Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Welcome to Big Valley Grace Community Church. If it’s your first time here, we’re so glad that you’re here. Warm welcome from all of us to you. Merry Christmas. Welcome to church. My name’s Joel. I’d love to meet you after the gathering. I’m going to be standing right down here. I’d love to welcome you to church. If you’re new, put a name and a face together. We’re super glad that you’re here. We hope that today is a great encouragement to you. And also, I want to say congratulations on your baptism. That was awesome. We’re celebrating with you. Very cool. Very cool. So proud of you. Good job sharing your testimony as you were being baptized today. That was a great encouragement to all of us.

So, thank you. Thank you so much. Today, we’re going to be in the Gospel of John chapter 3. If you have a Bible, you can turn to John 3, but also when you came in, there were note sheets. What I’m going to do is I’m going to follow right along with this note sheet. So, if you got one of those note sheets, that’s exactly where we’re going. That’s where we’re heading. And you can use that note sheet as we spend time teaching. If you need a Bible, we want to give you a Bible today. And we can do that right in our prayer room. Our team will also be down in front today at the end of the service. So, if you need a Bible, we want to make sure that you have a copy of God’s word. It’ll be at no cost to you.

It’ll be our gift to you. We want to make sure everyone has a Bible. Well, before we get into the text, I want to share a little bit of context about my own life to maybe get us moving to where we’re going to go in the teaching today. And there’s a question that I’ve been asked. And I have been asked this question so many times. And now that I think about it, I think I’ve been asked this question many times all throughout my life. But this year, this question has hit me in a way that is so different than I have considered it previously. And that’s probably because my family has changed quite a bit. My family’s grown up and the dynamics of my family are really different. Now, the question that I keep getting asked is, “Are you traveling for the holidays?” And [laughter] someone yelled, “No.” okay.

We’re glad you’re here. so when I previously in my life, you know, when I would be asked that question really, are you traveling for the holidays? All that question did for me was, am I going on vacation? You know, I got the kids in the house and if we’re traveling for the holidays, that just means we’re going on vacation and we’re going to go somewhere with the kids and we’re going to have a great time. But now that my family has changed and my kids have gotten married and they’re living in different states, are you traveling for the holidays? It means something totally different because really what it resonates in my heart now is, am I going to be with my family? Am I going to be with my loved ones?

when I when I think about the family meal, who’s going to be at the table? Who’s not going to be at the table? And it stirred up all kinds of different things in me. And and this is kind of what the holidays can do for us. It can stir up all kinds of emotions in us. really positive ones, highlights in our life. In fact, this year I’ve got a highlight that I’m I’m celebrating. I became a grandpa this year. So that is like awesome. Totally amazing. Yeah. Oh man. My grandpa name is Big Pop. I wear it well and and I like being a grandpa. It’s really great. In fact, here’s a photo of my grandbaby hanging out with all of her homies. All right. So, you know, they’re having their first friends miss, right?

And and they got they got all their buddies together and they’re having a Christmas party. You know, they’re exchanging their crackers and their sippy cups and their germs, right? and and you know, remember when life was a little simpler and you could just get into your Christmas PJs and everything was cool. You know, that’s a highlight in my life this year. I’m celebrating that. That’s something that the holidays are reminding me of. This is it’s good and it’s special. But there’s also low lightss. You know, a low light for me this year is over Thanksgiving, I spent a number of days by myself. My family was traveling and for some circumstances, I wasn’t able to travel with them. And you know what?

I didn’t like that at all. It felt very alone and very isolating. It it felt like there’s people I’m supposed to be with, but I’m not with them. Man, that was that was a bummer. And and that was a low light. And and in the holiday time, there can be great highlights and there can be great lowlights. And a lot of memories end up getting stirred up and it reveals our relationships. During the message today, I’m going to share with you from a number of my friends who have had incredible impact in their life this year because of the work of Jesus Christ. The first I want to share with you is my friend Steve. I’ve known Steve for a long time. He’s known the Lord for a long time. But listen to what Steve has to say.

