Business of Being a Christian

Introduction

Not gonna be Tony tonight. There’s the title of the lesson. If I’m not mistaken, Dean and Desi, this is y’all’s last Sunday here, right? Y’all were at the Goin’ Away, I guess you call it a party yesterday. Y’all heard some stories about them. It’s funny because I’m working with someone who works with Dean, and I got an email yesterday after I talked to her, and yeah, we commiserated that Dean and Desi are leaving. Oh, we’re gonna miss him at the company. And at the end, I wouldn’t have gotten this unless I heard all those stories. She said, hey, is Jared moving to Austin too? So not really. But we’re gonna miss them and them being a part of us. If you’re watching on the stream, I’m obviously not Tony.

I’m much younger and better looking. Really, I’m just younger, a lot younger. since he had a birthday last Friday. And I appreciate the opportunity that I’m afforded tonight to talk about the business of being a Christian. So I run a business. I haven’t my whole life. I got out of college, I was a golf course superintendent. Say, Daniel, you mowed grass for a living. Well, I told people what to do for a living. And they mowed a lot of grass and we raked a lot of sand. And more than that, the hardest part about maintaining a golf course is not the grass or the sand. The hardest part is the people. Your crew, you have automatic respect. I came in and I was married, and I had a degree that hung on the wall, and they saw that, and in their culture, that gained me respect.

I was Mr. Daniel, no matter what. With the members, on the other hand, I was a 22-year-old, wet behind the ears, just out of college kid. And I had to learn how to talk to them and how to sell them on ideas that we had.

From there, nine years later, I went into a sales position selling really cool golf course maintenance equipment. I think all of y’all need some. But I had to convince people that they needed to spend their $50,000 for this one mower on my brand, the one that I represented, because mine was better. I went through sales training and training and training. And I appreciated the training because it was a Bible-based sales training, which I’d never thought I would come across. When I think of a salesman, that’s who I think of. This is the used car salesman from the Transformers movies, and he sells Bumblebee to the kid. That’s Bobby B. Fast talking, tell you whatever you want to hear to sell you whatever he can, because all he cares about isn’t you but your money.

Most people, when they think of a salesperson, they got Bobby B in mind. They want someone who’s gonna sell you something and not care.

Of going and selling and convincing someone of something. That was my Bible. Convincing someone of something that they need to buy this $50,000 mower because it’s the best, and teaching someone the simple truth that they need Jesus, and that he’s important, and that they should listen to you. So tonight we’re going to explore a couple of parallels about business and Christianity. I want to go ahead and preface this. I do not want to demean what we’re doing here tonight. We’re not selling anything. It’s more of a conversation to convince someone. You’re promoting more than you’re selling. And I don’t want anyone to think that the sales, you’ll hear me talk about sales or promotion. It’s not like selling a product that’s going to rust. And it’s not like selling the guy on TV, the shamwow guy.

Yeah, but wait, there’s more. And it’s, you know, three easy payments in 1998, not even 1999. That’s not what we’re talking about. That’s not what we’re doing. But I will draw the comparisons there. Why is it hard to convince someone that they need Jesus? There’s a lot riding on this, right? We’ll talk about that. And there are a lot of advantages that come across. So why is it so hard? I’ve been doing a lot of research on sales technique, and if you type in how to sell Jesus, there are articles written. Both ways. How we should be doing this, how we should not. Either way, we should be promoting Christ. Would it surprise you if I told you that the average time span for a person to live in a house is seven years?

It’s very well documented. The average millennial comes out of college, and their first three jobs they stay at for a total of two years each.

The average person owns their car for three years. Giving you an idea of things that seem permanent houses, jobs, cars, things that are big investments. And how in this modern society, it’s just a couple of years. We’re not making long-term commitments. Who has a homestead they live on that they’ve their parents were on and they’re going to continue and they hope their kids live on? That time is past. I say that as someone who’s lived in my house for six years, and I haven’t owned it for that long. And we’re planning on selling it in a couple more. So we’re all there. So how am I supposed to convince someone that they need to do this not just for a couple of years or a couple of weeks, but they need to do this forever.

This is a lifelong commitment. So what we’re talking about is something that’s long term in a short-term society. We tend to bounce around. The McDonald’s of America is a book I had to read in sociology, is how everything has a number. You go to order something, you don’t even have to order it.

