Fueled by Worship

Well, amen. Amen. U I um I pray that that uh blessed you and that you will um consider that we uh also have very special guests with us this morning who get to do this because of the heart of Cross Church to be a movement of multiplying churches. And Pastor Jav and his family are with us this morning. We're going to invite them up real quick to share a few words. invite uh welcome pastor Jav and his family brother want to share a few words. >> Yeah. >> Good morning. >> Everybody can hear me. Yeah. >> Well, I got a couple minutes. I wanted 30 minutes, but pastor gave me 2 minutes. Um there's just so much to share. Uh first off, I don't want to stand and cover my my beautiful wife. She's better looking than me. But um this is my wife. Her name is Taye. That's my daughter Isa. my daughter Alyssa and our baby Ellie. I know she's not a baby, but she's our baby. She's our youngest. Uh but um yeah, so we're going to be planning I de la Cruz, which I believe most of you have been hearing about that. Uh we are going to be in Elmarrage. Uh I de la Cruz, if you don't know, it's cross church but in Spanish. So that's de la Cruz. Uh just I just want to share what God has been doing uh to get us ready for that. Uh two years ago uh Elmarrage campus was launched and we were a part of the very first service. The Lord called us out from where we were. Uh we were very well there. We loved everybody there, but the Lord was stirring something in our heart to that we needed to step out. And it was a really hard decision for us, but we stepped out. And my goal to come to Cross Church was I'm going to sit I'm going to not engage too much. I'm just going to sit in the back. Um, we've planted a church before and we didn't want to share that. I didn't want to share I was in leadership. I just wanted to go to cross church, sit and kind of just hear, right? But God had other plans and God said no. Uh he called me to plant eglesia de la Cruz. Uh I fought him a little bit argued but we can't never win with God, right? And so um I did uh we went through the whole process getting ordained through cross church through and so God called us there and we didn't have a worship team. We were like what are we going to do? You know we have everything but a worship team. And we prayed and prayed and prayed and God answered. And uh even one of your guys' members here, uh Kevin and his wife, uh he is singing part of our worship team. He sings, my daughter sings, my other daughter plays bass. Uh she's learning uh piano. Uh so we're getting ready, but the Lord has provided the whole entire way, right? And um we're just so blessed to be a part of that. Uh, and we're excited about it. We've had preview service. We've gotten really good response from the people around in the city of Almarrage. And so, our official launch date is going to be April 12th. So, please be praying for that. April 12th is our official launch date. And we're going to have regular services after that. And so, we just ask that you guys join us and uh that God will raise up people that are willing to go. You know, that's the name of the series. go. And that's what God is calling us to do. I wanted to come to church, sit down, and do nothing and just get what God had for me. But God calls us to go, right? And so I just want you guys to be praying for us, for my family, and for what God is going to do at Eglesia de la Cruz and Elmarrage. >> Amen. Amen. Thank you, brother, for sharing. Uh if you would just where your uh where you're seated, if you would just extend your hand out, we're going to pray for them as they go April 12th. Keep that in mind and keep them in prayer as they launch Sunday, April 12th at Glacia de la Cruz. Let's pray. Father, we thank you. We thank you for your grace and mercy that you use broken people for your glory and you raise up people to go where you've called them to go and to preach the gospel to share the gospel to exalt Christ to make Jesus known everywhere. And we get to do this and your word says every tribe, tongue and nation. And we get to do this um through Eglacia de la Cruz and Elmarrage. This is fantastic. What an opportunity, God. And we pray, we pray, God, that you would grant them grace, mercy, wisdom, discernment, patience, God, as they minister to those um to Spanish speaking uh folks in Elmari and maybe around town people you'll bring whoever you bring, God, that you would strengthen Pastor Javi and his wife Taye and their wonderful family to be a bright gospel light in the community of Elmarrage. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. >> Thank you guys. >> All right. And that's really all we're asking you to do right now in terms of the Let's Go initiative. You know, just pray. Please just be in prayer about it. I challenge you to pray about how God would lead you um to engage with Let's Go. And um during that video, if you got a one of the handouts and the commitment card, it just kind of gives you more information. And if you have any questions, you can always ask me. We've got some more. We've got that big setup out in the foyer where you can get more information if you'd like. But um don't don't fill out anything now. You know, like we're going we're going to preach now. Uh but we just want you to have that in your hand and pray over it. And um we will have a couple of options to turn those in. So we will have a commitment Sunday here on March 29th here at the end of March where we can bring forward our commitments just dedicate them to the Lord whatever that is. And uh also we will be having next Sunday March 8th so short notice but um all are invited to our surprise church. It's at 175th Avenue in Bell. But we're it's uh it's going to be a worship and prayer night where we can also uh bring our commitments to the Lord and just worship him and uh see what God does through uh the Let's Go initiative. The main goal, and I'm going to be hitting this hard pastorally, the main goal uh is 100% engagement from every person or family who calls Cross Church uh their home. Um and so I just whether it is zero to a little bit or whatever, however God leads you, um pray that you would respond to that. Um my heart's desire pastorally is that uh we would grow as disciples of Christ um through this journey. I want this to be the outcome of you seeking God, right? And asking him how you would respond to this. And uh God has been working in my own family as we pray about our engagement. What does this look like for the Matthews home? And I pray that you would do the same and join us. I personally I'm excited to be part of a church that is passionate about keeping gospel lights on in places where the gospel lights are fading out. And this is an incredible opportunity for us as Cross Church Phoenix specifically to continue to do what's already been done for us. you're sitting in a church where this has been done for. Um there were I think five or six churches before Cross Church came in um that opened and shut their doors. Opened, shut their doors cuz it's a difficult location. Just be honest, it's a tough neighborhood and so churches kept shutting down and Crossro Phoenix is now in its 10th year. Uh started in 2016. Yeah. Uh and so this could be, you know, bulldozed down and turned into an apartment complex, right? Um or it can be a gospel light. And the same thing's happening in Mayor. Uh handful of people left, the church has died. Either it shuts down or cross church can come in and help. And that's what we're doing in Mayor through uh Pastor Lyall Harrenstein and his family. And then now we get to plant a glacia de la Cruz in Elmari as well and see what God has for us in the future. So I want to encourage you to help us to continue this church planting um journey over the next couple years. And with that, I invite you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 28. Matthew chap 28, beginning at verse 16. And if you don't have a Bible, there there's one in the seat back in front of you, and that's our gift to you. You can have it. If you don't have one, you can keep it, mark it up, highlight it, make notes, bring it back next week as your Bible. Um, but we will be in Matthew 28 16 and 17 this morning. Um, if you're new to the Bible, Matthew is the first book in the New Testament. Matthew 28:16-20. That whole portion is uh commonly referred to as the great commission. It is Jesus marching orders for the disciples. And we're going to be in the great commission for the next four weeks looking at going, right? What God has called us to do to go make disciples not just in Jerusalem or in Judea or Samaria, but to the ends of the earth, right? go of all nations. And so we're going to be looking at the great commission from different angles as we go. And our series theme, which you'll hear over and over for me this uh for the whole month of March, basically is fulfilling the great commission one church at a time. Fulfilling the great commission, one church at a time. And this morning we're going to cover two verses. If you were with us in Nehemiah, we we just finished a series through the whole book of Nehemiah. We were covering like two chapters at a time, especially when we're it's like a lot of names and stuff. This week, we'd slow down a little bit, which I'm excited about, and do two verses, 16 and 17. But before, let's pray. Father, we come before you once more uh humbly before your throne of grace, asking for mercy and help in time of need. And we always need your help, God. God, I pray that you would give us um ears to hear what the spirit has to say to the church here at Cross Church Phoenix. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Well, I don't always do this, but I sometimes do this. Um and we we I'm going to ask you if you would if you're able to stand as we read the word of God uh together. Two verses. Um if I had to stand during all of like Nehemiah 11 and 12, it'd be like 45 minutes. But uh if you're able to, of course, uh if not, we honor God in our hearts ultimately. But I'm going to read Matthew 28:16-17, which says this. The 11 disciples traveled to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted. You may be seated. Thank you. Often times when the great commission is preached um verses 16 and 17 kind of get left out. Um we go straight to verses 18- 20 which is the command right that is where Jesus gives it ultimately but there is a lot to learn in the verses that come before. So if you have a a a handout there's if you don't have one there's some in the back. If you have one, you'll see this heading. Um, preerequisites to fulfilling the great commission. Prerequisites to fulfilling the great commission. And the first thing we see is this. Be both a present and obedient disciple of Christ. Be both a present and obedient disciple of Christ. Point number one. Half the battle for some folks is just showing up, right? Giving God's mission priority in their lives. As we see in verse 16, the 11 disciples traveled to Galilee where Jesus told them to go. It's a simple yet profound statement. Really a fulfillment of prophecy. Why Galilee? Well, Galilee is a very significant place for the disciples. If you remember, Jesus ministry began in Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is where Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James, and John. You remember what they were doing? Fishing, right? He called them out and said, "I will make you fishers of men." And he calls his other disciples. And if you think about it, if you can picture in your mind's eye, Galilee is basic basically northern Israel. And so Jesus starts his ministry up in Galilee. And really his whole ministry is kind of this long slow journey down to Jerusalem where he eventually makes his way. He does ministry here. He kind of makes his way he eventually as you know the the Palm Sunday which is coming up, right? And he rides in the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But it all started in Galilee. And if you remember when Jesus came to Jerusalem and things were starting to heat up, right, the heat is on. He's about to be arrested, murdered. Jesus is like causing all kinds of problems in a good way, right? In Jerusalem, he is just shaking things up and the plot to arrest him is coming and he is about to go to the cross. Jesus predicted this. It's in Matthew 26:31. He says then it says then Jesus said to them you will all fall away because of me this night for it is written I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered basically a fulfillment of Zachchariah this is going to happen strike the shepherd Jesus right I'm going to die go to the c y'all are going to scatter but he says this in verse 32 Matthew Matthew 26, but after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee. This is a glorious moment where Jesus is telling the disciples exactly precisely what's going to happen. I'm going to die. I'm going to rise. I'll meet you in Galilee. Imagine it. You have an appointment with the Messiah in Galilee after he dies. Do you ever schedule? Do you have an appointment on your calendar after your death? You go on your phone and look, you don't know. No, but Christ is saying that I will meet you in Galilee. This is huge, right? I'm going to rise from the dead. Meet me in Galilee. Do you remember Peter's reply? He made it all about himself, right? Even if everyone else falls away, I won't fall away. I am Peter. I will stick with you to the end, Lord. You can count on me. Right? Did you just hear what Jesus said? He said he's going to defeat death and hang out with you in Galilee. And yet all Peter could think about was how great he was, how strong he was, how loyal he would be. And yet, you remember what's going to happen in just a few hours? He will deny knowing Christ three times and run away scared for his life. He won't even tell a a little girl. He's he knows Jesus, right? A young woman. And if you think Peter was alone, think again. The scripture says all the disciples said the same thing. So Jes uh Peter is the spokesman amongst the 12 usually. Yes. Puts his foot in his mouth a lot. Um but he wasn't alone in this. All the disciples like, "Yep, me too. You can count me in. Put I'm with Peter. I ain't going anywhere, Lord. You can count on us. We'll be right there with you. And none of them will be. Right. Jesus says, "You guys are going to scatter. It's a fulfillment of prophecy. I'm going to die. I'll come alive again. I'll meet you in Galilee." The disciples, "Yeah, Lord, great. Um, but we're pretty awesome. You can totally trust us. We'll be there for you." and they will fail miserably. Right? Instead of reflecting on the truth that Christ will meet them after his death in Galilee, they made it about themselves. Jesus predicted his resurrection, scheduled a meeting, put it on the calendar with the disciples in Galilee. And although they