Amen. Well, listen, I, I dunno about you, but I think this has probably happened to you before where you've been to the doctor and he's prescribed you a next step. He's told you what to do from here. And so you thought, well that surely that's exactly what I need to do. Or maybe you got on Google, probably shouldn't do that.

And started Googling what you think your next step should be. Or maybe you went to another doctor and you asked that doctor, Hey, here's my symptoms. Here's what's going on, what should I do now? And it gets really weird when you get two different next steps from two people that trust and love you and you're left wondering, well what is my next step? This doctor says I should do this.

This doctor says I should do that. And Google says I should do this. Listen, the church has kind of done that. I wanna talk today. I wanna bring really some clarity to you on what's next.

That's the whole title of this message. Just real simple, like what do I do next? If I've chosen to put my faith in Christ, what is my next step? Now, if you grew up in church, lemme talk to all my church going people, you've heard a lot of different things based off of whichever denomination you grew up in. You were probably like me, just confused.

If you didn't grow up in church, then you got lots of questions. Because you come every week and you see these people get dunked under the water and you hear us say you've been reclaimed. You hear us say, you've identified, you've been buried with Christ and you're raised to walk. What is going on here? And so today, all I wanna do today is really give you exactly what Jesus says is our next step.

And I want you to know today's not a debate. Today isn't a moment where you look back on your story and your life and the way that God's got you here. And you hear us say that that was wrong. God used whatever the path was to get you from where you were to where you are. But I do wanna see, and I want to give you clarity now to do that, we're gonna go to Jesus' last word.

So you can join me in Matthew 28. We've been here for a couple of weeks because this is an incredible passage. This is really, maybe the most important passage is what Jesus' last words. And so we're gonna look at those again today. And then I'm gonna take you to a second place in in Scripture where it's gonna give you even more clarity of what do we do now.

So here we go. You guys join me, Matthew 28, and this is called the Great Commission. Let's read this together, says then the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. Now when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. Now, if you were here last week, you got a great message from Gray over at the Hunt Club this morning.

And he talked a lot about how God uses doubt and disappointment, all the different things to get us to where we are, that we're not disqualified because of our doubt. You need to hear that three weeks in a row. Now, I hope you've heard us say that we all struggle with doubt. So did the first followers. Here's what he said.

Then Jesus came to them and he said, all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you. And surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age. Now, I want you to see a couple of things in this text because these are kind of the steps that that Jesus put in place. And the first thing he says to go do is to make disciples.

That's where he starts. He says, listen, I'm not just gonna ask you to keep gathered up in this room alone. He says, I'm gonna send you out. You've heard messages on that how we're to go, we're to take the good news of the Gospel to the ends of the earth and make disciples. Then the next thing he says, really simply, he says, I want you to baptize them.

But you saw that today, man, I loves that story where Tyler's talking about his brother and he says, Hey listen, he's been on a journey. It hasn't been easy. He said, there's a lot of things that have happened in his story. You could hear that he says, but now there was a moment in his life where he chose to be a disciple and now we're just doing the next step that that Scripture says we're to do. I'm getting a chance to, to baptize him.

Okay? He says, then don't stop. We're gonna continue to teach them. We all need that. We're all on a journey.

We're still learning. But then he gives us this really powerful pres, I'd love this promise. He says, if you're doing these things, like if you're making disciples and you're baptizing them and you're teaching them, don't forget I'm with you always. Isn't that good to see? Maybe that's what you need to know today.

Just that right there, that God is with you, man, when we're following him and doing these things, man, he's closer than you think. Now the next text I want you to see happens in the Book of Acts. So, uh, Jesus gives them the commandment. He tells them, this is what I want you to do. And believe it or not, right, they did it.

I mean, the first followers did exactly what he said. He, they went and they preached the Gospel and they made disciples. And Peter's preaching in acts. This is the beginning of the church. It's just starting.

He's got a crowd, honestly, really similar to all of our campuses today. And he's teaching them, he's telling them about the Gospel. And I'm gonna tell you something, something happened that day. People began to respond. And I want you to see, they ask the same question you're asking today.

