I'll say it one more time. Y'all gave me two great songs to come up into this service. So listen now, let's pray and, uh, we'll keep going. Father, we're grateful. For some of us this story is so fresh and so real. We cannot help but smile. We cannot help but tell others. For some of us, this is intriguing, we're curious. But maybe it's today that we take the next step. For some of us we're a little bit further out and we're just wondering if any of this is true. Lord, I'm asking now as we tell your story, and many of us celebrate that our names are written down in glory may together we not just celebrate, but may we, may we hear your voice and take just the next step on our own journeys. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Alright, once you guys have a seat, I'm gonna let our musicians at each of our sites, uh, off the hook. Um, there is a new name written down in glory. I love that it speaks to a second chance. We are on a roll with this series, don't you think? I mean, the first week we have John O'Leary, and then last week we have Kimberly McNeil. Come on. Did she not do a great job? I'm telling you, that whole business about strongholds that'll preach, that is still preaching. I'm hoping we can keep the, the ball rolling here now. 'cause I'm gonna tell you a story about a second chance and it all comes down to one question. Alright? Now you moms out there, you birth moms, you adoptive moms, you, uh, you, you, you, you spiritual mothers, you young moms, and not so young moms. You, grandmothers, you nanas and Nonas, you, me, MAs and Mimis. You are familiar with questions? Yes, yes. You get 'em all the time. Mom. What are we having for dinner? Mom? Where's my homework, honey? Where's my briefcase? Mom? Where's that pizza that I left in my bed? I was still eating it. Mom, can I have an iguana? Can I have a pony? Can we have a baby brother? You are used to the questions. Amen. Amen. Yeah. So here's the thing. Uh, if you are a, like around six year olds are younger, you don't even have to be a mom to be familiar with the idea of questions. There was a survey in the UK that said, uh, six and under the number, now you tell me if you agree with this number. 73 questions a day. Does that sound right? Some of you're going that is way low, way low. Somebody else broke it down this way. You know, there are whats and whys and, and whens and those kinds of questions. This is the way it broke down. According to one survey, 37% of of little ones ask what questions. 22% ask when 11% of 'em are why questions. Now, I would just suggest to you, as the older they get, they almost all become why questions. But no matter how it goes, we're gonna just jump into a story now. And the story will come down to a what question. It's about 50 ad uh, this is just a couple of decades after Jesus resurrection. Uh, the story, the, the, the movement of Jesus and his followers. It's catching traction and a lot of it has to do with a recent convert. His name is Paul, and he's planting, uh, churches all over the Roman Empire. He's about to launch his second missionary campaign from a megachurch in Antioch. We would call this Syria is where they are, and they're gonna revisit all of the places on their first tour. So they're gonna work their way across what we would call Turkey. And they eventually get themselves, uh, they find themselves in Western Turkey at the, at the village of, of Troas. And it's here. That's something really historic happens. Supernatural. Paul receives this vision, and for the first time ever, Paul is now about to step into Europe. And the first big landing spot for him in Europe is a place called Philippi. You'll remember that Philippi. Now, there's a lot that happens in Philippi, but I wanna zero in on, on on one story and you'll need some background on it. Uh, Paul is met by a, a young servant girl who is, uh, she's possessed by a demon. And we talked a little bit about this last week, that there is darkness in the world. And in those days, darkness was doing everything it could to push back the advancement of the kingdom of God. There's something else that's going on here because of this, this, this demonic, uh, possession. Uh, the, the, the, the historian that was with him, his name is, is Luke. Uh, she, he writes that she earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling. And if you keep reading, you will see that she starts to harass Paul. Actually, it's the demon within her that recognizes the power of Paul and is harassing him. And he has a fill of it, his fill of it. And now he, he like casts the demon out of her in the name and in the power of the name of Jesus. And she's free. She's free. This is such good news for her. This is horrible news for her. So-called owners. You see, they had built their business around profiting from her misfortune, and now that's all gone and they're so upset that they stir up the city. There's a riot that really ensues. And they accuse Paul and one of his people that's with him, Silas, of breaking Roman tradition and Roman law. And now the magistrates have to get involved. And when they get involved, they order them, Paul and Silas to be