David // The Destructive Nature of Pride // Pastor Josh Evans

Amen. Amen. And has your heart been blessed so far today?

Alright, there we go. And hey, it is so good to see you here at Union Grove. If you have your Bible, go to 1 Samuel, chapter number 18.

1 Samuel, chapter number 18. And I appreciate everybody being in the service here today and really excited about today. I'm excited for a lot of different reasons.

I'll be honest with you. I love Sunday. And for a pastor, this is like the Super Bowl every single week. And so I love gathering on Sunday each and every week. But today is extra, extra special. And because at the end of the service, we get to celebrate what God is doing in the lives of people and through baptism, which I'm super, super excited about. And I know I met many of family members and friends who are in town for that and just excited to be able to celebrate with each of them here today. I also love when the room's pretty packed because it pushes people down closer to the front.

Alright. For a pastor, that's like the dream. If you ever want to like suck up to the pastor, you sit down front and we will be best friends. And it will be awesome. The only negative is sometimes I call on people to pray if they sit down at the front. So you guys just be ready.

And no, I'm just playing. But hey, listen, I wanted to talk about one thing before we jump into the message. Many of you, there's several of you who maybe are newer to our church maybe over the last couple of months and been coming and would like to maybe take a next step with our church. And we are going to have what we call starting point on Sunday, April the third. And you say what exactly is starting point?

It's something we have not done before. But starting point is an opportunity for you to learn a little bit more about our church. Many of you, if you've been around church for any length of time, your church background might have called this membership class. And if you're interested in kind of taking a step with us becoming a member here at our church, maybe even plugging into a Bible fellowship class or, or a serve team, or you're just coming and you're like, I'd like to know a little bit more about the church before we make a decision. Starting point would be a great opportunity for you to come to so that's going to happen Sunday, April the third 530.

You can sign up right on our website for that or you can sign up out in the Welcome Center. And I would love to see you at that. And for if nothing else, you get a free meal out of it.

Okay, that's pretty good. And so some of you church members are probably going to try to sign up after I said that we are Baptists, we love to eat, you can't have anything without food, okay. And but we're going to have a good time.

And I'd love for you to, to be a part of that. Well, we have been in this series over the last few weeks, going through the, the life of David, the life of David, and and let me just say that David is a, a Bible character that all of us can relate to, to some degree. I know over these last few weeks, I've been able to relate to just some of my life and, and some of the things that have happened to David and I guarantee you as we work through this, there are going to be weeks that you're going to find that relate perfectly to your situation. David was a man that really he wasn't qualified for the position that God put him in. He was the youngest of his family, yet God anointed him to follow Saul and to become this king. He was a man after God's own heart.

And I believe because you're here, you're probably one of them. That's like, I want to serve God. I want to live my life to please the Lord. And, uh, but you find yourself struggling at certain times, just like all of us and David found himself, uh, in that, uh, throughout his life as well. So we can all relate to David's life here in chapter 18.

I'll kind of fill you in if you haven't been here over the last couple of weeks, kind of where we are up to this story. Uh, Saul had been rejected by the Lord, uh, without going into a lot of detail. He was just disobedient to God's direct commands.

And so God rejected him. He went to Samuel, who was the prophet. And he said, Samuel, we got to anoint a new king over Israel. And so Samuel goes to the house of Jesse, uh, who was in Bethlehem. And, and he looked at all these, you know, macho manly sons of Jesse.

And you would think one of them too, but sure is going to be the king. And yet it wasn't any of them ended up being David, the youngest, the shepherd boy, the one who didn't even get invited, uh, to the party. When Samuel showed up, they had to go and find him. Samuel anoints, David, nothing happens.

David goes back into doing his work out in the field. And, uh, shortly after a little over a year after that, uh, Jesse sends David to battle, uh, to bring some food for his brothers. And, uh, they were at the battle with the Philistine Goliath and David shows up. He sees something totally different than what the entire Israelite army saw. They saw the, the, uh, the giant and they saw the defeat that was imminent for them.

And, uh, none of them were willing to fight. David said, Hey, listen, who is this guy that, that he's going to defy, uh, the name of the living God? He ends up fighting Goliath.

