What is baptism? In simple terms, being baptized is like putting on a wedding ring. It's a response to a loved one and an outward symbol of an inward commitment. Baptism is a way for us to express personal decision to believe and accept the salvation of God through Jesus Christ. Just as Christ was crucified and buried, we are immersed in water to symbolize the burial of our old ways. And again, just as Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, we are also raised out of the water, symbolizing our new life in Christ. The Apostle Paul said it this way, 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. Today, we celebrate with people as they take their next step and tell the world how Jesus has changed their lives. I pastored a church in southwest Missouri for a little over 12 years before coming up here now for the last 13. And the church I pastored there, I remember we had a guy who was in his 40s. He was scheduled to be baptized on a Sunday morning, real excited about it. It was the dead of winter. It was super, super cold outside and our baptistry heater, sometime on Saturday, it went out. So when we got in on Sunday morning, I mean, the baptistry water was like ice cubes. It was so cold. We showed up for his baptism and I told him and I said, I am so sorry. baptistry heater broke, got a couple options. If you want to reschedule, that is absolutely fine. Or you can just go for it. He said, nah, man, I want to do it. I'm here today. I'm going to go for it. And I said, I'm telling you the water's pretty cold. He says, nah, I'm going to do it. And I said, okay, that's great. So I went down into the water first. I had on waders. I was cheating. I was standing there and it was, you can even feel it through the waders, it was pretty cold. And so kind of held out the hand for him to come in. And this big guy in his forties, he got down into the water and it's like, it like almost took his breath away. He like curled up a knee, his eyes got very big and he went like, woo, like that in the water. And all the church was just really laughing and we baptized him. I promise you, he never has forgotten his baptism. in that cold water. You talk about being baptized in cold water, check out this picture. This is from Siberia. Look at the size of those ice chunks they had to saw out. I will never complain about cold water again as long as I live after seeing that. See, those believers in Siberia to the point of saying, you know what, baptism is such an important thing. I'm not going to make any excuses. It doesn't matter how hot the water is or how cold the water is. I'm going to follow through with this thing to the point they cut out big old chunks of ice. to be baptized. Now, this is our baptistry right up here, and I've got good news for you. The heater's working just fine. Matter of fact, if we had some jets in it, it would be like a Jesus jacuzzi. It's so nice up there. But I really believe that the word temperature has a lot to do with this issue of baptism. And you can see on our screen up here, maybe, here we go. Temperature has a lot to do with a person being baptized or not. Not the temperature of the water, but the temperature of our hearts. If it was the water temperature thing, those people in Siberia would have said not today. Even at the church when the heater broke, he would have said not today, and no one held it against him. But really, baptism is an issue of heart temperature, not water temperature. So what's the temperature of your heart concerning this thing called baptism? This is Baptism Sunday, and it's one of the most exciting days in the life of our church. We look forward to it every year. It's an unashamed Sunday, and it has several purposes. One is that we, from a discipleship standpoint, we want to understand biblically what baptism really is. And so you may be here and you've been walking with Christ a lot of years and you've been baptized. You may think, I can kind of check out on this. Well, let me ask you something. If someone was to come to you and say, hey, could you tell me what baptism is and why we do it and what it really means? Could you simply and clearly and easily tell them and explain baptism to them? I hope your response wouldn't be, well, let me let you talk to our pastor. See, I believe it's a discipleship principle that every one of us who knows Christ, we should be equipped enough to know what baptism really is and why we do it. We have two ordinances in the church. We have the Lord's Supper and we have baptism. The Lord's Supper we do a bunch of times. Baptism is something we're to do one time as long as it's biblical in the way that we do it. And how can we be serious about discipleship if we don't spend some time on the two ordinances of the church? So at the end of October, we always have a Lord's Supper Sunday where we spend all three services on Sunday morning about the Lord's Supper. And then we have a Baptism Sunday always in the first part of the year, which is what we're doing today. But the other side of that is this is also an unashamed, just do it, no excuses. I've been