Traditions: Baptism

Speaker:
Jason Schnackenberg
Series
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Traditions
5.16.21

Good morning, Southeast family. How are you guys doing? My name is Jason. I'm one of the student pastors here at Southeast. Aaron is out today. He and Kelly are not here. So, you guys are stuck with me, hopefully that's okay. I do have one quick announcement before we go into anything else. This next week, next Sunday, the 23rd from 1:00 to 3:00 PM. The student ministry middle and high school students are going to be doing a carwash fundraiser after church. This is for going to camp this summer. For me, camp was one of those amazing life-changing experiences and for our ministry, it's one of the highlights of our year, but the thing is camp costs money. So, we are doing this fundraiser because we have some families that definitely could use the support. We would love your help. Just come out next week after the third service, or maybe if you were attending this service or the earlier service, just come back after lunch or something when the crowds have dissipated and get in there. It's just by donation only. So, we would love your help with that. We're excited for camp this summer!

 So, we have been in this series called Traditions. Now I've loved this series because we're discussing really sacred things that if we're not careful can easily become commonplace, right? So, whether it's the Bible or worship or communion or prayer or gathering together as a church, these are things that we do regularly, right? And sometimes we can get caught up in the monotony of some things. I know especially for myself, you know, I've been going to church for a long time and sometimes it's so easy, right? To lose sight of these things, and what they mean, and the significance, and the power behind them.

Today, we are talking about baptism. Now I am super excited! Baptism is one of my favorite topics in scripture. It's one of my favorite things in the carrying out of my faith that I have the privilege to witness and be a part of. Baptism in church history has been all over the place. I mean, a lot of us come from different church backgrounds, from sprinkling to infant baptism, to one of the great questions of the restoration movement, is baptism even necessary? Do we even have to do it, right? These are all things that we could sit down today and get into the nitty gritty of all of it, you know what I'm saying? Like, we could spend a long time talking about the history and all the different movements and all of these different things about the traditions of baptism. But we're not necessarily going to do that.

Instead, we're going to work through the why behind baptism for our church, okay? And as usual, we're still going to dig into a pile of scripture. So, are you guys ready to go to work? Yeah, that's what Aaron likes to do. Hopefully, I don't get in trouble for that. We're going start in Matthew 28:18-20. This is “The Great Commission”. Now we're starting here because before we go anywhere, I think it's pretty important to hear what Jesus has to say about some things. So, let's do that. We'll pull that up. “Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely, I am with you always to the very end of the age”. Now we're starting here because it is so important for us to know the Bible's stance on baptism. I'm going to be very clear here. For Christians, it is a command. It is a non-negotiable piece of our faith. At our church, there are some things that we're just not going to argue on. We will put a stake in the ground over things like baptism because the Bible is very clear about this. Jesus himself tells us to baptize as a part of our mission, right? But not only as a part of our mission, but as a part of our call to follow Jesus. In Matthew 4:19, this is where we, at our church get our definition of what a disciple is. In Matthew 4:19, Jesus says, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men”. Right? So, you've probably heard that if you're in a life group, which side note, if you're not in a life group, you should totally get in one they're awesome! They're life changing. Just go out and talk to one of our life groups pastors. They'd love to plug you in with one. Matthew 4:19, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men”.

We have three pieces of what it means to be a disciple. This is how our church defines it. A disciple is someone who is following Christ. A disciple is someone who is being changed by Christ, and a disciple is someone who is on mission with Christ. For our conversation today, I think it's so important for us to have this common ground understanding of baptism, because when we ask the question, “why?” that is like, one of the biggest reasons, that's kind of at the top of the list. Jesus tells us to do it. So, I just wanted to start there before we go dig into some of the things about baptism. I wanted to start there because what Jesus says, I think, is pretty important, right? 

