I'm glad that Terrence went ahead and did that because he probably did a lot better than mine would have been. I don't, but I do want to recognize this morning we are blessed. We have several members of Mount View Baptist Church from Tennessee. I'm going to just ask for a moment if you all, I don't know exactly where you're all seated at, but if you'd stand this morning. We have been blessed for a few years now to have a partnership going. Steve Ren for our missionary has been working very hard with the Tennessee Baptist Association and we were blessed enough to have Mount View. They've been up several times. They were a humongous blessing to us last year with our harvest party and I know that there are blessing every time they come up. So we really appreciate you all and we look forward to maybe sending a group down to be with you in the near future. I know Marcus has talked about that with the kids, so be in prayer for their church and their association. They're doing some great things and we're just glad to have. contacts with brothers and sisters, not just here in the community, but all throughout the United States and into the world. So thank you for being here this morning. And this is a special morning, not just because of what we've already seen and experienced, but I'm beginning a new sermon series this morning in the gospel of Mark. I've been looking forward to introducing this for some time, but it just never felt like the right fit. But God kind of laid it on my heart earlier in the year that once Easter was passed, that we would spend some time Don't know how long it will take us to get through this. There'll be other things sprinkled in, obviously, along the way. But I am excited to introduce to you Jesus Christ as Savior and Servant, which is the title of this series, as we look at His account in the Gospel of Mark, the three-year ministry of Jesus while He was here on earth. And while you're finding your place in the Gospel of Mark, I'll just kind of lay the groundwork of a little bit, so you kind of know a little bit more about our writer, John Mark. John Mark was the cousin of a gentleman named Barnabas, who you probably have heard about if you've ever read the book of Acts. He was called Barnabas, the Son of Encouragement. He traveled with Paul and John Mark on their first missionary journey, and Paul was a cousin to him. Mark also was the son of a woman named Mary. Now that can become very confusing because there are a lot of Marys in the Bible, but his mother's name was Mary and she was an influential member of the church in Jerusalem. You could also read about that in Acts chapter 12. As Mark, many theologians believe that he was probably saved under Peter's preaching at some point because the writing of Mark relies heavily on a lot of things that you'll see in the epistles of Peter. So much so that one of the early church fathers named Justin Martyr labeled the gospel of Mark the memoirs of Peter, because Mark, some believe, even drew from Peter firsthand knowledge. He may have even interpreted and dictated some of this that Mark wrote. It was one of the earliest books, if not the earliest New Testament book written, some 20-25 years after the death of Christ. So very, very fresh. The people that were listening to the words of Mark were still alive and still around at the time that Jesus had been crucified, which is very important because if someone stands up and gives you an account and writes a book about somebody, and it's completely false, and you have people still living that experienced and saw those events, There's going to be an uproar and say, wait a minute here, this guy's out of his mind. But you don't see that happening, you don't see any uproar, you don't see any disputes. So it adds to the validity of Scripture to see an early writing like this taking place and seeing how there was an agreement to that. And one of the key verses, and I'm probably going to repeat this verse quite a bit because I believe heavily in scripture memorization. I think it's very important that we all learn to memorize scripture. And if I had to pick one scripture out of Mark, and there are many, but one that probably at least gives you a picture of what this gospel writing is about. What Mark really focuses on time and time again as we read the accounts of Jesus is Mark 1045. This paints a picture of what Mark is trying to show his readers that Jesus Christ's ministry was all about. Mark 1045 says, For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. So you see there the idea of service, and you see the idea of sacrifice, which is the title and why I labeled this Savior and Servant. It's the two key themes, specifically the service of Christ, and part of that was by giving Himself as a sacrifice for our sin. But time and time again, you're going to see Jesus modeling how we are to live and serve others. And I believe that the time for our church is now to really take a look at that. I think that God has really began to move amongst us, and I see so many people that are ready. and willing to be involved, but maybe you're just still a little bit hesitant because you're not quite sure how to go about doing that. You're not quite sure what step to take