May 19, 2024 • 14 mins
Experience the inspiring continuation of the Post Sermon Reflections podcast as we dive deep into our series, 'The Body'. In this episode, we celebrate significant milestones in our faith community, specifically recognizing the achievements of eight baptisms in a single day and 50 total baptisms since the start of the COVID pandemic. Throughout the discussion, we examine the evidence of redemptive miracles witnessed as we navigate these challenging times.
We are delighted to invite two special guests, Brianna and Donna, to share their insights, helping to unfold the pivotal sermon text from Acts 18:1-11. In this enlightening conversation, we explore how God’s unconditional sovereignty shapes our lives and nurtures our communities, and the vital importance of establishing a strong, faith-centered relationship with God. Central to our dialogue is the premise that God's purpose is to enable the Gospel to reach all, through proclamation and baptism, leading to personal transformation and the joyous sharing of faith.
Join us in exploring how to contextualize the Gospel to resonate with diverse individuals and their unique circumstances. We delve into the immense role of the Sovereignty of God in forming connections, crafting new religious understandings, and notably, in spreading the Gospel mission.
In this compelling episode, we face the profound reality that no one can independently reach God through self-made efforts or merits, but God instead chose to come to us through Jesus Christ. We examine cultural differences, universal truths and a deep dive into the powerful symbolism of baptism. We also reflect on the promise of suffering in this lifetime, and how faith and acceptance of Christ shape our identity and purpose in life.
Closing this episode, we encourage those yet to know Christ to accept him as their Savior and spread the good news, thus, building a strong community of faith. We aspire that this podcast episode ignites your spirit, deepens your understanding of Christ's immense love, and draws you closer to harmony with Him.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of the Post-Sermon Reflection Podcast,
where we want to help you apply Sunday morning learning into Monday morning
living to live on gospel mission and connect others to the love of Jesus.
I am here. We're going to have a little bit of a short podcast.
We had a short sermon today.
We're in the series, The Body, and we're going to talk about the body growing.
We had, oh man, eight baptisms today and a record 50 since COVID, which is insane.
(00:25):
Since our transition, we have seen God work in miraculous ways,
but we're going to talk a little bit about the body growing.
I am joined by a dear friend, actually two great dear friends,
Brianna and Donna, and we're just going to talk, we're going to dive right in.
Can you hit us with what the text was, Donna?
Yeah, it was Acts 18, 1 to 11, and it is talking about when Paul had,
(00:46):
by the sovereignty of God.
He had moved about. He went from Athens to Corinth.
He found this guy named Aquila. And Aquila, originally from Pontus,
ends up in Rome, then by the sovereignty of God, ends up also in Corinth.
There they meet together.
And so Pastor Brennan really stressed the sovereignty of God in that and in
(01:08):
ordaining this wonderful meeting. He meets them.
He stays with them. And Paul does Paul does what Paul does. He goes and he preaches
the gospel. He preaches it to everybody with a pair of ears on their heads.
Whether he's in the synagogue, whether he's in the marketplace,
he's out there preaching the gospel.
And the Lord came to him in a vision and said, do not be afraid,
(01:28):
but go on speaking and do not be silent for I am with you and no one will attack you to harm you.
For I have many in this city who are my people. And the point was that there
are people there who are not yet God's people.
And Jesus is telling Paul, preach the gospel because he's going to use Paul
and he'll use us to reach people who are not yet his people,
but who are going to be his people.
(01:49):
And so that those people that Paul preached to, they believed and they were
baptized and thus added to the church.
And so this is how the body grows, the proclaiming of the gospel.
People believe the Lord does a work in people's hearts.
They come to saving faith. And then you know what? Then they tell people and
they tell people. And here we are 2000 years later.
(02:10):
Yeah. Same message. Go tell people and believe and be baptized.
Yeah. I make this joke, whether it's funny or not, that the church was the first
best multi-level marketing in that like you're recognizing multi-level marketing
is when one person has a business and other people, it's like a pyramid scheme.
And my dad got saved in one. So I have a fondness to the reality of them.
(02:33):
I smell Amway. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was an Amway.
But I say all that to say of the reality is that God works. Plan A is you telling.