Like, what do we do now? Here it is. It's in the Book of Acts. He says, when the people heard this right, they heard, they heard Peter preaching. When they heard the Gospel, they were cut to the heart and they said to Peter and the other apostles brothers, real simple question.

What now? Alright, so here's clarity. Here's what Jesus put in place for us to do next. Peter said, here's what I want you to do, guys. First thing, I need you to repent.

Second thing, I want you to be baptized. Now, who, because sometimes we ask that question, right? Should it be infants? Should it be students? Should it be teenagers?

Should it be adults? Well, who? Every one of you, it's pretty clear in the name of Jesus Christ, forgiveness of your sins, and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, let's keep going. 'Cause he's, he's given 'em a few things.

Well, those who accepted his message that day were baptized, right? I mean, just like today, they're celebrating. Yes. Uh, one difference. See how many were baptized that day?

Oh, about 3000 were added to their number that day. So buckle in. We're gonna be here a while, about 3000. Were baptized that day. Listen, I wanna take this kinda step by step because there's a couple of things that give us a lot of clarity as to what we do now.

Now, the very first thing we saw in the text is that we repent. I mean, it's just, it's just that simple. The first thing that we're to do is to prevent. Now. Now, let, lemme help you kind of break that word down a little bit, because it simply means to change your mind.

You've done it a hundred times. You've been at the restaurant and you said, Hey, yep, I want the salad. Nope, I want the sandwich. Nope, I want the soup. And you've changed your mind.

You've said it in relationships. You've got, I kind of been dating this person. You're thinking maybe this is the one you see some more things in their life and you, you change your mind. I don't wanna go that direction. That's story's the repent.

You, you're walking one way, you're going one way, you're living your life in one way, but then it's a moment where you turn and you begin to go a different direction. I, I, to be honest with you, this is the part of the Gospel that sometimes we wanna skip over because it's really easy to talk about. Like, I want you to invite Jesus into your life. And when he comes into your life, everything gets better, and you're gonna have purpose and he's gonna forgive you. And all those things are true, and he's gonna redirect you.

It's gonna be an incredible thing. It's gonna be emotional. You're gonna feel cleansed, but it starts with you having to turn and go a different direction. I don't want us to skip that, because that's the very first thing. Like you can't keep following and keep going your own way and just say, Jesus, come bless me.

Come be a part of my life. Come save me. Come do all these things. He says, no, it starts first with you deciding to turn and follow me. Here's how Jesus said it.

Let's look at his words. He said, the first thing I want you to do, then he said to his disciples, whoever wants to be my disciple, that's where it starts. We're gonna be his disciple. Well, here's what you must do. Deny yourself because you are following you.

Everybody's following somebody. It's easy to see in our students, right? They get in a little friend group, and all of a sudden they start following the friend group. They get in a relationship, and all of a sudden they start following him or her. He says, no, no, no.

Wait a minute. I need you to deny yourself. It's not about you. It's not just Jesus, come into my life and make everything better. No, no, no.

First thing I want you to do is to take up your cross and you begin to now follow me. Now, I'm, I'm not gonna get deep into this because you can just go back one series in the fall, we spent like seven or eight weeks talking about what it looks like to accept that invitation where Jesus just says to follow me. But what I need you to hear me say is part of this journey involves turning and beginning to live a life differently where we're following Jesus instead of ourselves. Now, the easiest way to see this is I, I remember, um, I, I, my freshman year in college, uh, it wasn't going very good. And I wanted to go home.

I wanted to transfer, and that was the direction I was headed. But then I, I went on a date in December, right before I came home, and then all of a sudden my motivation changed, and all of a sudden I started finding myself at a place called the Bakery. So Mississippi State's campus. I'd never been to the bakery before, but there was this person that I went on that date with that kept going to the bakery. Then I found myself in Allen Hall.

I was a business major, she was an education major. So I kept finding myself where in Allen Hall, I had no business being in Allen Hall, but why was I in Allen Hall? Because she was in Allen Hall. I didn't like to go to the bakery, but I found myself at the bakery. I thought I was gonna go home.