My life was shattered when my wife died unexpectedly. But through trusting in Christ, I found rest for my soul through the sweetness of his presence. Jesus is the hero of my story. In life, we have highlights and we have low lightss. We are on a journey in life. And you might be on the mountaintop right now. And I want you to know, we celebrate with you that you’re on the mountaintop. And Jesus can meet you right at the top of the mountain that you’re on. You might be in the bottom of the valley and we want to sit with you and we want to walk with you right with what you’re experiencing and Jesus knows your situation and he can meet you right in the bottom of the valley. You might be mountain climbing somewhere in between up or down and God knows exactly the circumstances of your life.

It is not an accident that you are here today. God purposefully has you here today and God wants to meet you right where you are. God reaches down to us in the exact location that we are in this passage here, John chapter 3. What I’m going to do is I’m going to read 21 verses. I’m going to read it straight through and then we’re going to come back around. I’m going to read it again and I’m going to explain it as we go. This is what John 3 beginning in verse one says. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. And this man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God. For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” And Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” And Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who’s born of the spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” And Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.

If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except [snorts] he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God.

And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world and the people love darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. Let’s pray together. Father God, Lord, thank you for your word. Your word speaks and we need to hear it. Your word speaks to us and each of us needs to hear it. God, you know where we are on this journey of life. You know where if we’re at the top of the mountain. You know if we’re in the bottom of the valley. You know if we’re climbing somewhere up and down in between.

God, you know where we are. You see us. God, help us to understand that you see us, that you know us, that you know what’s going on in our life, and that you’re speaking directly to us right where we are so that we might be able to hear you today. So God, we need your help. We need you to speak to us. Help us to hear your word. And I pray this in Jesus name. And all God’s family said, amen. This discussion is between two people. Nicodemus and Jesus. And it happens at nighttime. And in the Gospel of John, darkness and light, they refer to a number of things. They refer to physical darkness and physical light, but they also refer to spiritual darkness and spiritual light. And here we have a conversation that’s happening in the dark between a man who’s in darkness and he’s in doubt and he’s coming to a man who is the light.

Nicodemus coming to Jesus. You know, we all know what it is to feel like we’re in the dark. We know what it is to feel lost, to feel spiritually lost, to to feel spiritually in the dark. And sometimes we can feel like there’s just a cloud hanging over us. Kind of like what it’s like living in the valley the last three weeks where you just don’t ever see the sun and there just feels like there’s a cloud hanging over our lives. Well, there’s a solution and this passage shares the solution. Jesus is the light and we can look to the light because God is bringing light to us right where we are even in spiritual darkness. I want to share with you about another one of my friends. Her name is Shelly.

And Shelley has known the Lord for a long time. And this last year Shelley has experienced significant impact because of Jesus Christ working in her life. Listen to what Shelley says. Shelley shares, “Jesus rescued me through job uncertainty, health concerns, and family loss. And through these difficult times, the Lord has quieted my fears, strengthened my faith, and covered me with his goodness.” Shelley was actually here serving this weekend, and yesterday when she was here serving, she received the message that her father had passed away and had gone to be with the Lord. And the timing of this is interesting because here Shelley’s in a position that she needs to be ministered to. And yet she’s ministering to all of us by sharing this testimony about how God has worked in her life.

And so we thank Shelley for being bold and courageous to share her testimony in a time that it really matters in her life right now. And she’s being a blessing to us. We’re going to go back through our text in John chapter 3. We’re going to begin in verse one. says, ‘Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. To understand this guy, we need to understand that he’s a very prominent religious figure and it would be like in our context, he’s a US senator. So, you put those two together and that kind of helps to understand what is this guy like? He’s a prominent religious figure and he’s a prominent national figure. This man came to Jesus by night. We don’t know why he came to Jesus by night.

We don’t know if he wanted the conversation to be in secret or he he was hiding. We we don’t know the reason why he came at night. But he says, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God.” Now, when Nicodemus calls Jesus rabbi, it’s like saying, “We’re the same.” Nicodemus is a rabbi and and Jesus is a rabbi and he’s saying, “We’re the same.” Now, Nicodemus is wrong at this point because Nicodemus and Jesus are not the same. But that’s how he’s talking to him. He’s saying he’s saying we’re the same rabbi. We know that you’re a teacher come from God for no one can do these signs and that you do unless God is with him. And what Nicodemus is saying is, you know, if somebody does a real miracle, the only way a real miracle can happen is because God did it.