And he could have used angels. He could have used visions. And he does sometimes.
But his normative way of growing the body is us being proclaimers of the gospel.
And yeah can i just say and i think it's important
(02:55):
here to say this that it is the proclamation of the
gospel okay so a lot of times we've all
heard the saying preach the gospel when necessary
use words it excuse me it's always necessary the gospel is yeah how will they
know if you have not preached there it is there it is so god used words to we
are too as well as yeah yeah do what he did he can't improve on god's plan yeah
(03:18):
and it doesn't mean we take a bat we beat it we we We are strong-arming people,
but it's reality to say, hey, you need to tell them that they need Christ and
that Christ is the answer to every single one of their problems,
but their largest problem, which is that they are in need of God.
Without him, they'll be eternally damned, forever separated.
And that is tough to swallow.
And so I'd love to hear, Brianna, what stuck out to you today from this sermon?
(03:41):
Yeah, I really liked how Pastor Brennan broke down the fact that Paul,
you know, he went and he preached to Jews in a synagogue, but then he also went
to like the marketplace too.
And just the reality of like, he uses this phrase that the gospel is so big
that it was able to like reach everybody.
And just like this reality of like contextualizing the gospel and like how,
(04:01):
you know, the way that I speak to somebody who grew up going to church but doesn't
believe in God versus someone who had 0% access to the Bible all their lives.
Like, I'm not going to preach a different gospel to them. No,
it's going to be the same gospel, but how I minister to them in a way that they
can understand it and like receive it is going to look different.
Yeah, that really stuck out to me because I think sometimes.
I get stuck in a rut of just like relying on my own practices or my own ability
(04:26):
or what even hit my heart, which is, you know, it's not a bad thing.
Share your testimony, share how the Lord, you know, the gospel hits your heart.
But sometimes I can approach wanting to use my words and proclaiming the gospel
in a way, well, this is how it made sense to me.
So I try to like force it. It has to make sense to them this way.
Yeah. And that, if that's not what someone's biggest need is,
what my biggest need was when I came to know Christ, like that might not hit
(04:47):
them the same way. You know what I'm saying?
Yeah. It's like the gospel is so big that it can reach everybody where
they're at no matter where they're at yeah so that that really
like stuck out to me a lot that's so good i was i was sitting with
a volunteer we were going over our bible teaching for vbs
and one thing that cracks me up so we're going using a
vbs curriculum we call it kids adventure camp here at our church
and i was like man like as
(05:09):
someone who likes to see what's happening in the church climate
i'm fascinated by what they choose to cover and this one
is straight attacking post-modernity like it
is like the bible is truth like god is
real like that's what they're teaching why because the foundational truth
that kids used to assume they no longer assume how young life uses this phrase
(05:30):
it's about relationship not religion and i was listening to someone talk about
the difference in gen z they're like i don't think it's about relationship or
religion i think god's an idea and so we're having to start somewhere somewhere, totally different.
And that's where Paul is. Paul's in his context, recognizing,
hey, that contextualization, they're not starting saying, Jesus is the better Moses.
(05:50):
They're like, who's Moses and who gives a crap about him? Does that make sense?
Like we're dealing with totally different demographics.
And what you're saying is like, hey, someone may not be able to say,
you know how you knew that this was the right thing to do? They're like, no, I didn't know that.
I didn't grow up the same set of moral. I didn't grow up the same set of,
hey, structured life rules that you did or what your family talked about.
(06:11):
And I think that that's really interesting. Tom, what's your thoughts?
Yeah, well, like Pastor Brandon pointed out in Acts 17, you rewind just a little
bit and Paul is at the marketplace and he's seeing that there's all of these.
Different gods, statues, whatever it is, that there's all these things to these other gods.
And then just in case, I mean, they wanted to cover all their bases.
(06:33):
So they're like, and then there's this unknown God over here,
you know, and he was like, hey, there's his entry point.
There's the open door. And he's like, let me tell you about that God,
the one you don't know about.
He's the one. He's the one you're looking for. And so I think it's really important
what Brianna is saying about contextualizing the gospel, meeting people where
they are, and understanding that, you know, we need to speak their language,
(06:54):
but we don't preach reach a different gospel. And that is so important.
