TRANSCRIPTION | Sunday, August 22, 20201 | God is….LIFE | 

God is “_______” Series

 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I'm gonna start a new series today. I've previously been in a series entitled Greater. And just as I was preparing and praying through what I felt like it might be that the Lord would have for us over this next season, I just continued to focus in on the book that our anchor text came from over the last six weeks. So we've spent six to seven weeks talking about Greater. And that passage of text that we read from was 1 John chapter four, verse four, we're gonna read it again in just a moment. But in the book of 1 John, I just began to see some things really stick out to me that I believe God wants our church to hear. Maybe it's even a word for our community, and maybe even the church as a whole. Here's gonna be the title of this series “God

Is.”

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I want you to look with me 1 John, chapter four, verse four, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” sound familiar? Can I get an amen from somebody? Come on, “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” But the context of this passage of text gives us a couple more verses, verse five and verse six, it says, “They are of the world and therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them, but we are of God, and He who knows God hears us, and he who is not of God does not hear us. And by this we know the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error.” What John is teaching us is that there are two spirits that work in the earth. One is the Spirit of Truth, and the other is the spirit of error. And what he wants to make you aware of, is that when God gets in your life, and you begin to truly yield to him, you do not have to give place to the spirit of error, but you can continue to yield to and experience the fruit of the Spirit of Truth.” So the series “God Is.” As John moves through this little book of 1 John, he actually reveals to us three things that God is. We're going to take a look at those three things over the next three weeks. We're going somewhere this morning, I want you to stick with me. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Father, I ask you to help me to preach, I ask you to help me teach, help me to deliver your word, let it be done in Jesus’ name; and this church said, amen. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

