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Good morning. Wow, I never get applause when I come out before, so that's uh appreciate that. Well, like uh Dallas said, it's a big day. It's baptism uh Sunday, and uh about 50 of us are getting baptized this morning. And um it's such a uh exciting thing, you know, and it's not one big event, it's really you know, 50 or more uh big events all wrapped uh into one. And so uh, you know, I know some of us are are here for the first time with your uh family and friends and and loved ones, so glad you're here. Hope you can tell you can just relax and um be yourself. Uh baptism's not, I guess when I grew up, baptism seemed like a kind of a ritual, you know, something you check off the Christian to-do list. And it is so different. It's an exciting statement. You know, it's it's I'm all in. You know, Jesus, it's you and me. We're we're living our life together. Romans 6, it says, this is what that is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind. When we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace, a new life in a new land. That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lower into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus. When we're raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace sovereign country. And so after we're we're finished here, um we're gonna take about 15 minutes to uh to change and and get ready. Um we'll meet back back over here. And uh every baptism Sunday, there's uh usually a few people that come with uh um not planning to get baptized, but God kind of nudges us. And um and today's the day. And so uh if that's you, we've got extra uh shorts and t-shirts and towels, and um you can uh just uh jump right in uh literally and uh figuratively. Um, I was thinking about that this morning, and and even here in Dallas talk so so beautifully about uh baptism. It was only a few years ago that we were just getting finished, and it was uh um, you know, wait, there's there's someone coming, wait, you know, and so we we waited, and uh I didn't know this person, but I knew the family and friends were really excited. Uh and uh and it was Dallas. And uh he had had a uh near-death uh but uh life-giving experience with God, and uh it was a big day for for him and and uh and for all of us. And it's such a uh you know, baptism is you know part of God's transformation transforming uh process, but it's also uh a statement of what he's already done, you know. And um and so anyway, it's just uh exciting day today. Next Sunday is Mother's Day, that's always a big day. Um you know, we're doing uh the moms definitely deserve the applause. Um so we're doing uh 40 days to joyful life uh together. And uh Tommy Newberry will also be back uh next uh next Sunday to uh to kind of uh finish that off and also give us a great track to run on to make that uh an ongoing uh part of our life. And then the following Sunday is uh Bless the Bikes. And uh we got a lot of uh guys and gals to ride, and so uh we'll ride in that day and and along with uh friends and and family. We'll have kind of a regular Sunday, as regular as our Sundays are anyway. And um and then we'll uh hang out, we'll we'll pray for for everyone and bless everyone, and we'll pray for safety, but just you know, uh blessings in in general, and then we'll uh listen to some tunes and and eat some great food. And uh so that's two weeks from today. Well, I've got what I'm sharing this morning is actually pretty simple and uh possibly even short if I don't get off uh off track. Um but uh let's just pray and ask ask God to speak to each of us uh through his word. So, Father, we just thank you for being such a great Father, for for adopting us each as your own children. We just praise you and and uh and thank you for that. Holy Spirit, we just praise you for being our counselor and teacher. And just ask this morning that you would speak to each of us, that we would all leave with uh something that we know was uh just for us uh from you. And Jesus, we just praise you and and uh we love you. It's such an honor and joy to follow you. We just thank you for saving us, and it's in your name we pray. Amen. In Matthew 3, it says, Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. But John tried to talk him out of it. I am the one who needs to be baptized by you, he said. So why are you coming to me? But Jesus said it should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires. So John agreed to baptize him. After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, This is my dearly loved son who brings me great joy. And this is the moment we think of as Jesus kind of starting his ministry. He's roughly 30 years old. Um, and it's kind of interesting. John tries to talk him out of being baptized. And when we think about it, why would Jesus need to be baptized? Um, you know, Jesus said it was to uh to do what God the Father had asked him to do. You know, he hadn't sinned. There was no um symbolism there. It was a little foreshadowing of uh of uh his crucifixion and being raised from the dead. But uh but really what Jesus did, if we think about it, was purely an example for us. You know, and and following Jesus, uh then one of the very cool things is that Jesus always goes first. And so we're literally just following Jesus. And and baptism is such a great uh example of that. Uh