Marks Of Sonship | Tyrone P Jones | We Believe | Full Service

Good morning Church for the City. How are we doing today? So good to be in the house of the Lord. We're truly grateful for each and every one of you that showed up here today and online. If you're not standing I'd ask you could stand with me right now. The verse I want to share with you this morning comes from the book of Matthew chapter 18 verse 20. It's Jesus talking to his disciples and he says, For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them. We definitely have the two or three here this morning so that means Jesus is in this room with us right now. The same Jesus that walked on water and calmed the storms. The same Jesus that healed the sick and rose Lazarus from the dead. The same Jesus that was crucified, died on the cross and then defeated death when he came back three days later is with us right now. Why? Not because we were the best Christians this week or anything we did but simply because we came together and gathered in his name. See Jesus wants a relationship with us. He loves us so much that even in all his righteousness and perfection he's still willing to meet us right where we are right here in our imperfection and our sin. I'm gonna pray and then we're gonna go into a time of worship and I want you to keep that in mind as we worship that we're not just singing to some mythical being in another dimension. We are worshiping and praising the one true God who is living and in this room with us right now. Let's pray. Dear Lord thank you for this day. Thank you for letting us come together in your house Lord to worship you. Lord I ask that everyone here and online can feel your presence today Lord. Open our hearts and our minds so that we may receive whatever message you have for us today and we can use it towards our lives to glorify you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Let's worship. You are holy, holy, and I will lay my crowns down at your feet. I will give my life as an offering. You are worthy, so worthy Lord. Oh we praise you this morning Lord. And I will lay my crowns down at your feet. You are holy, holy, and I will give my life as an offering.

You are worthy, so worthy, and I will lay my crowns down at your feet. You are holy, so holy, and I will give my life as an offering. ♪ My life has an offering ♪ ♪ You're worthy, so worthy Lord oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ♪ ♪ We give You all the honor and the praise ♪ ♪ You deserve it all Jesus ♪ ♪ Holy holy holy is the Lamb upon the throne ♪ ♪ Joy with all the heaven in the everlasting song ♪ ♪ Holy holy holy is the Lamb upon the throne ♪ ♪ Joy with all the heaven in the everlasting song ♪ ♪ Holy holy holy is the Lamb upon the throne ♪ ♪ Joy with all the heaven in the everlasting song ♪ ♪ Holy holy holy is the Lamb upon the throne ♪ ♪ Joy with all the heaven in the everlasting song ♪ ♪ And I will lay my crowns down at Your feet ♪ ♪ You are holy so holy and I will give my life as an offer ♪ ♪ Give my life as an offer for all You're worthy ♪ Come on sing it out church this morning. ♪ And I will lay my crowns down at Your feet ♪ ♪ You are holy so holy and I will give my life as an offer ♪ ♪ Give my life as an offer for all You're worthy ♪ ♪ You're holy holy holy holy is the Lamb upon the throne ♪ ♪ Joy with all the heaven in the everlasting song ♪ ♪ Holy holy holy is the Lamb upon the throne ♪ ♪ Joy with all the heaven in the everlasting song ♪ ♪ Oh You're worthy, worthy Lord ♪ ♪ Oh we cry holy to Your name Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh we cry holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪

♪ Holy is the Lord ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy we cry holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Holy is the Lord ♪ Give a shout of praise to Jesus. We thank You Jesus. Thank you. ♪ I am the instrument of exaltation ♪ ♪ I was born to lift the name above all names ♪ ♪ You hear the melody of all creation ♪ ♪ So there's a song of praise that only I can bring ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ There is no one and only you Jesus ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, there is no one and only you Jesus ♪ ♪ You are the infinite God of the ages ♪ ♪ Yet you chose to make my heart your dwelling place ♪ ♪ You healed my brokenness, showed me your glory ♪ ♪ So I have songs of praise now you sing them to me ♪ Angels sing Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one Only You, Jesus Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one Only You, Jesus Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy?

There is no one Only You, Jesus Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one Only You, Jesus Lamb of God, anointed One Who was and is and is to come Seated on the throne above Holy, Holy Righteous One who shed His blood You prove to us the Father's love Jesus Christ, we lift it up Holy, Holy Lamb of God, anointed One Who was and is and is to come Seated on the throne above Holy, Holy Righteous One who shed His blood You prove to us the Father's love Jesus Christ, we lift it up Holy, Holy Lamb of God, anointed One Who was and is and is to come Seated on the throne above Holy, Holy Righteous One who shed His blood You prove to us the Father's love Jesus Christ, we lift it up Who else is worthy?

