Sharing The Treasure of Jesus

Everyone, how are we doing? Good. Good. It is It is a good It is a good morning. It is a great morning. Um, as you can see, we're going to be baptizing this morning.

And so, that always makes it just uh even that much better. But before we get to that and do that, what we're going to do this morning is we're going to kick off the same way that my dad taught me how to swim. All right? And so, the way that he did that, he probably doesn't remember it, but I do because it was a core memory, but he took me to a wave pool and he took me to the deep end. He just threw me in. He said, "Sink or swim."

And so, um, that's what we're going to do this morning is we're going to jump into the deep end. And sink or swim, church. All right. So, that's that's where we're going to be because last week, what we saw Jesus teach us in John 15:13 was not a simple statement, but simple to understand, but really hard to apply in a lot of ways. He says, "Greater love is no one than this, that someone laid down his life for his friends." Meaning the greatest act of love displayed is not what you get from someone else but what you are willing to give for someone else.

And so I want you to listen to this. What God was willing to do for us is give us his son Jesus as a sacrifice. That's what he was willing to do for us to pay the punishment for our disobedience so that we could ultimately be forgiven of it and then restored to relationship with God. That's what the whole Bible is all about. And it's a great love. It's the greatest love that's ever been told.

No other act of love has surpassed the love that God has ultimately shown to humanity 2,000 years ago in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And what I aim to show you today, that's what we talked about last week. What I aim to show you today is this. That that plan was not an afterthought. Like God is not an ambulance chaser. It was so I want you to turn with me to John 15.

We're going to be looking at verses 16-1 17 because what I want you to see today is how much God loves you and how prepared God was to show you his love. That's what I want you to see today. I want you to see this. Starting in verse 16, I'm going to read these two verses jumping in the deep end. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you so that you will love one another.

Before we unpack that, I want us just to go to the Lord in prayer one more time because without his help, we can't understand anything. So, let's pray. Heavenly Father, whether we realize it or not, we are all being changed. We educate ourselves because we don't like being dumb. We put makeup on because we don't like being ugly. We exercise because we don't like being out of shape.

We're we're all on a journey of transition, becoming a version of ourselves in which we we feel content. But my prayer is that as we do that, as we grow, I pray it's according to who God created us to be and not what the world recreates us to be. For we will never find true identity and satisfaction if it's not found first in you, oh Lord, who knit us together in our mother's womb. So I pray that you help us become who you created us to be this morning and help us see how relentless you have been in seeking and saving that which is lost in this world. It's in Jesus name that we pray this morning. Amen.

Amen. And that's right. Jesus has been absolutely relentless in seeking and saving the lost in this world. And that's what kicks off our passage this morning. Jumping into the deep end here, Jesus drops this bombshell of a statement. You did not choose me, but I chose you.

You did not choose me, but I chose you. And so, the first thing I want you to see here is that you're chosen. You are chosen. Chosen. You didn't find Jesus. He found you.

We don't need to try and do linguistical hula hoops here. It says what it says. If you are a Christian, you didn't choose Jesus. Jesus chose you. It begins with him before it ever gets to you. Before you ever thought about him, he thought about you.

Before you ever fell in love with him, he already set his affection on you. Before you ever pursued him, Jesus was in hot pursuit of you. And that is the single-handedly greatest docu doctrinal statement or truth claim that I've ever seen in the Bible. Because here's why. If I'm left with two options, Jesus coming to me, finding me and choosing me, or me coming to Jesus, finding Jesus and choosing Jesus, I'm going to 100% every single time go all in on Jesus's efforts in finding me instead of my efforts in finding him. Every single time, that's where I'm going to put all of my cards.

And in our house, I'm actually pretty great at finding things. Contrary to popular opinion, usually the husband has no idea where to find things and the wife knows where everything is. It's opposite in our house. I'm great at finding things, but no one else in my house is is good is good at that. And that's okay for me to say because they'll agree to it. today.

Even if I'm leaving if I'm leaving the salvation of Wyatt up to Wyatt finding Jesus, never gonna happen. Never going to happen. Because if you've ever spent any time around him and you say, "Wyatt, we need you to go put your shoes on." And the shoes are in the middle of the floor with nothing else around them, he'll never find them. He'll trip over them. I love you, buddy.

