Risen With Christ

Thank you so much for joining us today. My name is Tim Powell, and I have the privilege and the honor of being the campus pastor at our new life church, Greenbrier Campus. We are a non-denominational church located in the state of Arkansas with 19 about to be 20 campuses across the state. Our heart behind partnering with Pando through God Behind Bars is to allow your family an opportunity to connect to biblical community so that they can be growing in their walk with Christ at the same time that you were growing. So if you do have family in Arkansas, encourage them to check out newlifechurch.tv to find a campus that fits them. Thank you so much for being here. Now, let's listen in to today's message. As we get started this morning, I want you to do me a favor. I want you to welcome everyone that is listening in with God Behind Bars. Can we give them an NLC, Greenbrier welcome? Thank you, guys, for being with us today. Well, if you've got your Bibles with you, I want you to do me a favor. Turn to Hebrews chapter six. We're going to spend a little time here today. And as you know, we kicked off a series a few weeks ago that we've titled Foundations of the Faith. And as we've walked through this as a church, we're aligned across the state.

And if you're visiting, maybe you're in from out of town, you may not know that we are not just one standalone church. We're a church with 19 soon to be 20 campuses across the state of Arkansas. And I love it when we're aligned. And we're growing in this area together. And as we've come together, what you may not know is we come together from around the state most every week in prayer to seek the Lord's direction, to see where it is that God's calling us to go and to be teaching to you guys. And we're aligned with this and I love it. But as we've walked through Hebrews chapter six, the writer of Hebrews, it lays out six foundational doctrines that we need to make sure that we understand as we grow to become spiritually mature Christians, amen? Because I don't know if you realize they're not, but you're not here for your entertainment, right? We're here to grow to become fully devoted followers of Christ. And sometimes when we get into God's Word, sometimes it's a little convicting, right? Sometimes it's a little challenging when we see what God's Word shows us and what it teaches us. And that's the help of the Holy Spirit. Now, I never want you to feel condemnation. If you do, that is not of God and that is not our heart. But if there is an area that you need to grow in, I do pray that you feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit to maybe make some adjustments as we go through this.

The first week, we looked at repentance. We talked about how repentance is more than just making a slight deviation from your path. Repentance is actually turning from sin and turning to God. We talked about leaving dead works behind. We cannot work our way into heaven. We can't work our way into God loving us more. It's not about that. We talked about the importance of stopping, stop second guessing our salvation. And then if you've made a decision to follow the Lord and you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior to walk with purpose, to hold your head up. Because we say it all the time, Sunday morning is not go time on Sunday. Sunday is like halftime. It's where we come together, we make some adjustments, we grow spiritually and then we get back in the game, come Monday or when we leave this room. And this all comes from Hebrews, chapter six, verses one through three. It says therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity. Everybody say maturity. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death and to faith in God, instruction about cleansing rights, which is baptism and laying on of hands the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

And God permitting, we will do so. Our heart and our prayer is God permitting. We will continue to grow in our faith as a church, amen? Last week, we looked at the evidence of what mature faith looks like. Like what is a mature faith is, if we're growing spiritually, what does that look like? Well, a mature faith is a faith that can suffer. I don't know about you, but I don't just sit around and pray Lord, just give me a few more things that I need to suffer in, right? I just want a little more trouble in my life. Well, no, we don't sit around and pray for that, but we do know that a mature faith can make it through suffering. And it's those times in our life when things are not going the way that we hoped and the way that we prayed, that we can still trust God to be sovereign, He's faithful, His word is true, and He will not forsake us, amen? But your faith is a faith that's sensitive to others that cares about the needs of the people around us and you do such an amazing job of this. We get to be a part of that through our thanks serving and our Christmas mall that's coming up. I'm so excited, not only are we gonna distribute meals for thanks serving, but we're gonna be able to do the same thing at the Christmas mall. And it's not about toys, it's about showing that there's others around them that care.

