Thank you for listening to this message from
Lifehouse Church. Come on, God is good, amen?
Yeah, this is Baptism Sunday. You can be as noisy
as you want on Baptism Sunday. Actually, you
can be as noisy as you want. any Sunday. It is
good to have you here. We're excited. We've been
excited all week. We love it. As a pastor, you
just get giddy about Baptism Sunday. It's just
a thing. But I want to open in prayer, so if
you would, just bow your heads and we'll pray.
Father, we thank you for this day. I thank you
for the opportunity to hear your word. God, I
pray right now, God, that you would just touch
our ears, our hearts, and our minds, that we
would receive your word. God, that it would settle
into our hearts, and God, it might bring glory
and honor to you. Lord, we celebrate with those
who are getting baptized today. and who are making
the bold declaration that Jesus is, in fact,
our Lord and Savior. And we just give you praise
in Jesus' name. And everybody said together?
Yeah, yeah. Well, listen, we couldn't think of
a better way to follow up with Resurrection Sunday
than water baptism. Last week, you heard the
stats, right? 25 people came to Jesus in the
last weekend, which is amazing, 14 today, who
are publicly going to declare that Jesus is Lord
and Savior. We rejoice, we celebrate, we thank
God, and we love everything that baptism represents
here at LHC. The meaning of baptism, the act
of obedience in following Jesus' example. And
I think one of the favorite parts for me with
water baptism is the whole idea of being all
in, all in, right? Baptism is about being all
in. It's about being submerged. It's about being
immersed, about being covered over, surrounded
completely. That happens when you get dunked.
Any of you ever get dunked in a pool? Come on,
right? It's going to happen this morning. When
you go in, it's all in. It's completely submerged.
In 2015, one of our vacation spots as a family
vacation was Cozumel, Mexico. And I remember
getting the opportunity to go off right off the
coast by a coral reef. And I got to go do some
snorkeling with my kids. And I remember going
in and diving down and being in the clearest
blue waters I've ever seen in my life. 20 to
30 feet down, 40 feet down, you could see everything.
And I remember being submerged in that and being
in the middle. a fish, just teeming fish, a multicolored
fish everywhere in the coral and the aquatic
life that was attached to the coral down below.
And it was amazing. It was a whole new environment.
It was a whole new thing. But as amazing as that
was, it is infinitesimal, right? I don't even
know if that's a word, but I made it up today,
right? It's small in comparison to being submerged
in God's presence. It really is. Submerged with
salvation through Jesus Christ. And there's nothing
like being all in with Jesus. The Bible speaks
about this. If you have your Bibles this morning,
you can turn to Romans chapter 6. And it talks
about, the Bible talks about baptism in multiple
different ways, in multiple different lights.
And Romans 6 .1 says this. What shall we say
then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may
abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died
to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know
that as many as of us have been baptized into
Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore,
we were buried with him through baptism into
death, that just as Christ was raised from the
dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. One of the ways
baptism is talked about in Scripture is baptized
into Jesus Christ, saved, born again. We're baptized
into his death, his burial, and then his resurrection.
That's what water baptism is all about. We die
to sin. We come back up in new life. And it's
that old person of sin, that moment that we got
saved, and that old person of sin dies away.
And we come up new in Jesus. All in. All in.
Walking away from a life of sin and now walking
on a path with him. I remember. I remember it
was a long time ago, but I remember at age 12,
I remember sitting out where you were and I remember
a minister coming and preaching the gospel of
Jesus Christ that morning. And I remember repenting.
I remember sitting in a row and I always sat
on one side and I was about three rows back.
And I remember sitting there and I remember feeling
that weight of sin in my life. And when the opportunity
came to go forward, I went forward and I... I
prayed. I asked God to come into my life. I committed
my life to him right there and then. And I remember
how I felt inside. I probably didn't look very
emotional on the outside. You might not have
noticed any difference looking outside in. But
even at 12 years of age, something changed in
me. Something shifted in me. I knew I was different.
I knew that I was dead and now I was alive spiritually
in my spirit. I was saved. I was washed. I was
born again. All in. from that day forward. Now,
did I mess up? Plenty. I can tell you stories
afterwards if you want to hear them, because
they said I had to be brief over and over and
over this morning, multiple times. But I began
to understand what it is to be baptized in Jesus.
I also understood what it meant to be baptized
into the body of Christ. It's another way it's
talked about in Scripture. I grew up in the church,
and back when I was a kid, my parents went to
church three times a week. There was service
on Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday
evening, and we went three times a week to church.
I knew what it was to be baptized into the body
of Christ. Now, that's one way we get together.
You're here this morning, right, in worship.
But that's not all that it means to be baptized
into the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12 says
this. For as the body is one and has many members,
but all the members of one body, being many,
are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit,
we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews
or Greeks, whether slaves or free, we have all
been made to drink from one spirit. For in fact,
the body is not one member, but many. If the
foot should say, because I am not a hand, am
I not of the body? Is it therefore not of the
body? And if the ear should say, because I'm
not an eye, am I not of the body? Is it therefore
not of the body? If the whole body were an eye,
where would be the hearing? If the whole body
were hearing, where would be the smelling? But
now God has set members, each one of them, in
the body just as he pleased. And if they were
all one member, where would the body be? Salvation
in Jesus Christ is salvation into the body of
Christ. It is the church. It is his family. It
is his people, Jesus' people. Amen? Amen. It's
true. And to many people today, I hear this all
the time. Well, you don't really need to go to
church, right? You don't really need to be a
part of the church. You know, as long as you
get saved, it's just Jesus and me. And I understand
that. I understand it is you and Jesus. But it
sounds super spiritual. It really does. Like,
you know, how many of you can make something
sound super spiritual, right? Just Jesus and
me. Tap your chest a little. Some of you can
get really godly and lower your voice. Just Jesus
and me. Come on, right? You can make it sound
spiritual, but the word of God says that you're
baptized into a body. It doesn't teach that you're
just out there all alone. Yes, Jesus is with
you, but there's a body around you. God's word
says that we are baptized into the body of Christ,
the church of Jesus Christ, the Jesus tribe,
I'll call it, all right? Saved by grace, called
saints by the grace of God and by the mercy of
God, brothers and sisters in the Lord, fighting
together against Satan and evil, joint heirs
with Jesus, talked about that all last week,
a group of people coming together on the regular
and worshiping God, Not forsaking coming together.