I know. But that's the way we are. We're fumbling and stumbling through life and we're searching for that thing that's going to satisfy us. And it's Jesus. And if Jesus doesn't come and grab us first, we're never finding him. We're never finding him.

Christianity isn't some random treasure hunt where God mysteriously hides Jesus around the world and then hits play and hopes you find him. This is the intentional love of a savior who looked at you. He saw your mess. He saw your sin. He saw your shame. He saw your rebellion.

And he said, "If I don't go, if I don't come to them and knock on their door, if I don't reveal myself to them, they will never find me. So, I'm going to go to them. And more than that, I'm going to choose them. I'm going to choose them." That means your identity doesn't come from your resume. It doesn't come from your reputation or even your religious activity.

It comes from being chosen by Christ, which takes all the pressure off if we're honest with ourselves. Why do we feel like we have to have some version of ourselves that contributes to the salvation that God gets all the credit for? The only thing we get to bring to the salvation that God gets all the credit for is the sin that made salvation necessary in the first place. That's what we're bringing to the table. And that's why this is such a beautiful illustration is because when God comes and pursues and seeks and saves the lost that cannot find him, once he finds us and grips us and saves us, he then gets to wash away all of that sin that we brought to the table and then raises us to walk in a new life. Charles Spurgeon once put it this way.

I am quite certain that if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen him. And that's the truth of grace. God loved you before you could even love him back. It was selfless and it was sacred. So good. That's why scriptures like Colossians 1:13-14, understanding the role of God in salvation and the role of us in it, scriptures says things like this.

He Jesus has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. Who's the one operating the transfer? And who's the one along for the ride? In whom we have redemption, the forgi of his sins. Now I could speak on this for days, but we got to keep going. So even after God chose to deliver you from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of of the beloved son, he then enlisted you.

He enlisted you in his mission and pursuit of the rest of the world. I love this. I want you to see this. The second point here is that you you were chosen, but you were also appointed. Appointed. So you weren't just saved from something.

You were also saved for something. Jesus says this as you continue on in verse 16. I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide. So you weren't just chosen to sit. You were chosen to bear fruit. Now yes, a lot of that fruit is going to be the fruit of the spirit that we tend to think about.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Absolutely. That's a part of what God has chosen to put inside of you in order for you to reflect his character to the chaos of the world around you. So where the where the world responds with anger, we respond with love. Where the world responds with hostility, we respond with kindness. where the world responds with impatience because they're not getting what they want on demand, we respond with patience because that's what God is like.

And so he's producing that in us. He's he's chosen us. He's saved us. He's redeemed us. And then he's saying, "Become like my son." And and the character that comes out of you the more you become like Jesus absolutely is going to be the fruit of the spirit.

But it's not just the fruit of the spirit. So Christianity when you get saved is not just you becoming a better version of yourself. It's not you just going from a bad person to a good person. You are becoming going from a dead person to an alive person. But it's not just about improving your character. It's also a mission that he's enlisted you into to where he says what I've just done and accomplished for you.

I want you to take that message and I am appointing you to then go and spread that message to others to be able to help them understand that God is seeking and saving them just as much as he sought you. That God is absolutely wanting to call out their inconsistencies and their sin. Like the worst thing we can do in the world is tell someone you're good just the way you are and affirm it. It's the worst thing we can do in our kindness. We're actually putting our stamp of approval on them going to hell. Worst worst thing we could do.

There's actually no love in that at all. no love in that at all. But the greatest act of love that we can do is the exact same thing that Jesus did for us. He came to us and he said, "I don't know if you realize this or not, but you're a mess. You're a mess. Not one of you is seeking me.

Not one of you is serving me. Not one of you is worshiping me. Not one of you is good. No one's good. Not one of you is righteous." This is Romans 3.

But there is one that is righteous who is his name is Jesus Christ. And he has earned everything for you that you cannot achieve for yourselves. And because you cannot achieve it, he then took your place on the cross. And he died for you. So that guess what? Even though you mess up, you don't have to pay the punish punishment for it.

You don't have to pay the penalty for it. You get to freely receive the gift of grace and mercy when Jesus Christ dies on the cross in your place. And he takes your punishment. He takes your guilt. He takes your shame. He takes your death.

