“I baptize you with
water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose
sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and
fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor,
gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable
fire.” Matthew 3:11-12
Baptism is
one of the acts that we go through in order to become a Christian. It is the
recreation of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. It is the symbol of
us being washed clean of all sins. We all agree on baptism being something of
an important thing, and if you have gone through it, you have felt why it is so
compelling.
Many times
in life we wish for the slate to be washed clean, a fresh start. Sometimes we
move across the country to start up again. Other times we change churches,
spouses or hair color. Something that marks us as a different person than we
were. We are trying to do something different to break a cycle that we feel we
are stuck in. With the information age in full swing, this is becoming harder
and harder to do.
There is one
place we can always turn to get a fresh start and that is God. Bathed in his
glory and his grace through the death of Jesus Christ, we are washed clean
through him. We get a fresh start every time. We can screw up every day and ask
for forgiveness and we get it every single time. That is fact, but this does
not always carry over to the rest of the world.
The world
says, “Hey I know you, how about another drink? No? Oh, come on for old time
sake. That a boy, I knew you had it in you.“ The world knows the flesh, and all the
weaknesses. That cute redhead that has your number; the buddy that has the hook
up or that website that is just a click away, we all have our weakness or
addiction. Sometimes it’s food. Sometimes it is something that happened years
ago.
We have
shown the world that we are not the same, but it doesn’t care. God does, and
those that see you through the eyes of Christ will notice it. God forgives, the
world forgets. The world even puts in little ways to help itself forget. Expunging
your criminal record, if you can, is just like it never happened. That is why
we were given Grace.
The Law
holds record of all of our wrongs. Through grace our wrongs are forgotten.
There are so many times when I was walking lost that a yard stick was put up to
me and I was told how many ways I fell short from God’s Grace, which was a lie.
No one falls short of God’s Grace, you simply have to allow yourself to receive
the gift of forgiveness and Grace. The law condemns and grace redeems.
The
sentiment of God Forgives and the World Forgets is this, God gives us grace and
wishes us to be part of his family, but the world has built little boxes and containers
for everyone to be in, and these boxes are exclusive. You have to be part of
the club to be accepted. Look at country club membership. You have to pay a lot
of money to just apply and even then most are invitation only. To be part of
God’s Country Club you have to accept a gift given freely. Everyone can afford
that, but not the country club.
“Oh I see
here that in 1984 you had some domestic violence and a DUI in 1992. I think
this might be a problem, we can’t let your kind in here.” Having a problem can
get you put into boxes that the world easily puts people in. You are a criminal
for getting caught for something that many people have done but not gotten
caught. You had a girlfriend that was 2 years younger than you in high school.
Daddy got mad when he caught you with his little girl, now you’re a sex
offender.
Well now you
and she are married, but you are still a sex offender and have to report it
when you move to a new area. You can’t even pick your own kids up from school.
But hey in 10 years you can petition to get it forgotten. In the meantime you struggle to find work,
face judgment around every turn, and even some churches ask you to find
somewhere else to worship.
You killed a
couple when drinking and driving, and well that put you in a place that you had
never thought you would be. You’ve got friends at the country club that can
help you out, but still you killed two people. You are now a monster. You call
your buddies at the country club and they have turned their back on you. Your
perfect life just crumbled, but I’ve got good news. You want some help getting
the vision of those two people lying dead while you were waiting for the police
to arrive.
You want to remember, but be forgiven. You
remember to keep you from doing it again. But now that you know the cost of
your problem, you want to be forgiven. God will forgive you, all you have to do
is ask, he’s waiting on you. It is your choice. All you have to do is accept
him and he will cover you. He will help carry your burden and help you make
better choices.
Does that
mean that those two counts of vehicular homicide go away? No the World wants to
ensure that you are punished for that. What can you do with this now? How long
will this follow you? Welcome to the bad box, criminal. But inside that box is
where you go, murderer. But God tears those boxes apart with his forgiveness.
Those of you
that are reading this that are not in those boxes. What can you do to help
people that are? The world wants to keep these people in pain and suffering for
as long as it can. The world has policies to protect the world through harming
people that made a mistake in life, sometimes very large mistakes. Where is God’s
grace in the earth? Through his people.
This is the
message I have today. If you are in HR or a policy maker at a company, what can
you do to give people a new chance? A bar fight can cost people for up to 8
years. Having sex before marriage at crucial ages can cost you 10 to 15 years. How
did this world become like this? We must protect ourselves because everyone is
trying to hurt us. We must save what is ours because the world is evil. If we
give Bob another chance he’ll do the same thing, and we covered it up well this
time, but twice… we can’t do that.
The world is
an evil place, but that does not mean that grace is not there. That does not
mean that Jesus is not here with us. No, it just means that we have to fight a
little harder to get God’s light to shine through. Fear is a tool and a weapon
that keeps us in darkness, but where God is darkness must flee. I want to call
out to each and every Christian. Do what God has called us to do; let his light
shine through in everything we do and everything we touch.
The world
can change, but it takes people to fight for the change. And a fight does not
have to be one of violence, in fact that way will assure that we will lose.
Grace, mercy, peace, love, compassion, these are the tools that we must use to
make the changes to make this world a world that knows the true voice of God.
How can you
help? Before you hold up a ruler to the strange boy that decided to go to
church today, try talking to him. Before you condemn the girl that you have seen
walking down the roads and getting into cars with men she does not know, talk
to her. How many weeks do you tithe time?
16 hours and
48 minutes is 10 percent of the time that we are given each week. That’s before
sleep. That’s a lot of time right? How are you going to get that in? Well
church probably takes care of 2 to 4 hours of it. So let’s put that down to 12
hours to get covered over 6 more days.
So you mean that to tithe time you have to
give 2 hours a day and almost 5 on Sunday? How long is your morning commute?
Give it to God. Now you have one hour a day to give to God. 30 Minutes over
lunch, hey you were going to McDonalds anyway, why not get that lady counting
pennies some food and talk with her. You may be surprised at what kind of Good
you can do for someone with just a couple dollar burgers and a little time.
You want to
impact someone on a level that is massive? Write a few letters to people in
jail offering them a chance to talk with someone that doesn’t know them. Some
of these people are cut off from everyone as soon as they go behind bars;
families turn on them, isolated. Be Christ for them. Offer them conversation
and allow it to lead to more. Instead of
protesting an abortion clinic, how about spend time with a girl that is facing
a hard decision. Find out why she would be willing to kill her unborn child.
Why her life is so desperate that she feels that this is the only place she can
turn.
We are not
promised tomorrow. How can we not do something for God every day? God gave it
to us, what can we do with it? Who can you take to the river and baptize? Who
can you show the light of God? You know how good it felt to go under the water
and become a new person. How can you not share that with someone who needs the
Love of Jesus? What can you do? Write a letter. Take a homeless person out to
dinner. Pray for an open heart and open eyes and God will give you a chance to
serve.
John had no
idea that Jesus would come to the river and bless him with the chance to take
him under the water to be cleansed and freed from the sinful body that our perfect
God was encased in. John was blessed that day, because John got to be the hands
of God and baptize Jesus to set his feet upon the path to the cross for us. We
all were blessed by the living water. So what’s next? You like it? Share it.
“If you learn from
defeat, you haven’t really lost.” Zig Ziglar
