Follow His Footsteps

Praise, welcome to Hopewell, folks.

So good to have you.

Y'all can be seated now.

Thank you so much.

Give old Boxcar Willie on a hand today.

Man, that sounded good.

Man, I mean, he talents.

I mean, like that harmonica.

It sounds good, don't it?

He's been promoted from guitar to harmonica.

Just got promoted today.

Man, that sounds good.

Y'all sound, I'm done.

He's on point today.

Whew, man, so, so.

I can't wait y'all get right then.

If they get right, we liable to have church.

Amen.

Well, glory.

Y'all can take you about a 15, 20 minute break.

Catch your breath.

We're gonna testify a little bit.

Then we're gonna baptize four folks today.

Amen.

Wow, that's a lot going on in one service, isn't it?

But it's a good thing.

It's a good thing.

Folks connecting with the body of Christ

and folks connecting with the kingdom of God.

Amen.

A great thing.

And just a point of clarification,

Brother Ron, Sister Becky, they are official.

No longer potential.

They're on board.

The folks sitting around was kind of concerned,

so I just thought I'd put all that to rest.

They're on board now.

They're one among us.

Days like today can be a little bit difficult.

They can be challenging.

With everything that's happening

and everything that's going on.

I had a word that I was gonna preach today,

but I'm not gonna preach that.

I'm gonna save it till I got your total undivided attention.

Because we got barbecue here in a little while.

And we've got water baptism.

And I'm gonna set the plow when I bring that word.

And we're gonna turn a new furrow.

And we're gonna get down to some richness.

That message will be advancing beyond the press.

Advancing beyond the press.

So you start praying about that,

and that the Lord help us.

And I just really got a deep, deep stirring

and a deep feeling about that one.

It happened, you can be turning in your Bibles,

Matthew 28, while I ramble here just a minute.

This past week was prayer conference.

Sister Kathy and I went and just be honest

for her and myself, it was just,

we just didn't connect with the whole deal.

It just didn't, it's just odd for us

that we just didn't connect.

But I think that the whole thing had to do

with the conversation I had with a pastor friend of mine

on the way home, which stirred the word

that I'm gonna share with you.

He preached a similar thought,

and the more he talked about it,

the deeper my heart stirred.

And so I got one good and out of it in him.

Amen.

And so how good it is remains to be seen,

but it stirred my heart.

And we're gonna do that in a couple weeks.

We're gonna preach that message.

But today as we are preparing for a water baptism,

we borrowed this baptistry from the Lake Hills Church,

which they have two representatives here

with us, one brother Scott and sister Amber,

they're in the MIP program,

and their pastor dispatched them up here

to visit and be with us today.

He didn't know we had all this going on

till the other day, and he said,

well good, that's gonna help them.

They'll hopefully learn some things.

And plus he had to bring the steps to get in the baptistry.

So that's a two for one deal.

But it's good to have them here with us today

as they are embarking on a journey

that Sister Kathy and I started on 30 years ago,

and some of you all remember when you embarked,

40 and 50 and 60 years ago.

It's important to see the church, to have an experience,

in other places.

You know, every church is not as good as yours.

See what I did right there?

Every church, yeah.

You know they say it's a sorry frog

it won't croak for his own pond.

Just saying.

You've got the best out of 62 churches of God

in Bradley County, you're at the best one.

Amen.

And that was an evangelistic stretch.

It's not 62, it's more like 32.

One of these days maybe.

No, we want to share just a little bit about water baptism.

The importance of water baptism,

why we need to be baptizing water.

If you've never been baptizing water

and you claim to be a Christian,

you need to be baptized in water.

Because it is the second step in the life of a believer.

And it's a commanded step.

I've heard excuses, oh I'm afraid of water.

I thought well I'm not going to drown you.

And you go like this.

Well you don't stink so you're not too afraid of it.

You bathe, you brush your teeth, that's just the enemy.

I'm not throwing you over Niagara Falls.

Well I just don't like being in front of people.

I've heard that until it's just like

it's no longer interesting.

I thought, when you go to Walmart,

you go to a ball game.

How come you just don't want to be in front of people

to step out in your faith for Jesus Christ?

