What's up, free Church, man, what a great day to be in God's house. Huh, happy birthday, free Church. Some of you may be celebrating with us for the first time, some of you may be celebrating with us for the 13th time. Some of you may be celebrating with us for the 13th time. And, man, it's so incredible to think back, all the things God has done in and through and for the glory of the Lord in this house. And I just want to just welcome my mom, who's here with us today, with us today. It's not a birthday without my mom around. She can verify I was born on Sunday and in church the next Sunday and didn't miss a Sunday. And then to my sister, violet I'm so glad you're here.

Our family is a. We're a fairly close family and my sister first my mom, is like one of the greatest supporters of free church that there is. I mean, my mom is all in and she is such a blessing. She watches every week from Houston and I'm just so thankful. She's a big cheerleader in my life and, more importantly, I know she prays for us and for all of you on a daily basis and I would also bet that. I bet she outreads all of us in this room.

My mom has been a lifelong reader and learner. And, mom, how many times have you read the Bible through in a row? How many times have you read the Bible through in a row? 45. This year it's 45 times in a row this year. So she's, for 45 years, read the Bible through from cover to cover. Man, can we just how many want to be that when you grow up? And then my sister incredible support, just always encouraging, always helps with the vision, and whenever I feel like I'm maybe running against a wall, I call my sister and she inspires me and gives me a good one-liner. That just helps me so much. I love you, violet. I'm glad you're here. And then Susan is here. Susan was on our launch team way back in 2012. It's good to see you, susan. Well, man, I'm ready to preach God's Word. Are you ready to receive it today? I don't know. I had something with me and I forgot it in my office. What did I say? Did I say I'm ready to preach God's word? Are you ready to receive it? The year was 2012. And it happened to be October. Somebody needs to get that phone. That's important. Yes, lord, it used to be.

It was 2012, october of 2012, and we were on our second visit to the Chicago area. We spent some time here in Labor Day weekend, visiting all of the areas of Chicago, finally made it to Oak Park on Tuesday and right then we knew, man, this is a special place where we want to be, but we had other cities to check out. So between Labor Day week of 2012 and about the second week of 2012 of October, we spent time in New Orleans, dallas, this little town, little country town south of Dallas, mobile, alabama. That was just a drive-through. We literally drove into town and I looked at Urshana and she said, just keep on driving. We went to all those cities to be on-site for insight and in Mobile we were just like what a sight. We were just like, what a sight.

But in October of 2012, we were here on our second visit. My entire family, my siblings, were all here with us. We walked these streets, we looked at the architecture, we walked past this building, didn't even know that one day it would be our building. That's a flex, and we had such an incredible time just walking the streets. And then our families all left and Arshad and I spent one more day here, just kind of riding around looking at houses with our realtor and spent some time, and then we were getting on a train. Back in those days there was I don't think there was an Uber back then in 2012, and you could take a taxi cab to O'Hare Airport, which would have been just fine, but we thought it was so cool that there was a train to take, so we would take the blue line from Oak Park, get on Oak Park Avenue blue line and take that. We didn't know we were going all the way downtown and then all the way back out west again to go to the airport. We didn't know, but we sure felt like we were cool.

And it was on that train, on that blue line, on the way towards downtown, that Arshon and I looked at one another. We had spent, you know now, two trips here. All of our family seemed to sign off on it and they all promised they would move here and that hasn't happened yet. So pray for them. We, holding hands on that train, took a picture of our hands being held together and say is this it? This is it. And we were like are you ready to go all in? And she was like are you ready to go all in. And she was like I'm ready to go all in, because that means we're selling our house in Houston, we're moving away from all of our family. We're coming to an area that we immediate area. We know no one. My brother and his family were living out in South Elgin at the time. We were like there's nobody. That's our family and we'll be with them. But as far as Oak Park, we don't know anybody. But let's go all in. And we have a picture of us and I was trying to find it today and I couldn't find it of us holding hands on that train, on that blue line, calling that this was the place.

