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What I'm going to do over the 
next couple months as I'm 

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sharing, and you'll probably 
hear a couple other voices too, 

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but as I'm sharing this month 
and next month, I want to talk 

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about things that we take for 
granted, just to be honest with 

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you in the Kingdom. 
Things that we just take as, oh,

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that's a church thing. 
And we don't really understand 

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the roots of where it comes 
from. 

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And next week, one week from 
tonight, I'll talk about 

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worship. 
I mean, did you all enjoy the 

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worship that we had tonight, the
worship we have on Sundays? 

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Do you think it looked like 
that? 

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Do you think it looked like that
when we were talking about back 

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there in those days with with 
Jewish synagogues and what it 

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meant for them to lift up holy 
hands? 

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We're going to talk about that 
next week. 

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Tonight, though, we're going to 
talk about baptism. 

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And it wasn't really wasn't 
really my thought, but I'm not 

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really supposed to preach my 
thought anyway. 

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You could turn to Ezekiel 26. 
We're going to talk about 

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baptism tonight. 
And it's a different kind of 

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teaching for me on baptism 
because typically when I teach 

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on baptism, it's centered around
the, the, the, the story that so

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many of us know where Jesus goes
to get baptized by John the 

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Baptist. 
I mean, that's how you know, 

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John had pruney fingers. 
He was known for being a Baptist

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before the Baptists were even a 
thing. 

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And so he was just known for 
dunking people in the river and 

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for being symbolic. 
But tonight is a little bit 

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different. 
I want you to walk away from 

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here with a newfound respect and
love for baptism. 

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We're going to talk about two 
aspects of it tonight, That what

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baptism really is. 
It's a response, first and 

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foremost. 
And second of all, it's a 

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testimony. 
And this ought to make you feel 

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pretty good if you're scared to 
talk in front of people. 

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And we'll talk about that in a 
moment, but it's a testimony. 

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That's what makes it so 
beautiful when you do it 

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publicly. 
But just as a recap of my 

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baptism experience, I was 
originally Lutheran and born in 

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upstate New York. 
And man, for years I used to say

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that I got baptized in a gown 
and I feel bad I lied to people 

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because my mom corrected me 
eventually and told me it was a 

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romper. 
So not emasculating. 

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I was a baby, I got baptized in 
a romper. 

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Obviously I don't remember it, 
but that was part of the faith 

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tradition there. 
When I was 18, I made the 

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decision to follow Jesus on my 
own. 

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I was at a Southern Baptist 
church, and you can guess what 

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their priority was. 
I needed to be baptized. 

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And I said, OK, So they said, 
well, cool, You also need to 

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give your testimony. 
And I said, OK, so I got up at 

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18 and gave my testimony in 
front of the church full of 

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people that I didn't know and 
then got baptized. 

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Aren't you glad that when you 
get saved here, I don't say 

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cool. 
And then on Sunday, you'll get 

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up and you'll share your old 
story. 

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And I thought that would 
probably be it. 

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That was probably in 2001 and 
then 2010 came. 

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Nine years later, my life had 
fallen apart because I lived it 

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on my own terms. 
I lived it by my own terms. 

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I lived it for myself. 
By the time I got to 2010, I had

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started to work at the church I 
was attending, which is this 1. 

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So I was working for my pastor 
now and I was headed towards a 

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ministry career and I was 
getting married that year and 

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did get married that year. 
I said was it made it sound like

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it wasn't anyway, we'll talk 
about this later and we can't 

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wait. 
And then I talked to Pastor Tom.

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I said, I want to get baptized 
in that service. 

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Everything is so new. 
And even though I believed in 

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Jesus, I, I made so many 
mistakes and I just want to 

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publicly align myself with them.
And then I thought, well, 

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that'll be it. 
And then in 2014, I found myself

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on a tour of Israel at the 
Jordan River. 

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They provide you with those 
white gowns. 

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Like you see now I am in a gown.
So full circle with one other 

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pastor on this big trip. 
And he basically says, hey, I'll

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baptize you if you baptize me. 
And to be honest with you, more 

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of that was just the experience.
It was the experience of being 

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in the river, even if not the 
same spot. 

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I guarantee you it wasn't the 
same spot where Jesus baptized. 

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It was baptized where John would
baptize people. 

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And by the way, once you're in 
that river, you realize, oh, 

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it's a river. 
I mean, you're sitting there and

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there's like sticks and leaves 
and like a dead bug floating 

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down the river, and it is just a
river. 

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But it's living water. 
Living water is not a term 

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that's used a lot. 
Now, of course, we use it a 

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little bit in this church 
because it's the name of 

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emissions organization we 
partner with. 

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But living water is water that's
moving and that's important. 

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But what is baptism and why do 
we do it? 

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As I was growing up, I just know
that a couple of things happened

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in church and I knew they were 
important church things. 

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And in fact, I, I remember that 
this is not a flattering story, 

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but here we go. 
Communion at one of my original 

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churches, they were like, it's a
religious exemption. 

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You can have the wine. 
I don't know that that's legal, 

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but they did let me drink the 
wine and they said I could drink

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the wine from a little tiny cup 
or I could drink it from a 

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chalice. 
And so I was drinking from the 

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chalice so I could go to school 
the next day and be like, I took

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a big sip of wine at church 
yesterday. 

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How cool am I? 
You guys think it's about as 

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cool as they did. 
A lot of times in church, we do 

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things and we just don't know 
why that's the reality. 

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We I'm not saying we don't know 
what's important. 

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I'm not saying that it's not 
something that we that we don't 

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hold in in a in a respectful 
view, but we just don't know 

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why. 
And as you guys are going to 

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Ezekiel 26, I guess I'll just 
share with you real quick. 

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I was watching something with my
kids recently. 

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You know, if they get to choose,
it's not normally what I want to

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watch. 
But we watch Frozen 2 and at one

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point, Olaf the the talking 
snowman from the movie. 

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Have you all seen Frozen 2? 
Why is he like the most 

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philosophical character in this 
movie? 

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But he makes this declaration. 
He, he looks around and he tells

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everybody water has memory. 
And then he goes on to explain 

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that water remembers everything 
that's ever happened, everything

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it's passed through and it 
carries the past with it and 

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that it holds the story of the 
world. 

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And I want to be clear, I'm not 
saying that Olaf the Snowman is 

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a theologian, but he does ask 
some surprisingly deep questions

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for somebody who has a carrot 
for a nose. 

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But that thought has stuck with 
me ever since the first time I 

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saw that movie. 
Because if water has a memory, 

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that means it remembers where 
it's been. 

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It carries history. 
It holds stories. 

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Whether the writers of that 
movie knew it or not. 

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That idea is actually not that 
far off from how Jewish people 

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viewed water for ancient Israel.
Water was never something that 

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was neutral. 
It was not somewhere that you 

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were filling up your water 
bottle and, you know, off for 

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the day. 
And it was not just something 

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that you bathed in or crossed to
get somewhere else. 

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Water to the Jewish people meant
cleansing. 

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It meant cleansing. 
Water meant restoration. 

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Water meant that when something 
had gone wrong, now something 

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could be made right again. 
So this is the origin of baptism

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under the law of Moses. 
Purification with water was 

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woven into the fabric of their 
everyday life. 

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If someone became ceremonially 
unclean through an illness, 

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contact with someone who had 
died, or certainly certain 

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bodily conditions, they didn't 
shake it off and move on. 

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What did they have to do? 
They had to wash. 

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If someone wanted to prepare for
worship, what did they do? 

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They washed. 
If someone wanted to re enter 

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community after impurity, they 
washed, watermarked the moment 

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between what was broken and what
was restored. 

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As a matter of fact, if you 
remember, at one point they're 

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asking Jesus about them washing 
their hands, his disciples. 

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It's one of the many things they
tried to nitpick with him. 

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They used what was called a 
mikvah and the Jewish people 

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used a mikvah. 
Mikvah was a pool that was fed 

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naturally by like gathered 
water, like rain and springs, 

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and people would fully immerse 
themselves when they were doing 

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the the purification and the 
washing. 

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They went all the way under 
Baptizo means to go completely 

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submerged. 
It was a physical way of saying 

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I'm leaving one state behind and
stepping into another. 

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I was unclean, but now I am 
restored. 

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I was on the outside, but now 
I'm welcomed back in. 

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But this is the thing that the 
law exposes, and it does this 

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for a lot of areas, not just the
washing, but this is what the 

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law really exposes. 
Now that we are able to stand in

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the year 2026 and look back at 
it, the washing never lasted. 

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It never lasted. 
You'd become unclean again. 

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There would be another reason 
and you'd have to go back and 

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you'd wash again. 
And to be fair, when I tell my 

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kids to wash their hands before 
dinner, if they say, well, I did

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it yesterday, wash again. 
You could go into the water, 

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clean and come out restored, but
life would eventually make you 

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unclean again. 
Sin would resurface in your life

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again, failure would repeat. 
And the rituals did work, but 

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they only work temporarily. 
And they would cleanse your 

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00:09:22,440 --> 00:09:24,960
body, but they can never quite 
cleanse you enough to get to the

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heart. 
And that's what the law showed 

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with all of us watching. 
So over time, the people of God 

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began to realize that their 
biggest problem was not an 

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00:09:32,400 --> 00:09:34,440
external impurity. 
It was their internal 

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brokenness. 
And that is the world that I 

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00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:39,440
want you to understand that 
Ezekiel is speaking into here. 

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What we're about to read from 
Ezekiel. 

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This is not a hopeful season for
Israel. 

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This is not like right after 
David and Goliath. 

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This is not where like 
everything's looking great for 

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00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:50,160
them. 
Their city is destroyed. 

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Their temple is completely gone.
The place where they would 

189
00:09:53,800 --> 00:09:56,880
normally purify themselves and 
and have their center of 

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00:09:56,880 --> 00:10:01,440
worship, it's completely gone. 
They know the law, they know how

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00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:04,680
to wash themselves with water, 
but here they are displaced and 

192
00:10:04,680 --> 00:10:07,120
discouraged. 
And so they don't need a better 

193
00:10:07,120 --> 00:10:09,640
system. 
They don't need a better temple.

194
00:10:10,280 --> 00:10:12,160
They need a renewal from the 
inside out. 