And Jesus was healing people. Jesus was healing people who were sick. He was casting out demons. He he was changing people’s lives. And Nicodemus is saying the only way that a real miracle can happen is because it happened because God did it. So in this moment, Nicodemus is is in a sense he’s saying Jesus, he’s trying to figure out, is Jesus real? Is Jesus authentic? Is Jesus genuine? But in this conversation, Jesus flips it and puts it back on Nicodemus. And Jesus answered in verse three, truly truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So Nicodemus is saying, we know about God. We know that that that you must be coming from God. We know because no one can do miracles unless God is with him.

And Jesus is saying, well, let me tell you something. I tell you, I know you’re a religious leader. I know you’re a prominent figure in your nation, but unless you’re born again, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they’re born again. Nicodemus said, “Well, how can this be? How can a man be born when he’s old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” And I I want to suggest that these questions are innocent. You know, he’s he’s a prominent religious leader. He he knows a lot about the scriptures. He’s a prominent national figure. He’s got a lot of power. And imagine saying this if I said this to my mom. I mean, this would be inappropriate if I talked like this to my mother.

And and he’s saying, “Hey, how can how can a man be born when he’s old? Can he enter into a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” And Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Now, he’s already said, “Unless one is born again, he can’t see the kingdom of God.” Now, he takes it further. Unless one is born of the water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. So, in the Bible, water and the spirit, they they have a lot of meaning. One of the meanings that might be helpful for us as we’re understanding what Jesus is saying here is is water was used for cleansing. Water was used for ceremonial cleaning of the person and of objects.

And Jesus is saying unless you’re born of water, unless you’re pure, you’re not going to be able to enter the kingdom of God. And the spirit refers to the Holy Spirit of God. And the spirit also spirit also refers to new life and revival and refreshment and coming alive. And Jesus is saying, “Unless you experience new life, unless something changes you and renews you and revives you and you’re born again, you can’t enter the kingdom of God. Unless one is born of water in the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Then he goes on to explain it. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. So a physical birth is going to lead to physical life, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. A spiritual birth is going to lead to spiritual life.

He says, ‘Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. Don’t be amazed that I’m telling you this. Don’t be amazed. But notice Jesus is not giving any wiggle room. He’s saying you must be born again. You must be born again. Unless one’s born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Unless one is born of water in the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. You must be born again. And then Jesus gives an example from natural life to explain this. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it goes. And we can all understand the wind. We can all understand the impact of wind, especially after you got that very last leaf after off your lawn and then all the leaves from your neighbor’s lawn blew onto your lawn, right?

And you’re doing the neighborhood of service by cleaning up all the leaves, right? We understand we we can’t see the wind. We don’t know where it comes from, but we can feel its impact. We can hear its sound and we can see the wind move things. He’s saying so it is with everyone who’s born of the spirit. When a person is born again, when they have spiritual life, you don’t see the spirit, but you see the spirit move people. And you you hear the spirit and you feel the spirit. You can see, feel, understand the impact of the spirit. It’s like the wind. You can’t see the wind. You can’t see the spirit, but you can see the impact. My friend Jose has experienced great impact because of Jesus Christ this calendar year.

Listen to what Jose says. He says, “The changes I’ve experienced this year from surrendering my will and life over to Jesus Christ is freedom from my sinful ways. My sins do not define who I am. I’m a work in progress of being a mere image of Jesus Christ. Jose has been born again. And the impact that’s happening in Jose’s life is significant because the spirit of God is changing him. And this brings us to number one. We must become spiritually alive before we can enter heaven. Big picture, we’re looking at that Jesus descended to bring you to heaven. And we must become spiritually alive before we can enter heaven. And most people actually think of this in the opposite. They think, well, you know, I’m going to live my life and hopefully, you know, my goods outweigh my bads and when I get to the end of my life, hopefully God will grant me spiritually life on the other end because I did a pretty good job in life.

But that’s not what the Bible teaches. Jesus says, “You must be born again. You must be born again. We must become spiritually alive before we can enter heaven.” Now, here’s the problem. You can’t make yourself spiritually alive. That’s a big problem because Jesus said, “You must be born again.” Except you can’t make yourself spiritually alive. I can’t make myself spiritually alive. And that brings us to a place of confusion and question. And the same is in our passage in verse 9. Nicodemus now asks a question. How can these things be? How can these things be? He doesn’t understand what’s going on. And Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and that you don’t understand these things?” That’s like Jesus saying, “I thought you had read this book.

