Today is a special day. So one time a year, we do something called an all call baptism. And so out in our prayer garden we are gonna baptize people. We baptize people after our eight o’clock service and after our nine o’clock service. And then we will baptize people after this service. And so at the end of service, what’s gonna happen is we’re gonna do something we only do once a year. If you grew up and you ever went to a Billy Graham crusade or you saw Billy Graham, then, then this is familiar. If you didn’t go to that, then you’re gonna be like, this is the weirdest thing in the world. And that’s, that is I’m gonna give you an opportunity to respond to an invitation. So we’re gonna play a song at the very end and it’ll give you a chance to stand up and walk down if you want to respond to that, that decision.

And really, you’re gonna have an opportunity to de respond, respond to two things. One is gonna be the gospel. So if you’re not a Christian and you’d like to become one today, we’ll have an opportunity to stand up and walk down and do that. Or if you’re in here and you are a Christian, but you’ve never been baptized you’ll get an opportunity to stand down and stand up, walk down and get baptized after this service. And so here’s what we’re gonna do to kick off a little bit different is if you could bow your head and close your eyes, and I’m gonna ask you to pray this prayer quietly. But to God say this prayer and just say, dear God, speak to me in a real way today and help me to listen. And Lord, that is our prayer. Lord, our prayer is that you would speak, help me get outta the way.

Do a great work in hearts and lives is the name of Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. There’s a big question that everyone has to wrestle with. You wrestle with this question whether you grew up in the church whether you left the church, whether you did not grow up in the church, and you’re just curious. And it is the question of who is Jesus? He’s too big of a historical figure to never wrestle with who he is. So much of our culture, our society, our world has been transformed by one person, one individual who lived 2000 years ago. And, and so anybody at some point has to wrestle with this idea of so who is he? And there’s lots of different answers. And some people would say that Jesus was just a really good teacher who wasn’t God, but he taught really well.

And because of that, his teachings are still around 2000 years later, some people would say that he’s a crazy person. He claimed to be God and he didn’t know what he was talking about. And then you’ve got places like here, cherry Hills Community Church, that we believe that Jesus was God and that he really did live a perfect life, a sinless life, and he really did die on the cross for our sins. And he really did raise from the dead and offers us salvation. But all of us have to wrestle with that question, who is Jesus? It can be confusing sometimes. I I saw a social media post not too long ago. Maria posts this long day. Jesus makes things so hard on me. And so someone responded really nice. Beth says, doesn’t he, but it’s for the best. Just keep him in your heart and keep praying, girl, it will get better.

Jesus works in mysterious ways. It’s really nice. And then Maria responds to that and she says, Hey, is my 14-year-old son <laugh>? He was suspended from school for punching a janitor. Again, <laugh>, it means something very different when Maria gives that context, doesn’t it? And so part of the question we’ve gotta ask ourselves is, are we talking about the same Jesus? See, one of the things that Jesus did 2000 years ago is he pushed back against what the religious leaders at that time believed and practiced. And so in the first century, and probably you’d find this in a lot of churches today, the first century, there’s this idea that if you behaved the right way, and then that would give you access into that area of worship, which could help you to believe, and then as a result of these two things, you could belong. But in order to belong to that place, you, you really had to behave first.

And so that was true for the Pharisees and the temple in the first century. But I would say that that’s true in a lot of churches now in the Capital C Church across the world, this idea that, well, if you wanna come in and belong to us first, we’re gonna need you to clean up some of that junk in your life. But first, we’re gonna need you to behave in certain ways and look a certain way before you can belong and be apart. But Jesus, he flips that upside down and over and over and over again. Here’s what we see from Jesus, that Jesus says, no, first I’m gonna let you belong. That Jesus is hanging out with sinners and Jesus is hanging out with people that were not righteous. Jesus, hanging out with people that were not godly. And then as a result of Jesus hanging out with them and letting them know that they could belong.

What what happened is by spending time with Jesus, they began to believe. And can I just challenge you with that? Maybe you’re in here and you’re not a Christian, that maybe you’re a skeptic or, or an atheist or agnostic, that if you’ll give Jesus a chance, hang out with Jesus enough, hang around people that love, truly love Jesus enough, and it will cause you to say, oh, wow, I, I really do believe. And the Holy Spirit will get ahold of your life in a powerful way. And as a result of that belief, then you see behavior and then you don’t have to behave First behavior is a result, a result of the believing. If you’ve got a Bible, turn with me to Luke chapter 19, Luke chapter 19. If you don’t have a Bible, we can follow along on the Cherry Hills mobile app, but we’ll also obviously have it on the screen as well.

