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The Inclusive Call of the Gospel - The Blueprint Series
45 Plays5 months ago
In this sermon, Ridley Barron preached about the inclusive call of the Gospel and the crucial significance of baptism. He contrasted genuine baptism with superficial experiences and highlighted the historical growth of Christianity in Africa despite persecution. Dividing the audience into those unfamiliar with Jesus, those with undramatic testimonies, and those disobedient in aspects of faith, Barron urged repentance, authentic commitment, and bold living for Jesus. Through the narrative of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch from the book of Acts, he underscored the importance of obedience, the essence of salvation through belief and repentance, and challenged individuals to trust God's plan without seeing the entire path. By sharing stories of modern-day testimonies and unexpected steps of faith, he emphasized that true salvation is a life-changing alignment with Jesus Christ, not mere emotional appeal.
Timestamps:
00:00 Have faith in Jesus and share testimony.
05:38 Memories of marriage moments and faith.
09:07 Spirit instructs Philip to approach and join.
09:56 Eunuch baptized, Philip vanishes, gospel spreads.
14:19 Deacon preaches, changes boy's life forever.
18:03 Prayer may lead to life-changing sacrifice.
20:34 God's message about surrender, repentance, and purpose.
26:53 Jesus' teachings lead to African Christian movement.
29:24 Testimony of change, encouragement, and imperfection in faith.
31:17 Seek Jesus, repent, accept His grace.
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Transcript
Reflecting on True Salvation
00:00:00
Speaker
Acts chapter 8 this morning. We're picking up on the story of the early church. There's one question I want you to think about this morning. One question I want you to hear. I hope it will resound in your brain and in your heart for the next 30 minutes together and that is this. Do you know that you are saved and have a relationship with Jesus Christ? Now, you might ask that question of yourself sometimes in passing, but I really want you to anticipate it, to reflect on it, to think about it this morning, because I want to ask an even more important question. How do you know that you know that? You see, I believe that the the church itself has gotten kind of off off of its foundation a little bit with some of these teachings. We've kind of missed the point of some of this. Somewhere along the way, somebody very well-intentioned has said to you, hey, if you want to have Jesus as your Lord and Savior, just pray a prayer.
00:00:53
Speaker
Prayers in themselves do not change anything. It is an alignment of your mind with the heart of Jesus Christ. It is bringing everything that you are, heart, mind, body, and soul under submission of lordship of Jesus Christ. Many of you probably somewhere along the way had somebody say, just ask Jesus into your heart. That's not even theologically correct. The Bible nowhere says pray and ask Jesus into your heart. That's got nothing to do with your salvation. It's aligning your mind and believing that what Jesus did on the cross was necessary for you and I, and that because of that, you and I have an opportunity to have forgiveness. In fact, if you look very closely, the scripture says it's not Jesus that lives in your heart at all, it's the Holy Spirit.
00:01:36
Speaker
The Holy Spirit comes into your heart. That's how Jesus indwells you from this point on. You might be going, okay, well, how do I know? Is there a way that I can be certain? Absolutely. And so this morning, what I want to do is I want you to question your faith. Now hear me clearly, I'm not saying doubt your faith, because I believe if you know Jesus as your Savior and Lord, then you know that you know and you can't be swayed.
Faith and Eternity
00:02:00
Speaker
You can talk to me all you want to and you're not going to convince me that I don't belong to Jesus Christ, not because of anything I have done, but because of everything He has already done for me. This morning, some of you have placed your confidence in something that doesn't really
00:02:16
Speaker
withstand the challenges and tests that you have as you go through your daily journeys. You're going through your daily trials and your struggles. So I want to get that question answered for all of us, but I also want to talk to some of you about how do you go and share that same testimony that you have with others. You see, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ today, one thing I know for sure is you have a testimony. If you were here last week, you had the opportunity to see 21 different people get up here and stand and share their testimonies. Testimony is not anything elaborate or extravagant. It doesn't have to have certain elements that make it go wow. It's not anything like that. The wild part of it is that once you lived without Jesus and were in darkness and the wild part is that Jesus came and died for you.
00:03:01
Speaker
And so there's ah there's a part of your story that's before Jesus, and then there's a part of your story that's after Jesus. That's your testimony. And if you can't sit here today, and if ah if you couldn't come up here and me give you the microphone, you couldn't tell me your testimony, then I have to question whether or not you have a legitimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's an important enough question that all of us need to ask that of ourselves to make sure we are indeed settled because we're not just talking about an investment of money or an investment of time or something like that. We are talking about eternity for every single one of us.
