Milk or Meat; Baptism Sunday

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Did well, we are, as you can see, doing something a little bit different today. And I love electronics, and everybody's really excited about what we're going to be doing today. As you can see from the music and how the music went this morning. Everybody's very excited about moving forward and praising the Lord this morning because he has and is going to do great things. I want to talk to you this morning about before we do the baptism. I'm going to talk to you a little bit about baptism. Some of you, I realize, come out of different traditions. Some of you have been in different styles of churches, different kinds of worship. Some of you watching online probably are familiar with different kinds of baptism. And the way that we do things here at Village Church East is like baptism, like everything else we do. We look at scripture, we find out what's happening there, and then we try and exemplify that to the best of our ability. So this morning, before we do our baptism, I want to talk to you a little bit about growth. I want to give you this question as we start off this morning. Do you ever wonder why we keep growing? Some of you like, Thanksgiving is coming up and you're thinking, yeah, I wonder why I keep growing. Stay off the turkey, right? So you ever wonder? No, just not here. But I mean, do you ever wonder why we keep growing? I was talking to somebody this morning. I said, do you remember how easy it was to heal when you fell down as a little kid? Like you fell down as a kid, and it was like you could watch it heal. It went so fast, right? You little scrape and look done and you're on your way again. And when you get older, it's like, please heal, please heal. And it takes so long to get our strength back. We just keep growing. I did a wedding this past week, and this wedding was full of little kids. Like, there's little kids running all over the place. And I loved it because I missed that a little bit in my own life. And so it was a nice little reminder to me of what life used to be like. And all these parents frantically looking for sleep any minute they could get it, and looking to give their kids off to anyone who'll, tell you what, my kid, there you go, take it for a little while. It was a reminder to me of what life used to be like. And as we were traveling in the car, I was traveling with this one family, and they have this little baby is about twelve, no, seven, eight months, something like that. Little baby in the car, cute little baby. And we stopped to get the baby food. Now, when I was given baby food, when Beth and I were giving baby food to our kids, you took a spoon, you cleaned it off as best as you could. You prayed that it didn't fall in the and then you took the little jar out and you fed the babies. Not anymore. Babies have these little squeeze bags. Have you seen these? They are the most fascinating things I've ever seen. It's like little astronauts getting their meals out of these bags. And I went into the store and I saw all these bags, and you just screw it off the top. And then you give the kid and the kid squeezes it and chews on the little plastic thing. And I'm thinking, that is brilliant. Why didn't somebody think of that when we had kids? And the pictures on the front are extremely attractive. They have the bright fruits and the bright vegetables, and I'm thinking to myself, I might actually like to try one of those. So I'm thinking to myself, if we go to a restaurant, like after church today, I'm going to look and see if it's on the menu. And you're thinking to yourself, craig, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Like I was laughing up to this point. But that's just dumb, right? Why is it dumb? It's dumb because they don't serve baby food at restaurants. When you go to a restaurant, you don't look for baby food. You look for filet mignon. You look for whatever. What do you look for? A burger? Yeah. Salmon. Right. It would be very, very silly to go to Outback Steakhouse and say, hey, I just saw some of those squeeze bags for the little kids. I'd like to try one of those. Do you have those in the back that I can swing? One of them. They would look at you very weird. Why? Because there is a time when you eat baby food and there's a time to grow up and eat solid food. We grow physically, and if we don't grow physically, we look at ourselves and go, something's wrong. If some part of your body stops to grow, we call that danger. There's a part of your body that needs attention. If it's not growing, we are naturally meant to keep growing. God created us to grow. We can't multiply the human race if we don't grow. Can you imagine somebody driving a car that never grew? I mean, you couldn't even reach the pedals. How are you going to do that? Right? You got to grow just to drive a car. If our bodies stop growing, we call a doctor. And if we behave in an infantile way, as adults, we will stand out. We are meant to grow physically. God created us that way. And so if somebody stops growing or they start ordering baby food off a menu, you would look at them and go, yeah, there's something