Thank you for the inspiration of holy ghosts in our mets Jesus name. Everybody
said, Amen, Amen, I want to talk to you about the resurrection
today. That's a novel idea. You know, we don't. We don't
go by you know, we're non denominational. You know, we don't.
We don't have anybody at a headquarters somewhere telling us what to preach on.
And you know, Bethel doesn't tell us what to preach on, and Harvest
Strock doesn't tell us what to preach on. So you know, sometimes we
don't preach on the right thing. It seems that way, right Like on
Mother's Day, we might preach on something very unique and different, so we
hug the moms and then preach on what we want to. So you never
know what's going to happen here. But today Resurrection Sunday, I do want
to touch on some stuff about the resurrection, so and I know the Holy
spirits in it. So we're here to celebrate the resurrection. But we're in
this region, like the left coast of America is uh, you know,
we are the most unchurched. We're in the most unchurched region in the nation.
We tie with some place in Vermont or Maryland or some place. We
have about nine or ten percent of the population goes to church on a given
Sunday. That includes Crystal Lovers, no, probably, but that includes the
Mormons, the JW's, the Catholics, the Charismatics, that includes everybody,
you know, about nine or ten percent of the population. So, you
know, and then we have statistical you know, statistics say we have a
lot more who believe in Jesus. We may have up to thirty percent of
the population and king Peers that believes in Jesus and even calls themselves Christians,
but they don't mingle with darkened the door of actively fellowship with the Congregation of
Believers, and so you know, what's up with that? I don't know.
But let's just talk about the resurrection, because maybe that's a part of
it. Maybe maybe we're not totally convinced, maybe we're partially convinced. Maybe
we've got a fire insurance policy, you know. So I had the boat
repaired the other day and the guy that came, he's a pretty cool guy,
and he told me he was a Catholic. Might be watching today.
He told him me he was a Catholic, but he was also a Christian,
and I said that's cool. And he had a living faith and I
thought that was really cool the more we talked, But at one point in
the conversation he said, yeah, I love all religions. And then you
know, my eyes got a little wider. Oh, you know, I
didn't know what she was going to drop next. But you know, there
can be some of that that goes on where we've got a reverence, an
honor, a respect or a love for all religious expressions. And part of
it could be we just don't understand the power of the resurrection, like how
the Resurrection marks Christianity. It marks this movement so powerfully that there's really nothing
that can compare to it, and nothing that has a seal on it like
the Resurrection puts a seal on Christianity and an expression of faith in Christ.
Nothing else. And admittedly we have to we really have to say this about
the resurrection. If the Resurrection didn't happen, then we are we could have
been pulling weeds this morning, or am on the lawn or fishing or something.
I mean, if the Resurrection didn't happen, then what are we doing?
Right? You got the most expensive muffin you've ever had. If the
resurrection happened, you got a bargain muffin and you're in the most blessed place
you could be on a Sunday morning. But if the resurrection didn't happen,
you just shaved, put on your colonne, brust your teeth for nothing,
and you're just wasting your time on a side. Well, you've got a
good fraternity here. I mean, it's cool. You know that we've kind
of sworn to not violate each other too much. That's cool, and we'll
kind of be, you know, quasi friends, and we've got a fraternity
here. Elks Club, you know, you know, whatever it is.
However, the dues here are higher than the Elks Club ten percent of your
income. It's that's that's a little higher than the Elks Club. That's what
makes that muffin so vincent. But so, I mean, if it didn't
happen, you know, welcome to Duwayne's club or something. I don't know,
but it's bad news all the way around, right. But if it
did happen, this is the most impactful thing you could do. This is
the most powerful thing you could do. Is love him, serve him,
chase him, gather with his saints, build one another up, be strengthened,
partake of him. If this really happened, And I think it's kind
of important that we know, because if it did happen, he really is
the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He really is the Almighty
God. He really is the Prince of Peace. So I want to just
touch on a few evidences of the resurrection, and I'm gonna I'm gonna stay
kind of close to my strip today. We're watching our time and I'll try
to avoid rabbit trails as much as possible. But the first evidence of the
resurrection is the it's called the embarrassing factor. That's the first evidence of the
resurrection is called the embarrassing factor. And what it is is that historically,
or I could say scholars and those who examine history know this about writings and
about documents, that the more embarrassing it may be to the author, the
more authentic it truly is. And that's what we find in the Bible.
