The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 13: Baptism

Episode Date: April 15, 2018

You don't have to do the things you used to do because you are not the person that you used to be.

Amen and amen. How we doing, church? Everybody good? Looking good. If you got your Bibles, I hope you do, grab them. We're going to be in Romans chapter 6. Hopefully you figure that out. Also, you need your Roman study journal. If you brought that back, good job. There's so many of you bring these.

That's very, very good. If you need one of these, you can get one on your way out. Even if you're just visiting with us, there literally are people all over the country that have asked for these, and so we're happy to give them to you. And so the Bible verses are in there, and we put the Bible verses on the screen. And you say, that might be too much. It's not. We're into the Bible.

Some of us even write it on our arm. all right so we're into it so we're gonna we're just gonna walk verse by verse through four verses in the book of Romans and before we dive into this I just kind of need to clue you in to some stuff that's going on here something is like even new and different I don't know it's not new it's the same thing but it's more of it is going on here I don't know if you remember and I know you don't but back in the fall we preached a series called gospel awakenings and what we were talking about, we were studying what kind of things happen in order that God shows up in a revival. And a revival is just sort of really more God-centered, gospel-centered God activity in the life

of his people. And I think what is happening is that the seeds that we planted last fall are being harvested right now in this time. And here's why I say that. Is that we as a church this year have grown more than we've ever grown before, over 2,000 people year over year, which is crazy. All right. And here's why it's crazy. We're studying Romans. Not exactly the feel-good hit of the century. You understand? There was one week we said circumcision, every fourth word. That's all we did. Circumcision, circumcision, circumcision, circumcision. In fact, here's what a terrible leader I am. Like, I didn't see any of this coming. I didn't. In fact, I gathered our staff together and say, hey, listen, attendance is going to be down in 18. But don't worry. Because what we're going to do in 18 is we're going to deepen our relationship with the Lord. We're going to focus on deepening with the faith and deepening in our faith family.

We're going to study the book of Romans for 34 weeks. And so, you know, I don't know. Who's going to come to that? So who cares, though? Because what we're going to do is as the roots of the tree get deeper and deeper and deeper, and deeper, it'll prepare us for God to grow the branches wider and broader and broader. That's what we thought. I was wrong.

Everybody, we had 18,000 people at our Easter services. You understand? We're averaging about 10,000 people. It's crazy. It's great. Church people call and be like, so what's the secret to your growth? Teach on circumcision a lot. Millennials love it.

I don't know. This is how we know it's the Lord. Not only that. So far this year, 728 people has surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in three and a half months. And in fact, in fact, on Easter weekend, you know, we start on Thursday. So on Easter weekend, there were 431 people just in our Easter services that, you know, They said, I'm ready to surrender my life to the Lordship of Christ. Amen? I mean, that is crazy. That is, that's unbelievable. And then, as we're celebrating this here and with our staff,

one of our pastors comes up to me, Pastor Chris George is the campus pastor here at San Pablo campus. And he goes, hey man, we need to amend that number. I mean, what do you mean? He goes, well, you know, there's a team of volunteers here at 1122 that takes the sermon on a DVD and the disciple group material into a juvenile detention center every week. And they're a week. And they're a week late. And so at the sequel boys youth center, and by the way, boys, you're listening right now, we love you, we're praying for you. If the tomb is empty, anything is possible. God's got a plan for you. He is not done with you. And you are a part of our church, all right? And so they listen to the sermon and eight boys who are incarcerated right now were freed from sin and death. Amen?

And so it was really 439. So I say all that. Because God is up to something. He's always up to something, But he's just, it's a little extra right now. And when something significant happens to you, you do something significant to signify it. And this isn't just like a Christian thing, a church thing. This is just like a human thing. So what we're going to talk about today is baptism. It is that significant external proclamation of something, the most significant thing that's ever happened internally in your life.

That's what it is. But it's not just a church thing. We all do this. We all have these somethings. significant happens on the inside and then you do something on the outside to show everybody to tell everybody like when you fall in love and I hate the term fall in love it sounds like an accident it's like you tripped me like it got on me what do I do that's not that when you when you decide that you can be the man or be the wife that God has called you to be when you meet the person that you want to spend

the rest of your life with you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible and you get married and there's a big celebration there's this thing there's this external thing that points to something more important. What's more important is that covenant. And you exchange rings. And when you exchange promises and you and you join in a covenant, then there's no turning back. You never go back to your single life again. That's not what you go back to. So if you're about to get married, listen, everything changes. You don't go back to those old days. You're not rolling out on Friday night. And your wife's like, where are you going? I'm about to go to the club. She's like, no, you ain't going to the club because everything changes. Or like when you turn 16, things change. If you're

blessed enough to have a driver's license and either your parents get you a car or maybe you earn enough money to buy a car, everything changes. If you've got your own car, or really if you're 16, you don't have a car. Your parents have a car and they let you drive their car, but that's another sermon. But if you have access to a car and you have gas money and a driver's license, you don't go back to like scooter anymore. People would be like, what are you doing? Because it changes. When you graduate from college and they move that tassel over and you get a degree, and you go get a job, you don't go back to living at your mom's house. Too soon?

