Trail Marker: Baptism (Mark 1:9-11)

``So here's the invitation for us. We live in a world that I think trains us to live the opposite. We live in a world that tries to convince us, hey, do more and then you'll be accepted. Prove yourself and then you'll be loved. Perform really well. That way other people will like you, other people will accept you, and really by default, maybe God himself will like you and accept you. But the gospel says something absolutely different, radically different. In the kingdom of God, identity always comes before activity. I'm gonna say that again because some of you, maybe that's the only thing you need to hear this morning. Your identity comes before your activity in the kingdom of God, [00:29:05] (55 seconds)  #identitybeforeactivity

I think this matters because I know a lot of us are just exhausted. Some of you have been trying to earn God's approval through religious activity, and you've just been working yourself up into this religious lather, thinking that you're gonna you're gonna earn God's favor and love and acceptance. Some of you have been trying to measure your closeness to God by how much or how little God communicates with you. Some of you have been carrying guilt because you think God is disappointed in you. But listen carefully. God does not love us because we obey him. He invites us to obey him because we are loved. [00:31:10] (41 seconds)  #lovednotearned

And at the same time, it's blowing my mind. In fact, the only thing I can do in that moment is to try to take a picture of it. Like, I just can't explain it. How how can you understand? It's simple yet infinitely complex. One sunset can hypnotize us in our tracks. It could cause us to worship even. The simplicity of a sunset doesn't erase its depth. It invites us into it. And in the same way, the trinity can be fully known without being fully explained. We can know it and we can not understand it. [00:25:28] (40 seconds)  #worshipthemystery

And so here's here's what I have found is most helpful to explain the trinity. Start with the definition of the trinity. Don't start with the analogy. Don't start with the metaphor. Don't start with the explanation of it. Start with the definition. Here's the definition we're gonna work with. God is one in being and three in person. He is one in being and three in person. Now here's some definitions that might help you understand what that means. Being is that which makes you what you are. [00:21:11] (33 seconds)  #onebeingthreepersons

And maybe you're here and you've been delaying baptism because, well, you don't feel like you're ready. You think it's for the spiritually elite. Maybe someone in your family was like, don't worry about it. We did that already when you were a baby. Listen. Baptism isn't for the finished product. It's for those who trust Jesus with the process. You don't have to get to a certain level. It's the first thing Jesus did. The last thing he told us to do. [00:34:20] (30 seconds)  #baptismforprocess

But we believe because what scripture tells us actually, there's no scripture, there's no verse, there's nowhere in the Bible that talks about infant baptism, in case you were wondering. It's not it's not in there. What we believe, because what we do see from scripture is that baptism is done after a person comes to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. After a clearly thinking, level headed, you have the the cognitive ability to place your faith in Jesus, however old that that you are when you can do that or when you do that, it that's when baptism should happen. That's why it's called believers baptism. [00:12:48] (41 seconds)  #believersbaptism

and they needed a savior, but the savior simply had not shown up yet. When we baptize, we baptize people, yes, who also know they're sinners, who also know that they're broken, but who also know that the answer to that brokenness is Jesus Christ and his death on the cross, and the power comes from the Holy Spirit. You see the difference. John's baptism was not wrong. It was incomplete. The rest of the story had not been written yet. [00:17:09] (30 seconds)  #johnswasincomplete

But the other reason it's bad to try to minimize and and and make the trinity so easily understandable is this. It's not easily understandable. Like, let's stop trying to make simple that which is not simple. It's okay if this makes us scratch our heads. We are human. We're not God. There's gonna be some things about God we don't get, y'all, that we don't understand. I would say it this way, I understand the trinity and it makes no sense to me. I understand it, and it makes no sense to me. It's a simple truth, and yet it's infinitely complex. [00:23:47] (46 seconds)  #trinityismysterious