Position Before Performance // Lord Send Revival

Come on. Let me hear you. Oh, come on. I said, who's thankful to be in church today? This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. I want to say welcome to all that are with us today. I want to look in the camera and say welcome to all those that are online with us. Welcome to all of our first time guests who are with us in person and online. And I want to give a special shout out to the men and women watching from a correctional facility behind bars, via panda, Calvary Church, like you never have. Can you give them a big welcome this morning? Hey, you are not a project to us. You are family. We are so glad that you are here with us today. We are closing out our series, Lord Send Revival, week five of our series. Lord Send Revival, if you have your Bibles, you can open up to Matthew chapter three. And while you're doing that, let me just remind you just of a couple of things. The first is this. It is the first Sunday of the month. And so that kicks off another series of world changers projects that we have for this month. This month's projects are we're going to raise $10,000 for light the law so we can buy Bibles for people who have never received Bibles before around the world. We're also going to partner with Speed the Light from Missionaries Dave and Julie Goldschmidt in Scotland and Brian and Raquel Korea in Columbia to get them vehicles so that they can continue to minister the gospel. In the Harvard Church, we're looking to raise $30,000 this month. So as you continue to tithe and give the world changers, we will bless the world. Come on. How many believe that our church can impact the world for Jesus Christ?

Let me hear you. I know you do. And so as you continue to tithe and continue to give the world changers, we will continue to give and we're reaching $700,000 is the goal that we're going to give this year. And then let me just remind you of this. You heard Daniel said it. You've heard it in the video announcements for the last month. You've seen it in your inserts in the bulletins. But this Wednesday night, everyone say this Wednesday. This Wednesday night is first Wednesday. First Wednesday. So I'm calling kids, youth and adults. Everybody come on out, 6.30 p.m., get here early. This will be full. We just did this three weeks ago. We had over 600 people out here on a Wednesday night, okay? So come on out. We're going to set up our cafe. We'll be set up with chairs, additional sound system. Our second auditorium is going to become a family room. Parents if you have kids, you can still have a room or you can get to worship with them. We'll throw it on in there from. We're going to have a night of worship. So about double the amount of time that we just did in worship. We'll receive communion together. Hear a great message. And then my favorite part is we're going to clear a couple of rows out and we're all going to gather around the altars. And we're going to say, "Holy Spirit, fill us a fresh with gifts, signs and wonders." Come on.

How many are you thankful for the gift of the Holy Spirit? We're going to specifically have some time asking for the Holy Spirit to fill us a fresh so you don't want to miss it this Wednesday night. And then we will have that the first Wednesday of every month for this fall season. So October 7th, November and December. First Wednesday of the month, I'll see you at 6.30. All right. How many people love movies? Anyone love watching movies in the room? So I'm a '90s kid. And so I grew up with some famous '90s movies that had these iconic one-liners. And sometimes the one-liner becomes so memorable that it overshadows the entire movie. Help me out with a few of these. Go ahead and say them if you know them. So Arnold Schwarzenegger and Terminator. The famous line he said was, "I'll be, I'll be back." Come on, say it loud and proud if you know it, Gerard Butler is King Leonidas. He said, "This is Sparta. That was pretty weak." And I only heard a couple female responses. I'm a little surprised at that. And then Tom Cruise as the Maverick, I feel the need, the need for the need for speed. What we're getting at today, in the message today, is an iconic one-liner of God the Father in all of the Gospels. And you may have never noticed this before in your life, 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 he says is intended to be the overarching narrative of every child of God for their life. That God wants this one-liner to be etched on your soul, that he wants this to be so deep inside of you, that when everyone else is screaming things at you, or yelling things

