Hey, if this is your first time joining us here at Hosanna Christian Fellowship,
whether you're in our room or online, we want to say welcome.
We're so glad you're to worship with us today.
Well, I don't know if you noticed what was going on in the parking lot as we,
as you pulled up today and you see our baptismal here.
This morning we're taking a little bit of a break from Revelation to witness
and celebrate with those getting baptized today.
We are so excited for those that are taking this step.
And next week we will, I promise, pick up and continue our panoramic view
at spiritual warfare there in Revelation chapter 12.
And when we come back, we'll get back to focusing in on a major event that happens
in heaven around the midpoint of tribulation.
And this event is a second war in heaven perpetrated by Satan and his demons.
This war is waged and fought successfully against by Michael the archangel
and his angels, the angels of God.
And what we're going to see out of that is the resultant fury,
fury of Satan at being defeated once again.
And then we're also going to see his raging temper tantrum that he throws
on the world at his being kicked out of heaven permanently.
So we're looking forward to that.
I'm excited to get to that.
But today we have, gosh, I think 10 baptisms that are signed up.
So...
And of course, as we get to the message, if you're here this morning
and the Lord puts it on your heart to take the step to get baptized, by all means,
don't wait, don't think, oops, I didn't sign up.
We have shorts, we have shirts you could change into, we have towels.
But don't let anything get in the way of that.
But as we move forward, I just wanted to spend today specifically
because we have so many baptisms, I didn't want to gloss over the next part
of Revelation, and so today we're going to be focusing on baptism
and really an extended time of worship as we're doing those baptisms.
So if you don't know, and maybe you should know, but if you don't,
baptism is an incredibly important step of obedience in the life of a believer.
You know, it's an ordinance of the church, and ordinance isn't necessarily a word
we use so much for anything other than ammunition for military exercises,
but as an ordinance of the church, it's something we observe,
and I'll explain later what we mean by that.
But it's an ordinance by which those who have repented
and come to faith in Jesus Christ express their union with Christ.
Baptism is that moment where they express their identification
with his death and his resurrection by being immersed in water,
and I say immersed in water where possible because sometimes
immersion in water isn't possible, and I bring that up to say that
if you are unable to get immersed in water, yes, you can get baptized.
There are ways for us to baptize you, and there are ways for that to take place,
but this whole thing here is this identification with what Jesus has done
in your life, identifying with the fact that the old man is dead,
and that's the going under, and that you identify with the resurrection
of Christ as you come up out of the water, representing new life
granted to you, all the thing that we do according to the teachings of Jesus
in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
It's a sign. It's a sign of belonging to the family of God,
and it's a public declaration, like I said, of one's spiritual burial, right?
It's a death to self, a death to the old life,
a death to the old way of living and unbelief.
The washing of the water is representative of one's cleaning and purification
from the pollution and the power and the stain of sin,
all through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Now, it's also a sign of one being spiritually born again,
and that's the whole idea of coming up out of the water,
the idea of being resurrected to life and being made new, alive again,
if you will, your spirit being born again,
granted new life here on earth and eternally.
And so, as a public declaration that baptism is, you, their family in Christ,
both in our room and online, you are the public that get to witness
this declaration that they're making today,
and that's why we do services like this here in our sanctuary,
to give you that opportunity to celebrate and to recognize and to affirm
and witness their public declaration of their faith in Jesus Christ.
Now, like I said, this includes those of you that are joining us online
as part of the family here at Hosanna,
and so overall, today will be a little bit different.
When we first did our first baptism service here in the room,
it was much like today, and then over the year,
we've done baptism services where I would do my teaching
where we were at in the Word, and then at the tail end,
we would do the baptism, but like I said,
we have a lot of people getting baptized today,
and so we're gonna spend the whole time focused on that.
But today is a day to celebrate what God has done.
It's a day to praise Him for what He has done
in the life of our brothers and sisters,
and so in that light, it's gonna be a day of worship as well,
and so I encourage you guys to worship as we witness
our brothers and sisters getting baptized.
And so we're gonna open up, as we always do for our services,
with a time of worship of the Lord,
and after which, I'm gonna do a brief teaching about baptism
and remind us all what baptism is, what it means,
why we observe it the way we do,
and I'm gonna do that prior to inviting those
at the very tail end of service.
I'll invite those of you that are getting baptized today
to come forward, to get up out of your seat,
to come forward and to go backstage
where we have changing boots and stuff
so you can get ready for that baptism.
