Why Be Baptized? | Dr. John Ewart

Hey, everybody. This is Pastor John Ewart from

Englewood Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you so much for tuning in to our podcast.

You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word

about important issues facing your life that can guide you

according to the Bible. Well, good morning, Inglewood.

Yeah, I've been all right this morning.

That's good. Appreciate you.

Thanks for being here. If you're a guest today, we have

proud that you're here. And if you want to turn in your

Bibles to Romans 6, we'll spend most of our time there, although

we'll be in a couple of places because of the nature of the

message. Let me take a couple of minutes

to just say thank you. I know that as we have

reorganized some of the spots for some of our small groups.

Appreciate your patience and endurance and willingness to do

that. It's going to put us in a good

spot for growth as well as a better spot for some of our

children's ministry. Speaking of children's ministry,

I do hope that you look on the front of your worship guide and

if you at all have an interest or feel called or could possibly

help and your church member here, there are tables in the

lobby for you to sign up to. Take a turn.

Everybody takes a turn. Nobody has to take a turn too

often, and we can share the load a little bit with our children's

ministry, which is growing. And Speaking of children's

ministry, let me just begin. We're going to do this over the

next few weeks. I want to introduce somebody

special to you. They're not physically here yet.

They'll be here on August 31st. But we have called and hired a

new children's ministry director.

Her name is Laura Klontz, excuse me, and she has incredible

experience and comes with incredible recommendations.

I know several the churches where she has served.

This is a very experienced called person who's been working

in children's ministry for many years and we appreciate her

willingness to listen to God and for God to call her to be with

us. I'm very excited about her.

Let me just read a little portion of something she said.

She says I'm committed to helping parents and children

know, love, and follow Jesus. With a passion for discipleship

and family ministry, I strive to serve and lead families to

understand what it means to have a personal relationship with

Jesus and to live that out every day.

I aspire to use the gifts that God has given me to serve the

entire church for His glory. My hope is that through

meaningful relationships and intentional ministry, I can

partner with the family so that they all may all know, love, and

follow Jesus. Next couple weeks we'll get some

photographs and some information about her and then she'll be

here on the 31st to meet you personally.

But we're extremely excited, going to bring stability and

leadership to our children's ministry, which is growing and

we're very excited about. Also hope you'll come back

Wednesday night. I know many of you are and I

appreciate the kind words you share about that series that

have called Core Training. This Wednesday night I'm going

to talk about what do we really believe about Jesus and why does

that matter in this world in which we live?

Why would I believe about Jesus is so significant?

It should be kind of a understood thing, but how do I

articulate that to a world that doesn't necessarily believe that

about him? And so this Wednesday night will

be a big deal and keep coming to connect groups.

If you're not in one yet, please do so.

And you're going to be hearing a word called reach.

So just stay tuned for reach and we'll be talking a whole lot

more about that down the road. I heard that a couple of the

rooms were packed this morning, so I'm excited about that.

I like packed rooms. So I appreciate that.

Now, some of you aren't old enough to even know this name.

Others of you will be very familiar.

He's he was a fellow Oklahoman and would be referred to, I

guess, as an American humorist. But a man named Will Rogers once

said this. He said, even if you're on the

right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

And so I'm very thankful, Englewood, that you're willing

to move into this new normal because frankly, there, and I

even experienced it this week, I was teaching a doctoral seminar

at the seminary and had pastors and some churches that that just

weren't as healthy and they weren't growing, weren't

reaching people. And too many and too many

churches in our world today are drinking from empty wells and

then wondering why they're still thirsty.

And I appreciate the fact that we can thrive on God's Word

here. So too many churches are also

idly sitting by reactively hoping something different

happens, which it just will not. And then too many people live

next to too many church buildings and never hear the

gospel. So we want to change all that

here. And I'm so thankful for you

because our God, our God is not a God of low risk, generic

visions for his church. He has great plans and we

continue to see that happen. Just wait.