at you, that this one line that his voice is the voice that drowns out every other voice. That God the Father says this to God the Son, "You are my beloved Son, and with you, I am well pleased. You are my beloved Son, and with you, I am well pleased." That one line is the miracle of the text that we are in today, Matthew chapter 3. Now I'm going to jump right into it today. The reason why we are doing this is because we've been in a series called Lord Send Revival, and here's what this series has been about. Here's an overview of this series if you've missed any of the weeks. I've been teaching on prayer, teaching on worship, last week Pastor Paul preached a great message on how to hear from God. How many believe that God has more for us as a church? And we're believing for a fall harvest of salvation in this season. We're believing for a harvest of dream teamer's hands to the plow. We're also believing for miracles, signs and wonders right here at Calvary Church. And what I've found is that everybody wants a miracle, yet nobody wants to need one. Yet admitting that you need one can bring you face-to-face with the miracle worker and his name is Jesus. Throughout Scripture, what I see is that miracles are called signs. And signs point beyond themselves. The point of the miracle is to point you to the miracle worker. And the greatest miracle that God wants to do in your life is he wants to make you more like Jesus. Romans 8 says these words that we're predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. So listen today, more than God wanting to make you happy? More than God wanting to make you comfortable or rich or famous or popular, what he wants to do is place you on an anvil. And sometimes the anvil is hard and the hammer falls heavy and the furnace is hot, but the blacksmith is good. And what he wants to do is he wants to conform you to the image of his son, Jesus Christ. And so let's get at it. What I see in this passage today is three steps.

We're a church of next steps. What I see in this passage is three simple steps. Number one, you need to be baptized with water. Number two, you need to be led by the Spirit. And then number three, you need to be loved by the Father. Number one, you need to be baptized in water. Number two, you need to be led by the Spirit. And then number three, you need to be loved by the Father. Number one, if you're taking notes and I sure hope you are, you need to be baptized with water. This is what the text says, Matthew chapter three, verse 13. Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John the Baptist. Now, when we call him John the Baptist, it's not because he was of the Baptist denomination and he liked eating potluck dinners. They called him John the Baptist because he was baptizing people. We're actually going to call him John the baptizer because he's the first character in the Bible who's practicing what we now call baptism. And today I want to answer a couple of questions on baptism. I think sometimes there's confusion on this topic of baptism. And so I want to address them and answer them for you today. Here's what I'm going to answer in this message. What is baptism and why should I be baptized? The next question I'm going to answer is, does baptism save you? And then the next question I'm going to answer is, if I haven't been baptized, does that mean that I'm not saved? Okay. And let me just remind you of this. Again, here at Calvary Church, we want to teach you what the Bible says. Does anyone okay, if I teach you what the Bible says, not what your previous church taught you or a certain denomination? Is everyone okay if we just look at what the Bible says and do what the Bible says?

All right. So here's the definition of baptism according to scripture. It's the way that God commands us to make a public declaration of a new identity. God commands us to do it to make a public declaration of a new identity. In other words, it's a commands, not a suggestion. At the beginning of his earthly ministry in Matthew chapter 3, Jesus gets baptized. In the great commission, he commands us to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. In Acts chapter 2, Peter tells the people, repents and be baptized. Now, I think that there are two mistakes that people make when it comes to this topic of baptism. Some say, I can be saved without being baptized, so it's no big deal. And I would answer that question and say, yes, you can be saved without being baptized, but you can't be fully obedient to scripture and you can't be fully obedient to Jesus without being baptized. As Jesus asks in scripture, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I say? Others will say, you can't be saved unless you're baptized. Now, that's also wrong thinking as well. The Bible uses a word that God describes in relationships and it's the word covenant. Everyone say the word covenants. Covenants, a covenant is a blend of law and love. A covenant is a blend of law and love. In other words, God loves you and He's bound Himself to you. God loves you and He's bound Himself to you. Marriage is a beautiful picture of covenant that when my wife and I, Kyla, stood in Pittman, New Jersey in June 8th, 2018 and we exchanged vows, we entered into a covenant relationship. And the wedding rings that we exchanged now publicly declare that relationship. So if I were to take this wedding ring off, that doesn't mean that I'm no longer married to my wife, Kyla. And if I were for some reason to hand this ring to someone else and say, could you just hold this ring for a moment and they put it on this.

