From Death to Life
Transcript
Good morning. Grab your Bibles. Go to Ephesians chapter 2. If you have a white Bible like this, it'll be on page 568. If you don't own a Bible, you may take this one with you. We want you to own a Bible, so take this.
You're not stealing. We gave it to you. You may have it. So we get to celebrate baptism today, and we're celebrating that Jesus takes dead people and makes them alive. That he takes people who are trapped in sin, and he brings life to them, and he forgives them. And so we have two physical reminders, two physical signs given to the church that we celebrate, that we practice.
One is communion, or the Lord's Supper, where we take bread and we break it. We take wine or grape juice, and we drink it and remind ourselves that Jesus' body was broken for us, that his blood was shed for us. And then we have baptism, where we celebrate that when Jesus died, we were buried with him, and we rose to life with him when he rose again. So we're in Ephesians. We've been walking through, and we're in chapter 2 now. We're going to spend time walking through this today.
And I love the beginning of Ephesians chapter 2. It is a very condensed version of the entire Bible, that it just clearly kind of lays out, in so many ways, the point of the Scriptures, the main story of humanity. And so what we talked about last week, what we're going to talk about this week, what we're going to talk about next week, kind of is laid out a condensed version of the whole story. And so let's pray, and then we'll hop in together. God, we ask that through your word you would go to work in our hearts, that we might more clearly see the reality of our existence, and that we might fear, rightly, repent, see our sin and hate it, and come to know and love you through your mercy and love shown to us.
And so we pray for that this morning, and that we would celebrate well as people who actually have something to celebrate. We love you, and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. So we're going to pick up in chapter 2, verse 1. We read through this last week. Spencer walked us through it.
And so we're going to kind of walk through just to set the stage for where this is going and kind of understand the context. So chapter 2, verse 1, it says, And you, so Paul's writing to the church in Ephesus. So this is believers, Christians in Ephesus. He says, And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. So that's Satan.
Among whom, so the sons of disobedience following Satan, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. So Paul walks through and says, You were dead in your sin. And I know for some of us here, maybe this is your first time hanging out with us, or you're kind of new to kind of checking out the church and trying to figure out what Jesus is all about. I just want to say, Good morning. Glad you're here. Hopefully I'll get to meet you a little later on.
And you maybe are suddenly going, Oh, second, people still get together and talk about sin? Like that sounds really old. Like I didn't know this still happened. It does still happen because we believe it still matters. So what Paul says is you were dead in your sin, that you had rebelled against God, that you had lived out your life following the course of the world, following Satan, that you'd actively joined in the rebellion against God, and that you lived your life chasing after the desires of your body and mind, meaning that every whim you've had, every desire you've had to puff yourself up, or every lust you've had, or thirst, or hunger, or desire, your cravings have led you through life.
And you maybe had more sophisticated cravings or more base cravings, but you still just followed your cravings. Now, if you weren't here last week, Spencer kind of, we spent the most of our time there. And Spencer just walked us through it. And if you weren't here, I hate you missed it. It was very depressing. Most of last week was just, here's how terrible you are.
And if you left feeling good about yourself, and not seeing the reality of your sin, I don't think you paid enough attention. It's bad. Paul ends there, he says, you are by nature children of wrath. Meaning that our nature, who we are, was deserving wrath. We deserve to be destroyed for our rebellion. We deserve to be crushed for our rebellion.
For our heinous disregard for God and His goodness. This is the story of the scriptures that God created the world, and He put Adam and Eve in a garden. And He said, you can have everything except for this one tree. You can have all the trees that are there for your goodness, but not this one. And that's the one they're like, well, why not that one? And Satan comes along, and he tempts them there.
And one of the things I realize as I read that story, is that you could swap me out for Adam. I've got the same inclination. That there's this tendency to go, I feel like God's withholding good things from me. You could take my three-year-old, two-year-old, and swap him out. He's got the same thing. All I have done for his entire life is tend to him, and look out for his good, and he thinks I'm suspect.
I'm suspect. I'm like, I want to look at him and be like, let me explain something to you. Since you have been born, all I have done, like half of my life now has been taking care of you. For a while, you were a potato that could poop itself, and I just took care of you. And then I'll tell him not to do something, and he looks at me like, oh, keeping back the good stuff, huh? Like, there's something that makes him suspect that I am not in it for his good, and there's something deep in all of us that has that towards God.
