The Power of Baptism

Oh, crossing family, I love you and I cannot thank you enough

for being part of our Super Bowl weekend.

And if you know someone who missed it, I want to encourage

you. You can watch all three

services. We posted all three services

online. You can go to wherever these

places are. We got something for you back

here. Tells you all the places we do

right there. If you go to YouTube, go to one

crossing. We got all three of them.

We got Patrick the horse on Thursday.

We had Samson the horse first service on Sunday and then I

think it was buggy bug or something for was the third

horse. We just called her the Palomino.

She was too pretty for me to mess up her name.

I've heard story after story about how people were impacted

this past weekend through Riding High Ministries and I am so

proud of you guys because I got reports that you actually

listened to what we were saying. I heard check this out that you

guys came early. Keep it up.

That's a great habit. I heard that lots of you parked

far away. Keep it up.

I heard a bunch of you invited people keep it up.

You never know what God can do with a small step of faith.

And if we're really arguing to make this region the hardest

place on planet earth to get the hell from, those are ways that

we can consistently love the people in our region.

Showing up early, parking far away, and inviting to those of

you who support this church financially, we could not have

done this weekend without you. And it is.

I'm just very, very thankful to those of you who support our

church because for our partnership with Riding High

Ministry did exactly what we thought it was going to do,

created one of the most memorable weekends in the

history of our church. I want to say a special thank

you to the 950 Club, to those of you who prayed at 9:50 in the

morning or 9:50 at night, or you prayed both for 9500 people to

show up at our church this weekend, I want you to know God

answers prayers because that's exactly what happened.

Actually, that's not true. That's not true.

We did not have 9500 people show up.

We had 11,150 three, that is butts in seats all across this

region. And so if you're part of the 950

club, I just want to tell you don't stop praying every single

week and you can join me. I have a three o'clock club and

we just do 3:00 in the afternoon.

We don't do 3:00 in the morning because then we would never

experience a R.E.M. Cycle in our sleep.

But if you want to join me in praying at 3:00 PM every

afternoon for our Weaver location to minister to 300

people 4 weekends in a row, I would love to have you join us.

I got tons of messages about last weekend, as you can

imagine, but my favorite was a mother texted me about her

daughter's prayer as she was going to bed after the Thursday

service. Here is her prayer.

This is what she had to say. She goes love last night.

So I was praying with my daughter before bed last night.

She's 8, and she prays. Thank you, Jesus, for a fun

night and that we could learn and thank you that the horse

decided to become a Christian. Isn't that I love it?

I mean, yeah. Only at the crossing do even the

horses get saved. OK.

I also want you to know we just opened up crossing camp

registration this past weekend. And for the last four years, we

have set all time attendance records for the amount of kids

that are going to our camp and using our camp every single

year. And I want to encourage you guys

to go ahead and sign your kids up for camp.

One of the ways we're able to keep our costs down, there's

very little price influx this year.

I think in most of our campuses is 0 price increase.

And one of the ways we're able to keep our prices down is when

we're able to prepare in advance for the kids that are coming.

And so we would love to have you sign up early, make those dates

holy unto the Lord and plan your vacation around camp.

And to those of you who are like Jennifer and I and you not only

want to send your kids to camp, but you want to make sure that

every kid who wants to go to camp can go to camp.

You can join us in giving to camp scholarships.

This year Jennifer and I made a commitment that we are going to

pay for one kid to go to every single week of camp.

And we have 8 camps. And I did the math and that to

send one kid to each of our camps to all 8 camps is $1695.

Which means I've I've got some saving to do.

I've done my first check, but I'm going to have to make

payments on my anyhow. I would just love, and there's a

bunch of people all across this region who call the crossing

home. But I would love for 50 couples

to join Jennifer and I and do the exact same thing.

And if we all do that, if fifty of us say, yeah, we're going to

make a way for one kid to go to each of our camps, it will

actually make it possible for 400 kids to go to camp.

And I would love that to happen. I know some of you, you're

golfers, you love to golf and you like to make fun of me when

I golf. And I've God bless you.

And if you want to leverage your love for golf, making fun of me

and helping kids go to camp, we're going to have we're going

to release our golf outings here in a couple of weeks.

