We're going to get started here in Acts chapter 2. We're going to start on verse 14 in just a few minutes, okay? I want to tell you, in 1994, Neil Armstrong, the guy who walked on the moon, he took a trip to the Holy Land, and he requested that he went to a place with certainty where Jesus had walked on the earth. He wanted to be in one of the exact places where Jesus walked on the earth.
So he went with this archaeologist named Dr. Mir Bindove, and Dr. Mir Bindove took him and said, you are standing now on the very steps that your Jesus stood on and taught from the southern steps that are called the steps of the rabbi. Now, if you've been to Israel in the heart of Jerusalem, the Holy City, the Holy Land is the temple, and right outside the temple is the southern steps.
How many of you have been to this before? Okay, quite a few of you. If you haven't been to Israel, I'm talking to Pastor Frank right now about going in a couple years. So I want you with me, if you want to go.
If you're interested, start saving. It's not cheap. It's not cheap at all, but it's worth every penny. Yeah, you'll never forget it.
You'll never read the Bible's name. But anyway, you go to this place called the southern steps, and this is without a doubt a place where Jesus not only walked and stood and sat, but this is a place where Jesus commonly taught from. It says in scripture that Jesus was outside the temple teaching, and all theologians would agree this is the place where it would be thousands to gather here and all this stuff. And so this was a great place.
And when Neil Armstrong went there and was asked about what he thought about being at this place, he said, Neil Armstrong said, my legs are trembling and shaking more now than when I first stepped on the moon. That's what this meant to him. And when you're there, it's unbelievable. I remember we went there with Pastor Frank and we read the scriptures of Jesus teaching on these steps, and it was like, oh my gosh, mind blowing, just totally mind blowing.
And this is the place also where they believe that Peter, there were Pentecost happening. We just taught on that just last week. We talked about Pentecost. Remember where tongues of fire came down and the Holy Spirit came and filled all these people?
And they started speaking in all these different languages, and some were amazed and some said, these people are drunk, right? Like, what are they doing? And so we're going to get right into Peter's sermon here. But the thing about this is at the end of our passage today, it talks about how there were thousands of people that came to Christ that day because of this awesome sermon that we're about to study here.
And then it says that they were baptized. And so if you're looking at this setting with the southern steps, just before early 2000, they hadn't uncovered stuff, and you looked around and you're like, it says they got baptized, but where did they get baptized? There's no bodies of water anywhere. Like, it's kind of crazy.
It was almost one of those things where someone a skeptic could say or someone from the world could say, oh, see, scripture's inconsistent because it has all these things. But then in the early 2000s, archeology mixed with history, mixed with prophecy, boy, God wins every time, doesn't he, church? They dug up 48 to 50 excavated mikvahs. Okay, and we got some pictures of these right here.
They dug these up at the beginning of the century. And they're like, there's like 48 to 50 of them so far that they've uncovered. And these were ceremonial bath places in the temple. And basically, people would come from all over and they would come to purify themselves.
Jesus and his disciples for sure got in these things and did the ceremonial washings and cleanings before they entered the temple. And these were ritual baths and they were also used as baptismals. And so here in the scripture that we've been reading our whole lives and like people before 2000 are like, yeah, okay, it says that 3000 people got saved and they were baptized. Where was the water?
Well, I'm sure they did something. Maybe they had fancy troughs like these, make it churches do these days. I doubt it. Okay.
But people just assumed they must have figured something out and then archaeology happens and they did all these excavated mikvahs all over the place. And so when you're standing, let's go back to that first slide of the southern steps. When you're standing at the southern steps looking down, so a top against your back is against that back wall. And you're looking down right below it.
R, let's go back to the mikvahs, these beautiful uncovered places. And there's one more slide, I think, too, of the mikvahs. Yes? Okay.
Were they just dug them up and people were getting baptized in these places. So we're going to see scripture come alive this morning. Sound good as we read God's word. And it's just pretty awesome.