Come on, someone, that would be weird. The ring just declares the relationship it doesn't create it. In the same way, water baptism does not save you. Come on, someone, only Jesus saves you. And getting dunked without saving faith means you took the symbol without having the relationship. Is this making sense to everyone? But listen, the symbol does matter. The symbol does matter. Baptism is how Jesus commands us to publicly declare that you and I, we belong to Him. So yes, you can be saved without being baptized, but baptism is an important step of obedience to the Word of God for every single believer. All right, so now let's get to the question that you've all been waiting for. Let's answer the question, but Pastor Dan, do I have to be baptized? Pastor Dan, do I have to be baptized? This Pastor gently answers this question, look at it. Matthew chapter three, verses 14 through 15. So Jesus comes from baptism. John tries to deter him saying, I need to be baptized by you and you're actually coming to me. This is kind of backwards. This is why John does this because baptism is a symbol of repentance. Repentance, it's this beautiful word. It becomes a nasty word in our culture today. It's a beautiful word.

It just means you are heading in a direction and you turn, you go 180 degrees, you're going the opposite direction and you just start turning to Jesus. And John asks, why are you being baptized? You're the sinless one and look at Jesus' response. Here's what he says, let it be so now. It's proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness. I'm gonna say that verse again and I want you to say just that last part of that line with me aloud. Notice I didn't say a soft, say it out loud with me, all right? Let it be so now for it's proper for us to what say it to fulfill all righteousness. In other words, Jesus never sinned yet he was still baptized. He's not only our substitute, he's also our example and our model showing us what everyone who follows him need to do. So I would answer that question, do I need to be baptized by saying this? If you want to walk in righteousness and you want to be fully obedient to the commands of Jesus in the word of God, then yes, you have to be baptized. If you're saved and you haven't been baptized yet, I'm gonna say this, listen, it might come out a little strong, I'm not mad at you, I love you. You are walking in unrighteousness. Jesus commanded this as a public declaration of your new identity in Christ. Okay, let's go back to that definition. Baptism, public declaration of a new identity.

Public declaration of a new identity. Let me illustrate this to you in one more way that's more relevant to our culture today. So remember this, whatever God creates, Satan also counterfeits. Whatever God creates, Satan also counterfeits. And what you need to know today is this, that the largest religion in America today is not Christianity. It's not Islam, it's not Buddhism. It's the religion of sex and self. It's the religion of sex and self. Now I have a point in saying this, watch where I'm going, you gotta just hang with me for a couple of moments, okay? In the religion of sex and self, listen to the words that I'm choosing, any internal desire or any internal attraction that you have, that is the sovereign Lord and that must be obeyed and that cannot be questioned in this religion. And so all the different letters of LGBTQ, those are different denominations in that religion. And if you're like asking today, like if you're seeing this like creep into our school systems and creep into our libraries and you're saying, why is this so adamantly being pushed by society down to our children? Here's why, because every religion eventually gets into the children's ministry. Now let me take it a step further. Now watch this, in this religion there's a counterfeit,

watch this, there's a public declaration of a new identity. It's called coming out. That's what we call it, we call it coming out. It's this public declaration of this new identity. It's the counterfeit baptism in this religion. Now let me just say this, here's the point. I'm tying it all together. People are very, very, very bold in coming out today. They post it everywhere. They let everyone know. They are extremely proud about it. We even have a whole month that they call Pride Month where they declare they're coming out. Can I just say this today? Let's not let the world be more bold and going public in the way of wickedness than Christians are for being bold and going public to what the Bible calls us to do in righteousness. If God's word says it, we do it. If God's word says it, we do it. If God's word says it, come on, someone, we do it. And so some of you, what you need to do right now is you need to pull out your phone and you need to text dunk the junk to 9700 or 00, or you need to scan that QR code in your handout and say, you know what? I don't care what people are gonna say about me. I don't care if my family rejects me or mocks me. You know what? I'm going to live that way. He's either Lord of all or He's not Lord at all.

