Working Towards Well Done | Tyrone D. Jones | Book of Acts

All right, as you stand to your feet, I'm actually going to have you open to the book of Matthew. We are in a series in the book of Acts, week one. We heard about the establishment of the church, Acts chapter one through four, week two. We found out that sin entered the church. People made a decision that even though they were part of the body, that they were going to allow sin to enter their mind. We found out that we have an enemy. We found out that there are things that we still need to overcome even as a part of the body. Last week with chapter six, Ryan brilliantly and beautifully preached about church leadership, the structure of leadership, why we have leaders, why we need leaders. And today I'm going to be preaching from Acts chapter seven. But before we go there, I just want to, I want to, I want to read a verse from Matthew chapter 25, Matthew chapter 25, familiar with it, it's parable of the talents, and Jesus is telling us stories, telling a parable, and in this parable, he really wants to give us a picture of what it looks like to steward the lives, the time, talent, and treasures that he's allowed us to have. He tells a story of a master, and he says the master gives five talents to one, two talents to the other, and one talent to the other. And what the master says to each one of them as they're holding these talents is I'm going to give you these. You be obedient with what I've given you. You steward it well, and when I return, you will give an account for how you stewarded what I gave you. You guys tracking with me. Sound familiar. The master says I'm going to set you up well. You steward it, and when I return, you give an account. And so there's one that with the one talent, it says that he just buried it, but the one

with the five talents and the one with the two talents, it says that they stewarded it well, and they doubled what they were given. And I want to read the response that the master gave, Jesus is telling this parable that the master gave one of the ones who doubled what he had to steward. As the master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much into the joy of your master. Well done. He said good and faithful servant. Lord, thank you for your word. Speak to us clearly. God, we're here because we want to hear from you. Let me be a vessel, Lord, that you speak through in Jesus' name. Amen. You guys can have your seats. I eat a lot. Why are you laughing? Not one person's like, no, you don't. You thin guy, you. Everyone's like, haha, we could tell. But it doesn't mean that I'm not colonarily limited. I don't know if colonarily is a word, but I'm colonarily limited. He shows up just for my cooking, I can promise you that. I'm learning little by little, hanging out with some of the fellas. I'm learning how to grill a bit. I think I'm starting to get a good handle on Karnia Sada. I'm proud of it. Nate, my boy, when my best friend's Nate, he commented on my Karnia Sada. No one could tell me anything the rest of that day. I'm telling you right now, I was walking around my house, do you know who your father

is? Like, but I'm still pretty limited, but in my culinary experiences, journeys, I've come to understand that one of the greatest things as a grown man that you can master is how to grill a good steak. I'm 40, I'm 40 years old for some reason. When I turned 40 outside of my family and the workers of Jesus, the most important things in my life are green grass and a good steak. I don't, consumed, I should say, but a good, good steak. There has to be a little char on the outside. There's got to be a good cook on the outside of it and in the name of Jesus, that steak needs to be seasoned. Okay, like, I want to taste the meat, sure, but let's use some seasonings to bring that out, please. Okay? I want to taste just store. Now here's the thing, as I've matured in my palate, I've come to realize that a well-seasoned chart on the outside, medium rare steak is as good as it gets. Medium rare. Do you feel the glory? Medium rare. There are some people who eat their steak rare, Uniander Thals, I'm just kidding. that I ordered medium rare, but it shows up medium and I'm just fine, I can eat that. If it shows up medium well, I may be struggling a little bit. But outside of that, there should be no other level of steak. Unless some of you peasants in here still eat your steaks well done. Are there any well done people here? Oh man.

(audience laughing) Poor Billy, once you get married, you'll understand steak better. (audience laughing) I'm so sorry. Why did I say that? I'm gonna hear about that. Well done steak. I'm sorry, but we disagree on that. But there's one well done that I think we can all agree on. The well done we can all agree on is as we journey through this life, as we steward the time, talents, and treasures that God has given us, when it comes to the day that we breathe our last breath here on this earth and we are coming face to face with our maker, I think we can all believe and we can all agree that we want to hear well done good and faithful servant. That's a well done that we can all agree on. And one of the greatest well dones that we see in scripture, one of the greatest pictures of what that looks like. We see in Acts chapter seven with this man by the name of Stephen. Stephen was introduced in chapter six and I'm not gonna give too much of his history because Ryan did a great job with that. If you weren't here, you can listen online. But some of the specifics is that Stephen was a Hellenist, meaning that he spoke, he was a Greek, he was a Gentile,