The Bible and even the story of the Bible and the story of the Christ
and the Resurrection has got a lot of this embarrassing factor built into it.
And so as critics look at it, they realize, oh, you know,
they probably wouldn't have written that about themselves. So you've got all sorts
oft and you and I know that. I mean, anybody here that would
say I've never lied about myself to make my safe self look better is probably
lying already. And we'll see you in the tank later. Well I didn't
really lie, I just exaggerated. Hello to a lie. There you go,
Thanks for being partially honest. So we know this about human nature.
If you're going to invent a story, if you're going to come up with
a fable, if you're going to build something. Nonetheless, they had to
build something that was written by several different authors, and so they all had
to come into agreement about these fables and these exaggerations if in fact the resurrection
were true. And so you know, we look at this and the Bible's
got all these crazy exaggerations that it just wouldn't exist if they were trying to
come up with or invent a story. Like one of the early ones is
the guy that turns out to be the entire leader of the whole band is
at one point called Satan by the guy that supposedly resurrects. That could be
a problem. If the central figure of the movement at one point was called
Satan, that could be a problem. You wouldn't put that in. It's
like, guys, it did happen, but don't write it in. Like
let's and you got Matthew, Mark and Luke and they're the Synoptics, and
they're they've got a lot of overlap, they've got a lot of agreement.
They call them the Synoptic Gospels. And so those guys really had to conspire
deeply, right if it was fable, and so I mean, I don't
know how they paid each other off, but they would have had to agree
on certain things like and if you know, if they came up with the
idea like, uh, he called you Satan, It's like, what do
you mean, don't write that in there. He called you Satan? Right,
And so, I mean, there wouldn't have been agreement on a lot
of this stuff. But yet it's in there. It's in there, warts
and all every bad thing and every goofy thing is in here. And it
speaks to the veracity of scripture and that there really is truth to it.
At the crucifixion, and we're focused on and centered around the crucifixion. Today,
something interesting happened that again it pertends to the embarrassing factor at the crucifixion
and then the death burial and all of that. We know that men are
supposed to be the cool ones, right, and you think men are supposed
to be cool in this culture, Oh, mercy, that culture, the
men were the cool ones. You think we have macho problems today these I
mean this was macho on steroids, right. So the women were extremely lowly.
The women were to be quiet. The women had no credit ability,
no testimony they would have brought, would have had credibility. But when it
comes to the crucifixion and the resurrection, the men are all hiding somewhere.
It says, it's recorded the men are hiding for fear. The men are
hiding for fear. The men. Actually, when it came to the crucifixion,
you got Peter, the head of the whole thing, the Nias Christ.
Three times after it's recorded by these guys, he said he never would
why would you put that stuff in there? And then they all run away
at the crucifixion they all run away. And who discovers Jesus, Who sees
him first women. If you were a man, Now, remember this stuff
was written by men. If you were a man writing this, would you
admit that you were kind of like mister wimp himself hiding while women discovered him?
Right, you wouldn't write that. There's no way you would put that
in your book. But it's in the book, and it's part of this
embarrassing factor where the women found him while we were hiding. Not only that,
but one of the women that found him, let's not mention this,
Oh my goodness, why would you mention this? She was demon possessed previously,
so she could have no credibility whatsoever. And then there's stuff like,
you know, Jesus this, you know, supreme King of the universe,
who is the Righteous One, has his feet washed right before the crucifixion by
a known prostitute. You talk about sexual advancements. How brave was she?
