Cucumbers to Pickles

[00:00:01] Speaker A: I'd like to invite you to join me in prayer. Father, we are grateful for this morning, grateful for the opportunity to lift our voices and declare who you are, that you are holy. We're grateful that you use us. We're grateful that we have your word and we can open it. We can see truth in a world that is confused, very confused about what is right, what is wrong, what is true, what is false. So this morning, may you open our hearts and our minds, our eyes to what you would have to say to us this morning. Speak to us in only the way that your holy spirit can help us to change. Help us to recognize who you are, and then to recognize who we are and who we must be. We look forward to what you have for us this morning. Thank you for these songs. Thank you that we are in your presence. We're anxious to hear from you now. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Please be seated. Good morning, everybody. My name is Craig Jarvis. I'm the lead pastor here at village church east. It's my privilege to welcome you and to open God's word with you. We have a couple of things that I'd love to do right off front. Yes, you are not confused. There is a jar of pickles on the stage, but you have to just wait and find out why that's the case for a little while longer. Let me, first of all, just let you know that a couple of weeks ago we had some folks that joined our church. We had a wonderful class, wonderful membership class. If you're interested in joining, finding out a little bit more about village church east, who we are, what our values are, what is important to us, you're welcome to join in that class. We've got one starting up again in the fall. Keep your eyes open to the hub. Jump online. The hub that has all the information on there. Newsletter. Great to get our newsletter comes out every week. Keep you up to speed with what's going on at the church. You can find out when that next class is. But for now, I want to bring up one person that missed us on that day because she had other things that she was doing. But this is Rachel. Rachel, come on up. This is Rachel. What's that? And Caleb. I guess Caleb can come up here, too. Caleb likes to be in the front, so this is Caleb. Caleb went with us to South Dakota. He was actually one of my work partners and we did some amazing work on trailer together, on the roof together siding, actually, we did a lot of siding work, but I love serving with Caleb. So this is Rachel and Caleb. Rachel, I'm going to scoot. Thank you. Thank you, Christopher. So, Rachel, you get to talk to us a little bit this morning and tell us a little bit about why you are here at village church east. What do you love about the church? That's kind of why you would want to join with us. Membership is nothing that gives you a higher status with God or anything, but it is a commitment level that many of our folks are a part of, where they join their gifts with ours, lock their arms with ours, and we're able to do ministry together into the future. So I'm excited to find out why you're joining the church. Rachel, this is your opportunity. All right, well, thank you. [00:02:56] Speaker B: I've been going to church since I was little, but throughout the years, obviously, we've gone through different churches. We came to Village east a few years ago off and on, but it just really resonated the way you speak and the way that you preach. I think I've learned the most by being here and under your guidance of leadership that I have in my whole life. So that really resonated with me. And just the way that you deliver the message and absorb it, it just really opened up my mind. [00:03:28] Speaker A: You know, you don't have to say this in order to become a member. [00:03:31] Speaker B: And I did not tell him I was going to say this because I'm not trying to boost your ego, but it is true. It is true. Yeah, it is true. And then as we continue to go through, my son also opened up and I. He was baptized a few weeks or months ago, actually. [00:03:45] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. [00:03:47] Speaker B: So that was another piece that, you know, it's touched my heart and touched his heart. And then obviously the community here, everyone within the church community has been welcoming and opening and just loving and adoring people. And I just felt it was the right move. I haven't. I have. My old church closed down and I haven't been a member in a church for quite some time. So this was what opened my eyes. [00:04:09] Speaker A: Awesome. So what excites you the most about locking arms here and moving into the future? [00:04:13] Speaker B: Growing, growing and developing and just getting to know more people and just to be a bigger church and just from that ground up. [00:04:22] Speaker A: Yeah. And so, just so you know, Rachel actually has already jumped on. She's helped us. In fact, you're on the cameras today, and she has already served in a lot of different areas. We are excited to have you on board. And, Caleb, we're excited to have you on board, too. Caleb is growing in the Lord, he did get