You Gotta Go All Three!

I love that song. The Bridge reminds me, yes, of Jesus, also reminds me of my mom, U, my mom would literally do anything for me. I always say, and she'll never have to do this, but I always say she, she'll bury a body for me. She won't have to.

I just want be clear.

What kind of Pastor standing up here right now she'll never have to. But, man, my mom will do like the mom's in this room, like, just nod your head. Wouldn't you do just about anything for your kids? I mean, I think about me and I'm pretty self, but my wife, she's so much better at parenting than me.

Man, can we just celebrate our moms one more time?

You got it down. I love it. I don't know, man, my mom has done a lot for me. She's the person I call when I'm in trouble, and I'm not in trouble that much anymore.

Just want to be very clear.

So if you don't have a plan already, make sure you go celebrate your mom's. If you're a dad, maybe you're celebrating your mom, but your kids forgot to celebrate their mom. You remember for your kids to celebrate their mom? I, I, I'm, I'm.

I'm taking this up because I look at it too much when I do it, so I'm just going to do this.

We've been in a series and I- anyone remember the series title? Not Jon, they've got it not Jonah, because we don't want to be like Jona, and I prepped this several months ago, and I knew that this specific sermon would be on Mother's Day because I think, in a lot of ways, the like, the, the call to action today, fits our moms really well, just naturally. I don't know if you're a husband in the room, if you remember when you got married and then you had your first kid, but there was something that happened in me and then there was something that happened in my wife, and I would love to say that they were on an even ke, the things that happened in each of us. But my selflessness went up a little bit, like I was more selfless That I Used to Be and hers.

Just, I look at her and I'm like, wow, just a crazy amount of selflessness.

I would never like feed a baby the way that they have to. I- it's not me, you know. So I, I just I'm going to get awkward in a second because I'm trying to honor my, my family. We're going to go to lunch.

Afterwards, I got a present for you guys, it's not a physical present, it's a future present- just want- I didn't forget, though, just want you to know-, but make sure you to celebrate your moms.

But we've been in a series called not Jonah. I planned this, specific sermon because I do think our moms fit it really really well, but I think, for all of us, God is calling us to a higher standard of living, and I don't want you to feel stressed out about the word standard, the standard that's been met by Christ Jesus so we can have eternity with God because of what Christ Jesus has done in meeting that standard. But that, but when we step into that relationship, God is also calling us, to live differently, and so the call today is going to be to live differently, but I hope there are some handles that you will leave here with as you celebrate your mom. You can actually practice on your mom as soon as you leave from here.

I'm going to read the text- part of it we covered last week, but it's a different message.

We're going to be in Jonah, chapter 3, starting in verse three. It says this: Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now, Nineveh was a very large city. It took three days to go through it.

Jonah began by going a Day's Journey Into the City proclaiming 40 more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.

The ninevites believed God. Now, to bring you up the context, I know some of you have been here and you've heard the context a few times. Never hurts for you to know it a little bit better. But long story short.

Jonah is a prophet called by God to speak the Oracles of God to a group of people called the ninevites.

Jonah does not want to do this. We're going to find out why in the next few weeks. But Jonah doesn't want to do what God's called him to do. So he goes the opposite direction to the land of tarses.

But he didn't make it there because on the boat there's a storm that's battering this boat.

He gets thrown out. That's a long story, real short. He gets thrown out of that boat, sinks down to the depth and God sends him provision in the form of a big fish. This fish swallowed him.

He was in the belly of the fish for three days, three nights in that fish.

He prays to God, this prayer of turning back toward God, it as I turn toward your Holy Temple. So we believe that Jonah is repenting of his Wayward self and gonna step into the calling God has for him. So the fish spits him out on dry ground. And last week we talked about Jonah receiving the call of God a second time to go to the land of Nineveh.

And last week's message was about how we serve a God of Second Chances, who will not only call us once, but he'll call us twice if we're obedient or disobedient the first time.