Who else is worthy? There is no one Only You, Jesus Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one Only You, Jesus There is no one Only You, Jesus There is no one Only You, Jesus Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one Only You, Jesus Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one Only You, Jesus Only You, Jesus Lord, here's my heart again I come just as I am All that I have I give to You I don't have much to bring Faith like a mustard seed All that I have I give to You I put all my hope and trust In Your promise I'm reaching for the limb Of Your garment

I'm desperate for You Jesus, I won't live without You ♪ I want your presence, I'm after your heart ♪ ♪ Where you are, I am running, I'm after your heart ♪ ♪ Just one touch of your glory ♪ ♪ I'm reflecting all yours, I will seek you all my days ♪ ♪ For you alone will satisfy ♪ ♪ You're the lover of my soul, what else would I long for? ♪ ♪ When you alone will satisfy ♪ ♪ And I put all my hope and trust in your promise ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm reaching for the hem of your garment ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm desperate for you, Jesus ♪ ♪ I won't live without you, I want your presence ♪ ♪ I'm after your heart, where you are, I'm after your heart ♪ ♪ I'm after your heart, where you are, I am running, I'm after your heart ♪ ♪ Just one touch of your glory, oh ♪ Come on church, let's celebrate as someone goes public with their faith. I had a relationship with God and was constantly falling into sin. I started to struggle to see the meaning in life, felt hopeless, alone, and struggled with gossip. I got distant with my closest friends and felt like no one was there for me. I started to believe I was never going to get out of this place. At Sunday service, Pastor turned around, page 3, Psalms 23, verse 4, which says, Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me, your rod and staff protect and comfort me. I then realized my worst is never the worst, and no matter what my situation is, I need to always have faith and trust in the Lord because He is a faithful God. At the end of service, I completely prayed and completely surrendered my life to Christ. Since giving my life to Jesus, I know that the Lord was using everything I went through to make me stronger. He got me out of the darkness. He was there even when I couldn't feel Him guiding me back to the light on His path for me. If you're like me and you feel alone or stuck in a situation where you feel like you're never going to get out of, trust in Him and He will do the same for you. Today, I'm doing public with my faith.

Janine, Jesus said every disciple should be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And because of your confession of faith, today I baptize you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins. And according to Scripture, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Come down, fall down. I want to see you, Jesus. Consume me and fill me. Oh, I want to touch you, Jesus. Come down, fall down. Oh, I want to see you, Jesus. Consume me and fill me. Oh, I want to touch you, Jesus. Come down and fall down. Oh, I want to see you, Jesus. Consume me and fill me. Oh, I want to touch you, Jesus. Come down and fall down. Oh, I want to see you, Jesus. Consume me and fill me. Oh, I want to touch you, Jesus. Oh, I'm desperate for you, Jesus. I won't live without you. I want your presence. I'm after your heart. Where you are, I am running. I'm after your heart. Just one touch of your glory. Come down, fall down. Oh, I want to see you, Jesus. Consume me and fill me. Oh, I want to touch you, Jesus. ♪ I fall down, I fall down, oh I wanna see you Jesus ♪ ♪ Consume me and fill me, oh I wanna touch you Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, I wanna touch you Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, I'm desperate for you Jesus ♪ ♪ I won't live without you, I want your presence ♪ ♪ I'm after your heart, where you are, I am running ♪ ♪ I'm after your heart, just one touch of your glory ♪ Well, we're gonna transition to what we call a minute to mingle. Go ahead and greet your neighbor, tell them you're thankful in the house today. Go ahead and greet your neighbor. All right.

Well, good morning to you. Welcome to Church for the City, where we'll teach the Word of God. We'll encounter the presence of the Lord, spread the gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Are you excited to be in the house of the Lord? Amen. I know there's a lot of sick folks, so we're going to pray for people to get healed and get better and be able to get on with life without being encumbered by colds and the things that are happening. I don't know. I don't think we probably have anything prepared yet, but I do want to give a shout out to Chris Lerman, the men's team, men that cooked for the men's breakfast yesterday. It was a wonderful experience, as has been. Pastor Norman Chandler just preached. He gave an amazing message. It was just outstanding. So those of you that gathered with us, thank you for doing so. Couple of things to note. The Kids Academy now are beginning their registration for the... Am I doing something for summer? Oh, Tyrone's not here. Just fall, I guess. You think I would know this before I got up here. Is it just summer or just fall? Thank you so much. Sorry about that. Our registering... Honestly, I just do what they tell me. You think I'm in charge around here, but I am not in charge at all. So for the fall, the Kids Academy registration is happening. Of course, that's limited. I believe we're only limited to 40 students maybe, but it's been fantastic. Just the leadership, Tiffany and her team, just amazing. And I think every child that's come, every parent has been blessed.

