Ready in Weakness

Heat. Heat. [Music] Well, hello. It's me again. I'm just kidding. Um, if you would open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. We are continuing our series, which will wrap up in a few weeks through 2 Corinthians called Ready for Harvest. So, 2 Corinthians 12. And if you don't have a Bible, there's there should be one in the seat back in front of you. Feel free to use it, take it home, make it your own. You can mark it up, highlight it, underline it, just bring it back next week and make it your Bible. Um and uh we will gladly replace it. Before we get into the message, the sermon this morning, uh some of you may or may not know, but in September, we sent a group uh to the Philippines on a mission trip. Pastor Chad led that team. He's our executive pastor. Uh, and he he uh he was the interim pastor here before I came and then uh comes and visits every every now and then. But he uh he led a team to the Philippines. We have four campuses in Arizona. So we have Surprise, Phoenix, and we have one in Elmarrage and then one in Cornville. But we also have campuses uh worldwide. So we have one in the Philippines which they went to one in Myanmar and there's a third campus um that we are looking to start and that's what we want to share with you today. So um if we have the video ready uh if we could Hey Cross, we're on the island of Kenny Cart. I just got to spend the afternoon with Pastor Julius, our campus pastor here on the island. We got to see the new building that we're building because of your generosity. Man, I just want you to pray for this island. Right now there's about 10,000 people that live on Kennetarkin. And what a great opportunity we have through Pastor Julius to reach this island, to reach this community, to make Jesus known. Let's go. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hello. [Applause] [Music] So, praise God. A lot's going on. Um, yeah. Yeah. Amen. Amen. And that's and we talk about how giving is an act of worship and it is like I just want you to know like the the reason we can do those things is because of our your generosity. Um, we get to go and do these wonderful missions and church plants. And so that island of Kennet kind of they send the uh um Josh Siri had sent the video to Jordan and I. Jordan's like, "I can do concrete. I wouldn't mind doing concrete in the Philippines. It's beautiful there." I'm like, "Yeah, I know. Me, too. Let's go." Um, I want I just want to run into that water on Kennet Tarkin. Like, that looked beautiful. It's clearer than like my pool, you know? It's nice. Um, but yes, so, praise God for what he's doing. And we're looking at starting a uh another church in that island of Kennetarkin where you heard Pastor Chad say there's 10,000 people who live there and need to hear the gospel. Um, so we pray continue to pray for uh that effort and we thank you for um your faithfulness in giving. Well, I hope that you are to 2 Corinthians 12 by now. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this morning and we thank you for your word. God, I pray that it would be your word that is taught uh this morning and not m not mine. Get me out of the way, Lord. We want you to speak to us, God. But I pray that we would not only rightly understand it uh though it is good to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ but to also see how it applies and speaks to our lives today. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Now some of you may know this but every year 25 of the world's strongest men come together to compete in the world's strongest man competition. Over 200 million I looked this up. I was surprised. Over 200 million people watch this globally and the prize for first place is over $100,000. This year's winner, his name was Reo Nell. He was the first winner from South Africa. He set his own personal record deadlifting 1,080 lb. I think the world record is like,24. Can you imagine deadlifting 1,000 lb? It's pretty incredible. But whether you're into weightlifting or not, we generally enjoy watching incredible feats of human strength, right? It's why we watch the Olympics. How fast, how strong, how powerful can human beings get? And so we train for four years and put it on the world stage. But I wonder, how many people do you think would tune in to watch the World's Weakest Man competition? Come on. I'm waiting for that to happen so I could win me $100,000. Right. World's Weakest Man. Sign me up. Sign me up. But there's a reason that that doesn't exist. Right? We're not naturally interested in weakness. There's nothing inherently attractive or appealing or fascinating about the idea of being weak. I don't think any of us enjoy our weaknesses. Our preference for strength over weakness is common among humanity. And here in chapter 12, Paul is dealing with false teachers who have come into the church and they're boasting about their strengths. If you've been with us, you kind of know the context, but if you haven't, false teachers have entered into Corinth. And he kind of jokingly calls them super apostles and these that they come in and they boast about how great and awesome they are, their strengths, themselves. And while they're elevating themselves, at the same time they are um insulting Paul, depreciating, whatever word you want to use, they are insulting, belittling Paul, elevating themselves. And their basic accusation against Paul is basically this, that he's boring and unattractive. If you remember in 2 