God cares that much for you that he would give you multiple chances to serve and follow him. How many of you in this room have gotten a second chance from the Lord before? I'm raising up two hands, cuz I've gotten a bunch of chances from God. And so this is where Jonah is at, and I just read the passage again and what it says, if we can toss it on the screen.

It starts out with this.

It says when God called Jonah: Jonah be well. Verse three, verse three, sorry guys. Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now, Nineveh was a very large city.

How many days does it take to go through this city?

Three days now go to verse four. Jonah began by going a Day's Journey Into the City, proclaiming 40 more days and Nineveh will be overthrown. I just want to make this abundantly clear. How many days does it take to get through Nineveh three?

How many days does Jonah go through Nineveh one?

One day, see, I'm making it abundantly clear. He's called to go through the entire enre City. Probably 40 days just hanging out after he's finished it go again and again and again. It's 40 days before they're allowed to repent.

Keep preaching the message.

But it says that he goes one and in verse 5 it says the ninevites believed. Now, first things first. That's an amazing testimony that on day one those guys responded and later on we'll go through this next week. The nites responded such that they're all putting on sack, sackcloth and they're fasting and they're morning because they were going against God.

But now they want to turn toward God, the king of the city, all the way down to the cattle in the city, like they put them all in sackcloth.

This is a crazy response from the ninevites and it all happens on day one. But what the text Will Tell Us is that Jonah went that one day, saw the repentance of the ninevites and he's not happy about it. He goes outside the city. That's a sermon for another day.

But I want you to know there's plenty of proof to indicate that Jonah went that one day through the city, when it really took 3 days to get through the city.

And here's my message for you guys today: how are we going to not be? Not, Jonah, is you got to go all three? You got to go all three. Many of us in our faith- but let's, let's broaden it a little bit- it's not just Faith.

Many of us, we had hopes, dreams and Ambitions.

We believed that God was calling us to something and we started. But we, we went one day into the calling that God had for us. This says metaphor: whatever hits you right now, you went one day into. It could be your marriage.

You, you got married.

You have this Covenant between you, your spouse, and just know it's it's between you spouse and God. Right, you have this Covenant, you started it. But marriage is not as easy as you would expect it to be a little more difficult than I ever thought it was. I thought it was going to be, just happy, gol, lucky.

Our last name is Rose.

I thought it was going to be a bunch of roses, happiness, excitement. But then I got into day two of that calling and realized that it can be difficult sometimes. A lot of us we felt called to have kids. But now we've had the kids and we got to.

We got to raise said kids.

So, day one's having the kids, I got to say this: you moms know how to go all three trimesters. You did it. You went all three. You had the kid and now it's time for us to raise these kids, not just raise them, but raise them in the direction that God would maybe call them to go, right.

You, you got this job, like the Lord provided you with a job.

So I'm called to do this for the rest of my life. But then you got the job and realized it came with Administration tasks as well. That was Ministry. It's like you know, I, I was just hanging out with people, I was just talking to people.

Then I learned I got to, I got, I got to do administrative tasks.

It's different than I expected. Some people in this room, you, you came to church for the first time or the first time in a long time and you felt maybe the first time you came here or another church, or the first time you opened God's word or heard that worship song on the radio, you like, yes, Lord, I'm going to follow you and I'm going to trust in you today, confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord. I believe in my heart that God raised him from the dead. I'm saved for all of eternity.

But God said I yes eternity, but also want your life right now to be different too.

So day one, you got saved, but day two, God wants to sanctify you, set you apart, make you holy, change you, complete you in Christ Jesus. He wants you to push past the first day, jump into the second. He wants you to go all three. Look at your neighbor, say: you got to go all three.

All, we're going to try that again.

Look at your other neighbor: you got to go all three, got to go all three, yeah, yeah, I'm trying to get you guys engaging with this because the vast majority of us, we stepped in, we did day one and we scaled back and we didn't go all three. And I know we're quiet a little bit now, but the reality is, if we can recognize that what God called us into he intended us to stick with, then it would radically shift our faith. Our vision here as a church was one that someone made a comment and said that might be a little too intense. I'm like I don't know why it's intense, other than the fact that we have sugarcoated it for year and year and year in our country to the point where when we say something that sounds a little bit intense, it sounds foreign to us.