Had [clears throat] you not read this book? I thought you had read this book. Aren’t you the one? Aren’t you the authority? Aren’t you the one who’s the teacher? How how is it that you don’t understand what I’m saying?” Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know.” So earlier, Nicodemus was saying, coming to Jesus and saying, “We know something about you, Jesus, and we know something about God.” Well, Jesus flips the language now and he’s saying, “Let me tell you about what we know. We speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I’ve told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” This is like saying, “Here on earth, there’s a lot that we can know.

God has revealed a lot. He has revealed a lot about himself and he has given us his word. And there’s a lot that we can know while we’re here on earth. And Jesus is saying, if you don’t understand the things that are available to you right now, the earthly things, how are you going to believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of man. Jesus is calling himself the son of man. And he’s saying in this sentence, he’s saying, “I came from heaven. Jesus descended to bring you to heaven.” He’s saying, “I came from heaven. No one’s ascended into heaven except he, that’s me, Jesus, who descended from heaven, the son of man.” Jesus is calling himself the son of man.

He’s saying, “I came from heaven.” Then he gives an illustration. He says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up.” To understand this sentence, you actually need to know something about the history of Israel. Now, Nicodemus was a ruler in Israel. He was a teacher, a religious leader. So, he would have understand this, understood this clearly. For us, we’re a little disconnected from it. But essentially, this is what it is. The nation of Israel was disobeying God. So, God disciplined the nation of Israel by sending snakes to bite them that had venom that led them to die. And God prov provided an antidote, but it’s not an antidote like you would think about it because the antidote that God provided was for Moses, the leader, the national leader, to create a serpent of bronze and put it on a pole.

And he lifted it up, a serpent of bronze on the pole. And God gave the instruction that if anyone who had been bitten by the snake and was dying from the effects of the venom, if they looked at the snake on the pole, the bronze snake on the pole, that they would be cured. And Jesus is using it now. He’s talking to a religious national leader in Israel. And he’s using it as an illustration. And he’s saying, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up.” Jesus is describing that he is going to go to the cross. In the same way that that bronze serpent had to be up on a pole and people could look to it and be cured, Jesus is saying he is going to be on a cross.

He’s going to die on a cross for our sins. And in the same way that that venom which led to death, we have all experienced being bitten by the snake. And that’s our sin. And our sin has a consequence and that is death. And Jesus is saying the son of man must be lifted up. Why? So people can look at the son of man and they can be cured from the impact of sin which is death. So must the son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. Jesus is saying I’m gonna go to the cross and I’m gonna be lifted up on the cross. I’m going to die on the cross and the person who looks to me and believes in me is going to experience eternal life. Another one of our friends is Kajil and she has experienced tremendous impact because of Jesus Christ in her life this year.

Listen to what Kajel says. I felt lost, struggling with addiction and no direction. After stepping into church, I began my walk with Christ, got baptized, found sobriety, purpose, discipline, and a transformed heart. God has changed her life. She is believing in Jesus Christ, and she’s experiencing eternal life. She’s experiencing the impact of the spirit of God change in her life. And this brings us to number two. We become spiritually alive by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. This weekend we’re looking that Jesus descended to bring you to heaven. And we become spiritually alive by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Grace means a gift that is not earned and it is not deserved. And God gives a gift of grace that we did not earn and we do not deserve it.

And that is a gift of salvation. And the way we receive the gift is through faith. Through believing and trusting in Jesus Christ. We become spiritually alive by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. You have a gift that is waiting for you to receive. It’s a gift that God gives you and it’s in his son Jesus Christ. It is why we celebrate Christmas, the coming of Jesus, who is the gift of God for us that we might be able to be forgiven of our sin and have eternal life. Now, in this conversation with Nicodemus and Jesus, it moves from a dialogue to a monologue. In verse 16, Jesus says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” For God so loved the world, God loves people.

God loves you. For God so loved you that he gave a gift of grace, his only son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believes in him, whoever looks to the son of man, who is lifted up should not perish, should not experience the result of sin, which is death, should not die from the snake venom. Whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world. And in fact, most people consider God the opposite. Most people think about God as God’s just waiting to condemn me. God’s just wait God’s just looking for the opportunity to condemn me. But that’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches, “For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him, the son of man must be lifted up and everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.” Now, verse 18 helps us understand that there’s a there’s a responsibility we all have in what are we going to do with the person of Jesus Christ.