Corinthians 10:10, it says, "For his letters, they say, are weighty and powerful." So when he sits down to write a letter, man, it's heavy stuff. But when he shows up, 2 Corinthians 10:10 says, "His bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptable." So as one pastor put it, he said, "If you're handsome and boring, you can get by. If you're not handsome, but at least you're interesting, you can get by. But if you're both boring and not handsome, things can get kind of difficult for you. And that's what's being said about Paul. Basically, you are boring and unattractive. Paul, your bodily presence is weak. Meaning, when you're here in person, you're really not that much to look at. And on top of that, your speech is contemptable. Meaning, it amounts to nothing. When you come speak, it's really not that interesting. Your letters are fascinating, but when you come speak, it's like, h kind of boring. All that's to say, Paul, you're weak. And Paul's response is, you know what? You're exactly right. I am weak. But because you're turning against me, Corinth, I have to do this foolish thing called boasting. Because they're fascinated with the false teachers boasting and what they're boasting about that Paul against his will, against his nature is very uncomfortable for Paul. We talked about last week how Paul likes to call himself the chief of sinners, a wretched man, but he doesn't like to boast in anything, but he he's going to and he's entertaining this to make a point and to also build rebuild trust and relationship with the church at Corenth because they're being led astray. So in our text today, we're going to see Paul's going to close out on his boasting. So, he's got a little bit more boasting to do and then he's going to make the point that weakness is a blessing. And that's what I want us to see today, the blessings in weakness. So, let's read verses 1- 7a. And I'm going to break up verse 7. You'll see why. But 2 Corinthians 12:1. Boasting is necessary. It's not profitable. But I will move on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who was caught up to the third heaven 14 years ago. Whether he was in the body or out of the body, I don't know. God knows. I know that this man, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know. God knows, was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressable words which a human being is not allowed to speak. I will boast about this person, but not about myself, except of my weaknesses. For if I want to boast, I wouldn't be a fool because I would be telling the truth. But I will spare you so that no one can credit me with something beyond what he sees in me or hears from me. especially because of the extraordinary revelations. So, some translations break up the verses differently, but um we're going to stop right there. So, the first blessing we have in weakness is our weakness keeps us from seeking the praise of men. Seeking the praise of men. A few questions that often get asked about the pastors. Number one, what's the third heaven? Well, quickly in those days it was thought of there's three heavens. There's there's the heavens where the birds fly. There's the sky where the birds fly if you want to remember it that way. Then there's the second heavens where the birds do not fly but the sun, moon, and stars are. And then there's the third heaven which is where God dwells. So Paul is saying that this experience is not like he was like a bird for an hour or that he went and visited Mars. it's that he experienced heaven. And another question that is often asked is is Paul talking about himself or someone else. I will tell you that I believe I hold that he is talking about himself because of all the first person uh pronouns for like verse one. I must go on boasting. I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. It doesn't make sense why he would say I I and then use someone else's vision. in a brother's vision. And then he says that what he saw is unspeakable. So like he would have had to heard it from someone else. But then what? It just doesn't make sense. And if you go on to verse six, another clear, right? For if I want to boast, I wouldn't be a fool for I would be speaking the truth. Verse seven, so that I wouldn't exalt myself, which we'll get to. So, he's probably talking about himself because he's been so blessed by God, because he's been through so much and because so much had been revealed to him. It would be tempting for any of us to think highly of ourselves. Well, I must be God's like favorite because he's just shown me so much. And what we'll see is Paul will be humbled. But I think I'm getting ahead of myself. But here's the thing. The false teachers claimed to have these visions and revelations that were a point of pride for them. So they use those things, these claims to get Corenth to follow them instead of Paul. So that's why Paul says, "I got to go on to visions and revelations." Because that was one of the tactics that the false teachers were using. And Paul is saying, "I've had them, too." But even though I've had them, they're nothing to boast about. They're not. Paul's reference to himself in the third person then in verse in verse one, I know a man. I know this guy in Christ who experienced this is intentional because the false teachers want Corenth to be captivated by visions and revelations. Why? so that they would be impressed with them, impressed with the false teachers. Wow, look at what you've experienced. And Paul