You don't water it down. You don't change the truth. You don't change the facts.
And Pastor Brennan, the one thing that stuck out to me was like when,
well, there was a lot, but I
mean, the sovereignty of God is something I could talk about all day long.
Yes, she can. I can. Get her stuck at a coffee shop. You're done.
You're there till closing.
You're there till closing.
(07:15):
But that we can't get to God, so God came to us.
That was the thing that really got me because it's like in Christ,
you guys were in harmony. I know. That was good. It was really pretty. Yeah.
That Jesus is the only suitable sacrifice.
And that exchange that took place on the cross, you know, we can't climb our
(07:35):
way there. We can't work our way there.
We can't be good enough on our own ever.
We cannot get to God. This is so, he is so otherly than we are.
And we need to grasp that. And it's okay.
Like we're all in the same, We tend to look around and look at other people
and be like, oh, well, my mess is worse than that person's or my sin is worse than that person's.
(07:56):
And the bottom line is we all fall short of God's glory and his perfection.
And the only way to get to him, the only way to access him, the only way that
when we get there and we stand before him and he looks at us and says,
yep, you're good, is because we have been bought by his son in that exchange
that happened on the cross.
We can't do it on our own. Nobody can. Nobody can. no matter how good they are.
(08:21):
That's so good. Yeah, and I think that's why looking at different cultures and
stuff, I know every culture has its own,
you know if you look around the world different set of like morals and
values but there is a set of like morals and values or the thing that you're trying
to find identity with or the thing that people come together around that
gives some sort of like life or satisfaction and stuff
like that and just this idea that the gospel is so big and jesus
(08:42):
had to come down like there's like things about i feel
like every culture that could you know be redeeming
and glorifying into the lord but there's there's ultimately things within every culture that
is like no like the gospel perfectly ministers to
that thing you know what i'm saying it's like that's good i i think
for me one thing is like the gospel isn't jesus isn't just
one option among many but like he is when he says he's the
(09:02):
way of the truth in life he is yeah yeah like he literally
had to come down we can't climb up that ladder and it's like what does
it look like what is every culture doing that's trying to climb up the ladder
you know what i'm saying without even realizing it because some cultures don't
even recognize god but there's still some ascent to something you know what
i'm saying so it's like how does the gospel like meet you right where you're
at yeah so yeah that's good yeah i I think that the beauty of like the beauty
(09:24):
of baptism is that we're saying.
Hey, it was me who was dead and it's me who's being made alive through Christ.
Like that's what Christ is. I'm dying with him and I'm arising with him in all
reality. And that is beautiful.
But being raised to newness of life. See, this is the thing.
When he came down to us, it wasn't to leave us the way that we were.
(09:46):
Our goal at that point upon salvation is to become more and more like him,
which we will be in perfection in glory.
But you know, until we get there, it doesn't mean we become God.
We become more as much like Christ as possible in glory.
But until then, we're working our way toward that. And that's growing in godliness and holiness.
(10:07):
But that first step, none of that can happen. You can do all the good stuff.
You can be a good person, quote unquote. quote, you can do all those things,
but the most terrifying verse in all of scripture, depart from me. I never knew you.
And these people are saying, didn't we do all these things in your name?
Prophesy in your name. I healed you. I cast demons out in your name.
Yes, but it's not, it's not enough. I never cast a demon out.
(10:28):
And I'm saying they did. I mean, but I'm just making it, you know,
not that's a wee wee like that's like some real spiritual fruit.
And God's like, I never knew you. I never knew you. Exactly. It is terrifying.
And so the point being, though, that there's, you know, this this idea of taking
that first step, which is a public profession of faith.
(10:50):
I believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life. He's the only way.
And he is the Lord of my life. He is my savior. He is my God. He is my King.
And I'm going to follow him the rest of my life. And that public profession
of that is that first step.
You can't skip over that step because you don't want to get wet in front of
people because you don't, whatever.
(11:11):
You can't skip over that step and ignore that act of obedience and just move
on to all the other stuff.
You got to take that first step. And the other thing I just really wanted to
before we wrap up that the blood bought promise of God that you go on speaking,
Paul, do not be silent. Yeah, I'm with you.