I mean, I know he was handsome, but this was ridiculous. Why
would you put that in there? You wouldn't put that in a book like
this. To these things if you were a critic of scripture, and if
you were looking at this in a critical manner, you would say, oh,
my goodness, there so many things. It's thing after thing after thing.
In Matthew twenty eight we not it's the Great Commission passage, but but
he's there in Matthew twenty eight. But it says they wrote this in some
doubted Why would you write that in? Why wouldn't you just write everybody saw
it was obvious he was the Christ. No, they actually recorded, Yeah,
there was some doubtors there, some guy's doubted, some guys questioned,
you wouldn't put that in? And I never put that in my book.
And then he's called a drunkard. Hello, somebody all this stuff and so
this is all Now, what was happening with all of this is that?
And I think this is part of why it's all in there, because it
was all the real stuff. But part of why it's in there, and
it had to be in there, is because Luke wrote the Book of Luke
and the Book of Acts, and the Book of Acts was finished being written
by ad. So, so if you were born about the time that Christ
was born, about the time that Jesus was born, or any time before
the crucifixion, which we're talking about hundreds of thousands of people in Jerusalem and
in that region of Judea. They were born during that time period. They
all knew the whole story. They all knew all about him. They had
seen him around, they knew everything that was going on, they had heard
the stories. So actually, you couldn't even though this stuff was embarrassing,
you couldn't write something different because it had to pass the critique of those who
were actually there. The Bible and the stories of the Bible had to pass
the critique of those that were there. Because even the Book of Acts was
finished being written by eighty sixty four. So if you were born at one,
you were sixty four years old when that book was being distributed, and
we all had record of what happened during the period of the time called the
Book of Acts. So it had to pass scrutiny. It had to pass
the scrutiny of every contemporary person living then. And if it didn't pass the
scrutiny, it would have been historically, we wouldn't. There would be those
who rebuffed it, there would be those who corrected it, there would be
The Jerusalem Times was in full operation, The Judea Facebook was operating at that
time, all you know, and so seriously Josephus. All of his writings
still exist. He was a Jewish historian. There were all sorts of those
who were keeping record, But yet there is not the record of those who
denounced the things that are written in these books in that historical time. And
that's what's so amazing about this first Trinth. Let me read to you Act
chapter one. This is why it had to be though it was embarrassing,
it had to be believable. Acts Chapter one one through three. In my
former book, the I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach
until the day that he was taken up to heaven. After giving instructions through
the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen after his suffering, he presented
himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared
to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the Kingdom of God.
We know this. He came back to life, and he walked with
them for forty days. Where's the document that says, no, it was
only thirty. Where's the document that says bat, it wasn't even one.
All we saw was a mannequin. All we saw was an artificial. All
we saw was a look alike. They stuffed him under a rock. They
got a guy with a fake beard on like they did back in Nier this
morning with the kids. And they got this guy and they dyed his hair
just right and put on the same robe that they sold off of him when
they shoved him under the rock. And that's who walked with these guys for
forty days. This whole thing's a big fable. Where's that historical document?
It isn't there. There's nothing like that, because he really did walk with
them over a period of forty days. How do we know that Because the
contemporaries of that moment, and the contemporaries of those writings were living to actually
critique the writings as they were being distributed First Corinthens fifteen, First Corinthens fifteen,
First Corinthens was finished writing by a d. Fifty four. If you
were born on eighty one, you were fifty four years old. This was
being distributed to all of the church in Corinth, but it was being distributed
in all of the synagogues. It's being distributed in all the churches, in
all the house churches. By eighty fifty four, you were only fifty four
years old. You knew this whole thing. And look what it says,
first Corengthens fifteen three through six. For what I received, I passed on
to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins, according
to scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third
day, according descriptures. There's not New Testament scriptures. By the way,
the New Testament scriptures didn't exist. Yet. Even as Paul's writing this,
he's he doesn't even think I'm writing the Word of God. Oh I'm I'm
writing the New Testament. Paul didn't know that I'm writing for Strengthen fifteen.
There was no for Strengthen fifteen. He was writing a letter to them.