wants the exact opposite. Paul doesn't want them to be so captivated with visions that it distracts them from what's important, like, I don't know, the gospel. And so Paul's main point is at the end of verse six where he says,"Don't evaluate me on visions. Evaluate me on what you see and hear." That's key. Other translations will say, "Don't think of me more highly than what you see or hear in me." And those verbs see and hear in Greek are what's called present and active. All that means is that Paul wants them to focus on what he is doing and saying right now. Right now. What's he saying and doing currently? And what that would be is what? If you remember from chapter 11, he lists all these things he's endured and suffered. What would that be? Suffering for and preaching the gospel. Don't evaluate me on some 14-year-old vision. Corinth, look at what I'm doing. Look at how I'm living and what I'm teaching and preaching right now. If you think about it, the Corinthian church was planted, grew, and existed for 14 years before they even found out Paul had this experience because it's not that important. And this means the true marks of Paul's apostilhip was the gospel he preached and the love he had for the church, not the this vision. Right? If the vision's primary, you go around telling everyone for the past 14 years what you've seen and heard these this vision. But he didn't do that. He kept it to himself and he was about the gospel. He wanted the focus to be on Christ, not this experience he had 14 years ago. Paul didn't go around touting this vision as evidence he was an apostle because it wasn't. The evidence of his apostilhip was a few things but namely his focus on the preaching and teaching of the gospel. Focus on what you hear and see in me right now Corinth. And what's that going to be? Christ. We sing it yet not I but Christ in me. Paul is all about Christ and he wants us in Corinth to be about Christ, not distracted and obsessed with visions. But unfortunately, I think sometimes we can have the same tendencies today. Sometimes we elevate pastors or other leaders based on their experiences or what they did in the past, something they did a long time ago that was great and awesome. And then now we assume because like this thing happened now we assume that they have the mightest touch. Everything they do or say turns to gold. And the challenge Paul is giving us is that while we can appreciate because I don't want you to hear me wrong. We can appreciate what someone's done in the past. He's saying what are they doing right now? How's their life right now? Are they currently living a godly life? Are they currently preaching? Are they about the gospel? Are they preaching Christ and him crucified? I used the example in last service, but the whole Robbie Zachcharias thing was very painful. If you knew him like a great apologist and did all these things and then we find out living a double life and was caught up in a ton of sin and it was hard. It's hard for people to hear, hard for people to endure. Sometimes we can elevate leaders, put them on a pedestal to where they are beyond accountability. And that that is not biblical. The false teachers in Corenth are not living a godly life. They're not about the gospel. They're about elevating themselves. And a lot of pastors today are about the same thing. We shouldn't be elevating leaders to where we ignore their behavior. Yes, there is a healthy respect of pastors, elders, leaders in the church. And the scriptures say, you know, that elders who lead well are worthy of double honor. Um, and I want you to hear me like I am beyond grateful and humbled by the gift um this morning and your love and prayers for me. That is all true and wonderful. But at no point is any pastor, this pastor or church leader above or exempt from accountability when their behavior becomes ungodly or their teaching goes wayward. A lot of times people start well and they might gain fame, notoriety, riches and then go astray and change the message to be more palpable to what people want to hear and they stray from the gospel and people will still listen to them because of what they something they did or said 10 years ago. And Paul's saying, you know what? What are they doing and living and preaching right now? I need that accountability every day, every week. Look, if I stray from the truth of God's word, don't listen to me. You have my permission to don't listen to me. And if my actions don't represent Christ, call me out. No pastor or leader is above accountability. How do we hold how do we hold this? It's not like all of a sudden if you get to become the blessing of being a pastor and being called a pastor that all of a sudden no one can call you out with this, right? Doesn't mean like all of a sudden you can't tell me anything that I'm ever wrong. You can never hold me. How this is objective truth, right? This is God's word. So if I get out of line, say DJ, right? That's what we ought to be doing. And that's what Paul is challenging them. Don't think of me more highly because I had this vision. Don't don't elevate anyone. What do you see and hear in me right now? And that's the beauty and blessing of being weak is you depend on Christ. My desire, our desire should be to honor Christ first and foremost. Seek his approval first. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And that keeps us from seeking to be praised by men. And it keeps our eyes focused on pleasing God. Because Paul was not about impressing men with visions and revelations or telling you that they got some cool new thing for you. If you would just send them $100, they'll tell you this cool new thing in the mail. Right? Paul's not concerned about that. His primary concern is pleasing God in living and preaching the gospel. Let's read verses 7b. So the second half through 10. So Paul continues, "Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me, so that I would not exalt myself." Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me. But he said to me in the kindest of terms, "No, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness. Therefore, I will boast. I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may reside in me. So I take pleasure in weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. So our second point, second blessing in being weak is our weakness keeps us from becoming conceited. Um the the CSB, the text I'm reading says, "Exalt myself." Um but I stole conceited from the ESV. That's what it says. Conceited. It's the same thing. Now, if we spend the whole sermon trying to figure out what the thorn is, we've missed the point. Get it? Point. I'm just kidding. Um we don't know what it is. But we know a few things about it, but we don't know what it is. We know its point that it was to humble Paul and we know that God didn't take it away and we know it's a messenger of Satan to torment him. What it is beyond that, we don't know. The main point of this passage is not to identify what the thorn is. The main point is the purpose of it which is to keep Paul from becoming ex conceited or exalting himself because that would be the temptation that Paul would experience. Imagine what he has experienced, seen, heard, ex on the road to Damascus is encountered by Jesus Christ himself. Has this experience 14 years ago going to paradise and hearing and seeing things that man cannot utter? The temptation would be to think highly of yourself. And so he says that God is allowing this thorn to exist to keep me humble. But the principle is this. What Satan uses to torment, God uses to show Paul his grace, God's power is made perfect in Paul's weakness. And the result, look at what the result is. A gladness for weakness. Paul is excited to be weak. Why? Because it shows the power of Christ in him. What more could any of us want than the power of Christ in us? But how often do we exchange it for our own power, which is le but we do it a lot. The story is told, this is not original to me, but the story is told of a pastor who's filled with enthusiasm and Bible knowledge, taking the pulpit of a church every Sunday. He preaches, but there's this guy in the church who heckles him all the time. He sits in the back and every time he preaches, this guy criticize him. Criticizes him. Amen. You that that was out of context, man. That wasn't exactly right. And he nitpicks all the time. every little thing the pastor says and the guy won't leave the church and there is no reason to kick him out of it. He's just kind of a pain in the pastor's side. And this went on and on and the pastor grew frustrated. And the pastor was bothered because every time he would sit down to prepare a sermon, he would put his best effort in trying to stay close to the scriptures, preaching with sincerity, staying close to the gospel. But no matter what, this guy would criticize him. He would tell him, "But you could do this better. What about this? Or have you thought of that?" And he's like, "I just can't please this guy with any sermon I preach." And in his despair, he cries out to God, "Why are you letting this happen to me? I'm trying to serve you, but this guy is just so frustrating." and he goes to bed one night and he has a dream and he sees this vision of a beautiful sparkling marly um person image of a man this masterpiece that's been chiseled to perfection and in this in his dream he asks God he says well what is that or who is that and God says well that's you and he's he's like that's beautiful like how did I come to look like that and God in his vision in his dream he just points behind him and there's the heckler behind him and and God used the heckler to shape the pastor and and from that point on the pastor knew from that that experience he he understood that this guy who criticizes him non-stop wasn't the enemy. God was using a persistent heckler and critical guy to refine his preaching to keep him focused on God to make sure he stays close to the word of God. And I thought that was a cool illustration, little little story of how God can use people who seem to be irritating or annoying or frustrating in your own life to refine you and to purify you, to knock off the rough edges of you as we grow closer to Christ. God will use all kinds of things in people to keep you humble and to keep us from exalting ourselves, becoming conceited ourselves. Let's finish read verse 11 through13. So Paul says, "I've been a fool." So he's going to wrap up his foolish boasting. I've been a fool. You forc it on me. You ought to have commended me since I'm not in any way inferior to those super apostles. Even though I am nothing. It's great to just be nothing. Guys, if you could just be nothing and Christ be everything, it's a wonderful place to be. I am nothing. The signs of an apostle were performed with unfailing endurance among you, including signs and wonders and miracles. So, in what way are you worse off than the other churches, except that I personally