Do I Really Have To Be Baptized?

Baptism tells a story. It is the story of Jesus. It is the story of his death, his burial, and resurrection. And upon belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, when we commit our lives to following him and we enter the waters of baptism, we're now identifying our story with Jesus. And that Jesus has entered our lives and something has radically changed in our hearts that we now know him and we follow him, and we are identifying ourselves with Christ. [00:53:56] (33 seconds)  #BaptismTellsAStory

Part of discipleship, and I would argue the very first step that one should take after following Christ is to be baptized. Because it's exactly what what Jesus says. We we sang the song earlier, trust and obey. And when Jesus gives us a command, I know this is little bit simplified, but we we ought to trust him and obey. Like, he's the savior of the world. He's God Almighty. He's sovereign. He's all knowing. He's all powerful, and he if he's asking us to do this, it ought to be the very thing that we say, yes, Lord. Your will be done. I I'll do that. [00:51:11] (34 seconds)  #TrustAndObeyBaptism

So baptism, I would say, is an absolutely essential part of following Christ. And it is it is the most wonderful things that our heavenly father has given us to hang on to, that we can look back over the course of our life and remember that moment, Remember how God is real. He is present with us. He is powerful. And even when we can't feel him working, he always is. [00:57:11] (30 seconds)  #BaptismEssential

I love the this little saying, and I I'm not sure where I got it, but baptism is not magic. It's not not crazy magic or weird, but it is magical. And there's something incredibly special that God does in our lives when we follow him in obedience. We follow him in baptism. And baptism is a witness to unbelievers too. Leads others to ask questions. Leads them to see what Jesus has done for us in his death, burial, and resurrection. [00:56:34] (37 seconds)  #BaptismIsMagical

Well, it gives you peace, and gives you a a core memory, a moment in time that you can go back to again, and again, and again, as life throws all these different things your way. Romans chapter six verse three. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in newness of life. And so what we see that that that the Lord does for us in baptism is he he cleans our heart. He takes our our sin, and our shame, and the guilt, and all the things that that we carry around, and it's a washing away of those things so that we can be made right with God. [00:42:14] (57 seconds)  #RaisedToNewLife

So when we go under the waters of baptism, we are publicly declaring to the entire world that that I am identifying myself with Christ. I have a new identity. And the tendency we have, especially as men, is we introduce ourselves to one another and we shake hands and we say, hi, my name is Russell and I am a pastor. And we get so much of our identity in the job that we do, yet we forget who we really are. We are sons of the most high God. [00:41:08] (33 seconds)  #IdentityInChrist

I I know that I belong to him. I know that he is my father. I know that he will never leave me. He will never forsake me. He will he will guide me through all of these things, and and that he will somehow, despite the struggle of the circumstance, he will use it for good in my life. And baptism gives us that moment to reflect on, to remember all the promises of God are true in Christ Jesus. Not because of the water, but because the power of God's spirit working in our hearts and lives. [00:43:34] (34 seconds)  #PromisedAndPresent

And to be fair, you might be able to infer that you do baptism that way from some of the different scriptures. However, the scripture never explicitly talks about baptizing babies or baptizing any other way other than submersion. So we we have different backgrounds. Right? And, whatever your background is, the one thing that we can agree on is that, baptism is a public declaration that we belong to Jesus and have been made new by him. So the scripture says that baptism explicitly accompanies a personal faith, a repentance of sin, and identification with Jesus and his death and resurrection. [00:34:48] (46 seconds)  #BaptismFollowsFaith