Father, we just praise you. Thanks for us being together this morning. We just praise you for that. Thanks for adopting us as your children. What an amazing thing that is. We thank you for all those that are being baptized this morning. We just ask you to bless them in every way. Just Holy Spirit, please just be powerful here this morning. Please give each of those that are being baptized a special gift like you talk about. And mostly this morning, speak to each of us. Just if you would let each of us leave with one thing that we know is from you. We just thank you and we trust you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I mentioned baptisms, and it's such a it's it's such a cool thing. Fifty of us being baptized this morning. You know, I used to I used to uh think of baptism as just a ritual, you know, and and uh when I was first baptized, the the the first go-around, um, it was kind of that uh for me. But now I see it as such a such a statement, you know. I'm all in. This is is my uh new life. I'm following Jesus, and I'm displaying that I'm following him by actually following him, you know, because he was baptized. And he asked us to get baptized. So we're we're we're doing what he did, we're doing what what uh what he asked, and it is just such a uh it is such a great thing. Every time we have baptisms, people get uh um baptized that hadn't been planning to. You know, just innocent bystanders. They came this morning and and just the Holy Spirit spoke to you, and it's like, man, I really need to do that. And so I invite anyone, if whether you've signed up or not, we're gonna have the reason Bill Thrasher is gonna be up here really is because we got a bunch of t-shirts and a bunch of uh shorts and towels, and so if you came and you don't have that stuff, but you would like to be join us uh and uh please do. It is just a uh a great thing, it's a supernatural thing. Um in Romans 6, this is what Paul says. He says, When we go under the water, we leave the old country of sin behind. When we come up out of the water, we enter 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 lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus. When we're raised up out of the water, it's 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 this new life full of grace. And so that's what we get to do later this morning. Um, we've really talked about us living that resurrection life. You know, walking, walking it out, being raised to a whole new life. And we've specifically looked at when Jesus raised Lazarus. How he raised his friend Lazarus from the dead. He saved him, but he was still all wrapped up in these dirty grave clothes, and Jesus said to his friends, You take off his grave clothes. Jesus had done the heavy lifting, he had saved him, he had raised him, but he asked his friends to uh to help him out of his grave clothes. And so we all have those. We all come with our own sets of grave clothes. They're, you know, habits, their patterns, their ways of thinking, there's woundings from the past, there's mistakes we've made, things people have done to us, all that are grave clothes that we want to help each other get rid of. Um Paul says that when we take those clothes off, we put on new clothes. In Colossians, he says, so chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you. The wardrobe God picked out for you. Compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. And so we've been talking about putting on these new clothes, how we need each other to uh to help, how we can be ourselves, we don't have to pretend to be Christian superheroes. You know, we can be open and honest. We're all in process, no matter how long we've walked with Jesus. You know, we're we're in process. We've got new clothes to uh to put on. Last week we talked about how we can speak life over each other, how we can see the good and we can see the beautiful. And not only just see it, we can speak it, we can say it and uh speak life. This morning is a uh it's kind of a biggie. You know, it it's something that's effective, it can transform each other, it uh it transforms us. One of the things I kind of like about it is it can be an anonymous thing. If you're an introvert like I am, you know, you like things that you can just uh that that can be a big help, but it's not always a big to-do. It can be anonymous, you know. It's a gift. You know, Jesus talks about giving anonymously. You know, he's talking about giving money. He says, you know, sometimes don't let your left hand know what your right hand's doing, you know, give it give in secret. But then there's other times he says, do your good works in front of people so so you know the light can um can shine. So the Holy Spirit um um shows us what to do. But this is a gift like that. It's a big gift that we can do quietly without it being a big deal. And the the big gift is to pray. It's to pray. Now I hope you'll stay with me because I know that the reaction could be, okay, great, pray. I know that one. Um but uh we're gonna look at it in kind of a different way. And you know, sometimes we think, as Christians, we think, okay, there's milk and there's meat, you know, and