[SPEAKER_00]: If you have a Bible with you, go ahead and open up to Ephesians chapter 2 and also Romans 5, we'll kind of be there mainly today and we're going to jump right in here because man today we do also get the privilege of celebrating believers baptism today and it's just such a such an honor whenever you know on Sundays like this, we get to do these things together.
[SPEAKER_00]: So last week if you were here we started off, we jumped into Ephesians 2.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were in Ephesians 1 really all spring and then we
[SPEAKER_00]: jumping into Ephesians 2 last week, Ephesians 2 begins in the way Paul and his eloquent and also very direct and sometimes almost hard way to us as the believers in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: We just hear that man, we were dead in our transgressions and sins in which we used to live and we followed the ways the world, the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who has now worked in those who
[SPEAKER_00]: gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like the rest we were by nature, objects of wrath, or children of wrath.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, swear we ended last week, but.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is by grace you have been saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can we just say amen to that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen to that, let it be true.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is by grace that we have been saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so,
[SPEAKER_00]: really today we we kind of paused at that really just mercy and grace last week today I just want to get into verse five a little bit more about how we're made alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions again by grace you have been saved last week we talked about how all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Romans 3 23
[SPEAKER_00]: We talked about Romans 5, 12, and we're going to jump over there in a minute again in Adam, all have sinned.
[SPEAKER_00]: So our sinful nature was imputed to us, and I'm going to talk more about that next week this imputation of the sinful nature in Adam.
[SPEAKER_00]: So just by being in his line, in his lineage, we are ares of sin and death in Adam.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the wages of sin, Romans 6, 23 is death.
[SPEAKER_00]: So through the lineage of Adam, all human beings born under sin are therefore cursed with a sinful nature and spiritual death that comes with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So here's a question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I was thinking as I left Sunday, last week.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was thinking this question, how then,
[SPEAKER_00]: could Jesus save us from spiritual death if he too was born in the flesh as a man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because it says that all who are born as men, all who are human beings, are born under sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: So how could Jesus do that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't he also susceptible to being dead and sin, because in Adam all have sin?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well,
[SPEAKER_00]: The answer is no, because think about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just wanted to clarify this and help us understand how Jesus is our Savior and why that matters.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus was not born in the lineage of Adam.
[SPEAKER_00]: Was he?
[SPEAKER_00]: Go back to the garden.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go back to Genesis 315.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Genesis 315, we have this thing called the Procho who won Geleon.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's that term out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Genesis 315 is where God tells Eve that her offspring would cry.
[SPEAKER_00]: crush the head of the serpent, the serpent which strike his heel and he would crush the serpent's head.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her offspring, not Adams, not talking to Adam, he's talking to Eve, he's talking to the woman.
[SPEAKER_00]: So God is already preaching the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why it's called, we're going to go on the first gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's preaching the gospel in the book of Genesis to let it be known.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got a plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm working the plan and there's going to be one that comes and is born not in the line
[SPEAKER_00]: No earthly father, but in the line of a woman, and we know the story, of course, Mary and the Virgin birth.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why that matters.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Galatians 4, in Galatians 4, verses 4 and 5, we're told that Jesus was born of a woman,
[SPEAKER_00]: Under the law, and so what that means is as a human being, he is susceptible to the law of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He must follow the law of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know that Jesus did that, and he did it perfectly.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he's born of a woman, not of a man.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Virgin birth is significant to us in the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because it means that Jesus is the one human being.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's ever lived not born dead in sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of us, born dead in sin, in the line of Adam, not Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Jesus had no earthly father.
[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, the lineage of Adam was broken in him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He became then the new Adam, or his first Corinthians 15 calls in the last Adam.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is the first Adam.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he, in him, in his line, all of us dead in sin, and then the last Adam is Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So here's the important question today.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are either in Adam right now, or you are in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're in one of those two.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, only two categories of human beings that live on the surface.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody, everybody's born in Adam, but if you are reborn, regenerated, made new and made alive, you are then born into Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those are your options.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what's the difference?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go to Romans five.
[SPEAKER_00]: So go to Romans five with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Romans chapter five, verse 15 through 21, Beth read this for us just a bit of go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Three things that I want us to see here, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: From Romans 5, 15, 21, I'm not going to read the whole passage again, but let's just look at a few of these.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does it mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: But between being an atom and being in Christ, what's the difference?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the significance here?
[SPEAKER_00]: Number one is this.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are dead in atom.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we are, of course, what's the opposite?
