It's a great video. Good morning, Father's House! Wow, boy, that came out, didn't it? Whoo! Jennifer, thank you very much. You raised the bar a little high. I apologize that I should have just stopped everything and said, "Jennifer, go, go, go!"
Right, good morning! Welcome! Good to have you here. Whoo! Is that loud? Okay, it's just loud here. Sounds like it's ringing. All right, not a problem. My name is Ben, and because I'm old, they make my microphone very loud. I'm honored to be one of the pastors here at the Father's House. I give oversight to the men's ministry and to the safety ministry of T.F.H. Just good to have all of you here.
I want to welcome all of you who are joining us on the Internet. You're welcome to be here as well. Today, we're going to have baptism. Today is Baptism Sunday. It's also a great day to begin living a resurrected life because that's what that's all about. That is the starting game right there. When that gun goes off, when somebody gets dunked, that life is coming up different. And we're going to talk about that a little bit.
Jesus gave us two ordinances: communion and baptism. Now, communion is where you take that little cup and that little wafer, and there in your seat, even though you're surrounded by hundreds of other people, you have a little private moment with God. And you reflect upon the price that was paid by the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world and to set you free. That's what you do in that little square, all by yourself. There's nobody here, even though there's a hundred people walking around. You're right there.
Baptism, on the other hand, is not so private. No. Baptism is quite public. In fact, every eye is upon the person about to be baptized. Because baptism represents the burying of the old and the resurrecting of the new. Okay? If you want to walk a life that is new, then it's a new life. It must be a resurrected life. It just absolutely has to. In fact, baptism should actually be something that's exciting.
Let me give you an example. Watch this little video here, if you would. I love that. I just love it. Don't you just know that there are people in the back row lifting a 10 up because that was a great dive, you know?
I'm really surprised, honestly, at how many people, how many evangelical Christians have not been baptized. Now, there's a couple of reasons for that, but there's one thing we should recognize right off the bat, and that is baptism is not an option. It's a mandate. In fact, the last words, the last words that Jesus spoke before he ascended into heaven clearly define the importance of baptism in our life. He gave us three commissions to complete. It's known as the Great Commission, which, by the way, commission means to command.
And he said it in the 28th chapter of the book of Matthew, verses 18 to 20. Listen to what he said. Now, think about this. These are his last words.
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age."
Do you get that? We have only three things that are absolutely required of us, and it was the last words in which Jesus chose to speak while on his earthly ministry. First, we're to go out and share the gospel and make disciples. And disciples simply mean followers of Jesus Christ.
Secondly, we have to baptize them. Now, take note. This takes place almost immediately after a person has given their life to the Lord. Baptism. Then we instruct them. We seem to get things kind of screwed up there. We go around teaching people about stuff, hoping they get saved, and we don't even think about baptism.
Now, why is baptism something that is so reluctant to do? I mean, there has to be, because I've been around a long time, and I know a lot of people that have been walking with God, calling him Lord, which he says, by the way, if you call me Lord, why don't you do what I ask you to do? You know? And yet, for some reason, they're still not getting baptized.
Maybe, let me just give you a couple of things that I thought about. Maybe it's the fact that we feel that we've already been baptized, possibly as an infant. How many here were baptized, sprinkled as an infant? Look at that! Look at that! Keep your hands up! Keep your hands up! Look around! Oh, my goodness! Thank you.
I'm going to dispel a couple of things. First off, there's nothing in the Scriptures about being baptized as an infant. The Bible does not speak about it at all. Nor does it speak about sprinkling as a baptism. Baptism of sprinkling and baptism of infants took place; it originated in 1311, 1,300 years after John the Baptist was on the scene.
Baptism means, the word means, to submerge. To submerge. In other words, to bury the old. I kind of sometimes wonder if I had somebody that were to die in my neighborhood, and they put him out in the front yard, and as they walked out, they threw a little sand on him, and that was the end of it. That wouldn't be happy with me. You got to bury him because that which is dead must not resurrect. It must stay under the ground.
