Good morning. How are y'all doing today? Awesome. I want to start by welcoming
anybody that's here in our sanctuary for the very first time or if you're
joining us online. Welcome. We are excited to be here today. I am Pastor Nathan
and today is Baptism Sunday. We're so excited to be celebrating this moment.
Yeah you guys could clap for that. That's a huge thing. So we are going to be
taking a break from our study of Genesis to witness and to celebrate this
moment with those getting baptized today. And next week we have a very special
guest speaker coming from Harvest Riverside. It's not Greg Laurie. I tried,
but he was a little bit busy. But so what that means is our next study in
Genesis will be in two weeks where we will pick up the story of the fall by
looking at the curse on the serpent and the curse on the woman. And the curse on
the woman is one we're going to specifically focus in on because it is a
very contentious issue amongst Christians today. It's a hotly debated piece
of Scripture and so we're going to dig into what does it mean, what exactly is
the curse, and all of that. But since we have six baptisms scheduled today and
who knows how many unscheduled baptisms we got. Yeah I didn't want to just gloss
over the passage in Genesis and so and to be honest I'm blessed for the extra
time to study it. So but over the last year and a half or so we here at Hosanna
have experienced just so many new faces joining the fellowship and people.
We've been so blessed by that of just seeing God grow our church and so I
wanted to take the opportunity today for those that are new to to share what
baptism is about here at Hosanna to share what we believe about baptism and
why we do it and so that's what we're going to be talking about today. It's
such a wonderful thing to celebrate to be here you know as baptism is a public
display of one's faith. We the body here their family and Christ here at Hosanna
get to be the public to witness this event and as well as those of you online
we're so excited that you're here with us as well. And so we're going to be doing
that and then after our services today I don't know if you guys notice out in the
parking lot we will be having our barbecue fellowship so we're very excited
about that.
Barbecue hamburgers hot dogs I think you know come on it's gonna be awesome and
so plus we got games we got water slides and there is a rumor I might go down one
of the water slides but we'll see. But let's begin this morning by celebrating
God, celebrating him who he is by praising him by lifting our voices to
just sing about him because he is the one who has saved us. He is the one who
has changed our very lives. He is the one that has granted us true freedom,
eternal freedom for he is the one that is the only hope in this world amen.
Let's pray. Father we love you so much God and we're so grateful to be here
today to celebrate with our brothers and sisters getting baptized. Lord we know
that this is a is a big step it's an important step and Lord as we look into
your word today about what baptism is what it isn't God I pray that you would
just encourage us all. Lord to look at this is not just some extra auxiliary
religious observance but also not to look at it as being the thing that saves
us Lord but that we would understand the symbolism of it and the importance of
taking this step. And God I pray for anybody that's here today that did not
sign up to get baptized but Lord you're gonna put it on their heart to get
baptized. I pray Lord they would come forward at the time we're gonna do that
Lord that they would get baptized today and Lord if there's anybody here in
this room that doesn't know you as their Lord and Savior God they can do that
today to receive you and immediately get baptized to proclaim that. But God we
want to worship you and praise your name because you are awesome. You're the one
that has granted us freedom Lord and we're so grateful for that. Help us Lord
to be people who constantly proclaim your glory and lift your name on high. We
love you so much it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Alright guys today we are
gonna be talking about baptism. Baptism is something that Jesus himself
exempled for us. If you read the story in the Gospels as he went out to be
baptized by John the Baptist we see in that story that Jesus was submitting
himself to the Father. He was submitting himself to to God's call to get
baptized and in that example baptism has been established as something that we
observe and practice in his church. And so when people are asking the question
why do we get baptized really the first reason why we get baptized and why all
believers should be baptized is because Jesus said to. It's his word where we
learn about baptism and so he actually told his disciples in Matthew chapter
28 verses 19 and 20 to do this he said go therefore and make disciples of all
nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy
Spirit teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you and
remember I am with you always to the end of the age. And so Christian he's
talking to you he was given this instructions to his disciples before he
left and it was those that are walking in his name and carrying forward his
ministry so he was talking to all of us as he says go and that word in the
Greek literally means while you're going right it means while you're living
your life preach the gospel while you're going to work preach the gospel while
you're at a barbecue after church preach the gospel wherever you're at
preach the gospel and then he says make disciples right that word disciples is
students of Jesus now really if you study into the word in depth you and
then in and see pretty quickly that Christian and disciple are not two
different things however many people kind of look at it that way oh I'm saved
but I'm not yet a disciple right I'm saved but I'm not really a student of
Jesus right if you're saved you're in the family you're a disciple because we're