But our vision is to help people find peace in Christ Jesus and develop Purpose By revolving everything, not one thing, not two things, revolving everything around Jesus.

That's. That's like the fundamental alteration we feel like you need to make in order to have a life that is abundant and a life that that that is filled with joy and excitement. I don't know all these, all these Christians with resting, blessed faces and- and you know, we come in. I showed up at church today.

It's.

It's like you know what I think. If God had every aspect of my life and I started to know him the way that he wants to be known, I feel like, my posture would be different, my activities would be different. When people see me, they would see something different than they see when they look at someone who comes right out of the world. It's got to, but we don't.

We struggle to go all three.

We struggle to go all three. Jonah, I, I. We don't want to be like Jonah, but I get it. I understand it.

We're going to find out in chapter 4 why Jonah didn't want to go to the ninevites, but I think many of us fall into that category, not because we have some prejudice against a group of people, but because when we started, there were some things that got in the way.

The first one I'll give you my first point is the problem of, the problem of: I forgot it. Partial, that's it. I, I got another P. You know what I'm saying.

So the problem with partial, partial.

Many of us, when we step into something- again, I talk about faith a lot, but I want to be clear: this, this kind of works in a lot of different areas. I can't give you scientific evidence of some of this stuff, mostly anecdotal, but it works in more than just your faith. We have a problem, with partial because when we step into something, often we think that that little bit we stepped into is the full extent of the benefit we're going to receive receive. Let me, let me clarify that, I'm going to utilize faith when we step into our walk with God.

The pitch from people like me- and this is a true pitch- it's: you are saved for all of eternity and you will spend it with Christ Jesus.

All you have to do is seek forgiveness of sins and step in the direction of God. You got to put your faith and trust in Jesus. Boom day one. We stepped into it.

It's exciting.

It offers us value and benefit. Now it's postponed because hopefully we don't all die after that decision. You know what I'm saying. It's postponed so we're going to spend eternity with God, but even right now there's a lot of peace that comes with it, and so when we step into it, we feel like we have received all of the benefits that come with it.

It took me years in my life I didn't understand it.

The only reason I stayed in church after I became a Christian- oh my gosh, I shouldn't say this, but I'm going to anyway. The only only reason I stayed in church, is because I didn't have anybody else to hang out with. I moved to a new school and all I knew was people in the church and so I kept going. Now the Lord grabbed a hold of me and changed everything about me.

But that was one of the reasons I went.

Plus, some girls had a crush on me and that was fun to hang out with and I'm like super selfish and narcissistic and all that other stuff, so it's more than one reason, but really it. It was something to do when I was in high school and I didn't have anyone to go to. That really added much joy and value in my life. So I would go to the church and it took me about 3 years before I started to recognize that salvation was not the only benefit that came was my faith in Christ Jesus, and I say it all the time.

But for it to really click to me it took a couple years.

And I want to clarify to you: if you think salvation is the only benefit, I'm sorry because you're missing out. You're missing out big time. That's the problem with the partial. We step in, we think we've got the benefits and so we scale back.

I'll give you an Earthly example.

I talk about husbands and wies a lot, but since it's Mother's day, I'll talk about about moms. I got to be careful with this cuz I'm not a mom and I don't understand what you go through. I couldn't imagine it. I was freaking out four weeks ago with a kidney stone right here, and you should have seen my wife look at me when I'm sitting there crying in the bathroom.

She's like what in the world?

She's probably sitting there like all you mom's right now. Yo, I gave birth twice. Her first one was 10 pounds 5 ounces. That was it's pretty crazy, right.

But moms, right, let like I've heard this- like people want to have them babies.

