Rejoice and be glad. And when they come today, they come already saved.

Now, this morning when we do our child dedication service, that is setting these children apart for the glory of the Lord and declaring back to God that these children ultimately come from Him and belong to Him. And that as the parents and the church, we're going to partner together and do everything we can to create the environment where every child—every child—is given an opportunity to hear the gospel and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And we won't stop until Christ comes back.

But this moment is a reflection of all that effort that you've been putting forth through your time and your talents and your treasures. Brothers, you have enabled this moment to happen. So I hope you don't just enjoy it. I hope you experience it.

Why don't you tell everybody who you are? And let me ask you the two most important questions I could ever ask you, okay?

Are you absolutely convinced that you've accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior? And are you convinced that He's accepted you as well?

What a beautiful opportunity it is there for me to baptize you now as my sister in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. We're buried together with Christ through baptism. I'm raised to walk in the newness of life.

You did it, baby. God bless you, honey.

Come on in, buddy. That's beautiful. Come on in, big boy. How are you doing, man? Tell everybody who you are.

And Wyatt, let me ask you the two most important questions I'm ever going to ask you, son. Are you absolutely convinced you've accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior?

Yes.

And are you convinced that He's accepted you as well?

Yes.

What an honor, young man, to baptize you as my brother in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. We're buried together with Christ through baptism and raised to walk in the newness of life.

That felt good, didn't it? God bless you, brother.

Yeah, go ahead. Get it out of your system. Come on. Come on.

It's a dear, dear friend. And we've been friends for years, and it's an unbelievable honor to baptize anybody. But when it's an opportunity to do it with someone that I've been in a relationship with for so long, it truly is an extra honor.

Brother, why don't you tell everybody who you are?

My name is Justin Manship.

And, Justin, are you absolutely convinced you've accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior?

I am.

And are you convinced that He's accepted you as well?

Yes.

What an honor, brother. An absolute honor to baptize you now in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. We're buried together with Christ through baptism and raised to walk in the newness of life.

Way to go, brother. God bless you, man. God bless you.

You're absolutely welcome. God bless you. Take your time. We got one more.

Well, good morning. Do you realize this beautiful woman just had a child of her own? Let's put our hands together for Kristen here, serving, leading, standing there with her beautiful baby. God bless you, sweet lady. I love you with all my heart.

Hey, Crossan, we are sold out to the well-being of every child that comes within arm's reach of this church, and we reach out beyond what we can do inside these four walls. And if you've been here any length of time, you know we are sold out to that and we will do everything we have to do for as long as we have to do it.

And I hope you've been around long enough to know that I have absolutely no problem asking you to give every single solitary penny you can. Doesn't bother me a bit. You can get mad all you want. But I can tell you one thing: God is honoring your commitment. God is honoring your sacrifices because you can see it in the faces of these children.

God trusts this congregation with these children and these families. So it's a beautiful moment.

Families, this is an epic moment in your life. Whether you have given birth or you have taken this child on into your life, you have just taken on a good and godly responsibility—one that God will do all He can to meet your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

But the one thing you should celebrate today is, of all the people on the planet that God could have placed these children into the arms of and into the homes of, He chose you. And God knew these children before the foundation of the world. He's already chosen them.

And now all we got to do is work together because God's going to call them to salvation because God has called them to that and chose them for that already. So you're accepting a high and holy responsibility before God Almighty to do all you can to lead these children to something God's already determined for their future. But they've got to choose Christ themselves as well. And that's why we do this together.

So parents, I'm going to read three statements at the end of which I'll have you all signify by saying, "We do."

Do you acknowledge now that these children are a gift from God and that each of them are fearfully and wonderfully made, each of them with a unique purpose and calling from God?

And do you acknowledge that these children ultimately belong to God and you have been blessed by God with the stewardship responsibility of caring, comforting, and protecting these children?