Luke chapter 19, starting in verse one. Here’s what it says. Talking about Jesus, he entered Jericho and was passing through and behold there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. Now, if you grew up in the church, you know this name Zacchaeus. And if you grew up in the church, you remember a song about Zacchaeus who was a little man, an elite. We little man was he. And that’s why we tell it to kids because it’s kind of a funny story and it’s got a cool song to it. But right off the bat, it gives us really important context. It tells us that he was a chief tax collector and was rich. So two things about that. It’s interesting in, in the Greek here when it says chief tax collector we translate this word chief because we don’t really know what it means in the Greek, it’s only used one time in the New Testament and in ancient manuscripts we just don’t see this word used a lot.

But we know that he was a tax collector and we know he had some type of a title. And so that’s why we just assume he was some type of a chief tax collector, like a important tax collector. And so in the first century, if you were a tax collector, everybody hated you. And if you are an IRS agent, I just want to apologize because when you come to church, we always talk about tax collectors in this really terrible way. But it’s not the same. So not the same at all. In the first century, a tax collector was seen as just a terrible and awful person. And it’s because the way that they made their money was kind of terrible and awful. Zacchaeus is a Hebrew name. So Zacchaeus was a Jew and he worked for Rome. So one strike against him already that people didn’t like because they saw Rome as the oppressors.

So he works for Rome and he’s so good at his job that he’s become not just a regular tax collector, but some kind of a chiefs tax collector, some kind of a titled tax collector. So he’s really good at giving Rome the taxes that they’re declaring that he has to receive. But the reason that people didn’t like tax collectors is because tax collectors made their money off of saying whatever the baseline that Rome expected. So if Rome said we want you to get a hundred dollars from this person, the tax collector made their money on anything above and beyond that that they charged. So that tax collector, if they charged $125 and they kept that $25 or if they charged 150 or $200. So they really made their money off of fraud telling people that they owed more money than they owed. But, but the second really important thing that tells us about Zacchaeus is not just that he was good as a tax collector, but he was rich, which means what?

It means that he was frauding a lot of people. So you wanna talk about someone who was unpopular at the time, it was Zacchaeus. Now to help us understand just how poorly people saw tax collectors, look what it says in Matthew chapter 21, verse 31, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, the righteous religious teachers. And Jesus says to them, truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. And so understand what he’s saying. He said, you see yourself as righteous. You see yourself as getting into the kingdom of God because of your behavior. And Jesus says, but I’m telling you. And then he, he takes what culture at that time would’ve seen as the worst sinners in all of culture. And one of those is tax collectors. So tax collectors are seen as the lowest of the low in the first century.

And Zacchaeus is who the story is about. Let’s keep going. It says, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus and he was a chief tax collector and was rich, and he was seeking to see who Jesus was. If you’re somebody who’s got a Bible out and you underline or you highlight, that’s such a profound statement that he was seeking to see who Jesus was. That’s our first step, isn’t it? If you’re not a believer and you’re interested in Jesus, the first step is say, will I be willing to seek and see who Jesus is? And so Zacchaeus says a tax collector, but he’s heard rumors and stories. He’s heard people talking about this Jesus guy, and he says, okay, I, I’m willing to go seek and see who Jesus is, but on account of the crowd, he could not because he was small in stature.

Now, it it’s interesting because there’s, there’s a couple things that this teaches us. One is when it says that he was small in stature. That’s why we say that he was a wee little man in the Greek. That phrase for small could be either small in stature short, or it could be that he was young. Now the reason we always translate it as he was a wee little man, small is because if he was a chief tax collector, it’s unlikely that he was young, but we don’t actually know. So either he was young and happened to be a chief tax collector, so did really well for himself, or he was short and one of those two things. But for whatever reason, he could not get through the crowd to see Jesus. Jesus walking along the road and Zacchaeus is trying to get in into see and people won’t let him in.