And we do that when you sign up to go to one of our golf outings

and have fun with people. It is coming alongside all of

our camp scholarship efforts. So be on the lookout for that

now. I am so glad that you are here

today because today we are going to be answering one of the top

ten questions that I get about our church.

But before I do that, I want to welcome those of you joining at

all of our different locations, those of you joining online and

those of you who are part of the crossing inside.

And to those of you who are a part of the crossing inside in

Pike County, I am headed your way to spend a week, a Wednesday

evening with you in March and I can't wait to see you.

And I need to say this, I know some of you are going to get out

before I get there. Don't stick around for me to

come visit you. I'd rather you be out.

OK? But for those of you who are

going to be in there till past March, I cannot wait to get to

meet you and hear your story. With today we are launching a

brand new sermon series called Some Assembly Required.

This sermon series is Part what we believe as a Church, why we

do what we do as a church, and How to Build Meaningful

Encounters with God. Part what we believe as a

church, why we do what we do as a church, and how to cultivate

meaningful encounters with God. And these messages are going to

feel a little bit educational. So I'm not going to preach as

much as I'm going to teach. So if you're going, man,

Clayton's a boring preacher. Imagine how boring I am when I

put on my professor hat. So if you if you're if someone

next to you is falling asleep, I'm giving you permission to hit

them as hard as you possibly can in love.

OK, now I'm going to do as best job as I can.

The reason why I'm making these more educational is because I

want you to understand why we do as a church.

And if you're the kind of person who you learn best when you take

notes, this whole sermon series for the next six weeks will be

very great sermons for you to take notes for you to remember.

Today we're going to talk about baptism.

Now we make a big deal about baptism at our church.

We show them every single week during one of the songs during

our worship set. We cheer when they happen at the

service. I can only speak for 40 8th St.

We cheer the loudest when we see the number from the crossing

inside because like I said, those of you who are part of the

crossing inside, we see you as family.

We invite every single week people at our church to get

baptized. I pray six days a week for all

the people that have been baptized at our church and all

the people that will be baptized at our church.

In fact, I have a counter in my office that keeps track of all

the baptisms that happen in the calendar year.

Now here's why I have that counter in office.

It is a constant reminder to me that God is still moving and God

is still changing lives. It's a reminder for me that when

I'm working on a sermon to keep an eye on the left side of the

spiritual spectrum. If you guys remember the

spiritual spectrum, those who don't know Jesus yet, It's also

a reminder to me that every single week at the crossing,

there is an opportunity for one more person to say yes to Jesus.

And my hope is that at the end of this message, you will have a

better understanding of why baptism is so important to us

here at the crossing. But I got to give you some

cautionary notes. One, there is no way for me to

cover absolutely everything there is to cover about a topic

this big. But I'm going to try to address

some of the biggest questions that people who attend this

church have asked, people who have visited our church have

asked, or people who have really strong opinions about our church

have asked. So if you share this message,

please share it in love. I'm also going to be gone all

next week, so if you e-mail me, it will be redirected to your

campus pastor so that way you can get a prompt reply.

So let's take this apart bit by bit.

Here at the Crossing, we practice immersion.

We baptize people all the way under the water.

So you might be asking why do we put people all the way under the

water instead of sprinkling? Let me answer that.

The reason we do it is because the Greek word for baptism is

baptizo. It means to immerse or to dip.

If I were to say let's all hop in the car and go get some ice

cream and then we walked outside and I got on my bicycle, you

guys would go. I think we have a different

understanding of the word car. Does that make sense?

So when the Bible talks about baptism, it is using a word that

means to dip or to immerse. Now this will help you read the

Bible in a whole new way because what you're going to see is is

that when the Bible talks about immersion, the way it actually

uses it in context in the scriptures makes this abundantly

clear. It re emphasizes the message.

You ready to go to school? Here we go.

Here are some descriptions of baptism in the New Testament.

OK, now what I did is if I'm going to walk you through

actually all of these scriptures and we're going to kind of fill

in the XS, but I didn't want the house to fill in the XS as we

go. It's just already marked out.

So Acts chapter 10, verse 47. Then Peter said, surely no one

Acts 10:47

can stand in the way of their being baptized with water.

So he's talking about baptism and then he uses the word water.

Now let's go back to the chart. So could does sprinkling require

water? It sure does.

Does if you were poured on? Or does pouring require water?

Sure does. Does immersion require water,

putting somebody all the way under the water?