So if you want your child in the Kids Academy for the fall, you may want to register early on. It's for ages three to five. After each service today, there'll be people from the team out in the grass area where you can get more information about the Academy. As many of you know, we lost a dear friend in Don Cruz who's been with CTC for quite a couple of decades. Him and his dear wife, Mary, have served us faithfully. We're going to be doing Don's memorial service this Saturday at 10 a.m. here in the sanctuary, and that's open to any who want to attend. The other thing today, on the way out, there will be people who are running for various offices, I think, countywide and citywide that will have petitions to be signed. Now, I want you to note this petition signing is not registering to vote. Petition signing is. It's just allowing those who desire to serve in public office to have an opportunity to run. And so, people that are out there doing petitions, they're not indicating any kind of party, Republican, Democrat, Independent, that's not the issue. It's just that if you want to sign your petition to say, hey, yes, run for public office, we need public servants. So they'll be out there after each service, and you do as you desire to do on that. All right, oh, there is men's breakfast pictures, yes, okay. Let's flash those real quick, sorry about that, I missed that. Or is it a video? Just pictures? So I just keep talking? Okay, yeah. So while I'm talking, you'll see some pictures of the men's breakfast. I want to thank you for your generosity, not only for things like this, but for everything that we do at CTC, not just here locally, but abroad.

The Lord, the scripture is very clear that God certainly loves a cheerful giver. And we give from the heart, we give with joy, we give with thanksgiving. But every time we give, remember, you're giving something, no matter what that amount is, that goes beyond you, that has an effect in the kingdom of God, that allows people like us, churches like us, ministries like us, to affect somebody's life for eternity. And so thank you, indeed, for your generosity and your giving. And again, thank you, Chris and team, for the men's breakfast yesterday. All right, I think we're going to go ahead and pray, and then I'll have you stand. But if you don't mind still removing your caps or hat, we're going to go before the Lord. Well, Father, I want to thank you now for this time, this opportunity to be in your house, to be gathered with your people. It's just a joy, honestly, to come to the house of God and to gather with a community of people who have a desire to worship you. But above all, of course, Lord, we're thankful for your presence, that you're here in the house. And Lord, we've experienced a time of encountering you through worship, and now we get ready to go into the word. I certainly know that I need your hand of help, your anointing, Lord, that I may speak and declare the things that you've given me, to the point that the people who hear what's being taught will understand it and know how to apply it to their life. Lord, I pray that everyone who is listening, whether it be here in the sanctuary, whether it be on the podcast, whether it be online, Lord, that they will receive what the Spirit of the Lord is saying. You are a good and gracious God. And Lord, I pray for every church that's gathered in our county, Lord, that wherever they're gathering, that whoever takes the pulpit, that they'll preach the gospel. And they'll help people, Lord, understand that there is a God who loves them and cares about them and who sent his son to die for them, that every sinner, every lost person, every wandering person, every person without direction will be able, Lord, to see an identity or embrace an identity that they can have in Christ and embrace the life that he has for them.

And so, Lord, I ask for your help in every church in this county, every leadership team, every pastor. Father, I pray for Billy and Phillip, Lord, physically, that you will touch their bodies, Lord, that they will be able to continue to complete the project. Lord, that they're working on. And Lord, we look forward to celebrating that. And Lord, there's many, I know, that have either reported being sick or experiencing things. And so, Lord, we ask, Lord, that just like whatever virus landed in the county, Lord, that the Spirit of God will come in and push it out, that people will be healed and people will be healthy, that we can continue, Lord, to live life, enjoy life, embrace life, and not deal with any physical infirmities. Lord, we love you and we thank you. In Christ's name, we pray. May the people of God say amen. All right. If you don't mind standing, I'm initially going to turn to two scriptures that actually just kind of set the tone for the message. I won't refer back to these scriptures, particularly just thoughts about them. Other verses will line us up. The first one I want to go to actually is in Mark chapter 1, and we're going to look at three verses there, 9, 10, and 11. Mark chapter 1, verses 9, 10, and 11. And then we're going to go to Matthew 26, 26 through 28. And today, we're on the We Believe series leading up to us walking through the Apostles Creed, which we'll do just in a few more weeks. but I want to talk about marks of sonship today and deal with baptism and communion and why they're so important. Mark chapter 1 verses 9 through 11. Here's the words of the Lord. In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water

immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved son. With you I am well pleased. And if you'll turn back to Matthew, first book of the New Testament and of the Gospels. Matthew 26 verses 26 through 28. Matthew 26 verses 26 through 28. And this is Jesus on the last night before he was betrayed. Matthew 26, 26 through 28. Now as they were eating Jesus took bread and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples and said take eat this is my body. And he took a cup and when he had given thanks he gave it to them saying drink it, drink of it, all of you. For this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. So far the reading of the word can you say amen? Amen. You may be seated. I don't want to get too heavy into this story because there's a lot I could say about it but to kind of lead into where I'm going I want to share something that happened for my family was in 1992. At that time I think Jermaine might have been nine, Tyrone might have been seven in 1992, Tisha was two or three, two. And AWC Foundation that year it was the first time it was done I don't know if it's being continued now they'd done a fundraiser where you I don't know you you pay so much maybe it was ten bucks or a buck I don't know and you get a rubber duck and they they were the idea was it was about 3,000 rubber ducks that were purchased and they went down to the canal they entered the canal down by right behind Kofa High School and they would dump these rubber ducks into the canal and you know they had a finish line they floated and whenever they got to the finish line I think was first place, second place, third place winners for this duck race and all the funds of course was a go to AWC Foundation seem like now it might have been about ten bucks for that for those ducks. I was working for Pepsi-Cola at the time and was the was the top salesman so the owner of the company Jack Fritz he actually gifted me a hundred rubber ducks for being the top salesman, top salesman I did not every year that was just who I was but gifted me a hundred of those ducks and so the particular day of the rubber the rubber duck race I don't know what they called it I actually was just out with the

family and just kind of completely forgot about it until until a certain time of day I remember that it was happening and jetted over to the spot where they were gonna dump the ducks in just to see how it went well by the time I got there they were already collecting the ducks pulling the ducks out of the out of the water and I asked the guy who was running the truck did he know what happened he said no he didn't he didn't know we didn't have at least I didn't I didn't have a cell phone in 1992 I'm not even sure when people did get cell phones I do remember the first one you could get it was big enough to be a weapon I mean you could literally knock somebody out with that thing and so we went home and when I went home my shoot answer machines it's so far back I forgot what they called the doggone things but my answer machine was lit up like a firetruck and so sure enough I listened to the message and everybody's telling me you won you won you got first place and sure enough my duck came across first and won 5,000 bucks now then 5,000 then is like 11,500 now with with inflation and I I mean I listen I was making $17 an hour at Pepsi-Cola I wasn't making much money at all so to win that kind of money I decided Man, I'm gonna take my family on vacation. And I had not been back east to see my mom since I had left in 78. Hadn't been back east to see my mom. And at this time, I had never met my dad. So again, 1992, I'm 28 years old, load up the family, and the mission is to go back east to see my mom. And so sure enough, we go to Virginia, I see my mom. There's a couple of things that came out of that. This is probably not even relevant to the story at all, but it's in my head, and my son can vouch for this. It was on that trip that I made a determination I would never put my family in a low-budget hotel ever again.

And I think that's carried on down. I told my children, don't do it. So anyway, so I make this trip back east. I see my mom, and when we're leaving to head back home, I'm informed that I could possibly see my dad for the first time when I'm leaving Virginia. Now, at that time, I was, again, 28. I wouldn't say I was, I was successful in life, depending on how you put it. I was serving the Lord, had a wonderful family, loved life, but I was a little nervous, had some anxiety. If this is really true, gonna happen, possibly. The message I got, though, is he didn't know I was coming, if I was gonna come, he didn't know. And so I thought I would take a risk on doing it. I thought, okay, whatever happens here, it should not change my life. I could talk a whole lot about that, because there is more effect on you when you don't have a relationship with your father than you think it is, until it hits you. But now I had convinced myself, if he rejects me, the man is, he left when I was less than 11 months old, so it wasn't gonna have that much of effect. So sure enough, go down there. Now, I, when I get to the location that he is, didn't have the exact address, just had a phone number. I get to the little town that he's in, and I make the phone call to let someone know that I was coming.

It was the first time in my life that I actually heard my dad's voice on the phone. Now, mind you, I have no idea at all what my dad looks like. I mean, none. But he answers the phone, I said, this is Tyrone Jones, I'm calling for Sam Jones, and he says, this is Sam. And I said, well, I'm here, and I wanted to come by and meet you. By that time, my stepmom had told him what was happening, that I was there. And he says, okay, where you at? And I told him, he says, well, I'll come get you. Now, I, again, I got no idea what my dad looks like. And this community of North Augusta, there was quite a few black folks. Those of you that's wondering, I'm gonna get to the message. Just hang with me, I'm going somewhere with this. It was quite a few black folks. So, you know, every black man that comes into the parking lot, my heart is beating out of my chest because that could be my dad, right? Of course, I wanted to be the ones with the BMW and the Mercedes and the hyped-up pickup. Well, here comes my dad in a Nissan, which I found out later, a Nissan pickup, believe it or not, had 700,000 miles on it. He pulls in with this pickup, gets out of the vehicle. It's interesting.

