Amen. Amen. Welcome. Welcome. So glad you're here. Hey, as you've just seen, beach baptism is right around the corner. It's two weeks away. And if you're here today and you have never taken the step of being baptized as a believer, which means since you've placed your trust in the Lordship of Jesus Christ and put your faith in him that you have not been baptized, then we would

invite you. We would highly encourage you that now is the time to take that step. A few quick

reasons why I think getting baptized is the right step for you if you've never done it is, number

one, Jesus said so. And anything Jesus said to do is a really good idea.

We're super into Jesus here and doing what he said. This is a movement for all people to

discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus. And we do that through obedience. And so

Jesus said to do it. So that would make it a really, really good idea. Number two is do it for us.

Do it for me, man. I mean, there's something encouraging, supernaturally encouraging when we all gather in a place and we watch our brothers and sisters take faithful steps of obedience, making much of Jesus and proclaiming him as ultimate

in their lives. It just encourages the church. It encourages the body of Christ in an incredibly

unique way. And so do it for us. And the last reason I would give you as to why you should

take the step of baptism if you not, is do it for yourself.

God has orchestrated things in such a way that your joy is completely married to your

obedience.

And by being obedient to him, he fills our hearts with joy.

And it's not like we eat spaghetti and we get full. I'm not

talking about that kind of full. I'm talking about this supernatural thing that God does and sustains

in us as we enjoy Him by being obedient to Him. So do it for Jesus. He's super into it. He gets a bunch of glory. do it for us. We get encouraged as he gets glory

and he takes joy from it and do it for yourself so that your joy can be found in being

obedient to Christ. All that to say, baptism, man, is for you. Do it. There's classes at all

of our locations available today directly following this service. You can go to a class and ask

all the questions and get all the answers that you want about baptism. Before we dive into our parable or our text for today,

I would want to echo something that was said earlier in the service, which is if you have served in the military or are serving in the military,

...