John. He wrote five books in the New Testament. He wrote the Gospel of John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and the book of Revelation. When you study who it is that John happened to be, what you'll discover is that at a very young age, he began to follow Jesus. Some people believe that it happened in his late teenage years, other people believe it happened in his early 20s. What we do know is somewhere between his teens and his 20s, Jesus stopped by the family business, where he was involved in the fishing industry. And Jesus looked at John and his brother, James, and said, “follow me.” And the Bible says they literally dropped their nets, closed down their family business, and immediately began to follow Jesus. Scripture also points out that their father was impacted in this moment, and at least for the initial stages, he began to follow Jesus with them. Now, John grew in his relationship with Jesus, and he actually became very close to Jesus. In fact, five times in the New Testament, John is described as Jesus' best friend. One of the ways that it says it is it would say things like, “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” Jesus had an inner circle, three disciples that he was closer to than any of the rest. John was one of those, his brother James was the other, and Simon Peter, the third. Being a part of that inner circle allowed them, and specifically John, to be exposed to things that other people would not have been able to see. For instance, there's a moment where Jesus shows up at a man's house, and the daughter has died. And Jesus senses there's unbelief in the room. There's a lack of faith in the room. Jesus puts everybody out. He only allows three people to stay. John was one of them who was considered by Jesus to have enough faith to stay in the room when this dead girl is brought back to life. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Another instance that John would have been one of only three people to be present for was when Jesus was on a mountain, it's called the Mount of Transfiguration. It's a moment when, from heaven, God made manifest Elijah and Moses. It was symbolic of the law and the prophets testifying that Jesus is who He said He was, John was present for that. Another moment right before the cross, Jesus was about to be crucified. Jesus goes into a garden known as Gessamani, and he prays all night long. And Jesus is in agony, and Jesus is in travail. And what we learn is that Jesus prays until the capillaries in his body began to bust, and he begins to sweat great big drops of blood in his prayer time. John would have been present for that, he would have seen it. And so the point I'm trying to make is that anytime that you read something that has come from the pan of John, what you have to be aware of is that it is coming from an intimate relationship with Jesus. It's being written by someone who knew Jesus very well. In fact, when you study out John's life, you will realize that he's mentioned over 50 times in the New Testament. And he's mentioned in the book of Acts as being one of the most key figures to the early church alongside Simon Peter. In fact, the book of Galatians says that Simon Peter and John were pillars that God built the early church upon. In spite of that, their critics looked at them and said, men like John are ignorant and unlearned. However, we have to admit they have been with Jesus. John is a guy who is known for being bold. Now I know scripture talks about him lying on Jesus' chest, and that sounds kind of sweet. But you also learn that John is a guy who Jesus said, this dude's like a son of thunder. John found out that somebody not of his group, cast out a demon, and he said to Jesus, let me go deal with them. They don't need to be doing that without you present, and Jesus had to rebuke him. John caught on that Jesus was not your average choirboy, and he looked at Jesus, he said, “Hey, when you come into your full kingdom, can I sit on your left hand, my brother sit on your right hand?” Jesus had to rebuke him for that. At one point, there was a group of people in Samaria who weren't treating Jesus with the right kind of honor and right kind of respect, and John said, can I call fire now from heaven to destroy them all. And Jesus had to rebuke him for that. This guy, he was not timid by any means. In fact, out of all of the disciples, he was the only one that was never martyred. They couldn't kill him. They tried to boil him in hot water, boil him in hot oil, and that had no effect. It was like he would just lean back and take a bath. They finally decided to put him on an island called Patmos. And it was with the worst of the worst. He was exiled there in the later years of his life. And when he gets there, he realizes it's the Lord's day, he gets in the spirit and writes the book of Revelation while he's on an island exiled. They kept him there for a while. And finally they had to release him. He came back, and he started his pastoral ministry again. Some people believe that John was pastoring into his late 80s, and 90s, and lived to be over 100 years old. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So when John writes the book of 1 John, he writes it at a time in which second and third generation Christians have arrived. So this is not the first generation, he's writing it to second generation and third generation Christians. He's noticed something. He's noticing that as a new wave of Christians come on the scene, they are being easily deceived. And they're settling for falsehoods about the truth of Jesus Christ. And he begins to really talk very firmly and directly to them about how this ought not to be. It's almost as if he's saying, listen, I've given a lot for the cause of this Gospel, and I'm not going to lean back in my latter years and let somebody make a mess of it. We're going to get this thing straight. In fact, over and over again, in the book of 1 John, his audience, he calls them little children or dear children over and over again. At one point, he even points out that he is talking to young men in the church that they need to get some things straightened out. John. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So John, in this little book of 1 John, teaches us three things that God is. The first one we're going to talk about is God is life. John really liked the subject of life. The most famous verse in the entire Bible is anchored in the subject of life. And it came from John as he quoted Jesus. You may have heard of it., John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him would not perish but have you everlasting life.” John gives us this other famous text, John 10:10, “The enemy comes but to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus comes to give you life, and life more abundantly.” And what John wants to relay, especially in the book of 1 John, is that there is a life through God that can be experienced, that is beyond anything that you would ever be able to experience in the world. And the way that he lays it out for us, and those of you that like Bible studies, we're gonna start here in just a couple of minutes. Real quick, I'm going to give you just a little bit of Bible study. So the first thing that you see is that the life was manifested. So what John is going to point out is actually at the very beginning of this little book, he says, the life was manifested. And what he means is Jesus came from heaven to earth, and manifested as the Son of God in the earth, and we bear witness to this so that you can have eternal life. And he's saying, me and the other disciples, we saw it, we experienced it. And that leads us to the next thing. He actually begins to relate to you that the life was not just manifested, but the life is to be experienced. And what John is doing, he's not just building his own credibility, he's trying to get a point across to me and you that this was from the beginning, we heard it, we have seen it, we have looked upon it, we have handled it, the word of life. John is saying, I didn't just see it, I heard it. I didn't just hear about it, I handled it. He's like, I have physically encountered this life known as Jesus Christ. And what he's wanting you to know is that what he experienced in the physical, you and I can experience in the spiritual. That because Jesus came from heaven to earth and manifested himself as the Son of God among us, we now get to experience a life that is abundantly above all that we could ask or think, according to His power that he puts in our life. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