And I'm telling you, there's no shame. There's no condemnation. There's no reason to be fearful. We as a church family are going to celebrate and cheer what God is doing in your life as your obedience to Him in Scripture. All right. So number one, you need to be baptized in water. Number two, you need to be led by the spirits. 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. This is Matthew 3, verse 16. And it says, "At that moment, heaven was open, and He saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and lightning upon them." Now, let me share a little corny, pastor joke with you today, all right? So there was this old evangelist who would go to these churches and he would preach these revival services. And he preached revival services. And he had his fastball sermon, his favorite one that he always used. And he always got a reaction. He always got a response. He always had the altars full when he preached this sermon. And it was actually on this passage that we're studying today. Matthew 3, the spirit descending on Jesus. And so what the old preacher would do is he would go into the city and he'd find a little boy and he'd pay him $10 and he would give him a dove. And he would say, "You know what? I want you to climb up into the rafters of the church." And at the moment of the sermon where I say, "Holy Spirit, come down." He says, "When I say those words, I'm telling you, let the dove go and the dove is going to fly into the room and is going to create this great illustration of the power of that moment of what happened in Matthew 3." And so sure enough, he goes into this town and he does just that. He finds a boy. He gives him the $10. He gives him the dove. The boy climbs up into the rafter and the pastor reaches the point of the sermon where he says, "Holy Spirit, come down." But nothing happens. So then he says it a second time. He says it a little bit louder. He goes, "Maybe he didn't hear me." He goes, "I said, Holy Spirit, come down." Nothing happens. Now finally, this pastor is getting a little frustrated. He's got some righteous indignation in him. He said, "I said, Holy Spirit, come down." Boy leans over the rafter and says, "Pastor, cat ate the Holy Spirit. You want me to throw him down instead?" I know. I know. It's corny. It's a corny, pastor joke. I love it though. Listen to what I'm saying though. Listen to what I'm saying. You need the Holy Spirit to come down in your life. You need a fresh wind. You need a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit in your life because Jesus needed the Holy Spirit to come down in his life. Let me say that one more time. I don't think you heard that. Jesus, the Son of God, needed the Spirit of God to come down in his life so that he could do earthly ministry. Jesus does not do one miracle until after the Spirit of God fills him.

Have you ever noticed that? Jesus' first recorded miracle comes after the Holy Spirit descended upon him before his public ministry began. He's anointed by the Holy Spirit. Acts 10, verse 38 says, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and the power of God." And he went around doing good works. Jesus ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit. Come on, someone, how much more do you and I need to be filled and led by the Spirit if Jesus himself was filled with the Spirit? People ask all the time. They say, "Pastor Dan, I've been baptized. Pastor Dan, I've received Jesus as Lord. Pastor Dan, I read the Bible. I come to church. Do I really need the Holy Spirit to get into heaven? Bro, you need the Holy Spirit to drive on 295. Come on, someone. Do you need the Holy Spirit in your marriage? Do you need the Holy Spirit for wisdom to guide as a parent with your children? Do you need the Holy Spirit? Come on, business leaders. Do you need the Holy Spirit to lead you and guide you to make wise decisions concerning your business? You need the Holy Spirit in every area of your life. Someone say amen right there. Because the people of God need the spirit of God to live for the glory of God on earth. And you just need to know this today. I'm not here to make you nervous or make you fearful. But you do have a real enemy and his name is Satan and he has one mission and it's to steal, kill and destroy in your life. And there will be moments when temptation and opposition feels stronger than you. But here's the promise of Scripture. If you have the Holy Spirit residing within you, then greater is he that's within you than he that's within the world. You're not facing it in your own same strength or power. The same spirit that conquer the grave is living and active inside of you. And Jesus says, with this reality, with the Holy Spirit in my heart, you'll be my witnesses. In other words, the Holy Spirit's giving you power for purpose. To live for Jesus and help others know him. And again, if you haven't heard enough, that's why I'm inviting you out this Wednesday night to first Wednesday, our night of worship. as we lean into His presence with extended worship, and we receive communion together, and we hear a great message together, and then we're gonna be gathering around these altars. This Wednesday night specifically, we're gonna have an emphasis asking if you are looking to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