Of course it does. OK, so at least from Acts

Acts 10:47

chapter 10, verse 47, we know that water is important for

baptism. But let's keep reading.

Let's see what the other verses say.

This is John chapter 3, verse 23.

John 3:23

Now John was also baptizing at Anon near Salim because there

was plenty of water and people were coming and being baptized.

So John 323 actually says we need plenty of water for a

baptism to take place. Do you need plenty of water for

a sprinkling? The answer to that question is

no. Do you need plenty of water for

pouring? Maybe that's why I put a little

question mark. But does immersion, putting

somebody all the way under to dip or to immerse, require there

to be plenty of water? The answer to that question is

yes. Matthew 313.

This is Jesus's baptism. Then Jesus came from Galilee to

the Jordan to be baptized by John.

Why? Or now the Jordan is a river.

It'd be like saying the Mississippi.

Why does Jesus travel multiple miles to go to this river?

I think it was 35 or 70 miles. Jesus travels to go to this area

to be baptized in the river. If a jar of water would work, a

cup of water would work. A, you know, a flask of water.

For those of you who are, you know, risky crossing people, a

flask of water, right? Unless there was a need for

there to be a body of water large enough for a person to be

fully immersed or to be, as the Bible calls it, baptized.

Let's keep reading. Mark chapter one, verse 9.

At that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was

baptized by John in the Jordan. Same thing again.

Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven

being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

Can you come up out of the amount of water that you would

need to be sprinkled in? Can you come up out of the water

that you would need to be poured on?

Or does it only make sense that the word baptized means immerse

because you were coming up out of enough water that you had

have been all the way under? So I would say you don't Oh, go

back one slide. I apologize.

That was my fault. So in Matthew 313, sprinkling

doesn't make sense. Pouring doesn't make sense and

neither does or but immersion does.

Now let's look at Acts chapter 8 verse 36 through 39.

Acts 8:36–39

As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the

eunuch said, look, here is water.

What can stand in the way of my being baptized?

Let's keep going. And he gave orders to stop the

chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch

went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.

When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord

suddenly took Philip away. So we've got the Ethiopian

eunuch, he's travelling in an entourage.

He's and Philip comes and interacts with them.

They're in this entourage. There have been plenty of water.

There have been water in cups, there have been water in jars,

There have been water in big in big bags for them to be able to

take care of the entire entourage.

If there was enough water in the entourage for the sprinkling and

there was enough water in the entourage for the pouring, why

does he see a body of water and go look, there's enough water

for me to be baptized. The only thing that makes sense

is if baptism means what the word baptism means, which is to

immerse. Look what it says in Matthew

Matthew 3:16

chapter 3 verse 16. As soon as Jesus was baptized,

he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened

and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and a

lighting on him. Well, how much water do you have

to have for someone to come up out of the water?

You need a lot, which would make sense because when you baptize

somebody it is an immersion. You are going under the water

and coming back up. Look what it says in Romans

Romans 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6. We were therefore buried with

him through baptism unto death, in order that just as Christ was

raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may

live a new life. Paul says that when you are

baptized, you are preaching a gospel message.

Watch this just as Jesus died on the cross, was laid in the tomb,

and three days later was raised to new life.

When we are baptized, we all go down into the water.

The old is gone, and then through the new birth we are

brought back to life, a new creation in Christ Jesus.

Our baptism into Christ demonstrates what saves us,

Jesus's death on the cross and the resurrection.

And because Jesus died for us, we died to ourselves.

And because Jesus was raised, we too have the hope of a

resurrection one day. This is reiterated in Colossians

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2, Having been buried with him in baptism, in which

you were also raised with him through your faith in the

working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Does any of this being buried and raised, does any of that

imagery preach the same gospel message?

If we're talking about sprinkling or we're talking

about pouring, the answer is no. The word baptism means to

immerse and every time they talk about baptism they talk about a

body of water big enough to get your whole body in.

And when they talk about how it preaches a gospel message, they

reference the going down and the coming up.

Next question, Why or is baptism important?

The answer to that question is yes.

And I'm going to give you 4 reasons why I say that.

There's more, but I'm going to just give you 4 #1 Jesus

demonstrated it. If you want to be a Jesus

person, doing what Jesus does is probably at the top of your

list. And when Jesus was baptized and

he said that, that's a pretty good like, you know what, I'm

going to do this stuff that Jesus does.