messed up before they abandoned Christ at a crucial hour, Jesus in his grace and mercy and patience still desires to meet with them in Galilee. If you remember on resurrection morning, the women come, right? Where are the disciples? I don't know. Peter's gone fishing, right? If you read John's account, he's like, "I'm going fishing." Right? The women come and Jesus sees them and they see Christ and they fall down. And he says what? Fear not. Go and tell my brothers to leave for Galilee and they will see me there. And here we see they showed up. They obeyed and they came. Jesus will commission this group of disciples who despite their previous failures showed up out of obedience to Christ's command to meet with him. For some of us, the first step is being present, committing to make church a weekly priority, not a monthly one, not a Christmas and Easter one. The old CE Christians, right? a weekly priority to gather. It is biblical to gather. It is unbiblical disobedience to neglect to gather. It's not DJ's opinion. That is what God's word says. It's not like, well, if you're sick, you have to I'm not being legalistic about it, like you better be here 52 weeks of the year. You can't miss a Sunday, right? But the heart of it is a desire to make God's mission a priority and to do what he says which is to show up and be part of the body of Christ to do what he commands in the New Testament which is to gather together build each other up and go make disciples. If you call Christ your savior don't detach yourself from the body. I don't know and you know I won't get too graphic, right? I was a police officer before I was in ministry and um I don't know if you have experience, maybe you do with any kind of like severed body part, right? It gets kind of gross, right? If you have a severed hand or a severed foot or a severed ear left on its own, it's going to get worse, not better. and it's gonna start to stink. Why? Because it's detached from the body. Christ is the head of the body, right? And then we are the church. And he we have hands and feet. And Paul says, "The eye can't say to the foot, I don't need you." Or the hand can't say to the ear. I'm summarizing, right? I don't need you. We need each other. We function together. But if you say, "I'm going to I'm an ear, but I'm going to or I'm a mouth. I'm going to detach myself from the body." Um, good luck because you've detached yourself not just from the body, from the church, but who else have you detached yourself from? If Christ is the head, from Christ, right? Come be with the body of Christ. This is what we're doing right now. Show up to the gathering. And maybe you have been. Maybe you've been showing up in church, being around church, but you've been ignoring God's call on your life or ignoring God's commands. Christ doesn't save us just to give us a little bit of fire insurance so we can keep doing our own thing and ignore what he tells us to do. But how many of us live that way? Thank you, Lord, for my get out of hell free card. See you later. Check yourself. Right. It's difficult to fulfill the great commission to make disciples if you're not being a present and obedient disciple yourself. Right? Not only do we need to be present with a heart of obedience, but we need to number two be a worshipful disciple of Christ. A worshipful disciple of Christ. You see in verse 17, when they saw him, they worshiped. We will get to the doubt later. I'll address that. But regardless of that doubt, they worshiped. The Greek word for worship there is pros kunto. Pro kuneo. It literally means to prostrate yourself, to fall on your face, to have a right posture before God. This is a posture of submission and reverence. And I love that this passage closely ties obedience right to his command and to he ties obedience to worship because that is the heart of worship. Singing songs in church does not automatically make you a worshipper. We can honor God with our lips but have hearts far from him. So what is worship? What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word worship? For most of us, there might be varying answers, but for most of us, it might be what? Music, right? If someone tells you that the worship was awesome at such and such a church, most of the time what they're saying is what? The music was awesome. And while music is a form of worship, music is not the heart of worship. The heart of worship is obedience to God. You say, "Prove it, DJ." All right, cool. Thank you. When you do a topical study like worship, right? It is helpful for example uh it it is helpful to use a tool that's been called the quote unquote principle of first mention. All the principle of first mention means is that if you find the place where that topic is first mentioned in the Bible, it can help you understand that topic. And so you could say if we want to learn more about this being fueled by worship and what worship is, we go, okay, well, when is that first mentioned