And as I already said, if you didn't sign up
to get baptized today, but you feel God leading you
to do so, you can, and please listen to His voice
and get baptized today.
So for those of you that might be asking,
we do these baptism services once a quarter
here at Hosanna to give opportunity
for those getting saved to get baptized,
and since we do this as part of our Sunday morning service
here, it's just gonna be the entire focus today.
We're so excited for our 10 brothers and sisters
and whoever else that are getting baptized today.
We're so blessed to be here with you all today
to witness your proclamation of what God has done
in your life, and so let's pray.
Let's open up in worship and celebration,
and then we will get on with the service today.
Father God, we're so grateful to who you are
and what you've done.
God, so many of us in this room this morning, God,
we know you personally as our Lord and Savior, God.
We have come to that place in our life
where we recognize our sin.
We recognize that you are a holy and just and perfect God,
and Lord, we recognize that we broke your law.
We also recognized and believed, Lord,
that the penalty for breaking your law was due on us.
But God, we've heard the message
that you sent your only begotten son into this world
to die for the sins of all mankind,
to die for our sins personally,
that through faith in Jesus Christ we would be saved.
We would be redeemed, we would be forgiven,
and God, we are here today to celebrate the moment
that some of our brothers and sisters are making, Lord,
in their baptism to publicly declare
that that has taken place in their life,
and Lord, hallelujah.
We're so thankful for this opportunity, God.
Lord, we pray that your Spirit would just fill this place,
God, that you would speak to us and fill us
and encourage us, God, as we celebrate.
Lord, we worship you because you are holy,
you are just, you are love, you are almighty,
and we thank you, God, for your great mercy,
your great grace, your great salvation
that you have granted to us in the name of Jesus Christ,
and it's in his name we pray today, amen.
We're gonna talk about baptism briefly today
just as a reminder of what it is, why we do it,
what the scripture says about baptism
so that we just understand fully what this moment means
and why it is so important to us.
As I opened with, baptism is an ordinance of the church,
it's an ordinance of our church,
it's an ordinance of the Lord,
and that concept, that word ordinance,
simply means that it's something that Jesus commanded,
something Jesus ordained to be observed in his church.
And so we observe two ordinances here at Hosanna regularly.
One of them is communion that we usually typically observe
on the first Sunday of every single month,
and the other one is baptism.
And so on the first Sundays where we have our baptism,
we don't have communion, we're observing baptism
the next month on the first Sunday,
we will have our communion service again,
but baptism is something that Jesus example.
We see Jesus getting baptized as he went to the Jordan River
and saw John the Baptist.
We see that it is something he established
as an ongoing practice of the church,
and that is really the first reason
why we observe baptism as the church,
because Jesus said to, and as Christians,
we do what Jesus says.
We were endeavoring to be obedient to him,
and that comes from Matthew chapter 28, verses 19 and 20.
It says this there.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.
And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age.
This was Jesus giving final instructions to his disciples
at the end of Matthew, and he tells his disciples there,
go therefore, and you may have heard in Bible studies
in the past that that word go is an active word.
It means while you are going,
like while you are living your life,
while you are going to work,
while you are going to the movies,
while you are going to hang out with your friends and family,
while you are going, make disciples of all nations.
Disciple is the word that means a student,
so make students of Jesus.
Go out and share your faith,
and share what Jesus is doing in your life.
Share who God is, and share all of that,
that you would then have the opportunity to lead others
to come be disciples of Jesus Christ,
to give their life to him,
to receive that free gift of salvation that we are given,
and then to become students of his,
people who will study his word,
and learn, and endeavor, and grow, and mature,
to become followers of Christ in this world.
And so, and then it says after you make disciples
of all nations, the first thing he says there
is baptize them, baptize them.
Now, that is why we observe the ordinance of baptism.
It's in obedience to Christ.
It's because he said so.
And so, by making disciples, we as a church,
we endeavor to teach others to observe what Jesus taught.
That's why we have Bible studies.
That's why we gather together.
But church should not be the only place you're studying
the word, you should have your own personal relationship
in devotion, in reading, and studying God's word.
But here as a church, we have a goal to teach others
to observe what Jesus taught.
And that's a part of our mission statement, right?
To know the truth, and to live the truth.
