We Are Access – Made New

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason Burns and Access Church in Lakeland, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

Well, let's get to work today.

Today we are starting a new series of messages called We Are Access.

This is the heart, vision, values, the DNA, and the direction of our church.

I'm excited to get into it today.

A few years ago, I had a weird conversation that all these years later, it still makes me laugh.

There was this guy in our church, a young single man, and I knew from social media and talking to some friends that he had been on like a dozen dates with a girl in our church.

And I thought they were a great couple.

I was excited for them, excited about this new relationship.

So I ran into him one Sunday at church and I was like, dude, congratulations on your new relationship.

I'm so happy.

Tell me more about your new girlfriend.

And he goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

I was like, what?

He said, easy on the terms.

And I said, What?

Do we not call them girlfriends anymore?

Am I like that old?

Like, what is the new term?

Bay, boothang, day one?

Like, I don't know.

Like, what term?

What do we call them these days?

I don't know.

And he goes, it's not that.

He goes, it's not the term.

It's just that, you know, like we haven't um we haven't DTR'd.

Like we haven't defined the relationship.

And I'll be honest about something.

Um, if you've been on a date like 12 times with a girl, and you haven't defined the relationship, guys.

Look at me.

The problem is you.

Like, okay.

Um this isn't a relationship series, but I'm gonna go there for just a moment.

All the single guys in the room, raise your hand for just a moment.

All the single guys scan the room quickly, ladies.

I'm got, I got you, got you.

This is a full service church, baby.

Got you.

Okay, all the single guys in the room, I challenge you.

When you like a girl, don't slide into her DMs, slide into a conversation.

Talk to her, ask her on a date, like kick it old school for just a few minutes and just see.

So for this guy, he he hadn't defined the relationship, and there's this new term.

I like this term, I think this term is funny.

There's this new term that people use for people that are kind of in that in-between, in that limbo between like you've been on some dates, but you're not in a relationship, they call it a situationship.

And I like this word.

This is funny.

This is funny to me.

Like, guys, you should not be in situationships.

This is not what it should be, but this is normal these days.

And here's the funny thing: all of us understand like what this is like when you're kind of in the inbo, limbo in between a relationship and not in a relationship.

And it makes sense in our dating relationships.

But today I want to push the button with you and ask the question like, is it possible that some of you are in a situationship but with God?

The kind of relationship with God where it's like you love Jesus, you come to church, you feel like Jesus has changed your life and he's made you new.

But the truth is, you've never really gone all in with Jesus.

So see, here's what it looks like.

You love him.

You come to church, you know all the right things to do, you know when to raise your hands, you know when to say amen, you know when to shout the preacher down, you know how to post the picture of the preacher with three fire emojis and tag me in it.

You know how to do all the churchy things, right?

But then there's like the Monday you.

And the Monday you doesn't match the Sunday you.

And then there's the weekend you.

You gotta get to the club, gotta get to the party, got to be with your friends, gotta hook up with the situationship, got to do the weekend you.

And what we do is we live in this weird dichotomy of a life, a compartmentalized kind of life, where there is the God part of us, and we think, well, I'm all in with Jesus, but no part of our life seems to reflect that.

We're kind of in, kind of out.

So what happens is we live here on the proverbial fence.

Today I want to challenge those of you who are on the fence or those of you who are new to your faith to take the step and to stop playing games.

To once and for all make the decision that you are going to cross the line of faith, all in, chips to the middle of the table, all in with Jesus for the rest of your life.

And I want to show you today how it changes everything when you do this.

Now, today I want to spend some of our time talking about the importance of going public with your faith, specifically through water baptism.

If you're new to this idea, baptism is a public declaration of the personal decision you've made to follow Jesus.

I want you to pay attention to every one of those words.

When you follow Jesus, that feels like a private decision, but it's not private, it's personal.

But it was never meant to stay private or personal, it was always meant to be shared and celebrated publicly.

Water baptism is that public declaration of the personal decision you've made to follow Jesus.

And let me just kind of show you my cards today.

For those of you who have not been baptized or who have not had a meaningful baptism, since you've made the decision to follow Jesus, I'm gonna get all up in your business today.