And finally, do you recognize that the number one priority of parenting is to bring your children to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ so that their sins can be forgiven and they enter into a relationship for all eternity with God?

If so, please signify by saying, "We do."

Church, if you would please stand to your feet. We're now going to publicly commit to the Lord and to them. And when I'm done reading these three statements, if you say "We do," you mean "We do." And God says allow no careless word to come across your lips at a time like this. So if you're not prepared to commit, just remain silent. That's okay. You will one day. You keep coming here long enough, you will.

But realize we're making a very important commitment.

So congregation, having heard the public acknowledgement and commitment of these parents, do we now agree to partner with them by creating an environment where children are prioritized, parents are supported, and Christ Jesus is exalted?

Do we as a church commit to these families to provide an unconditional community of love, comfort, care, and protection for them and their children?

And do we recognize that the number one priority of this church is that every child would hear the gospel, to help them connect with other Christians, and to prepare them to continue the great mission?

If we agree and are committing to that, please reply by saying, "We do."

Let's pray together.

Father, this is what You've called us to. Your word will reveal that today in 1 Peter. Father, that there's something distinctive about the community of followers of Christ, the family of God, and this is one of them—to have literally hundreds of people commit with these parents of about 20 children that we're going to partner with You to do what we are called to do, knowing full well You're going to do everything that only You can do.

Father, I pray eternal blessings over all these families and all those who committed. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Let's give these families a hand clap of praise as they celebrate today.

Thanks, man.

A reading from the book of Romans, chapter 12. Paul writes this:

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Don't be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. And if possible, as far as it depends upon you, live at peace with everyone.

Let's pray together.

Father, that was rapid-fire commands from Paul. None of which seem to be perfectly united to the other, and yet they are. They're generally speaking all in one predominant category. And as we'll see today from Peter's hand, he will write in the same vein. And what you're talking about is our responsibilities.

And Father, I hope that we listen today with an open mind and heart, that we let the Spirit of God, who is not only in this room, but in the hearts of those who believe, allow this word to penetrate as sharp as a double-edged sword, dividing bone and marrow.

Father, we love You, we need You, and now we listen to You. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

There is a huge difference, and it's going to sound very odd at first, between having responsibilities and being responsible.

Having responsibilities—you were just given a brief list of what the responsibilities are for followers of Jesus Christ. But now we've got to develop the ability to respond to those responsibilities.

Last night, I was blessed with the opportunity to be the emcee for the Bowling Green Fireman's Association Fireman's Ball. It is the ninth out of 11 years that I've done it, and the only two years I didn't do it, I was sick. And it is an amazing event, and we raise money.

And the reason they ask me is because they know I'm not the least bit worried about asking people to give money. And so, it is a blast, because the large majority of that money goes to meet the needs of children.

They do "Shop with a Fireman" every year, and they'll sponsor, oh gosh, a boatload of children and the families, and they just do a great job. Every year, they put together Thanksgiving meal baskets and deliver them to those who are in need throughout the community.

They partner with the Centers for Hope, which you have provided that facility for the Centers for Hope. We are the ones who leased it, renovated it, and you, because of your generosity, we continue to pay the rent every month and utilities, because what they're doing there is raising money to assist women who are in one of the most vulnerable moments of their life. They're pregnant, and they're in need of support, both prayerfully and practically.

And so, they give away vouchers to that location when they go upon a scene and someone has not necessarily been burned out of their house, but smoke changes the smell of all their clothes and their furniture, and there's no salvaging that.

So, these guys, you know, when the fire's out, they could get on the engine and go home, having done their job, having met their mission, having finished the call, as Chief Brooks likes to refer to it as, but they're so moved by the plight of these people that they then take on a responsibility that is really not theirs, to be perfectly honest with you, but they take it on anyway.

And the reason we have this banquet every year is because we got to make them responsible. To just have the responsibility and not be able to respond to that is a crippling thing.