all called to grow in our faith and study the word and we're all called to go
out and make disciples that means to not only preach the gospel with people but
as we have the opportunity to lead someone to the Lord to share the word
with them and to share what we know about the word to help them grow in
their faith and then he says baptize them now we do this in obedience to
Christ here at Hosanna and we as a church you know it's part of our whole
mission statement right our mission statement is to know the truth live the
truth and to share the truth and we know that scripturally Jesus is the truth
right he said I am the way the truth in the life and nobody comes to the father
but through me and so we share the gospel and lead the unsaved to Christ you
know it's on my heart you know to try and make sure that in every single Bible
study I give the opportunity to respond to Jesus sometimes I don't every once
in a while but but my heart is every time it doesn't matter what we're
studying because the whole Bible is about Jesus and so we want people to know
him but then as a church we also teach them to observe what Jesus taught and
that's our teaching style at Hosanna to go through the entire Bible cover to
cover Genesis to Revelation because Jesus is God and it is God's word and so
we study all of it in our community groups and our ministries and all of
that to observe what Jesus said and then to go live it and that's really what
observing is talking about to put it into practice to put it into application and
so Jesus told his disciples if you love me keep my commandments and that
really should be enough for us right I mean really if Jesus said jump we
should not even ask how high we should just jump right because he knows why
he's gonna ask us to do that now he asked us a little more important things
and jump but the idea is that Jesus is our Lord and Savior and so we do what he
says we follow his example and part of that is baptism part of that is taking
the step to get baptized now there are some other very good reasons why Jesus
commanded us to do this as well and I want to talk about these this morning
but it's important to understand in the very beginning baptism is not what
saves you okay there are a lot of cults out there that claim to be Christian
cults and they'll say things like baptism going into the physical water
that's what saves you other cults will say you have to be baptized in our church
in order to be saved and if anybody ever tells that to you run fast they are
misguided they are leading you into negative things and so baptism isn't
what saves us it's faith in Christ it's trusting in Jesus's work on the cross and
so why then should we get baptized why then do we observe this why it is it's
such an important thing well baptism is a very symbolic representation of your
identification with Christ when you put your faith in Jesus Christ and you say
Jesus I believe in you I believe your God I believe you died on the cross for
my sins I put faith in your shed blood God please forgive me please save me and
come into my life and when we do that with sincerity the Bible promises that
you are saved you are saved and so that's your identification with Christ and
we're gonna talk about that in a little bit but baptism also creates
accountability in our walk and that's one of the reasons it's important to now
in regards to it being symbolic you know when most people in the world hear the
word baptism they tend to think oh that's one of those religious things that
religious people do right the word baptism has a very religious connotation
but but in the Greek the word is is baptism and it simply means to dip to
dunk or to drown right we're not gonna drown you today all right but that's all
it means there there's there's no religious connotation to the word in the
original language it just means to be immersed in something right that's what
the word baptism means but but the Bible uses this word in a number of
different ways in 1st Corinthians 10 to speaking of Israel Paul says all were
baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea now obviously that's a symbolic
thing meaning that they were totally immersed in the experience of the
escape from Egypt and the wilderness experience they were totally immersed in
it Luke chapter 12 verse 50 Jesus speaking of his own crucifixion says but
I have a baptism to undergo and how it consumes me until it's finished and what
Jesus was saying there is I would be he's going to be totally immersed in the
pain and the death and the experience of dying for your sins in mind and then in
1st Corinthians 12 13 Paul says again for we were all baptized by one spirit
into one body and the idea there is that the Holy Spirit through our salvation
and our trust in Christ immerses us into one group immerses us into one family
one community called the body of Christ but if this word came from secular
loose use how did it come to be connected to religious use how did it come to be
known or primarily known as a religious thing well it actually wasn't
Christians that did that it was a Jewish people you see back in times in
ancient times and whatnot if you were a Gentile that means you weren't Jewish and
you wanted to become Jewish you wanted to become part of the the faith of
Judaism and you wanted to then enjoy all the benefits of that covenant that the
Jews had with God you would be known as a proselyte and there was three
requirements for you to become a Jew meaning to become a person who is
benefiting from the covenant now the first one was you had to get instruction by
a scribe right they had to kind of teach you what it was all about if you were
male you had to get circumcised glad we don't do that anymore and immersion in
water was the third one that you would get baptized you would get baptized now
the idea was that as they went under the water as a Gentile and then they came
back up it was symbolic of everything that was Gentile about them was being