and uh uh the milk is the simple stuff, the meat is boy, if we can really get into doctrine and we can really dissect some Greek words, and we can really, that's really, but it's just the opposite. The meat is actually the simple things, the things that Jesus talked about, the type of things that if we can get a hold of, they may seem simple, but they can have a profound effect on our lives. A dramatic effect if we can get hold of some simple things. And and that's true with prayer. Prayer, how we normally think of it, well, I'll I'll say prayer as I um tend to think of it, is is praying for physical things. You know, when Susan was talking about prayer, she talked about uh physical things, and then she talked about you know inside types of things. But my default position, if you will, is I generally think of physical things like health and like finances and safety and the weather if I've got something planned, you know, that type of uh thing, physical things. And it's good because Jesus told us, you know, and the apostles told us to to pray for all those types of things, that they're uh they're important. Um Jesus' brother James is what Susan read, talks about uh um praying for each other when we're uh when we're sick, and then he quotes, or he he as an example, he uses Elijah, who was just a person, but prayed for the weather, you know, and so physical things, sickness, safety, provision, um those types of things are are so important. But just as often, Jesus and his followers taught about inside stuff, praying for inside stuff, our attitudes, the way we think, having love, being able to forgive, self-control. You know, the metaphor of clothes that we're talking about, taking off dirty clothes, putting on new clothes, you know, is really inside stuff. You know, getting rid of the inside stuff, changing that out to uh to the new stuff. You might remember when Jesus uh asked his disciples to pray. It was at the Mount of Olives, and uh it's it's the night before uh um his crucifixion. It's in Luke 22. It says, Then accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives. There he told them, Pray that you will not give in to temptation. He walked away about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, Father, if you're willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine. Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. At last he stood up again and returned to the disciples, only to find them asleep, exhausted from grief. Why are you sleeping? He asked them. Get up and pray so that you will not give in to temptation. See, what he was asking them to pray for was inside stuff, that they wouldn't give in to temptation. But the second time he asked them, they actually wouldn't have the chance, because the very next verse, but even as Jesus said this, a crowd approached, led by Judas, one of the twelve disciples. Judas walked over to Jesus to greet him with a kiss. What's the first thing all of his disciples did? Gave in to temptation. They ran. See, there was a reason Jesus had asked them to pray for inside stuff. Is they were going to need supernatural help. They were going to need God's strength. He saw what was coming. They needed that prayer. You know, we can pray for so many things that are inside things. Um, James. In uh James 1, it says, if you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. Okay, that's an inside thing that we almost all need. More wisdom, supernatural wisdom. When Paul wrote letters to the folks in Rome or in Ephesus or Philippi, he would tell them what he was praying for them. Um He says in Romans 15, I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Okay, all inside things of joy, peace, confident hope. Um in Ephesians 1, he says, I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can be under so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called, as holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realm. Again, all inside stuff. Do you see he's praying for spiritual wisdom, knowledge of God, understanding the greatness of God's power. In Ephesians 3, I pray that from his glorious unlimited resources, he will empower you with inner strength through his spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you'll be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Last one in Philippians 1 says, I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. And there's more prayers like this. I actually had a whole list, and I cut out like, you know, I know that was a lot already. But over and over, the prayer is for inside stuff, for peace, for joy, for wisdom, for knowledge, for strength, for self-discipline, for confidence, for hope. And so when we think of each other, I mean, just when we think of each other, when somebody, when, when somebody comes to mind, you know, one of the greatest gifts we could give would be to pray for that person. You know? I think of Chuck. I can say, you know, God, thank you for Chuck. Just please bless him in every way. You know, give him strength, give him hope, fill him with joy, fill him with your love. Continue to to change him from the from the inside out. You know, help him to just feel