You’re at Whataburger, you need to add jalapenos. Everything has been reduced down to simplicity. And we’re in a materialistic world where we want things simple and we’re used to simple. And when you bring something that requires a commitment, people tend to whoa. I don’t know if I’m ready for that.

So in your promotion, we need to always focus on our identity. And let’s break this down. The easiest way I know to break it down. Who, what, when, where, why, and how? That was really fast. They’re all up here on the board. We’re gonna do them out of order.

Has anyone read the book by Simon Simic? It starts with why. It’s all about why you’re doing something. We’ll explore that shortly. Who? Who do we need to be talking to? If I’ve got this great product, my golf course maintenance equipment’s perfect. Does anyone in here want to own a $50,000 real mower? It’s really cool. It’s one of the best of its kind. But you don’t need it. So if I take my product and I take it to the wrong audience, I’m wasting my time. Where should we be doing this? What are we going to be talking about? Who are we that we can decide what we’re gonna talk about? How do we do this? When do we launch this? When do we begin? Consider this our business meeting.

1. Why Does Someone Need the Gospel?

And we’re gonna go from here. Let’s talk about being a Christian, promoting who you are, and why you need to promote who you are. Why you need to promote Christ as the foundation of who you are, and why someone should look at you and say, I like that. I want to do that. Let’s start with why. Why does someone need the gospel? Why does someone need to know about Jesus? It’s really pretty simple. What we’re talking about here is not that temporary, materialistic thing that most of modern society is talking about. We’re talking about something with an eternal consequence. It’s hard for people to think beyond themselves, and it’s hard for many of us to think beyond today and to plan for tomorrow and maybe next week.

Are we going to go on a vacation this year? Most of us are so enthralled in now that it’s hard for us to plan beyond. Let’s look at Hebrews 9 27. I have several verses tonight. None of them are off the wall. You probably heard them all. You may not know the reference to them, but you will definitely know what is said. This is the simple version of this verse.

2. Who Needs the Gospel?

So we will all die, and we will all be judged. And what we’re talking about tonight will have an eternal consequence. There’s also a temporal consequence. Something that happens to you while you’re here, before the death and judgment, it changes who you are here. We’ll talk about that a little more as we move on. Who? Who needs the gospel? In Matthew 28, he sends them to all the world. All’s pretty encompassing. But that’s just one verse. Acts 17 30, he wants all men everywhere to repent. That repentance is a change. That repentance is coming to him. Let’s move along. He wants all to reach repentance in 2 Peter 3. And in 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 3, which I’m sure we’ll get to in our Wednesday night class eventually.

3. Where: At Home, at Work, Everywhere

He wants all men to be saved. Let’s read that verse. Let’s go to 1 Timothy 2. We’re going to begin in verse 1. For all then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings, and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way? This is good and is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to him and to come to the knowledge of the truth. So when we talk about the who, we can easily say everyone needs the message we have. We’re going to move along quickly to where. Now where are we where are we supposed to take our great product?

Well, back to Matthew 28. All the world. Now let me ask you this. When’s the last time you planned a trip so that you could go to South Africa to preach the gospel?

How about Houston? How about Tomball? While this verse has implications, we need to focus more on where we live and the people who we have influence with now than moving on beyond our borders. Now, not I don’t want to discount that. The fields are white with harvest. Look at some of the work being done in the Philippines, and if that is your calling, then pursue it. But for most of us, we’ll probably never go there. So what about our local area? Back to 1 Timothy. Paul tells Timothy to stay at Ephesus. So why didn’t Timothy go into all the world? Well, he had a purpose in Ephesus. And his purpose in Ephesus was to anchor that church so that he could he could appoint elders and deacons and so that he could strengthen that church there.

So are we supposed to bounce around? Not all the time. We have examples of people who are told to stay so that they can do the work in their area. Well, there it is. Beyond or within our own walls, we have a responsibility to our family. We’re to teach our family. You’re probably very familiar with this passage in Deuteronomy. To talk when you’re lying down and rising up, when you’re walking in the way. Write it on the doorposts of your house. So where are we supposed to teach? I would say primarily, you get your job done at home. You get your job done with your family. You can branch out from there. I’ve got two Judges 2, 6 through 10. If you look there, let’s go ahead and turn over there.