washed away and they would actually say in that that they become an Israelite in
all things now they didn't actually physically become an Israelite it was
symbolic of this decision they were making and so baptism just symbolize
that a Gentile leaving the pagan world coming into a whole new life a whole new
identity a whole new community it symbolized their commitment to their
belief in and their acceptance of everything it meant to be Jewish that's
what a proselyte was and so like I said it was all the Gentileness being washed
away so the idea of this is in something that was taken by the Christians into
the church too as we talked about baptism right if you were in the Jewish
culture and you were a Gentile converting to Judaism you had to take
this step to symbolize what you had done what you had decided to do so the next
question here is if the word was a secular word that the Jews took and you
practiced religiously how did it become a Christian thing well one of the first
things we read in the New Testament is about this crazy hippie in the desert
eating bugs John the Baptist right or more accurately John the baptizer as he
was dunking people in the Jordan River so he was a Jewish prophet that it was
dunking people and the problem was is he was out there at the river dunking Jews
do you guys see the problem the only time you got baptized is if you were a
Gentile converting to Judaism Jews didn't need to become baptized right there
was no reason for them to do that and so the Jewish leaders came out to John and
they're like whoa whoa whoa dude what are you doing like we're descendants of
Abraham we don't need to be baptized and John was like so what your descendants
of Abraham Jesus could rise up a descendants from the rocks if he wanted
to then John said the Messiah is coming and you religious leaders you Jewish
people need to be baptized you need to repent to get ready for him and for this
is a baptism of repentance is what John called it and so the idea was that you
had to be immersed into the water not becoming a Jew but being having it being
symbolic of your sins being washed away that was the idea you go under the water
you come up your sins are symbolically washed away whoa sorry so for you to get
Jew to get baptized by John the Baptist since baptism was all about outsiders
becoming insiders what they had to admit admit is I may be religious I may be
sincere in my relation to God but I'm no different than a Gentile who needs to be
ritually clean to enter into the saving covenant that's what they were admitting
by getting baptized by John they were in a sense saying I have to be immersed in
something or someone other than my religious dogma to be truly saved right
they thought it was their practice their laws all that stuff and John was
saying no and it wasn't that the water saved them it was symbolic that they
understood that only by immersing themselves in Jesus the Messiah not
their own works but immersing themselves committing to believing in
repenting admitting and accepting everything it meant to be in Christ
that's how you're saved that's what it was symbolic of and so that's the
symbolic meaning of baptism right today baptism is a public profession that you
have done just that put your faith in Jesus Christ come to recognize what God
says about your sin that you are a sinner surprise we're all sinners right the
Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God there are
none righteous not even one so the next time you think I'm a good person think
about those verses right in and of ourselves we are wicked sinful people
in Christ we are made righteous in Christ we are made pure in Christ we are
saved and forgiven and given a new heart and a new spirit that comes to dwell
within us to teach us and to lead us and to guide us right it's in Christ what
it's all about now in Romans chapter 6 verses 3 and 4 we see the same symbolic
use of baptism as Paul writes he says or are you unaware that all of us who are
baptized or immersed into Christ Jesus were baptized or immersed into his death
he's asking a question are you unaware that all of us are immersed into Jesus's
life and all of us were also by fact of that immersed into what his death was
immersed into what his death was all about and why verse 4 he goes 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 we too may walk in the
newness of life it's our faith that makes us not guilty children of God it's our
faith that is what washes the sin away but we demonstrate that we have
exercised this faith and thus received that free gift of salvation right where
we signify we identify with we symbolize it by baptism I'm hammering this point
here because I've read a lot of stuff lately from people that are confused
about what baptism is and how and I just want to make sure that you guys get it
faith unites us to Christ baptism portrays and declares that union with
Christ so the accountability part of baptism is is about personalizing the
whole idea of what Jesus did right there's a symbolism of it but then
there's also an accountability that is created through baptism the
personalization of baptism is means that that when you get baptized you're not
just affirming that that we're all sinners and that we're saved by Jesus
you're not affirming that in general what you're saying is that he died for my
sins that's what you're declaring you're personalizing what Jesus did you're not
just saying he did it in general you're declaring to the world and you're
declaring into yourself in your own sinful nature Jesus died for me I've
received the fruit of him dying on the cross he died in my place and so I am
dead to my old ways I am dead to my old nature and I am born again resurrected
with a new heart that's the symbolism of its being personalized to you now some
people go well if it's just symbolic and it doesn't mean anything what's what's
the point if it's just if it's just that that that act why do we do it well how
many of you are familiar with the thing called a wedding ring right if you're