baptized. We dunked the living daylights out of him a couple of months ago, and I'm excited to see what the Lord has for you, too, bud. So let me pray with both of you, and then we'll move on in the service. All right, church, would you join me in prayer? Father, we are grateful for Rachel and Caleb. We're grateful for what you've been doing in their lives. Thank you for the growth that they've testified to this morning, especially with Rachel, but also with Caleb, for the way that you're growing him, for the way that you are building his roots deep in his faith, for the way that you will use him in the future and a godly mom that will guide him. I am so grateful that we get to be a partner with these guys and do ministry into the future. May you use their gifts incredibly change the world around us for the kingdom of God through their service and through the way that they use their gifts. And may, Lord, you help us to be a better church because we're partnering together with this new family. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. [00:05:32] Speaker B: Amen. [00:05:33] Speaker A: All right, thanks, you guys. There you go. Yeah. I have one more thing I need to tell you about. We have a new project that we're starting. I wanted to make you aware of this. We sat down at the end, actually, middle of the summer, the elders and I, we sat down and we said, okay, we got to talk about where we are financially. Usually you take a dip in the summer. So I tried to be proactive and figure out what that was going to look like for us. And we did take a dip in the summer. We took a big dip in the summer. And so you have been faithful. You've been so generous. A lot of you have been so kind to the, especially to the youth group, just in helping them get to the mission trip. That was a big endeavor for us above and beyond what we normally do. And the Lord really has paid off for us in a lot of different ways with the kids and with the growth that we've seen in them, not just because of the mission trip, but also because of the youth staff that we have, which are incredible. But we're seeing a lot of growth in those areas. Thank you for your faithfulness and all of that. But we took a look at our finances and we came to the conclusion that we have a lot of people that are giving, like, kind of irregularly, but not a lot that are giving regularly. And so our challenge to you is simply this. We're under right now, we're dipping into our savings. We want to keep that for a building fund so that if we need a down payment, we can move into a building, we can start renovating. That's why we did the road trip last week, so that we could see what's possible with a little bit amount of cash rather than a lot amount of cash. So anyway, all of that to kind of get us to keep a good savings, what we have already coming into the summer, we got to replenish that. We got to build that up. My challenge to you is this, we gotta replenish our savings, and we gotta get back on track with the budget. So what I would challenge you is, would you consider becoming a regular faithful giver? This means that we don't give like we used to. You remember when you passed the plate? Yeah. The first church I worked at, the first church I worked at, the guy that I worked with, he was an interesting character. He would always stand up front, and he would wear his double breasted suit, and he would reach into his pocket at the offering time, and he would say, it's time to give. And the ushers would come forward and they would pick up the plates, and then they would hand them down the aisles, and then he would pull out an offering envelope, which sometimes I wondered if there was anything in it, but he would pull out an offering envelope, and he would say these words, I've got mine. Have you got yours? And I would listen to that and I would just go, it just sounds icky. It sounds like, you know, I've got mine. And it just never rubbed me the right way. Maybe you like that. I don't know. And that's quesar us. But we've changed the way that we give over the years. Now we give largely online. We don't pass a plate anymore. But what we're asking is that if you would join us and become a faithful giver, that means that you go online, you go to vcest.org, comma, you press the give button, and there you make a. A weekly offering to village church east. That would help us incredibly because it would give us a little bit more continuity to what is coming in each week so that we can prepare. We're working on a budget for 25 right now. Can you believe that? That's so sad. But we are working on a budget for 25, and we need to have a good understanding of how our regular giving is going week to week. If you're already a faithful giver, thank you for being a part of that. We are grateful for your faithfulness in your giving. That is a wonderful blessing to us. But if you're not, whether you're at home or you're in house, I would encourage you go to the give button, click on give to Vils Church east, and then make that a weekly, regular giving out of your offering. It's how we give these days. No plates, but