But something changed in me and I turned and I went her direction. I'm really glad we've been married 20 years now. Okay? Don't worry. That would be bad if that was an ex-girlfriend.

No, that's Katie. And that's how this thing works, right? We begin to this, there's an old hymn that says it this way. Maybe, you know, it says, turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face. That's the first part of this.

Because I'm just telling you, our culture has a way of kind of riding the fence. And it's like on Sundays we look over here and then on Friday we look over here, and then we get back over here and we get emotional and it's really good. But then we come back over here and we don't look full. We, we don't really stop going our way or following the world. No, he says, the first thing, I need you to look full on my wonderful face.

And this is so cool because this happened to me with, with Katie. All the things of the earth will grow strangely dim. I didn't see what I, I just didn't see him anymore. I just saw her in light of his glory and grace. Man, that's where it starts.

That's what I want you to see today is the first step is to repent. Now, the second step's real simple and you see it, this is so cool about our church. So I gotta brag on you, man, every campus, thank you for, for being obedient and for being willing to share your story the way that you do because that's the next thing that Jesus says to do. He just says, I want you to go be baptized now. Now, again, today's not a day where I make you feel guilty for your background or any of this, where we try to debate over what the next step is.

I'm just gonna help you see where this comes from and how Jesus put these steps in place. Now, baptism, uh, comes from, it began with John the Baptist. Now if you're like me, I'm just confession. For years I thought John was a Baptist. John's not a Baptist.

John was the one baptizing people. So he became known as John the Baptist. Yet 400 years from the Old Testament to the beginning of the New Testament, until someone comes, that's preparing the way for Jesus. And he is John the Baptist. And what did he do to prepare the way He asked everybody to do two things to believe that Jesus was coming.

He said, if you're gonna believe that there's a savior coming, I want you to do two things. Repent and be baptized. I want you to see it. It's in Mark. Now, this is like Bible drill.

Hold on with me. But you'll see this when the people heard this, right when, when John the Baptist broke the silence, when they heard the Gospel that Jesus was coming, they were, wait a minute, now that's ax. Let's get to Mark real quick. He's really similar, but yeah, okay, you with me now just making sure you were with me. Says.

And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness. Now, I, he's one of the guys in the Bible. I'd love to meet you. Ever have some that you're like, I just would love a moment with this guy. He ate locusts and honey.

Okay, y'all aren't impressed. I am. Uh, so as John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, he was preaching a baptism of, here it is, repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Watch the whole Judean countryside. All the people of Jerusalem went out to him confessing their sins.

They were baptized by him and the Jordan River. Now, I like this little part because maybe you've wondered, Hey, do I have to be baptized at church? No, I mean, John, John was baptizing people in the Jordan River. Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, but what a powerful message that he's given. And this is the beginning of John the Baptist, preparing the way.

Now when you saw people be baptized, it was like a visual example. That was an outward sign. You've heard us say this language of an inward change. Are you a visual learner? I am.

I need to see it to believe it. These were signs that people did to express, Hey, we've put our faith in Jesus. And then you heard language like this from the tomb to the womb. Watch this. This is so powerful from the tomb.

When you see people be baptized, you hear, say you're buried with Christ. Same way that Jesus went into the tomb. And the idea there is we, man, you are going under the water to say that, listen, your old way of life has now been buried. So why do we do baptism the way that we do? Because you're gonna be fully submerged.

It's like you have died to this, then raised to walk in newness of life. It's like you're born again. Back to the wound thing. It's right. It's in reverse order though.

First, we have to die to ourselves. Deny yourselves. Pick up your cross. And then what? Follow me.

You're raised to walk in newness of life. That's the picture. That's what you hear, you and I hear. When you see someone be baptized, it's a way of us saying, Hey, you have died to this old way of life, and now you're being brought back into this new way of life. Now, Nicodemus had questions.

Here's one of the early ones. And he, and he pulled Jesus out into the dark and he said, Jesus, I gotta understand better what is going on here. I'm watching all of this happen, all this movement. He said, what's the key to it? Watch what Jesus said to Nicodemus.