Can you imagine if they were, as firemen and women, these valiant and courageous people, you know, they get the call to respond to a fire, and they don't have an engine? Well, they've taken the responsibility, but they're not able to respond.

And that's true for Christianity. See, we have the responsibility to respond the way Paul and Peter are both going to define to us today. Whether or not you have that responsibility is not up for debate. That is an absolute.

The question is, are we developing response-able attitudes so that we can perform certain actions? Like, we can't debate the responsibility. What we need to do is make sure we understand we're response-able. Are you able to respond to these—not prerequisites of salvation, but expectations of those who are saved?

And you'll see the reason, again, the reason's been the same in Peter's letter. It's because we have been called to be holy. The entire book of Leviticus is built upon that premise: Be holy, therefore, because the Lord is holy.

And Peter builds off of that in his first chapter. And to be holy is to be different, to be distinctive, to be set apart by God and for God, for His purposes.

And the reason we need to be responsible is because God uses that, as we saw last week in the home, as we saw the week before, as we submit to every authority in the world, God uses that to build a bridge where the gospel can be heard.

So today's big idea is, it's just so simple, it's almost ridiculous, but our response in our relationships is our responsibility, okay?

And first, he's going to talk to us—Peter is—about our responsibility to respond ably in the family of believers, because he's now gone from the home, now going to go to the church, and then the world.

So he's going to follow up on what he said last week to wives and husbands, and now he's going to talk to the family of God. And he says, "Finally," which, like a very good Southern Baptist preacher, when they say "finally," it means absolutely nothing. He has no intention of finishing at all. He has an entire another chapter after this one.

So ignore Peter when he says "finally," but he does come back from the wives and husbands to an all-of-you context again, okay? So he's talking to all of us, and there's five things he's telling the family of believers.

Now Paul gave us another—this isn't an exhaustive list, it's an indicative list of the type of response-able attitudes and actions we must have.

All of you: be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate, and be humble. Five response-able attitudes and actions, okay?

We have the responsibility already. That has been given to us at the moment of salvation. There are no prerequisites to be saved, so don't confuse that. But it's important to understand once you're saved, there are responsibilities. There are expectations.

And it isn't so that, as I said last week, we can be good little boys, and good little girls, and good little husbands, and good little wives. It's so that we can be godly people, so that we can reveal to the world there is a distinctive difference to being saved and not saved, and it is not being good. It's in doing good, Peter told us, right? That we silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. You'll never forget that message, right? That is a wonderful thing.

But we do good to create an opportunity to proclaim the ultimate good, and that's the gospel.

So let's look at these five, okay?

Be like-minded, okay? This does not mean that we all think exactly the same. It is actually the word harmony in the Greek. So what we want to do as followers in the family is we want to be able to harmonize our minds.

We are never going to all see things exactly the same, other than the core tenets of the doctrines, right? But in all these other areas where the Bible says there's an abundance of liberty, what we have to do is not make sure everybody's singing the same part. What we have to do is make sure we're all singing the same song.

We have one songbook, the Bible. And what Peter is saying is, listen, you don't got to speak it the way I do, necessarily live it out the way I do. We just got to make sure we harmonize together, that there isn't dissonance. There isn't divisive thinking and thoughts just because we're different.

Believe it or not, yes, brothers and sisters, you can have a harmonizing church with Republicans and Democrats.

Democrats, that got uncomfortable quick, didn't it?

You really can, people. You got to get over that, okay? That we really can harmonize because we have issues that are far greater than who our elected officials are that we harmonize on.

Who is God Almighty? Who is Christ Jesus the Lord? Who is the Holy Spirit? How is a person saved? How is this person supposed to live? What's the ultimate mission of the church?

Right now, let's just be honest. The world's thinking has infiltrated the church in America, and we're no longer harmonizing. We're letting the world's primary issues become the church's primary issues. We only have one issue in here.