which means that he had to make his way into the temple. He had to do what needed to be done. He had to study his way in. He wasn't just born in to the faith. But as a Hellenist, him and others that were the Greek speaking Jews were discovering that they weren't always getting served, they weren't always having their needs met. And so what the apostles decided is we've got to raise up some leaders that can help do the ministry. And what it says in chapter six is we apostles got to raise up leaders so that we can devote our attention to the preaching of the word and to prayer. And Stephen was one of the guys that was chosen. I love the reasons why Stephen was chosen. He was chosen, scripture says that he was full of wisdom. He was faithful and he was full of the Holy Spirit. Notice nothing about that has to do with talent. Nothing about that has to do with income. Nothing about that even has to do with longevity in the church. It just says he was selected because he was full of wisdom. He was faithful and full of the Holy Spirit. Stephen begins to serve the church well, serve the body well and not long after his selection. He unfortunately has to come before the council known as the Sanhedrin, he has to become,

they come before the council and they're basically trying to combat the message of Jesus that he speaks. Because hang with me here, these guys from the Sanhedrin, they've memorized the first five books of the Bible known as the Torah. They live deeply by the Old Testament law. They preach the Old Testament law. They preach their traditions. In fact, they love their traditions and they believe it's the temple and those traditions that are the markings of a follower of God. And now that Stephen, amongst others, thousands of others at this point, are going around teaching and preaching a message of a savior that has come that has fulfilled the law, these law enforcing leaders truly want to try to combat Stephen's message. And it says in chapter six that they cannot handle or combat his level of wisdom. These well-trained scholars, as they try to discuss scripture, cannot combat this very regular man, nowhere near as trained as them because the wisdom afforded to him by the power of the Holy Spirit. So then what it turns into is they had some people accuse Stephen of lies. And the lies about him is that he's speaking against God. He's speaking against the law. He's speaking against the temple.

He's speaking against Moses. Oh, all of these things at these council. Oh, those are the most important things. That's it. I mean, those are the big four for us. And that's who Stephen is speaking against, man. This is rightful reason to not only bring him before us, but rightful reason to execute. And so as a result of these lies, Stephen has to stand before the council. And he addresses the council in all of chapter seven. it's just him speaking. And I love the fact that when he approaches to speak, he's not defending himself. He's defending the message that he carries. A lot of times when we're persecuted, we want to defend ourself. We want to make sure that they see us in the correct light. I'm guilty of this. Someone starts to persecute because of faith. Hey, hey, hey, but just no, I'm still quick to defend myself instead of the message that they're persecuting. It's the message that matters the most. My reputation can come and go. My influence can come and go. Stephen gave us a beautiful example. It's the message that needs to be defended. And what we call that, because he defends the message with scripture, we call that apologetics. In that moment, he positioned himself as an apologist. And so if we just attack this thing in sections,

in verse one through eight, in verse one through eight, Stephen begins to talk about Abraham, but it's very significant because he calls him father Abraham. Why is it significant that he calls him father Abraham? Because that's what those natural born Jews know him as. And it probably irks them to hear this not naturally born Jew be able to claim he's my father now too. He's a father of the faith for you and he's a father of the faith for me, whether you like it or not. But see what he's gonna address is the fact that, these guys of the Sanhedrin, they are so obsessed with the temple, so obsessed with the law that they think anything that happens of God and from God needs to happen with their trained people in the four walls of the temple. And what Stephen points out about Abraham is that God first spoke to him and appeared to him in Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia was not the promised lamb. Mesopotamia was not the place that God said he will eventually lead his people. And see that messes, he's saying these things 'cause it messes with the Sanhedrin, why? Because now they have to hear about a person they see as a father in the faith and God showing up for him, not limited by space and time. This is the first thing that we have to gather from this. God is not limited to a specific place

and he's not limited to a specific space or time. See that what these Jews are believing is like it has to happen in the temple and it has to happen with our blessing and it has to happen with the traditions and you have to wash your hands and you have to dress a certain way. And what Stephen is combating with him is like, so then explain Abraham hearing from God when he wasn't in the temple. I don't know what sync was available, but I don't know if he did all the traditional hand washings that you guys are asking for. Explain that, he's using scripture in stories that they have memorized and saying if what you believe and what you are following is to be true, explain that. The fact that he's showing up for his chosen and anointed and doesn't need a temple to do that. We also see here that the Sanhedrin has to start coming face to face with their own limitations that they're putting on God. In the next section, verse nine through 16, he starts walking through the story of Joseph. If you're familiar with the Bible, if you're not familiar with the Bible, the story of Joseph is, he's the son of one of the patriarchs and he's one of the younger sons and his father gives him a coat of many colors. And as a result of that, his brothers become jealous