In verse 18, it says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned. Whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned. But there’s a flip side. Whoever does not believe is condemned already. Whoever does not believe in Jesus is condemned already. And there is one deciding factor because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God. God is going to hold all of us accountable for what are we going to do with the person of Jesus. Whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned, but whoever does not believe in Jesus is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God. I’ve got a couple friends who have experienced the impact of Jesus Christ in a really significant way in 2025.

Their names are Marcos and Nancy. And I want to share with you from them as well. Marcos says this, “I was so lost when I was young. I sought earthly attention to find my identity. And after hearing Jesus Christ calling my name, I established my life in him. I am now redeemed. Marcos has experienced significant impact because of Jesus. And listen to his wife Nancy. Nancy says, “The issues I was going through were more than I can handle on my own. Focusing on Jesus freed me. Knowing Jesus is knowing love. Marcos and Nancy have believed in the name of the only son of God. They have been born again and the spirit of God has changed them, has impacted their life. This brings us to number three. We are each accountable for our own decision about Jesus Christ.

Jesus descended to bring you to heaven and we are each accountable for our own decision about Jesus Christ. God is going to hold each of us accountable for what do we do with the person of Jesus Christ. And I want you to know this is so important that we’re not going to go any further until we give everybody an opportunity to make a decision about Jesus because God is going to hold each of us accountable for our own decision about Jesus Christ. And I want to make sure that you have the opportunity to make a decision for yourself about Jesus Christ. And I want to have a time for us to pray so that those who need to make a decision about Jesus Christ have the opportunity to do so right now. So let’s bow our heads, okay?

Let’s enter into a time of prayer. And if you know that you need to make a decision about Jesus Christ today, I’m going to I’m going to give you an opportunity to pray and I’m going to help you pray. I’m going to help you pray some things to God. And I would just challenge you if if you know this is this is what you need to be doing today that you would mean it, you’d mean the prayer, that it would be real, it would be genuine, it would be authentic, I would challenge you to tell God, God, I know that I have sinned. And I would challenge you to pray that to him. God, I know that I have sinned. And I would challenge you to pray to God and say, God, I need to be forgiven of my sin. God, will you help me believe in Jesus Christ?

God, I want to believe that Jesus can save me. God, help me to believe that I can be forgiven of my sin because of Jesus Christ. God, help me to believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. God, help me to trust that by believing in Jesus Christ, I can have eternal life. Now, if you’re praying this, I would challenge you to also pray, “God, thank you for forgiving me. God, thank you for the gift of Jesus Christ. God, thank you for salvation. God, thank you for the hope of eternal life in heaven. God, thank you for reaching down to me right where I am today. God, thank you that you love me. God, thank you that you care about my life. And we all pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ. And all God’s family said, “Amen.” Now, there’s three more verses I want to share with you because Jesus wasn’t done.

In verse 19, Jesus says, “And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” What Jesus is doing here is he’s saying, “I’m the light. I came into the world. I, Jesus, am the light and I came into the world.” But here’s the problem. I came into the world, but people actually like the darkness. And the reason people like the darkness is because their works are evil. And so we get exposed to the light of Jesus, but our human nature wants to hide. Our human nature wants to move away from the light of Jesus because we know our sin and we want to hide our sin. The next verse he says, “For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.” We all know that we’re sinners.

We all know that we have sin. That is obvious. And if anybody thinks differently, just give me a couple minutes with the person who’s sitting next to you. We’ll get it cleared up. Every one of us knows that we’ve got an issue. But what we in nature do, in human nature, is we just don’t want to let anybody else know. We don’t want anybody to know that we’re a sinner. We don’t want our sin to be exposed. But there’s a different option. And Jesus says in verse 21, “Whoever does what is true comes to the light.” Remember this whole conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus. Nicodemus is trying to authenticate Jesus. Are you real? Are you genuine? Are you authentic? And Jesus is explaining Nicodemus, this is how someone is real and so someone is genuine and how someone is authentic.