We're going to move on. I want to talk to you about something called design patterns, design patterns in the Bible. They're all over scripture, but design pattern is actually all over our world. We see them in movies. We see them in books. We see them in all kinds of stories of every single kind. Design patterns are basically a literary device. Think back to your English days when you were in grade school,  I'll pull up a definition for us here really quick. Design patterns, in the Bible, are one of the keyways the biblical authors have unified the storyline of the Bible. Individual stories across the old and new testaments have been coordinated through repeated words and parallel themes. These patterns highlight core themes of the biblical story and show how it all leads to Jesus. So, let me illustrate this for a second. Think Hollywood, when you get down to the bones of story, there's really nothing new. I mean, the narrative flow of a story is a design pattern. So, think about, in Hollywood, we have all these different movies that are all different genres, right? All these different genres are made up of certain elements that make them fit in that genre, right? So, if you go over to the basic building blocks of a story, something we learned in sixth, seventh, or eighth grade, or wherever. You have the introduction, the rising action, the climax, the falling action and the conclusion, the basic building blocks of a story.

Design patterns get more complex when you get into more detailed stories and, it gets more complicated, right? But think about an adventure film for a second. “Lord of the Rings”, that's a good example. In adventure films and adventure thriller type stories, we're oftentimes going to have a very specific narrative flow that we're going to see. Oftentimes we're going to be introduced to some sort of likable protagonist, right? So, we see the camera panning over to Frodo sitting at the fire with his little pipe, right? Then we're going to be introduced to some sort of injustice. There's going to be something wrong in the world that needs to be rectified, and then we're going to get introduced to some sort of obvious antagonist, like the bad guy, right?  So, we see Sauron come in with his dark helmet and his black magic, and he's trying to spread darkness over the land. It's obvious he's the bad guy, right? And we're going to see a cosmic struggle between the forces of good and evil, and they're going to be fighting for the soul of the world or whatever it is, you know, this is how these stories work. A lot of times we'll see in the main characters and in some of the sub characters, these internal battles between right and wrong, like, should I put the ring on? Should I not? Should I take it for myself? Should I do what's right? Should I do my own thing? There's this battle inside that we get to witness as the audience in these characters that they're trying to figure out how to move forward. Then in the same way, as in movies and in Hollywood and in books and all these different things, design patterns are all over the Bible too.

I like to tell people the Bible is OG Hollywood. You know what I'm saying? Like that is the OG story. In the Bible, we have different themes like order and chaos. In the Bible, we have repeated narratives of sin and punishment and redemption. Just think about the cycle in the book of Judges, where the Israelites are caught up in this cyclical pattern of sin that they do what's right in their own eyes. Then they are delivered into punishment. Then they cry out to God and then God comes and sends a judge and saves them. We see the cycle of salvation where God is continually redeeming his people and they continually keep going back into sin. We see that in scripture. We see numbers all over the Bible in all different stories, like the number 3, the number 7, the number 12, the number 40. In the Bible, the number 40 represents testing or temptation.

It has this idea behind it. We see that number in all sorts of stories like, Noah in the ark. He's in the ark for 40 days and 40 nights. We see Elijah running from Mount Carmel to Mount Horeb in 40 days and 40 nights. We see Jesus being tempted in Israel in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights. We see Israel in the desert for 40 years. We see these numbers that are in all these different stories, like little breadcrumbs throughout the Bible. The Bible is 66 books written over the course of 1500 years by over 40 different authors, and somehow there's all these little ideas and words and themes that are all throughout the Bible that connect the whole story. It's almost like God had to have something to do with it or something like that. (Pastor using sarcasm and congregation laughing)

Today, we're going to dig into one of those design patterns in Matthew 3:13-17. This is Jesus's baptism story, and it goes like this. “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John”. But John tried to deter him saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness”. Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well-pleased”.