So what I would encourage you to do, not to disconnect from your mind, but just leave those thoughts at the door. We'll give you a brown bag, and you can put your name on it. And when you leave, pick it back up again. You can have all that misery after we're done with you.

But in Christ, we got to harmonize, okay? We sing the same song. We just sing different parts.

We got to be sympathetic.

Now, in English, sympathy is to feel bad for someone. That is not in the Greek. This is the same word for the passion of Christ, okay? Paschal is the word. It means to suffer along together, that we don't just feel badly. We climb into it, and we feel with you. We feel the pain. We do what we got to do to absorb some of the pain.

We respond to great tragedies in our community. You are feeling the pain of people who are suffering in this community through what you did with Crossland Christmas Give and what we're going to do when we pack this house for the Christmas show, and we're able to give, you know, almost $9,000 to $10,000 to Curbside because they're meeting needs at the lowest rung of our demographic ladder in Warren County.

People are suffering economically and demographically. The worst in our community are being ministered weekly by our staff through Curbside ministry.

So, you are feeling the pain, but it's got to drill down further than that, and you got to get close to people to feel.

Don't be like Job's friends, please, where all you're doing is trying to figure out what he did wrong to figure out why bad things are happening, because we know through the gospel, especially John chapter 9, that calamity doesn't always equal guilt.

Why was this man born blind? Was it he that sinned or his parents? And what did Jesus say? Neither, but that God might gain a greater glory.

So, let's be people who don't just feel badly for people. Let's climb in and feel the bad with the people.

In the middle of the five is, of course, the most important: love one another.

And it's important to understand this is not the love that we're called to or able to show the world. We can't show this love. We show agape love, God's kind of love, right? Because He loves everybody at all times, okay?

This is the word that Philadelphia comes from, phileo love. This is brotherly and sisterly love.

So, there is a distinctive type of relationship the church should have amongst its members, universally and certainly in the individual congregations, because that is extraordinarily attractive to the world.

Think about the world you live in right now. How many people really, in all the places that they go, have this many different people?

We have black, we have white, we have Hispanic, we have old, we have young. We just had 20 babies with 20 parents, right? We've got some who are wealthy and some who are not, some who are educated, some who are not, some who work with their hands and some who work with their heads. Some are Republicans, some are Democrats, on and on and on and on.

And yet, we sing the same song.

Find that in America, right? It's pretty hard to harmonize.

And what makes that happen is the Holy Spirit. The same God that's in me is in you.

And to really climb into other people's pain, this isn't about raising money, although I did that last night. Love doing it. It's about meeting people where they are. Making sure we embrace their humanity. And then we just flat out love one another.

I just flat out love you people. I really do. Now, I don't always like you, but I really, really do love you from the bottom of my heart. And I know you feel that way about me, too, because my email proves it, right? And that's okay.

We're called to be compassionate. And this word is the word that we use in English almost exactly that way, is the spleen. Like, you're just, it's guttural how moved you are for the plight of the people that are around you.

Not the lost. That's a difference. We're talking about the body. Like, it's not just, you know, this, and it is a response-able that you take care of. But you just, it's so moving within you. You're moved to do something about it.

And then the one thing that will always destroy any relationship is pride. Pride, so we got to be humble. This is what we got to develop. It is your and my responsibility to do these things.

So now we got to become response-able.

Let's just be honest. We're not all there at any given moment. I'm certainly not there. But we got to move towards this. Because when 9-1-1 is called, we need to be response-able, not just responsible, right? That's what makes us distinctive.

Also, here's some things you don't do. Don't repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, oh, contrary, repay evil with blessing because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

And I love what Peter's saying. When you were called by God before the foundation of the world, He knew these kids. He's calling these kids to conform these kids into the likeness of His Son. They've just got to reach a point where they make their own decision for salvation.

But in the very calling of God, He's not just calling us to salvation. He's calling us to live saved. This is what we're called to. It's all a part of the beautiful process.