He defeats Goliath. And after that is kind of where we pick up here in chapter number 18 in verse verse five. So David's coming back from battle and a Saul actually says, David, you're not going home anymore.

At the end of chapter 17, you're going to actually come and, and you're going to help us. And he put them in charge over the armies of war. And, uh, here we pick it up verse five. It says this and David went out whithersoever Saul sent him.

And listen to this. I encourage you if you mark in your Bible, mark this next phrase. And he behaved himself. What's the next word?

Wisely. He behaved himself wisely and Saul set him over the men of war and he was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants. And you can imagine all the armies they're watching this battle and this young kid just pops out. He's like, Oh, I'll handle this.

And with no armor and, uh, with, you know, not a spear, not a sword, but yet just a sling and some stones. So you can imagine how David's fame began to spread throughout the camp. Everybody loved David.

Everybody accepted David. Everybody wanted to be like, like David verse six. And it came to pass as they came when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tabards, with joy and with instruments of music.

And the women answered one another as they played. And they said this, Saul had slain his thousands and David, his 10 thousands. It was a number one hit on the local radio stations during that day. And they were singing this. And you can imagine Saul, the mighty King of Israel. He begins to notice how everybody is elevating David over him.

He became, he became jealous. And the women answered one, oh, uh, verse eight. And Saul was very angry and the saying displeased him. And he said, they have ascribed him to David ten thousands and to me, they've ascribed, but, but thousands. And what can he have more, but, but the kingdom Saul's response, verse nine, Saul eyed David from that day forward. Some translations even say he had a jealous eye, a jealous eye. You see, Saul was jealous and envious of David's success, by the way. And a lot of times in life, we get tested sometimes as much by praise as we do problems.

Sometimes one of the most dangerous things you and I can ever experience is one word success, because we start to, we start to look at ourselves like we've accomplished something, right? Well, David, obviously he didn't do that here, but Saul was jealous. He was upset.

He was angry. Verse 10, and it came to pass on the morrow that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul and he prophesied in the midst of the house. And David played with his hand as at other times. And there was a javelin in Saul's hand and Saul cast the javelin for he said, I will smite David even to the wall with it. And David avoided out of his presence twice. Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was, was with him.

An interesting statement. Saul was, was scared of David because he knew God was with him. You see, what's interesting is Saul knew the answer to his problems based on that verse. He knew the answer to the problems was, man, I need God to lead me.

And, and yet he just refused to do that. It was departed from Saul. Therefore, Saul, verse 13, removed him from him and made him a captain over a thousand. He went out and came in before the people and David behaved himself wisely in all his ways.

And the Lord was with him. We've been talking about David throughout this, this series, but this particular passage of scripture, I wanted to talk from the life of David about King Saul. I want to talk just for a few moments about King Saul. Saul was, was jealous of David's influence with the armies of Israel. Saul was jealous of David's fame in the camp of Israel. And I want you to know that Saul had a, a problem. He had a problem that was so deep in his heart that it affected everything and ultimately led to his, his destruction. You say, what was the problem? The problem is actually very common in your life and in my life. It's one word.

You'll see it up on the screen. It's this pride, pride. Let me just give you the big idea of what I want to talk about today. Pride will destroy your life. Pride will destroy your life. If you came for encouragement, that's about all I got.

Okay. Listen, I know we come in here sometimes and we're just wanting to, we just want to be encouraged and we want to feel like, you know, everything's good and, and, but sometimes you come to passages like this and there's a strong warning from this passage about the dangerous personality of pride. In fact, pride is the one thing that keeps us and a lot of times from apologizing when we know that we are wrong.

Have you ever been there? You know, have you ever been in an argument maybe with your, with your, or a debate? We don't call them arguments here at Union Grove, but if you're ever like with your spouse and you're going back and forth, have you ever just allowed like a disagreement to go way too long? And here's why it normally goes.

Thank you for that. This is usually why it goes long is because of one word, pride. It's because you don't want to admit you're wrong and they don't want to admit that they are, that they are wrong. You see, pride is the thing that stands in the way from, from you being willing to apologize.

How about this? Pride is the one thing that keeps you from celebrating someone else's success. Have you ever, have you ever seen, you know, trust me, pastors are the worst at this and this is just me being transparent and vulnerable.