But that's not all. He also teaches us that the life should be shared. So when you get the life of God on the inside of you, it's not meant that you would just keep that to yourself. It's also not meant that you would just go over in a corner somewhere and totally isolate yourself, but the life is to be shared. In fact, he says, that which we have seen, and we have heard, we declare to you, that you may also have fellowship with us, and also have that fellowship with the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ. So you understand what fellowship is, it's just two fellows in the same ship. So God intends for you to experience his life in community. That's why you need to be in a small group. That's why you need to be intentional about being a part of public worship gatherings. It's why you don't need to allow the enemy to disconnect you from fellowship and community and relationship, because God designed this thing to be shared. So that's the foundation for the life. And the things that John opens in his first three verses talking about the life. But John, through the rest of that book, has an underlying question, and I want to ask you that question today. Are you a child of God, or a counterfeit Christian? Which one is it? You say, preacher, what do you mean? I want you to see this verse. Verse, John, chapter three, verse 10, “In this, the children of God, and the children of the devil are manifest.” What he's pointing out, is referencing the statement that we read earlier, out of chapter four. There are two spirits at work in the world. There is a Spirit of Truth, and there is a spirit of error. And if you yield to the Spirit of Truth, you will be a child of God. But if you yield to the spirit of error, you will be a child of the devil. And what it means to be a child of the devil in this context, is that you will be a counterfeit Christian, you will appear to be one thing, but you will actually be something else. The term that most of us are most familiar with in this regard, is hypocrisy. The term children of the devil is actually a phrase that was birthed by Jesus in the New Testament. It was John that recorded it. John records that Jesus was having an encounter with the Pharisees. And Jesus looks out at the Pharisees and he says to them, you are children of the devil. And what he was pointing out Is that they were counterfeit. They were hypocrites. Jesus was pointing out that they wore the best clothes to the public worship gatherings, they prayed the most eloquent prayers, and they made the biggest deal out of all the money that they were giving away to the poor. But at the end of the day, they were as beautiful as whited tombstones, or seplecures, on the outside; but on the inside, they were full of dead men's bones. Because they had cleaned the outside of the cup, but they had not cleaned the inside of the cup. And so the thing that Jesus is pointing out to them is that there's something counterfeit that's going on in their life. Because on Sunday, they look one way, but on Monday, they look an entirely different way. Counterfeit. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And so John begins to ask the question in his own way through this little book, of are you truly a child of God, or are you exemplifying something that's counterfeit? If you break it down, the way that we learn from John is that if we want to be a child of God, then we have to be born again, born again. We know John 3:16, John gave it to us. But the thing that John also said in that same passage that's so famous is “Marvel not that you must be born again.” As if it's bewildering to think that you would be born again. We can't go through our mother's womb again. Like how are we going to be born again? John says, there is an element to marvel about, but don't get stuck in trying to comprehend it, just come to understand that there's the ability to call upon the name of Jesus Christ as Savior, and he will bring his blood and make you a new creature in Christ Jesus, testified of publicly,when you pass through the waters of baptism, that old things have passed away and everything has become new again. And if there is any lie in our society, then this would be one, “I was born this way, deal with it.” It doesn't matter how you were born, doesn't matter how I was born. If the way we were born does not line up with the principles of God's word, we have to be born again. And ever since Adam and Eve messed up, a sin nature has been at work and humanity. By default, we lie, we cheat, we steal. You don't believe me, leave your kids alone, even in their toddler stages, and before long one has stolen from the other, and when you go to investigate, now they're lying. And that's sweet, and that's cute until they're 35, and still doing it. And so what has to happen is that you can debate the science, you can debate the medical journals, you can talk about whatever you want to talk about in that vein; but at the end of the day, if I'm born with lust, I have to be born again and set free from that lust. If I'm born with greed, I have to be born again and set free from that greed. If I'm born with bitterness, I have to be born again and set free from that bitterness. And what has to happen is my life has to begin to show the marks of being born again. And John starts to go through some detail in this little book of what born again, people look like. In fact, the thing he points out is born again people believe Jesus is the one. In first John chapter five, verse one, he said, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ,” Christ means the anointed one is born of God. In order to be born again, you have to believe that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. You have to believe that he is the only way to the Father. If you believe that all paths lead to God, you are not born again and you are not saved. There is only one way to the Father, and that is through the son, and his name is Jesus. And whether we like it or not, that's the truth of God's Word. It's the reality that if you're going to be born again, you got to believe that Jesus is the one. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Another thing he points out is that born again people love each other. Well, that's a novel idea, isn't it? He says it this way, in chapter four, verse seven, “Let us love one another, for the Love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” So one of the things that testifies that we've had a born again experience is that we begin to legitimately love other people, especially a love that we share among believers. And he doesn't stop there. He also says, born again people do what's right. He says that everyone who practices righteousness or Right standing before God is born of Jesus. Born again people do what's right. Which leads us to the next thing that he says about born again people, he says they avoid sinful habits. First John 3:9, “No one who is born of God will continue to sin. They cannot go on sinning because they have been born of God.” In the context of Scripture, he's not saying that you won't fall or fail, or mess up. What he's saying is that you will avoid sinful habits. And so when the grace of God begins to go to work in your life, you don't settle for the hurts and the habits and the hangups that you've been dragging around like grave clothes for the last 20 years of your life. But you begin to realize, wait a second, some of that old stuff is passing away. I'm becoming a true new creature in Christ Jesus. That grace is not my crutch, it's my staircase to get... I can sense y'all are wanting me to move on. But it don't get no better. You want me to go back, or you mean to keep going? Because what John points out is born again people might be hated