Misconceptions about Christianity
00:03:35
Speaker
The Bible says that all of us are without an excuse, that every single one of us have sinned, that we have failed, that we've fallen short of the glory that God has set for us. When God set out in the very beginning and created Adam and Eve, he did that because he desired relationship with the people he created. But because he also gave us a free will to choose or not choose him, Adam and Eve chose poorly, and since then, humanity has suffered under the results of that original sin. You and I, by nature, are selfish. You and I, by nature, choose a path that doesn't honor God. And what we have to have, again, is the realigning of our minds into alignment with the will of God. And it's by the Spirit of God that we're able to do that. It's not because you're good enough, because none of us are. None of us could ever be good enough to earn what Jesus Christ has done for us.
00:04:30
Speaker
So again, I wanna ask the question, I want us to deal with this this morning, how do you know? When I ask people like from time to time that I meet on the street or new friends that I have, when I ask them the question, how do you know that you're a Christian? Many times they'll say things like, I'm a good person, I go to church regularly. I give a tithe at church. I work with people who are under resourced. I work with you know people who have disadvantages, all these different things that we offer. And I go, well, how do you know you're sure? They go, well, I don't know that I'm sure or I think I'm sure. But let me ask you this, those of you who are married, how do you know you're married? She tells She tells you. That was the best answer of the day right there.
00:05:17
Speaker
Yeah, she tells you. Yeah, you you probably probably can remember a moment, a place in time that you go back to and you go, she and I or he and I, my spouse and I stood in front of witnesses and we made a commitment to one another before God of for better or worse. You may not remember the details of the day. You may not remember whatever song it was that you listened to while you looked into each other's eyes. You may not remember what the flavor of the cake was at your reception. you Some of them, you may not even remember who the name of the pastor was that that did the ceremony for you. But you remember a moment in time where you can say, I once was without, but now I am with. And that changed the day I was married to this person.
00:06:02
Speaker
So that's what a testimony is. It is your ability to go back to some place and say, in that moment, I with my mind chose to surrender my life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And it's really important that you catch the mind part of it because so many times we talk about the heart. Ask Jesus in your heart, what is your heart telling you? you Did you feel anything? Guys, emotions come and go, right? ah You ask my wife, take her out of the room, go over there in the corner and say to her, do you love your husband? She's gonna go, yes. Do you like him every day? No. Why? Because feelings come and go. Emotions come and go. Love is not an emotion. Love is a decision you make to commit to someone. Love is a decision. The reason you know that's because Jesus said to us, love your neighbor, but also love your enemy. Who does that out of emotion? Nobody.
00:06:54
Speaker
You do it because out of your brain you go, this is what I've been commanded to do. So love, love for Jesus, the surrendering of your life to his lordship comes because in your mind you say, I'm gonna make this choice, I'm going to believe this, and now my heart will follow that.
The Story of Philip and the Ethiopian
00:07:14
Speaker
That's where the change comes, okay? So rather than saying, hey, I want you to pray a prayer today. I want you to pray that Jesus does this or whatever. What I want you to understand is there's just three basic things that happen in salvation. Number one, you believe that what Jesus did on the cross was was necessary for you to have a relationship with God. Number two, you repent of your sins. That resolution we just read, man, that was beautiful. I love the language of it, but it doesn't matter if you and I don't repent of our sins.
00:07:43
Speaker
It doesn't matter if you and I don't choose to do something differently. That's literally what the word repent means. It means turn 180 degrees and go a different direction, to turn away from your sin, to turn away from your choices. You have to believe, you have to repent, and then you simply have to receive what Christ has already done for you. It's that easy. If my wife come came home this afternoon and said, hey, I want to give you a gift, and I said, what do I have to do to earn it? And she said, well, here's the list of things. Is that really a gift? No, that's wages. That's a salary. That's an income. That ain't happening. Okay? But as she said, I want to give you a gift and she handed it to me and I said, what can I do to pay for this? She said, nothing. It's yours. Then I've really received a gift that has been given to me. That's what salvation is all about. So we're going to turn to this really cool story right here in the book of Acts.
00:08:34
Speaker
Many of you are familiar with it. We're gonna begin in verse 26, read through the end of the chapter. I wanna talk a little bit about these decisions in our lives. Verse 26, it says, an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is the desert road. So he got up and went. There was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch, and high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to worship in Jerusalem. and was sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading the prophet Isaiah aloud. The Spirit told Philip, go and join that chariot. When Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, do you understand what you're reading? How can I, he said, unless someone guides me. So he invited Philip to come up and to sit with him.