A church down the street succeeds and we're just like, man, you know, why couldn't that be us, right? What happens to you too? Okay, so don't judge me too bad today. Someone in your, in your job, maybe your career and in your organization, they get elevated and, and they get chosen for something over you. Think about how you respond. You immediately say, man, I could, I could have done that better than they could.

Right? You see, why do we say that? Why do we respond? When you're sitting, trust me, I experienced this as a high school student, basketball, you know, we're on the sideline at a good state tournament, like one year out of like four. And, and, uh, and so I'm standing on the sideline afterwards and they're giving out their presentation, all the awards and, and I'm thinking, this is the year that I, I get like, you know, a, an award for how I played. I didn't get one. I'm still mad.

Okay. But do you see sometimes, why do we get upset when somebody else's succeeds or, or when something good happens to somebody else? You look on Facebook and, and you see that somebody took their 13th vacation in the last three months and you're like, how in the world can they afford that? How do we respond? We get upset because of one word, pride, pride. How about this? Pride is the one thing that keeps you from admitting that you lost.

Listen, my team lost last night and I lost an hour of sleep in the same night. Okay. So you're going to get some hellfire and brimstone. All right. Listen, pride is the one thing that keeps you from admitting that you lost a lot of time. How about this? Pride is sometimes the one thing that keeps you from admitting that you need help or that you need to make a decision for Jesus. You know how many decisions I think are left because we will not swallow our pride. You ever sat in a church service, knowing God and the Holy Spirit speaking to you and you know, you need to make a decision and here's the first thing that the devil uses. What is that person going to think? What's this person going to say?

What are they going to think? The pastor just preached on pride. If I go down front, everybody's going to be like, whoa, they must have pride. You see, why do we have those feelings? It's because we care so deeply about what everybody else thinks about us and it comes from a root of pride. Pride is the one thing that keeps you from admitting that you don't know the answer sometimes even when everyone else knows that you don't know the answer. Why do we have the phrase fake it till you make it? That's basically how I pastor.

I'm just kidding. But do you see, why do we have a saying like that? It's because pride, because we can't admit that we are wrong. Pride will destroy your life. And here's, what's interesting about pride. We can always spot pride from a mile away in others, but we fail to spot it within ourselves.

Isn't that interesting? You ever watch, you know, sitting down here in the gymnasium and you see another player and you're just like, man, that kid is cocky. They're prideful. And yet we can't see any of the pride that's right inside of us, right? It's so easy to spot in others, but so difficult to spot in us. In fact, CS Lewis says that the more pride you have in yourself, the more you dislike it in others.

The more you dislike it in others. He goes on to say, and call pride the granddaddy of all sin. You see, pride is nothing new. You know, we see it here in this story with Saul, but pride has been an issue since the very beginning. Just to give you a little history lesson. Remember Lucifer, the fallen angel, Satan, he was kicked out of heaven.

Why? Because he wanted to be equal with God. Pride.

Pride. Think about Adam and Eve. The very reason that everybody has sinned on earth. Sin passed upon all men because of them. Guess what? Satan tricked Eve into believing that she would what?

Be like God and know all things. Pride. Cain killed Abel because God accepted Abel's sacrifice. He was jealous. He was envious.

Why? Pride. He wanted the recognition. Joseph, you see, his brothers hated him and sold him into slavery because of their jealousy over him. His brothers were prideful. They were jealous of what God was choosing to do in them.

Tower of Babel. They wanted to build a name for themselves, and they wanted to build a tower all the way to heaven. Why? Pride. Pride. Listen, pride can destroy your life. Proverbs 16 five, everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Say, Pastor, I didn't come to be just chewed out today. Listen, that's not my goal, and I want you to know my heart. I want you to know that every person, there's not one person in this room that does not struggle to some degree with pride, including your pastor.

I want you to know that. Pride is something that everybody can struggle with, and scripture says it is disgusting in the eyes of God. In fact, James 4 six, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Proverbs 16 18. Pride goeth before destruction. Pride goeth before destruction. Listen, pride will destroy your life.

That's not something new. In fact, we've seen it throughout scripture. I just gave you a few examples, but the list could go on and on and on and on about example after example after example about about pride. Look, you can look at it at political figures, athletes. I'm thankful that you know, baseball gets to start again. If you following that, I hate that the millionaires didn't feel like millions was enough, right?