putting it off. This is the day that I'm going to be baptized. I'm going to do it today. We have had in the last eight years, the last eight years of Baptism Sundays, just on Baptism Sunday, 242 people who have been baptized. And the vast majority of those came not expecting to be baptized. We have had 11 baptized already this morning. In our eight o'clock service, we had an adult woman who was coming to be baptized. Her adult sister and her mother came. Her adult sister and adult mother did not come today planning to be baptized. It was not on their radar screen at all. But after our service today, the adult, Sister said I I need to be baptized my baptism is not what it should be and the mother said I realized girls that I've never come to Christ as my personal Savior So at eight o'clock in the baptistry was two adult daughters and a mom all three at the same time being baptized It was so cool and we're seeing God just really do some cool things this morning But this is your this is your moment of blessing this is your time to experience the joy and the blessing of believers baptism and and to really understand why we do it and what it means. So where are you in these four? Everyone in this room, and thank you for those of you who are joining us by radio, if you're joining us by live stream. Really, we have people join us all over the world in live stream. Thank you for being here today. That community of those who join us online, we're so grateful for that, that you're here. Which one of these four are you? Every one of us in this room is one of these four when it comes to baptism. I did it the Bible way. You saying, I know I've done it. I've been baptized and I understand it. It's the right way. Some of you are number two saying, I know I need to do it. You know, I've never done it, but I know I need to do it. And I just keep putting it off, putting it off, putting it off. There's a huge group in number three that says, I did it, but you know, I never really have a piece about it. I just had this uneasiness, this check in my spirit, this spot in my heart. I just never really feel good about it. And the fourth group is, I don't understand it at all. That was me. I've shared before, I was never raised in church. I'd only been in church four or five times by the time I graduated from high school. And I remember the first time I saw a baptism, And I remember I was sitting in a church, and I watched this full-grown adult dunk another full-grown adult, and everyone clapped, and I thought, what in the world is going on? This is weird. I had no idea what it meant. If that's you, we love you, we're glad you're here. When you walk out today, not only I pray you're gonna follow him in baptism, but I pray every single one of us in this room clearly understands why we do it, and what it means. Because if you're number one, then again, this is a day to equip you and to help you grow and be able to do a better job. I join you in that in explaining baptism to others. It's got a huge discipleship principle to it. But if you're two threes or four, this is an unashamed, no excuse, just do it now. Settle it once and for all. How about from this day forward to the end of times, the issue of baptism, questions answered, everything is settled in your life, done, finished, over. You never have to have that feeling again. That's what today is all about. We're looking in the book of Ephesians chapter four today for our Baptism Sunday. The Apostle Paul is writing to Christians, to those who are followers of Jesus, those who have had their life changed by Christ, at the church in the Roman city of Ephesus. He is encouraging them and he's educating them about the sort of lifestyle that pleases God and brings glory to God. As you look in chapter four, verses four, five, and six, he lists seven virtues, seven things that unite everyone who follows Jesus. Look at these seven. He says in verses four through six, there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling. Verse five, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Verse six, one God and father of all who is above all and through all and in all. If you notice in verse five, three of the seven virtues that unite all Christ followers. The first one is one Lord, there is only one Lord. His name is Jesus Christ. He alone is the Lord. He alone is the Savior. He alone is the way, the truth and the life. He's the master of the universe. He's the king of kings and lord of lords the way We know the God who created us the way we know this one Lord. Look what's next in verse 5 is one faith One faith simply means that all of us are wrong with God in and of ourselves the Bible calls that sin God is holy and perfect. There's not a single person in this world, I'll stand at the beginning of the line, that is holy and perfect. None of us are perfect. We've never met a perfect person. We all have flaws in our life, but God is flawless. And that separates us from him. Our sins separate us from God. And by believing that God's real, by believing there is a God, by trying to have morals, by trying to do good