And then also to share the truth,
which is a part of evangelism,
and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ,
taking that message that God died for them,
that he loved them so much that he paid the price
for their sin that they could be forgiven,
and set free, and be able to then have a life lived
in faith in Christ, in salvation.
And so, in doing so, the idea of leading others to know him,
Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior,
comes when we share that gospel.
And then they come to know him,
they come to profess their faith in Christ,
and then we give opportunity for baptism.
Now Jesus said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments.
And that really should be enough for us, shouldn't it?
But it's not, we know that, right?
We struggle.
Sometimes Jesus says to do it, and we're like,
but did you really say it that way?
So there are some other very good reasons
that we observe baptism.
Baptism expresses our union, our connection with Christ.
That's one of the biggest reasons
that we're called to do this.
And we find this taught in the book of Romans,
as Paul was writing,
because baptism, it expresses our connection with Christ
by identifying, by us identifying with him
in his death and resurrection.
We're, in a sense, going through the same process
that he went through, symbolically,
to represent that what he did for us now applies to us,
and that's the idea of baptism, right?
So in Romans chapter six, verse three and four,
this is what Paul said.
He goes, or are you unaware that all of us
who are baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?
Therefore, we were buried with him by baptism into death
in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father, so too we,
or so too, so we too may walk in newness of life.
Now this is an important verse
about the whole concept of why we do this,
and what that identification with Christ means.
Now this verse is, incidentally, not teaching
the concept of baptismal regeneration.
Baptismal regeneration is the idea
that it's not faith in Christ that saves you,
it's the actual physical act of going under the water,
that's what saves you, and that is something
that is taught today, but that is not
what the Bible teaches.
If this was required for salvation,
then the thief on the cross got a raw deal, didn't he?
And so, it's faith in Jesus that leads to salvation,
but this act here is a symbolic act
of publicly professing our identification with him.
And so, instead of it being something that saves us,
it's us identifying with the death and the resurrection.
Paul, when he was speaking of unity in the body of Christ,
speaking that we're all individually part
of the body of Christ, he said this
in 1 Corinthians 12, 13.
For we are all baptized by one spirit into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free,
and we were all given one spirit to drink.
The idea of what Paul was saying here to the church,
he's like, look, our baptism, the baptism
that we partake of as Christians,
it connects us, it unites, it identifies us all
as one group, it identifies us as one community,
it identifies us as one family, the family of Jesus Christ.
The idea that we're all part of the body of Christ,
of his church, is what baptism does,
it identifies us into that family.
And so, in the book of Romans,
and in numerous other places in scripture,
it's very clear that it's faith in the atoning work
of Jesus Christ that saves us.
That is how salvation comes to us,
is when we put our faith in Jesus and what he did.
It's our faith that unites us to Christ,
and therefore makes us forgiven people,
makes us not guilty, makes us children of God,
adopts us into his family, if you will,
but we demonstrate that we have exercised that faith.
We demonstrate that we have taken that step
and have thus received the free gift of salvation,
or to put it another way, we signify,
we identify, we symbolize that this has happened
in our life through the ordinance of baptism.
That's why it's so important to us.
Faith is what unites us to Christ.
Baptism is what portrays and declares
that union with Christ.
Declares to the public, I have trusted in Jesus Christ
as my Lord and Savior, I have put my faith in him.
And it personalizes it in a way that helps us
in our living relationship with him.
You see, when I say it personalizes,
the personalization of baptism is this idea
that you're not just affirming that Jesus died
for sin in general.
And that's a true statement,
there's nothing wrong with affirming that.
But when you get baptized, you are declaring
that he died for my sin.
You're declaring he died for your sin.
You're saying to the world, I'm affirming
that Jesus died for my sin.
I have received that free gift of salvation.
And I'm identifying publicly with that
through this act of baptism.
It's saying to the world that I'm recognizing
that he died in my place.
And so I am dead to my old ways.
I am dead to my old nature.
I am a new creation.
That's the symbolic nature of baptism.
And we understand symbolism.
We understand the idea of symbolism.
And symbolism is very powerful.
It's a very powerful thing in our life.
For example, we all understand what a wedding ring
symbolizes, don't we?
Right, it's not just a piece of jewelry
on someone's finger.
Some treat it that way sadly,
but that's not what it's meant to symbolize.
We understand that a wedding ring represents
a commitment that you have made to another person.
Vows that you took before God.
And before the witnesses, those that were gathered
at your wedding.