00:09:24
Speaker
Now the scripture passage he was reading was this. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who will describe his generation, for his life is taken from the earth. The eunuch said to Philip, I ask you, who is the prophet saying this about, himself or someone else? Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus beginning with that very scripture. As they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, look, there's water. What would keep me from being baptized? So he ordered the chariot to stop and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and he baptized them.
Divine Appointments and Openness to God's Will
00:10:07
Speaker
When they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord carried Philip away and the eunuch did not see him any longer, but went on his way rejoicing.
00:10:15
Speaker
Philip appeared in Azotus, and he was traveling and preaching the gospel in all the towns until he came to Caesarea. Let me remind you of where we are in the story. Last week, because of the persecution going on in Jerusalem, the disciples, not the apostles now, but the other disciples who've begun to follow Jesus are dispersed across the mid-east and Philip has gone up into Samaria, which is just north of Jerusalem. He's begun to preach the gospel and because of that, revival has broken out. People are being saved and they are following and trusting in the name of Jesus Christ. But right in the middle of this revival, an angel appears to Philip and says, time to go.
00:10:54
Speaker
Now you gotta know in that moment, Philip's first thought is, can this really be God? I mean, why would God want me to leave the middle of this great work of his his spirit that's going on here? Maybe that's why God sent him an angel so that there would be no doubt. Kind of hard to deny an angel standing in your presence. But behind this command was God's foreknowledge. It's a principle, it's a part of the doctrine of our faith that God has foreknowledge. In this case, God knew who this Ethiopian was. God knew why he had come to Jerusalem. God knew what he was searching for. He also knew that he was headed home and he knew exactly where he would be on which road and at what time so that he could send Philip to be there.
00:11:35
Speaker
So God makes Philip walk 165 miles to find one man. I want that to be a lesson for all of us. I want us all to understand God cares about the one. Every single one. Yeah, God loves it when masses of people come to follow Him, but He cares just as much about your neighbor, your coworker, your relative who doesn't know Jesus. So don't ever underestimate the call that God has given you to care about the one the way He cares about the one. To think about that. See, if it was me and I'm standing in the middle of this great revival and all these people were coming to know Jesus, I'm gonna look at God and He calls me and say, not me, you must meet somebody else, I'm busy.
00:12:21
Speaker
I'm in the middle of something really important here. Or not now. Can't you see what's going on around me? Can't you see all these people coming to know you obviously you've got the wrong person. Or most likely I would have said not there. I can't go all the, that that's 165 miles further south into hotter temperatures. And we all know what that feels like this week, right? I can't possibly go all the way down there just in the chance that I'm gonna meet one person. I wanna submit to you that those of you today who are followers of Christ, that right now there are all kinds of divine chance meetings that are waiting for you if you will just be obedient. You see, we get so focused and locked in on our agenda and on our calendar and on our priorities that I believe you and I miss many opportunities to take Jesus to people. And they pass right by us.
00:13:20
Speaker
which is a reminder that you and I, in order to be used by Christ, have to be interruptible. We have to say God daily, this is this is my life, this is what I've got planned. You have permission to take it and rearrange it however you need to. John Eglin was a guy who had never ever preached in his life. That is until one Sunday winter morning in the little village that he lived in in England in 1850, the village got tons of snow, so much so that when he woke up that morning, he said, I think I'm gonna stay home. But eventually, the Holy Spirit got hold of him and said, you need to go to church. So he got up and said, I am after all a deacon, I probably should be at church. So he walked the six miles in the snow and when he got to church, there were only 12 people counting himself and one little guest, a little boy who sat in the congregation that morning.
00:14:13
Speaker
When he walked in, immediately everybody that was there said, most of the people can't make it, we should probably just go home. And again, being a deacon, he said, no, we're here, we're gathered, there's going to be a sermon. Well, looking around, they realized that the pastor himself had not been able to make it, so John Eglin chose to speak that morning. First time ever in his life he had ever preached, and it only lasted 10 minutes. But at the end of that 10 minutes, the little boy who was a guest gave his life to Jesus Christ. That little boy's name was Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The guy who is now finally known as the Prince of Preachers, who has given thousands and thousands of sermons and written dozens and dozens of books and commentaries, who some estimate may have spoken to as many as a million people before the end of his life. He was the Billy Graham before there was a Billy Graham because at one point he literally spoke to 26,000 people at one time back in a day when we didn't have technology.