You know you get excited to have the babies. I had someone come up to me say I love being pregnant, it's so awesome and I don't know why I can't imagine it. Maybe it's great. I'm not going to speak too much into it because you're going to leave here and say he doesn't get it.

No, I don't.

I have no clue what it's like to be a mom, but I've heard people say I want the babies. You know, I want to have kids and it might be a different reason for different people. But then when you have that kid and it gets a little bit older, first off you got to change the diapers. My wife didn't like that, she liked the kid, but you didn't like change the diapers.

I did that, but you did a whole lot of other things.

You were so good at that. But then they get old. They get two years old and they start screaming and shouting in the restaurants, TT, everything in you not to give them a phone. Or you do give them a phone, yeah, don't make you a bad parent.

I did it, .

And then they get older and then they learn to talk back to you. But I still got to raise them kids. I can't just, you know, smack them. They'll let you do that anymore, right, cuz you get in trouble.

I'm scared to death if I say that.

Anyways, I'm moving on. Then they get older and then they can't only, they only talk back to you. But they're hitting them pre-teen years, and I don't know about this other than my time in youth ministry and I saw some kids talk to their parents. Yo is crazy.

I'd have got a phone thrown at me when I was little if I talked to my parents like that, but they don't, right.

So then these kids get older and you're still the parent. You're still. You still got to be the parent. You still got to figure it out.

Then they get older and they, they drive and you got to give them a curfew and then they don't listen to the curfew and they want to push it right to the edge.

And you're still their parent and you still got to teach them. But they're less teachable because they are figuring out-, you know- basic cognitive abilities. They're getting abstract thought into their 20s and they want to live with you. But they don't want to pay rent.

But you still got to parent them.

You still like, you're still their parent, it is still your calling. And while it one stage, I always lament not enjoying the days when my kid was in one of them little carry things, the one you could sit down next to you at the restaurant and then you could cover it up and forget you have a kid for about 30 seconds. You still love your kid, but he's not crying cuz he's sleeping, you know. But then they get it's, it changes, and it's easy for me, in the midst of my sin, struggle, selfishness, whatever you want to call it, it's easy for me to say like I, I just don't want you don't say this, but you, you feel it.

I don't feel like being the parent I need to be right now because I got a lot going on.

But what I'm telling you is if you had a kid, God called you to have that kid and he wants you to go all three. He wants you to help raise them in the way of the Lord, and sometimes it's harder. You got to go all three. That's just one example.

I was just using mom examples.

If I to talk about husband and wives, it'd be. It'd be just as easy to talk about it, because it's easy to put the ring on it. It's hard when you find out what the real habits are. They're way different than you would have ever anticipated and they don't change like you think they're going to change.

Oh, it'll change later, when I'm tell them three or four or five or 500 times still, some stuff still don't change.

But you go all three, like day one's the ring, day one's the Covenant, day one's the honeymoon Day, Day one's the ceremony-, but day two is that second year when it gets real difficult. I mean, praise the Lord. I had someone lean into me and say, Hey, I want you to know it's not just sunshine and rainbows that you're going. Picture your.

This is what they told me.

They say: picture the biggest fight you've had with your brother. You love this person more than your brother, so picture the fights you're going to have with that person. And it was so helpful for me to recognize because if I had gone into marriage thinking it's what a lot of pastors acted like or a lot of people acted like because they never want to fight around you and then they don't want to tell you what it looks like in real life, CU they're trying to keep up an image for themselves- if I'd gone into it, gotten a day two and saw how hard it really was, I might have. I know I've got the Bible, I know Jesus has called me to stay forever.

But if I didn't understand it I might have had a harder time moving past it.

I wouldn't have prayed for the miraculous, I might have. Might have it didn't happen, it's not going to happen. But I might have done what so many other people do and said it's not worth it. And I'm not saying you're bad because you might have made a decision like that.

I'm saying God is calling you, wherever you are, to go all three to not stop at one, because God's calling you into something that that requires time.