It represents all those words and those vows.
And it represents all of that.
It represents that on a particular day in the past,
your life changed.
That you became a different person, a brand new person.
That you were no longer single,
but joined to another person,
joined to your spouse in something called holy matrimony.
Right, it symbolizes that.
And so when you look at that wedding ring today,
it's to remind you of that.
It's to bring all of that back to your mind,
and it can be the very thing that helps you say no
to temptation when it comes.
And you may have heard stories like that.
The devil is trying to tempt a spouse,
and their temptation is strong,
but they look at that wedding ring and they remember,
no, I'm not on the market.
I belong to another.
I made commitments, I made vows.
And so that's how symbolism could be powerful,
and baptism is very similar to that.
It points to a day that your life was changed.
It points to a day where your eternal destiny was changed.
It's an act of obedience that is performed publicly
in front of the church, in front of witnesses,
and just like that wedding ring,
that couples have, it reminds you
and it proclaims to the world,
I now belong to someone else.
I belong to someone specific.
I am off the market to sin.
Sin is no longer my master.
Satan is no longer my master.
I belong to God.
That's what baptism symbolizes.
Baptism is also an expression
and a demonstration of your faith.
So it's not just a symbolic picture,
but it is actual expression and demonstration of your faith.
It's said that baptism is an outward sign
of an inward commitment.
And as such, baptism is really only for those
who have put their faith in Jesus Christ.
Now can baptism be the moment
you put your faith in Jesus Christ?
Yeah.
And that could happen for some of you today.
If you're in this room and you don't know
Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior
and God is speaking to you and saying,
you need to know me, you need forgiveness,
you need salvation, and you need to get baptized
to proclaim to everybody that you've put your faith in me.
That can all happen in this one moment.
It's not the water that saves you, it's your faith.
But it can all be a part of this moment of baptism.
But if you have no faith in Christ
and you go get in the water,
all you're doing is getting dunked.
That's it.
Just getting wet.
There's nothing being symbolized there
because you're not proclaiming anything.
It's not symbolic of anything.
But with that said, if you do want to give your life
to Christ today and be baptized, do that.
Do that.
Listen to the Holy Spirit's tug on your heart.
See, the Bible tells us that we have all fallen short
of the glory of God.
We have all sinned and fallen short of his glory.
We're all guilty of breaking God's law.
Every single human being.
None of us are perfect.
Sometimes you go, yes I am.
But that's when you compare yourself to other humans, right?
I'm not as bad as Hitler.
I think few are.
But God didn't say the standard is other people.
God said it's my standard.
Right, and he gave us the 10 Commandments.
He's like, oh, you want the rules?
Here you go.
And you walk through God's rules and you go,
well, you know, I've done that one,
I've done that one, I've done that one.
Okay, sure, maybe, whatever.
But then you get to, have you ever told a lie?
Every single one of us have lied.
Well, I've only lied about little things.
You lied.
What does that make you?
A liar.
Are good people liars?
No, well, there goes the good person thing, right?
The idea is we've broken God's law.
And you might say, well, I've only broken one,
I've only broken two.
Well, God knew you were gonna say that.
And so he said, look, the person who has erred
or broken one of the laws is just as guilty
as if he broke all of them.
We need a savior.
We're sinners, we're broken people,
we hurt ourselves, we hurt others.
We need forgiveness for the sins we've committed,
and God offered that to us.
He came to this earth, he clothed himself in flesh,
he lived a perfect life.
He taught us how to be good people, godly people.
He said, I'm the example, follow me.
Then at the end of his life, he went and died
the most brutal, horrific death anybody has ever experienced.
Not because he deserved it, but because you and I did.
But he died that death because the Bible says
the wages of sin is death.
And without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin.
And so he shed his blood on God's altar
to be the sacrifice, to pay the price
for your sin and my sin.
We all need him.
And if you don't know him this morning,
I believe God is speaking to you,
and he is speaking directly to your heart right now saying,
you have sinned against me, you need to be saved.
And salvation is pretty simple,
it's just saying, God, I believe in you.
I believe in who you are.
I believe in what you do.
I believe in the Lord, I believe in the Lord.
I believe in what you say about sin, about who I am.
I believe all of it.
I have sinned against you, God.
Please forgive me of that sin.
I know there's nothing I can do to pay the price,
and so I trust by faith in Jesus Christ.
And guess what?