And at the end of the service, I'm gonna ask you to have 60 seconds of courage and to go public with your faith through baptism.

Let me explain it to you this way: baptism doesn't make you a Christian.

Baptism is what I might call the wedding ring of Christianity.

My wife and I have been married for 19 years because I wasn't scared to talk to her, boys, okay?

Let me ask you this question.

When we got married, we stood in front of a couple hundred family and friends.

We exchanged vows and we exchanged rings.

Baptism is the wedding ring of Christianity.

Let me ask you a question.

Does this ring make me married to my wife?

No, we exchange vows.

I took the ring off a moment ago.

It doesn't make me single again.

It just made it took the ring off.

My ring symbolizes the fact that a commitment has been made in my heart and in her heart.

We have made this decision that we are married, and the wedding ring only symbolizes the fact that we are married.

In the same way that it's a symbol of that relationship, baptism is a symbol, it's symbolic.

Something happened in your heart, and you were to share it and celebrate it with the world.

Today I want to talk to you about what it looks like to go public with your faith, and I need you to understand something.

There is something so profound, something so scriptural, something so beautiful about not playing games and going all in with God.

In fact, if we were to take a cursory overview of the Bible, in fact, let's do this.

Let's take a cursory overview of the Bible and let's look at what it looks like to go all in with God, because it's when you do that everything changes for you.

The book of Joshua, chapter one, is fascinating.

God shows up to Joe to this guy named Joshua and he says, Moses, your hero, my servant, he's dead.

God used Moses to lead the people of Israel out of slavery and into this prom towards this promised land.

But Moses dies, and God shows up to Joshua and he says, Moses is dead, you're my guy.

I want you to do what Moses didn't do, and I want you to lead them into the promised land.

This land that Scripture illustratively calls the land flowing with milk and honey.

And I want you to take them to this place, and so Joshua does it, and he leads the people into this land, and they set up shop and they begin to build homes and lives there in this promised land.

And then some time passes, and Joshua notices something.

He notices that even though the people of God are living in the promised land, they're not living the promised life.

That even though they're in this land that God promised them, they're not experiencing all of God's best.

And here's why.

Because they had slowly drifted away.

I want you to notice something.

You never drift towards anything that matters.

You'll never drift towards an intentional relationship, you'll never drift towards marriage, and you will never drift any closer to God.

Every key decision and every key relationship in your life is strengthened when you're intentional about pursuing that relationship.

How did they drift?

Well, they're in this land called Canaan, the promised land, and they're surrounded by some other countries, and the other countries don't worship the one true God.

They have their own false gods and they have idols and statues that they've made.

And over time, what happened is the people of Israel, instead of being all in with God, they kind of rode the fence.

They flirted with the people around them.

They had relationships with the people around them, and eventually what happened is that line got kind of blurry.

And so what happened is these people of Israel would marry these people from the neighboring countries, and they would start these lives together, and all of a sudden the clarity of their relationship with God was now clouded by all these other false gods.

And there's this moment where Joshua wakes up one day and he goes, Something has to be done about this.

And he gathers the people and he has that conversation where he says, Here's the line in the sand, and I want you to understand we're stepping over it together.

Here's what he says in Joshua chapter 24.

Joshua 24 · chapter mention

He says, But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then here's what you do.

Then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.

Like today's the day that you make the decision, you're in or you're out.

He says, whether it's the gods of your ancestors, like our true God, who served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, those are the ones from the neighboring countries, in whose land you are living.

And then he says, Let me be really clear about this.

The leader always goes first, so here's my declaration.

But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

As for me and my house, no games, no false gods.

Crossing the line, we're all in.

I love this.

Fast forward several books in the Bible, we meet a guy named David.

David leads this extraordinary kind of life.

He's the one who, as a child, killed the giant Goliath.

He was known as a celebrity and a hero in his nation.

Eventually, he raises in prominence to the throne as king.

God elevates him and he has this extraordinary life.

It's polarizing.

In some of his moments, he has some of the greatest moments in human history, but he has these moments that are equally as low and as devastating.