Having your little, what would Jesus do?

Guess what Jesus would do? Jesus got baptized.

You know what you should do? You should get baptized #2 Jesus

commanded his followers to baptize others as a part of the

discipleship process. Look what it says in Matthew

Matthew 28:19

chapter 28 verse 19. You guys, you guys have heard me

talk about this over and over and over again.

This is what it says. Jesus Kingdom and said all

authority on heaven and earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples. How do you make a disciple a

follower of Jesus Christ? He tells you baptizing them in

the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and teaching

them to obey everything I have commanded you.

Can you make a disciple of Jesus without a person being baptized?

No, if we are Jesus people, we should be in the baptizing

business. Number three reason why baptism

is important. The very first gospel message

ever preached ordered people to do it in Acts chapter 2, verse

Acts 2:38

38, which you're going to see that verse about four more times

over the course of this sermon. But here's the deal.

Peter gets done preaching the sermon.

And when the people get done hearing the sermon, they go,

Peter, what should we do? And Peter's answer was repent.

And this is going to catch a lot of you off guard.

Be baptized. That's what you should do after

you hear the gospel #4 every spiritual transformation after

the resurrection of Jesus included it.

Post resurrection, every time somebody said I'm ready to be a

Jesus follower, the Bible describes that they were

baptized, which is getting a bunch of you to start going.

Is he gone where I think he's going?

So let me go ahead and ask. Ask the question that I know

that some of you already got going on in your head.

Does baptism save you? The answer to this question no

doubt could serve as the preeminent answer to the

previous question, Is baptism important?

Because if baptism saves you, that makes baptism like the most

important thing. The problem is, is that to

answer that question it requires a semantic answers and any time

you try to answer questions semantically, you can answer

them semantically correct and end up with an errant theology

and an errant practice. So just take a deep breath and

just stay with me for like the next 10 minutes.

The Bible clearly states that you and I are saved by the

person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus saves.

Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 through 9 says this.

Ephesians 2:8–9

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith.

Excuse me? And this is not from yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast.

Salvation happens because it is a gift from God.

We receive it because it is God's grace to give it to us.

We lay hold of it through faith. If we saved ourselves, we would

boast in what we had done, but because we did not save

ourselves, we boast in what Jesus has done on our behalf.

If the Bible clearly teaches that we are saved by Jesus, the

better question we should ask is not whether or not baptism saves

you, but this how do we take hold of this salvation?

Pay attention here. The Bible clearly teaches that

when it comes to salvation, we do have a part to play.

Let me unpack this for you. The Bible says that in order for

us to be saved, the first thing we have to do is we have to hear

the gospel message. Look what it says in Romans

Romans 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10. Everyone who calls on the name

of the Lord will be saved. How then can they call on the

1:00 they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the

one in whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without

someone preaching to them? In order to come to faith in

Christ, you have to hear about Christ.

So there's a part that we have to play.

We have to hear the gospel message.

That's not enough. Does hearing save you?

Oh no it doesn't. We have to do something else.

We have to believe. Look what it says in John

John 8:24

chapter 8 verse 24. I told you that you would die in

your sins if you do not believe that I am He.

This is Jesus talking. You will die in your sins unless

you believe that I am the Christ, the Son of the living

God. You will indeed die in your

sins. If we don't believe.

If we die in our sins, that is the opposite of salvation.

Salvation is being saved in spite of our sins.

If you do not believe, you die as a result of your sins.

So as Christians, we have a part to play.

We have to hear the gospel message and we have to believe

the gospel message. Hebrews Chapter 11 verse 6 says

Hebrews 11:6

this. And without faith it is

impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him

salvation must believe that He exists and that He rewards those

who earnestly seek Him. How does He reward us with

salvation? Christians, we have a role to

play. We have to hear, we have to

believe, but that's not it. The Bible also says we are to

repent. We are to turn from living our

own way and start following in the ways of God.

Look what it says in Acts chapter 2, verse 38.

Acts 2:38

Peter replied, repent and be baptized, everyone of you in the

name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and

you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Could somebody be saved if they're saying, listen, I'm

going to do my own thing for the rest of my life and I'm never

going to follow Jesus? That would not be, that didn't

seem right. Repentance is going, I'm no

longer living for me, I'm living for him.

