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Good morning. How are y'all doing today? Awesome. I want to start by welcoming

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anybody that's here in our sanctuary for the very first time or if you're

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joining us online. Welcome. We are excited to be here today. I am Pastor Nathan

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and today is Baptism Sunday. We're so excited to be celebrating this moment.

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Yeah you guys could clap for that. That's a huge thing. So we are going to be

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taking a break from our study of Genesis to witness and to celebrate this

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moment with those getting baptized today. And next week we have a very special

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guest speaker coming from Harvest Riverside. It's not Greg Laurie. I tried,

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but he was a little bit busy. But so what that means is our next study in

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Genesis will be in two weeks where we will pick up the story of the fall by

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looking at the curse on the serpent and the curse on the woman. And the curse on

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the woman is one we're going to specifically focus in on because it is a

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very contentious issue amongst Christians today. It's a hotly debated piece

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of Scripture and so we're going to dig into what does it mean, what exactly is

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the curse, and all of that. But since we have six baptisms scheduled today and

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who knows how many unscheduled baptisms we got. Yeah I didn't want to just gloss

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over the passage in Genesis and so and to be honest I'm blessed for the extra

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time to study it. So but over the last year and a half or so we here at Hosanna

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have experienced just so many new faces joining the fellowship and people.

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We've been so blessed by that of just seeing God grow our church and so I

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wanted to take the opportunity today for those that are new to to share what

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baptism is about here at Hosanna to share what we believe about baptism and

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why we do it and so that's what we're going to be talking about today. It's

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such a wonderful thing to celebrate to be here you know as baptism is a public

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display of one's faith. We the body here their family and Christ here at Hosanna

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get to be the public to witness this event and as well as those of you online

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we're so excited that you're here with us as well. And so we're going to be doing

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that and then after our services today I don't know if you guys notice out in the

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parking lot we will be having our barbecue fellowship so we're very excited

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about that.

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Barbecue hamburgers hot dogs I think you know come on it's gonna be awesome and

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so plus we got games we got water slides and there is a rumor I might go down one

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of the water slides but we'll see. But let's begin this morning by celebrating

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God, celebrating him who he is by praising him by lifting our voices to

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just sing about him because he is the one who has saved us. He is the one who

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has changed our very lives. He is the one that has granted us true freedom,

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eternal freedom for he is the one that is the only hope in this world amen.

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Let's pray. Father we love you so much God and we're so grateful to be here

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today to celebrate with our brothers and sisters getting baptized. Lord we know

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that this is a is a big step it's an important step and Lord as we look into

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your word today about what baptism is what it isn't God I pray that you would

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just encourage us all. Lord to look at this is not just some extra auxiliary

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religious observance but also not to look at it as being the thing that saves

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us Lord but that we would understand the symbolism of it and the importance of

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taking this step. And God I pray for anybody that's here today that did not

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sign up to get baptized but Lord you're gonna put it on their heart to get

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baptized. I pray Lord they would come forward at the time we're gonna do that

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Lord that they would get baptized today and Lord if there's anybody here in

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this room that doesn't know you as their Lord and Savior God they can do that

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today to receive you and immediately get baptized to proclaim that. But God we

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want to worship you and praise your name because you are awesome. You're the one

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that has granted us freedom Lord and we're so grateful for that. Help us Lord

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to be people who constantly proclaim your glory and lift your name on high. We

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love you so much it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Alright guys today we are

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gonna be talking about baptism. Baptism is something that Jesus himself

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exempled for us. If you read the story in the Gospels as he went out to be

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baptized by John the Baptist we see in that story that Jesus was submitting

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himself to the Father. He was submitting himself to to God's call to get

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baptized and in that example baptism has been established as something that we

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observe and practice in his church. And so when people are asking the question

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why do we get baptized really the first reason why we get baptized and why all

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believers should be baptized is because Jesus said to. It's his word where we

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learn about baptism and so he actually told his disciples in Matthew chapter