Sanctification is not in one day, it takes a whole lifetime. But, but that's where we struggle. We had, we had this problem with, with, with partial we, we, we step in and, and, because it's not all perfect, we're like, or because we s think we got the benefits, we're good. If, if you would just stick through your relationship and like, just like, tackle some of those really hard issues in your marriage or with your kids or in your other relationships, like, just lean in trust that the Lord's got a plan through it and Tackle those things, you might find that as you go through that, God wanted to use that to shape you into who he's called you to be.

But the but, but.

If you just step in, say this is the best it gets you, step back, you, you, you missed out on the benefits, the benefits of my relationship, having pushed through day two, as I know, or better, it helps you in different areas of your relationship. It's not just, your better parents together, arm in-arm. You're, you're. You're better with sexual intimacy.

You're.

You're better when it comes to how you talk about stuff. You're better at dreaming together as you move through these things. If you're, if you're just day one in your relationship, it is hard to convert someone, one person's desires and another person's desires into one. You family units, desires, dreams, Ambitions and goals for the future is difficult.

You got to push forward, this is where Jonah flaked.

He stepped out and it wasn't just because it was pretty easy on the ministry side for him, but it was probably pretty hard on the relational side. I have an image in my mind- and I can't prove this through Scripture, but I have an image in my mind- that that Jonah stepped in and said: I did what I needed to do. See, look, they're blessed. But he pulled back because he was thinking about what his isra, Israeli or Israelite neighbors were thinking about him, because he was thinking about what the ninevites had done to some of his friends and family, because he was thinking about the fact that this isn't exactly what he would have planned for his life.

He stepped in, did a little bit, did just enough, and then pulled back because this is what you wanted me to do, right, Lord?

I preached it and you know what. He stepped in. One day, the ninevites were blessed, they received the word and they believed, but you know who was missing out on a blessing, the one who went partial. And I need you to know that if you step in and you go partial, you're blessed with salvation.

If you've trusted in Jesus, you might be blessed U with a covenantal marriage between you, your spouse and God.

You might be blessed with some kids, but when you lean in, that's what God intends to use to help you be who he's called you to be, and not only will that bless others, but you'll encounter tons and tons of benefits that you didn't expect. Like I, I have benefits from closeness to my spouse because, because I went through day two, I have benefits. I'm still learning cuz my kids are young, but there are benefits that come with having some of these hard conversations with your kids early. There are benefits that come with having a hard like.

We came out here and we launched at 500 people and here's what we knew.

Like everyone told me this and I knew it and everyone in here who was on that launch team they know it. When we launch the next week, we're going to cut down in half and that's a good number, because CU people like the day one, but week two, day two, it's different. And then they say, 12 weeks later, when people realize what it's like to do, set up, tear down- when people realize, that God wants more from them than just attendance once in a while, when people realize that when God gets a hold of them, Satan wants to attack them, when they start realizing that stuff, it's easy to scale back. But the problem with partial is you only get a portion of the benefits, and I want to encourage those of you in here- whether it's Faith, Family, job, whatever it is- lean into this season, no matter how difficult it gets, because I believe that as you seek the Lord, even when it gets hard, God's going to continue to bless you with knowledge of who he is.

He's going to bless you with a group of people around you.

He's going to help you get to the place where he wants you to be. Some people open day one 1, Genesis 1:1, and read in the beginning: , in the be, oh, gosh. Why am I blanking on? I should have memorized this.

I'm just going to go there so I don't screw it up again in the beginning.

I'm going with John here for a second. Anyone remember it? In the beginning, God created the heavens of the earth. The earth was formless and void, something like that.

I'm just going to read it.

Hey, one second, there we go. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now, the Earth was formless and empty, Darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Many of us got day one, read that and real, like what does that even mean?

Or you got into that because you heard so much from your scientific or science classes and stuff like that.

You're like that make no sense. And then you read that and you're like H yikes, that's a struggle and my encouragement is: you got to keep reading. I encourage the first service. I'd encourage you just just this week, maybe tonight, if you've got time, you do have time.