In our salvation, we have a part to play.

We have to hear the gospel, we have to believe the gospel, and

we have to repent of our ways to bring our lives in alignment

with the gospel. It goes on.

The Bible says we're also supposed to confess.

And when it says confess, it's not about confessing our sins to

one another. It is about going on record

being public in our faith. Look what it says in Romans

Romans 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10 verse nine through 10.

If you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in

your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be.

You guys say the word that's interesting.

For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified is

with your mouth that you profess your faith and are.

OK. Hold on a second here.

You've heard me say this before. There is no such thing as an

Incognito undercover Christian. If nobody at your work knows

that you're a Christian, it might be because you might not

be. The Bible says that if you're

ashamed of God, God will be ashamed of you.

If you deny God, he'll deny you. We have to go on record.

We have to confess, so we have to hear the gospel.

We have to believe the gospel. We have to repent of our ways.

We have to go public with our faith.

And guess what? One of the things that we do,

part of our part to play, we're supposed to be baptized.

Mark 1616. This is just the Bible.

That's all I'm doing, just teaching the Bible.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be.

Interesting that you guys said that.

But whoever does not believe will be condemned.

You might be gone, but it doesn't say whoever does not

believe and isn't baptized will be condemned.

Well if you don't believe in God, you probably wouldn't do

the things of God. So why would you be baptized,

which is a command of God, if you don't believe that God

exists in the 1st place? But it does say that those who

believe and are baptized will be saved.

So Christians have a responsibility.

Acts chapter 238. Remember I told you to see this

a bunch of times, Peter, reply to repent and be baptized,

everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness

of your sins, and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Christians have a responsibility.

We have a part to play. We have to hear the gospel.

We have to believe the gospel. We have to repent of our ways

and follow the gospel, and we need to be baptized.

I got another one for you. We're supposed to remain

faithful. You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa,

whoa, what? I'm just saying Colossians

chapter one verse 22 through 23. But now he has reconciled you by

Christ's physical body through death to present you wholly in

his sight without blemish free and accusation.

This is all the stuff that Jesus does on our part, which is why

we love him. We're a big fan of Jesus around

here. If you continue in your faith

established and firm and do not move from the hope held out in

the gospel, this is the gospel that you heard and that has been

proclaimed to every creature under heaven.

Would it make sense to you that a person can call in the name of

the Lord, repent, be baptized, and then they go, You know what?

Now I'm going to do whatever I want to do for the entire rest

of my life. Does that sound like a heart

that has been surrendered and has Jesus Christ as their Lord?

That doesn't make sense. So in other words, Christians

have a part to play. Now hear me, Our part is like

this when it comes to saving you, God did all of the big

work. We got this stuff to do.

So you might be asking yourself, well Clayton, you just laid out

a lot of stuff for us to do. Does this make baptism a work?

Because you just read that passage of scripture that says

that this is not a work of our own.

So that way nobody can boast. Let me give you 2 illustrations.

If today I was Oprah Winfrey OK, and everybody was getting a

house today, I because I love you so much, I went out and I

bought a piece of property for every single one of you.

And I dug a foundation and I poured the concrete and I built

you a basement. And then I put I studded it up

and I drywalled and I put a roof over the top and I put

insulation in and I ran all the plumbing and all the electrical.

And I put I mudded it and I painted.

I made it look beautiful. I put all the lights in, all the

appliances, all the flooring, all the fixtures, all the

cabinets. I bought all the furniture and I

made this whole place beautiful. I paved the driveway.

I did all the hardscaping, all the the softscaping.

Your house is absolutely beautiful.

And I come and I bring you the keys and I go, I did this for

you, but you got to go down to the county clerk's office and

you got to register this house in your name.

Would you go around town bragging to everybody about how

you did all the work to make that house?

You know what I would do to you if I found out that you were

doing it? I'd squish you like a bug,

right? Because I did all the work.

You just had to lay hold go on record with what I had done on

your behalf. If we were out in a in the ocean

and I was in a big old boat and you were out in your little

dinghy and you, your dinghy got a hole in it.

And you, you're in the water and you're not a good swimmer and

the waves are just beating you all over the place, OK.

And I'm up there and I'm such a good person.

I, I got my binoculars out. Ahoy.

