Time to Build | Week 4 | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church

and amen. I don't know if you guys have ever gone camping in a trailer but my my family and I used to have a trailer that we would go camping in a bunch and when we're living in San Diego, I was hanging out with a friend of mine and he was dropping me off at, you know, after dinner and he's like, hey, he saw this trailer that was in my driveway and he said, hey, you should put that on Airbnb and I was like, what? He's like, yeah, bro. And here's what he said. He's like, all these crazy people from Arizona,

they'll stay in anything in San Diego just to get out of the heat. I'm like, oh, what? You know, so I I kid you not too sure. I walk in there with my cellphone. I take like 10 pictures of this trailer. Mind you, in my driveway, I post them on Airbnb at like the end of May

and all of sudden, June and July are booked completely solid within like three days and all of sudden, I tell my wife, hey, we're Airbnb host and it's my trailer that's in the driveway and people often would ask like, you don't move it anymore. I'm like, no, they literally stay in my driveway and so, we connected power to it. We had water to it. Like, it was actually a pretty cool little setup and families thought it was fun to like be camping in, you know, my driveway but the the problem became

that the challenge was, if you ever been in a trailer, you know, there's two tanks of water you've gotta deal with. The gray water which is all the sinks and the showers, they drain into one tank and then you got the black water tank, okay? Black water tank is everything that comes out of the toilet. You can use your imagination, alright? So, you've gotta figure out how to drain the gray water in the black water tanks and normally, when you're camping,

there's like a big place you go to and you just dump all the tanks and it's pretty simple to do. At my house, it's not so simple. So, I'm like, I'm going have to hook it up and drive it away and do that every time, the trailer, back the trailer up. My wife and I almost get divorced every time we back up a trailer. Like, so that that can't be an option and so, I I start to do a bunch of research and I I learned about this thing called a macerator, okay? A macerator is literally,

it's kind of gross so stay with me but it it's a garbage disposal that you connect to your sewer line and when you open the tanks, it basically blends everything and pumps it out a garden hose and then you can run it hundreds of feet on the side of your house and put it into your sewer inlet. So, kind of brilliant, right? We go from like, this is a big problem to now. We've got this great solution.

I ordered this thing. I throw out the instructions because that's the obvious thing to do, right? When you're a dude.

So, I connect this macerator and I start, you know, I get it connected to power. This thing starts going. I I open up the black water tanks. Things start rolling and all of a sudden, it starts to like the the macerator starts to kind of like shake and I can tell there's like pressure building up, right? And so, I I go to get down to like adjust this thing. Yeah, you know where this is going. I know. I I go to adjust this thing and literally, it goes and

it just explodes. So much pressure is built up. It explodes. It sprays everywhere. It's just pumping out, right? And so I'm like trying to shut everything off. I'm running through the house like ripping my clothes off and pouring bleach over my head and my kids are like, why does dad always do this, you know?

And it do, it was just horror. It's one of those showers like you can't get clean enough. It doesn't matter how many times you wash your hair like you still are like just disgusting and then I get out and I start to feel terrible,

right? And so I call. I was a high school pastor at the time. I called one of my small group leaders that worked for the city sanitation department and I was like, Mike, I I I just feel terrible, man. I don't, do I need to go to the hospital? And he's like, oh man, you're fine. I'm like, what do mean fine? I don't feel fine. He's like, you just got the poo flu. You know, I'm like, look, the what? Like, why do you say that so casually? He's like, yeah, when your body's exposed to all of that bacteria, it just has a reaction. Like, you're fine. You'll feel better in about twenty four hours and so, there's a thing called a poo floo. If you didn't know, now you know. So, you're welcome and you're sitting here like, dude, why why are you telling us any of this on baptism Sunday, right? Well, because the one, no, I'm just kidding.