Jesus replied, very truly, I tell you, Nicodemus, here's the secret. No one can see the kingdom of God unless they're what? Born again. You're like, ah, now you're speaking my language. Old school Baptist, back to the revival, some stomping, born again, but the boy.

But the idea of born again isn't something we're against. We're for this. You know this, if you have children, you see it before they're three years old. They're sinful people. They're born bad.

Why? Because they're your children. It's in you and it's in them. But this is true. This is an age old truth.

This is a principle that you know, you and me are born with sin in our lives. It's back to Adam and Eve. That's why he says there's gotta be a moment where you are born again, where you're raised to walk. How in newness of life, baptism is a way. This is so powerful.

But we identify with other followers of Christ. Now here's, here's an easy way for you to see this, and I hate to share this with you, but this happened probably about three weeks ago. Uh, it was a Wednesday. It was, I think it was a Wednesday night. It was a rest week for for house, church.

And so I, my family, we've been busy. We've been doing a lot. And so we decided we need to just break the rhythm. We've got high school students and middle school students. My kids are that age.

And so it was like we, we had to just do something different. Like, let's go. We gotta do something. So we went to New Orleans. It was different.

All right? And we went down there. We had a great night, man. We had a good time. It was a weeknight.

We kind of got him outta the routine. We needed just something to change. No practice, no nothing. That nice. We had a great time.

Uh, we stopped and got gas on the way home, made it over Lake Pon train. Somebody had to go to the bathroom, won't call her out, but somebody had to go to the bathroom. We stopped. And when they went in to go to the bathroom, I looked for my wallet and I was scared to death to tell 'em that I'd lost it. It was about 1115.

Now we just made it across the water. And finally they got back in the car. And I had to tell Katie, um, not that I was scared, man, but I was scared. I don't know where my wallet is. And we looked and we looked everywhere.

We went to the trash, maybe we threw it in the trash. I tried, I had a little tile on there. It didn't work where I could track it. And finally we realized we're gonna have to go all the way back across the water on Wednesday night at about 1130 now. And as soon as we got back on the interstate, headed the wrong way, she looked at me and she said, you know, I've lost things too.

My wife's a school teacher. Thursday mornings are early. She identified with me. Now, I'm not sure she was really thinking that, but she said that. And when she said it, it was like we had a common ground.

We've all lost things. Maybe not while it's in New Orleans, but we've all lost things. When you see someone baptized, it's like, oh, oh, well, you're, you're clapping and you're, and you're crying because you're going, Chris, the story we just saw, I get it. I understand. I need the same thing as you.

I'm a sinner too. I have been buried with Christ and Chris, I get it, bro. Tyler, I see why you're crying. This is emotional, man. I need the same thing.

I want the same thing. I've experienced the same thing, brother. I identify with you. I'm exhausted as a parent too. I'm praying as a mom too, man.

I'm asking God as a grandparent, may we have the kind of inheritance that those two boys talked about with their grandparent. I get where you are. Baptism is the way that we identify with people when they're in the water and you're clapping them on. It's your way of saying, Hey, I got I'm with you. You're not alone in this.

Look, this is in Scripture. Here's how Paul put it in Ephesians. He says, there's one Lord. Like we've all put our faith in the same Lord, the same Jesus, there's only one faith. Yours may be different than mine.

We may express it different. You may be at this stage, I may be at that stage, but it's one common faith. And then he says this, it's, it's one baptism. Yours may have been in a river. Mine may have been in a lake.

Yours may have been at the Stone County campus. Mine may have been at the Lincoln Road campus. But it's one baptism. It's one common step that we have together that unites us, that identifies us. Baptism is an expression of faith.

Now, I love this. You're gonna get this. Look at these little expressions. You've done this before. When you're sad, what do you do?

You cry. Right? You can't help, but it just happens. When someone tickles you, but you laugh, of course you do. It's, that's just what happens next.

When you're scared, you scream. When you fall in love, you lose your mind. It's what comes next. When you put your faith in Jesus. Every one of those scriptures that we looked at, we did Bible drill today, what did they do?

They got baptized. It's just what's next. They didn't debate it. They just obeyed it. It's all through Scripture.

