According to Ed Young Ministries that  many of you need to make a decision right now to be baptized, baptized in the New Testament style.  We have put a card in your bulletin, and if you want to be baptized by immersion, I want you to fill it out.  This Wednesday night at 7:00pm, we are going to have a giant baptismal celebration.  If you are going to be baptized, show up in the lobby of the Fellowship theater at 6:45pm.

Ed Young Pastor says that you have no excuses now.  You know what it means to be baptized.  And if you say “no,” you are shaking your fist in the face of Jesus Christ.  If you say “yes,” you are following in obedience His command.

Now if you are a seeker or are investigating the Christian life, this is not for you unless you want to commit your life to Christ.  But you need to know about this, seeker, because once you commit your life to Christ, this will be a spiritual high point in your life.

To take away some of the fear, I want us to bring out our baptismal tub, and I will show you exactly what is going to happen very quickly now.  I need to pick out a guinea pig here for the demonstration.  Gary, come up here.  Gary, we are going to pretend to baptize you right now.  This is not real water, it is just pretend.  Let’s say that Gary fills out the card and understands what it means to be baptized.  Gary will show up in the lobby at 6:45pm in the lobby this Wednesday night.  We give Gary a robe, not for keeps, just a loan.  We ask him to wear a bathing suit and T-shirt or a sweat suit underneath—something he doesn’t mind getting wet.  Gary will put the robe on. Ed Young says we will help him up the steps.  Then he will step in.  Now isn’t this handy?  There is a seat up here so that no one has to worry about his or her feet slipping on the tile.  So Gary, sit down.  The water will be warm.  I will take a washcloth, put his left arm here and his right hand here.  I will say these words, “In imitation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and in obedience to His divine command, I baptize you my brother…”  Why brother?  Because we both know Christ personally.  We have been adopted into His family.  “…in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  Then I place the washcloth gingerly over his mouth, “Buried with Christ unto death, rise again to walk in newness of life.”

Here is what usually plays out.  Let’s say, for example, that the husband is a PM person and the wife an AM person.

Psalm 122:1, “I rejoice with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’”

That’s one thing I love about Fellowship Church.  Our church is full of joy and laughter.  If you ever go to a church and the church is not laughing a lot, it’s not a Godly church. If you ever go to a church and there’s not joy, it’s not a Godly church; it’s not a spiritually mature church.  Christians should laugh more than anybody.  I should laugh more than anybody.

And, and really I guess this could be the fifth reason why I laugh. Here’s the bottom line.  I laugh because of the gospel.  Think about it.  I mean, I’m a fallen and fallible self-centered sinner.  I’m totally unrighteous, and there’s this cosmic chasm separating me from God.  I deserve to get nuked.  I’m toast, because I’m a sinner. God’s perfect.  He’s holy, and I’m not.  So man, I’m in trouble.  It’s like, it should over.

What did God do, though?  God loved me so much, he loved you so much, that he sent Jesus Christ, who lived a perfectly righteous life, to die on the cross for all of my junk and funk, and yours too. Jesus rose again, and I’ve received what God has done for me through Christ.  And because of that, I’m freed up to laugh.   I mean, I’ve read the last page, and guess what? We win!  So I can just laugh, man!  I’m freed up to have the kind of joy  and the kind of exuberance and excitement that is not manufactured from Ed Young. It comes from God.  It comes totally from God.

So laughing is a mature thing.  It’s a sign of, I believe, spiritual depth. And again, that’s one of the reasons Fellowship is so great.  People tell me that all the time who come by Fellowship Church or come by our Uptown campus or our Alliance campus or our Plano campus, “ I’ve never seen a church this joyful.  You people know how to have fun!”

And I simply say, “You know what? The joy of the Lord is our strength.”  It’s all about him, because God frees us up to really, really laugh.

Cause you are going to be blessed.  Don’t grasp the reins too tightly.  Do you realize that God is blessing some of you right now just to bless others?

Human beings are eccentric.  We love to celebrate milestones and markers and memorials.  Plants and animals don’t really do that.  My dog Dominick is twelve years old, and he has never wept over the fact that we forget his birthday every June.  When our houseplants die, the other houseplants in the neighborhood don’t come over and mourn and weep and cry as they attend a houseplant funeral.  Only human beings do things like that.  Anniversaries, weddings, graduations—these events, these celebrations matter to us.  And Ed Young Pastor believe the spirit that is deposited inside of all of our lives to celebrate milestones and markers is definitely placed there by the hand of God.