We shouldn't be judging one another based on status. That's not what God called us to do. He called us to be there for each other. A mature faith is a faith that can master our own mouth. You guys got really quiet when I started teaching on this last week, the words that we say have life and they have death. We can have the best of intentions sometimes and hurt someone deeply. We talked about a mature faith is a faith for the future that trusts God. Listen, I want a future for our children, for our grandchildren, don't you guys? I want to pause here for just a second and I want to address a very important topic. And that is the election. Now I'm not gonna stand up here and tell you who to vote for. But I am gonna ask you to be in prayer about who to vote for. You're not voting for a person. You're voting for the policy. And sometimes we take for granted the liberty and the freedom that we have to be able to come together, sit out and worship God in this room. Well, we would never get to a place where we wouldn't be able to come together and worship in America, well, we could. That's not out of reach. I'm not telling you to vote left or right. I'm telling you to vote vertical. I'm telling you to look at the policies and look what the people that are standing

that you're voting for, what are they standing for? And we're gonna continue to pray and lift them up. We know that God appoints those in leadership, but it's our job as the body of Christ to make sure that we're doing our part. Amen? So we don't need to take for granted the freedom that we have to get out and vote. I've heard people say, "Oh, the church is getting in politics." No, politics got in the church. So I'm not trying to start a riot here. I'm just trying to tell you, instead of eating that second Twinkie on Monday, get up and go vote 'cause we're gonna be fasting. Amen and praying for our government. A mature faith is a faith for miracles. How many of you believe that we still serve a God that is a God of miracles? I do too. I've watched him perform him right here in this room, but I'm gonna tell you something, you're not in charge of the miracle. God is. And you know, there's miracles that I've prayed for that hasn't happened. Does that mean that I don't believe in God and I don't trust God? No, that's not it at all. I absolutely do. And I'm gonna pray for a miracle.

I'm gonna pray for God to show up and I'm gonna pray for healing every single time. When someone's sick and they're not doing well, I believe that we serve a God that's fully capable of healing. And he will. Let me tell you my theology around this. God's gonna heal me every time but once. And then I'm gonna be totally and completely healed in heaven in his presence. And we need to stand on the faith that we have and that God has promised us. But he is in charge of the miracles, not us. Today, we're gonna talk about verse two and it's water baptism. And this is something that, you know, as a church, we make available almost any given Sunday. If somebody wants to be water baptized and we find out about it by Wednesday, we'll have a baptismal. Right there where you're sitting, there'll be a baptismal set up full of water. It's even warm, believe it or not, it is. But I do realize that we haven't spent a lot of time teaching around the importance of water baptism. And that's why I'm so excited about today. Let me ask, let me take a little poll. It's a Sunday morning, so I'm thinking the skills. Pivot a little bit. But let me take a poll. How many of you in this room,

I'll be honest, you can't lie. You can't like you're in church, hell is hot. How many of you would be honest and say you have a strict no PDA policy? Raise your hand, like we're not hugging, we're not kissing, we're not holding hands unless it's crossing the street and there better be traffic. Now I know all the dads with daughters are saying, I got a strict policy for that, right? Yeah, okay, well, all right, let me ask you the next question. How many of you are in this room where like if old Boo makes eye contact, I'm gonna give her a kiss. Do y'all even know what I'm talking about? PDA, public display of affection. Oh Lord, I got a heel to climb today. No, your audience, I love it, Ms. Sherry, I love it. Man, I love you guys. We're gonna have fun today. Y'all are just excited about that jumbalaya tonight. I know the truth. We got fall fast, by the way, all the Christians come to fall fast tonight. We'll have jumbalaya and chili and hot dogs for all the non-Christians, but everybody else has a place. You know, there's a lot of ways that we can show affection for our love for Christ, isn't there? My wife and I, we kind of fall into that latter category. It used to drive our kids crazy when they were young.

They'd be like, "Oh, gross!" (audience laughs) What are y'all doing, you know? I've tried it correct her, she does. We've been walking across a patio on Sunday after service is over with, and she'll pat me on the behind, and I'll be like, "Honey, the baddest her watching!" (audience laughs) Just kidding, I grew up baddest too. There's a lot of ways for us to display affection for the people that we love and we care about. I'm gonna tell you the, there's a lot of ways that we display our affection for Christ as well, coming to church, making time this morning to come in together, to get into the Word, to worship our Father. That's a display of affection for Him. Giving the way that you tithe is a display of affection for Him, because you're trusting Him. It's hard for us to ask, God to bless something we're not trusting Him with, isn't it? The way that we worship. Worship is a display of affection. Do you know there's more songs written about Jesus than anybody else in the world? Worship is a form of affection. As a matter of fact, Psalm 104, 33, He says, "I will sing to the Lord all my life.