next. And so I think as we look through this gospel, you're going to get a really good understanding of what it looks like to live and model the life of Jesus Christ in just your day-to-day lives. And you'll see often in this gospel, what's encouraging to me is That it's often in the ordinary things and in the mundane things of life that you can serve. You don't have to wait for some gigantic experience or some humongous position to become available for you to become effective. You just serve in your daily life. You just serve in the everyday things that you do. And you'll see that happening time and time again with Jesus and His disciples. One of the other things I want you to take notice of today and all through this series is the key word that you'll see Mark using over and over and over again is immediately. You'll see that so many times as we read this, 36 times to be precise, you'll see immediately used in the Gospel of Mark. And that's important because we see Jesus as a servant who is busy obeying his Father's commands. I sometimes struggle to think that Jesus would be a Baptist if we were alive today, because you see no mention of forming committees and holding meetings and planning all these things out. The command came and Jesus went. And while there is absolutely a biblical mandate to sometimes wait and pray and be patient, and all those things are very important, sometimes things are pretty clear cut. If the Word of God commands that we don't need to have a committee and a meeting about it, we should just go. And that's what we see Jesus doing. Some have even called Mark's gospel the Go Gospel because you constantly see Jesus time and time again going, he wrote this gospel to the Romans. So you're going to see in this gospel a lot of Gentile influence. If you don't know who the Gentiles are, they're anyone who wasn't Jewish, which means I say probably everyone in this room, or at least most. He wrote that letter, and why that's important is when you read the other Gospels, you'll see a lot of different things. You'll see prophecy mentioned, you'll see the genealogy mentioned in, say, Mark and Luke. You'll see all different types of things, a lot of Old Testament references and talking about the law. You're not going to see that in Mark's gospel because he was not writing to a Jewish audience. He was writing to Gentiles. And so this gospel moves very quickly and you get snapshots of Jesus. He doesn't always go into depth as much as some of the other writers, but he gives you a lot, but just little pictures of it. And I think that'll be helpful to you. And one other thing before we get into the text today that I want you to think about. And I hope that you'll think about all through this message, and especially I hope you'll think about it today. If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I hope this will be the one question that lingers in your heart and that the Holy Spirit continues to drive and put in front of you. Right in the very middle of the Gospel of Mark, if we were to weigh it out and find the center passage of Mark, it is chapter 8, verse 27. And listen to what it says there. I'll read it to you. And Jesus went on with his disciples to the village of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, and here's the question I want to burn into your mind. Who do people say that I am? Who do people say that I am? And who do you this morning say that Jesus Christ is? That's a very, very critical question. It's a very critical question for you to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. But it's also very important for those of you that are believers to have a proper understanding of the work that Jesus Christ has done and who He is. Because I talk to so many professing believers that can't articulate the gospel, at least not biblically. And they can't articulate their faith. And I'm not standing before you saying you need to go to seminary and get a degree before you can share and explain your faith. But you should have a working biblical knowledge of the basic doctrines. And part of that, the key part of that is to understand who Jesus Christ is and what he's done. Everything else centers and spins off of that fact. So who do people say that I am? What does that mean to you this morning? I hope and pray that the Holy Spirit works in your heart and in your eyes and gives you an understanding of who this Christ is that we're going to talk about this morning. So turn with me, Mark chapter 1. We're going to look at the first 20 verses, and I've titled this message this morning, A Sabbath with the Savior. Sabbath with the Savior now obviously this covers more than one day's time and but we're gonna we're gonna spend a little bit looking at some of the events that happened because like I said each gospel writer will jump in to Jesus ministry at a different place you look at John's gospel in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God he takes us all the way back to the pre-existing eternal Christ with the Father before anything else was made Jesus the Holy Spirit and God the Father all co-existent, co-eternal together. We see that in John's Gospel. We look at Matthew and Luke and we see him listening to genealogy as Jesus Christ comes down through the line of David and all these different people and ultimately being born of a virgin in a manger in Bethlehem. But Mark is different. We don't see any account of, you know, an eternal mention right off the bat here. We don't see any mention of a genealogy. We don't see the birth. We don't see young Jesus. He's going to pick up as Jesus is just beginning to start his earthly ministry. He's already an adult. He's already grown up. And that's where Mark chooses to begin with. So look what he says right off the bat. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. The Jews at that time were in a difficult place. They were controlled in one aspect by the Roman Emperor and the Roman Empire. And also they had an Edomite king named Herod who was very controlling and desired worship for himself. And so they were a people that really had no control over their affairs. They kind of existed and they were able to do their own thing, but they really didn't have any understanding or idea of what freedom meant or was real freedom like not just in a political sense, but even in a spiritual sense. Spirituality at that time was at a low. It was more of a dead religious routine rather than a vibrant relationship with God. You can see that in the way that the priest would minister. You could see that in the way that the people would bring sacrifices. And God had gotten fed up with this dead formalism. The last time we see God speaking to the people is 400 years prior in the book of Malachi where he just really just lays it out and said, I've had enough with your pathetic sacrifices and you bring in the leftovers to me, the priests not doing the things that they ought to do. And so for 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the coming in of the new, there's been silence. God has not spoken to his people. And that's where we find Jesus, but even before that, John the Baptist, who many consider the last Old Testament prophet before Christ is ushered in to start the new covenant. We see John on the scene in just a moment. But the good news, you see that? The beginning of the gospel. That's what the word gospel means. It's good news. Man, these people needed some good news. And I think our world today needs some good news. Wouldn't you agree? I mean, we have the best news that anybody could ever receive. It's great to get news that you've inherited some money, or it's great news to have a child be born, or it's even great news to celebrate a birthday or an anniversary. But there is no better news. than to hear for the first time that yes, you're lost, and yes, you're condemned already, but Jesus Christ has made a way for your sins to be forgiven, for you to receive eternal life, for you to have joy unspeakable and full of glory, to have a peace that passes all understanding, to have a hope before you that cannot be taken away. And I could go on and on and on to have a home waiting for you that's incorruptible and undefiled, that perishes not away, reserved for you in heaven. Man, there are so many reasons why this is good news. And we ought to be, as a church, excited. I mean, I wish we got as excited about the Word of God as we did about someone rapping, to be honest with you. And it was wonderful, and there was a lot of the Word of God in that. But man, we ought to stand up and shout every time this book gets open, whether it's by your preacher or in your living room. This is God speaking. Give Him a hand. This is God speaking to us. These aren't just words in a book. This is the very voice of God. And people say, I wish God would just speak to me. Well, read the Bible out loud. There you go. He's speaking to you. You can hear Him. He speaks today. And it's good news. And that's how Mark begins. The Jews needed good news. The Romans who He was speaking to needed good news. The world needs good news, church. And it's up to us to take it to them. Verse 2, he continues, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, So we see Isaiah prophesying some 700 years before that there was going to be a forerunner to Christ. Someone was going to come and open the doors and allow Jesus the Messiah to come in. Of course, they didn't know who He was. Their eyes were blinded. They didn't recognize Him as the Christ. But nonetheless, John was opening the door. Listen to what it says in verse 4 as he goes on. John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, After me, comes He who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." Now, it's important to recognize what John is doing here. He's not doing a baptism like what you saw here today. Yes, it was in the water. But it was not the Christian baptism, yet, because Christ had not died. He was baptizing people into repentance. He was opening their eyes. He was preaching a message that says, listen, the kingdom of God is at hand. The Messiah is here. And to receive Him, you have got to prepare your hearts. You'll never look for a Savior if you don't realize you're a sinner. You have to have your eyes open through the Word of God as the Holy Spirit convicts you to see that you are lost, that you have no hope through church membership, through faith of your grandpa and grandpas, through good