The the reason the the reason that that I that I start there is obviously it's a silly and it's a flawed illustration but I don't know if you ever been there where like all of a sudden things are going really well and you have an expectation or something that out of nowhere everything just feels like it it blows up in your face and and obviously for me it was a it was a physical thing but what what I wanna do this morning is I wanna talk to all of you who are are here, who have embarked on this faith journey, who again, these last couple months, we've had over 400 people say yes to Jesus. We've got almost 75

that are going public today to get baptized

and and I think sometimes because we live in this Western American culture, we we have set an expectation of what a life with Jesus is supposed to look like and sometimes when life just blows up, we we don't know what to do with it and we go, wait, I thought giving my life to Jesus was supposed to make my marriage and my finances better and my my kids behave differently. I thought I thought my life would get better overnight because that's what we've been told is that you give your life to Jesus because

he's like a magic genie in heaven that just fixes everything but sometimes, what we're going to see today in Nehemiah chapter four is that sometimes on the other side of obedience is opposition

and the question is, is what do you do when you get there? And more importantly, what is your expectation of following Jesus? Why are you surrendering your life to him? Because if all we think he's gonna do is just magically make our life better, we might be setting ourselves up for some disappointment. Again, if you're just joining us, we started a few weeks ago looking through the book of Nehemiah. I think one of the most incredible books in the Old Testament is a story of a a regular guy that was a part of god's people but they were living in captivity.

He was working for this guy named King Artaxerxes. He was the cup bearer to the king. He got news from his brother that the walls around Jerusalem, his hometown had been destroyed

and he felt like god could use his life to make a significant impact. So, he began to pray and he asked the king, can I go back and rebuild these walls and to his shock and his surprise, the king blesses him? The king gives him the ability to go back and rebuild them and even more so, the king actually funds the entire rebuilding project. I mean, look last week, Nehemiah has rallied the people. He's he's gotten them excited about the building project and people are working hard. We won't read the verses today but in Nehemiah four, halfway through, we'll see that they're about halfway done with the wall at this point and you would think

that because they're now stepping into new territory, the people of god are again going after the things of god that you would assume that what we would read is just all the blessing and all the favor that's poured on their life but Nehemiah four,

there's a really important story that we have to see for us to understand what a life of faith sometimes looks like so that we can understand what we are are are in for. So, Nehemiah chapter four verse one, here's how the story begins. It says, Sambalat,

the Horonite, okay? Again, I I put that in there. It's not in your Bible but if you go back to chapter two, you'll see that Sambalot is a horror night. That stuff will make sense later. Again, horror night is a word you gotta say slowly and carefully when you're in church but it's in there. It's in the Bible, okay? The Horonite was very angry when he learned that we were rebuilding the wall. He, Sambalat, flew into a rage and mocked the Jews saying in front of his friends and the Sumerian officers,

what does this bunch of poor, feeble Jews think they're doing? Do they think that they can build the wall in a single day by just offering a few sacrifices?

Do they actually think that they can make something of stones from a rubbish heap and charred ones at that? And then we see Tobiah, the Ammonite, who was standing beside him remarked, that stone wall would collapse if even a fox walk along the top of it. The the people of god have made the decision to trust god again to step out into obedience

and you would assume that what's right on the other side of that is just blessing and favor and all these things but that that isn't what happens. Nehemiah four, we turn the page from Nehemiah three of the the obedience, them saying, yes, them stepping out, and what happens almost the very next day.

Opposition from the outside starts to come in. I wrote it down this way if you're you're taking notes that when we step out in obedience, you've gotta understand that the enemy steps up with opposition.

See, this is the part and again, I understand why pastors fill churches with people and don't really tell them this reality because it isn't necessarily fun. It's not like, hey, if you're here and you want to make your life better, give your life to Jesus so that you can now start to face opposition.

Like, oh, that doesn't sound good. Like, that doesn't sound fun but you gotta understand that when you say yes to Jesus, you are now stepping into a realm that you had not been in before. You are now in the spiritual fight.

