January 27, 2025 • 42 mins
What does it mean to truly experience a vibrant community of faith? Join us as we recount the energy of a recent Sunday morning at First Baptist Church, Powder Springs. We celebrated our devoted volunteers, including the 130 attendees at the Dream Team rally, and relived the success of a women's conference spearheaded by Karen Darnell. Christian Henry, our dynamic new student pastor, steps into the spotlight as he invigorates our student and young adult ministries. And we can't forget the joy of Baptism Sunday, where 12 individuals took their newfound faith public. Through these stories, we invite you to feel the palpable excitement and gratitude that fuels our community's journey with God.
Temptation is a universal struggle, and our latest episode helps you navigate these murky waters with insights drawn from biblical stories and real-life anecdotes. Whether facing the lust of the flesh, eyes, or pride, we shed light on the spiritual battles that challenge us to choose between a path of sin and a life following Jesus. With humor and candor, we share a pastor's amusing encounter with a donut shop — a lighthearted reminder of the everyday temptations we all face. Discover strategies for aligning your life more closely with God’s presence and finding strength through spiritual disciplines like fasting and prayer.
Finally, we reflect on the transformative power of baptism and the importance of spiritual fortitude. Stories of triumph, like David's defiance of a grim prognosis and Tom's bravery in overcoming his fear of water, illustrate the profound impact of embracing faith. As we celebrate new believers and guide them towards the next steps in their spiritual journey, we ensure that nothing stands between them and baptism. With the assurance of community support and a heartfelt prayer for guidance, we encourage everyone to pursue a life fully committed to Jesus.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to First Baptist Church, powder Springs.
Put your hands together ifyou're excited to be in church
this morning, man, the worshipwas incredible.
God's already moving.
We're so thankful for everysingle person that's here.
Maybe you've been here for along time, maybe you've just
been here for a little while,maybe it's your first time,
maybe you're online.
Whoever you are, we're justthankful that you are here or
(00:20):
you are tuned in, because webelieve that God wants to speak
to you this morning.
Out of all of the places thatyou could be, this is where God
brought you today, and I believethat God's got a word for you.
It's just been amazing to watchand to see how God's hand has
been on our church.
We've been going through justlike a little time, a little
season of revival together, andwe are just getting what God can
(00:44):
give out of his grace, out ofhis mercy Nothing we deserve,
nothing we earn.
We are not great.
He is great, and we're justthankful for everything that God
is doing.
Just for a few things that youcan see what God's doing.
First of all, we had lastSunday.
We had a dream team rally.
This was a lunch for all of ourvolunteers.
We had some 130 differentvolunteers there for that lunch.
(01:06):
Would you put your handstogether for all of our
volunteers that make Sundaymornings happen and Wednesday
nights happen and all of ourministries happen, and we
believe that every believer, godhas a ministry for them, and so
if you're not serving in someway and you wanna get more
involved, that's a great way tobe able to do it.
Also, I want you to know thatyesterday we had our women's
(01:27):
conference.
Yesterday morning and afternoonwe had some over 300 ladies
registered because of sicknessor whatever.
I think we had like 280, 290who were here, including my
five-year-old daughter, brooklyn, and my eight-month-old
daughter, eliana, and so we'rejust super thankful for all that
God did.
I wanna say daughter Eliana,and so we're just super thankful
for all that God did.
(01:47):
I want to say thank you toKaren Darnell.
She's not here today, she'shomesick, she's watching right
now.
Can we just put our handstogether for Karen Darnell, for
our ladies, her team, all theladies that served, and it's
just amazing to watch them plan,watch them prepare, and I've
never seen a conference moreprayed over and God worked, god
moved.
I wanna say thank you to all ofour deacons.
(02:08):
As I told Larry Darnell, ourchairman of deacons yesterday
that we couldn't pay you hourlybecause we couldn't afford all
of our deacons and all that theydo.
But we are incredibly thankful,karen, if you're watching,
we've got some flowers for youand we've got a gift card for a
facial for you from your church,our way of appreciating it's my
(02:30):
favorite face, my place to getmy facial.
Just kidding, I don't getfacials, but it's my wife got it
for you and it's from yourchurch.
We love you and we are superthankful for all that you did.
I want you to know that we havea D now coming up.
Where is Christian Henry?
Is he in the house?
Our brand new student pastor?
Y'all put your hands togetherfor Christian Henry, our brand
new student pastor, is here.
Man praise God for the Henryfamily.
This is his first Sunday herewith us, my man Christian.
(02:51):
He played linebacker in collegebut now he's tackling the devil
for teenagers.
Can I get an amen?
And so God is so good.
His wife was actually MissKentucky for Miss America and I
just love that.
They are people of highachievement but their identity's
in Jesus right, like who theyare, and what they're all about
is not what they've done, butwhat God has done in their life
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and they believe.
What God wants to do inteenagers, what God wants to do
in young adults, he's over ourstudent ministry, he's over our
young adult ministry.
So anywhere between the ages of11 to in your 30s, right man,
he wants to be a pastor in yourlife.
Let's praise the Lord forChristian, for the Henrys.
Love you, bro, so thankful thatyou're here, a part of us.
He's going to be leading anevent and taking students to an
(03:38):
event that we're calling ourD-NOW weekend.
So if you're a teenager sixththrough twelfth grader that's
February 7th through 9th wewould love to have you a part of
that because of all the amazingthings that God is doing in our
student ministry.
And I am just so excited fortoday, because today is Baptism
Sunday.
We got to baptize three in ourfirst service.
(03:59):
There are nine to get baptizedtoday and maybe God is going to
work in your life this morningand maybe he's going to call you
to get baptized today.
And maybe God is gonna work inyour life this morning and maybe
he's gonna call you to getbaptized.
No pressure, we're not rushinganybody ever.
We just want you to be faithfulto what the Lord calls you to
do.
Let's pray, heavenly Father.
We love you, god, thank you forall that you're doing and, as
we love to just proclaim everySunday, god, this is your word,
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we are your church.
Every Sunday, god, this is yourword, we are your church, we
are your people, we're going totalk about your son and God.
We pray for a move from yourspirit for your glory.
In Jesus' name, we pray and allGod's people said amen, amen.
Well, I remember hearing a storyseveral years ago about a
church and a church.
Actually, they were without apastor and they wanted a young
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pastor.
So they called a seminarypresident saying, hey, we need a
young pastor.
Send us your best young pastorto maybe come and be the pastor
of our church.
So he came.
He came and he preached on aSunday morning so that the
church would vote on him and hepreached so good that Sunday
morning a family actually cameto join the church.
The problem was they gothalfway down the aisle and a
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deacon went and met them halfway.
The family was a differentethnicity of the entire rest of
the church and a deacon saidsomething to them.
The family hung their heads,turned around, went out the back
door.
The young pastor went over tothe deacon.
The young pastor said what didyou just say to that family?
And the deacon said well, Itold them that there was a
(05:28):
church for them down the roadthat we thought that they would
be a better fit in.
The young pastor said I'm notcoming to this church.
He went back to the seminarypresident.
He said you won't believe whathappened.
Seminary president said I'llhandle it.
The church ended up calling theseminary president back, said
sorry, things didn't work outwith the young pastor.
Would you bring us somebodyelse?
(05:49):
Seminary president said nope,you've already got a pastor.
They said no, we're the churchwithout a pastor.
We want you to know if you'dbring us another pastor.
And he said no, you heard me,you've already got a pastor.
They said no, we're the churchwithout a pastor.
We need a pastor.
And he said nope, your pastor'sthe devil, and as long as the
devil is pastoring your churchand you don't wanna become a
multi-ethnic church, then Idon't want to bring you any more
(06:12):
young pastors to pastor yourchurch.
Put your hands together.
I love man when people are boldwith the word of God, because
here's what we believe.
We believe that every tribe,every tongue, every what we
believe.
We believe that every tribe,every tongue, every language,
every nation is going to bewrapped around the throne of
Jesus.
We're all going to beworshiping him together forever.
(06:33):
So why can't we do it togethernow?
Can I get an amen?
So that's what God is callingus to do.
And I love how that pastorhandled that situation.
He didn't just say, hey, yourchurch is going through a little
phase right now.
Your church has got a littlestruggle right now.
He didn't say you know yourchurch right now.
You know you've got a little,just a little problem.
No, he called it out for whatit is.
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He called it sin.
And what is sin?
Sin is anything that Satanbrings to us that we want to do
so.
Temptation is when we want tosin.
Sin is when we give intotemptation and we do sin.
We're in the series right now.
That's called your Best Year.
You Ever Look at somebody andsay I hope you have your best
(07:14):
year?
You ever Go and tell them thatright now, I hope you have your
best year you ever?
Hey, y'all, I have never, haveyou ever met the person I have
yet to meet, the person thatsaid you know what my New Year's
resolution is I wanna have theworst year I've ever had in my
life.
Right, I've never met thatperson before in my life.
No one wants to have theirworst year.
I believe you wanna have yourbest year ever.
(07:35):
I believe you want your familyto have their best year ever.