And it's the year I learned that when you decide to go all in, there are going to be costs, there's going to be hard times, there's going to be situations that you probably didn't choose. But when you decide to go all in on the call that God has on your life, the reward will immensely outweigh any of the labor that you put into it. So why don't you turn to your neighbor and just say happy birthday, free Church. And to the one you've been ignoring, just let them know, just say I'm ready to go all in If you were to ask me PC. So this is birthday number 13. We've done this Sunday 13 times. And what would you tell the church on birthday Sunday? This is birthday number 13. We've done this Sunday 13 times. What would you tell the church on birthday Sunday? Here we are launching two services First time. We've been back in two services since 2020. It's good to be back.

We had a little bit earlier call time for everybody. I was watching the choir and the worship team. I was like man, y'all better slow down. You got another service left. Save that voice, that voice. But no way we're going all in. And if you were to ask me PC, what would you share? What would be if I could sit down with all of you and have a cup of coffee and talk over what I think would be the most incredible journey, from where you are today to where God wants you in the future? I would say, I would press you and say are you really going all in? How's your journey of faith? How is your? How are you doing? How are you engaging? And I would press you again and again to say are you all in?

And we find this in scripture, in Jeremiah, chapter 29. And I don't know if this is gonna be a full series or just a single Sunday, all in Sunday. But Jeremiah 29, verse 11, says for I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, and it doesn't matter where you're at today, god has a plan for your life and he knows exactly where you're at and you might not feel like you're in the spot that you should be, but today you're here and we always say there is no place like this place, near this place. So this must be the place. And I want to tell you something that if you're here, this is the place for you to experience the healing and what God has for your life. He has a plan for your life and if you feel like you're not in that place yet, don't give up yet, because God has a plan for your life. And look at what this plan is. It says they are plans for good and not disaster. Can I get an amen in the house, thankful that God, a God plan, is a good plan and to give you a future and a hope.

And we love that passage of scripture. We love man. I've preached sermons on that. I've preached all over sermons. I've preached to students about that that God has a plan of purpose and hope, not calamity or defeat. And, man, we love that verse, but there is something required to experience that plan in your life and what I would say is you're not gonna be able to experience that plan in your life and what I would say is you're not gonna be able to experience God's best for your life until you determine that you will give God the best of your life.

So when you pick it up in verse 10, it says then it says this that back in that verse, go back one more time to that verse. Then it says this I will, for I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They're plans for good and not disaster, to give you a future and hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. And then this is where we're going to camp out.

Today, If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. You want to find God's plan for your life. You're going to have to go all in. You want to experience all that God has for you. It's going to require you to just take everything at the table and push it forward and say God, at this moment I'm going all in, and there's this journey that we begin and I want to ask about your engagement. Just what is your engagement? Like, you're at the 9 o'clock service, so I know all of you are engaged. Those other people are still sleeping. I know you're engaged, but what is your engagement in the church? What is your engagement in your relationship with the Lord?

And you know, when we get saved, we first get saved and become part of the crowd and then, as we are discipled and we're involved in small groups and we're involved in developing relationships and we're learning how to love the Lord and we're learning how to serve him, we go from a part of the crowd into being a follower of Jesus. We're follower of Jesus, but we want to see wholly committed followers of Jesus who then become disciples. And you know that you're on this journey and so you can be a part of the crowd and that's great because what a great experience this is. And you can be a follower of Jesus because it is the path that the Lord is calling us to do. But when you become a disciple, then you start leading others with you. So I wanna just encourage you to go all in today, just on this little birthday message and the time that I've left and I'll begin right here.

In Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 8. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves. Everybody say this. It is a gift of God. So you're saved. There's nothing you did to be saved except believe and confess. You can't earn that salvation. You can't work hard enough to be saved. You can't be good enough to be saved. Some of you are waiting for God to save you. When you're good enough, I'm just going to get good and then I'll get God. No, we get God and then we get good. My English wants to say get gooder. I'm making that t-shirt, by the way. I'm going to trademark that get gooder. So there's nothing we can do. You can't.