Somebody's in peril. And I throttle up and I, it's a

big boat. You guys love me.

You got me a bit. And I turn that big boat around

and I bring it in close and I put the engine in neutral.

And I go over and I press the little button and it lowers my

little dinghy down into the water.

And then I hop in it and I come, I'm coming towards you.

And then I jump out like Fat Hasselhoff into the water,

coming after you like the Zohan. And I get close and then I grab

my life jacket and I throw it out at you.

And then you grab a hold of the life jacket and you get back in

the boat and you get on the big boat and you're telling

everybody about how you saved yourself.

You know what I would do? It's a good thing I'm not God.

I'd throw you right back out there.

Tread water, brother, tread because everybody watching would

see all that I had done on your behalf.

But did you still have to put the own your own life jacket on?

That is not a work that you did. It is the normal response to

what has been done on your behalf.

This is how you lay hold of your salvation.

Now, some of you right now you're wondering, Clayton, I

believe in Jesus and I call myself a Christian and I've

never been baptized. Are you saying I'm not saved?

I am doing my best not to say too much to you, but to show you

what scripture seems to make clear.

And some of you right now you're processing a whole lot of

information and a whole lot of emotions.

And this is one of the tips that I tell people is that it is

important that you do when when you're talking about your

personal experience and the scriptures, that you do not put

the scriptures into submission to your personal experience, but

you put your experiences in submission to the Word of God.

What you might be confusing is the Holy Spirit working on you

versus the Holy Spirit working in you.

And if you stay with me without getting too mad and pre typing

the e-mail, I've got good news for you here in a second.

Here's what I'm saying. The Bible makes it clear that

baptism is part of salvation, along with hearing, belief,

repentance, confession, and obedience, which has LED a lot

of people to ask this question. So at what point does salvation

actually take place? When am I actually saved?

And here's what I tell people. My answer to that question is

always the same. The point or the moment of

salvation has been and is always up to God.

But here's the illustration I use.

It's a lot like baking a cake track with me here.

Food stuff is like, you know how I'm, this is how I do parables.

Todd rides horses. I talk about food.

OK, so when does a cake become a cake?

After you mix up all the ingredients, after all the

ingredients are in the bowl, does it become a cake the moment

you put it in the oven? At what point in the oven does

it actually become a cake? You know what you've never done?

You've never asked yourself that question.

You want to know why? You just do what you're supposed

to do. And when the timer goes off, you

pull it out and guess what? You have right in front of you?

A stinking cake, right? Here's what we have never done.

We've never sat around with a bunch of cake batter all over

our kitchen counter going, I think.

I mean, is it a cake? I don't know, man.

Let's put it in the fridge for a while.

You know what you're not doing? You're not staining at the oven.

Cake no. Cake.

No. Cake?

No. What about cake?

No, you know why? You just simply do what you're

supposed to do and enjoy it when it's done.

When a person hears the gospel, believes it repents of their old

way, decide to be obedient in the area of baptism and live a

life that's faithful, You know what you don't spend any time

asking? Am I saved because you've just

done exactly what Scripture has told you to do.

Now, if you're here today, my goal is not to cause spiritual

anguish or spiritual confusion, but to give you an opportunity

to be obedient to what the Word of God says.

So what would I do if I had never been baptized?

I would get baptized. When would I do it?

I would do it today and I wouldn't put it off any longer.

Why would a person? How would you feel if there was

a person who was always engaged to your son or daughter but

never married? And I love your daughter.

She's the best. And I mean, I, I like holding

hands with her and I like come at all your family gatherings.

Oh, I love it. And I mean, I think she's

smoking hot. I think this is great.

I put a ring on her finger. I'm going to provide for her

financially. But no, I don't.

I just, I'm not a marriage guy. That's just kind of not how I'm

wired. You know, I don't really want

like the work of a wedding to define our relationship.

What would you say to that person?

I think that I think that you're not going to be around here much

longer, right? Like you go, there's something

wrong. Why don't you want to go on

record and make a covenant commitment?

Let me say it this way. You would admit that there was

at least something wrong in that relationship.

A Christian desires to be obedient to God.

Hear me. If Jesus did it, commanded his

followers to do it, then our response as Christian should be

really, really easy. Which of the things that I

mentioned would you take out of salvation?