and those jealous brothers, they throw him into a pit, which that pit eventually leads him to slavery and that slavery eventually leads him to prison. So he goes from the pit to slavery to the prison, but for those who know that story, his story ends in the palace. And the reason why that's significant is because now, Stephen is making these guys of the Sanhedrin understand that though with the Jewish belief, if your life isn't looking as good as ours, if your circumstance is, if your clothing isn't as clean as ours, if you're not respected the way we are, if you're not revered the way we are, if you're not steadily every single day showing up to the temple with a big smile on your face, God must not be in you and God must not be doing anything for you or with you. And what Stephen is pointing out to one of their own patriarchs is that, Joseph, despite being in a pit, prison and slavery, it was very clear that God hand remained on his life. God, what Stephen wanted to point out to them is that the hand of God on someone's life is not dependent on circumstance. sometimes you can feel every bit of resistance in God saying, "I have you right where I want you to be. You just wait." That message isn't received well from the Sanhedrin, because the Sanhedrin is all about

order, the Sanhedrin is all about tradition, the Sanhedrin is all about what they can replicate through their own systems. And Stephen's making it clear, "No, that's not how our God works, our God is more powerful than a system, our God is more powerful than a set of rules, our God is more powerful than a set of structure." And then Stephen adds to it in the story of Joseph. He says, "There's also what we can see in the story of Joseph, there's a rejection. There's a moment of rejection. No matter fact, as you know, he was thrown into a pit, and that pit landed him, and eventually in slavery and prison, and Stephen wants to remind the Sanhedrin in that moment as they lean in. Do you remember who it was?" It's Joseph's brothers, right? The reason why Stephen really wants to emphasize the fact that it was Joseph's brothers, because he wanted to make it clear that there's times that God's anointed prophetic voice is rejected by their own people. The Sanhedrin don't want to hear that. Why is that? Because now as Stephen is saying that, it's starting to sound familiar. It's the same Sanhedrin. They are the ones who rejected the ultimate anointed one. They're the ones who put to death the ultimate anointed one. And now they're having to hear the fact that this is not just something that we did. There's no way that Jesus was anointed, because if so, we would have crowned him. And Stephen's saying no, because it's in your lineage to reject God's anointed. It's in your history to reject God's anointed. So now they're having to face the fact that they've dealt with some confusion about putting God in a box, and now they have to face the fact that not only did they reject the Lord's anointed, but that's been in their history for decades and centuries prior. So Stephen, in all of his wisdom and understanding, wanted to take it a step further, and he started

talking about who they know as the deliverer, this man named Moses, who was born into a family where by way of birth should have been put to death, but instead of being put to death, he was actually set apart by the hand of God and was actually raised in a palace and trained in a palace and had the best education and had the best training and the best meals and the best living situation. Why? Because God had him set apart to be the deliverer of his people at a certain point from bondage and once again, in this time, Stephen's telling this story of Moses and the guys in Sanhedrin have to come face to face with the fact that, oh, once again, God's hand on someone's life doesn't fall into our traditional mindset. God's hand on someone's life doesn't look like the box that we've created, the systems that we've created and now to take it a step further, Stephen talks about when and where God showed up, not only tangibly but audibly to Moses and it was a place called Midian. Once again, Midian is not Canaan, Midian is not Jerusalem, it's not the promised land. So the guys in the Sanhedrin have to come face to face with the fact that God can speak and select and anoint and use outside of the walls of that temple. They have to come face to face with the fact that they have been wrong about how they are seeing and preaching and leading through the operations of their God. But now Stephen has to point out one more thing to make sure that he's touching on some things that are going on in their heart and he gives one more reminder. When Moses is up on the mountain getting the very law, the very law that these guys teach, the very law that these guys preach, when Moses comes down from the mountain, what does he find the Israelite people doing? Worshiping a golden calf. That law, that powerful law being brought down and you guys, in our lineage, worshiping a golden calf. What is he causing the Sanhedrin to come to face to face with? That these Jewish people are capable of idolatry. Having to come face to face with the fact that idolatry seeds lie in the hearts of every human.