In a couple of weeks, we're going to have new member

presentation. There's going to be a whole

bunch of people coming. And so I'm so thankful for what

God is doing for us. You might know the name Annie

Armstrong. She worked tirelessly to

champion the cause of of Southern Baptist missions and

missionaries over the years. She once said this.

She said the future lies all before us.

Shall it only be a slight advance upon what we usually do?

Ought it not be a bound, a leap forward to altitudes of endeavor

and success undreamed of before? I believe God has a great plan,

and we must feed fully upon his Word and drink richly from his

will. And that's the only way we will

be filled. That's the only way we're going

to be satisfied. So it's time for us to continue

to move forward in that new normal.

Fully commit to being to the true disciples God wants us to

be, to live out the Church's vision, to fulfill the King's

mission. And then I just invite you to

come be the Church or the King's Bride as the Church.

So I've been asking a series of very foundational questions.

And I appreciated the comment after the first service from a

couple people. One is they had never actually

heard a sermon about what I'm going to preach about today,

which was interesting to me. And then secondly, I heard a

member who'd been a believer for a long time say, you know, even

though for some of us who've been believers a long time, we

ought to know this, it's good for us to be reminded.

But the other thing I want you to be able to share with others

what I'm trying to share with you and this whole series is

actually an intro to a the next sermon series where we're going

to talk very specifically about what does it mean to be a

disciple? Who makes disciples, who makes

disciples? What does it really mean to be a

disciple of Jesus Christ In our fall series, which will last for

quite a while. So I'm just asking a few

questions. Couple weeks ago I asked the

simple question of why do I need to be saved?

And I talked about salvation and the assurance of salvation.

If you weren't here, I'd go back and listen to that.

If you know somebody who isn't saved, it would be a great thing

for them to hear. And then I asked you, why do we

need the church? And we talked about that and

that's important for us. And then this morning I want to

ask you a different question. This is a question very

important to what you and your family ought to know.

The answer Why be baptized? Why should I be baptized?

What's baptism really all about? We see it.

Maybe you've been baptized, maybe you've not been baptized.

What do I need to know? There were actually some folks

that we've seen come to know the Lord in the last couple of

weeks, and one of them was a big discussion this last week in my

office about this very subject matter and they were in the

first service. It was really important for them

to hear this and for some of you it might be important or, or

maybe you know somebody who needs to be baptized and this

would be helpful to you to share with them.

So this will be important for us believers.

Baptism is one of the ordinances, and I'm going to

describe that weird word in a minute that we practice here at

Inglewood. And, and I've shared with you

before when we observed the Lord's Supper before, there's a

big difference between a sacrament and an ordinance.

And some of you may come from a background that practice

sacraments, but but the difference is this.

A sacrament is a ritual in which it's believed believe that God's

grace is dispensed when you observe it.

In other words, it's believed that it will help you receive

God's grace and and even salvation.

So Sacramento theology, don't let those big words throw you is

therefore the belief system that salvation comes at least in part

through these works and, and, and they would then be necessary

for you to be fully saved or for you to continue to be saved.

But here at Inglewood, we do not believe in practicing

sacraments. We believe the Bible clearly

teaches that salvation is by grace through faith and not the

result of works. In fact, the well known passage

that we would share often here, but it's worth repeating as

Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9.

Ephesians 2:8

And it says for by grace you have been saved through faith

and this is not your own doing. It's the gift of God, not as a

result of works that so that no one may boast.

And I again, I shared it at length about this a couple of

Sundays ago about how salvation really works.

Very important for you to hear that.

And so at Inglewood we actually observed 2 ordinances.

So what's this word ordinance mean, right.

It wouldn't be a word that we would actually use very much.

We might actually use it more in military terms.

So an ordinance is an act of obedience that believers observe

to accomplish at least two things.

There we go first. First, to fulfill command of

Christ. Secondly, to share or proclaim a

testimony of what Jesus Christ has already done in our hearts

and lives, and I'm going to say that lie in the lot.

And so these are visual symbols of his grace.

They describe and testify of what Jesus did for us through

his life, his death on the cross and his resurrection.