[SPEAKER_00]: A live in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are dead in Adam, we are alive in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm just trying to help us all understand this and kind of ask ourselves this question, am I in Adam or am I in Christ?
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're in Adam, that is just your natural self, apart from faith in Jesus, you're dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're dead in Adam.
[SPEAKER_00]: Adam's sin, verse 12, Romans 5, 12.
[SPEAKER_00]: Adam's sin abounded to death for all men,
[SPEAKER_00]: But yet, look at verse 17, Romans 5, 17, says, for if by the trespass of the one man, that's Adam, death reign through that one man, Adam, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace, there's our word, and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there it is, you're either dead because you're in Adam or you're alive because you're in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are condemned to end Adam, or you are justified in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Condemned in Adam, or justified in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at verse 18.
[SPEAKER_00]: Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, that's Adam's sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: We talked about this last week.
[SPEAKER_00]: When did you die?
[SPEAKER_00]: When did you become a sinner?
[SPEAKER_00]: A dead end sin?
[SPEAKER_00]: That happened to you in the garden of Eden.
[SPEAKER_00]: imputed sin upon the whole human race in Adam.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he says consequently, just as the result of the one trespass was condemnation for all men.
[SPEAKER_00]: So also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we are condemned in Adam.
[SPEAKER_00]: That means separated from God guilty of sin under his justice and wrath if you are in Adam.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you are in Christ, you are righteous.
[SPEAKER_00]: Free from condemnation in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: That means we're made right with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: The whole human race has been separated from God by sin and yet by the gift of His Son, Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: By faith, we are made right with Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so number three, sin, reigns and Adam, grace reigns in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, the law was added.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that the trespass might increase.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now that's the opposite of what most men think.
[SPEAKER_00]: The law was given by God, why?
[SPEAKER_00]: So that the trespass he says.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember last week we talked about sin and trespass the sin is I missed the mark.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't hit the target of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't live up to his glory in his right.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's sin in general.
[SPEAKER_00]: Trespass means there's a line, there's a law, there's a rule, and I step over it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: What he says here is the law was added so that the trespass might increase.
[SPEAKER_00]: God didn't give us the law so that we could see how good we are.
[SPEAKER_00]: God gave us the law for exactly the opposite reason.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we can see how good he is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And clearly see that we are trespassers.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are transgressors of the law.
[SPEAKER_00]: The law was never meant to give life.
[SPEAKER_00]: The law was never meant to give righteousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: The law was meant to expose us as sinners.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are already dead in sin because we missed the mark.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we're dead in trespass.
[SPEAKER_00]: I told you last week twice dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's who we are.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sin, I missed the mark.
[SPEAKER_00]: and trespass, I step over the line, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: So the law was added, actually by God, so that it would make it clear your all trespasses, your all transgressors, but where sin increased, keep reading, grace increased all the more.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that, just as sin rained in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: You will never be justified by the law.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just look right here, you will never be justified by the law.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's law is perfect.
[SPEAKER_00]: You break it, I break it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are told in the New Testament again that if you have broken a law of God, you've broken all the law.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're guilty, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: You will never be justified by the law.
[SPEAKER_00]: you will only be justified.
[SPEAKER_00]: Made right with God, put into right relationship with God and made alive by grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's only by grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord doesn't help you.
[SPEAKER_00]: It condemns you.
[SPEAKER_00]: but grace comes and through grace we are made.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of Romans, chapter eight, verses one through three.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna read this to you, to just flip over a page.
[SPEAKER_00]: Romans eight, therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are not an atom in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life, that's the law that by faith in Christ Jesus, by the grace of God, the Holy Spirit brings me to life from death and combination.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has set me free, He says, from the law of sin and death, where there is sin, there must be death.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the law of sin and death.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm set free from that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, what the law was powerless to do?
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I was just saying.
[SPEAKER_00]: The law was powerless to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that it was weakened by the sinful nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: That just means the law again.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't help you.
[SPEAKER_00]: It only condemns you.
[SPEAKER_00]: It only exposes you.
[SPEAKER_00]: The law is an x-ray showing you everything that's broken.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what the law is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the surgeon that comes into repair and to heal and to make new.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the law was weakened by the simple nature, it says, God did by sending His own son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he condemned sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: You used to be condemned.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now sin is condemned in you, in sinful man.
[SPEAKER_00]: In order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us.
[SPEAKER_00]: who do not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So now God has made your nature new.