I didn't invite you, come on. What else do you have going on this Wednesday night at 6.30? Clear the calendar, kids, youth, and adults, and let's seek God, and let's say, Lord, send revival. Fill us with your spirit, fill us with your presence, for signs, and wonders, and miracles. I need to be empowered for witness to reach a loss in dying worlds. We wanna be people who walk by the Spirit in our homes, in our workplace, and wherever God sends us. Maybe we've been asking, how do I walk in that spirit? Will you get here to first Wednesday, and then what do I do after that? Remember, what was the last thing that you know the Holy Spirit told you to do? What was the last thing that He spoke to your heart to do, and then go back and do it? Walk in obedience and ask Him daily for a fresh and filling of the Holy Spirit. Just say, when you wake up in the morning, and you spend time in person, Holy Spirit, lead me today. Holy Spirit, fill me today. Holy Spirit, help me today to accomplish the purpose that you place inside me. Holy Spirit, I need to wisdom today. I'm in over my head, give me wisdom today. I need you. Okay, baptized in water, led by the Spirit, and then number three, last is this.

You need to be loved by the Father. You need to be loved by the Father. Baptized with water, led by the Spirit. This last one is my favorite. You need to be loved by the Father. 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, it says this in Matthew chapter three, verse 17, that a voice from heaven said, this is my son whom I love, and I am well-pleased. This is my son whom I love, and with him I'm well-pleased. Okay, let's do some theology real quick. Can I just point this out? Have you ever noticed this in this text that the Father declares over Jesus? You're my beloved son and with you, I'm well-pleased. Before he does any ministry, Jesus has not cast out one demon yet. He hasn't preached one sermon yet. He hasn't healed one sick person yet. He hasn't like confronted and called out all the religious leaders of his day yet. 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 your activity that's going to happen through you. See, this is what God does as a father, and you are his children, that before you do any activity,

any ministry, any words that you could speak or say for the kingdom of God, he declares his identity over you. Listen, the longer you're a Christian, the easier it is to let that truth get away from you. Listen, God does not love you today based upon what you've done. He loves you today based on who you are, that the Bible says you're chosen. The Bible says you're a royal priesthood. The Bible says that he has good plans for you. But you know what the Bible also calls you? The Bible calls you children of God, a son or a daughter of the living God. And if you placed your faith in him, the greatest identity you could hold is that God calls you his child. Let me say it in a way that may even sound counterintuitive today, that because the Father is pleased with Jesus, he cannot be displeased with you. 'Cause the Father is pleased with Jesus, he cannot be displeased with you. And because the Father is pleased with Jesus as perfect obedience, and Jesus has perfect sacrifice, the book of Revelation says when you go to his presence, God is going to clothe you, he's clothed you with the perfect white robes of the righteousness of Jesus. So when you place your faith in Jesus, theologians say that his righteousness gets imputed to you. Listen to me today, you are clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which covers up all of your shame,

and covers up all of your mistakes, and covers up all of your past, and covers up all of your sin. It's covered once and for all, under the blood of Jesus Christ. And now when he looks at you, he sees the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. And because he's pleased with the righteousness of Jesus, and you are in Jesus, listen to me today, he is pleased with you. He's pleased with you, that is good news today. Somebody say thank you God for that. That he doesn't judge us based upon our sin, he doesn't judge us based on what we deserve. He looks at us and he says, no, no, no, you're righteous, you're clean, you're made right, you're my children. All right, here's a pop quiz question for you today. All right, pop quiz question, all right? Don't answer this out loud, okay? Don't answer this out loud today. On a scale of one to 10, how does God feel about you right now? Scale of one to 10, how does God feel about you right now? Don't answer this out loud. Scale of one to 10, how does God feel about you right now? deep within their soul. Now some of you may be going, "You know what? I only read my Bible like one day this week, and you know what, I kind of blew up on that person at work. I kind of lost my cool head about a week.