how much you love him. See, it makes a big difference. Uh God would not have taken so much time uh displaying this principle if it wasn't effective, if it didn't really um uh make a difference. It makes a huge difference. God moves in response to our prayers. It makes a huge difference. There's another way we can help, and this is really where I wanted to get this morning. I think this is the thing that might be a different perspective for us. There's another way that we can help with prayer, and it is when we notice each other's grave close. You know, we're gonna notice each other's grave close. You know, the closer we get, you know, you just you you you you see things, you notice things. Um bad habits, bad thinking, you know, uh all that type of stuff. We're gonna we're gonna know notice it. And we shouldn't be shocked because we've all decided that we're all in process, right? And so we're not freaked out when we notice that, but there's something we can do. There's something we can do to help each other uh change our clothes. In 1 John 5, this is what God says for us to do. He says, if you see a Christian brother or sister sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray. And God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I'm not saying you should pray for those who commit it. Okay, there's a reason we don't talk about this verse very much. It's a little confusing, you know, and and and this is one of those verses that uh theologian types have debated for centuries. And the debate is the last the last part of that verse. You know, what exactly is this sin that would lead to death? You know, and is it physical death? You know, is it is it spiritual death? You know, what's what's that all about? Um to me, if you read all of 1 John, it's it's pretty obvious that what he's talking about is a group of people in the church that were denying that Jesus is God's son. And so he's given this kind of statement, but he's given this little caveat at the end. That if someone were doing that, you wouldn't want to just pray for them, you'd want to speak the truth out, you know. And um, but that may be obvious to me, but there's a lot of super smart people that's not obvious to, so that may not even be right. Um but what is obvious is the point that John's making. His point is the first part of that verse. He threw in a little disclaimer at the end. Don't take this idea too far, but in general, this is what we do. If we see a Christian brother or sister sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. God will give that person life. And there's the common sense factor here. You know, there's uh all sin, all things we do, all grave clothes, they're gonna discourage us, they're gonna harm us, they're gonna potentially hurt others. But there's things that are more important than other things. You know, and sometimes we get formulas stuck in our head. And so, you know, that where all sin is the same, you know, a little white lie is the same as murder. And that's only true in the context that any mistake would separate us from God if it weren't for Jesus. Okay, so in that context, that's true. But all sin is not the same. God doesn't look at all things the same. A white lie is not the same as murder. You know, it's not. And so John is asking us to use some common sense and some discretion, and if it's not a huge deal, we just pray. You know, and so I see a parent maybe that's speaking too harshly to a child, I can pray. You know, if if I see uh a parent that's abusing a child, need to intervene. You know, there's a difference there. But but you know, and there's there's uh I thought of I thought of all different types of examples, I guess, you know. Um, but I didn't really like any of them. You know, maybe maybe we see somebody that's uh plays too much video games, you know. We can uh we can pray for balance in their life. They start thinking they're a character in a video game. Um it's time for some sort of uh some sort of intervention. Um but what we can do when we see something in somebody else is we can pray. And 90% of the time, at least, those are the things. It's the everyday normal interactions we're gonna have. We can just pray. No big drama, no big conversation. We just pray. And here's the thing is it works. God wouldn't ask us to do it if that wasn't the best way to accomplish what he's trying to accomplish. It works. God cares more. God cares more about us getting rid of our grave clothes than we even do. And he gave us a way to accomplish that. And the big thing we can do is pray. We see a fault in someone else, we can pray. John says, and God will give that person life. Last week we talked about kind of looking for the good, you know, seeing the seeing what's what's beautiful, seeing the good, speaking that um over someone. Well, what happens when we just can't help but see a fault, can't help but see a weakness, can't see help but see an opportunity for change. We can pray. You know, we can do that with our grown kids. We can do that with our grown kids. But we don't have to be criticizing and correcting and parenting all the time. We can pray. We can pray, we can let God do the