Now, you don't have to go to God and accept responsibility to develop your ability to respond well in order to be saved. That's not true. You got to believe in your heart that God raised His Son from the dead. Confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. You will be saved.

But it's imperative to understand that He calls us out of sin first and into something second. And this was all a part of God's plan. It isn't like a bait and switch. It wasn't like, "Oh, you didn't know this before you got saved? Well, I guess you're not saved. Better get doing it or you lose." That's utter nonsense.

You just got to understand that when God thought of you, He thought of all this because that's the kind of life He wants you to have.

Our response in our relationships within the community of believers is controlled by who we become. That's it.

Having the responsibility is one thing. Developing the ability to respond is another, and we're called to that.

So then Peter says, he gives us this beautiful input from Psalm 34.

He says, in Psalm 34, David—we talked about this back in September—David is now in Philistine territory. He's in the city of Gath. Remember that? And the only weapon he had was the sword of Goliath.

He knew he was running from Saul. Remember, he ran right by the cave where he eventually is going to go. But he ends up not only in enemy territory, but the home city of Goliath. Thinking that somehow he could go into enemy territory and not be recognized. That nobody would know who he is.

Truth is, as soon as he got there, everybody knew who David was. And so David began to respond.

Now, God's not telling us in this to respond like he did. Remember, by acting like he was crazy, scratching at the wall, having drool fall out of his mouth—in other words, giving up his integrity and his dignity because that's what he thought he needed to do to be safe.

Peter's using that passage because he knows that the people in Turkey are much like David and you and I. We're now in enemy territory. We only have one weapon. And the last thing we want to do is walk around acting like we're crazy.

Because what Peter has told us already is they already think we're peculiar. They think we're odd because we do what we do. And Peter's crowd being saved, we're certainly odd.

And so he uses that to talk to us and say, "Now, listen, whoever would love life and see good days—anybody in here who would like to hate their life? Now, seriously, raise your hand. Anybody in here who just wants to have horrible days all the days of your life?"

All right. So I'm going to assume then we're in a room full of people who would love their life and see good days. Do you want to love your life and see good days?

Okay. That's the question.

So then, number one, you got to keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech.

Some of it is now, okay, if this is what we want, we got to start resisting certain things. We got to put together some effort to resist certain things that will take away from our ability to respond in certain situations.

And one of those, two of those is keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech.

So when we're in the world, we can't act like this. Because if we act like this, we're not going to experience that. But if you want to experience that, you got to make sure you resist these things.

They must turn from evil and do good.

Okay. The first three things were what not to do. And now he's going to give us some things we should do.

And this is where I think there's often a disconnect for followers of Christ. We're very good at resisting bad behavior. But we don't put the effort in, okay, to instill replacement behavior.

It's much like getting sober, okay? Someone with an addictive issue can go to rehab. Rehab is basically about resistance. We get you away for 30, 60, or 90 days. You suppress that bad behavior. It loses its overwhelming power over you.

So that when you're released, you have to now make some other choices. You got to replace that behavior.

So getting and staying sober, okay, I'm pretty good at this after 37 years, is you have to first resist and then constantly replace. And if you're not replacing, then there's a void. If there's a void, what once was seeps back in.

That's why you see people relapse because they're not replacing. You can only resist for so long.

That's what Peter's calling us to.

Yes, you got to watch that mouth, but we got to replace that.

This is what prepares us to be responsible.

You've got to do good, you've got to seek peace, and you've got to pursue it.

And this word, it's not great in the NIV, but it is to be zealous after peace and make sure you get after it and pursue it.

So being a peacekeeper is not what the Bible calls you to. In fact, that is not a very good way to respond. That's not a good response-ability.

Being a peacekeeper is actually manipulative. You're trying to control people's emotions. You're trying to control the temperature of an environment because the environment and everybody else's emotions affect you so deeply that you're trying to be a peacekeeper.