And he’s saying whoever does what is true comes to the light. If you are born again, it’s not going to be a secret. If the spirit of God changes your life, it’s not going to be a secret. If you believe in the name of the only son of God, it’s not going to be a secret because when you come to salvation in Jesus, it changes your life and people around you are going to see it. Who whatever whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. When God changes our lives, people are going to notice. People are going to see the difference. Let me share with you one more quote from my friend Doran who has experienced a radical transformation in Jesus this year.

This is what Doran says. Jesus led me to celebrate recovery which gave me the tools towards healing my heart and ridding my life of anger. The peace in my heart and marriage has been miraculous. People are seeing that Doran’s life has changed. His life has been changed by the impact of Jesus. And people are noticing. And Jesus is saying, “Whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” If God is working in your life, we want to celebrate with you. If God is meeting you right where you are, wherever you are on the journey of life, maybe you’re at the mountain top, maybe you’re in the valley low, maybe you’re somewhere in between, wherever God’s meeting with you, we want to celebrate that God is working in your life.

And there’s two ways that I want to invite you that we could celebrate with you. The first is this. I just want to have everybody pull out a connect card. They’re in the seat pockets in front of you. Okay? So, if you just look in front of you, there’s pockets in there. There’s a connect cards, blue at the top, connect card. Just pull one I just want everyone to pull one out. Okay? If God is working in your life, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to fill the front of this out. Everybody can fill this out. That lets you that lets us know that you were here today. We would love to know that you were here today. Okay? So, if you fill out the front of this card, that lets us know you were here.

If God is working in your life, there’s some ways for you to let us know that on the back of this card. Maybe you prayed, maybe you prayed today and you prayed to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior. you you could let us know at the top. But I want to challenge you with this. One of the ways that we celebrate with people is in their baptism. And we want to celebrate with you in your baptism. If you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you need to be baptized. And we want to help you. In fact, in two weekends, we have a baptism weekend. The whole reason why we have a baptism weekend in two weekends is because we plan to help you get baptized. It’s the whole reason we are trusting that God is moving in people’s lives.

And there are people who have come to faith. Whether you came to faith today or before today, it doesn’t matter. If you have placed your faith in Jesus, you need to be baptized. And if you haven’t been baptized, we want to help you to be baptized. And you can let us know on this card. Fill out the front, on the back, the third box down. I would like to be baptized. Just check that box. Fill out the front of this card. On the back of the card, just check the box. I would like to be baptized. And then when you exit this room, every exit has a black box next to the door that says connect card with an arrow. Just take this connect card, put it in that black box. Our team will follow up with you. And we’ve got a baptism weekend in two weekends.

And we want to help you. We want to help you take the step of being baptized. and we want to celebrate your baptism with you. So fill this card out, let us know you need to be baptized and put it in the black box. That’s the first way we want to celebrate with you. We want to celebrate your baptism with you. The second way we want to celebrate with you is if today was the day that you prayed to accept Jesus Christ and earlier you prayed and it was real. You were really praying to God. It was genuine. You really you really believed it. It was authentic. You weren’t messing around. You were asking God to bring salvation into your life. If you prayed earlier and it was real, you meant it. We want to celebrate with you right now.

And the way we want to celebrate with you right now is during this next song, our team is going to be standing up front here. We’re all going to be standing right here, our team. And during this next song, I want to challenge you to be brave and to be courageous and just come. We’re all going to be standing and singing. Just come down to the front, meet one of our team members and let our team pray for you. Look, if you’re coming to Jesus, you need prayer and you need it right now. And we’re going to pray with you. We’re going to pray with you right here. So if today is the day that God is reaching down to you and he’s meeting you right where you are and today’s the day that you are placing your faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we want to celebrate with you right now.

So during this next song, our team’s going to be right here. Come forward, meet one of our team members. They’re going to pray for you. They’re going to give you a Bible. They’re going to give you some helpful information. and they are going to enter into celebrating with you because there’s nothing greater to celebrate than when we come to faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and as our Savior. So during this next song, come on down and let’s celebrate with you right now. Father God, Lord, we thank you for how you’re working in our church. We thank you for the testimony of those that we have already shared and we thank you for the testimony of those who you are working in their life right now. You have seen them.

You know what’s going on in their life. And you have reached down to right where they are. And God, I pray that you would give courage and bravery to those who prayed to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior today. And God, you’d give them boldness to come down, meet one of our team members so that we can pray with them. And we pray this in Jesus name. And all God’s family said, “Amen.”