At the end of his life, David has this realization that before he dies, he wants to do something so significant to honor God.

So he has this idea.

Up until that point, the people of Israel didn't have a building, like a temple or a church.

They had something called a tabernacle.

This was a portable church.

So if you read the Old Testament and you hear the stories of the tabernacle, what it was was it was this massive tent that the people would travel with these massive stakes that they would put in the ground.

They had these massive curtains that they would line the outside with, and they would set up this beautiful church tent, essentially called a tabernacle, very, very, very specifically.

And they did this everywhere they went.

And there was this day when David said, God, I want you to have a place that is so beautiful, so profound, so majestic, that it screams of your majesty, it screams of your splendor.

Every once in a while, someone will write me and they'll be like, Jason, why does Access need all the things, like all the lights, and why do you need all the screens and smoke?

Like, why do you need all these things?

And I'm like, we don't need any of these things.

We just always want to bring our best to God because that excellence honors God.

We want our worship, we want our experience, we want the expression of our church, we want the way we serve our city, we want the way we love people really well, to scream of the majesty, the splendor, the strength, the glory of our God.

Are you with me on this?

So David says, God, I want to do this.

I want to build you a temple, it's gonna be amazing, let's do it.

Uh 2 Samuel chapter 7.

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

God's like, ah, no, thank you.

Appreciate it, but no, there's too much blood on your hands.

But I love your heart, so I want you to do this.

You raise the money, your son Solomon can build the temple.

So David, probably heartbroken by this, but he obeys God.

And he does whatever they would have done in the ancient world to get the word out about the this message.

I don't know if they had Twitter or X or Facebook or Instagram or Tinder somebody.

I don't even know what they had.

But whatever they had, he he sent out a tweet or whatever, and like nobody gave.

We gotta raise the money.

Come on, we gotta we gotta raise if you got some supplies, bring the supplies.

We're doing this to honor God, and nobody responded.

Nobody responded at all.

Now I understand something, having pastored for 17 years.

I understand something, having tried had to raise a lot of money for different projects for our church and for around the world.

It's hard raising money.

And and David had this realization.

He had to be the one to go first.

Some years ago, I had a pastor friend reach out and he goes, Jason, you've raised a lot of money.

How do you do it?

He goes, I asked my church, we needed to raise money to build a building, and we did it, and like almost nobody gave at all.

How do you do this?

And I said, Well, did you already give?

He goes, No.

So there's your problem.

He goes, What?

I said, the leader always goes first.

So like I'm not telling you this as a humble brag.

I just want you to know how I roll as your pastor.

As your pastor, I will never ask you to do something that I don't do first myself.

I'll never ask you to stand in worship.

I'll never ask you to lift your hands in worship.

I'll be there.

If we have eight services a weekend, I'll be on the front row every single service lifting my hands in worship.

If we ask you to give, the first check every single time comes from me and my wife, and it's always sacrificial because I'll never ask you to do something that I'm not willing to do.

That's how it happens.

So back to David.

David has this realization that, like, wait, we got to do this.

I got to give first.

So he gathers the country together and he says, I messed up on this.

Here's what we're gonna do.

As the king, the government is going to give this amount, but as your leader, here's what I'm gonna give.

And he gave more personally than the government even gave altogether.

And then after he does this, after he's like, No games, all in, guess what happened?

Immediately, all the finances and all the supplies came in to build the temple that was built by his son Solomon, and it was known as one of the wonders of the ancient world.

Screams of God's glory when a person was willing to stop playing games.

Let's let's re let's fast forward into the New Testament.

Jesus comes, he lives this extraordinary life.

Last week we remembered his death and we celebrated his resurrection.

And then after this, Jesus was alive again, and he tells his disciples, I love you, but I'm leaving, but I'm not leaving you alone.

Acts chapter 2, they go to this place and they have this encounter with the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

The Holy Spirit falls, they're filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and the power of the Holy Spirit is a gift from God given to us to empower us to have the boldness we need to live the life God's called us to live.

Well, I want you to understand something.

That happens at the beginning of Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Later in Acts chapter 2, we hear another story.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And if you don't know the backstory, this story doesn't make sense.