All right? The second thing, I think a lot of reasons that we don't get baptized is because, well, we don't want to get wet. Oh, I don't want to get wet in front of people. I mean, I know that it causes, as you pointed out, your hair will get mussed. I'm not concerned about that, but your hair will get mussed. And, of course, you'll also, not only will your hair get mussed, you'll also have the possibility of your makeup running and all that.
And then, of course, later on, you'll have to bury him. And then, of course, later on, you'll have to bury him. And ladies, you probably have some concerns as well, getting baptized. But there's a biblical directive of baptism. It's to take place once a person has accepted Christ.
You'll find in the Bible, do a Bible study, you'll see it happens immediately. Look at the eunuch. He was told about the gospel. He gave his heart to Jesus. And the eunuch looks around and says, "Hey, there's some water. Can you baptize me?"
Why is it so important to be baptized? Because we need a place to start that resurrected life. And it starts in the baptismal. And I believe that's why Jesus himself made it the second greatest movement of our commissioning to change the world around us.
Baptism is not an option; it's a mandate. It also occurred to me, look at that last sentence, "And surely I am with you always, even at the end of the age."
Have you ever had a job that you really didn't want to do, but the boss was standing there, so you went ahead and did it? Notice that Jesus makes sure he let you know, "I'm going to be here, and I'm looking over your shoulder. Get it done." It's right there.
I don't know if I would want a boss that I've had anyway that could tell me he was going to live for the rest of the age and look over my shoulder. But sprinkling doesn't work. And by the way, this thing about getting wet, I have been a pastor for a long, long, long time. Probably older in the church than you have life.
I have never had, ever had, anybody that came to me and said, "Pastor, I want you to know I came to church Sunday because, well, I just want to see what them people look like all wet." That's never happened. So that's not a problem. All right? You've got no cause, no reason not to be baptized. And today, if you're available. And you know what? I see you. You're available.
Living a resurrected life is a choice. It is a choice. Just like baptism is a choice. I don't know about you. See, I was raised as a child in a Roman Catholic household. And I, like so many of you, was baptized. I was raised as an infant. And I thought, maybe I should never get baptized again. I've already been baptized. No, you weren't. Not according to biblical directive.
But at the same time, there's nothing in the Bible that says that there's some limitation at the number of times you can be baptized. There's nothing there. Now, once you know the importance and what the baptism is about, and you get baptized, you may not necessarily need another time. Because you should be walking in that new life.
All right? So Ephesians chapter 4, 22 to 24 says this: "You were taught with regard to your former way of life to put on, again, you with me? Put on the old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on a new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."
Did you get this put-on thing? Did you notice that it doesn't say, by the way, "I hope you're going to be baptized. I hope you're going to be baptized. I hope you're nothing better to do. You might want to wear a little holiness." No, the moment you come up out of that water and that old person's dead, it's time to walk outside that door and not carry it any with you anymore.
And you say, "Well, do I have to be baptized to be saved?" No. You were saved because of what happened on a cross. Jesus Christ died to take the sin away from you and the rest of this world. And you can walk rightly before God because of what Jesus did for you when you believed what he did for you.
But there must have been a reason why baptism was the second thing to do. And that's because it's not necessarily for God; it's for you. God's already done his part. Now it's you to do your part.
Okay? Oh, and there's a warning. Let me give you this warning. When you take on the new life, when you put on that new garment of holiness in Christ, choose to rise up and walk rightly before the Lord. When you do that, do not assume for a moment that everyone is going to be overjoyed and really appreciate your new wardrobe.
My wife and I were in a restaurant sometime back, and we were sitting in this little booth, and behind us there was another booth that had about, I think, six people or something like that. And you couldn't help but hear them because they were trying to out-talk each other. Of course, Roberta had a glass up against the... Yeah.