did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong. So, you can hear a little more of Paul Paul's sarcasm. He had some in last week's text. He has some more this week. What I want us to see finally is this. Our weakness keeps us from becoming jealous. As I thought about how to explain this, uh my the word jealous came to mind because Corinth thinks Corinth thinks that they are worse off than other churches. And Paul's saying, Corinth, you have it all right. You saw all the signs of an apostle, signs and wonders and miracles. You experienced this. The gospel came to you. I came to I preached to you. You came to Christ. you established as a church. And yet they thought they were worse off than other churches. Why? Because Paul didn't charge them for the gospel. That's how sick and twisted this has gotten. They were jealous of other churches because Paul had taken financial support, which we know from the rest of the letters. Paul took financial support from other churches as he served Corinth. But he didn't take anything from Corenth. And that got twisted into this false narrative to say this lie was spreading that Paul didn't love Corinth as much as he loved other churches because he didn't ask Corinth for financial support. And so Corinth is like, "Well, you didn't like you didn't like ask us. You didn't take money from us." But yet, and so if you remember from context in the previous texts, parts of the letter, these false teachers are in charging for their knowledge and Corinth's paying for it, and they're impressed by it. And Paul's like, "What am I to be like loved any less because I didn't charge you for the gospel?" Like, come on. And so they started to compare themselves to other churches and became jealous and said, 'Well, we are worse off. Paul just doesn't love us. But how often do we get caught up in the same trap of comparison, right? So and so has this or does that and I don't. I wish I was like them or had what they had. All that does is lead to unhealthy jealousy. And jealousy what leads to bitterness and division, which is exactly what happened in Corinth. Now Corinth and Paul have this divided relationship because they're like, "Well, Paul doesn't love us. He loves the other churches better than he loves us, so we'll go find other leaders." And now it's a problem. Don't get caught up in comparisons and jealousies. Be who God has called you to be. Our closing thought is this. Our readiness to embrace weakness reveals we believe God's strength is perfected in our limitations or our weakness. Do you really believe that? Do you believe that you can embrace being nothing so that Christ is everything? Now, I know I gave you a closing thought, which usually means we're done, but we're not. I want to share something cool with you. Look back at verse 7. You see the word torment in verse 7. This thorn is a messenger of Satan to torment Paul. Some translations will say harass or other uh words. But the word torment literally means to beat or to strike with a fist, physical contact. And the reason that it's translated harass or torment is because Paul's saying that this something spiritual to this, right? This is a messenger angal. It's the same word messenger, an angel of Satan. So an angel of Satan is being sent to Paul to torment Paul, but they don't know. Translators don't know. And it's kind of hard to reconcile like so is a spiritual being physically harming a physical being. They don't know if Paul is literally being punched in the face by a spiritual thing. So they say torment or harass, but the word literally means to beat and strike with a fist. And the same word is used in Matthew 26 and Mark 14 to describe the beatings Jesus suffered on behalf of us. In Matthew 26, the high priest asked Jesus if he was the Christ. And Jesus, here's his reply. Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, from now on, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard this blasphemy. What is your judgment?" he says to the people. And they answered this. They answered, "He deserves death." Then they spit in his face and struck him. and some slapped him saying prophesy to us you Christ who it is that struck you. Where it says they struck Christ after spitting in his face is the same word here in 2 Corinthians for tormenting Paul. The act of beating physically literally our savior. The other is Mark 14:63-65 which you can look at later. It's a parable passage saying the same thing. But here's what I want to share with you. We might read that and think how awful it is that they did this to Christ. They tormented him, harassed him, beat him physically. And you would be right. It is awful. But we are no better than they are. It was for our sin that Christ was tormented, beaten, and struck, enduring pain, going to the cross to die for us. It is our lust of the flesh that put him there. Our lust of the eyes that put him there. Our pride of life that put him there. We are all implicated in the killing and murder of Jesus Christ. You say, "Well, I wasn't alive 2,000 years ago. It's not my fault." Yes, it is. Because it's for your sin that he was beaten, harassed, and tormented. You see that? physically beaten to a bloody pulp. Worse than pictures you've seen of a nice clean cut Jesus Christ hanging on a cross. Get that image out of your head. This is a man. This is God, the son of God, the eternal son of God in an unrecognizable state because he's been beaten so bad. And if you're here this morning and you have