Here's the backstory.

Peter was one of Jesus' disciples.

Peter saw all the miracles, heard all the teachings, he was there with him at every situation.

But Peter was also there in the shadows of obscurity when Jesus died on the cross.

Peter saw this happen and he ran and denied that he even knew Jesus.

He even went as far as to curse Jesus out of fear and out of shame.

Well, Jesus is now risen again from the dead.

Peter feels so much remorse, Jesus forgives him.

Really a bunch of cool stories.

Peter was one of those people in the upper room who encountered the power of the Holy Spirit, and it says that he left the upper room, went downstairs, found a little place to stand up, and he began to yell and preach, and hundreds, really thousands of people gathered to hear him preach about this risen Savior, Jesus.

And at the end of his sermon, and if you've ever thought, man, that guy's preaching hard, read Peter's sermon in Acts chapter 2, it'll make me seem like a softy.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Like he preaches this, like float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, kind of sermon.

And then at the end of Acts chapter 2, here's the end of his sermon.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Here's what he says.

It says, When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they said to Peter and the other apostles, brothers, what do we do about this?

So Peter replied, Repent and be baptized.

Like that's the order.

Like receive God's forgiveness and then get baptized.

Like repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

This promise is for you and your children, for all who are far off, for all, for all whom the Lord our God will call.

With many other words, he warned them and pleaded with them save yourselves from this corrupt generation, and I want you to see the results of this beautiful sermon.

Those who accepted his message were baptized, like immediately.

They made the decision to follow Jesus and were baptized.

About 3,000 were added to their number that day.

Pause here for a moment.

I want you to see something.

Imagine with me that there's a Sunday in the future where between our North Lakeland and South Lakeland location, and eventually all of our other locations that God's gonna give us, that 3,000 people in one day are baptized.

A normal Sunday for us, this is cool.

A normal Sunday, baptism Sunday, we'll have anywhere from 15 to 30, 40, sometimes as many as 80 or 90 people getting baptized in a day.

I'm gonna say something to you that I don't submit as a brag at all.

Please hear this.

But every once in a while, I think it's easy for it to get normal to us that, you know, 30 or 40 people get baptized in one day.

I have pastor friends who, when I post that, they'll they'll message me privately and say, bro, we haven't had that many in the last five years combined.

Like we're we're living in a miracle, like what God is doing.

But imagine that on steroids.

Imagine a day when 3,000 people make the decision to follow Jesus.

Why did that happen?

Because Peter was filled with the power of God's Holy Spirit.

He got off the fence and he said, I'm all in.

Here's what it looks like for you to go all in.

This is the result of it.

I love this.

If you keep going in the Bible to the book of Revelation, it's fascinating.

Revelation is this interesting, beautiful book.

If you read it, I suggest you read it with like a Bible study guide because it's such a, it's interesting, but it's confusing.

It's written by John, who wrote John, first, second, and third, John, like he needed more creativity, but those were the names of his books.

And then he writes the book of Revelation, and it's written as a letter to seven different churches based on a revelation or an encounter with God that he had.

It's interesting.

And in Revelation chapter 2, John is writing to a church in a place called Laodicea, and here's what he says.

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

He's speaking on behalf of God, and he says, I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.

You're neither out or in.

You're not like you're not on the fence, you're just kind of living this back or forth kind of way.

I wish you were either one or the other.

So because you are lukewarm, because you're riding the fence, neither hot nor cold, I'm about to what?

Spit you out of my mouth.

Here's what he's saying.

Stop living like this.

Make the decision once and for all to go all in, or look, call it what it is.

If you're gonna play games with God, then just call it what it is, but stop playing the game, is what he says.

If you keep fast-forwarding in the Bible, just 18 more chapters later, this is at the almost at the very, very end of your Bible.

John in Revelation gives us a picture of heaven.

Sometimes when I do a funeral, if I know it's a believer, one of the things I'll do is I'll quote this section of scripture because the Bible doesn't talk a lot about heaven.

There's a few illustrations of streets of gold and some of the beautiful uh diamonds and gems and gold that create the walls of the city.

Heaven is about the presence of God, and here's the result of it.