I believe that God wants you tohave your best year ever have
your best year ever, but Ibelieve that the devil wants you
to have your worst year ever.
He wants you to why?
Because in order to have yourbest year ever is not a year
that's absent of difficulties,it's a year that is more present
(07:55):
of God than any year yet beforein your life.
Can I get an amen, man?
We want to be filled with God,and so this morning, I want you
to see our last way.
We've already talked about thismonth how to prioritize your
spiritual health.
We've talked about how to knowyour Savior and to know yourself
as prophet, priest and king.
Last week, we talked about howto take your next step in your
(08:18):
journey and your walk with Jesusto have your best year yet.
This morning, I want toencourage you that the last way
that we want to see together tohave your best year yet.
This morning I want toencourage you that the last way
that we want to see together tohave your best year yet is that
you would be able to detect whatthe devil wants to do in your
life.
Because here's what the devilwants to do.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians4.4,.
(08:38):
You ever heard this before?
It says the God of this age,small g, speaking of Satan, that
the God of this age wants toblind the minds of unbelievers
to keep them from seeing thelight of the gospel, of the
glory of Christ, who is theimage of God.
In other words, satan doesn'tjust want you to do the wrong
thing, satan wants you to doanything as long as you don't
(08:59):
see the glory of Jesus, as longas you don't live for Jesus in
your life.
I want you to know that 2Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 11
, says that God actually showsus in his word, he shows you how
Satan wants to work in yourlife.
So the Bible says that youwould not be ignorant of the
(09:23):
evil one's schemes or designs.
In other words, god gives you aspoiler alert.
Everybody say spoiler alert.
God gives you a spoiler alertin the scriptures so that you
can see and identify andacknowledge what the devil is
trying to do in your life.
So here's this morning.
(09:43):
The title of the message is theTesting of Temptation.
Why am I calling it the Testingof Temptation?
Because I believe that everytemptation that comes to you and
every temptation that comes tome is a test.
Everybody say test Is a test.
And here's the test.
The test is will you followSatan or follow Jesus?
The test is will you followSatan or follow Jesus?
(10:05):
Will you worship Satan orworship Jesus?
Will you obey Satan or obeyJesus?
So here's what we see.
We're gonna study thetemptation of Jesus.
Because Jesus resistedtemptation for you, you can too
resist temptation through him,not just for him, but it's gotta
(10:26):
be by the power of Jesus inyour life.
Here's what we see in 1 John 2,.
Verse 16 says this For all thatis in the world, or everything
that is of the world, of theworld just means everything that
is of the evil one, everythingthat is of the enemy, everything
that is of sin, everything thatis of evil itself, for all that
is of the enemy, everythingthat is of sin, everything that
is of evil itself, for all thatis in the world, are these
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things.
We see these three maintemptations of all of life, that
every temptation falls into thelust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes and the pride of life.
It's not from the Father, butit's from the world.
So let's break it down realquick, just so we all see it
together.
The Bible says that there is alust of flesh.
(11:09):
It's temptation, and that is atemptation of pleasure.
Everyone say pleasure andpleasure says I want to feel
that.
Then there's the lust of theeyes.
Just very simply said, to pullit down into one word is a
temptation of treasure.
Everyone say treasure, treasuresays I wanna have that.
And then there's the pride oflife.
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It's the sin of pride.
Everyone say pride and thepride of life says I want to be
that.
So here's what's interestingthese are the exact same three
temptations that Satan took Eveand Adam through in the garden
in the very beginning, thatSatan took Jesus through in the
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wilderness and that Satan takesme and you through in our life.
See, satan works the same way.
So God can say spoiler alertlet me show you how he works so
you can detect it, so you canfight it, so you don't fall into
sin.
So here we go.
Number one the temptation ofpleasure.
Everyone say pleasure.
(12:13):
The temptation of pleasure,this is the lust of the flesh
saying that, I want to feel that.
Here's what we see in Jesus'story of the temptation In Jesus
, full of the Holy Spirit,returned from the Jordan River
and was led by the Spirit intothe wilderness.
In other words, last week andgo back and listen to it.
(12:34):
We talked about Jesus' baptism,and Jesus traveled on foot some
60 to 70 mile walk to where Johnthe Baptist was baptizing
hundreds, if not thousands, ofpeople at the Jordan River,
where they too were walkingsomewhere between 20 and 80
miles.
We're talking about stayingovernight, like they're walking
to this revival, some two tofive days just to get there.
(12:58):
And we see that Jesus walks upto John the Baptist and says I
want to be baptized.
John says I can't do it.
Jesus said you got to do it.
John said all right, I'll do it.
And John baptized him.
Boom, right, there, right.
And so what we're seeing then?
At that point the Bible saysthat heaven opened and the
spirit of God came down andrested on Jesus.
And what is the point thatJesus got baptized for you so
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that you can get baptized forhim?
We see that baptism is not forour salvation.
Baptism is from our salvation.
So we get saved and we getbaptized.
In other words, the mostimportant decision that you will
ever make in your life is togive your life to Jesus,
believing that he died for yoursin, that he rose from the dead
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and that he becomes the Lord ofyour life and you follow him
with your life and you followhim with your life.
That is your salvation.
And then the second mostimportant decision in your life
is your baptism.
It happens after your salvationand it is that first step of
obedience in your life andfollowing Jesus.
It's a public profession offaith.
In other words, here's what wesee.
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What does the Bible say aboutbaptism?
Let me just boil it down.
Break it down very simply.
The Bible says that our baptismis, because of our salvation,
not to be saved.
The Bible says that baptismhappens after our salvation, not
before our salvation.
The Bible says that we are tobe submerged in water for our
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baptism and then come out of thewater, because that's what
Jesus did.
Why?
Because our baptism is ourpublic profession of faith.
Picturing the gospel when we gounder the water, we're saying
that we believe that Jesus diedfor our sin.
And no, I do not hold anybodyunder the water this long.
It's a very long time for oursin and no, I do not hold
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anybody under the water thislong, it's a very long time.
But when you come out of thewater momentarily, you're saying
I believe that Jesus rose fromthe dead.
Let me just tell you a fewstories of a few of the people
that are getting baptized today.
Today we get to baptize Blake,and Blake was an agnostic.
He wasn't even sure if Godexisted for 25 years.
He just gave his life to Jesusabout a month ago and he is
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coming forward for believersbaptism today.
Susan Susan, she is the headgirls basketball coach at
Hillgrove High School.
How many of y'all are here fromHillgrove?
Raise your hand.
You're here from Hillgrove.
Let's give Hillgrove a biground of applause.
We're so thankful to have youhere, hillgrove Head girls
basketball coach there.
She got saved earlier in lifeand she wants to be biblically
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baptized.
Nick is a senior at McEachernand he's going to get baptized
today.
He actually won the player ofthe year PGA junior golf, but
his greatest identity andachievement, right, is not as
golf, but believing in Jesus ashis Lord and Savior, this
morning we're going to bebaptizing Jamie and her daughter
, ashanti and Jamie.
Years ago she lost atwo-year-old little boy.
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He died and Jamie told meyesterday.
She said it was actually mytwo-year-old when he lost his
life is when God worked in mylife.
She said my two-year-old savedmy life.
We baptized David this morning.
In the first service.
David was told that he had sixmonths to live 15 years ago.
Can I get an amen?
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We baptized Tom this morningand Tom was.
He was scared of water and Ijust reminded Tom we've been a
church for 183 years.
We've never drowned one person,not one, not one.
And so we see all throughoutscripture the importance of our
baptism.
I just wanna say maybe you'rehere this morning and maybe you
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haven't yet been saved.
I pray that today is the day ofyour salvation, that you'll
give your life to Jesus, thatthe Holy Spirit will move in
your life in that way.
I pray today that maybe you'vebeen saved but yet you haven't
been biblically baptized sinceyour salvation, that God would
move in your life in such of away and that today could be the
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day of your baptism.
If you're online, I want you toknow.
You've got time right now tojump in the car and to drive
here.
I've seen it before and we'lleven baptize people after the
service.
It doesn't need to be duringthe service, we can baptize you
after the service.
We have come to people's homesand we have baptized them there
who cannot get to church forwhatever reason, because we just
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want to be faithful to yourlife and your walk with Jesus.
The very next verse, in versetwo, it says for 40 days being
tempted by the devil.
Jesus ate nothing during thosedays, and when they were ended,
he was hungry.
Jesus was baptized by John theBaptist.
He was.
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The Holy Spirit rested upon him.
And where was the first place?
The Holy Spirit led him to goInto the wilderness To be
tempted by the devil.
Why?
Because Jesus wasn't lookingfor a cush life, he wasn't
looking for comfort, he wasn'tliving life for himself.
What was Jesus doing?
He was going into thewilderness for 40 days, because
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that's where the Israelitesspent 40 years.
He was retracing, reliving thesteps of the Old Testament
saints, but not only them.
He was also doing it for youand he was doing it for me.
He was going through everytemptation, every hardship of
life.
So the Bible says that inHebrews 4.15, that he was
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tempted in every way so that youcan have a savior who is
sympathetic to your temptations.