You know, they had to make a little bit more. You see, it's all because of pride, and we can see it throughout our our world or or possibly a little bit closer to home. You probably could share a story today of someone in your organization or at your work or in your school who allowed success or who allowed pride and and what happens to go to their head and eventually destroyed them and possibly even destroyed the organization.

You say why? It's because pride leads to destruction. Pride leads to destruction. If pride destroys our lives, we have to take the the concept of pride extremely serious. You say, how can we beat pride in our life? How can we avoid becoming prideful? I want to give you three things that I think will help you today very practical and self reflective.

Okay, the first one is this I encourage you jot these down if you take notes. The first one is this give God the glory for what happens in your life. Give God the glory for what happens in your life. You want to beat pride, give him glory. First Corinthians one, verse 31. He that glorious or boast, let him glory in the Lord.

James 117 every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. Listen, you know what pride says, look at what I have done. While humility says, look at what he has done. Listen, I believe there's a lot of you who are successful. I believe it.

I believe there's a lot of people in here that probably even made a really good decision at some point. And you see success maybe in your organization or, or your business or, or in your life or whatever. And let me just tell you this, it is by the grace of God that you are where you are. It is not because you're special. It's not because you're good. It's not because you're just super smart.

It's not because now, granted, you might be all of those things. But let me say this, everything good that happens in your life and my life is only by the grace of God. It's only by the grace of God. Listen, let me tell you this, if you find yourself talking about everything that you have done and the decisions that you make each and every day, let me say this, that you are struggling with pride. Instead of talking about what we have done, talk about what He has done. If you're going to boast, boast in Him. If you're going to celebrate, celebrate in Him, your talent, your ability, our success, it's all because of God.

It's not because of us. You want to beat pride in your life, give God the glory for what happens in your life. The second thing, you have to depend upon the sovereignty of God.

You have to depend upon the sovereignty of God. You know what prideful people hate? Losing control. How many of you are control freaks? Several of you in here. How many of you struggle with pride? A few of us. How many of you are too prideful to raise your hand?

I get it. No, if I was sitting out there, I'd be like, man, I don't struggle with no pride. Listen, every one of us struggles. But here's what's interesting, you can correlate the two. Pride has to have control.

Say, why is that? It's because we can control the narrative. When we have control, we can control what people see. We can control what they think about us.

We can control what they know about us. All those things, you see, that's why pride and control go hand in hand. You see somebody who has to have control over everything, it's because they struggle with pride. Pride and control are linked. That's why Saul struggled with the success of David. When Saul was in control of everything, he felt that he could control what the armies of Israel knew about him, what they saw, what they said. But the minute that he lost control and now God is in control and God's anointed a new king and God has chosen to lift up this king and allow God to use David, he lost all control and then his pride and true color started to come out. You see, sovereignty and depending upon the sovereignty of God, it's recognizing that you were never in control to begin with. It's recognizing that we don't have control of anything. In fact, depending upon the sovereignty of God is recognizing and admitting each and every morning that you are fully dependent upon him for everything that you need today.

That's depending upon the sovereignty of God. You want to beat pride? You say, man, I don't want to be like Saul. I don't want to be like any of the people that you mentioned who allowed all this stuff to go to their head and their success and all this kind of stuff. And I want to beat all of those things and I don't want that. Here's what you have to do. Each and every morning, and it's tough, we have to depend upon the sovereignty of God, recognizing every day that he is in control of all things and we are in control of nothing.

You want to beat pride? Give God the glory for what happens in your life? Depend upon the sovereignty of God? Number three, live your life to serve others. Live your life to serve others. If you have a moment, go to Philippians chapter two. I love how I said, if you have a moment, you're here, you got, it's more like, do I have a moment?

I'm just kidding. And, but Philippians chapter number two, want to beat pride, live your life to serve others. It says this, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, verse one of chapter two of Philippians, by the way, in Christ, you give up all that you have because in him you have all that you need.

That's what Paul is telling the church here. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill you my joy that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Then he goes on to say this, he says, let nothing be done through strife. Say, what is strife? Competition, comparison, jealousy, you see, envy. You see, when he says, let nothing be done through strife, he's saying, listen, don't compare your success with, with others. You know, one thing about success and comparison, social media is the worst, isn't it?