He takes everything that is separating you from your creat creator. And he says, "Now I am welcoming you into the family because now I'm giving you righteousness that you cannot earn in your own way. You can't think it, you can't feel it, you can't work for it. God has to give it to you." And Jesus comes and earns that for us. And then he says, "The greatest thing you can do after you receive it is go and let someone else know here's what God has done.

Here's who Jesus is. Here's what he has accomplished. Your life is a mess. But it can be put back together in God's design and the way that he actually created you." The way that he actually created you. And so I want you to just see this.

I'm going to walk through this. give it a little bit of Bible theology 101, not to impress you, but to just show you that this has been God's plan from the very beginning to spread his glory all over the earth. In Genesis 1, God creates humanity. Why? Not because he was lonely or bored. God's never been lonely.

He's existed for eternity past in a holy community that call the Trinity, which was the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. perfect joy, perfect community, perfect satisfaction. So they didn't create because they were lacking anything. They didn't create because they needed anything. So why did he create? Because God is loving and generous and he wants to share himself.

He wanted to share his glory and joy with us. And so he made us to enjoy him forever. That was the whole reason. That's why Genesis 1:26-28 says God appointed Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply which in that regard was a physical multiplication of image bearsers over all the earth. You are made in the image of God as male and female. And when those two come together in holy matrimony and in union, you then create another image bearer.

And I want you to pass along to that image bearer everything that I have given to you. And right now with Adam and Eve, they are given holy communion and union with the God who created them. And they are given the task of enjoying all that God has already created for them with the one rule. Don't eat of this tree. Why the rule you ask? Because it shows that we are finite.

He is infinite. And that obedience to him leads to joy of enjoying everything that he's created for us. But disobedience to him leads to death. So, if you want to have the best life you've ever lived, be obedient to the Lord. Plain and simple. And if you want to have the worst life you could possibly live, run from God.

Be deceived by whatever the world has to offer. Be deceived by it. You'll have the worst life ever. And you might not even know it because it won't come full culmination until the end. But he gives this command to them to be fruitful and multiply to spread his image over all of the earth to fill the earth and subdue it. It's a spiritual multiplication of the knowledge of God all over the earth.

In other words, they were chosen to know God and they were chosen or appointed to spread God all over the earth. Image bears, their job was simple. enjoy God, obey God, walk with God, pass that blessing down to their kids and grandkids and great grandkids until the whole earth was filled with the joy and glory of God. But they couldn't even get to the part of making babies before they done messed it up. We get the fall in Genesis 3. Satan deceives them not because God's plan failed, but because again, we are finite and we are deceable.

God can't be deceived, but we can. God can't be thwarted, but we can. And Satan took advantage. But watch this. Even our failure could not undo God's purposes in spreading his glory all over the earth. Because what he does next is he then calls Abraham.

We're fast forwarding a little bit. He calls Abraham. And through Abraham, he creates a people, a chosen people. Not because they were special, but because his plan was. Israel wasn't the savior of the world, even though they like to think that they were. They were the people God chose to bring the savior into the world.

Through Israel, God makes promises to the world. For example, in Isaiah 9 and or Isaiah 9:6, God promises, and this is going to be our advent series that we're about to walk through in the month of December, he promises them this. For to us a child is born. To us a son is given and government shall be upon his shoulder. His name shall be called, and here's our four weeks, wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, and prince of priest, uh, prince of peace in Jesus. God fulfills all of them.

So throughout the Israelites, God's making all kinds of promises of what he is going to establish on the earth. And in Jesus, all of those promises get fulfilled. They all get fulfilled. Which brings me to Jesus. Jesus be where Adam failed, Jesus obeyed. Where Adam sinned, Jesus was sinless.

Where Adam brought death, Jesus brings life. Where Adam refused responsibility, Jesus took responsibility. Place he took our place. The first Adam gave us sin. The second Adam gives us righteousness. Gives us righteousness.

And then that brings us to us. So yes, you were saved from sin, death, shame, and judgment. But you were also saved for something greater. To bear fruit that lasts, to display God's character, to multiply disciples, to do the same thing that was commanded to Adam and Eve, to fill the earth with the glory of Jesus, the same mission God started in Genesis 1. And here's where the whole Bible ties together like one giant beautiful thread. I want you to see this.