"I will sing praise to my God as long as I live." So there's many ways that we can show our love and affection for Jesus. But can I tell you the most powerful, most important display of affection to God is through water baptism? There's nothing that even comes close to it. You know, Jesus began His ministry, not by turning water into wine. And Jesus began His ministry after He was baptized. I'm gonna show you the Trinity in just a moment in one passage of scripture. Jesus began His ministry. The first act set His calling into motion. Matthew chapter three verse 13 through 17, if you wanna turn there and we'll spend a little time, there's a few areas I wanna teach on here. So then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. Now let me pause here for just a second. Oftentimes you will read this and you'll just kind of skim over the fact of the journey that Jesus took. From Galilee to the Jordan, you think, well, he must have just walked down to the river. Well, depending on the area that he was traveling from, from Galilee to the Jordan, that journey could be anywhere from 25 to 80 miles. So this was a journey to get there. It wasn't just a spur of the moment decision.

You know, Jesus didn't do any of that, right? In Matthew three, five though, it even says that people came from Jerusalem and all of Judea and the region to be baptized by John. It was a journey, take two to three days to get there. Some of you have been on a journey to grow closer to the Lord. I pray that you stay on that journey. Sanctification isn't just some place that we arrive at. That's just a big Christianese word that we like to talk about to make us look smart. Sanctification is a process of growing closer to the Lord and getting in his word and understanding the sort of the spirit that we have access to. Well, we're all on a journey, but oftentimes our journey will lead us until we get uncomfortable. Like I'll follow you, Lord, until it gets a little uncomfortable. And sometimes when we start talking about baptism, it can get uncomfortable, can it? He's picking up in verse 14. He says, "But John tried to deter him saying, 'I need to be baptized by you.'" Can you imagine being John at this moment? I mean, really, the Messiah walks up and says, "Will you baptize me?" Can you imagine? I mean, I got goosebumps just thinking about it. I know, I kind of weird out on the word, I love it.

It's incredible, but Jesus replied, "Let it be so." It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness. And then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, listen to this, don't miss this part. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment, heaven was open and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and a lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my son whom I love with him. "I am well pleased." My friend of mine, Ms. Christie gave me a print. I think it was for my birthday. You want it back? Is that what you said? You can't have it back. It was very hard for her to give it to me. So apparently she didn't give it with the right heart. So let's pray for her right now, I'm kidding. But it's a portrait of this and I'll look at it. It's actually where I write a lot of sermons and it's right over my chair. And I think about that every time because I'm asking the Holy Spirit to speak through every word that is spoken from here. Do you know as a pastor, I have to account for everything that I teach from here. So it's important that we're led by the Holy Spirit, right?

And not driven by personal agendas. But before Jesus took up the cross, Jesus was water baptized. You realize that? When he stepped out of the water, he stepped into his public ministry. It's such an amazing portrait to think of. On one side of the Jordan is the wilderness, and the other side is the promised land. It's coming from the wilderness. Anyone ever wondered around in the wilderness for a while? I know I have. But it's that picture of being baptized and brought to life and being able to walk out that purpose in the promised land. It's interesting that Jesus was baptized by John. John was baptizing and pointing people to repent of their sins. And Jesus never sinned one time. The only perfect person that ever walked this earth was Jesus, and yet he came to be baptized by John. There's four important truths that I want you to get. We talk about these foundational doctrines and these elementary teachings. This is important, and I want you guys to grasp this. I want you, if you know about it, if you've been baptized, if you're in the Word, I want you to listen today in such a way that you can go teach this. There are people in this room that are much better teachers than me.

There's no doubt in my mind. And I want to give you this to take with you so that you can go teach it to the people that you come in contact with. Amen? The first one is Jesus modeled it. Why don't we get baptized? Because Jesus first modeled it for us. He went first. If he did it, I'm gonna do it. There's a lot of things in life that I get kind of right. I could buy a barbecue grill and put it together three times before I cook my first burger. And the reason being is because I'm a man, I'll take it out of the box, I'll throw the directions in the trash, put the start putting the grill together, get halfway through, realize that I've messed something up, pull the directions out of the trash, rebuild it, get three quarters of the way through, throw them in the trash and say I've got it figured out, get finished and realize that it won't work, pull the directions back out of the trash. Are y'all tracking with me? When I should have just followed the directions to begin with. Well, Jesus didn't just give us directions on what our baptism,

he illustrated it for us. He showed us how, why and the importance behind it. You know, some things as we read through scripture are so important to God that he doesn't just tell us to do it. He shows us how to do it. And baptism was one of them. Romans six verses one through four, says what shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? Let's pause there for a second, should we? Like you can't encounter God in your life and live the same, can you? Truly have an encounter with the Father, with Holy Spirit and live the same? No. So we don't just continue sinning, that's why we taught on repentance. So we turn from that, by no means, he says, we are those who have died to sin. At least one amen would have been good there. How can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, though the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. That is good.