So these visual representations of the gospel that we share

together are not so that we might be saved or even that

somehow we might maintain our salvation, but we observe them.

So we might proclaim that we're already saved.

So these are things we do after salvation.

Those of us who are saved, we are so appreciative of Jesus

Christ and what He's done for us.

We want to proclaim that. We want to testify about our

salvation in Him. And as I mentioned, we observe 2

ordinances at Inglewood, the public confession of baptism and

the corporate body sharing together in what we call the

Lord's Supper. We're going to share in the

Lord's Supper in just a few weeks, so be prepared for that.

But neither baptism nor the Lord's Supper save us.

That's not what they're designed for.

These are acts of obedience, acts of testimony in which those

who are already saved proclaim the gospel to a unified body.

So there's, you're never going to see a private baptism.

We're not going to have a secret baptism service on a Saturday

afternoon when nobody's here. We're always going to be

observing these ordinances in front of the entire church to

where everybody can see them and everybody can witness them,

right? So baptism then is this public

profession of faith to share to the entire church, to proclaim

to the world. So why be baptized, right?

Well, there's several reasons why baptism is so important as a

first step. It's a first step of obedience.

It's a first step of discipleship after somebody's

saved, after your personal conversion.

So the first thing is baptism is a proclamation of a command.

Jesus gave us an example to follow.

Matthew chapter 3 is one place where it's where it's written.

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

He says this. Then Jesus came from Galilee to

the Jordan to John to be baptized by him.

John would have prevented him saying, I need to be baptized by

you and do you come to me. But Jesus answered him, let it

be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all

righteousness. Then he consented, and when

Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water and

behold, the heavens were open to him, and he saw the Spirit of

God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him.

And behold, a voice from heaven said, This is my beloved son,

with whom I'm well pleased. So Jesus believed it was

important. He believed it was necessary to

go through this public proclamation of who he was and

why he was sent and who sent him.

So he publicly identifies with his mission through baptism.

He begins his public ministry that way as well.

And if we seek to be like him, we we too should seek to obey

and proclaim our identity in Him.

And baptism gives us that opportunity and that privilege.

We get to say, this is who I am. I'm publicly identifying as a

Christian, as a person who follows Jesus Christ.

And baptism is also then this public obedience to a command.

So, so listen, we are to be baptized after we're saved, but

we're also supposed to baptize others.

Listen to the Great Commission in Matthew 28, it says go

therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them

in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

So when you hear us baptize up here, you'll see, you'll hear

them say I'm baptizing you in the name of the Father, the Son,

and the Holy Spirit. So we are to do that.

Part of our responsibility in going to share the gospel, going

to the nations, is to make disciples who make disciples who

make disciples and then baptize them.

This public identification is very significant because it

helps the new convert to draw a line in the sand and to say I'm

beginning my new life. I'm beginning my new walk with

Jesus. Now the water doesn't do that,

but they're identifying with that.

Or remember what Peter did back in the book of Acts that we've

studied earlier this year in Acts 10, it says, and he

commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

Then they asked him to remain for some days.

Or again, Peter on the day of Pentecost earlier in the book in

Acts chapter 2, he says, so those who received his word were

Acts 2 · chapter mention

baptized and there were added that day about 3000 souls.

So we rejoice, we look forward, we and we, we, we.

We want the opportunity to be baptized, to fulfill an

expectation, to follow an example, to fulfill command, and

to identify with and follow Christ's example as well as the

example of the early church and the apostles.

It's a big deal. So through baptism we're

declaring what He means to us and what He has done in our

lives. But note the order.

They personally believed in Jesus Christ as our Lord and

Savior, and then they were baptized.

So baptism is a public declaration of that belief and

faith commitment because of what it proclaims.

But that's not all. Let's look at a few more things

that baptism proclaims. Baptism is also, secondly, a

proclamation of the cross. This is where I finally got to

Romans 6. So when I baptize somebody

personally, I almost always quote a couple of verses out of

Romans 6. I'll get to those in a minute,

but let's hear some others. Romans 63.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into

Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

We know in verses 6 and 7, Romans 6/6 and seven, we know

that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body

of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no

longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been

set free from sin. So we only practice because we

believe this is what the Bible indicates.