195
00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:16,040
In that moment, God speaks to 
Ezekiel and does something that 

196
00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:18,440
personally I think is brilliant.
He takes an image that they 

197
00:10:18,440 --> 00:10:22,200
would have understood a lot, 
which is water, and he fills it 

198
00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:24,040
with a promise that they've 
never heard before. 

199
00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:28,360
Listen to this in verse 25. 
He says, then I will sprinkle 

200
00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:31,440
clean water on you and you will 
be clean. 

201
00:10:32,160 --> 00:10:36,400
Your filth will be washed away 
and you will no longer worship 

202
00:10:36,440 --> 00:10:38,320
idols. 
That's good. 

203
00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:41,360
That's the outside, right? 
Verse 26 And I will give you a 

204
00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:44,960
new heart and I will put a new 
spirit in you. 

205
00:10:45,760 --> 00:10:48,760
I will take out your Stony, 
stubborn heart and give you a 

206
00:10:48,760 --> 00:10:53,760
tender, responsive heart. 
And I will put my spirit, 

207
00:10:54,040 --> 00:10:58,160
capital S spirit in you so that 
you will follow my decrees and 

208
00:10:58,160 --> 00:11:00,160
be careful to obey my 
regulations. 

209
00:11:00,880 --> 00:11:03,160
So now he's attaching here in 
Ezekiel 36. 

210
00:11:03,160 --> 00:11:05,400
He's attaching this idea of I'll
sprinkle you with water. 

211
00:11:05,600 --> 00:11:08,240
I'll put my spirit in you. 
I will make you able to follow 

212
00:11:08,240 --> 00:11:11,880
my commands because previously 
you were being cleansed, but now

213
00:11:11,920 --> 00:11:14,160
you're going to have something 
new in you, a new heart. 

214
00:11:14,400 --> 00:11:17,440
And what's interesting is he 
says what he says, a tender and 

215
00:11:17,440 --> 00:11:22,360
responsive heart. 
God promises in these verses 

216
00:11:22,360 --> 00:11:24,680
right here, a cleansing that 
goes way deeper than skin. 

217
00:11:24,680 --> 00:11:27,000
It's a, it's a washing that 
actually goes and cuts to the 

218
00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:28,960
soul. 
So God is promising A 

219
00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:32,240
transformation that doesn't just
remove impurity, but also 

220
00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:35,360
replaces the heart itself. 
The, the heart is what drives 

221
00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:37,280
you into the impurity in the 1st
place. 

222
00:11:37,720 --> 00:11:40,720
So this is where purification 
stops being about compliance and

223
00:11:40,720 --> 00:11:43,080
starts being about rebirth at 
its core. 

224
00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:45,680
If somebody were to say, give me
one reason why I should be 

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baptized as a believer, I would 
say Jesus said so. 

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Jesus said it fulfills all 
righteousness. 

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Or maybe your translation of the
Bible where Jesus says that it 

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says we must do all that God 
requires. 

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But here's the problem. 
Jesus had no sin. 

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So Jesus had no sin to wash 
away. 

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So was he just modeling it for 
us? 

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Was he setting an example? 
Is it akin to a dad walking into

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a pool and saying, watch buddy, 
it's not that bad? 

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Is that really what he was 
doing? 

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They would have understood it. 
Totally different there. 

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For us, we grow up seeing people
get baptized. 

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There's songs about baptism and,
and, and, and we see this in 

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movies and films and we 
understand it and we equate it 

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to be something religious. 
But to the people who saw Jesus 

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do this, they would have 
understood something different. 

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00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:37,560
Anybody know how old Jesus was 
when he got baptized? 

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00:12:39,720 --> 00:12:43,240
30 years old. 
The age when priests started 

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their full priestly duties all 
the way back in Leviticus, it 

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00:12:47,760 --> 00:12:50,440
would talk about the priestly 
duties would begin at 30. 

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00:12:50,480 --> 00:12:53,480
Now eventually there are other 
references to like in the 25 or 

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00:12:53,480 --> 00:12:55,840
in the 20s where they would 
start apprenticing and things 

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00:12:55,840 --> 00:12:57,880
like that. 
But 30 is when you were actually

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inaugurated into your full 
priestly duties. 

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00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:03,920
And here comes the king of 
kings, our high priest stepping 

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00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:06,600
into the water and saying we 
must do all that God requires 

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and setting that example for his
role and teaching us. 

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00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:14,760
And I'm just, I would just tell 
a believer, if Jesus wasn't too 

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good to be baptized, who are we?
Right? 

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00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:22,960
I spoke to somebody one time who
was in his 30s, and he said, 

255
00:13:22,960 --> 00:13:26,040
yeah, I got saved at 17, but I 
never got baptized. 

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00:13:26,080 --> 00:13:28,760
This was many years ago. 
And he said, I'm sure I'll be 

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00:13:28,760 --> 00:13:31,440
ready someday. 
So here's my problem. 

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00:13:31,440 --> 00:13:33,960
And I don't have time to go into
the faith versus works argument 

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00:13:33,960 --> 00:13:37,120
of Christianity. 
James has a lot to say on that. 

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00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:40,600
Your works are not what saves 
you. 

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00:13:41,520 --> 00:13:43,840
And so while this is 
controversial to some people, 

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00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:46,120
and I understand the scriptures 
and I'm not going in that 

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00:13:46,120 --> 00:13:49,760
direction, I need you to 
understand that baptism does not

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00:13:49,760 --> 00:13:54,320
save you. 
But if you're a Christian, you 

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00:13:54,320 --> 00:13:57,000
have no excuse to not be 
baptized. 

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00:13:57,240 --> 00:13:59,000
Here's why I would say it's not 
what saves you. 

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00:13:59,760 --> 00:14:01,120
What if you have never known the
Lord? 

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00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:03,960
And tonight the Holy Spirit 
pierces your heart, convicts 

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00:14:03,960 --> 00:14:07,800
you, we pray for you, you cry, 
there's repentance, you give 

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00:14:07,800 --> 00:14:09,480
your life to the Lord. 
You walk out there and you're 

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00:14:09,480 --> 00:14:13,760
hit by a bus, then you wake up, 
you're in glory and the Lord 

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00:14:13,760 --> 00:14:18,440
says, sorry, those fingers don't
look pruny enough to me. 

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00:14:19,120 --> 00:14:22,200
I guess you weren't baptized. 
I'm sorry you're not going to 

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00:14:22,200 --> 00:14:24,320
make it. 
That is not the character of the

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00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:28,480
God we serve. 
Now, that being said, if you've 

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00:14:28,480 --> 00:14:32,400
not been baptized, I hope you'll
listen extra closely tonight 

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00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:37,640
because again, if you've not 
been baptized, there is no 

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00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:40,280
excuse for it. 
And we'll get to that too. 

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00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:45,680
If we assume baptism only has to
do with salvation, and some 

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00:14:45,680 --> 00:14:48,400
people do, we actually end up 
fooling ourselves? 

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00:14:48,880 --> 00:14:51,560
Salvation is part of the story, 
but it's the beginning. 

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00:14:51,560 --> 00:14:55,120
It's not the whole story. 
Baptism is not just about where 

283
00:14:55,120 --> 00:14:57,600
you're going to go when you die.
It's about what God is restoring

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00:14:57,600 --> 00:15:01,920
in you right now. 
That's why it talks about being 

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00:15:01,920 --> 00:15:05,400
a new creation. 
Not one day when I get to heaven

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00:15:05,400 --> 00:15:07,240
I'll be a new creation, although
you will. 

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00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:09,840
You get to be a new creation 
here on this earth. 

288
00:15:10,160 --> 00:15:12,520
You can have a new and right 
spirit within you. 

289
00:15:12,680 --> 00:15:15,680
You can have the old heart taken
out and a new one put in so that

290
00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:18,240
the old things that used to 
entangle you don't entangle you 

291
00:15:18,240 --> 00:15:20,320
the same way. 
It's possible. 

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00:15:20,840 --> 00:15:23,600
I want you to understand tonight
that baptism stands at the 

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00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:27,520
intersection of our memory of 
who we've been and restoration 

294
00:15:27,520 --> 00:15:31,880
into who we could be. 
Baptism acknowledges where 

295
00:15:31,880 --> 00:15:34,760
you've been and what's impacted 
you, and it recognizes what has 

296
00:15:34,760 --> 00:15:37,400
broken you, but it also declares
that God is not finished with 

297
00:15:37,400 --> 00:15:40,240
your story. 
So baptism is not a moment of 

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00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:42,520
forgiveness. 
And now the devil can never 

299
00:15:42,520 --> 00:15:43,880
accuse me of things I used to 
do. 

300
00:15:44,160 --> 00:15:47,320
Anybody here ever been baptized?
And then have you ever felt like

301
00:15:47,320 --> 00:15:49,720
you were accused and felt guilty
over something that you did 

302
00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:51,400
before baptism? 
You ever struggle with that 

303
00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:53,680
after being baptized? 
Devil's going to come for you 

304
00:15:53,680 --> 00:15:55,960
anyway. 
He can come for you, but that's 

305
00:15:55,960 --> 00:15:59,800
not why you do it. 
In Jewish purification, water 

306
00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:02,800
always marked restoration to 
community and worship again. 

307
00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:06,520
And so Ezekiel's promise here, 
he's saying that water there 

308
00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:08,520
pointed towards inner 
transformation. 

309
00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:12,720
And in baptism those streams 
finally converge into one. 

310
00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:15,400
I want you to understand this. 
You don't go into the water to 

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00:16:15,400 --> 00:16:17,000
save yourself. 
You go into the water to 

312
00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:20,120
publicly testify that God has 
already begun A restoring work 

313
00:16:20,120 --> 00:16:22,720
in you. 
You are confessing your 

314
00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:25,880
dependence on Him because the 
same God who forgives is also 

315
00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:29,760
the God who rebuilds your life. 
So I said we're going to talk 

316
00:16:29,760 --> 00:16:31,800
about two things tonight. 
The first thing is that baptism 

317
00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:35,600
truly is a response. 
When we talk about baptism, the 

318
00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:38,160
order matters more than some 
people realize. 

319
00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:41,920
If we get the order wrong, we 
don't just confuse a practice, 

320
00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:43,360
we confuse the heart of the 
gospel. 

321
00:16:43,600 --> 00:16:45,680
We're going to be in Acts 
chapter 8 in just a moment. 