Do you know that's part of where the name New Life Church originated? That's our heart for you guys. That was the heart of our founding pastor, Pastor Rick and Michelle, Pastor Darren and Marcia. That people would find purpose and would find a new life. Would people recognize their calling? So many came before us. I think that's important to mention too, that we're the product of someone else's sacrifice. You're a product of the sacrifice of your parents. I look around the room and I see multiple generations in here and you're here as a product of the sacrifice that your parents made to make sure that they had you in church, to make sure that you were in the word of God. Jesus gave us a model to follow. dead to sin. Baptism is driving a stake in the old me and saying the new me is coming out of this water. I'm no longer who I used to be. The enemy wants to tell you that you're made up of all of your mistakes in the past and that is a lie from the devil. Now God says I created you in my image and you have a purpose that's far greater than anything that you can imagine. For us it means a whole new way of life, 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says therefore if anyone is in Christ the new creation has come, new. The old has gone, the new is here. It's symbolic with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When you're baptized, you are buried. The old is gone, the old is away and the new is alive. And that's the heart for us for you.

Number two, Jesus commanded it. You go, oh, I'll take my word, let's go to His word. Matthew 28, verse 18 through 20 says in Jesus came to them and said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go, everybody say go, go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. But John 2, 3 says we know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commands. We know that we've come to know Him if we keep His commands. This is part of our being sold out for God, it's an obedience to God. We have boundaries in our life, correct? Do you guys agree with that? Some boundaries are healthy, some are unhealthy. Let me give you an example. A healthy boundary, for example, would be as if you're going down highway 65 there is a yellow line, correct? That is a boundary. That is a healthy boundary if you follow it because if you're going northbound and someone's going southbound and you cross that boundary, you're fixing to get smacked. It's a healthy boundary, right? As you start a relationship, as you're early in your relationship, you set boundaries. You make sure that you don't put yourself in a place that you go beyond the boundaries that God shows us that we should have in our life. After you're married, you set healthy boundaries in your marriage. You make a decision that you're not going to communicate with people of the opposite sex outside of the knowledge of your spouse. That's just a healthy boundary. If you text me and you're a woman, include my wife, I'm going to respond to you with my wife in there.

We should all be like that, not just the pastors, that's just healthy boundaries, right? Let me give you an example of an unhealthy boundary. We set some unhealthy boundaries with God. We'll go, you know, God, I'll come in and you can address me on Sunday, but don't interfere with my Monday or my Saturday night or, you know, Holy Spirit, you can convict me around my marriage, but don't get into my finances or, you know, you can convict me about serving, but don't convict me about the words that I speak. We set unhealthy boundaries in our relationship with God. I have some healthy boundaries in my life. I hope all of you do. I don't eat things that I can't pronounce on the menu. I have another rule. If it has a heartbeat or had a heartbeat, I only eat it after it's cooked. I don't eat raw fish and baked or fried, preferably fried. That was for someone here that catches more fish than I do. We have to have boundaries in our life to protect what God is trying to do in us and through us, but we have boundaries not just for us. We have it for the people that we're around and that are looking to us. Number three, water baptism is my public statement. It's an outward sign of an inward change. It tells the world that I am not ashamed to be. Let me give you an example for a second. Let me marry eight men in the room. OK, put your hands down. This wedding ring that I wear on my hand, what if I just walked in one day to my wife? And I said, you know, Shelly, this ring is kind of out of day. It's like I just don't feel comfortable wearing it. I just don't feel comfortable wearing it when I travel or when I go on trips.