All in. All in. One body. Hands, feet, eyes,
ears, toes, nose, legs, and ankles are all here
this morning. Just look out the corner of your
eye right now. Don't look or stare. But you might
have a nose or an ankle sitting right beside
you this morning. Somebody in the body of Christ,
right? We're all different. One body. 1 Corinthians
12, 25 says, and there should be no schism in
the body, but that the members should have same
care for one another. And if one member suffers,
all the members suffer with it. Or if one member
is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
It's eye taking care of elbow and elbow taking
care of eye. It really is. One baptism. There's
a third baptism, right? Baptism into Jesus Christ,
baptism into the body of Christ. And there's
a third one called Holy Spirit baptism. It's
immersed in the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist
preaches about a water baptism, which we're about
to do here in a little bit, right? But John also
announced another baptism. In Matthew 3, 11,
he says, I baptize you, this is John speaking,
with water unto repentance, but he who is coming
after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I'm
not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with
the Holy Spirit and fire. Fire. Jesus followed
John the Baptist. John the Baptist said that
Jesus would come, and there would be a baptism
of salvation. There would be a baptism into the
body of Christ, and there can be a baptism of
the Holy Spirit in your life. Now understand
this. When you come to salvation, when you come
to Christ, the Holy Spirit comes into your life.
He comes to take up residence within your life
fully. At age 12, when I got saved, the Holy
Spirit came and took up. The indwelling of the
Spirit came. And the Holy Spirit comes and He
guides us and He leads us and He speaks to us
and He empowers us. He taps us on the shoulder
when we need counsel, we need to hear from God.
But the Bible talks about a separate experience,
which is called the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
It's in addition to the salvation. It's kind
of like an enhanced power by the Holy Spirit
to be witnesses for Jesus Christ. to a world
around us who does not know who Christ is. It's
an anointing. It's an empowerment. Acts 1 .8
says, In that verse, it's speaking to Christians.
It's actually speaking to the disciples. The
purpose of God baptizing us in the Spirit is
to further empower us. He indwells in us fully.
But there's an extra, I call it a supercharge.
He supercharges you, amen? Come on, some of you
car guys should be like, amen. Supercharges,
right? How many know horsepower is an amazing
thing, especially in a car? Yeah, there we go.
All right, got a couple of them, all right? It
is. Now, I'm going to go back to my western Pennsylvania
redneck roots right now. I used to go to tractor
pools back in the day when I was young. And if
you're not familiar with a tractor pull, here's
what they do at a tractor pull. They have a tractor
and they hook it up to a trailer. And on the
trailer, there's a bunch of weight on the back
of the trailer. And when that tractor, right,
it's got a revved up engine, it's got a lot of
horsepower to it. What happens is they'll say
go, right, with a flag or a horn or whatever.
And that tractor will take off in a straight
line. And the trailer, he's pulling a trailer
full of weights. And what happens with the weights
is the weights move forward closer to the tractor.
the further down the track it gets. And they
see who can pull the tractor that can pull the
weight the furthest. And they have to have a
ton of horsepower to move that weight. And the
further the weight gets up, the further they
get down the track, the more the weight advances
and the harder it gets to pull. And that's what
the baptism of the Holy Spirit is. When we're
moving forward to witness for Christ and we're
going down the track of life and it's getting
heavy, it's kind of a super shot of the Holy
Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit comes
in and he raises us up to become witnesses. It's
Holy Spirit baptism. It's more of the presence
of God who's already in your life. Amen? It's
true. Man, I'm preaching fast. You should be
amening, because if not, I'll have to back up.
I don't think you didn't get it. You know, I'll
have to do that point all over again. But the
last one today is water baptism, and that's what
we're talking about here this morning, is water
baptism, a baptism of repentance. Water baptism
is a personal declaration of faith in Jesus Christ.
I have decided to follow Jesus through life.
Jesus himself was baptized by John the Baptist
as an example for you and I. Matthew 3 .16 says
this, When he had been baptized, this is Jesus,
Jesus came up immediately from the water, and
behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he
saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove
and alighting on him. Water baptism is following
an example of Jesus. Water baptism is symbolic
of what Christ did for us. It's symbolic of the
death of Christ, the burial of Christ, being
put into the grave, and the resurrection, resurrection
to new life. It represents us. coming to faith
in Jesus Christ. It is the greatest visual example
you could have of the gospel of Jesus Christ
is water baptism. And today, I want you to hear
from each individual who are making, today they
are making, all 14 of them are coming out. They're
making a public declaration that they're all
in with Jesus Christ, that they went from death
to life. And these are stories of redemption
of those who follow Jesus. in to this message
from Lifehouse Church. We pray that you were
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