What would you say to me if I said, you know, you can become a

Christian without ever hearing about Jesus?

You'd be like, that didn't seem to make a whole lot of sense.

If I were to say, hey, you can become a Christian without ever

believing in God, would you go? That didn't make a whole lot of

sense. If I were to say you could

become a Christian but never repent, would that make sense to

you? How come we only ask this

question about baptism? Here's my answer.

I believe because Satan has hijacked something that was

supposed to be incredibly special for believers.

I'm going to answer a little bit of that in about 3 minutes.

Clayton, what would you say to those of you who were baptized

as infants? Here's what I would say to you.

There is no explanation or description of infants being

baptized anywhere in Scripture. It can only be inferred if when

the Bible says their whole household was baptized, that

there were young kids in the home.

I would call what happened to you when you were baptized as an

infant a wet baby dedication. Your parents were dedicating you

to the Lord and it was a wet baby dedication.

But when you are older and you decide to get baptized on your

own, you are cashing the check that your parents wrote all

those years ago. I want you to, for some of you

who grew up in a, in a, in a system of belief where you are

baptized as an infant, you're going, how do I talk to my

parents about this? Here's what I'm saying, Mom and

Dad, when I was a baby, your hope and your prayer is that one

day I would grow up to love you with all of my heart, mind,

soul, and strength. And guess what?

I want the same thing for my life that you've wanted for me

my whole life. And now I'm choosing to make him

the Lord and Savior of my life. Let me ask you this question.

Can an infant hear the word of God?

Yeah. Can they believe?

No. Can they repent?

No. Can they confess?

No. If we were to carry this line of

logic out, you're baptizing somebody against their will and

calling it salvation. And if that worked, we would

have a tackle ministry at our church where we would tackle

people and take them to the Mississippi River against their

will. There would be like 30 minute

kidnappings being reported all over our region.

Like you, we just, that doesn't make sense.

There's a part of us that knows that it has to be their

decision. Clayton, you've been funny and

all this stuff, but there's some baggage here.

What about my dead grandparent who was sprinkled as a baby and

lived for Jesus their whole life?

What are you saying about them? Here's the story I tell.

Imagine there was a guy named Chuck, and Chuck had a meat

market called Chuck's Meat Market, and he sold.

You're not going to believe this.

Chuck burgers, Chuck dogs, Chuck roasts.

And everybody loved him for it. And then one day Chuck died and

his son took over the butcher shop and he started to run it.

And people kept showing up to Chuck's Meat Market.

I mean, they loved Chuck. They were thankful for Chuck.

And they kept ordering the Chuck dogs and the Chuck burgers and

the Chuck roast. And his son would pull that meat

out and he'd throw it up on the scale and he'd measure out the

amount of, of meat that they wanted.

And he'd put a ticket, printed ticket, put it on there, and

then they'd take it out to the cash register.

But one day an inspector showed up and he went over and he

checked the scales and he found out that the scales were 20%

off, which means that when they put 5 lbs of steaks up on the

scale, they were actually only selling 4 lbs of meat.

And Chuck's son's sitting there and he's trying to try to figure

out, what do I do here? Has my dad been cheating people

all those years? There's no way for Chuck's son

to know what was going through Chuck's mind, or if Chuck even

knew. But Chuck's son is responsible

for what he knows to be the truth, and he has to make an

adjustment. He has to adjust the scales.

If your parents or grandparents were sprinkled and we're not

immersed and they're not around anymore, we cannot know their

motives or their intentions. Here's what we have to do.

We have to trust that God is a good God and knows the status of

their heart. However, just because God knows

the status, status of their heart, we must be held

accountable for our understanding of Scripture, and

we must be obedient to it. And here's what I tell you in

love. Don't compound the problem in

your family. Eliminate it.

Now. I want to leave you with a

devotion. I told you to hang on.

I got a devotion. When you and I sin, sin gives us

two big problems. There's a lot of problems, but

there's two big ones. One of them is guilt and one of

them is shame. Guilt is I have crossed the line

I should not have crossed. You guys have felt that before.

You lied and then you feel it. You steal and then you feel it.

You've done something you should not have done and immediately

you go, oh, that is not who I wanted to be and there's no way

to get back. The other one is shame.

I am separated from people because of my sin.

If the people knew about the line that I had crossed, they

would not be close to me anymore.