works, through giving of your money. Nothing can earn you or buy you salvation. But when you recognize that you're lost, when you see that your sins have built up the wrath of God against you, and someday you will stand before Him and be judged for every sinful act you have committed, and for ultimately rejecting Jesus Christ, That brings you to a place of decision. Nobody gets saved unless the Holy Spirit first opens their heart and opens their eyes through the Word of God to make that choice. You do not get saved in your own strength and your own power when you feel like it. It is the work of God in your life. And so John comes preaching this message of repentance, saying to these people, listen, you have the oracles of God, you have all the law and the prophets, you have everything, but that won't save you. That won't save you. Those are shadows, those are figures, those are types. that are pointing towards the ultimate coming of the Lamb of God that will take away the sins of the world. It will be His sacrifice and His blood that can cleanse you. And so John says you have got to recognize that you are just beggars, that you are needy, and that the only one that can supply that need is Jesus. That spiritually you're thirsty and you need living water, and spiritually you're hungry and you need the bread of life. That alone can fill you and sustain you. And so John comes, and what's interesting as we go on, we see Jesus coming to John and being baptized. Look at what it says in verse nine. In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And verse 10 says, when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved son. and whom I am well pleased." There's so much we could talk about in this passage of Scripture, but I'm trying to move through this fairly quickly. But I want you to see two things. Why, first of all, if John was baptizing people for repentance, and here you see Jesus Christ, the sinless, spotless Son of God, coming to John to be baptized, That may cause you to stop for a minute and say, why would somebody that's sinless and perfect need to be baptized into repentance? It was to identify the Savior with His people. Jesus Christ, in every way, can understand and relate to His people. Because, you're going to see in just a moment, He was tempted. just like you're tempted. He faced trials, just like you faced trials. He endured hunger. He endured loss. He endured pain. He endured suffering. Anything that we experience as human beings, so did the Christ. The only difference is He did it without sin. He did it without sin. He never, ever made the wrong decision. He never, ever chose the path of the flesh. He never, ever allowed the devil to overcome Him. He walked blameless before the Father as He followed the Holy Spirit's lead. He could have relied on His deity. But he didn't. He allowed the Holy Spirit to lead him, as we'll see in a moment, in everything that he did, yet without sin. But his being baptized with John was to identify himself with a sinful world, with a sinful people that were in need, desperate need of a Savior. And so Jesus submitted to John's baptism so that all righteousness might be fulfilled, he says, in another place. I also want you to see briefly something that is very important, even though it's not the topic of the message today, and that is in verse 10. It says again, when he came up out of the water, he saw the heavens open and the Spirit descended like a dove and the voice from heaven, you are my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. One of the greatest and clearest examples of the Trinity in all the Bible. You see the Son in the water, you see the Holy Spirit descending, you see God the Father speaking. It's not one, you know, it's not three people rather, I'm sorry, it's one God and three persons and we see that evident here. We don't worship three gods. The Trinity, it's a very, very deep mystery, but we see it evidenced many places in the scripture, although that word's not specifically called out. But here is one of the greatest examples you'll see in scripture of the Trinity. So keep that in mind. We'll talk about that more later. He goes on in verse 12. After the baptism. Isn't it funny how sometimes in our greatest spiritual moments when, you know, things just seem to be on a high, that that's when the devil tries to come and pull the rug out from under us? I mean, think about it. Jesus had just been baptized. Peter and Christina have just been baptized. A lot of you have celebrated great victories spiritually. Be ready, be on guard, because the devil is a roaring lion seeking who he might destroy and he will come when you are on that mountaintop and try to pull you down, try to steal that joy, try to cause you to sin. And he comes along, the Spirit leads him, this was pre-planned, but it goes on in verse 12, the Spirit immediately drove him, being Jesus, out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness for 40 days being tempted by Satan and he was with the wild animals and the angels are ministering or were ministering to him. Again, Mark is just very brief. We don't see the temptation account like we do in the other Gospels. We don't see, you know, the Satan coming along and telling