terribly wrong with that individual. Right? In our spiritual lives, we are intended to grow. There's never a part of our spiritual lives where we go that's it. I'm saved. I'm good. I'm good to go. There's never a point of time when we stop growing physically, and there's never a point of time that we are to stop growing spiritually. In fact, the Bible calls us growing into the image of you know what it is? Christ. We grow into the image of Christ. Know what that means? We look more like Jesus as we come to know Him, as our Savior. And as we live our lives, we want to start behaving growing to look like Jesus. This is our in Romans 829. It says that this is our predestined destiny. It's the normal flow of our devotion to Jesus. And if that does not happen, we look OD like ordering baby food off of the outback menu. One Corinthians, three one says this. Now listen to this. It's going to shock you a little bit. I brothers could not address you as spiritual people. Is Paul happy or not happy with this phrasing? I mean, as he writes this brand new verse in chapter three, would you say that he's happy or not happy? Not happy. I could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as what's the next word there? As infants in Christ, I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you're not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? Paul looks at them and says, you guys are not growing spiritually, so I'm going to talk to you like babies. Now, if the Apostle Paul wrote to our church, and if we were lucky enough to receive a letter from the great Apostle Paul, and he started the letter by saying, yeah, I was going to write you a normal letter, but I know you, and so I'm going to write to you all like babies. How would it make you feel? Yeah. Make you feel bad, right? Well, that's the point, because there's something stunting the growth of these Corinthians. And what was stunting the growth of the Corinthians, they were jealous of one another. There was strife among them. They were behaving not like the image of Christ, but they were behaving like they were before they were saved. They would rather be right themselves than submit to their brothers and sisters. This was a church that was not growing spiritually. And so Paul writes them and says, I'm going to talk to you all like babies right now. And that had to hurt their feelings. It would hurt mine. I would take note of that and I would say, okay, guys, the Apostle Paul thinks we're all babies here, so let's have a little family meeting and discuss what the problem is. There was something getting in their way, something that was keeping them from taking the natural step in their spiritual growth. Listen, it is the full expectation of Jesus Christ that we grow in the faith. Only our disobedience can cause unnatural growth like strife in the Corinthian Church or whatever is in our hearts that's keeping us from becoming more like the image of Jesus. That is the natural flow. The natural flow of my life is I want to be you remember the bracelets? What would Jesus do, right? That is the natural flow of my life. I can get in the way to that. And you might say to me, you might say, Well, Craig, didn't Jesus really commend people and say, faith is only you only need the faith of a mustard seed? Yes, he did, but it wasn't his intention that your faith stay like that. Are you kidding? Don't you remember what he kept saying? His disciples, he would do this major miracle and his disciples would go, no way, we didn't know you could do that. And he would go, o you of oh, you've read these verses. Was that a compliment? No, he's looking at his disciples and going, what is wrong with you? Like all you need is a faith of a mustard seed and you can move mountains, but you don't stay that way. You grow in your faith. You've heard of the weaker brother? In the New Testament, Paul says, just be careful of the weaker brother because you don't want to make him stumble. It is not a compliment to be called the weaker brother. You're a problem for the rest of us. That's the point. It's not a compliment to be weaker. The point is you're weaker for a reason. You've stopped growing. I've had enough of churches and songs that talk about how great the faith of a mustard seed is. Let's start making the seed grow. Let's have the kind of faith where we are unstoppable, where we actually believe that God can do anything that he says, and where our faith isn't on the rocks every time we are attacked. In James, it says that our faith is perfected through trials. Some of us have such small faith, some of us have not followed that regular path of growth. And so when we get to those moments of testing, those moments of trials, our faith is really shaky. Boy, if you had the faith of Jesus, think of what your faith would be like in the moments of trials and testing. It's not a compliment to be described as a spiritual infant. We are not supposed to be satisfied with this. Our faith is meant to grow. The writer of Hebrews even tells us this. This is another one that I'm glad you're sitting down because listen to the words of this one. The writer of Hebrews in chapter five and verse