I have to keep it a secret because if my wife knows, if my

husband knows, if my boyfriend knows, if my friends know, if my

parents know. And when we cross a line we

should not have crossed, we are relationally separated from

people because the last thing we want is anybody to know.

And now we are alone to guilt, you know, the solution we need,

we need forgiveness. We need to our sins wiped away.

The the solution for my shame is I need reconciliation because

I'm alone. I need a community that will

receive me. When you experience sin, guilt

and shame wage a war on you. Look at how baptism addresses

this. Baptism is the only thing that

addresses both problems. How do I get rid of my guilt is

I have to have my sins wiped away?

How are my sins wiped away? Acts chapter 2 verse 38.

Acts 2:38

Look what it says, Peter replied Repent and be baptized everyone

of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of

your sins, that when you get baptized your sins are wiped

away. I no longer have guilt.

How does baptism handle my shame?

Look what it says in Galatians chapter 3 verse 26 through 29.

Galatians 3:26–29

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed

yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor

Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female.

For you are all one in Christ Jesus, and if you belong to

Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the

promise. When you get baptized, you

become a part of the family of God and you are no longer in

isolation. When I got baptized, my church

used to after you got baptized, they would sing you into heaven.

They would sing the song. I'm so glad I'm a part of the

family of God. I've been washed in the

fountain, cleansed by his blood. Join hands with Jesus as we

travel. It was the whole thing.

And what they were saying is you are now a part of us.

Your sins have been wiped away. You have no more guilt in your

life. And because you are now part of

his family, you're a part of my family, which means you are no

longer alone. And if you want to know why I

think Satan has attacked baptism so much, it's because he wants

you to remain in guilt. He wants you to remain in shame.

And God is trying to give you a beautiful gift and crossing

family. I hope you'll receive it.

We're moving to a time of decision.

To those of you who don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ,

guess what I'm going to talk about?

What are you waiting for? I'm telling you today, your sins

can be wiped away and you can begin a new life in Him with a

new family, just like Philip in the Ethiopian eunuch.

You can go, look, there's water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?

And you're going, where's the water?

At every single one of our locations there is a big

baptistry, big enough to immerse you, to baptize you.

So there is no excuse for you to put it off.

So don't put it off. If you've been following Jesus

for a long time but you have never been baptized, don't put

it off any longer. It is time for you to be

obedient to the person that you call your Lord and your Savior.

And it says something about you that you do not once said about

you, that you refuse to do the things that your Lord and Savior

has asked you to do. And if you've been baptized into

Christ, the Bible says that we're supposed to make disciples

of all nations by baptizing them.

And they cannot believe until they have heard.

And so for those of you that are here today that already have a

relationship with Jesus Christ, you've already been obedient.

And baptism, I'm just going to level with you.

Who is somebody that you need to talk to?

Who is somebody that you need to call?

Maybe you have your card and you want to come to the steps and

pray over them. Because if we believe what the

Bible says, there is something that you and I must do.

And to those of you that have never been baptized, I'm just

going to level with you today. When everybody else is standing

and singing, some of the people are coming to the steps and

praying. There's going to be people right

over there next to the baptistry who would love to talk to you.

The immediate response in Scripture was there's water.

I want to get baptized. It wasn't.

And I know we do this a lot here and we try to be respectful of

where people are at. Because you want your friends

and you want your family. But I'll just be honest with you

in Scripture, it was, we're doing it right now.

And if there's some people in here who are going, it's been

long overdue. Make it today, make it this

Sunday, make it next week. Don't put off being obedient to

the thing that God clearly teaches.

Would you guys stand with me? God, in so many areas of our

life, we're tempted not to trust you, not to be obedient to you.

And this is just another one of them.

And God, I know that there's a lot of family baggage, There's a

lot of sin baggage, There's a lot of thoughts and hurts and

frustration and confusion. And God, I feel like every

single time we gather, this is the most contested moment of our

week. This is where every single

person gets an opportunity to step into what you want them to

do or to step back and keep doing what they've always done.

And man, I'm, I feel it in my own life all the time.

And I'm just asking that today, this weekend, not just here and

not just online, but at all of our locations, that we would let

you win this one. That we would just trust that

you are good and trustworthy and that the things that you have in

store for us are for our good and for your glory.

In your name I pray. Amen.