322
00:16:46,400 --> 00:16:48,320
Baptism. 
Hear me on this. 

323
00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:51,080
Baptism was never meant to 
initiate faith. 

324
00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:54,480
There's not one story in the 
gospel where baptism is the 

325
00:16:54,480 --> 00:16:58,120
beginning of somebody's faith. 
It is always meant to respond to

326
00:16:58,120 --> 00:17:00,920
our faith. 
God always moves first. 

327
00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:04,079
You remember Paul says this. 
He says you can't take credit 

328
00:17:04,079 --> 00:17:05,800
for this salvation that God 
offers you. 

329
00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:07,240
There's nothing that you did to 
earn it. 

330
00:17:07,240 --> 00:17:12,200
And that includes taking a dip. 
So that being said, his grace 

331
00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:14,400
goes ahead. 
It wakes up our faith, and then 

332
00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:17,000
our obedience follows. 
And one of the clearest pictures

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00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:19,760
I know of is in Acts chapter 8. 
We'll start in verse 30 in just 

334
00:17:19,760 --> 00:17:23,119
a moment. 
Philip is led by the Spirit to a

335
00:17:23,119 --> 00:17:26,119
desert Rd. 
He is not led by the Spirit to a

336
00:17:26,119 --> 00:17:29,400
synagogue or a church gathering,
just a lonely stretch of Rd. 

337
00:17:29,720 --> 00:17:31,400
where a single man is searching 
for truth. 

338
00:17:31,720 --> 00:17:35,680
I guarantee you, Philip at first
is on this road, like did I hear

339
00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:38,800
you right, God? 
And here he is on this abandoned

340
00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:40,320
road. 
And then here comes this 

341
00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:44,800
Ethiopian official, a eunuch. 
This guy is not hostile to God. 

342
00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:47,600
This guy's not mocking scripture
or other beliefs. 

343
00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:50,400
He's actually reading the book 
of Isaiah out loud. 

344
00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:52,960
He's been to Jerusalem to 
worship and he's doing 

345
00:17:52,960 --> 00:17:55,080
everything he knows to do, but 
he knows something is missing. 

346
00:17:55,480 --> 00:17:58,960
So check this out. 
Philip doesn't begin with the 

347
00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:02,400
water, he begins with Jesus. 
Listen in verse 30, Philip ran 

348
00:18:02,400 --> 00:18:04,840
over and heard the man reading 
from the prophet Isaiah and 

349
00:18:04,840 --> 00:18:08,360
Philip asked, do you understand 
what you were reading? 

350
00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:10,400
Fair question. 
Have you ever been confused as 

351
00:18:10,400 --> 00:18:11,560
you've been going through the 
scriptures? 

352
00:18:12,440 --> 00:18:16,200
The man replied, How can I 
unless someone instructs me? 

353
00:18:17,440 --> 00:18:19,920
And he urged Philip to come up 
into the carriage and sit with 

354
00:18:19,920 --> 00:18:21,800
him. 
And the passage of Scripture 

355
00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:23,120
that he had been reading was 
this. 

356
00:18:23,800 --> 00:18:26,960
He was led like a sheep to the 
slaughter, and as a lamb is 

357
00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:29,760
silent before the shearers, he 
did not open his mouth. 

358
00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:33,280
He was humiliated and received 
no justice. 

359
00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:36,360
Who can speak of his 
descendants, for his life was 

360
00:18:36,360 --> 00:18:40,200
taken from this earth. 
And the eunuch asked Philip, 

361
00:18:40,360 --> 00:18:44,360
tell me, was the prophet talking
about himself or someone else? 

362
00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:48,520
Of course, the book of Isaiah is
written long before Jesus, so it

363
00:18:48,520 --> 00:18:50,960
is prophetic in nature. 
And so it says in verse 35, 

364
00:18:50,960 --> 00:18:53,200
beginning with this same 
Scripture, Philip told him the 

365
00:18:53,200 --> 00:18:56,320
good news about Jesus. 
And as they rode along, they 

366
00:18:56,320 --> 00:18:59,360
came to some water. 
And the eunuch said, look, 

367
00:18:59,520 --> 00:19:02,120
there's some water, why can't I 
be baptized? 

368
00:19:02,560 --> 00:19:05,080
And he ordered the carriage to 
stop, and they went down into 

369
00:19:05,080 --> 00:19:06,640
the water, and Philip baptized 
him. 

370
00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:12,560
What came first? 
Jesus, An understanding of 

371
00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:14,400
Jesus. 
So what stands out to me the 

372
00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:16,280
most in this story is the order 
of the events. 

373
00:19:16,480 --> 00:19:19,080
The man hears the gospel, he 
gains an understanding of who 

374
00:19:19,120 --> 00:19:21,360
Jesus is. 
His faith gets woken up just 

375
00:19:21,360 --> 00:19:25,200
like ours, and only then does 
water enter the conversation. 

376
00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:27,760
And if you notice, the Ethiopian
is the one who asks the 

377
00:19:27,760 --> 00:19:29,960
question, why can't I be 
baptized? 

378
00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:33,120
Baptism becomes the natural step
for the Jewish people. 

379
00:19:33,120 --> 00:19:34,920
They would have already had an 
understanding of the 

380
00:19:35,200 --> 00:19:37,600
purification that we opened up 
by talking about tonight. 

381
00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:40,280
But for him, he's hearing about 
all this stuff for the first 

382
00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:43,040
time. 
Well, I'm an Ethiopian, and can 

383
00:19:43,040 --> 00:19:44,920
I get baptized? 
He was so excited. 

384
00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:47,000
If there's a piece of God that I
can have, I want it. 

385
00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:48,840
I don't want to miss out on a 
single piece of him. 

386
00:19:48,840 --> 00:19:50,960
And he doesn't let his past hold
him back. 

387
00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:54,840
Baptism follows faith, but you 
need to know that baptism cannot

388
00:19:54,840 --> 00:19:57,720
create your faith. 
So this is also where it helps 

389
00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:00,120
to talk honestly about baptism 
because a lot of people have 

390
00:20:00,120 --> 00:20:02,640
some very sincere and genuine 
questions about baptism. 

391
00:20:02,960 --> 00:20:05,680
I remember as a youth pastor, 
one time I was at Chick-fil-A, 

392
00:20:05,680 --> 00:20:07,480
and it was one of those days. 
The youth group was being well 

393
00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:10,640
behaved. 
Wasn't every day, but that day 

394
00:20:10,640 --> 00:20:13,600
they were being really great. 
This little lady came over and 

395
00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:14,920
she's like, is this a youth 
group? 

396
00:20:14,920 --> 00:20:16,880
And I said, it sure is. 
And she goes, they're so well 

397
00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:18,720
behaved. 
And I said, I know they're great

398
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:21,200
kids, aren't they? 
And she said, you baptize them 

399
00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:22,880
too, right? 
I said, yes, ma'am, you know, I 

400
00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:24,480
do. 
This little woman gave me a fist

401
00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:26,800
bump. 
I said, yeah. 

402
00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:29,960
And then as she's walking, she 
stopped. 

403
00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:31,720
And she went full immersion, 
right? 

404
00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:35,840
I said, yes, ma'am, that is 
always the goal. 

405
00:20:36,680 --> 00:20:39,200
I say that is always the goal, 
and we'll get there. 

406
00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:45,920
But this is the thing. 
The order of events is that you 

407
00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:49,200
hear about Jesus and then you're
baptized. 

408
00:20:49,680 --> 00:20:53,200
Could you imagine if we had a 
bunch of teenagers in there for 

409
00:20:53,200 --> 00:20:55,440
the first time? 
I said, I'm so glad you guys are

410
00:20:55,440 --> 00:20:56,120
here. 
Welcome. 

411
00:20:56,120 --> 00:20:57,880
If it's your first time, this is
the water. 

412
00:20:58,640 --> 00:21:01,840
I'm going to hold you under 
briefly and then you're going to

413
00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:03,880
come out and we'll explain what 
it did in a minute. 

414
00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:09,040
It's not the water that does it.
Now this pattern shows up over 

415
00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:13,320
and over and over again in 
Scripture, and these questions 

416
00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:15,120
pop up sometimes. 
I told you all, the first time I

417
00:21:15,120 --> 00:21:17,360
was baptized was as a baby. 
I was in a romper. 

418
00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:19,800
Don't remember it. 
And so some people carry 

419
00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:21,600
confusion or guilt or different 
things about it. 

420
00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:25,120
Some Christian traditions do 
baptize infants because they 

421
00:21:25,120 --> 00:21:27,440
believe that baptism brings a 
child into the covenant 

422
00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:30,680
community, similar to how 
circumcision functioned in the 

423
00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:33,120
Old Testament. 
You would circumcise a male 

424
00:21:33,120 --> 00:21:35,520
child. 
Others point to passages in the 

425
00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:38,000
book of Acts where entire 
households are said to have been

426
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:40,560
saved or baptized. 
But they reason that if a 

427
00:21:40,560 --> 00:21:42,760
household was baptized, that 
must have meant the children or 

428
00:21:42,760 --> 00:21:45,240
the infants, too. 
These scriptures matter. 

429
00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:47,680
And occasionally we'll have 
somebody call and say, will you 

430
00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:51,680
please baptize my baby? 
And we say no, But we do more 

431
00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:52,880
than that. 
It's not just like no. 

432
00:21:53,080 --> 00:21:56,680
And then you hang up, we say we 
won't, but we would love to 

433
00:21:56,760 --> 00:21:59,480
dedicate your child to the Lord.
As a matter of fact, what I love

434
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:01,360
is this Sunday is a baptism 
Sunday. 

435
00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:04,200
We've got some people signed up 
for baptism, but we also have a 

436
00:22:04,200 --> 00:22:06,400
baby dedication. 
So we'll start with the baby 

437
00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:09,520
dedication, but we will finish 
with some baptisms. 

438
00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:12,640
So in Colossians Chapter 2, 
scriptures matter. 

439
00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:15,520
They all deserve to be read and,
and, and applied. 

440
00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:18,800
Colossians 2 is one of the key 
ones that people will look at 

441
00:22:18,800 --> 00:22:23,680
when they believe for child 
baptism and then equating it to 

442
00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:25,920
circumcision. 
And this is what it says just 

443
00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:28,600
two verses. 
Colossians 2 verses 11 and 12. 

