Not Your Ordinary Church Service: Water and Wine | Part 5

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Well, today we're talking about water and wine.

Water and wine.

And we're talking about baptism and communion.

You know, Jesus never asked his disciples to remember his birth.

We do it, we throw up a huge party every Christmas season, but he did instruct them to remember his death and resurrection.

And he left two sacred practices.

Depending on your background, if you grew up in the church, you may have heard these called ordinances or sacraments.

They're sacred practices for the church that are both memorial and mysterious in nature.

Baptism and communion.

And we want to talk about what is baptism and communion all about.

It's what we do when we gather.

Who should take part in these sacred practices and how do they actually play a vital role in your faith and in following Jesus?

And depending on maybe your background, maybe you've been around church for a long time, these can kind of feel rote or mundane practices, or maybe you're new to church and they feel like some kind of old tradition, or you don't really know what they're all about.

So we want to talk about them.

You know, my wife and I, we were talking about them this last week.

I was asking her because she got baptized at a church in Chicago, but had an experience that kind of turned her off to baptism when she was uh just graduated college.

She started walking with Jesus, she would say, uh her freshman year of college, and there's a whole series of events that led to uh that moment where she just, you know, her faith just really became her own.

And um, I mean, God did some incredible things through her college career, and after that, she was uh, you know, in her college season, was at Campus Crusade for Christ and loved it, and then went on to do what they call a stint or a year-long missions trip with uh Campus Crusade to plant a crew movement in Sweden.

Now, one of the churches she was talking to to help support her, uh, you know, on their side, they took baptism very seriously, but it felt strict and stringent.

And she met with this older lady that just uh said, Well, in order for us to support you, you need to be baptized.

But it wasn't a conversation, it wasn't an invitation, it felt like, you know, um, oh, how do you say it?

It felt like, you know, like these hoops that you had to jump through, or like there was this attachment, like in order to get money, I need to be baptized.

And it was just like kind of weird, and uh just really in that moment didn't help her like draw her into like this incredibly powerful sacred practice.

And it was a few years later at a church in Chicago where I was um uh drumming at and helping lead worship in their college, I shared a little bit earlier in the series, where they had a spontaneous baptismal uh service, and we're gonna have one next week, and some of you are gonna say yes in that moment and step forward into the waters of baptism, and that's when she was drawn and really stepped into the waters of baptism there.

And so for some, that's kind of where you're at.

Maybe you have a background, and you're like, this has always been kind of something that I don't really understand or get, or what does it all mean, or maybe you even had an experience where the way it was presented, maybe it just turned you off.

My hope is that uh just like that moment uh at that church in Chicago, this would be one of those moments for you where you go, like, oh, I get it, the lights go on, and I understand the power and the significance of it.

So, in our time, because we talk a lot about communion and we do that regularly in our services, I'm gonna spend the majority of our time talking about baptism.

What exactly is baptism?

Who should get baptized?

You know, why I should get baptized?

Um, do you get baptized more than once?

You know, do I have to reach a certain level, right?

Uh to be able to get baptized?

Like, is there like, you know, these steps in the Christian life that I have to somehow attain?

And to begin the conversation, I want to take you to a wilderness revival service in Matthew chapter three.

And so go ahead, get your fingers there, you know, turn to Matthew chapter three in your Bible.

Uh, this wilderness revival service, and to set the stage and the context, the people of Israel had not heard a word from God through a prophet for just about 400 years.

And then all of a sudden, there's this wild man in the wilderness.

His name was John the, anybody else know?

The Baptist, yeah.

His name was John the Baptist simply because he baptized people.

That's what he did.

He baptized people in the Jordan River.

Now, John was like a prophet at all of old in the Old Testament.

He wore the clothes of a prophet.

He wore these camel, extremely uncomfortable camel hair uh, you know, clothes, and that was not in vogue, by the way, in the day.

And he even ate the um the food of the poor.

He he lived off a locust and honey, and then he preached this uh a sermon and message of repentance, preparing the way for one who would come.