Is that hurting somebody? All right, so anyway. So even more important at this. When we get to Romans chapter 6, verse 1, what we're talking about here is where he just was in Romans chapter 5, that when you have been reconciled back to God by the blood of Jesus, then you do something significant to signify that that thing has happened, and then there's no turning back to where you came from. And so we're going to talk about that thing that marks it.

That thing that marks it is called baptism. Now let me tell you this. If you're a Christian and you got baptized as a believer, the worst thing you could do right now is check out and be like, well, I'm good to go. You see, because baptism is a family event. And it's not just for the person that for the very first time is proclaiming Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior,

but every single time we as a church participate, whether you're doing the dunk and you're being dunked or you're watching the people getting dunked. that it's a reminder to us of our very own salvation, that we have died to ourselves, been buried with Christ, and we have been resurrected with him in the newness of life. So don't check out on this. Here we go. Romans chapter 6 verse 1.

Now remember, the book of Romans is not really a book. I don't know why we call it that. It's really a letter. And it didn't have chapters and verses when Paul wrote it. He just wrote it. And so what he's going to do in chapter 6 verse 1 is he's going to answer a question. that he knows what he's been teaching in Romans 5, verse 20, would arise in some of the skeptics' mind. And so here's what he said in 6-1.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? In other words, are we to keep on sinning? Because when we sin, more and more and more grace has heaped our way. And the reason that he says this is because if you're back up to 520, he said, this was last week. Now the law came in to increase the trespass. But where sin increases, grace abounded all the more. And here's what Paul knows.

See, Paul was probably, he probably went to a school in Tarsus. He was probably a lawyer. And so what he is doing is he is going to pre-answer the objections of his detractors before they are answering. Because let me just tell you what a sicko like me thinks when I hear a verse like this. Huh. I think I found a theological loophole to my advantage. So Paul, let me ask you this.

So the more I sin, the more grace God gives me. He would say correct. And I go, and grace is good, right? He goes, yeah. I'll go, I'm about to fill this place up with grace then. And he goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, there, scooter. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

Verse 2, by no means exclamation point. Let me take you a little Greek here, all right? So in our English New Testament, when it puts an exclamation point behind it, this means in Greek he's like yelling. It would be the equivalent of a capital all caps text. Grandparents, that means you're yelling. You're not supposed to text in all caps. I know you don't see that good.

Just make it bigger, okay? Because your kids are like, why are you yelling at me? You're like, I'm not yelling. I'm just texting. That's what this is. When he says, so what shall we say then? Should we continue and say that grace may abound? He's going, no way.

He's yelling. No, are you dumb? That's what this means. The way my eight-year-old daughter would say it, are you even being serious right now? That's how she would say it. This is what Paul is saying. And here's why.

How can we who died to sin still live in it? To which we look at that and go, kind of easy. We just keep sinning. And then I thought we just could get a pass for this. And Paul, what Paul is saying is this. He goes, if that's what you think, then you don't understand grace. That's not what grace is. Grace does not free us to sin.

Grace frees us from sin. sin. Grace is not permission to do what we want. Grace is permission by what Jesus did to approach the holy, almighty king of the universe as our father. These are two different things. And if you haven't been changed by grace, it may be because you've never experienced grace. You may know about it, but there's no way in the world the freight train of the grace of God could run over you and then you just get up and dust yourself off and there's no difference in you. Or it could be that Quite frankly, just Jesus is not your Lord. You see, if somebody be your Lord, we hate this as Americans,

individualistic, I do what I want, when I want with who I want, you ain't debaussed me, kind of people. You see, when Jesus is your Lord, by definition, that means you do what he says, whether you like it or understand it or not. And if you say, hey, man, I can do what I want because I'm saved by grace, then it is, according to Paul, it could be evidence that you don't know this grace of which you speak.

You know about it, but you don't know it. Now, here's what tons of Christians can do, all right? Many Christians will take one theological truth absent of all other truths and come to what I would call an illogically logical argument. So, is it true that God doesn't love some future version of you, that you can't lose your salvation, that when Jesus died on the cross, he died for all of your sins, past, present, future, yes, yes, yes, yes, all of that is true. But if you take that one truth, it can lead you to an illogically logical conclusion. And people do this all the time. People at our church come in me and say, okay, you teach on the sovereignty of God a lot, right? Right.

So you mean God's in charge of all things? He is. And he doesn't change his mind. That is correct. That's also the immutability of God. Well, so then he knows everything that's going to happen. He's even like preordained or predestined some stuff. Uh-huh.

Yep, you're tracking. And he knows the things I'm going to say. before I even say him, check. So then why pray? So here's why. Because he said to? He said, when you pray, do it like this. He said, pray, pray for one another.