Revelation 21.

He, God, will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Look at this picture.

There will be no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain.

If you've lost a loved one and they're in heaven, here's what they're experiencing.

The result of the presence of God is no more death, no mourning, no crying, and no pain.

That's a beautiful picture of heaven.

The presence of God is joy.

Here's the reason.

There's not going to be those things anymore because the old order of things has passed away, and I want you to see this.

He who was seated on the throne said, I am making everything new.

I want you to get this.

There was an old way and then there's a new way.

What was the old way?

The old way to get forgiveness of your sins and to get in right standing with God was to take an innocent animal, take it to the priest at the tabernacle or the temple, have it sacrificed because according to God's rules, for there to be forgiveness of sins against an eternal God, there had to be a sacrifice of blood given.

That's the reason last weekend we talked about Easter.

It's such a beautiful story.

The reason Jesus was crucified is because we had sinned against an eternal God.

A sacrifice of eternal proportion had to be given for us.

And when Jesus died on the cross, there was the shedding of blood for once and for all the covering or the remission or the forgiveness of sins of humanity.

Beautiful picture of God.

Why does this matter?

Well, the old way of you know sacrificing an animal is gone, and because of what Jesus did, now he makes everything.

And he uses this word, everything is made new.

It's new.

Don't you love new things?

Don't you love the smell of a new car?

Don't you love opening a new phone?

I love new things.

The truth is, like, I'm a shopper.

Some relationships have one spender and one saver.

I got married and we got one spender and we got one more spender.

Like, I love to shop, and so does my wife.

And here's the funny thing.

Um, I I'm not like I'm not like just wild about spending money.

I came up with a term for myself.

I'm what I call frugie.

That's a little bit frugal, a little bit bougie.

That's what I am.

And there's some stuff that I have to have new, and there's some stuff I don't mind buying used.

There's some clothes that I wear.

I bought used and I got it for less than half price because I'm willing to do that.

There's some stuff that I insist on having new.

Uh, some months ago, at the dumpster behind our church offices, someone dropped off a mattress, and it looked like it might have had every living form of a communicable disease all up in that thing.

So I gathered the whole staff.

This was a total waste of company time.

But I gathered the staff and I walked outside and I said, Who of you for$5,000 would spend one night sleeping on this mattress?

Only one person, and I won't tell you who it is, but it was disgusting.

Um there's some stuff we have to have new, and there's some stuff that's okay.

Can I tell you what God promises?

He promises that you can experience the greatest new of your life, but the new isn't something you purchase, it's who you are from the inside out.

Here's Paul's word, 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

Therefore, if anyone, anyone means everyone, and therefore everyone, and anyone means you, if you are in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the new is here.

Here's what he says if you are in Christ, what does it mean?

We live in a world that's based on performance.

If you do good at your job, or do good at school, or do good in relationships, then you will get the promotion, you will get the good grades, or you will get the girl of your dreams if you perform well, so that we're conditioned to think performance.

But in God's world, it's not about performance, it's about Position.

If you are in relationship with Christ, if Jesus has changed you, if you have crossed from death to life once and for all, when this happens, the old is gone and the new is come.

I love this translation of it, same verse, but from the living translation.

When someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside.

I love this.

He is not the same anymore because a new life has begun.

God has this way of changing our lives, and he doesn't make us better.

He doesn't like polish or buff out the rough spots of us.

He makes us an entirely new person from the inside out.

So here's the question: How do we change?

Like, how does God change us?

Well, there's only two ways a person can change it's outside in or inside out.

We all spend time working on the outside in.

You ever start a New Year's resolution?

Statistically, 80% of New Year's resolutions are given up on by Valentine's Day.

Six weeks in.

Come on, you ever set a New Year's resolution for yourself and you've failed miserably?

I set a New Year's resolution to lose 10 pounds this year.

It's April.

I've only got 17 pounds to go, everybody.

And uh like we do this, we try to work on the outside us, we try to change behavior, but behavior change never leads to lasting.

We change from the inside out.

Here's a couple ways you can say this: you can do something different or be someone different.

You you can try to improve the old you or you can just become a whole new you.