You are now in the spiritual battle that was waging war the whole time. You were just kind of on the sidelines

but now, you've engaged in the fight and this is what's hard because again, we live in this world that is very logic based and reason based and we just go, well, if I if I can't see it, I don't understand it and sometimes that becomes our downfall. I'm I'm telling you, if I could right now for just thirty seconds, if I could peel back the layer between the physical world that you and I live in, that we see, that we interact with, and we could peel back the layer between the physical world and the supernatural spiritual world and you could see the spiritual battle that's taking place over your life and over the life of your family and your loved ones. I'm telling you, it would blow our minds and what happens is when you say yes to Jesus, when you step out into obedience,

you now, you you've now got an enemy that's trying to come in and destroy the very blessed life that Jesus is has died for you to receive. There's a couple verses I want to read to you just kind of tell you the reality of what sometimes stepping out in faith looks like. First John chapter three says, so don't be surprised dear brothers and sisters if the world

hates you. I don't know if you guys saw that there were 70 people in The Congo in this last week that were beheaded not because they did anything crazy because they, all they did is they took a stand and said that we believe that Jesus is the savior of the world

and they were rushed into a church and they were beheaded because of their faith And somehow we think that we follow this Jesus that was persecuted his whole life and we'll go, oh, we'll never face any trials or or or difficulties.

John says, don't be surprised if the world hates you. Jesus himself tells us Luke chapter six verse 22, what blessing awaits you?

Notice what he's going to say. What blessing awaits you when people hate you and exclude you and mock you and curse you as evil because you follow the son of man. Like, wait, that that's not a blessing.

That sounds bad and not fun and I don't like that. I want the Jesus that's the genie guy that I rub the bottle and everything gets better but Jesus himself says that you are blessed when you start to realize that the world is going to hate you for who you've trusted, who you've entrusted with your life. He continues verse 23. He says, when that happens,

be happy. Leap for joy for a great reward awaits you in heaven and remember their ancestors.

Their ancestors treated the ancient prophets that same way. See, Jesus is telling them, remember the prophets of old, the prophets that existed in the days of Nehemiah that were trying to warn the people of god to change their ways, to turn. The prophets that spoke the truth, they weren't celebrated, they were despised and hated. It was the false prophets that told the people not what they needed to hear but what they wanted to hear that were celebrated by the people. Jesus continues in verse 26 and says, what sorrow

awaits you who are praised by the crowds. For their ancestors also praised false prophets. Jesus says that if you are being praised for your faith, maybe you're not standing for real faith

and maybe you're just standing for some cultural understanding of what they think faith is supposed to be and this is the challenge for you and I who exist today in 2025 inside of America. Even when I ask the question, who is Jesus? What is the gospel?

This idea, all everybody in this room would have different answers because we've all been told different versions of what is true and what we've gotta remember is that there's only one version of what is true and real. That's why the scriptures are so important to us because they teach us and they inform us of who Jesus really actually is and he says, hey, guys, just a fair warning. They hated me while I was here. Do not be shocked when you step out in obedience that you start to face some opposition.

Paul tells us Ephesians chapter six that you and I need to put on all of god's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil. He says, there's an armor for the people of god. You know, the only reason you would need armor, right?

It's because there's a battle that's going to happen the moment you step into a relationship with Jesus. You see, my my prayer and my hope is not to just make your life like a

a bubble inflated like bubble wrap type of thing where you never face any opposition but my hope and my goal is that you would have a radical encounter with the real person of Jesus and you would begin to walk obediently to what it is that he's called you to do but I've got to give you a bit of a disclaimer.

Sometimes, things can get worse before they get better and sometimes, you can think about it, right? We we have spouses that were, some of them were getting baptized in our last service and and I know their stories. Some of them have been married for ten years. They have kids together and they both were not followers of Jesus. Well, then, one of them, all of a sudden, gets radically transformed,

gives his life to Jesus, says, I'm going get baptized and you just expect, well, the tension in our marriage is going to get better now that I'm a follower of Jesus but most likely, often, it gets worse before it gets better because you just change the rules. For ten years, this is how we've operated.

We were both not Christian and now you're changing the rules and sometimes if we think that following Jesus is just a magic pill that makes everything better, when we step out in obedience, we face opposition. We go, wait, what is this?

