Identity Before Activity // Fresh Wind Fresh Fire Week 4

So we are closing out our series, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, really a series on worship and prayer and just believing and expectant that God has more for us. And as we seek Him and lean into Him on a different level, God's gonna do signs and wonders and miracles amongst us. And so today is week four, week four. So who grew up in their household and watched movies together as a family? Loved watching movies as a family. Let me see your hands. Yes, absolutely. That was my family as well. Friday nights were our nights where we'd gather together as a family and we'd watch all sorts of different movies together. And something that I learned growing up in the 90s is there were certain movies in the 80s and the 90s that they had these iconic one-liners. And these one-liners were so good. They were so important that it like etches yourself into your spirit, that line from that movie. It actually even ends up overshadowing and overarching the entire narrative of that movie. And so today, if y'all can help me out, I'm gonna give you a couple one-liners from some famous movies in the 80s and 90s. And I want you to just say the line if you know it with me. Now, here's what I will say. I am not endorsing these movies,

nor have I seen all these movies. I just think there's some famous one-liners that have hung around for the last couple of years. So for instance, Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator, I'll be, oh yeah, I got some friends in the room, all right. Al Pacino, Tony Montana, Scarface, say hello to my little, yes, that's it. Some of y'all did see that movie, okay. I see what happened there. Gerard Butler as King Leonidas. This is, wow, that was pretty weak. Okay, this is Sparta. A couple of feminine voices I heard there. That was pretty good. And then Arnold Schwarzenegger, round two in The Terminator 2, hasta la vista. All right, lots of friends there on that one. James Earl Jones as Dark Vader, Luke, I am your. And then my favorite one, got to end on a high note, Tom Cruise as the Maverick. I feel the need, the need for, all right. What we're getting at today in the text that we're in, Matthew chapter three, it's this iconic one-liner of God the Father in all of the Gospels. And you may have never noticed this in your life before, but God the Father only speaks audibly to God the Son twice in the entire Gospel narratives. And both times he says exactly the same thing. The thing that he is saying is intended to be the overarching narrative of the life over every child of God,

that God wants this one line to etch itself deep within your soul. He wants it to so resonate with you and you today that when the world is screaming lies and reminding you of your past and reminding you of your sin, that his voice is the voice that drowns out every other voice that God the Father says this to his son, you are my beloved son and with you, I am well pleased. That one line is the miracle of Matthew chapter three. Now let's get at it today, Matthew chapter three. If you have your Bibles, you can turn to there or if you have your smartphones, you can open up. If not, we'll throw it up on the screen in just a couple minutes. And the reason why I'm closing this series out, fresh wind, fresh fire with week four, this message today is because again, we've been believing God for greater things in this fall season. Lord, fill us with passion for you, Lord. Fill us with a passion for prayer. Lord, fill us with a passion for worship. God, fill us with a passion, Lord, to see more people save this fall season than ever before. More Dream Teamers joining the Dream Team, stepping on mission here at Calvary Church than ever before. And Lord, let there be signs, wonders and miracles that happen.

And what I've noticed is that everyone wants a miracle, but nobody needs one. And what you're gonna notice is it really isn't until you need a miracle and you admit your need for a miracle, it's there where you meet the miracle worker and his name is Jesus. Let me actually go a layer deeper on that thought. What you're gonna notice all throughout scripture is the greatest miracles that happen, the point of every miracle, they're called signs. Signs are wonders. The signs aren't to draw attention to the sign themselves. The point of the sign, the point of the miracle is to point you to the miracle worker, the way maker, and again, his name is Jesus. And the greatest miracle that God wants to do in your life, his primary goal, the reason why he's placed you on this earth is not to make you rich, not to make you famous, not for crowds to adore you, not for you to have all of the followers and all of the accolades and all of the promotions at your job. The goal of God the Father in your life is according to Romans 8, once you meet Jesus, that the Bible says for those he foreknew, that means God chose you, he predestined you, he picked you for good plans, for you to be conformed to the image of his son. So again, God's not in it just so that.