So Jesus was tempted in everyway and the Bible says that he
was fasting.
He ate nothing for 40 days.
So then the devil comes to himin the 40th day.
Why?
Because the devil thinks thatJesus is at his weakest point.
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But listen to me, while Jesusmay be at his weakest point
physically, he was at hisstrongest point spiritually
Because Jesus was fastingphysically so that he could be
strengthening spiritually.
In other words, often, if youwant to grow in your
spirituality, you need to beweakened in your physicality.
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Here's what I mean by that.
There will be times in yourlife that God may call you to
fast.
There may be times in your lifethat God calls you to get up
early just to get into his word.
There may be times in your lifethat God calls you to stay up
late, like Jesus, just to stayup late.
Like Jesus, just to stay uplate and pray.
You know, god allows us to gothrough these times and often,
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even when we are experiencinganguish in our life, physical
weakness, that God is blessingus with spiritual strength.
So here's what we see that thedevil goes to Jesus when he is
in this time of greatest need.
It says in Luke 4.3, for 40 days, being tempted by the devil, he
ate nothing those days and hewas hungry.
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Let me read the rest of thisverse.
It says the devil said to himif you are the son of God,
command the stone to becomebread.
In other words, what'shappening here in this moment
Jesus without food for 40,.
The longest time I've everfasted in my life is five days.
I literally do not know howJesus did it.
(20:15):
This is a miracle.
This is only Jesus and Moseswere in scripture, the only two
that have fasted for 40 daysthat we're aware of.
And Satan comes to him and hesays hey, I know you're hungry.
You're out here in thewilderness.
You see that stone right there.
Why don't you turn it intobread?
Now I'll be honest with you.
I'm Jesus.
I'm not just turning that stoneinto bread, I'm turning it into
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a Texas roadhouse roll withsome cinnamon butter.
Can I get an amen?
I'm turning that joker stoneright there into some olive
garden breadsticks, into someKing Hawaiian rolls.
Right, it's this temptationthat we have in our life.
I heard a pastor share a storyone time and he said he said he
was driving by a donut shop andhe just felt so tempted to go in
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and get a donut.
So tempted and he said, god,I'll tell you what, if there's
not a parking space out front,I'll know it's a temptation, but
if there is a parking spaceopen in the front of the donut
shop, I know it's the blessingof you and I'm going in to get a
donut.
And the pastor said it onlytook eight trips around the
donut shop for God to open up aspot and for him to go in and
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him to get a donut.
You know what Satan was doing.
Satan was going after Jesus'most basic bodily need and
that's what he's gonna do withyou, that's what he does with me
.
That Satan might have saidJesus, your body needs this.
Jesus, you can't live withoutthis.
Jesus, your father, he won'tever give this to you.
Jesus, don't you wanna feelthis pleasure?
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Don't you wanna feel thissensation?
Don't you want to feel thispleasure?
Don't you want to feel thissensation?
Don't you want to feel thishigh?
And we all go through thesetemptations on a daily basis.
Maybe it's the temptation ofgluttony that I like to call
cheat day.
Maybe it's the temptation ofabusing alcohol, drugs, any and
all sexual sin outside ofmarriage.
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It might be a temptation of manyou just, you really enjoy just
being lazy a lot.
Nothing wrong with being lazy alittle, but being lazy a lot.
Maybe it's you enjoy theemotion of anger or other
emotions that happen in yourlife.
I need you to hear me say Godis not against pleasure.
(22:26):
God loves it when youexperience pleasure, but not the
kind of pleasure that Satan andsin want to give you, but the
kind of pleasure that God andhis word wants to give you.
Can I get an amen?
Some of you have heard me tellthis story before, but I
remember when I was in middleschool, satan targeted me and he
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won.
When I was in middle school,there was a TV in my house.
It was before cell phones andall that, all the tablets and
all the devices.
There was a TV in my house thatwas the only TV in the entire
house that got a specificchannel that I should have never
been watching.
I found it and I watched it fortwo years and I remember how
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much it distanced me from God.
I remember how much itdistanced me from my family.
I remember the guilt.
I remember the shame.
I remember my youth pastorpreaching a message.
God used that message toconvict me.
I went in my parents' room thatnight because I couldn't get out
of my sin.
And I went in the room and Ifessed up and I remember my dad
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looking at me, not knowing whathe was about to say, not knowing
how he was gonna react, notknowing how he was gonna respond
.
But my dad looked at me and hesaid, chip, we forgive you and
we love you and we're here tohelp you.
And that's when I learnedexactly how my heavenly father
feels and reacts and responds tomy sin.
He doesn't stiff arm me, hedoesn't just distance himself,
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but he's there to help us out ofour sin.
It's not clean up and get to me, it's get to me so you can
clean up.
In fact, here's what we see withJesus in verse four.
It says and Jesus answered himsaying it is written man shall
not live by bread alone.
And he goes on to say this.
He says, as he says, it iswritten man shall not live by
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bread alone.
What Jesus is saying is he isactually quoting scripture.
This scripture comes fromDeuteronomy 8, verse 3.
The Bible says that the word ofGod is sharper than any
two-edged sword.
The Bible says in Psalm 119,verse 11, that we're to hide
God's word in our heart that wemight not sin against him.
It's easy for us to say I gotthat verse down.
That word is hidden so deep inmy heart I can't even find it.
(24:39):
Amen.
But God says when you read myword, then my word for you
becomes a weapon, and it's aweapon to fight against sin,
because Jesus listen, jesus wentto the cross for you and all
that sin that you've done andall that sin that I've done.
The Bible says that Jesus notonly bore our sin, he became our
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sin so that we can be forgivenof our sin when we believe in
the death of Jesus.
I don't know what you've done,but I know what I've done and I
know what Jesus has needed toforgive me of and you know what
Jesus needs to forgive you of.
I believe that we are called tofind Jesus as our greatest,
truest and deepest pleasure,because that's what God offers
(25:22):
us.
Number two I want you to see thetemptation of treasure.
Everyone say treasure, treasureis the lust of the eyes.
I wanna have that.
Luke, chapter four, verse five,says this and the devil took
Jesus, took him up and showedhim all the kingdoms of the
world in a moment in time.
In other words, when the devilhis first temptation, he said
let me just promise you a littlebasic bodily need in your life.
(25:45):
Now.
That didn't work.
So now Satan's gonna tryeverything, he's gonna throw
everything at him, all thekingdoms of the world in a
moment of time.
And Satan said to him to you, Iwill give all of this authority
and all their glory, for it hasbeen delivered to me and I will
give it.
Whom I will?
In other words, satan is sayinghe says in God, says in 2
(26:06):
Corinthians 4.4, that Satan isthe God.
Small g of this age John 12.31,.
That Satan is the ruler.
Small r of the world.
1 John 5.19, the whole worldlies under the power.
Small p of the evil one.
In other words, satan thinkshe's in charge, but he's not.
And he says Jesus, all thattreasure that your father has
(26:26):
promised to you here's what hesays.
And you have to go throughdeath to get it.
How about I just give it to youright now and you can have it
fast and you can have it cheapand you can have it easy.
Why don't I just give you allthe things that God has promised
you that he's not given to you?
I remember when God called me tobe a pastor, I was 19, 20 years
(26:48):
old.
My friend didn't know it.
But my friend said Chip, can Imeet with you?
Came over to my house and hemade me a proposal and he just
said Chip man, I am now theowner of this certain business.
I'm making all of this money.
And he said I'm making all ofthis money.
And he said I want you to be mybusiness partner so we can make
all this money together.
And it was tempting to take themoney over Jesus.
(27:12):
But God said I've got bettertreasure for you in store than
any money that you could everachieve or earn in your life.
Temptation is like counterfeitmoney it looks good, it looks
real, but it's fake, it's cheapand it's worthless.
Satan said it looks real, butit's fake, it's cheap and it's
worthless.
Satan said I'm sorry.
He said Satan said to Jesus ifyou then will worship me, it
will all be yours.
(27:34):
In other words, what is sin?
Sin is all simply the worshipof Satan, a decision to follow
Satan over Jesus.
A decision to trust Satan overJesus, a decision to trust Satan
over Jesus, a decision to obeySatan over Jesus.
He said just worship me.
You know what worship means.
It means to bow down.
It means to give all ofyourself to the one who gave all
(27:55):
of himself for you.
Luke 4, 8,.
Jesus answered him.
It is written you shall worshipthe Lord, your God, and him
only you shall serve.
Not only when you get into theword of God is it like a weapon
for you against all of sin andtemptation, but when you worship
God with your life, when youplay, worship music in your life
and say I don't want to justlive by the music of the world.
(28:19):
I'm not against all secularmusic, by any means, enjoy it.
I mean there's some good stuffout there.
But I mean some music that issinful, that's singing and
talking about sinful thingsagainst the word of God.
That if it didn't have music,if it was only the lyrics, you
would never listen to that.
And that we fill our life withthe worship of Jesus because he
(28:40):
is worthy of our life, that weworship him and we serve him
with our life.