things, by being plugged into some religion, by trying to be a decent person with, you know, living a good life, always trying to do better, Being sincere about that, that's not enough. God's love found the way. When Jesus came and took all my sins upon himself, all your sins, he died, he was buried, he arose. It's not any work I do for God to make myself right with God. It's the work that Jesus did for me on the cross when he died and he arose, and it's all grace. I don't earn it. I don't deserve it, it's just His grace that gave it to me." When we embrace that by faith, we have one faith and our life is changed. So there's one Lord, one faith, but look what comes after one faith is one baptism. Now to be true to verse 5, there is in the Bible, and I'm glad, there is a thing called a spiritual baptism. Now, I'm glad that spiritual baptism is not a second blessing that happens sometime on down the road after you've come to know Christ. The moment you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, you got all the Holy Spirit you're ever gonna get. We can be filled, but we have all the Holy Spirit that we're ever gonna get. You were immersed, you were baptized into the body of Christ the very moment that you came to Jesus Christ in faith. But I also believe the one baptism, being true to this text, I also believe it can speak to water baptism. water baptism of saying an unashamed, I'm going to identify with Jesus Christ in my life. I'm not ashamed to do that, what it means. So let me share with you four lessons for living so we can understand what baptism is. And for some of you today, again, this is a no excuse, just do it. I am going to be baptized today. I'm gonna settle it once and for all. like right now, 253 people have done over the last eight years. And 11's already done today, all adults. Number one, the crucialness of baptism. And yeah, crucialness is a word, don't look it up now, look it up after the service, okay? The crucialness of baptism. It says one baptism in verse five. It's obviously very important. It's listed as one of those seven virtues that unite us. Baptism is so important to the Lord and so important to us. Let me tell you how important or how crucial baptism is to Jesus. Jesus began his earthly ministry with baptism. Matthew chapter 3 Jesus walked 60 to 70 miles and was baptized. He didn't have to do it He did it as an example for you and an example for me to follow it wasn't like an air-conditioned car ride He had to walk 60 to 70 miles to be baptized. You know how Jesus ended his earthly ministry? With baptism. After his crucifixion, after his resurrection, in Matthew 28, he gave every believer in every church our marching orders, and that's the Great Commission. He said in Matthew 28 that we're to go and make disciples of all nations, that's people coming to Christ in faith, and he says baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And then you know how the church was born? In Acts chapter two on the day of Pentecost, after the resurrection, after the ascension of Christ, the church was born. The church began when the apostle Peter preached the good news of Christ, that Jesus, that God loves you, and Jesus arose from the grave and life is found in him. You can become a follower of Christ, have your life changed forever, have your sins forgiven, have eternal life when this life is over. It's a gift of God. And 3,000 people said yes to Jesus. Then in Acts 2 somewhere around verses 41 42 something like that It says they that day were baptized all 3,000 were baptized. So think about what that means if we think that baptism is important Oops baptism Jesus began his earthly ministry with baptism and He ended his earthly ministry with baptism, and the church began with baptism. So baptism was modeled by Jesus, how he began his ministry in Matthew 3, when he went and was baptized as an example. Baptism is commanded at the end of his ministry, when he said to go and make disciples and baptize them. Baptism is not some kind of religious ritual, sweet, cute, little optional thing. For whatever reason, primarily, only the American church, people who say, yes, I have a relationship with Christ, look at baptism like it's some kind of a little religious tradition optional thing. Around the world, they're like the church that we see here. In Acts chapter 2, they urgently obeyed it. They absolutely, urgently obeyed what God had called them to do. And so we see that the crucialness of baptism. Nowhere in the Bible is there an unbaptized believer. Every believer in the Bible is baptized except for one. That's the thief on the cross. Pretty good excuse. If you got spikes in your hand and your feet and you're nailed to a cross. Jesus told him, you're gonna be with me in paradise. And I guarantee if that guy could have come off the cross, he would have been baptized. So if you are saved, if you're sitting here today, I didn't say you believe that God's real. I didn't say that you don't have morals. I didn't say that you're a good citizen. I didn't say that you've been to church. I didn't say that you kind of are