That when he says not to mess with something, it's probably because it's the good stuff. And that we actively have joined in this rebellion against God. And this is where Paul says, so Paul says, you followed your cravings, you followed Satan, you followed the world, you were a child of wrath, you deserved destruction. And then he says, but God. Okay, now, we should all, maybe some of us have gotten familiar with this story, but just for a second, we should all hold our breath at but God. When it hits but God, there should be a moment where we all go.
Give me an example. If someone was telling you a story, and they said, I was at my grandmama's house, and I was down in their basement, and it was like an old school, like block cellar basement. They had their laundry room there, and they had just some old, like, maintenance stuff there. And I found a can of spray paint, and I just went to the block wall and just tagged it. Just, I mean, went ham on spray painting my logo that I invented. I had to practice a few times over here, and then I did a good one here.
And then they said, but my grandma... Your grandma what? Like, there's a moment of like, all right, this story's taking a turn here. Your grandma was too blind to notice. Your grandma couldn't make it down the stairs. Your grandma didn't care.
Your grandma didn't play. She took a drop cord and beat you for 30 minutes. Like, where's this story going? There's this moment where Paul just said, you were worse off than you could ever imagine. Your sin was more heinous. More wicked.
Somebody once said, and I saw this in an article recently this week. It said, sin is an injury to our greatest lover, a betrayal of our truest friend, a dishonoring of our heavenly father, an act of war against our mighty king, the creature spitting towards his almighty creator. That sin, our state before God, is worse than we could ever fathom. And then it says, but God. And there's this moment where we should all hold our breath and try to say, okay, where's this going? But God is wrathful and he destroyed us in our rebellion.
But God has a host of angel armies. Like, what's it going to say? This is the moment where the judge has sat behind the bench and is about to pass his sentence and bring his gavel down. I think there's part of us that wrongly believes, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a second. God created us. And we say that as if because God created us, he owes us something.
No, no, no, but like God made us. And it's like, yeah, we're creatures. The Bible says he took dirt and molded it together. Like, we're dirt people. Or secondhand rib from dirt people. Like, it doesn't get better.
Like, we're creatures. And we act like, well, he owes us something. And honestly, I think it's like we think, well, if you had a child. It's like, well, that's different, though. You're giving birth to the same kind. Like, it's on par with you.
And it's more like if you owned a dog. But even that's still a creature. We still kind of owe something to our ant farm and our goldfish. We don't really have the gap there. We're not picturing that right when we say God owes us something. Honestly, we're creatures.
We owe him something. So just for a second. And this breaks down if you think about it too hard. But just imagine with me to try to help us understand what it's like for a creator over his creatures. If you, let's say you got really good at tinkering with things. This is just something you had a scientific mind.
And you just were brilliant. And you could do machinery. And you could make stuff. And let's say eventually you made a doll. Maybe like this size. And you made it like, you put a lot into it so that it was intelligent.
It wasn't a doll. It was like a doll robot. Like it actually interacted. And you made it cute. You like gave it some overalls and some cute red hair. Maybe it looked something like this.
You made a cute, precious doll. Now let's say that this doll became sentient. And then actively worked to destroy everything around it. Destroy your family. Like you had to hide knives from it. Like this doll.
I don't think you'd be going, well, I created it. I really owe it. No. Catch that thing. Burn it. Crush it.
Do something to it. It's trying to destroy everything. I don't think any of us have watched the movie Chucky, which is where that doll comes from. And thought, and sided with Chucky. Well, that doll's really got a hard shake at things. It's like, no.
And if you did, we'd do counseling stuff. We'd love to talk with you. If you sided with Chucky. It's more like that. God created us and placed us in a good world. And we actively went to work to destroy it.
And then we have the audacity to look at him and say, well, it's your fault and you owe us. We should hold our breath. And beads of sweat should form on our forehead when we hit but God in this passage. Because it just said we were children deserving of wrath. That that's who we are. That was our nature.