And if you think that prayer is about getting God to do what you want to do, you don't know what prayer is. And this is why, by the way, we teach what the Bible would call the full counsel of God. We just roll through books of the Bible. Because there's a bunch of places in here. I would be happy to skip. You think you're uncomfortable hearing about circumcision. Teach on it for four weeks.

you understand? But so we go to the full counsel of God. Here's another one. I would fall into the camp of people that have what theologians would call a reformed soterology. That just means that God saves, you don't save. He picked you, you don't pick him. That's what that means, okay? That's what Jesus taught. And so people will say, okay, all right, so you're saying if God saves, and it's not like how well I share my faith or how good the sermon is, then why share my faith? Because he told us to. It's called the Great Commission. You see how people can take one truth and come to an illogically, seemingly logical place. This is what Paul is talking about here. So does God love you, demonstrate his love for you and this, that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us, and you can't

lose your salvation and nothing can separate you from the love of God? And if you go, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, well, then can't I just do what I want when I won? Huh, uh. And I'm going to be honest, for years and years and years and years, this was kind of the easy believism that I was caught up in, like, especially in my teenage years. I would believe, all right, if I'm forgiven no matter what, then can I just do what I want? And what this would lead to is I would rededicate my life to Jesus at camp about 53 times. Anybody else rededicate your life to Jesus over and over? And I was like, one day, this thing's going to stick, okay? I'm telling you. And I'd go to summer camp And, I mean, it was great.

I loved it. I was into it, right? And you'd stay up super late, and you'd play all these goofy games and sing these songs and eat fried food and drink Kool-Aid. And by the end of the camp, you would dedicate your life to a Christmas tree if that's what they ask you to do. And I have nailed things to crosses and burn stuff and put on bracelets and made promises and sign stuff and put on rings and through stuff in the ocean. I've done all those things. And then I would go home and I would be pumped for Jesus, man. I mean, I was ready to attack hell with a squirt gun.

I was good to go. And those three or four sins that I swore I would never do again, I wouldn't do those things for many days. Like in a rope. And then when I would screw up, I'd be like, ah, well, I guess I'm all jacked up. And can't really do anything about it until camp next year. So if the debt has already been paid, I might as well run it on up. I mean, I don't want Jesus to have died for nothing. Let's go ahead and get our money's worse.

And sure enough, next year you camp, there I am again. I'm telling you it's a misunderstanding of the grace of God. Grace does not free us to sin. It frees us from sin. This is what Paul is saying. If that's your mentality, you may not have surrendered your life to Jesus. In fact, if that's our mentality, what we're actually doing is we want to use God as a means to our own end. And that is not surrender.

That is not Lordship. You see, what Paul says in the book of Galatians, chapter 2, verse 7. 20, he says, I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life that I live now in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave his life for me. He's saying, when you become a Christian, you die to yourself and you have a new life with the resurrected Jesus. The way he's saying it right here in Romans is this, how can we who died to sin still live in it? Now listen, honestly, all next week, this is what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk, we're going to unpack this in more depth

next week. But here's what he's saying. If you have died to your sin, then this means that you have died to the penalty of sin. That's called justification. That means you go to heaven, not hell. Ultimately, that's what it means. It also means that you have died to the power of sin. This is called sanctification. And even better, this is called progressive sanctification. It doesn't mean that sin has, that you don't struggle with sin, but sin ultimately doesn't have power over your life anymore. And when you have died to sin, there should be moments in your life where you are beginning to gain victory through the power of the Holy Spirit in you

over some stuff that you used to do and struggle with. That's what I mean. And hopefully you've experienced some of this. Like maybe in your home there's a thing that used to set you off and anger and rage would come out. And this week that thing happened and out came gentleness and kindness. And your wife was like, who are you? And you're like, I don't know, baby, I'm a new creation, all right?

I'm surprised as you are. In fact, this week, Pastor Michael Olson, our worship leader today here at San Pablo, one of our worship pastors. He was in a car accident, like a pretty significant one, totaled the car, airbags, it was crazy. And I was behind him, and I didn't know that was him in the car. I'm just riding down the road going home. And all of a sudden, man, I see this one car pull out in front of another one, and he was in another one, and then boom, he hit it and it busted and stuff it. everywhere, and the other car kind of spun around. And then I pulled over as fast as I could to go help.

And we don't have a lot of helpers these days. We've got a lot of get-arounders. That's another sermon. All right. So, anyway, so I pulled over, and I go running, I mean, I'm running up the car on Hodges. And out come, and I didn't know it was Pastor Olson. And the door opens, and he comes out and he goes, woo! Like this.

That's how he came out. Whoa! And he's freaking out. Double airbags. Hit him in the face. That little black thing on his face right there with it. All right? And then I'm like, oh, my God.

That's Michael. And I look at him, he looked at me, he goes, I didn't cuss. I didn't cuss. That's what he said. First thing. He said, I screamed like a girl, but I didn't cuss. That's progressive sanctification. You shake him in outcomes, not bad words, but woo!

That's what came out, our Rick Flair. So when you die to sin, you die to the penalty of son, you die of the power of sin, and you die to the presence of sin. That's called glorification. One day you get to heaven, no more tears. because there's no sin. This is what Paul is talking about. Here's what he's saying.