religious. If you know that Jesus Christ lives inside of you because you willfully, intentionally, intellectually knew that he died for your sins and he arose from the grave and you needed that and you started a personal relationship with him, if you are saved, and if the temperature of your heart is serious about that, the very first footprints in your life and following Christ should lead you to the baptistry, the baptistry pool. That's the crucialness of baptism. Look at number two, let's understand this, the Christian in baptism. If you look at Ephesians chapter four, when Paul says one baptism, he's talking to the church, the called out ones, the Christians. And I've already talked about this enough. In our culture today, it's sad, but the word Christian has been so watered down You're an American that flies your flag and believe in the big guy upstairs. You're a Christian. That's not what the Bible means It's someone again who has a personal relationship Through Jesus Christ. He lives in them. They are in Christ and Christ is in him. That's what we mean here, but we see in that Paul is talking to Christians when he talks about baptism. In the Bible, the only people who are baptized are believers, are followers of Jesus, people who know Christ. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is the story of Jesus. It's the four gospels or the good news. the birth of Jesus, the life of Jesus, his death on the cross, his burial, his resurrection. We get to the book of Acts. It's really the acts or the actions of Jesus now that he's ascended into heaven, working through the church through his spirit. And if you go through the book of Acts, which starts in Jerusalem and going all the way to the ends of the earth of the spread of the love of God, the good news of God, every time there's a baptism, it's always a believer in Jesus. In Acts 2.41, the 3,000, it says, gladly received his word, and they were baptized. In Acts 8.35-38, the man from Ethiopia, it says, believed with all his heart, he was baptized. In Acts 9.18, Saul of Tarsus, who became the apostle Paul, who wrote the letter to the church at Ephesus. He was converted, his life was changed. Who he used to be was not who he became. Christ changed his life, he was baptized. Acts 10 43 through 48 says those who believe the message preached by the Apostle Peter concerning forgiveness of sins They were baptized at 16 14 and 15 says Lydia whose heart was open to the Lord She became a believer. She became a follower of Christ. She was baptized just didn't believe that God was real Just didn't try to stop doing bad habits and start doing good habits. Just wasn't a God fearer who had their own beliefs She came to a personal relationship with Christ. Her heart was open. She was baptized. Acts 16, 30 through 34, the Philippian jailer believed that Jesus was the only way. His savior, his household believed it. And it says in Acts 16, they were baptized that same hour of the night. In Acts 18, eight, there's the synagogue ruler named Crispus, a religious dude, a good citizen, a successful guy, but he came to a point knowing that just believing God's real and just trying to be moral and religious wouldn't get him anywhere. He came to know Christ as his savior because it says in verse eight, hearing, believed, and was baptized. He became a believer. So you put all that together, who are baptized in the Bible? Those that gladly receive the word, who believe with all their heart, who've been converted, who believe the message of concerning the forgiveness of sin, whose heart is open to the Lord, who hearing, believe, were baptized seven times. Every time in the book of Acts, the only people that are baptized are people who are believers in Jesus Christ. So again, that's important to us. We see that baptism does not save us. Baptism does not get us to heaven. Only the blood of Jesus can save us. Baptism does not wash away our sins. Some people look at baptism like it's some kind of heavenly wet wipe. Like, you know, we take out a wet wipe and we do on the outside to wipe away our germs. They look at it like, well, baptism is going to wash away all my sins. You know, wet wipe can take care of the germs on the outside, but it can't do anything if there's viruses on the inside of you. Baptism does not wash away our sins. I had a guy, I've showed this before, a guy said one time, He said, hey, Pastor Kenny, I'd like to be baptized at this certain creek, at this certain place. He's totally serious. He says, because the current is so swift there, I think it would do a much better job of washing my sins away. The current of the water doesn't wash away your sins, only the blood does. And look, it says, baptism does not keep us saved. Baptism are for those who are already saved, already been rescued, delivered, have a relationship with Christ. We do it because we love Him and we want to obey Him. So in the Bible, Believers are the people that are baptized. Now let me share something with you and don't tune me out. I am not bashing you and this sweet church that I represent is not bashing you. Hear me