Then, we start to say things that you've heard people say before like, oh yeah, I I tried the Jesus thing. It didn't work. I I tried to listen to the idea of trusting god with my finances but I I did it for six days and my finances got worse, not better. There's a reason

that we encourage people. Man, try tithing for a year

and at the end of the year, if your heart is not in a better place and and most likely, your finances will be too but what you would see the biggest change in is your heart because Jesus is your treasure. That's where your heart is but you've gotta do it for a year because I'm telling you, do for six days, it's going to get worse before it gets better.

You're going to walk through hardship and difficulties because you've now engaged into a spiritual battle that you were on the sidelines in before. You were just sitting on the sidelines and now you're engaged in this fight and we've gotta understand all that to say. I wrote it down this way. If you're taking notes that when you become a Christian, you don't just gain a father in heaven, you also gain an enemy in hell.

This is the part that we don't like to talk about. John ten ten, Jesus says, I've come so that they can have life and life abundantly but there is an enemy that wants to kill, steal, and destroy that life and we become convinced that we don't live in a supernatural world and the idea of talking about angels and demons in the spiritual realm is just weird. I don't know if you've ever been to a third world country. The supernatural is just normal there and I I often wonder, I go, why why is it that America is so toned down when it comes to the supernatural things? I think it's just because we have so much doubt around us. We just all the time like, I don't know. I'm a skeptic. This doesn't make sense. I think it's crazy to to talk in 2025

about demons like, do you live under a rock, Daniel? Like, what what are you talking about? And I think sometimes the reason that we're getting our spiritual butts kicked is because we don't even realize we're in a fight.

We don't even realize that there's opposition that's out there that wants to destroy your family, destroy your marriage, destroy your finances, take your testimony,

get rid of everything in you right now that you're trying to stand for god for. I heard a guy say it a long time ago that I think just makes the most sense to me. The birthmark of a believer is a bull's eye.

The thing that you are marked with the moment you step into the faith journey and say yes to Jesus is you now have a bull's eye. And, yes, you have a father in heaven that loves you and life and eternity is going to be incredible. But sometimes we've got to understand

that when you take action in the Holy Spirit, there's all this other opposition of these unholy spirits that start to happen as well but here's the good news, is that it doesn't stop there, okay? That's not the end of the story.

John chapter 16 verse 33, Jesus tells us that I have told you all of this so that you may have peace in me. I've told you all these things so your heart can have peace. Here on Earth, you will, not you might or it could happen potentially to some people. It says, you will have many trials and sorrows but take heart because I have overcome

the world.

See, Jesus says, take heart because this, when you give your life to Jesus, this is no longer your home and we become aliens that are just passing through a foreign land. This world is temporary. It's all passing away but we believe that Jesus is going to usher in an eternal kingdom and someday, all of us are going to stand before god and there's going to be a moment where we will enter into that eternity and what you did with the person of Jesus will determine if you spend that eternity with him or apart from him but when we give our lives to him, Jesus says, don't don't worry about all of this stuff.

Sorrows are going to happen. Trials are going to come even to those who put their faith in Jesus but take heart because I've overcome this world. This world is the closest that a lot of us will ever get to hell but the sad reality is that this world is also as close to heaven as a lot of people will get as well.

He says, take heart because I've overcome this world and I I feel like I've always gotta give it a bit of a caveat before I make this statement I'm about to make. I I truly believe with every part of my soul that if you read the Bible and you apply biblical principles,

the wisdom of the scriptures, if you apply those things to your life, I believe that every aspect of your life will get better.

But I'm not sitting here saying, hey, you should give your life to Jesus so that your life will get better just so I don't misstate it. I want to read it here. We don't follow Jesus because he makes life better. We follow Jesus because he's better than life.

See, this is what real salvation is. This is what really seeing Jesus looks like. It's not coming to go. Well, my life kind of sucks now and it sounds like Jesus will make it better. So, sure. I'll do it. If I gotta jump into a pool in front of some people to do that, awesome but my life better get better. No, that's not the real gospel. See, there's a moment where Jesus with his closest friends, he he gathered them. He did communion for the first time and he told him that I want you to do this and remember me. He takes his body. He says, it's going to be broken for you. I want you to eat my flesh and drink my blood and bunch of people like, this dude's a weirdo. Like, what is he talking about? So, a bunch of them leave and Jesus looks at the disciples that stay and he says, are you guys going to go too?