See, John understood his role, that he was to prepare the way for the coming Messiah.

And so what he would do is he would go, he's out in the wilderness, and literally hundreds and thousands of people would be drawn out, you know, to see and to hear him preach.

Uh, one commentator said this that not since the days of Ezra, remember in one year that we talked about Ezra and Nehemiah and that revival service that happened then?

Not since those days had Israel seen such a revival, and maybe it was even greater than the days of Ezra.

And so you're seeing thousands of people flock out.

He's preaching this message of repentance, which by the way, repentance doesn't mean to be sorry or even to be sad.

Repentance means to turn around.

It's like you see somebody walking the wrong direction, and you go, hey, it's this way.

And repentance means that person literally turned around and went a new direction.

That's what repentance is.

And John is saying, the king, the Messiah is arriving.

And hey, hello, repent.

The way you're direct, the way you're living your life, the direction you're headed is in the wrong direction.

Turn around so that you can see and embrace the kingdom and what Jesus is coming to do.

And he would say, he said this, he said, There's one coming, because he understood my role, I'm to prepare the way.

There's one coming who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

See, I baptize with water, but there's one who's coming who's gonna baptize with the Holy Spirit.

And this is where we pick up our story in Matthew chapter 3, verse 13.

Matthew 3:13

Begins this way.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.

But John tried to deter him, saying, I need to be baptized by you.

And do you come to me?

John's going, like, listen, remember, I've been preaching about one who's gonna come and baptize with, you know, the Holy Spirit and with fire.

I just got the water thing going on.

I need your baptism.

Hello, thank you very much.

And then Jesus says, Let it be so now.

It is proper for us to do this, to fulfill all righteousness.

If you're taking notes and maybe circle that word righteousness in your Bible, uh, for Matthew, righteousness means walking in the ways of God.

It's just a very simple following the ways of God, living out his will in his life.

So he's saying, to live in the ways of God and his calling, I need to step into this.

And so John consented.

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he came, he went up out of the water, and at that moment heaven opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, alighting on him, and a voice from heaven saying, This is my son, whom I love, with whom I am well pleased.

Now, why did Jesus need to get baptized?

You ever wonder that?

I mean, John is in this wilderness, he's preaching preaching a baptism of repentance.

Now, here's something kind of interesting.

Um, to the Jewish people, they were familiar with baptism, but it wasn't anything they partook in.

See, baptism was for Gentiles who are converting, for outsiders who converted.

Jewish people, they would undergo ceremonial cleansing, and that's something they would do for themselves to get uh ceremonially clean for worship in the temple, but they would never be baptized.

And then John's doing something shockingly new in the wilderness, and he's baptizing Jewish people, saying there's a new work that God is doing.

And what he's doing is he's ushering in a new kingdom, and your heritage won't get you into it.

You have to turn directions, and Jesus shows up, and he steps into those waters.

Why did Jesus get baptized?

A few things.

One, Jesus got baptized to identify with those he came to save, to lead the way.

He got baptized to authenticate John's ministry and work, that he was indeed the one who had prepared the way for the Messiah.

He also got baptized to inaugurate uh his public ministry.

And you remember the voice of God declaring, This is my son, whom I love, whom I'm well pleased.

And we often miss the significance of that.

Uh that's actually two Old Testament um uh sayings, one from Psalm 2 and one from Isaiah 42.

In Psalm 2, it talks about the coming king who is gonna reign and restore and make things right.

In Psalm 2, it says the coming king, this is the Son of God.

And this is this proclamation, this public proclamation that this is the sovereign coming Messiah, king.

And then something so interesting that the people in that day did not put together was whom I'm well pleased, whom I love comes from Isaiah 42, when Isaiah begins to talk about the suffering servant that reaches its final climactic conclusion in Isaiah 53, when he'll be led like a sheep into the slaughter.

Or he'll take upon the people the iniquities of them all.

And he have this incredible, powerful moment, this inauguration of the sovereign king is also at the same time the suffering servant who will take the sins of people away.

And he got baptized to allude to and foreshadow the way he would go and pass through death and raise to new life, to bring new life to all of us.