in the Bible anyway? It shows up in Genesis 22:5. And I can give you some of the context there. You can look at it later if you'd like. But what's going on in Genesis 22? God has instructed commanded Abraham to take his son, his only son. If you know the story, you're like, "Wait, he has Ishmael." Technically, he has two sons. But what does God say? The one son of promise, the one through Sarah. Take him, Isaac. Take your son, your only son, to Mount Mariah and do what? If you remember the story, sacrifice him. So Abraham, it says he gets up early in the morning. I like it. He didn't sleep in. He got up early, ready to obey God early. And he he's got he's him, Isaac get together. They've got wood. He has a little entourage like a few men. Um it says, and they go on a journey. And when they get to the point where they can see Mount Mariah off in the distance, we get to Genesis 22:5, which says this. Then Abraham said to his young men, so he's got a group there helping him, probably helping him transport stuff, stay here with the donkey, right? Stay with the donkey. I and the boy or the old King James, right? I and the lad I and the boy are going will go over there and worship and come again to you. Abraham is not pushing a piano up Mount Mariah. He is not slinging a guitar and strumming Chris Tomlin songs up the mountain with Isaac. What is he doing? obeying. It's exactly right. He's going to sacrifice Isaac in obedience to God's command. And that's what Abraham considers worship. And he's right. He's absolutely right. And it has nothing to do with music or cell phones, right? It has nothing to do with that stuff. But it has everything to do with it's on no worries. It has everything to do with what? Obedience to God's command. And know a level of obedience. I don't think you and I could imagine. But what did Abraham know? The promise of a son, Jacob, soon to be Jacob, right? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, was to come through Isaac. There's no other option. It has to be Isaac because God said so. If he sacrifices Isaac on Mount Mariah, because if you know the story, right, spoiler alert, God stops him. There's a ram and the thicked. They sacrifice the ram and they come down, right? But what if he did? What did Abraham believe? The New Testament commentary on the Old Testament, the New Testament has something to say about this situation in Genesis 22 with Abraham. It says that he believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead because it has to come through him. It can't go through Ishmael for other reasons. And it can't be like, "Well, sorry, killed Isaac. I'm have another kid give him an I name and then we'll have uh we'll have the promised seed go through him." Can't happen. If it's anyone but Isaac, God is not God because he's not fulfilling his promise. It has to be Isaac and Abraham knows it. So, he's willing to sacrifice him because he believes in his heart that God will raise him from the dead because the promise has to be Isaac. There's zero other options. It's not like A and B, Isaac or someone else. It's Isaac and no one else because God said so. And if it doesn't come to pass, then God ain't God. We all go home. And what does it say? What does the New Testament say? It says, you know, Abraham did receive Isaac from the dead in a figure. It says in a figure. Why? Because in his heart, Abraham did kill Isaac. And when God provided, he received his son back. It was as if he's dead already, right? To Abraham, Isaac's a dead man because of the commitment that Abraham had to obey God. So worship is about obedience to God. First, if you can consider the first two of the ten commandments, right? What's the first commandment? Have no other gods besides me. What's that mean? Worship the one true living God alone. Don't worship anyone or anything else. Second commandment, don't make idols to worship and serve. So, what do you have? You have the first commandment, worship the true living God alone. Second commandment, worship the true living God alone the right way. Right? God gets to dictate how he is worshiped, not you and I. If you remember when God brought his people, Yahweh brought his people out of Egypt and God is giving the ten commandments to Moses on Mount Si. What were the people doing down below? They made a golden calf and started dancing around it and worshiping it. But do you remember what Aaron said about the golden calf? He didn't make up another god. He said, "Guys, Moses is gone and we don't really know what happened to him. So, we'll make this golden calf. This is your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt." What is Aaron trying to say? We're going to worship this calf, but like it's Yahweh. It's not like he's saying, um, let's make the calf Zeus, right? He's saying, "This calf is Yahweh. This calf is the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt." And God says no. Right? And when when Moses is coming down, you