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28 verses 19 and 20 to do this he said go therefore and make disciples of all

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nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy

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Spirit teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you and

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remember I am with you always to the end of the age. And so Christian he's

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talking to you he was given this instructions to his disciples before he

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left and it was those that are walking in his name and carrying forward his

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ministry so he was talking to all of us as he says go and that word in the

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Greek literally means while you're going right it means while you're living

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your life preach the gospel while you're going to work preach the gospel while

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you're at a barbecue after church preach the gospel wherever you're at

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preach the gospel and then he says make disciples right that word disciples is

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students of Jesus now really if you study into the word in depth you and

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then in and see pretty quickly that Christian and disciple are not two

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different things however many people kind of look at it that way oh I'm saved

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but I'm not yet a disciple right I'm saved but I'm not really a student of

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Jesus right if you're saved you're in the family you're a disciple because we're

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all called to grow in our faith and study the word and we're all called to go

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out and make disciples that means to not only preach the gospel with people but

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as we have the opportunity to lead someone to the Lord to share the word

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with them and to share what we know about the word to help them grow in

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their faith and then he says baptize them now we do this in obedience to

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Christ here at Hosanna and we as a church you know it's part of our whole

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mission statement right our mission statement is to know the truth live the

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truth and to share the truth and we know that scripturally Jesus is the truth

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right he said I am the way the truth in the life and nobody comes to the father

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but through me and so we share the gospel and lead the unsaved to Christ you

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know it's on my heart you know to try and make sure that in every single Bible

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study I give the opportunity to respond to Jesus sometimes I don't every once

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in a while but but my heart is every time it doesn't matter what we're

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studying because the whole Bible is about Jesus and so we want people to know

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him but then as a church we also teach them to observe what Jesus taught and

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that's our teaching style at Hosanna to go through the entire Bible cover to

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cover Genesis to Revelation because Jesus is God and it is God's word and so

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we study all of it in our community groups and our ministries and all of

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that to observe what Jesus said and then to go live it and that's really what

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observing is talking about to put it into practice to put it into application and

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so Jesus told his disciples if you love me keep my commandments and that

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really should be enough for us right I mean really if Jesus said jump we

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should not even ask how high we should just jump right because he knows why

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he's gonna ask us to do that now he asked us a little more important things

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and jump but the idea is that Jesus is our Lord and Savior and so we do what he

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says we follow his example and part of that is baptism part of that is taking

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the step to get baptized now there are some other very good reasons why Jesus

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commanded us to do this as well and I want to talk about these this morning

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but it's important to understand in the very beginning baptism is not what

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saves you okay there are a lot of cults out there that claim to be Christian

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cults and they'll say things like baptism going into the physical water

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that's what saves you other cults will say you have to be baptized in our church

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in order to be saved and if anybody ever tells that to you run fast they are

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misguided they are leading you into negative things and so baptism isn't

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what saves us it's faith in Christ it's trusting in Jesus's work on the cross and

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so why then should we get baptized why then do we observe this why it is it's

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such an important thing well baptism is a very symbolic representation of your

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identification with Christ when you put your faith in Jesus Christ and you say

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Jesus I believe in you I believe your God I believe you died on the cross for

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my sins I put faith in your shed blood God please forgive me please save me and

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come into my life and when we do that with sincerity the Bible promises that

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you are saved you are saved and so that's your identification with Christ and

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we're gonna talk about that in a little bit but baptism also creates

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accountability in our walk and that's one of the reasons it's important to now

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in regards to it being symbolic you know when most people in the world hear the

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word baptism they tend to think oh that's one of those religious things that

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religious people do right the word baptism has a very religious connotation

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but but in the Greek the word is is baptism and it simply means to dip to

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dunk or to drown right we're not gonna drown you today all right but that's all

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it means there there's there's no religious connotation to the word in the

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original language it just means to be immersed in something right that's what

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the word baptism means but but the Bible uses this word in a number of

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different ways in 1st Corinthians 10 to speaking of Israel Paul says all were