What do they say? Where would we go? You are the one that holds the keys to life. See, we don't follow Jesus because he's going to magically make our life better though I do believe putting the biblical principles in practice will make your life better. We follow Jesus because we understand in him is the totality of life.

In him is meaning, is significance, is purpose,

and yes, when we step into that life, we are now engaging in a spiritual battle and just like Nehemiah in chapter four, you better not just pretend or hope it doesn't happen. You better be prepared for the opposition that is coming. See, the reason that I put in there that this first guy was from a city called the the he was a horror knight is because this stuff matters if you go back historically in the Bible, okay? Sambalot, the two people that come and tempt Nehemiah or oppose Nehemiah.

The first one is Sambalot, okay? He's a Horonite which means he's from the city of Moab, okay? He would have been a Moabite and the second one we learned about was Tobiah and Tobiah is the Ammonite. Here here's why I say all of that. If you go back and do the little like Bible geeking, nerding out stuff and you go back and you trace the lineage of Nehemiah's people,

see, the this is the nation of Israel that we're talking about that started with Abraham that has followed a lineage. Remember when Moses was wandering in the desert with the people of god, they were trying to get to the promised land. It's called Canaan.

Moses wasn't able to get him there but eventually, this guy named Joshua,

he led the people of god across a river into the promised land but in Canaan was a group of people that were already there. There was lots of people that were there. God had told Joshua very specifically in the people of god. Go into this land. I need you to get rid of everybody. Get em all out. You cannot cohabitate with them. You cannot halfway live with them but what do they do? They do the same thing that we do when we hear the very high standard that god has set for his people to live up to. They go, that sounds really difficult and really hard. We're not going to completely get rid of them. We'll get rid of some of them but we're going to keep the best of their things for us.

Here's what I've been feeling and I feel like I need to talk about to you sitting here this morning. See, all of us in this room, we have battles that we are going to fight and Nehemiah is literally, Nehemiah chapter four, the battle that is in front of him, it it's a battle that exists

because his fathers and grandfathers weren't willing to face the battles that were in front of them and the reason that I tell you this is the Bible talks a lot about these things called generational curses and these cycles that plague family lines for generation after generation

and I feel like to the dads that are sitting here today, I I've just got to tell you the truth. I know the battles that are facing you are hard and they are difficult and I'm not saying that they are easy but I'm telling you, you only have two choices when you start to realize the battle that's in front of you. You can fight

or you can flee but you've gotta understand that if you flee, you're leaving that battle to your children and your grandchildren to fight one day. I wrote it down this way if you're taking notes. Dads, the battles you ignore today, they become the wars your kids must fight tomorrow.

And I know sometimes it's easy to justify why it's not that big of a deal and it's just affecting you. I'm here to tell you, Nehemiah four proves to us, it's not just affecting you. That sometimes there's generational cycles that your family has has been plagued by year after year, generation after generation.

But you can do something about them. Divorce, addiction, anger, infidelity, pornography, lust, apathy, greed, pride, bitterness, violence, control. They're all battles that if you don't wage war with them and you just flee from them, I'm telling you what you're doing is you are unintentionally

leaving chaos in the hands of your kids to deal with one day but dads, if you can bend the knee to the lordship of Christ and learn to fight in the power of the holy spirit, what you can do is you can break off generational cycles. You can stop the chains of addiction from channeling through you and all of a sudden, with one person that steps out in obedience, you can leave your kids not wars to fight but freedom

to step into. The bad news is if you flee, you are leaving those fights for your kids and your grandchildren but the good news is, is that through obedience and saying yes to the lordship of Jesus, you can learn to fight and win

these battles. You don't have to stay there. There's some stats I want to share with you that is absolutely mind blowing. They say that seventy one percent of all inmates come from fatherless homes.

Eighty one percent of rapists report that they also grew up in fatherless homes. Ninety percent of all homelessness and runaway children, fatherless homes.