something we get to do uh just like Jesus did. Um and it's uh it's such a cool thing. And uh something supernatural happens, talks about the Holy, uh, you know, we think of the Holy Spirit sometimes like physically like a dove, but it was really the the manner, the the softness, if you will, the gentleness of the Holy Spirit descending on um on Jesus. And when we think of Jesus, we usually think of Jesus as as God, which is which is true. Um Jesus went out of his way to make a specific point. He gave himself a title. The title he gave himself was Son of Man because he wanted us to know that although he was God, that he came as a man, not as a Christian superhero, but but but as a real person who lived life and gets us and understands um what we go through, understands everything. He really experienced uh all of the same things that uh that we experience. And he also uh talked to God in a specific way. You know, he refers to God the Father 160 plus times, and every time it's the same way. It's always Abba Father, um, which was the common word for daddy. You know, and so he talked to God, it was daddy father. And so Jesus gets baptized, and God says to Jesus, Son, I love you. Son, you bring me great joy. And so we're doing 40 days to a joyful life together, and and uh I guess it was a few weeks ago now. Um Tommy and I sat down and we kind of talked about what we wanted to talk about over these six weeks. The first couple weeks he did have an overview. Um I spoke two Sundays ago and we talked about uh an easy uh return policy, taking our negative thoughts and not just you know catching them, but exchanging them for the truth, for God's truth. Uh Justin last uh Sunday um talked about his grandmother and uh and talked about the importance of gratitude and and um thankfulness. And one of the things that Tommy wanted to make sure that we spoke about um over the six way six weeks is speaking life, speaking words of life, just like God the Father did to Jesus the day that he was baptized. Um the maybe I should back up, particularly if you're visiting for the first time. Um Tommy Newberry wrote a book that was really impactful to Susan and I. It's called Um The 4-8 Principle, and it's from Philippians 4.8. And it says, summon it all up, friends. I'd say you do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble. Wow, I just got baptized, sprinkled this time. Thank you. Thank you. Um was I? Uh minds and meditate on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious, the best, not the worst, the beautiful, not the ugly. Things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God who makes everything work together will work you into his most excellent harmonies. And so that's the 4-8 principle. You know, it's thinking 4-8, seeing the best, thinking the best, um, the beautiful, finding things to praise, uh, not things to uh to curse. And that book became a New York Times bestseller. And he wrote a follow-up of 40 Days to a Joy-Filled Life, which just uh allows us to kind of get that in us. You know, it sometimes we can come and we can hear something, and it's hard to apply, but every day for 40 days we're we're thinking about that and thinking about things that uh we're grateful for and kind of letting that become part of our souls, if you will. And so over a thousand of us are doing it together. And I think we've got more books. Uh if you'd like to do it, it really you can start anytime. We got to start on April 8th, you know, which was 4.8, so that was kind of cool. But uh we've got books uh uh in the lobby, and so you could get one and you could start anytime. It's really just uh uh a tremendous thing. It's been fantastic for me. I mean, every uh every morning I uh look forward to uh to the next uh day. And one of the days, day 28, is words of mass destruction. And it's uh it's kind of the opposite, uh, you know, it's kind of an eight-four type thing, you know, but it's the importance of speaking life and how our words um really matter. Our thoughts sometimes are are hard to get a handle on. You know, we have somewhere between 50,000 to 100,000 thoughts every day. Um and one way to know what we're thinking, you know, uh how we're thinking, is pretty simple. It's listening to what we say. You know, we think a lot of thoughts, we say a lot fewer words. And Jesus said it this way a good tree can't produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can't produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thorn bushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart. An evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart. You know, it was almost uh exactly a year ago. We were going through Proverbs uh together, and we called that the choice because there's so many different things that we can choose, and we feel like life just happens to us sometimes. But but actually, uh life in part is a combination of uh of all of our choices. And so almost a year ago to the day, we looked at Proverbs 18, 21, which said, Words kill, words give life. They're either poison or fruit. You choose. Jesus said it this way the words you say will either acquit you or condemn you. So Susan and I are coming up on uh August 25th is our 30-year anniversary. And Susan's out of town, but she would want you to know the first 29 and a half are the hardest. And uh, but after that it's pure bliss. Um but um