Am I Unashamed? | Who Am I

Well, we're in this series called Who Are You? And we're really talking about identity and questions that are pretty probing and can be tough at times. I want to set this up with a story of something that we did when I was in Bible college a long time ago. And it was... It was so unnerving. It actually turns out it's the first time I ever saw my bride-to-be. And it wasn't the time when she had the blue long jacket on with the blue high heels that matched and everything. And remember, I saw her calves and I was all done. It was all done. But it was different than that. And I was totally distracted because I was in the pastoral minor at this college. They had asked us to head up, a bunch of us guys, to head up teams of like 30, 40 people that would go out, and they have it one time a year, where you go out, drive out to different neighborhoods all around Portland, Oregon, and go knocking on doors and see if people want to hear about Jesus Christ. Now, I just want to tell you right now, I want to agree with you. That is weird. It was weird then, let alone now. Nowadays, you can get shot where you better pretend you got an Amazon box in your hand or something. But we got everyone together, and We sent everyone into their areas, and I had 30, 40 kids in front, kids, we were all kids then, but a bunch of college students in front of me, and I was giving them the rally, let's go, let's go, and then it came time for me with my group of guys to go out to that same area, and man, did I get nervous. I'm like, All right, I just sent a bunch of people out here, and this is really awkward. Does anyone feel that with me? You got to go. It's an assignment to go knock on doors and ask people if they've ever heard about Jesus, and could we talk about it? Not highly recommended. But I went to a few doors with a couple of my buddies, and we actually had a couple of decent responses. It was kind of cool. But my bride... After we started dating, she says to me, you know what, first time I saw you was really when you were leading our team on that day of evangelism. And she said, I need to tell you something. I said, what's that? She said, me and my girlfriends drove to the neighborhood you assigned us to. We got out of the car, found a big bunch of bushes, and hid there until the day was done. Just hid and hung out. And you know what? I thought, I wish I'd have done that. Now, here's what's interesting. That's weird to do that, okay? And I think about two years after I left, they quit knocking on doors because they realized this is probably not the best way to even teach students how to share and evangelize the good news of Jesus, so they pitched it. But what's interesting is when it comes to sharing the gospel, there can be a lot of different emotions around it. Anyone with me on this? I mean, it can be very dicey. And the topic that we want to talk about today is very simply, am I unashamed? Now I'm going to let you off the hook right from the jump because some of you are going, oh boy, this is going to be a heavy talk about we got to get out there, we got to witness, we got to knock on doors. Far from that. But we're going to look at two sides of this thing about whether or not I'm unashamed. And we're going to break it down for you. I want to start first in Romans 1.16. And this is what Paul says. And he's like the model for this. For I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To the Jew first. also to the Greek so I'm gonna let some of you off the hook right now and then we're gonna get into the meat of it there are three myths about shame I want to cover and this first one you're gonna love number one fear is not shame fear is not shame Has anyone ever gotten a little uptight when you're needing and you feel maybe even prompted by the Spirit? Not something that a school said to go do or some assignment that you had, but just feel prompting from God that I need to share with this person what's going on in my life and what the gospel's all about and we get seized up with fear. Let me tell you right now, I'm about as outgoing as they come and I can get shaky in the knees and and get nervous and get cotton mouth and I can bail out and I can hide in some bushes with my bride if I need to. it can be tough it can be really tough but fear is not shame now I want to give you why and scripture won't be on the screen but in John 20 19 the disciples were afraid of the Jews and you know what Jesus did he walked into their presence and he said peace be with you he didn't condemn he didn't beat up he just said I want to give you my peace And did you know, this is interesting, but when Jesus is crying out, take this cup from me, almost every respected theologian I've ever studied on that passage says Jesus experienced the emotion of fear. Here's the distinction. Fear is not sin. And you might say, well, Carl, can it become sin? When we become slaves to fear where it becomes part and parcel of us, I really still don't believe it's sin. We've actually succumbed to a temptation and it's an emotion that God wants to deliver us from. But fear in itself is not sin. Any more than sadness when Jesus wept. When he looked at Jerusalem and he wept. He was heartbroken for the city. He's heartbroken for children. He had joy. Joy is an emotion. Joy is not anything except something grand and phenomenal. But fear is not shame. So isn't that freeing? Has anyone else ever felt like my fear is indication that I'm a problem? I'm not a good child of God. I'm not a good kid. I'm not worthy to even be called a Christian because I have fear