In Genesis 1, God said to Adam and Eve, "Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth." Fill it with what? Again, imagebearers who know God, love God, walk with God, and spread the joy and glory of God everywhere. That was the first great commission. And then Jesus steps into the scene.

The second Adam, he gives his disciples the new great commission. Matthew 28:16-20. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. Everything that I have commanded you. So you got to realize, you got to remember that many of us grew up thinking that we hear the gospel, we accept the gospel so that we have our ticket to heaven, and then we can just go on and do whatever we want to do. We're good.

Eternity secured. Check off the box. We forget the the last half of it. go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and the holy spirit. We're going to illustrate that today. Teaching them to observe, not just observe in like a let me think about that.

I don't like that. I do like that. Don't like that. Let's redact that from the scriptures. Let's change that in the scriptures. It's not that kind of observation.

The observation there is a keeping of all that he has commanded us. It is a walking in and being transformed by all that he has commanded us. Which means when you are saved, that's the starting point of your transformation to become more like Jesus. And so if you're not in the word of God and you're not praying to God and you're not involved in the community of God, you're not observing all that he has commanded of you. Which if you actually walk throughout the scriptures is not a losing of a salvation, but it's actually, this is going to be a very hard truth. It's an affirmation and confirmation that the salvation was never legit.

Because Jesus doesn't lose those whom he has secured. He continues to transform them. And something in your heart, in your mind, your new identity that you have in Jesus is going to point you towards growth in him. And that is always going to be a desire and affection for the scriptures and a desire and affection to commune with the Lord in prayer and a desire and affection to grow with the b with the bride of Christ. Which means I'm going to be in the church. I'm going to be in the church with all of its warts and all of its mess because again, there's people in here that are growing.

And that still are entangled with sins. We're not going to be perfect. We're going to argue and wrestle with one another so many times, but we don't give up on each other because Jesus doesn't give up on us. And he continues pursuing us and molding us, shaping us, and transforming us. And so that same commission giving in Genesis 1, we also see it in Matthew 28, it just flips. It's no longer physical and spiritual.

It's now spiritual. Yes, we're still making babies and filling the earth. Absolutely. But now we're making spiritual babies in the sense that what God has done for us, we take that seed and we implant it in someone else's life and they become a disciple who then goes and makes another disciple and they become a disciple who then goes and makes another disciple and then they become a disciple and then it just continues to spread so that the same thing is happening. The glory of God is spreading over the earth as the waters cover the sea as Habach 2:14 tells us. In Genesis, multiply humans.

In Matthew, multiply disciples. And in John 15, here he's saying the same thing. Multiply fruit that lasts. If you've ever put fruit on your counter, you realize it does not last, right? Bananas become brown. Apples just become nasty.

So, what's he talking about? Fruit that lasts. Well, it's fruit that never gets plucked from the vine. It stays attached and it grows and it reproduces and it just continues on and it never rots. That's the kind of fruit that we're producing. We're not producing people who start in church and then leave it.

We're producing people who stay connected to all that Jesus is commanding us. And I want you to see here that often times people view this as like I get saved. God chose me. Wonderful. Awesome. He then appointed me.

So I'm in the mission of God and I'm really excited about it. And then for some reason people stop. People stop. And I think it's because they get to this place where they stop coming to the source that actually supplies them in their their their empowerment in the spirit, but also the resources that they need to actually go and make more disciples. So the third thing I want you to see here is that fruit that lasts as we continue on in verse 16 shows that God is going to supply us everything that we need. And that's why he says here so that whatever you ask the father in my name he may give it to you.

Whatever you need in the appointment that he has provided he's going to make sure that you have it. He's going to make sure that you have it. That's not a blank check for your wish list. That's not what that is. So therefore, it's not a health, wealth, and prosperity thing. It's a promise to supply your assignment the rest of your life.

When you pray in his name, you're praying in alignment with his will. He supplies the power to produce the fruit that he's called you to bear. If he's called you to forgive someone, he'll give you the strength to forgive them. If he's called you to endure, he'll give you the peace to endure and stand firm. If he's called you to serve, he'll give you the heart to keep showing up. If he's called you to plant a church in a hard neighborhood in the middle of an urban city center, he'll give you the people and resources to win that community.