twelve says this, though by this time you ought to be what's the word there? By this time you ought to be teachers. You need somebody to teach you again the basic principles of the oracle of God. You need what's the word? Church. You need milk. Not solid food for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. It's not a compliment. You're not growing. Something happened. And then he says in verse 14, listen, solid food is for the mature, for those who are growing, for those who have their powers of discernment, trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. If you have a hard time living in this world and going, yeah, that's bad, that's good, that's bad, that's good, you might realize at that point that maybe your faith needs to grow a little. Maybe you need to take a step of obedience and allow that process of growth, spiritual growth, to continue. You are meant to grow spiritually. I am meant to grow spiritually. And the more you grow, the more you're able to discern good from wrong, right from wrong, good from evil. If there's one thing the devil does well, it is to blur the line between good and evil. And for some of us, we are impacted by the devil's lies so that we can't discern between good and evil. But according to Hebrews, the more you grow in your faith, not stay like a mustard seed, but bust out, man. The more you grow in your faith, the more easy you will find it to discern good from evil. Apparently, we're intended to grow in our love and even in our ability do you remember how that verse started? Even in our ability to teach others about the gospel, to teach others about faith, though by this time you ought to be teachers. You remember that? And then he says, everyone who lives on milk will be unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child. New believers cannot teach others about the deep truths of God. They must learn it first. New believers cannot help others grow healthy until they are trained properly. New believers are not even permitted to actually be leaders in the church. Did you know that? Elders are not new believers. No new believer is meant to be an elder. There's a reason for that. Because their growth has not continued. It has not matured. God intends for us to grow physically. That's why we were made. That's the way we were made. God intends for us to grow spiritually. That's the way we were made. Jesus gives us the most basic way to grow in our faith. Did you know that? I love Jesus for many reasons, but one is he doesn't pull any punches when he talks about stuff. He makes it pretty plain. In one of his conversations with his disciples after his resurrection, he told them how to grow and how to grow the church. We call it the Great Commission. And here's how it goes in Matthew 20 818 and Jesus came and said to them, I love how he introduces this. All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. Do you know why he says that? He says that because what he's saying is, I'm the teacher, you're the student. Listen to this. I have been given all authority. He rose from the dead. He's conquered sin and death in the grave. He has all authority. He has the keys to death in the grave. He beats everything, right? That's what he means. So we should listen. And then here's what he says. Verse 19. Go therefore. Since he has the authority over us, he gets to tell us what to do. And what's the first thing we should do? Church. Go. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations. Then what? Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And then what? Teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And lo, I'm with you always to the end of the age. Here's this simple growing process. Here it is in a basic diagram. Make disciples grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Teach them to observe. Grow in obedience to what Jesus says. Grow in obedience to all I have commanded. You know what that means? You've got to grow in your simple daily choices. You've got to observe what Jesus has said. Observe means doing it on a regular basis. This is the simple growing process that Jesus gives us. It is basic, it is simple and it is profound. Because our job, not my job as the pastor, but our job as followers of Jesus. It doesn't stop when we ask Christ to be our Savior. It doesn't stop when we say, okay, I'm going to follow Jesus. Because if it stops, something's wrong. If you want to keep growing, here's how it goes. You have to make disciples. Teach them the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Speak of Jesus in front of your family, your friends. If you want to clear a room, use the name of Jesus. But you have established where you stand, though, right? We were in a situation, my wife and I, not that long ago, where they were talking about the woes of the world. And my wife being who she is, beth decided to bring up Jesus'name. And she said if people would just give their lives to Jesus, all this would change. And it was like a grenade in the room. People started, I kid you not, yelling to the point where we had to take action. We had to kind of regroup, and all is well. We still have a relationship with him. But it