And God specializes not in taking the old bad version of you and buffing out the rough edges, He specializes in bringing the whole new you to life.

Let me show you what this means.

He works from the inside out.

The book of Hebrews says it like this.

I love this.

Hebrews chapter 10.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord.

So these are God's words.

He says, I will put my laws in their hearts, internal, and I will write them on their minds.

God says, I'm going to imprint in you the best way to live.

Why does God have rules and laws?

Not to stop you from joy, but to protect you for joy.

My wife and I have three kids.

I love my kids so much.

I've got a lot of rules for my kids.

I love you and I love your kids, but I don't have rules for your kids because they're in relationship with me.

And because they're in relationship with me, my rules are for their good.

Why does God have rules for you?

Because you're in relationship with him and he wants the best for you.

Then it goes on to say this.

Then he adds, their sins and lawless acts, I, God, will remember no more.

Tease this out for you for a moment.

Some people come to God and they're like, God, the reason I ride the fence, the reason I don't go all in, is I don't know if you could possibly forgive me.

Like if you knew everything that I've done, how could you possibly forgive me?

Can I stop you for a moment and say this?

Scripture doesn't say that God forgets your sins.

This is a misnomer.

God is omniscient.

That's a big word that means he knows everything.

Because God knows everything, of course he knows all that you've done.

You can't hide your worst moments from God.

But can I point something out to you?

Scripture doesn't say that he forgets them.

God himself said, I remember them no more.

What is he saying?

I choose when you are in relationship with me.

I choose when you've crossed the line of faith.

To make this decision to no longer remember your sins.

I put them out of my mind.

So God is able and willing to forgive you and to not hold your worst sins against you.

So what do you do with it?

If he's forgiven you, what do you do?

Ready for this?

It's what I started with.

Baptism.

Romans, the book of Romans, Paul says this.

I want you to see this verse.

This is so powerful.

Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

Here's what Paul says.

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.

Romans is this beautiful, profound, and kind of confusing book.

Let me explain this verse to you as simply as I can.

Here's what Paul says.

We were buried with him through baptism into death.

When a person gets baptized, here's what happens: we stand in a tank of water and we literally immerse them.

We fully dunk them into the water.

And it's symbolic.

Remember, baptism is like the wedding ring, it's symbolic of Christianity.

We dip them in the water, and here's what it symbolizes: it symbolizes a death and a burial.

It's the death and burial of their former sinful life.

When we bury them, when we dunk them in the water, we're saying that their former sinful past, it's dead and buried, it's gone once and for all.

Can I tell you why this matters?

Dead people, you can't tempt them with anything because they're dead.

I had one of the most awkward moments of my life many years ago.

I did a funeral, and there was the, you know, the person had died, and the casket was there on the floor, and there was the stage.

So I did the funeral talk, and then there were a few people who spoke and told stories of the life of this person who had died.

And the third person who spoke got up and he told an embarrassing story of the person who was dead, and the room laughed really hard.

And he goes, You like that one?

I got another one for you.

If you think that one was bad, you should hear this one.

He said, If he knew I was telling you the story, he would be so mad at me, but what's he gonna do now?

And the whole room went, You ever um you ever watch The Office?

You know, you know when Jim looks at the camera like, you know that?

My brother was in the back of the room, and I was like, like all the oxygen just sucked out of the room, and it was it was an awkward, funny moment, and I had to follow that somehow.

I was like, sorry for that guy, you know, I didn't know what to say.

But when that was over, I thought about that moment because it was such an awkward moment, but it's true.

Like, what's he gonna do now?

Okay, can I tell you what you do when Satan tries to tempt you?

When he tries to fill your heart with with um shame, remorse, and guilt?

When you start to feel condemned for your past, you know what you get to say when you've been baptized?

Oh, it doesn't matter.

You're talking to a dead guy.

That person you're talking about, that simple person is dead, buried, and gone.

What's he gonna do now?

With me?

Then when you come out of the water, the reason it's a party is because you're celebrating the fact that Jesus has made you not better, not improved, but he's made you new.

New in him, raised to life in Christ.

Let me end with this.