we do it online. So if you could become a part of that, that would be a wonderful thing for us. Hopefully what we're doing is we're praying that we would boost the budget back up to where it needs to be and that we would meet budget to the end of the year. All right, I'll give you exact figures as we get into the fall. We do a quarterly meeting. Nothing to panic about, but just want to make you aware that this is something we need to tweak immediately before we see the trends continue. All right, good, good. All right. I'm going to give you a quote this morning. The quote is this. You tell me who said this? All right, here we go. Oh, yes. The message is called cucumbers to pickles. Here's the quote. We've been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. This is a very popular person, by the way. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in number, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us. And we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these things were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated and with unbroken success. We have become all too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us. Who said that? Oh, my goodness. Yes, that is correct. If you've forgotten what he looked like, that's the guy right there. So would you say that? That's a good phrase, right? How about we go into our election year and we hear words like this? Abraham Lincoln said this in response, by the way, to how the US blossomed so quickly after the revolutionary war. He's been agreed to by most historians to be one of the greatest presidents of all time. And so I want you to know this, that people who are in the know always point to the right place. Let me say that one more time. People who are in the know always point to the right place. Abraham Lincoln was in the know. He knew that it wasn't the virtue or the intellectualism of the United States that gave her her prosperity. He knew where that came from. He was in the know, and he knew to point to the right place. I want to take you to the first chapter of the Book of John today. So if you're using their bibles, this is where we're going. First chapter of the book of John deals with a guy called John the. You remember his name? John the Baptist. John one six. Here's what it says. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light. This is not John the apostle. John the apostle is writing about another John. He's writing about John the Baptist, and he's saying, john the Baptist. His whole life was about one thing. It was about pointing to another person. People who are in the know always point to the right place. Some people don't know how to point to the right place. They're not in the know. Jay Leno. Do you remember Jay Leno? He had hair like mine. He looked kind of. Yeah. Anyway, Jay Leno used to have a show on tv before Conan O'Brien took it over, but Jay Leno used to have a show, and he would do this little man on the street, little snippets, and he would go on the street, and he would ask people questions about, like, stuff they should know about, and then they would give answers, and he would play it, and it was kind of hilarious. Here's one of the ones that sticks out in my mind. One of his men on the street that he talked, he had some questions to some people about the Bible. You ready? Here we go. This is the world. Yeah. This is the world that you used to live in at this point. All right, can you name one of the Ten Commandments? He asked two college age women that, and one replied, freedom of speech. It gets worse. Jay Leno said to the other girl, complete the sentence, let he who is without sin. And she said, have a good time. And it got worse. Then he turned to the young man who was with them, and he asked, who, according to the Bible, was eaten by a whale. And the man responded, Pinocchio. These people were not in the know. John was in the know, created by God, knowing his one purpose in life was to point to somebody else. John's whole life was about pointing to somebody else. Even before John was born, do you remember who John's mother was? Elizabeth Elizabeth was a cousin of Mary. When Mary was pregnant, she went to see Elizabeth. And when she went to see Elizabeth, Mary being pregnant with Jesus, Mary came and talked to Elizabeth. And what did John the Baptist do in Elizabeth's womb? Jumped right. You can find this in Luke one. Even before he came to breathe air, John's life was about pointing to somebody else, pointing to Jesus Christ. People who are in the know, know where to point. In Isaiah 42, there's a prophecy that somebody would come and they would fulfill this prophecy. Isaiah 42 and three. A voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. You've heard this verse before. Pretty popular. Make straight in the desert, a highway for our goddess. JoHN the Baptist knew that he was a fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy 700 years earlier. In fact, John the Baptist lived in the wilderness. He was known for it. He ate. What did he eat? Do you remember? Locust and honey. Yum yum. Scrumptious. And he wore animal