It's the next step that you take. Now, watch this, because the timing is interesting. Let's go back to the Acts passage. This has kind of been our theme passage, and I want you to see when they were baptized, acts 2 37, it says, Peter replied, repent and be baptized. Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgive of your sins.

And you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So you're gonna receive that. Now, watch what happened. Those who accepted his message were baptized. Remember about 3000, we talked about, it's gonna take us a long time because they were added to their number.

When that same day, we, we've gotten away from that practice and it's, it's probably not healthy where we, Hey, listen, I gotta schedule it out. I'm gonna do it on this day at this time, and this thing, and dah, dah, dah. And we've, we've kind of, we've made it about all these different things. And we may have just gotten away from the obedience of that day. That's why we've planned all this for Wednesday night.

It's this week. Every one of our campuses on Wednesday night, we are stepping out in faith. We've got musicians planned, we've got pools bought to say, we're ready for you. We want you to take that step so that we can rally behind you so we can identify with you. It's gonna be such a powerful night where we get to hear your story.

But it, it's that day. I love it. And, and acts, you see it in, in chapter eight. There's Philip and he's going around doing his life every just normal day. And he stops.

There's a guy on the side of the road and a chariot, and what does he do? He ask questions about what the Gospel Philip shares with him, the Ethiopian. He stops everything. And he says, there's a puddle right there, bro. Let's go be baptized.

Why wait? This is our next step. Now, I'm gonna take you back to the passage, and I want you to see it really clearly because the, the first thing we said was repent. And the second thing we said was, was baptism. We've given you the story of that, where we got that the third step.

And some of you, this is where you are, you may have kind of stalled out over there. The next thing is to, is to grow. Watch this. This is an Ephesians. This is what you're to do.

Now, if you've already done those things, he says, but when you heard about Christ and you were taught in him, in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus, you were taught with regards to your former way of life to put off your old self. Remember you, you've been buried with Christ, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires to now be made new. That's every day, that's every moment. That's every situation. That's each conversation.

This is an active faith. This is a walk of faith. This is a journey we're on where we're made new. And the oh, that's interesting. I just noticed this in the attitude of our minds and to put off, to put on this, this, this new self created to be like God in the righteousness and holiness.

Now, this is the part I want you to see, because if you look at this verse and you're reading this, you're going, big problem, Craig, if you know me, if you know my kids, if you know my family, if you know any of us in the line of my family, you know, we are not like God. And you probably know, if you dig just anywhere deep in my family, there's not a lot of righteousness and holiness. Well, here's, here's, here's what I think may have happened is it's like you stopped, you repented, you were baptized, and then it was like the end of the story. And that's just the beginning of the story. See, see, the, the, the next part is you're raised walk in newness of life.

Because look what Peter says in acts that there should be something that separates you. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses and all of these places. But my point is this, you may have been trying to do this whole thing without this. It's a huge part of the step. You, me, we should receive power.

In other words, you can't do it on your own. It's like, it's like you walk down for crook for Christmas morning and you are so happy, you're so excited, and you grab the first gift and you rip it open and it is salvation, and you have found a sense of peace and calling and then you stop. There's so many more gifts under the tree. There's so many more things for you to experience. Don't stop with the first one.

Keep opening, keep learning, keep walking, keep growing. Keep seeing the other gifts that are under the tree that are for you and for the body of Christ. Don't stop with just the first gift. Share those gifts with the church. Get connected.

Listen, there's a power for you. There's new life with new power. Watch this. I love this. All that we have is not all that God has.

That's, that's the message for you today. There's, there's more for you. Now, I want you to see this because I've been really excited about sharing this, uh, illustration with you because I remember this illustration from years, years back. I saw this at another church. I saw it at Pine Lake Church and it's still in my mind and it's a great time to pull this up because we got a home series at USM, I believe we're number 22 in the country.

Y'all better wake up. You're supposed to cheer for, for the to the top. This is that moment. High school baseball's going on. Playoffs are everywhere.

But I want you to see this baseball diamond differently for just a second. This is an image I think you're gonna relate to and hold on to. Alright, home. This is when we're born. First base is when we decide that we're gonna be a disciple.