was very interesting to see. It was like Jesus. Make disciples. Help them grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Don't teach them they are good at heart, because Jesus never said that. He never said, Listen, you're basically good people. I'm just here to give you a boost. Jesus said, Every time you are full of sin, from the crown of your head to the sole of your foot, and that sin will drag you into hell. So in order to stop that process in your life, I am going to die on a cross. There's nothing beautiful about the picture that he gave about where we are in our sin. If you're going to a church, that's a hard time discussing sin, you're in the wrong church, because if you're going to get saved, you got to get saved from something, and it costs Jesus his life. That's pretty important. Teach them about the knowledge of who Jesus is. Teach them to observe, grow in obedience to how Jesus wants them to live. You can throw that back up there one more time and then teach them all that I have commanded. Every part of what Jesus commands is meant to help us grow. We have consolidated that at Village Church East, and we just simply call that Go grow and overcome. You'll see it on the sign as you leave. There's nothing magical about that phrase. We stole it from Jesus. That's basically the Great Commission VCE summarizes this because going is necessary, growing is necessary, and overcoming is necessary because that's how you know you're going. You're growing into the image of Jesus. Growth must include baptizing. It must include making disciples. I'm not making that up. I stole it again from Jesus. So if you've given your life to Jesus Christ, if you're a follower of Jesus, but you've never been baptized, there's something stunting your growth, stopping your growth. Jesus'plan to us is very simple. Make disciples, baptize them. The New Testament is full of people who were baptized. There are people getting baptized left and right in the New Testament. Here's a diagram of what happens. Basically, they come to Christ for salvation, and then they get baptized, and then they join a local church. Now, you may have a problem with the church membership thing. I don't really care, because every verse in Scripture indicates when somebody gets saved, then they got baptized, and then they joined a local assembly where they could serve and use their gifts and grow in the Lord. If you're not using your gifts and growing in the Lord in a local assembly, where are you using your gifts? Who is your elder? Who is your deacon? Because those are the offices that Jesus establishes for us who follow him. So there needs to be a local group of people where you lock arms with them and make a difference in this small area of the world and then bust out around the world. Here's a project for you if you want to do it. It's fun. Look, in the New Testament, every time the word baptism is used, you'll always find this process. It'll never be, they were baptized and then they were saved. It'll never be, they joined the church and then they were saved. It'll always be, they were saved, then they were baptized. Then they were added to the local church. Now, it might leave one off, like it may leave they don't join the church, but it always has it in this order. When it has it, it's a fun activity. I think you'll love it. Here's one acts 20 acts 241. You tell me where it is. Here. All right. I've given it to you on the screen. And those who received his word were baptized. And there were about that day added about 3000 souls. Do you see all three there? Yeah. They received his word. It'll be different words. They believed what he said. They changed their mind. They received his word, whatever it is, that's salvation. They accepted what they were told. That's salvation. Then they were baptized. That's like baptized. Then they were added to the church. Let me ask you a question. How did they know there was 3000 and not 2500? Somebody counted them. Why would somebody count? Why would somebody count? Because it looks good when we turn in our annual report. Why would somebody count in the New Testament? Why would they do that? Because they want to monitor these people who gave their life to Jesus. They want to put them in local assemblies where they can grow, where they can use their gifts. They counted not to pat themselves on the back. They counted because now they're responsible to help those 3000 people continue to grow. You'll find this pattern all over the New Testament. This was water baptism for new followers of Jesus Christ. And by the way, when they decided to be saved, that was one thing. But when they got baptized, they were taking their lives in their hands. Rome was in charge. Rome didn't like Christianity. Nero burnt down Rome, blamed it on the Christians. Then he built these at the end of the New Testament, he built these amphitheaters where they would use Christians as appetizers before the gladiator games. And if you've been taught something different, please understand there's a revision history being changed in this world today. These Christians, if they were baptized, they were publicly proclaiming a private decision and