at times. Hey, you got fear? I got fear. We all get fear. Second thing is that wisdom is not shame. Now, this is super interesting. But in Matthew 7, Jesus was speaking some words in the Sermon on the Mount, and he said, do not give to dogs what is holy, and do not cast pearls before pigs. Here's what Jesus was saying. He was saying that there is a time to speak up, and then there's a time that wisdom says, be quiet. There's a time when the Spirit of God will guide us in to share something. And there's a time when the Spirit of God will say, not now. It's kind of a Braveheart scene. Hold, hold, hold, hold. Anyone with me on the Braveheart scene? That's one of the most epic scenes on the planet, ain't it? And he's like, yeah, sons of Scotland. That was another scene. But it fits. But it's a really cool thing. To understand that god does not see every person in every situation alike This is why it's so important I got chills right now This is why it's so important for us to keep in step with the holy spirit Because the holy spirit wants to guide us even into whom we speak and when we're silent when we when we voice something when we share a story and when we don't And I want to explain why that would be from time to time. When Jesus says, don't give dogs what is holy and don't cast pearls before pigs, he's not denigrating groups of people as they're evil, except that their heart condition isn't ready for what you're about to give them. Now, as long as a person has a pulse on this planet, God's not done with them. I've seen God take some of the rawest, roughest, gnarliest dudes who were atheists and shaking a fist at God, who in a moment, God turned their life around. So God's not done with anyone. If you can fog a mirror, God's not done with you. You may be here this morning feeling like, I don't know if I'll ever get my life turned around. Listen to me, friend. If you can fog a mirror, if you can go up to your mirror today, just check it out. If you breathe on it and it gets foggy, God's not done with you. God's not done with you. But not everyone is deserving of the very story that you have about Jesus. Not at that time. So we need the wisdom of God. A third thing I want to give you is this. Immaturity is not shame. There's some of you that are not equipped. You haven't got some of the basic things. Some of you are new in Christ. Some of you have been in Christ a long time and you feel like, I've got to grow in this area of being unashamed of the gospel. And if you were honest with me and we could sit down together, you'd say, Pastor Carl, I do get fearful. I'm glad to hear that. I'm glad to hear the wisdom thing. But quite candidly, Pastor, I really would like to grow in maturity in this. And to you I say, right on. And I think even what we're going to cover today, we're going to give you some first steps about knowing how to be unashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because there are times when we can write off our immaturity or inability to share for, oh, God wants me to be wise and not share. So we could have a beautiful opportunity, but because we lack the maturity and the skill sets to share it, we could be missing an opportunity. And we want to address that today as well. So what I want to tackle right now is what biblical shame actually is. What is it? What is it to be ashamed of the gospel? In Matthew 10, look at verse 32 and 33. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. Is this clear? Is Jesus clear here? Jesus is super clear here. He's saying if you acknowledge me before men, I will acknowledge you. If you don't acknowledge me, in other words, one of the greatest evidences of whether or not we have been transformed by the power of God is that when push comes to shove, a knife's in our back, we're standing before a group of people, what do we say about Jesus? Now, aren't we glad for the story of Peter? Who got weak in the knees and actually denied Christ as was prophesied by Jesus himself. And yet, if you find yourself with that kind of a Peter phase of life, here's what's cool. When Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, he was filled so much so that when he preached that message on Pentecost... Thousands of people yelled back at him, what do we do? That's how powerful his witness was on that day. And he said one thing, repent for the washing away of your sins. And 3,000 men that day repented. We know it's 3,000 men because that's where the headcounts came from. So we would imagine anywhere from Probably 6,000 to 8,000 people came out of the crowd. And by the way, this was such a powerful witness, such a powerful movement of the Spirit that these people that surrendered to that message that Peter gave about the gospel of Christ, those people left family, they left inheritance, they left traditions. When you said yes to Jesus in a Jewish community, it was brutal. You are cutting yourself off. There could be stonings. There could be beheadings. There could be death. There certainly was persecution. So Peter went from weak in the knees around a little girl at a campfire who goes, he was with them. No, I wasn't. To, you killed Jesus. But there's hope. Repent and follow him. Isn't that amazing? Yeah. So God can change us. But the issue is this, when push comes to shove, where do you stand with God? In Luke 9, we find some more teaching from Jesus who says these words, For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. Let me be very clear with this passage. This passage is not saying that you can be saved and if you are ashamed of him at a critical hour, you now have