We we practice what we would call believers baptism.

So it's for those who have already been saved.

It's a public proclamation of our belief and what Jesus did

for us on the cross. Now remember man has 2 great

problems. All of us.

We have a problem with sin, got a problem with death.

So, so the cross takes care of our sin if we believe and, and

the resurrection helps us with death if we believe, it's a

shows our victory over death. So we believe only those who

have understood this gospel and personally trusted in Christ as

their Lord and Savior should be baptized.

Therefore, you would never see us baptizing babies.

So even though we certainly love these little ones and we love

their families and we want to lift them up and pray for them.

We pray that they're going to reach that time in their life

when they personally trust in Christ first, before they would

ever consider or we would ever consider baptism.

True salvation first, then baptism.

But baptism is more. Baptism is also a proclamation

of covering. Look at verses four and five.

It says we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death,

in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the

glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

This is the verse I often would quote.

We're buried with Christ and risen to new life in him when I

baptize somebody. For if we have been united with

him in a death like this, we will certainly be united with

him in a resurrection like this or a few verses later, verses 8

through 11. Now if we have, if we have died

with Christ, we believe that we also live with him.

We know that Christ being raised from the dead, will never die

again. Death no longer has dominion

over him for the death he died, He died to sin once for all, but

the life he lives, he lives to God.

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive

to God in Christ Jesus. So when we're saved by Christ,

we are covered by what his death on the cross and His

resurrection from the grave produce for us.

We're covered by the payment of his blood sacrifice that he made

perfectly, and he's the only one who could to pay for our sin.

And so we are redeemed. We are purchased back.

We are bought back, so death no longer has dominion over us

because it no longer has dominion over him.

And so the old person who was under the penalty of sin and

faced eternal death has been buried with him and raised to a

new life. And baptism symbolizes this

picture. So when we were were baptized,

we're telling the world, this is what Christ has done for me.

He, he was crucified, he was buried and he rose again.

And, and we also testified this the same thing that happened to

the old lost me. I too was put to death, buried

with him and risen to new life in him.

So this is one of the reasons why we baptized by immersion.

So what's the big deal about immersion?

Why not just sprinkle? Why not just poor?

What's the big deal? Why does it matter?

Well, first of all, it's important because of the imagery

I've been sharing with you and how it is presented.

When we lower someone into the water, we are symbolizing the

death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus as well as of our old

lost lives. This is what Jesus did for me,

and this is what has happened to me.

We are also symbolizing the complete covering that salvation

has already brought to the person.

God the Father no longer sees our sin.

God sees the righteousness of God the Son as our sin is laid

on Him and His righteousness is laid on us in salvation.

In fact, as I shared a couple of weeks ago, 2nd Corinthians 521

says. For our sake, He made him to be

sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the

righteousness of God. Now, the water doesn't do that.

That's not magic water up there. That's just tap water.

That's just good old, good old Rocky Mount tap water, right?

That's all that is. But it symbolizes that gracious

act. It's symbolizes that an

immersion symbolizes it perfectly.

But but even more clear than that is the fact that our our

English word baptize comes from a Greek word baptizo.

And baptisma baptizo cannot, does not and cannot mean to

sprinkle or pour. That's not the word for that in

the original language. The word baptizo means to

submerge or to completely cover. So I wish we translated the

original Greek and used words like immerse or submerge or

completely cover rather than transliterating, which is what

it's called, where you take a word and you kind of switch it

around and make a new word in a different language because the

meaning would be much clearer to us.

The word baptiso was used when a ship sunk to the bottom of the

ocean was covered by the sea. The word baptiso is used when in

the dye, the cloth dyeing industry.

So you take a white piece of cloth, totally submerged it in

the black dye to where it's completely covered, completely

soaked up the dye, completely black in a new color.

See. And so it's the word that's used

throughout the New Testament. No other word is used.