You get rich, or you get famous, or you get accolades, or you're well-known, or you live the American dream. No, no, no. God wants to put you on an anvil, and sometimes the anvil is hard, and the hammer falls heavy, and the furnace is hot, but listen, Calvary Church, the blacksmith is good. And what he wants to do is he wants to conform you, mold you, shape you into the image of his son, Jesus. And so, there's an order for which he wants to do that, to conform you into that pattern, to look and to live like Jesus. So to look and to live like Jesus, you must go through everything that Jesus went through. And what you're going to see in the text that we're in today is this, that really they almost function like steps, like next steps that you can take. So I'd ask that everybody just find themselves, where are they at on this journey, and then let's all take a next step today after hearing this message. All right? Here's the point of this message. I'm going to tell you up front what they are. Number one, you need to be baptized with water. You need to be led by the Spirit, and you need to be loved by the Father. You need to be baptized with water. You need to be led by the Spirit, and you need to be loved by the Father. Number one, if you're taking notes, and I sure hope you are, you can write this down. Here we go. I need to be baptized with water. I need to be baptized with water. Pastor Dan, why do I need to be baptized in water if I profess Jesus as Lord? The text tells us in today. Matthew 3, verse 13, then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John the Baptist. And I just need to say this, they did not call him John the Baptist because he was from

a certain denomination or he enjoyed potluck dinners. They called him John the Baptist because he was baptizing people. He's baptizing people. And again, so when we come to the topic of water baptism, I know, again, based upon your denomination or how you've grown up or just your experience, there are so many questions when it comes to water baptism. So I hope to answer some of them today in this message. I'm going to answer, what is baptism? Number two, why should I be baptized? Number three, does baptism save you? And then number four, if you haven't been baptized, does that mean that you're not really saved? And remember, again, we are far more concerned as this church, we're far more concerned with what the Bible says than what a certain denomination taught us. Everyone say, amen. We want to just do what the Bible says. So what does the Bible say? Okay, first let's define what baptism is. Baptism is this. It's the way that God commands. Notice I said command, not suggestion. It's the way that God commands us to make a public declaration of a new identity. So let's just start right there. It's a command of God in scripture that says it's a public declaration of your new identity. Have you noticed this is the first thing that Jesus does in his ministry. In Matthew chapter three, we see Jesus gets baptized. The last thing that Jesus says before he leaves the earth is the great commission and it's go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.

So baptism is a first thing in Jesus's ministry. It's also a last thing. In Acts chapter two, when Peter preaches his Pentecost sermon and the spirit falls in power and the people are cut to the heart, they go, Hey, what do I need to do to be saved? And they respond, repent and be baptized. So again, as you look throughout scripture, we see this command and this command does something. It makes a public declaration of a new identity. Now when it comes to baptism, I think there are a couple mistakes that people make theologically. I think some people fall into one of two camps. The first camp that people fall into is they say, Hey, I can be saved without being baptized. No big deal. No big deal. And let me just say, absolutely. You can be saved. Romans 10, if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved. That is the sum of what you need to do to get to heaven. But I don't think you can be fully obedient to what Jesus is calling us to in scripture if you are not taking a next step in baptism. The Bible says this. It says, why do you call him Lord, Lord, and not do what he says? So again, as followers of Jesus, we are called to place our whole life, all that we are under the commands of scripture. It's all of scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training. Either Jesus is Lord of all or he's not Lord at all. And so Jesus commands this. And then the other error is, is that people make it too small. They just say this.

They say, you know, you know, I can be saved without being baptized. And then the other people camp on the other side and they say, man, you can't be saved unless you've been baptized. And again, I think that is not true at all. Because again, as I just said, the Bible says that we just confess that Jesus. as Lord, believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and we are saved. That is salvation in that moment. So let me give you an analogy of how this works. The Bible uses a word to describe God's relationship with you, it's a covenant. That God has a covenant relationship with you. And what the Bible says a covenant is, is it's this extraordinary supernatural blend of, watch this, of law and love. Law and love. So check this out. It's not just an emotion for God. God loves you. He's also legally bound to you. The Bible, if you look through scripture, it's constantly using courtroom language to describe who God is, that God is a judge, that Jesus is an advocate, that your sins are crimes, that they've been forgiven by the blood of Jesus, that Jesus is the propitiation, the propitiation of sin. What does that word propitiation mean? It means a payment that satisfies. All of this is courtroom language. And so a covenant, God's relationship with you, if you're a believer, is a covenant relationship. It's a blend of law and love. Now, in our culture today, in modern American culture, the only relationship that we have that's a covenant relationship is marriage. Marriage is this unique blend of law and love. And if you look even through the Bible, every covenant has a covenant symbol. So in the Bible, you'll notice this theologically. God makes a covenant with Noah, and then he gives him the covenant symbol of a rainbow. God makes a covenant with Abraham in Genesis, and he gives him the covenant symbol of circumcision. I gotta just imagine Abraham was just like, man, Lord, really? Like Noah gets a rainbow and I get circumcision? What's that all about? And then God makes a covenant with Jesus, and the covenant symbol is baptism. It's baptism. In our culture today, the covenant symbol of marriage is the wedding ring. The wedding ring. Now, again, just thinking back to the questions that I started off with, hey, do I have to be baptized in order to be saved? And then the next question is, does baptism save you? Well, again, think about this in light of a marriage ceremony and a wedding ring. So the wedding ring is a public, public declaration of a new identity. For my life personally, my wedding ring that I'm wearing