by the world. You might even get censored on Facebook. Some of y'all need to be censored. 1 John 3:13, “Do not be surprised my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.” We want to be liked, don't we? But do you understand that sometimes just being associated with the name of Jesus Christ means that somebody is going to hate you? Because you don't wrestle against flesh and blood, you wrestle against principalities and powers of the air. And Jesus said, blessed are you when men revile you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my namesake, for so persecuted the prophets that went before you? It was Paul that said, all who live godly shall suffer persecution. When you begin to introduce yourself as a born again follower of Jesus Christ, there are going to be some people that don't like you simply because of the spirit of hell that is back in their life. There's going to be a challenge with being misunderstood and feeling like they just don't get it, and it's going to hurt, it's going to be painful, but you need to understand this, born again people overcome the world. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Because that's another thing he dropped a bomb on. It's chapter five, verse four, “For whatever whoever is born of God overcomes the world.” Isn't that an incredible promise? That when the world brings the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, that you've got a promise you're going to overcome it. And when the world starts lying about you, and saying all manner of evil against you falsely, you're going to overcome it. That when the world brings it’s sickness and brings it’s shame, and brings it’s condemnation, that you're going to overcome it. And then when the world tries to bring the addictions out of your past, and try to tell you that's who you're always going to be, you overcome it through the name of Jesus Christ. Here's what he says, it is a great promise, because he's not done talking on the subject. The thing he says in chapter five, verse 19, is that we know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. Think about that word sway. Sway to the left, sway to the right. It implies there's not a firm footing. It implies that your position is in a vulnerable place. It implies that your legs could be taken out from under you at any moment, under the sway of the enemy, under the sway of the enemy. But thank God through the Son of God, you can have understanding. And through that understanding, gain eternal life. It's super important to have that understanding and to seize the opportunity for that eternal life rather than to be under the sway of the enemy, because the devil loves magic tricks. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You understand what a magic trick is? It makes it look like one thing, but it's actually something else. Makes it look like a child of God but it's actually a counterfeit Christian. It makes it look like it's all in with Jesus, but it's actually privately hung up in the things of the world. It makes it look like it's an angel of light, but in reality, it's in fellowship with darkness. You see, our enemy is a master of distraction. You may have seen it, there's a movie called the prestige. It's about an illusionist, or someone who does magic tricks. In the opening monologue, there's a character played by Michael Caine. And what he does is he tells you there are three parts to every magic trick. The first is the pledge. And the pledge is when you show the audience something ordinary, just an ordinary thing. It might be a deck of cards, it might be a scarf, it might be a rabbit, a bird, just ordinary. But then there's the turn. That's the second part of a magic trick. And that's when you show them that the ordinary can become extraordinary in your hands. You might even make it disappear. The turn, but nobody claps at that moment, rarely. You need something more. That's where the third act of the magic trick comes in, and that's called the prestige. That's when you bring it back. I recently read about a man who was a CEO of a very large corporation. He ran with the elite of our culture in regards to corporate power and influence. And recently, he chose to resign his position because he believes that corporate america and maybe even global companies in the realm of corporations are performing the greatest magic trick in history, the pledge. They take an ordinary product in an ordinary market made by ordinary people, and then they turn it. And they take that thing and they sell it for a higher cost. But the prestige is while they're doing it, they make you think that they're not interested in more profit, or more power, while they are simultaneously gaining both at unprecedented rates. This quote, “currently, skin-deep characteristics and flimsy social causes ruled the airwaves. In case you haven't noticed, corporate bureaucracy is becoming a defining scam of our time. One that robs you not only of your money, but of your voice and your identity. We are living through a Soviet style ideological purge. It's not being facilitated by big government or private enterprise, it is the mutation of two into one. Stay woke means obsessing about gender, race, sexual orientation, and climate change. And yet all great magicians master the art of distraction, flashing lights, smoke, beautiful women on stage, while today's captains of industry do it by promoting progressive social justices.” 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