skins. Everybody thought he was a nut job. He was fulfilling this prophecy because he knew this had to happen before the Messiah would show up. This had to occur. And John knew who he was. So he wore ragged clothes, lived in the wilderness, preached the gospel of the kingdom of God, and lived hermit style. Now his whole life was about pointing others to Jesus Christ. Back in John one down in verse 22, a group of people came up to John the Baptist and they said, who are you? We need to give an answer to those people who sent us a what do you say about yourself? And John the Baptist said, I am the voice of the one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord. As the prophet Isaiah said, John the Baptist knew what his life was for. He knew his life was about pointing to Jesus Christ. His whole life's purpose was about pointing to Jesus. And no matter what the people thought about Jesus, they highly respected John the Baptist. Did you know that the people loved John the Baptist. Jesus himself sang great praises about John the Baptist. Matthew 1111. This is what Jesus said. Truly I say to you, among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than who church. Jesus had great respect for him. The people had great respect for him. He knew what his life was about. It was about pointing to Jesus from the moment he was born until the moment his head was taken off by Herod. John had devoted followers. John was a teacher. He was well respected. And he had a lot of followers. We call them disciples. Like Jesus had disciples, John had disciples. These guys would have died for John. But when Jesus shows up John says one phrase and all his disciples leave him. Like, think about that. A pastor of a church, all of the people that are part of that church, like following that pastor, although that's kind of a warped idea. But anyway, let's say that that happens, and all of a sudden the pastor says one thing and everybody starts following somebody else. JoHN the Baptist had all this power at his fingertips. But when Jesus showed up, John pointed at Jesus and said simply, there he is. That's the guy my life is pointing to. And guess what his disciples did? They all left him. John. 135 the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples. He looked at Jesus as he walked by and he said, behold the lamb of God. This is the guy we're talking about. And two of his disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus Christ. In other words, church. John knew his master. He knew what his life was about. He was in the know, and he was pointing toward what his life was about, pointing toward Jesus Christ. Any follower of Jesus Christ understands this outline. Followers of jesus know who the star of the show is. They know that life is about Jesus, and they want other people to know that, too. And they are passionate about one person, and it is not themselves. So I want to give you a quiz. You ready for a quiz? All right, here's a quiz. Here's a quiz. Whose job is it to point to Jesus? Is it a, John the Baptist? Is it b, your CG leader in church leadership? Is it c, missionaries in Uganda? Or is it d, all those of us who follow Jesus Christ? Whose job is it to point to Jesus Christ? Dee? Yes. Look at you. It's not a hard quiz, is it? There was a missionary named Wilford Grenfell. He was a medical missionary to Labrador. He was a guest at a dinner in London together with a number of socially prominent british men and women. During the course of the dinner, the lady sitting next to him turned and said to him, Doctor Grenfeld, is it true that you are a missionary? And Doctor Grenfell looked at her for a moment and then replied, is it true, madam, that you are not. God has entrusted the responsibility of pointing to Jesus Christ to all of those who follow him. That is our life purpose. Those in the know understand that their life is about pointing to the right place. God has entrusted us with this. And I have to tell you, there are few things as invigorating in life as pointing somebody to Jesus Christ. If you've never led somebody to the presence of Jesus Christ. For them to accept Christ for the very first time. You are missing out on an amazing part of the christian life. When you lead somebody into Christ's presence and you say, listen, do you want to. You want to accept Jesus? Do you want to be a follower of Jesus? And they say, yes. It's like, whoa. Okay, okay. You do. All right, there's fish. Fish, fish, fish, fish. Whoo. We got one. We got one. Now what do we do? It's not that confusing. It's not that difficult. You talk to somebody, you say, oh, you do. You want to accept Jesus as your savior? Well, here's what we need to do. You need to bow your head. You need to confess your sins, and you need to accept him and give your life to him. And the change that occurs in that life is astounding because it doesn't just change that life, but it has this ripple effect, and it begins to change the lives around that one life. If you've never had that experience, I would say that you really should. It's a pretty powerful experience when you lead somebody