Judges chapter 2, beginning in verse 6. This is right before Joshua passes away. And the children of Israel have been going down the wrong path, and they come together and they get it right. And they leave from this place. And then this is said, When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen the great work the Lord had done for Israel. Joshua, the son of Dun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110. They buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in this great place that begins with a T in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gash.

And all the generation also were gathered to their fathers, and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. How many generations did it take? They didn’t get the work done at home. They didn’t impress upon their children the great things the Lord had done with the children of Israel. It took one generation. Joshua passed away. The elders who had seen the great things passed away. And the next generation, it all falls apart. If there had been better teaching at home, maybe that wouldn’t have happened. If they had impressed upon the next generation the importance of what God had done and who God was, maybe that would not have happened. Just wanted to throw that in as the importance of teaching the next generation.

I’m having issues tonight. There it is. Alright, in your work. Where do you spend most of the hours of your day? It’s not in bed. It’s probably at work. If you’re like most of us, we’re working. Most of us men go to a job. Some of us ladies do. Maybe you’re working outside the home. Maybe you’re volunteering. This actually comes from our Bible reading. Aaron gave you the preface for next week. This one came from right in the middle of this week. A false balance is an abomination to the Lord. This is this is business. If you’re cheating people at your business, it’s an abomination to the Lord. But a just weight is his delight. Back in the days of the balance, you’ll probably know the stories.

4. What Should We Be Talking About?

A pound is a pound. Well, if your pound is 15 ounces, you’re stealing one sixteenth. When you’re doing your business dealings, you should be honest and just, and you should be an example of what God would want you to be. At the end of the day, it’s a way of life. Where you’re teaching, where you have influence, quite frankly, is everywhere you go. Let’s get to the what. What should we be talking about? Well, the obvious one is Jesus and the opportunities we have through him. Think for a minute about what you have because Jesus did what he did. And we talk about it at the Lord’s Supper table regularly. Without him, our hope of heaven is zero. God has mercy, that is true.

But he expects that you will follow what Jesus has asked you to do. So we should be talking about Jesus. We should be talking about the great opportunities of heaven. That’s the next one. Imagine that. That’s right there. Heaven is the eternity. That hard concept to grasp. The fact that it will have no end, and the fact that I want to go to the place where there are no tears, in lieu of the place where you can’t escape them. Are you happy that you’re going to heaven? That you have an opportunity through Jesus to get there? Hopefully, because of that, it changes who you are, and it changes how you talk when you talk to other people. We have an opportunity for a relationship with God.

The Psalms of David show that the relationship with God can be real. You look at David and how he wrote down his feelings and his thoughts and his prayers. And while we don’t have any record of God directly speaking back to him, like we do Job or some of the forefathers, he definitely had a relationship with God. We have the same opportunity at that relationship. We don’t have to go through the high priest as an intercessor to God. We go directly to Jesus, the Son of God.

When you lead a life that’s free of the things that Jesus asks you not to do, or the Bible talks about not doing, you don’t have to worry about getting caught up in lies, about you know, dishonesty wrecking your relationships or wrecking your business or your friendships. You don’t have the health issues that come along with some of the things that the Bible says, hey, take care of yourself. You probably shouldn’t be doing this. Take care of that fleshly suit that you wear every day that houses your soul.

Or you won’t have those issues because honesty and truth within a relationship make it a much simpler relationship. You will have support.

And they’re gonna say, Yes, or no, I can’t, but he can. Excuse me. And it gives you a sense of purpose. Having Jesus on your side gives you a sense of purpose because you have a goal. And in the end, you have an opportunity. Back to the second point of eternity in heaven. Spend a little more time here on how. How are we supposed to do this? How are we supposed to accomplish this goal of promoting Christ? Of promoting the Bible and the lifestyle that’s there for the purpose of bringing people to him so that they have that opportunity of heaven that we’re talking about. How do we do that? 98% of your sales training lands here. Because salesmen deal with the how. The who, what, when, why, and where, excuse me, are mostly already taken care of.