He's saying, if you're in Christ, now, you're not a slave to the things that you used to do because you're not the person that you used to be. That's what he's saying. And I love, we're going to spend a ton of time on this next week, but I love to use the Bible to interpret the Bible. There's a few places where you see this happening. And you see in John chapter 11,

Jesus goes to his friend's family because his friend Lazarus is dead. He's been in the grave for four days. And then Jesus goes and says, Lazarus, come forth. And he brings him back to life. And here comes Lazarus, like hopping out of the tomb. Because he's got grave clothes on. And his first commandment is this, Lazarus, take off the grave clothes.

Why? Because you're alive, bro. Grave clothes don't fit you anymore. Living people don't wear a dead man's clothes. And if you were to come back around to this place, to Bethany, and see Lazarus three weeks later, and he had his, you'd be like, oh, Lord, he's stinkas, what is going on here? Lazarus, oh, why did you, why you got a dead man's clothes on, man? That's nasty, that's nasty.

Why in the world are you doing that? It wouldn't make sense. And what Paul is saying here, that's what it looks like for the believer who is alive in Christ to continue to walk in sin. No, man, we're dead to sin, take those clothes off. Or there's a cripple man at the pool of Bethesda. he's been there for 38 years. He's laying on his mat

and he can't get into the waters to be healed. He thinks if he can get in the water, he'll get healed, and he can't. And so Jesus comes along and says, hey man, you want to be healed? And the guy's like, hi-ha, starts making excuses, and then Jesus just heals him. He says, get up and walk. Take up your mat and walk. And the Bible says, immediately the man who's never taken a step for 38 years,

immediately he stands up and rolls up his bed mat and he begins to walk. Now, here's the thing. That mat, not awesome. Okay, don't think like yoga mat that you like chlorox wipe occasionally, all right? Those still aren't even that awesome, let's be honest. They kind of a little like, ooh, it got a little yoga dingy in there, all right? So this thing, 38 years without a chlorox wipe, that thing is, ugh. And so four weeks later, you saw that brother laid up on his mat, and you'd be like, come on, man, get up off the nastiness.

What is wrong with you? If you can walk, why in the world would you lay back in that filth? This is what Paul is saying. That's what sin is. or like last week we said that we said that sin is a hereditary disease and Jesus is the cure so if you have been cured

you would begin to show signs of new health and you would not continue to go and seek treatment for a disease that you have been cured of people would be like what are you doing back here you are free you are cured this is what Paul is talking about you see here's the point is that you don't have to do the things that you used to do because you're not the purpose

person that you used to be. We talk about this all the time. You're not your past. You're not your habits. You're not your addiction. You're not your marital status. You're not your sexual orientation. You're not whatever label that this world has put on you. You're not your divorce. You're not your affair. Whatever it is. You're not your abortion. And you think that's the biggest thing that's ever happened in my life. Not if Jesus is your Lord and Savior is not. He is the biggest thing that's ever happened to your life. And here's who the word says you are. The Bible says that you're redeemed and justified, that you inherit eternal life. that you are sanctified, that you're alive in God, that therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,

that you are a recipient of God's grace, that you can see God clearly, that you have been reconciled to God, that you are free from sin, that you are a recipient of Abraham's blessing, that you have every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, that you are raised with Christ, that you will inherit heaven, that you are created for good works, that you are brought near to God through the blood of Jesus, that you were able to forgive others because you have been forgiven, that you are guarded by God's peace that surpasses all understanding, that you have all your needs supplied according to Jesus' riches, that you are a recipient of God's overflowing grace, that you have a life of purpose.

Oh, what manner of love the Father has lavished upon us, that we will be called children of God. That's who you are. And that's next week's sermon, so we shouldn't even talk about that anymore right now. But that's where we're going. And because that's true, what Paul is now going to do in the next two verses is give us an illustration

to illustrate that fact. The old is dead and here's the new you. And the illustration is an ordinance that Jesus gave us and it is the ordinance of baptism. Jesus gave us two primary ordinances in the church. Communion, which is a picture of and a participation in the gospel, the broken body and shed blood of Jesus,

and the ordinance of baptism, which is a declaration of our salvation. that if you understand what is symbolized in baptism, then you'll understand what happened to you when you surrendered your life to Christ. And so here's what he says. And again, this is just an illustration of you don't have to do what you used to do because the old you's gone and there's a new you. It says this, do you not know,

that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. We were buried, therefore, by the Bible. him or with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father we too might walk in newness of life. Here's what Paul said is that when you were baptized it marked the new you. It marked. Now it didn't save you but it just marked that you have been saved and now you have a new life so everything should look different. And again, again, what's happening when you get baptized, it's just showing the world that you have already died to yourself and been resurrected in Christ. So I want to get very practical here. We get a lot of questions about what baptism is.