The seeds of idolatry. What does that mean? I will give my worship to something else or someone else besides God Waiting for the for the prophet from the messenger to come down From speaking to God face-to-face and instead they're like let's put all our gold together because we need something to worship now The guys in the Sanhedrin they don't want to hear that They don't want to face the fact that idolatry is possible for them They don't want to face the fact that they put in they've put God in a box by way of tradition and that's been handed down to them They don't want to face the fact that They've rejected prophet after prophet. They've truly rejected deliver after deliverer. They they haven't always They haven't always tuned their ears to the voice of God And how do we know that they haven't always tuned their ears to the voice of God because they haven't always tuned their ears to the messenger That God is anointed But we see that As Moses does these things There's not a temple required is just the God that he serves and Verse 44 through 50. This is all Steve. I know he talked long and good He in verse 44 through 50 he starts talking about the tabernacle which for those of you who are familiar with the tabernacle It was basically a makeshift temple because they needed to build something God said build something where my glory can dwell and So they built this tabernacle that followed them and that's where they can encounter God, right? That's where God can be encountered in this tabernacle Stephen basically points out there was sin rebellion and struggle even when the tabernacle was available and Now that we have the temple There's still rebellion and rejection of God's message in the messenger You know what he's saying he's saying where the y'all got church or not y'all can be loud and wrong Tabernacle we had some moments loud and wrong temple loud and wrong He's really challenging the Sanhedrin on their thinking. He's challenging them even on their lordship He's challenging them on their surrender. He's challenging them on the understanding of who the true living God is

And now in verse 51 through 54, I like to say that Stephen goes for the jugular Because he starts talking about a person and a power that they absolutely want nothing to do with because he starts talking about them rejecting the Holy Spirit and if you remember The church began when the spirit descended on the people so now this church this gathering that the Sanhedrin is saying is is is heresy and that the Sanhedrin is saying is breaking apart the people of God that Same power that Stephen experience the same power that so many experience to actually help them become the church That the Sanhedrin completely doesn't believe in he's saying you guys are rejecting that power and I'm being empowered by that power right now That holy spirit is what allows me to face you guys right now He's saying that holy spirit is what allows me to stand here and to preach you guys a message full of faith and full of Wisdom and full of understanding because the power you reject is the power that I need The power you reject is the power that allows me to stand here and look death in the face Stephen understood That as a result of his rebellion Death was inevitable. They weren't gonna let him off the hook They'd brought him in before they set up these lies. Why would they set up these lies if they didn't want to get rid of him? And we've already seen too much in Scripture. What happens when they put God's people in prison? We saw that in chapter 5 the angels like you guys ready? So prison was an option for Stephen I Believe he understood that and that didn't change his message Prison wasn't an option for Stephen and it didn't change his boldness Prison wasn't an option for Stephen and it didn't change the depth of his sermon He stood there looking to stand he turned in the face while also understanding I'm looking death in the face and I'm gonna still stand boldly for my God now It lands us here in verse 55 through 69 actually those are the verses we're gonna read together Verse 55 through 60 of Acts chapter 7 Because it says this Start in 50. I'm gonna start in 54. Excuse me now when they heard these things because when they're hearing Stephen say all these things They were enraged

They were enraged And they it says in this in this one it says that they ground their teeth at him a lot of versions say that they begin Nashing their teeth That language may sound familiar in other times of scripture. But he, Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Stephen's getting this vision. He's looking up, knowing he's gonna be facing death and the Lord gives him a vision and he sees Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father and they begin to cry out. This is the Sanhedrin and a loud voice and stopping their ears and they rush together out and they're plugging their ears as he continues to talk about Jesus. Now they're yelling, now they're screaming, now they're attacking him. This isn't some soft, hey Steve, come with us. They are attacking and grabbing him. And it says in verse 58, that they cast him out of the city and stoned him and witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. Any time I preach on stoning, I ask God to take me there because I never want stoning to be taken lightly. The fact that he's being stoned for the gospel of Jesus. The fact in John chapter eight