Sometimes, right? Because everything can be, you know, spun in a positive light on social media. Have you ever tried to get a family picture?

You know, for once, I just want us all to commit to post the first one, not the 30th one, right? The one where the kids are screaming, the ones where the kids are mad, the one that they might even be crying, the one that catches you as the parent yelling at your kids, maybe even spam, I don't know. You know, so you see all this stuff it's because, but when it goes to social media, what do we see? What are we going to share?

The best one, the very best one we have. And then everybody's going to say, man, what a great family you have. Wow.

I wish I had that. That's what I say to every one of y'all's pictures when y'all post them. I'm like, man, Abby, why couldn't we erase kids like that? You see, it's because we, we compare ourselves with, with others.

Everything looks better on social media. I referenced this earlier. We had some friends in Florida and uh, and they literally go on vacation all the time. And, and I don't know what they do on the side, but, and I really shouldn't care. But pride, you know, I kind of wonder sometimes, I'm like, how in the world? And I've literally talked to Abby. I'm like, how do they do it? And she's way more humble than me. She could care less, but I'm sitting over there literally like running numbers.

Like how, you know, how can I figure this out? Why? Because, because of pride, you know, social media is all about just, you know, making whatever we do look as good as possible. That's what, what Instagram is, is for. And that's what we do. We post the very best and the very best of what we, what we have. And, and Paul's saying, let nothing be done through strife. Don't compare. Let me say this, that comparison, you always lose when you compare.

Here's what you say, why? Sometimes it's because this, when we compare ourselves with others, we always feel better than you should feel about yourself, or you feel a lot worse than you should feel about yourself. You never win when you compare yourself with other people. So don't do it. It's not healthy. Let nothing be done through strife.

Then he says, or vainglory. This is just saying, Hey, we deserve better. Right? You ever felt that way? Man, I deserve something. I deserve for that to happen. I worked hard for this to happen the way that I want it to happen. Have you ever been chosen over maybe for a team or, or for, um, or for something at your job, they chose somebody else. God chose to give it to somebody else.

And, and you were left and you're sitting there. I deserved that. You see that we have this idea that, that we deserve something. And Paul's saying, let nothing be done through strife, through vainglory, but instead live in a lowliness of mine.

Let each esteem other better than themselves. Look, not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Then he goes and says, Hey, look at our, look at our savior. Look at the example of humility that he set before us. Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation took upon him.

The form of a servant was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man. He what's the next word, humbled, say it louder, humbled himself and became obedient unto death. Even the death of the cross. Let me, let me say this, and I want to encourage you today, but we do not deserve anything short of a place called hell. Say pastor, that's not uplifting might not be uplifting to you, but what Jesus did about it is incredibly uplifting for you and for me. Listen, the news might not sound good, but that's why we have the gospel, the very good news.

He took a bad situation and he made it good for you and for, for me. We got to live our life to serve others. When you realize how much of your life is grace, it helps you to live for others.

When you start thinking, man, I deserve this or I deserve that. I want you to come back to Philippians two and remember that you don't deserve anything. When you understand the gospel at work in your life, the pride and the arrogance that is in us is destroyed.

You say why? It's because the cross is a constant reminder of our sin and our need of a savior. That's why we talk about it. That's the beauty of the gospel. You say, you say, pastor, you keep saying the gospel. What is the gospel? The gospel is this. It's Jesus in your place. It's Jesus in my place.

The gospel is simply him looking and coming down to you. You say, was I good? Was I worthy of him? There's some bad people in this world.

I can't be in that category. Listen, you were a sinner. I was a sinner. We were all sinners and we all fall short of the glory of God and he loved us.

You say, do we have to clean it up before he loved me? No, he loved you in spite of your sin. You say, in spite of how wicked and shameful and prideful I am? Yes, in spite of all of that, listen, God loves you.

You say, man, I'm full of pride today. God loves you right now. There's nothing that I can do that's going to make him love me any more than he does right now.