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baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea now obviously that's a symbolic

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thing meaning that they were totally immersed in the experience of the

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escape from Egypt and the wilderness experience they were totally immersed in

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it Luke chapter 12 verse 50 Jesus speaking of his own crucifixion says but

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I have a baptism to undergo and how it consumes me until it's finished and what

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Jesus was saying there is I would be he's going to be totally immersed in the

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pain and the death and the experience of dying for your sins in mind and then in

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1st Corinthians 12 13 Paul says again for we were all baptized by one spirit

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into one body and the idea there is that the Holy Spirit through our salvation

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and our trust in Christ immerses us into one group immerses us into one family

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one community called the body of Christ but if this word came from secular

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loose use how did it come to be connected to religious use how did it come to be

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known or primarily known as a religious thing well it actually wasn't

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Christians that did that it was a Jewish people you see back in times in

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ancient times and whatnot if you were a Gentile that means you weren't Jewish and

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you wanted to become Jewish you wanted to become part of the the faith of

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Judaism and you wanted to then enjoy all the benefits of that covenant that the

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Jews had with God you would be known as a proselyte and there was three

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requirements for you to become a Jew meaning to become a person who is

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benefiting from the covenant now the first one was you had to get instruction by

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a scribe right they had to kind of teach you what it was all about if you were

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male you had to get circumcised glad we don't do that anymore and immersion in

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water was the third one that you would get baptized you would get baptized now

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the idea was that as they went under the water as a Gentile and then they came

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back up it was symbolic of everything that was Gentile about them was being

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washed away and they would actually say in that that they become an Israelite in

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all things now they didn't actually physically become an Israelite it was

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symbolic of this decision they were making and so baptism just symbolize

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that a Gentile leaving the pagan world coming into a whole new life a whole new

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identity a whole new community it symbolized their commitment to their

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belief in and their acceptance of everything it meant to be Jewish that's

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what a proselyte was and so like I said it was all the Gentileness being washed

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away so the idea of this is in something that was taken by the Christians into

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the church too as we talked about baptism right if you were in the Jewish

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culture and you were a Gentile converting to Judaism you had to take

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this step to symbolize what you had done what you had decided to do so the next

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question here is if the word was a secular word that the Jews took and you

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practiced religiously how did it become a Christian thing well one of the first

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things we read in the New Testament is about this crazy hippie in the desert

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eating bugs John the Baptist right or more accurately John the baptizer as he

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was dunking people in the Jordan River so he was a Jewish prophet that it was

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dunking people and the problem was is he was out there at the river dunking Jews

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do you guys see the problem the only time you got baptized is if you were a

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Gentile converting to Judaism Jews didn't need to become baptized right there

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was no reason for them to do that and so the Jewish leaders came out to John and

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they're like whoa whoa whoa dude what are you doing like we're descendants of

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Abraham we don't need to be baptized and John was like so what your descendants

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of Abraham Jesus could rise up a descendants from the rocks if he wanted

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to then John said the Messiah is coming and you religious leaders you Jewish

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people need to be baptized you need to repent to get ready for him and for this

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is a baptism of repentance is what John called it and so the idea was that you

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had to be immersed into the water not becoming a Jew but being having it being

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symbolic of your sins being washed away that was the idea you go under the water

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you come up your sins are symbolically washed away whoa sorry so for you to get

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Jew to get baptized by John the Baptist since baptism was all about outsiders

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becoming insiders what they had to admit admit is I may be religious I may be

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sincere in my relation to God but I'm no different than a Gentile who needs to be

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ritually clean to enter into the saving covenant that's what they were admitting

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by getting baptized by John they were in a sense saying I have to be immersed in

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something or someone other than my religious dogma to be truly saved right

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they thought it was their practice their laws all that stuff and John was

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saying no and it wasn't that the water saved them it was symbolic that they

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understood that only by immersing themselves in Jesus the Messiah not

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their own works but immersing themselves committing to believing in