And we found that what they were saying was interesting because they were really angry with this young girl. There was this girl. When I say young girl, I mean, it sounded like she was younger than they were. And they were upset with her because she doesn't come out with girls anymore. She doesn't party like she used to. You know, her husband is actually... I thought she was going to throw that bum out, but no, she kept him. I can't believe that.
She got this religion, and now every time the church doors are open, she and the kids and the husband are in church. He used to smoke dope, drink beer, and watch the game with this. Now he don't do any of that. We don't even want him around because you know what they're going to want to do? In the middle of the restaurant before the meal arrives, they're going to want to hold hands and say grace. How embarrassing is that?
Trust me. That new wardrobe is going to be an offense to some. But now is the time that you tighten up your Jesus cleats and you stand. You stand. When you take that stand, you do it in love. Isn't that a great way to say I want to hit him anyway? You know? But that's exactly what you're going to do.
And here's how you do it. I'm going to give you a lesson right now. Let me see. All right. There's a chair right there, right in the middle of some people. Right? And there's another one right over there, and there's one back there. Imagine, if you would, that this guy comes in and he's walking... He decides he's going to get through your aisle to get to that stand. He's going to get to that center chair. And then walking there, he keeps hitting the person in front. You know? You like that kind of a hit you always get in the theater? Bam! You know, he hits you. And then he steps on your foot.
How many here are about to say, "Hey, pal. Watch it out. Watch out. You know? Just lighten up. These are my feet. I want to walk on them." You know? And then all of a sudden, as you start about to say something, you see in his hand is one of those folded-up white canes with a red end. You know?
Oh. Here's the interesting part. Instead of saying, "Hey, watch it," you're saying, "Oh, excuse me. I'm sorry." You are apologizing because he stepped on your foot. Why? Why are you giving him such grace? He's blind. So are they. You with me? Treat them as though they simply cannot see because they cannot see.
Now, don't mistake the blessing, by the way. Don't mistake a blessing with a resurrected life. They're not the same. Now, a resurrected life can be blessed. But many times, we look at Christianity as being just this big... I live in this place called the Villages, and we call it the bubble. And sometimes when we give our life to the Lord, we think, "Now we stepped into a bubble. And everything's just going to be hunky-dory. And that's, you know, where it's going to be."
A blessed life is one of those... A blessed life is a life that when there's financial problems, they get resolved. When relationships that need mending get mended. And when health is bad, it improves. That's a blessed life. And that's God showing you how much he loves you. That's God's grace and God's power. And you should be thankful for that. You should be continually thankful for the blessings that he's given you.
But if your Christianity is based only on the things in which you are blessed by, then a resurrected life has not yet been met in your life. You see, a resurrected life has hope when there is none. A resurrected life is willing to go through the furnace of transfiguration and change whoever they were, be willing to change to whatever God wants to walk rightly before him.
There was a place not far from our home in California that they did glassblowing. You ever see that? That is so cool to watch. They take this great big distorted marble thing, and they stick a straw in it, and then they put it in the furnace. And they leave it in the furnace for a while until it becomes pliable. And then they pull it out, and the master glass blower is able to take that, blow life into that, and create a piece of beautiful, just beautiful glassware.
It had to go through the furnace before it became pliable. But take note of something else. When you become pliable in the master's hand, he will make something beautiful out of you, and he will set you up so you can be seen because he wants the world to follow what you have done. You have given your life as well.
I'm going to give you another warning. When you sit on that, you cool off, and now you're breakable. You know what that means? That means your heart is softened. You'll start to even cry at commercials. In other words, you're going to see people with a need, and you're going to move accordingly. Well, why? Because God got a hold of your heart and created something marvelous out of you. But you had to go through the furnace first. Life had to be blown into you.
And then you have to take the shelf and say, "Here I am. I'm willing to be broken." In Romans 6, 3-4 it says, "Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."
