Praying for Healing, Baptism, and Church Unity

You know, baptism is an identifier. Like like, if you're truly in that relationship, well, the great commission says, go you into all the world, Matthew chapter twenty eight eighteen nineteen twenty. Go you therefore and teach all nations. That's the evangelizing part. Part two. Baptizing them in name of the father, son, and holy spirit. On the other side is that growth breakthrough, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command at you. And so it's a big deal to God just like this is this is a big deal to Christie. [00:39:32] (36 seconds)  #IdentifyInChrist

so here we got this passage of scripture where the elders of the church are called elders. In our church, our elders are our pastoral staff, our deacons, our trustees. Men and women of God that, you know, we have on our team that we have prayed over, prayed for. We one mind, one heart, one accord, collaborate, cooperate together, and we just grow together. [00:09:40] (25 seconds)  #ChurchLeadersUnited

The only requirement for baptism is faith in Jesus Christ, is repentance. Right? And so, but why do we do classes? Now we don't always do a class at Granite, but we always have a conversation. Because when you grow up in a culture where baptism is misunderstood. So I grew up in a denomination, Matt, that taught me that I needed to be baptized as an infant in order to have my sins washed away. Well, we just wanna make sure people understand what does the bible say, what does the bible say in proper biblical context, because when you get baptized, you have something that there's something to do about that. [00:30:42] (50 seconds)  #BaptismByFaith

The reason why I want you to know James tells us that there are times in our church we call the elders together is because, well, it is assumed, and it's not assumed, but James is saying, hey. These elders, these pastors, these leaders that are in your church, they're in a position that they are in because they hold spiritual authority and understand what it means to care. And so this is an incredible opportunity not just to call the church together, but this was specifically to call the elders of the church together. [00:10:04] (39 seconds)  #EldersCalledToCare

Ephesians chapter two verse eight and nine, For by grace are you saved through faith and not of works. It is a gift of God. Right? Not of works, you know, lest any man should boast. And so all Jesus. It's a great question. and we're not gonna elaborate it on here. But, you know, if you deny me before men, I'm gonna deny you before my father which is in heaven. Well, there's a seriousness like you said, Matt, about I'm identifying with Christ. [00:38:41] (50 seconds)  #GraceNotWorks

alright, Titus chapter three verse five, I think it says, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his grace and mercy, he saves us. And what does it say, Matt? That's not I quoted the KJV. So but, yeah, it's all about Christ. It's not Christ plus baptism. It's Jesus plus nothing. [00:37:24] (36 seconds)  #JesusPlusNothing

And there were breakthroughs. You the church broke through. Like, we know the holy spirit came down, filled the church, but on the other side of that baptism was, man, the church started growing and growing and growing. And then here's the other thing. People started finding these small ecclesias. Right? These little these little small fellowships. They didn't have traditional church the way we had traditional church. They had a temple court, but they still were going house to house. [00:27:45] (32 seconds)  #BaptismFueledGrowth

God, that that the people where our churches are are just you know, we sit in these communities. People are living for pleasure. They're living for sin, God. May we help them find Jesus and live for you. God, we're grateful that we get to do this. But, God, we do pray. We pray, God, that you get us through this season quickly, that you continue to build your church, Lord, and and, father, watch over all of our churches. They're your churches, God. [00:23:52] (28 seconds)  #PrayForCommunities