00:15:14
Speaker
But one man who said, I will allow God to interfere with my plans, to interrupt my life, even if it's inconvenient, I'm gonna do something uncomfortable because it might just make a difference. And the world has been forever changed by the life of Charles Haddon's Virgin.
00:15:32
Speaker
Sometimes we talk about sacrifice in our lives when we choose to follow Jesus Christ, and probably one of the biggest sacrifices we have is saying, not my will, but yours. Not my plans, but yours. God sends Philip to a strange place with absolutely no explanation. Philip didn't even question God. The Bible doesn't tell us if he did anyway. He didn't say to God, go do it yourself or send somebody else and aren't the apostles closer because they're in Jerusalem? Can't you just get one of those guys to go? He didn't say, God, didn't you notice I'm in the middle of this great move of God right here in Samaria. There's gotta be some other way. The Bible says he didn't hesitate. It says he got up and he went.
00:16:15
Speaker
He got up and he went. Let that remind us that God's will always starts with one single step. One single step of obedience. Most often when God tries to show you something that he wants in your life, he's not gonna give you all the details. He's not gonna give you the full plan. He's not gonna let you see the end of the story. Instead he says, I want your full commitment right here, right now with one step before I'll show you the next.
Stories of Faith and Broader Impacts
00:16:44
Speaker
So that's what Philip did. He got up and he went. Just this past week I was reading a story related to the movement of God that's been going on some of the college campuses. Some of you may be familiar with the stories that have been coming out of places like Auburn and Texas A&M and the University of Georgia. I think some things have been going on even to some of the state colleges around here. One of the coolest things about it is they're backing up pickup trucks with like liners in them and turning them into baptismals and people are getting saved and baptized right there in their pickup trucks. That's why everybody needs a get pickup good okay?
00:17:20
Speaker
But at one of these particular occasions, a young woman who had just accepted Christ stood up in the middle of a crowd and said, I want to give you my testimony. And she held up at the top of her reach, one piece of paper, completely blank, with only her signature on it. And she said to everyone there, I have accepted God's will without knowing what it is. I'm leaving him to fill in the blanks.
00:17:51
Speaker
How would Chapel Hill look different if that was our approach? How would Marshall County be a different county if you and I literally said to God, I know what I've got planned, I know what my goals are for my life, you may have something entirely different, and if that's the case, then I'm okay with that. What if the prayer that you and I have been praying for the last five weeks for these people in a different country who haven't heard Jesus, what if the answer to that prayer was you?
00:18:19
Speaker
What if I answered that prayer was, you don't get a new house here in Chapel Hill. You don't get a new job here in Chapel Hill. In fact, you don't even get to keep your cars here in Chapel Hill. I want you to sell everything you got and go somewhere else so that somebody else may know. This is what happened with Philip. Ethiopia at the time was everything in Africa south of Egypt. So it was a very, very big place.
00:18:46
Speaker
He was the treasurer of that region. And as a treasurer, he served Candace. Now, most scholars will tell you that Candace wasn't actually her name. Candace was a Nubian word for queen. So when they talk about Candace, she was the queen of Ethiopia. And so this guy served her. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term eunuch, you probably don't want to be. But it basically meant was that any man who was serving near the queen took drastic measures to make sure he didn't get any funny business in his mind. That was his commitment to his queen. It's believed that he was first introduced to the Jewish God, or his country was at least, almost 800 years before when the lady by the name of Queen of Sheba visited King Solomon. And in those moments in the visit with King Solomon, because he spoke about his faith in God, she took that faith back to her country and possibly influenced this God-fearing unit.
00:19:46
Speaker
But he wasn't just any other follower because not only was he committed, like fully committed, but he traveled 1200 miles from Ethiopia to Jerusalem. And I believe he knew God, but I also believe he knew there was something more than just believing in God. Maybe somehow because of the teachings of Solomon through Queen Sheba, he had learned that even Satan believes in God. There's gotta be something more. And so he goes to Jerusalem and he comes away and he's dissatisfied because he hasn't really had his answers to his questions. And so God, who is intensely concerned with this one guy, sends a messenger to him, Philip. Now I want to be bold enough to suggest something to you here today. Could it be that God has sent this messenger here for you?
00:20:44
Speaker
that God has sent me here with this word for you in this moment, this season of your life. And what the feeling is inside of you that's gnawing on you is the fact that you know that you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Or maybe for some of you, the message isn't that you need salvation, it's that you're not living like you follow Jesus. And in this season, you really need to be repenting of behaviors and choices and decisions you're making.