In other words, jesus is sayingSatan, you can't have my
worship, you can't have my heart, you can't have my future, you
can't have my obedience, youcan't have my people.
Satan, you can't have my family.
Satan, you can't have this.
Amen, satan, you can't have me.
(29:02):
These temptations of treasure inour life might be materialism
or jealousy of what others have,or riches or money at any cost,
or bigger and better, alwaysnicer homes or cars or
technology or devices orclothing, or addiction to
shopping or Amazon, or a desirefor more or discontentment with
what God has given you.
Hear me, it is not wrong tohave nice things.
(29:24):
It's wrong when nice thingsgiven you.
Hear me, it is not wrong tohave nice things.
It's wrong when nice thingshave you.
It is not wrong to have richesand money.
It's wrong when they have you,when that's what you live for,
when that's become your identity, when that becomes your hope,
when that becomes your joy.
In the same way, for me and foryou, jesus died for all of the
(29:47):
ways that I and you have fallento the temptation of treasure,
because Jesus wants to be ourdeepest, truest, greatest and
most valuable treasure in ourlife.
And number three, lastly, thetemptation of pride.
Everybody say pride, temptationof pride.
It says, and Satan took Jesusto Jerusalem and set him on the
(30:09):
pinnacle of the temple.
That was some 400 feet in theair, overlooking the Kidron
Valley.
So Jesus is 400 feet in the air.
He said if you are the son ofGod, throw yourself down from
here, for it is written he willcommand his angels concerning
you to guard you and on theirhands they'll bear you up lest
(30:30):
you strike your foot against thestone.
In other words, satan is usingthe word of God against Jesus.
Satan is quoting the Bible toJesus.
Did you know that Satan knowsthe Bible better than you do?
Satan knows the Bible betterthan you do, and Satan will
twist and distort andmisinterpret even God's word in
your life to try and trick you,to get him to worship him, to
(30:52):
obey him.
I think this is the mostinteresting out of all of the
temptations, because I thinkhere's what Satan is saying
Jesus, don't you want everybodyto know who you are?
Don't you want everybody toknow your identity?
You are the son of God.
You are God, the son.
You have come down out ofheaven and look at all of those
people.
This was the central worshipplace of Jerusalem.
(31:14):
Look at all of those people whodo not believe in you.
All you have to do, jesus, isthrow yourself off the temple
and when you fall down to theground, you will not hit,
because angels will come andthey will bear you up.
They will catch you everybodywatching, everybody observing
and they'll say wow, he reallyis the son of God.
Let's believe in him.
(31:34):
The problem was it was a lie,because Satan was saying why
don't you get people to believein you without going to the
cross, without resurrecting fromthe grave?
And here's how Jesus answeredhim.
And Jesus answered him and saidit is said you shall not put
(31:54):
the Lord, your God, to the test.
In other words, we're notcalled to test God.
We're called to trust God.
We're not called to say God, ifyou'll do this in my life, then
I will do that for you.
God, if you bless me, then Iwill obey you.
No, we're saying God, I trustyou, no matter what happens.
(32:15):
God, I worship you no matterwhat happens.
God, I trust you no matter whathappens.
God, I follow you no matterwhat happens.
God, I follow you no matterwhat happens.
See, the question is is when itcomes to temptation, the
question is is how close are youto God.
One of you came to me the otherday and shared a story with me
(32:36):
and I wanna share it witheverybody.
Little boy came to his dad andhe said hey, dad, how big's an
airplane?
And his dad said son, do yousee that airplane up there in
the sky?
And the little boy said dad,it's tiny.
They're so small.
I'm bigger than that plane.
The dad then takes the boy toan airport, walks him up to a
(32:57):
plane.
He said son, how big's theairplane?
The son said daddy, it's huge.
And the dad said don't let youreyes deceive you on how big or
small something is.
It all depends on how close youare to it.
In other words, the closer youare to God, the smaller the
(33:25):
temptation will be.
The closer you are to sin, thesmaller God will be.
It is often our pride that isholding us back, and God is not
against approval.
He's not back.
And God is not against approval, he's not against achievement,
he's not against success, he'snot against identity.
(33:46):
He's against finding all ofthose things in sin and not
finding them in him and allowinghim to be those things in our
life.
And we see that Satan said whenthe devil had ended every
temptation, he departed fromJesus until a more opportune
(34:06):
time.
In other words, this was notthe only time that Satan tempted
Jesus.
He tempted Jesus all throughouthis life.
I think that Jesus was moretempted by Satan than we are.
Why?
Because often it only takes afew times for Satan to tempt me
until I give in.
Same is true for you.
Don't look at me all spiritual,that's just how we are.
But hear me, every time Satantempted Jesus, jesus repeatedly
(34:31):
said no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Jesus resisted every singletemptation to sin all throughout
his life.
Why?
So he could go to the cross anddie for my sin.
Every time that I didn't resisttemptation To die for your sin,
every time that you didn'tresist temptation.
(34:55):
It's not about how good you arethat God will save you.
It's about how great he is.
The only thing you bring toyour salvation is your sin, and
God forgives it.
And God brings therighteousness of Jesus, and the
Bible says that he makes you anew creation.
So we see these three maintemptations the lust of the
(35:17):
flesh, pleasure, the lust of theeyes, treasure, the pride of
life.
My question for you is which oneare you struggling with the
most?
If you were the devil, whichone would you choose to take you
down?
Because God says I want you todetect what the devil is doing
(35:42):
in your life so that you canresist it, so you can fight it,
so you can get help, getaccountability, get honest, get
counseling, get in the word ofGod, see what God has to say
about it so that you can havepower, what God has to say about
it, so that you can have power.
You will never have power overevery temptation in this life.
(36:04):
You'll never be perfect, butyou do have power over any
temptation.
There is no sin that you haveto say yes to.
Can I ask us to bow our headsand close our eyes, with every
head bowed and every eye closed?
I just want to ask you thismorning what's the devil doing
(36:25):
in your life?
How is he tempting you, how ishe trying to take you from Jesus
?
What's he doing in your life?
And I want to encourage you tojust fix your heart on Jesus and
just say Jesus, help me.
(36:46):
Jesus, I need you.
Man, I've been there beforeJesus.
I have no power over this.
I've completely fallen.
Jesus, only you can get me up,Only you can get me up.
Only you can get me out.
Maybe you're here this morning.
You think that's nice andthat's good, pastor Chip, but
(37:07):
I've never even given my life toJesus before and I believe that
that's why God led you heretoday, that today can be the day
of your salvation and thatright here, right now, I can't
pray this prayer for you and Ican't save you.
But right here, right now, youcan say this to the Lord and I
believe with all my heart,because of what the Bible says,
(37:28):
that he will save you Justbelieving in Jesus' death and
resurrection.
You can say something like thisfrom your own heart and your own
words to God.
The Bible says that you can sayGod, I believe in you.
Tell him that right now.
And God, I need you.
And right here, right now, youcan tell God and God, I believe
(37:48):
that Jesus died on the cross formy sins, every sin I've ever
committed, every sin I'm goingto commit, that Jesus died for
all of my sin.
And, god, I pray and I ask thatyou would forgive me for all of
my sin.
And, god, I pray and I ask thatyou would forgive me of all of
my sin.
And the Bible says that youshould believe that Jesus rose
from the dead.
Jesus, you're alive and Jesus,you're real and I want you
(38:12):
really in my life.
I don't want some cold, fakedead religion.
Jesus, I want a realrelationship with the risen
Savior.
You.
Romans 10, nine says if youconfess with your mouth that
Jesus is Lord and believe withyour heart that God raised him
from the dead, you'll be saved.
Confess right now and say Jesusbe the Lord of my life.
(38:33):
Jesus, I wanna follow you,jesus.
I wanna live for you, jesus.
I wanna worship you, jesus.
I want to follow you, jesus.
I want to live for you, jesus.
I want to worship you, jesus.
I want to obey you and God.
We thank you for that truthfrom your word.
We love you.
We pray these things in Jesus'name and all God's people said
put your hands together foranybody that prayed that prayer
(38:54):
that gave their life to Jesus.
This morning, the Bible saysthat heaven rejoices every time
a sinner repents and we justwant to say welcome to the
family.
I want to remind you thatthere's a next step card in
front of you that you can grab.
That card, you can fill it out.
Let us know if you gave yourlife to Jesus and maybe you need
to get baptized Right here, atthe start of this song.
(39:17):
I'm just going to ask anybodythat wants to be baptized or any
of our volunteers for baptism.
You can just come forward andyou can go out this door, or you
can go out that door and we'vegot a change of clothes for you.
We've got volunteers to helpyou.
If you just got your hair done,we've got a hair cap for you.
We've got underwear for you,we've got shorts and a t-shirt
for you.
You've got nothing stopping you.
And 183 years we've done this.
(39:39):
We've never drowned one person.
You might be thinking well, Irode with somebody this morning.
Well, I want you to know thatthey'll wait for you, and if
they won't wait for you, theyneed to be saved and baptized
too.
Amen.