[SPEAKER_00]: That doesn't mean you don't sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: That doesn't mean you never still miss the mark.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't mean you never transgress the law.
[SPEAKER_00]: We still do those things, but our nature is new.
[SPEAKER_00]: No longer are we dead in sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are alive in crisis.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we are not slaves, we are not bound, we are free, and we are children of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: The difference when a Christian and non-Christians is not that Christians don't sin and non-Christians do.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, we all sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: The difference is Christians are made alive and Christ, and we have the freedom now to put off sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not our nature anymore to be dead in that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are alive and we are free.
[SPEAKER_00]: by grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: Second Corinthians 521, he became sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: He became sin who knew, no sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus was sinless and yet he became our sin on the cross so that we could become the righteousness of God in him in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: So all who are in Christ stand justified right with God, spiritually alive by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we are airs now of eternal.
[SPEAKER_00]: Life, this happens by grace through faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: Say that with me, by grace through faith, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: He says that in Ephesians 2-8.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is by grace you have been saved through faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says that in Ephesians 2-5.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is by grace you have been saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: Romans 5-21.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just told us grace reigns.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is grace that reigns over those who are in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Romans 3, 21 through 25, because here's the gospel, most condensed, I think the most condensed clear presentation of the gospel in all the scripture, Romans 3, 21.
[SPEAKER_00]: But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, that is again, law didn't do it, law can't do it, law can't make you righteous.
[SPEAKER_00]: A righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known.
[SPEAKER_00]: to which the law on the prophets testifies.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the law on the Prophets, the Old Testament, was testifying, there's a righteousness of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Better question is who is that?
[SPEAKER_00]: This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe, there is no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: How are you saved, through faith by grace in the atoning work of Jesus on your behalf?
[SPEAKER_00]: He took your sin, he gave you his righteousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: So not your righteousness, you earn it, you can create it for yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is by grace we have been saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: by grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: So answer the question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you in Adam, and if you are dead and condemned and sin, or are you in Christ?
[SPEAKER_00]: If you are in Christ, you are made alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are not condemned, you are justified, you are no longer bound under the slavery of your sinful nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: The spirit lives in you to delight in God's law and pursue His glory and righteousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, again, you still have a sinful nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's still there.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can still transgress, but you are no longer identified as a sinner.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are called a saint.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're called a son or a daughter.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're no longer dead under the power of sin and death.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are made alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not just forgiven of sin's penalty.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you get that in Christ?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not just forgiven of the penalty of sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are freed from the power of sin in your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's true of us in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you are being sanctified, then sanctified, sanctified, by the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: to become increasingly Christ like.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's that's sanctification.
[SPEAKER_00]: So once we are in Christ, then day by day by day, we're being sanctified to become like Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the rest of Ephesians, by the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to get there.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to talk about our sanctification.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, again, this is what Paul was praying for in Ephesians 1.
[SPEAKER_00]: when he prayed that they would understand the hope of their calling.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's this.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're called out of sin and death.
[SPEAKER_00]: He prayed that they would know the riches of their glorious inheritance.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's Christ is our inheritance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mercy is our inheritance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Grace is our inheritance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not wrath.
[SPEAKER_00]: Grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he prayed that they would know the power of the resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are made alive in Christ now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And forever, this was Paul's prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why he's explaining these things now, as he opens up chapter two.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he has used my application for today.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to keep it short and simple today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number one, I just, I want to understand that there's the gospel requires a response.
[SPEAKER_00]: always requires a response from us.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't hear these things and not respond.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's what I mean by that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if you don't respond to this, if you are dead and sin, if you are still an atom, and you hear what I just said and what the Scripture said to us, and you do not respond.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to hear this.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a response.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a denial and a refusal to come and believe in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a free gift to all who will receive it by faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you do receive it by faith, again, there's response that's required, this is the way it happens.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the book of Acts, we actually see there's nine instances where a person or many persons,
[SPEAKER_00]: hear the gospel, they believe, and then they're baptized.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's really the order of response in the kind of the first steps of us as we come to faith in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: We hear the gospel or read the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we respond to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We respond to the news that there was a righteous Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Son of God who died in a toning sacrificial death on our behalf, and who was raised from the dead, and who alone we can be saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: We hear that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We respond by repentance.
[SPEAKER_00]: We turn from our sin, we trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior.
[SPEAKER_00]: and then baptism.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the book of Acts nine times we see that exact order of things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here the gospel, respond by faith, be baptized.