stripped and beaten with Rods. History tells us that these are, these are, are, are wooden, uh, sticks that would be bound together. You'd get like 2, 3, 4 of 'em and you'd bind them together. And they were beaten. They were beaten to a point where later in the story you can see that there are wounds that are bleeding. So these guys are beaten severely. The word here says they're severely flogged. They're thrown into prison. The jailers commanded to guard them carefully. Now, picture this, they are bloody, they are bruised, concussed, the swelling is kicking in. We don't know, but it's ugly. And then the jailer puts them in Roman stocks. Now, history will tell us that those stocks themselves were a form of torture. They were instruments of torture. So these guys can't lie down. They can't, they can't relax sitting there in the dark, in the innermost part of the prison. And what are they doing about midnight? Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the other prisoners were listening to them. Listen to me. There's a, there's a, there's a long tradition of singing and praising God when you're facing the suffering. And if I know anything about Paul, I'll bet you he was quoting scripture. And if I know anything about Paul, he's probably quoting the Psalms and maybe they're singing the Psalms and they're praying and they are crying out. And everyone is listening in on this. Suddenly there's an earthquake that shakes the prison to its foundations. The doors swing wide open. The chains that we're holding these prisoners down are, are, are broken free. And, and here's another thing to write down. God is still in the business of breaking chains. So now this happens. The jailer wakes up his home is more than likely adjacent to the prison. That's how it worked. He sees that the doors are open, he knows what has happened. He figures they've all escaped, and he knows he'll be executed when his, uh, when his bosses find this out. So he's gonna jump ahead and take matters into his own hand. Paul, from the inner prison in the dark says, don't do it. We're all still here. And then these really interesting words, the jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas, I want you to see the jailer is trembling before Paul and Silas. Now let's learn a little bit more about the, the jailer. And I wanna give you just some historical context here. And, uh, there is one question on the quiz, and I'm gonna give you the, the answer now. Okay? So here it is. The answer is Philippi. And you'll know when it's time to say Philippi. 'cause I'll just point to you. Okay? So like, let's just practice. It's Philippi Philippi. That's great. That's great, that's great. So here it is Now it's uh, after Julius Caesar was assassinated, um, big fight for the empire. All sorts of famous names are involved. Mark Anthony, you've heard of Anthony and Cleopatra is, is that Mark Anthony? Not the one that used to be married to J-Lo. I'm reaching way back now. Uh, no. Mark Anthony, uh, Brutus, if you know your Shakespeare at two brute, all of that. So Brutus is there, the guy who would eventually be known as Caesar Augustus. Huge battles, huge things are happening. The decisive battle happens in 42 bc It happens on a big field, on a plane outside the city of. And history shows us that after the war, many of these, uh, these, these, these, these soldiers would retire and they would move into fortified Roman colonies. One of them was. And so when you put the pieces together, most experts think that the jailer was probably an ex soldier. Now, if he's an ex soldier, that means that he's got a brutal and bloody past. It means he's got blood on his hands. It means that he was more than likely one of the enforcers for, and he was probably the one who beat these two missionaries to a pulp. But now he's trembling and he's on his knees before these two. What gives, well, he could have been listening in. He could have been hearing this, this, this praying and this, this singing and, and wondering where does that kind of courage come from? He could be thinking back to what he heard about this demon possessed girl. And who is this Jesus that has that much power? I can tell you this much. His world was just shaken to the core. And his world is about to get a whole lot bigger than because now the plot turned, now the twist, now the second chance. And it all comes down to a what question. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? This is a man of action and he figures I gotta do something to impress this all powerful God. And Paul in essence says, there's nothing you can do. In fact, they, so this is Paul and Cy Silas. They replied, believe in the Lord Jesus. And you will be saved, you and your household. What are they saying here? You can't do anything. You gotta believe and trust in what Jesus has already done for you. You, you gotta get to a place where you are, are, are willing to, to say that if I want freedom, I've have to accept what God's already done for me. You see, this jailer didn't even know that he needed freedom, but he did. And apparently so did his family. Because what we see is that the word of the Lord is now explained to his family. Remember, this is the middle of the night. So everybody's awakened by the earthquake. But now Paul and Silas are explaining the gospel that are explaining who Jesus is to his family in the middle of the night. Mark this down. It's your choice. Like when that jailer received the good news, he couldn't receive it for his whole family. You see, it's not gonna be your parents' decision. It's not gonna be your your spouse's decision. It's not gonna be the person you're dating. It's not gonna be your kids. It's not gonna be a friend's decision. It's gonna be your decision. What did you do with Jesus? Will you accept what he has already done for you? This is where the freedom comes from. This is where the, the, the, the, the, the hope comes from. We've been offered a divine favor. It's been extended to us. We call it grace 'cause we don't deserve it. And we have to get to a place where we are willing to admit as desperately as the jailer did. I can't do this, but you can. God, I'll let you Jesus, forgive me. I'm gonna trust that what you did on the cross was enough. I still have questions, but I trust that you're enough. Please welcome me home. I wanna come home. And God will answer that prayer, even with your struggles, even with your questions. You could work on those inside your faith. But the truth is, he's not gonna do that because you've done something to impress him. He's gonna do that because you have received this gift that he's offering. Paul would later say, we are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. This is the good news that the first disciples were to share with the rest of the world before Jesus returns to his father in heaven, he says, I want you to go into the whole world. I want you to make disciples like everywhere, all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And then teach them everything I commanded you. Jesus is saying, go share this good news and then watch what happens in the world. Tell 'em everything I taught you, tell 'em how I did it, how I lived. Go ahead, invite them into this and teach them. Oh yeah. And baptize them in the name of the triune God. For some reason, Jesus singles this out as a big deal of becoming a disciple. One more time. There's nothing we can do to change our standing before God. But this is a step of discipleship. And it started way back. In fact, in the middle of the night, somehow you see this jailer and his family being baptized in the ancient city of, yeah, he cleans up the jailer, cleans up their wounds. Now, I want you to just imagine that he probably inflicted those wounds just hours earlier. What do you think that conversation sounded like? Man, I don't even know what I was doing. Will you forgive me? I was outta my mind. I don't know that I'll ever forget this. I don't know that I'll ever forgive myself. Now this is just me talking. But I could imagine Paul looking at him and saying, oh yeah, I know about blood on my hands. I know what it's like to regret mistakes and I know what it's like to be given a second chance. I forgive you because he forgave me. I I can hear the whole conversation. But then we read these very simple direct words. He, the jailer and all his household were baptized. So he and the family who understood what was being offered to them, they had accepted this gift of life themselves. They are now all baptized. So here we go. What does it mean to be baptized in the ancient world? Uh, that word was almost always used to describe, uh, being dunked or immersed. And that's what we see practiced in the early church. And I just wanna say to you, for those of you, maybe this is like your first time to hear this, the amount of water is not the deal. We're not gonna argue over the amount of water. We think this is the best way to describe this and we'll talk about that in a second. But if you have an, uh, like a health concern, if you have something else that's going on, talk to us. What matters is the heart posture. Have you turned to Jesus? Do you trust him with everything? And are you willing to follow his commands as he leads you forward? That's the heart posture, the amount of water. We can talk to you about that. But it's at this point that some of you're going, yeah, every time you bring this up, it's just, it's so weird. It's so embarrassing. Uh, Greg, I don't know how to say this to you, but it just seems so old timey country, church, religion being baptized. Come on. I'm barely used to you not wearing a robe on Sundays. I know I have these conversations with people. I want you to understand something here. What we're talking about is not religion. I've already said this to you. There's nothing we can do to change our standing before, holy God. But if he did this for me, why wouldn't I wanna celebrate? Why wouldn't I wanna tell the world? Why wouldn't I hear this? Why wouldn't I wanna link my story to his story? How does that happen? Baptism is a symbol of something that has already occurred in your life on the inside. It's an external symbol of something that God has done internally. Now just for kicks and cites to see if you, if you agree with this, uh, but somebody here, if you've done this a few times with this, then you know some of the things that baptism symbolizes going ahead. Now tell me what are, what are some of the things? Just gimme like 1, 2, 3, 4 word answers. Just like, what does baptism symbolize? Anybody got anything? Say it again. It washes away. Uh, it doesn't wash away my sins, but it symbolizes that God has washed away my sins. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Somebody else said something dying with Christ. So, ooh, we're dying with Christ. So there's this death business that's going on in, it's a symbol of that. Yeah. Cyril of Jerusalem we're way back, like just a couple of centuries from Jesus. He said, think of baptism as a watery tomb. Now if you have a water phobia, that's not helpful. I, I just thought about that as it was coming out. But, um, but he's saying the same thing. It, you're, you're dying to something. It's a symbol of, it's a symbol of you. Okay, what else? Anybody got anything over here? Celebration. It's a celebration for sure. And then I heard something in the back proclamation. It's a proclamation of what? Gimme a little bit more Resurrection. Your belief. It's a, it's a proclamation of what you believe. It's a, it's a, it's a picture of the resurrection, which ties really well with what he was saying about death. Anything else? This is great stuff. New life. New life. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on, come on. Let's go back. Let's touch some of these now. And, and let's start with this idea of baptism is a symbol of what God has already done when he forgave me. So in Isaiah, this is the prophet of the Old Testament. God speaks through him and says, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. It's God saying, I'll do this. When you turn to me, I'll cleanse you of all unrighteousness. But baptism is a beautiful picture of how of, of what he's done. It doesn't do it, the water doesn't do it, but it's a beautiful picture. You ever watch some of the things on TikTok and Instagram of just all of those videos of people like cleansing things and, and cleaning things? And some of you know what I'm talking about. If not, just watch this. I'll be right back. All right. So here we are, we're outside. You're kinda looking at where some of your cars were parked. Uh, can we just say that that whole idea of watching things being cleaned, it, it, there's, there's something satisfying about it. The tombstone thing was a little creepy. I I'll give you that. But it's, it's just kind of satisfying to see things that are dirty being cleaned. And that is a part of what baptism is. In fact, it reaches back. The Hebrew worship had, uh, just a rich, rich tradition of using water as a symbol for cleansing. Now again, it's not the water that does the cleansing, but water was always used to, to convey how God has forgiven us and how God has cleansed us. Now, I don't think in the old days they had high pressure, uh, you know, uh, guns that were gonna help sort of do this. But I will say that water is a great visual and it helps us to see how it is that we have been cleansed. I mean, you're looking at this now and it's like, oh yeah, that's right. That feels pretty good. But do you notice that there's a, there's a distinct before and after. I mean, when you're looking at this, you can tell what has been washed and what hasn't. One more time only God can wash our sins away. Only God can cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But there is a moment in baptism that is such a beautiful picture of what he has already done in our lives. Those of us who have trusted in Jesus, there's a before and after because you can see those who have been baptized and those who haven't. And it's a beautiful testimony of what it's like to be, to be baptized, to be surrounded, to be immersed in the mercy of God. And when we are, it is such a relief. So what I want you to do now is to go back and talk to each other for just a minute about the last time that you were absolutely filthy, grungy, not clean at all. And then make sure that you talk to each other about what it felt like when you got clean. Alright, Somebody here, tell me a great story of when you were grungy, filthy, not clean. Anybody got one for me? I got one. Yes ma'am. I'm sorry. She had a What you got? Oh, I was gonna say, when I did a fun run, um, they threw both powder and like Mud at Mm. So you were doing a fun run and they threw both powder and mud at you. That doesn't sound fun at all. Not because I don't like Mud. What did it feel like when you got all that off of you? It Felt good to get it off. Um, but then I had to clean up the house too. Great. So not only did it feel good to get it off, but then you had to clean the mess that was afterwards. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So somebody else had something over here. What was it over here? Yeah. Worked At a restaurant that we put in container Just split over Down. Okay. So all of the grease from the restaurant you were working at all collected in the grease pit over who knows how long it split and all over you. Okay, I think we're getting in touch with the yuck part. Anybody want to tell me what it felt like when you finally got clean? What are the words that you used to describe it? Relief. Thankful. Good is new. Good is new. Cleansed. You know that good is new business. Anybody like ever gets so dirty and you finally, ah, you had the shower, you got cleaned up and you just said, I feel like a new person. Second Corinthians five. Look at what, look at what Paul says. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone. The new is here. See, things are different now. And baptism is a symbol of what's different. Now. You are forgiven. Yes. The Holy Spirit is in you now. You get to face whatever it is that you're facing with God at your side. You have been adopted into the family. You are a son or a daughter of the king. But something new has occurred. Now we're going back to some of the other things that you were saying about death and resurrection. In Romans six. Paul says, baptism is a picture of both of those things. It is a picture of all of the old that you're dying to the old ways, the the the old habits, the old priorities. And you're gonna be raised to a new life. The baptism doesn't do it, but the baptism is the picture of what Jesus has already and is doing in your life. In the old, old, old tradition, I'm talking way back, ancient church, before you were baptized, you would be asked, do you renounce Satan in all of his works? Like it was a way of just saying, I'm turn it away from the darkness. You had to answer. Yes. They would ask you three times. Do you renounce Satan in all of his works? Yes. Do you renounce Satan in all of his works? Now you're yelling at yes. And then you would turn to the west and spit in the face of the devil. I'm not gonna lie to you, I sort of love that we don't do it. Lot of logistical issues like we have too many people we don't know which would to win. It would not be good. So, so, but I love the idea that you are declaring No, I'm different. It doesn't mean that you're declaring that you've arrived, right? It doesn't mean that you're declaring that you will never sin again or that you'll never struggle again. I wish I could tell you that it, it's, it's a guarantee that you'll never, uh, face tough times, but you will. But it means that you won't face them the same way. I love the way Frederick Ner puts it going under symbolizes the end of your old life coming up again. Symbolizes the beginning and you have something strange and new and hopeful you can breathe again. Now, another thing that happens with baptism is it's a symbol of, of identifying with someone. Let me explain this to you real quickly. We know a lot or we've heard a lot about John the Baptist. Anytime we tell the story of the gospel, John the Baptist was the precursor to Jesus. He's the prophet who's paving the way from Messiah. Uh, he's telling people in this moment, before Jesus steps onto the public stage that they need to repent. They need to let go of their old ways and come to God. Basically what he's saying here is, y'all are relying on your family tradition and your religious heritage. And for you men out there, you Jewish men out there, you're relying on something that happened to you when you were a baby. This has to be personal. You've gotta turn to God and admit that you need forgiveness. And now that you've done that, if you trust him, if you're looking forward to the day when Messiah shows up and takes care of all of this, I want you to step into the Jordan River and I'm gonna baptize you. Water doesn't change you, doesn't change your standing before God, but it's a great symbol that God has forgiven you. And people would show up and they would be baptized. And all of this happens before Jesus steps onto the stage. Now of course, Jesus does step onto the stage. And what we see there is that's a moment when he does take care of everything. And now the cross has, has, has addressed all of this. But after the resurrection, Jesus says, I'm going to use this tradition of baptism and I'm gonna use it as a way for us to now tell the story. If you follow me, you're gonna be baptized. But the question that should always be asked is, uh, why was Jesus baptized? Like he didn't have anything to confess, did he? He was sinless. What's he doing stepping into the water, acting like he's needs forgiveness? Well, it wasn't that it was being, it was identifying with a people. If you converted to the Hebrew faith back then you would be baptized and as a way of, of, of showing that God has forgiven you. But it was also a way to say, I'm now with them. So let's just do this, uh, real quickly. I think some of you have been asked, but would you just, those of you would I I just need like 7, 8, 10 volunteers. Just come on up here for a second and if we've Yeah, come on. Uh, anybody? Yeah. Oh, great, great, great. Everybody just line up here if you would. Yeah, come on. Um, alright. Beautiful, beautiful. Um, okay. This is super, super, super. Um, could I have these? So let's pretend now that this is the, in the day of John the Baptist. Alright? And let's pretend that all of you all have received this message and it's like, yeah, I need forgiveness. I'll go ahead and say it out loud. I want God to forgive me. I'll, I'll let this be a symbol of my forgiveness. And let's say that John was as organized as we are. So you come up to the card table, and by the way, this is Gordon McDonald's, uh, thought that we're fleshing out. But you come up to the card table and somebody says, okay, so we have a name tag for you and, and it has your name on it. And then we're gonna ask you to write your greatest sin, the one that haunts you. And then you're just gonna put this like we do. You're just gonna put this on your arm. Now, we are not gonna make anybody put their greatest sin on here, but we'll just write sin. Okay? So you're just gonna put that on your arm? Yeah. 