Take note of that last few words: "We too may live a new life." You know what it does not say? "You will live a new life." Oh, no. It says "you may." In other words, come on in. You may welcome. You may enter. But it's up to you.
You see, one of the problems we have in Christianity is we're waiting for God to do all the work, and God says, "I gave you all the power. Go to work." And you may want to start working on you before you start working on somebody else because we're good at being the Holy Spirit for other people. That's one thing I've met a lot in the church.
I've been a pastor now for 40 years, and I've met more people who were the Holy Spirit than the Holy Spirit. A resurrected life carries the scars of the past and the pains of the present. But you know what those things do? They break. They bring wisdom, and they bring an awareness that every single day, every minute of every single day, no matter what you're facing, you have the right to have a new start.
But so many of us dwell on the minutes before and don't realize the minute now is the opportunity to move forward. A resurrected life. And this point here is the greatest hindrance to walking a resurrected life. A new life. Remember, the new life is up to you to put on.
By the way, my wife, I have a closet at home. It's not very big, but it's a pretty good size. You know, it's not a walk-in, but it's big enough. It is jammed full of stuff. I'm not kidding you. I got more clothing in there, and they're all nice things. And I only put maybe two or three things in that room. She put everything else.
She knows quality, and she knows a good buy, and when she picks up something that she thinks will fit, guess who gets it? It's in my closet. In fact, there's so many things in my closet, I really don't know what is in my closet. But I can probably wear something different every single day for the next six months and never wear the same thing twice.
She put it in there, but it's up to me of whether or not I wear it. God did this for you, but it's up to you to determine whether or not you're going to put him on. You say, "Well, I don't know if God's around." Well, if you don't know, he isn't. He's watching. He's waiting. He wants to be there. But you have to stand up, dust yourself off, and say, "You know what? There's a place in the scripture I found is interesting. If somebody does not receive your blessing when you come into their home, then dust yourself off, it says, as you leave."
Do you realize how many of us should wake up in the morning before we even go to work and dust ourselves off? And we're not talking about leaving your house. We're talking about leaving the old life and starting something new.
The resurrected life, this is the hard part. A resurrected life must choose to forgive and be forgiven. That's essential in life. Colossians 3:12 says, "As God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself with compassion." Get this? We're clothing you again. Do you see this?
This whole thing is nothing. Roberta will go into a store and spend two hours trying things on she's not going to buy. God is telling us over and over and over and over and over again, clothe yourself with things that you desperately need. With compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
That's tough. Folks, no matter how justified you may be, holding on to anger is going to do nothing, absolutely nothing, but keep you in bondage. It'll do nothing else. It'll continue to cast a shadow over your heart.
This morning when I woke up, the Lord put a word in my heart. I'm not going to get cosmic spiritual on you. I'm just telling you what I woke up and I knew that I had to write down, and I wrote it down. I gave it to him, and I want to read this to you.
You cannot live a resurrected life and cling to the old you that resides in the dark recesses of your heart. You cannot have both. You either have what you want or you have what he wants for you.
Let me talk to you about baptism. Can I get you to take that off? The worship team wants to come on up. Let me talk to you about baptism. I think one of the reasons that a lot of people aren't baptized is they don't really understand the significance of what's taking place here.
I want to share that with you. I'm not going to do a half gurney with a twist to go in there either. All right? Now, baptism is not something new. When John the Baptist showed up, I usually ask people, "When was baptism?" Oh, that was when John the Baptist came. No, it is not.
Baptism was an ordinance of the Hebrew faith for hundreds, if not thousands, of years before John the Baptist ever showed up at all. It was used often for what they would call a proselyted Jew. A proselyted Jew was a man or a woman, and we're going to use men here, ladies, but include you.
But it would be a man who wanted to serve the one true God, Jehovah, and wanted to sit under the teachings of the Sanhedrin and those who were the priests of the tabernacle. But they weren't Jewish. So they had to go through a series of instruction. They would be mentored. And when the time was right, when others felt that it was the time for this person, they would take them out to a public place and they would baptize them.