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repenting admitting and accepting everything it meant to be in Christ

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that's how you're saved that's what it was symbolic of and so that's the

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symbolic meaning of baptism right today baptism is a public profession that you

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have done just that put your faith in Jesus Christ come to recognize what God

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says about your sin that you are a sinner surprise we're all sinners right the

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Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God there are

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none righteous not even one so the next time you think I'm a good person think

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about those verses right in and of ourselves we are wicked sinful people

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in Christ we are made righteous in Christ we are made pure in Christ we are

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saved and forgiven and given a new heart and a new spirit that comes to dwell

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within us to teach us and to lead us and to guide us right it's in Christ what

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it's all about now in Romans chapter 6 verses 3 and 4 we see the same symbolic

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use of baptism as Paul writes he says or are you unaware that all of us who are

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baptized or immersed into Christ Jesus were baptized or immersed into his death

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he's asking a question are you unaware that all of us are immersed into Jesus's

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life and all of us were also by fact of that immersed into what his death was

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immersed into what his death was all about and why verse 4 he goes therefore

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we were buried with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was

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raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so we too may walk in the

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newness of life it's our faith that makes us not guilty children of God it's our

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faith that is what washes the sin away but we demonstrate that we have

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exercised this faith and thus received that free gift of salvation right where

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we signify we identify with we symbolize it by baptism I'm hammering this point

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here because I've read a lot of stuff lately from people that are confused

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about what baptism is and how and I just want to make sure that you guys get it

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faith unites us to Christ baptism portrays and declares that union with

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Christ so the accountability part of baptism is is about personalizing the

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whole idea of what Jesus did right there's a symbolism of it but then

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there's also an accountability that is created through baptism the

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personalization of baptism is means that that when you get baptized you're not

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just affirming that that we're all sinners and that we're saved by Jesus

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you're not affirming that in general what you're saying is that he died for my

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sins that's what you're declaring you're personalizing what Jesus did you're not

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just saying he did it in general you're declaring to the world and you're

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declaring into yourself in your own sinful nature Jesus died for me I've

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received the fruit of him dying on the cross he died in my place and so I am

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dead to my old ways I am dead to my old nature and I am born again resurrected

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with a new heart that's the symbolism of its being personalized to you now some

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people go well if it's just symbolic and it doesn't mean anything what's what's

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the point if it's just if it's just that that that act why do we do it well how

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many of you are familiar with the thing called a wedding ring right if you're

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married you should have one be wearing it right now right a wedding ring

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represents a commitment that one person has made to another it represents

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vows that you took and by wearing that wedding ring what you were doing is it

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represents on a particular day your life changed that on a particular day you

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became a brand new person you were no longer single you you were now married

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you you were no longer available you were off the market that you belonged to

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another and that ring can sometimes be the very thing that helps you say no to

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temptation when it comes your way like one of the popular videos on social media

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going around is easy these videos where a pretty girl will go by a guy and like

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brush his arm and look at him and stuff and see how they react right and they

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they'll do it on escalators a lot and I'm like anyways so I saw this one where a

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guy like got she was going up the escalator and he was going down and she

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reaches out and touches him and then she looks at him all flirty and he goes

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points to his ring right now that's how it creates accountability right you

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remember you look at that you go I that's not who I am I'm not single anymore

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baptism is just like that it points back to a day that your life was changed it

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points back to a day where your eternal destiny was changed it's an act of

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obedience you're saying I am a disciple of Christ I'm a student of his I follow

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him I I do it so I'm gonna do this in following him after his example and then

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I'm performing it publicly because I want everybody to know that I'm a

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Christian why is that important because each one of us here are called to keep

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each one of us in check we're called to none of us are perfect but we're all

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called to say hey brother I saw that thing you were doing you know you know

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that's not right hey let's repent of that and stop doing it hey sister I saw

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you talk this way to that person that was just kind of mean like are you okay

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right we're called to hold each other accountable to our walk with God and