'cause you'll see that and then just pass that down the line. And so that's what this is gonna be. Okay? Now the truth is, if we were doing that, everybody would feel self-conscious. It'd be like, Ugh, boy, I can't believe I'm doing. At the same time, at the same time, you come out here for a second, at the same time, at least we stepped forward, right? So let's just, let's just imagine that we're all standing there and we've got our sin pasted all over us. You with me? And then Jesus shows up. Jesus registers at the table and says, I'm here to be baptized. By the way, for like 60 seconds, you get to be Jesus. All right? You don't get the big head, you don't any of that, Brian. It is just, okay. Alright. Okay. So let's say, let's say that that, that Jesus comes up to the table now and says, I wanna register to be baptized. I don't have any sin. But then he starts walking along here, let me have that and, and taking everyone's sin and going, just, just going ahead and just give that to me if you would. And, and he's putting it on himself. And as, as he's, as this is happening, people are going, well wait. Like, no, that's a really despicable sin. And Jesus says, no, they're all despicable sins. But I, I'm, I wanna take all of them onto me. And we're like going, but I'm not worthy. Yeah. Come on down man. And so I'm not worthy, but, but, but okay. Jesus, if this is what you're saying, and he just takes all of these sins on himself right? Now, here's the thing. This is a picture of what happens on the cross. So like, if you guys would now all go over to that side, just, you just clump over there for a second and we're almost done. What I want you to understand is that when Jesus steps into the waters of baptism, Luke tells us he steps in there with everybody else. He is identifying with all of these sinners. It is a visible public way where he is saying to his father in heaven, father, I'm with them. I'm committing to the cross. Because on the cross is where the sin and the shame piles onto Jesus. But it's in the waters of baptism where he publicly says, I want everybody to know, father, I'm with them. I identify with them. And now, and now in the baptismal waters, it's our turn to say I'm with him because of what he's done, because of what he took on the cross for me. I'm with him. This is another way that baptism helps us to identify with Jesus. Okay? Everybody's off the hook. Thank you. You can have a seat. Uh, you can take all of those. You can take them off. Brian, you did good. In that moment, the heavens crack open. There's a voice from heaven that says, this is my son and whom I am so pleased. This is my son, whom I love. In that moment, Jesus anointed with the spirit drenched in water, is also covered with the pleasure of his father. Who says, that's my boy. So baptism is, is a way for us to do this. Lemme just give you one more real quickly. Baptism is a way for us to identify and to show loyalty to someone. One more time. Many of you have heard this one, this ring is to my marriage. What baptism is to my faith in Jesus. Does that make sense? Not really. Greg, explain it. This ring is to my marriage. What baptism is to my relationship with Jesus. See, this ring doesn't make me married. This, this, it's a symbol, but this ring doesn't make me married. Uh, would you join me here? Yeah. I said this in the last service, uh, in case you don't know, this is my wife. I did not pull a volunteer up. So that would make this the weirdest illustration ever. Yes. Uh, so this ring doesn't make us married. This ring is I I I, I confessed that to you a long time ago, but it's a symbol of my loyalty to you. Mm-hmm. So if I only wore this ring when I was with you and I said, you know, honey, I love you. Ooh, I love you so boldly, you're my schmoopy. I love you, but I'm a private person. So when I'm out in public, I'm not really gonna declare that out in public. 