Now, part of that is because of his stature, but part of that is because of what everybody thought of Zacchaeus. Just imagine in a normal cultural context that someone who is either short or young is trying to see and you’re way taller than that person, they probably would say, well, here you go ahead in front of me ’cause I can see over you. Like, you’d do that for a kid unless you’re just a terrible person. But otherwise you would let a kid in front of you if you can see easily over their head. But people wouldn’t do that for Zacchaeus. Why? ’cause they didn’t like Zacchaeus. It’s like he’s a tax collector. He’s a terrible person. So, so Zacchaeus is trying to scooch up and they’re just shoulder to shoulder like, no, no, thank you. Go, go ahead and get to the back.

And so what happens next is what makes this story famous? So he, oh, we gotta go back, it says, so he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him for, he was about to pass that way. And so Zacchaeus recognized, okay, Jesus, walking down this path, I’m gonna run ahead and I’m gonna climb up a tree so that I can see Jesus. ’cause People won’t let me in. Now, in the first century, a man to, to be dignified, there were certain things that they weren’t supposed to do. One is that a man wasn’t supposed to run that was considered childish. Children run around, men walk, they have dignity. But another thing that a man shouldn’t have done is climb a tree. Why? Because anything that was seen as a child’s activity, a man wouldn’t do it would be disrespectful for them.

Be undignified of them. Why would climbing a tree be considered undignified? Well, here’s an example is why. When’s the last time you climbed a tree? Probably everybody in here has climbed a tree. Probably most of us haven’t climbed a tree in 20 years. Why? Because kids climb trees. That’s just what you do. I’ve got a few trees in our backyard. Our kids climbing ’em all the time. 5-Year-Old always trying to go higher than she physically should go. We, we go out on a hike and, and we’re just walking on a hike and all of a sudden I turn around and my kid’s climbing a tree. I’m like, what are you doing? I just saw a tree, figured I’d climb it. I mean, might as well. I I went on a hike with my wife on Friday. At no point we had no kids, just us.

At no point were we like, you wanna climb a tree? A you see, I just got good branches. I feel like, like there, there’s not some desire I have in my life when I walk by a tree that says, I wonder if I could climb to the top of that. So kids just naturally, instinctively want to climb to the top of trees. Adults don’t. That’s not something we do as adults. If you are an adult in here that you climb trees, I just wanna say good for you. So no shame on that. But most of us don’t do a lot of tree climbing. So in order to climb the tree, what is that he is doing? He’s making himself look silly. He’s making himself look undignified, but it keeps on going. It says, when Jesus came to that place where Zacchaeus is up in the tree, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down for I must stay at your house today.

Now, there’s a couple of things that Jesus is telling Zacchaeus. He he’s saying that I’m gonna come have a meal at your house, but he is also saying, I’m gonna stay at your house, meaning overnight at your house. So talking about Zacchaeus, he hurried and came down and received him Jesus joyfully. And when they saw it talking about the crowds, they all grumbled saying He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. And just imagine if you are the crowds. And Jesus has this reputation as this godly man, this teacher that someone who is teaching these brilliant truths that we’ve never heard before. He’s engaging and they’re all following him. They’re pressing them. And then they see Jesus come talk to Zacchaeus, who’s up in a tree in this undignified act and they’re whispering to themselves. Does Jesus not know?

Don’t they know who this guy is? That kiss is a tax collector, not just a tax collector, he’s a rich tax collector, which means he’s terrible. He’s an awful person, that Jesus is hanging out with the sinner. And so there’s this disgust that is happening amongst the people that Jesus would not just have a conversation with the sinner, but he would go into the sinner’s home, that a tax collector was not allowed into the temple in the first century. They could pray at the temple, but they could not go inside the temple. Why? Because they were considered unclean. And for Jesus to go and break bread with a tax collector would make him unclean as well. And so people were just shocked by it. And then in the Greek there’s a time that passes between this phrase and this next one. So it sounds like if you read it in English you have them say he’s gone into the be the guest of a man who’s the sinner.

And then the very next verse goes on to say and Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. So if you read it in English, it sounds like Zs climbs down from the tree and says, I’m giving all my money away to the poor people. That’s not what happens. There, there’s amount of time that passes between Jesus talking to Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus coming down, and then this next part, we’re not exactly sure how much time but, but in the Greek, it’s more clear that there is a certain amount of time that passes. Most likely he comes down from the tree and he brings Jesus to his house and they at least have a meal. And then this explanation is either happening after that meal or possibly even the next morning after he spent hours and hours spending time and having conversation with Jesus.

