Well, if you're a guest, welcome to Cross Assembly. Again, my name is Chris, and could we just put our hands together and say hi to our guests, whether they're here in the room, or they're online, or you're at North Raleigh, or our soon coming Benson Campus. We're hoping, I hate to even say it, we're hoping to open our Benson Campus in January. Now, here's the deal with the Benson Campus. It's a little 6,000 square foot building, and we're going to add an additional 4,500 square foot building for the Children's Ministries, but we're not able to get the children's building started yet. We're applying for the permit now, and if you're in the construction world, you know things are very delayed, and so we're going to start and cram those kids into that 6,000 square foot space with the families, and then we're going to be under construction for six to eight months building this 4,500 square foot building, and that will allow for a proper children's space. And then once we're done with that, we'll reconfigure part of that 6,000 square foot building that's there, so we'll have a lobby space and those kind of things.
So it's a multifamily building. We're really excited about it. Pastor Danny is going to be leading that campus down there, and Benson is going to be amazing. Can we take a moment and pray over the Benson Campus right now?
Would you join me? Father, thank you for the privilege you've given us of gathering under one name. It's the name of Jesus by which all must be saved. And Father, we thank you that you've given us a place in Benson to have another campus, and God, you've opened that door for us.
We weren't looking there. You brought it to us. God, I ask for your perfect timing. I pray I bless Pastor Danny and you and the entire team, and Lord, as we launch this campus in January-ish, we hope, Father, that's the plan. God, we ask that you would draw in people from around that area that don't have a church home, that don't know you.
They could come to know you. In Jesus' name, everybody said amen. Hey, Pastor Chad is away on the world's shortest sabbatical. The deacons offered up sabbaticals to some of the senior leadership here at the church at Pastor Chad, and they're like, you can go away for several weeks.
He goes, I'll go away for two. He's gone for two weeks right now, and he'll be back next Sunday, so we're excited about that. And of course, today is a water baptism Sunday, as you can tell from the tanks up here. And I want to say hi to the folks at North Raleigh. I've not done that.
Good to see you guys. And we do water baptism because it is a public proclamation of an inward commitment. It is, we don't get baptized so we can get saved. We get baptized because we are saved. We don't go down to the water, which is symbolic of dying to ourselves, and come out of the water, which is symbolic of becoming new in Christ so that we can go to heaven. We do that because we've already made a commitment to follow Christ, and we want to tell the world.
It's kind of like a couple getting married. They want to make a public commitment in front of friends and family. And so we have about 34 or so people here and about 14 or so people at North Raleigh that have signed up to get baptized today. So we're going to do that at the end of the service. But both here and at North Raleigh, and if you're watching online and you want to come in and get baptized, maybe you want to join some of those folks that are getting baptized spontaneously today. So during the teaching time today, I want you to think about that because if you've never made that decision publicly or never publicly declared your follow Christ, this is your day.
And I want to encourage you to consider that, and we have clothing and those kind of things for you so you don't get hypothermia on the way home. Okay? All right.
Good. Well, Pastor Chad has been in the book of Mark, and we're going to continue in the book of Mark. Before we read the passage, we're going to be in Mark Chapter 6. It's a passage where Jesus is in Nazareth, his hometown, and is rejected.
I want to give you a little bit of context to this story so you can understand what's happening here. As Pastor Chad has mentioned, Mark was written by John Mark, who was the cousin of Barnabas. He was the helper to the first three missionaries in the early church.
Paul and Barnabas and Peter. And Mark is written in Rome, Italy. It's where Peter was because he had been arrested, and it's written sometime between 80, 65, and 70, about 30 to 35 to 40-ish years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. And it is the eyewitness account of Peter because John Mark had not experienced Jesus as an eyewitness. He ministered with those who had, and so for decades he had heard these stories from Peter about Jesus' public life and ministry.
He had been around the family of Jesus. And so he writes the gospel of Mark to the church in Rome. And in fact, there's a lot of Latinisms in Mark. There is also some Aramaic at times because he smoked Aramaic.
He was known as Peter's interpreter because he spoke Aramaic. And so John Mark is writing this to the church in Rome. And we have Matthew Mark and Luke, and they're called synoptic gospels, sin meaning same, optic meaning I. And that means they are all telling the story of the public life and ministry of Jesus. And some of the gospel stories include the same story.