It's just bothers my hand. My wife is a sweet person, but she will cut you. You know what this wedding ring is? This wedding ring is a symbol to the world that I am off the market. That I am hers and that she is mine. The world wants to tell us, oh, that doesn't matter. Yeah, what a baptism doesn't matter. Well, you know, the pastors even told you that you don't have to be baptized to be saved. You're absolutely right. You don't. You do not have to be baptized to be saved. Baptism is a public display of a personal decision that you have made. Luke 926 tells us though, don't miss this one. Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the son of man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. Oh, I just get embarrassed in front of people. It's a good thing God's not embarrassed in front of us. Let me give you some practical questions that we get asked a lot. Will there be a lot of people there? I hope so. There should be. Did you know that baptism is your opportunity to witness to more people than any other time in your life more than likely?

Your water baptism is an opportunity for you to witness to your friends and your family and the people around you in a way and on a platform that you may never have an opportunity to do again. So yeah, as a matter of fact, I think you should throw a party. As a matter of fact, your baptism is an opportunity to invite those family members and those people that you love and that you care about that normally wouldn't come through the doors of a church building to just come celebrate you, or so they think. And it's an opportunity for them to have a touch from God to hear God's word and allow the conviction of the Holy Spirit. It could change their life. We could ask, does it mean that I'm saved now? No, it doesn't. You're saved when you make a personal decision. This is a public declaration. Do I have to join NLC to be baptized? No, you do not have to be a member of our church, but you do have to be a Christ follower. And this is important. How long will I be under? That depends on who's doing the baptism, the baptizing. [LAUGHTER] Adam and I, we're pretty fast. Byron likes to double dunk. He wants to just make certain that you guys go all the way under, right? Number four, why water baptism? Water baptism gives me strength to walk in freedom.

It's an encouragement that it's hard to be, man. When you step in obedience, there's a manifestation of God's presence that is powerful. How many of you in this room have ever given birth to a child? Men, put your hand down. [LAUGHTER] Geez. How many of you have ever given birth to twins? Anybody given birth to twins? Oh, come on, Miss Millie. Yeah, anybody else? Any triplets in the room? Quadruplets? OK. If you go into scripture, you'll see in Genesis 25 where Abraham's son Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebecca. And Rebecca wasn't able to get pregnant. And so Isaac prayed to the Lord on her behalf. And she ended up getting pregnant with twins. And I think we skip over this sometimes. How many of you want to pray to God in that response be immediate? Sometimes that happens. Sometimes it does. We skip over the fact that Isaac was 40 when they got married and 60 when they had their children, 20 years waiting. But after she became pregnant, Rebecca started noticing the children inside of her.

The word calls it jostling. And she went to the Lord and asked for clarity. One people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger. You have two nations living inside of you, each and every one of you. You go, what do you mean? You have the spirit, and you have the flesh. And they are at war with one another. And the fact is, it's up to you which one you allow rule your body and rule your life. You know, you may have waited, and God bless you. You may have waited 20 years since you gave your life to the Lord. You may have waited 20 years since you gave your life to the Lord. It's not too late. I've had people say, well, when's it too late, or when am I too old to be water baptized? When we close the lid on that coffin, it's too late. If there is breath in your lungs, there is still time for you to get baptized. I don't care how old you are. Sometimes people with different backgrounds want to debate theology around the age of accountability for children. Let me tell you where we stand theologically on this. We want to make absolutely sure that if a child is wanting to be baptized, that they truly understand and comprehend what they're doing. I don't think there's a date on that because I've been around some 60-year-olds at act like they're 16. So, but I do want to make sure, and parents, let me just say this. Let me give you a little piece if you're a parent in the room around this. It's okay that your child is not baptized yet. What's important is that you teach them the Word of God that they understand and comprehend the Word of God and that one day they make a personal decision to follow Jesus. That's important.

You don't want to pressure your child into getting baptized at six years old just because you think that's a checkbox of the parent that we need to get done because what you do is you rob them of the opportunity to have an encounter with Christ in a very powerful way as they grow and mature in their relationship with Jesus. Now, it's a desire for all of us to see our children baptized, isn't it? It is a desire, but it needs to be on their terms, not ours. Some of you, though, in this room, you've given your life to the Lord and you haven't been baptized. I want you to put a stake in that tonight. You go to night? Yes, tonight. I was praying through this and I thought, you know, we're fixing to have a fall fest. How cool would it be for us to have a baptismal on that patio or if it's raining underneath the awning when we've got people from our community coming in that wouldn't necessarily be at church. But an opportunity, that's a festival as far as I'm concerned. So I want to say this, if you're in this room and you've never been baptized, or maybe you were baptized at a young age and you did so and it didn't really mean anything, you didn't really comprehend but you feel the Holy Spirit telling you it's time, I want you to come up after service and I want you to let us know and we will make it happen this evening. Invite your friends. Invite the people around you. This is an opportunity for us to celebrate the most important, powerful decision of your life. Colossians 2 9 through 12 says, "For in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority in him. You were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled the flesh ruled by the flesh was put off when