Now, when we read this story, it kind of seems like a short, insignificant story, right? But don't miss this,  in so many stories in the new Testament, they might be short little narratives or whatever it is, but this passage is rich, and it is packed full of so much history and meaning and theology and all these different things. I wish we had the time to dig into all of it. We're just going to scratch the surface today. But after this story, we're going to see in Matthew 4:1-11 Jesus's temptation narrative. He's going to be baptized,  then he's going to go straight into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights where he's going to be tempted by Satan. Before we go to that story, we're going to go back. Way back to the beginning. So , you're going to have to hop in that DMC DeLorean and go back with me, right? We're going back in time. In the Old Testament, there are 4 particular water stories that all follow a very specific pattern or a template. They all pertain to Jesus's baptism narrative. These stories are the creation, the flood, the crossing of the Red Sea and the crossing of the Jordan river. This pattern, this template goes like this, there's 6 things we're always going to see in the beginning of these stories and element of chaos. Then we're always going to find ourselves at a body of water when we read these stories and then God's spirit is going to come over the water in some capacity. We'll walk through that. And then God is going to speak.

And whenever God speaks, afterwards, order is going to become the expectation. Don't miss this. Whenever order becomes the expectation, God is going to partner with someone and then that order is going to be tested. Now I'll read a couple verses of scripture. I'm going to refer to some passages of scripture as we talk about this, but we're not going to put them up on the screen just because it's, it would be a lot. It would take all day to do that. But we're going to start in the creation story, Okay? In the beginning in Genesis 1:1, it starts out like this. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters”. Now, when we read that, we're going to see those words, formless and void.

Aaron has talked about this in the past. The words, formless and void in the Hebrew mean Tohu-wa-bohu. Tohu-wa-bohu can be translated, formless and void, but the idea behind it is chaotic nothingness. It is uninhabitable, untamed, chaos. That is the idea. Then we're going to see that the world is actually covered in water because God hasn't done his creating yet. He hasn't separated the waters from the lands. So, we're introduced to Tohu-wa-bohu, that world is still covered in water. Those are our first 2 things, right? Chaos, a body of water, and we're going to see in Genesis 1:2, “…the spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the deep”. All of these are very intentional pieces of the story. Then God is going to speak. He's going to speak those very famous words, “Let there be light”, and there's light. Then God goes on and he does his creating even cats and mosquitoes, right? There are two things I'm going to ask God when I get to heaven. “Why did you create mosquitoes, especially? I can kind of understand cats, but really like, come on anyway”. So, God does his creating and he makes this garden. He pushes back the forces of chaos in the Universe, and he creates the space where order becomes the expectation.

Then God is going to partner with someone, Adam, to steward the creation, the way that he intended it to be. But that order, that partnership that we see in Genesis is going to be tested. God puts a tree in the garden and God gives Adam one job. You got one job, Adam, don't eat the fruit of the tree. And we know how the story goes, Adam and Eve, they mess it up. They fail the test and the created order spirals into the very first cycle of sin. The pattern begins here, and we're actually going to see this pick up again. In the next story, in the flood, the world is evil. The world has descended into chaos. God and the writer of the Noah story of Genesis says, “Every inclination of the thoughts of humankind's heart was only evil all the time”. That's a pretty rough description, right? The world has descended into chaos. And as a result of that, God is going to send a flood to destroy the Earth with water. Then Noah is going to be in the ark for 40 days and 40 nights with cats and mosquitoes. Like, I don't know why you created them, but why did you put them on the Ark? Like seriously? And then we're going to see in Genesis 8:1, the God is going to send a wind.

When God sends this wind over the waters, the waters are going to begin to recede. Now, the word wind in the Hebrew is ruach. Say that with me, (Roo-ah). Ruach can be translated three ways. It can be translated as wind, it can be translated as spirit, or it can be translated as breath. Now in the beginning, when the spirit is hovering over the surface of the deep, it is the ruach of God that is hovering over the surface of the deep. When God breathed the breath of life into Adam, he breathed the ruach of God into Adam. When the wind blows over the water here, it is the ruach, the wind, the breath, the spirit of God goes over the waters in Genesis 8:1, and the waters begin to recede. Then we're going to see God speak to Noah. There are our first 4 things.