lost that inheritance. What Jesus is saying, if your nature is to be ashamed of the Christ that saved you, you probably have never been born again. So this doesn't deny the reality that fear can happen, and fear is not shame, but it's speaking about a course of life, the general way in which I'm operating. If I can't stand for Jesus, it means I've probably never stood with Jesus. That's tough, isn't it? But one of the greatest evidences of whether we've stood with Jesus, if when push comes to shove, we will speak up for Jesus. Now, I want to put another disclaimer here. I feel prompted by the Spirit. I've often wondered, to be very candid with you, how would I do where my bride and I are going? We're going to be going into a region that we've got heavy security around us. You could pray for us. We head out Thursday, Friday, I think, Friday morning early for Kenya. And so we're going to have a lot of security around us. And then I've got two of these trips this year. I'm going to Lebanon. And I'm going to have massive security around me while I drive an hour and a half to go see a bakery in a massive millions of people in this refugee camp. And that's what God's doing through this bakery. But I've often wondered, what if I didn't have security around me? What if I lived there and declaimed the name of Jesus? You hear what's going on in Nigeria right now, guys? Guys, are you understanding? We've got brothers and sisters around the globe today, right now. I had two different guests, experts on about Iran and what's going on there. Do you know how many brothers and sisters in Christ are paying spilled blood Because the Ayatollahs are trying to shut down this revolution and they know that Christians are some of the biggest freedom fighters among this thing. And have you ever wondered, I wonder if I could stand up under that. Have you ever wondered that? I mean, come on. If you haven't, do it right now. And here's what the Lord has spoken to me. Carl, I always have deposited grace in you at the very moment that you need it. Don't try to anticipate, will that grace be there? But just know that I will supply for you in those most critical moments. That's the way our God works. You've seen that work when you felt a filling of God's grace and mercy to speak to a boss in a way like you needed to, but you didn't have the stuff to do it. That's the way our God works. And he will work that way in you. So what biblical shame actually is, this is where it gets tough. You ready? It's not failure. It's refusal. Totally different. This isn't fearful failure. This is just refusal. Very important. Secondly, it's not weakness. It's disowning. This is totally separating yourself. It's not about you being weak in a moment. It's about you saying, I don't know him. And third, it's not silence. It's self-preservation. This is really important distinctions. In fact, I feel like I want to go back because I'm seeing cameras out. So let's go back to number one. I want to hit these again. It's not failure. It's refusal. Secondly, it's not weakness. It's disowning. And thirdly, it's not silence. It's self-preservation. So I want to linger here on this slide for a moment and talk about who are the people who are going to be not just silent, but really what they're doing is they're trying to preserve themselves or they're out for their own skin. Who are these people? Is it you? I think I might have shared with you how important this is, but in George Barna's most recent study, a massive, the Barna Group did this massive study around the West, and this is what they found. The number of people in America that call themselves Christian now has gone down to about 76%, okay? 76% of Americans call themselves Christian. Now, we know that that doesn't mean dip, diddly, squat, right? Are we together on this one? I'm going to need a whole lot more animation from you guys this morning. You guys looking like you've been baptized in pickle juice, man. All right, so we know that not 76% are Christian, probably, the way Christ would define it. Would you agree? i'm getting better reaction this is good um then you match that with a pew research that's come out real numbers here and i love data i love data i'm a data crunching guy because numbers don't lie unless they're bad numbers there's here's a number for you 24 of americans claim their faith because they go to an evangelical Bible preaching kind of community church, evangelical free church, covenant church. You with me here? Pretty orthodox in the sense that they open the Bible, they preach from it, they believe in it, they believe in the Trinity, they believe in the risen Son of God, they believe that there's going to be a triumphant return of Jesus Christ. They believe some other core social issues. I won't go into them, but 24% say, I'm in that camp. Now you go back to Barna's report. And he says, get this now, the people who claim to have a biblical worldview that gives direction to their private and public lives, percentages, ready for this? 4%. Wow! So you got 76% percent down to twenty four percent down to four percent and not that I want to throw a wrench in the works but I will in Matthew we find Jesus saying many will say to me on that day Lord Lord I preached in your name Cast out demons in your name, did mighty works in your name, and Jesus is going to say, depart from me, I never knew you. What does that mean? I would say, realistically, I'm not going to throw a number, no way. But if 4% of Americans are saying, I hold to a biblical worldview, I believe that the worldview that's here is right and that this