You're chosen. You're appointed. And you're supplied. Again, not because you're capable, but because he's faithful. Not because you own the cattle on a thousand hills, but because God does. God does.

Again, Wyatt, I'm not picking on you this time, but Wyatt just had a birthday party yesterday. So, born celebrating his birth yesterday, celebrating his rebirth today. And friends got him some Lego sets. and and if you just pour out all of the pieces on the table, you're going to be a little lost if you try piecing them together, right? It's not going to work that way. But that's why included with them is an instruction manual.

We need the instruction manual. At the same time, he was gifted this toy watch, which looks great, but it doesn't turn on because you got to charge it. You got to plug it in and you got to charge it. God doesn't just give you salvation. He gives you the word of God for instruction and gives you the Holy Spirit to empower you for mission and to live the life that he's called you to live. So if oftenimes we're walking through our life thinking, I have no idea how to put this together.

I have no idea how to figure this out. Or you're walking through life and you feel like I'm burned out. I'm on the edge. I got nothing left in my tank. Two things are true there. You're not in the word and you're not connected to the spirit.

Don't be dumb. Like I told you exactly what to do. Get in the word. Know exactly what God has taught you and observe it. Keep it. Follow it.

Live it out. It's going to be hard because it's against the grain of our culture. Absolutely. People like to say, "Which side of history are you on right now?" I'm always going to be on the side that that God is writing. And we might try to rewrite it as many times.

What's going on right now in culture is nothing new under the sun. It has eb and flowed throughout history. Nothing new under the sun. So God's not shocked by it. And we're trying to navigate how do we do this? Because people don't like it when we say things like God created male and female and that they are to come together in holy matrimony and that anything else is a perversion of his design.

They don't like it, but it's the truth. And we are to say it in a loving way, 100%. But if we don't say it, we're not being loving. We're not being loving. God wants flourishment. He wants what images him.

And we're called to proclaim that to a culture who says that's hate speech. It's hate speech. And I'm just saying it doesn't originate with me. I'm just reading the scriptures that he's called me to observe and to keep and to teach and preach so that a people might be formed and shaped to enjoy him forever. versus whatever they think in their minds is going to be enjoyment forever. Humanity is dumb and deceivable.

And that's why when I get in conversations with people like that, I always ask, "What's your source? What's your source? Why do you think the way you think? Why do you feel the way you feel?" Because if it's coming from anything other than the word of God, then you're deceived. Period.

Period. You have no hope in this politician who's rewriting something to be able to help me figure out who I am. And therefore, I'm going to recreate myself and to be whatever that thing is. And I'm just telling you, it's never going to work. It's never going to work. The reason why you're frustrated with who you are is because you're a fractured version of what God created you to be because of the indwelling sin that is there.

And Jesus has an answer for that. He will save you and forgive you of those sins. And then he will start reworking you and rewiring you and reordering you to who he actually knit you together to be before sin fractured it and perverted it. And so we got to give them back to the creator designed them. And if that's hate speech, then put me in jail for it. But I hope people get saved in the pro news that they need to hear.

Which brings me to the last here. We're chosen. We're appointed. We're supplied. And when all three of those things come together, we're fruitful. We're fruitful.

Look at the last thing he says as as Jesus wraps it up. These things I command you. I command you so that you will love one another. So that you will love one another. Not so that you will separate and create a subculture in society and let all the crazies live out there and just have the Christians over here. No, no, no.

That's not what he says. I command you of this so that what you have experienced, you be able to take it to others. You were the crazy and I came to you and I saved you and I redeemed you and I'm transforming you to become like Jesus and not be conformed to the pattern of this world. That's Romans 12:1 and2. And so I want you to go and do the same as you have been transformed and loved by God. I want to then send you out into the crazy in order to love them the exact same way that Jesus has loved you.

The exact same way. Love is the visible fruit of the invisible grace. You can't claim to be connected to the vine and not produce the same kind of love that flows from him. Flows from him. Again, John 15:13, what we started off with, greater love. Greater love.