Maybe tonight.

Open up the New Testament, second book in the New Testament, the Gospel of Mark. It's only 16 chapters. If you sat down you could read it in less than an hour, won't? You just read a chapter or two and you're going to at first feel like this is harder than I thought it was, but then, if you continue, I know for a fact that God will bless you as you seek him.

This is.

This is one area some people you started coming and you're getting to the point. Now it's 12 weeks into the church. You're getting to the point. Not a burnout, no one's burning out at this point, when we're when we're doing what God's called us to do, we need to be careful with how we utilize that time and make sure we're getting energy in the right places, .

But 12 weeks in, people who were not used to coming to church find themselves in the place where they're like: oh man, I've been doing this week in, week out and I haven't gotten what I hoped I would get.

I've heard this and I want to encourage you with this now. Gathering is not the only thing to do to receive the benefits of your creator. Gathering is just one of those things. It's like opening God's word.

Spending time in worship, listening to that music, hanging out with people around you who are Are Spiritual and can encourage you, encouraging other people participating in what God's doing.

All of those are Pathways toward understanding who God is and what he has for you. But people step in. They say: man, it was hard for me to do this and I've been doing it for six weeks now. I haven't received what I thought I would received, or if this is all there is, maybe I'll just scale back.

The problem with the partial is you haven't gotten to the benefits yet, that you can't serve one week at the church or in the community or in any other capacity.

You can't serve one week and expect the miraculous to happen every single time you do it. In fact, it probably takes a lot of times. Picture the prophets of the Old Testament, many of whom spent their entire lives preaching a message that people weren't listening to. But we're so, consumed in, in like instant gratification, that if we do one thing that God calls us to do and we see some positive, but we don't see all the positive.

We're like you know what?

It must not be the right thing, or it must must not be worth it. Here's what I'll tell you. We have 5 GS at our church: gather, grow, group, give and go. Those are scientifically backed, statistically backed Pathways for you to encounter God at a deeper level.

Straight up- this isn't me making it up- when you gather, like f?

Like Hebrews, chapter 10 tells us, when you grow by reading God's word, taking the public step of baptism, and then when you group up in a small group of people who who also love the Lord, and you're encouraged and you get to encourage them. Then, when you give of your tithes and your offerings, as the Lord calls us to do, and when you serve alongside others, you get to participate in what God's doing. All five of those things are ways to come into a deeper knowledge of who God is. That that that's statistics, that's backed, but so often we step into it and it's not immediate.

And that's that's the problem with partial- is you don't get what you were hoping for, and many people, because they didn't get what they were hoping for in a short period of time, they come out out of the church, out of their relationship with God, out of whatever it might be, and then that pans over to other areas of their life and because they left the church, because they left their faith, because they don't connect with God, now the relationship with their spouse is not intact the way it should be now.

The relationship with their kids is not the way it should be now. They hate their job and they lament every single Monday having to get up and go do it because they have less purpose, than they had when they were following Jesus. They pull so far back, all because they went partial and didn't go to the full extent. The second problem is the problem of progress.

Progress is good.

In fact, if you're here today, I want you to celebrate yourself. Can we just celebrate the fact that you are here today? The progress is an amazing thing. In fact, I could do way better in my, like, working out life, in my eating, healthy life, in my relationship life and in my spiritual life, if I would simply look at the things that God has done and the things that I have improved upon and celebrate those things.

So when I go into this point, I want to be clear: we should celebrate our wins.

Celebrate that you're here. Celebrate that your marriage was here and now it's in a much better space. Celebrate the growth of your kids. Whether it's back here in the kids' area, they've been growing, or whether it's your house- they've been asking you questions and you're talking in a way that you've never talked.

Celebrate your progress in your job, whatever it is.

You should celebrate progress. That is huge. The problem with progress. The problem with progress is sometimes, when we have progress or make progress, we think that it's good enough or we think that we've gone far enough to then relax a little bit.