But as a result of spending time with Jesus, as a result of that, we see a transformation. And he says it, Zacchaeus stands and he says to Jesus, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him today, salvation has come to this house since he also is the son of Abraham. For the son of man came to seek and to save the loss. If you’re someone who highlights or underlies, this is a good verse to memorize for the son of man talking about Jesus came to seek and to save the loss. There’s three really important things that happen right there. The first Jesus recognizes the transformation that’s happened in Zacchaeus life. And what does Jesus declare? Salvation. He says, you Zacchaeus have been saved. And so notice the order that Jesus welcomes Zacchaeus.

He enters into a relationship with Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus feels like he belongs with Jesus. Then somewhere in the conversation, Zacchaeus starts to believe, he puts his faith and his trust into Jesus. And the result of that faith and trust, the result of that belief is transformation. His action. He’s willing to give away the money that he had gained through fraud, give it away and change his actions. It’s interesting in the Greek, the way that that it talks about Z’s actions is not a one-time decision. It’s an active ongoing. That means that this isn’t just a, Hey, I’m gonna give the money away and it’s done. It means that this is something he’s gonna pursue for a long period of time, active and ongoing into the future. So Jesus recognizes that and says, today, salvation has come not because of everything you are going to do, but because of your faith in me and that transformation that’s happened.

Then Jesus says a phrase that for us, sounds a little weird. He says that you are a son of Abraham. And now Jesus, his whole ministry was to Jews, which means that everybody he was talking with was a son of Abraham. And so here’s what he was declaring to everybody. The disciples who heard the murmuring of the crowds, probably the disciples had some similar opinions of the crowds. Why are we having dinner with this guy? He’s a terrible person. And Jesus says, I want you to know that Zacchaeus is a son of Abraham. He’s saying he’s a son of God. And to put it in our context, it’s like Jesus was saying, Hey, this person who, who you are dishonoring, who is a sinner, who’s far from God, who’s filled with shame, he’s saying, this person is created in the image of God. They are my child.

And then Jesus gives us that last profound phrase where he says, the son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost. The Jesus purpose was to find those lost away from God and bring them back to God. And so if you wanna unpack the Zacchaeus story really quickly, here’s what happens. At first, Zacchaeus was seeking to see who Jesus was. He was also outcast. Now understand he was outcast. He didn’t just feel outcast. We all have moments where we feel outcast. We feel outta place. We feel awkward that you’re socially doing something that’s not what you’re supposed to do. If you ever showed up to an event and it was a really formal event and everybody was dressed really nice and you were not dressed nice enough, so in that moment you feel outcast, you kind of feel shamed, like, oh my goodness, they’re all wearing suits and I’m in a T-shirt.

Like this feels the same is true. If it’s the opposite, like you’re dressed really nice to the nines and the suit and tie and you show up and everybody else is in T-shirt and flip flops, then you feel awkward on the opposite side. Or sometimes you just feel awkward because of the situation. If you ever were in junior high and you went to a junior high dance, you felt outcast because everybody feels outcasts. It’s just awkward for everybody. But that is situational. It’s a moment you go home and you don’t feel that anymore. But Zacchaeus was outcast. It was his identity that everybody saw him and shunned him. When he would go over and try and have a conversation with his neighbors, his neighbors wouldn’t make eye contact. They would turn their back. When he would go to the temple, people didn’t wanna have anything to do with him when he was in the marketplace, people would avoid him intentionally.

He was outcast. He felt unworthy. He felt like he had no hope. But he was also willing to look silly. He climbed a tree. Sometimes we wanna fall after Jesus, but we, we’ve got some hesitation. We’ve got something that’s preventing us from doing that. And we have to be willing to look silly. Also, Jesus saw Jesus in Zacchaeus, and that’s profound. He didn’t just look through him. He didn’t just look past him. He says that he looked up at Zeiss, he saw him, he understood him. The author of Hebrews tells us that we have a God, a savior Jesus who understands our pain. The Jesus was holy God, but he was also holy human. And so the frustrations, the pains, the anxieties that we experience on this earth, Jesus understands those because he walked in our shoes. And so he saw Zacchaeus and and then you see this result that Zacchaeus was transformed.