'cause I'm embarrassed. See, I'm afraid to look at her. What do you, how's it, it's not going well. No, no. How would that feel? It just feels disingenuous, doesn't it? It's like, no, if, if I'm with you, I'm with you. And this is a symbol of our loyalty. That is another way to consider baptism. It doesn't, it doesn't change your standing before God. It doesn't create the relationship, but it lets the world know, Hey, I'm with him. Alright, thank you for that. It's just one of those things where when we take this step of discipleship and we say, I'm gonna do this, this is how it works. All the way through the scriptures, you see, people believed and then they were baptized, they believed, and then they were baptized. And this here at the end is why we don't baptize babies. And I know some of you grew up in traditions where that happened. I understand that people fall into different camps. I will just say, uh, we don't baptize babies here. Now, there are some who ize babies who would say that doesn't change their standing before God. That doesn't save them. There are others that will say, no. If you're baptized as a baby, you're good to go with God. I want you to understand, we fall in the ancient tradition that says you need to be old enough to articulate your own faith. And then you're baptized as a celebration of that decision that you made. And we think this is so important here because we have encountered so many people who think their eternal security is wrapped up and taken care of because of something that happened when they were a baby and they had nothing to do with it. I need you to hear me listen carefully. When you stand before God, one day, he's going to ask, what did you, how did you receive this gift? Not how did your parents receive this gift for you? Now, what does the Bible say about baptizing babies? Nothing. Even the story that, that some that, that we just read today that some people will use. There's no indication that infants were baptized there. I think it's very interesting that in the middle of the night, the gospel was explained to the people that were in that house. That suggests something to me. It wasn't until like the third, fourth century when people started writing this stuff down and nobody really agreed on what to do with it. The one thing that everyone agreed was what we've already talked about. You don't do anything you trust in what he's already done. That's what the jailer did. That's what many of us have done. That's what I'm inviting you to do. And by the way, if you think you're too far gone for a second chance, if that jailer can be forgiven, you can be forgiven. Well, Greg, what am I supposed to do? Because to be honest with you, uh, I was baptized as a baby. I was confirmed. It was a really meaningful process. Someplace in there I did believe, I do believe, I know that Jesus has, forgive me, it's personal. Like, like what? Now? For me, we would say to follow the, the, the, the ancient readings of the text. It is, this is your chance to go public with your faith. This is your chance to proclaim that you belong to Jesus. Now, when you step into the waters, uh, you're not denigrating your your past, uh, church history. Nobody's taken a swing at Mom and Dad's church. We actually celebrate that. They, uh, set you on a path where you have now found Jesus. But it's now your chance to celebrate where this journey has led you. It's your chance to say to a watching world, I am forgiven. I do have a new life. It feels like a resurrection. I am so relieved. I am so happy. Praise the Lord. And it's my story to tell Greg. It's, it's so embarrassing. It's so public. It still just feels a little out there for me. You said, it's my choice. Why would I do this? The simplest answer I can give you is because Jesus said so and he'll meet you. Just talk to people who have been baptized. He will meet you there. It will be, it'll be one of those profound moments of your spiritual life. And this one, this one you'll remember. So on June 22nd, you're invited to a celebration like nobody's business. It's the weekend after Father's Day. Now it doesn't feel that way, but that is actually the fourth Sunday in ju in June. So we're asking you now, registration is open to consider that for some of you it's time to start talking about who Jesus is. People have been accepting Christ all weekend long. This could be your day, but if you want to join us, you're being invited as a guest of honor to proclaim to the world that you belong to Jesus. And here it is. What you will find is that in that moment when you're drenched with water, you've already been covered by the sacrifice of Jesus. You're, you're, you're empowered and, and in dwt by the very spirit of God. But in that moment, when you say yes, you will sense the pleasure of your heavenly Father as you stand there drenched in his love when he says, that's my child and whom I am. So very well pleased. See, if you look at all of the stories in the faces in our baptism videos, which I'm just gonna challenge you to now sit and receive, there's lots of words we could use. Victory, uh, freedom relief, worship. I mean, I could go on. But one of the words that always comes up is the word that shows up at the end of the Philippian jailer story. You see one of the last things that is said about that story in Acts chapter 16 is he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God, he and his whole household. I think joy is what you're gonna see on people's face. So now, uh, behold, uh, the wonder of God still at work in a local church, behold the wonder of grace, behold the wonder of people of all ages who said yes to Jesus. Behold the wonder of joy when you follow him and take just the next step on your journey.