And so Jesus was immersed by John the Baptist.

No matter what you might see in a movie, Jesus was dunked.

He dunked him. He didn't sprinkle on him.

And that wouldn't be the word they were used used.

So we're actually commanded to go and make disciples and

immerse them. That would be a little more

literal version of the Great Commission.

We are to be immersed after we are saved to best symbolize what

Christ has done for us and how he has forgiven us, right?

It paints the clearest picture of what it represents.

But a Romans 6 passage isn't quite done.

We're close, but not quite done. We proclaim the cross, we

proclaim covering, but baptism also proclaims cleansing.

So what we see in Romans 64, we were buried therefore with him

by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised

from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in

newness of life. Or later on in verse 12, Let not

sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its

passions. Do not present your members to

sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present

yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to

life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

For sin will no will have no dominion over you, since you are

not under the law, but under grace.

And as I've shared multiple times, because I'm trying to

drive the point home, obviously the physical element of water up

there does not save the Sinner, but it helps us to express this

external testimony to the work which the Holy Spirit has

already done in our lives. So once again, immersion best

symbolizes the truth that we are completely covered, but we're

also completely forgiven. We're completely cleansed of our

sin penalty when we are saved, right?

That complete covering the water symbolizes the complete

cleansing power of God's grace, of the complete forgiveness

Jesus brings when we trust in Him for salvation.

Every part of us is saved. He thoroughly washes us.

It is complete and thorough salvation.

Every sin is covered. Every sin is forgiven when we

are saved. And so we recognize that

following the Lord in baptism is an act of obedience.

It's an act of testimony to the Amazing Grace and the complete

forgiveness He brings to us. So it's a privilege.

It's an honor to be able to share such a testimony to the

church and to the world. In fact, let's observe this

right now in action as we see the obedience from some and hear

these testimonies in baptism. Pastor Gene's going to come and

he's going to share some testimonies with us and we're

going to see baptism in action right now.

Well Church, during the 9:15 service, we had two that came

forward in baptism and I'm going to share the testimonies with

you and we can celebrate what the God has done in their lives.

The first one was Cooper Ames and this was Cooper's testimony

In the first service. He said I needed Christ because

I was lost. I placed value in worldly

possessions. I was never fulfilled

spiritually which caused me to live a life of sin.

I grew up believing in Jesus but never took the steps to accept

Him as my Lord and Savior. I saw how my family was changed

through the acceptance of Christ.

Seeing how my sister and my cousins accepted the Lord and

how they were changed by Him encouraged me to pray that the

same changes could be made in me.

I joined Bible study groups and I joined church groups during my

time at Purdue and in Savannah and I felt this calling to

accept the Lord as my Savior. I began to find peace and prayer

and discussing God's words with other believers and I knew that

my next step was baptism. Being saved by Christ means I

will not look to share the Word of God with those that they can

be with others so that they can be saved as well.

I will no longer concern myself with the worries of the world.

I would live a life to glorify God.

By being baptized, I'm telling the world that Christ will work

through me. I will live to glory, bring

glory to God and spread the word so that others can be saved like

myself. Christ is the answer to any

issue maybe having. Praise the Lord, That's Cooper's

testimony. Our second baptism we had during

our 915 service was Holly Phelps, and this was Holly's

testimony. She said my life before Christ

was painful and lonely. I felt like I didn't belong

anywhere. No matter how hard I tried to

fit in with the crowd, no matter how good I was at sports and no

matter what I did, it just wasn't good enough.

I smiled on the outside, but on the inside I felt lost and

completely alone. I wanted so badly to feel like I

had a place in this world, but I didn't and I truly believed I

never would. Everything changed one night on

the floor of my bedroom when I was 16 years old.

I broke down and I cried out to God.

I can't do this anymore, Lord, I don't belong.

I've tried. And in that moment I heard him

speak to my heart. You are meant for more.

From that night forward, I repeated that much to myself

over and over again. He is constant.