The reality is you can't even read your Bible enough to warrant being saved, because you're saved by grace, and grace is a gift that you cannot earn. Grace is receiving something that you don't deserve. Mercy is when you don't get what you really deserve. Like, everybody wants justice, but there's a price of justice. Mercy is holding back what I deserve, but grace is this overflow of riches that I do not deserve, and that's what salvation is. So you're saved. Come on, pc, get on with it. Let's keep going all right, for we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. So this is such a powerful idea because the Bible says we are God's handiwork.

In other passages of scripture, other translations, it actually says masterpiece. I preached about that a while back, about being a masterpiece. Like God has a unique design for your life and he doesn't give all of us the same exact purpose, because he needs us all to fulfill a purpose within the greater purpose of his church. So the whole idea is we don't work to get saved, we get saved and we get to work. We get to work, and not only do we get the desire to get to work, but it is an honor and a privilege to get to work. Philippians 2 says this dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you and now that I'm away, it is even more important for you to what's that say Work hard.

But I thought grace and salvation is a gift. It is, but we're not. We're no longer working to be saved, we're working to show we're saved. We're working because, man, if what God did for me, I can extend that to somebody else. It's worth it. It's worth being at the 645 call time Because it helps somebody. It's a value to be able to get up and be at the first team rally at 820. It's a value to be able to worship one and serve one and look what happens, for God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. You might not initially have the desire, but God gives you that desire. And if you don't have that desire yet, just keep pressing in, just keep going all in, and one day you'll wake up and instead of being like, oh, I can't believe I have to get up at this time, you're gonna be like I get to get up at this time, I'm so thankful. So what is this all in journey? I'm gonna give it to you in four simple steps, and some of you are on this journey in different ways.

But the vision of Free Church is that we know God on Sunday, and the reality is we need to get to know God better every Sunday. So where are you at in your engagement on the journey of faith Number one? All of us should. The first thing we should do if we're going all in, the first chip we put in is this Make my relationship with God public. And I'm going to tell you that's two fold. And you say well, pc, that's two things. Number one it's baptism and number two it's testimony. And let me just quickly talk about testimony, because the Bible says that we overcome by the blood of the lamb and by our, and I wonder how many of us give enough testimony to what God has done in our life that allows us to overcome. What's next in my life? You see, the pattern of victory in following Jesus and becoming a disciple is that when you learn to testify about what God has done in your life, there's another victory right around the corner that you have a faith for because you realize what he did before. What is the reward for victories in following Jesus? More victories when you have a testimony, because that's how we overcome. So we overcome by our testimony, but we also we make our relationship with God public by our testimony.

I've told this story before, but I remember when we lived in Houston at the church there big church, growing church we went from like 500 to like 1,500 in about a 12 or 16 month timeline, and so it was just so many people coming, and I believe that for this house, by the way, I believe that for this house, exponential growth, not because we want to get big, but because people need Jesus. And so we were growing at a rate and we had hired somebody to help with children's ministry. We were announcing them on Sunday After service. I saw him talking with somebody in the audience that had lingered after service for a bit. They were talking. They seemed like they knew each other. I said you guys Pastor Mike was in that You're relatively new, but you've been here for a while and you guys know each other.

This is what pastor mike said about this guy. He says, yeah, we've worked together for a number of years. I didn't even know he went to church. Ouch, don't let that be your testimony. We're, we're called to make our relationship with god public, so that's by our testimony. The other way is through baptism, and I want to encourage you. I was looking over the numbers. This year We've had over 115 people raise their hand with a declaration they want to follow Jesus, which is amazing. But I want to just compel you if you've never taken your decision public, it is a part of your testimony for victory in the future and you need to go public with your decision and I can show you the Bible in Acts 2 and 41. I read about Acts, chapter 2, last week. It says those who accepted the message were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to their number that day. Who accepted the message? Well, about 3,000 people, and they were all baptized. It is our responsibility to go public with our faith and that step is baptism.