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baptism is a part of that that's why we do it publicly that's why it's in front

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of witnesses and just like the wedding ring your baptism proclaims to you in

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the world that you belong to someone else now you don't belong to the world

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anymore you are off the market to sin because you belong to God and so it's

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an expression and demonstration of faith it's an outward sign of an inward

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commitment you've made and as such baptism is only for those who have

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professed faith in Jesus Christ right if you're not saved and you come forward

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to get baptized all you're doing is getting dunked right okay cool you

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dunked in the water but it didn't do anything right because the water itself

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does nothing it's what it represents so with that being said if you came to

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church this morning and Jesus has been speaking to you about your own

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relationship with him he's been pointing out in your heart that that you've done

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bad things that you've sinned against him and I'll tell you that if you're

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thinking that you're right because if you've ever told a lie you're a liar you

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broke one of God's commandments if you've ever stolen anything regardless of

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the value it could be a paper clip at work it didn't belong to you you're a

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thief according to God's word and you've broken his law if you've ever looked on

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someone whether you're a guy or a girl looked on someone with lust in your heart

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Jesus said you've committed adultery in your heart and you've broken God's law

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the reality is as we've all sinned against him we all need his sacrifice we

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all need what what his death on the cross brought to humanity the opportunity

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to have atonement for our sins to be forgiven and reunited with our creator

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in a perfect relationship with the future hope of heaven it means that that

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guilty conscience is gonna be dealt with forever it means the condemnation that

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the devil puts in your life is gonna be gone because you know that on a certain

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day of your life you were saved through your faith in Jesus Christ and on a

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certain day you publicly got baptized to proclaim that to the whole world and the

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idea of all of that is it's done it's sealed and so if you want to get baptized

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today in or saved today you can get saved come forward we'll pray with you

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right in the water and baptize you immediately after if you didn't sign up

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to get baptized today I encourage you to come forward to get baptized as well

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because it is very very important and I believe God is speaking to someone in

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here and so if he's speaking to your heart today don't hesitate don't wait

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but for those of you that are getting baptized today this moment is your public

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declaration this is the public declaration that you were making before

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all the people here that you have made a decision to follow Jesus Christ as your

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Lord and Savior it doesn't mean you're gonna do it perfectly the Bible is very

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clear about that getting baptized and proclaiming that to everybody doesn't

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mean you're never gonna mess up again the Bible is clear about that but it does

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say that after every moment of sin I'm gonna say God forgive me help me Lord to

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live for you that in those times of temptation I know that I'm gonna be able

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to say God please help me say no to this and please help me to get out of this

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situation that is what you're proclaiming to the world today that Jesus is the

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Lord of your life and that you will live your life for him to glorify him then in

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that Romans passion path passage it tells us what the effect of baptism is

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it's that so we too may walk in newness of life the effect of taking the step

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today to get baptized in obedience to Christ is just like that wedding ring

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it means the next time Satan comes knocking on your door and he says hey

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let's go to the bar or he goes hey you should cheat on your spouse or he goes

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hey do this do that steal this steal that cheat on your taxes cheat on your

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test the next time the devil comes saying all of this he says look this is

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who you are right remember we used to party together all the time that this

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day your day of baptism will serve as a reminder that he is not your master

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anymore it will serve as your reminder that he has no power and no authority to

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command you to do anything that when he rubs up against you on the escalator

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you're gonna be able to say uh-uh I belong to Jesus and that old person those

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old ways you're able to say that's not who I am anymore I've been forgiven I

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have been set free and more so what you're saying is that through faith in

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Jesus you've been empowered and enabled by the Holy Spirit as a new creature to

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walk in newness of life to say no to sin and to say yes to Jesus living that new

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life in obedience to him and so this is how this is gonna work today for all of

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you I want to give you some instructions real quick for those of you that are

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getting baptized today if you signed up if you didn't sign up and Jesus is

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telling you to do it right now and if you want to give your life to the Lord

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today and do it as a part of this baptism service I'm gonna ask you guys in a