out. Believers are the ones in the Bible that are baptized. Babies are never baptized in the Bible. There's not one baby that's ever baptized in the Bible. Babies are blessed in the Bible, but babies are not baptized in the Bible. There are some religions that have a part of a very important ritual and tradition of baptizing infants, of baptizing babies, but that's just not in the Bible. Now, hear me clearly, okay? If you were baptized as a baby, we are not attacking you or bashing you. If you were baptized as a baby, that was something that someone loves you did as a loving act for you, okay? There was nothing mean about it. People who love you did that as a loving act for you. But sitting here today, if you'll be intellectually honest, you have to agree with me on this point. That's a decision that someone made for you. You did not make that decision yourself. Truly, the people who made the decision for you to be baptized should have been the ones that were baptized. It was an act of love done by people that love you. But now you're of an age, guess what, you can make a decision for yourself. And in the Bible, that's why it's believers, because a baby, as sweet and wonderful as they are, and how the Bible blesses them, a baby can't come to a point of realizing that I'm not perfect and God is, and I'm separated from him, but God made the way when Jesus died and arose. They can't grasp that. So, you do not have to be baptized to be saved by Jesus, but once you are saved, you do have to be baptized to be obedient to Jesus. It's an issue of obedience. So the crucialness of baptism. The Christian baptism. Third is the components of baptism. We just want to understand it. What are the parts that make up baptism? It says one baptism in Ephesians 4. There is a God Bible baptism. What is that? What is the one baptism? Well, the first part is the placement of baptism. Baptism always comes after salvation or after believing in Jesus. We already talked about that. If you look at Ephesians 4, 5, it says one Lord, one faith. What comes after your faith in the Lord is the baptism. The baptism doesn't come before faith. The baptism comes after faith. Again that Great Commission where the Lord said go and make disciples of all nations Baptizing you are baptized following the time that you come to Christ I won't reread the seven times in the book of Acts where it talks about those who are baptized But every time they believed then they were baptized so baptism biblical baptism always has to come after salvation in Christ The second thing is the promptness of baptism. There's nothing wrong, it's very biblical, to just do it now. Acts chapter 2, once again, the 3,000 were saved and they were baptized that very day. Acts chapter 8, the Ethiopian eunuch, when he came to Christ by faith, They pulled the chariot over, and that very moment, he was baptized in a river. We see in Acts 16, the Philippian jailer, when he and his family came to know Christ, that same day, that very hour of the night, they were baptized. So just doing it now is absolutely biblical. And the third part of understanding the components of baptism is the procedure. Baptism requires water. You're saying, this guy is really sharp. What'd you learn today? Baptism requires water. But here's the issue, what do we do with the water? Do we sprinkle? Do we pour? Do we immerse or dunk? How do we know what is the right way? Well, let's let the Bible tell us how a person is supposed to be baptized with the water. Words say what words mean. And if you look at Ephesians 4-5, you see the word baptism. What does that word baptism mean? There is a Greek word that is the Greek word rantizo. Rantizo means to sprinkle or pour. Rantizo is not used in Ephesians 4-5. There is another Greek word, which is the word baptizo. Baptizo means to dunk or to drown or to plunge or to immerse. Baptizo is the word that is used in Ephesians 4-5. So it says there is one baptism, and the one baptism it says is not rantizo, not sprinkling or pouring, the one baptism is by dunking or immersing. But I don't wanna stop there. 70 times In the New Testament, you find the word baptism. It is baptizo. It's to dunk. It's to immerse. Words say what word means. If God wanted it to be the sprinkle, God could have simply put that in there, but He didn't do that. It's not sprinkling or pouring, it's immersion. This is a George Foreman lean, mean, fat grilling machine. I feel like I'm doing an infomercial. But wait, for 1999, there's a second. But this is one you can grill a hot dog, grill a hamburger, do whatever on this little electric grill. On the bottom of it, there's a warning label that says this. It says, do not immerse in any liquid. Now we know, this was made by Methodists, by the way. That's a joke, man, come on, lighten up. Lighten up, it's a joke. It says do not immerse. We know what that means. I don't read the word immerse and go, huh, I guess I can't sprinkle water on it. No, we read the word immerse and we know, it's not that hard, we know what it means. Don't take your George Foreman electric grill and dunk it under the water