's not about me, it's about a celebration of what he's done in me.

And I want to go public and let everyone know, gosh, this is my family, and Jesus has saved me.

And we have baptisms next week, and I hope you join us for that.

You can fill out the card, we got a class tomorrow, or you can just show up.

Because we still do spontaneous baptisms.

Doesn't happen every single time, but it's so fun when people just go, Yeah, today's the day, and I'm getting in my genes and everything.

We have extra stuff, we always bring extra stuff for you.

And maybe for some, for you, is like, you're Ryan, I I know I'm a follower of Jesus and I've been baptized.

I want to encourage you to experience baptisms the way Jenny and I often experience weddings.

You know the thing we don't do at weddings is we don't go there and like been there.

You know?

And I'll go like, yeah, they don't know what they're getting into.

I cry at almost every wedding.

One for them because it's beautiful, but two because I remember back to mine.

And I'm a crier.

You know that already.

Every story of rescue gets to remind you of your story of rescue.

And when we get to behold this as the church together and watch people step into waters of baptisms, oh may it stir our hearts afresh, may it kindle the fire, may our spirits awaken a little bit more that we might too return to our first love and live with that passion and live with that urgency and remind ourselves of that desperation and dependency.

See, this moment, these moments are for all of us.

Even snotty messes like me.

So as we close, the waters tell the story of redemption.

Would you respond to him your savior who stepped into the waters for you for the first time or for the thousandth time?

Don't don't don't feel like you can't bring the same thing you keep bringing back to him.

Because some of you in this room, you're like, I d the thousandth time, it's been a thousandth time.

I keep bringing the same issue back to him.

Bring it back, bring it back, bring it back.

His rescuing work is still for you today.

God, I pray for my friends.

I pray for those in this room that have never said yes to you, that desperately need you, need your rescuing work.

In this moment, would you say yes to Jesus?

Jesus, I need you.

I repent.

I turn from my way of life and turn to you, Jesus.

Would you please forgive me and make me new?

And in this moment, He will answer that prayer a hundred percent of the time.

Or maybe you're in the space where, oh yeah, Jesus, I'm ready to step into the waters of baptism.

Not because I have everything figured out, but because I have faith in you.

You have finished the work, and I want to celebrate it.

And where do you need the rescuing work of Jesus right now?

His redeeming work in your relationships, his tender love, his kindness, his strength, his healing, his hope, his peace, his joy.

He wants to meet you right now.

So bring to him, bring to him the things that are in you and allow him to minister to you.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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