into the presence of Christ. That brings us to our subject that we're going to talk about this morning, and that is the subject of baptism. There are various different kinds of baptism. You may have been in a tradition that has taught one thing about baptism, and now you're hearing something different in other traditions. Some baptize infants or their souls would be in jeopardy. Some sprinkle, some dunk. Some pour huge buckets over people's heads. Some go forward. Some go backward. Some go three times. Some go once, some baptized to wash away sins. There's all these different ideas about baptism. And what I want to use this morning for is to kind of give you a biblical version of baptism by looking at John the Baptist, or more specifically, John the baptizer. Baptism is primarily an identification issue. We have a baptism coming up. I'd love. We've got a couple of people that are on board that are anxious to be baptized. I'd love to see more people do that. Before we do a baptism, we always have a class. You sit down with me, and we kind of go through this 50 minutes class. You can ask questions, get any answers that you need, and then we plan a date where we will put you through the waters of baptism. Baptism is primarily an identification issue. It's a pointing moment. This is why John was baptizing. John baptized, and that's why he was called John the baptizer, because his life was about pointing to Jesus Christ and those he baptized. He pointed toward Jesus Christ. Baptism is about belonging it's declaring your identity has changed from what it was, and now it is about pointing to Jesus Christ, pointing to something else other than ourselves. Galatians 327 says this, for as many of you were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor greek, canadian nor american. I just threw that in there. There's neither slave nor free. There's neither Democrat nor Republican. I just threw that in there. There's neither male nor female, for you are all one in Jesus Christ. In other words, this change that takes place when you accept Christ as your savior supersedes any other identifying mark in your life. When we come together here, for those of us that accepted Christ as our savior, we call each other brothers and sisters because primarily we're family. Christ is our brother. God the father is our father. We are family because of Jesus Christ. When we are baptized into Jesus Christ, we are marked with an identifying signature that we belong to him. All right, I brought up a jar of pickles. This is going to be fun. Here's my question to you, actually. My prayer this morning was that I could actually open this because I haven't opened it yet. Oh, look at that strongman. All right, Christopher, we'll have to work on that, actually. You'll have to work on that afterwards. Okay, so. All right, so my question to you is, this thing in here was not always a pickle, right? What did this used to be? A cucumber. When did a cucumber. When does a cucumber become a pickle? Is there an answer? Because I don't know. Magic. It's magic. That's right. That's right. We've entered the world of Harry Potter. At some point, this cucumber tastes different right after you brush your teeth, it tastes a lot different, but it doesn't taste like a cucumber anymore. So my question to you is, when do we stop referring to this? Oh, look at you. Thank you. You're all going to want to hug me after this. All right, when do we stop referring to this as a cucumber and we start referring to it as a pickle? In fact, can we ever refer to this as a cucumber anymore? This can't become a cucumber, right? It's forever a pickle. Something has happened to the makeup of this thing where it doesn't taste the same, definitely doesn't taste the same. It doesn't look the same. The texture is different, and it can never become something that it was again. We gotta get a table up here. When this thing is baptized, in the pickling juice, the cucumber becomes something different. It no longer is referred to as a cucumber, but now it's referred to as a pickle. There's three questions I want to ask you about baptism this morning. One, why did John baptize? Two, why did Jesus. Why didn't Jesus baptize? Or did he? And three, why does the church baptize? And all of this will go to the illustration of the pickle. Number one, why did John baptize? John's baptism was about preparing people for the arrival of Jesus Christ. This is some good theology. If you plan on learning some theology, you should take notes here. John's baptism was different than the baptism we have today. Because John's baptism was about pointing people toward the coming messiah. It was before the church. It was preparing people for the arrival of Jesus Christ. In fact, in Matthew 311, he says, I baptize you. John the Baptist says this with water for repentance. But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. John's baptism was unique. It was not like the baptism we do today. And it wasn't even like the things that you experience in any church today. John's main message was repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus is coming. Jesus coming was the big idea of John's baptism. There wasn't much time, and people should repent and get baptized before it's too late. Baptism is always, no matter what your tradition is, at the root of baptism, it is identification. So when John the baptized baptized, he baptized because he identified those being baptized with his message. And his message was, Jesus is coming. And everybody knew that message, because when Jesus showed up, he said, there he is. Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. And what did all his disciples do? They left him. Followers of John were baptized, identifying with John's message. Jesus is coming. The messiah is coming. Repent before it's too late. John 130, back to John, chapter one. JohN the Baptist says, this is he of whom I said, after me comes a man whose ranks before me. Because he was before me. I myself did not know him. But for this purpose, I came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel. John was baptizing people to connect them, to identify them with the coming messiah. And when it became apparent that it was Jesus Christ, everybody went that direction. All that John did was identify with Jesus Christ and point all those to the redeemer who would come to save the world from their sins. So the question is, why was Jesus baptized? Who baptized Jesus? Church. John the Baptist. Where was Jesus baptized? Very good. All right. River Jordan, by the way, why was Jesus baptized? Isn't just a question that I'm asking. Guess who else asked this question? John the Baptist. Look at this. In Matthew 313. Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan, to John to be baptized by him. John wanted him to not come. He would have prevented him, saying, lord, I should be baptized by you. Why are you asking me to baptize you? Jesus didn't have any sin. Jesus didn't have any faults. Jesus was God incarnate, God among us, Emmanuel. So why was Jesus baptized by John? Not to wash away sins, but to again, identify with John's message. And what was John's message? Church. Jesus is the messiah. Repent and point to him. John's baptism was not about sins being washed away, but about the one who could wash away sins. John identified not with the water that takes away sin. John's whole life was identifying with the person, the lamb, who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus was baptized by John as a sign of identification, a validation of John's message. I am that guy. And who else validated that message when Jesus was baptized? God the Father. God the father said, this is my beloved son in whom I well, please. The dove comes down, the spirit of God comes down. There's validation galore at that moment that Jesus is the one. Do not get confused about baptisms being different. Baptisms, all at their root, are about identification. And John was identifying Jesus. His disciples knew it. Jesus knew it. John knew it. John's baptism was to identify us with him and his hope. Jesus baptism was to identify him with us and our need. All right, so the question is, are we supposed to baptize today in the same way that John did? No. Cause we're on the other side of this. Jesus has been identified. Jesus has already given the gospel. There's no need to ever identify, ever do a baptism like John had, where he's looking for the messiah. Finally he sees him. Jesus is revealed, and all people follow him. All right, so we don't do the same baptism that John did. Second question. Did Jesus baptize or why didn't Jesus baptize? Or did he? Back to John, verse 33, John one. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, he on whom you see the spirit descend and remain. This is he who baptizes with the what church? Oh, sorry. Sorry. Yeah. This is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. John Jesus baptizes all of his followers with the Holy Spirit. So Jesus did baptize and does still baptize by sending his spirit for those who follow him. You have. If you've accepted Jesus as your savior, you have changed from a pickle. I'm sorry. From a cucumber to a pickle. If you've accepted Christ as your savior, this has already happened to you. I don't know when it did. I don't know if it was like a one moment sort of thing. My wife's, her testimony is she's not quite sure when she got saved. She just knows at some point in her life, it was all about pointing toward Jesus Christ. Some people, it's a radical one moment thing. They might have a visit by God, a Jesus moment, give up something, or come to terms with sin in their lives and confess it, and boom, they become a pickle. But I don't know how it has been in your life. For me, it was like that. I was eight years old. I came home from church. My dad walked in the door before me. It was snowing, and I don't even know what prompted me to say this, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I said, dad, how do I get to heaven? And my dad, he was so thrilled. He took me into the living room. He stuck me beside this couch that was, like, orange and green and had these big, gaudy flowers on it. You know, you remember those old couches