So right here, right now, Ijust want to say one more prayer
, and I want to let you slip out, if that's you that you can go
and get baptized this morningbecause of what God's doing in
your life.
(39:59):
Heavenly Father, we love you.
God, you're so good and, father, we just pray in your name.
God, would you just move in ourhearts, in our lives, because,
god, you're worthy of all of ourlife.
God, I pray that our pridewould not hold us back.
I pray that you would have yourway, god.
(40:19):
May we all follow Jesus in theway that you've commanded us to
Father.
You're so good.
We love you In Jesus' name.
In all God's people said let'sstand and let's worship Jesus
together.
Welcome to First Baptist Church, powder Springs.
Put your hands together ifyou're excited to be in church
this morning, man, the worshipwas incredible.
God's already moving.
We're so thankful for everysingle person that's here.
Maybe you've been here for along time, maybe you've just
been here for a little while,maybe it's your first time,
maybe you're online.
Whoever you are, we're justthankful that you are here or
(00:20):
you are tuned in, because webelieve that God wants to speak
to you this morning.
Out of all of the places thatyou could be, this is where God
brought you today, and I believethat God's got a word for you.
It's just been amazing to watchand to see how God's hand has
been on our church.
We've been going through justlike a little time, a little
season of revival together, andwe are just getting what God can
(00:44):
give out of his grace, out ofhis mercy Nothing we deserve,
nothing we earn.
We are not great.
He is great, and we're justthankful for everything that God
is doing.
Just for a few things that youcan see what God's doing.
First of all, we had lastSunday.
We had a dream team rally.
This was a lunch for all of ourvolunteers.
We had some 130 differentvolunteers there for that lunch.
(01:06):
Would you put your handstogether for all of our
volunteers that make Sundaymornings happen and Wednesday
nights happen and all of ourministries happen, and we
believe that every believer, godhas a ministry for them, and so
if you're not serving in someway and you wanna get more
involved, that's a great way tobe able to do it.
Also, I want you to know thatyesterday we had our women's
(01:27):
conference.
Yesterday morning and afternoonwe had some over 300 ladies
registered because of sicknessor whatever.
I think we had like 280, 290who were here, including my
five-year-old daughter, brooklyn, and my eight-month-old
daughter, eliana, and so we'rejust super thankful for all that
God did.
I wanna say daughter Eliana,and so we're just super thankful
for all that God did.
(01:47):
I want to say thank you toKaren Darnell.
She's not here today, she'shomesick, she's watching right
now.
Can we just put our handstogether for Karen Darnell, for
our ladies, her team, all theladies that served, and it's
just amazing to watch them plan,watch them prepare, and I've
never seen a conference moreprayed over and God worked, god
moved.
I wanna say thank you to all ofour deacons.
(02:08):
As I told Larry Darnell, ourchairman of deacons yesterday
that we couldn't pay you hourlybecause we couldn't afford all
of our deacons and all that theydo.
But we are incredibly thankful,karen, if you're watching,
we've got some flowers for youand we've got a gift card for a
facial for you from your church,our way of appreciating it's my
(02:30):
favorite face, my place to getmy facial.
Just kidding, I don't getfacials, but it's my wife got it
for you and it's from yourchurch.
We love you and we are superthankful for all that you did.
I want you to know that we havea D now coming up.
Where is Christian Henry?
Is he in the house?
Our brand new student pastor?
Y'all put your hands togetherfor Christian Henry, our brand
new student pastor, is here.
Man praise God for the Henryfamily.
This is his first Sunday herewith us, my man Christian.
(02:51):
He played linebacker in collegebut now he's tackling the devil
for teenagers.
Can I get an amen?
And so God is so good.
His wife was actually MissKentucky for Miss America and I
just love that.
They are people of highachievement but their identity's
in Jesus right, like who theyare, and what they're all about
is not what they've done, butwhat God has done in their life
(03:14):
and they believe.
What God wants to do inteenagers, what God wants to do
in young adults, he's over ourstudent ministry, he's over our
young adult ministry.
So anywhere between the ages of11 to in your 30s, right man,
he wants to be a pastor in yourlife.
Let's praise the Lord forChristian, for the Henrys.
Love you, bro, so thankful thatyou're here, a part of us.
He's going to be leading anevent and taking students to an
(03:38):
event that we're calling ourD-NOW weekend.
So if you're a teenager sixththrough twelfth grader that's
February 7th through 9th wewould love to have you a part of
that because of all the amazingthings that God is doing in our
student ministry.
And I am just so excited fortoday, because today is Baptism
Sunday.
We got to baptize three in ourfirst service.
(03:59):
There are nine to get baptizedtoday and maybe God is going to
work in your life this morningand maybe he's going to call you
to get baptized today.
And maybe God is gonna work inyour life this morning and maybe
he's gonna call you to getbaptized.
No pressure, we're not rushinganybody ever.
We just want you to be faithfulto what the Lord calls you to
do.
Let's pray, heavenly Father.
We love you, god, thank you forall that you're doing and, as
we love to just proclaim everySunday, god, this is your word,
(04:23):
we are your church.
Every Sunday, god, this is yourword, we are your church, we
are your people, we're going totalk about your son and God.
We pray for a move from yourspirit for your glory.
In Jesus' name, we pray and allGod's people said amen, amen.
Well, I remember hearing a storyseveral years ago about a
church and a church.
Actually, they were without apastor and they wanted a young
(04:44):
pastor.
So they called a seminarypresident saying, hey, we need a
young pastor.
Send us your best young pastorto maybe come and be the pastor
of our church.
So he came.
He came and he preached on aSunday morning so that the
church would vote on him and hepreached so good that Sunday
morning a family actually cameto join the church.
The problem was they gothalfway down the aisle and a
(05:07):
deacon went and met them halfway.
The family was a differentethnicity of the entire rest of
the church and a deacon saidsomething to them.
The family hung their heads,turned around, went out the back
door.
The young pastor went over tothe deacon.
The young pastor said what didyou just say to that family?
And the deacon said well, Itold them that there was a
(05:28):
church for them down the roadthat we thought that they would
be a better fit in.
The young pastor said I'm notcoming to this church.
He went back to the seminarypresident.
He said you won't believe whathappened.
Seminary president said I'llhandle it.
The church ended up calling theseminary president back, said
sorry, things didn't work outwith the young pastor.
Would you bring us somebodyelse?
(05:49):
Seminary president said nope,you've already got a pastor.
They said no, we're the churchwithout a pastor.
We want you to know if you'dbring us another pastor.
And he said no, you heard me,you've already got a pastor.
They said no, we're the churchwithout a pastor.
We need a pastor.
And he said nope, your pastor'sthe devil, and as long as the
devil is pastoring your churchand you don't wanna become a
multi-ethnic church, then Idon't want to bring you any more
(06:12):
young pastors to pastor yourchurch.
Put your hands together.
I love man when people are boldwith the word of God, because
here's what we believe.
We believe that every tribe,every tongue, every what we
believe.
We believe that every tribe,every tongue, every language,
every nation is going to bewrapped around the throne of
Jesus.
We're all going to beworshiping him together forever.
(06:33):
So why can't we do it togethernow?
Can I get an amen?
So that's what God is callingus to do.
And I love how that pastorhandled that situation.
He didn't just say, hey, yourchurch is going through a little
phase right now.
Your church has got a littlestruggle right now.
He didn't say you know yourchurch right now.
You know you've got a little,just a little problem.
No, he called it out for whatit is.
(06:54):
He called it sin.
And what is sin?
Sin is anything that Satanbrings to us that we want to do
so.
Temptation is when we want tosin.
Sin is when we give intotemptation and we do sin.
We're in the series right now.
That's called your Best Year.
You Ever Look at somebody andsay I hope you have your best
(07:14):
year?
You ever Go and tell them thatright now, I hope you have your
best year you ever?
Hey, y'all, I have never, haveyou ever met the person I have
yet to meet, the person thatsaid you know what my New Year's
resolution is I wanna have theworst year I've ever had in my
life.
Right, I've never met thatperson before in my life.
No one wants to have theirworst year.
I believe you wanna have yourbest year ever.
(07:35):
I believe you want your familyto have their best year ever.
I believe that God wants you tohave your best year ever have
your best year ever, but Ibelieve that the devil wants you
to have your worst year ever.
He wants you to why?
Because in order to have yourbest year ever is not a year
that's absent of difficulties,it's a year that is more present
(07:55):
of God than any year yet beforein your life.
Can I get an amen, man?
We want to be filled with God,and so this morning, I want you
to see our last way.
We've already talked about thismonth how to prioritize your
spiritual health.
We've talked about how to knowyour Savior and to know yourself
as prophet, priest and king.
Last week, we talked about howto take your next step in your
(08:18):
journey and your walk with Jesusto have your best year yet.
This morning, I want toencourage you that the last way
that we want to see together tohave your best year yet.
This morning I want toencourage you that the last way
that we want to see together tohave your best year yet is that
you would be able to detect whatthe devil wants to do in your
life.
Because here's what the devilwants to do.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians4.4,.