that a young lady was about to be possibly stoned for her sins just like I deserve. Stoning is not cute or pretty. Stoning is gruesome. Stephen is looking death in the face and it's not lethal injection. It's not a firing squad. There are people who are gonna throw rocks at his head in his body until he bleeds, vomits, seizures, broken bones, gouged until he finally dies. That's what stoning looks like. That's what he was facing. He was facing a gruesome death. I didn't bring this up early. I remember when we were kids. My dad used to read us this book called Fox's Book of Martyrs. I haven't mentioned this all today. Fox's Book of Martyrs before bed. And those guys were burned at the stake because of the message of Jesus. Goodnight kids. Like, if you've ever never read a Fox's Book of Martyrs it tells real stories of people that lost their life for the sake of Jesus. Can you imagine? They burned them alive, sweet dreams. Like, I remember hearing that stuff as a kid. What the truth is, as we hear this story and as we see the boldness of Stephen,

it has to make us wonder, is that the boldness that we carry, with the message that we get to carry, with the message that we are allowed to steward? Stephen is telling this story, looking them dead in the face, knowing that he's gonna be stoned, and I'm over here at the same time, sometimes bothered because communion ruined my gum. (congregation murmurs) Sometimes bothered. Man, Sunday just keeps coming back around. Maybe I should just take a long weekend. Is it okay that I say those things? Sometimes when I lose sight of the sacrifice that was made for me, what I do for Jesus doesn't even compare, but someone like Stephen, he understood it. The cause that he was standing for, nothing compared. And it says this, it says as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Does that sound familiar to anybody here? He says, "Receive my spirit." And falling to his knees, falling to his knees as he's pelted with these stones, as he's hammered stone after stone. Falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." Lord, do not hold this sin against them. So not only is he saying, "Receive my spirit."

He's saying, "Father, forgive them." Does that sound familiar to anyone in the room? And as much as I would love to unpack and say about those things, there's one part in the closing of this narrative that actually has a lot of people a bit stumped if you look at it the wrong way, because how many of you guys understand that scripture can never contradict scripture, right? There's a part that says something that when I look at Hebrews chapter 10, can we put Hebrews 10 on the screen? When I look at Hebrews 10, there's something a little, Hebrews 10 talking about Jesus says this. It says, "But our high priest, Jesus, "offered himself to God as a single sacrifice "for sins, good for all time, right? "offered himself as sacrifice for sins once and for all." Do we believe that? Then he, what's the next word there? What did he do? Jesus, once he completed his assignment on earth, So make sure that we don't have things out of context, or that was isolated incident. Let's, okay, Romans 834, the great eight, Apostle Paul, he won't lead us wrong. Romans 8 says, "Who would then will condemn us? No one for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is..." What is he? He's sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand, pleading, or some versions say, "interceding for us." Seated at the right hand of God, Hebrews, seated at the right hand of God, Romans, but then Acts chapter 7, 55, but 56 says, "Steve, and full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven

and saw the glory of God in Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father." And he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." Now, how can that make sense, Jesus in a finished work, sitting at the right hand of God, we see that in Hebrews, we see it in Romans, and now in this moment in Acts, he's standing. A writer by the name of our C. Sproul painted a beautiful picture. He said, "I want you to imagine this moment like a courtroom. And anybody who's ever been in a courtroom, they understand this, the prosecutor stands when it's time for judgment, the defendant stands when it's time for judgment, but you know who doesn't stand? The judge. The judge doesn't stand. The judge remains seated during the reading of the verdict, through the prosecution through all of it. Seated. Scripture says that Jesus is sitting in the judgment seat, the judgment seat of Christ. But Scripture also says that when Jesus was getting ready to ascend to heaven, he said, "It's better that I go away because I'm going to send you a help," or another advocate. Another advocate. A lot of times we refer to the Holy Spirit as the advocate, the paraclete, the one that comes alongside us, but Jesus said another because the initial advocate for us between us humans and God the Father is Jesus. We have to picture in this moment, Stephen in that courtroom as a defendant, falsely accused, and the judge coming out of the judgment seat, walking around to the side of Stephen and putting his arm around him and saying, "I'll speak for this one. I'll advocate for him." Normally I stay seated. Normally I'm in the seat of judgment, but I can vouch for his message, and his message is about me. Jesus standing to advocate for the message of Stephen.