And remember, and people are saying, well, how do you know they were at the temple, pastor J during Pentecost? Remember, they said that they were drunk and the response was, well, it's nine in the morning. Do you guys remember this? How could they be drunk if it's nine in the morning?
Nine was the hour of prayer in the temple. And they were always at the temple. And so you know they're at the temple with prayer. And then how could a crowd of over 3000 people hear this?
Because when you sit on those steps, it is awesome. Our group went up there. I wish I had, I wish I took a picture of our group on those steps because you can, there is so much space that's ridiculous and you could have thousands and thousands of people right there. So let's go into the word of God today.
If you got your hand out, let's pull those out as well. And here they're at Pentecost. This is, remember Pentecost is a major Jewish beast. So there was this pilgrimage of Jerusalem so that people from all over the known world, they would come to Jerusalem during these feasts and during these great holidays in the Jewish calendar.
And they would make the pilgrimage and everybody would want to be at the temple. And so this was one of those times that everyone came and the disciples were just recently filled with the Holy Spirit and mayhem is going on. Everybody's speaking in every language everybody's ever heard. And people are hearing their own languages and they're saying, this is a miracle.
Look what God's done. All this is happening. Some were amazed. Some were drunk.
Some were not saying they were drunk. And then Peter stands up and addresses the crowd. And so you say, yeah, that's easy for Peter. He's like this professor of theology at Talbot Seminary and he's such a learned man.
No, he wasn't. He was a fisherman. He didn't have any of the skills of a rabbi. He wasn't anywhere close to the pedigree of what Paul had as a theologian, as a Pharisee of Pharisees and a scribe.
No, Peter was just this common, unlearned man and he stood up, stands up in front of the known world and says what we're about to read. Why? Because he was Holy Spirit filled, Holy Spirit led and Holy Spirit empowered. Amen.
So that's, I want to set that table for you right before we read the scriptures because that's what this morning is going to be all about. You got to understand that Peter didn't just do this on his own power. He ends up giving a sermon that is so, you'll see it when it's broken down. I put down for you the top five things from Peter's sermon on the handout.
You'll see when it comes out, it's like, oh, this is the whole gospel. It was so eloquent. It was so perfect. It was like this master sermon that anybody today, 2000 years later could totally preach word for word and it would be like, yeah, that's the whole gospel.
He missed nothing. And it's like, was that an accident? Is Peter really that polished? You have a speaker?
Is he that perfect of a craftsman to put together? No, it was the Holy Spirit. He was Spirit led. He was Spirit empowered and he was Spirit driven.
Everything about it was the Spirit of God. And so now we're blessed because we have the Holy Scriptures and we're going to read Acts chapter two, we met and we have blessed because we're sitting here in a nice air conditioned room on a hot day in padded chairs for the Christians that sit in the middle. Anyway, and no offense people. Okay, so, so no, we're blessed to be sitting here and now we get to read the Word of God.
And all these years later, this is a Spirit powered, Spirit led, Spirit driven sermon. And you get to hear it today. So this is from the Word of God. We're going to read Acts chapter two.
Let's start with verses 14 through 21. You ever got your Bible's open? Okay, we're going to be verses 14 through 21. Remember, this is right after everyone starts speaking in these crazy languages and everyone's like, are they drunk?
You're like, you know, okay, here we go. Verse 14, but Peter standing with the 11 picture him on those southern steps, church, right? He lifted up his voice and addressed him. And by the way, when I was at Israel standing in the southern steps, I kind of did a couple of those, hey, hey, like to see how far my voice he carries, man.
It was like people were saying, you know, it's because you're loud mouth pastor. I know, okay, here we go. Back to the Word of God, people stopped distracting me. All right, here we go.
Verse 14, you guys there? But Peter standing with the 11, he lifted up his voice. He addressed them. He said, men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words for these people are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day that's 9 a.m.
Where they everyone is at the temple, you have to get the temple at 9 a.m. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. This is direct quote from the book of Joel. You guys, in fact, it's Joel 2 28, if you're looking for the exact reference.
So he says this, he repeats, and in the last days Peter says, it shall be God, it shall be God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. And your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. Even on my male servants and my female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day, and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Isn't that awesome? So Peter just stands up. I mean, there's chaos, people are like, they're drunk and they'll be like, what are they doing?
And here's like, look, this is what God said. And this is how it's happening. If you've got your hand out, fill this in. Number one, this is the work of God.
Let's make that real clear. Peter wants to say, this isn't my opinion. This isn't my good idea. This isn't me and the disciples coming up with an idea for you that you think is like, hey, this is something maybe you should look into in life.
He's like, no, this is the work of God. Everything you're witnessing here, it can't be done by man. It can't be done by people conjuring up their feelings and getting all emotional and having a big goose moment or something like that. He says, no, this is the work of God.
It's got actively right in front of their eyes, got actively fulfilling his redemptive plan right in front of their eyes. I mean, let your breath be taken away by that. God is actively fulfilling his redemptive plan, sending his Holy Spirit right in front of these people's eyes. And it's for all history.
I mean, this was the birth of the church and this happened. It was God's plan because here God is saving, he's transforming and he's empowering, saving, transforming and empowering. If you want to write that down under number one, you can't. God is saving, he's transforming, he's empowering, he's saving, he's transforming, he's empowering, he's saving, he's transforming, he's transforming, he's transforming.
This is what God does. It's the work of God. And guess what? People can't do this.
People can't save you. People can't transform you. People can't empower you. Guess who can?
Almighty God, the Holy Spirit, he's the one that can do it. He can save you, he can transform you, and he can empower you, praise God. And any of you walking with the Lord, you know this. You know that God has the power to do this.
This is what God does. I love it, man. How divine? Again, Stephen picking the set list for our worship time together.
You know, this is our God. This is what he does. He saves us. This is who he is.
Like, make no mistake. This is what God does. This is the work of God. That's what Peter was saying in this sermon.
He starts out with the first point of Peter's sermon. He's like, look, don't look anywhere else. Don't act like it to us. You want a little magic trick up here.
This is the work of God. Number two, that's your Bibles, verses 22 through 24. He says this, men of Israel, after he quoted Joel, he says, here these words, don't you love the authority there? Here these words men of Israel, all of you, from all of their regions that have come everywhere.
Here these words, he says, Jesus of Nazareth. Who? Jesus, right? A man attested to you by God with mighty words and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst.
As you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definitive plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised them up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. Peter's on fire, man. Look out.
And again, oh, Peter's just so talented, isn't he? This is the same Peter that was constantly sticking his foot in his mouth. You guys, you remember all the screw ups? You remember?
Like, you can't wash any part of me, Lord. Jesus says, get behind me, Satan. Look out. He reveals God almighty up on the mountain.
He gets to see the glory of God and he says, maybe we can set up a couple of tents or you in Elijah, we can do like camp out and we can like cook some s'mores and stuff. Peter, what are you talking about? Right? And then Peter walking on water starts to sink because it's all about it.
Like, this is Peter, the guy that screwed up throughout scripture, everything we read. And now he's proclaiming the gospel because he's Spirit led, he's Spirit-powered, he's Spirit-driven. Spirit of God speaking through him. He's number two, fill this in.
He wanted everyone to know the second point of his sermon. This is the main one. Jesus is the point of everything. Jesus is the point of everything.
He let these guys know, look, Jesus is death, just so you all know it wasn't done by humans. It wasn't done by Nero. It wasn't done by Caesar Augustus like this wasn't an act of man. This was always God's sovereign plan that Jesus would go to the cross and die for the sins of humanity.
So yes, humans, you did it. You crucified him, but don't think that this was your plan. This was always God's plan and Jesus is the point of all of it. It's not an accident.
This was my plan for salvation. It always was. It always was going to be. It always will be.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth. God's the love of the world that he gave his only son and whoever believes in him shall not perish. Jesus is the point of everything. You look at your life, you guys.
You look at, is anyone tired of life? Oh, your busyness and activities and bills and finances, your work, your job, all the drama that happens and you're like, anybody tired of it at all? Like, you got to know, keep your eyes on Christ. Jesus is the point of everything.
Just like Peter said here, we can get, we can have all that stuff. And man, don't lose focus that Jesus is the point of everything. Let's continue in this awesome sermon by Peter. We're going to read a long passage now.
We're going to be versus 25 through 36. And verse 25 to 36, you want to fill this in first on the handout this time? Okay, let's do that. Fill this in on number three.
It is now certain that Jesus is Lord and Christ. He's now certain that Jesus is Lord and Christ. You know, he's already established this whole thing you're seeing. It's the work of God and then he's established that Jesus is the point.
You guys with me? This whole thing, everything you're seeing people is the work of God. All these tongues of fire and all these like people speaking in different languages and the Holy Spirit coming inside and living inside of people. That's all the work of God, but you got to understand Jesus is the point of all of it.
And he moves to this number three and he wants to say, look, it's now certain. You need to understand this. It's certain that Jesus is Lord and Christ. We've been wondering, you see the Messiah, what should we look for?
When the Messiah, even John the Baptist is like, is Jesus the Messiah? Is he the one God, but should we look for someone else? The whole time the Messiah is standing in front of him and like, people are still just waffling and thinking, well, that's not mine. If you love a Messiah, but I thought I'd have a political leader.
I thought I'd have someone that's a revolutionary. I thought there would be someone that would give me more money or more food or whatever, better taxes. Like if you want all these ideas of what their Messiah would be and now Peter wants everyone to know, look, it's certain you got to see what he's done that Jesus is now Lord, okay? Lord and Christ.
So let's read in our passage verse 25 through 36. The word of God says this. He continues, Peter continues. He says, for David said concerning him, I saw the word always before me and he is at my right hand, then I may not be shaken.
Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced and my flesh also will dwell in hope for you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your holy one see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and was buried and was with us to this day.
So he's establishing their big hero David. Look, he's dead. He's buried in a tomb. He's like, oh, see, he's too.
He's still there. Verse 30 says being therefore a prophet and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, David, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh to he corruption. This Jesus, God raised up and of that we are all witnesses, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit in my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
And verse 36, he says, let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. So again, Peter, man, wow, he's not fire, man. I mean, this is the same Peter that was a screw up most of his ministry, right? And he's just letting everybody know this is the proof.
This is what happened. This is everything David said. This is everything the law and the prophet said. This all pointed to the Messiah.
Jesus went and did it. Yes, you crucified him, but he was buried three days later. He rose from the dead. There's proof everywhere.
All witnesses. We saw him now he's sitting at the right hand of God. He's been exalted. He is now for certain, both Lord and Christ.
Does that make sense? I mean, powerful stuff, you guys. So what is certain about being born in Christ? Well, Jesus is alive.
He's exalted and he's Lord. He's actively reigning. We can have every area of our lives come under Christ's authority now. That's what being Lord means.
Lordship, something that is one of my main pillars for this whole church that I want for you, something I always want for you guys as your pastor is for you to understand this Lordship concept. Lordship simply means this. If Jesus is Lord, that means everything goes below him. It means that your opinions and your desires and your ways go below Christ's opinions, ways and desires.
Not a hard thing to do in this day and age, isn't it? Isn't it hard? Because we're all trying to do our own thing. We're all fighting for our own way.
And it's like that takes a lot of humility to drop our pride and to say, God, it's going to be your way. And that's what submission means. So it's certain that he's Lord and Christ. We need to come under that authority.
Number four, on your hand up, fill this in. The gospel demands a response. Amen? It demands a response on what's that response?
You can write it off to the side if you want submission. It's submission. That's what the response is before I read these two verses here before you. But that's what the response to the gospel is.
Look at what verses 37 and 38 says. And it's on the screen as well. Verse 37, now when they heard this, all the people listening to Peter shouting from these steps, right? There's thousands of people over the place.
When they heard this, the Bible says they were cut to the heart. Somebody said cut to the heart. Yeah, that's key. They were cut to the heart.
And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, a question that every pastor hopes that he will hear his congregation wanting to follow Jesus would ask. And they asked this exact question. And they said, brothers, to Peter and the apostles, what shall we do? Isn't that good?
That's it. Hey, what? So this is great. What shall we do?
And is that the end of my verse? Peter said to them, you need to repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So they come and said, well, what should we do?
I mean, the gospel demands response. You can't just say, oh, what a good story. Oh, how nice. Now I feel comfortable in life.
I go to church once a week. I might even throw some money in the offering plate. And I sometimes help people and oh, there was someone that went to Africa and I supported them. And you know, wow, I just feel like such a better person all the time.
It's like, no, the gospel actually demands a complete response from us. Submission to the point of saying like, Lord, we submit to you. We get that lordship thing. My life is under you and everything I do is for your glory.
It's all for you. The crowd was cut to the heart. Are you cut to the heart? This is the spirit's work.
You might be cut to the heart of this very moment. What do you cut to the heart about? How is God moving? How is the Holy Spirit moving in your heart?
What is he cutting to your heart? Is it a certain sin that you've been struggling with? Is it a certain area that you haven't released or surrendered? Is there any control freaks in here that are holding on to something too tough, too tight?
And saying like God, I haven't let that go. I've been worrying about this. I've been taking upon myself. This is all about me.
And God saying, are you cut to the heart? Do you trust me? Do you trust me with all this? So the crowd was cut to the heart.
It's a spirit work. So the answer, what should we do? Well, Peter said you need to repent. What does repent mean?
Anyone? Yeah. How many degrees? It's a 180.
It's the opposite direction. You're going one way and repentance means turn it around. Stop going that way. Oh, but I'm prideful.
I'm always right. It always has to be my way. 180. God's way.
Humility. Pride in the background. Ruby mirror. Yes?
Oh, but I'm angry. I have a right to be angry because these people did this one. 180. Peace in my heart.
God. I love you. Vengeance is mine says the Lord. I will repay.
Okay. All right. God, give me your peace. The peace that surpasses understanding.
What's in the review? Anger. Right? You did a 180.
It's repentance. Whatever it is in your life, a repentance is a 180. It's an active change in your heart. It happens.
And then he says to be baptized. What does baptism represent? Anybody? I just heard it.
Sorry. That was a lot of the other ones. Okay. Baptism is this idea.
Right? It represents the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ in your life. It represents you standing and making a public decoration and saying I belong to the body of Christ. I identify as a Christian.
This is what my life looks like and is about. Right? What's that? Yeah.
Totally giving it to him. Right? And so that's what happens. You stand there above the water.
I love this. Before baptism. You stand above the water and that represents Christ going on the cross. And when you get dunked under the water, that represents him getting buried in the tomb.
And when you come out of the water, that's Jesus raising from the dead. You are declaring his death and being buried in his resurrection from the grave when you get baptized. You're also declaring I belong to Christ. Jesus is my Lord and Savior.
I baptize about a dozen people every time I go to forest home. And the host pastor up there, I'm going back there this summer again to do it. It's one of the most awesome celebrations you'll ever see. And you're sitting there at Lake Day and there's 500 people surrounding this place.
I love it. They saved for last. The last people to get baptized are these people called the CCAs. And the CCAs are these young girls that help babysit and do childcare for the parents during family camp.
And they also have their own camp where they grow deep in Christ and they all get on fire for God and they're all a great sisterhood. But when the CCAs go to get baptized as a part of family camp, maybe there'll be a couple girls that come out. There's a Bella, how many of them are there? 50?
And they're all coming to the water with this one little scared girl. And they surrounded her and make this big arch around her. And as soon as she gives her testimony and says why she's getting baptized and says I belong to Jesus Christ, he's my Lord and Savior. And I go and baptize her and I bring her up out of the water.
You know what happens next? 50 psychotic young girls splashing me more than I've ever been splashed in my entire life. I mean it is mayhem. It's a party.
There's 50 sisters. Sisterhood of Christ just splashing and celebrating and rejoicing saying we had this girl is in for Jesus and we're with her. That's the most beautiful picture of baptism I've ever seen. I mean it is awesome.
And it doesn't have to be a force. So I mean it can be in my backyard in my Jacuzzi. We've baptized many people, many of you there. And you can get baptized also.
If you haven't baptized, come talk to me. We'll set up a special baptism service just for you after church one day. Easy. If you haven't baptized, it's an awesome thing.
It's not a happy way to get to. Jesus told everybody to go and be baptized. And even here when Peter says we've been baptized for the forgiveness of stands, I want to clear this up because if you ever have dealt with the cult that is called the Church of Christ in some area, some certain sex of that, they say that if you aren't baptized, you aren't going to heaven. Okay.
Now they use this verse as one of the core theme elements of why they say that. And just so you know, I've done extensive research on this verse where it says we've baptized for the forgiveness of sins. That word for is the Greek word ice, E-I-S. I think I'm pronouncing it right, ice.
And it's this Greek word that means because one has already obtained. One has already has. If you already have the forgiveness of sins, of course you would get baptized. So anyway, side note, you're welcome.
Okay. We keep moving. But the point of this, sorry, I had to do that because it's important. You know this in your theology.
Baptism doesn't save you. The cross of Jesus Christ saved you. The blood of Jesus on the cross was your remission for your sins. That's what saved you.
Right? So we praise God. We give him all the credit and the glory. We don't say what's because I started in orphanage is why I'm saved.
Nope. Not at all. It's because I got baptized. Nope.
Because I go to church every week. Nope. Because I was born in a Christian family and raised in a Christian family and do all the right things as a Christian. Nope.
It's the blood of Jesus. Jesus alone. They did it. And so here boy, have I gotten off track of whatever this point was that I was trying to make.
But that's important. It's important for our theology, right? You guys, I don't know. I ever want us to miss that.
It's so important and so true repentance and a changing direction in your heart. This is active surrender and baptism is this public decoration. That's what I was talking about. So if you want to get baptized, come talk to me.
Don't let it pass. You don't say, oh, that's not for me. You're all I'd be embarrassed. Forget that.
Come talk to me. Let's work it out. You definitely want to be baptized. It's such a gift to the church.
So finally, number five, our last one here. Fill this in. The promise is for everyone. Hallelujah.
Thank God. It's for everyone. Can you imagine if it wasn't for us? If it was just for the Jews or if it was just for a certain group, boy, would that be tough.
But the promise, the Holy Spirit given to us in salvation, it's for everyone. Look at verses 39 through 41, our final verses here in this passage. It says this, verse 39, for the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. And with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them saying, save yourself from this crooked generation.
And so those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3000 souls. So again, back to that original slide up there of the, uh, Mikas. Sorry. The Mikas, like that was just uncovered here and you wonder where did 3000 people get baptized and it was right there in this beautiful place, unbelievable how it all came together.
And the Bible says that this, this promise is for you. It's for your children. It's for your family. It's for outsiders.
It's for everyone. God calls. 3000 people God save that day. No one is beyond reach.
And what is salvation and what's a visual, it's a visual change. It's a community belonging and that's what baptism is about. So the promise is for everyone. So we'll get your hand out those five points.
Peter's sermon. It's the work of God. Jesus is the point of everything. It's the certain that Christ is Lord and Christ.
The gospel demands a response and the promises for everyone. What an awesome sermon and not because Peter's an awesome guy. It's because the spirit of God led him to say this. So here's what you can do on the bottom.
Five quick things. Here's what you can do. Number one, you got to know that God is at work. So what?
Trust him. If God's at work, trust him. That's, that's got to be boy. I think we would regret if we look back on our life and looked at all the times that God was at work, but we didn't trust them.
Right? Wouldn't you guys agree with that? I mean, I feel like I would probably regret that on yesterday. I might regret that on stuff that happened this morning.
If you just look back and you say, wait, God's at work. I need to trust him. What is trusting him look like? It means trusting him with your life, your family, your finances, your job, your kids, everything.
What are you stressed about in life right now? Are you trusting the Lord? Are you saying God? I trust your God, your Yahweh.
You're the Almighty. You're the Redeemer. You can handle this. So God's at work.
Trust him. Number two, Jesus is central. Right? Remember the point?
So what do we do? Proclaim him. Proclaim him. Tell the world that Jesus is central that he's the point.
Share Jesus and the good news and invite people to church. You know? We had such an awesome, I just, I like this real quick. We had such an incredible Easter weekend, you guys.
It was so powerful and we saw so many people come to this church for the first time. There's some people in here now that came to the first time and I'm telling you, God is moving and God used you to invite so many people and I want to continue to encourage you, continue to invite people. This is the gospel. This is the hope of glory.
Amen? Like, you know, there's people out there dying without Jesus. There's people out there that don't have a relationship with Christ. If you believe this is a good body of Christ, I know I sure do.
Invite people. Don't become. Man, this would be awesome. And just a quick encouragement to you too.
Like, we've been talking about the finances of this church. I want to give you a quick update on that. Man, the finances have been rough. We've been going since COVID.
It's been, we had this big nest egg and it's been going down, down, down. We've been super tight with our money. We've not been excessive spending. We've been careful on every way we've cut everything we could and we're still trying to thrive as a ministry and it's been going down, down, down.
Well, guess what? Since that meeting, there's been two months where it didn't go down and it went up a little. Can you believe it? Isn't that awesome?
It's after two, two straight years we're going down. So praise God. God's doing something, right? Even when you don't see it, God's working.
He's moving. We're going to be talking about this earlier in the sermon that there's an active, so I'm going to write the word active off to the side. There's an active submission, an active surrender. It's not a stagnant submission or a stagnant surrender.
It's this idea that like, if Jesus is my Lord, it's active. It's when you wake up. It's when you have lunch. It's when you get off work or driving on the freeway.
It's when you're get home with your family. Whatever it is, there's an active surrender and submission that's happening throughout the day. So submit to him. Number four, we must repent.
So what does that mean? Turn to him. We talked about the 180. We talked about the changing of direction.
Turn to him. Stop turning to the world. Stop turning to evil things. Turn to Jesus.
Amen, right? This is what our lives to look like in Christ. Turn to him. And finally, number five, the promise is for you.
So receive him. Receive him with an open heart. Open your heart to him. What will you do with Jesus?
The spirit, he convicts, he saves, he transforms. So we need to repent. We need to receive him. When's the last time you repented you guys?
I'm going to call the worship team up right now. And I do ask that question if we want to hit the lights back there and I'd love for you to kind of drop everything if you can, church and go into reflective moment for a second and just ask yourself, when's the last time I repented? When's the last time I said God, I'm changing direction here of a sin. I'm afraid that all too often, including myself, I'm with you guys.
But I'm afraid all too often this 2026 American Christianity, we have gotten really good at hiding our sin, covering it up, acting like it's no big deal, not dealing with it. Just keep on, oh yeah, I'm forgiven. Oh, I'm saved by grace. I can just keep on doing whatever I want.
You're not accountable to anyone. You think you're fooling everybody. You're not fooling God. And then we talk about this idea of repentance.
This was Peter's sermon about him saying, hey, this is Jesus whom you crucified, put it across and died for all sins. Repent, stand for Christ. Be about his business. So when's the last time you repented?
When's the last time you took one of your actions or your attitudes or sins, something you've been harboring in your heart, maybe a grudge, maybe bitterness, maybe hatred towards somebody? When's the last time you laid out before the Lord and say, God, I'm changing directions today. I'm giving it to you for your glory.