Sixty percent of youth suicide. President Obama did a comprehensive survey about this when he was in office, and his conclusion was that there was a 500% more likelihood

to live a life of crime if you grew up without a dad. Nine hundred percent more likely to drop out of school. You were two thousand percent more likely to end up in jail if your dad wasn't present. Do you understand that fatherlessness

is the number one contributor to crime, homelessness, unwed pregnancy, and future fatherlessness? You and I are living in the first time in the history of our country where more kids are growing up without a dad than are growing up with a dad in the home.

And I don't think it's a coincidence that culturally, we've waged a war against this thing called toxic masculinity. But I don't think toxic masculinity is the greatest epidemic facing our culture today. See, I believe that the biggest problem in our culture, it's not toxic masculinity.

It's actually an absence of biblical masculinity.

Again,

don't hear what I'm not saying. There are some very toxic things that men can do and that that is evil and god despises it but there's been this war against men that says, you need to sit in the back and learn to just tone out your masculinity because it's evil and I'm here to tell you, men, if you don't engage again in the fight and begin to win the hearts of your children, We are already losing a generation and we're going to lose the next one as well. And I just wonder what would happen if thousands of people would go, you know what? It might be difficult, it might not be easy, but I'm going to engage in this fight because the stakes could not be higher and I am not discounting you if you are here and you are female or you are a single mom doing your best to raise some kids. All of it is incredible but what I am saying is that dads,

the data is incredibly clear. How you lead your family is the best lead indicator of what their future potential looks like. There's some stats that are mind blowing about when a family member comes to Christ. K, if a wife is the first person to give their life to Jesus in a family, the data tells us that about 18% of the time, the rest of the family will be one to Christ. Sometimes, if a child is the first one in the family to give their life to Jesus, which I I love that god can work through even the children. There's about a 22%

chance that the rest of the family is one to Christ but look at this, if a dad is one to Jesus,

94% of the time, the entire family is one to Christ.

Dads, I I feel like I just have to tell you as a dad that feels in the middle of the fight and there's a lot of days it would just be easier to flee from the battles that I face.

I'm telling you, if you don't if you won't do it for yourself, do it for them. The lives of your children, their futures are dependent on your obedience today in waging war with the battle that's in front of you.

And I love that Nehemiah, this is his brilliant plan. Again, I wish we had two hours where we gotta baptize all these people to walk through all of chapter four. Nehemiah, he he goes to god in prayer. He formulates this brilliant plan and you know what Nehemiah's plan to to fight the evil that was existing in his culture in that day?

His plan was to rearm the men and to put a sword in the hand of every single man that was there. I want to close by reading this section from Nehemiah four. Again, down in verse 12. It says that the Jews who live near the enemy came and told us again,

they will come. Talking about the opposition. They're going to come from all directions and attack us. So, here's Nehemiah's plan. So, I placed armed guards behind the lowest parts of the wall and in the exposed areas, I stationed the people to guard by families armed with swords, spears, and bows and this is the brave heart moment. Okay, Nehemiah's got all the dudes. They've got a sword in their hand. He says, and then I looked over the situation. I called together the nobles and the rest of the people. I said, don't be afraid of the enemy. Remember the lord who is great and glorious and fight for your brothers. Fight for your sons. Fight for your daughters, your wives, and your homes and he tells the men you have to fight.

You can't just sit on the sidelines. I don't know. I don't care how badly you feel downcast and beat up right now. You've gotta fight again. You've gotta figure out how to get courage and to get up and engage in the warfare again because the battles that you leave here, I'm telling you, it's chaos and war for your children and your grandchildren

but the beauty of the gospel is that because of your yes, because of your obedience, what gets me fired up is thinking about all the people who are going to go public with their faith today and I think about the great grandchildren that will look back and go, man, there was brokenness in our legacy until this person said yes. There was brokenness

in this line until these people said addiction, that's not going to be our story any longer. We're not going to be the people who continue to struggle with depression and anxiety because in the name of Jesus, we believe that all things can be healed and we are going to say yes to engaging in this fight.

Again, the last point that I have for you is this is a world that breaks men down and we want to be a church that builds men up. My hope

My prayer every single weekend is that when we gather, we would remember, guys, this is not just us playing church.