[SPEAKER_00]: Acts 2, 22, 341.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the Apostle Peter preaches the first Christian sermon in Acts chapter 2.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus has died.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has risen again.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has ascended to the right hand of the Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter and the apostles, they go out and they begin to preach the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, preaching in four languages that they didn't even know before God gave them the ability to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: All who are in Jerusalem who speak those different languages, they hear it.
[SPEAKER_00]: They hear the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it says at the end of that sermon, at the end of Peter's sermon, they tell Peter, Peter, we're convicted.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel in my heart this conviction of sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do I do now?
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's Peter's response, repent and be baptized.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every one of you he says, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then throughout the book of Acts, we see that modeled again, and again and again and again, eight more times.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you have believed, here's the action steps, one and two, one, if you have believed and been baptized, go now and do what Jesus said to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go make disciples of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go be a witness of the fact that he has died, he has risen, and he will come again.
[SPEAKER_00]: You confess it every week, church, you confess it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do we live that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ is died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you confess that to your neighbors, to your coworkers, your friends, your family, as you believe that and share that with them, and let them know.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a Jesus that died for you, and you're in Adam right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to tell them all that.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not gonna understand it, but you're in Adam.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that, and I want you to be in Christ, and I want you to be dead and sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to be alive in Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So go make disciples, and be disciple, be sanctified, and Christ by the Spirit, by the scriptures, by prayer, walk in community with other believers, church.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're in Christ, walk in community with other believers, you need it, you need that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And go share the gospel, go share the gospel of grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I try not to give too many illustrations of sports, but I think this one's pretty universal so it'll work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, if you're a Braves fan and you were watching the Braves this week, there's a guy on the Braves team.
[SPEAKER_00]: His name's Hassan Kim, and he's terrible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's just not a good baseball player.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I am constantly confused as to how he's in the major leagues, but.
[SPEAKER_00]: He, this is true, I mean, he has had a historically bad season this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: The other night, if you're watching a game, this happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the Braves are tied, five, five last inning.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's hostile on Kim gets put in the game to hit, to pinch, hit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And everybody's watching this like, what in the world is happening?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, why is this guy hitting?
[SPEAKER_00]: Long story short, he gets a hit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like this dude never gets a hit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he gets a hit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Braves win the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: And y'all, to see his teammates rush to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: run to him, celebrate with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And to hear 30,000 people in the same, just go, yes, like they're happy because he didn't screw it up, but they're happy because the brave's won, and he looked, it was just the end of this moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just remember thinking, like, you know what, all is forgiven, like it's fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's fine, we win the game, he's the hero, and everybody's just celebrating.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it just may be a thing, man, how much more us who are in Christ should we celebrate and look forward to moments when we can celebrate with anybody who would come to faith in Jesus?
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's the best news.
[SPEAKER_00]: You and I didn't have to get a big hit for him to accept us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And nobody else does either, I don't care where they're from, I don't care where you're from, I don't care what you've done, I don't care what you look like, smell like talk like, I don't care, you come to Jesus, I'm there with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to be with one another, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to celebrate with each other when anybody turns to faith in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: We celebrate this.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't judge that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We just look at grace and grace that has saved me and it saved you and we'll save every person who comes to faith in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's by grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the other action step is that if you have not believed, believe in Jesus,
[SPEAKER_00]: even him, come to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And listen, confess your faith and be baptized into Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Confess and be baptized.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to be baptized.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to confess with your mouth before your church family that you have faith in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: You call Him Lord and Savior and that you are alive in Him by grace through faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, we have a baptism here in just a second.
[SPEAKER_00]: If anybody else would like to join that, we have extra shirts and shorts and towels and that's available.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we're going to sing a song and we're going to declare that by the cross, we are made alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to sing this truth today.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I hope you just worship the Lord as we do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to step over here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be over here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody else in the prayer team wants to stand down here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love to pray with you this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: And literally, seriously, if there's anybody even right now today, you just want to go, you know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to be dead and sin anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be alive in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to come make that confession.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd love to talk with you and we'll baptize you today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or we can do it another time, but I would love to have that conversation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you that it is by grace that we are saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: Made alive in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dead in sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: A life in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: We praise you God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we thank you so much that this is true for all of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you that I don't have to earn it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have to prove myself to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have to get a game winning hit to be your son.
[SPEAKER_00]: You made me your son.
[SPEAKER_00]: You made us your children through the blood of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we will see that today.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, we love you.
[SPEAKER_00]: We praise you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.