in the sink. If in the Bible days, Jesus would have put a label on this George Foreman grill, it would read, do not baptize this grill. That's the exact word in the Bible for immersion. We know it means immersion. The Bible shows us that in John 3, 23, John the Baptist is baptizing. Again, his name's John the Baptist baptizing. I think he knows what he's doing. And it says there was a lot of water there. Why was there a lot of water there in verse 23? Because you need a lot of water when you dunk people. And certainly we would think if anyone's gonna have their baptism right, it's gotta be Jesus. Didn't Jesus nail his baptism? Well, how was he baptized? Matthew 3 16 and 17 it says when he had been baptized Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold the heavens were open to him and he saw it says the Spirit of God descending like a dove alighting on him and look at verse 17 God says man, that's my son and I am so pleased it pleased God did you notice there's that word baptized not ran tissue sprinkled or poured but for immersion or being dunked and Jesus came up immediately from the water. What do you have to do before you first come up out of the water? You've got to go down into the water. The Bible's one baptism is this. We all should understand this according to the Bible. It's being immersed after salvation is God's one baptism. This is what Bible baptism is. The first thing is we come to know Christ as our Savior. We enter into a real life-changing relationship with Jesus. We become followers of Jesus, knowing He died on the cross, He arose from the grave to pay the price for our sins. We have a relationship with Him. That happened for me as a college freshman, December 1st of 1981, and I was baptized December 13th of 1981. I've never forgotten it. The water was great, by the way, it wasn't cold, but I've never forgotten it. After we come to know Christ as our Savior, we're baptized by immersion. We know Jesus as our personal Lord. After that, we're immersed. So what that means, if you are immersed, sprinkled, or poured before Jesus became your personal Savior, all you did is get wet. It might be meaningful to you, it might be emotional to you, but it's not biblical, because baptism has to follow believing. If after you had personal faith in Jesus, you were sprinkled or you were poured, that might be meaningful, it might be emotional to you, but it's not biblical. Biblical baptism is come to know Christ as your Savior. After that moment, you are immersed. That's biblical baptism, the one baptism. But now here's the huge question, why? Why does God want us to do that? I mean, if it doesn't save us and wash away our sins, what's the important? Why does God, why did Jesus model it? Why did he command it? Why did the church obey it? Why did Paul say there are seven virtues that unite all of us and one of those is baptism? Why is it so important? Well, here's the answer to that, and this is, most American Christians don't understand the real reason of baptism. Have you ever heard of symbolic communication? Symbolic communication, and in love, there's a group of people sitting right here that really understand symbolic communication. It's our wonderful deaf ministry, and we are very grateful for you all very, very much. Symbolic communication is when you use universally understood symbols that you can instantly communicate and eliminate language barriers and misunderstanding of words. You use symbolic communication every day of your life. So do I. If you drive a car, there are these things called road signs. And if you see a red octagon, the symbol, that picture, you know it means to stop. If you see a yellow triangle, there's no words, but if it's got a deer on it, you know it means caution, there's a deer crossing. That's symbolic communication. If you see a yellow triangle sign with railroad tracks, railroad crossing, you see a yellow triangle sign with an arrow going sharp to the right, you know, I better slow down, there's a sharp right turn. There's no language barrier there. There's no misunderstanding of words. It takes a symbol to paint a picture to communicate something so we can universally understand it. That's symbolic communication. Baptism is the single greatest, most important symbolic communication in the world. Baptism, because of symbols, there's no word spoken, it breaks down language barriers, and baptism, you don't have to worry about a misunderstanding of words. See, what baptism means, the symbolic communication of it is this. When a person is standing in the baptistry, they're saying symbolically that Jesus hung on the cross. When they go under the water in the baptistry, and by the way, when you're underwater, don't take a breath. You're in an environment you can't survive in. When you go under the water, it's painting a picture, symbolic communication that you believe Jesus died and was buried in the tomb. So what do you think it means when you come up out of the water? You believe he arose from the grave. It's symbolic communication. It's saying that I believe Jesus died on the cross, I believe