0:00 ritual, but it's not. It is not. It is a public testimony to God and to men and to the angels and to the un and to Satan too and also to the church that the person who is being baptized is telling now I belong to Jesus Christ. I want to 0:18 follow him. It is doesn't mean that we have arrived at our destination. It just means that we have begun our journey of walking in the lord. walking with the Lord. We have not become perfect at the time of baptism because it is a lifetime 0:33 to be made like Jesus Christ. But our direction in our life has changed. It is being enrolled in a school. I'm starting there. It is coming to the beginning of the race. So one question we ask in our churches when people are being baptized, 0:51 we say we won't ask you will you will you sin. The question that we want to ask is do you want to sin? And the answer should be resounding no. And then we go to the next question is do you want to sin even once? Even once no I 1:08 don't want to. So this baptism that the want to sin that old man is crucified. Uh we see that in Romans chapter 6 it's Paul explains it very very beautifully. Romans chapter 6. Um [clears throat] 1:27 therefore we have been buried with him through the baptism into death that as Christ was raised from dead through the glory of the father so we too walk in the newness of life. Uh verse six, knowing this, knowing this that our old 1:43 self was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. So what is this old man? I think if you had listened to brother Zach Simmons about he explains it so 1:58 well and there's no clear expleration that I heard. It's the mind that we had in our unconverted days. the mind that wanted to sin. Um the inward bent in our life uh which wanted to live for ourselves doing my own will and pleasing 2:16 myself. All of that that old man. So according to Romans 6:6 we accept by faith Jesus has crucified that old man on the cross. It is not we did not do that and now we are burying that old man today in the baptism. the old man that 2:34 is crucified that's dead now we are going to bury it uh so we are just acting in faith just like we believe that Jesus has died for our sins he has also uh crucified the old man now we do the burial it is crime to not to bury a 2:52 dead man right even so when the person says I'm born again I want to follow Jesus accepting by faith inviting Jesus into their hearts now they also acknowledge that this my old man is buried and we do the old man is crucified and we do the burial today. 3:11 And um we when we say when we baptize we baptize in the name of the father and of the son lord Jesus Christ and of the holy spirit um the triune god u [clears throat] also uh for those who who it's a for those 3:30 who are born again this is a very first step obedience to god first command uh even po peter when he preaches the long sermon in Acts chapter 2 the after the day of Pentecost on the day of Pentecost people say what shall we do now? He says 3:47 in Acts chapter 2 38 repent each of you and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit as you seek to obey this command after repenting for repenting 4:04 comes first. Then you be baptized and you are forgiven and you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. In the days of Abraham when Abraham was given a commandment to be to circumcise everyone. So once a baby was born they circumcised in within few days. Same 4:19 thing once a person is born again the first thing they normally do is to get baptized. And finally I want to end with this. Today it's also a celebration. You know in Luke 15:10 it says uh Jesus says in his own words with so much excitement 4:35 in the same way I tell you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents not 100 sinners one sinner who repents and uh so today we are going to partake in the same celebration God is going to give us 4:49 the same joy joy in the Holy Spirit joining the celebration over one sinner just like uh the prodigal son when he returned the father's excitement ment and he goes and hugs him and kisses him and welcomes him home the same way um 5:06 and he there are two places in Luke chapter 15 same expression comes there is a joy in the presence of god so and I want to end with this final reminder for those who have already taken baptism in the past let's examine our own 5:19 commitment to the lord it's like our own walls that we took before the lord when we took when we took baptism is a kind of examining our own commitment meant to the Lord and he has not changed and we just need to make sure that we are not 5:33 changers Lord I still I'm still committed to follow you and we at the end we're going to sing this song what is that song I have decided to follow Jesus no turning back no turning back the world behind me the cross before me 5:46 no turning back no turning back though none go with me I will still will follow let's also as the sisters take baptism as they sing the song we also sing the song as we sing the song let's examine our own commitment to the lord and we 6:00 our own decision that we made many years ago to follow the lord that lord I'm still here I want to follow you the world is behind me the cross before me so now I want to invite sister uhh she and kithna to come forward and share 6:16 their testimony uh sister she can you uh go first and then kithana thank 6:36 Good morning everyone. Uh I want to start by saying that I have been baptized before but today I'm being baptized again. And I want to briefly explain why. Because it truly matters that the foundation of my life as a 6:54 Christian has no cracks in it. In December of 2020, the process of being born again started. And I've come to