Baptism Marks - Romans 6:1-10 - Mercy Hill

Yeah, guys, across all of our campuses, man, what an incredible story.

We are excited for Katie and the journey that she is on. And, guys, this is, man, in a world of fake, this is real. This is real life.

Is God really changing someone's life? And that's what we're going to get into today, actually. But before we do that, I want to say one more thing, guys. We want to, across our entire church, all of our campuses, I know Regionals have been affected by this more than anybody, but we have had hundreds of people that have decided to move for the mission and move from Regional to Regional North, and they are launching this weekend.

Can we give them a huge welcome also for making that move? All right. Well, guys, I want to start today by telling you I am not against dressing up for Easter, even though I have not, okay? I'm not against it in any way.

I love dressing up, and I actually bought me a really nice Easter shirt. But over the course of the last, really, week, when a lot of the text began to change and plans began to change at Mercy Hill, you know, if you know anything about an organization, we are planners, okay? And when I come to the team, don't happen much, when I come to the team and I say, hey, man, I'm going a different direction, it throws off like three months of what we were going to do. And, man, I was sitting, listen, I was sitting in the sermon, 5 o'clock service at Regional, listening to Pastor Brandt, and I just felt overwhelmingly that our church last week, and I know some of you guys are brand new, you didn't hear that sermon, but if you heard it, I was sitting there and I was like, man, our church needs to sit here for a little longer. And we were going to start the Daniel series, and we're going to promote the Daniel series, but we're going to do that, we're going to start it next week. We're going to sit here for just a little bit longer.

And so I'm not dressed up, but I am wearing kind of on my body the whole deal. This is what we're going to baptize people in this weekend across all of our services and campuses, all right, is this idea of death to life. Man, this story with Katie is real.

God has stepped in, changed my life, and He didn't just leave me where He found me, He is growing me throughout all the days of my life and pushing me towards maturity. It is not an academic set of beliefs. It is real life. It is bigger than grades and promotions. It is bigger than our kids' sports. This is real life.

And for many of us in here and across our campuses this weekend, this is where I want to go. That moment of death to life is marked in a defining moment of baptism. Now baptism does not save you, I understand that, okay? There's nothing magical about the waters or the horse troughs, okay, at our campuses today that we're going to baptize people in, all right?

But there's not magic. But it is symbolic of what God has done when He has snatched people from death to life. And it shows us something about it. And that baptism moment is meant to be a defining moment for the rest of your life. It is to be a moment that you, Christian, look back on and in all of those moments where we are filled with criticism over our own life and our own failures, there's that baptism instilling confidence and saying, you might have messed up, but God has you.

Death to life, you are buried with Christ and have been raised with Christ and nothing will change that. It's a moment. It is a decisive moment in our life.

Big idea this weekend. Baptism is a defining moment in the life of the Christian. And I know for some of us here, it's like, well, I'm a believer. I've been baptized.

That's my story as well, okay? It's like I've been baptized. I've been walking.

Okay, how many of us in the last little while here, maybe the last few months, last year, last 10 years, I don't know, how many of us have actively gone outside, sat on the porch in the sunshine and decided for a while, I'm going to ponder my baptism. I'm going to remember it. I'm going to think about what God did in that moment. I'm going to think about who was there. I'm going to think about how I came to that moment.

I'm going to think it's a decisive moment where everything is different after that moment. There's going to be others of us, of course, across all of our locations today that have never had that moment. You've been a believer for a while but you've never stepped into the water and today is the day.

All right? Maybe you've never accepted Christ before and today is the day. You're going to pray to receive Christ and you're going to be baptized. You don't even know it yet, okay? It's an incredible thing. So for us that have been, are we thinking about it? For those of us that have not been, today is the day. It is a decisive moment in our life. You know how you know it's a defining moment when everything is different after the day. There's the day before the day and then there's everything else.

The day happens and there's everything else in your life. That's how baptism is supposed to be. You know what a good analogy is for this I think? Of course, let me just say this, every analogy breaks down, okay?

I know that. But just as a good illustration of this, I think marriage is a good illustration of this. Where everything is different after that day. Now why do we, listen, why do we do all the stuff? I know you don't have to, okay? People elope and all that, whatever. What I'm saying is, why do we do all the stuff? The bridesmaids and all the people and you got to sit on this side.