00:21:15
Speaker
Maybe, just maybe, there's some of you here in this room today who've had this gnawing feeling that God wanted to do something with you different than what he's done in the past. And maybe he's calling you to surrender your life to some new ministry, some new mission, some new calling. Or maybe he's just saying to you, it's time for you to quit playing games and making excuses because I've already given you your mission field and it's right there at your workplace. Could it be that I'm your Philip today and this is your opportunity to hear and to listen to God's voices? He's talking to you. The Bible says that he was reading a quote from Isaiah 53 that Philip explained to him. This is a prophecy from Isaiah about Jesus that was given 900 years before Jesus ever shows up on the scene.
00:22:02
Speaker
And it says in that that the Messiah would be like a lamb that was led to the slaughter. He would be accused of crimes he did not commit, but he wouldn't even open his mouth in defense. When Jesus stood before Pilate, he was accused of very heinous crimes, but he stood silent even though he was completely innocent. So why didn't he defend himself? Well, when you're accused in court and you make no response, what are you conceding?
00:22:33
Speaker
You're conceding your guilt. You see, in that moment, Jesus stood silent because he was consenting to the fact that he had taken my sin and your sin and the sin of all humanity upon himself. He wasn't guilty because he had sinned. He was guilty because he'd taken our sin. Now I wanna teach you a real fancy way of remembering the gospel. Four easy words. Jesus in my place We use a big fancy term called substitutionary atonement If you want to impress somebody you can call it that But it's very simply Jesus dying in your place You see the gospel is not good advice. The gospel is good news and the good news is this Your life that you should have lived was lived by Jesus and
00:23:29
Speaker
Your death that you deserve because of your sin was taken by Jesus. Your cross born by Jesus. And because of that, you and I, you and I can have forgiveness of sins and a relationship with Jesus Christ. We simply have to believe, repent, and receive.
00:23:55
Speaker
Now if I ask you the question today, how do you know? How do you know if you have a relationship with Jesus? How do you know that you're saved? I don't care if you're religious. I don't care if you observe every religious ritual. I don't care how good or moral you are. I don't care how much money you give to the church or to other organizations. All I care about is whether or not you know him. Because it's not about you or your good works, it's about him and his completed work.
00:24:25
Speaker
Now I want you to notice two quick things before we close. Because we're talking about obedience, right? I want you to see something this eunuch did. First of all, it says the eunuch made a decision. What decision did he make? That he believed what Philip talked about. He believed that Jesus had lived a perfect life, Jesus had died a horrible death, but also the good news, the tomb is empty and Jesus is alive. He believed that with all of his heart, and because of that, he received that free gift. But secondly, he was baptized immediately. Now some of you are going, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Haven't you skipped some steps here? What what do you mean baptized immediately? and when When you get saved, aren't you supposed to go like some kind of class where they teach you something? Or don't you get time to go home and talk about it? Well, what do you mean you got to be baptized them immediately? If you read the New Testament carefully,
00:25:19
Speaker
Very carefully, every time someone got saved, they immediately got baptized. Why? Because I think that as a symbol of the fact that Jesus is now your Lord, he says to you, here's my first command, be baptized. Be baptized in my name. Share your testimony. Let the world hear what I have done for you. Show them what I've done for you. Invite them to join you in this journey, and there's no better way to let the world know what Jesus has done than by standing before them and receiving the baptism that Christ invites you to. Now some of you may be going, oh wait a minute, now I haven't done that. I probably need to be thinking about that. I've got good news for you. At 6.30 this afternoon, we can help you take care of that issue.
00:26:12
Speaker
Ain't that cool how Jesus lines things up for us? If you know that you need to be baptized and you've never been baptized, today could be the day that you take care of that. I'm not talking about being sprinkled as a child. I'm not talking about some priest or some rabbi or some pastor pouring water over your head when you were a kid and you didn't have a clue what was going on. I'm also not talking about some teenager who went to camp and got in some emotional high and went screaming down to the ocean and said, hey, baptize me because it's the ocean and this is cool. Because we've already discussed this, emotion doesn't change you. Emotion is the fruit of what God has done in you.
00:26:53
Speaker
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control all come out of a mental decision that Jesus is the one true son of God and his death was necessary for you.
00:27:09
Speaker
Historians tell us that this eunuch and most likely the servants who were with him that day on the road to Gaza, that they went home and established the first Christian church in Africa.