5. How Not To: Don't Focus on the Negative

But you need to know how to promote your product. Say, Daniel, that doesn’t say how, it says how not to. We’re gonna start with the negative. And this is great irony here. Don’t focus on the negative. How do you do it? This is what you don’t do. Don’t focus on the negative. How not to. I’ve been doing a lot of work with the website. And I’ve been researching other church websites, whether they be, you know, sound congregations in the area, some of the larger congregations. What’s on their website? I didn’t know. I’ve never really gone out and looked. I come across some, and rather than what they are and what they promote and what they do, you get a lot of, hey, here’s what we don’t do, and here’s who we are not.

Anytime you go to a sales presentation, you always talk about your positives. You don’t talk about how it either doesn’t have a feature or you’re better than the other guy’s feature. The comparison game and trying to put the other team down or the other brand down is typically a losing sales strategy. So let’s focus more on the positive than the negative. Excuse me. That peppermint already wore off. If you’re going to promote what God’s doing for you and how Jesus wants you to be a part of his church, the last thing you want to do is talk bad about the people that are in this building or the people that promote God’s truth. Hey, yeah, you should really come over to Decker Prairie. It’s got terrible people.

Yeah, man, that Harley, I can’t stand him. Man, and every time that DeWitt guy leads singing, I just want to leave. I’m picking on them because they’re tonight. No one’s gonna want to go. Yeah, that Tony guy, I like him, but man, he gets a little overbearing sometimes. And you know, he went long last week by three minutes. No. We have great things going here. And if you’ve got a negative, deal with it and don’t talk about it. You’re trying to promote Jesus, you’re trying to promote Christ and his goal of bringing people in, then you need to be positive. Do not deviate from the truth of the Bible. Don’t add to it, don’t take away from it. Don’t dodge it. Someone has a question?

Hey, do y’all have soccer on Sundays after church? No. We don’t. Y’all have a basketball court? No. But there’s one right across over there from Chris Hester’s neighborhood, and some of the guys go over and play. But the church doesn’t organize anything like that. Well, what happens when you start deviating from the truth? If you drive north on 249, there’s a church just over the creek on the right called Christbridge Fellowship. I ended up keeping score at Elijah’s last baseball game with one of their former members who broke off and they started Spring Creek Church of Christ down Brown Road. And I talked to him a little bit about that. That you can when you’re talking to someone, you can tell if they have a religious background.

And about the third inning, we weren’t talking baseball anymore. We were talking Bible. And he said, Yeah. He said they started to agree to do some things that a lot of people weren’t comfortable with. I said, and so that a group of us broke off, and he goes, Ever since they built the stage and brought in the band, they haven’t had more than a hundred people. How are you supposed to bring people in? Well, the band and the stage and the fog machine are supposed to work, right? No. Truth. The truth is what we talk about. We don’t deviate from it. We don’t want to add to it or subtract from it. And whether someone else in a congregation is doing it or not, and whether their numbers are greater or smaller than ours, the truth is the truth, and that’s where we live.

Don’t minimize the importance of righteous living. You know, you’re trying to get me to go to this church over here, and you’re talking about God things and Jesus things, that’s great, but you don’t look like that when you’re not there. You know? Oh, well, it’s okay. I go out with the guys on Saturday nights. The family’s okay, you know, they’ll take care of themselves. You know, we’re just gonna go watch a game and have a couple. No. The Bible doesn’t talk about that. And just like you’re not gonna dodge, you know, the biblical truth, that gets applied in your life, and God has certain expectations. The Bible has certain expectations in it. And you don’t minimize those. I just got into that. Don’t be a bad example.

Whether that’s you know, being negative, talking down about people who are here or people at other congregations. If you look at Matthew 23, 13 through 29, we’re not going to read it. But Jesus just totally eviscerates the scribes and the Pharisees, and he calls them hypocrites over and over. He says, you’re doing this, and you’re teaching this, and it’s wrong. You should be doing this. Be consistent. When we talk about identity, it’s who you are. God’s word should be part of your identity, and it should influence your life so that you are not a bad example and you don’t take away from what God is trying to do. This last one, don’t be a Pharisee. Don’t be the person that says, you know what? Church starts at 9:30.

I want to make sure you’re there at 9:15, because if not, that’s a problem. We would have a lot of problems. We’re great at getting here 10 minutes before. That’s everybody. There’s like five people here 15 minutes before, and 10 minutes everyone rolls in. Don’t look at what the Bible says. Don’t deviate from the truth, adding to or taking away. The Pharisees had this problem where they would take the law and they would expand it a little bit. They didn’t even want to get close to breaking it. So they would expand it and then they would pronounce that as law on you so you couldn’t cross their artificial line. We need to make sure we’re not drawing artificial lines either. All it will do is detract from what we’re trying to do.