You see, the order that we see Jesus engaged with Zacchaeus is that first he belongs. At first. Jesus wants Zacchaeus to know that I wanna have a relationship with you. I wanna hang out with you. I wanna have dinner with you. I wanna stay at your house. And so there was no expectation that, hey, you’ve gotta do these things in order to belong to me. No, Jesus says, no. Hey, you’re gonna belong because your son of Abraham, you’re created in my image. You have value. And then as a result of belonging, because that key is spent time with Jesus, it causes him to believe. He recognizes that what Jesus is saying is true, that there’s something different about him. And then as a result of that belief, we see that there’s a behavior change that he changes his life. He is transformed as a result of it.

Now, I think the challenge inside of churches is we tend to go to one extreme or the other. Either we go to this extreme where we say, well, you cannot belong until you believe and you behave. Once you do those things, then you’re allowed in our, our doors. But that’s not what Jesus did at all, that that’s what the Pharisees did. But Jesus said, no, come all who are weary and downtrodden. Jesus spends time with the marginalized and the sinners. Those that culture would’ve said are unworthy. Jesus says, I love you and I want to hang out with you. And then as a result of that, they believe and they behave. And the behavior part is important too. ’cause We can also go to this other extreme where we become a church that doesn’t have any expectations on behavior. And that’s not okay either. That if the Holy Spirit is working inside of our life, it means that our behavior should be changing.

That if I am a Christian, it means that every day I should be pursuing sanctification. That means that every day I’m doing my best to live a life more and more and more in accordance to the life that I see scripture laying out that God wants me to do. And if we never see any behavior change inside of our church, then that’s bad. And that means we don’t have the Holy Spirit changing lives and working on us. So we don’t wanna be a church that says, Hey, you can’t come and you can’t belong until you have behavior change. No, everybody should be welcome in. But as a result of being here and spending time with Jesus, the result of that should be transformation. We see that in Jesus’s ministry when he since spends time with people like Zacchaeus, their life changes. And you see a consistent thing we see in Jesus’s ministry is that Jesus had a heart for people far from him.

But the lie that sometimes we believe is that some of us are closer and some of us are further. That we are all born the same distance away, that apart from Jesus, no matter how righteous I am, no matter how good of a person I am, no matter how many elderly people I walk across the street, it does not get me closer to God. Now, scripture is really clear that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That’s Roman three twenty three, that we all are born in dissent and we’re born separated away from God. But the good news is, well, what Jesus tells us in Luke 1910, for the son of man came to seek and to save the loss, the purpose in Jesus coming for you and for me, for all of us that we’re born, separated away from God, right?

We’re born deserving death, Romans six twenty three, the wages of sin is death. And so Jesus comes and says, I I, my heart breaks for those far from God and he’s coming to seek us and to save us and bring us back into right standing relationship with God. Romans five, eight says, for God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were yet sinners, meaning while we were far off, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Okay? So that’s that action of saving, seeking and saving the loss. The Romans 10, nine says, confessor in your mouth that Jesus’ Lord believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved. That’s what Jesus came to do. But we’ve gotta understand that, that we don’t bring anything to the equation of salvation. You see, in the first century, the Pharisees that had this idea that, well, if I do enough good things, that that’s how I get into right staying a relationship with God. And Jesus is saying, no, no, no, you don’t understand. We are born so far away from God that there’s nothing we could ever

Do that gets us to God. We all start

The same difference. And it is infinite, but the only way to get into right standing relationship with God is not, not the part of me doing good things and having good behavior. No, it’s all

What Jesus did on the cross. I add nothing to salvation. It’s all what He did for me. But the result of that salvation, the result of me putting my faith and my trust in him leads to transformation, leads to a behavior change in who I am.

Look what Paul writes in Romans chapter six. He says, 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 for if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall be certainly united with him and a resurrection like his.