remember he breaks it symbolic, right? That's how sinful men are. We've broken the commandments before Moses even got down the mountain. Broken. Done. Right? Already made an idol. And God says, "I will not be worshiped with an idol. Can't do it. It's false worship if you try." Right? So God gets to not only be the only one worshiped, but then he gets to dictate how to be worshiped. And Jesus affirms this, right? You worship whatever way you want. No, he says we must worship him how? In spirit and in truth. Spirit and truth. Which would mean that there's false ways if you have to do it in truth. Right? Worship is first and foremost about obedience. If you come sing songs, but live a life of disobedience to God the rest of the week, you're pretending to worship and God can see right through it. Israel already tried that and failed, right? You can't be like, "Well, that was Israel. I'm an American. I can like you think God can't tell the difference between your actions and your heart." It was of Israel. He said, "In vain do they worship me, for they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." They weren't worshiping God the way that God said. God says, "I want clean, pure lambs. I want good, pure sacrifices." What were they doing? Giving him their worst. Oh, this one has a broken leg. Give that one to Yahweh. I'm going to keep the good one. Wrong. Right? And God said, "Nope." In the book of Isaiah, it's great, guys. It's okay. I w I I need more time, but I don't have it right. But in the book of Isaiah, there's a part where God shuts down worship. He just says, "Stop. Stop worshiping. Stop." Because it's a waste of time because you're not doing it right. Stop. God shuts worship down. In Isaiah, that's how much he cares about worshiping him in truth. Worshiping God through music, serving, prayer, preaching, evangelism is all worship, but it comes after our commitment to obey him. Right? That's why like we don't say like, you know, when you come to church, the worship starts when the music starts and the worship stops when the worship stops and then we have this thing called preaching that gets in the way of the next song. That's worship then, right? No, worship is throughout. We start, we sing praises to God, then we worship through giving. We worship through preaching. Preaching is worship. We worship through prayer. We worship through fellowship and building each other up. Worship. If you are tempted to look at pornography and you say, "No, for the glory of God," worship. If you say, "I'm not going to let any corruptible or unh wholesome or filthy talk come out of my mouth when I'm tempted to, but I don't." In honor, in obedience to God's word, worship And ironically, I think one of the most ignored aspects of obedience, obedient worship, is the command in the great commission staring at us in the face, right? Make disciples. Do evangelism. Yes, we sing songs. Yes, we preach. Yes, we pray. But none of it matters if we're not making disciples. That's why we do evangelism training. You can come to that. That's why we disciple men and women. What's the point just to get men and women together just because? No, there's a point to disciple men or to disciple women who can make more disciples, right? Our worship takes many forms, but let's not ignore the glaring command right in front of us in verse 19 to worship God by obeying his command to make disciples. Now, I know it's getting late, but I haven't forgotten to address the doubt, right? The word doubt in Greek is disto. I just like words but I I want to tell you that to tell you this. It is only used twice in the entire New Testament both by Matthew. The one is here right uh they worshiped some doubted dusto. The other is in Matthew 14:31 and again you can look at that later but that is where Peter walks on water. And Matthew 14:31 says this. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him. That was Peter. When he started to sink, he reached out, took out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, Jesus speaking to Peter, "Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? Oh, you of little faith, why did you dist." And lo and behold, fascinating, the scriptures are so great, they come together. Worship is mentioned in the same passage where doubt is mentioned because two verses later so Jesus reaches out grabs Peter. Why did you of little faith why did you doubt? Matthew 14:33 and those in the boat right when Jesus gives him back on the boat. Those in the boat worshiped him saying truly you are the son of God. I say all that to say this. This word dustadzo speaks more of hesitation or uncertainty not unbelief. Okay. In Matthew 14, Peter believed it was Jesus calling him and went out and walked on the water. But the wind and the waves got to him, right? And he became unsure of himself. He hesitated uncertainty and he began to sink. It's not that Peter gave up believing in Jesus, right? He's like, "Lord, if it's