call that month, oh my gosh, I might cry. Uh where the water broke in my life. And this led to several months of sharp 7:13 repentance and deep confession of sin. turning away from a life that had been steeped in darkness, years spent in the new age practices, and many things that I now know were very far from God. That repentance wasn't quick or easy. It 7:31 was a brutal and devastating It was brutal and devastating to awaken to just how deceived I was and how I had been so Antichrist all my life. Yet Jesus was the one who had been the savior of my whole wretched life, even when I didn't 7:46 believe in him. His love never fails, and I desperately needed him. By August of 2021, I was so ready to be baptized that it felt like my hair was on fire as I drove to the first church that that I found that would baptize me 8:03 with no questions asked. And so I went, I desperately needed to bury the old me. I needed to be washed clean and make it known to God I was committed and in love with him. And so my heart was ready that day, but my understanding of the correct way to 8:21 be baptized wasn't complete. And only recently have I learned more about the church that I went to that day. And upon further examination, I had learned that it's a denomination which baptizes people in the name of Jesus Christ only. 8:38 Yet Jesus himself said to baptize in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. And so that's what needs to be done today. Quick testimony. In the years between my first baptism and now, I wandered off the narrow path 8:56 and got lost for a season. I got deceived again and I deceived myself. I attended a church that I that taught that there was a little wider path, one where I could have Jesus and still hold on to a little bit of the world. And to 9:11 be honest, my flesh liked that. But eventually, the Lord showed me that that was totally the wrong way and I had to repent. Jesus Jesus doesn't call anyone to create their own version of disciplehip. He calls to follow him. And 9:27 so this season has been very different. The leadup to my first baptism was about being brought out of darkness. Tables flipped in my life. Everything being exposed and the old life torn down. The leadup to this baptism has 9:43 been about something deeper. Obedience. Not selective or convenient obedience, but a desire to obey every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. I don't want a comfortable Christianity. I want Jesus. I want to follow him wherever he 10:01 leads me. And when God shows me something that needs to be made right, I want to make it right. And so I'm standing here today with greater understanding, greater conviction, and a much deeper desire to surrender everything to Christ. There's 10:19 much more to my testimony that I can tell in a few minutes, but today is about this one specific step. being baptized in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit with a heart that is ready to obey. I want to be his 10:33 disciple and as I've recently heard it called uh recently heard it called a radical disciple. The foundation has to be right. No cracks, no shortcuts, just obedience. And I'm incredibly grateful to the father that he didn't leave me where I 10:51 was. He brought me out. He let me see where I had wandered and he brought me back. And [snorts] today I'm standing here to choose that narrow path again. And so thank you for letting me share this with you. [applause] 11:19 Um hi everyone. Um, so as many of you guys know, I grew up in a Christian home and I was raised by two God-fearing parents. Ever since I was three years old, me and my family have been attending CSC churches in California and 11:32 then again in Texas. I was always taught to read my Bible, pray every night, go to church on Sundays, and follow all the commandments in the Bible. I would only go to church because my parents took us, and reading my Bible was just a boring 11:45 task I had to complete in order to go on with the rest of my day. The Sunday sermons were meaningless to me and I couldn't wait for the message to be over so I could go out and play. Christianity was always a label and it was never 11:57 about having a relationship with Jesus. My relationship with God was very superficial and I never felt the calling to seriously follow him. Um, I knew all these things about Jesus. I could tell you all the miracles he had 12:10 done. I could tell you who his disciples were, where he was born, and all these different facts about him. But I never really knew Jesus. Going into middle school, I started to drift drift off from everything I had been taught. I 12:22 started to hang out with the wrong people and I grew up and saw the world in a different light. More than anything, I wanted to fit in with people and I tried to find my place by acting and thinking just like how everyone else 12:33 did. I placed my entire worth in what others thought of me instead of caring about what God thought. No matter how much I tried to fit in, how many good grades I got, or how well I acted in front of people, it was never enough. 