heavy lifting. With our young kids, you know, we need to train, and so it's a little bit different. We can do that with our spouses, we can do that with our coworkers, we can do that with each other. John says God will give them life. It's the best thing we could do, it's the most impactful thing we could do. And besides that, it gives us rest and peace. It gives us it gives us peace knowing everything is not our responsibility. You know, it's hard work to be the morality place for everybody you know, it's exhausting. Um, it'll wear you out after a while. In 1 John 16, Jesus is telling his followers about sending the Holy Spirit. He says, But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don't, the advocate, the Holy Spirit, won't come. If I do go, if I do go away, then I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin and of God's righteousness and of the coming judgment. Okay, this is a principle. You know, it's not it's not a formula, it's it's a statement of truth by Jesus. But in general, it's the Holy Spirit's job to convict us of sin. It's our job to encourage and love and to build up. I used to tell Susan every now and then, I know she said this in her class, but every now and then I'd say, hey, you know, you're not the Holy Spirit. How about you know backing off just a just a hair, you know, let and um actually I haven't said that to her in a long time. It's partially because the bruises are just starting to heal. But um, but you know, in in a group this size, I'm sure there are some of us that uh could turn the Holy Spirit's job back over to the Holy Spirit. And uh we got enough on our hands, you know, trying to help, trying to love, trying to encourage, praying. But we can we can let the Holy Spirit do his job. Convince. Show us areas that we need to change. And again, it's not a formula. This is a principle. It's a general principle. Because there's times, you know. I mean, if you have a good friend, part of being a good friend every now and then is to speak the truth in love and to point out a blind spot. There's going to be times when we have a responsibility to help someone with uh with something we see. But again, nine out of ten times we do have a responsibility. But the responsibility is just to simply pray. It makes a huge difference. And it gives us peace and rest. We don't have to change everyone. And it's God's way of doing it. And it's not being cavalier about sin at all. It's not saying that it doesn't matter, and we're just like, it's not being cavalier at all. It is deciding to use God's wisdom instead of our wisdom. You know, our wisdom would be just pointing out every chance you get, correct people. If I don't say something, no one else will. That type of thing. God says, you know, if you see something in somebody else, pray, and God will give them life. It will honestly revolutionize some of our relationships, completely change the dynamic of our relationships. When we let the Holy Spirit do his thing, and we do our thing. You know, it works. Say you got a boss that is just doesn't appreciate you, you know, and he's hard on you. And so you use a lot of things you could do. You know, you could complain to co-workers, you could try to loop them or her and complain to their boss, you could just, you know, be resentful. There's a lot of things you could do. One thing we could do is we could pray for them. We could ask God to supernaturally change that. We could ask God, first of all, to bless them. Just to bless them. Um but to change their heart. And what happens, and this is this is, I think, the dynamic in the instruction, what happens is when we pray for somebody, God changes them. He does. But he also changes us. I think that's the great wisdom and why God asks us to go about it this way. Okay, and so I'm praying for for my boss who just doesn't appreciate me and he's he's hard and and never compliments me, doesn't see all the things I do. And and I'm praying for him, and I'm asking God to bless this person. And um next thing you know, I'm starting to notice how much responsibility this person has. Next thing you know, I'm starting to see the the stress they have. Next thing you know, I'm hearing about uh uh their their child or or their their spouse that is is sick, and I'm I'm and I'm seeing a whole different thing here. And my heart is softened, and all of a sudden, maybe I'm trying to not just get recognized by he or she, I'm actually trying to help them. That softens their heart toward me. It creates this big dynamic when we pray for somebody else. It's a supernatural thing. And it's God's way when we don't criticize, we don't condemn, we don't complain, we don't talk to other people. We don't feel like we have to have a big confrontation drama all the time. We can just simply trust God. We can trust God. We can pray. And He will try transform the person and whenever we pray for somebody else. He blesses us by transforming us too. You know, it's it's it's God's way. Simply by praying, we can help each other change. Praying for the inside stuff. And so we can do that when we see things in each other, when we see things in our spouse, when we see things in our