God instructs us to remember Him.  He says, remember me through baptism.  That illustrates my Son’s death, burial, and resurrection.  He also said, remember Me regularly when you take communion.  Don’t come to the Lord’s table flippantly or nonchalantly.  Don’t laugh or joke around when you are baptized.  This is serious stuff packed with spiritual meaning.

Communion.  Ed Young Ministries states that Jesus in Luke 22 gathered His disciples together with Him.  In a couple of hours, He would be arrested and then pay the price on Calvary and rise three days later.  After the meal, though, Jesus does something that is really kind of unique and radical and strange.  He grabs a loaf of bread and breaks it and gives the pieces to the disciples.  Then He takes the cup and hands out wine to the disciples.  He says that the bread represents His body which will be broken for them. The wine represents His blood which will be spilled for their sins.  Then He said these words in Luke 22:19, “Do this in remembrance of Me.”  Eat the bread, drink the juice in remembrance of Me.

I bet His followers thought why was Jesus worried about them forgetting Him, they never could.  Jesus was that faith-talker, water-walker, miracle-worker.  They knew they wouldn’t forget Him, He was their Lord, the Son of God.

Fathers, we have got to make a choice.   We have got to make a call today, because the marketplace screams for our attention.  “Ah ha, ah ha, come this way because if you follow the marketplace you will have parties, perks and promotions.

Ed Young

There’s that happy stuff again.  Now, I’m a happy guy. But my happiness comes from holiness. Because when I look at Lisa I see my best and I see my worst.  When she looks at me she sees her best and she sees her worst.  So if you are bold enough and big enough and bad enough; if you have enough estrogen and testosterone, step up, step out and get honest with God and honest with each other and to say, “Baby, we are in this together.  We’re not about being happy; we’re about being holy. And we’re about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.”  Because people are looking at you and they’re looking at me and they’re dying to see Jesus.

1 Peter 1:15‑16. “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” I mean, that says it. The holiness of God.  And we’ll explain this more and more over the ensuing weeks.  So the gospel should be reflected in my marriage; it should be perfected as I live my life, as God models me and shapes me and uses me within the context and venue of marriage.

But also notice this.  The gospel should be protected in marriage.  That’s covenant.  What’s covenant?  Agape love.  What’s covenant?  A blood bond of life and death.  What’s covenant?  Jesus died, was buried and was rose again.  That’s the new covenant. And marriage is the covenant within the covenant.  So within this covenant I have protection.  People say, “Well I want to be free.  I want to be free.  I want to be totally free.”

Ed Young

Because whenever you have a divorce, you usually have one party who’s forgotten to put the gospel as the number one priority in their lives.  That is usually what happens if you want to get down to the nuts and bolts of the deal. So that’s why when it comes to spiritual maturity it is all about marriage.  It is all about the reflective nature of marriage as it mirrors God’s relationship to his people.  I mean, what’s the most spiritually mature thing to do?

To get up at 4:00 a.m. and pray for an hour and study the Scriptures? Or when the baby has a dirty diaper at 4:00 a.m. you get up and change the dirty diaper?  Wow! I mean, let’s go ahead and get real for a second here.  Let’s quit playing church and playing around with “I just want to be happily married and I want to be romantic 24/7.”  So many people are obsessed with romance these days.

Guys, have you ever been to one of these romantic comedies before?  Come on, because the woman is the one who makes the decision over what movie you see anyway.  I hope you know that.  If you’re smart you better follow her, guys.

What’s this cat’s name, this brother, Matthew McConaughey?  “All right, all right, all right.”  Matthew is always taking his shirt off, isn’t he?  I mean, any time.  “All right, all right, all right.”  I read the other day Matthew makes like $4 or $5 million more per movie when he takes his shirt off.  Is that classic?

What happens in romantic comedies?  Two impossibly beautiful people meet in strange circumstances, they have a fight, the girl leaves and the guy spends the rest of the movie chasing her down. And then they live, are you ready for this, happily ever after.

Ed Young

But what is the culture?  What is culture?  Culture is simply and outward reflection of the inward condition of our heart.  So when we talk about lust, it is an issue of the mind.  Lust is about us.  It is about the man.  It is about the woman.  It is about the junior high student.  It is about the high school student.  It is about the college student.  It is about the single adult.  Whether you’re 15 or 75, lust is about us.