12:44 There was a big hole in my heart that I never thought would be filled. It hurt to go to church on Sundays and hear people talking about how God did such amazing miracles in their life and how God changed them. I couldn't help but 12:55 wonder why it never felt like why it felt like God was never there for me when I needed him. As I got older, I began to experience a lot of doubts in the Bible and my Christian upbringing. When I looked around, all I saw was 13:06 constant pain, suffering, and evil. And I just couldn't wrap my head around how our God, being a loving God, could just let this happen. Either God couldn't do anything to save us from the pain or he could but he just chose not to. I didn't 13:20 understand what kind of a loving father could just choose to sit there and watch his children suffer to no end with all the evil and pain in the world even though he had the power to make everything better. I couldn't see God or 13:31 hear God. And I definitely didn't feel him with me. If God really loved me, why did I always feel so alone? I began to think that maybe Christianity was just a fake hope that people blindly followed to make them feel better. Anytime I 13:44 would ask a question, people always told me just to have faith. But how was I supposed to have faith in a God who didn't even show himself to me? Even though I would never admit it, deep down, I really wanted God to be real and 13:55 for him to love me. It sounded really comforting to know that there was a God out there who chose me. At this point of my life, I was at an all-time low. I was so broken down and defeated at the life that I chose to live. Like the prodical 14:07 son, when I had finally exhausted all my resources and I was completely broken, I had nowhere to turn to but to God. He put a desire in my heart to read his word. And I had read the same Bible my whole life. But for the first time, I 14:21 was reading it as a hungry and broken person, aware of all the sin she was living in. When I really started reading my Bible for the first time, it was like I was reading a love letter straight from Jesus. Every page of the gospel 14:33 felt like it was Jesus just calling out to me. Everything pointed me right back to what Jesus did for me on the cross 2,000 years ago. And I had heard the story of Jesus dying many times, but this time it was different. I really 14:46 tried to grasp the weight of his death. Jesus knew all my past sins and he knows every sin I'm going to commit in the future. He knows he sees what I do when nobody's watching. He hears every thought and he knows all my deepest 14:58 secrets about me. He knew all of that and he still decided that I was worth dying on the cross for. I should have been on that cross that day, not him. Those nails should have been pierced through my skin, not his. And I should 15:10 be sitting in hell right now. But instead, I'm standing here telling you all of his goodness. Jesus became the very curse that was meant for me to endure. I can't even begin to understand why he loves such a sinner like me. And 15:22 I'll forever be in debt to Jesus because of what he did for me. I finally realized that it wasn't like Jesus suddenly came into my life for the first time. It's that he never left me in the first place. My pride and selfishness 15:35 blinded me from seeing God, even though he was always in front of me. It took years of God breaking and molding me and showing me that without him, I'm nothing. And I still fall many times, more than all of you know. But through 15:47 the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm spending less time in my sin and more time praying to ask God to help me overcome my sin. Jesus laid down his life so that I might not live for myself or for the world anymore. And I understand that following Jesus isn't 16:00 going to make my life easier or more comfortable. It's actually going to make my heart life a lot harder and painful. But I'm setting my eyes on the glory set before me and not on the struggles of right now. And while I still don't 16:13 understand why God allows some things to happen in my life. And there's a lot of the Bible I still don't understand. I'm okay with it now. God doesn't need me to understand his ways. He just wants me to trust him. And now I don't have a vague 16:25 hope that maybe one day I'm going to go to heaven. I know for a fact that when I die, I'm going to meet my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He has given me the assurance that I'm loved, accepted, and chosen. In Luke 15, we read the story 16:38 about the prodigal son. The son said to the son said to him, "Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son." But the father said to his servants, "Quick, bring the best robe 16:50 and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fatting calf and kill it. Let's feast and celebrate. For the son of mine was dead and now he's alive. But lo, he was lost and now he's found. These 17:02 verses summarize my entire life. I tried the world but it could never fill me like Jesus did. Jesus didn't just fill my life. He made my life. He made my heart overflow with love, faith, and hope. I wake up every morning with a 17:15 smile on my face because I finally have a purpose in life and it's to follow Jesus. He gave my life that was headed for destruction and new meaning. and we were both crucified together on the cross. So now I set on a lifelong 17:28 journey to be his disciple. Thank you all for listening to my testimony and being my family. Thank you sister Shay and Kithra for 17:45 sharing your story. I'm tremendously encouraged uh blessed to hear. It always takes uh me back to my own conversion days and the taste of God's love uh as we just heard again in a fresh way. So the next 18:02 step is we'll all move u with the spirit of prayer. Please pray for these two sisters as they get baptized. Pray that Lord make them as disciples uh as they start their journey and uh and pray that God will fulfill the promise that he 18:20 will baptize them with the Holy Spirit and fire and uh that they would be that they would grow and as radical disciples as we just heard that their lives will be a challenge to many. So we'll all move to the place outside. We'll gather 18:35 outside around the tank and we'll go through the time of baptism.