(11:31):
You know, there are things now we all know the end of Paul's spoiler alert.
Dead. The man lost his head. Dead, dead. Dead, dead.
He wasn't just mostly dead. All the way. He was all the way dead.
Dead and you know so there was harm that eventually ultimately came to him but
not until the fullness of time it was his time yeah so we're all it doesn't
(11:51):
mean you're not going to ever.
Suffer no we're going promised to suffer we are promised that we're going to
suffer but the idea that the lord is with you and when he has something for
you to do good golly molly get on it just yeah roll with it do it and and trust
him that you know that he's going to be with you through it he's He's going to be with you in it.
(12:12):
And when it's, when your time's up, your time's up, but you just stay faithful.
That's so good. So we receive Christ.
That's, that's, that's a reality. We accept, we accept that he is how we know
God and get to him. He, Jesus is everything.
And then from that reality, we recognize the only way that the body grows is through proclamation.
It's through the reality that, hey, I, the redeemed got to say so.
(12:36):
That's right. And I want to be one of the redeemed who stands up.
And so that is a, that's a joy. And this is going to be our wrap for today.
We have loved to chat with you for just this little bit. We just want to encourage you.
If you do not know Christ, that you would accept him as both your Lord and your
Savior. And then you tell somebody because you need people to walk alongside of you.
I mean, if you come to this church that you'd tell a leader or an elder or Pastor
(12:56):
Brennan or anyone who you believe emulates Christ, that you would tell them
so they can help walk alongside of you.
And if this podcast is an encouragement, we ask that you'd share it and that
you'd subscribe so you get a notification.
We thank you and we bless you, Brianna. You want to pray us out?
Sure, I can do that. Okay.
Lord Jesus, we just want to say thank you so much for coming down to us to bring us to yourself.
Thank you that, yeah, our relationship with you is initiated and made so by
(13:22):
what you have done for us, Lord, not what we've done for you.
So we just pray that everybody who came to church and just checking out this
podcast and whatnot, God, we just constantly just be so enamored with your gospel message.
God, it's not just for people that don't yet know you, but it continues to be
for us that do, Lord God, such that we can take steps of obedience,
and such that we can trust you and see the power of the gospel in the lives
(13:43):
of others as you fill us with your spirit to proclaim that good news to others, Lord God.
So help us as your body to be seeking out who else you're drawing in to be part
of your body, Lord God, and help us to remain faithful to growing godliness,
which is, you know, closeness to Christ and looking more like Jesus every day.
And then also help us to, you know, times when we do have suffering,
Lord God, to not suffer, Lord God, in such a way that we don't see you,
(14:07):
but to suffer in such a way that we do see you right with us.
So we just say thank you. We thank you for your word. And we pray that in Jesus' name. Amen.
Thank you guys. Such a joy always being with you. And yeah, we pray that you
are blessed in your coming and your going.
And you know that Christ is supreme over all things. Have an awesome rest of your day.
Welcome back to another episode of the Post-Sermon Reflection Podcast,
where we want to help you apply Sunday morning learning into Monday morning
living to live on gospel mission and connect others to the love of Jesus.
I am here. We're going to have a little bit of a short podcast.
We had a short sermon today.
We're in the series, The Body, and we're going to talk about the body growing.
We had, oh man, eight baptisms today and a record 50 since COVID, which is insane.
(00:25):
Since our transition, we have seen God work in miraculous ways,
but we're going to talk a little bit about the body growing.
I am joined by a dear friend, actually two great dear friends,
Brianna and Donna, and we're just going to talk, we're going to dive right in.
Can you hit us with what the text was, Donna?
Yeah, it was Acts 18, 1 to 11, and it is talking about when Paul had,
(00:46):
by the sovereignty of God.
He had moved about. He went from Athens to Corinth.
He found this guy named Aquila. And Aquila, originally from Pontus,
ends up in Rome, then by the sovereignty of God, ends up also in Corinth.
There they meet together.
And so Pastor Brennan really stressed the sovereignty of God in that and in
(01:08):
ordaining this wonderful meeting. He meets them.
He stays with them. And Paul does Paul does what Paul does. He goes and he preaches
the gospel. He preaches it to everybody with a pair of ears on their heads.