444
00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:32,200
Paul writes this. 
He says when you came to Christ 

445
00:22:32,200 --> 00:22:36,520
you were quote circumcised, but 
not by a physical procedure. 

446
00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:40,400
Christ performed a spiritual 
circumcision, the cutting away 

447
00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:43,560
of your sinful nature. 
Verse 12 says for you were 

448
00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:47,920
buried with Christ when you were
baptized and with him you were 

449
00:22:47,920 --> 00:22:51,040
raised to new life because you 
trusted the mighty power of God 

450
00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:56,080
who raised Christ from the dead.
For me, I see the correlation, 

451
00:22:56,320 --> 00:22:59,240
but I can't follow the 
connection fully to the end for 

452
00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:02,680
two reasons. 
One is practical 1 is right 

453
00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:05,720
there in the words. 
The practical 1 is circumcision 

454
00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:15,240
was something that happened to 
whom Jews what kind male so to 

455
00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:18,160
correlate it fully and say it 
replaces circumcision and now it

456
00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:20,960
takes that spot. 
Well, little girls weren't 

457
00:23:20,960 --> 00:23:23,720
circumcised in Jewish tradition,
so it cannot have a full 

458
00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:25,840
correlation there. 
But the other thing is the 

459
00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:29,280
second-half of verse 12 where it
says and with him you were 

460
00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:34,320
raised to new life because you 
trusted the mighty power of God 

461
00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:37,960
who raised Christ from the dead.
Maybe your babies were smarter 

462
00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:40,160
than my babies, and I think I 
got pretty smart babies, but 

463
00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:45,200
they're not known to generally 
be intelligent enough to truly 

464
00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:46,800
trust. 
But there's another key 

465
00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:49,640
difference too, and this is 
important for me. 

466
00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:52,400
Scripture never says that 
infants were baptized. 

467
00:23:53,560 --> 00:23:55,360
What it does say is that 
households believed. 

468
00:23:55,360 --> 00:23:57,520
And so, to take it one step 
further, in several of these 

469
00:23:57,520 --> 00:24:00,520
accounts, the text actually 
emphasizes belief, instruction, 

470
00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:02,600
and rejoicing amongst those that
were baptized. 

471
00:24:03,120 --> 00:24:06,040
When scripture says a household 
believed, it doesn't 

472
00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:07,880
automatically mean babies were 
baptized. 

473
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:11,560
We can't just assume that it 
means everyone who was capable 

474
00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:14,440
of hearing or understanding or 
responding to the gospel did so.

475
00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:17,120
In the ancient world, a 
household didn't just mean your 

476
00:24:17,120 --> 00:24:19,440
family members. 
It meant household servants, 

477
00:24:19,440 --> 00:24:23,760
extended family and dependence. 
It was not a nuclear family with

478
00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:25,800
small children in the way that 
our homes look today. 

479
00:24:26,560 --> 00:24:29,400
And so that matters because 
baptism by its very nature, is 

480
00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:31,880
very personal. 
And for some of us, we're just 

481
00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:33,560
like, here's what I've got to 
do. 

482
00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:35,920
Let's be honest. 
I mean, how many of us get 

483
00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:38,160
excited when our kids decide to 
be baptized? 

484
00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:41,240
I mean, we get so excited. 
Do we invite extra family, extra

485
00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:42,680
friends? 
Sometimes you're like, shoot, 

486
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:44,840
they never go to church, but 
they'll go this day because my 

487
00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:47,520
kids getting baptized. 
I mean, we get excited for it. 

488
00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:49,840
It becomes a family event. 
But you have to understand that 

489
00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:52,040
before it's a family event for 
you, it's a family event for the

490
00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:55,960
Kingdom of God. 
I had the privilege of baptizing

491
00:24:55,960 --> 00:24:59,640
my own daughter, Emmalin. 
But when Timothy was ready to be

492
00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:02,160
baptized, Pastor Autumn was 
overseeing kids ministry at the 

493
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:04,200
time and she baptized him. 
It's OK. 

494
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:06,960
I don't get merit badges for it.
I don't have tally marks 

495
00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:08,640
somewhere for how many baptisms 
I get. 

496
00:25:09,120 --> 00:25:11,800
But it was such a privilege. 
And yes, there are extra people 

497
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:15,720
that want to be there to see it.
So it matters because this is so

498
00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:19,360
personal, but it's a response 
everywhere in Scripture. 

499
00:25:19,360 --> 00:25:22,000
It makes it a response. 
And when my children were 

500
00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:25,840
infants, they couldn't respond. 
And so if faith is someone 

501
00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:29,120
saying, I believe Jesus is Lord 
and faith is the precursor to 

502
00:25:29,120 --> 00:25:32,720
your baptism, a baby's not able 
to do that When there's a young 

503
00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:35,400
child who wants to be baptized. 
We have a chat with the parents 

504
00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:37,400
and we say, do they fully 
understand if you ask them these

505
00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:38,760
questions? 
We want to make sure. 

506
00:25:39,480 --> 00:25:41,520
It's not like I'm afraid 
something bad will happen if we 

507
00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:43,720
put them under the water and 
they're not fully aware of 

508
00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:45,680
Jesus. 
But what I am afraid of is that 

509
00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:47,960
they'll assume that it did 
something that it didn't because

510
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:50,080
they don't yet have a full 
understanding of him. 

511
00:25:51,120 --> 00:25:52,720
I always like to say this. 
It's beautiful. 

512
00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:56,360
When you say yes to Jesus, it's 
like saying yes to the marriage.

513
00:25:56,440 --> 00:25:57,800
You're going to be the bride of 
Christ. 

514
00:25:57,960 --> 00:25:59,200
You're going to be united with 
him. 

515
00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:01,680
That baptism, that public 
confession in front of people, 

516
00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:04,080
that's the wedding reception. 
And that is where we get to 

517
00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:06,040
celebrate together as a family 
of God. 

518
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:12,720
So when you put it in that way, 
a baby can't make that decision 

519
00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:14,760
yet. 
We can't celebrate the decision 

520
00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:16,760
that a baby has made. 
And so that doesn't mean that 

521
00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:19,320
children don't matter to God. 
It just means that parents 

522
00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:23,240
shouldn't commit something on 
their behalf that they can't 

523
00:26:23,240 --> 00:26:26,120
agree to. 
But what we can do as parents is

524
00:26:26,120 --> 00:26:30,960
make our own commitments. 
Baptism is not meant to be done 

525
00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:32,920
for someone. 
It is meant to be done by 

526
00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:36,200
someone. 
What we can do when we dedicate 

527
00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:39,040
a baby, and you'll see it this 
Sunday, it is a beautiful 

528
00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:41,360
biblical practice. 
It says we are placing this 

529
00:26:41,360 --> 00:26:44,360
child before the Lord. 
And by the way, y'all remember 

530
00:26:44,360 --> 00:26:45,680
we do the whole Care Bear stare 
thing. 

531
00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:47,720
We ask you to lift your hands 
towards them, right? 

532
00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:51,920
It is not just the parents 
committing to raise them in the 

533
00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:54,720
ways of God. 
We're asking the Spirit to guide

534
00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:56,240
and protect and shape their 
life. 

535
00:26:56,240 --> 00:26:58,720
And dedication is made not just 
by the parents, but by the faith

536
00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:01,000
community too. 
That we are committed to also 

537
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:04,080
protecting the children of our 
family and that we want them to 

538
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:05,760
grow up knowing how good the 
Lord is. 

539
00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:09,000
Baptism is different. 
Baptism is a promise made by the

540
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:11,200
individual. 
And so that's why this Sunday, 

541
00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:14,480
before we celebrate baptisms, we
will go through stuff with 

542
00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:16,920
people that have a chance to say
something if they want to or not

543
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:18,200
say something extra if they want
to. 

544
00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:21,160
But we will ask them if Jesus is
their Lord and Savior while 

545
00:27:21,160 --> 00:27:23,040
they're in the water. 
If they say no, it's never 

546
00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:25,440
happened. 
Be a little weird. 

547
00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:30,720
They can exit the water. 
But baptism is powerful 

548
00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:33,160
precisely because it is chosen. 
And I just want to drive that 

549
00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:36,200
home. 
I don't remember when my mom 

550
00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:39,680
signed me up for soccer when we 
still lived in upstate New York.

551
00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:42,040
I was a kid and I played indoor 
soccer and we got here and I 

552
00:27:42,040 --> 00:27:43,440
played soccer. 
I just played soccer. 

553
00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:45,600
I don't remember the first time.
I was so young. 

554
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:48,360
I must have been five. 
I didn't make that decision for 

555
00:27:48,360 --> 00:27:51,920
me. 
When I got old enough, I looked 

556
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:55,200
at my mom and I said I don't 
want to play soccer anymore and 

557
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:58,200
I still don't. 
And because I didn't want to 

558
00:27:58,200 --> 00:27:59,440
play soccer anymore, I didn't 
have to. 

559
00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:01,840
That was something she committed
me to, but it wasn't something 

560
00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:04,400
that I had grasped and really 
expressed an interest in. 

561
00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:08,240
Why does that matter? 
First of all, I want you to know

562
00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:11,240
it matters. 
Because while it may feel good 

563
00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:16,160
to to have a child baptized, I'm
afraid sometimes they grow up 

564
00:28:16,160 --> 00:28:18,840
feeling like they've already 
achieved something that they 

565
00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:21,800
don't have yet. 
And I'll tell you why it's such 

566
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:24,240
a sad story. 
I remember one of my very first 

567
00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:26,120
best friends when I moved to 
North Carolina. 

568
00:28:26,880 --> 00:28:29,840
I won't say his name, but we 
were best friends for many years

569
00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:31,760
and then we just kind of fell 
out of contact in high school. 

570
00:28:31,760 --> 00:28:33,880
You know, it happens sometimes. 
You get different friend groups,

571
00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:37,000
different goals, all of that. 
And he moved to Greenville and I

572
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:38,760
was still around the Swansboro 
area. 

573
00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:42,920
And sadly, then I got a call 
from his sister that he had 

574
00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:45,800
taken his life. 
And this is not a sermon on 

575
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:48,160
suicide or anything like that, 
but he had taken his life. 

576
00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:50,280
And I went, I went to his 
funeral. 