In fact, Mark is the earliest written one, and there are portions of Mark that appear in both Matthew and in Luke. Now sometimes people who want to argue against the validity of scripture will say, well, the difference is different gospels disagree with one another, and they just misunderstand what's happening when they say that. They don't disagree.
They compliment one another. It's much like sports commentators reporting a game. If you've been watching the World Cup, right, every commentator is going to report to a certain audience.
They're all going to report the score and the major happenings in the game. But then some are going to tell some specific stories that relate to their audience. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are writing to different audiences, and so they relate their stories to different audiences. Matthew was written to Jewish people, so he talks a lot about a Messiah because the Jewish people were looking for that Messiah. Mark doesn't do that as much because he wasn't writing to Jewish people. And so they don't actually disagree.
They compliment one another. I was in the Middle East not long ago and was talking with a man who was Muslim, and he kept insisting to me that the Bible has multiple versions of itself and that it's not accurate. And none of that is true.
I was in a discussion mode, so it was a short argument, but I tried to explain to him. I said, just because we have English translations of the Bible and multiple translations of the Bible doesn't mean we have different versions. The Bible is very accurate. So Matthew, Mark, and Luke synoptic gospels, and Mark is writing to the church in Rome. And Jesus' public ministry was about three years, and it happened between 8028 and 8033, somewhere in there.
We don't know exactly if it's 8028. But in that range, three public years of ministry, and we know that because they're dated by Passovers. And of course, as you know, a Passover was when the Jews would remember what God did in delivering them from Egyptian slavery, where the last miraculous plague that came upon the Egyptian people was the death angel that would pass over their home because of the blood of a lamb on their doorposts. And every year, they would gather often in Jerusalem or wherever they may be to remember Passover. And in fact, Christ was crucified on Passover and is considered to be our Passover lamb because the death angel passes over us when we have the blood of Christ in our life. And so the public ministry of Jesus was a solid three years dated by four different Passovers. When Mark begins to write his gospel, he begins to describe the early part of Jesus' public ministry. And in the times of Christ, and even today still, they had a thing called a synagogue. And a synagogue would have been a public gathering and a meeting. And in fact, I'm going to go ahead and have them put up the slide of the map of Israel.
If you could put that up behind me, that would be great. If you look at the map, you'll see Nazareth. That's the story we're going to talk about is Nazareth today. This is where the story occurs.
The next slide is a modern-day photo of Nazareth as it is today. And in fact, the building in the center that's really lit up right there is the Church of the Annunciation. It sits over top of a bunch of caves that they think were one of those caves where Mary lived. I don't know if they know that for sure, but a lot of people lived in caves because there are natural formations there. It was probably in a cave because they would use the caves for animals.
They would use the caves to live in. And so this story happened in this area. The next slide will show you a photo I actually took when I was in Nazareth of a cliff side there. And the reason why I tell that story is because Luke records another happening when Jesus was in Nazareth, and they got so upset at him that they decided they were going to throw him off a cliff. They didn't do that, but there are cliffs all around Nazareth. Was this the cliff that they tried to do this with?
Nobody knows which cliff it was, but this is Nazareth today. Now the next slide is a synagogue, and it's in Capernaum. And Capernaum is not where this story occurs, but it's a good example of what they look like. They would be rectangular buildings. They weren't super large, and they would have columns, and they would have stone benches all around them. And in fact, the next slide is an actual first-century remnants of a synagogue in a place called Gamla in the Galilee region. And in fact, Jesus may have gone to this one.
We don't know if He did or not, but this is what they look like. They would have stone benches. You can see the stone benches surrounding it. There's some remnants of some columns there.
Obviously, the building has long been deteriorated since then. But this is where this story occurs. And so when you read what we're going to read here in a moment out of Mark chapter 6, this is where it occurs. Jesus goes in on a Sabbath, and at the Sabbath, and they would use a synagogue for all kinds of things, schools, community gatherings. But on the Sabbath, on that Saturday, they would go in there and they would worship. They would pray the Shema. They would pray different prayers. They would read from the Old Testament, the Torah, as they would call it. They would read from the prophets, and then someone would teach. And Jesus in His early public ministry would go from town to town. And when He got there and He would go on the Sabbath, He would go into the synagogue. He would open up a scripture.
It was given to Him because He was recognized as a teacher at that point, and He would teach to them from the Word of God. And so with that being said, we're going to be in Mark chapter 6. No more history lesson. We'll get into the message here. If you'll please stand with me this morning, we're going to be in Mark chapter 6, and we're going to read together. They're going to put that up on the screen from you. I'm reading from the ESV.