and so I grew up in Oregon, uh, went to Florida to go to uh a Bible college, and it was there that I met Susan. We met in church, and uh she was a senior in high school, and um it was a small uh small church, probably about a hundred uh people were part of it. And um and so we ended up uh getting pregnant, and um I say we because it was certainly more my uh responsibility, even though she was the one that was uh pregnant. And um and so we uh told her family, and that went okay. You know, they weren't thrilled. I called um my parents, we decided to get married, um, and I called uh my parents and they were uh less than thrilled. In fact, they said that they didn't think they could come to the wedding under the circumstances, um, even though they did end up um coming. Um and in our church we had uh a practice, you know, where if you sinned publicly, you you came forward and and shared that. And so the next Sunday morning, um after uh the there's an invitation song, and uh, you know, just as I am, or something like that. And uh and Susan and I walk down to the front, and and so I get up and tell everybody the situation, you know, that uh that Susan was pregnant, that we're gonna get married, that I didn't look at, you know, I mean, certainly we were ashamed of the situation, but I loved her and I was excited about um us getting married. And so um so then the preacher says a prayer and we get done. And and one by one, people came up to us and said, Um, wow, I'm really disappointed in you guys. Um one lady came and said, Boy, I'm not surprised, I could see this coming. Um, you know, I don't know what that says. Um but uh and so we leave, you know, we're going out to uh to the car, and uh Jonathan Sinclair comes up to me and he says, Steve, I just want you to know that Sandy and I um got married in the exact same situation, and uh you're doing uh God's gonna bless you for uh for doing the right thing, and uh and you guys will have a great life together. And that was what I held on to because it was uh it was difficult and we were um ashamed and and you know things changed uh really uh really quickly uh for us. And we had I wouldn't recommend it for sure, you know. Like doing things God's way is always the easier way. Um and so we had a tough uh a tough few years. But you know, from all the condemnation and all that that stuff, the thing that I remembered was Jonathan Sinclair coming to me and telling me it was gonna be okay, that you guys are gonna have a have a good life. And um and and he was right. And it's just one example of how speaking life can change someone's life, and how important it is for us to speak words of life over each other. In Proverbs 15 23, it says, It is a wonderful it is wonderful to say the right thing at the right time. Proverbs 15, 4 says, Gentle words are a tree of life. Proverbs 12 says, Some people make cutting remarks, but the words of the wise bring healing. Proverbs 16 says, Kind words are like honey, sweet to the soul and healthy for the body. Now Benjamin Franklin wasn't Solomon, but uh he said, I'll speak ill of no man and all the good I know of everybody. Um Solomon said, Worry weighs a person down, an encouraging word cheers a person up. He said, Wise words satisfy like a good mill. The right words bring satisfaction. And that's really just the all I really wanted to share this morning, and uh is the importance of speaking life. You know, words matter. You know, we talk about actions speaking louder than words, which is it's true if if it's you know we have an intent to do something, and actions matter. But uh but words matter too. You know, it's just such an important choice. There's a passage that uh has meant so much to us as a church, and uh it's from uh Ezekiel, and I've read it two or three times. And Ezekiel, like all people in the Bible, is just a person. I mean, just like us, um, God gave him uh a vision, and uh and he showed him a valley. And uh in this valley there was uh nothing but bones, you know, and they were uh dried bones. You can imagine just looking out over a valley, and there's like a foot deep with nothing but just dried up bones. And that was the um the vision that God gave Ezekiel. And um he told Ezekiel to speak life over the bones, and so he did. And it says in Ezekiel 37, starting at verse 8 I prophesied just as I'd been commanded. As I prophesied, there was a sound, and oh, rustling. The bones moved and came together, bone to bone. I kept watching, sinews formed, the muscles on the bones, then skin stretched over them, but they had no breath in them. He said to me, Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, tell the breath, God the Master says, Come from the four winds, come breathe, breathe on these slain bodies, breathe life. And so I prophesied just as he commanded me. The breath entered them and they came alive. They stood up on their feet, a huge army. Then God said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Listen to what they're saying. Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone, there's nothing left of us. Therefore prophesy. Tell them, God the Master says, I'll dig up your graves and bring you out alive, O my people. Then I'll take you straight to the land of Israel. When I dig up graves and bring you out as my people, you'll realize that I'm God. I'll breathe my life into you and you'll live. Then I'll lead you straight back to your land and you'll realize that I'm God. I've said it and I'll do it, God's decree. And the importance of that passage in Ezekiel is that we live, all of us, in a valley of dry bones. And we can speak life, we can breathe life, we can prophesy life. Over people. That's why it's such a shame to go to church on Sunday and leave feeling worse, leave feeling condemned, leave feeling beaten down. You know, the world does that to us. We don't need to do that to each other. You know, the and that's one of the um, I guess, key passages God gave us is that we should speak life. Speak life. And it's true uh with our spouses, it's true with our kids, it's true with our friends, it's true uh with our classmates, it's true at work. Um we have an opportunity to speak life, God's life. You know, and when we do that, pretty soon there's a rustling sound, and then pretty soon there's sinu, and then there's muscles, and then the bones kind of get together. And then next thing you know, it's a whole army, an army of strong people full of life. And it's our opportunity, it's our choice, it's it's our um responsibility to speak life, to prophesy life. Um, you know, the New Testament was never intended as a legal document. You know, I would have said I went to Bible college, um, and uh and I learned to be a uh Bible attorney, if you will, you know, where you you learn Greek and hermeneutics and and you figure out what all the rules are. And to a certain degree, the Old Testament is that way because that was a choice we made in the Garden of Eden. You know, we said, okay, what do we want, life or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? And so with the tree of knowledge of good and evil came the law. And uh, but the whole point was to get us back to the tree of life. And the New Testament isn't a legal document, it's a love letter. You know, it is God speaking life to us, that he loves us, that he's not given up on us, that uh he's not mad at us, that he's adopted us as uh his very own children, really speaking the same thing to each of us that he spoke to Jesus, that we give him joy, that uh that he loves us. You know, in Ephesians 2 is one of the great verses, it says, For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things he's planned for us long ago. And so we're gonna stop there, and if worship team um wants uh to come up, it's just part of the the uh um I guess the 4-8 principle, Philippians 4-8. Not just seeing the good, not just thinking the good, but uh but speaking the good, things uh to praise, not things to condemn. And it makes such a difference in our um in our families, you know. I mean, I uh I think that if I could go back and and and do one thing different with my kids, I'd do actually a lot of things different. But I would definitely speak more life, I would definitely be less harsh, I would definitely uh find fewer things to criticize and more things um to praise. And so God would tell us just to speak life, speak life, speak life. You know, the uh one of the great things about uh God is just the simplicity, his does his desire um for us to be his children. And it and we make it difficult sometimes on ourselves. We might think we need to get scrubbed up or we need to change to come to God. Uh nothing could be further than the truth. You know, we get connected with God in our own words, in our own way. You know, we don't have to walk an aisle, you know, nothing needs to get notarized. Um we just say in our own way, Jesus, you know, I need you. Jesus, uh save me. Wherever, whatever we're out, Jesus, help me, Jesus, um, I want to live my life with you. And speaking of speaking life, one of the greatest things God tells us is that each of us is created in his image. You know, in the image of God, we're created. And so we have a spirit, just like God has a spirit. And so when we put our trust in Jesus, that spirit comes alive, connects with God's spirit, and then he does the heavy lifting. You know, he starts changing us. And he uses people, he uses his word, he does things supernatural, but he transforms us and changes us uh from the inside out. And so if you haven't done that, I mean today would be a wonderful time. You could do it and get baptized uh this morning, uh, which would be uh fantastic as well. But uh 40 days to a joy-filled life, you know, one thing that Tommy says that I had never really thought about, but I thought about quite a bit, is that you cannot experience joy and have a negative thought at the same time. Um, and certainly we can't experience joy and have negative speech, you know, at the same time. And one of the really cool things is when we live God's way and do things God's way and we speak life, God's truth, over people, it actually uh gives us joy. And so let's uh let's stand and pray, then we'll uh sing one last song together. And then a bunch of us will get baptized. So, Father, we just thank you for being such a great Abba Father, Daddy Father. We just thank you for loving us. We thank you for for you speaking your life and your love over us. And we just praise you for that. And we just ask you to help us, to change us from the inside out, help us to see uh the good in people, the good in situations, the good in our country, the good in our our marriages and our families, and help us, God, to speak that good. In Jesus' name. Amen.