There were no chapters he was talking about according to this Old Testament scriptures,
according to the previous scriptures, that's what happened. And so he's writing this
and he says, then he appeared Deceiphus, that's Peter, and then to
the twelve after that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters
at the same time. Now you have to realize the five hundred brothers and
sisters at the same time they saw that, they read that, they critiqued
that they were living at that time the oldest you know. I mean,
you know, we'd say an old guy would have been fifty four. But
I mean there were all sorts of people forty four thirty two, you know,
all sorts of people that were living in eighty fifty four that were aware
of every single thing that happened, and they were aware that Mom was there
in that five hundred or mom wasn't there. No, it wasn't five hundred,
it was two hundred and fifty. That's an evangelistic exaggeration. There was
only one hundred people there. What in the world did you count ears?
What was going on? No, there was no gathering like that. Or
what are you talking about? Where's those documents? They don't exist, they
don't exist. Oh well, the apostles were skillful. They burned all the
documents. They found them really quick. They shut down those radio stations,
killed the Jerusalem Facebook, and they burned all that stuff. No, sorry,
bad theory. This stuff really happened, and it happened in the midst
of the contemporaries of that day. Second reason, we know that they were
telling the truth about the resurrection. Most scholars and historians have reason to believe
that ten of the original Apostles were martyred for their faith. Now, you
might be martyred for something if you believe because you believe it's true. But
nobody in this room will be martyred for something that they know is a lie.
Think about Think about the twelve coming together and they had to come into
a complete conspiracy to pull this off. And then they had to somehow lassu
In, Paul and others who would be contributors to the conspiracy, and they
all had to agree, and none of them could break ranks all the way
to their death. How likely is that to happen. It's not going to
happen. Not going to happen. Today. You can't get all of us
to agree about anything. You can't all of us to get all of us
to agree, let alone a lie. We're all going to agree about this
lie and how the lie that we presented, it's not going to happen.
So here is one of the proofs is that these people were willing and it
wasn't just them. But we can point to the Apostles for sure, but
so many more who were eyewitnesses of Jesus gave up their lives for him.
But they were beaten, they were tortured, they were killed. Imagine this,
the list of perks leaves Judaism. Come on over here, sign up
with us. We don't have any buildings yet. You've got beautiful synagogues.
It's all right, we're gonna have house churches. Eventually, we'll build stuff.
Well, what's the perks? We get beaten, kicked around, we
get stoned, we get tortured, we get burnt on steaks, hung upside
down. This is going to be the coolest thing ever. You can't wait
to join. No, these people gave their lives for this cause, and
it's just nobody's going to join some crazy story that all of us know is
not true and then eventually give up their lives. Fact is, they had
every motive to say these the twelve and Paul, they had every motive to
say the resurrection didn't happen. If anybody would argue against the resurrection, it
should have been them, because they had every motive to say it didn't happen
and no reason to say that it did. Had everything to lose, now
what we know about any kind of fable story invention, murderous conspiracy. We
know three things have to exist, and these things run through all corruption with
all humanity, sex, power, and money. There has to be a
sex motive, there has to be a power motive. There has to be
a money motive. But when you look at the motives of these twelve,
you can't find that it didn't make them richer. It didn't give them more
power. They had to give up their power, They had to give up
their influence, they had to give up their businesses, they had to give
up their wealth. They didn't have adulterous affairs and sexual stuff going on on
the side, and all sorts of little forticate and fun going on, and
none of that was going on. There's no sexual payoff, there's no money
payoff. And it didn't advance them. They had to give up everything.