And so, again, it is an outward invisible symbol of an inward working grace. That's what an old day theologians said. It is a picture to the world that you have died to yourself, been buried with Christ, and have been resurrected with him. And so what is baptism? Here's what baptism is. It is an ordinance given to us by Jesus to signify the most significant thing has happened in your life. That the old is gone and that the new is here. That's what it means. Now, very practically, here's the mechanics of baptism. The word baptism, or to baptize, it's a Greek word and it's not translated, it's transliterated. That means, for political reasons, hundreds of years, thousands of years ago, instead of translating the word,

they just took the Greek words, made them English, and sounded it out. Baptizo is the Greek word, and we get the word baptism. Now, the literal definition is this. Dip, dunk, submerge, sink, drown, wash. That's what it is. Dip, dunk, submerge, sink, drown. So the reason that we dunk here is because that's what Baptito means. All right?

In fact, in the first century, Baptizo wasn't even like a religious church word. Josephus, this first century. Jewish historian. He wrote a cookbook, and in the cookbook, he uses the word baptizo. And he's not talking about church. He's talking about how to make a pickle. And he says, you take a cucumber, and you baptizo it in vinegar until it becomes a pickle. And what he's not saying is, you take a cucumber, and you sprinkle vinegar on it, and when the cucumber dies, it'll go to heaven. That's not what he's talking about. He means you drown it, you dip, dunk, submerge. That's it. That's just what the word means. And so what we do, not only because that's just what the word means,

Also because of Romans chapter 6 right here, it says, we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory to the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. And the way that we baptized here is a picture of that death and resurrection. So if you're going to get baptized here, if you've seen us baptized people, then we stand out there with the person and we say, who is Jesus? And Romans 109 says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised them from the person. the dead that you will be saved. That's why we ask that question. So we say, who is Jesus? And you'll hear people say, Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. And then we'll say, whoever's doing the dunking, upon your public profession of Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I baptize you, my Christian brother or sister in the name of the Father of the Son and

the Holy Spirit. The reason we do that is because what Jesus said to do in the Great Commission. And then, as a picture of your surrendered life, we take you and we just bury you with Jesus. Now, that's already happened the moment you surrendered your life to Christ. But it's a picture of your burial and you're buried with Christ. And you know how long we leave you under there? We talk to your wife and she gets, no, I'm just kidding. You die. All right, go straight to heaven.

And so, because what's actually happening is you're just showing the world what has already happened in your life. And it's like you're buried with Christ. The water would be a watery grave. The Holy Spirit has washed your sins away. then by the power of God and for his glory, just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. And we join with Christ in our resurrection when we come up out of that water. We join him in a brand new life, and then everything is different.

And again, it's not because there's anything magical about the water. It's to tell the whole world, no, no, no, no, that's an inner reality in my life, and I wanted to go public with it. So we get a lot of questions about baptism. People ask, should I be baptized? My answer would be, are you a believer? If your answer is yes, then yes, you should get baptized. And you say, why? Because Jesus said to.

That's it. That's what Lordship means. And if you're saying, I don't understand. It don't matter. You don't have to fully understand to fully believe. For him to be your Lord, that means you do what he says. And he says, all authority in heaven and earth has been given unto me, therefore go and make disciples. So the moment you're a disciple, the next thing you do, and baptize you.

them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That is your next step of obedience. If you're a believer, then I get this question, a lot. These are legit questions. What if I was baptized as a baby? Okay, no problem. Should you be baptized now? I would go back to question one.

Are you a believer? If you say yes, then I would say, then yes, you should be baptized as a believer. In the New Testament, faith and baptism are always put together. If you ever try to separate those two things, then we're just talking about two different things. And so if you got baptized as a baby, where you're a Catholic or Methodist or Presbyterian or Episcopalian or whatever, whether they dunk you under, they usually don't do that with babies. It's usually like a clamshell and they blah, blah, you know. All right, listen, your parents were doing something really, really great for you. That's the tradition you grew up in. It's called

Pato baptism. It's about the covenant of God with families. Man, it's really, really, really a good thing. But what they were doing is your parents were saying, we want to partner with the church and the Holy Spirit to raise this child in such a way that they could come to the place one day where they would confirm that they know Jesus Christ as a Lord and Savior. So if you get baptized as a believer, you're not stiff-arming what your parents did for you. You're ratifying it. You're saying, yeah, this is it. Because baptism is a public declaration of your faith.

And so I would say yes and absolutely. And that would even include, if you got baptized when you were 15, and honestly, you were not a believer. You were just doing it because you were in youth group and you could get 10% off camp or whatever it was. You think I'm joking, but that's like a thing. So then I'll get this one sometimes. Some of you, some of you are really into whatever we do, okay? And you're like, all right, pastor, so I got sprinkler as a baby.

And then I went to Baptist camp when I was 12 and they baptized me. And then I got baptized in a spontaneous baptism one time on Easter here at 1122. And then I got baptized last year at Easter. And then I want to get baptized again this year at the beach because I just think it's awesome. Should I get baptized? No. Stop. You're good.

It's not like a cell phone contract, and then you've got to re-up every two years and make sure you're covered. That is not how it works, okay? That's not how it works. We only need one baptize. Any of you're like, yeah, but I understand so much more now. That's fine, it's fine.

It's not about understanding. It's about trust. If it was about having a full understanding before you got baptized, then it would be a death right. We'd be like, all right, you're getting kind of old. I don't think you're going to learn anything else.