gives direction to my private and public life, we might not even have 4% when you throw in that crazy maker that Jesus said that a lot of spiritually active people really speak of Jesus, but they don't know Jesus personally and he doesn't know them. Wow. You know what that tells me? We got a massive mission field here in America. Massive. Like huge. Like I am convinced now that we do not have to go to Kenya to go on a mission trip. You know where we can go? Across the street. To the coffee shop. to our neighbors. We got a massive mission field, guys. So the question is, well, Pastor Carl, I do get fearful. That's not shame. That's really good to hear. Was anyone glad to hear that? Okay, there's three of you. I know there's more, but I love to mock the rest of y'all, okay? So, Wisdom is not shame, and immaturity is not to be ashamed. So I want to be a witness in the world today. I want to reach people. How does this work? Do I need to memorize the Roman's Road, which is a classic tool of evangelism? Do I need to have a Four Spiritual Laws little gospel track that starts with God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life? No. Those are tools. But really, the fuel for being a witness and to be unashamed is just like everything else in life. It's not a tool that we grab to try to use. It's an inside-out deal that God wants to do in you and me. He wants our witness to be an overflow of what He is doing in our lives. So let me tackle this here today. And I want to just give you a few thoughts with regard to three ways boldness grows. Three ways boldness grows. Some of you feel like, oh, I'm not naturally bold. Again, I want to say this. I am naturally bold, and I get scared to death with the rest of you. But here's what I've learned as a type A guy. The thing that gets me most weak in the knees that I need support on are these very three things I'm going to give to you this morning. When I get these three things anchored in my soul, all of a sudden, it just comes pouring out of me. So pressure's off. God wants to work from the inside and come out. And man, he can do it. So let's jump in. Number one is gospel clarity. Gospel clarity. And when I say gospel clarity, here's what we mean. You've got to understand the reality that every man, woman, and child was born in this world with their backs to God. They are all on a highway that leads to eternal separation from God. God, Jesus called it a broad path that leads to destruction. There is no one here that was born on a narrow path. Trust me, I've met most of you. I know you well enough to know you were born sinners and only by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, and as the Holy Spirit convicts you to turn from this broad path onto the narrow path, only then... did you experience life and understanding the gospel clarity that every person no matter how long they've been in church no matter where they come from no matter what background I've got neighbors around me that come from lotsa different places around the United States and the world I've gotta remember if I have gospel clarity That all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And that there are souls at stake for eternity. You with me here? You with me here? You think about people you work with and you look at sweet people, loud people, jerk people. They're all without the saving, transforming blood of Jesus that causes them to repent. They're all on a highway to hell. And that ain't a song. That's a reality. So I want to give you a verse. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Wow. There's the gospel. That's gospel clarity. He made him who knew no sin... so that in him we might become the righteousness of God we bring nothing to the table no one around you that appears from an earthly standpoint that has their act together no person even though we are all made in the image of God because people ask me all the time well pastor why is it that some Christians are so much more lame than my lost friends Now we're getting some action out here. And can I give you the answer to that one? I hadn't planned on doing this, but I'm going to do it right now. One is, a lot of people who call themselves Christians are far from God, and they are an embarrassing witness for the cross of Christ. That's a reality. So a lot of what gets lumped in, that's like what's going on in our United States today. There's a lot of people in the name of Christ are doing totally dumb booty stuff, okay? totally dumb and it mars a witness so they are not possibly even in Jesus another reason you find lost people at times performing better then the run-of-the-mill Christian out there is that every man woman and child is made in the image of God meaning that we reflect back to the world some good things about him there are aspects of our nature that are inherently from God there is some things that we do that appear to be good and, frankly, is good. but those good acts that are reflection that were image bearers of God are not salvific they are just a reflection that even crazy lost people can do good things at times when I was far from God and I was snorting cocaine like a maniac and I was partying like a fool and I was lost because I had been raised around Christ following family and because they had instilled some morality in me and I'm an image bearer, could Carl do some good things for people? All the time. But what we've got to look beyond is a couple of things, fake Christianity, the fact that all people are image bearers, so good things can come out of almost anyone, and cut through that and go, hold