577
00:28:50,280 --> 00:28:52,800
I wanted to, I wanted to support
the family. 

578
00:28:54,440 --> 00:28:57,360
And the only thing they said 
about eternity, the only thing 

579
00:28:57,360 --> 00:29:00,320
they said about eternity at the 
service, the minister said, how 

580
00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:04,400
grateful are we to know that at 
the age of eight that he was 

581
00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:08,440
baptized and therefore we know 
his eternal Spirit is secure. 

582
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:12,600
And I'm just telling you, even 
at the place I was with the Lord

583
00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:17,360
then I thought, it's it's not 
the water, it's not the water, 

584
00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:21,080
but he's trying to provide 
comfort. 

585
00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:24,240
And I understand this. 
So what does it mean as a parent

586
00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:25,880
if we don't baptize them as a 
baby? 

587
00:29:25,880 --> 00:29:27,840
What do we do? 
We have a responsibility to 

588
00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:32,120
teach them. 
Deuteronomy 6 verses 6 and seven

589
00:29:32,120 --> 00:29:34,240
say this. 
You must commit yourselves 

590
00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:36,960
wholeheartedly to these commands
that I'm giving you today. 

591
00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:39,280
Repeat them again and again to 
your children. 

592
00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:41,720
Talk about them when you're at 
home, when you're on the road, 

593
00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:44,040
when you're going to bed, and 
when you're getting up. 

594
00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:47,960
One of the things that is a 
tragedy, if you have ever been a

595
00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:51,360
kids worker or a youth minister,
is sometimes you encounter kids 

596
00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:54,920
and you see them enough that you
realize the only time they hear 

597
00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:56,200
about Jesus is when they're 
here. 

598
00:29:57,520 --> 00:29:59,880
That's a tragedy. 
Should not be. 

599
00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:02,720
And I'm not saying every kid in 
a ministry is like that, but it 

600
00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:05,880
happens. 
Is it any surprise though, 

601
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:07,880
because there's plenty of 
adults, the only time that they 

602
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:09,440
talk about Jesus is when they're
here. 

603
00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:13,280
Our job is to raise our 
children. 

604
00:30:13,760 --> 00:30:16,120
Knowing the Lord. 
We talk about Him in our home. 

605
00:30:16,160 --> 00:30:19,120
We talk about Him in the car. 
We would talk about Him with a 

606
00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:20,560
fox. 
We would talk about Him in a 

607
00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:24,080
box. 
We will talk about the Lord 

608
00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:24,920
everywhere. 
Why? 

609
00:30:24,920 --> 00:30:26,440
Because He's central to our 
life. 

610
00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:28,480
It's not just what we believe 
about where we go. 

611
00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:30,800
It's what we believe about what 
we do here. 

612
00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:34,320
That is our job. 
We raise them so that they will 

613
00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:36,640
make that decision. 
The second thing I would say it 

614
00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:39,480
matters for every one of us 
personally is because a lot of 

615
00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:41,520
us were baptized because that's 
what Christians do. 

616
00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:43,680
We grew up in church and 
everyone else was doing it. 

617
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:46,240
What do you do when you're in 
the youth group and three out of

618
00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:48,760
the five people in a friend 
group have been baptized and 

619
00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:50,920
you're like, well, I guess it's 
my turn to get celebrated? 

620
00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:55,240
Everyone else was doing it. 
Yes, peer pressure happens in a 

621
00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:59,440
Christian youth group too. 
For some, the expectations were 

622
00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:01,480
there, but their heart wasn't 
fully awake. 

623
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:08,040
In Mark 834 it says this. 
Calling the crowd to join his 

624
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:11,200
disciples, Jesus said if any of 
you wants to be my follower, you

625
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:13,680
must give up your own way. 
Take up your cross and follow 

626
00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:17,440
me. 
You must take up your cross and 

627
00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:20,440
follow me. 
How can you take up your cross 

628
00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:22,640
and follow him if it's already 
been decided for you? 

629
00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:25,440
It feels like it's been decided 
for you, but it can't have been 

630
00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:28,240
decided for you. 
God gives us so much more free 

631
00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:29,920
will than we would like to give 
our children. 

632
00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:33,520
So here's the question that 
baptism forces us to ask. 

633
00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:36,720
I hope every one of us will ask 
ourselves this. 

634
00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:39,800
When I was baptized, was my 
heart responding to Jesus or was

635
00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:44,120
I responding to expectations? 
Was it a faith move or was it 

636
00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:46,360
something that was familiar? 
Was it my turn? 

637
00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:49,520
Was it devotion or was it just 
direction from other people? 

638
00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:52,640
I would just tell you that if 
that answer feels unclear, that 

639
00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:55,480
is not a condemnation thing. 
That is just the Holy Spirit may

640
00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:58,000
be giving you an invitation to 
have a deeper talk with Him 

641
00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:00,400
because baptism is not about 
getting it perfect. 

642
00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:02,880
It's it's just about responding 
to what he's done in you. 

643
00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:04,760
The other thing I want you to 
know, and I hope this is 

644
00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:07,120
something that you look at 
baptism differently too, is that

645
00:32:07,120 --> 00:32:11,560
baptism really is a testimony. 
If baptism is a response, then 

646
00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:13,680
you need to know it is also the 
testimony that you're going to 

647
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:15,760
say in a moment we'll be in Acts
chapter 19. 

648
00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:21,440
But it's the way the faith has 
taken root in your heart and 

649
00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:24,400
finds its voice. 
A lot of people, you can find 

650
00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:25,560
this in a ton of studies. 
I don't. 

651
00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:28,080
I was going to list studies for 
you, but there were actually so 

652
00:32:28,080 --> 00:32:29,200
many. 
I thought, oh, that's an easy 

653
00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:32,680
Google search. 
A lot of people are more scared 

654
00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:35,160
of public speaking than they are
of death. 

655
00:32:38,080 --> 00:32:43,920
Death, OK, don't be ashamed. 
Is there anybody here more 

656
00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:45,120
scared of public speaking than 
death? 

657
00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:47,840
OK, I'm not saying you'd rather 
die than publicly speak right 

658
00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:49,120
now. 
It's just one of them creates 

659
00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:51,880
more fear in you. 
I've thought on this before 

660
00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:53,840
because I mean, I, I speak 
publicly. 

661
00:32:53,840 --> 00:32:56,200
So for me, I'm like, no, death 
wins that one. 

662
00:32:56,440 --> 00:33:00,760
But here's why nobody thinks 
they can cheat death. 

663
00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:04,280
We might want to. 
Nobody gets out of it. 

664
00:33:04,440 --> 00:33:06,080
It's appointed that every man 
dies once. 

665
00:33:06,120 --> 00:33:09,240
That's scripture. 
But you might be able to get out

666
00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:12,920
of public speaking, right? 
Some things you can avoid and 

667
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:16,760
some things you can't. 
Public speaking is a a fear for 

668
00:33:16,760 --> 00:33:18,320
a lot of people. 
A lot of times people are like, 

669
00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:20,080
well, I'm just, I'm afraid to 
share my faith. 

670
00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:23,880
We weren't afraid to share your 
favorite movie recommendation. 

671
00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:26,160
You weren't afraid to share what
you thought about that shoddy 

672
00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:28,480
service at the restaurant that 
you visited last weekend. 

673
00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:31,160
You were full of opinions until 
it comes to Jesus. 

674
00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:33,720
And it's because we're not 
stable and solid on what we 

675
00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:39,760
believe. 
So that being said, I think that

676
00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:42,200
the other thing is when it comes
to publicly sharing our faith, 

677
00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:44,000
it becomes like, well, you can't
make me do that. 

678
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:46,160
My faith is private. 
I worship God in my own way. 

679
00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:48,520
Those aren't scriptural, but 
there are things that we say 

680
00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:53,960
baptism, everywhere you see it 
in Scripture is public. 

681
00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:58,560
Everywhere you see it is public.
Now, that being said, there are 

682
00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:01,520
cases for it to be a little bit 
more private, but it's not out 

683
00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:04,000
of like shame or fear. 
We'll get to that. 

684
00:34:04,520 --> 00:34:06,880
Jewish purification always 
happened in the community. 

685
00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:09,719
John baptized believers in the 
Jordan River with crowds 

686
00:34:09,719 --> 00:34:12,679
watching and responding, some of
them mocking what's happening, 

687
00:34:12,840 --> 00:34:15,639
some of them just interested in 
it, and some of them longing to 

688
00:34:15,639 --> 00:34:18,760
get in the water themselves. 
They just weren't normally in 

689
00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:20,360
homes. 
They didn't have running water 

690
00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:22,560
in that way in their homes. 
That wouldn't have made sense. 

691
00:34:23,080 --> 00:34:26,719
Jesus himself was baptized 
openly with witnesses present 

692
00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:29,920
not just from earth, but heaven 
itself responding. 

693
00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:32,920
And so from the very beginning, 
baptism was never designed to be

694
00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:35,199
a private spiritual moment that 
was tucked away from others. 

695
00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:37,920
It was meant to mark your 
identity in the community. 

696
00:34:38,360 --> 00:34:41,920
Hey, guys, you want to know how 
serious I take this Jesus thing?

697
00:34:42,440 --> 00:34:46,800
Watch this. 
It was a public declaration. 

698
00:34:48,480 --> 00:34:51,719
Marines, what would have 
happened if they were like, 

699
00:34:51,719 --> 00:34:53,120
stand on those yellow 
footprints? 

700
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:59,280
You're like, I'd rather stand 
over here in the shade, he said.

701
00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:02,680
You die. 
Not a great start, right? 

702
00:35:03,720 --> 00:35:06,160
It's a public thing. 
The standing in those yellow 

703
00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:07,920
footprints. 
I've never met somebody's like, 

704
00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:11,040
man, I love my military career, 
but I hate, I'm embarrassed that

705
00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:14,160
I sit on those footprints. 
No, normally I'll, I'll see that

706
00:35:14,160 --> 00:35:16,520
as the starting point. 
Man, I can't believe it was 23 

707
00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:20,360
years ago that I stood on. 
Right, because it's something 

708
00:35:20,360 --> 00:35:23,160
that matters to you. 
Baptism matters. 

709
00:35:23,800 --> 00:35:26,880
It's a part of your testimony. 
This is where a lot of genuine 

710
00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:29,000
questions surface also about the
idea. 

