That sermon rocked me and it was sticky, what all sincere Preachers of the Gospel hope, strive and pray for.
I don't even remember for sure who preached it, but I still recall the fragment of scripture the Preacher used as his tag line, a modified "what doth hinder me to be baptized?" Stripped down to its core idea, what doth hinder me?
Acts 8:36
And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water:and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?
From a story in Acts Chapter 8 of an Ethiopian driving a chariot and reading the Hebrew scroll of Isaiah, he senses that it has more meaning and Phillip a disciple of Jesus comes along, miraculously, and explains it. This leads the man to faith and a desire to complete his belief by the rite of Baptism.
His question to Philip is, does anything prevent me from going through with this? To which he replies, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.”
And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
The preacher the day I heard this message (then as a recently converted and excited follower of Christ) was asking in essence, "What keeps you from believing all the way?"
"What keeps you from going all in?(all in with this "Jesus Stuff" as my detractors have called it")
Is it your present sinful condition?
Is it your doubts, fears and worries?
Is it your fear of losing something and gaining nothing?
Is it your worry over what people will think?
Jesus has an answer for all of these, and I can tell you from my experience as a disciple in the church for ten years followed by eleven years of starting and pastoring a church in a city foreign to me (but still in the same state) and now two years after leaving that church to another man to continue,
I still ask myself occasionally "What doth hinder me?"
Now I ask you "What doth hinder YOU?"
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