Are you shamed of him?

I mean that's the only time folks seem

to get all bent out of shape.

It's when you have to step out at church

and let your faith walk in front of you.

Say well pastor I thought you were going

to talk about water rather than we're working on it.

So if I've hit one of your excuses,

there's several more we won't bother to cover

but I'm sure I can find yours.

As to why you have not been baptized in water,

well just hear it from your pastor, shame on you.

Because the first, we're just going to get right into this.

And Matthew 28 is where the initiation begins for believers.

As we have the missionary mandate of the great commission

where Jesus says go ye into all the world

and what did he say starting out do?

Baptizing them, right?

So there's this instruction that we have

and then he didn't stop there.

He tells us why and how.

Go into all the world, baptizing them

in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost

because the three were witness to Christ's baptism.

As he's baptized in Jordan by John

which he submitted himself to the scripture to be

in our class this morning,

I told them they're going to hear a lot of repetition.

So I shared with them this morning in class,

water baptism is not the saving of your soul's

outward effect.

There's no salvation power in the water

because we are baptized because we repent

and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior

because of our sin.

The Bible would be a lie and Jesus would be a liar

if it required water baptism to seal your salvation

because Christ was the sinless one

but yet submitted himself to the fulfillment of scripture

and allowed John to baptize him.

You remember at his baptism John declared,

Lord, suffer it not to be so

but I need to be baptized by you

because I know my role in this

and I know your role in this.

But Jesus said, John, suffer it unto us

that we fulfill the scripture.

So it's not a sin-cleaning agent

because Jesus was without, say it with me.

Lot of people think, well, it's washing my sins away.

I shared with them things I've heard about water baptism.

Well, I wanna be baptized in flowing water.

I don't wanna be immersed in anybody else's sin.

I said, oh, give me a break.

The reason that we're getting in the water to begin with

is because our sins have already been washed away.

Hallelujah.

That's the reason I'm following in his footsteps

which is the title of today's message.

Follow his footsteps.

That's what's on the back of the T-shirts

that they're gonna wear.

Here in just a little bit.

Following his footsteps.

We're following his direction by obeying his command.

Hallelujah.

Lot of people have strange ideas about water baptism.

That's one of them.

They think it's gotta carry them on down the stream.

Well, there's already been a stream

that's carried them away to be caught in the basin

of the sea of forgetfulness.

If you're born again,

Christ has already washed your sins away.

So the water is only cleaned as you are going in and coming

out.

So that's why we're baptized because of the commandment

that the Lord gives us.

It begins with obedience.

Second, it provides a public profession of faith in Christ.

There's no pseudo-closet Christians in America.

I share with them maybe in communist China

where the underground church exists.

They don't just go publicly.

They evangelize very personal, very quietly.

But when it comes time to water baptism,

the church gathers and they get in front of the church.

It becomes a public profession of our faith

that I am like they were singing.

There's a new name written down in glory.

It's mine.

And that new name is gonna witness out a new life.

You're gonna see something different.

It's a outward public profession.

Colossians 2.12 puts it this way.

Buried with him in baptism wherein also you are risen

with him through the faith of the operation of God

who hath raised him from the dead.

Baptism, you understand your first baptism

happened at your conversion.

When the spirit baptized you in the blood of Jesus Christ.

Hallelujah.

That is the spirit by faith he has cleansed

in the blood of Jesus.

The first baptism we're buried in.

Second baptism is this as we walk it out

in the example of Jesus Christ.

Then there is a third baptism

which is made available to all those who follow

ask and believe.

It is the baptism in the Holy Ghost.

Hallelujah.

Ain't much shouting on that.

They should be in a little more than that.

The one baptism that Ephesians,

Paul writes to the Ephesians about says

there is one baptism that we are all baptized in.

That is the conversion baptism by the spirit

into the family of God through the blood of Jesus Christ.

That's how we're brought into this thing.

Amen.

Through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Oh pastor that sounds gross.

The culture of our day today.

They don't want to hear about the crucifixion.

They don't want to hear oh that offends me.

It should offend you.

Hallelujah.

You should be offended.

We all should be offended by how our savior

bled and died who was nailed to an old Roman cross.