kids, our co-workers, our teammates, whatever it is. Our default position can be to pray. Ask God to help them, ask God to change them, ask God to give whatever they need. Joy, strength, peace, self-discipline, confidence, love, which is so often what we need. It's a transforming thing. We're all changing. I mean, all of us. I mean, we are we are some of us are here because we know someone else that's here and just couldn't believe the change in their life. I mean, God is changing us. God is transforming us. He is taking off the old clothes, putting on the new clothes. But it's gonna happen, you know, faster and more powerfully. As we help each other out, you know, as we just be ourselves with each other. As we speak the truth, we speak life and love over each other. And especially when we notice things, we stop and take the time to pray. We stop and take the time to pray. It's a powerful thing, it's a simple thing. But, you know, the way God's had, either how God's wired me or how he, I guess it's I guess it's mostly how he's changed me. I don't have a hard time overlooking people's faults because I got so many of my own, you know, and so um I see something in somebody else, it's easy to overlook. But you know, I don't always naturally stop and pray. You know, it's one thing to overlook, it's another thing to do something to help. And so when we think of each other, whether it's noticing something or we're just thinking of each other, you know, if we just ask God to do the work, he will. We can trust him. He loves us, he's powerful, it's his way. We can ask him. So in a minute, um, I'm gonna actually practice what I preach. And uh and so we're gonna pray. You know, we're gonna ask God to uh uh to do all that, and and uh and I know that he will. And if we if the worship team wants to come up, we'll uh finish here in a second with uh with one more song together. In fact, let's stand and uh get ready for that. Man, it's such a great thing to have a father who loves us, a father that we can trust, you know, that that uh that we can trust with everything, we can trust with the physical things, we can trust him to take care of us, we can trust him to provide for us, we can trust him with with uh our lives themselves, that we're never gonna die, that we're gonna we're gonna live forever, we don't have to worry about all that stuff, but we can also trust him with each other, the most important things to us. You know, our our our friends, our spouses, our children. We can trust God. We can trust God. We don't have to always do it ourselves. We can ask our Father to do it for us, ask our Father to help those that He loves. You know, and and uh the biggest thing any of us have ever done is just trusting God in general, is turn our lives over to Him. Following Jesus. Jesus is the one, He's God Himself. He comes and He shows us what God's really like. He proves once and for all that He's not out to get us, that He loves us, He'll do anything to be back in relationship with us, that He's compassionate and kind, and He cares about us, and then all we gotta do is just turn to Him. That's like baptism. It's not a big religious hoop to do. It's just us turning our hearts and saying, okay, Jesus, I'm gonna trust you. You know, I've had it with doing it my way. I need you. The God of the universe created me. I need to be back in connection with him. I need you. I'm gonna follow you. You know, and then he takes over. He does do the heavy lifting. You know, he asks us to apply things that he shows us and teaches us, and we need to do that, but he is the one that fills with his spirit, and our spirit comes alive, and this transformation process just uh takes off, you know, changing us from the inside out. And so, you know, if if if if you're here and you haven't taken that step of trust, man, you'll never regret it. I have never ever in my life met someone that turned their life over to Jesus and regretted it. You will come alive inside, and he'll start transforming you from the inside out. We can trust him. We can trust him with our lives, and we can trust him with each other. So let's pray. Father, we just praise you. Thank you for being such a great God, being so great to us. Thank you for making it so our burden is light and easy. That the the heavy things that you're willing to take. And so, Father, I do ask you to transform each of us, to give us all those things that you want us to have, that you would give us joy, and that you would give us peace, that supernaturally, that you would just impart into us your wisdom, that you would uh help us to put on our new clothes of kindness and humility and love and self-discipline and all those things, God, that you would change us from the inside out. We also ask that you would just stir up a desire to pray for each other, that that would become over time, God, our natural inclination. That when we think of each other, when we see uh uh something in each other, that we would just pray. And that you would give them life. And so we praise you, God. We praise you for teaching us your way. We thank you for being such a great God and Father, and we ask all this in Jesus' name, Amen.