Whether he's in the synagogue, whether he's in the marketplace,
he's out there preaching the gospel.
And the Lord came to him in a vision and said, do not be afraid,
(01:28):
but go on speaking and do not be silent for I am with you and no one will attack you to harm you.
For I have many in this city who are my people. And the point was that there
are people there who are not yet God's people.
And Jesus is telling Paul, preach the gospel because he's going to use Paul
and he'll use us to reach people who are not yet his people,
but who are going to be his people.
(01:49):
And so that those people that Paul preached to, they believed and they were
baptized and thus added to the church.
And so this is how the body grows, the proclaiming of the gospel.
People believe the Lord does a work in people's hearts.
They come to saving faith. And then you know what? Then they tell people and
they tell people. And here we are 2000 years later.
(02:10):
Yeah. Same message. Go tell people and believe and be baptized.
Yeah. I make this joke, whether it's funny or not, that the church was the first
best multi-level marketing in that like you're recognizing multi-level marketing
is when one person has a business and other people, it's like a pyramid scheme.
And my dad got saved in one. So I have a fondness to the reality of them.
(02:33):
I smell Amway. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was an Amway.
But I say all that to say of the reality is that God works. Plan A is you telling.
And he could have used angels. He could have used visions. And he does sometimes.
But his normative way of growing the body is us being proclaimers of the gospel.
And yeah can i just say and i think it's important
(02:55):
here to say this that it is the proclamation of the
gospel okay so a lot of times we've all
heard the saying preach the gospel when necessary
use words it excuse me it's always necessary the gospel is yeah how will they
know if you have not preached there it is there it is so god used words to we
are too as well as yeah yeah do what he did he can't improve on god's plan yeah
(03:18):
and it doesn't mean we take a bat we beat it we we We are strong-arming people,
but it's reality to say, hey, you need to tell them that they need Christ and
that Christ is the answer to every single one of their problems,
but their largest problem, which is that they are in need of God.
Without him, they'll be eternally damned, forever separated.
And that is tough to swallow.
And so I'd love to hear, Brianna, what stuck out to you today from this sermon?
(03:41):
Yeah, I really liked how Pastor Brennan broke down the fact that Paul,
you know, he went and he preached to Jews in a synagogue, but then he also went
to like the marketplace too.
And just the reality of like, he uses this phrase that the gospel is so big
that it was able to like reach everybody.
And just like this reality of like contextualizing the gospel and like how,
(04:01):
you know, the way that I speak to somebody who grew up going to church but doesn't
believe in God versus someone who had 0% access to the Bible all their lives.
Like, I'm not going to preach a different gospel to them. No,
it's going to be the same gospel, but how I minister to them in a way that they
can understand it and like receive it is going to look different.
Yeah, that really stuck out to me because I think sometimes.
I get stuck in a rut of just like relying on my own practices or my own ability
(04:26):
or what even hit my heart, which is, you know, it's not a bad thing.
Share your testimony, share how the Lord, you know, the gospel hits your heart.
But sometimes I can approach wanting to use my words and proclaiming the gospel
in a way, well, this is how it made sense to me.
So I try to like force it. It has to make sense to them this way.
Yeah. And that, if that's not what someone's biggest need is,
what my biggest need was when I came to know Christ, like that might not hit
(04:47):
them the same way. You know what I'm saying?
Yeah. It's like the gospel is so big that it can reach everybody where
they're at no matter where they're at yeah so that that really
like stuck out to me a lot that's so good i was i was sitting with
a volunteer we were going over our bible teaching for vbs
and one thing that cracks me up so we're going using a
vbs curriculum we call it kids adventure camp here at our church
and i was like man like as
(05:09):
someone who likes to see what's happening in the church climate
i'm fascinated by what they choose to cover and this one
is straight attacking post-modernity like it
is like the bible is truth like god is
real like that's what they're teaching why because the foundational truth
that kids used to assume they no longer assume how young life uses this phrase
(05:30):
it's about relationship not religion and i was listening to someone talk about
the difference in gen z they're like i don't think it's about relationship or
religion i think god's an idea and so we're having to start somewhere somewhere, totally different.