today is a public declaration of 2018 when my wife and I got married at the Pitman golf course and she came down that aisle and we professed vows to one another, first of law, then love, and then we exchanged rings and her identity was changed. Her name was changed from Kyla Murray to Kyla McCarthy. And if I take this wedding ring off, does that mean that my wife and I are no longer married? You're supposed to answer that. No. If I were to take this wedding ring off and to hand it to somebody sitting on the front row and they just happen to put that ring on for some reason, does that mean that they're married to my wife? No, that would be weird. Okay. All right. So does, do I have to be baptized in order to be saved or does baptism save me? Again, just think about it through the lens of a wedding ring in the same way that taking off my wedding ring does not nullify my marriage, no, baptism is a symbol. And in the same way, you could go get dunked in a couple of weeks on October 26, but you don't really have saving faith. You haven't really declared that Jesus is Lord. You took the symbol, but you didn't have the relationship. Baptism doesn't save you. It's a public declaration of a private decision you've already made. Is this making sense to everybody? All right, we're doing some theology here. All right. So let's get to the last question then. Do I have to? Do I have to do it? Pastor Dan, I'm embarrassed to get in front of people. Pastor Dan, I don't want to get wet. I'm gonna be wet for the whole rest of that church service that day. Pastor Dan, my friends and family, if they came to that service, they would shame me, they would mock me, they would outcast me from the decision that I'm making. Do I have to get baptized? Look at the verse in Matthew 3, verse 13. Here's the answer. So Jesus comes for baptism and John tries to deter him saying, I need to be baptized by you and you come to me. This is why John does this, because again, baptism is a symbol of repentance. Now that word repent is not a bad word. It's actually a really beautiful word. Repentance is not only turning away from sin, but it's also turning to Jesus. And John's going, hey, why are you being baptized, Jesus? You're the sinless one. We're the ones that should be getting baptized. And here's what Jesus says. He says, here's why. Let it be so because it's proper for us. Now say that last phrase with me. It's proper for us to fulfill all righteousness. Come on, say it again. To fulfill all righteousness. So you'll remember this. Even though Jesus never sinned, he was baptized in Matthew chapter 3, which is a symbol of repentance. Why? Because

not just our substitute, He's also our example. And He's exampling for us, this is what everybody who makes a decision to follow me, this is what they need to do. All right, I love you. Let me put on my preaching helmet for the next couple of minutes, okay? Because I got a couple of thoughts to share with you that might be a little intense. And you need to know this today, I love you, okay? So let's think back, let's think back to that definition. Okay, public declaration of your new identity that you have in Christ. So Jesus says in this passage, that you must be baptized to fulfill all righteousness. Can I just say it this way? Do you need to be baptized? If you want to walk in the full righteousness that God has called us to as believers, yes, you need to be baptized. Let me say it even with a little bit more of an edge to it. Man, if you're saved and you've not been baptized yet, you're not walking in the full righteousness. There's some aspects of unrighteousness in your life because you're not being obedient to everything that God has called you to. Okay, so think back to that definition of baptism. I just said it again, public declaration of a new identity, public declaration of a new identity. And remember this, remember this,

whatever God creates, Satan counterfeits. And what you need to know today, the largest religion in America today, it's not Christianity, it's not Islam, it's not Buddhism, it's the religion of sex and self. Now I have a point in where I'm going, just bear with me, hang with me on this thought, on this rabbit trail, it'll all come back together in a moment, okay? Watch this, in this religion where sex and self is God, any internal desire that I have, any internal attraction that I have, watch that, that is the sovereign Lord and it must be obeyed and it can never be questioned and it never can be challenged no matter what the word of God says. And all these different letters that are in our culture today of sexuality, LGBTQ, those are the different denominations of sex and self and it's inundated not only in our media that we see, but in our classes, in our elementary schools. And why do you think that it's so inundated in our elementary school environments today? Why, because they know that every religion must be passed down to the next generation. As the Bible says, train up a child in the way that they should go and when they're old, they won't depart from it. And watch this, in this religion of sex and self, there's this public declaration of a new identity,