Jesus looking the Father in the eyes saying, "This one, this one got it right." And I'll stand here and advocate for that. But you want a simpler explanation that we've seen, simpler explanation that we can give? When Stephen, after stewarding well, his time, talent, and treasures, after stewarding well, the message that he was entrusted with by the power of the Holy Spirit, the message that he was entrusted with by the God who saved him. When Stephen looked up into the sky, and when Stephen looked up and saw the heavens opening, and when he saw his Savior standing for him, Stephen was able to see his Savior giving him a standing ovation. And no matter what society you are in, no matter what nation you're in, no matter what event you're at, a standing ovation is the ultimate sign of well done. What we see in Scripture in this moment is the well done that we all can hope to attain for. Stephen wasn't perfect, Stephen wasn't the greatest trained, Stephen wasn't from the greatest lineage. In fact, Stephen even had to earn his way into the church as an outsider, he had to earn his way in. He wasn't born in, he wasn't raised in, but simply because he understood his assignment and he understood what was being called of him, what he's been asked of him. boldly in his fate. He continued to declare the message of Jesus. And that same Jesus stood for him saying, "Well done." Every single one of us will someday come face to face with our Maker. Every single one of us, there's not a person in this room that will be able to avoid that encounter. There's not a person in this room that will be able to avoid that face to face with look with the one who gave us life to begin with. And the question is, what will he say to you? What will he say to me? And I promise he's not going to ask us about touchdowns, he's not going to ask us about

big houses, he's not going to ask about vacations, he's going to ask what did we do with the message that time, talent, and treasures that he's entrusted us with? What did you do with this gospel that I allowed you by my grace and mercy to have? And there's really two things, it's well done, or I never knew you. What can we pull from this story of Stephen? First of all, that we can stand firm. We've got to stand firm in our faith. Corinthians says, "Stand firm, be strong, be courageous." But else can we learn from this that there's a cause worth dying for? The only cause worth dying for truly is the message of Jesus. Paul said it, "My life is worth nothing in comparison to preaching the finished work of Jesus, the gospel of Jesus Christ." And lastly, what we can learn from Stephen is that we have to prepare ourselves for the welcome received. We're all going to come face to face with that, we're all going to come face to face. And it's by his grace and mercy that we're still here and that we can continuously pursue him. Do we have to earn our salvation? Absolutely not. Do we have to earn his grace? No. Do we have to earn his love? No. But it doesn't mean that we don't have work to do. The work we do for Christ, the work we do for the kingdom, it's not an obligation, it's a privilege. It's a yes that was said to us to welcome us into that kingdom, and it's a yes that we replied to him, "Lord, you have me. You have all of me." As you come to a stand, I just really believe you guys can stand, you won't be martyred

to stand. It's okay. Everybody's scared to stand up, what is he going to do to us? None of this is made possible without the death barrow and resurrection of Jesus, and Jesus doesn't give his life. If he's not giving himself to be our Lord and Savior, can I tell you something? Because we all deal with the brokenness of life, we all want to save you. We all want to rescue, but oftentimes we say yes to Jesus to be our Savior and sidekick, our Savior and helper, but he's not truly our God unless we surrender our Lord's ship to him. What Stephen said when he was facing the Sanhedrin is, "I am not my own. My life is not about me. My message is not about me. My motivation is no longer about me, but the message of Jesus, and he was willing to look death in the face. There's some of you today who need to say yes to Jesus. There's people who want to pray for you, pray with you, they want to walk you through what that looks like. There's some here today who's like, "Man, I've said a girl, even in the last service," because I've said yes to Jesus, and I got baptized when I was younger and I fell away, and I need to get saved again, and one, we help to understand. You don't have to get saved again, but we also help to understand that today is the day to say yes to getting back, walking out and living out that salvation. There's not a process you have to go through. There's not a re-baptism. There's not a re-baptism. Jesus, the only reason why you would have that desire is the power of the Holy Spirit that is urging you to respond to Him. We're thankful for the cross. We're thankful that we get to steward these lives, and we're grateful that Jesus by His

grace and mercy has even given us the opportunity to respond to His grace and go to a place of eternity where there's no more pain, no more brokenness, no more shame, and we can receive our well done. Lord, I thank You so much for Your Word. I thank You for the truth of Your Word. I thank You for the truth of Your gospel. For each and every person here today, Lord, I pray that You work in their hearts and their minds. Holy Spirit, I pray that You have Your way. Have Your way in our thoughts. Have Your way in our emotions. Have Your way in our direction. Have Your way in our vision. We want you to be the Lord of our life and our Savior. We would repent of the times that we've rejected you. We were repent of the times that we steered back in the wrong direction. But Lord, we ask right now that you will once again wash just clean, make us new in you, help us to understand that we can live our life as new creations, all because of your truth, all because of your goodness, all because of your mercy. And Lord, we look with great anticipation to the day where we can join you in eternity, look you in the face and say thank you, Lord, and you look us in the face and say, well done, my good and faithful servant in Jesus name.