you were circumcised by Christ having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. As we continue to grow in our relationship with Christ, this is a next step for some of you. And the enemy is going to try to tell you, you shouldn't do it. It's embarrassing. I speak against that in Jesus name. I want to show you really quick. I know we're running out of time. This was in 2023. And that's the Jordan River. And There's a lot of special moments in my marriage. And my wife and I have both been baptized before. We were both pastors in this picture. But that moment was unbelievable. I got baptized as a kid just because I thought that was what you did. I didn't really understand and comprehend the magnitude of what was going on. But I'm going to tell you what, that day was powerful. Not to mention, that is the coldest water I've ever been into my life. And the look on my face is love, but it's also, I'm freezing. My legs were blue, they were numb. You know, the power is not in the water, the power is through God. But it is symbolic. It was pretty cool to be baptized in the same river that Jesus was baptized in. Let me tell you what I did. When everybody was finished, I went over and got a water bottle. I poured out the water and I went right back to that same place. And I filled that water bottle up from water from the Jordan River. And if we set that baptismal up, I'm fixing to put it in that baptismal tonight. And it doesn't have any additional power. But it's symbolic.

It's not a religious ritual. It doesn't make it any better. But I am telling you, I believe that tonight could be a celebration beyond any celebration we've ever had. And I want you to consider it, amen? If you would buy your heads. You know, as we continue to grow, and we continue to talk about growing in our relationship with the Lord, and becoming fully devoted followers of Christ, it starts with a decision, a personal decision. And if you're in this room and you've never made that decision, or if you're listening in maybe and you've never made that decision, I want you to know that there's an opportunity right now for you to do that. We've made it simple. If you're listening in and through God behind bars, there's a button you can push. It says, "I'm ready to give my life to Jesus." And there'll be someone that comes up and that explains the process and really understand what you're doing. It's not just an emotional decision. If you're in this room right now, here in just a second, I want to ask you to slip your hand up. And I want to pray for you. Maybe you're in this room and you've given your life to the Lord, but you know that it's time to rededicate your life and to get back on track to where he's calling you. I don't know where you're at, but I do know this. God has a plan and a purpose for each and every person that's in this room. And we just want to make sure that you have every opportunity to fall in that purpose. Amen. If you're here right now and you've never made that decision, but you feel that it's time, would you slip your hand up? I don't pray for you. Anybody here today? Anybody? Yes, sir, I see you.

Amen. The Word of God says, "All of heaven rejoices when one person turns from their sins and turns to the Father." It starts the best decision you'll ever make in your entire life. The next question I have for you is, are you here? And as we've been walking through this series of the foundations of the faith, have you felt like you've been off track a little bit and you feel like it's time to maybe turn and come back to the purpose that God's called you to? Is that you? Is there anyone here that's felt that conviction through this series at all? It says, "I just need prayer. I just want to see God's purpose in my life slip your hand up. I'm gonna pray for you." Anybody? Yes, I'll see you. Thank you. You can put your hands down. If you gave your life to the Lord today, if you're in this room or you're listening in, I want you to just pray with me. Say, "Lord God, forgive me of my sins." The ones that I feel like I'm reminded of every day. And even the ones that I've forgotten all about. Now that today I repent. I believe in my heart Jesus that you are the Son of God. That you were crucified on the cross that you paid for my sins. That you died. You were buried. But three days later, you rose. And today you're sitting at the right hand of the Father. And from this day forward, I commit my life to you Lord. I give it to you. God, for those in this room that I felt like that they've drifted off course.

Father, I just pray right now. I first say thank you for your conviction in that area. But God, would you bring people in their life to help hold them accountable? People that can be truthful and honest with truth and grace, not judgmental. pray to if there's anyone in our church that hasn't taken that step of obedience with water baptism that they'll be brave enough to step up to do it tonight. As God we need you and we want to grow to become fully devoted followers of you. It is in Jesus name we pray and everybody said amen can we give God some praise in this place. You You