it, gospel clarity tells me people... have yet to even hear the gospel nor surrender their lives to Jesus Christ are on a highway to hell and God may actually use me to be the person who shares with them what Jesus wants to do now some of you are thinking right now I'm horrible at talking about this stuff you can't believe how bad I am at talking about Jesus I'm the worst Welcome to the club. And I want to tell you one really cool story about my bride. So she was a young follower of Jesus, like brand new. And you got to ask her sometimes, because my bride took New Age, Eastern thought, Christianity, and my wife did what's, this is so classically my wife. She created, not now, her own religion. She created her own religion. It's really cool to talk to her about it. I still get intrigued with it. So my bride created her own little religion. And it worked until it didn't. And then everything caved in on her. So my bride gets radically saved by Jesus because I'm going to tell her story, a little piece of it. There was a fly beating its head against the wall and she's laying in bed after going through a bad episode where her body's just breaking down. And a fly is beating his head against the window, actually. And as we've all done, flies beating its head against the window. And my bride's laying in bed looking over at the fly, thinking, just go down two inches and you're out of here, dude. Just go down. The window's cracked open. Just go down two inches and you're free. And God spoke to her that day. And you know what he said to my bride? You're that fly. You're that fly. And that little fly beating its head against that window pane is what God used to save my bride's life. Now, my bride gets transformed by Jesus. And she begins to get asked to share the gospel. Well, she's nervous as crazy can be. And she goes to this Bible study and she's got to share this Bible study. And she got done with it. In fact, one woman that overheard her goes, well, we got a lot of things to work on there. And Janine's like, okay, never am I doing this ever again in my life. Ever. I got someone older than me talking to me going, well, we got to do some things which is code for you screwed that up. Only to find out a few months later, she goes to a church service and this woman stands up, young girl actually, probably a teenager, college girl, stands up and says, I just want to testify that I am a new follower of Jesus Christ and God has changed my life. And I want to just say thank you to Janann who shared about this incredible Jesus at a Bible study. And Janann's sitting there going, you've got to be kidding me. Somebody got saved out of that Bible study? God will use anyone who is willing to be used, no matter how imperfect you may feel. God can take words that you think you screwed up, and God can do almost like autotune. Like vocalists that sing flat, but by the time they get to the concert stage, it comes out, it's beautiful. Because behind the scenes electronically, they've made perfect what was sharp or flat. God is the spiritual auto-tuner of our witness. And he does it over and over again. The goal isn't perfection. The goal is gospel clarity and then let God work. Okay, second thing. Identity security. What do I mean by this? Let's go to Colossians 3, verses 3 through 4. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. When I say identity security, what we're talking about here is that you are so certain. You've got wallpapered. I'm using my bride a lot today, but my bride uses this metaphor all the time for years now. And when she works and coaches women who are struggling, and men do too, but she doesn't work with men. But when she's working with women who struggle with, they gave their body up to a dude who was an idiot. And they're ticked off about it. Let's just be real honest, right? And they feel ashamed of that. My bride will work with these women and say, oh, sweetheart, what we got to do here is we got to re-wallpaper your mind with who you are in Christ that God gives mulligans, little golfing term there for middle of winter. God gives do-overs. God makes all things new. There's new mercy. And instead of having that wallpaper up on your mind that says you're a loser because you slept with this guy. You're a loser and you're irreparable because you've had an abortion. You're a loser and you're irredeemable because you've got an eating disorder and you're never going to win it. You're always going to battle. What my bride's doing when she helps women re-wallpaper their mind is she's helping women understand who they are in Jesus. And some of you have been hesitant or lack boldness because Satan has told you you'll never be enough. And I'm telling you today, let's put up some new wallpaper in your mind. God can use you. God loves you. God's got a master plan for your life that's tremendous. We sung about it today. And I don't know what it is that's in the wallpaper of your mind holding you back from every good grace of God. But God wants to help you understand who you are in him. That you're not defined by being a pathological liar. And that every story you ever told had a twist at the end. And that you're not defined by having been an alcoholic or maybe still there. That doesn't define you. What defines you is the shed blood of Jesus Christ and the empty tomb that says, He rose again and we will with Him. And we died. And our life is now hidden with Christ in God. I love Colossians 3. If you camp out in verses 1 through 4 for about a month, and then you go back to Romans chapter 8, if you're struggling with a mind that is