(08:38):
You ever heard this before?
It says the God of this age,small g, speaking of Satan, that
the God of this age wants toblind the minds of unbelievers
to keep them from seeing thelight of the gospel, of the
glory of Christ, who is theimage of God.
In other words, satan doesn'tjust want you to do the wrong
thing, satan wants you to doanything as long as you don't
(08:59):
see the glory of Jesus, as longas you don't live for Jesus in
your life.
I want you to know that 2Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 11
, says that God actually showsus in his word, he shows you how
Satan wants to work in yourlife.
So the Bible says that youwould not be ignorant of the
(09:23):
evil one's schemes or designs.
In other words, god gives you aspoiler alert.
Everybody say spoiler alert.
God gives you a spoiler alertin the scriptures so that you
can see and identify andacknowledge what the devil is
trying to do in your life.
So here's this morning.
(09:43):
The title of the message is theTesting of Temptation.
Why am I calling it the Testingof Temptation?
Because I believe that everytemptation that comes to you and
every temptation that comes tome is a test.
Everybody say test Is a test.
And here's the test.
The test is will you followSatan or follow Jesus?
The test is will you followSatan or follow Jesus?
(10:05):
Will you worship Satan orworship Jesus?
Will you obey Satan or obeyJesus?
So here's what we see.
We're gonna study thetemptation of Jesus.
Because Jesus resistedtemptation for you, you can too
resist temptation through him,not just for him, but it's gotta
(10:26):
be by the power of Jesus inyour life.
Here's what we see in 1 John 2,.
Verse 16 says this For all thatis in the world, or everything
that is of the world, of theworld just means everything that
is of the evil one, everythingthat is of the enemy, everything
that is of sin, everything thatis of evil itself, for all that
is of the enemy, everythingthat is of sin, everything that
is of evil itself, for all thatis in the world, are these
(10:48):
things.
We see these three maintemptations of all of life, that
every temptation falls into thelust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes and the pride of life.
It's not from the Father, butit's from the world.
So let's break it down realquick, just so we all see it
together.
The Bible says that there is alust of flesh.
(11:09):
It's temptation, and that is atemptation of pleasure.
Everyone say pleasure andpleasure says I want to feel
that.
Then there's the lust of theeyes.
Just very simply said, to pullit down into one word is a
temptation of treasure.
Everyone say treasure, treasuresays I wanna have that.
And then there's the pride oflife.
(11:30):
It's the sin of pride.
Everyone say pride and thepride of life says I want to be
that.
So here's what's interestingthese are the exact same three
temptations that Satan took Eveand Adam through in the garden
in the very beginning, thatSatan took Jesus through in the
(11:53):
wilderness and that Satan takesme and you through in our life.
See, satan works the same way.
So God can say spoiler alertlet me show you how he works so
you can detect it, so you canfight it, so you don't fall into
sin.
So here we go.
Number one the temptation ofpleasure.
Everyone say pleasure.
(12:13):
The temptation of pleasure,this is the lust of the flesh
saying that, I want to feel that.
Here's what we see in Jesus'story of the temptation In Jesus
, full of the Holy Spirit,returned from the Jordan River
and was led by the Spirit intothe wilderness.
In other words, last week andgo back and listen to it.
(12:34):
We talked about Jesus' baptism,and Jesus traveled on foot some
60 to 70 mile walk to where Johnthe Baptist was baptizing
hundreds, if not thousands, ofpeople at the Jordan River,
where they too were walkingsomewhere between 20 and 80
miles.
We're talking about stayingovernight, like they're walking
to this revival, some two tofive days just to get there.
(12:58):
And we see that Jesus walks upto John the Baptist and says I
want to be baptized.
John says I can't do it.
Jesus said you got to do it.
John said all right, I'll do it.
And John baptized him.
Boom, right, there, right.
And so what we're seeing then?
At that point the Bible saysthat heaven opened and the
spirit of God came down andrested on Jesus.
And what is the point thatJesus got baptized for you so
(13:20):
that you can get baptized forhim?
We see that baptism is not forour salvation.
Baptism is from our salvation.
So we get saved and we getbaptized.
In other words, the mostimportant decision that you will
ever make in your life is togive your life to Jesus,
believing that he died for yoursin, that he rose from the dead
(13:42):
and that he becomes the Lord ofyour life and you follow him
with your life and you followhim with your life.
That is your salvation.
And then the second mostimportant decision in your life
is your baptism.
It happens after your salvationand it is that first step of
obedience in your life andfollowing Jesus.
It's a public profession offaith.
In other words, here's what wesee.
(14:03):
What does the Bible say aboutbaptism?
Let me just boil it down.
Break it down very simply.
The Bible says that our baptismis, because of our salvation,
not to be saved.
The Bible says that baptismhappens after our salvation, not
before our salvation.
The Bible says that we are tobe submerged in water for our
(14:25):
baptism and then come out of thewater, because that's what
Jesus did.
Why?
Because our baptism is ourpublic profession of faith.
Picturing the gospel when we gounder the water, we're saying
that we believe that Jesus diedfor our sin.
And no, I do not hold anybodyunder the water this long.
It's a very long time for oursin and no, I do not hold
(14:46):
anybody under the water thislong, it's a very long time.
But when you come out of thewater momentarily, you're saying
I believe that Jesus rose fromthe dead.
Let me just tell you a fewstories of a few of the people
that are getting baptized today.
Today we get to baptize Blake,and Blake was an agnostic.
He wasn't even sure if Godexisted for 25 years.
He just gave his life to Jesusabout a month ago and he is
(15:08):
coming forward for believersbaptism today.
Susan Susan, she is the headgirls basketball coach at
Hillgrove High School.
How many of y'all are here fromHillgrove?
Raise your hand.
You're here from Hillgrove.
Let's give Hillgrove a biground of applause.
We're so thankful to have youhere, hillgrove Head girls
basketball coach there.
She got saved earlier in lifeand she wants to be biblically
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baptized.
Nick is a senior at McEachernand he's going to get baptized
today.
He actually won the player ofthe year PGA junior golf, but
his greatest identity andachievement, right, is not as
golf, but believing in Jesus ashis Lord and Savior, this
morning we're going to bebaptizing Jamie and her daughter
, ashanti and Jamie.
Years ago she lost atwo-year-old little boy.
(15:56):
He died and Jamie told meyesterday.
She said it was actually mytwo-year-old when he lost his
life is when God worked in mylife.
She said my two-year-old savedmy life.
We baptized David this morning.
In the first service.
David was told that he had sixmonths to live 15 years ago.
Can I get an amen?
(16:16):
We baptized Tom this morningand Tom was.
He was scared of water and Ijust reminded Tom we've been a
church for 183 years.
We've never drowned one person,not one, not one.
And so we see all throughoutscripture the importance of our
baptism.
I just wanna say maybe you'rehere this morning and maybe you
(16:37):
haven't yet been saved.
I pray that today is the day ofyour salvation, that you'll
give your life to Jesus, thatthe Holy Spirit will move in
your life in that way.
I pray today that maybe you'vebeen saved but yet you haven't
been biblically baptized sinceyour salvation, that God would
move in your life in such of away and that today could be the
(16:57):
day of your baptism.
If you're online, I want you toknow.
You've got time right now tojump in the car and to drive
here.
I've seen it before and we'lleven baptize people after the
service.
It doesn't need to be duringthe service, we can baptize you
after the service.
We have come to people's homesand we have baptized them there
who cannot get to church forwhatever reason, because we just
(17:18):
want to be faithful to yourlife and your walk with Jesus.
The very next verse, in versetwo, it says for 40 days being
tempted by the devil.
Jesus ate nothing during thosedays, and when they were ended,
he was hungry.
Jesus was baptized by John theBaptist.
He was.
(17:38):
The Holy Spirit rested upon him.
And where was the first place?
The Holy Spirit led him to goInto the wilderness To be
tempted by the devil.
Why?
Because Jesus wasn't lookingfor a cush life, he wasn't
looking for comfort, he wasn'tliving life for himself.
What was Jesus doing?
He was going into thewilderness for 40 days, because
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that's where the Israelitesspent 40 years.
He was retracing, reliving thesteps of the Old Testament
saints, but not only them.
He was also doing it for youand he was doing it for me.
He was going through everytemptation, every hardship of
life.
So the Bible says that inHebrews 4.15, that he was
(18:22):
tempted in every way so that youcan have a savior who is
sympathetic to your temptations.
So Jesus was tempted in everyway and the Bible says that he
was fasting.
He ate nothing for 40 days.
So then the devil comes to himin the 40th day.
Why?
Because the devil thinks thatJesus is at his weakest point.
(18:45):
But listen to me, while Jesusmay be at his weakest point
physically, he was at hisstrongest point spiritually
Because Jesus was fastingphysically so that he could be
strengthening spiritually.
In other words, often, if youwant to grow in your
spirituality, you need to beweakened in your physicality.
(19:08):
Here's what I mean by that.
There will be times in yourlife that God may call you to
fast.
There may be times in your lifethat God calls you to get up
early just to get into his word.