didn't have the plastic on it, but it was the next best thing. We knelt down by the couch, and my father shared with me the gospel, said, you need to confess your sins. Ask Jesus Christ to be your savior. So I did. I stuck my head into that pillow, and I accepted Jesus as my savior. It became a momentary thing. I don't know about you, but there needs to be a moment in your life when you turn from a cucumber to a pickle. There needs to be a moment. And for a lot of people, they don't know the moment. They're kind of like my wife, maybe where it kind of happened, somewhere along the way, they don't know when it happened. Baptism becomes that moment of time when you say, this is my moment to declare to you, my life is about pointing to Jesus Christ. My life has been changed. I'm no longer the cucumber I used to be. Now I'm a pickle. Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit. That's what he does. Everyone who knows Jesus has been baptized this way. He gives us the spirit of God that baptizes us once and makes us his child. Romans eight nine says it this way. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If, in fact, the spirit of God dwells where church dwells in you, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ is not a pickle. They're in a pickle, but they're not a pickle. They don't belong to him. It is not true that we are all part of God's family. That is not a true statement. What is a true statement are those who have given their lives to Jesus Christ are part of God's family because they've been baptized in the way that Jesus baptizes. He gives us his spirit. The spirit dwells in us. So the question is, does Jesus baptize? Did Jesus baptize? And the answer is, yes, he does. This baptism, however, is for you to belong to him once and for all. This is the big change from cucumber to pickle. In ephesians one, in fact, it says, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit. Not only do you receive the Holy Spirit, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit. So if you accept Christ as your savior today and you walk out and get hit by a mack truck and you're not baptized by water, you still go to heaven. You are part of his family. You have been baptized by the Holy Spirit, sealed until the day of redemption, a legitimate child of God. So, number three, the question is, why do we baptize then? If you're saved and baptized by the Holy Spirit immediately and you belong to Jesus Christ, why does the church baptize? And the answer is this. The church baptizes to identify Jesus followers. The church baptizes for the same reason John baptized. We identify with who Jesus is. We are unashamed. We are courageous. We put the pool out. We dunk you out there in the pool, whatever water we can find. This is your moment to stand up and say, I am a cucumber no longer. I am now a pickle. This is your moment to declare it boldly in front of others. To be baptized by the church, you must first proclaim that you are a follower of Jesus Christ. You must first proclaim your identity has changed already. You must be baptized by Jesus and his spirit before you declare who you are in the waters of baptism in front of the church. If you have any questions on this, we're gonna be doing a baptism class. And I'm gonna share even more on this. I'd love for you to be there. Every person who follows Jesus should be baptized. That's why when you're in the water, I say to you, have you accepted Jesus as your savior? That is the question you are asked. And then you say, yes, I have. And then I say, based upon your profession, I baptize you in the name of the Father and the son of the Holy Spirit. If the answer is yes, the answer is my life points toward Jesus Christ. My whole life is about that. And I want everybody to know. This is why water baptism is done after the baptism of the Holy Spirit. When you stand in the water, you identify with Jesus. When you go under the water, it's the idea that you die with Jesus. When I hold you under the water, it's the idea that you're in the tomb with him for three days. So I hold you down for three days. No, I don't do that. When you come back up out of the water, that's a picture of being risen with him your whole life. Verbally and visually, you are saying, I want everybody to know I'm a pickle. I've accepted Jesus. I've risen to new life. Baptism doesn't get you to heaven. It doesn't make God love you more. It is your opportunity to follow in obedience what Jesus has asked every follower to do, to boldly make your life about pointing to him. Because I want to tell you, your life already points somewhere. Everybody's does. Why not make it about pointing to Jesus alone? It is a, what I would call a visual declaration of a viable change. Or one phrase I always use is it is a public display of a private decision. You've given your life to Jesus. Let's make that public. Let's blow the walls off and let's point to Jesus. Here's your so whats number one? Be honest about who your life really points to. Everybodys life points to something. Give me your checkbook. Ill tell you what your life points toward. Everybodys