He doesn't change. He loves me fully and

completely. Being saved means I don't have

to walk through the fire alone. Oh, what a friend we have in

Jesus. This baptism is my declaration

that I belong to Him. That is love rescued me from the

deepest pain and gave me purpose.

I now belong. And that was Holly's testimony

this morning. Praise the Lord.

This morning at the 10:45 worship service, we have Mason

Tyson and this is Mason's testimony.

He said growing up, my mom always took me to church every

chance we had. That's a good mom right there.

She was never going to miss a good service.

But going to church just felt like a normal thing for me.

Though deep down I knew I'd never had a real deep connection

with Jesus. Years later in a Chapel service,

I felt Jesus talking and giving me the opportunity for a new

life and plans far out of my imagination.

I already knew my relationship in connection with God was very

weak and I never leaned on him for anything.

So after the service I went and I talked to the pastor and to a

teacher and after some deep conversation hearing all the

things that God has done for us and me at that moment I gave my

life to Christ. Being saved has changed so many

things that I could not do alone.

Only with Jesus help. I have been finding my place in

God's Kingdom and my specific role in the Kingdom.

I've been brought so much peace and happiness that I could only

find through the Lord. I couldn't have asked for a

better future than having one with my Lord and Savior Jesus

Christ. By being baptized today, I'm

telling the world that Jesus that he died and rose for me is

the same one that wants to have a forever lasting relationship

with you. I'm also saying that I have

believed in Him for the forgiveness of my sins and I now

get to live a new life with Him. I am now living a life where

everywhere I step, I am wanting to share with the world and life

of my Lord. Well, Inglewood, and my name is

Pastor Dylan and you just heard three incredible testimonies

about what the Lord has done in three individuals lives.

And we've got Mason here with us this morning.

Mason came to me a few weeks ago to talk about moving forward

with baptism. And so it's been my honor to be

able to walk through this journey with him.

But the guy standing behind me is not just my bodyguard, he is

also played a crucial role in Mason's life and faith journey.

This is Chris Vester, he's one of our deacons here at

Inglewood. He's a Connect group teacher

here at Inglewood, but he's also Mason's godfather.

And so it's my pleasure to be able to introduce Chris to you,

who's going to be baptizing Mason this morning.

Mason, based on your testimony and declaration of Jesus as your

Lord and Savior, it is my pleasure to baptize you in the

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

See, I knew the sermon wasn't very good and I needed backup,

so that was fantastic. There's no better message than

when somebody does what they just did there.

And so we're so excited about that.

And then finally, I want to share one last thing with you.

We're going to go, Not only is proclam, not only is baptism,

but proclamation of everything I've mentioned so far, but it's

also this proclamation of commitment in the book of Acts.

These Gentile believers who first experienced the Holy

Spirit historically were baptized with water after they

had been spiritually baptized by the Holy Spirit.

Again, in Acts 10, it says can anyone withhold water for

baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as

we have? And he commanded them to be

baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

Then they asked him to remain for some days, since we believe

a person is baptized by the Holy Spirit into the greater body of

Christ at the moment of conversion.

But what's interesting about baptism, it's also the doorway

for local church membership here at Inglewood.

So not to salvation, but but to a committed covenant

participation with a local body of believers.

Paul wrote to a local body of believers in Ephesus and he

wrote this. He said there's one body and one

spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to

your call, 1 Lord, 1 faith, one baptism, one God and Father of

all who is over all and through all and in all.

So to be a member here, an official church member here at

Inglewood Baptist, one must have been biblically baptized after

personal salvation and by immersion.

And so we would love the opportunity to speak to you

about this. I know there were some folks in

the first service that I was able to speak with after the

service, but I'd love to speak with you about the possibility

and the need of either salvation obviously first, but then maybe

you were saved at some time in your past, but you've never been

biblically baptized and you know you need to do that.

So in a moment, we're going to have an opportunity for you to

come. Pastors will be here.

There's a Next steps room right over here where we're going to

have people who love you. And you can have a more private

conversation in the room with some folks who just love to pray

with you and talk with you about that.