him to turn the stones into bread or look out across the city, cast yourself down. All those things that took place, Mark doesn't mention them, but they all happened as we find out as we read the other Gospels. But Jesus resists those things through the Holy Spirit and through the Word of God. When we look in the other Gospels and we see those accounts, how does He respond to Satan every time he's tempted? It is written. It is written. He answers the devil every time with Scripture. And church, I want to encourage you that if you are fighting a battle of habitual sin in your life or just the daily struggle against the flesh and against sin that remains in all of us, the only way you're going to overcome those things is through relying on the Holy Spirit and getting in the Word of God and knowing it and being able to rest in it. Because you will never, ever be able to muster up enough power to overcome sin in your own strength. You'll never get victory over the devil by showing just how tough you are. You're not tough. I'm not tough. You won't overcome that way. But you are more than overcomers. You are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. That's where we draw our strength from. In Psalm 119, verse 11, the writer says, I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. I've hidden your word in my heart. Church, the Word of God is so vital to our lives every day. You know, we center the Sunday worship service around the preaching of the Word, and rightly so. But the Word of God should have preeminence in your life every day. You should spend time in that Word. You should know that Word. You should rely on that Word. Because if you don't, you are going to be constantly pummeled in your day-to-day life. You'll never have any certainty. You'll never have any real place you can rest. Because until you know the promises and the thus saith the Lord, you're going to be uncertain. You're going to rely mainly, and I see it all the time, this is why I say this, you're going to rest on your feelings. If you feel good, you're going to say, well, I'm blessed today. If you feel bad, you're going to say, oh, I must have sinned, something must have went wrong. You can be walking side by side with the Lord and still not feel joyful. But when you rest on what the Word of God says rather than how you feel, you're going to be able to be sustained even in the valleys, even on the mountaintops. you're going to be able to make it because you have something solid to rest on. And Jesus relied on that word. He relied on it through his temptation. And isn't it funny now as we go on, you're going to see Jesus in verse 14, his ministry beginning. Listen to what it says there. Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God John John was arrested for for standing up basically and calling out somebody living in adultery He called out and said what you're doing is wrong and so they had enough and threw him in jail and Jesus said there is nobody ever been born any greater than John the Baptist and You know again, I don't want to chase rabbits and get off track But you see John the greatest man that's ever lived according to Jesus' estimation. You see John devoting his life to Christ, going out into the wilderness, being faithful and proclaiming this message, baptizing people, doing everything you would think that was pleasing to God, and his life ends getting thrown in jail and having his head chopped off. And I would just simply give you another little nugget to ponder. How does that tie in with the health and prosperity doctrine that you hear so many churches preach today? If you serve God, if you love God to your best life now, you'll be rich and healthy and blessed and you'll have everything this world has to offer because God likes to bless people with material things. And yes, God can bless us. There's nothing inherently wrong with material things. But there's no guarantee that if you serve God faithfully, that your life is going to be easy, and that you're going to get everything you want, and you're never going to have a problem. Amen. If you ever think that's the case, you turn back and look at the life of John the Baptist and be reminded that your treasure is being laid up in heaven, not here. And so anything, whether it's a cup of water in His name, or devoting your life as a missionary, or being martyred like we've seen some of our brothers and sisters had done to them. They are rewarded and blessed not here. Maybe here, but not necessarily, but definitely when they receive their crown and glory. Never forget that. He goes on, he says, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe. Repent and believe. Those two words cannot be separated. They cannot be pulled out of the gospel message. The good news is, yes, Jesus Christ gave himself so that you could be saved. But repentance and faith or believing is critical to you receiving the good news, receiving the gift of eternal life. It is critical. And Jesus comes preaching, you need to repent. Just as John did, just as the prophets did, just like all through the Old Testament we see time and time again, you need to change your mind. Metaneal, which is what that word means, it's a change of mind, but it's more than just thinking different, it's a change of mind that's going to lead to a change of action. It is saying, yes, I recognize that my life is not as good as I think it is. Because everybody, everybody, if you press them, thinks overall they're pretty good people. You know, we all have faults. Sure, I'm not perfect and, you know, I mess up sometimes, but I'm not that bad. You're that bad and worse. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Jeremiah 17 9 says you have no idea what kind of evil you're capable of. No idea. I have no idea. But before a holy and perfect God, we are so far separated that there is no chance of us ever bridging that gulf. And yet He says, repent, change your mind, look at yourself and recognize that you are a mess. And I am a mess. And God knows about your mess. And He knows about your brokenness, which is why He came. If you are going to be able to do it on your own, he didn't need to come. But he looked down at a world helpless and hopelessly lost. And he said, I'm going to come and I'm going to lay down my life so that they may have eternal life. That's what grace is. It's that unmerited, undeserved favor. It's God looking at poor people that that are just so desperately in need and don't deserve it. I mean, we've made our bed, so to speak. We should lie in it. He didn't have to come. He created a perfect world with perfect peace and sinless in every way. And Adam and Eve chose to disobey, and you might say, well, that's not fair to me. I wasn't there. I had nothing to do with it. You would have done the same thing. You would have chose to disobey. You would have chose because there's always a part of us that wants what we don't have. And God gave them everything in the garden but one tree, and that was the one thing that their heart went after. And we're no different. Think about it. Think about it. You can get raised after raised after raised at work, and when you find out somebody makes more than you, you're upset. You want more. You can have a nice car in the driveway, but if the neighbor pulls in with a new one, you're going car shopping. You can have a nice home, but when a relative gets a bigger house, you want a bigger house. We're never satisfied. And you'll never be satisfied if you're looking for things in this world to do it. The only thing that satisfies is Jesus. The only thing that will ever satisfy you is Jesus Christ. And He says, repent. Turn from your sins. Recognize just where you're at. Turn from that. Turn back to God. Leave those things behind and come to God. And what? Believe. Just believe. The basic idea of that word is faith. It's the same word that is used in the Bible time and time again for faith. Put your complete trust in God. That's not just mentally ascending to some facts about Jesus. That is completely surrendering your life and trusting every ounce and fiber of your being that He alone can save you and make you new. When you came in, I've said this many times, when you came in this morning, you gave it no thought. You plopped down in your chair and didn't even give it, nobody picked up their chair and checked the screws to make sure they were tight and made sure that the legs were stable. You just sat down. You trusted it was going to hold you up. And that's what you do with Christ. You just come to Him. You look at the Word of God. You examine the teaching of Christ. You look at your own life and see your need, and you say, listen, if I have any hope, any chance of being forgiven and being saved, it's got to be through Christ. He's the way, the truth, and the life. And I'm going to rest in Him. I'm going to give up my own efforts. I'm going to give up my own good works. I'm going to give up trying to do more and be better. And I'm just going to confess my sin and trust Him. And He will change you from the inside out. If you want to be changed, Jesus has to do the changing. Many of you are still trying to change yourselves. And the Bible says, can a leopard change its spots? Or an Ethiopian, his skin color? Well, the answer is obviously no. And you can't make dead people live. You can't make bad people good. Only God can do that. He's the one that breathed life into those dry bones and made them live. And He's the one that can breathe life into you. But you've got to rest in him. So he says, repent and believe Romans 10 9. Paul says, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved, period. That is what he says. And as we get ready to close, look at verses 16 through 20 this morning. Jesus is going to call some other men to follow him. It says, Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets, immediately. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were in their boat, mending the nets. And immediately you see how many times Sean's already used that word just these few verses I've read immediately he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and Followed them You know, you'll never catch anything if you don't fish I Can guarantee that you might be a bad fisherman, but you won't catch a thing if you never go Jesus tells them if you'll follow me I'll make you fishers of men and he can use you to be fishers of men She's got to be willing to go And not only that, another thing that's encouraging to me in this passage is he doesn't go and seek out the most religious people. Matter of fact, he has a lot of negative things to say to the religious community of those days, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes. But he goes and he seeks out ordinary men, ordinary people. He goes and seeks out some fishermen, some rough and rugged and sinful fishermen, and he calls them And aren't you glad that you don't necessarily have to have any great ability, any special skills, any fantastic education before God can use you? If He calls you and just says, follow me, and you're willing to be obedient to that and faithful to that, God will do great things through you. Because He'll get glory by using the weak and the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. It's amazing to see God take a life that people had all given up on, and do things with it. Man, what greater way for him to get glory than to see that happen. It's amazing to see. If you give God your ordinary life, He'll give you an extraordinary calling. I can promise you that. He says in verse 17 again, He says, I will make you. See that? He doesn't say, here's the game plan, we're going to have you do this, and you do that, and you try this, and you try that. He says, if you'll follow me, I will make you. He is the potter and we are the clay. And we just have to submit. It's so easy to just submit ourselves into his hands and let him mold us. But we want to pull back and we want to keep back and we don't want to surrender. We want control. And may I tell you that whether you're a staunch atheist or the greatest believer in this room, There's things in your life that you're not in control of. You're not in control of when your life ends. Really, you're not in control much of anything, if you stop and think about it. You can't even tell me for sure what you're going to be doing 15 minutes from now. You may have plans. You may think you know what you're going to do. But there's often times where my plans don't go anywhere near what I thought was going to happen. We're not in control. So why not just surrender control to the one that is? The one that holds tomorrow in His hand, the one that hung the stars and tells the oceans how far it can come. Why not trust Him? Why not surrender to Him? He says, follow Me. Follow Me. And it says, immediately they did. Immediately they left their nets. In verse 20, they left their Father. Immediately. They had an I'm not looking back kind of faith. He called, they went, and they didn't look back. And that's what He desires of us. Some of you are too worried about what's behind you. Your heart's still in Egypt like the Israelites. Your heart's still in Sodom like Lot's wife who turned around and became a pillar of salt. You're constantly looking back. Some of you are looking back at the guilt and the shame that you did in your past life and you won't allow God to use you in the future because you're hanging on to all that junk. If He's forgiven you and He's washed you and He's cleansed you and He's cast out as far as the east is from the west and thrown it into the depths of the sea, then why are you still dragging that baggage? He said, come unto me all you that are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon me and learn of me. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Stop carrying that junk around that he's paid for. Let it go. Don't let guilt keep you from going forward. Don't let the draw of the world, I know it's strong. And I know that God has saved some of you out of some deep addictions and some deep sins, and those things still rear their heads. And they're always going to rear their heads, because until you leave this earth, you're going to struggle against sin. But when those temptations come, don't constantly be looking over your shoulder. Don't allow those things to pull you back. Keep your eyes centered on Christ and keep going forward. Don't be drawn back. Let go of your own wants and wishes and follow Him and become fishers of men. I'm going to close with that thought. Are you prepared today, if you're a believer in Christ, are you truly prepared to fish? Are you really concerned about souls around you? And if not, why? How can you love Christ, understand what He saved you from, understand what awaits for those that reject Him, and not be moved by compassion to give them the good news of how they can escape that condemnation that awaits? How can we not? He calls them to repent and believe first, and then to follow. Some of you in this room today are following other Christians. Your parents, your grandparents have left wonderful examples, and you followed their example and you followed their faith, but it's not your own. You're following what they brought you up to do, but you've never went to Jesus. You've never went to the cross on your own and made it personal between you and Him. You're not a Christian if you're following your parents' example. He said, follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men. You might be following a church. You might be a founding member of Freedom Baptist Church and you have been through every committee and every function and every role and every