There may be times in your lifethat God calls you to stay up
late, like Jesus, just to stayup late.
Like Jesus, just to stay uplate and pray.
You know, god allows us to gothrough these times and often,
(19:32):
even when we are experiencinganguish in our life, physical
weakness, that God is blessingus with spiritual strength.
So here's what we see that thedevil goes to Jesus when he is
in this time of greatest need.
It says in Luke 4.3, for 40 days, being tempted by the devil, he
ate nothing those days and hewas hungry.
(19:55):
Let me read the rest of thisverse.
It says the devil said to himif you are the son of God,
command the stone to becomebread.
In other words, what'shappening here in this moment
Jesus without food for 40,.
The longest time I've everfasted in my life is five days.
I literally do not know howJesus did it.
(20:15):
This is a miracle.
This is only Jesus and Moseswere in scripture, the only two
that have fasted for 40 daysthat we're aware of.
And Satan comes to him and hesays hey, I know you're hungry.
You're out here in thewilderness.
You see that stone right there.
Why don't you turn it intobread?
Now I'll be honest with you.
I'm Jesus.
I'm not just turning that stoneinto bread, I'm turning it into
(20:37):
a Texas roadhouse roll withsome cinnamon butter.
Can I get an amen?
I'm turning that joker stoneright there into some olive
garden breadsticks, into someKing Hawaiian rolls.
Right, it's this temptationthat we have in our life.
I heard a pastor share a storyone time and he said he said he
was driving by a donut shop andhe just felt so tempted to go in
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and get a donut.
So tempted and he said, god,I'll tell you what, if there's
not a parking space out front,I'll know it's a temptation, but
if there is a parking spaceopen in the front of the donut
shop, I know it's the blessingof you and I'm going in to get a
donut.
And the pastor said it onlytook eight trips around the
donut shop for God to open up aspot and for him to go in and
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him to get a donut.
You know what Satan was doing.
Satan was going after Jesus'most basic bodily need and
that's what he's gonna do withyou, that's what he does with me
.
That Satan might have saidJesus, your body needs this.
Jesus, you can't live withoutthis.
Jesus, your father, he won'tever give this to you.
Jesus, don't you wanna feelthis pleasure?
(21:41):
Don't you wanna feel thissensation?
Don't you want to feel thispleasure?
Don't you want to feel thissensation?
Don't you want to feel thishigh?
And we all go through thesetemptations on a daily basis.
Maybe it's the temptation ofgluttony that I like to call
cheat day.
Maybe it's the temptation ofabusing alcohol, drugs, any and
all sexual sin outside ofmarriage.
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It might be a temptation of manyou just, you really enjoy just
being lazy a lot.
Nothing wrong with being lazy alittle, but being lazy a lot.
Maybe it's you enjoy theemotion of anger or other
emotions that happen in yourlife.
I need you to hear me say Godis not against pleasure.
(22:26):
God loves it when youexperience pleasure, but not the
kind of pleasure that Satan andsin want to give you, but the
kind of pleasure that God andhis word wants to give you.
Can I get an amen?
Some of you have heard me tellthis story before, but I
remember when I was in middleschool, satan targeted me and he
(22:47):
won.
When I was in middle school,there was a TV in my house.
It was before cell phones andall that, all the tablets and
all the devices.
There was a TV in my house thatwas the only TV in the entire
house that got a specificchannel that I should have never
been watching.
I found it and I watched it fortwo years and I remember how
(23:09):
much it distanced me from God.
I remember how much itdistanced me from my family.
I remember the guilt.
I remember the shame.
I remember my youth pastorpreaching a message.
God used that message toconvict me.
I went in my parents' room thatnight because I couldn't get out
of my sin.
And I went in the room and Ifessed up and I remember my dad
(23:32):
looking at me, not knowing whathe was about to say, not knowing
how he was gonna react, notknowing how he was gonna respond
.
But my dad looked at me and hesaid, chip, we forgive you and
we love you and we're here tohelp you.
And that's when I learnedexactly how my heavenly father
feels and reacts and responds tomy sin.
He doesn't stiff arm me, hedoesn't just distance himself,
(23:57):
but he's there to help us out ofour sin.
It's not clean up and get to me, it's get to me so you can
clean up.
In fact, here's what we see withJesus in verse four.
It says and Jesus answered himsaying it is written man shall
not live by bread alone.
And he goes on to say this.
He says, as he says, it iswritten man shall not live by
(24:18):
bread alone.
What Jesus is saying is he isactually quoting scripture.
This scripture comes fromDeuteronomy 8, verse 3.
The Bible says that the word ofGod is sharper than any
two-edged sword.
The Bible says in Psalm 119,verse 11, that we're to hide
God's word in our heart that wemight not sin against him.
It's easy for us to say I gotthat verse down.
That word is hidden so deep inmy heart I can't even find it.
(24:39):
Amen.
But God says when you read myword, then my word for you
becomes a weapon, and it's aweapon to fight against sin,
because Jesus listen, jesus wentto the cross for you and all
that sin that you've done andall that sin that I've done.
The Bible says that Jesus notonly bore our sin, he became our
(25:01):
sin so that we can be forgivenof our sin when we believe in
the death of Jesus.
I don't know what you've done,but I know what I've done and I
know what Jesus has needed toforgive me of and you know what
Jesus needs to forgive you of.
I believe that we are called tofind Jesus as our greatest,
truest and deepest pleasure,because that's what God offers
(25:22):
us.
Number two I want you to see thetemptation of treasure.
Everyone say treasure, treasureis the lust of the eyes.
I wanna have that.
Luke, chapter four, verse five,says this and the devil took
Jesus, took him up and showedhim all the kingdoms of the
world in a moment in time.
In other words, when the devilhis first temptation, he said
let me just promise you a littlebasic bodily need in your life.
(25:45):
Now.
That didn't work.
So now Satan's gonna tryeverything, he's gonna throw
everything at him, all thekingdoms of the world in a
moment of time.
And Satan said to him to you, Iwill give all of this authority
and all their glory, for it hasbeen delivered to me and I will
give it.
Whom I will?
In other words, satan is sayinghe says in God, says in 2
(26:06):
Corinthians 4.4, that Satan isthe God.
Small g of this age John 12.31,.
That Satan is the ruler.
Small r of the world.
1 John 5.19, the whole worldlies under the power.
Small p of the evil one.
In other words, satan thinkshe's in charge, but he's not.
And he says Jesus, all thattreasure that your father has
(26:26):
promised to you here's what hesays.
And you have to go throughdeath to get it.
How about I just give it to youright now and you can have it
fast and you can have it cheapand you can have it easy.
Why don't I just give you allthe things that God has promised
you that he's not given to you?
I remember when God called me tobe a pastor, I was 19, 20 years
(26:48):
old.
My friend didn't know it.
But my friend said Chip, can Imeet with you?
Came over to my house and hemade me a proposal and he just
said Chip man, I am now theowner of this certain business.
I'm making all of this money.
And he said I'm making all ofthis money.
And he said I want you to be mybusiness partner so we can make
all this money together.
And it was tempting to take themoney over Jesus.
(27:12):
But God said I've got bettertreasure for you in store than
any money that you could everachieve or earn in your life.
Temptation is like counterfeitmoney it looks good, it looks
real, but it's fake, it's cheapand it's worthless.
Satan said it looks real, butit's fake, it's cheap and it's
worthless.
Satan said I'm sorry.
He said Satan said to Jesus ifyou then will worship me, it
will all be yours.
(27:34):
In other words, what is sin?
Sin is all simply the worshipof Satan, a decision to follow
Satan over Jesus.
A decision to trust Satan overJesus, a decision to trust Satan
over Jesus, a decision to obeySatan over Jesus.
He said just worship me.
You know what worship means.
It means to bow down.
It means to give all ofyourself to the one who gave all
(27:55):
of himself for you.
Luke 4, 8,.
Jesus answered him.
It is written you shall worshipthe Lord, your God, and him
only you shall serve.
Not only when you get into theword of God is it like a weapon
for you against all of sin andtemptation, but when you worship
God with your life, when youplay, worship music in your life
and say I don't want to justlive by the music of the world.
(28:19):
I'm not against all secularmusic, by any means, enjoy it.
I mean there's some good stuffout there.
But I mean some music that issinful, that's singing and
talking about sinful thingsagainst the word of God.
That if it didn't have music,if it was only the lyrics, you
would never listen to that.
And that we fill our life withthe worship of Jesus because he
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is worthy of our life, that weworship him and we serve him
with our life.
In other words, jesus is sayingSatan, you can't have my
worship, you can't have my heart, you can't have my future, you
can't have my obedience, youcan't have my people.
Satan, you can't have my family.
Satan, you can't have this.
Amen, satan, you can't have me.
(29:02):
These temptations of treasure inour life might be materialism
or jealousy of what others have,or riches or money at any cost,
or bigger and better, alwaysnicer homes or cars or
technology or devices orclothing, or addiction to
shopping or Amazon, or a desirefor more or discontentment with
what God has given you.