life points toward something. If it doesnt point toward Jesus, who gets the spotlight now? What gets the spotlight now? People need a cause of politics is a cause. Politics is the whole idea of trying to sell you a cause. Because politicians know you need to be about something. You need your life to point to something and they will sell you anything that they can to get your life to point towards something that makes them rich. Everybody's life points towards something. Jesus has given you life and breath so that your time on this earth can point toward him, the only thing that really matters. So, church, what is the cause of your life? Everyone lives for something. Work, girlfriends, boyfriends, spouse, school, money. Addicts are addicted to live for something that they may not necessarily be proud of, but they are addicted, addicted to it, because our lives are created to point towards something. So, church, how about being honest about what your life points toward? If you want that to be Jesus, now is your day of salvation. It's today. This could change in a minute. John, by the way, didn't live long into the gospels. Did you know that? He didn't live too long. He was bragged on by Jesus Christ. And just 14 chapters into Matthew, Herod Antipas took his head off. He died. But his whole life was about identifying with Jesus and getting as many people as he could to identify with Jesus as well. That's why we call him John the Baptist. That's all he was known for. Number two, if you know Jesus, consider baptism immediately and begin to make a point. That's kind of a double entendre. You get that? Like, make a point, but also make a point. It's a way to kickstart your life off of faith faster than anything else. I can't tell you how many people I've baptized and seen their lives change so drastically because it becomes their line in the sand. Once they cross that line, they are sold out up to that line. It's kind of like I'm kind of in. I'm kind of out. I'm kind of over. I'm kind of back. But some people, once they put that line down, they say, I'm done. I'm going over the edge. And it becomes a moment that is defining for them like nothing else. I've done a lot of funerals. I've heard a lot of good things about people. They're good fishermen, good cooks, generous to others, great friend, joyful all the time. But the funerals I love doing the most. That sounded bad right as I said it. But the funerals I love doing the most are funerals where people stand up and say, you know what? All I know about this life is that all he kept talking about was Jesus. That's all his life was about. He loved Jesus, and he wanted other people to love him, too. When I did the funeral for my father, I had the privilege of saying those words. So my question to you this morning is, do you need to be baptized and fully identify with Jesus Christ? Has he changed your life? Has he baptized you with his holy spirit? If that's the case, and you belong to him. What is holding you back? Jesus wants you to be bold about this. That's why the last verse in Matthew says this. Go, therefore, Jesus says, and make disciples of all nations. What's the next two words? Church. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. If your identification is with Jesus, if your identity is in him. Have you proclaimed that through water baptism? Like I said, we have one coming up. This could be your opportunity. Just talk to me after church. We'll get you on the list. We'll have a 50 minutes class. You can ask any questions that you want. Maybe you've got some questions you're a little embarrassed to ask. That's okay. These are small little classes. Two or three or four or five at a time. We would love to get you in there. Have any questions answered that you can, all of it. I'll take you to scripture in the New Testament. Give you as much background as I can. But before you get baptized, you should know why you're doing it. And I would encourage you. If you haven't been baptized, why not take that step today? Make a commitment. After all, if you've turned into a pickle and you're no longer a cucumber, isn't it time everybody knew about that? Let's pray. I'm grateful, Father, for our time this morning. We had to talk about baptism and for the way it has changed so many of our lives. Caleb gets to stand up here this morning, something I wasn't even planning on. And bragging about how he went through the waters of baptism just a few months ago. I'm so grateful for his commitment, his obedience to you, and for the way you're beginning to use his life in pretty incredible ways. I pray the same for everyone in the church. If there's somebody here this morning that knows they need to do this, but they've been putting it off, would your spirit just kind of push them over the edge today? Would you work in their lives and help them to make a commitment? Because our lives are about something. And for those of us that know you as our savior, we would really love it if our lives were all about you. Help us to be the best pickles we can possibly be. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.