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little bit to come forward all right you're just gonna get up out of those

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pews where you're sitting and you're gonna go down backstage all right

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backstage we have some privacy tents so that you could change into into the

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clothing to get baptized in we have some cubbies back there where you could put

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all your personal belongings and we have a couple staff members back there to

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keep an eye on everything so you don't have to worry about your stuff I'm

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getting stolen or anything like that but when you're done chain being changed

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and ready for the baptism just come back out and line up right here against the

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white wall and then what we will do is call you in what in a time and baptize

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you now today pastor Rick and John our ministry leader our men's ministry

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leader are gonna be doing the baptisms today and so they'll call you in one in

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a time we'll have someone on the outside to help you get in and out of the tub and

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then you'll get baptized and then we're all gonna clap and applaud and celebrate

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with you because it is a wonderful moment it is a beautiful step you're taking

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today and after you're baptized we'll help you get out of the water we'll hand

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you a towel so you could wrap it around yourself and then you just go into the

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back and get changed and if we're still worshiping just come on out here and

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continue to worship with us we do have some plastic bags out back there to hold

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all of your wet clothes and stuff so you don't have to worry about that and then

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during the entire baptism time our worship team is gonna be leading us all

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in worship because what more will we want to worship God for than these people

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who are saying I'm saved Jesus has saved my soul I identify with him my old

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nature is dead and my new nature is alive and so we're gonna be worshiping God

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while we celebrate with them and all of that and so for friends and family of

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those getting baptized today you are free to come forward to the very front area

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if you want to to witness your your family member or friend getting baptized

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if you want to take pictures and video come up here to the floor it's all good

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right we're not gonna like shame you and say sit down but we are live streaming

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this so there might be friends and family that are watching the live stream so

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if you were in the front half of the room I am gonna ask you to stay seated

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right is that clear okay good if you want to dance around and stuff come up

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front but but if you're gonna stay in the pew stay seated because we don't want

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to block the cameras for loved ones at home that want to witness this if you're

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in the back go crazy you could do whatever you want so and after everybody

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is baptized our worship team will close in one last song to just praise Jesus

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for who he is so those of you getting baptized today go ahead and stand up

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right now stand up right now come down the aisle follow Pastor Rick out the

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back there we'll give you a moment to do that worship team if you could come

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forward and again if God is speaking to your heart this morning about your need

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to be baptized you didn't sign up get up right now and come forward there's a

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reason Jesus is calling you to take this step and if you don't know Jesus Christ

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is your Lord and Savior and you want to be saved today you want to know that when

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you die you're gonna be going to heaven you want to live the rest of your life

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knowing that you're forgiven of all sin then you come forward now as well for us

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of us we're gonna pray and we're gonna get into this time of worship and baptism

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and I encourage you guys encourage you guys to just let God speak to your heart

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about what all this means amen all right let's pray father we trust you God for

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salvation we trust you God for our new life we know Lord that it is in you it is

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our faith in you our trust in you that grants us new life Lord baptism is

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symbolic and we want to symbolize that to everybody that I've died with Christ my

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old nature as Jesus was was crucified on that cross and then buried Lord the

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whole idea of that is he was paying the price for sin and Lord when we go under

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that water we identify that our old nature is dead and when we come up man

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it's identifying with the resurrection of Jesus Lord we're identifying with you

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and all that glory and power when you walked out of that tomb on Easter

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morning that because of you we are new people because of you we have new hearts

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because of you we have an ability we've never had before to say no to sin

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hallelujah so God we're so grateful for all of this and what it means we do this

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in obedience to you we celebrate with those getting baptized because Lord what

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else is there to celebrate and so God we lift up your name as we share this time

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with those getting baptized Lord we praise your name we lift you up on high

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and we say thank you God for our salvation thank you God for the new life

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thank you God for everything you've done and Lord we look forward to one day

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being with you in heaven in perfect paradise forever we love you so much

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it's in Jesus name we pray amen