That’s, that’s this picture of baptism. The picture of the baptism is my old self is dead and gone. And now I have brand new life. I a new creation in Jesus. And lemme tell you a secret about the water that we use when we baptize. There’s nothing special about it. It comes from a hose that is the closest hose out there to the giant bucket. We put it in like it is not magic water. It’s not sacred water. It is not holy water. We, we don’t put any oil in it. There there’s no essential oils that we sprinkle that make it special like it is bathtub water. That’s all it is. That the act of baptism is not the thing that saves. but Baptism is a symbol to demonstrate, to represent on the outside the salvation that God has brought on the inside. That when I put my faith and my trust into Jesus, what is it proclaiming? It’s proclaiming that my old way is dead and gone and just as Jesus rose from the dead in the same way, when I put my faith in trust into Jesus, I have new life. My old is hone, my new has come. That’s what we see in Zacchaeus. His old way of life was dead and gone. He was a new creation. And when we get baptized, we’re proclaiming that to the world. The truth of what Jesus has done in us, which ultimately leads to this question, the very first question that we started with is, who is Jesus? But not just who is Jesus? Make it personal. Who is Jesus to you? Who is Jesus to me? Have I truly put my faith and my trust into him?

Here’s what we’re gonna do in a moment is I’m gonna pray and as soon as I say amen, we’re gonna sing a song. And during that song, we’re gonna have a time of invitation so you can stand up and walk down. And so there’s two opportunities to respond. One would be you’re in the room and you’ve never put your faith and trust in Jesus. You’re not a Christian. You’d say, I’d like today to like z Zacchaeus put my faith, my trust, my belief into who Jesus is. And so during the song, you stand up and walk down, I’ll be down front. I’ll shake your hand, I’ll give you a T-shirt. Maybe you’re in the room and you are a Christian, but you’ve never been baptized. If you are a Christian and you’ve never been baptized, then today’s an opportunity for you to stand up during the song and say, Hey, I wanna follow after Jesus.

And believers baptism. I wanna stand up and walk down and say, Hey, I want to participate. I wanna do that. And now I know there’s lots of excuses as to why that’s not a good fit. So you might say, well, hey, I didn’t come with clothes. Here’s the good news. We got all the clothes that you need. You’re gonna get a a t-shirt. It looks just like the one I got on. But we also have shorts and all kinds of different sizes that we got in the atrium that we’ll give to you. They also told me before I walked in, they said, we also have undergarments. I’m not gonna raise those up, but we also have undergarments. You say, I don’t have a towel. We’re gonna give you the towel. There’s no reason if you are a Christian and have never been baptized to not do that.

When we baptize the pastor raises their hand. I say in imitation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and an obedience to his divine command, an imitation of our Lord and Savior Jesus. We’re quoting from Matthew chapter three that Jesus got baptized and part of the reason that we get baptized is because we’re imitating him. And then the second part says, in obedience to his divine command, he told us in the great commission that we should get baptized, go therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so the first reasons is because we, we imitate Jesus and we’re being obedient to Jesus. And then when we actually baptized, we say, I baptized you, my brother or my sister we’re saying your name. In the name of the Father of the Son and the Holy Spirit.

That’s exactly what Jesus says in the great commission. We say, bury with Christ into death. Raise to walk in newness of life, which is exactly what Romans chapter six says. There’s a lot of times in life where I’m not certain if I’m doing exactly what God wants me to do, like I’m praying about it and I’m thinking, should I do this? Should I do that? But most of the time you’re not really certain. Here. Here’s what I know is if you are a Christian and you’ve never been baptized, I can promise you God’s will for your life is to get baptized. ’cause The Bible tells us. So there’s a lot of times we’re not sure, we’re not certain, but if, if you are a Christian that’s never been baptized, the moment you get baptized, you can be a hundred percent certain you are in the center of God’s will because you’re obeying what Jesus told us to do.

Just like we see Zacchaeus, that faith turns into action As a Christian, if we’ve not been baptized, put that faith into action. Say, I’m gonna proclaim to the world the gospel that I was dead and now I have new life. And so I’m gonna pray a prayer. As soon as I say Amen, they’re gonna launch into a song of worship end during that song as God leads. If you’d like to give your heart to Jesus, put your faith in Jesus. Are you in here? And you would like to get baptized today? And as God leads, you simply stand, walk on down. We’ll gladly welcome you. Heavenly Father, we give you this time. I pray that you through the power of your Holy Spirit would work on people’s hearts right now in this room. And for any who don’t know you, that today can be the day that they respond for any who have not been baptized, that are Christians, that today can be the day that they fall after you. In obedience, we give you this time, you move in a powerful way. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.