711
00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:32,200
Sometimes a year, llama, you 
might say, well, I was 15 or I 

712
00:35:32,200 --> 00:35:35,040
was 21 and I got baptized, you 
know, and I don't think I knew a

713
00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:37,760
lot about it, but man, I'm 45 
now. 

714
00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:39,680
What am I going to get baptized 
in front of people? 

715
00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:40,960
They're going to think I'm a 
baby Christian. 

716
00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:43,200
It's called pride sermon for 
another day. 

717
00:35:44,680 --> 00:35:46,800
Why do some people get baptized 
more than once? 

718
00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:51,360
Well it doesn't make grace 
cheaper because you get baptized

719
00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:54,200
a second time. 
In case you're curious, grace 

720
00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:56,960
never goes on clearance and your
salvation doesn't expire. 

721
00:35:56,960 --> 00:35:59,120
It's not like you have to re up 
your commitment. 

722
00:36:00,280 --> 00:36:02,680
What scripture does show is that
sometimes there's a greater 

723
00:36:02,680 --> 00:36:06,440
revelation that comes your way. 
Greater revelation always 

724
00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:09,880
requires a greater response. 
There's a difference between 

725
00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:13,120
repeating an action hoping it'll
change you, and responding to 

726
00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:17,120
new understanding. 
Sometimes people will say, God, 

727
00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:19,400
if you do this, then I promise 
I'll do this. 

728
00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:22,120
Always dangerous. 
By the way, when the Lord tells 

729
00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:24,920
you to do something, do it. 
When you tell the Lord, If you 

730
00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:28,040
do this, then I'll do this. 
Be careful because it might be 

731
00:36:28,040 --> 00:36:29,480
the Lord and it might be 
coincidence. 

732
00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:32,920
It might be the devil. 
He just heard you, so you never 

733
00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:34,240
know. 
Be careful when you hang 

734
00:36:34,240 --> 00:36:37,520
yourself out there like that. 
But when God enlightens you in a

735
00:36:37,520 --> 00:36:44,040
different way and you redeclare 
something, there's power in it. 

736
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:49,200
Acts 19 first verse While 
Apollos was in Corinth, Paul 

737
00:36:49,200 --> 00:36:52,760
travelled through the interior 
regions until he reached Ephesus

738
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:55,440
on the coast, where he found 
several believers. 

739
00:36:56,280 --> 00:36:58,440
Verse 2. 
Did you receive the Holy Spirit 

740
00:36:58,440 --> 00:36:59,880
when you believed? 
He asked them. 

741
00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:02,520
These Christians are very 
honest. 

742
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:05,640
No, they replied, we haven't 
even heard that there is a Holy 

743
00:37:05,640 --> 00:37:08,920
Spirit, which is wild because 
God's Spirit is mentioned all 

744
00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:12,480
throughout the Old Testament. 
But verse 3 Paul says, then what

745
00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:15,880
baptism did you experience? 
And they said the baptism of 

746
00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:19,000
John. 
Paul said John's baptism called 

747
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:22,360
for repentance from sin, but 
John himself told the people to 

748
00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:25,120
believe in the one who would 
come later, meaning Jesus. 

749
00:37:25,960 --> 00:37:28,080
As soon as they heard this, they
were baptized in the name of the

750
00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:31,120
Lord Jesus. 
And then when Paul laid his 

751
00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:33,840
hands on them, the Holy Spirit 
came on them and they spoke in 

752
00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:36,760
other tongues and prophesied. 
There were about 12 men in all. 

753
00:37:37,640 --> 00:37:40,880
That's pretty significant. 
What makes this moment so 

754
00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:43,040
important is these believers 
were also sincere. 

755
00:37:43,040 --> 00:37:46,360
They were not pretending. 
They had responded faithfully to

756
00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:47,880
what they understood at the 
time. 

757
00:37:47,880 --> 00:37:49,840
Think about all the people that 
were there getting baptized by 

758
00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:51,960
John. 
Before Jesus walked into the 

759
00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:55,080
water, John marked him as 
somebody who was so great that 

760
00:37:55,200 --> 00:37:58,240
he was not fit to tie his 
sandals and be his slave. 

761
00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:01,600
But there's no indication that 
after Jesus was baptized that he

762
00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:03,920
started putting them under the 
water in the name of Jesus 

763
00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:07,240
either. 
But it was that ceremonial, that

764
00:38:07,240 --> 00:38:10,160
moment of saying I'm under the 
water, dead man down, new man 

765
00:38:10,160 --> 00:38:12,880
up, that really made the big 
difference. 

766
00:38:13,400 --> 00:38:15,120
These people had a greater 
revelation. 

767
00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:17,920
Now again, a sermon for another 
day. 

768
00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:21,920
This baptism of the Holy Spirit 
is a baptism of fire and power. 

769
00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:24,640
And we fully believe in that 
here at Liberty Church. 

770
00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:28,120
And we believe that the baptism,
the Holy Spirit, sometimes 

771
00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:30,320
people, they'll ask for it 
because they really want to get 

772
00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:33,440
that tongues gift, right? 
You don't need to have that 

773
00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:35,960
baptism to have tongues. 
You just need to earnestly seek 

774
00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:38,320
and desire the spiritual gifts 
that the Lord gives you. 

775
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:42,440
I don't have enough time to 
unpack it, but my point is today

776
00:38:42,440 --> 00:38:46,560
here in the realm of baptism, 
they got greater revelation. 

777
00:38:46,720 --> 00:38:49,360
And what did they do? 
They got baptized. 

778
00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:53,320
That's the way that I look at my
baptism in 2010. 

779
00:38:54,320 --> 00:38:57,240
I had a deeper understanding at 
first, at 18, I thought I 

780
00:38:57,240 --> 00:39:00,960
understood what baptism was. 
By the time that I got all the 

781
00:39:00,960 --> 00:39:04,080
way, what, nine years later to 
2010, and I was committing my 

782
00:39:04,080 --> 00:39:06,360
ways to the Lord and I was 
saying I'm going to do things 

783
00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:08,440
your way and I'm not going to 
make my own excuses. 

784
00:39:08,440 --> 00:39:11,280
This is going to be for you. 
I now had been beaten up by the 

785
00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:14,320
world, and coincidentally, I 
don't know if you noticed this, 

786
00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:17,240
when the world beats you up, you
meet God in a new way. 

787
00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:21,920
Since I understood Him 
differently, I just was so in 

788
00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:24,520
love with what He was doing. 
I just wanted Him to see my 

789
00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:26,960
commitment. 
I wanted to make it public and I

790
00:39:26,960 --> 00:39:30,240
wanted the people of this church
to hold me accountable to it. 

791
00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:37,440
I had a deeper revelation to me.
Those people were baptized 

792
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:39,720
again, and it didn't undo their 
last baptism. 

793
00:39:39,800 --> 00:39:42,040
It just aligned themselves with 
the truth that they could 

794
00:39:42,040 --> 00:39:44,720
clearly see. 
Now, their second baptism was 

795
00:39:44,720 --> 00:39:47,400
not a rejection of their first 
one or their earlier faith. 

796
00:39:47,400 --> 00:39:49,480
It was just an expression of now
I know. 

797
00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:53,720
And so baptism doesn't always 
testify to perfection. 

798
00:39:53,720 --> 00:39:55,840
It just testifies to the 
direction you're going. 

799
00:39:56,480 --> 00:39:58,520
It doesn't declare that the 
struggle's over, but that your 

800
00:39:58,520 --> 00:40:01,320
allegiance has been settled in a
new and deeper way. 

801
00:40:01,640 --> 00:40:03,800
For some people, baptism 
happened before they fully 

802
00:40:03,800 --> 00:40:07,320
understood the grace of God. 
For other people, it happened 

803
00:40:07,320 --> 00:40:09,560
before their surrender was 
complete, but they were hoping 

804
00:40:09,560 --> 00:40:10,960
it was going to do something for
them. 

805
00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:13,640
Some people get baptized hoping 
it'll break them of an 

806
00:40:13,640 --> 00:40:16,560
addiction, and I have seen it 
happen, but it's rare. 

807
00:40:18,760 --> 00:40:21,840
For some people, their baptism 
happened during a genuine season

808
00:40:21,840 --> 00:40:26,040
of faith, but eventually life 
pulled them off course and God 

809
00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:29,040
later brought some restoration 
that then required a new marker 

810
00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:31,080
for them. 
And I want you to understand 

811
00:40:31,080 --> 00:40:34,680
this, This is not a new concept.
This is also something that 

812
00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:37,000
mirrors the original Jewish 
understanding of water. 

813
00:40:37,640 --> 00:40:39,880
When they were washing and all 
of the scenarios we talked 

814
00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:42,640
about, it didn't mean they had 
never been cleaned before and 

815
00:40:42,640 --> 00:40:43,920
meant they were being cleaned 
again. 

816
00:40:44,120 --> 00:40:48,280
They were being restored again. 
You never got ritually purified 

817
00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:51,400
once for life, right? 
The water didn't change who they

818
00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:52,760
were. 
It just marked where they stood 

819
00:40:52,760 --> 00:40:54,640
now. 
Now you are clean in the sight 

820
00:40:54,640 --> 00:40:57,320
of the Lord. 
So I just want to say this 

821
00:40:57,320 --> 00:40:58,440
again, the water doesn't save 
you. 

822
00:40:58,440 --> 00:41:00,960
Faith in Jesus does. 
Grace from God does. 

823
00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:05,600
Baptism can't replace the cross,
but it does point to it. 

824
00:41:06,200 --> 00:41:09,600
I came across the story of a man
named Randy Bridges. 

825
00:41:10,120 --> 00:41:12,160
Man, I hope he's real because 
it's such a cool story. 

826
00:41:14,240 --> 00:41:17,840
He serves at an elder at a large
church, actually, someone that 

827
00:41:17,840 --> 00:41:20,720
others look to for leadership 
and spiritual maturity. 

828
00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:23,120
And Randy was baptized when he 
was young. 

829
00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:25,720
He believed in God. 
He knew the language of faith. 

830
00:41:25,720 --> 00:41:29,920
He was fluent in what is it 
Churchianity or Christianese? 

831
00:41:29,920 --> 00:41:31,840
That's what it is. 
He was fluent in Christianese. 