you, call out to me. Come on out, Peter." Right? And he starts and he starts out. He gets I don't know how many steps, right? But he gets there and it's not like all of a sudden he's like, "Oh, never mind. I don't believe in Jesus anymore." And he starts to sink. No, he's just uncertain, hesitancy, shook, shaken by the wind and the waves. The some that are doubting here in Matthew 28. Remember, not all of them are. It just says some. It speaks of their uncertainty. So, put yourself in their sandals, right? Imagine seeing the resurrected Christ for the very first time. A monumental, worldchanging, lifealtering, greatest event in human history is happening right in front of you. Christ is risen from the grave. Do you really think you're going to have it all together? No. I don't I I can speak for myself. I'd be like, "What is going on? I don't know, but I know I need to bow in front of Jesus cuz he's resurrected. He's alive again. Like, what is going on? Is this actually happening in front of us, right? But they still believed. But the doubt just speaks of uncertainty, hesitate. Is this really happen? This is happening in front of my face. Yes, it is. It is. So, it doesn't speak that all of a sudden they don't believe, right? These same 11 um will go out and turn the world upside down and acts for the gospel, right? But what I love is this. They worship through the doubt. Abraham worshiped through uncertainty when he obediently offered Isaac. I don't know how this is going to work. The promised seed has to go through Isaac. And yet God is telling me, testing me. It says, "Hey, God did test Abraham. God is testing me. I'm going to go do it out of obedience to God." and he did it. Abraham didn't know what was going to happen. He didn't have it all together, but he did it anyway. That's what's happening here. You fall down and you worship him even though there's hesitancy, uncertainty, or doubt. Maybe you've been uncertain of some things. Maybe you're hesitant um to share your faith or to share the gospel of Christ. What's your next step in worship? Cuz maybe for some of you, it's learning how to do evangelism, right? How to share the gospel. So, we have that class. You can go to it. For some, maybe it's giving for the first time. We've been talking about that. But giving is an act of worship and obedience. This is not some fundraiser financial transaction blah blah blah blah blah. No, this is very different from the prosperity gospel. For some, it's giving for the first time out of being a good steward of what God has given them. And for some this morning, it's baptism. We have uh we had four we have three baptisms. And before I get into baptism, I want to um ask the church um to pray for a gentleman. And you may not even know who he is. Um but pray for a gentleman named Joshua S. I'll just say Joshua S. Um I think that he's in a battle because he's here all the time if he's not scheduled to be baptized. But when he's scheduled to be baptized, this is the second time he's gone. I think he's running from from it. I think he's scared to. And so, if you'll just pray for him. But right now, I'm wanting to call um our three others down front for baptism here as we as we move into that. But what is your next step in worship? Because to fulfill the great commission, we need to be present, obedient, worshipful disciples of Christ. And so now I want to add, they're already coming. There we go. So Tanya, um, Mike Bowen, if you'll come down and Richard Sandival, and I'll meet you down here. And then I want to also invite the worship team to come back up to be ready to go once we're once we're done here. And I hope you can see I eventually might want to move the baptistry like over here in the center. Um, but right now it's over here. Um, and so I hope that you can see everything if we can pop on that light. Um, Kevin, can you pop on that light when you um and then can I see your microphone? >> All right. Well, here you go. We're going to uh ladies first, right? Ladies first. So, this is Tanya. And Tanya, I I it's it's optional. I like to give people the option if they want to share a few words, share their testimony or not. Some people are a little worried speaking in front of people. Um, but Tanya was like, I'm going to do it and if I can't, if it falls apart, I have permission to finish, uh, help her finish. But Tanya, if you would like to share a little bit of your testimony. >> So, um, this kind of started for me long, long time ago. My grandmother took me to church as a young kid. I'm Navajo, so I kind of grew up with two different uh religions, so to speak. So, it's very confusing. And just until maybe the past like couple of years, it's really um become to the forefront, I guess, how important it is. And I I I'm just so happy that Jesus has come to me and that I have accepted him. >> YOU COULD ALSO THERE'S THERE'S more that she's giving me permission to finish cuz she won't be able to get through it. Um, but