office, but you're not following Jesus. That doesn't save you if you're following a church. You might be following a pastor. I love every one of you and I appreciate your encouraging words and how much you appreciate me and I appreciate you equally. But if you're following me, if I leave here someday and you say, I'm going where Chris goes because I follow him. If you're resting your eternal soul on Chris, you're in trouble because I couldn't save myself, I sure can't save you. You have got to follow Jesus. Where He leads me, I will follow. And that's what I want to ask you this morning. Who do you say that He is? Are you following Him? Do you know Him? Have you repented of your sins and trusted Him? And if you have, are you living your life to fish for men? To see others saved? To serve Christ in this body? Maybe this morning you need to come and receive that salvation. Maybe this morning you've never followed Him in obedience and been baptized. Maybe this is the place you want to serve and labor together. I don't know what your need is, but I believe that there are needs this morning that God wants to meet. So as we stand and as we sing, Whatever's on your heart, will you come this morning? Pass me not, O gentle Savior. Pass me not, O gentle Savior. Do you need to come and get around this altar and pray? Maybe you need to come and pray with other people. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. If others are hurting, hurt with them. Come love on them. Come pray with them. Whatever you need to do this morning, just be obedient. If he's calling to follow, follow. You're following someone now, whether you admit it or not. But if it's not Jesus, you're headed the wrong way. If you'll call, He'll hear. You're not too bad to be saved, but you're not too good to make it on your own either. You need Him. Whatever you've done, He can forgive you. He's died for your sins. Do you trust Him? Hey, baby. Trust me. By faith, you hear that? Will you come this morning? ♪ Save me by thy grace ♪ Savior, Savior You need to come. ♪ Hear my humble cry ♪ Lord, thou art Yes, He does. Bow your heads for one moment. I won't keep you long. Jeff, just play for just a moment. Just play silently for just a moment. I know how hard it is sometimes to step out. I know that maybe you even wonder, why do we call people forward publicly? Well, no, you don't have to necessarily walk this aisle to be saved. You don't necessarily have to come to an altar to be saved, but you do have to confess and repent. You have to put your faith in Christ. And I hope and pray that this morning, if God has spoken to a heart in this room, and you just for whatever reason couldn't have the strength to come forward, that you won't leave here without grabbing somebody and talking to them, that you will seek somebody out and ask your questions. Confess the things that may be on your heart if that's what needs to take place. It's confidential. I can promise you that. But don't walk out of here and just say maybe next time, because there may not be a next time. So just for a moment, as every head's bowed, if you need to come, you come, but if not, Come find somebody today. While on others you're calling, do not pass me by. I'm gonna ask you just to have a seat real quick and then I'll get you home, I promise. I've had the pleasure of getting to know Jason and Brittany and their two wonderful kids, Emma and Grayson. We had a nice long talk Thursday over at their house. Talked a lot about the Lord, about where they were at spiritually. And they come this morning based on their profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, desiring to be baptized into this local body and to serve here with us. I'm just going to ask, as I always do, all those in favor, let me know by saying amen. Amen. Well, we're so thankful to have you. We'll be getting a date soon again for another baptism, which is a wonderful blessing. And I would ask you to be in prayer for Grayson and Emma and for their family. You know, it's a great thing to see young children come in, and it's another opportunity. And we're blessed with a wonderful children's department. who is constantly you know sowing the seed and Marcus with the youth sowing the seed so it's a blessing to see the kids come up through a biblical and sound you know teaching church that loves Jesus so pray for them pray for Jason and Brittany I'm gonna give you a chance to come around everybody's gonna shake your hand and give you a hug but I'm very thankful for you this morning and thank you so much so I'm going to ask again if you'd stay and come back if you can tonight at six o'clock. We're going to be a little bit different. I'm going to show you a video that I think you'll really enjoy tonight. Maybe talk about that a little bit this evening. So thank you again for all that you do. Thank you for all the service. Thank you Mountain View Baptist Church for being with us. And as always, it's good to see my friend Felix Russo from Eastside Baptist Mission back there. Felix does a great work. Pray for him and his wife. They are doing a wonderful thing. God has used him in many great ways and his family, and I know he will. Felix, will you close us this morning in prayer, please?