Jesus’ Baptism: Obedience, Identity, and New Life

When you are baptized, you're declaring to those that are still sitting in this room, and we have a couple ready to be baptized here in just a moment. We're declaring to the rest of the world that Jesus Christ has changed your life. You say, I identify with his death and his resurrection. Today, we're here to celebrate that with these people. At the same time, we're here to promise to pray for them. Anytime we're obedient, you too, to something that God asked us to do, Satan doesn't like that. And so, pray that we would, together as a family, support, encourage those that are being baptized today because they're following in that step of obedience. [00:28:09] (43 seconds)  #DeclareBaptism

That water is not magical. There's nothing special about it. It came from the same tap that all of the water comes from, from your homes too. That water is a symbol today. It's a symbol of what has already happened in their hearts, of what God has already done in their lives. In Romans here, it says, now if we die with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him one day, and that's what each and every one of these people believes. They believe that Jesus Christ came into their heart, forgave them, and now they're brand new. And now, they will live with him for eternity. Each and every one of you in this room can have that same gift. [00:24:12] (41 seconds)  #WaterAsSymbol

It's a beautiful picture here. All of these people that have been in the water confessing their sins and being forgiven, he is now stepping into that same water where all those sins are being dumped. And we know soon that Jesus is gonna die on the cross and he's gonna carry every one of those sins. So what a beautiful image that we see here in what Jesus does, that he fully identifies with us. The third thing that happens here is that Jesus is setting the example. He's just saying it's important for you to do this. God asked you to do it, and that's the first and foremost reason. [00:19:46] (41 seconds)  #JesusIdentifiesWithUs

I admit. I admit that I'm a sinner. Romans three twenty three says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's not a single person in this room that's perfect. We've all made our mistakes. We've all sinned against God by doing what he says not to do and sometimes by not doing what he asked us to do. Romans six twenty three says that the wages of sin, what you earn for this sin is death. But that wasn't where Jesus wanted to leave it. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. There's only one way to get to him. [00:24:57] (35 seconds)  #FromSinToSalvation

Before we close our last song, I love the words that Jackson just said. That feels really good. It does. And it's hard to explain, but it comes way before baptism. And if I was to give you Jesus for one second, you'd never ever give him up. And so today, earlier, I talked about a very simple a b c, admit, believe, confess. Maybe you're sitting here today and your story begins today just like they shared their stories. Yours begins with, I was sitting in Woodhaven Baptist Church, and we were praising and we were singing songs and we learned about baptism, and I watched several people get baptized. [00:54:12] (50 seconds)  #ABCAdmitBelieveConfess

Now, this would be like a guy that builds skyscrapers or buildings or apartments or even just homes, and he stumbles into your backyard and you're building a birdhouse. You've bought a little kit, and you're trying to figure out how to put it together, and you're reading the directions, and you hammer your thumb, and, you know, nothing seems to kinda go and put together just quite right. And this man who builds these huge things comes up to you and says, hey, would you build my house for me? Seems kinda funny, doesn't it? That we would even think that that would happen. The son of God, Jesus, all the prophecies have been pointing to him, stumbles up here and comes in and the crowd's heavy. [00:15:16] (50 seconds)  #JesusShowsUp

it's very simple. You might say, well, I'm hearing this for the first time today, Scott, or I've heard this before, but the way you've described baptism today and the way you're talking about Jesus in these scriptures, it just makes sense. It's just clicking. Can I can I be a believer as well? Can I follow Jesus? Can I have my sins forgiven like those that we're seeing today? And absolutely, that gift is for everybody. Romans ten nine and ten says this, that if you confess with your mouth, you say it, Jesus Christ is my Lord and savior, [00:25:48] (35 seconds)  #FaithIsForEveryone

When we confess that and we believe in our heart that Jesus died and that three days later, he rose again and he lives forever, and one day he is coming back for us, when we confess that and believe that, then what we know is that we get to live with him forever and we are forgiven. John three sixteen, most of us are familiar. We see it in the signs at the football games in the corners and other places, and we've read it. It's maybe the one verse in the bible that everybody has memorized. For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only son that if anyone believes in him, [00:26:28] (39 seconds)  #SavedByGrace