part of Tanya's past um involves an abortion she had. Um, she had previously had an abortion and um, well, it had been a few years back you said you started listening to Charlie Kurt. Well, that that was a long time ago. And she kind of lived the party life and kind of did just lived a sinful life. Let's just call it what it is, right? I did, too. Um, but uh >> few years back, maybe you started listening to Charlie Kirk. Um, and when he went from I'm not going to say Charlie Kirk died cuz he didn't, right? Charlie Kirk went from life to life, by the way. Um, so fake news that Charlie's dead. Charlie's alive in heaven. Um, but when Charlie um went to heaven, Charlie Kirk went to heaven, that really got your attention. I think that rattled your cage a little bit. And you had attended his memorial service. >> Yes, I did. >> And they shared the gospel and you stood >> Yes. >> And you gave your life to Christ. >> Yes. >> At his memorial. >> Amen. >> And after after that, she's like, I need to find a church. which which that is like a a great sign of a new creation, right? I need to find a church. And she wound up here and she has been she's plugged in. Uh she comes and clean she you do a great job, Tanya. You've been wonderful. It's a blessing to have you. So, if you want to step in facing that way, >> all right, Tanya, is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior? >> Yes. Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins personally and that he rose again on the third day showing his power over sin and death and that he has authority over your life? >> Yes. >> Well, then it is my privilege, Tanya, on the profession of your faith in Christ to baptize you, my sister, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For we are buried with him by baptism unto death and raised to walk in newness of life. All right, Mike, you want to come on down? This is uh everyone. This is Mike Bowen. Uh I got to know Mike. Mike has recently been coming to the church. Let's see, it's been what about a month maybe now that you started coming. Uh came to pizza with a pastor, got to know him and he wanted to talk about baptism. Um so he comes from a a Christian background and is a believer. Um but said, "I've never taken the step of obedience to Christ in baptism. Haven't been baptized." And uh so we talked about this is the beginning of your disciplehip journey, like not the end. Um sometimes people get it backwards, right? right? We're like, I got to get all my life in order and then I'll get baptized. No, you come to Christ and you get baptized and you pursue and grow in Christ. So, this is the beginning of disciplehip, not the end. Um, and so, uh, Mike's like, I need to obey God and get baptized. So, that's what we're going to do. So, if you want to, um, get in facing that way. And Mike, is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior? >> Yes. >> You can have a seat and then put your feet that way. There you go. Um, do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins personally and that he rose again on the third day showing his power over sin and death and that he has authority over your life? >> Yes. Well, upon your profession of faith, it is my privilege to baptize you, my brother, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For we are buried with him by baptism unto death, and raised to walk in newness of life. >> We're going to flood this place with baptism water. That's right. >> Amen. Um, and if you guys want to go out around that way, you can. This store is open. All right, Richard, come over here. Richard, don't be shy. This is Richard Sandival. Everyone say hi, Richard. I love you, man. Um, but Richard's been coming. How long you been coming across church now? Couple months now. Came to pizza with a pastor. Wanted to talk baptism. Richard um, we went over the gospel and and talked through all of that, but Richard was baptized as a child. Um, but he came to me and said I didn't know what I was doing and it wasn't as a disciple of Christ, not actively following Christ. And I just took him straight to Matthew 28 and say we baptize disciples of Christ and uh often times, you know, some come out of Catholicism, infant baptism and stuff like that, but uh what we do and believe is we baptize believers. And so we talked about salvation, nailed down some stuff there, and he wants to follow the Lord in baptism. So, we're going to do that. If you want to step in, brother. All right. Richard, is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior? >> Yes. >> Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins personally and that he rose again on the third day, showing his power over sin and death, and that he has authority over your life? >> Yes. Well, upon your profession of faith is my privilege to baptize you, my brother, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For we are buried with him by baptism unto death and raised to walk in newness of life.