See what's happening is something that I think John would have tried to warn us about, is that there is a Spirit of Truth, and there is a spirit of error. And if you're not careful, you can fall prey to the works of the enemy through the world and become something you never intended to be. There's one writer in the New Testament that gives us this word, his name is John. We're most familiar with the picture that he draws of this figure, antichrist, which means against or instead of Christ Jesus. We're most familiar with the imagery that's drawn in the book of Revelation, where there's going to be a tribulation period, seven years, divided into three and a half year segments. And during that timeframe, a man is going to rise to power, he will have at his command two beasts, those beasts represent systems. One system will be a religious system, the other system will be an economic system; he will merge those two systems. Simultaneously, he will have a false prophet that begins to talk about how that he is, the Antichrist is the answer to all the world's problems, both religiously and economically. And eventually it will be instituted that the only way that you can buy or that you can sell is you will have to take the mark of those beasts in order to participate in anything religious, buy, sell or trade. That is the Antichrist that most people wonder the most about. Where is he? Is he alive yet? Is he already in power? Is he already establishing his authority? That's where curiosity begins to peak. But what John teaches us in this little book, called 1John, is that it's more than a person. Without a doubt, there will be the rise of a singular individual, most likely. What John teaches us is beloved, do not believe every spirit, but you better test the spirits to find out whether they are of God. For the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and now is already in the world. He wrote that 2000 years ago, that there was already a spirit loose in the earth that wanted to substitute the true things of Jesus or work against the things of Jesus. And if it's been at work for 2000 years, you can guarantee you that it's gotten bigger and better and madder, and that's Bible too. Because Scripture tells us that when the enemy knows that his time is short, he will increase his wrath. So if there was ever a time to test the spirits, it's right about now. So I would advise you before you marry her, you better test her spirit. Ma'am, before you marry him, you better test his spirit. Before you go to work at that place, you better test the spirit of that place. Before you pick your church, you better test the spirit of that church. I didn't expect a lot of amens. But it's the truth. There's a spirit loose, and it's the spirit of antichrist. And it's trying to pull people by the masses into a spirit of error, so that they would become counterfeit Christians, as opposed to truly showing the marks of a born again, Child of God that overcomes everything the world throws at it first and foremost, because whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him. Sometimes all you got to do is just say the name of Jesus. I dare you, just say the name of Jesus. Hell hates that. Why? Because every knee must bow at the name of Jesus. Somebody say Jesus. Every tongue must confess, somebody say Jesus. Every demon must flee, somebody say Jesus. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Sometimes you don't know what to pray, sometimes you don't know what to say, sometimes you don't know what your next step is. Sometimes all you got is the name of Jesus. And I came to tell you that the name of Jesus is still more than enough, because the name of Jesus testifies, God abides in you, and you are of God, and you have overcome them, because he who is in you is greater than he that is in the world. That if the Anti Christ himself shows up, that if God before you, it matters not who or what would be against you, God will build his church through the name and the revelation of Jesus, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I need somebody to praise the name of Jesus! Jesus! John was saying, I've been following him for 80 years. They tried to boil me, they tried to kill me, they tried to exile me, they tried to shut me up and pin me in, but I just kept preaching and decreeing the name of Jesus, and it was always more than enough! 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Did you know that in the book of Acts, it actually reached a point where the religious order of his day came to little old, ignorant and unlearned John and said, we'll let you do whatever you want to do, just stop using his name. And John said, that's the one thing that's not up for negotiation, because it's only the name of Jesus that can truly bring transformation. It's only the name of Jesus that can truly bring change. And so there might be a lot of things that are worth fighting for, but if Jesus is not at the center of it, you are wasting your time. He is the only, only, answer that we have. Anything that presents an answer, disconnected from Jesus, will pass away, but his name shall stand forever and ever, amen. As for me and my house, we’re gonna serve the name of Jesus. And it's not up for negotiation. I may have to jump through some hoops, and I may have to do some things I don't want to do, and I may have to agree with this and agree with that, but the moment that it comes against the name of Jesus, I'm done backin up. And that's where you better get to. The moment that it attacks the name of Jesus, is the moment you don't back up any further. Get that in your gut. Get it in your heart, lest you be a counterfeit Christian.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I'll leave you with this, they're gonna play some music. These things I have written to you. This is why he wrote this book, that you would believe in the name, somebody say, Jesus, of the Son of God. That you may know that you have eternal life. He who has the son has life. And he who does not have the son does not have life. It's that simple. God is life. But that life is only accessible through the name of Jesus. Have you ever made a decision to truly believe in the name of Jesus? I'm going to ask every head to be bowed every odd to be closed. I have seen something over the last few weeks that is unlike anything I have ever seen in pastoral ministry.