If you're if you ever write or take notes or anything, just write that down. Circle that. Highlight that. Greater love. That's the one thing the entire world agrees on is that we're trying to figure out what is great. Everyone say God is love.

Everyone wants to say love is love. Everyone wants to say what they view love to be or redefine love to be or greater love has no one than this that someone laid down his life for his friends. That's how Jesus loved you. Not just with words, not just with blessings, not just with healings when he came on the scene 2,000 years ago. Again, a ton of people followed him when they were receiving the blessings and the healings and the food and all those things. Again, those are the things that our world loves to receive.

They'll line up for that. But he's talking about the greatest love which went to the cross. Not just the healings and the blessings and even the teachings, but the love that went to the cross. Because in order to receive that great love, you have to come to an understanding of why he's on the cross. And the world doesn't want to recognize that it's our sin that put him there. That's why the gospel is bittersweet because it's offensive.

The gospel enters into a community and it looks at the community and it says, "I got good news for you, but in order for it to be good news, you got to hear the bad news. Here's the bad news. You're all awful." Like, you are awful. Not one of you is following God. Not one of you loves him.

Not one of you pursues him. Not one of you is enjoying him. No one is righteous. Not one. Actually, what you're doing as a society is you're calling good evil and evil good. And you're celebrating the evil.

You're celebrating the evil. And so Jesus enters the scene, and people always say, 'Well, Jesus, I like Jesus. I don't like the Christians. Because the Christians are narrow-minded and bigoted, and all they do is spew hate speech, and they just tell people that they're wrong all the time. Then you didn't read anything Jesus said. Because when Jesus entered the scene, Jesus walked up to people and the first thing he said was, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is here."

You're like, "Well, that's not that big a deal. You don't know what repentance means? Repentance means he enters the scene and he looks at them and he says, "Uh, everything you're doing is wrong. Stop it. Turn around. Look at me.

Come follow me. And I'm going to show you how to live. Everything you're doing, it's wrong. Stop it. Turn and come follow me." That's repentance.

That's repentance. That's me telling my children when they were younger and wanting to run into the road, "Repent. Stop. You're running toward your death. Turn around and come back to me. Follow me.

Stay close to me." And that's what Jesus came preaching. Jesus goes to the religious leaders of the day and says, "You brood of vipers." Well, that doesn't feel very politically correct in his day. They were anti vipers, but he calls them a brood of vipers. He calls them whitewashed tombs, which means you look really nice on the outside.

Paint yourself up. All the good things. You're dead on the inside. You're dead on the inside. Well, that's how he dealt with the religious people. What about the actual sinners that he showed incredible compassion to?

I always say he was he was tough with the religious, but he was tender with those who were who knew they were sinners. He still corrected them. The woman at the well, it's one of the longest passages we have of an interaction between Jesus and another individual in the Bible. And in that passage, when it gets down to the end of it, he doesn't tell her, "I know that you have five husbands and it's okay. Don't worry about it. Just continue doing what you're doing.

I got you covered. That's not what he says. He says, I know you got five husbands, which is a sin. Go and sin no more. I'm going to forgive you. Go and sin no more.

Stop what you're doing and start following Jesus. That's not heavy-handed. That's grace. That's mercy. That's God inviting you to say, "Come and enjoy all that I have for you." Come and enjoy all that I have for you.

Stop being deceived that this world is going to provide everything that you need or want. Stop believing the American dream. It's hogwash. Get your nice house, pick a fence, two and a half kids, and a dog. It's dumb. That's not going to help you in eternity.

It's not going to help you feel better. All those things are going to rust, destroy. They're going to walk away from you. come and enjoy Jesus who lasts forever. And that's how we're called to love others selflessly for their salvation. So what's the call?

If you've ever been chosen, start choosing to live like it. If you've been appointed, start If you've been supplied, start serving from it. And if you've been loved, start loving others in the same way. In the same exact way. Because a world that angry and divided doesn't need more religious people. It needs redeemed people who love like Jesus.

That's what they need. And we're going to give it to them. We're going to give it to him because I believe that's what we're about here. That's what we're about here. We treasure Jesus and we want to help others follow him. When the current world says, "Look how divided they are."