I think my brothers, Dion and Billy, are both watching now, and that's a great story in my relationship with them. But my dad sticks out his hand and introduces himself. So, you know, so for the first time, I meet my dad. So we go, he invites us to the house, what I thought would be just a minute of a meeting, not sure on how it was gonna go. I just wasn't expecting anything. Ended up staying three days with him, which was fantastic. We went fishing, which was quite a story. We actually ended up on the news fishing. It happened to be Boating Boat Safety Day, and my dad fell into the water and had to be rescued. Sure enough, we're coming out of the water wet. There's the cameras. Here is an example, folks, of what you don't do. But anyway, end up going fishing, et cetera. But the reason I tell you this story is... One of the days before we left, my dad also had either an 88 or a 93 Chevy Silverado, which I liked. It was kind of like a family treasure, the old pickup, but an 88 Chevy Silverado. This was in 92. So I heard him tell my stepmom he needed to go to the store to get the things that she wanted to fix dinner. And so I asked him, could I ride with him? Just one of those things, if I could say this without getting too emotional, just the thought of riding in a pickup with my dad. Never had done that. So we get into the store, and my dad is well-known in his community, as is the rest of my family

for several reasons. Some of it is good. My grandfather was a dairy farmer. Some of it was bad. My dad was quite a rascal, and I'll probably get the R-A-S-C of rascal from my dad. So everybody knew him, and I looked very much like my dad. I mean very much like my dad. So we're in the store, and people were coming up to him, and finally somebody says, well, who is this young man? And for the first time, first time ever, I hear my dad say, this is my son. This is my son. Now I'm going to tell you, that enters perpetuity. That's my English from Yuma High School. That never changes. Hearing him say, this is my son, that remains true until this day, even though he's passed. For the first time in my life, identity. I'm affirmed. I belong to someone. This is my son. This is what we see that takes place with baptism and communion. There's an affirmation of sonship that never leaves. There's an affirmation of who you are and your relationship with the father that will never go away. There's an identity that you will have all the way into eternity. Those are the marks. Communion and baptism are the marks of sonship. They're not empty rituals. They're not religious habits. They're living signs of God's grace. When you participate, they tell your story.

When we heard that young lady this morning in baptism, she's identifying that Christ rescued her. She's making a statement about redemption, that she's changed, that she's a new person, that she's restored. Now, whoever she was before, whatever she was doing before, however she was living out life before, now there's a restoration. Her identity is shaped. She now becomes a daughter of God. These things point us to eternity. When we talk about what we believe and the marks of sonship, it's important that you understand about the sacraments and the purpose of these sacraments and the eternal significance. So I begin by saying this. The importance of them is every one of these two sacraments are commanded by Christ. As believers in the body of Christ, we're commanded to be baptized, and we're commanded to participate at the Lord's table. Jesus didn't suggest these things. He commanded them. One of the verses here on Baptism 1 is Matthew 28, 19. He says, therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit. That's a commandment, that everyone who is a disciple of Christ, the manner of how which that identification is affirmed publicly is through baptism. That's a word to the church that we are to baptize people. There are some segments, I would say, of Christianity that do not necessarily believe that water baptism is necessary. We certainly, of course, teach here that it's not necessary for salvation, but it's absolutely necessary in obedience and following the work of Jesus Christ for the initial purpose and soul purpose, I guess I would say. While Jesus commands it commands it and so that's why we do baptisms not only with testimony, which I love that Anybody who knows me knows my favorite part of the service honestly is it is witnessing the baptisms

Because you hear people publicly declare What they can say out of their mouth of what Jesus Christ has done for them that they're not just up there going through a ritual They will they're telling you their story and you've been in here where you've heard some stories of people I mean, I've heard some stories and and I've listened to him and I thought and shoot I let them people in my house you know, I mean you you you hear some stories of people's lives and of what Jesus has done and the work of transformation and the work of Redemption and and there's times when people want to do their baptisms privately and and we always talk them against that because there's something about the declaration publicly None of us should ever be ashamed to declare that we're a disciple of Jesus Christ Am I talking to the right church? We should never be ashamed of that and we get to celebrate we get to celebrate that I don't know You know, we like people celebrating in our weddings. We like people celebrating when we have a new New child and actually we we we have memorials because we want people to celebrate our lives There's no greater celebration to me Then publicly declaring that I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. No no greater celebration And then the same with communion he says in first Corinthians 11 24 Then he broke the bread in pieces and said this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me And so what you find through the through the physical taste the sight and the smell and the touch of the bread and the wine It's a reminder of the grace that Jesus has displayed on the cross That his body was broken for us that his blood was shed for us. These are commandments the baptism and Communion every time you take communion you're proclaiming a reenactment of the gospel That's why we're so we spend the time to tell you that if you partake of this Remember that you're saying that you belong to Jesus Christ. There's a reenactment of the gospel going on The body was broken that being the body of Jesus the blood was shed That's the blood of Jesus Christ and Jesus is telling us remember this every time you do it He doesn't tell us how often to do it. Some people do it. Some churches do it every week We do it every first Sunday and other occasions, but he says when you do it remember Shedding my blood is what Jesus is telling us. I've done so so that you might live