832
00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:36,200
And so because of that, he did 
what Christians did. 

833
00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:39,400
But as he got older, he realized
that something was off, and it 

834
00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:40,720
took a lot of courage to admit 
it. 

835
00:41:40,720 --> 00:41:43,360
He basically realized that while
he had gone through the water, 

836
00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:46,080
his life had never really 
reflected a life that walked 

837
00:41:46,080 --> 00:41:48,040
with Jesus. 
Faith was something that was 

838
00:41:48,040 --> 00:41:49,400
familiar. 
It just didn't drive his life. 

839
00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:53,000
And so years later, when he was 
in his 20s, Randy experienced 

840
00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:55,800
what he describes as a genuine 
return to the Lord. 

841
00:41:56,800 --> 00:41:59,920
And this time it wasn't just his
belief because other people had 

842
00:41:59,920 --> 00:42:01,600
told him so. 
It was his own repentance and 

843
00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:04,320
his own surrender. 
And it was his own true desire 

844
00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:06,400
to to follow Jesus with his 
whole life. 

845
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:08,360
God bless you. 
Are you done? 

846
00:42:10,160 --> 00:42:11,600
That's my wife. 
I'm just messing with her. 

847
00:42:12,440 --> 00:42:14,040
I do want God to bless you. 
I love you. 

848
00:42:16,400 --> 00:42:20,200
I think she said she loved me. 
Randy realized that his 

849
00:42:20,200 --> 00:42:22,600
priorities changed. 
And so his obedience got deeper,

850
00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:24,360
but he still didn't go back to 
the water. 

851
00:42:25,760 --> 00:42:27,440
So time passed. 
Randy grew in his faith. 

852
00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:29,840
He began serving at his church. 
He began serving in all the 

853
00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:31,640
areas they needed. 
Eventually, he was asked to step

854
00:42:31,640 --> 00:42:33,920
in the church leadership. 
And then during a season where 

855
00:42:33,920 --> 00:42:36,080
the pastors challenged the 
leadership team to examine their

856
00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:38,520
hearts before God, something was
stirring in him. 

857
00:42:38,560 --> 00:42:40,600
And as he was praying, the 
question of baptism kept 

858
00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:43,240
resurfacing. 
So he spoke with his wife, and 

859
00:42:43,240 --> 00:42:44,800
he sought counsel from the 
pastors. 

860
00:42:45,120 --> 00:42:47,360
And after prayer, he came to 
this conclusion. 

861
00:42:47,760 --> 00:42:49,520
His salvation was not in 
question. 

862
00:42:50,360 --> 00:42:52,600
God had clearly done a work in 
his heart years earlier. 

863
00:42:52,600 --> 00:42:56,160
He was a new man already, but he
said this. 

864
00:42:56,160 --> 00:42:59,200
He said my baptism no longer 
matched my testimony. 

865
00:43:00,640 --> 00:43:02,840
And so the water had come before
his surrender. 

866
00:43:03,200 --> 00:43:06,720
And since he had surrendered, he
wanted to return to the water. 

867
00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:11,120
He chose to be baptized again 
because he wanted the surrender 

868
00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:13,120
to be what happened before the 
baptism. 

869
00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:16,600
And when he stepped in that 
water for the second time, it 

870
00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:20,080
was not a cheaper moment. 
It marked a better direction and

871
00:43:20,080 --> 00:43:22,880
actually set an example for a 
lot of younger believers because

872
00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:25,000
here's this guy who has lived 
some years now. 

873
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:27,640
He was a leader and he was 
modeling it. 

874
00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:32,480
It was a powerful testimony is 
what I'm getting at, Not just to

875
00:43:32,480 --> 00:43:34,920
his church, but it was a 
testimony to his own heart. 

876
00:43:34,920 --> 00:43:39,720
And while I'm talking about 
that, the last kind of era I'd 

877
00:43:39,720 --> 00:43:43,000
like to just explore is this 
history has a way of exposing 

878
00:43:43,000 --> 00:43:45,200
our hearts. 
Have you ever been so sure that 

879
00:43:45,200 --> 00:43:46,360
your heart was pure and you were
right? 

880
00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:48,840
And then five years goes by and 
you look back and you're like, I

881
00:43:50,560 --> 00:43:51,880
don't know if my motives are 
pure there. 

882
00:43:52,600 --> 00:43:55,400
Well, there was an era in church
history in Europe where 

883
00:43:55,720 --> 00:43:58,920
especially while Christianity 
was expanding and it was tied to

884
00:43:58,920 --> 00:44:01,720
kings and kingdoms, and a lot of
them were looking to 

885
00:44:01,720 --> 00:44:03,880
Christianize whole regions by 
force. 

886
00:44:03,880 --> 00:44:07,080
And maybe some of you know this,
but in the late 7 hundreds and 

887
00:44:07,080 --> 00:44:09,960
early 8 hundreds, one of the 
clearest ways that they did this

888
00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:13,160
is they would have a conquest 
that punished people for 

889
00:44:13,160 --> 00:44:16,800
refusing baptism. 
So they would go to these pagans

890
00:44:16,800 --> 00:44:19,200
and people that didn't know the 
Lord, They had their own belief 

891
00:44:19,200 --> 00:44:22,240
systems and they would say get 
baptized or get killed. 

892
00:44:24,720 --> 00:44:28,600
So what do you think they did? 
Baptize me? 

893
00:44:29,040 --> 00:44:31,760
I'll go for a dip. 
And they're like, I mean, this 

894
00:44:31,760 --> 00:44:34,200
is like the ancient way of 
churches inflating numbers. 

895
00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:39,760
Praise God, 400 saved yesterday.
We killed 600 of them, but 400 

896
00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:42,760
of them got in the water. 
It's not a genuine heart change 

897
00:44:42,760 --> 00:44:44,880
when you've got a knife to their
throat and you're saying get in 

898
00:44:44,880 --> 00:44:47,200
the water, but this is what they
were doing. 

899
00:44:48,120 --> 00:44:50,520
And here's the thing, You can 
compel a body into the water, 

900
00:44:50,520 --> 00:44:52,920
but you can never compel 
somebody's heart into worship. 

901
00:44:54,200 --> 00:44:56,840
That is a personal decision. 
And so that's exactly why for 

902
00:44:56,840 --> 00:45:00,000
us, baptism is not about 
pressure or church tradition or 

903
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:03,320
this is what Christians do. 
A forced baptism in medieval 

904
00:45:03,320 --> 00:45:06,160
Europe had no spiritual weight 
because it wasn't a real 

905
00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:09,480
response of faith. 
And so for me, just to tie it 

906
00:45:09,480 --> 00:45:14,440
together today, This is why we 
try to be very careful when it 

907
00:45:14,440 --> 00:45:16,160
comes to young people being 
baptized. 

908
00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:19,840
I don't know how many would be 
familiar with this word, but the

909
00:45:19,840 --> 00:45:22,680
Didique is one of the earliest 
Christian documents that we have

910
00:45:22,680 --> 00:45:25,600
outside of the New Testament. 
And this is what it basically 

911
00:45:25,600 --> 00:45:29,240
says about baptism. 
It says baptism should be done 

912
00:45:29,240 --> 00:45:33,000
in running water when possible, 
but it gives a concession if 

913
00:45:33,000 --> 00:45:36,040
water is limited. 
It says if you don't have enough

914
00:45:36,040 --> 00:45:38,440
water, you can pour water three 
times over the head in the name 

915
00:45:38,440 --> 00:45:40,240
of the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Spirit. 

916
00:45:41,040 --> 00:45:43,440
And that detail really does 
matter because it shows us two 

917
00:45:43,440 --> 00:45:45,400
things at once. 
First of all, the early church 

918
00:45:45,760 --> 00:45:48,280
had an ideal picture of what 
they wanted baptism to look 

919
00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:50,960
like. 
But number 2, they also had 

920
00:45:50,960 --> 00:45:53,720
pastoral flexibility when 
circumstances made the ideal 

921
00:45:53,720 --> 00:45:56,760
difficult. 
One of the things that I love 

922
00:45:56,760 --> 00:46:00,160
that my pastor did, we had a 
baptism service here one 

923
00:46:00,160 --> 00:46:03,480
Wednesday night many years ago, 
but there was an elderly man in 

924
00:46:03,480 --> 00:46:06,040
a wheelchair and he wanted to be
baptized. 

925
00:46:06,680 --> 00:46:09,480
And I'm looking around and I see
some people who've gone through 

926
00:46:09,480 --> 00:46:11,640
baptism here. 
It's a little bit of a narrow 

927
00:46:11,640 --> 00:46:14,240
hall and some narrow steps that 
go down in there. 

928
00:46:16,160 --> 00:46:17,800
But again, steps. 
And this man was in a 

929
00:46:17,800 --> 00:46:19,520
wheelchair. 
He wanted to be baptized. 

930
00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:23,040
And after we had baptized the 
rest of the people, we went out 

931
00:46:23,040 --> 00:46:26,840
in the front and we had a bucket
of water and we poured water 

932
00:46:26,840 --> 00:46:30,480
over this man. 
I'm telling you, it is one of 

933
00:46:30,480 --> 00:46:34,160
the most holy moments I've ever 
seen because this guy put his 

934
00:46:34,160 --> 00:46:37,520
fists up like he was Rocky 
Balboa sitting in this 

935
00:46:37,520 --> 00:46:40,360
wheelchair. 
He's yelling up, praise God, I 

936
00:46:40,360 --> 00:46:44,240
am brand new. 
It was so beautiful. 

937
00:46:45,720 --> 00:46:48,320
It's what inspired me a couple 
years ago when I had the 

938
00:46:48,320 --> 00:46:50,400
privilege to go to upstate New 
York and visit with my 

939
00:46:50,400 --> 00:46:52,600
grandmother before she moved to 
Texas. 

940
00:46:53,720 --> 00:46:56,600
And she said, you know, I think 
I need to be baptized. 

941
00:46:56,760 --> 00:46:58,200
She said I was baptized as a 
baby. 