Now I want to be- I want to be so clear, because this could easily be interpreted- is me telling you to check more boxes in order to come into your relationship with Jesus?

It is progress when you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and when you are saved. That is amazing spiritual progress. It seals You by God's spirit for eternity with God. I want to be so abundantly clear that when you take the step of believing in Jesus, you are saved.

But God again calls us to be Sanctified and he wants to perform that on each one of us and as we.

If, if we step into our faith and then we completely scale back that sanctification, it's is much more difficult. God calls us to be obedient. When we're obedient, he puts us in places where he continues to bless us with more Revelation. Sometimes He blesses us with trials that are confusing and difficult, but he shapes us through them.

He blesses us with people.

These happen on the pathway toward God. That's why he walled up Jonah's path. That's why he sent him the fish. That's why he brought him back to Nineveh, because he cares about him and when he's on that right pathway, God uses him and speaks directly to him.

So we.

The problem with progress is that then, when we step in and we feel really really good about it, we do have the tendency to scale back. That's me. That was two days ago. I worked out and I know I talk about working out a lot.

That's just the, that's just the, the like.

The failure thing that I'm dealing with right now is I go work out and the next day my chest was sore. Progress it was sore and so my chest was sore. I like it's sore today. That means I worked out really good yesterday.

I guess I'm good for today.

Yeah, that's what happens for me. I don't know if it happens for you. Maybe that's just me. Maybe you all are super, super disciplined.

Maybe you guys are like my wife who every single day she's jumping on that pelaton, she's working out, she's doing Pilates and she just started like it was it January.

Hannah started in January and every single day she's walking. See how much weight I've lost the next day, see how much better it's getting the next. Say, see, see, see, see that progress influences and inspires her to continue doing it. When I look at my progress, I'm like: nah, I'm good today.

The problem with my progress is that I scale back.

I see this all the time in the church, I do. I see it. Someone gets really excited on the front end. They trust in Jesus, and I'll take you a little further.

They make that Faith public through baptism.

And then they get baptized out there. And there's one thing that I tell them every time, because it happens so much to the time as I say: hey, this is a moment where you're making your faith public. This is not the time to get, be excited, but this is not the time to scale back or to say, since I've got this Victory, I can chill the rest of the week, because here's what I know: there's an enemy out there lurking around seeking to steal, kill and destroy, and as soon as you have progress or a victory, he attacks because he knows that's When You're vulnerable. And so for the people in the, the baptism tank, every oh gosh, I y'all, Y y'all pray for my spirit on this.

I just wish it weren't this way.

They step into the tank, they're excited, people celebrate them and they're pumped. Because people are pumped and they're pumped because they made a decision and I believe that there's something like like happened that happens when you're in that water, that the Lord speaks directly to you and get you amped and ready for the next step. And since you feel comfortable, all right, I'm good. This week, every time, every time, the problem with progress is again we feel like we've received the benefit.

But there's so much benefit to be had.

I want, I want to lead a church where we can get to the place that Paul gets, where he says: I consider all things as lost in light of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus. He says that there's always more ahead. There's more benefits. There's more blessing.

There's more Revelation.

There's more relationships. There's more people to talk to about my faith. There's more love that I can give to my partner. There's more leadership that I can offer my kids.

How many people?

They come back to church and then they go back home because they weren't in church the last 20 years. They look at the rest of their family. They said, day one, day, one day one, hey, y'all come to church with me. They said: you ain't been going to church.

Why are you going to lead me spiritually like that.

You ain't been doing it the rest of my life. It happens all the time. And then they say: well, my parents forced me to go to church. I don't want to lead mine to go to church or have a relationship with God.

They start, they start back, whatever it is, and then God puts you in front of your family that you now have to inspire and lead and you're like: day one was easy, but day two, day three, it.

It's hard to go all three. But we've got an example, amen, somebody. We've got an example in Christ Jesus, who came to Earth, died on a cross, Rose from the grave. He spent three days in the belly of the earth and because of what he did, the Bible says that he's the pioneer of our faith, the first fruits of a new creation.