God is going to tell Noah to come out of the Ark. Noah has a fresh start here. Because he's coming out of the Ark. Creation has been wiped clean. There is a fresh start and God is going to partner with Noah to steward the creation the way that he intended it. He's going to partner with him, he's going to make a covenant with him. I mean, we'll probably see it today. It's going to rain. We're probably going to see that rainbow somewhere. I mean, that's the sign of that covenant, that partnership that God has with Noah, but that order, that partnership is going to be tested. We're going to see, if you're familiar with the story, and even if you're not familiar with the story, that's okay. We talked about the Bible last week. You should dig into it. Read the story. It's really good. I promise!

We're going to see after this, when Noah comes out of the ark, that he's going to make a vineyard, him and his family. There's going to be this terrifying, horrible story of  defilement, where Noah's son Ham does a disgusting, detestable thing to his father, Noah. As a result of it, God is going to curse Canaan. We're introduced to the curse of Canaan and the world is going to fall apart again. The pattern continues, the cycle repeats itself.

We’re going to see it again, and this next story is especially important because it is the Exodus story. It is central to the identity of the Jewish people, and as a result, it is central to our identity as followers of Jesus. Don't miss that. Jesus was Jewish and the Exodus story Israel is in the chaos of slavery in Egypt. They've been in slavery for 480 years. They are in chaos and the Israelites are going to be delivered by God through these mighty acts of judgment over Pharaoh and his people. They're going to be delivered from Egypt. They're going to journey into the desert, to the waters of the Red Sea. They come from chaos to this body of water, and an Exodus 14:21, we're going to see the writer says that a strong East wind, the ruach, is going blow over the water, and the sea is going to split into two, and the Israelites are going to cross through the Red Sea onto dry land.

Now, when the Israelites get to the other side, they're going to go to Mount Sinai where God is going to speak to Moses and his people, and he's going to give them the law. He's going to give them a new way to live. He's going to partner with his people to put God on display, to be a beacon to the world. Order is going to become the expectation again.

Before Moses even gets to the bottom of the mountain with the 10 commandments in hand, what happens? The Israelites are worshiping the golden calf. They are put to the test, and they fall apart immediately. We're actually going to see them refuse to enter the promised land too. The cycle repeats itself. Order becomes the expectation. The order is tested and then they fail. We're going to see this one more time. This last water story, the crossing of the Jordan river. When the Israelites come out of 40 years of wandering in the desert, they're going to come up adjacent to the land of Canaan. Now the land of Canaan has descended into chaos, okay? Everything's just, it's bad there, and God commissions his people to conquest the land. And so, the Israelites come out from the desert. They come up to the waters of the red sea and then God is going to instruct Joshua and his people. He's going to have them bring the Ark of the Covenant. The Levites, the priests are going to bring the Ark of the Covenant into the Jordan river. Now, what is the Ark of the Covenant?

It’s a Theophany. It's a place where God's spirit physically manifests itself in a specific place. So, Canaan is in chaos. They come up to the waters of the Jordan river. The priests bring the Ark of the Covenant. They carry it into the water, the spirit over the water, and then the Jordan river is going to stack up on itself, and the Israelites are going to cross through once again on dry land, into the Promised Land. Then God is going to speak the Joshua here. He's going to give the Israelites commands and instructions, and he's going to order them to be circumcised at Gilgal. Order again, is going to become the expectation because chaos is rampant in Canaan and the Israelites are there to conquer and subdue the land and bring it back to the created order that God intended for it.