And so let's spend some time talking about the baptism.

What is the significance of baptism?

And I want to take some time here to for us to really understand the significance of what uh the Jewish audience would have understand passing through the waters when they were coming out to uh be baptized by John.

See, passing through the waters throughout the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures, has been symbolic of God's redemptive activity on earth, his restoration and creative process.

Flip over to Genesis.

And if you're kind of new to the Bible, you just go straight to the beginning and then you just kind of flip a couple pages.

Genesis is the very first book.

Genesis 1, 1 begins this way.

It says, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Verse 2, now the earth was formless and void or empty.

Literally, it means it was wild and waste.

Before God's creative work took place, there was there was just chaos, wildness and waste and emptiness.

Darkness was over the surface of the deep.

And then it goes on and it says, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

Like before God's creative activity took place, saying there is this wild and chaotic uh wasteland and this deep water of chaos, and the spirit hovers over, and what the spirit of God always does is he brings beauty from the chaos, he brings restoration and creation.

And so you see in Genesis 1, 2, the Spirit of God bringing creation out of the wild and the waste.

And then this theme is drawn throughout the Old Testament.

And so we'll fast forward to the Exodus event with Moses.

And Moses is liberating Israel out of the bondage of Egypt, and they're being chased by the Egyptians, and they come to the Red Sea.

And again, there's the same words that are happening in Genesis where there's this wild, chaotic, deep water, and God splits the water to lead them through to safety, and he delivers them.

The Moses in the liberation of Israel, and then you fast forward to Joshua, who then leads the people of Israel into the promised land.

And they had been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.

This group wasn't there at the Red Sea.

That generation had all passed away.

And to remind them of God's redemptive activity and what he does as they come to the Jordan River, the same river where John is baptizing.

It says, and it's the same words of the wild and the waste and the chaotic deep are all there.

And then God stops up the Jordan and they enter on dry land.

And then Isaiah and Isaiah chapter 11, speaking of the Messiah, the one who would come, who would bring restoration.

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

He begins to connect it to the water chaos and how he's going to bring uh rescue and life.

And so to the original hearers, passing through the waters is symbolic of God's redemptive activity, the spirit at creation, Moses into liberation, Joshua entering the promised land, Isaiah promised rescue from the Messiah.

Jesus came to bring the new creation, freedom, liberation, freedom from bondage, to enter into his rest.

He came to rescue you and me.

In fact, Tim Mackey says it this way: baptism is the reenactment of what it means to be rescued through the waters of death in order to enter a new creation of life.

This is the significance of what baptism means when we talk about entering into the waters.

And so then, what exactly is baptism?

For some, you're like, Ryan, you're talking all about the significance.

I don't even know what it is.

Well, the Greek word for baptism is baptismo.

You want to say that?

That's kind of fun to say.

Baptismo, go for it.

Yeah, we're in Greek class now.

Thank you very much.

Uh say it again, baptismo.

Fantastic.

You're all Greek scholars at this point.

Very well done.

It literally just means to be submerged, to dip, uh, to go underwater.

This is why every baptism that we see in the New Testament, they are fully submerged.

This is why when we baptize, we go underwater.

And baptism is a symbolic act declaring your standing in Christ Jesus.

It is a sacred act, a powerful picture of how the Spirit of God works to bring life, renewal, and freedom out of the chaos through the finished work of Jesus.

The Apostle Paul would say that this way in Romans chapter 6, verse 1.

Romans 6:1

He says, What shall we say then?

Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?

By no means.

We are those who have died to sin.

How can we live in it any longer?

Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death?

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into 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.

All right.

So what is he meaning there?

What are we talking about?

The picture of baptism is this.

And when you see people next week getting into the water, this is literally what the picture is is that you are dying to your old self, you're being identified and literally counted dead with Christ.

You go under the water, and then you're being brought out of the water to new life in Christ.

In fact, so baptism first is a picture and illustrates Christ's death and resurrection.

And here's the powerful truth of the gospel is the gospel doesn't just say that Christ died for you.