Let's go dunk you. That's not how it works. It's at the very beginning of your faith journey. Because you're saying, I don't even know what I'm really doing hardly yet, but I know when Jesus is down on the cross, that counted for me. That's what you're doing. And then people say, okay, well, should I have my child or my baby baptized? Do they, can they profess their faith in Jesus?

You're like, no. Okay, I think what you're looking for is what we would call a child and family dedication. It's a beautiful thing. It's basically what you did in some other traditions, just take the water part out of it because that's not what baptism is. And so what we're doing is you're dedicating yourself and the church dedicates itself to raise our kids, all of us, our kids in the gospel so that they can know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And some people say this, all right, well, does baptism save me?

Like, if I become a Christian and I don't get baptized, then am I out? No, baptism doesn't save you. Remember all of Romans chapter 4 was about this one thing that we are justified by faith, alone, that we are not saved by works. And baptism is a good work, but works don't save us. Paul will say this way in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God and not a result of works so that no one may boast.

You see, a good illustration, baptism is like a wedding band. This is my wedding band. It is not my marriage. It just represents a covenant that I have. with my wife Gretchen. And so if I take this ring off, is my relationship with her gone? No, because it's about that covenant. And if I never put that ring on, that would be quite the conversation, but that's not

what we're talking about. Does it mean that I don't have a relationship with her? No, that's not what it means. And one of you, like if you put that ring on, does that mean you have a relationship with her? You wish. Get your own girl. She's taken.

She's mine. It's just an outward and public symbol. of a covenant, a personal covenant that I have. That's what baptism is. So it doesn't save you. It just tells the world that you are saved. And how do we know, other than the whole book of Romans and Ephesians chapter 2, that you don't have to be baptized to go to heaven?

Here's how. When Jesus was being crucified, he was crucified between two thieves. And one of the thieves begins to rail against him. If you are who you say you are, now what you call down some angels and save yourself and while you're at it, why don't you get us out of this? And then the other brother is like, fool, what do you? is your prop. It's a very loose translation. All right, don't look for these words exactly in your concordance.

But he's like, what's wrong to you, man? We are here justly, because we're criminals. This man has done nothing wrong. And then the thief on the cross says this. In all humility, he surrenders his life to the Lordship of Jesus. He says, Jesus, remember me this day when you go before your father in heaven. And you know what Jesus says? If anybody in all the New Testament makes it to heaven, we know the thief on the cross made it,

Because Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. You know what he doesn't say? Tough situation. Wish I had to mention it last week, all right? Because I don't think we can get the cross into the tub. I don't think you're going to make it. So, why? Because we're saved by grace, not by works.

And the man on the cross, you know what he doesn't say? He doesn't say, Jesus, from now on, I'll go to church. Jesus is like, you ain't going nowhere. There's no now on. just now. You're not going to make it through dinner. This is it. And yet we know by grace this man was saved. So then why get baptized? The reason that you get baptized is to proclaim to the world. Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. That's why we do it. And so as an action step in your little handout we gave you, here's what we need to do. Being a Jesus follower means that you take one step of

obedience at a time. Don't overcomplicate the word follower. And so if we follow Jesus, we follow him into baptism. And if you've never been baptized as a believer, then that is your next step of faith in your faith walk. And at every campus, after every service, we're going to have a baptism class. And at the benediction, we'll tell all of our campuses where that is. And if you've never been baptized as a believer, that is your next step of faith. To declare that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior. And it's not just for you, man. It's for... It's really for all of us. See, this past year, I went to Israel.

Have I told you I been to Israel? I like it a lot, okay? I'm going back. You should come with me. And when we were in Israel this year, we had two buses. We had a real big bus and a real little bus. And I was on the little bus. And it had like our sound equipment and video equipment and all that kind of stuff.

And in between stops, we're kind of planning out what we're doing at the next place. And so my bus driver and my bus, his name was Ariel, like the little mermaid. But he wasn't a mermaid. He was a retired Israeli secret service. He was a bad dude. And he was very professional and he's very polite. And he was raised Jewish. So culturally, he was like Israeli.

But theologically, he was atheist agnostic. And in fact, he was very successful, been all over the world. In fact, he had five children by five different women in five different countries. He thought it was awesome when he was first telling us. And we were like, well, I don't think this is as awesome as you do. But whatever. Okay. So.

So we get to our first stop, and we're at the mountain of beatitudes. It's in Galilee. This is where Jesus preaches the sermon on the mount. And so we go, and we get all set up, and one of our drummers, his name's Jared, he's playing guitar. My wife Gretchen is singing, leading us in worship. There's about 60 of us there. And then after we spent some time worshiping God in song, we begin to worship God in Word, and I turn to the beatitudes in Matthew, and I just begin to unpack what the beatitudes are.

And then our team splits up with their New Testaments, and they go sit around, and they read the sermon on the mountain where Jesus preached the sermon on the mount. You should go. It's pretty awesome. So then we get back in the bus. And Ariel says, can I ask you a question? And when we get on the bus, Pastor Britt is sitting in shotgun, and I'm back here because he's selfish. He calls shotgun all the time. He always thinks about himself.