And you can go straight to that room or you can come to one of

us. So you can just come and pray at

the steps if you have other needs in your life.

But remember, baptism doesn't save you.

It symbolizes, right? It's the public declaration of

the covenant commitment which God has already worked in your

heart, right? And so it doesn't dispense

grace, It displays grace that's already been given.

And so being biblically baptized is something every true believer

ought to do, that they ought to do it as soon as possible after

conversion, right? But but as Martin Luther once

said, only God can take his word and put it in your heart.

And so one of the things that that we've got to do is I pray

that he's doing that to you right now.

I tell people that they get to preach their best sermon when

they're baptized, when they're obedient.

So which one of you this morning needs to follow the Lord in

baptism? See, here's water.

What prevents you from being baptized?

Also, to shout this proclamation to share this testimony.

I once had the privilege when I was a missionary in the

Philippines. I had the opportunity one day to

baptize 43 people in a row and and I was pretty tired.

But I promise you we can handle it.

If, if 50 of you come this morning needing to be baptized,

we'll work that out, I promise. But even if just one would come,

we would rejoice and be so thankful for that.

I often liken baptism to a wedding ceremony.

In both cases, you have this external moment where you're

reflecting this covenant thing that God has already done in

your heart. It's very similar.

And in the same way, baptism is a way for you to say I've

trusted in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

I want the church to know that, I want the world to know that.

And I want to have this moment in my own memory to, to nail

that down that I can look back upon as this time of commitment.

Years ago, I was in the field in the, in the Amazon way down in

the Amazon in a very, very remote place, a place where most

people would never go probably. And we were in a village there

with a church and, and we were sharing the gospel throughout

that village. And, and I was asked to baptize

a man, which I would never normally do as a visitor

someplace. But there was a man who was in

the jail and some of us had shared the gospel with him and

he had been saved. And he so, so desperately wanted

to be baptized. And the only way they would let

him out to be baptized as if I did the baptism.

And so I worked with the local pastor, had the local pastor

there with me because I really wanted to be under the authority

of that local church. But they under guard, they

brought the man with armed guards to the river.

And in the Amazon River, I remember baptizing this man

while piranha swam around us. And and a pink river dolphin.

At the moment that he came out of that water, a pink river

dolphin jumped in the air behind us.

I have a worship leader who took a photo of it.

It was a precious moment. And I promise you that if you

come, we'll remove the piranhas. We're ready to go.

No pink river dolphin, no piranhas, just a lot of just a

lot of testimony. So let's pray together.

Father, we thank you so much for the testimonies that we've heard

and seen this morning. Father, they're so powerful, so

important. And Father, just thank you that

we could witness this together. Father, I pray right now for

those who might be here who recognize that they're not ready

for baptism, because first they need to trust in Jesus Christ as

their personal Lord and Savior. And I pray in just a moment when

we sing that they would come and, and Father, they'd go to

the next steps room to talk to someone in there.

He'll just sit down with him privately, discreetly, and share

with them what it means to be a believer.

They could come and talk to one of us as pastors or whatever we

can do to help them. Maybe there's some here who are

ready for baptism, though, maybe some ready for church

membership. And Father, I just pray that

they'll come, that they would come to say I'm proud of

trusting in Christ. I want the world to know and I

pray Father, that we could help. My mothers may just want to come

and pray. Maybe they have a friend who

needs one of those things and they just want to come and

intercede at these steps like an altar for them.

Father. So you just lead us, guide us

like you did in the first service.

Just show us what you want us to do and help us Father, to be

obedient as we worship you. So Father, bless us now in

Christ's name, Amen. So stand with me.

Worship team's going to lead us be here.

Others will be here again. This room right there is open,

ready to go. People would love to visit with

you in there. You don't even have to come see

one of us. You can go straight over there

right now and they would just love to visit with you.

If you want to come and pray, come and pray, but you come as

we sing. Thank you so much for listening

today and I also hope that you'll go to our website at

englewoodbaptist com as well as our app and find many other

resources that will bless you and your families.

Thank you once again.