You've become a thermometer rather than a thermostat. You're supposed to control your emotional temperature. You're supposed to control your own emotional well-being.

But when you give that away to your environment and people around you, you now become a thermometer. And everything around you dictates your temperature.

So then what do we try and do? We try and keep the peace, keep the peace.

Some of y'all have been doing this at work for 20 years. Can't stand it when this person does wrong, but the boss gets ticked. I got to keep the peace.

Listen, I was really good at this until about 30 years ago. I had a degree in it. I was so good at it.

But that's not what we're called to do. We're called to be peacemakers.

Blessed are the peacemakers.

And what did Christ have to do to make peace? Pay a high price.

He had to take the initiative to intervene in situations, to bring about a change. Not just to calm everybody's fears and worries, but we intervene. We pursue it with zealousness.

Because that, again, creates an opportunity for us to speak about the Prince of Peace.

Some of you in here would rather throw up than confront somebody. But confrontation always precedes change. Confrontation always precedes change.

If the Spirit of God does not confront you about your sin, you are never going to be saved.

So our role is to be really good at developing a response-able attitude and action so we can zealously pursue peace. Get after it. Bring peace into the environments that you're in.

And here's the truth: The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. He's looking right at you. He's got you. You're going to be okay.

His ears are attentive to your prayers. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

Eyes and ears, good thing. His face turned against you, not such a good thing.

He's with you. He's in it.

And this is what it means to develop a response-able ability.

Our response and our relationships with the world is controlled by what we passionately pursue.

Do you want to pursue life and good days? You've got to answer that question. Is that what you want? Is that what you want to pursue?

Then we've got to start resisting and replacing.

Resist that evil mouth. Resist the gospel. Hold your opinion at times even though you know you're right and you probably are.

I can't even measure the number in my mind how many times Jesus was around people and just held his tongue. Because every time in every environment he was ever in, he was always right, surrounded by people that were always wrong.

And yet he held his tongue.

Why did he do that? Because he was passionately pursuing peace. He's trying to invade people's lives to create an environment where the hostility between man and God could once and for all be taken away.

So let's make sure that we're developing response-able tendencies. Not just accepting the responsibility.

So Peter asks what I think is a rhetorical question: Who's going to harm you if you're eager to do good?

A lot of people, right? We learn that from Christ.

Christ, but ultimately and eternally, if God is for us is what Peter's really getting to, who could be against us?

Well, nobody.

Of course, you might suffer harm. Even Jesus did.

Because then he says, but even if you should, even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed.

Don't fear their threats. Do not be frightened.

So what do we do?

Well, the first thing we do is we set apart Christ in our heart as Lord. This is the word holy. That's what this whole book is about.

Make Christ holy in your heart. Sanctify Christ in your heart. Set Him in your heart apart from everything else in your life.

The very most important thing we can do is we revere Christ. Set Him apart as Lord in your life.

That's step number one.

And that will lead to this truth.

This passage is the whole purpose, in many ways, in my opinion, of this entire letter.

Because when life is against you and you're trying to move and infiltrate situations and circumstances, the ultimate evidence of being responsible is always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you—to give the reason for the hope that you have.

But make sure you do this with gentleness and respect, keeping your clear conscience.

Let's start with that.

The reason you have a clear conscience is because of who your Lord is.

Don't doubt ever, regardless of what is or is not going on in you or in your life. Don't question your conscience. It's clear before God. Christ is your Lord.

I absolutely promise that if you have believed in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and you have spoken with your mouth that He is Lord, you have been saved.

Set Him apart constantly in your heart. Remind yourself, in essence, "He's my Lord, He's my Lord, He's my Lord." Keep your conscience clear.

And Peter says when those two things happen, then you will always be prepared. Always be prepared. Always be prepared.

You'll always be responsible. Always.

And this word always means constantly. Not consistently. Constantly.

It's the same word, same type of verb that I would say to you: Breathe.

Well, how often do you want to breathe? I hope you breathe constantly.