942
00:46:58,200 --> 00:47:01,880
I don't remember it. 
And she was in her 80s, 

943
00:47:01,880 --> 00:47:05,680
approaching 90. 
I think she was 90 and she was 

944
00:47:05,680 --> 00:47:10,720
saying I want to be baptized and
she sat on a shower seat in her 

945
00:47:10,720 --> 00:47:13,920
tub while I sat there with a 
couple family members around me 

946
00:47:13,920 --> 00:47:17,440
and poured water on her while 
she renewed her commitment to 

947
00:47:17,440 --> 00:47:20,200
the Lord. 
It is one of the most holy and 

948
00:47:20,200 --> 00:47:23,880
special and beautiful moments I 
will ever experience in my 

949
00:47:23,880 --> 00:47:28,120
entire life. 
The goal is not to do baptism 

950
00:47:28,120 --> 00:47:31,040
the way you want it, but the 
goal is to make sure that the 

951
00:47:31,040 --> 00:47:35,000
heart is committed to Him and 
that the heart wants to change 

952
00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:41,000
and the heart wants to respond. 
At the same time, our goal is 

953
00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:44,200
full submersion. 
One person I baptized in the 

954
00:47:44,200 --> 00:47:47,120
Jordan River got very scared as 
they were going underwater and 

955
00:47:47,120 --> 00:47:50,800
they did this maneuver and this 
part of their face did not go 

956
00:47:50,800 --> 00:47:56,000
under and I didn't stop and go. 
That one didn't take hold your 

957
00:47:56,000 --> 00:48:01,360
breath. 
The heart was there and it was a

958
00:48:01,360 --> 00:48:04,440
holy moment too. 
Our goal is full submersion, and

959
00:48:05,320 --> 00:48:06,720
we're not trying to be dramatic 
with it. 

960
00:48:06,760 --> 00:48:09,280
It's just the clearest picture 
of what baptism is saying, 

961
00:48:09,360 --> 00:48:12,680
Death, burial, resurrection. 
Jesus was above the ground. 

962
00:48:13,960 --> 00:48:17,720
He died, He went into the ground
and he came up brand new and 

963
00:48:17,720 --> 00:48:19,680
resurrected. 
So that's our goal. 

964
00:48:20,080 --> 00:48:23,040
But at the same time, we're not 
going to turn baptism into a 

965
00:48:23,040 --> 00:48:26,040
performance where everybody's 
checking whether your nose got 

966
00:48:26,040 --> 00:48:27,200
wet. 
We don't have a Deacon on the 

967
00:48:27,200 --> 00:48:30,000
door when you come out from the 
baptismal and they're like, let 

968
00:48:30,000 --> 00:48:33,360
me just make sure if you go 
under and your face doesn't 

969
00:48:33,360 --> 00:48:35,840
fully submerge, it's fine. 
If you have mobility issues, 

970
00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:38,280
it's fine. 
If you need assistance, that's 

971
00:48:38,280 --> 00:48:41,000
fine. 
The Lord is after your heart and

972
00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:44,480
the public declaration and we at
Liberty Church will gladly 

973
00:48:44,480 --> 00:48:47,320
accommodate whatever you need so
your testimony can be clear and 

974
00:48:47,320 --> 00:48:48,240
joyful. 
Amen. 

975
00:48:49,880 --> 00:48:51,840
Here are three things just that 
I want you to know as we head 

976
00:48:51,840 --> 00:48:56,280
into this baptism Sunday #1 if 
you have never been baptized as 

977
00:48:56,280 --> 00:48:59,360
a response of your own faith, I 
would just encourage you to sign

978
00:48:59,360 --> 00:49:00,960
up and take the step this 
weekend. 

979
00:49:02,840 --> 00:49:05,680
I would encourage you let your 
faith become visible, not to 

980
00:49:05,680 --> 00:49:08,960
impress anybody, but to obey 
Jesus and to fulfill all 

981
00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:15,160
righteousness and carry out all 
that God requires #2 If you were

982
00:49:15,160 --> 00:49:17,840
baptized before you truly 
understood the gospel, or before

983
00:49:17,840 --> 00:49:21,400
you truly surrendered, or before
you are at where you are today, 

984
00:49:21,800 --> 00:49:23,920
you can just pray honestly. 
Whether God is calling you to 

985
00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:26,520
align your testimony with your 
present faith, that's between 

986
00:49:26,520 --> 00:49:29,520
you and the Lord. 
Acts 19 shows that when greater 

987
00:49:29,520 --> 00:49:32,120
revelation comes, sometimes 
there's a different response. 

988
00:49:32,600 --> 00:49:36,480
But this is for everybody. 
If you're already baptized and 

989
00:49:36,480 --> 00:49:39,400
you're confident in your 
baptism, I hope you will show up

990
00:49:39,400 --> 00:49:44,400
this Sunday ready to celebrate, 
ready to encourage, and ready to

991
00:49:44,400 --> 00:49:47,600
cover these people who are 
making this commitment in 

992
00:49:47,600 --> 00:49:50,000
prayer. 
Baptism is not just a moment for

993
00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:51,400
the person who's going in the 
water. 

994
00:49:51,400 --> 00:49:54,520
It's a moment for the church to 
say, we see you and we're with 

995
00:49:54,520 --> 00:49:56,120
you and we will help you walk 
this out. 

996
00:49:56,960 --> 00:50:00,080
So this weekend when we dedicate
a baby and we baptize people 

997
00:50:00,080 --> 00:50:02,840
back there, those two moments 
together could honestly preach 

998
00:50:02,840 --> 00:50:06,160
the whole message. 
It won't because I do have a 

999
00:50:06,160 --> 00:50:09,600
sermon, but but they could. 
And I hope that y'all will be 

1000
00:50:09,600 --> 00:50:12,320
here to celebrate with them. 
And just as we close, I'm just 

1001
00:50:12,320 --> 00:50:15,520
going to share a very brief 
baptism story from the Scripture

1002
00:50:15,520 --> 00:50:17,320
in Acts 22. 
You don't need to turn there. 

1003
00:50:17,960 --> 00:50:20,680
This is a story that reminds us 
how restorative baptism is and 

1004
00:50:20,680 --> 00:50:22,200
how decisive it's supposed to 
be. 

1005
00:50:22,440 --> 00:50:23,840
It's the story of a man named 
Paul. 

1006
00:50:26,000 --> 00:50:28,400
Before he was Paul, he was Saul,
and most people know this, but 

1007
00:50:28,600 --> 00:50:30,920
he was a persecutor. 
He was convinced he was right 

1008
00:50:30,920 --> 00:50:32,720
while he was actively opposing 
Jesus. 

1009
00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:35,480
And on the road to Damascus, 
everything changes. 

1010
00:50:36,040 --> 00:50:38,640
Jesus confronts him. 
Saul's blinded, he fasts, he 

1011
00:50:38,640 --> 00:50:42,560
prays, he gets restored. 
But listen to this Acts 22 and 

1012
00:50:42,560 --> 00:50:44,720
verse 12. 
It says a man named Ananias 

1013
00:50:44,720 --> 00:50:47,840
lived there. 
He was a godly man, deeply 

1014
00:50:47,840 --> 00:50:50,600
devoted to the law as and well 
regarded by all the Jews of 

1015
00:50:50,600 --> 00:50:53,320
Damascus. 
He came and he stood beside me, 

1016
00:50:53,320 --> 00:50:55,400
and he said, Brother Saul, 
regain your sight. 

1017
00:50:56,080 --> 00:50:57,440
At that very moment I could see 
him. 

1018
00:50:57,520 --> 00:51:01,920
These are in the words of Paul. 
And then he told him, The God of

1019
00:51:01,920 --> 00:51:05,560
our ancestors has chosen you to 
know his will and to see the 

1020
00:51:05,560 --> 00:51:09,240
righteous. 1 and hear him speak.
For you are to be his witness, 

1021
00:51:09,600 --> 00:51:11,360
telling everyone what you've 
seen and heard. 

1022
00:51:12,440 --> 00:51:15,960
What are you waiting for? 
Get up and be baptized. 

1023
00:51:16,320 --> 00:51:19,400
Have your sins washed away by 
calling on the name of the Lord.

1024
00:51:20,040 --> 00:51:23,080
Isn't it interesting that we 
don't have the story of Paul's 

1025
00:51:23,080 --> 00:51:25,760
baptism? 
But do you think he got 

1026
00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:28,880
baptized? 
You think this man who was a 

1027
00:51:28,880 --> 00:51:32,200
Pharisee of Pharisees, his words
not mine, You think he had not 

1028
00:51:32,200 --> 00:51:35,600
ever been ritually cleansed 
before, but he had a greater 

1029
00:51:35,600 --> 00:51:38,120
revelation. 
And Ananias said, what are you 

1030
00:51:38,120 --> 00:51:40,360
waiting for? 
Well, I just got my sight back. 

1031
00:51:41,520 --> 00:51:46,400
Get up and be baptized. 
That line doesn't mean the water

1032
00:51:46,400 --> 00:51:48,360
saves Paul. 
Paul himself would later make it

1033
00:51:48,360 --> 00:51:51,000
crystal clear that salvation 
comes by grace through faith. 

1034
00:51:52,160 --> 00:51:55,320
But Paul wasn't getting saved 
again, he was stepping fully 

1035
00:51:55,320 --> 00:51:59,080
into who he had to become. 
And that's what baptism does. 

1036
00:51:59,440 --> 00:52:02,240
Baptism won't ever deny or 
cancel out your past, but it 

1037
00:52:02,240 --> 00:52:05,440
will help redeem it. 
And for some of us, baptism is 

1038
00:52:05,440 --> 00:52:07,840
just marking the moment when we 
step in a new life for the first

1039
00:52:07,840 --> 00:52:10,760
time. 
So the question is simple, If 

1040
00:52:10,760 --> 00:52:12,520
you've never been baptized 
before, what are you waiting 

1041
00:52:12,520 --> 00:52:14,360
for? 
If you need to be baptized and 

1042
00:52:14,360 --> 00:52:16,200
you want to chat with one of us 
after, we'll make sure you get 

1043
00:52:16,200 --> 00:52:17,720
on the list. 
You just come and talk to us 

1044
00:52:17,720 --> 00:52:21,240
after the service. 
And if it's not for you, just 

1045
00:52:21,240 --> 00:52:23,120
know it is for the people in 
your church family. 

1046
00:52:23,240 --> 00:52:25,680
And I pray that I'll see you 
ready for a big celebration on 

1047
00:52:25,680 --> 00:52:26,360
Sunday. 
Amen.