They were known in the Jewish community, They had prominence in the Jews community,
They had stature in the Jewish community. Paul the thirteenth Apostle right added
to it. He was the Hebrew of Hebrews. He had so much stature
that he had to give up. But he gave it up all the way
to death. And so these things again, they speak to the power and
the veracity of the resurrection, that it's not a story, it's not a
fable. We're not wasting our time. You had the best muffin you could
have ever had. The third reason that verifies the resurrection is the conversion of
the Jews. Now, a lot of times we think of we think of
the Jews rejecting Jesus, and we think of that, and there's truth to
that. So many Jews rejected Jesus. But what we know is that the
Gospel was to go first to Jerusalem, and then Submaria and then the uttermost
parts. And we know that the Gospel was supposed to be preached to the
jew first and then to the Gendile. This is that was the formula that
they were told from the very beginning. But what we don't realize is that
thousands upon thousands upon thousands of Jewish people turned to the Messiah. We know
that thousands didn't, We know that hundreds of thousands didn't, But we also
have to realize that thousands did. And what would cause that to happen?
What would cause thousands of Jews? Now you had to realize this is a
fifteen hundred year religion and when you're talking about Jews, you're talking about Orthodox
Jews. You're talking about Pharisees. That's not fair, you see, or
Saducees. They're sad you see. When you're talking about those people, you're
talking about people that are extremely zealous. They're zealous, they're bound up in
this, in this, you know this, you know formula to word God.
They totally believe they alone have the only I'm not mocking them, I
love them, but they totally believe that they had the only pathway to God,
which they did, and they believed that they were God's only true chosen
people, which they were right. But put yourself in their shoes, put
yourself in their shoes that you're living in that day, and you are zealous,
you're sold out, you're committed to the Sabbath, of the law and
the synagogue. What would change all that? Literally overnight? Something changed it
over night. You have to realize, on the day of Pentecost to one
hundred and twenty that were praying, they weren't gentiles, Those were Jews.
Those were Jews. What changed things? The three thousand saved on the first
day, those were not gentiles, those were Jews. The four thousand,
added a little while later. Those were not Gentiles, those were Jews,
and there were thousands upon thousands. There's a scripture here, Acts twenty one
to twenty. When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said
to Paul, you see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed?
What caused this to Happen? Listen, listen. They believed they had
all revelation. They believed that they were gods chosen people. They believed that
no man could claim themselves to be God. That was blasphemy. They believed
there couldn't be a resurrection until the end of time, not in the middle
of a time. They believed in animal sacrifice. Now suddenly they're believing there's
no need for animal sacrifice because He has become the Lamb. They believed in
the binding law of Moses, and suddenly they believe Christ's life and his sacrifice
fulfilled to binding law of Moses. They believed in strict monotheism, and suddenly
they believe there's a trinity, that three persons are the expression of the divine
One. They believed in the Sabbath, but suddenly they believe that Christ is
the fulfillment of the Sabbath and that they can celebrate on the day of resurrection.
They believe in the conquering Messiah, but now they believe in the sacrificial
Messiah. They believe in circumcision, and it was a must. And suddenly
now they believe in death through water, baptism and a covenant sealed and commemorated
with communion. What would have caused this to happen by the thousands. It
had to be an impact event. It had to be something cataclysmic, and
I submit to you it was the resurrection. Only the resurrection of Jesus could
convince thousands of zealous Jews to turn their lives completely over to following him and
abandon their former life completely. That's reason number three. Reason number four the
growth of this sect in the midst of contemporaries. Now, I talked to
you about how Scripture was written with all of its embarrassment in the midst of
contemporaries. But the other thing that happened is the growth of this sect,
this religion. The growth of it in the midi of contemporaries was mind boggling.
Here's what we know is that the growth rate of this new religion.