May they one day say again what Tertullian said in as one of the early church fathers, "See how they loved one another." Let's get back to that. I'm going to invite the band to come up and we'll do things a little bit differently. than what we normally do at the end of a service. Usually we go right into communion, but we're going to go into baptism. And so I'm going to have the band come up.

And as the band comes up, what we're going to do is we're going to open up with a song. And as we start with that song, I'm going to have you stand. I'm going to have you worship along with us. As we do that, I'm going to prepare Wyatt um as as we enter into this time. And then we'll baptize him in the middle of the song. Then we'll continue on finishing out the song.

And then when we get to the end of the song and he's had time to go change his clothes, he'll come back and we will then partake of communion and we will celebrate welcoming a new brother into the family of God. So would y'all stand with me and let's continue on in worship. Wyatt, would you come down front [music] with me? [music] [music] [music] My name is Wyatt. Today I'm getting baptized. I believe baptism is a great thing because it tells us the story of Jesus's life, death, and resurrection.

Jesus died on the cross for our sins and then he rose from the tomb. Because he did that for me, I believe in him and I want to follow him. Jesus is a great Lord and Savior. And if you're not following him right now, you should start. by your profession of faith. My son and brother in Christ, I now baptize [music] you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

We are buried with Christ in baptism. We're raised to walk in the newness of life. Let's [applause] continue with mommy [music] [music] again. And now [music and singing] for the [music] [singing] Thank you [music] Jesus. Brush me white. Thank you Jesus.

[singing and music] You have saved my life. [music] Brought me [singing] from the darkness to glorious [music] life. [snorts] There is nothing [music] stronger. [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] This time as we enter into communion, there's two ordinances of the church that Jesus gave us to remind us of what he has accomplished for [music] us. When it comes to baptism, it's a story. It's an illustration.

And it's a symbolism of one making a profession of faith to join the many who believe in Christ. And so it's a beautiful thing that is a uniting of an individual who follows Jesus and then follows that by being baptized into [music] Christ and into the body that professes him. At the same time, this is when the many come back and remember that they are united into one. And we all come back and we all come to Jesus and we remember his death, his sacrifice. The this is the illustration of [music] his greatest love act and breaking his body and shedding his blood to remove and [music] forgive your sins. And so if you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your [music] sins, that he forgave you, that he took all your shame, that he took all your guilt, and that he removed it, and that he brought you into the family of God, if you believe that he is your savior, that he's your Lord, that he's your king, then I invite you to come down, grab the elements, bring them back [music] to your seats.

We will partake together, and then we will finish out in worship. Come on down. [music] For I receive what I first delivered to you, that on the night when Jesus was betrayed, he took bread, [music] when he had given thanks, he broke it and he said, "This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after supper, he took the cup of the new covenant, he said, "This is my blood. Do [music] this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim [music] the Lord's death until he comes. Let's do that one more time. Father, we thank you so much for your goodness to us. We thank you for your life, your resurrection. We thank you for your sacrifice on the [music] cross. We thank you that you've brought us home.

That you didn't just come into the courtroom and just declare us forgiven, but you also adopted and brought us home. We thank you for that, Jesus. We thank you for the opportunity to be able to sing praises to you. And so as we do that one more time, as we just sing praises to you, may you well up within us just the gratefulness, the gratitude of all that Jesus has accomplished. May we celebrate in this moment. May we worship in this moment.

Jesus bringing another one [music] from death to life. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. [music] [music] [music] Let's just pray real quick. Father, we just thank you so much for the gift of your son and [music] just the abundance of love that you pour out to us in our depravity and our brokenness that you just reach out to us and [music] offer us a way out, a way to you, a way to glory. Thank you for [music] um the opportunity to see lives changed for your name.

God, you are so gracious and [music] so kind. We are humbled. We just want to offer it all back to you for your name's sake. I pray. Amen. You can have a seat.

Go over some announcements real quick. Um this week on Wednesday night, um November 19th, we are having our friends Friendsgiving. Um it's a night of worship. So we're going to be um at the Mills house. it's not here at the Mills house. If you need the address, um come see one of us and we will get that for you.

Um we're going to have um the first portion will just be uh eating food together and enjoying fellowship and um just being able to be with be together with one another. Um and then the second half of the evening we