believing lies about what you are, pride, because you could have your mind wallpapered with, I'm all that and a bag of chips. I really am. God should be glad to have me. Or you're feeling like, I can't believe and I don't really believe that God loves me. Either one of those. Go to Romans 8. Colossians 3, 1 through 4. Begin to re-wallpaper your mind. Pull down all those lies. And begin to see yourself as you really are in Him. The third thing is this. Spiritual engagement. This is so fascinating because some of you are like this close. You've got a pretty good understanding of who you are in Christ. You've got gospel clarity. You know that the world's on a highway to hell without Jesus. You've got neighbors you love. You've got family members you love. You've got kids that you love. And you know the gospel clarity. And you're now getting enough identity. It's like, what's got me stuck? Here's what's got you stuck. In Acts 4, verse 20, look at what we find. For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. Do you know what this means? Maybe the greatest gift you can give yourself is to fall to your knees and say, God. would you please get me in spiritual contact with where you are moving in this world today because my spiritual life is this has become like dry cardboard and this isn't dry cardboard But when this tastes like dry cardboard that you're eating, you know what the problem is? Your heart has grown cold. You've probably made a god out of your job or out of a person or a substance. And I'll tell you what you need. You need spiritual engagement so that you can say, as we find in Acts 4, we can't but just, we've got to speak about, we've seen it. I'm watching them work. That's why when Summer put up all these small group references and different young adult studies and different things like that, when you go to those things, have your eyes open and ears attuned for where is God working? You know why? That'll put fuel in your belly. It's like, holy cat hair. Or you might say something different than that. Holy smokes. Good grief. My goodness. God is working. One of the reasons I'm fired up to go to Kenya is not the flight. Those flights are awful. I usually get parked near the restroom. Do you know what a restroom's like on a flight after 12 hours? You might as well be just like camped out, just dead center in a port-a-potty, 106 degrees in Phoenix, Arizona. It feels like that. The stink. You walk in there and you open the door and you're like, holy cow. No, I'm just being honest with you. I don't love flying unless, like when I came back from that one trip and that gal gave me that upgrade to first class where I laid down on the bed. Now I like flying. But I don't like flying. But here's why I love it. Because when my bride and I come back from Kenya, we're going to come back some kind of fired up. Don't you know it? Don't you know it? But you don't have to go to Kenya to get fired up. you can talk to each other and go, and I mean this right now, tell me your story. Give me the one thing in the last year that you've seen God's hand in. And go out with a couple other people and go, hey, should we start praying for some gospel movement here so that it will put fuel in our belly for more, that we have something so visual, so tangible that we can't help but... Go tell people. Estimates are that only one to two percent of all in followers of Jesus have ever shared their faith in Christ. But I don't buy that. I think it's way higher if you do it right. I do. Let me tell you how. I'm going to throw you a curveball and a half here that's going to give you such a radical witness. Some of you have already done this. Some of you think you've done this, but you haven't. Some of you can point to a time and you might have a certificate, but the certificate meant nothing. What am I talking about? I want to talk for a moment about why baptism matters so much. What do we find in the Great Commission? Go and make disciples, baptizing them. Who did Jesus say to baptize? Work with me here. Go and make disciples, baptizing them. You don't have to be an English major to figure this one out. Disciples. Jesus said, go and baptize disciples. Did he say, go baptize infants? No. Nope. I'm not trying to offend anyone here, but no. No infant baptism. Did he say baptize people that had been in church a long time and their kids and they wanted to get baptized like everyone else? Nope. Didn't say baptize them. He said, discern enough that someone is a disciple of Christ, meaning, although imperfect, when they get up in the morning, they put their foot down, they are following Jesus. That's who you baptize. And it's right here, Matthew 28. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son. and the Holy Spirit. And then in Romans 6, verses 3 and 4, look at this. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? This matters. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Now this baptism here is not that there's anything magical about the water. It's a symbolism of this baptism into death when we die to self-repent and follow Jesus. I'm going to tell you something funny. I got baptized, I think, when I was 10 years old. So I got saved when I was like 23. That's when I got saved. The other stuff was... It was part of the culture. It just went and did. I mean, everybody did it. I think I got baptized with my buddy who's a pastor's kid. In fact, I know I did. I'll never forget it. I was at Bethany Church, man. And I got baptized. And there was a little bit of emotion around it, mainly because I was scared to death. That was the emotion. But here's the reality. I didn't get baptized as a disciple of Christ. I got baptized as a church kid. That isn't who Jesus said to baptize. He said, you baptize disciples. Now the problem is, going back to the numbers that we had, in the first century, no one got baptized unless you were absolutely a Christ follower. Why? It cost you so picking much. To be identified with those loons, Peter and his crowd, are you kidding me? I'm messing with you right now. Oh yeah, I'm messing with you. And I'm glad I'm doing it. Because any baptism before you were born again, all it meant is you got wet. And that was a bummer because you had to bring a change of clothes and you did all that for nothing. I'm kidding. Isn't that great? Isn't that great? It was a total colossal waste of time. And on top of it all, Satan used that to convince you that, well, maybe I am okay with God even though the Spirit of God was telling you for a number of years possibly, no, you aren't all right. See, baptism in a culture that has no persecution becomes a weapon Satan uses to tell you you possess something you don't have. And that's hard to hear, isn't it? But it's not really that bad because all you did was get wet anyway. And the certificate, you lost it anyway. Or it's buried. Doesn't really matter. See, baptism says three things. Three things. One, I belong to Jesus. Two, I have died to my old self. Three, I identify publicly with Christ and his people. That's what baptism is. It's a declaration. So, all the missiologists and sociologists, Christian ones, who say... That only 1-2% of people, Christians, born again Christians, have ever witnessed anyone. I'm telling you, if we have an awakening of real biblical baptisms, that number goes up exponentially. So Carl, what happened? You got baptized. Yes. And then you got saved, really saved. What did you do? Did you get re-baptized? No. Re-baptized means I got wet again. The first one wasn't a believer's baptism. The first one is I got wet. And yes, as an adult, I got baptized as a disciple of Christ. You say, well, Carl, Janann was raised in a pastor's home, and she must have got baptized pretty young, right? Yep, she did. And then she got saved after she concocted her religion and all that and it didn't work. And then the fly hit in the window and Jesus used that fly and then she was born again. Yes, she did. She, like me, was baptized as a disciple of Christ. So I got a why in the road for you today. And I am urging every person today listening to me right now online here live i'm urging you here's my question will you be baptized as a follower of jesus christ it's all hard to ask isn't it Pastor Carl, what you're asking me to do is, I might need to explain to some parents why I'm doing this. Explain! Now you've witnessed twice. To your parents, who are confused, because you got dunked, you got confirmed, you got, boy, we sprinkled you, we did, bleep, bleep. I wasn't a disciple of Jesus. When I became a disciple of Jesus and he made all things new, the scripture says, mom and dad, I got to go get baptized. And I want to tell you in just a moment here. I'm going to have a QR code up here, and I'm asking, and I am, I don't usually get this urgent on this one, but I'm going to get urgent here. I am asking you to be obedient to God. To be obedient to God. And to go public. And I don't, you might say, Carl, man, isn't there like a, isn't it like a statute of limitations? Where it's like, I mean, I was actually born again like when I was 20-something, but now I'm like 40. Get dunked, man! I'm asking you and I'm inviting you. Will you please get baptized as a follower of Jesus Christ? And here's why. We're going to ask you to invite friends, coworkers. We're going to make a big deal out of this. We are planning an evening of worship and baptisms. I don't know how many we're going to have. I gave this message last week out in the burbs. It was as quiet there as it is here. Which, you know what's going on? Those wheels are just turning, right guys? They're like, oh boy, I wonder if I need to do this. And the Holy Spirit's saying, yeah, you do. And you're going, yeah, I do. And you do. And you need to be encouraged. Because you're going to walk in obedience to God and you're going to let your light so shine before men that they will see you The deed of obedience to Christ. And they may hear your story and give glory to God. So here's the QR code. And this is what I want us to do. Whether you are scanning it for you or not, I want every phone out looking at it right now. Because I want every phone out right now pointed at this thing. Every phone out pointed at it. Mine included. Got that bad boy. And if nothing else, I want you to scan this code right now to at minimum pray and think about it right now. I want everyone to think about this. And I want to be this serious about this. My bride and I debated getting baptized. Can I tell you what we were debating with? Here I am a pastor of a church at that time of 5,000 people. What would it say to them when their pastor is getting baptized? You know what we concluded? You do the right explaining, it says all the right stuff. If you deny him before men, he'll deny you before the Father. And fear is not shame. Wisdom is not shame. But man, we got an opportunity to let our light so shine before men and women. And I'm appealing to you Have a holy moment here. If you've never been baptized as a disciple of Christ, I am urging you. I'm not telling you, but I'm urging you. Please do it. Father, have your way with us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.