It wasn't something we grew into. It was something we were born into. And there's something wrong with us. And we've actively rebelled against God. And it's worse than we could ever imagine. But God being rich in mercy.
That's a beautiful sentence. But God being rich in mercy. Meaning we did not receive from him what we deserve. But God being rich in mercy. Because of the great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our trespasses.
Made us alive together with Christ. God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our trespasses. Made us alive together with Christ. So that's the story.
That God created a good world. But that humans were put in it. That humans openly rebelled. Ran against God. Tried to harm everything in their path. And then it says.
But God stepped back into the picture. And through Christ redeemed. And if we don't understand what Spencer talked about last week. If we don't understand the weight of our sin. We won't understand the beauty of this picture. And my wife and I.
If you don't know us. We're classy. Sophisticated. We have refined tastes. We like the finer things in life. Some of you.
Maybe you watch things like The Walking Dead. Which premieres tonight. We watch high quality television. Like Live PD. Which is just like cops. But live you guys.
And it is awesome. We're watching Live PD on Friday. And they catch a 17 year old girl in Columbia. That's part of the reason we watch. It's Richland County. Anna sees people that she knows on there.
Because she works at a bank. She's like oh I know them. Like I want to go speed in Richland County. Just so I can meet some of my new heroes. They pull me over. I love your work.
They pull this girl over. They smell marijuana in the car. Which means they can now check her car. I'm also learning all kinds of things about how policing works. They smell their car. They say there's marijuana in.
They pull her out. They're like alright if you just have a small amount of marijuana. That's a misdemeanor. I will write you a ticket. They pull her out. They bring her back.
They cuff her. They're just kind of you know hanging out. And then he finds a Xanax. Pulls that out. He walks over to her. He says this is a controlled substance.
This is a narcotic. This is a felony. She's 17 years old. She's about to start college. He said you're done. You're done.
No school for you. It's over. This is a felony. You are being arrested. This is going to go very poorly for you. He walks around behind his car.
He gets to talk to the other cop. And they decide. We're going to take it. We're going to confiscate it. We're going to destroy it. And we're going to write her a ticket for the marijuana.
And we're going to let her go. And you have to know. You could see on her when he said. This is a felony. And it's over. You could see this weight press down on her.
And then they went back around and said. Okay we're not going to. We're not going to press the full charges. That we could press on you. And I just know. For someone who's gotten pulled over.
For doing like 55 and a 35. And got a warning. Like that makes your day better. Like you call people. And you're like. This is the greatest thing ever happened to me.
And that's just a glimpse. Of how we ought to feel. When Jesus Christ. Swapped places for us. To become a child of wrath. And a son of disobedience.
So that we could be adopted into the family of God. That the weight of sin. That was pressing down on us. Was not bearable by us. But Jesus Christ took it.
And bore it to the cross. So that we could be free. And that's what he's saying. When he says. But God.
Being rich in mercy. Because of the great love. With which he loved us. Even when we were dead. In our trespasses. Made us alive.
Together with Christ. That it's Christ that accomplished this. For us. By grace. You have been saved. And he just kind of blurts that out.
If you look in the. In the scriptures there. There's a dash. It says by grace you have been saved. Dash. And it says and raise this up.
He just blurts that out. In the middle of the sentence. Because he wants to make it so clear. God loved you. And he saved you by grace. I need.
You need to hear that this morning. That God loves you. Loves you. And offers a salvation by grace. And grace means you don't earn it. You don't achieve it.
You don't become good enough. Or lovable enough. Or beautiful enough. He loves and saves by grace. My mom told me a story. She was.
She had an older sister. And a female cousin. That would always go to this. Her aunt's house. And they had dolls. When they were little.
They had dolls that they would play with. And she got to go back in college one time. And she saw the doll sitting in one room in the house. And she noticed her cousin's doll. That was like. Had this beautiful little blue dress.
And had all these accessories that went with it. And she saw her sister's doll. That was. This little boy doll. That because her sister always wanted a boy. And so she had this little doll.
That was a little boy. And then she saw her doll. And it was. A head and a torso. No clothes. Like just like a.
Like a not even like a pretty head and torso. Just like a. Messed up. Head and torso. And she went. And she asked her aunt.