The Greek word for baptism is baptismo. Greek word for baptism is baptismo, and in the English language for the most part, we've translated from Greek to English so we can read the translation of scripture. The highly educated they read it in the Greek and that's amazing. That's not me. I need it to be translated and I like Eugene Peterson's message version because it's even easier to understand. Today's Living Bible helps me understand it even more Sometimes. The King James Version my dad used to preach from that relentlessly and I'd be like I don't know what it means. Thou thus thee who. I need the simple English, but baptismal is one of those Greek words that we could not find. There was no translated word for baptismal, so they made what's called a transliteration is one of those Greek words that we could not find. There was no translated word for baptism. So they made what's called a transliteration meaning. They just took the Greek word and made it English word and baptism became baptism and it simply means to dunk, to immerse, to go all the way under. So when we baptize you, we baptize you by putting you all the way under the water and some of you we hold down there longer. Parents, you just put that on the note, but it's.

I read about this idea of baptism Ancient days. They would give them a white baptism garment and then they would put on them a dark robe, black robe, and then, but they would cinch everything up, except the black robe would be loose, and when they would drop them down and they didn't baptize like we lay people down in the water and back in that day they would literally go dunk them down like this, like a squat. By the way, my great, my grandfather, was baptizing somebody up in northern michigan, in the upper peninsula, and they had gone into lake michigan or one of the bodies of water right there to baptize somebody and they cleared out some ice and when they first put the guy down, his head didn't go all the way down, and so my grandfather tried it again and it still didn't go down and finally he realized there was still some ice under there, so he moved him over. Then he put him down. Had they been doing it the old way, they would have made it without incident. But what they would do is they would put that person, they would put that person squatting down and while they were under the water they would pull off that black robe and that black robe would go down the river and they would come up white with that white garment on, pure as snow, and that's the symbol of baptism.

We go down as our old self and we're raised to new life and our old life is washed away. And the scripture says why do we do that? It's not what's saving you, but it's a cleansing of your life and it is a declaration. We're baptized number one, to show that there has been a life change in our life. Look at the scripture In baptism we show that we have been saved from death and doomed by resurrection of Christ, not because our bodies are washed clean by the water, but because in being baptized we are turning to God and asking him to cleanse our hearts from sin. So we're doing it to show a changed life and then we're letting the world know we belong to Jesus. Whoever acknowledges me before others, jesus said, I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven, but whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven. Baptism is a way of acknowledging that Jesus is your Savior. And if you'll do that on a public scale, your savior Jesus will do that in front of his father in heaven.

And so I know you say, well, pc, that's so elementary. But some of you have never been baptized and I want to ask what are you waiting for? Go all in. Let's make this the number 13. From this point on, we go all in. And if I the number 13, from this point on we go all in. And if I've never been baptized or maybe I was baptized as a child and I didn't understand it, or I've lived a lot of life that maybe I need to rededicate and go all in again that baptism is for you. In fact, next week we're baptizing in the 11 o'clock service and I would encourage you. You can just register for baptism by just simply sending Renee a DM of forward slash register and then select baptism, sunday baptism service and we'll get you. We got everything ready for you, we got a t-shirt for you it's gonna be great, and if you decide to do that in the service next week, that's great too. But we want to see you take that step. Show us you're all in. Make your relationship with God public.

Number two spend time with God every day, every day, every single day. Spend time with God, and I will tell you this God wants to spend more time with you than just one hour on Sunday. Even if it's only five minutes a day, every other day of the week, God will take that. But he wants more. He wants you to spend time with him every day. How can you do that? Listen, psalms 5 and 3. In the morning, lord, you hear my voice. I lay my request before you and I wait expectantly. It is something about starting your day off in the scriptures and I would encourage you if you could give your first 15 minutes every single day to the Lord in the next 30 days. If you'll give, commit 21 days to it and then go 90 days and then just keep going after that, and pretty soon you've got 45 years of reading God's word every single day. Applause, applause, five. First 15, five minutes of reading God's word, five minutes in worship and five minutes in prayer. Wanna start to your day. Spend time with God every single day.