Yes, that's true.

The gospel says that you then died with Christ.

That's different.

That you are united with him.

And so that your old life has then been put to death in Christ, and that you have been raised out of the water just as Christ has been raised to new life.

And so it is a symbol of my new life in Christ.

See, you have union with Christ.

Think about this.

When God the Father looks at you, he doesn't see you.

He sees Jesus.

In fact, the way technically to say it, the way theologians say it is the imputed or placed upon righteousness of Christ is upon you.

So everything that is true of Jesus is now true of you because you have union with him.

He has covered you.

You are in Christ, and Christ is in you.

And so now, because he died, the Spirit of God then comes inside of you and brings you to new life just as he was resurrected to new life.

And so you remember that saying, um, maybe you've said it, and it's okay if you have, but um, yeah, I'm just a sinner saved by grace, you know.

I'm just a sinner.

Well, the truth is you're not anymore.

The truth of scripture is that you're a saint.

I'm looking at a bunch of saints.

I mean, what if you just started on Sunday, you know, um you just greet people, hello, saint.

You know, like, what's up, holy one?

Like when God sees you, just think about this.

This is amazing.

Like, he sees Holy One, daughter, son of the King Most High.

He sees Jesus and His righteousness placed upon you.

That is who you are.

And yes, do you sin?

Absolutely, we do, but that is not your identity.

Your identity is you are a saint, holy one of Christ, because what he did and baptism reminds us of that union with him in his death and resurrection to life.

And then it is a pledge of good conscience towards God.

What you're doing is you're not saying, from this day forward, I'm gonna live a perfect life.

You can't do that.

In fact, for some people have they've been um really discouraged because they thought, man, I'm gonna get baptized and then I'm gonna live this perfect life.

Well, that's not that's not how it works.

What it is, is this day I'm making a commitment to follow after Jesus all the days of my life.

That's it.

I'm making this public declaration.

This I'm committing to follow after Jesus all the days of my life, the best I know how.

I'm gonna run after you.

And yes, I'm gonna stumble, I'm gonna fall, and he's gonna pick me up.

It's this public declaration, it's a good uh or a pledge of good conscience towards God.

The best illustration I could think of uh when thinking talking about baptism is the the wedding ceremony.

And we talk about the wedding ceremony, it is this ceremony, it's public, and it's something mystical is actually happening as well.

Uh, because a man and a woman are standing up front and they're pledging to one another, and yet at the same time it's this ceremony before God and other people, but something's happening.

Scripture tells us that the two are becoming one flesh.

I remember our wedding ceremony.

Um so when my wife got back from Sweden after that year away, uh we were dating for an entire year, and and by the way, we didn't have MySpace, which I know doesn't exist anymore, uh, Facebook, Instagram.

I didn't have a cell phone.

I remember using prepaid phone call cards, you know, and having the phone in my you know dorm room and dial in and then sitting out in the hallway so my roommate wouldn't hear me talking to my wife for a year, you know.

So the minute she got back from Sweden, I popped the question.

I was like, I'm not letting this girl get out of my sight ever again.

I'm wild about her, still am.

And then we planned a wedding three months later, because by the way, when you know she's the right one, when you know he's the right one, just get it done, all right?

Just get it done.

And so three months later, we got married and we stood at the altar and we're saying, and my dad was the pastor and in our thing, our wedding, and I mean, I just was this blubbering fool, by the way.

I just cried snot every it's just it was bad.

And and in that moment, we're making this declaration of our love and our commitments, and yet something else is happening.

Is that there is this union that is happening, scripture tells us.

And the picture for us is baptism is this public declaration, this ceremony, and there is something that has already happened.

Baptism is this outward expression of the inward reality of what the Spirit of God has already done in your life.

And so what is baptism?

A symbolic act declaring your standing in Christ.

Well, why do we get baptized?

Well, we started with Matthew chapter 3, then let's go to the end of the book, Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew 3 · chapter mention Matthew 28 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 3 inaugurated Jesus' ministry.