We know that thousands, thousands of Jewish people came to the Lord by eighty
seventy, and that's when the Temple was torn down. That's when the Jewish
people were scattered out of Jerusalem and beyond. We know that thousands of believers
existed not only in Jerusalem, but thousands throughout the inhabited world, and so
we know that Christianity was growing like crazy. Here's what we know, and
it's growing right in the midst of all these people who knew of Jesus,
who had a relative that was there when he went up. And by the
way, when he went up, we don't even know how many people were
there. We don't know that that was when the five hundred didgethered. That
was another time when they watched him go up, and he's there for forty
days, walking and being with them. So all of this is happening,
and Christianity is growing like crazy. Forty thousand Christians by eighty one fifty,
two hundred thousand Christians by eighty two hundred two million Christians by eighty two fifty,
and we know that there were six million Christians by eighty three hundred six
million. Now this is when Constantine decrees that Christianity will be the religion of
the Roman Empire. There's six million Christians. It's growing so fast, forty
percent per decade, and by eighty three fifty it grows from six million to
thirty three million and dominates the Roman Empire. This was growing so fast,
faster than a fable can grow, faster than an invention can grow. So
what do we know? We know he rose from the dead. Finally,
my last one I want to touch on. Well, okay, I've got
a couple more minutes further here. I want to just give you this one
that even Christianity is not based on the Bible. I'm gonna just give you
a little heresy. But if you're heresymeter, Christianity is not based on the
Bible, what do I mean by that? That sounds like heresy? Christianity
is not true because of a series of documents that mankind put together, no
matter how eloquent or well written or titled, under a binding called the Bible,
Christianity would be true even if the Bible never existed, because Christianity did
not originate with a book. Christianity originated with an event called the Resurrection.
You have to realize this There were thousands upon thousands of Christians walking the planet,
rejoicing together, enjoying salvation, long before the New Testament was written,
Long before your New Testament Bible was written. There were thousands of Christians.
Why because they witnessed the resurrected Jesus. Because they witnessed the power of Jesus
in their midst to heal the sick, to drive out devils, to heal
the heart of man, to bring peace to the inner man, to heal
families and communities and cities. They witnessed the healing, saving power of Jesus.
Then they wrote about his life and his ministry. They didn't invent it
and write it down and then succor a few people in the believing of a
lie. They witnessed it first, and then they wrote it down. The
New Testament did not. The New Testament writers did not create the Resurrection.
The Resurrection created them. The Resurrection created them. There would be no New
Testament documents written by Jews in the first century. If Jesus had not raised
from the dead, it would have died, it would have passed away,
it would have been refuted, it would have perished. But it didn't,
and so you and I can be confident of this that the resurrection happened.
The resurrection happened, and if the resurrection happened, then he is the King
of kings and the Lord of lords. It means that two point four billion
people who believe in him and believe he is who he says he is,
our right are right. He is the resurrection of the life. He is
the first and the last. He overcame sin, death, hell, and
demonic power. He is the judge of the living and the dead. He
is the genesis of a new race of people, those who were born of
the spirit. He is the supreme overcoming man who has inherited the earth.
He's the only one that can restore us to Father. He's the restore of
our true identity. He brings us into sonship with the Father. He alone
can save us from the wrath of God. He alone can save us from
the wrath of God, because Adam's race is knit to the demonic realm,
and he alone can deliver us and save us. I stand this morning.
I want to dismiss those that are getting baptized to get ready and get in
the position. I've just got a couple more thoughts. Just stick with me.
Worship teams coming. We're going to go right into baptisms. I have
a fear I want to share with you as we close this morning. I
have a fear in light of the resurrection, in light of why we're here
today, I have this fear. I have this fear that we've become passe
about Jesus. I have this fear that we take him too casually. I
have this fear that American Christianity is in peril. I have this fear that
we name him as Christ and we name ourselves with them, but we live
too much for ourselves. I have this fear that we adore the blessings of
Christianity more than the Christ who gave us the blessings. We can't be Christian
in name only. We can't identify with Christ and yet not submit to his
lordship. And just a warning for you, this is Europe right now.
Europe has the cathedrals, and they have the history of Christianity, and they
call themselves Christian. But they're being overtaken by Islam right now because their hearts
are lukewarm to the Christ. It's their history, but it's not their living
life. A history of Christianity does not equal a living relationship with the Christ.