Acting on Faith and Commitment to Jesus
00:27:21
Speaker
Because of that, Some of you might be surprised to know this, one of the fastest growing Christian movements in the world is the continent of Africa. And oh, by the way, right now, it's in a headlong collision with the second fastest religion in the world, Islam. Right now, people, as you and I sit here in the comfort of this skating rink, people are dying in Africa because of their faith in Jesus Christ.
00:27:53
Speaker
Some of us go, man, baptism, it's not that important. How dare us say that any command of God is not that important?
00:28:04
Speaker
So let's be clear. Three groups of people in this room today. Number one, there are some in this room who do not know Jesus Christ. You're going, how can you be so bold to say that? Well, because about halfway through this sermon, some of you stopped looking at me. and you've been looking at the floor or at the ceiling most of the the morning. If they don't teach you this in seminary, you just learn it over a course of time, and when people can't look at you, they're feeling the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
00:28:43
Speaker
Today could be the day of salvation for you. Today could be the day that not just changes your tomorrow or your lifetime, but changes your literal and eternity.
00:28:57
Speaker
And you may go, i I don't know that I can stand up in front of a bunch of people and make a decision like that. If you won't stand in front of these people, you'll never stand in front of the world. Second group of people are those of you who know Jesus Christ. You know Jesus Christ, but if I walked up to you right now and said, hey, tell me what your testimony is, you'd go, oh, I don't know that I have one of those. I was never a drug addict. I never killed anybody. I never wanted to hurt myself. you know I don't have those drastic stories. Yes, you have the most drastic story in the world. The Bible says you were once lost, but now you're found.
00:29:37
Speaker
You were once blind, but now you see. You once had an eternity separated from God in hell, but now you have eternity with Jesus in heaven. That's your testimony. And you need to be encouraged to go live a sent life so that others may hear the good news that has changed you.
00:30:02
Speaker
Thirdly, there's a few of you who are a little bit disobedient here this morning.
00:30:09
Speaker
Now I can specifically talk about baptism, and that's what I've been talking about in this sermon, but you and I both know we don't live perfect lives just because we come to know Jesus Christ, right? I've been at this for 48 years, and I still wake up some mornings and go, come on, ding dong, you can do better than this. I feel sometimes like a spiritual slug, you know? There are those moments where I know, I know that God has said, really, go do this, and I'm going, give me a minute. Can I just encourage you that delayed obedience is still disobedience? And for every minute you say, God, hold on, God goes, okay, I will. I'll hold on to every blessing I want to give you until you get ready to obey me.
00:30:55
Speaker
And maybe today's the day that you do that. You're going, what does that look like? Well, it might be a dad who says, you know what, my kids are lacking spiritual supervision because I'm not living like a man of God. It might be that your finances are out of order because you are pursuing material things to try to fill an empty spot in your life, and it can't happen. There's only one thing that can fill your life, and it's the man named Jesus.
00:31:24
Speaker
Can I just encourage you right now in this season, in this moment, if God's speaking to you in any way, if you need to get baptized, if you need to get saved, if you just need to come and kneel at this altar and ask for some repentance for recently committing some sins or having some disobedience in your life, or maybe you just want to come ask some questions because something's gnawing at you. This is the time to do that. I'm gonna invite Jayden to come, I'm gonna pray for us. As he leads us in a song, if God is speaking to your heart, we got people up here, people still seated even, who can sit with you, talk with you, share with you, or maybe you just know, I gotta get saved and that's it. I need to take care of that this morning. Will you pray with me? Lord Jesus, right now in this moment, there's no greater gift that we can give to you than ourselves.
00:32:19
Speaker
It's not much to offer you, but man, it brings great delight to your heart when your children come home.
00:32:30
Speaker
So would you give us the courage, quit saying to you, hold on. Give me a minute. Give me a week. Let my kids grow up. Let me finish this project at work. Help us to quit putting you off and instead put on the full armor of God and live this life boldly before you. Help us to receive what it is you're offering us as a free gift and quit trying to work so hard to earn it.
00:33:00
Speaker
Lord, in this moment with you, just with your spirit, give courage to the one who's weak and faltering right now. The one who's struggling, the one who's hurting, the one who feels all alone in this world, that's not what you want for us. You desire more for us, most often more than we desire for ourselves. The only way to receive it is to just right now surrender, surrender fully. Thank you for Jesus who gives us the ability to do this, for the spirit that gives us the ability to live this out.
00:33:40
Speaker
It's in Jesus' name I pray, amen.