6. How Do You Do This? Use Your Talents

Well, how? Okay, Daniel. You said how not. How do you do this? Use your talents. Whether they be one, two, or five, to go to the parable. I look around, there’s a lot of five talent men. Five talent women. Three talent men. Maybe you’re a one talent man. What’s wrong with that? As long as you don’t bury that talent in the sand, and you use it, nothing wrong with that. Period. If you have one talent, strive to get two. If you have two, strive to get three. Everyone here has an ability. Whether your ability is to stand up and speak, lead singing, lead the prayer, fix the communion. The phrase apt to teach doesn’t mean Tony or the person leading the Bible class. There are Bible classes in people’s homes.

People need help. They need help understanding something. Bring that in. You can do it. If you’ve never done it before, get a partner to help you your first couple times and move on and grow your talents. Don’t just use them. Grow them. That righteous living we’ve talked about goes a long way. For the longest time, and out of many mouths I’ve heard, all you need to do is live a righteous life, and you’ll be all the example you need to be. Yes and no. Your example from your righteous life goes a long way. People recognize what you do, whether you know it or not, whether you’re at school or at work, whether you’re volunteering, driving down the road, letting the 18-wheeler merge in. People notice things.

That’s great. We should be a good influence that way, but beyond that, open your mouth and speak the truth. We’re often scared to do that. The righteous life is a great thing. But it’s not the end. Make sure you know your Bible. I’m not going to spend a lot of time here. Aaron covered that for us this morning. Do you know how to answer the question? What do I need to do to be saved? I’m reading the Bible and it talks about the saving in Jesus, and it says I can be saved through hope and faith and baptism. What do I need to do? Know your Bible. Be ready to answer that question.

Speaking to others. The biggest mistake that people make is they open their mouth and they say the wrong thing. We live in a society where it’s really easy to be negative. I can cut someone down in a heartbeat. But the better thing to do is to build them up. When you’re talking about the Bible, you’re talking about the life we’re trying to promote, there’s a right and a wrong way to do it. If I’m coming in and I’m going to sell my lawnmower, I’ll use the example, we’ll camp on it. I don’t want to come in and talk negative about the competition and negative about the equipment they currently have and their mechanic and the facility they have to maintain their equipment. Oh yeah, you gotta get rid of all this, and bring mine in, and everything will be right.

I’ll fix all your problems.

If you want to teach somebody, you want to have a real influence over somebody, you build a relationship.

How’s your family? Oh, Reed’s going to Arkansas. He’s a punter there. That’s great, you know? That’s nice. How’s their football field? You know, how’s your wife, Catherine? You know, she’s she’s doing alright? Yeah, she’s still teaching at that school. You build trust, you build rapport. And from there, if someone trusts you, they will listen to you. And the time will come where you step out and you say, I need to talk to you about something. I notice you live a pretty good life. And you look like a person who’s trying to do the right thing. Do you know Jesus? What’s your church affiliation? There’s this group that meets over there at Decker Prairie, you know that green sign on the road that doesn’t have a population number?

Between Tomball and Magnolia? Yeah, no one knows where it is. It’s right over there. It’s good people, and they’re doing the right thing. How about you come out? The time will come to be bold. Sometimes you have to step up and do it. We’re a generation of people who cower in the corner. Who when the time comes, it’s just as easy to not say anything and drift away, and you never mention it to them. And if you don’t believe in your product, you will never effectively be able to promote what you’re doing. Back to my lawnmower. It’s more than a lawnmower. If I didn’t believe that the brand was Toro, Red Iron Equipment. If I didn’t believe that Toro Equipment was a quality brand, I never could have stood there and sold it.

You believe what the Bible says. You believe that people need Jesus. I sure hope you do. From that belief should stem some of these other things. Like the being bold, the timely speech, building the relationship so that you can take that person and bring them into the fold. Constant vigilance. Are you Harry Potter nerds out there? Thought there were more of y’all. Being consistent, whether it’s in your speech, whether it’s whether it’s in how you communicate, whether it’s in your Facebook post. The one time is all it takes to tear down all of the progress you’ve made. How many lives does it take before you stop trusting someone? One.