His side pierced, his brow pierced with thorns.

We should all feel offended.

By what he did for us.

So to just simply ask to have a public profession

and before all be baptized seems like a small task.

It's a formal commitment that we are making

and letting everyone know that we're committing

our life to Jesus Christ.

And that life committed to Christ is lived out

by a commitment to the church.

His body.

All these things symbolized through water baptism.

Why be baptized and why is it important?

Because it symbolizes the death, the burial

and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Look at Romans six beginning at verse one.

What shall we say then?

This is something I think is important.

What shall we say then?

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

God forbid.

How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized

into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Had Christ not died and rose again,

our faith would be in vain.

But because he has died and rose again,

our faith is filled with victorious hope

and the symbolism that we live out in our life

when we step and they step into this fountain of water.

They'll step in, they will be seated

and they'll show forth the representation of his death

when we go back and take them under the water

and we'll show forth the resurrection

when we bring them up which is a declaration

of new life and the new life that we find

in the death, in the burial

and in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Oh, water baptism, isn't that important?

I beg to differ with you.

It's the second most important step of our life.

When we accept Christ, we do so personally.

But when we are baptized in front of witnesses,

it is a formal proclamation.

I am who I am because of who he is.

They just sung it a while ago.

I am what I am because he says I am.

He says I am redeemed.

He says I am loved.

He says I have hope, peace and joy in the declaration.

And when I go down, I come up in the hope

of the power of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Baptized in one spirit, baptized by him

into his precious blood and into the body,

but raised again to live victorious through him.

Water baptism, I didn't know I was gonna get this involved.

But I told them, you can't, how can you discuss the death,

the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ

and not get involved?

Because grace abounds, should we continue in sin?

God forbid.

You know, you don't hear a lot about sin and repentance

in church today.

It's five steps of this, eight steps of that,

unless you attend Hope Well.

You may hear it too much, I don't know.

I don't think we can hear it too much

because we need to continually live a repentant life.

I don't know about you, but I'd hate to get this far

and miss it because of one fleshly indulgement.

Whoo!

Wouldn't you?

I hope you would, I hope you don't wanna miss it

because of your flesh.

Your flesh is at war with your spirit.

The carnal you, the carnality of your flesh,

the desires of your flesh, you're at war with your spirit.

And if you're not careful, you'll lose the war

and lose your soul.

What does a man gain if he gains the whole world but?

Thank you, Bible readers.

You've gained nothing.

And so we begin to think, is water baptism important?

I'm gonna give opportunity for anybody that wants to.

We got a sack full of towels.

You'll drip dry.

I ain't worried about the carpet.

I don't wanna do something with it anyway.

I'm mad at it.

Well, we just got it, I know, don't remind me.

So when it gets a little wet, it'll dry.

You'll dry.

What matters most is that we're obedient to the will

of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That we are obedient to the commands of the word

of the living God and that our life is in complete,

full alignment with him.

Death, burial, and resurrection.

Know ye not that so many of us were baptized into Jesus

or into Christ, were baptized into his death?

Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death,

that like as Christ was raised up from the dead

by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk

in the newness of life.

I tell people all the time, if you're the same way,

same attitude, you watch the same things,

go to the same places, do the same stuff after you've said

to have had a conversion experience and you still do

the same thing, you still act the same way,

got the same old rotten, stinking attitude,

then no, I'm sorry you were not converted.

You may have been sorry, but there is a difference

than being sorry for the sins you've committed,

than repenting of those sins because repentance

shows no acceptance.

It shows a 180, a walking away in the opposite direction

of the oldness of life.

So check your life.

If it's the same as you were, I'm giving you an invitation

to get it right today.

A songwriter penned a course to a song that said,

living he loved me, dying he saved me, buried he carried

my sins all away, rising he justified and he freed me

forever and one day he's coming back.

What a glorious day.

By submitting to the manger, by abandoning his glory

estate to assume a fleshly body, God incarnate loved us.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten

son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish

but have everlasting life.

And all we have to do is repent, accept, believe,

and live out this newness of life.

Live it out.

It's a glorious life.

No hangovers, unless it's a really good toad strangler

on a Sunday morning and you leave here drunk on the new

wine.