they were putting their lives on the line. They were identifying with the people of Jesus Christ. Baptism is a serious thing. But Jesus never said, hey, you should be baptized as long as it's not too stressful. He said you're saved. You should be baptized, and then you should learn of me. Be taught and grow. Growth is teaching them to observe. I love it. Where's the best place to teach to find? If you want to be a heart surgeon, where do you go? If you just want to be a heart surgeon, could you train yourself to do it? You kind of could. Google's pretty informative. Would you go to somebody that learned how to do heart surgery on Google? No. You'd probably want to go to somebody that's had a lot of schooling, don't you think? Some training from the best people in the world. Don't you think it's interesting to me that God has established these local churches, these local assemblies, where if you want to grow, we'll make it as easy as possible. We'll make it as informative as we can. We'll make it as palatable. And we will challenge you to grow in every way. You should go to church. If you're not going to church, you're missing out on an opportunity, a major, easy opportunity for daily growth. Here you can discover and use your gifts. You can get a weekly dose of truth in a world of lies. You can worship Jesus with others here in the family. You can refocus, for God's sakes. We need to refocus. You can be led by Godly leaders intended to lead local churches, and we will teach you what God has commanded of his followers. We're doing a baptism today because this one person today and several others who are contemplating this actually have decided that this is their method for growth. This is the way that God has intended for them to grow, and they want to be obedient to what Jesus has told them. Baptism does not make me more acceptable to God. Baptism is a necessary step of growth in my spiritual growth process. Jesus instructed his church to baptize. The early church in the Bible was baptizing all over the place, and we must continue to follow his instructions by baptizing. Those who come to us, come to Him for salvation. Baptism is simply this listen. It is a personal declaration of a private decision. We don't baptize infants because they can't make a personal decision. We baptize people who come to the Lord and know they are followers of his. They know they belong to Him. So who do you belong to? Who owns you? Jesus said, If I own you, here's what you should do. You should be baptized. You should make that private decision public. It is your declaration. When you stand in the water, we always have our folks, when they stand in the water, share their testimony, because that is their declaration of who they belong to. Baptism is identifying with Jesus life, death, and resurrection. That's why we use water verbally. They proclaim that they belong to Jesus. Then we dunk them in this pool. Otherwise, we'd put them under in another pool. All of that is a picture of them dying with Jesus. And then when they come out of the water, it's a picture of them rising again with Jesus. It is a visible testimony, a verbal testimony and a visible testimony. You get to see what they believe. Now, in our church, we started doing this during COVID just because the pool was not accessible. And so we do it two ways here. We put somebody in this pool, and then we dunk the living daylights out of them, or we take them into the pool out there, and we may end up doing that in a couple of weeks. And we put them under the water. And we bring them up out of the water. The point is not necessarily how you do it. The point is what it symbolizes. Just like we do Communion, there's nothing supernatural that happens to the cup and the bread. It's what it symbolizes. And so when you see this young lady that's going to be up here in a few minutes, share her testimony, know that she is verbally proclaiming where she stands with Jesus, and then when we dunk the living daylights out of her, it's a picture of her dying with Jesus and then raising to new life. Verbal and visible testimony. Two questions for you. You have been physically born or you would not be hearing me right now. So you have been physically born. Have you been spiritually born? Jesus said it this way you must be born again. God is very concerned about the place that you feel like you belong. And he has given this place to you, his family, his church that exists throughout time and around the world. Our local expression of his family is sitting here right now, is watching online. This is where you can find acceptance and hope and help as if you're receiving it from Jesus himself. All of this is an effort to help us grow, continue to grow in the image of Jesus Christ. Jesus was baptized, and one of the reasons was to give us a picture that we should be baptized as well. How do I know that? I've clearly been spiritually born again? How do I know that? That's a good question. You may be sitting here thinking to yourself, well, I'm not sure that I even was spiritually born like born again. The answer to that is pretty easy. Here's the question you need to answer who runs your life? Pretty