And that's where Paul is. Paul's in his context, recognizing,
hey, that contextualization, they're not starting saying, Jesus is the better Moses.
(05:50):
They're like, who's Moses and who gives a crap about him? Does that make sense?
Like we're dealing with totally different demographics.
And what you're saying is like, hey, someone may not be able to say,
you know how you knew that this was the right thing to do? They're like, no, I didn't know that.
I didn't grow up the same set of moral. I didn't grow up the same set of,
hey, structured life rules that you did or what your family talked about.
(06:11):
And I think that that's really interesting. Tom, what's your thoughts?
Yeah, well, like Pastor Brandon pointed out in Acts 17, you rewind just a little
bit and Paul is at the marketplace and he's seeing that there's all of these.
Different gods, statues, whatever it is, that there's all these things to these other gods.
And then just in case, I mean, they wanted to cover all their bases.
(06:33):
So they're like, and then there's this unknown God over here,
you know, and he was like, hey, there's his entry point.
There's the open door. And he's like, let me tell you about that God,
the one you don't know about.
He's the one. He's the one you're looking for. And so I think it's really important
what Brianna is saying about contextualizing the gospel, meeting people where
they are, and understanding that, you know, we need to speak their language,
(06:54):
but we don't preach reach a different gospel. And that is so important.
You don't water it down. You don't change the truth. You don't change the facts.
And Pastor Brennan, the one thing that stuck out to me was like when,
well, there was a lot, but I
mean, the sovereignty of God is something I could talk about all day long.
Yes, she can. I can. Get her stuck at a coffee shop. You're done.
You're there till closing.
You're there till closing.
(07:15):
But that we can't get to God, so God came to us.
That was the thing that really got me because it's like in Christ,
you guys were in harmony. I know. That was good. It was really pretty. Yeah.
That Jesus is the only suitable sacrifice.
And that exchange that took place on the cross, you know, we can't climb our
(07:35):
way there. We can't work our way there.
We can't be good enough on our own ever.
We cannot get to God. This is so, he is so otherly than we are.
And we need to grasp that. And it's okay.
Like we're all in the same, We tend to look around and look at other people
and be like, oh, well, my mess is worse than that person's or my sin is worse than that person's.
(07:56):
And the bottom line is we all fall short of God's glory and his perfection.
And the only way to get to him, the only way to access him, the only way that
when we get there and we stand before him and he looks at us and says,
yep, you're good, is because we have been bought by his son in that exchange
that happened on the cross.
We can't do it on our own. Nobody can. Nobody can. no matter how good they are.
(08:21):
That's so good. Yeah, and I think that's why looking at different cultures and
stuff, I know every culture has its own,
you know if you look around the world different set of like morals and
values but there is a set of like morals and values or the thing that you're trying
to find identity with or the thing that people come together around that
gives some sort of like life or satisfaction and stuff
like that and just this idea that the gospel is so big and jesus
(08:42):
had to come down like there's like things about i feel
like every culture that could you know be redeeming
and glorifying into the lord but there's there's ultimately things within every culture that
is like no like the gospel perfectly ministers to
that thing you know what i'm saying it's like that's good i i think
for me one thing is like the gospel isn't jesus isn't just
one option among many but like he is when he says he's the
(09:02):
way of the truth in life he is yeah yeah like he literally
had to come down we can't climb up that ladder and it's like what does
it look like what is every culture doing that's trying to climb up the ladder
you know what i'm saying without even realizing it because some cultures don't
even recognize god but there's still some ascent to something you know what
i'm saying so it's like how does the gospel like meet you right where you're
at yeah so yeah that's good yeah i I think that the beauty of like the beauty
(09:24):
of baptism is that we're saying.
Hey, it was me who was dead and it's me who's being made alive through Christ.
Like that's what Christ is. I'm dying with him and I'm arising with him in all
reality. And that is beautiful.
But being raised to newness of life. See, this is the thing.
When he came down to us, it wasn't to leave us the way that we were.
(09:46):
Our goal at that point upon salvation is to become more and more like him,
which we will be in perfection in glory.
But you know, until we get there, it doesn't mean we become God.
We become more as much like Christ as possible in glory.
But until then, we're working our way toward that. And that's growing in godliness and holiness.