What we see in Christ Jesus is not just the ability in what he did and who he is, as God made man to save us, but he gave an example for us to walk in, because Jesus didn't just die, did he?

That was day one, but on day three he rose from the grave, which validates and confirms everything we believed about the forgiveness of sin that he had preached. What I'm trying to tell you is that in Christ Jesus, we have an example of someone who fought the good fight, who went the whole way, he went all three, and that shouldn't Inspire us to start our faith and to continue this process of sanctification. I've got a few Scriptures here, because my last point is that God wants to make you whole and complete, and so I've got a few Scriptures up here that I want to read, and the first one is in Philippians. He says- for I'm confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

The NIV version says: complete it, .

The next verse, I think, is in James: consider it all. Joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, for it's the testing of your faith that produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result so that you, you may be perfect and complete. Lacking in nothing, let's toss up one more. I think it's Romans, chapter 12, says: and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

God wants you to be complete, and the way that he sanctifies you is by putting you on a pathway of understanding him at a deeper level.

Yes, you're saved, but in order to really have the benefits- not just eternity but in the present- you got to keep seeking, you got to keep walking. It's a big city. You're calling this. It takes a lot of time to get through it.

For Jonah it was 3 days.

For you it might be 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months, 3 years, 30 years. I don't know what it's going to take and what God's called you to, but what I do know is, as you pursue Christ Jesus, he will clarify what that calling is and he will reveal himself to you daily. It's that Revelation that's the true benefit I think he'll bring you to himself. He always does, he will in eternity, but to understand more about his character, so that I can live as his representative man.

That's a blessing, but there may be some in here.

You've not even started day one, you've not even trusted in Jesus, but you can do so right now. So if everybody would bow their heads and close their eyes, want to pray a prayer out loud, together, for the benefit of those who may be praying it for the first time, you might say something like this: God, I believe. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe.

He died on the cross.

I believe he died on the. And Rose from the grave. Rose from the grave, forgive me of my sin, forgive me of my S, make me a new creation. Make me a new creation and I will follow you.

I will follow you for the rest of my life, for the rest of my life.

It's in Jesus's name that we pray and all God's people said amen. Can we celebrate those who just trusted in Jesus? If that was you today is? It's the first day.

That's exciting.

Eternity with God. It's just the first day. Do me a favor, would you check the box that says I have decided to follow Jesus on your connection card and let us know about it? I'll reach out to you- to you about it, cuz that it's a great first day.

There's some opportunities for you to take a step.

We're having baptisms on June 2nd. It's going to be an amazing day. I already know several who are getting baptized. I'm amped about it, but in a lot of ways that that's still early on in the faith.

God's called you to something that's a lifetime, not just, not just a couple weeks.

So lean in and go all three. I think that might be a good phrase for us to utilize at this church, not to make you feel guilty, but to amp you for spiritual growth. Come on, let's go all three. Let's do it, let's.

Let's not be like Jonah and scale back out of anger or out of apathy.

No, let's lean into our relationship with God, no matter what that means. Goodness, how do we move from the place where we hear Jesus saying: take up your cross and follow me, which doesn't just mean pick up the cross, it means Carry the Cross, it means be crucified on that cross, it means what it meant for him. But he says that. And now, now we water it down to say: you know, just make the decision to follow Jesus and it's all good.

That's day one stuff.

But I want us to press on toward maturity in Christ Jesus, completion in Christ Jesus, the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. That's a cultural point for this room, and if you're new to this, don't get stressed. There's Grace in Christ Jesus. But what good would, what good would all this be if we stayed the same.

What's the point of coming in here week in, week out, if you're going to stay the same?

If you're just going to stay the same, that's just. That's a poor use of your calendaring. But God wants a whole calendar and so let's shift that. I'll be up back up here in a moment.

I got a couple announcements, but I want us to stand as we sing to God of this worthiness.

Let's worship him now.