Hear me, it is not wrong tohave nice things.
(29:24):
It's wrong when nice thingsgiven you.
Hear me, it is not wrong tohave nice things.
It's wrong when nice thingshave you.
It is not wrong to have richesand money.
It's wrong when they have you,when that's what you live for,
when that's become your identity, when that becomes your hope,
when that becomes your joy.
In the same way, for me and foryou, jesus died for all of the
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ways that I and you have fallento the temptation of treasure,
because Jesus wants to be ourdeepest, truest, greatest and
most valuable treasure in ourlife.
And number three, lastly, thetemptation of pride.
Everybody say pride, temptationof pride.
It says, and Satan took Jesusto Jerusalem and set him on the
(30:09):
pinnacle of the temple.
That was some 400 feet in theair, overlooking the Kidron
Valley.
So Jesus is 400 feet in the air.
He said if you are the son ofGod, throw yourself down from
here, for it is written he willcommand his angels concerning
you to guard you and on theirhands they'll bear you up lest
(30:30):
you strike your foot against thestone.
In other words, satan is usingthe word of God against Jesus.
Satan is quoting the Bible toJesus.
Did you know that Satan knowsthe Bible better than you do?
Satan knows the Bible betterthan you do, and Satan will
twist and distort andmisinterpret even God's word in
your life to try and trick you,to get him to worship him, to
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obey him.
I think this is the mostinteresting out of all of the
temptations, because I thinkhere's what Satan is saying
Jesus, don't you want everybodyto know who you are?
Don't you want everybody toknow your identity?
You are the son of God.
You are God, the son.
You have come down out ofheaven and look at all of those
people.
This was the central worshipplace of Jerusalem.
(31:14):
Look at all of those people whodo not believe in you.
All you have to do, jesus, isthrow yourself off the temple
and when you fall down to theground, you will not hit,
because angels will come andthey will bear you up.
They will catch you everybodywatching, everybody observing
and they'll say wow, he reallyis the son of God.
Let's believe in him.
(31:34):
The problem was it was a lie,because Satan was saying why
don't you get people to believein you without going to the
cross, without resurrecting fromthe grave?
And here's how Jesus answeredhim.
And Jesus answered him and saidit is said you shall not put
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the Lord, your God, to the test.
In other words, we're notcalled to test God.
We're called to trust God.
We're not called to say God, ifyou'll do this in my life, then
I will do that for you.
God, if you bless me, then Iwill obey you.
No, we're saying God, I trustyou, no matter what happens.
(32:15):
God, I worship you no matterwhat happens.
God, I trust you no matter whathappens.
God, I follow you no matterwhat happens.
God, I follow you no matterwhat happens.
See, the question is is when itcomes to temptation, the
question is is how close are youto God.
One of you came to me the otherday and shared a story with me
(32:36):
and I wanna share it witheverybody.
Little boy came to his dad andhe said hey, dad, how big's an
airplane?
And his dad said son, do yousee that airplane up there in
the sky?
And the little boy said dad,it's tiny.
They're so small.
I'm bigger than that plane.
The dad then takes the boy toan airport, walks him up to a
(32:57):
plane.
He said son, how big's theairplane?
The son said daddy, it's huge.
And the dad said don't let youreyes deceive you on how big or
small something is.
It all depends on how close youare to it.
In other words, the closer youare to God, the smaller the
(33:25):
temptation will be.
The closer you are to sin, thesmaller God will be.
It is often our pride that isholding us back, and God is not
against approval.
He's not back.
And God is not against approval, he's not against achievement,
he's not against success, he'snot against identity.
(33:46):
He's against finding all ofthose things in sin and not
finding them in him and allowinghim to be those things in our
life.
And we see that Satan said whenthe devil had ended every
temptation, he departed fromJesus until a more opportune
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time.
In other words, this was notthe only time that Satan tempted
Jesus.
He tempted Jesus all throughouthis life.
I think that Jesus was moretempted by Satan than we are.
Why?
Because often it only takes afew times for Satan to tempt me
until I give in.
Same is true for you.
Don't look at me all spiritual,that's just how we are.
But hear me, every time Satantempted Jesus, jesus repeatedly
(34:31):
said no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Jesus resisted every singletemptation to sin all throughout
his life.
Why?
So he could go to the cross anddie for my sin.
Every time that I didn't resisttemptation To die for your sin,
every time that you didn'tresist temptation.
(34:55):
It's not about how good you arethat God will save you.
It's about how great he is.
The only thing you bring toyour salvation is your sin, and
God forgives it.
And God brings therighteousness of Jesus, and the
Bible says that he makes you anew creation.
So we see these three maintemptations the lust of the
(35:17):
flesh, pleasure, the lust of theeyes, treasure, the pride of
life.
My question for you is which oneare you struggling with the
most?
If you were the devil, whichone would you choose to take you
down?
Because God says I want you todetect what the devil is doing
(35:42):
in your life so that you canresist it, so you can fight it,
so you can get help, getaccountability, get honest, get
counseling, get in the word ofGod, see what God has to say
about it so that you can havepower, what God has to say about
it, so that you can have power.
You will never have power overevery temptation in this life.
(36:04):
You'll never be perfect, butyou do have power over any
temptation.
There is no sin that you haveto say yes to.
Can I ask us to bow our headsand close our eyes, with every
head bowed and every eye closed?
I just want to ask you thismorning what's the devil doing
(36:25):
in your life?
How is he tempting you, how ishe trying to take you from Jesus
?
What's he doing in your life?
And I want to encourage you tojust fix your heart on Jesus and
just say Jesus, help me.
(36:46):
Jesus, I need you.
Man, I've been there beforeJesus.
I have no power over this.
I've completely fallen.
Jesus, only you can get me up,Only you can get me up.
Only you can get me out.
Maybe you're here this morning.
You think that's nice andthat's good, pastor Chip, but
(37:07):
I've never even given my life toJesus before and I believe that
that's why God led you heretoday, that today can be the day
of your salvation and thatright here, right now, I can't
pray this prayer for you and Ican't save you.
But right here, right now, youcan say this to the Lord and I
believe with all my heart,because of what the Bible says,
(37:28):
that he will save you Justbelieving in Jesus' death and
resurrection.
You can say something like thisfrom your own heart and your own
words to God.
The Bible says that you can sayGod, I believe in you.
Tell him that right now.
And God, I need you.
And right here, right now, youcan tell God and God, I believe
(37:48):
that Jesus died on the cross formy sins, every sin I've ever
committed, every sin I'm goingto commit, that Jesus died for
all of my sin.
And, god, I pray and I ask thatyou would forgive me for all of
my sin.
And, god, I pray and I ask thatyou would forgive me of all of
my sin.
And the Bible says that youshould believe that Jesus rose
from the dead.
Jesus, you're alive and Jesus,you're real and I want you
(38:12):
really in my life.
I don't want some cold, fakedead religion.
Jesus, I want a realrelationship with the risen
Savior.
You.
Romans 10, nine says if youconfess with your mouth that
Jesus is Lord and believe withyour heart that God raised him
from the dead, you'll be saved.
Confess right now and say Jesusbe the Lord of my life.
(38:33):
Jesus, I wanna follow you,jesus.
I wanna live for you, jesus.
I wanna worship you, jesus.
I want to follow you, jesus.
I want to live for you, jesus.
I want to worship you, jesus.
I want to obey you and God.
We thank you for that truthfrom your word.
We love you.
We pray these things in Jesus'name and all God's people said
put your hands together foranybody that prayed that prayer
(38:54):
that gave their life to Jesus.
This morning, the Bible saysthat heaven rejoices every time
a sinner repents and we justwant to say welcome to the
family.
I want to remind you thatthere's a next step card in
front of you that you can grab.
That card, you can fill it out.
Let us know if you gave yourlife to Jesus and maybe you need
to get baptized Right here, atthe start of this song.
(39:17):
I'm just going to ask anybodythat wants to be baptized or any
of our volunteers for baptism.
You can just come forward andyou can go out this door, or you
can go out that door and we'vegot a change of clothes for you.
We've got volunteers to helpyou.
If you just got your hair done,we've got a hair cap for you.
We've got underwear for you,we've got shorts and a t-shirt
for you.
You've got nothing stopping you.
And 183 years we've done this.
(39:39):
We've never drowned one person.
You might be thinking well, Irode with somebody this morning.
Well, I want you to know thatthey'll wait for you, and if
they won't wait for you, theyneed to be saved and baptized
too.
Amen.
So right here, right now, Ijust want to say one more prayer
, and I want to let you slip out, if that's you that you can go
and get baptized this morningbecause of what God's doing in
your life.
(39:59):
Heavenly Father, we love you.
God, you're so good and, father, we just pray in your name.
God, would you just move in ourhearts, in our lives, because,
god, you're worthy of all of ourlife.
God, I pray that our pridewould not hold us back.
I pray that you would have yourway, god.
(40:19):
May we all follow Jesus in theway that you've commanded us to
Father.
You're so good.
We love you In Jesus' name.
In all God's people said let'sstand and let's worship Jesus
together.
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