This is the thin place where the the realities of heaven touched the the presence of people here and the the supernatural just begins to break out and I I'm not talking about the weird stuff that you saw that freaks you out. I'm talking about the reality that you can walk in here with addictions and depressions and in the name of Jesus and the power of the holy spirit, you can walk out if you're changed and you can begin to engage again in a fight and I love that Nehemiah said, I gotta get the dude some swords. Do you know Paul in the book of Ephesians when he's talking about the armor that we've been given to fight with? You know what he says the Bible is to you and I? It is the sword of the spirit

and so what we're trying to do every Sunday when we gather is I'm trying to go, here's a sword. You gotta fight again. Monday through Friday, there's a battle over your family but here's a sword. Go be dangerous with it. When you sit down on a Monday morning and you read your Bible, it's more than just checking the box of a religious activity. It's me going, man, if I'm not engaged, if I'm not sharpening this thing, I'm going to get utterly destroyed

and I love the end of Nehemiah four. It's a picture of the men that have a trowel in one hand doing their job, doing their work with a sword in the other and I go, that,

that's a community that can be dangerous. That goes, yeah, sure. I got a job to do but I'm fighting while I'm doing it and I I may not dare the enemy to come at a bunch of people that know who they are in Christ and the power that we've been given and we go, sure, there's a spiritual battle but we understand that he who is in me is greater than he who is in this world and we're not afraid of the battle. We're not sitting here terrified. We we fight from victory not for it and we know that it doesn't matter what our story's been. No matter how much brokenness we've been born into.

The good news of the gospel is that all chains are broken in the presence of Jesus. That all things can be made new. So,

here's what I want to do. I I want you right now continue to just turn up the spiritual temperature in this room. I'm going ask all of you to stand to your feet with me right now. If you're one of the leaders that is helping in baptisms, you can head over to my left over here, our prayer team. If you want to come down here to the front, I'd love to have you guys get ready. Guys, what's going to happen right now is a bunch of people who are saying yes to Jesus,

who are gonna go public in their faith. What they're doing is literally the old person that they were is gonna go underwater and symbolically

be buried in a whole new person's gonna come out of the water. And so if you're getting baptized, you can start to line up, head over there, get ready to get baptized. But what I believe is that every single person here, there's something for you to engage with. That god wants to do something in your life. Our prayer team is in here in the front and if you're like, hey, I'm not necessarily going to get baptized today but you know you need to pray with somebody, you need to talk to somebody, that faith can activate miracles and maybe while we're worshiping and baptizing people, you just need to run down to the front and ask somebody to pray for you, to give you boldness again to fight whatever it is you need to fight and for some of you who are here that did not come here plan to be baptized.

I'm telling you, if you are a follower of Jesus and you have not yet been baptized, that is your next step and the reason that these steps of faith are so important is because when we step out in obedience, Jesus meets us there and sometimes it's it's faith that precedes

breakthrough and miracle. So, if you're here and you go, man, I want to get baptized and you're not ready for it. Our team is ready even though you didn't come prepared. We are. We've got shirts for you. We've got shorts for you. We've got changing stations.

We've got everything for you. So, don't leave here and just go, okay, god, it feels like you're stirring something in me and just leave here without doing something with it. Maybe it's getting prayer. Maybe it's getting baptized but here's at a bare minimum what we're gonna do is we're gonna worship like crazy and every time somebody gets baptized, we're gonna celebrate

the new life in Jesus that is coming out of that water. Amen? Amen. Let me pray for us. Father,

god, we thank you. Lord, we thank you so much for a room full of people who are willing to engage again in the fight. Father, we thank you for men who are gonna rise up in here. God, we thank you for generations that are gonna be changed because of your decision to say yes. Holy Spirit, we pray right now that you give us the courage to step out and to take a step of of obedience even when it feels weird and it feels uncomfortable.

Jesus, we give you all the glory, all the honor. We know in you, you hold the keys to life. We worship you because you are worthy. In Jesus name, all god's people said, amen and amen.