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

Matthew 28 is really his ending or completing his ministry on earth.

It's right before he ascends into heaven.

He's resurrected.

He's been with the disciples for over 40 days, teaching them, and he's about to ascend to the Father.

And these are his final words, final words.

We know it as the Great Commission.

And he says this all authority has been given to me.

I am that sovereign king.

And my resurrection has defeated sin, death, and Satan once and for all.

By the way, every single one of us.

A disciple is just an apprentice.

A disciple is one who is simply following in the ways of Jesus, and we're called to help other people simply follow in the ways of Jesus.

It says, go and make disciples.

And what's the first thing that he says in how we're to go and make disciples?

Not all at once, please.

Baptizing.

See, I think a lot of us think baptizing or baptism is like step two, three, or four in our discipleship process.

And Jesus puts it as step one.

He says, baptizing them into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Like baptism is this public identification into the community of Christ.

It's saying, I'm part of the family.

It's going public with your faith.

And he says, that's just the step where we do, you know, hey, I'm I'm in.

And then it says, teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you.

See, when I said yes to my wife, and I said yes at the altar, I in that moment had an identity change.

I became a husband.

I said yes in that moment.

Here's the problem.

I had no idea how to be a husband.

I am one, I don't know how to be one.

And I'm it's taking I'm we're 19 years this December.

I'm still learning how to be a husband, right?

See, and that's so much of our Christian walk.

The minute you step into your relationship with Jesus, you have an identity change.

You are a new creation, you are a saint, a son, a daughter of the King Most High.

And then you learn how to live out what's already true of you.

And so why do we get baptized?

Well, first, we're just simply following the example of Jesus, right?

Jesus got baptized, and if we're following, we're disciples, we're gonna follow in his ways.

He got baptized, so we're gonna follow his example.

Secondly, we're gonna obey his command.

He said this is the first step in responding to the gospel for us.

And so we're gonna get baptized simply out of obedience of what he said.

And then finally, it's a public, uh, we publicly identify as a follower of Jesus.

And it's interesting, and we've talked about this throughout the series, believers who are in closed countries where it is illegal to be a Christian, or in countries where they experience extreme persecution, the minute they get baptized, many of them get disowned by their family, and for some, then uh they have really a bounty on their head.

It is this incredibly serious thing for them of like, no, we're doing this, and we know that it's saying no to our old life and yes to Jesus, and he saved me, he changed me, and he is so much greater and so much better.

It's I how could I not say yes?

You know, the interesting thing about baptism too is for some, um, your process and your journey with Jesus, it's been gradual, hasn't it?

For some, you know, like it was a point in time.

I and like I have that.

I remember when I was a kid, um, I remember sitting in my mom's, you know, really brown, you know, 70s chair, um, big soft, cushiony chair, and asking my mom, mom, I want to know Jesus, would you lead me?

Like I have that point in time.

But for others, it's gradual.

And you've been here and you've been hearing the teachings of God's word, and all of a sudden you realize, I actually believe that.

And baptism acts as that marker for us of that significant moment where we're going public with our faith, and that you look back on.

In fact, our um our teaching team, we just began to share stories of when we got baptized.

Everyone could remember that moment and they're talking about it.

It's so fun to kind of kick that around.

And I remember I got baptized, I got came to know Jesus when I was like four, and then I got baptized when I was five.

My parents were trying to dissuade me from getting baptized, and they're like, no, you're too young.

You need to, I'm like, no, I need to get baptized because kids can get it, right?

And it's significant.

I was remembering this, I remember I was too short in the baptismal, I couldn't see over to the edge, so they got me a chair to stand in it to be baptized in that moment.

And so, why do we get baptized?

To follow in the example of Jesus, to obey Jesus' commands, and publicly identify as followers of Jesus.

Well, who then should be baptized?

Every person who has placed their faith in Jesus.

You know, when the Apostle Paul talks about baptism, he talks about it in the past tense, because in his day it was the assumption that whoever was a believer had already been baptized.

Peter now preaches the very first sermon of the church at Pentecost.