But that order is going to be tested again. What's the very next story after Israel crosses the Jordan river?  It's Jericho. The Israelites come to the city of Jericho, and they are given one job again. Devote the city to destruction, destroy everything in it. Don't take anything for yourself. That's all I have to do. They actually did a pretty good job of it, except for one guy, Aiken. Aiken took some of the devoted things in Jericho and the cycle repeats itself again. Israel fails. Now that's a lot of history, and you see how this pattern plays itself out in these four stories, don't you? Pay attention, because I'm going to read Jesus's baptism narrative again, see how this pattern plays itself out in Jesus's story. “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him saying, ”I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness”. Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Now in Jesus's baptism story. Some of these things are obvious in here, right? You see the spirit like a dove hovering over Jesus. That's a piece of the pattern. But in this story, Jesus is coming from the chaos of Roman oppression from the temple corruption in Israel. Israel's not doing very good. It has descended into chaos once again, and Jesus comes to the waters of the Jordan river, and he's going to go into the water and the spirit is going to descend like a dove and alight on him. It's going to hover over him and actually, side note, the only other story where this idea of the spirit hovering, the same word for hover, it's in the creation story. And the dove also represents new creation. So, I think Matthew is trying to tell us something about Jesus there, but nonetheless, the spirit is over the water. God is going to speak. And he says, “This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased”. For the last time, order is going to become the expectation. God is going to partner with Jesus on this grand mission to bring the kingdom crashing into Earth, to put God on display that, to put the world back to the order that it was intended to be in. God partners with Jesus.

In the very next story, full circle, is Jesus being tempted in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. Oh, and by the way, he's tempted in the same three ways that Israel was tempted in the desert, but he doesn't fail. He succeeds. He redeems the story. He breaks the cycle. He redeems the pattern.

So, why did I walk through all of this with you? Because Matthew is utilizing this very particular, specific pattern to make one point. He is telling us that Jesus is participating in Israel's story. When we get baptized, we are participating in Israel's story too. Not just a piece of it. From Genesis 1:1 to beginning of creation, all through the Old Testament, to Jesus, all of Christian history, up until Jesus returns on into eternity. When we get baptized, we're participating in all of it. We're a part of the story. Paul picks up on that idea in Romans. In Romans 6,7 and 8, specifically concerning the Exodus story. Paul shows us a Christian version of the Exodus story. In Romans chapter 6, we're slaves to sin. We pass through the waters of baptism into freedom. Then in chapter 7, we're given the law, we're given a new way to live. In chapter 8, we are journeying in this life, led by God, towards our inheritance with Christ. In other words when we get baptized- It. Is. Our. Exodus. Moment! It's when we leave behind the life of slavery to sin. It's when we enter into freedom, it's when we learn a new way to live and move on towards our inheritance. When we get baptized, it's a transition. It's when we leave the community that we were a part of, and we enter into the community of Christ. You know, in our culture, we do life transitions really poorly. This is what I mean by that. I remember as a young boy having this question burned inside of me, like, when am I going to become a man? Think about that. When does a boy become a man? When does a girl become a woman? Our culture doesn't answer that. Like in other cultures, they have ceremonial things that there's a specific instance in time. When you move from one stage of life to the next, we don't have that in our culture.

I remember when I was in high school. It was my 18th birthday. My dad asked me to write down the names of all the godly, influential men in my life. I was really fortunate. I grew up in an amazing church, up in Montana, a beautiful small church with a lot of godly men that showed me what it looks like to follow Jesus. So, I came up with a list 21 guys, or maybe even more I can't remember. My dad asked all of these guys that I wrote down. He asked all of them to write me a letter. For my 18th birthday, we all gathered together. Me, my dad and all of these men, we gathered together in a room. My dad put me on a stool in the front of the room with all of these guys looking at me and one by one, each man came up, they stood in front of me, looked me in the eye and read their letter to me. These letters, some of them wrote about the pain that I'm going to experience in this life. Some of them wrote about the hardships that they had faced in the hard-won wisdom they earned. Some of them talked about what it means to be a godly man, what it means to be a man of integrity, what it means to work hard, what it means to be selfless, what it means to be a good husband and to put others before yourself, what it means to be a man.

The message to me that day was very clear. Jason, you are leaving one stage of life and you are entering a new one. You are a man now. The expectation for how you're supposed to live is different. In the same way, when we get baptized, we transition from an old way of life to a new one. In Romans 6:5-11, Paul says this, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin- because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus,” Paul's logic here is super straightforward. You don't have to be Rocket Scientist. I am in Christ. Christ died to sin. Therefore, I have died to sin, and I get to share in the victory with Christ. Sin in our life is still going to tap on our shoulders. The temptation is always going to be to go back to Egypt, just like the Israelites were tempted, but we aren't slaves anymore. Through baptism, we identify with Jesus in his death, his burial and his resurrection. We joined the narrative. We joined the story, and we declare to the world that we belong to him.