Okay? Remember what we said? We're walking one way, we're going one way, but at some point we turn and we head to second base, right? That's the repentance. We were going this direction.

Then we turned at first base, we went a new direction. Go and make disciples. That's first base. That's where we gotta start. But then it's really clear.

Second base is baptism. It's, it's in every one of the scriptures we've looked at today. Alright, so I've done that. I've repented, I've been baptized. What do I do next?

Third base. This is kind of where I am over here between second and third, we grow. Third base is just, you just grow. You keep opening the gifts. You keep getting connected in community, you keep practicing these things that we talked about that are the way, finally home now is heaven.

Now here's the question. I wanna see the whole baseball diamond again. Where are you on the diamond? Where would you put yourself over there at the hunt club? Where, where are you like you specifically?

Would you say you're where Here, here's, here's what you're asking. 'Cause I know you, and I've done this enough with people. What if I got it outta order? What do I do if I went from home to second? I was baptized.

Man, that was a lot of pressure. If you'd have been there, you'd have done the same thing. Everybody was looking at me. It was a revival. I just, I got baptized later on in my life.

I started growing in my faith. Later on in my life, I started living by the fruits of the spirit. And then I went back over here to first, and now I'm over here at third, and one day I'm gonna be in heaven. What, what do I do then? Well, unless you're playing T-ball, you got it outta order.

So what would I say? I said, well, let's get it back in the right order. I, I think you should be baptized. I said, disciple, That's the order that God puts this. It's just the path that we get.

Some of you, that's not the question you're asking. The the the question you're asking, Craig, I'm pretty confident I became a disciple, and you know what? I was baptized, but man, I let go. I want you to hear real clearly. You don't lose your place in line.

He never lets go of you. The message for you today is just to come, just to come back to Christ. You know the story of the prodigal son. He's just waiting on you. He's just calling for you.

He's steadily pursuing you. He's at the door looking for you. Your your next step is to say, I, I just, I just wanna get back in relationship with him. He's never left you. Finally, there's only one more and we're done.

Some of you, what you're thinking is, Craig, you don't understand from home to first. I'm, I, I don't know how many years old you are, but there's been a lot that's happened in my life. Think about the last few weeks. We have reassured you that if there's been disappointment, you're not alone. That if there's been doubt, you're not alone.

If there's been discouragement from home to first, just like the story you saw today, you're not alone. We're just providing a moment. We're just asking you to take a next step of faith and to do exactly what Scripture says, to repent, to be baptized Wednesday night with all of us. That's a way to identify that we are sharing the step together, we are with you, and then together we're gonna grow so that one day we'll be in heaven. So now I want you to bow your head at every one of our campuses for just a second, and I wanna speak to you for just a minute.

I wanna pray that you'd have courage, because I recognize that there's a, there's a part of this that's, that's difficult. Listen, I I just want you to know, ma'am, we've, we have prayed and we have asked God to prepare our hearts for this week. Man, we've made great plans for Wednesday. We we're not up here to sell you or to pressure. You we're just up here to give you a next step.

And man, I wanna pray for you because I want you to have a marker just like Chris and Tyler. I want you to have a marker in your life that you look back to, and it gives you confidence and courage to continue to walk forward. I'm gonna pray for you just a second. A host will be out and they're gonna give you really clear directions as to what to do next. But let's pray together.

God, I thank you that you never leave us, that God, you're close to us, that your word says that we don't have to be afraid, that we're not alone, and you give us these markers of baptism. That God, when we begin to get shaky, we look back on that moment and we're reminded of the truth that we were buried with Christ. That, that past sin, that past addiction, all those disappointments, doubts that, that God's not that they're just gone, but it is that they're forgiven. And then we're raised, we're raised to walk not in our own power, but in a power that comes from you. That you sit your spirit for us to learn to live by and walk by and enjoy and find peace, and find power and find strength.

So, God, we thank you for moments that we can identify with the savior of the world because God, you gave up your life for us. Father, may we be a church that's full of believers, who've received power, who've identified with Jesus, and who are walking in a new way of life. It's in your name we pray. Amen.