And by the grace of God, there's nothing that I can do today that's going to make him love me any less. Listen, that's the gospel. And when you go deeper in your understanding of what Jesus has done for you and on your behalf, pride and arrogance gets completely destroyed. Tim Keller said it this way, we are more wicked than we could ever imagine, but we are also more loved and accepted than we ever dared hope. You see, the gospel, it destroys pride in us. It tells us that we are lost without Jesus.

You say, what does this mean? How can the gospel change my prideful spirit, my prideful heart? Listen, when you realize what Jesus has done for you, let me say it as direct as I can, you can't be prideful. You can't be. When I am going deeper in my understanding of the gospel and I realize what Jesus has done for me, and I really get a glimpse of that in my deeper understanding of that, pride is not a result of the fruit of the spirit.

It's not. The only way, if you say, man, I'm struggling with pride here today, that's a result of our flesh. That's not a result of the fruit of the spirit.

Because we cannot go deeper in our understanding of the gospel and still come out on the other side, prideful. Listen, pride will destroy your life. It ultimately destroyed Saul. It destroyed his ministry.

It destroyed his reign. Listen, pride, I've seen it in pastors. I've seen it in leaders and churches.

I've seen it. Pride can destroy everything around it. Say, I want to, I don't want to be prideful.

I don't want to head. Listen, if you're prideful, you're headed for destruction. That's not me talking. That's Proverbs. That's the scripture talking. You're headed for destruction.

Say, how can I avoid it? Give God the glory. Give God the glory for everything that happens in your life.

Listen, listen, I don't want to hear about what you've done. I want to hear about what He has done. Every good and perfect gift is from Him. Don't forget that. Give God the glory. Depend upon the sovereignty of God. Depend upon and recognize, hey, listen, you're not in control. You want to know what will really humble you is recognizing that you have no control over the outcomes in your life. If you realize that, listen, that's as humbling as anything in life.

And then number three, live your life to serve others. Take the example of Jesus. He could have come down to this earth from heaven and born into a royal family, but guess what? He came and was born in a stable. He took upon Him the form of a servant.

He was made in the likeness of men. Listen, take His example and humble yourself. Don't live with pride because pride will destroy your life. Would you bow your heads with me?

Nobody looking around. Pride will destroy your life. Listen, pride can destroy everything in its path.

It can destroy your life, your organization, your family. You know, marriages, they split up because of pride in a lot of ways. Pride will destroy your life.

Let me pray for you and then we'll stand and we can respond. Father, we love you. God, I thank you for your word and I thank you for the caution in your word and the warning about what a prideful spirit will do and where a prideful spirit leads. Father, I pray that today that if anybody's in here that's struggling with pride, maybe families, maybe husbands, maybe wives, maybe children, maybe teenagers, whether they deal with pride in their school or on their sports teams or Father, maybe even in the people in here that work in their career. God, I pray that today we would have victory over pride recognizing that you are the one who deserves glory.

You're the one who deserves recognition. We're not in control, you are and we are called to live our life to serve other people. Lord, help us defeat pride for it's in your name. Amen. Would you stand with me?

Nobody looking around. Heads bowed, hearts lifted in prayer. Listen, if God speaks to you as the music plays, the altar is open.

The altar is wide open here today. If you say, man, I struggle with pride, let me encourage you, make a decision today. Maybe it's glory. You think, man, I'm God's gift to this world and I do all this good stuff. Listen, let me just say this, that it's only by the grace of God that you're where you're at today. It's only by the grace of God that I'm where I'm at today. Give Him the glory.

He deserves it. Maybe it's the sovereignty of God who struggled to trust that He's in control. Listen, I love control. Maybe it's that give Him the complete control and trust Him and trust in His sovereignty. And maybe it's living your life to serve other people. Take upon the example of Jesus.

Give you just a couple of more minutes to respond. Amen. Amen. You guys can have a seat.

Here in a moment, we're going to celebrate. Baptism. And we have several who have trusted Jesus.

I believe we have eight today who have trusted Jesus. And I'm just so excited about life change and the lives of people. I want to give you a few prayer requests while they're finishing getting ready. Natasha Mason, and just continue to remember her. She's in Baptist Hospital and abdominal surgery coming up on Tuesday, I believe. And so continue to remember her in prayer. Carolyn Redding, who is still recovering. I know she's in the service today recovering from wrist surgery. And so do be in prayer for her as she recovers.