No, you got to sit on this side, okay? And it's like all this stuff, why do we do all that? Because we are trying to mark a moment. We're trying to say there's a decisive moment here in our life.

Everything is going to be different. Guys, we are part of a divorced generation. Do you know what is at the very heart of divorce?

It really is very simple. You know what it is? The people that are involved in a divorce, and I know across our church and across our culture, man, there is a tragedy and it has happened. But you know what's at the core of it? Man, at the core of it, either one or both people forgot the very basic truth of marriage. And that is that two people went up to the altar but only one left. That's it. Either you forgot that or you were never taught that. But that's really the heart of all the marriage issues and the divorce culture that happens.

Two go in, only one leaves. There's a unity. There's something defining about what, you know, it's a defining moment. It's a marked moment.

I remember, you know, it was so great. Guys, you know, I think about this past week, our first college service was on Wednesday, you know, Easter service on Wednesday this week. Okay, you're doing Easter service now on Wednesday, all right? But I think about our college service on Wednesday. Hey, six college students went through the waters of baptism Wednesday night.

I mean, praise God, right? You know? But I was thinking about all of our college students and I was telling them, I was like, hey, you guys, because I mean, you know, most of them are not, obviously most, almost all of them are not married. There may have been a few. I was, me and Anna were married my senior year of college, so there may have been a few. But I told them, and you guys remember this, you know, you get right out of college in the early 20s and then like for the next three years, every single weekend, you're supposed to be at a wedding. I was like, just tell your friends, give it a break, okay?

We're friends, but I'm not coming. Okay, so, you know, but I was just kind of chopping up. Well, I remember in my life, there was, you know, I was in that season and one of my boys was getting married and I was a groomsman and, you know, they tasked me with doing the unity candle. Now, I don't know if you guys have seen the unity candle, all right? We had all this weird stuff at weddings to try to symbolize, you know, you pour the sand in or whatever, okay? This is a unity candle. It's supposed to, you know, picture the marriage is coming together and there's only, you know, two people go in.

And so, you know, one person leaves the altar and, you know, you're united, you're one flesh and all that. So I remember, and I'm not like a wedding expert, but I've been around, okay? And I said like, I remember saying to the lady that was like the wedding planner, I said, hey, I think I got this, but just so I understand, make sure I understand, like just walk me through exactly what I do, man.

I'm coachable, okay? Just tell me what I do. And she says, well, hey, this is what you do. Okay, there's these two little skinny candles on the side, got it, and there's one big one in the middle that's higher than everybody else. I'm like, got it, okay?

I think I understand the symbolism of, you know, two go in, one leaves. Okay, she said, well, you're going to walk up and you're going to light the middle candle as part of the procession and then you go take your place. And I was like, you know, I'm not a wedding expert here, okay? But I was just like thinking about that and I was like, you know, I'm not, that doesn't, I said, well, what are the bride and groom going to do?

The big one in the middle is already lit and theirs are not lit. And she said, oh, here's what they're going to do. They're going to take, in the wedding ceremony now, they're going to take their individual candles, they're going to take them off, they're going to walk up to the middle candle, they're going to light their individual candles, put them back in the thing, and then they're going to blow the middle candle out. I said, woman, that's a divorce ceremony. You have perfectly described a divorce ceremony.

One enters, two leave, right? It was so, I'll never forget this. She said to me, she said, sir, I've been doing this a long time and I've seen it done a lot of different ways. And I said, you have never seen it done that way, okay?

I promise you that. You've never seen it done like that. Not a wedding ceremony, right? Now I get, I, you know, I tell that story to kind of be funny, but it does get at the point, right? What happens in a wedding? It's like, man, the two go in, only one leaves. Now I've never seen anybody so bold to actually blow out the individual candles, but that actually is a little bit of better symbolism maybe, right? Is that you're coming all the way together.

The same thing, now again, every analogy breaks down. It's the same idea when you think about your baptism. When you think about your baptism, the old you entered and died. Candle, blown out. A new you, united to Christ, is what emerges out of the water.