There's never a minute when you and I are allowed to be unprepared.

We've got to always be prepared. Always be prepared. Always be prepared to give, praise God Almighty, an answer to everyone who asks.

Okay?

You don't have to have an answer to everything that's asked. You've got to have one answer for everyone. An answer for everyone who asks you the reason for why you have hope.

And how do we get to a point where they even ask this question? By being responsible. By being different people in the circumstances of life.

And God isn't asking you and me to have an answer for every question that could possibly be asked. Because that's not possible.

I still get asked by people, "So where do dinosaurs come from?"

I have absolutely no idea. But I do know one thing: The Bible says that nothing that has been created was not created by Him. So I know ultimately they came from Christ.

When, where, how, I have no idea. It's not that I don't care. It's just there's no answer, dude.

Is the flood real? Like, I can't prove it, but I believe it.

And then what about Jonah? And on and on and on.

What about all the old times? What's the answer?

When people start seeing the hope within you, they're going to start asking questions of you.

And there's always and only one answer to any question that's asked.

Isn't that freeing? You don't have all these answers. You can have one answer.

And that answer is, as for me, I believe Christ died for my sins and raised Himself from the dead.

That's my answer.

What do you want to ask me? Ask any question you want.

My answer is going to be the same.

As for me, I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins and raised Himself from the dead.

Well, why do you believe the Bible is written by men?

Ask for me.

Now, look, I'm telling you, ask for me.

I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins and raised Himself from the dead.

What about creation?

As for me, I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins and raised Himself from the dead.

And Noah?

As for me, I believe that Jesus Christ—

There's only one answer to every question that can possibly be asked.

I believe that Jesus Christ.

Why do you believe that?

I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins and raised Himself from the dead.

That's why I believe everything. That's why I believe anything that's in that book.

You're like, "Well, how does that help a person with Noah?"

Because I'm hoping they'll ask me a second question.

"Why do you believe that?"

Well, see, here's the thing.

It was the dude that raised Himself from the dead that validated Noah.

That's why I'm sticking with it.

He said, "As it was in the days of Noah, so it shall be at the second coming of the Son of Man."

The reason I believe Noah is because I believe the guy that raised Himself from the dead.

Well, why would you ever believe Jonah?

Well, because the dude that raised Himself from the dead said that as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man shall be in the belly of the earth.

Said that. He validated it.

Well, why do you believe creation?

Well, because in John chapter one, it says, "In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. All things that have been created were created by Him. And nothing that has been created was not created by Him."

So I believe in the dude that raised Himself from the dead. That's why I believe that.

Why do you believe those books?

Because the guy that raised Himself from the dead said not one letter shall fall away from it until the end of time.

So I'm sticking with the dude who raised Himself from the dead.

What question? Shout it out if you're in the room.

One answer to every question that could possibly be asked by any person.

And most of the time when they ask that question, they might be snarky. They might be rude.

But at the end of the day, they saw something in you.

All of a sudden, you know what they see in you that they don't have? Hope.

So always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks for the reason as to why you have hope in you.

As for me, I believe that Jesus died for my sins and raised Himself from the dead.

Y'all, I'd get your phone out and take a picture of that. Because that's the only answer you're ever going to need.

And the only way we get to a place where we can share this is by making sure that we develop the response-able attitudes and actions.

Because they create the environment where somebody's finally like, "Okay, Mr. Smarty Pants, you got your doctorate, Greg Farrell. I want to know why."

Okay. Yeah. Woohoo! Great question.

But as for me, it's always going to be my answer.

I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins and raised Himself back to life.

I'm just going to stick with the dude that raised Himself from the dead.

That's what I'm going to do.

Until He comes back to take me, I'm sticking with the guy that raised Himself from the dead.

You see, we're so locked down and tied up that they might ask us a question about theology.

Listen, if you want to talk about that, I will. Gladly. I spent so many years of my life studying it.