simple. Who runs your life? Who makes your decisions? Who are you more interested in calling the shots? Who do you listen to more? Because if that's Jesus, then you might have discovered the way to tell if you really are a believer in Jesus Christ. Here's a verse that goes along with it. Galatians 524 and those who read it for me, would you please those who belong to Jesus Christ. Okay, if you belong to Jesus Christ, the rest of this is for you. Those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. They don't listen to that stuff anymore. If we live by the Spirit, who we listen to, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Who do you belong to? Who do you listen to? Who runs your life? Because if you're majorly interested in Jesus calling the shots, that could be a great indication that he is your Lord and Savior. Number two, if you are growing physically, which you are, all right? So you are growing physically, some of us more. Than others. Are you growing spiritually? You must grow physically and you must grow spiritually. We must grow stronger in the faith. Listen, if you've been saved for any length of time, by this point, you should be teaching others. It's not my idea. We just read the verses like Jesus is writing, going, I'm going to talk to you like babies because you still are. We're going, yeah, I'm the weaker brother. That's me. Everybody step on eggshells around me. My faith is not that deep. Yeah, jesus would look at you and he would go, oh, you of little faith, why does your faith crumble so easily? Maybe the growth process has been stifled by disobedience. In the Corinthians case, by strife. We cannot keep it in if we know Jesus Christ as our savior. It comes out in our parenting, our friendships, our job roles, our daily responsibilities. It just comes out. I drive for Uber, and if you get my Uber, if you talk to me at any length of time, you're probably going to hear a little bit about Jesus. And I haven't been fired yet because Uber needs drivers. It just comes out of you. And if you're a follower of Jesus Christ and you're thinking to yourself, yeah, you know, it just kind of oozes out of me. That's the point. That's how growth is gauged. We can see it in how we spend our time, where we spend our money, who we go to for counsel, where we find hope. We are just becoming better and better disciples. We are following the great commission. It's interesting. We're not told to get people saved in the great commission. Did you know that? We're told to make disciples. Here it is again, just so you can see it. Therefore, go and not get people saved. What does it say? Go. And there's a difference. You can give your life to Jesus and stop, but that's not the point. The point is you've got to be a disciple of Jesus. It's got to flow through everything that you say and do. It's got to impact every part of your life. That's what a disciple is, and that's what our purpose in life is. Go make disciples of all nations. Everyone needs to hear about Jesus. Baptizing them. Don't forget about that. In the name of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit, and then teach them to obey. Our goal is not primarily salvation. It's to make disciples. So what's stopping your growth? Pull of the world? Money? Fighting too much with the old person in you who wants strife rather than peace? With people around you? Do you pause when it comes time to following Jesus commands? When you hear what Jesus commands, do you go, Hang on a second. I just gotta think about whether I'm gonna do that or not. It's time to move again. And maybe you've never actually got baptized. You've become a disciple, but car stopped. Maybe you need to be baptized. That is the natural next step of growth in Jesus Christ. Maybe you need to find a local church that you can join. We'd love you to have you here. We're looking to make a dent in this world, and I'm not going to stop until it happens here in Carroll Stream and then around the world. Maybe you need to find somewhere else in this church or somewhere that you can use your gifts to bless others. Maybe you need to just start with Jesus'simple plan to be baptized. We have another baptism coming up, by the way. So if you're interested and you see this baptized and you're thinking to yourself, I'd like to be baptized, like to hear more about that, you would make my day. I'll give you a private session on baptism. All right. Will you meet at Starbucks? Jade and I met at Starbucks. The girl that's going to be baptized today, she and I met at Starbucks. And you'll hear her testimony in a second and you'll hear how that meeting solidified her relationship with Jesus Christ. Life tests our faith. Maybe you feel strangled by the cares of this world, but your faith remains small, tested, waning. You are meant to grow, and you can grow. You need to grow and become stronger. Look at this. John Ten, verse 27. Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them. They follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand. Maybe you just need to be reminded of this. If you're a follower of Jesus, you're one of his sheep. It doesn't matter on how much you hang on. It matters on how much Jesus knows you belong to Him. And if you do belong to Him, there's no road too far that you cannot find your way back to Him. So church respond, keep growing. And if you don't know if you are, we are here to help. Somebody will be right over here at this prayer booth after church, and you can talk to them and they will help you understand how to keep the growing process going spiritually. You know you're growing physically. Keep that spiritual growth going for now. I want to introduce you to a young lady who has kept her spiritual growth growing. And a couple of weeks ago, she and I met and we stopped at a Starbucks. She asked me if she could be baptized. And so I said, well, the first place we have to start is, do you know you have a relationship with Jesus? And her response was, I'm not sure. And so we walked through the process and she made sure at that Starbucks. Her name is Jade. I'm going to ask her to come up front if she would, wherever she's at, and you're going to get to meet her. She is a young lady that has just made this church her home and we're excited to have her. She's a part of our youth group. You can stand as close as you can over there. There you go. She is part of our youth group. She's a part of our church. And we're excited to have her here and get to know her a little bit better and use her gifts to bless others. This is jade. She's going to share with you her testimony of faith in Jesus Christ. You ready to give it? All right. All yours. Oh, yes. Want me to hold it? [00:35:40] Speaker B: Yeah, can you hold it? So as Pastor Craig was saying, we met at Starbucks about two weeks ago where I surrendered to Jesus, and I really knew that that was the moment that I really knew that I wanted to get baptized. My journey to faith has been a really tough one and a long one, but I'm happy to be here today. I came from a broken home, a home full of hate, alcohol, drugs, abuse, and whores. A home that made me hateful and angry at the world. A home that made me want to wrong everyone that ever wronged me. I used to feel like I wanted to hurt everyone that ever hurt me, and I would burn the world if that's what it took to make me feel better. The anger and hurt that I felt consumed me, and eventually all the anger and hurt turned into sadness and emptiness. I would sit in the shower and turn the music up so loud no one could hear me crowd in pain as the blood dripped down the shower drain. What made me love Christ was that when I was at my worst, broken on the floor, when I absolutely couldn't clean myself up and thought there was no one who could help me, christ said, remove sorrow from your heart and put away pain from your body, for the youth and dawn of life are fleeting. Christ held out a hand for me and washed away all my sins. He held me and forgave me. So today I declare to the church and the whole world that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. [00:37:04] Speaker A: That was very good. All right, so the way we do this is a little bit different. We are going to dunk you in the pool, and before we do that, I just want to say how proud I am of Lisa's, grandpa and grandma for bringing I'm sorry, Jade's, not Lisa, of Lisa and the family taking you in during this time. And so, at Jade's request, I'm going to ask Lisa to come up and be a part of this. Would you mind? Step right over on the other side of the pool. Grab one of those buckets, because you're going to have the best time of your life right now. All right? Grab one of those buckets. All right. You're going to help me baptize jade, based on her profession of faith and this is her request. All right. Jade, have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? [00:38:11] Speaker B: Yes. [00:38:12] Speaker A: Based upon your profession of faith and in accordance with God's plan to grow you and us as a church? To help that happen, I want to with your grandma, baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit buried with him in his death. Let her go. It was warm, raised to walk in newness of life. We're so proud of you, Jade. This is her verbal testimony and visible testimony that Jesus Christ is her Lord and Savior. You have brought joy to our hearts in Jesus Christ. God bless you. If you would like to be baptized, we are planning another one. And maybe the Lord has spoken to you this morning. You really shouldn't leave here without responding. God has chased some of you down. God chased me down. God chased some of us down to the point where we could not ignore Him any longer. And he didn't do it for any other reason than he wants in his love to help you respond. If you've given your life to Jesus Christ, but you've never been baptized, that is a natural next step of growth for do. And if you'd like to be baptized, all you need to do is talk to me. Or you can talk to the person at the prayer booth. We will put your name down. We will make it happen. Probably in November. We've got another one coming up. I don't know if we'll be in here or at the pool, but either way, we will hear your testimony and we will see it verbally and visibly that you have decided to follow Jesus. Let's rejoice and sing.