It is not about getting better. It's about a brand new person that comes out. And this is what we're going to talk about today. Y'all, I think for some of us, we need to remember our baptism today and I think, and let it instill a confidence again, okay, in what Christ has done. For others of us, we need to think about marking this moment in our life of what Christ has done. Turn with me Romans chapter six is where we're going to be today and we're going to start reading here. Guys, I've got it, man, you could preach on this for weeks and weeks.

I've got to stay high, hit the high notes, but I think we can get the big ideas that are here. Romans six, here's what it says, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by no means? How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in the newness of life.

Now, this is what we're talking about today. We're talking about what baptism, not what it does, we're talking about what baptism marks in your life. It's a mark, it's a symbol. And what is it symbolic up? Well, he said it clear as day in verse two and three.

Look what he says again. How can you live to, you who died to sin, how could you still live in it? Do you not know that you have been baptized into Christ death? The first part of baptism is this concept of going down into the water and dying. Guys, some of us have been raised around churches.

You might be brand new to Mercy Hill, okay? And I'm not throwing shade, but here's what I am saying. There is a big difference in religion and the gospel. Religion, and I don't care if you've got it, it serves up in a lot of different ways. It might be southern fried or northern steamed, okay?

I don't know how it's coming, depending on where you're from. Religion though is basically this. You need to fight and struggle to overcome your own sin so that God will accept you.

That is vying. We want to vie, struggle, fight, overcome your own sin. That's religion. If you can vie, then you will overcome and God will accept you. Don't you hear in this message, we are baptized into the death of Christ. The gospel is about dying, not vying. The gospel is about laying down that old life, not about trying to struggle and fight to get better and better and better and better in order that God would accept you. That's not the gospel.

This is what religion says. Religion says get better and get God. The gospel says when you die, when you lay your life down, when you accept by faith what He has done, all right, so it's not get better and get God, it's get God and become new.

That's the difference, okay? I'm not overcoming in order that God would accept me and love me, I'm realizing that in my sin that ship already sailed. What I've got to do is realize that someone died for me in my place, sacrificially. And this is what Jesus did. Jesus Christ went to the cross for us. He lived a life without sin but then died for our sin so that in His resurrection when we are joined with Him, this is all symbolized in baptism, right?

You go down in the water, you come out. That when we are raised with Him, united with Him, that God would look upon us and no longer see our failures and sin but He would see the victories of Jesus Christ. And in believing that, we become Christians, not in vying but in dying. Baptism symbolizes a radical acceptance of dying to our old life rather than vying to become better and better and better so that God may one day accept us. Now, this is something maybe you haven't heard, all right? In the first century, baptism is a violent term.

Why? Because we're baptized into death, into the death of Christ. So we say baptism and we all think church, right? Like we're thinking churchy stuff, you know. Man, first century, they weren't, this was, you know, this was kind of a new concept in terms of the symbolism of it, symbolism and all that's in it. And what you would find then is that baptism was a lot of times associated with a violent term.

A ship sinks in the ocean. It was baptized all the way down. You understand? What it's getting at here is this concept that we are a people who in joining Christ, the old us, we are saying is dead. We are united with Him in going into the grave so that like a seed that dies, something new can come up in its place, united with Christ. So it's about dying.

It's not about vying. Look at verse 4. Jesus, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life.

I want you to mark a few phrases here if you're, if you're reading, if you have a Bible there, you can underline this stuff. The newness of life, great phrase. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. This is why we celebrate.

This is what we're so excited about today. We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we might no longer — you can underline this — be enslaved to sin. We are new, we are resurrected, we are no longer slaves. That's what it's saying if we accept the Gospel. If by faith we say, God, I understand — not vying to become better to get accepted, can't do that — but I am dying to my old self and I am living for You. I am asking that the death of Christ count for me. And now I am united with Christ. Now this is true of us. We are new, we are resurrected, in our spirit our body will follow, all right? We are no longer slaves, for one who has died has been set free. And we are free. I mean, this is breathtaking, honestly.

It really is. Think about it. That what the Bible is offering you, what God is offering, what the death of Christ and His resurrection is offering you, is not to try to fight to preserve an old you. It's to become new. You could say it like this. Baptism symbolizes a new you, not a better you.