married you should have one be wearing it right now right a wedding ring
represents a commitment that one person has made to another it represents
vows that you took and by wearing that wedding ring what you were doing is it
represents on a particular day your life changed that on a particular day you
became a brand new person you were no longer single you you were now married
you you were no longer available you were off the market that you belonged to
another and that ring can sometimes be the very thing that helps you say no to
temptation when it comes your way like one of the popular videos on social media
going around is easy these videos where a pretty girl will go by a guy and like
brush his arm and look at him and stuff and see how they react right and they
they'll do it on escalators a lot and I'm like anyways so I saw this one where a
guy like got she was going up the escalator and he was going down and she
reaches out and touches him and then she looks at him all flirty and he goes
points to his ring right now that's how it creates accountability right you
remember you look at that you go I that's not who I am I'm not single anymore
baptism is just like that it points back to a day that your life was changed it
points back to a day where your eternal destiny was changed it's an act of
obedience you're saying I am a disciple of Christ I'm a student of his I follow
him I I do it so I'm gonna do this in following him after his example and then
I'm performing it publicly because I want everybody to know that I'm a
Christian why is that important because each one of us here are called to keep
each one of us in check we're called to none of us are perfect but we're all
called to say hey brother I saw that thing you were doing you know you know
that's not right hey let's repent of that and stop doing it hey sister I saw
you talk this way to that person that was just kind of mean like are you okay
right we're called to hold each other accountable to our walk with God and
baptism is a part of that that's why we do it publicly that's why it's in front
of witnesses and just like the wedding ring your baptism proclaims to you in
the world that you belong to someone else now you don't belong to the world
anymore you are off the market to sin because you belong to God and so it's
an expression and demonstration of faith it's an outward sign of an inward
commitment you've made and as such baptism is only for those who have
professed faith in Jesus Christ right if you're not saved and you come forward
to get baptized all you're doing is getting dunked right okay cool you
dunked in the water but it didn't do anything right because the water itself
does nothing it's what it represents so with that being said if you came to
church this morning and Jesus has been speaking to you about your own
relationship with him he's been pointing out in your heart that that you've done
bad things that you've sinned against him and I'll tell you that if you're
thinking that you're right because if you've ever told a lie you're a liar you
broke one of God's commandments if you've ever stolen anything regardless of
the value it could be a paper clip at work it didn't belong to you you're a
thief according to God's word and you've broken his law if you've ever looked on
someone whether you're a guy or a girl looked on someone with lust in your heart
Jesus said you've committed adultery in your heart and you've broken God's law
the reality is as we've all sinned against him we all need his sacrifice we
all need what what his death on the cross brought to humanity the opportunity
to have atonement for our sins to be forgiven and reunited with our creator
in a perfect relationship with the future hope of heaven it means that that
guilty conscience is gonna be dealt with forever it means the condemnation that
the devil puts in your life is gonna be gone because you know that on a certain
day of your life you were saved through your faith in Jesus Christ and on a
certain day you publicly got baptized to proclaim that to the whole world and the
idea of all of that is it's done it's sealed and so if you want to get baptized
today in or saved today you can get saved come forward we'll pray with you
right in the water and baptize you immediately after if you didn't sign up
to get baptized today I encourage you to come forward to get baptized as well
because it is very very important and I believe God is speaking to someone in
here and so if he's speaking to your heart today don't hesitate don't wait
but for those of you that are getting baptized today this moment is your public
declaration this is the public declaration that you were making before
all the people here that you have made a decision to follow Jesus Christ as your
Lord and Savior it doesn't mean you're gonna do it perfectly the Bible is very
clear about that getting baptized and proclaiming that to everybody doesn't
mean you're never gonna mess up again the Bible is clear about that but it does
say that after every moment of sin I'm gonna say God forgive me help me Lord to
live for you that in those times of temptation I know that I'm gonna be able
to say God please help me say no to this and please help me to get out of this
situation that is what you're proclaiming to the world today that Jesus is the
Lord of your life and that you will live your life for him to glorify him then in
that Romans passion path passage it tells us what the effect of baptism is
it's that so we too may walk in newness of life the effect of taking the step
today to get baptized in obedience to Christ is just like that wedding ring
it means the next time Satan comes knocking on your door and he says hey
let's go to the bar or he goes hey you should cheat on your spouse or he goes
hey do this do that steal this steal that cheat on your taxes cheat on your
test the next time the devil comes saying all of this he says look this is
who you are right remember we used to party together all the time that this