Now I have some implications for us. Implication number 1- baptism is non-negotiable when we give our lives to Jesus. When you decide to follow Jesus, your life isn't your own anymore. You're not the boss. God is. And when Jesus tells us to do something, we got to do it. That's why our church stands on baptism. It is an important piece of our journey with Christ. Implication number 2- baptism is a participation in God's story from past to present and onto the future. Listen to me, if you feel God calling you to him and you're ready to respond, baptism is a foundational piece of your journey. It is a very important next step. I encourage you to start having that conversation. To start to think about getting  baptized. It is a huge statement of faith and something that God calls us to. Implication number 3- when we get baptized, we leave one community, and we enter into another. It is our Exodus moment. Do not miss how central baptism is to our walk. Like just as much as the Exodus story is central to the identity of the Jews. Baptism is central to our identity as Christians. It's when we leave slavery and enter freedom. Think about this, in other countries and predominantly Muslim countries like Afghanistan or Pakistan, or  Becki stan or wherever it is. When a Muslim gets baptized, everyone in the community knows what they're doing. It is obvious. They are leaving their old way of life. They are leaving their family. They're leaving their friends they're leaving their faith. They're leaving everything and they're entering into a new community. It is obvious that they've changed often at the expense of their own lives.

So, here's my question for you. Is it obvious? When you made the decision to follow Jesus, was it obvious to the people around you that Jesus is the boss of your life, that you're in a new community? And I don't just ask that question to you. I have to ask that question to myself every single day, because if the answer is no, there's a problem. Implication number 4- As Christians, we are called to live up to our baptism. When you get baptized, everything doesn't magically get fixed. You're still going to have bills to pay. You're not always going to get that front row parking spot at Walmart, just because you're a follower of Jesus. That's the prosperity gospel. That's not the gospel. There's still going to be pain. There's still going to be heartache. It's still going to be unfair. Brokenness is just a part of this life, this side of heaven. That's why one of our four pillars is broken this to wholeness, because we want to be journeying with God through the desert, towards wholeness, towards our inheritance. We're still going to have sin and brokenness in our lives, but the beautiful journey and freedom that Jesus is calling us to is a journey in which we get to move farther away from Egypt, and we get to move closer to him.

Now, as we get ready to take communion this morning. In the same way, as with baptism, with communion, we're participating in this grand story, along with every other Christian, we're going to be a part of God's story. Think about that as we prepare our hearts from today. (Period of silence before communion begins)

On the night Jesus was betrayed. He took bread. He broke it saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. So, whenever you eat this bread, do this in remembrance of me”. Then after the dinner, he took a cup and he said, “This cup, this is the blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you. So, whenever you drink this cup, do it in remembrance of me”.

Father in heaven. We thank you for today. We love you, God, we thank you that we get to be a part of your story. I pray that we would not miss that fact. You have called us to a new way to live, and I pray that we live up to it and that we'd respond to the call. God, we love you, and we thank you, and we worship you in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Go and stand as we sing this last song. So, as we get ready to go about our week, let's not forget God's call on our lives. First thing, if you haven't been baptized, maybe it's time for you to start having that conversation. I promise you deciding to follow Jesus is going to be the best decision that you will ever make. We have some people up here that would love to pray with you if you want to get baptized. They would love to talk to you about baptism. They'd love to talk to you about anything. Maybe if you just want to sign up on your own, you can get on the website, go to resources in baptism. You can sign up right there. Don't wait. There is no better time than right now to join in on the greatest story that you will ever be a part of. Second thing is this. If you have already been baptized, remember we are called to live up to our baptism in Christ. We're free. We've been given a new way to live. So may we keep chasing Jesus, walking with him in his story as we go about our week, this week, have a great day. You're dismissed.