I've seen messages come to this moment, and I've watched across three locations, as when people are given the opportunity to say I need to go all in with Jesus. Without hesitation, without embarrassment, without worrying about who's beside him or behind him, they throw their hand in the air, and they say, yeah, I need Jesus. I'm ready to become a born again follower of Jesus. I’ve watched it happen today in two sanctuaries already, from one side of the room to another side of the room, people throwing their hands up and saying, I need Jesus. And I think that God wants to do that in this room today. Because right now, the Holy Spirit is dealing with your heart.

And you feel some kind of tug on you. It's some kind of tug that says you can't stay where you're at. You can't keep going through the motions that you've been going through you. You can't just hold to some kind of form of religious experience, like you need a true relationship with Jesus. And if that speaks to you, right now, I want you to throw your hand up in the air, do not wait Do not hesitate, throw it up in the air. Be bold, be brave, be courageous right now. Life change is on the other side of this prayer. And I ask you right now that you would begin to just pour your heart out to Jesus. As your hand is lifted, it signifies God, I'm surrendering my will, I'm surrendering my way, I'm surrendering my ambition. I give it all to you, Jesus. And I ask you father, that you would forgive me of my sins and that you would go to work in my life, and God I believe that you're willing to do it. That God even right now, I'm confessing the deep dark stuff in my life, stuff that maybe nobody knows but you God, but I'm saying it out to you right now because I want this stuff off my record. I want it out of the record books of heaven, Jesus, cleanse me, make me clean. Go to work in me. Go to work in me. Ask him that he's gonna give you the courage that when you leave this setting today, you're gonna put the whole world on notice. Anybody and everybody, you're gonna decree it and declare and I'm a born again follower of Jesus Christ. It's the first day of the rest of your life. First day of the rest of your life. And it all starts with just speaking Jesus. Speaking, Jesus. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

The Bible says that when somebody gives their life to Jesus, that angels in heaven rejoice.

I want you to think about, you go over to a hospital room, you see your friends, they just had a new baby, everybody rejoices. Just even earlier in this service, we were doing child dedications and, and we're celebrating the the new life, the new birth. Well, the Bible says in heaven, when somebody gets born again through Jesus, the angels show up at that party, and they start celebrating that new life has transpired. And I'm gonna ask this congregation if you would to stand with me all over this building, and I want you right now to put your hands together, and I want you to acknowledge that new life has transpired. That a born again experience has taken place, that Jesus has gone to work in somebody's life. Come on, man. Old things passing away, everything becoming new. I want you to praise like the angels would praise. That the blood of Jesus is not wasted, but the blood of Jesus is at work in somebody's life. God, we praise you. Listen If you prayed, and you're like Jesus, I want you to save my soul. I want you to be the Lord of my life. If you pray that, if you meant that with everything that is within you, the next step for you is baptism. And I challenge you, go to 3trees.com, let us know what God did in your life because we want to get you in the water and let you let the whole world know that you are going public with your faith. We want to cheerlead for you, we want to celebrate with you, we want to pray with you. That's your next step.