So let’s talk about it and get freed up about it, because lust looses a lot of its luster when we drag it out into the light.  Because too many of us are living secret lives and we think we’re the only ones who struggle with it.  We think it’s a secretive thing.  We think we’re doing it in a clandestine fashion, because remember, “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.  What happens here stays here.”

That is a brilliant line.  Where did Las Vegas think that up?  They probably paid some advertising exec a squillion dollars for that one.  But the guy is a plagiarist.  He plagiarized the devil’s MO.  That guy needs to be sued for plagiarism.  Do we have any lawyers in the house?  Track it down, because the guy who made up “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” plagiarized.  The devil’s been saying that for thousands of years.  “What happens in the hotel room stays in the hotel room.  What happens between two consenting adults stays between two consenting adults.  What happens in the locker room stays in the locker room.  What happens online stays online.  What happens in the mind stays in the mind.”

Ed Young

You could look and lust and lust and look and that’s fine.” But look what Jesus said in Matthew 5:27 28.  Ouch, this hurts all of us.  Guys, this one will get up in your grill.  I’m just telling you what Jesus said.  If you have a problem, you don’t have a problem with me, you have a problem with Jesus.  Here is what Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery…’”

“Yes, I’m down with that.  I will just have sex with my wife but I can look at a menu.  I don’t have to order, but I can look at a menu.  I like that, Jesus.  Thank you.” But it continues, it is going to get quiet.  “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

We probably had this going on in the lobby before services.  How many people in here have looked lustfully at a member of the opposite sex and committed adultery?  Come on, what are you doing with your hands down?  Don’t be lying to me.  I know, you’re sitting by your spouse.  You don’t want to leave with broken ribs.  I see those elbows all the time; don’t think I don’t see those.  We’re all sinners.  It comes from within.  It comes from within. Now you might be going, “Well Ed, what about the culture? What about the ever changing culture?  Lust is out there in the culture.”

Ed Young

That’s where we need warriors.  That’s where we need men to be men.  And the reason so many women are hooked into porn is because men, we’ve led them there and we have not been men. Mark 7:21 34, here is what Jesus said.  Pretty important words.  “For from within”    I didn’t say it.  Don’t be looking at me.  See lust is not out there, it’s in there.  Jesus said “For from within, out of a men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.  All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’”

Look at Matthew 5:27 28.  In the Old Testament we have the Ten Commandments.  You have heard of those.  One of the Ten Commandments goes, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”  Does everyone understand that?  Let me explain that.  It means that sex is for the marriage bed.  It means that you don’t sleep in the wrong bed.  If you sleep in the wrong bed, you’re committing adultery. We’ve decaffeinated adultery, we call it “having an affair.”  Or instead of fornication we call it “friends with benefits.”  Instead of homosexuality it is an “alternative lifestyle.”

No, let’s just call sin what it is.  And here is what Jesus said about adultery.  Jesus took adultery here to an HNL, a holy notha’ level. Because in the Old Testament you could get away with some lust.  Because all it says here    we go by the black and white, the B I B L E, that’s the book for me, the Bible.  In the Old Testament it says, “Just don’t sleep in the wrong bed and you’re cool.

You’re being honest with God.  There is nothing like that.  You’re being honest.  You’re agreeing with them.  You’re telling the truth about your whole deal.  You’re being honest with others, “Here I am, warts and all, tax, title, and license, here’s my mechanism.”  Yeah, I am made of cheap veneer. Those are fake diamonds. The whole thing is fake.  And church is a place where we have to take our masks off. Church is a place for imperfect people.

This is the perfect place for imperfect people.  I’m not perfect, nor are you.  And so often the devil will go, “Don’t share your junk with others.  Don’t share what you’re dealing with with these encouraging empathizers because they’re going to laugh at you, they’re going to trash you, and they’re going to say, ‘I can’t believe you’re dealing with that.’ ”

Well, that’s a lie.  Just call the devil what he is. He’s a liar.  He’s the father of lies.  Whenever I share what I’m struggling with with my encouraging empathizers; whenever I share my secrets and stuff that I think, “Oh man, they would freak if they knew I was dealing with that because I’m a pastor.” Whenever I do that, I get encouragement.  I get support.  I get prayers.  I get help.  I don’t get lashed.  See, it’s a lie.

So we cover up and God will, I’m telling you, uncover it one day.  So don’t mess around with that.  You go ahead and uncover, and what you uncover God will cover with his forgiveness and grace and mercy. “Ed, you don’t realize what I’ve done, brother.  You don’t know.” And you know what?  I don’t.  You’re exactly right.  I don’t know what you’ve done.