You say, now I don't know what you're talking about there.

Remind me later.

I don't have time this morning.

Hallelujah.

So is it important?

I say yes.

I say it's very important.

Benefits to water baptism.

One of the benefits is that it symbolizes the spiritual

purification that has taken place in your heart.

How many remember when apostle Paul come across, I think it's

Acts 19, 20, 21, somewhere in there.

He came across a group of disciples and he asked them,

have you received the, no, he asked them first of all, he

said, have you been baptized in the Holy Ghost?

And they said, well, no, we've not even heard that there was

such a thing as the Holy Ghost.

He said, well, what baptism have you been baptized into?

Well, we're unto John's baptism, which was?

Anybody?

What was John preaching?

Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand and be baptized.

John the Baptist, some of you converted Baptists in here

or been on that.

Y'all should help me right there.

Should help me.

That's John's baptism, right?

And then Paul laid hands on them and said, receive you the

Holy Ghost.

And they did.

Spiritual significance, benefits.

Spiritual purification, symbolizing rebirth.

Baptism represents the washing of our sins away.

It represents, it doesn't do it.

It represents what has already been done spiritually in our

life.

Water baptism is so much more than I'm even trying to cover

right here, but we're going to move right along.

Water baptism is so much more.

Guys, those of you that are getting baptized, you can go

ahead and change and get ready and we're going to make ready

in here.

And while they're going to get ready to be baptized, the first

element is repentance.

Is repentance.

We don't hear enough about repentance.

We face so many issues in our lives currently, right?

We face so many issues.

And we preach as the Spirit leads us concerning issues, but

we have to stop and check ourselves.

Pastor, I've got to stop and check myself.

It's repentance.

It's repentance.

It's knowing that you're lost without Jesus Christ.

Oh, how do I know I'm without him?

If you've not repented of your sins and accepted Christ into

your heart as Lord, then you haven't.

If we are not walking out the newness of life, if we are

still walking in sinful habits, did I not just read to you from

the word of God?

Shall we continue in sin because grace abounds?

And the word of God said, God forbid.

We can't keep doing what the flesh wants to do and expect to

make heaven our home.

We have to walk in the newness of life.

Where Paul put it this way, behold, old things pass away.

All things become new because we become new creatures,

creations in Christ Jesus.

And it's a simple remedy as the spirit draws.

It's a simple remedy for that.

It's the humbling of our heart and our will to accept his, to

repent and accept Christ and then follow after him in

newness of life.

Heads bowed all over the house.

Father, I truly love you this morning.

I feel, sweet Holy Ghost, I feel you dealing with hearts.

I know you're dealing with hearts today.

I feel the drawing.

I feel the drawing.

I feel you speaking to lives today.

Repent therefore and be converted.

Romans 10, 9 and 10, that Roman road to salvation.

If we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart.

Jesus declares for all of sin to come short of the glory of God.

That 23rd verse in Romans 6 says for the wages of sin is death.

The wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The gift of God is eternal life.

Sin's just going to bring forth death and destruction.

But without repentance and the acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our

life, sin's debt will be placed upon our life.

But the gift of God is eternal life.

My head's about all over the house this morning.

Two invitations this morning, one for those who have never accepted Christ as Lord.

If that's you, if that's you this morning and you feel this quickening, this rapid pulse

rising and your heart's beating and you feel like I need to go down there, well, that's

the Spirit of God.

That's the Holy Ghost bringing and drawing you to Jesus.

I need Jesus.

If that's you this morning, just come and stand down here in the front.

Just come down here, just make your way to the front.

I need Jesus.

The second invitation is this.

If you have wandered away from a previous commitment and now sin and the old lifestyle

has taken over, there's a fresh awakening for you today.

I believe it was to the church at Ephesus that John the Revelator said, you've lost

your first love.

And it was to them that he declared, do your first works over again.

If you don't love the Lord as passionately as you have in your past, look folks, there's

no backing up.

There's no neutral for the child of God.

We progress forward in our love for God and our passion to serve him.

And you need a refreshing today.

These invitations to you stand all over the house, would you?

You need to stretch just a moment before we do this baptism.