he arose from the grave, I believe he was buried and he arose. You're saying that I am crucified with Christ, the old me has died and I'm gonna walk a new life. You're saying even my physical body, one of these days it may die, if the Lord doesn't come back to be asked from the body, he's present with the Lord, but one of these days he's gonna resurrect my physical body. It's symbolic communication. So it's saying, It's saying, listen, I'm not ashamed. I want people to know that. Baptism will bless you. I promise you, it will bless you, because you're obeying the Lord. Baptism will please God. Jesus said in John's gospel, if you love me, you'll obey me. So your baptism will bless you, and your baptism will please God, but it's that last one. This is what most American Christians don't understand. Your baptism really isn't for you. It's for those watching you. That's why we do it. That's why God commands it and Jesus modeled it. And do you see, see how serious this is? Sprinkling and pouring does not symbolically communicate cross, death, resurrection. I'm not trying to be cute. Jesus wasn't sprinkled with dirt. He went into a tomb and came out of the tomb alive. Symbolic communication has to tell the story accurately, and only immersion does that. It's not for you. I would be baptized every single Sunday, because I want people to know the Lord, I'm not ashamed of him, but I don't have to do that. But I'm here to tell you, when a person is baptized, you can say through symbolic communication, I believe that Jesus Christ hung on the cross for me. I didn't earn it, don't deserve it, nobody does. I really believe he died and was buried in a tomb, and I believe he arose from the grave, and he has totally changed my life. My sins are forgiven, all the junk, everything I am, that God loves me just exactly as I am, but He loves me too much to keep me as I am. He changed my life. I'm not perfect. None of us are perfect. But I believe now I have a power and a peace in my life. I know why I was created, where I'm going, where I belong. I'm going to heaven when this life is over. I have a relationship with the God who created me. And while I'm gonna be baptized, while I'm gonna get in that water, while I got into a cold baptistry at the old church, while I cut the ice in Siberia, is because I'm not ashamed for people to know that I belong to Jesus. I'm not ashamed to say without words he died. I'm not ashamed to say he arose from the grave. I want to identify with him. Like I'm wearing a wedding ring, because I'm not ashamed to be married to Donna. I'm gonna put on that wedding ring because I want the world to know that I belong to Him, that He changed my life. I'm gonna get my hair wet, and it's gonna be weird, and everyone's gonna clap, but I know what I'm doing. I am painting a picture without words. I'm preaching a sermon with no words, that He was on the cross, He died, He arose, and I belong to Him, and it's forever. But it's the temperature of the heart that makes that happen. So, are you ready to maybe do the most radical thing you've ever done for God in your life? This is an unashamed, just-do-it-now, no-excuse Sunday. This is saying I want to be experienced the blessing of baptism the joy that's going to fill my heart in doing that because I belong to Jesus and I know that I belong to him and there's not going to be any excuses. I'm going to do this thing today because most of all people watching from look I mean all over the world. South Korea, all sorts of places, watch this every week. I want them to know, the people in this room, to know that I am not ashamed to belong to Jesus Christ. I'm not ashamed to be a witness for him. I'm gonna settle this once and for all. I know I need to do it, and I keep putting it off. I'm not putting it off anymore. I've done it before, and I've never had a peace about it. Well, I'm tired of that feeling. I'm gonna settle it once and for all today. I've never understood it, but now I understand why. Maybe you need to come to Jesus first and just say, Lord, by faith, be my Savior, and testify that. through baptism, or you say, now I understand it, I want to do it. See, what we've done sometimes, we've attributed with coming forward and standing in front of a church as our public testimony. That's not biblical. There's nothing wrong with that. The biblical testimony that communicates death, resurrection is baptism. 