And then Libby Hyatt was diagnosed with bile duct cancer. And so if we could just be in prayer for her as well. And let me just remind you of a couple of things that are upcoming. Don't forget that if you are new to our church and would like to take a step with our church, April 3rd is starting point. I would love for you to make it a point to be there.

It's 530 that evening. And it's going to be a great time for us to get to know you a little bit better. And so I would love for you to sign up if you've been attending. You say, man, I've been attending for years and I've never joined this church. Hey, listen, this would be a great opportunity for you to take a step and join our church as well. And I believe in going deeper in the local church.

I believe that that's the example of the New Testament. And so I'd encourage you that if you've been coming for a while, make this your church home and be a part of this family. And I would love to help you do that. Don't forget as well on our website, if you have a kid or a teenager that need to go to camp, you can sign up right on our website. It's right on the front page. And so if you go to our website, UBC church dot net, and you can sign them up and that would be awesome. And then also our Christian parenting conference as well. And we're excited about that. And that's coming up on the 23rd, right of April. And so you do not want to miss that. And and so that's on the website as well.

You can sign up right on the homepage. And I would love for all parents to consider going to that you say I have a young kid, I have a teenager, whatever grandkids, I'm sure you can go and we would love for all parents of any age kids to to attend that it'll be really good for for you. Well, at this time, I'm going to turn it over. I believe we're ready and hopefully and and so we'll turn it over to Pastor Bailey and and he'll give you the names of everybody that's getting baptized today. Thank you, Pastor. I'm excited about this baptism service. We pray for to have a father would leave his baptism and as Pastor Johnson said before that God's still working and got still working the hearts of people and we're grateful for that.

First, we have Samantha Owens. In obedience divine command of our Lord the Savior and her profession of faith in Him. I baptize Samantha in name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Buried with Christ in baptism, pleased to walk in the midst of that.

Next we have Anzalee Lineback. In obedience divine command of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and her profession of faith in Him. I baptize Anzalee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Buried with Christ in baptism, pleased to walk.

Next we have Dossie Mason. In obedience divine command of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and our profession of faith in Him. I baptize Dossie in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Buried with Christ in baptism, pleased to walk in the midst of that.

Then we have Aidan Sharp. Some of these kids got saved in the Christian school and have been supporting how God's been working. God's been working in Christian school and I'm grateful for that. In obedience divine command of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His profession of faith in Him, I baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

Buried with Christ in baptism, pleased to walk in the midst of that. These kids are excited and that excites me too. Next we have Tripp.

Big brother to little sister. He's excited, can't you tell? In obedience divine command of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in the profession of faith in Him, I baptize Tripp in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Buried with Christ in baptism, pleased to walk in the midst of that.

First time I've ever seen his hair messed up. Next we have Reed. Reed Phelps.

He's my camping buddy. In obedience divine command of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in His profession of faith in Him, I baptize Reed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Buried with Christ in baptism, pleased to walk in the midst of that.

Next we have Holden Coons. And while he's coming I do want to say I appreciate all the families coming to be here for this special day for each of these. It means a lot to all of them. In obedience divine command of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in His profession of faith in Him, I baptize Holden in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Buried with Christ in baptism, pleased to walk in the midst of that.

Last but not least we have Josh Patterson. I appreciate these young men's testimony there in the school that I'm blessing to all our people. In obedience divine command of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in His profession of faith in Him, I baptize Josh in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Buried with Christ in baptism, pleased to walk in the midst of that. Amen.

Church, isn't that good? Amen. Amen. You guys can stand, we'll be dismissed. I do want to say, listen, that is what it is about. More than anything else, you want to know anything about our church, forget anything, don't forget this, we're about that more than anything else. We get more excited about that than anything else. And families, I want you guys to know I couldn't be more thrilled about all the kids up there and super excited for that. And let me pray and then we'll be dismissed. Father, we love you. God, we thank you so much for today. We thank you for your word. I thank you for everybody coming out. Lord, I pray, God, that we'd be a light and that we'd see more and more people come to faith in you in the days to come. Father, we love you. Bless these people as they go, for it's in your name. Amen. Thanks for being here. You guys are dismissed.