She was like. What happened. To my doll. And her aunt was like. What do you mean what happened to it? She said.
It's just a head and torso. And it's like. Torn. And her aunt said. That was. That's the way that doll always looked.
That's been your doll forever. Like some. Like. Like the type of doll. That's in the room. In the haunted house.
Like one eye half shut. Like. Creeps you out doll. That was my mom's doll. She never noticed. Because the doll wasn't special.
The doll wasn't magical. The doll wasn't beautiful. The doll was creepy. But my mom. Loved it. That's us.
That's what Paul blurts out. In the middle of that sentence. We've been saved by grace. Because God. Loved us. Some of you.
Live your life. And you're like. But I. I'm not pretty enough. I'm not. I'm not put together enough.
I'm not. Lovely enough. And it's like. Right. You're a haunted house doll. There's something wrong with you.
You're a child of wrath. You got. One eye half open. You feel like your head's going to spin around. You're creeping everybody out. Like this is.
We're busted. And broken. And in our sin. But God. Loves us. And by grace.
He saves us. And that's the story. That's what we get. That's what we believe. And that's what we proclaim. In Christ.
That none of us were lovely. You didn't just come out the box. You don't have accessories. We're. We're broken. We're busted.
And Jesus loves us. And redeems us. Let's keep reading. By grace you have been saved. Verse six. And raised us up.
So he's finishing that sentence. He says. But God being rich in mercy. Because of the great love. With which he loved us. Even when we were dead.
In our trespasses. Made us alive together with Christ. So he inserts right there. By grace you have been saved. But he's finishing that idea.
He made us alive together with Christ. And raised us up with him. And seated us with him. In the heavenly places. In Christ Jesus. He raised us up with him.
Seated us with him. In the heavenly places. In Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ went to a cross. And died in our place for our sins. So that we can be in him.
Do you hear the structure of that sentence? It says. He raised us up with him. Seated us with him. In the heavenly places. In Christ Jesus.
That's our hope. That our life. That our hope is in Christ Jesus. That's what we celebrate in baptism. That we're in Jesus. You hear a lot.
Growing up in the south. That you would pray. That Jesus would come into your heart. The Bible talks about Jesus being in us. Mostly it's talking about the spirit filling us. But way more it talks about us.
Being in Christ. That we're included in Jesus. So what it's saying here. And what our hope is. And what Talha's hope is. And what Sam's hope is.
Is that we're in Christ. So that when we placed our faith in Jesus. And he went to the cross. Our sin. We went with him. When he was dead.
And buried. We were buried with him. And in him. When he rose again. Conquering sin. And rising to life.
We were in him. With him. That he took our disobedience. In him. And that we have our righteousness. Our goodness.
Our right standing with God. In him. That it's all about Jesus. And what he has done. And we place our faith. In him.
And so when he rose from the grave. We rose with him. And when he ascended into heaven. What it says is. We ascended with him. That if you are in Christ.
You are already included in Jesus. Where he sits enthroned in heaven. How does that work? I don't know. But it's great.
I don't know exactly how that plays out. But I know that it is a spiritual reality. That those who are in Christ. Are already raised with Christ. Seated in heaven. Above everything.
And that one day. We will be fully included in him. Brought back to him. And spend eternity with him. And that's what Paul says next. Verse 7.
Well let's read 6. So that 7 makes sense. Raised us up with him. Seated us with him. In the heavenly places. So that.
Okay. That helps us. Earlier it told us that he saved us. Because he loved us. Because helped. That's his reason.
So that is his purpose. So he saved us. Because he loves us. Not because we were special. Or magical. Or lovable.
But because he is loving. He is rich in mercy. He loves us. And then it says so that. Which means. Here we are going to hear the purpose.
Why God saves. So that in the coming ages. He might show. The immeasurable riches. Of his grace and kindness. Of his grace and kindness.
Toward us. In Christ Jesus. So that in the coming ages. He might show the immeasurable riches. Of his grace and kindness. Toward us.
In Christ Jesus. We are saved in Christ. So that God can show us. How immeasurably good he is. That he can show us. The immeasurable grace and kindness.
Towards us. Who believe. That's amazing. That our salvation. Is so that one day. We will fully realize.