The third thing, if I were to tell you to go all in, is number three choose the right relationship. We say this, it's not just what we say to students, it's for all ages, every life age, every life stage. It is this you show me your friends, I'll show you your future. Proverbs 13, 20 says walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. You want to be wise? Hang out with wise people. If you're the smartest person in the room, go to a new room. Get around smart people. You'll become wise. You want to follow Jesus. Get around people who are following Jesus. You want to do better in your faith and your disciplines for the Lord. Get around people. If you wanted to go to the gym better, you would get a gym companion. Somebody go to the gym with. 1 Corinthians, 15, 33 says this do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. My dad used to say it this way don't let your good be evil. Spoken of man. That just sounds smart, but it's true.

And I would ask you in these three areas of your relationship number one, your relationship with the church. Number two, your relationship in a small group. And last week we launched Small Group Sunday. Almost 100 people last week registered for our small group already. All through the week people have been registering. But downstairs in the lobby we have a table set up for you to find a group that fits you. Every life age, every life stage Bible study, fun women men, online prayer there's a group for you. Young couples, young adults, students there's a group for you. And I would just encourage you if you weren't here last week, stop by the table. They'll help you get through into Renee to figure out how to follow up and find a group that will fit you.

Get involved in groups. Most of those groups some start today, some start this week, some start in the next 10 days or so, but we're starting this season. I want you to find your way into a small group. How are we going all in? We're going all in. Number one we're making our faith public. Number two we're spending time with God every single day. Number three, we're correcting our relationships. And number four, we're making a difference in the lives of others. And I would just say how we do that at Free Church. And making a difference in the lives of others is through our dream team. It's through serving. You're like PC.

This seems like an elementary sermon. Well, you know what? It's? A 13th birthday. I don't know if you've ever been around a 13-year-old, but if you tell them one time, you got to tell them a thousand times. And so I'm telling you we are in this space and we're only as good as we are is because of all the people who have served to help us get to this point. But if your engagement hasn't reached the level of serving on a team, I wanna compel you to find a team to serve on. It's that Ephesians 2.10, for we are God's masterpiece. He has created us in Christ Jesus so we can do good things that he's planned for us to do long ago, and I would just encourage you to find a team you can serve on.

I was thinking about all my boys. The twins are in college right now, and so I love them telling me about their classes and how it's going and what they're studying. They're in just the first few weeks of it, so right now they're just basically writing papers about themselves. Remember that you had to write a bio of yourself every first class, of every class you take in college, and that's where they're at now.

But I remember studying Maslow's hierarchy of needs, right, remember it. Remember the first one, the first one man, I don't know them all, but there were originally five. There were five of them and it was safety end. That was the tip. If you could get to a spot where you had really walked fully in your purpose, you had reached the pinnacle of of of this hierarchy of needs. And but before he died he went back and assessed it all again and he realized he missed something and he removed that top, they moved everything down and he put one more up there, and it was not self actualization, it was self transcendence. And he said that really, you find your greatest amount of fulfillment not just when you walk in your own purpose, but when you live a life for others that goes beyond yourself. And so in his last days he rewrote the entire thing to show that there was one more level of reaching that hierarchy of needs and it was when you live beyond yourself for the needs of others. And that's what we do when we make a difference. Listen, you don't solve problems in your world by trying to solve the problems. You solve problems in your world when you reach into something that's much greater than yourself, and so sometimes you get to the space and you're serving a God who's so big, and when you worship and when you serve which serving is worship it causes you to elevate your life to a spot where now, your problems even seem smaller.

I want to encourage you to sign up for a team. Our goal is to have another 50 people serving on team in the next 90 days. That's by Big Ask Sunday, and we're already on our way. But there's a way to do that, and that would be number one go to Freeway. If you've never been through the Freeway, or if maybe you need a refresher, freeway takes place on the 21st. We'd love to see you there to be a part of that and help us be a part of the team. And if you've gone through Freeway it's been a minute since you've been on a team you just simply DM Renee forward, slash, serve, and she'll give you a list of teams that we are looking to add to, and that is how you can go all in. Go public with your decision to follow Jesus, spend time with God every single day, work on your, choose the right relationships and then make a difference in the lives of others. Can you receive that word today?