It's not about trying to hold on and preserve what is dead and gone and old. It's about something brand new that God is doing in your life. I mean, I saw this week. Okay, so I've been to Indonesia. You know, I went on an awesome mission trip there one time.

Never made it to this place though. The Tahara tribe in Indonesia has a crazy custom, okay? And here's what they do, all right? And I'm going to advise you not to Google this, okay?

But I think most of you are probably going to, okay? So here's what they do, okay? Once a year, they dig up all their dead relatives and hang out with them.

Not a joke, okay? They dig them up. They sit around the fire, okay? They put clothes on them. They put their hats on them. They put cigarettes in their mouth and light up the cigarettes. Now we have a little cue of why they're all dying, okay? But it's like they're doing the cigarette thing and they bring them back from the dead and they hang out with them.

And I thought about that and it was just as clear as day in my mind, Christian, this is not about, or non-Christian, let me talk to everybody, any of us, this is not about trying to preserve what is old. This is about becoming brand new. You see these influencers, right?

It's about becoming brand new. You see these influencers, there's all these influencers that are like reverse aging influencers, right? And you know, they got a million followers or whatever and I mean, you know, I know, I mean many of us need it.

I know I need it, okay? I was, I remember when I was about planning this church at 28, they asked one of our college students how old I was. He was like, he's 52, okay? So I mean it's like, all right. So I mean I get it.

I understand why, you know, that's a thing. But it's like, man, we're not trying to preserve what is old and passing away. This is about what God is doing in our life. And when we become a believer, when we are saved, when we pray to receive Christ, however you want to say it, when we step over the line, that moment is marked by baptism, by a rebirth, down, death, and then boom, resurrection. A resurrection like His it says in verse 5, right? It's John 3, Jesus, what did He say to Nicodemus?

You've got to be born again. Now, this is funny, okay? This stuff, this stuff plays out in culture everywhere you look. I mean the story of humanity is in our hearts whether we want it or not.

I mean you see it all over the place. Whether it's the king has got to be buried in order to become the king in Wakanda, okay, in Black Panther. Whether it's a phoenix dying to rise in the ashes. Whether it's 2004, J.

Lo's album trying to get over Ben Affleck, what was it called? Rebirth, okay? How do I know that?

Jason Azzarello told me that, okay? So, you know, this idea of I want to become new. Like I want to become, you know, reborn. This is all over our culture. Y'all, this is the real stuff.

Katie's video, this is the real stuff of it. It's the idea that, wait, can I actually, the normal, watch for me, the normal Christian life, can it actually be that the old me is removed and a new me is put in its place? Yes.

That's what we're talking about. I'm not talking about getting better, we're talking about getting new. Reborn. What does it say in verse six and seven? Becoming new means we are no longer slaves to sin, right?

Think about what it said. In order to be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin for one who has died has been set free from sin. Newness and freedom, they go together. The normal expectation of the Christian life is that in remembering how God feels about us we would have a confidence and an identity that shakes loose sin over the course of our life that we are no longer slaves to it. Now, listen, that doesn't mean that we're not influenced by it. We can be influenced by sin, we are no longer enslaved to sin.

Man, we can be influenced by it. Of course, what does it say? We died to sin. It didn't say sin dies to us, okay? We are dead to sin. We are no longer slaves of it. What does it mean?

We are freed to run. I know this sounds counterintuitive if you've never heard Gospel Center preaching, but this is it. The way out of sexual immorality, the way out of pride, the way out of dishonesty, the way out of greed is not to beat yourself up and be very fearful that God's going to kick you out because you failed. It's to understand that in your salvation, marked by your baptism, God will never kick you out. That no matter what your failures are, and there are probably many if you're anything like me, okay? No matter what your failures are, Jesus has stood in for you.

And now, this is what's counterintuitive about Gospel Center preaching, okay? And the way that we believe the Bible teaches this stuff is that knowing that God saw you in all of your wickedness and sin and still stepped onto the cross for you and saved you, it will change you in a way that fear never can. It will change you and instill confidence in you about what God is doing in your life, that He will complete the good work because He's the one that started it. It will change your life, man.

It will give you confidence. You know, they say confidence is the super power in sports. Dean Smith, I referenced him in a book the other day, same book, Carolina Way, just a leadership book. You know, he talked about how confidence is the super power when it comes to sports, basketball, whatever. For that reason, Dean Smith would never substitute for a mistake ever. If somebody made a mistake, he would leave them in the game in order to pull them out later where it wasn't about that.

Why? Because confidence is very hard to build, but once you have it, and you know this if you ever played any sports, once you have it, it is a super power. I think what the Bible is trying to get us to see is, wait a minute, something about the newness of life, no longer enslaved to sin, resurrection like Christ. What does it say in verse seven?

You are free. There is a confidence there for you and I to run after the mission of God and the purposes that He has for every single one of us here, for every single one of us at our campuses today. There is a call, there is a purpose, there is a destiny that you can run after full speed in confidence free. And it's because of what Christ has done in our life marked by our baptism. Verse eight, now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we also will live with Him. Oh my. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again.

Now I've got to point your attention, just remember this. Okay, what did it tell us here in verse five? For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.

What type of resurrection, believer, can you expect? One that is like His. Well, what was His like? Let me read it again. Let's just let this hit us. Your resurrection is going to be like His.

What was His like? We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died to sin once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Y'all, I could, we could unpack this for a long time. I just want to make this point for everybody that's here today under the sound of my voice. If you're a believer, we look back on our baptism to remember that we can expect a full resurrection like His. That death will no longer have dominion over us. It cuts the roots of the fear of death.

And when the roots get cut of the fear of death, a lot of other fears get cut out as well. All right, so if you're a believer, we look back to our baptism moment as a confidence builder about what God is doing in our life when it comes to a resurrection like His. We, our spirit goes first. It's a little different than Christ in terms of our spirit is reborn, but our body will follow in the new heavens and the new earth, right? But for the unbeliever, I want you to ponder what it would be like for a minute to live your life understanding that a resurrection like His, no death, no dominion over Him, He will not die again, is there for you. It is there for you to grasp today and to mark in baptism today.

It's right there. Think about the resurrection. Think about what Jesus really did. And I know we're going to have people that are like, man, okay, resurrection and that's hard to believe. Actually, it's really not hard to believe.

Okay, I want to tell you something. Well, you know, did Jesus really die? Y'all, Roman guards made their business out of not putting alive people in graves. Okay, I mean, they pretty much knew what they were doing.

Let's say, for example, though, that somebody made a mistake and they did. I mean, how much faith does it take to believe that Jesus Christ, who would be 99.9% dead if He was alive, got laid in a grave and after a couple of days all of a sudden had the strength to roll away a stone and overcome a bunch of guards. It didn't happen. People say, well, you know, the disciples stole the body. That is ludicrous.

You know why? Because most of them died horrific martyrs' deaths and nobody dies for a lie. Not when they know it's a lie.

Not when they're the ones that stole the body. It just doesn't, it just, and I know people say, well, okay, all right, I'm not saying Jesus didn't come back, but He certainly didn't come back in a body. Okay, He was a ghost. Well, you know, the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ sat down with His disciples and ate a plate of fish. Do you know any ghosts that do that?

I mean, think about it. It's like, no, the Scripture is telling us that He came back in a glorified state and we can expect the same thing, that death will never hound us again. And for the believer in the room, that's true of us today. I want you to hear today, new life starts now and ends never.

It starts now. When you become a believer, it starts right then and it ends never. And all of a sudden we become freed to run after good things like biblical moderation in all things, like not being afraid of death and fear not gripping us in other areas of our life. We can begin to live into the beauty of God's design for marriage, where a man would leave his household, a woman would honor him in that, that kids would be discipled, the family would mirror the church, elders, deacons, people being discipled. It's a beautiful thing that we would live into God's vision for sexuality. We would become a generous people. Everything would be different about our lives because we're free, because we're new, because we're no longer enslaved, because death has no dominion over us. All of this is true of us. If you are a believer, we will eat differently, think about creation differently, adopt children differently.

Y'all, we will learn to live quietly in terms of our hearts differently. It doesn't happen all at once, but this is the normal progression of the Christian life because we are free, because there is a confidence that has been put into our heart. I want to call you guys across all of our campuses then to honor God with your baptism this weekend. I think we can honor God with our baptism in two ways. The first way is for the believer that has been biblically baptized, meaning you became a Christian, your baptism by immersion followed that. This is what we believe the scripture teaches, no apologies about that. You're now walking in, you know, that's true of you.

Okay, that's true of me too. I got saved when I was six years old, this is no joke, okay, I got saved when I was six years old sitting in the front of my dad's truck in a Winn-Dixie parking lot after a church league softball game. It does not get any more Southern Baptist than that, okay. Man, we went through the whole baptism class. My mom took me through the baptism class with a Sunday school teacher from the church, came over to our house every day, you know, for once a week for a few weeks and we went through this book together. I remember the book, you know, went and talked to the pastor. I remember, I was six years old, man, I remember, you know, we did it different back then, you know, it was like I got, you know, I got this robe thing and they put me ahead, they filled up this whole baptismal in the church and I can still, I can still remember, and I grew up in that church, I can still remember the smell of that room because it was that North Florida sulfur water smell.

Feels like home to me makes Anna gag, okay. And I remember it, man, and I was baptized and they gave me a little communion cup made of glass. What was that signifying? Hey, you are now in, you need to begin to take communion with us, you're part of the body, six years old now. I remember that.

How much am I remembering that? Are you pondering your baptism? Are you thinking, that's what I want to call you to do this weekend. Man, ponder your baptism. Think about your baptism.

It was a marked moment. Christian, there's been times in your life where you have fallen down, but you've never fallen away. You've been influenced by sin, but you are freed and you're not enslaved to sin. You are free, you are new, and it was marked by the greatest symbol that's ever been given, and that is baptism.

And let's sit and let's ponder. When criticism begins to creep in, can we not replace it with confidence by thinking about, you could say it like this, your baptism was, I should say, the defining moment in a lot of ways. It was a defining moment, so remember it often. Hey, you can remember it. Man, go back on your time hop thing if you've been baptized here, you know, and think about that. Maybe you could even repost it. Tell your story to somebody else. Me telling y'all my story makes me remember my story.

That's a good thing. I think about this, man, when your kids get baptized, how can we help them remember it? One of our pastors here, Pastor Brant, made this for his son when he was baptized.

It is a picture that is coming now. Okay, you know, it's this, you know, wood burn, you know, kind of burn the wood in it, and this kind of idea, hey, born on this day, reborn on this day. You know, maybe mark it in your, hey, what day were you baptized? Just think about the day of the year.

Maybe mark that. You know, we do that in our life when it comes to faith and, you know, Anna is really good about this. Like there's a birthday, but then there's a gotcha day, you know, because of faith Anna's adopted. And I don't, you know, we celebrate our birthday. What about our rebirth day or even, or even our baptism day where we think about, you know, what did God do and how I marked that? So let's think about that today, man, death, burial, resurrection for you, newness of life.

All right. But then there's another group of people here, y'all, and we just don't have that story. Man, you don't have that story of baptism because maybe you have become a believer, but you know, man, I was actually baptized when I was five years old, but I didn't get saved till I was 15 years old and nobody else knows that. Today's the day that we nail this down, that we mark a moment, that we decide we're no longer going to rob God of the glory that he deserves for what he has done in my life. You know, there might be people here today. They're like, you know, when I was, I was an infant, I was sprinkled. I've become one who understands the symbolism of baptism, death, burial, resurrection.

Like I get it. You know, you go down in the tomb, water, you come out and I should do that, but I don't know if my parents are going to listen. The truth is, I don't know what they're going to say either.

I don't know. I know the life that they wanted for you is probably the one that you're living. If you're thinking about this, you know, that's probably what they want in terms of, in terms of following Christ. But there's others that you are right at the line and it's not about, I need to get baptized because God did something my life last month, last year, five years ago, you need to get baptized today because today's the day that you actually put your faith in Christ. That you admit your sin and you believe in what Christ has done for you. And you confess him as the Lord of your life. You realize today that in sin, I am so far removed. The wrath of God rests upon me. Hell is what awaits me. I can't work my way.

I can't vie. But today is the day that you could accept what God has put forth in the gospel to say, you put your faith in what Christ has done. You die to your old life and you'd be united with him today. Jesus stood in your place.

You can believe that today. You know, I think about how many of us might be right at the line. You've been hanging out, you're coming around, but Satan is pressing in on you. Man, he's pushing you. He's trying to get you to believe that there's nothing else that can be done in your life. In a crowd this size, just in this room, I know across our campuses, there are probably some people here that are even contemplating if they're going to be here next year. This might be a last ditch effort for you.

Man, I'm coming in. I feel like the tunnel is dark and I don't see a light down there. And you're wondering if God can do something major in your life.

And I'm here to tell you that he can. There's a story that's been told for, I don't know, man. It's been told for 150 years probably. I tried to track it down the best I could. I think it comes out of a journal in like 1888.

But the story basically goes something like this. You know, there was a painting. You can actually look up the painting. It's a painting by some French guy that I wouldn't be able to pronounce his name, so you'll have to look it up, okay? I don't know. But the painting is called Checkmate.

And some of you, you know, if you Google it, you can find it very easily. And the painting is this. It's Satan on one side and this dude on the other. Satan's got a smug smile. The other guy's holding his head like, you know, and you kind of get the impression and you can start looking at the pieces and you're like, oh, man, they're playing chess for this dude's soul, okay? It's like the 150-year-old French version of Devil Went Down to Georgia, all right? And this guy's lost. And he's realizing, man, he's in checkmate and he's lost and there's nothing else to be done.

And Satan is gloating. And the story goes that the painting was in the Louvre. And a group of students came through and some of them were athletes, some of them were different things or whatever. And one of the guys that was there was a chess player.

He was like a champion, but he was a kid. And everybody moved on and all that. He got engrossed in this painting. Chess, obviously, he was looking at it. And he was just staring at it.

And they began, you know, everybody's moved on. They're all looking at everything else or whatever. He stands there for hours and he's just engrossed by this painting. And finally, somebody comes up to the kid and they say, hey, like you got to, you know, you got to go with the rest of your group or whatever.

And the kid turns around and he says, hey, they're either going to have to change that painting or they're going to have to change the name of that painting. Listen to me, because the king has one more move. And upon looking at the painting and playing out the game, they realize not only did the king have one more move, but a talented chess player could overcome and actually turn the tables and win the game. You might be here today at one of our campuses thinking that the king is done, that there's nothing else that he can do in your life.

I'm here to tell you the king has one more move in your life, but it's not going to come through vying and fighting and struggling to get better. You're going to have to come to the end of yourself today. Would you bow your heads with me and close your eyes for just a moment here? Listen, I'm going to do a pretty significant invitation for those who need to be baptized today in terms of some of us that are, you know, you've been around and you know that today is the day, even though, you know, you were saved years ago or whatever.

But the first thing that I want to do is I want to give space across all of our campuses for the people that truly just flat out need to give their life to Christ today, that need to believe that the king has one more move, but it's not going to come from you vying. It's going to come from you coming to the end of yourself and deciding I will throw my lot in the faith. I will throw it in not to know about it, but I will have faith in Christ and the gospel and the way that you have faith in that chair that you're sitting in.

You know about chairs, but you decided to sit down. That's what we're talking about today. And so listen, if you, if you have come to that place and you know, man, today is the day of salvation, then I want to call upon you to pray this prayer with me. People have been praying this prayer for 2000 years, not a magical prayer. It's just praying, God, I know that I can't work my way into heaven and to your family, but I know that you accept me right here, the way I am. If through faith, I claim that Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life, that he has substituted himself for me. And I'm going to give you the opportunity to do that. You can just pray with me in your heart right now, right?

You just repeat after me. It's ABC, admit, believe, confess. God, I admit that I'm a sinner. I know that in my sin, I can't work my way into heaven. But God, I believe that Jesus took the penalty for my sin on the cross. I deserve death.

He died. I deserve eternal punishment. He took my punishment. By his stripes, we are healed.

I believe that Jesus stood in my place and in his resurrection offers me the newness of life. And I will confess him as the Lord of my life. Father, I pray right now, Lord, that those in our midst that are that are here today, that that are going to pray this prayer right now. God, I just ask that they would have the courage to take this next step that we're asking of them that you're asking of them. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.