not repented and turned from your sin and put your faith and trust in Christ to save you, you are shaking the fist of human pride right in the face of Jesus Christ. That's what's happening. You're saying, "I don't need that. I'm good." And you're not. Today is the day of salvation. the invitation's open not just on Sunday every day, but right now come to Christ now. Don't put it off to next week. Well, maybe I'll get saved next week, you know, when I feel like it. Yeah. No. If God is drawing you to your himself, if the Holy Spirit is convicting you, respond to that. Turn your life over to Jesus Christ today. And we have a wonderful example of that in my brother Gary, who goes by KG. And so at this time I want to invite Gary down to the front. Gary if you want to come up. Um and I want to invite the worship team to come up as well. Um but we have a celebration this morning of baptism. And um here Gary I want to in Christ Gary or KG goes by KG. That's right. And uh I ask everyone who gets baptized if they want to say a few words and some are quieter than others. They don't want to say anything. But um I asked KG if he wanted to say a few things. Um he's like I can be long-winded. I was like well you got two or three minutes. Um but I'd like him to share how he came to Christ. Gary, would you share? Uh good morning everybody. I know um a lot of y'all don't know me. Just meet me now. But um I started this journey about a week and a half ago. I got saved in Pastor DJ's office. Um, we had a Yeah, we had a uh we had a pretty strong meeting and um he told me in the beginning he just he said I'm not going to sugar coat it and he didn't. And so he gave it to me real and um I shared with him, you know, where I wanted to be u as far as my journey. So uh he helped guide me there and I'm excited to do this today. I want to say thank you to my beautiful family in the back that showed up. Uh my family I got uh my my family's in uh back home in North Carolina where I'm from. So they're streaming too. They're watching me. So thank y'all for tuning in. Um I got my beautiful kids too. My son just moved out here from North Carolina as well. Um so I'm excited to have everybody here uh as far as this. And um you know I I I said that I wanted to feel God's presence and I wanted to feel his his hands on me and my life and I got a taste of that this weekend. Um I could have been in the hospital. I got in a bad accident. I was in the hospital for two days but I was able to walk out and be here this morning. Um I could have been arrested this weekend but I I didn't. Um I made it here as well. So I I thank God for that. I felt him in those moments and um he made a way even when the devil tried to stop me. So I'm here. Thank you guys for accepting me and my church family. Beautiful brothers and sisters. I'm excited for this. So, thank you for having me. [Applause] What he didn't tell you was he meant wrongfully arrested. There was a situation where they thought he was something that he wasn't. And uh he said he told me he said, "DJ, I just prayed the whole time cuz I knew the truth." And I just prayed. I didn't take my I didn't react the way that I would normally react. And I believe it's cuz he has the Holy Spirit in him cuz he's a new creation. If you knew all of his story, and I would encourage you to talk to him, bother him. I'm just kidding. But uh no, he's brother in Christ now. So hey, you got a family, bro. He's going to bother you. But um the rest if he if we had time to share his whole story like it is amazing what God has done in his life. In our first meeting he um he said I just can see the change in Valerie and then the Edwards Nathan and Elise's family and like I want that and I sh I walk through the gospel with him right and he just kept saying I'm too far gone like and he would say well there's some things I got to clean up first. I said you got it all wrong bro. You got it all wrong. You come to Christ as you are and watch him clean you up. Yes, there's some things to straighten out. Yeah, there's some relationships to restore, stuff like that, but you got it all wrong, man. Like, you come to Christ first and then watch him change your life. That's how he's changing Valerie's life and and the Edward's lives together as a family and all of us. Um, and he walked out of our first meeting like, I got to think about this. and he didn't come to Christ. And then the following Sunday he comes like, "All right, we got to talk again." I'm like, "All right." Said, "It's going to be the same thing." And he's like, "All right, I got to become a Christian. How do I do this?" And so we talked through um and he prayed right there and just poured his heart out to God. And since then, um not only can he sense the difference, but I'm hearing stories of his friends and family saying, "That's a different Gary than what I've seen and experienced." Um so Gary, do you want to step in, brother? You can take your socks off if you want or you can wear them. I don't know. There you go, dude. All right. You can sit down and put your feet out that way so you can Yeah. All right. Gary KG, brother, do you believe Jesus Christ is your personal Lord and Savior? Yes, I do. Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins? That he rose again on the third day, showing his power over sin and death, and that he has authority over your life? Yes, I do. All right, brother. It is my privilege and honor 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. [Applause]