it's called coming out. That's what it's called, it's called coming out. It's this public declaration of a new identity, it's the counterfeit baptism on this religion. Now, here's my point, I'm bringing it all back together. People are very bold in doing that today. Can I just say this? Let's not let the world be more bold in going public with wickedness than Christians are for going public for righteousness. Thank you. And again, I'm just telling you the truth of what scripture says. I love you, I'm for you, I'm not against you. But some of you right now, what you need to do is you need to pull out your phone and you need to head over to our website or you need to scan the QR on the Connect card and mark it and say that you're gonna be baptized October 26th, because you've made a decision to follow Jesus, but you've never been obedient in that next step. Number one, what I see from this example of Jesus in Matthew three, you need to be baptized. Number two, you need to be led by the spirit. You need to be led by the spirit. This is what it says happened as soon as Jesus was baptized. As soon as he was baptized, he went up out of the water, Matthew 3, 16. And at that moment, heaven was opened

and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. Now, let me share a little pastor joke with you today. I heard this story, I thought it was great. So there was an old evangelist and he was preaching on the same text and he would go to different churches in different communities for revival services and he would preach revival services and he had his like banger sermon. His one sermon that was on Matthew chapter three when the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove and he just thought, this is my passage. When I'm preaching on the Holy Spirit, this is what I'm preaching on. And so what he would do as an illustration as he would come into each town for a revival service is he would grab a dove and then he would pay a young boy $10 and say, go up into the rafters. And when I say, Holy Spirit come down, release the dove. It's gonna make a great point in my message, all right? And so he came into one town and he finds a boy, hands him $10, hands him the dove and he says, hey, when I say, Holy Spirit come down, you release the dove. The boy understands, he says, yes, sir, I'm on it. He's up in the rafters, night one, he's preaching his sermon and he says, Holy Spirit come down, but nothing happens in that moment.

The dove comes down from the rafters. He starts to get a little agitated, a little annoyed. What's going on? Did he not hear me? Okay, maybe I just need to say it a little bit louder. So he says a little louder, he says, I said, Holy Spirit come down. Nothing happens again in that moment. Now he's starting to get mad. Now there's like this righteous indignation that's welled up within him. He goes, I said, Holy Spirit come down. Boy leans over. after and says, pastor, the cat ate the Holy Spirit. Want me to throw him down instead? I know that's a corny joke, but listen to me, bring it back in. Let's listen to what I'm about to say. You need the Holy Spirit to come down in your life. You need a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit because Jesus needed the Holy Spirit to come down in his life. Let me say it one more time. The son of God needed the spirit of God to come down in his life. Have you ever noticed this? That Jesus never did one miracle in his ministry until after the Holy Spirit descends on him and empowers him. Theologians call this kenosis. Don't confuse it with ketosis for all you keto people. Kenosis. And here's what it means. It means this, and I don't even understand how this fully happens, but it means this, that the son of God emptied himself of the power

so that he did all these miraculous things, not by the power of the son of God, but the power of being filled with the spirit of God. So Jesus never does a miracle until the spirit literally descends on him. In this very passage, right after this verse is read, Jesus is then led by the spirit into the wilderness. He's led by the spirit. In Matthew chapter 12, it says that Jesus casts out demons, not by his own power, but by the power of the spirit. In Acts chapter 10, it says that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit's power, and he went around doing good and healing those who were sick. And then right after this passage of scripture, Jesus steps into the city, into a synagogue. And at every synagogue gathering, they'd have calendarized readings of the Bible. And Jesus steps up to the plate. It's his turn to get to read the word. And he reads Isaiah 61. The first words of that passage say, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind, to free the oppressed and to declare the year of the Lord's favor. That's how Jesus inaugurates his ministry. Now, my point is this. Here's my point. If Jesus needed to be led by the spirit, you and I need to be led and daily filled with the spirit. Sometimes I'll have people ask me, Pastor Dan, do I really need the Holy Spirit to get into heaven?