Tongues of fire come down, they're anointed with the Holy Spirit of God.

He preaches this message.

It sounds a whole lot like John.

Repent and be baptized who?

Every one of you.

Not some of you.

If you're gonna repent, be baptized, every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sin, and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the promises for you and your children, for those who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.

And those who accepted this message were baptized, about 3,000 were added to their number daily.

Who should be baptized?

Every single person.

This is not just for some Christians, or that you kind of reach a certain level, right?

Hey, I gotta get to this kind of level, and then I can get baptized.

In the early church, and this is part of some of the confusion of why we struggle with the is baptism part of salvation, and we'll talk about that in a second.

In the early church, baptism and being saved happen together.

And so you repented, you called upon the name of the Lord Jesus, and you're baptized.

And you'll see that over and over.

And that's why when you're reading the text, you're uh often you'll see, you know, there's two separate baptisms going on.

There's the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The minute you put your trust in Jesus Christ, that's the baptism that John said that Jesus was going to do, the Spirit of God comes inside of you.

He awakens you to new life.

It's literally called regeneration.

You are brought from death to life spiritually in Christ.

It is incredible, it's amazing.

And if you've yet to step into a relationship with Jesus, I invite you to experience new life.

He doesn't want to resurrect and, you know, or make your old life better.

He wants to resurrect a brand new life.

And then there's that public identification of water baptism, and those happen together.

Now, what happened was uh there was some waves of persecution that took place in the early church later on, and some followers of Christ uh they denied the faith, and then once the persecution was over, they wanted to return to the faith.

You can only imagine how difficult that would have been for some of these early churches.

Is like there's a group of people that endured persecution, they lost loved ones, they lost property, and they underwent beatings, and then those that denied the faith then wanted to return to the faith.

It was a very challenging time for the church, honestly.

And and through that, they began to wrestle with okay, maybe there needs to be more of a process to discern are they truly, you know, a believer.

And so they began to put some steps in the way or some processes for people before they got baptized.

And then it got kind of extreme during the medieval time, and you can read all about that some other day.

Um, but where you put even perhaps years before people would get baptized.

But here's the reality is scripturally, who should be baptized?

Every single person who's placed their faith in Jesus, and you don't have to have like reach some particular level.

And by the way, here's good news.

Maybe you're you've been a Christian for a long time and you've never been baptized, and you're like, well, it must be too late for me.

I kind of missed my my window.

Sucks to be you.

No, no, you it's never too late to get baptized at all.

And so the question that we started to answer a little bit is do I have to be baptized in order to be saved?

And the answer is absolutely not.

Baptism does not save you, only faith in Christ Jesus does.

The apostle Paul would say it this way: for it's by grace you've been saved through faith, and this not of yourself.

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

The confusion came because baptism and placing your trust in Jesus happened simultaneously, and so it began to be, you know, a little bit of like, oh, baptism saves you.

No, no, no, no.

This Holy Spirit of God coming into your life, you calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus.

Only those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved.

Baptism is that outward sign of the inward reality of what He has done in you.

And so, when do you get baptized?

Well, the reality is, as soon as you've accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

That's it.

You don't need a class.

We hold a class, and the reason is a lot of people don't really even know what baptism is about, and we want to make sure you know what it's about.

But maybe today you're just feeling the stirring of the Spirit and saying yes to Jesus, you can get baptized.

Next week we're gonna have baptisms and we're gonna have spontaneous baptisms as well.

And you can say yes now.

Uh, you in fact, there's as soon as you've accepted Jesus as your savior, uh is the best time uh to get baptized.

In fact, I like how uh John Mark Comer said it there is no better way to respond to the gospel but to get into the waters of baptism.

Isn't that good?

Now, a couple questions uh about baptism, and then we're gonna shift to communion and close our time with communion.

I I said shift to communion, you're like, wait a second, does he have another sermon about communion?

I I just felt the shift in the room.

You're like, hang on, Ingram, it's hot in here.

It's hot.

Um I got you, I saw it.

We'll close with communion.

How's that?