He calls us to lay down our lives for him, just as He's
laid down his life for us. A history of Christianity will not protect us
from destruction. The only bulwark against evil is a red hot walk with God
and his son. That's the only bulwark against evil. It's a red hot
walk with God and his son. The mystery of Christ is a deep romance
with the soul. It's a deep romance with our heart, and he's jealous
over our hearts. It's a romance of the spirit. It's a marriage of
the spirit. But when we have other loves, when we have other mistresses,
when we have others that we entertain with and flirt with and sneak away
with, he would rather us apart completely, because if he can't have our
whole heart, then he doesn't want the half part. This calling of romance
is a burning love. He burns for us. He has fire in his
eyes for us. John saw this when he wrote about the Church and Leodesea.
The Lord lifted up his vision and gave him a vision, and he
wrote this visionary word in the Book of Revelations, chapter three, verse fourteen,
to the Angel the Church of Ladiesea. I write, these are the
words of the Amen, the faithful, and the true witness, the ruler
of God's creation. I know your deeds that you are neither cold nor hot.
I wish that you were either one one or the other. So because
your lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I'm about to spew you out of
my mouth. You say, I'm rich, and I have acquired wealth,
and I need nothing, But you do not realize that you are wretched,
pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me
gold refined in the fire so that you may become rich, and white clothes
to wear so that you may cover your shameful nakedness, and sab to put
on your eyes so that you can see. To those who I love,
I rebuke and discipline to be earnest and repent. Here I am. I
stand at the door, and I knock. If anyone hears my voice and
opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and
they with me. To the one who's victorious, I will give the right
to set with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and set
with my Father on his throne. Do you have ears? Whoever has ears,
let them hear what the Spirit is saying to the church. Head's about
all across the auditorium, eyes close, just for a moment, if you
would, I just want you to go into a prayerful mode as we get
ready for the baptism. I'll only be another moment or two, but I
want to appeal to you and lead your heart this morning in a prayer of
opening up to the fire of Holy Spirit, new and afresh, welcoming Jesus
to live on the inside of you, welcoming the life that He gives to
be pre imminent and predominant within you, welcoming Him to be the lord of
your life. God is calling us into a fiery romance, and he calls
us out of passive name only Christianity into a life of fire and fiery pursuit
of Him. I'm going to ask every Christian across the auditorium to pray with
me. I don't want anyone feeling like they are pointed out in any way,
but I do want you to pray. If this is your heart this
morning, and you want the fire of God to reignite your heart, you
want the fire of God to live within you. Maybe you already responded this
morning as Pastor Dennis made an appeal and called you forward. Maybe you already
heard Holy Spirit tugging on your heart. I want you to pray this prayer
with me. Pray it and meet it from your heart. Let's say it
together. Father, I'm coming to you through the sun, never to take
him for granted, never to be passe about him, never to look at
his power and his resurrection without reverent fear. Father, I turn my heart
toward you. I want your Holy Spirit to live within me. I welcome
the forgiveness of sin and the forgiveness of a lukewarm heart toward you. Ignite
your passion within me, reignite my spirit with yours. Bring me back into
communion oneness with you. I welcome you right now. I cut off every
other love, every other thing that I've let come up and crowd you out.
No more, no more, no more will I let you be crowded
out. I welcome Jesus to be the Lord of my life. In his
Holy name. I pray, Amen, give him a thank offering this morning.
Church. Now you have to know that this is just the beginning.
Of a new walk. It's the beginning of a new place with you.
These waters of baptism are important because this is where we put the desire to
sin and the power to sin, and the power of rebellion, and the
power of pride to death, and the power of the old nature to death.
There's just so much more. The Bible says when you welcome him through
this prayer of salvation, that you've just come into the door of the Kingdom
of Heaven. You've just come into the door of understanding, and illumination comes,
and understanding begins to come, and a whole new life is before you.
So don't think now you've arrived. Just think that now you're in the
door, and there's so much more for you. And I invite you to
continue to pursue him, love and fellowship. Share with others what you've done.
That you've opened your heart to him. You've confessed that you want to
follow him and run after him with all of your heart. Amen, Oh
Amen, Amen, Amen, God bless your church.