And I'll just say, bro, you don't need the Holy Spirit to get in heaven. You need the Holy Spirit to drive on 295. You need the Holy Spirit to lead and to guide every single aspect of your life. Here's why. Because the people of God need the spirit of God to live for the glory of God. And if you don't have the power or the spirit of God, we won't have the ability to live for the glory of God because we have a real enemy. And his plan is this again. This is not to scare anyone today. His plan is this. He has one mission and that's to steal, to kill and destroy. And you need to know this. If you made a decision for Jesus, there is a target. There's a bullseye that's on your back. And that should not lead you to be fearful today. Christians, you just need to know this today. There's going to be moments where you'll face temptation. There's going to be moments where opposition will arise. There's going to be moments where your enemies feel stronger than you have in your own strength. But here's the promise of Scripture. If the spirit has descended on you and the spirit lives inside of you, then greater is he that's within you than he that's within the world. I am so thankful that the same power that conquered the grave is living and active inside of me. Acts says this. You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

That word power in the Greek is the word dunamis. It's not ordinary strength. It's supernatural ability that comes from the Holy Spirit's boldness and witness gifts of the spirit, a prayer language, signs and wonders. And then most importantly, the ability to live a life that is set apart, holy and pleasing before the Lord. So the people of God are desperate for the Holy Spirit because we want to keep his presence on us for power, evangelism, love and ministry. So I just need to say this. How, how do we keep that presence in our life? How do we keep the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives? Well, I would daily say we need to ask him to fill us afresh. We need to ask him to fill us with prayer language. We need to ask him to fill us, to empower us with witness. Daily ask the Holy Spirit, fill us afresh. And then I would also say, go back to the last thing that the Lord was leading you to do, that the Holy Spirit was leading you to do and go back to it. Any area of your life that you haven't been obedient to what he's telling you to do and go back and just start being obedient to it this week. And then as you're obedient to him, he'll lead you and direct you. The steps of the righteous men are ordered by the Lord. So baptized in water, led by the spirit. Here's the last one. This is my favorite one. You need to be loved by the Father. You need to be loved by the Father. As soon as Jesus comes up out of the water, the text says, it says, a voice from heaven said, this is my Son whom I love. This is my Son with whom I am well pleased.

Okay, let's do a little bit more theology work today, all right? Can I just point this out? Have you ever noticed this? The Father declares over Jesus, you're my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased before He ever does one bit of ministry for Him. Jesus had not cast out one demon. He hadn't healed one sick person. He didn't preach one sermon. He didn't like blow up all the religious leader spots and call them out where they were hypocrites. All of this happens before Jesus does one single act of ministry. Why? Because God is going, I'm going to proclaim your identity over you before I say anything about the activity that's inside of you. See, this is what God is doing. God is doing in your life today. He's called you children of God. And He's saying this, He's saying, my identity is over you. Long before you do anything for me, long before you share your faith, long before you do an act of service, long before you serve on the dream team, long before you go and give to the poor or give to the needy, you are my Son. You are my daughter. If you've placed faith in Jesus Christ, the Bible says you are a child of God. Let me say it to you this way today. It may even sound a little counterintuitive. Because the Father is pleased with Jesus, He cannot be displeased with you. And because the Father is pleased with Jesus' perfect obedience, the book of Revelation says this, when you go to His presence, God is going to clothe you. He's clothed you with the perfect white robes, the robes of righteousness, so that when you place your faith in Jesus, the theologians say it this way, His righteousness gets imputed inside of you.

You're clothed and covered with the righteousness of God. It covers all of your sins, past, present, and future. As Scripture says, I in you, we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. That's good news today. That should make you excited. Someone say, thank you, God, you're my Father. Thank you, Lord, that I'm your child. Thank you, God. All right, here's the pop quiz question for you today as we close. You don't have to answer out loud. On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate the Father's love for you right now, based on your actions this week? One, worst of the worst, no love for me, isn't there for me, doesn't believe in me. Ten out of ten, I am His, beloved, child of God, good plans for me. Where would you rate yourself? You don't have to answer right now. Some of you, I bet, would think, coming into this service today, you'd say, you know, I was kind of a knucklehead this week at work. Kind of got angry, told some people off, kind of slacked on the job a little bit, was distracted, left early a couple times, nobody knew, fell into that major sin issue. Just keep doing it over and over again, I can't stop sinning, can't mess up in this area. Ah, you know, I didn't read my Bible as much as I should have this week, I only read twice instead of every day this week. I'm going to give myself a five out of ten. That's where I'm at this week. No, no, no, you need to hear this. If you're a follower of Jesus, it's always a ten out of ten, regardless of what you have done. It's always a ten, because God does not love us to the degree that we are like Christ,