242 people have been baptized, now it's 253 on Baptism Sunday. What we're doing works, it's been proven, it works, there's no doubt about it, 11 people are ready today. The number one thing you're saying is I did not come prepared to do this. Most of the people baptized today did not come, they're just like you, you did not come prepared to do this, you had no plans to do this, wasn't on your radar screen. Hear this, we are prepared for you. We have eliminated every excuse. When it comes to time, we've rearranged, this is a 75 minute service, we've rearranged this service to where we have 25 or so plus minutes, 30 minutes left, your family will wait for you. When it comes to towel and clothing, we have all kinds of towels, we have a huge inventory of outer and undergarments, anything you would need, you came dry, you left dry. We have private dressing rooms, big fluffy towels, Makeup, blow dryers. We've eliminated every excuse. The hardest part though, let me show you the very hardest part, which 253 people have done in the last eight years. There's no doubt about it, this is the hardest part. We'll stand here in a little bit. We're all gonna clap and applaud and thank the Lord for his goodness. It's this right here. It's one step of faith. It's the hardest moment. If you trust God enough to take that one step of faith, the rest, I promise you, will be easy. You don't have to come forward and stand up here and talk to us. In just a moment, Michaela will be standing over here. You don't have to come forward to me. You just make your way right to this door, and there's a room across the hallway where we want to be responsible. We'll spend just a little bit of time, see if you have any questions. But hear me, if you're sitting in the back or in the balcony, you don't even have to come this way. If you want to go out the back doors or go down the stairs, there will be people in the lobby wearing this lanyard. And with a big smile on their face, they'll simply show you how to go around this way, down this hallway into the room right across the hallway. So again, you can go right to that door. You can go out what's closest to you. There'll be people all over the place. You can go up balcony, go out the back. and they'll be wearing this. I don't want you to have any uneasiness. Let me show you what will happen once you go out the back doors or this door and you go to the room across the hallway. Watch this video. You could make a pretty good argument that the most talked about place in the world right now is North and South Korea, with all the talks of potential peace and those sort of things. Let me show you a picture out of North Korea. That's three believers praying. For the last 13 years, North Korea is the most dangerous place in the world to be a follower of Jesus Christ. In a book called Dangerous Devotions, there was a businessman who was really an undercover missionary who got into North Korea, and God blessed him by giving him a communist guide who loved to take long naps. And this communist guide fell asleep and was sleeping sound, and this businessman slash undercover missionary had heard in the city he was in that there was a small group of Christ followers. You see, in Korea, if you're caught just carrying a Bible, it's 15 years in a labor camp. Most people don't live three in those camps. And when they discovered, this small group of believers, when they discovered that this businessman was a missionary in broken English, they began to say this over and over. You must baptize us. You must baptize us. You must baptize us. We've been waiting for someone to baptize us. You must baptize us. In Korea, if you're baptized, instant execution. Well, this missionary was so brokenhearted because there was no creeks, no lakes, no, there was nothing. There was no area to baptize them. And he said all he could do is go to them one at a time, and he put his hands on their shoulders, and he prayed over them, and he thanked God for the temperature of their heart, that they were willing to do it. They just couldn't. And I guarantee you, if there had been a pool of water there, regardless of how shallow, it wouldn't matter if it had ice cubes in it or if it was, they would have done it. The temperature of the water wouldn't have stopped them because of the temperature of their heart. Hey, this isn't about guilt, but I'm just here to tell you that in the United States of America, God has given us great freedom. We don't have to worry about beatings, imprisonment, execution. Man, we got warm water, fuzzy towels, and blow dryers. What's the temperature of your heart? This is an unashamed, no excuse, I'm going to take a stand for Jesus Christ. You didn't come prepared, but we are prepared for you Sunday. Pray with me. God, at this moment, we pray, first of all, that everyone in this room, everyone listening online, knows that they belong to you. There's been that time in their life when, God, none of us are perfect. You died, you arose, and they entered into a relationship with you. God, maybe they're here today and they would just simply say, Jesus, in faith, forgive me and be my savior. Lord, for others in this room, Lord, those four categories, are there some here who know they need to do this and God, they just keep putting it off? Are there some here who have done it and just have never had a peace about it? And God, this time they understand that yeah, I need to do this. Lord, are there others who have never understood it and today, they really get it. Lord Jesus, we pray understanding that this is about not even for us, but it's for your glory, and we are not ashamed of you. God, I pray for a really radical moment of faith, of people obeying and saying, I'm gonna do it. We ask all this in Jesus' name, amen. Would you stand, please?