But at the end of the day, I got one thing I want to tell you. One thing and one thing only.

I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins and raised Himself back to life.

What about you?

It's the only answer to any question that's asked.

So when you give that answer, those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ, they're going to be ashamed of themselves.

They're like, "Oh, I thought you were going to beat me over the head with the Bible."

I'm not going to beat you over the head with anything.

I thought you were going to condemn me and tell me I'm a sinner.

Why are you so pro-life, Greg Farrell?

Because I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins and raised Himself back from the dead.

Why will I always, why will I always stand with and for biblical marriage between a man and a woman?

Because I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins and raised Himself back from the dead.

And I'm sticking with Him.

Because He's the one who said, "For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall become one."

Listen, I'm not trying to be right. I'm just telling you the dude that raised Himself from the dead said that.

And I'm sticking with Him.

You'd be mad at me. You could talk maliciously about me.

Okay, I could deal with that.

But I'm sticking with the guy that raised Himself from the dead. Period.

Isn't that so much easier for us?

For it is better if it is God's will to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

It really is.

Our reality in our relationship with God—not the world now, with God—in our relationship with God, it is far better to suffer for doing good than for evil.

And the crucifixion is our primary evidence of that truth.

That suffering produced your salvation.

Evil did not win.

Suffering for evil sends you to hell.

Right.

This is exactly what had Christ by his throat in the garden.

"Father, if it be Thy will, remove this cup from me, but Your will be done, not mine."

He suffered for doing good because you and I were fully capable of doing evil.

And if you're not saved, this is the whole point of everything we do.

You could ask us anything you want.

And I will give you a deeper answer if you want to have a conversation.

But at the end of the day, everything we do, why we do it, why I continue, and we as a church continue to push this envelope, to expand our footprints, to build bigger buildings, to get as many bodies in here as we can, is because we believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins and raised Himself back to life.

And He has left us here with the responsibility to be responsible so that when you come into our presence, we can offer you one answer to life's most important questions.

As for us, we believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins and raised Himself back from the dead.

What about you? Do you believe?

Father, thank You for clarifying our mission. It's exactly what we're called to do.

Easy? No.

Important? Yes.

And You have given us Your Spirit to lead us in it and lead us through it, for which we're very thankful.

And so, Father, we accept the responsibility, as we did this morning with helping these families.

Would You now help us and guide us and aid us to develop our responsibilities—able to respond?

Because that's why You left us here, not to be good, but to be different, so that we can do good, that You might gain all the glory.

We love You and thank You.

In Jesus' name we pray to You. Amen.

Let's give God a hand clap of praise in His house today.

Hey, thank you so much for being here.

Any guests and visitors that were here today during baby dedication, God bless you. Thank you so much for being here. It's been an honor to meet you.

You are dismissed.

Have a great Sunday.

Subject: Developing Response-Able Attitudes in the Family of God

Dear Crossland Community Church,

I hope you’re reflecting on what it means to be responsible—not just having responsibilities, but being response-able—in our walk as followers of Christ.

Last Sunday, we talked about the difference between having responsibilities and actually developing the ability to respond to them in our relationships within the family of God. Peter calls us to be like-minded, sympathetic, loving, compassionate, and humble—five attitudes that shape how we live out our faith together. We’re not called to be perfect, but to move toward being response-able, so that when life gets hard or when we face opposition, we can still give a clear, gentle, and respectful answer for the hope we have in Jesus. Ultimately, it’s about setting Christ apart in our hearts and living in a way that points others to Him.

So here’s the challenge: don’t just accept the responsibility of being a Christian—work on developing the ability to respond well in every situation. Resist evil speech, pursue peace with zeal, and be ready at all times to share the one answer that matters: Jesus Christ died for your sins and rose again. This is how we live saved, not just called saved, and how we create a community that truly reflects the love and hope of Christ.

Blessings,
Crossland Community Church Team