You know what? I was kind of acting like a knucklehead at home. You know what? I made these decisions. I know that this area of sin I've been struggling with, and I was doing good with this, but I fell back into it again and again and again this week. So I'd probably say I'm like a four out of ten, probably say this week is like a six out of ten. No, no, no, listen, listen. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, it's always a ten out of ten. It's always a ten out of ten. It's always a ten out of 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, and that is always a hundred percent. You are clothed with the righteousness of Jesus, and your heavenly Father is pleased with you today. Now, that does not mean that we do not have work to do to look and live more like Jesus. Come on, someone. I've got a lot of work to do to look more like Jesus. How about you? And that process of sanctification is a journey, and day by day I'm surrendering, and day by day I'm saying, "Lord, clean me up," and day by day hopefully I'm not falling back into the same sin patterns that have helped me captive years and years ago. But I'm just telling you today, if you've said yes to Jesus, then he calls you his child. See what kind of love the Father has lavished on you, that we should be called children of God. Let me illustrate it to you this way, as we close. My wife and I, we have two kids, Andy Rose and Samuel, and I love my kids. Love my kids. They're the best kids.

They're the most spoiled little brats I have ever seen. Most selfish little human beings I have ever known. Never once did they say, "Thank you so much, Mom, for giving birth to me in the hospital." Thank you for all that pain and all those sacrifices and all that you did. Never once, when we had a sleepless night, did they say, "You know what, thank you so much for taking care of me on those sleepless nights." Never once did they say, "Dad, I know you're tired today. I can wait to eat for a couple of moments. You take care of yourself. Get to me when you need it." Never once did they say, "You know what? I have a poopy diaper right now. It's okay. You take a couple of minutes for yourself. I'll sit in my own excrement, okay? You just take care of you. You take care of yourself." They have never once said that to me. They have contributed zero dollars to the family budgets. They did not even all forever to get a job. But listen to me, I love my kids. I love my daughter, and I love my son, and I would die for them. Listen to me today. They did not earn my love by doing something for me. They cannot do anything for me. I love them because they're my son and my daughter, and that's the picture that I want you to see before you could ever contribute anything for the kingdom of God, before you could ever accomplish anything. You already belong to Jesus, and you were already loved by a heavenly Father who said, "You're my son or my daughter."

The cover church is listening to me today. See what kind of love the Father has lavished on you, that you've been given the rights to be called children of God. If Father loves you today, he's pleased with you. He's got good things for you, and I want you to let that sink deep in your heart today. And so right now, I'd love to just pray for you, come on, if you'd just bow your heads in this moment today, would you just open your hands just before the Lord just at your seat, just turn them open for the Lord. And God, I ask right now, would you just plant the supernatural love of God right now, deep at the core baseline of the souls of the sons and daughters of Calvary Church? God, as we're overwhelmed, Lord, your Word says that the Spirit of God lavishes His love on us. And God, I know, I know that there's people here who have messed up. People here that have fallen to her. God, I've missed the mark, but God, I pray today that we'd be overwhelmed not by our sin or shame or condemnation, but we'd be overwhelmed by the love of the Father. And God, right now in this moment, would you wash away all condemnation that the enemies placed on them? Would you wash away all shame and guilt because the Bible says that there's no condemnation for those that are in Christ? God, would you give them that sense of see what kind of love the Father's lavished on them, that they may be called children of God, every head bowed, every eye closed in this moment? I wonder if you're in relationship with Jesus today, I wonder if you know God, that it's not just religion to you, but you actually have a real ongoing relationship with you. The book of Romans says that the wages of sin is death, the crime is death, that's the punishment for our sin and all of us have sinned, but God, out of His heart, out of His love, the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus. You must understand this principle that the seriousness of the sin that you and I deserve as we deserve hell, we deserve the death, we brought that upon ourselves, but God, in

His lavish love, sent His Son Jesus to dying across for you and me, and now everyone that calls upon the name of the Lord. heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So I want to give us this invitation today as I do every single day.