You'll pray for him, all right. He's got issues. He needs to read Philippians too. And Ariel looks at us and he goes, can I? can I ask you a question? And he's all like stirred up. And I go, yeah, sure, go ahead. He goes, what was that?

What was that? What was that? What do you mean? We were just worshiping, reading the Bible a little bit. And he goes, I've never seen anything like that. I'm getting emotional. It's like Terminator. What is this feeling?

You know what I mean? Like he didn't know what to do with it. Then he goes on to say, I don't, I'm not saying I believe what you believe. But I believe you believe what you say you believe. We go, uh-huh, a lot. We believe it a lot. So then we got him a whisper mic. If you've ever been on a tour, it's a little headphone,

so nobody has to yell and you can hear whatever like the tour guide is saying. And then he got to walk through the Gospels with us. He grew up in Israel, never blend any of these places. Because why would he go? Because he didn't believe any of that stuff. So we're on the Sea of Galilee. We go to Copernum where most of the miracles happen, where Peter lives, stuff like that.

We go to Jerusalem, take him to the Mount of Olives, to the Garden of Gassimony, where Jesus said, not my will but your will be done. We took him to Galgotha where Jesus was crucified, to the empty tomb, to the southern steps, where Pentecost happened, we showed him all these things. And every single time he would get back in the van, and he'd be like, I don't know what's happening.

And I thought, I know what's happening, all right? And Britt and I wanted to talk so much. We hardly said anything to him. He would just talk himself, and he would have all these, like, I think all roads lead to heaven. I'm like, do you? Wow, that's cool. Are you sure?

And he just talked himself. just kept talking, talking, talk, talk, and he goes, I don't know what to do. I feel like I'm having a revolution in my mind and like a thunderstorm in my heart. That's what he's saying. And we go, huh, wow, that's interesting. Tell us more. So by the end of the trip, man, through conversations with Pastor Jonathan Christian and myself and Britt, we'd all shared the gospel with him, and we get to the place where he doesn't need any more information.

So I told Jonathan Christian the last day of the trip, I said, hey, this place has a pool at our hotel. So get it ready. I need a place to dunk somebody. because I feel like it might happen today. And so we on the bus that day, I say, okay, Ariel, well, here's the deal, man. You've got all the info. And so I got a question for you. Are you ready to believe or trust that Jesus is the Messiah?

Are you ready to accept him as your Lord and Savior? And he looks at me and he goes, I tell you the most overwhelming thing is not just the facts that you're telling me, but the way, he says, who are you people? And I go, we're just rednecks from a Walmart in Jacksonville, which I don't know, you know, you know, mandarin and Sam, whatever, you know, yeah. And he goes, I've never felt love this way in my whole life. I've never felt love. I never, he said this, it took God seven days to create everything.

And then in seven days he recreated me. That's what he said. Oh, that's good, right? And so we get him a Bible in Hebrew. And I said, all right, before you answer, I want you to take this home, go to John Chapter 3. It's about Jesus. a Jewish guy about eternal life.

Could be relevant. And if you're ready to accept Christ as your Savior, then at 6 o'clock, meet me in the pool at our hotel. And if not, bro, no problem. No problem. I love you. God loves you. He's never been in a hurry, and neither are we.

Meet me for dinner at 6.30. And we're friends no matter what. As we tell our team, our team's praying, 6 o'clock, we're gathered around the pool. Nothing. 6.01, nothing at 602. This is what happened. Now, is anything holy about that water?

No. It's just outside of the frame. There's like a Middle Eastern woman doing aqua aerobics. Like, what is going? Hi, here, you know, it's crazy. There's a couple guys that we had to clip out of the video because the fellas wear their wife's bathing suits. They're just walking over.

They're like, oh, my goodness. Nobody needs to see that. It's just water, man. Except when Ariel proclaims Jesus Christ is His Lord and Savior, there's no more holy water on the face of the earth. in that moment. That is holy ground because of God's work. And so if you have never been baptized as a believer, you should do that. Still not convinced? It's my last try. What if God uses your baptism, not only to seal something in your life, like that you were dead to sin and alive to Christ,

which we're going to spend all of our time on next week? Or like shutting the mouth of the enemy when the enemy lies to you. Because remember what God says to his son, Jesus at Jesus is baptism, behold, my son, in whom I am well pleased. And if you are baptized, not from the water, if you have surrendered your life to Christ, the Bible says that you are in Christ. That means that God's disposition towards you is the same as his disposition toward his son. And not because you get baptized, but because the baptism shows that you are in Christ, then forever and ever, ever, God's disposition towards you is, behold, my son or daughter, in whom I am well pleased. So it could be that you have that marking moment in your life to seal that thing. Or maybe it's not even about

what God's going to do in you. Maybe he uses your baptism to impact somebody else. You got a hard time getting that one more that you've been praying for to come to church. I bet they'll come see you get baptized. You see, there's a lady at our church that I know pretty well, and I did not ask permission to share her story. And so I don't know if I can share her name. But her initials are Denise Petchie. So years ago, man, years ago, I'm on staff at Beach, United Methodist Church, and we were doing a beach baptism. And Denise, I think she still lives there. She lives like at the beach. Like her backyard is the ocean, you know, in a big condo, like six or seven stories up. And she was far from God and things in her life were fine, but they were just kind of,

you know, a little gnawing thing, like, is this it? And there's a Sunday afternoon and she's sitting on the back of her deck porch thing. And we had a beach baptism scheduled. And And that day, I think we're probably baptized in 20 people, 25 people. And so with their friends and family, maybe 100 people that were with us. And we walk from 3rd Street at where beach is, and we walk across the street, we walk over to the ocean. And Denise is sitting up there drinking her little afternoon coffee, and she looks down and here comes all these people.