The Bible says you pray that prayer, you say those words,
you're saved.
God has saved you.
Then you have the opportunity to make a public profession
that God has done that work in your life, amen?
Amen.
So don't worry about not signing up for the baptism today.
If you wanna receive Christ today,
come forward, get baptized.
We will pray with you in the moment,
and we will baptize you in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
So those of you that are getting baptized today,
this moment is your public declaration
that you have made the decision to follow Jesus Christ,
to trust in him as your Lord and Savior.
It is your public declaration that he is Lord of your life
and that your intent, your desire, your goal
is to live your life for him, to glorify him.
And that's in a sense what Paul said there in Romans,
in Romans chapter six, verse four.
Back there, if you remember, he said,
"'Just as Christ was raised from the dead
"'by the glory of the Father,
"'so we too may walk in newness of life.'"
The idea there, the effect of baptism,
the effect of this symbolic thing that we step into
is that we may too walk in newness of life.
Just like Christ did after his resurrection.
He died, he died, he was dead dead.
But he rose again to live forevermore,
and that's what we get to do through our faith in him,
and that's what baptism symbolizes.
And so the effect of taking this step in baptism,
in obedience to Christ, just like that example
of the wedding ring, it means that the next time
Satan comes knocking at your door,
hey, man, we used to go to the bar all the time,
I miss you.
We used to go party all the time,
we used to steal all the time,
we used to hurt people, we used to,
we used to do all these horrible things all the time,
where have you been?
And he comes knocking at your door and he says,
come on, you gotta do what I'm telling you to do.
You have to obey me.
You know you want to, and he brings this temptation
into our lives, he tempts you into sin
and disobedience to the Lord.
He tempts you to live the old way.
He tempts you to think and act and behave
according to the old nature.
This day will serve as a reminder
that although Satan may come knocking at your door,
he is not your landlord anymore.
He has no authority in your life,
he has no power in your life,
he can't tell you to do anything.
He could try, but he has no authority.
He has no authority.
That old person, those old ways,
that is not who you are anymore.
That's what this declares to the world
and declares in your own heart,
that Jesus has changed me.
And more so that you, through faith in Jesus Christ,
have been empowered and enabled by the Holy Spirit
who lives in you today to say no to sin
and to say yes to Jesus.
That's why baptism is so important.
I myself will confess that I was saved
for quite a few years before I got baptized.
Part of the early years of my Christianity
were fruit of my rebellious life prior to getting saved.
I was always that person that I'm like,
don't tell me what to do.
I don't care who you are.
So people say, you need to get baptized,
don't tell me what to do.
I'm saved, I believe in Jesus, right?
And then one day I was working,
I'm at staff on the church at this point,
I was the junior high leader at that time.
We're remodeling the junior high room
and I'm listening to Pastor Gary's study on water baptism.
And as I'm listening to it, I just felt the Lord go,
what are you doing?
You haven't been baptized yet.
I was like, Lord, it doesn't save me.
And he goes, you're right, it doesn't save you.
But why won't you make that public profession?
And I was like, uh,
because I don't like people telling me what to do.
He's like, come on.
And then so, like me and my impulsive ADD-ness,
I literally stopped work,
drove over to Pastor Gary's house
because he had a pool at that time,
knocked on his front door,
I'm like, I need you to baptize me right now.
When God tells you to get baptized, get baptized.
We have the pool ready.
We're ready for you.
And if God is speaking to your heart, do it.
So let's pray and then we will start worship
and we will get started with our baptism.
Father God, we're so blessed.
We're so blessed, Lord, to be here today.
We're so blessed for this moment and what this represents.
We're blessed for our brothers and sisters, God,
both young and old, Lord, and everybody in between, God,
that are making this profession, Lord.
We're blessed to be able to be here as the public
and their family in Christ here at Hosanna to witness this.
Lord, this represents a mighty work
that you have done in their lives.
Lord, those of us that have been baptized,
we remember, God, our baptism and all that it meant to us,
God, is we professed the work
that you had done in our lives.
God, you are so great, you are so mighty.
You are so loving and merciful and we're so thankful, God.
So thankful for the salvation you offered to us.
Lord, we thank you for the opportunity
to be here in support of those getting baptized today.
I pray, God, Lord, during this whole rest of this service,
God, that you would be glorified,
that your name would be lifted high as we praise you.
We love you so much.
It is in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
All right, let's worship.