That you might have life. I died so that you might have life breaking of the bread Is that I willingly Jesus is saying gave my own body for you So there's a remembrance that takes place we're not simply Recalling some historical facts you're participating in a spiritual reality Eating the bread and drinking the wine you're taking Jesus's death and subsequent Resurrection to become part of your life. You're making that statement I'm one with the Savior and and don't ever think that all that everything is legalism Obedience is not legalism It's love in action When you obey these commands you declare that Jesus is Lord over my life And so these sacraments also mark our Christian identity When we get baptized, we're saying I belong to Christ. It's an entrance into a visible faith It's an entrance into a visible faith Listen Galatians 3 27 It says and all who have been united with Christ and baptism have put on Christ like putting on new clothes So now you're wearing Jesus It's identified you're identified in heaven as being a son daughter of God and you're identifying yourself on earth I'm wearing my Savior. He is part of me I am in him and in communion says I remain in Christ First Corinthians 10 17 says and though we are many we all eat from one loaf of bread Showing that we are one body. And so now we are in Christ Jesus together Marking us as God's people. I won't spend a lot of time on this But I will tell you the one thing that I do love about communion and baptism. It preaches a sermon before I even get up here Baptism preaches the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ death burial and resurrection Is witnessed in baptism. It's the same with communion death burial and resurrection is witnessed. It preaches a sermon before the sermon is even delivered. It proclaims visually the gospel. Now the purpose of baptism, again, and there's so many analogies I've done over the years and things that's been been stated, but I want to read Romans 6, 1 through 4. It says, well then, should we keep on sinning so that God show us more and more of his wonderful

grace? And just hear this. I want you to understand this and I don't want you to miss this as a church. It is not sin that keeps you out of heaven. It's your lack of belief in the work of Jesus Christ. I'm going to say that again. It is not sins that keep you out of the kingdom of God. It's your lack of belief in Jesus Christ because every one of your sins are washed away and forgiven by Christ when you acknowledge him as the Lord and Savior of your life. So the reason that Paul says this in Romans is because of this matter. Paul is acknowledging and none of this is for permission. Please hear me as a pastor. Hear me as a father. None of this is for permission. But Paul understands this, that people in Christ Jesus will sin. But there's a mindset that has happened and changed when you recognize you are no longer identified as a sinner. That's not your identity. That's not who you are. So that shouldn't be your practice. You've received the grace of God by acknowledging that Christ has died on the cross for you. Therefore, you've taken on Jesus as your Lord and Savior, which makes you a son and daughter of him. So Paul is saying, listen, if I could put it this way, even though you can sin, should you keep on sinning? Should you keep on sinning in spite of this wonderful grace that you've received from the Lord? Of course not. Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? You died to sin when you made a confession that Christ was your Lord and identified that in water baptism. You made a statement. This old person who's reading this paper is getting ready to die right now. When I say publicly, how do we say it? I now publicly, how do we say that last line? Somebody remember. I'm going public with my faith. There you go. I should remember it, but again, I just do what they tell me to do. But anyway, once a person makes that statement, he said, I, me, this person that's standing here as a sinner is now publicly declaring that I belong to Jesus Christ. I'm dying from who I was. This old person is being buried in water, and I'm coming up again to live a new life in Christ Jesus. So when you make that statement, you're making a statement, I no longer want to be, desire to be, or will be that other person. That person died. That person is now buried, and there's a new person that's coming up out of this water. So he says, since we died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death, for we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. There's a new identification. I died to the old life. I live a new life in Christ. Honestly, it's a public funeral.

It's a public funeral of the old self and a celebration of the new life. Can you say amen? And with that then, that baptism absolutely acknowledges a new allegiance, a new allegiance that I'm not turning back. It's actually Luke 9, 62. This won't be on the screen, but the scripture says anyone who puts his hand to the plow and turns back is not fit for the kingdom of God. Why would you want to go back to the old person, to the old self, to old trouble, old problems, old sin, old guilt, old shame? Why would you want to go back to that? Anybody that puts their hand to the plow and turns back, he says, is not fit for the kingdom of God. So Jesus says it like this. Listen, if you want to be my disciple, you take up my cross and follow me. 1624. So when you pledge this loyalty to Jesus, your loyalty is now to Christ, meaning your loyalty to Christ is above culture. Your loyalty to Christ is above politics, and your loyalty to Christ is above comfort. Politics, culture, and comfort. Your loyalty to Christ is above that. Baptism connects us to the church, a public faith that we're now into community. We're baptized into a community. When that young lady got baptized this morning, she got baptized into a family, into a community. She's not baptized in isolation. She now belongs to us, and we belong to her. Can you say amen to that? Purpose of communion, saying in the sense that it takes us back to Calvary. It takes us back to the cross. Jesus said, this is my body, this is my blood. It reminds us that salvation was costly. Jesus bled. Jesus' body was broken. This salvation was costly. The grace of God for us was purchased by the blood of Jesus. And this is not a theory. I'm going to tell you something. We don't remember a whole lot of theories, but you should not forget a cross. You should not forget what was experienced on that cross. Communion reminds us that God has grace for us in the present. I want to read this verse, 1 Corinthians 11, 27 through 32. So anyone who eats this blood or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking

God's judgment unto yourself. That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have died. Because here's what Paul is saying, that there absolutely is a manner in which we can unworthily partake in communion, unworthily. Now, that's different than being unworthy. None of us are ever worthy of taking communion because none of us are sinless. Unworthy is the adjective. Unworthily, though, meaning I have not discerned what I'm doing here and who I am in Christ. I've shared this many times. I shared it with the youth the other day, but in the church that I was raised in, that my grandfather pastored, we would not do communion on a Sunday morning when everybody was there. The belief was very firm that the only people who should take communion is people who have a relationship with Jesus, but almost to the point, honestly. My grandfather's dad loved him, but almost to the point as if you were perfect. The only people who could take communion is people who are perfect, who don't sin at all. So we wouldn't do communion on a Sunday morning. It would always be a secret meeting. And at that time, the church was very small. You can call people on the phone and say, hey, my grandfather's last name was Edwards. Pastor Edwards want to have communion tonight, want to have communion. So you call the saints, the ones who you believe really were spiritual. You called all the saints, and the saints would come together, what, 20, 25, 30 of us that would be gathered together. We'd have communion. He would stand up and let us know. He'd read that verse about, if you do this unworthily, that's why some of you are sick, some of you are weak. My grandfather would go and say, that's why some of you are dying. He would go on to say, as a matter of fact, if you take this communion right now and you've sinned, you might die right here in front of us. I was scared to death. I mean, listen, I'm a teenager. Of course I've sinned. Of course. Probably barely made it in for communion that night, if I could just be honest. And he's sitting up there saying, you're going to die right here in front of us, boy. You know, like, come on, can you give me a break? Jesus can't be killing folks like that,

just popping folks off, you know. So then he would say this, when everybody's eyes was about to pop out their head, he would say, now, so if you got anything you need to get right, I'm going to give you some time to do it. Folks would fall on their knees, they'd run to folks, I'm sorry, I lied to you, I'm sorry. Man, I'll bring your boy's bike back. I didn't mean to keep it. I'll bring it back to you. I mean, folks would try to get all of that straight. That's not quite what Paul is saying because none of us are worthy enough. But unworthily means we haven't examined ourselves to see, am I truly believing what Jesus Christ has done for me? Do I accept? what Jesus has done, his body being broken, the blood being shed. Do I understand that I am a son of God who's went through the waters of baptism and declare indeed that Jesus Christ is my Lord and my Savior? And here is the fact. When we assess ourselves in the body of Christ, it should always take us to a place of repentance, and at that place of repentance, hear me church, you'll always receive the grace of God. You'll always receive his grace. Where sin is fully confessed, I'm telling you, grace is received in abundance. Can you say amen? And so the other thing about communion that it also prepares us for the future. Team, you can come. I got a lot more, but you get paid to stand here. Just come on.

Communion prepares us for grace in the future. Hear this, verse number 26. For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, this is probably one of the most profound verses, you're announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. I love this because every time we partake of the Lord's supper, we're saying, I have God's grace until he comes. Hear me church, every time you partake in communion, you're stating, I have God's grace until he comes. He never runs out of grace. He never goes bankrupt. Grace never gets poured out upon other folks, and then when it comes to you, oops, sorry, I then ran out of grace. Every time I take the Lord's supper, I am declaring, I have the grace of God until he comes. And the great statement of that is the glorious anticipation of Jesus returning because there will be a day when Jesus will return and he's gonna fix everything that's broken. There's gonna be a day that Jesus returns and every weeping eye will be wiped. Every sad thing will become untrue. Justice will roll down like waters and righteousness will flow like a mighty stream and all of the pain that we have from day to day will cease to exist and we'll absolutely be able to embrace the joy of the Lord. It prepares us for the future coming