And she's like, what in the world is going on? And we walk out into the water, and she can't hear it, but she sees, we're asking these people, who is Jesus? And they're saying, Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. And we baptize them. And when we dunk them and pull them up out of the water, the little crowd begins to pop off like confetti. Yay! Why?

Because just like you'd celebrate a birth, you celebrate a new birth. And people are going, woo. And she's probably thinking, man, what is this cult out here in my backyard and crazy people? And then we all file out and go back across the street. Something wakes her up the next Sunday. She's like, huh, I haven't been to church in a while. maybe I'll go see what these crazy people are talking about. And she finds her way into 1122, surrenders her life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Then just a few weeks later, she feels like God is calling her to quit her job and go into ministry. And so we hire her on staff. And she works with Pastor Ryan Stone. So you want to talk about needing the grace of God in your life. And I'm just kidding. He's awesome. But anyway. So she's working with us in our student ministry.

And we start getting ready for mission trips. Okay? And as we're getting ready for mission trips, we're going to take a group of teenagers down to Jamaica to share the gospel in Jamaica. And she is not a fan. She was like, no way. That's so dumb. Why in the world will we go all the way to Jamaica when there's plenty of stuff to do right here? And I go, huh, that's funny.

You're going. I mean, you work for me. What are you going to do? Get on the bus. Here we go. And so very reluctantly, she packs up and we go on her very first mission trip to Jamaica. She gets there and God transforms her life. Absolutely transforms her life.

and she gets home, and one of the biggest arguments that she used to have with Stone is this. She goes, there's no way I'm getting baptized. That's silly. I'm not going to get in a tub in my clothes in front of a bunch of people. I did it when I was a baby. I'm all set. The following Easter, she steps into the tub, and she gets dumped. She goes back to Jamaica and back to Jamaica, and today she's like the president, CEO, I don't know,

was the founder of this ministry called Tiny Hope's Children's Home, and it's an orphanage for Jamaican children in Jamaica. Pretty cool, huh? And it doesn't in there. This summer, this summer, Pastor Stone and his wife Blair, they are leading a mission trip to Jamaica to work with the Tiny Hope's Children's Home with Denise Patchy and her ministry. And let me tell you, let me tell you what might have.

Here's what I believe. Here's what I'm believing is going to happen. There are some people right now at this service at one of our campuses. Probably a bunch of our campuses. And your marriage, it ain't good. I mean, it ain't good. And the reason it ain't good is because you're not doing what Ephesians 5 teaches. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

And the reason you can't submit to one another out of reverence for Christ because you don't know what to revere Christ means because you've never put Jesus in the middle of your marriage and acted like it. And there's going to be some of you and you're going to think, you know what? I feel like I'm in a hopeless situation. So I might as well give it one last chance and you're going to sign up and you and your spouse are going to go on the married couple's mission trip to Jamaica. and for the first time in your life, you're going to experience a life and a marriage that you never knew existed because you can put Jesus in the middle of it.

And you go come home and everything's going to be different, everything. And more importantly, it's not just going to be different for you. The trajectory of your family is going to change so that 40 years from now, people that have your last name are walking in a close relationship with Jesus Christ because of this mighty work that God does in this mission trip of yours. And the reason that your grandkids are going to be, know Jesus is all the way back to about 12 or 14 people at beach that took a step of obedience

to go get baptized? What if the reason that you're going to step in that water and proclaim Jesus Christ as your Lord and Shaver and show that you are dead to yourself and alive in Christ, what if it ain't about you? What if God wants to do something through you for the glory of his name? Do you know what hangs in the balance in regards to you taking a step of obedience and getting baptized? You have no idea. Would you please stand and pray with me? Our good and gracious, Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything because you loved us first. And it's this in love that we love you, but you loved us and you sent your son Jesus as a payment that satisfies on our behalf. And God, we are not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of salvation.

And God, every single time we celebrate water baptism, God, we are celebrating you. God, I pray against the spirit of fear in our folks. Some people are so afraid, what will my friends think? What will my boss think? What will my boss think? What will I look like on the video? God, people are afraid of all this stuff. And we know that you have not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self-discipline.

So, God, I pray by the power of the spirit, standing on the authority of the Word of God, under the love of the Father and by the blood of Jesus. that we would take one faith step at a time following after you. And Lord, I pray, God, I pray that hundreds of people would declare you as their Lord and Savior. As we baptize people in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.