All right? Mark chapter 6, verse 1. He went away from there, meaning Jesus, and came to His hometown, Nazareth, and His disciples followed Him.
And on the Sabbath, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many who heard Him were astonished, saying, Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to Him?
How are such mighty works done by His hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joseph, and Judas, and Simon? And notice His adoptive father Joseph is not appearing there because he has probably passed away at this point. And are not His sisters here with us? And they took offense at Him. And Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown, and among his relatives, and in his own household. And they went out there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them, and He marveled because of their unbelief, and He went about among the village's teaching. Thank you.
You may be seated. May God bless you in the reading of His word today. Just because we know about Jesus does not mean that we are following Him. Just because we know who He was or what He did does not mean that we know Him. Just because we are aware of who Jesus was or is and what He has done does not make us a Christian. Just because we know about Jesus doesn't mean we're following Him.
And I'm going to talk in a moment about what it means to follow Christ. Before I do, I want to give you, if you're a note taker, two common reasons people are offended by Jesus. When it says they were offended in that passage, the word there is scandalizo. It's where we get our modern word scandal. They were scandalized by it.
It meant that it was to cause the stumble, to give offense, to fall away. They were stumbling over who Jesus was. They were offended. Why were they offended?
Why were they offended? One of the things that has happened throughout church history is that people will make a claim and say there's no way that Jesus can be fully God and fully man. He had to be one of the other. So some groups through church history will come out and say, well, He really wasn't fully human. And others will come along and say, well, no, He really wasn't fully divine. If you talk to a lot of different faiths, in particular Islam, they'll say, well, Jesus was a good prophet.
We believe in what the NGO says. We believe it's corrupted, but we don't believe that He was God. Well, they're stumbling over the fact that Jesus was fully human.
Why? Because they had grown up with Jesus. They had been in a synagogue with Jesus. He was a carpenter, whether that was a stonemason or woodworking, we don't know.
A lot of modern scholarship things, it was a stonemason. But even so, they had hired Him as a contractor to do work. They knew who He was. They had seen Him sweat. They had seen Him sleep.
They had seen Him eat. They knew Him as fully human. Jesus did not come to the earth partially human.
He came fully human. And they are offended by His humanity because they knew Him for who He was. They refused to accept Him for who He was as seen by His words and His work in lieu of who He was as known by them. In John 7.15, the Jews therefore marveled, saying, how is it this man has learning when he has never studied? And what they meant by that was if you had parents that could pay for it, if you were a promising young student, you would be dedicated as a young man to studying the Torah, the prophets, the minor prophets.
He had not experienced that. First Timothy chapter 2 verse 5 says, For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, which is a testimony given at the proper time. They were offended by His humanity because Jesus was fully human. If you were working around Jesus and He sweat, it meant He stunk just like you and I did. Right?
Don't take it, you know, that's gross. But it's true, fully human. You can see this with Jesus all the time. You know, there are times or stories in the Bible where He would fall asleep in a boat while there was a storm going on and people over spiritualize that. He was physically exhausted from ministry.
He was fully human. People are also offended by Jesus' divinity. Some people say Jesus did not claim to be God, but if they claim that, they have not read the Scriptures. John 8 57, Jesus is teaching, and the Jews, the leadership among the Jews, Pharisees, Sadducees, teachers of the law, are offended by Him. And they say to Him in verse 57 of John 8, You are not yet 50 years old, and have you seen Abraham?
Jesus would have been about 30 to 33 years old at this point. Abraham being the father of Israel. Jesus said to them, and I want you to listen to these words, truly, truly, and He wasn't stuttering, when you would say truly, truly, it was a way of emphasizing something. I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. So that is either crazy, right, or He is lying, or He is who He said He is, Lord. So before Abraham was, I am, their response was, they picked up stones to throw at Him.
He was in the temple at that time, and He went out from among them. I love this passage in John 17 at the Last Supper. When Jesus had spoken these words, He lifted up His eyes to Heaven and prayed, Father, the hour has come.
He is about to be crucified. Glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You, since You have given Him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. I glorify You that they know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
I glorify You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave Me to do. And now, and I want you to listen to these words very carefully, Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
God exists outside of time, space, and matter, and Jesus is declared Himself and by others to have also been there from the beginning of creation and before. In Luke chapter 5, we see a passage where some men who had faith for a man who was paralyzed were trying to get this man to Jesus, and they tore a hole in the roof of probably Peter's home in Capernaum and lowered this man down to Jesus. And seeing their faith in Luke 5-20, Jesus said to the man, Young man, your sins are forgiven. But the Pharisees, religious leaders, and teachers of religious law said to themselves, Who does He think He is? That's blasphemy. Only God can forgive sins.