How good he is to us. His immeasurable grace and kindness. Towards us. Who believe. There is a moment. When we will enter into eternity.
We will see Jesus. As who he is. And we will see ourselves. For who we are. And we will fully understand. How much of a child of wrath we were.
And then. We will enter into an eternity. Where he displays. His immeasurable grace and kindness. Towards us. I remember growing up.
And I would play outside. And I would get completely covered. From head to toe. In dirt. And I would not even notice. Until I started to walk back in my house.
You start to walk back in the house. And you are like. Whoa. I am dirty. That I am like. I can't just walk in here.
Like this. And there is going to be a moment. For all of us. When we stand before the king. We are going to think. Whoa.
I am dirty. I am more despicable. More wicked. More broken. Than I could ever imagine. But he is going to show.
Immeasurable grace and kindness. We believe. That we are all. Designed to exist. For eternity. And that we will either.
Enter in as a son of God. Or a son of disobedience. We will either. Be held accountable. For our own sin. Or we will be in Christ.
And our sin will be in Christ. And our righteousness. Will be carried out in Christ. That is what we believe. That is what the Bible says. Now.
As we finish up. I want to take just a second. To talk to the Christians in the room. And then I want to talk to the. To the non-Christians in the room. Try to.
I think. There is a temptation for us. As Christians. To see this. To read this. And think.
Yeah. Yeah. This is what we say every week. Y'all. If you have been around a while. This is what we say.
We do it more specifically. We say. Here is how you were. A son of disobedience. A child of wrath. And here is how Jesus saves.
Specifically. But that is pretty much what we do. Every week. It is. Here is how the type of sinner you are. And here is how you ought to repent.
And here is how Jesus is good. This is just the baseline. That is the only story we have. By the way. We are not changing that up. That is the best news.
That is what we are going to talk about. That we were sinners. Saved by grace. That God is rich in mercy. And that he loved us. We are going to keep talking about that.
But there is a temptation. I think. For us as Christians. If you have been around for a while. If you have walked with Jesus for a while. To go.
Yeah. And so I came up with this. I was trying to think about. Ways that I think this breaks down. That we would actually say we believe this. But then it would not show up in our hearts.
So I have kind of three quick ones. To try to maybe help you test. Do I actually believe this? Do I actually believe this? Do I actually walk in this? The first one.
That might indicate to us. If we are. If we are a Christian. But we. We aren't actually believing this. Is that you have a pet sin.
That you have a sin. As a Christian. That you are okay with. That you are trying to tame. You have a sin. That is in your life.
That you. You circle back to. Maybe every couple of months. Maybe you are saying. Well. It is not as bad as it used to be.
Or I only ever do this every couple of months. Or you have got some kind of sin in your life. That you just act like. This is kind of okay. It is not that big of a deal. I am doing pretty well.
You point at other areas of your life. And you actually betray the fact. That you do not understand. How heinous sin is. And how dangerous sin is. I read this in an article this week.
It is a quote from John Bunyan. The article was talking about. How dangerous sin is. That is part of what made me realize. That if we do not actually believe this. We will do this.
He says this. This is a quote about sin. He says. It is the dare of God's justice. Meaning that we are looking at God. And in our sin.
Saying I do not think you will actually carry out justice. It is the rape of his mercy. It is the jeer of his patience. Meaning that we are standing by God. And in our sin. We are poking at him.
And saying I am not touching you. I am not touching you. Assuming he will not do anything about it. It is the slight of his power. He can't do anything about it. And it is the contempt of his love.
Sometimes we use God's love. To try to tame our sin. We say. Well it is not that big a deal. God loves me. And he is saved by grace.
And so we allow things to hang around. That shouldn't hang around. We allow ourselves to circle back. To certain things. That we shouldn't be circling back to. And we are actually showing contempt for his love.
Not an appreciation of it. I think if we are in here. And we say. Yeah. Of course. But we have sin.
That we are okay with having around. I don't think we have fully understood. The gravity and the weight. Of our sin. Secondly. I think there is a temptation.
And I see this a good bit. In counseling with people. Is this idea of. I am not worthy. Or my sin is too big. It is kind of the opposite.