Of someone hearing you and thinking you’re a hypocrite and moving right along. Beyond this, how are you seen? Do you write this on your doorposts? Do you talk about it when you rise down? When you rise up and when you lie down. He could rise down, that would be pretty awesome. How many of you have a sticker on the back of your car with a college affiliation? I currently don’t. It’d be an Aggie for me. You know, we got some Auburn people around here. There’s this Oklahoma State guy with an orange truck and vanity plates. And Oklahoma State thing on the back. That’s his kid. What’s wrong with that? Nothing. Not even the Oklahoma State guy. At least he’s not from UT. Why do we not promote our faith?

Why are we scared to promote our faith? All of that time when I’m living the righteous life. Why am I scared to show it? Is it wrong to show it? Interesting thing, I was up in Oklahoma in the crummy weather we had in January. We weren’t selling anything, so me and our yard manager went up to Oklahoma. And we drift over into Arkansas and we go to this quarry at the top of a hill. It’s 24 degrees and windy. It’s miserable. All I want to do is get out of there. Guy’s got beautiful stone. So we’re hanging out, we’re talking to him. Go to Uninna’s pit, finish up, and I’m freezing. And I pull out and I look over across the road in Hackett, Arkansas, and there’s a camel.

And I’m like, why is there a camel in Hackett, Arkansas? In the middle of basically nowhere. Just south of Fort Smith. Basically nowhere. And so the camel catches my eye. And I’m like, I’ve got to see what this house is all about. And I look down, and there’s this white minivan with three crosses mounted on the top. Every inch of white is covered in letters. Bible verses. Every window has a picture on it. His garage door, he had taken and he painted the Ten Commandments on his garage door. This guy is nuts.

Conclusion

If someone sees that, they’re probably thinking, this guy’s a little, maybe there’s a screw loose. He’s a little overboard. But are you scared to promote your faith? Whether it be with something simple like a bumper sticker, a t shirt. Is there anything wrong with that? Let’s summarize. Why? Time to change the batteries. The why is simple. Eternity. Because without we’re trying to bring people to the good side of eternity. To the side with no tears rather than the place you can’t escape them. Who? That’d be everybody. But I would suggest you start with your circle of influence. With the friends you currently have, the co-workers you currently have, the people who you already know and work from there. Where? Yes. There. Anywhere. Everywhere. But again, let’s start with the people who are who you already know.

What are we promoting? The gospel. What’s the gospel translate to? It’s the good news. It’s the good news of Jesus. And if you can’t articulate it, write it down. Outline this. What’s the good news of Jesus? Well, he came to the world to save sinners. Paul said he was the worst, and he was still covered by Jesus’ blood. So that we can have this eternity in heaven with more than just the people in this building, but let’s fill the pews. How? You speak boldly, but with love. Seasoning your speech so that it is heard and not rejected. When’s the last time someone yelled at you and you heard every word and took it to heart? No. How you talk matters. How you communicate matters. So speaking to one another with love.

Oh. I skipped when. Oops. When? Why not yesterday? Why not every day? Why not now? Is there someone in your mind who you’re thinking about who needs the good news? I’ve got three that I’ve neglected. That I will no longer neglect. May I suggest you pick one? And my goal is not to get them to Decker Prairie. My goal is to teach them enough and to show them that they need Jesus. Just like I do. From that foundation, you can build. Whether they land at this church or another sound congregation, that’s great. Let’s be about the business of adding to the kingdom. If you’re going to put your Bible away or anything, go ahead and make all the shuffling happen now. I’m about to wrap it up.

Let’s be about the business of adding to the kingdom. Do we need to add to the kingdom tonight? Is there someone here tonight, who knows that Jesus came and died for your sins, and you believe it? And you want to change your life so that you can be counted among his people, so that he can add you to the church. Baptistry’s full and it’s warm. We can do it tonight. The greatest thing I have ever done in my life was I was able to put someone down in the water and pull them up and see the smile on her face. Maybe you need help. Like I said, there’s about 175 people here who would all just be elated to help. That’s what that’s why we’re here.

That’s what we do. If you have any need, let’s come forward now as we stand in the same.