He loves us to the degree that we are in Christ, that we're in Christ. Now, is that grace and license that we go on and keep on sinning? No, no, no, absolutely not. But thank God that it's His kindness that leads us to repentance. And I'm thankful that I'm a work in progress, how about you? But I'm thankful as I look back at my life, I'm a whole lot closer to Jesus now than where I used to be years ago, right? It's this progression of living, God, I'm not perfect, but I'm going to keep going after you. And I thank you that even when I mess up, you are still my Father, and I am still your child, and you still love me all the same, even though I missed the mark again. Best way I can describe it, any parent in the room probably feels this way, is the love that the parent has for their child. Now, I want to give a lot of honor and credit to my wife, because she is an absolutely amazing, amazing mom. And she is so sacrificial for our family, many sacrifices that she makes so that I can be in ministry and work long weeks and do things like that. So she's an amazing, incredible mom to our kids. And I watched her, both pregnancies, sacrifice and say no to certain things so she could best care for her kids. Both times. My daughter is going to be three on Halloween. My son just turned three months this past Thursday. We bring both of them home. They are the most selfish little human beings I have ever met in my life. Never once did they say thank you, mom. Never once did they say thank you for the sleepless nights in the hospital. Never once did they say, thank you. Thank you for getting up in the middle of the night and feeding me multiple times in the middle of the night.

Never once did they say, thank you for changing my diaper. Never once have I received a phone call and in the middle of the phone call, they see that I'm still talking and say, dad, I know I'm hungry right now, but I can wait for a minute. They just scream right over that phone call every single time. Never once, never once have I been in the middle of eating my dinner, but they have, you know, went to the bathroom in their diaper and they say, you know what, dad, it's okay. I'll just sit in my excrement while you continue to eat. They've never done that. They've never once paid a bill. They've never once helped with chores around the house. They've never once even offered to help. But listen, I know my wife and I both feel the same way. We would die for our kids. We would die for our kids. Listen to what I'm saying. Listen to what I'm saying. I love them because they've been given the right to be called the daughter or a son of Dan McCarthy. Listen to this, listen to this, Calvert Church. See what kind of love the father has lavished on you that you've been given the right to be called children of God. You are children of God.

Let that get into your soul today because the father loves you. You are not what you have done. You are not what others have spoken over you. You are not what your past says. You are who God says you are. And he says you're chosen. He says you're made in his image. More than anything, he says you're his children. And so right now, I'd just love to just pray for us today and close and let that get into our hearts. Would you just open your heart to your heavenly father in this moment? If you're comfortable, maybe you could even just bow your head, close your eyes. And if you wanna just open your hands, just turn them before the Lord, almost just as a sign of surrender, just thankfulness that he's your father. Right now, God, would you just plant that supernatural love down deep at the core baselines of our souls, Lord, that we're sons and daughters of God. Father, we're overwhelmed, the word says, that the spirit of God lavishes the love of God on the heart of every believer. We're overwhelmed by your love. God, I pray that we would live from that love in our entire life. Let it be an expression of love from the children of God to our heavenly father.

Lord, even right now in this moment, metaphorically speaking, would you just pour it out like a tidal wave over these people? God, wash away all condemnation. God, all shame, Lord, all guilt that the enemy wants to place on them. Because the Bible says this, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Would you just give them the sense, Lord, that you love them, that you're for them, and they are your children. We just thank you for these things in Jesus' name. Maybe you're here today and you feel like, I've heard about a God who loves me. I've heard about a man named Jesus who came to earth and 30 years on earth, but then was marked in the ministry, this marking moment in Matthew three, and then three years of ministry, signs, wonders, and miracles, still perfect, sinless, and spotless. He went to a cross for me and paid the price that I should have deserved. The Bible says while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And the beautiful thing about the God that we serve, the beautiful thing about the gospel is this, while we were still enemies of God, have you sinned but one time?

Have you lied once? Have you committed adultery in your heart once? Have you looked lustfully once? Have you taken something that wasn't yours one time? The Bible says that makes you a sinner and it makes you an enemy to God. But the beautiful thing about God, the Father, is he sent God the Son, Jesus, to earth, went to the cross for you and me, and while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He paid the price that you and I deserved. He was the price for sin once and for all. So now anybody who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. I said the verse earlier, I'll say it again. Romans 10, if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. And so I wanna just invite you, if that's you today, that you can make that decision right now in this moment. Hey, church family, let's all pray together. Nobody prays alone. Say, Jesus, say, I come to you today just as I am. Say, God, I ask you to search me, to know me, to forgive me of any sins in my life. I ask you to be the Lord of my life, to change me, to mold me, to conform me to your image. I will follow you from this day forward. In Jesus' name we pray.