Of the first one. The first one is. Is we minimize our sin. You see. When we. We approach God.
And we want to act like. It is not a big deal. We either have to elevate ourselves. We have to lower God. Or we have to minimize our sin. That is the first one.
The second one is that we have maximized our sin. We completely understand. Verses 1 through 3. But when it hits the but God part. We just break all down. There is no way he can save me from this.
There is no way he can cover this. There is no way. I will be forever marked by this. And it is like no. The sentence starts. But God.
Who is rich in mercy. Meaning that yes. You do deserve destruction. Yes. You are a child of wrath. But he is rich in mercy.
And he saves. He accomplishes this. It does not say. You were this. But you.
It says. You were this. But God. We have all watched enough Disney movies. To understand how this works. If there is a king.
And he falls in love. With a poor maiden. And he wants to marry her. And then someone says. You can't marry her. She is poor.
She is a maiden. She is not royalty. What is our response to that? Yeah. But he is a king.
And he loves her. And he can do what he wants. Flip it around. It is the story of Aladdin. Jasmine at the end. She loved him.
He was poor. You all know this story. Nobody says. Well she is not poor. She is not a maiden. We do not make that argument.
You just say. Yeah. But he is a king. And he loves her. And that is what happens here. No.
You do not know my sin. You do not understand how dirty I am. You do not. But God. Is a king. And he loves you.
And he makes you beautiful. Yeah. We will agree all day long. In our church family. We will agree with you all day long. You are a haunted house doll.
You were. That is what Paul says. It is all past tense. You were a child of wrath. You were a son of disobedience. But now.
You have been saved by grace. You have been made lovely. And you will be welcomed into an eternity. Where he will show you the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness. The third test for us. I think.
Is that we do not tell anybody about this. I think if we are Christians. And we say. I absolutely believe. That this is the story of the world. That this is what is playing out.
That we are all. Either sons of disobedience. Or sons of God. We are already the children of wrath. Or children of God. Saved by grace through Christ.
And we have no desire to tell this to people. It does not show up in our schedule. It does not show up in our time. We are not intentional with our neighbors. I honestly just think. We probably don't actually believe this.
I think you could take any excuse you make. For not telling people about Jesus. And run it through this passage. And it will fall apart. They don't want to hear it. Well of course they don't want to hear it.
It starts off with. You are the worst person ever. And you are following Satan. That is a hard lead. I will give you that. It gets better.
I don't want to bother them. If this is true. This bothers no one. Not ultimately. It is like a symptom. That leads you to the doctor.
So that you can be cured. This may bother them. A little bit. Now. But ultimately.
To lead them to freedom. And joy. And grace. That if we actually believe. As Christians. That this is the true story.
Of the world. I think it would show up more. In how we spend our time. And how we spend our money. And how we. How we leverage.
And are intentional. With our relationships. I think at the end of the day. We'd say. I'm willing to lose. All of my friendships.
Over they don't want to hear me. Tell them about Jesus anymore. Rather than lose them. For eternity. Because I wasn't willing. To ever talk about.
What I actually would say. I believe. Is true. About the world. So if we're in here.
And you're a Christian. And you were nodding along to this. I think those are the three tests. To ask yourself. Do I have a sin. That I'm okay with.
That I think is cute. And I'm trying to tame. Like I said. My wife and I are class. You know those. Those animals gone wild stuff.
Like when animals attack. You know what I'm talking about. Like the high quality television stuff. And they always have like a guy. With like a lion. And then it attacks a person.
And then he's like. I just didn't see that coming. And you're like. Bro. There's a lion. I mean.
I'm not a scientist. I'll draw you a food chain chart. The only way we fix that. Is rifles. Otherwise. This is how it works.
And we do that with our sin. All the time. I just didn't think. It would be that big a deal. It's sin. It's trying to kill you.
It is a rebellion against God. It is not cute. It is not your pet. I think we ask that. I think we ask. Do I have a humble confidence.
That Jesus has made me lovable. And that I can rest in his goodness. Not mine. Or am I constantly beating myself up. And saying I'm not worthy. And then I think we ask.
When was the last time I told somebody. About how good Jesus is. Not just how good our church is. Not just how good our groups are. But when was the last time.