Jesus knew what they were thinking, so He asked them, Why do you question this in your hearts? Is it easier to say your sins are forgiven or stand up and walk? Remember the young man was paralyzed. So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins, whom only God can do. Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home.
And He stood up, He picked up His mat, and He went home. Jesus is fully divine, and He is fully man. Yet, Jesus was amazed and marveled by their skepticisms. His words and His work were from God, but those who rejected this inherent claim in His ministry could not experience God's redemptive work on their behalf. They rejected Jesus. He did miracles in front of them. They rejected Him. Sometimes we say, Well, if somebody could see a miracle, they believe, and there is truth to that. But there are stories in the Bible where miracles occurred in front of people like we just read, and yet some people still did not believe.
He was rejected by those who knew Him best. Just because we know about Jesus does not mean we are following Jesus. To follow is to obey Him. To follow is to obey Him.
John 15, 12, again at the Last Supper. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. To be a follower of Christ means that you say, Lord, your ways, the Bible says, are higher than my ways.
Your thoughts are higher than my thoughts. Lord, I am going to submit and obey to what you say over what I think is best. I'm going to obey. In John 14, Jesus said, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him and will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. Just because we know about Jesus does not mean we are following Him. To follow Him is to obey Him. John 6, 46, Why do you call me? Jesus says, Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you. To follow Jesus is to obey Jesus. To follow Him is also to serve Him. Ephesians 6, verse 5, Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, and he says, bondservants.
I'm going to stop there for a moment. The Greek word for that bondservant should be better to be translated bond slaves, people who chose to be a slave by a bond of their heart. Dulos is a word that literally meant servant slave.
It refers to someone who is the property of another, and the people of the first century knew about this because slavery was rampant in the Roman world. Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart as you would Christ. So Paul is speaking to people who are actual slaves, not by the way of eye service as people pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, dulos of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a goodwill as to the Lord and not to man. To follow Him is to serve Him, 1 Corinthians 7, for He who called, pardon me, for He was called in the Lord as a bondservant against someone in the church in Corinth who was a slave is a freedman of the Lord, Paul says. Likewise, He was free when He was called as a bondservant a dulos of Christ. This is the one that blows me away. James 1, 1, the half brother of Jesus.
I want you to think about this. The half brother of Jesus, you know, I don't know if you ever heard this growing up, why can't you be like so and so? I wonder how often Joseph and Mary said to his siblings, why can't you be like Jesus? He does everything we say.
He walks on water. What's wrong with you? Could not be a worse brother than to have Jesus, the perfect man-god, as your sibling. James knew Jesus intimately as a brother.
I have two younger brothers. I consider them my friends. I will never call them my Lord.
Those were fighting words. Besides, God gave me two younger brothers that are taller than me, and I resent them still to this day over that. But I've asked God in heaven if I could just be one inch taller for all eternity. Amen. Do you sense the bitterness in my heart?
Short people. All right. James writes this in his letter to the church as James leading the church. James writes it in James 1, 1. He says, James, a servant of God, the word he uses there is dulos, slave, and of the Lord Jesus Christ. The brother of Jesus is so convinced by who Jesus is that he himself, though he grew up with him, says, he is not my equal. I am his slave.
I am his bondservant. I serve him. Just because we know about Jesus does not mean we are following him. To follow him is to obey him. To follow him is to serve him.
To follow him is to trust him. Nicodemus comes to Jesus, John chapter 3, leading teacher of Israel at the time. He sees something about Jesus that he thinks is real, comes at night, asks him about who he is, and Jesus, among several words, says these words. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him, that is a Greek word, pisteo, meant to believe, to trust, to entrust. He describes the act of believing or trusting something on the basis of its truthfulness and reliability that whoever pisteo in him believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him, whoever believes in him, pisteo in him, is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the one and only son of God. To know him, to follow him, pardon me, is to trust him. One of my favorite proverbs, you probably know it, Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. Just because we know about Jesus does not mean that we are following Jesus. Just because, and I'm walking off camera here, sorry North Raleigh, just because I believe these stairs exist does not mean I am standing on them.
Just because I know they're real does not mean I have a relationship with them. Right now I am not trusting in the stairs. Right now I am trusting in the stairs. I am putting my weight and trust in Christ. This is what it means to be a follower of Christ. I am putting my hope and trust in my weight on Jesus for my forgiveness, for my eternal life, for my purposes, for my plans, for his will for my life, because he knows better, because he loves me more than anyone and wants the best for me anyway. Amen? This is what it means to trust in Jesus. It means to put our weight in him. Amen?
Sorry baptism team. I put it back in the right spot. There we go.
And back on camera, sorry North Raleigh. Okay. So, to follow him is to trust him. Faith is required, trust is required to both understand Jesus' message and experience his miracles. Finally, to follow him is to know him. Religion is not about relationship.
Religion is spelled D-O. You must do this and do that and you do enough of it and whatever God you're serving will hopefully forgive you. Had an argument with a lady overseas when I was in the Middle East not long ago. And she said something really interesting to me. She said, you're telling me that one man died and through his death all the sins could be forgiven and someone could be a murderer and do atrocious crimes and they could put their faith in Jesus and their sins could be forgiven?
I said yes. And she said, that sounds completely unfair. And I said, it is. It's unfair to God. He cheated himself. It's not unfair to you and I.
It's unfair to God because he is the one that could demand our death but he put our death on his son Jesus that we could be forgiven. And because he wants to have a relationship with us. Religion is not relationship. It's works based. Christianity is not a religion. It is a relationship. It is spelled D-O-N-E.
Done. It is about what Christ has done for us. Amen? Why live a godly life?
Gratitude and gratefulness for what he has done for us not because it earns us anything from him. To follow him is to know him. Matthew chapter 7 Jesus said, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?
And I want you to listen to this because Jesus does not deny they did those things. He says, and then I will declare to them, yeah, you may have done all that. I never knew you. You may have used my name and the authority of my name. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
I never knew you. God desires that we be in relationship with him. To follow him is to know him. Jesus said in Luke 9 23, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses life for my sake will save it.
For what is the profit of man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words of him will the son of man, that's the title Jesus often used for himself, be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. Jesus says, if you know me and stand up for me, I stand up for you.
If you don't know me, you don't stand up for me, I don't stand up for you because you didn't know me. To follow him is to know him. Just because we know about Jesus does not mean we are following Jesus. Can we be assured of our salvation?
Yes, we can. To follow him is to obey him. Well, Pastor Chris, what do you mean by that? Here's what I mean. You take your entire life and you say, Jesus, this is yours. What do you mean? You say, God, this is not my money, it's your money.
You take your time and your talents and you say, God, where do you want my career to be? Relationships. The world says you can live together before marriage and it's okay. The Bible says you're shacking up, you can't do that. If you look up shacking up, you won't find it. Won't be like in the King James, he that shacketh uppeth offendeth the Lordeth.
It's not there. It's called adultery. But what that means is, is it means that you say as a couple, oh, Jesus said the word of God says that marriage and the act of marriage are for marriage and if I'm living together with somebody, therefore I'm living in sin, so I can't follow Jesus and live together with someone. So I'm going to submit that to the Lord. It means that I'm going to watch my words. It means that I'm going to walk in joy and respond to others as Christ would. To follow is to obey him. It means you're not in charge of your life anymore.
And you know what? That's a really good thing because the Father knows better for your life than you do. To follow him is to serve him, it's to trust him, it's to know him. In Mark Chapter four, and if the physicians want to come, they can. It says this, it was evening and he said to them, let's go to the other side. They were on the Sea of Galilee, Lake of Gennesaret. Leaving the crowd, they took him along with them in the boat just as he was and other boats were with him. And there arose a fierce gale of wind and the waves were breaking over the boat, so much the boat was already filling up.
Jesus himself was in the stern of the boat, the back of the boat, asleep on a cushion. He's so exhausted, he's sleeping through a storm. And remember, some of these men were fishermen, they lived every day on the lake and they were afraid for their lives. This was a bad storm. And they woke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
You ever felt that way about seasons of life when you're in? When you're going through a difficult time, do you not care that we are perishing? And he got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, hush, be still. And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And he said to them, why are you afraid?
How is it that you have no faith? They became very much afraid and said to one another, who then is this? That even the wind and the sea obey him. The disciples had seen him do miracles. He just told the wind to shut up and it listened. And it freaked them out.
That's what it means in the original Greek, and it freaketh them outeth. Look it up. Who is Jesus of Nazareth? Is he a liar? Did he say things he knew weren't true about himself? Is he a lunatic? Was he just plain crazy?
Or is he who he said he was, fully God, fully man, Lord? That is a question you need to answer. Not long ago I did the funeral for Officer Torres that was killed in the shooting in our neighborhood, you know, not our neighborhood, a neighborhood here in our area in Headingham. And it always strikes me in moments like that, when you're doing a service like that, it always reminds me we're not in charge of our life. There is a God who exists out of time and space and matter that decides how many days you get. And I don't know, maybe today is your last day.
Maybe it's my last day. I always thought it would be really cool to drop dead in the pulpit one day. That would be just fantastic. What a fantastic altar call that would be. And then just switch right into a funeral and just bury me right there. That would be fantastic. He was a good man and then just put me in a box and dropped me in the ground.
You know, my wife would probably not like that. So, who do you say that Jesus is? Just because you know about Him doesn't mean you're following Him. Are you following Him? Is it easy to follow Jesus? No. Is it hard to follow Jesus?
Yes. Because the whole world is going the other way and your own selfish heart wants to do something else. That's why Paul said I die daily, not literally.
He's saying to myself I die. But you know what's interesting? All that stuff you give up, you get better stuff. You get better stuff. Following Jesus is like having a roommate and coming home and your roommate has thrown everything out that you own, all of it.
And while you're yelling at Him about all your stuff, a truck pulls up with brand new, better stuff and starts bringing it back into the house. All that garbage you're holding on to, all that junk, if you can just give that to God, He's got better stuff for you. You see, when humanity fell, with Adam and Eve in the garden, we became inherently selfish and sinners and we're all in the same boat. We've all fallen short of the glory of God.
Would you please stand up with me this morning? To know about Jesus is not the same thing as following Him. To follow Him is to obey Him, it's to serve Him, it's to trust Him, it's to know Him. There are several people that have already signed up and said, yes, I am a follower of Jesus and I'm proud of it and I want to publicly say it through water baptism. I want to show the world that I have died to myself and arisen new in Him. But maybe there are some folks here today in this room or at North Raleigh or online that if you live close enough, get in the car and we'll get you baptized this service or next.
Don't speed. But maybe you need to spontaneously respond and get baptized. Pashat often says, well, if you say, well, I don't have the right clothes, you're not ready.
I agree with that. We have clothes ready for you because you might be spontaneous, but we're prepared. We are. We've got clothing for you. It's not nice, it's not sexy clothing.
We got sweatpants and t-shirts and those kind of things. I know, I just said sexy. So, you know, Pastor Chad's away. But this is your opportunity and maybe this entire service you've been thinking, you know what? I've never said publicly yes to Jesus and I need to do that today. So in a moment, I'm going to call those forward who have already signed up and I just want you to join them and then we'll have you go backstage and we'll get you ready and we'll get you baptized and we'll rejoice with you.
Okay? Let's pray. Father, I ask you right now that your power and your Holy Spirit would convict and lead and if there be those that need to make a decision right now, God, I pray that they would have the faith and the strength to step out and say, Jesus, if nobody else follows you, I'm following you. And God, they would say today yes to you publicly and not just privately.
In Jesus' name, amen. If you signed up and want to get baptized, would you come right now? Would you make your way forward right now? Come on, come on, come on, come on.
If you signed up, make your way forward right now. Come on to the front. Come on to the front. Come on. We'll wait for you. We'll wait for you. Come on.
We'll wait for you. Come on. Come on.
We'll wait for you. Come on. Anybody else? Anybody else? Come on.
Nothing to be ashamed of. We're all sinners washing the blood of Christ. Come on.
Come on. All right, let's pray. Father, I thank you for those that have come down and are still coming down, even I'm praying, and those who have decided today is the day to say to the world, I have died to myself and I live in Christ.
I am a follower of Jesus. And God, I pray that when they get baptized that you would meet them in that moment. I pray you fill them with your Holy Spirit. I pray they would grow in you. I pray they would have a daily relationship with you. I pray that you give them a hunger for you. And Father, we thank you that we'll do everything we can as a family to help them grow in their walk with you. In Jesus' name, everybody said, amen, amen, amen. Listen, if you guys will make your way that way, they're going to get you ready. If you guys can hang in here for a few moments, the Worship's going to lead us, and then we're going to have a whole fun time with everybody and get you baptized. Amen.
Thank you. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out. Come on, sing it out.