day your day of baptism will serve as a reminder that he is not your master
anymore it will serve as your reminder that he has no power and no authority to
command you to do anything that when he rubs up against you on the escalator
you're gonna be able to say uh-uh I belong to Jesus and that old person those
old ways you're able to say that's not who I am anymore I've been forgiven I
have been set free and more so what you're saying is that through faith in
Jesus you've been empowered and enabled by the Holy Spirit as a new creature to
walk in newness of life to say no to sin and to say yes to Jesus living that new
life in obedience to him and so this is how this is gonna work today for all of
you I want to give you some instructions real quick for those of you that are
getting baptized today if you signed up if you didn't sign up and Jesus is
telling you to do it right now and if you want to give your life to the Lord
today and do it as a part of this baptism service I'm gonna ask you guys in a
little bit to come forward all right you're just gonna get up out of those
pews where you're sitting and you're gonna go down backstage all right
backstage we have some privacy tents so that you could change into into the
clothing to get baptized in we have some cubbies back there where you could put
all your personal belongings and we have a couple staff members back there to
keep an eye on everything so you don't have to worry about your stuff I'm
getting stolen or anything like that but when you're done chain being changed
and ready for the baptism just come back out and line up right here against the
white wall and then what we will do is call you in what in a time and baptize
you now today pastor Rick and John our ministry leader our men's ministry
leader are gonna be doing the baptisms today and so they'll call you in one in
a time we'll have someone on the outside to help you get in and out of the tub and
then you'll get baptized and then we're all gonna clap and applaud and celebrate
with you because it is a wonderful moment it is a beautiful step you're taking
today and after you're baptized we'll help you get out of the water we'll hand
you a towel so you could wrap it around yourself and then you just go into the
back and get changed and if we're still worshiping just come on out here and
continue to worship with us we do have some plastic bags out back there to hold
all of your wet clothes and stuff so you don't have to worry about that and then
during the entire baptism time our worship team is gonna be leading us all
in worship because what more will we want to worship God for than these people
who are saying I'm saved Jesus has saved my soul I identify with him my old
nature is dead and my new nature is alive and so we're gonna be worshiping God
while we celebrate with them and all of that and so for friends and family of
those getting baptized today you are free to come forward to the very front area
if you want to to witness your your family member or friend getting baptized
if you want to take pictures and video come up here to the floor it's all good
right we're not gonna like shame you and say sit down but we are live streaming
this so there might be friends and family that are watching the live stream so
if you were in the front half of the room I am gonna ask you to stay seated
right is that clear okay good if you want to dance around and stuff come up
front but but if you're gonna stay in the pew stay seated because we don't want
to block the cameras for loved ones at home that want to witness this if you're
in the back go crazy you could do whatever you want so and after everybody
is baptized our worship team will close in one last song to just praise Jesus
for who he is so those of you getting baptized today go ahead and stand up
right now stand up right now come down the aisle follow Pastor Rick out the
back there we'll give you a moment to do that worship team if you could come
forward and again if God is speaking to your heart this morning about your need
to be baptized you didn't sign up get up right now and come forward there's a
reason Jesus is calling you to take this step and if you don't know Jesus Christ
is your Lord and Savior and you want to be saved today you want to know that when
you die you're gonna be going to heaven you want to live the rest of your life
knowing that you're forgiven of all sin then you come forward now as well for us
of us we're gonna pray and we're gonna get into this time of worship and baptism
and I encourage you guys encourage you guys to just let God speak to your heart
about what all this means amen all right let's pray father we trust you God for
salvation we trust you God for our new life we know Lord that it is in you it is
our faith in you our trust in you that grants us new life Lord baptism is
symbolic and we want to symbolize that to everybody that I've died with Christ my
old nature as Jesus was was crucified on that cross and then buried Lord the
whole idea of that is he was paying the price for sin and Lord when we go under
that water we identify that our old nature is dead and when we come up man
it's identifying with the resurrection of Jesus Lord we're identifying with you
and all that glory and power when you walked out of that tomb on Easter
morning that because of you we are new people because of you we have new hearts
because of you we have an ability we've never had before to say no to sin
hallelujah so God we're so grateful for all of this and what it means we do this
in obedience to you we celebrate with those getting baptized because Lord what
else is there to celebrate and so God we lift up your name as we share this time
with those getting baptized Lord we praise your name we lift you up on high
and we say thank you God for our salvation thank you God for the new life
thank you God for everything you've done and Lord we look forward to one day
being with you in heaven in perfect paradise forever we love you so much
it's in Jesus name we pray amen