I looked at someone and said. You're a sinner who needs Jesus. And if you don't meet Jesus. It's going to be a problem. When was the last time. I made time in my schedule for that.
Now. If you're not a Christian. This is what we want you to know. That on your worst day. At your most depressed. When you have felt the most guilty.
About something you did to a past relationship. Something you did to a parent. Something you did to a friend. When you felt the most shame. Over your brokenness. When you felt the most vile.
I want to look you in the eye. And lovingly say. You hadn't even gotten close. To the weight of your sin. You hadn't even scratched the surface. On what you're going to feel like.
When you stand before the great high king of the universe. And realize that all of your sin. And all of your rebellion. Was always aimed at him. I hadn't even gotten close. You are more desperately sick.
And wicked. Than you could ever imagine. Than on your worst day. You've even come close to. To feeling and picturing. And you are more undeniably loved.
Than you will ever understand. That Jesus Christ was willing to swap places with you. And you can be in Christ. Redeemed and made whole. That there is hope. And it's not in you.
And it's not in positive thinking. And it's not in finances. And it's not in your next relationship. It's in Christ. And Christ alone. Because only he can die for your guilt.
And take your shame. And set you free. And he loves you. I've gotten intense. And I don't know how to say that. Without seeming intense.
And annoyed about it. But he loves you. It's an actual real love. That makes him rich in mercy. And saves us by grace. That he takes haunted house dolls.
And makes them lovely. And beautiful. He accessorizes. He clothes us. He fixes our wonky eye. Like he does that.
That's who he is. That's what he does. And there is hope. And love. In Christ. And we want you to know that.
And Talha. And Sam. Are a celebration of that today. Their baptisms. Are not. A declaration of turning over a new leaf.
Or getting their life together. Or they're not. Hey here's how I'm going to be a good person from now on. They are. A declaration of I'm saved by grace. I was a child of wrath.
Deserving of destruction. And I've placed my faith in Jesus. And when he died. I was in him. And when he rose. I was in him.
And when he went to heaven. I was in him. And one day I'll be eternally in him. As he shows off. The greatness of his immeasurable kindness and grace. Toward me.
In him. That's what we celebrate today. Now. First time. We've ever done this. Talha's baptism.
Will be filmed. We baptized him a week ago. Sam's baptism will be right now. The reason we did that. Is that Talha is coming out of an Islamic family. And we wanted the opportunity.
They work at the flea market. We wanted the opportunity for two things. One. To have his family be present for his baptism. If they were willing. They were.
And it was great. Got to be around them. Got to explain the gospel to them. They are very kind and gracious people. And it was enjoyable to get to know them better. Secondly.
They work at the flea market. Talha works with them. Lives in their home. And we want him to honor his parents. And work with them. And not miss out on work.
For something they don't really agree with wholeheartedly. So we wanted to be gracious to his parents. Have the opportunity to build with them. Have the opportunity to serve them. And not try to work around our own preference on schedule. But actually work around there.
So that we could be around them. And share the gospel with them. So that's why Talha was baptized last week. He's going to be on screen. And then Sam will be baptized here today. And on both of them.
We're going to clap and yell and be excited. Even though Talha can't hear you. We can hear. And it'll be really sad to watch him get baptized. And everybody go. So we're going to yell.
And celebrate. And then we're going to baptize Sam. And then we're going to spend the rest of the day. So the band's going to come back up. We're going to sing one song. And then we'll do that.
But I wanted to explain a little bit about. What's happening in baptism today. So for us it is a physical picture of being in Christ. That when he died. We died with him. Our sin died with him.
When he was buried. Our sin was buried. Never to rise again. When he rose. We rose with him. His righteousness now covers us.
The same way that the water. Now covers us. That we are completely clean. Washed. Made new. And that we will spend eternity with him.
Because of what Jesus has done. Not because of what we do. Let's pray. God we ask. That through your spirit. You would help us.
To celebrate well. That your grace is sufficient for us. That you because you loved us. Are rich in mercy toward us. And that in Christ. We do not have to get what we deserve.
But that we can be made. Beautiful. And new. That's our hope. That we are in Christ. And we pray that in Christ today.
We would celebrate well. We love you. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen.