On Sunday we were joined by our friend Theresa Dion, from After the Rain Christian Ministries. Theresa talked to us about what it means to be the holy bride of Christ. If a ready bride is free, then a holy bride has consecrated herself to do the will of God. Jesus is looking for faithfulness. He is looking for those who will continually receive His unending love, and respond in trust with obedience. Agreeing with God’s word is how you walk in holiness. You must first acknowledge your need for Him in order to be empowered by Him. It’s not what we do that makes us holy, but who we are in Christ. This holiness releases the power of God. If we want to see the kingdom come, we as the Church must increase in holiness.

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04.28.24 Sermon Guide

This last Sunday we were joined by guest speaker, Phil Zahn. Phil imparted to us single-mindedness and simple love for Jesus.

When we give up our right to understand and control our lives, Jesus is able to lead us the way He wants to. Our job is to never get ahead of Him, but to stay close beside Him and behind Him, to let Him lead.

God is so trustworthy. He protects us, tells us the truth, keeps His word, and He loves spending time with us.

You were designed for this kind of relationship with Him, and this relationship is actually how the kingdom of God expands on earth.

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This last Sunday, we wrapped up our Baptism Series with a teaching on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. We believe that Jesus intended you to live a life completely submerged in His Holy Spirit. Throughout the New Testament we see the filling of the Holy Spirit as a repeated experience in the life of the believer. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a baptism of love. It’s designed to purify you, to lead you, and to put God’s glory on display through you. God has designed it so that for your whole life you are surrounded by and filled with the fire of His love so that you can become love.

This last Sunday, we heard from Bria Wolter on what it means to steward the reality of our baptism into Christ. Your baptism affords you a new position in life that comes with a new way of living. We live out this new position through a life of communion, consecration, and fresh oil. Everything He did, He did so He could be close to you. We pray that you are filled with fresh hope and joy at the reality of your baptism into Christ!

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This last Sunday we got to hear from one of our elders, Austin Smith, on baptism as the entry into New Covenant family. When you got baptized, you entered into a family, not just a religion. The culture of this family is distinct, and in order to live the life you were mean to live in Christ, you must learn to prioritize the one thing that the family prioritizes - loving and cherishing God above all else. We don’t do things for God to gain His approval and we don’t manipulate His love for desired outcomes in our life. Our joy in life is simply to know Him and love Him.

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Last week we laid the foundation for baptism with a thorough examination of the gospel. This week Alex talked more in depth about what baptism is and what it does. Different traditions have held different stances throughout the centuries on what baptism is. Our stance is that the act of baptism doesn’t save you but should always accompany the faith that does. Baptism gives you a new identity. It is the way we express with our physicality what is true about us theologically. Once we have repented into Christ and been baptized, we must learn how to walk in this new blood-purchased identity. It is a journey of continually remembering and receiving Christ’s sacrifice for you that will lead to the kingdom being produced in your life.

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This last Sunday we began a new series in which we intend to lay out a theological foundation for what baptism is, what it means, and what it accomplishes.

In order to understand what baptism is, we first need a thorough examination of the gospel.

God made a world that needed human partnership in order to expand his kingdom physically and spiritually throughout the earth. The humans that were designed to rule by trusting God used their agency to make decisions apart from Him, defining good and evil for themselves. This sin caused evil to enter the world and severed the connection of trust between God and man.

When Jesus came he did what no human before Him was able to do - trust and obey Yahweh completely. By His death, He got what we deserved, so we could get what He deserved. In doing so, we receive a new identity and a new experience of life. We are no longer enslaved to our sin, but are free to trust God. Once alienated from God, we now experience the peace with Him that we were designed for. This reconnection with God brings about a life of power that continually crushes the head of the serpent.

Baptism is an invitation to join Him in a death like His, so that we might also join Him in a resurrection like his. (Rom 6v5)

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