You good with me?

You still with me?

All right.

A couple things.

For those, some of you grew up and you were maybe baptized as a baby, and there's some of this tension of like, am I wrestling with, am I somehow, you know, denying what my parents did?

And that's significant and meaningful.

Yes, absolutely it is.

It thousand percent is.

Baptism as a baby is what your parents and your that particular faith tradition said of their heart's desire for you.

It's beautiful, it's wonderful, and praise God if that's you.

We do baby dedications, it's just different, we uh, but similar meaning.

And yet at the same time, then the completion of that for you is as an adult saying, you know what, I say yes to Jesus, and I am gonna step into the waters of baptism myself to be able to go, you know, I am now uh cognitively able to say yes to my Savior.

And so, yeah, if you've been baptized as a baby, wonderful, we celebrate that.

And we'd say at the same time uh that there is the importance of as a believer saying yes and stepping into the waters as well.

A second question is what if I walked away from God?

Do I need to get baptized again?

You know, do we do this every few years?

Is this like how I recommit my life?

Um, when awakening was a college ministry at Westgate, we'd do these baptism services and we'd do spontaneous baptisms.

And it was awesome, it was powerful.

There's like a few hundred college students, and you know, people would be coming forward, and one guy gets in the water with me, and I go, I ask him, Hey man, why do you want to get baptized?

And he's like, Well, actually, I was baptized uh a couple months ago by me, and I totally forgot.

That's like a terrible pastor move right there.

And we're standing in the water in front of everybody, and I he's like, and honestly, I just fell away after that day, and I just feel like I want to recommit.

And it's this really powerful moment.

I was like, buddy, you actually don't need to get baptized again.

But what we can do in this moment is you can bring who you are to Jesus and invite him to do a fresh work today.

And so we spent time in front of everyone praying together, and where he uh allowed his heart before God and to confess and to bring all that he was and allowing God to do a fresh new work.

And so, do you need to be baptized over and over again?

Absolutely not.

No, not in the least.

And so baptism is this public declaration and standing of what has happened, like the wedding ceremony up front.

It is this uh, you know, um public um representation of what has happened inward for you, then communion.

If baptism is like the wedding ceremony, communion is like the wedding ring.

Communion is in the wedding ring, the wedding ring reminds me consistently of the commitment that I made to my wife.

The ring is always here to remind me of, yeah, I said yes to her.

It reminds me of the wedding day, it reminds me of of all the things that we've said and cherished over the years, and we partake in communion in much the same way as something that we do consistently, regularly, to remind us of what Jesus has done for us, to center our hearts and our lives back on Jesus.

And the way the Apostle Paul said it in 1 Corinthians 6, he said it this way: For I receive from the Lord what I also pass on to you.

The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.

For whenever you eat the bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

So we get baptized once, we take communion consistently.

Here, we do it at least every month.

And to remember, to remind ourselves of what Jesus has done, to remind ourselves that he is our first love, to remind ourselves that he has done the work so we no longer need to work our way to him, that you're fully forgiven and redeemed, to remind yourself that you're a saint, learning how to be a saint.

That's why we partake in communion together.

And then he goes on and gives us some instructions about how we're to take it.

And I want us to really apply his words.

He said, So then, whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, in a casual manner, will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.

So, what would we do?

Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat the bread and drink the cup.

For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.

See, these are just symbols reminding us, just like my ring, of the work that Jesus did and accomplished.

And before we partake in these symbolic acts, the sacred moments, we're gonna stop and examine.

Shamina's gonna sing a song, and I want you just to stop and go, Heavenly Father, is there anything in me that's not of you?

Before I step and remind myself of your body broken for me, your blood poured out, the new covenant that I might be free and forgiven.

Is there things in me that I just need to confess to bring to you?

Your forgiveness flows freely, your grace pours unconditionally.

So I just want to take a moment, would you allow those songs just to wash over you, and then we're gonna partake in the elements all together in just a second.

But would you take time to examine your heart and life and bring to him, and he'll meet you there, and he'll forgive you and wash you clean.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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