(10:07):
But that first step, none of that can happen. You can do all the good stuff.
You can be a good person, quote unquote. quote, you can do all those things,
but the most terrifying verse in all of scripture, depart from me. I never knew you.
And these people are saying, didn't we do all these things in your name?
Prophesy in your name. I healed you. I cast demons out in your name.
Yes, but it's not, it's not enough. I never cast a demon out.
(10:28):
And I'm saying they did. I mean, but I'm just making it, you know,
not that's a wee wee like that's like some real spiritual fruit.
And God's like, I never knew you. I never knew you. Exactly. It is terrifying.
And so the point being, though, that there's, you know, this this idea of taking
that first step, which is a public profession of faith.
(10:50):
I believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life. He's the only way.
And he is the Lord of my life. He is my savior. He is my God. He is my King.
And I'm going to follow him the rest of my life. And that public profession
of that is that first step.
You can't skip over that step because you don't want to get wet in front of
people because you don't, whatever.
(11:11):
You can't skip over that step and ignore that act of obedience and just move
on to all the other stuff.
You got to take that first step. And the other thing I just really wanted to
before we wrap up that the blood bought promise of God that you go on speaking,
Paul, do not be silent. Yeah, I'm with you.
(11:31):
You know, there are things now we all know the end of Paul's spoiler alert.
Dead. The man lost his head. Dead, dead. Dead, dead.
He wasn't just mostly dead. All the way. He was all the way dead.
Dead and you know so there was harm that eventually ultimately came to him but
not until the fullness of time it was his time yeah so we're all it doesn't
(11:51):
mean you're not going to ever.
Suffer no we're going promised to suffer we are promised that we're going to
suffer but the idea that the lord is with you and when he has something for
you to do good golly molly get on it just yeah roll with it do it and and trust
him that you know that he's going to be with you through it he's He's going to be with you in it.
(12:12):
And when it's, when your time's up, your time's up, but you just stay faithful.
That's so good. So we receive Christ.
That's, that's, that's a reality. We accept, we accept that he is how we know
God and get to him. He, Jesus is everything.
And then from that reality, we recognize the only way that the body grows is through proclamation.
It's through the reality that, hey, I, the redeemed got to say so.
(12:36):
That's right. And I want to be one of the redeemed who stands up.
And so that is a, that's a joy. And this is going to be our wrap for today.
We have loved to chat with you for just this little bit. We just want to encourage you.
If you do not know Christ, that you would accept him as both your Lord and your
Savior. And then you tell somebody because you need people to walk alongside of you.
I mean, if you come to this church that you'd tell a leader or an elder or Pastor
(12:56):
Brennan or anyone who you believe emulates Christ, that you would tell them
so they can help walk alongside of you.
And if this podcast is an encouragement, we ask that you'd share it and that
you'd subscribe so you get a notification.
We thank you and we bless you, Brianna. You want to pray us out?
Sure, I can do that. Okay.
Lord Jesus, we just want to say thank you so much for coming down to us to bring us to yourself.
Thank you that, yeah, our relationship with you is initiated and made so by
(13:22):
what you have done for us, Lord, not what we've done for you.
So we just pray that everybody who came to church and just checking out this
podcast and whatnot, God, we just constantly just be so enamored with your gospel message.
God, it's not just for people that don't yet know you, but it continues to be
for us that do, Lord God, such that we can take steps of obedience,
and such that we can trust you and see the power of the gospel in the lives
(13:43):
of others as you fill us with your spirit to proclaim that good news to others, Lord God.
So help us as your body to be seeking out who else you're drawing in to be part
of your body, Lord God, and help us to remain faithful to growing godliness,
which is, you know, closeness to Christ and looking more like Jesus every day.
And then also help us to, you know, times when we do have suffering,
Lord God, to not suffer, Lord God, in such a way that we don't see you,
(14:07):
but to suffer in such a way that we do see you right with us.
So we just say thank you. We thank you for your word. And we pray that in Jesus' name. Amen.
Thank you guys. Such a joy always being with you. And yeah, we pray that you
are blessed in your coming and your going.
And you know that Christ is supreme over all things. Have an awesome rest of your day.
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