Some years ago, I uh I preached a message like this, and I had a man write me this long email.

I printed it out because it was hard to read on the screen.

It was three full pages with no paragraph breaks.

You ever talk to someone and they don't even stop to breathe?

That's what the whole thing felt like.

And I read it, and here's what he said.

He goes, How dare you say I need to get baptized?

I was baptized as an infant, and I think back about that day, and my heart is filled with joy.

And I wanted to, like the smart alec in me wanted to be like, you think back to when you were a baby and you remember.

Didn't write that, I didn't send that, but I thought it.

And uh and so I wrote him back kindly, and I said, I hear you.

Like, I'm not saying your baptism wasn't beautiful or meaningful, it was just a decision that your parents made for you.

It's wonderful.

It's like what we do, we do child dedication, it's the same idea.

A baptism, I want you to hear this, is a personal decision that you need to make after you have made a decision to follow Jesus for yourself.

Like baptism, as you read scripture, it was always the next step after a person made a decision to follow Jesus.

So here's how I want to end today.

I want to end with a question.

Have you been baptized since you made the decision to follow Jesus?

Have you been baptized since you believed?

I'm not discrediting a child baptism, but that was a beautiful, significant moment for your parents.

But baptism is about you.

So have you had a meaningful baptism experience since you believed?

Let me say it like this.

Every single day in our country, thousands or hundreds of thousands of people are immersed in water.

Could be in a bathtub, could be in a hot tub, could be in a swimming pool.

And when they come out of the water, nothing's different.

But when a person is baptized, something transcendent, beautiful, powerful, incredible happens because it is more than an immersion in water.

It is a symbol.

Their former sinful past is dead, buried, and gone.

I can't tell you how you will feel.

I just want you to experience it.

When your body is immersed in water and you feel the washing over you, it is a cleansing of your heart that you can't even begin to try to explain.

Pull them out of the water and that feeling you get when you come out and you just take a deep breath and you realize you're alive because of what Jesus did for you, and you're a whole new person.

And all that sin and all that shame and all that condemnation, it's gone, it's dead, it's buried.

Anyone can talk to you about it, but it doesn't matter because the dead person can't even respond anymore.

You are a totally new person.

So here's my question one more time.

Have you been baptized since you believed?

And here's the whole how the whole way we're gonna end today.

I'm gonna ask you to pull your phone out if the answer to that question was no.

And I want you to go to access.tv slash baptism.

I want you to register.

It's literally happening next week.

If you're old school or if you don't want to do the phone thing, inside of your worship guide, there was the connection card.

Pull it out and check the box and say, I want to be baptized, and let's do it next week.

Let me tell you what it cost you.

Ready?

60 seconds of courage.

That's it.

Some people come up with all these excuses and all these reasons why they can't do it.

I'm afraid to stand in front of people.

I don't want to.

I hear you, but I want you to get this.

For as long as you wafer, you will find yourself standing on the proverbial fence.

And as a church, I want you to get this.

We're all in with Jesus.

And so some of you need to make this decision.

It's gonna take 60 seconds of insane courage, but I want you to do this.

I want you to get baptized because I want you to do this.

Once and for all, all in.

Once and for all, chips to the center of the table, once and for all, it doesn't matter what anyone else says, once and for all, that decision you made to follow Jesus is now solidified in your heart because you've gone public with it through baptism.

Would you bow your head and close your eyes with me all across this room?

I'm gonna pray for you.

So, Jesus, give us courage.

That's all we ask.

For those of us who have played games, who've tried to ride the fence, for those of us who have lived with the dichotomy of the church us versus the rest of our lives us.

For those of us who have tried to rationalize that we have the Sunday morning relationship with Jesus, and then we've got the Monday through Saturday version of our relationship, we ask you for forgiveness.

God, may we be the kind of people who go all in.

Chips to the center of the table, whatever it takes, whatever it costs, we're in.

And God, I pray for a wave of baptisms to sweep over this church.

For lots of people who've played the game, who've kind of ridden the fence, to have the courage to just take one step and to go public with the personal decision they've made.

Thank you, God, for that.

Thank you for the miracle that happens when we're baptized.