of the Lord Jesus Christ. So there's a great significance to this. It's a great significance to communion and baptism. They point to our present life in Christ. We are reminded that we're saved now, that we are his children now, that we're being transformed now, that we have a call to holy living even now. It never stops to remind us every time we witness a baptism, every time we take communion, that we belong to Christ, that we are forgiven, that we are renewed. And guess what, church? One day we're gonna go home. We're gonna go home to be with him. And I'm telling you, in a culture of confusion, baptism and the Lord's Supper, it gives you identity. It gives you identity. The world may have all kind of thoughts of who you are and who you ought to be and how you ought to be acting and what you ought to be saying and what you ought to be doing. The culture can be so judgmental. But every time I take communion, I don't have to hear a judgment. I hear a voice that says, this is my son. This is my daughter. This is the one that I'm well-pleased in. In a world of division,

these things create unity. Look at us in this congregation. Look at us. We got different shades of skin. We come from different backgrounds of status, different nations, different ethnicities, different bank accounts. But this morning, we're all one in Christ Jesus. We're all unified. There is no distinction. There is no separation. There is no prejudice. There is no racism. We're all united as one in Christ Jesus. And it shuts down all the voice of distraction from the world. All the voices are shut down because I'm called to remember what Jesus Christ has done. And I don't live with any fear, none whatsoever. I don't have any doubt that Jesus will keep his word and his promise. I don't have any doubt that I'm his son. There is not a moment that you will ever talk to Tyrone P. Jones, and I won't know even in that moment, whoever I'm talking to, whatever's going on, I'm still his son. Never changes. It never changes.

And so when we approach this, when we approach the table of the Lord in baptism, I'm just encouraging you every time we do it, don't do it casually. Don't do it mechanically. You do it with prayer, you do it with humility, we do it with gratitude. Baptism absolutely begins the journey for us. Communion sustains the journey, and both of them are absolutely reminding us that there's a point of entry for us, an entry into eternal life. We're baptized people, we're communion people, we're redeemed people, we're marked by the grace of God, we're sustained by his mercy, and we're headed for glory. Marks of sonship, there's nothing greater than hearing your father say, this is my son, and there's nothing greater than hearing your father say, this is my son. A son that will always be a son, and there'll be a day you'll get to look the father right in the eye and celebrate the life that he has worked you through, the rescue, the redemption, the restoration, because you're his child. Everybody stand if you would. Prayer team can come. I'm going to close out with prayer, but here's what I need to leave you. Now, some of you probably just need to get saved, period. I guess I'll just cut to the chase. Some of you just need to declare Jesus as Lord and Savior and accept him as such. Some of you have made that statement, but you haven't been baptized. Hopefully, they'll put the number on the screen where you can text for baptism or indicate at the connection table or on the app. But there's no reason if you profess that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior for you not to be baptized. I've taken away every reason, every reason.

Every one of us that have went through the waters of baptism are no different than you. None of us are any different. Every one of us had to go through the same step of courage to say, I want to surrender the life that I've created for my own comfort, according to my own culture, my own whatever, and live a life to Christ. Some folks just have such a fear of what that means, as if God the Father is in heaven looking to let you...you're going from somebody who loves life to God saying, okay, now you're my child, I'm going to make life difficult. No, he only makes it better. It only gets better. I'm telling you, there's nothing more joyful than knowing no matter what I go through, I got a father who's with me in the midst of the trial and the suffering and the pain and the anguish, and I hear him saying, don't worry, son. You're my son. You're my son. You're my son. God only makes it better. And so, I encourage you, those that haven't been baptized, get baptized. And if you're worried about us doing one at a time, I'm looking for a day we can do a mass baptism. I hope 50 of you all decide to get baptized. We'll fill this place and just baptize folks all over the building. In Jesus' name. Hey! Getting ready to get happy up in here in the name of Jesus. But next week, we got communion. Come in this building prepared to celebrate what Christ has done. I don't know, I feel like I got a whole lot more to say, but I guess I got to quit. Father, I thank you, in Jesus' name.

God bless you. Come down, fall down. I want to see you, Jesus. Consume me and fill me. I want to touch you, Jesus. Come down, fall down. I want to see you, Jesus. Consume me and fill me. Oh, I want to touch you, Jesus. Come down, fall down. I want to see you, Jesus. Consume me and fill me. I want to touch you, Jesus. Come down, fall down. Oh, I want to see you, Jesus. Consume me and fill me. me. I want to touch you Jesus. I'm desperate for you Jesus. I won't live without you. I want your presence. I'm after your heart. Where you are. I am running. I'm after your heart. Just one touch of your glory. Come down. Fall down. I want to see you Jesus. Consume me. Fulfill me. I want to touch you Jesus. Come down. Fall down. I want to see you Jesus. Consume me. Fulfill me. I want to touch you Jesus. I'm desperate for you Jesus. I won't live without you. I want your presence. I'm after your heart. Where you are. I am running. I'm after your heart. Just one touch of your glory. We love you church. We'll see you next Sunday.