The depth of the meaning of that baptism was so great and still is in the Hebrew faith, and it should be in the Christian faith, that when that man went down under the water, the man that went down is not the man that came up. So much so that man had to go and reestablish his relationship with his wife and children. He was a completely different human being.
We get in here and think we're just going to splash around in the water because this is what we do in church. This is a holy place. This is what we would call an altar of remembrance. An altar of remembrance, you'll find throughout the scriptures, it's where altars were created, where God met man and met his need or interacted with man. It had a place to remember.
It may only be a big block of stones. Well, like Moses, when Moses struck the rock, they built an altar of remembrance. So whoever walks by and sees this unusually stacked rocks, they know this took place at this point. In the New Testament, Jesus, when he was transfigured, Peter, James, and John wanted to build altars of remembrance for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.
This is an altar of remembrance. It is a place where you bury the old, leave it here, resurrect, walk outside that door different than you walked in.
The problem is our grasp of the right of forgiveness. I want to take you somewhere. God gave us an imagination. And it's sad that we've perverted it as we have, but it's still there, and we can use it. And I want you to close your eyes for a moment. I want to take you somewhere. So please, go with me, okay?
Now, you may be in your house right now, and there's a door that you hadn't seen before. And when you go to open it up, it leads down some steps into a basement. You didn't even know you had a basement. But now you've got this basement down at the bottom of these steps. You turn on this little light switch as you first walk through the door, and you find that it kind of throws some illumination, but it's not much.
At the bottom of the steps, you look around, and you know that smell? I'm sure everybody's experienced it. It's kind of a musky, damp smell. And the basement really has no function. I mean, we're just sticking boxes in there and storage stuff that we'll never see again.
But if you look back in the back of that basement, look way back in that corner, as far as you can see, there's another door. Go and open that door. It's so dark in there, you can't see it. You can't see what's in there. So you kind of step in, and there's a small light bulb hanging down from the ceiling. Grab that string that's attached to it, and turn it on.
A yellow hue kind of fills that little room. As you look around, there's canvases and old sheets and any old garments, things covering everything. There's stuff on every wall that's being covered by old quilts and canvases, and just everything is covered. Start taking those covers off. Reach over and grab them, and pull them off. And you know what you're finding? Look at that. You can see it. It's fine, beautiful oil paintings.
I mean, they are meticulously painted. They're meticulous and perfect. And you've painted every one of them. And the more you go, the more you start to see, there's a painting of, well, there's a painting of that time when someone broke your heart. There's a painting of that time when you were abused. There's a painting of that time when you abused someone. There's that painting.
There are hundreds of these paintings in your home, in your basement. And every time you pull one off, you see something that, oh my God, why did that happen? Cover them up fast. Cover them up. And when you leave, close that small door and lock it. Put a lock on it. Don't let anybody down there to see it. And when you go up those steps, go on in and close that door and lock that too.
Now look at me. Jesus Christ forgave you of what's in that room. You have been forgiven for the pain in which you have inflicted upon another. They must be forgiven for the pain they have inflicted upon you. But you don't need to wait for that. Yours is yours. But here's the problem.
You're feeling pretty good right now because everything's locked up. It's in your closet, in your basement, rather. It's in your basement. Jesus forgave you, but you are dragging these things around every place you go. You're putting it in every basement, in every place, the darkest place you can find, the place that you just, all you want it to be absolutely assured of is that no one else will see it.
Well, they may not see it, but you aren't letting go of it. And I'm telling you, in the name of Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you need to get in this water right here, and you have to be able to see it. You have to bury those things so they do not go home with you.
There's a very good chance that somebody here is saying, "Well, I probably would like to be baptized, but I just didn't bring any towels." We got towels. Wait a minute. You're sitting here and saying, "Well, you have to see what I brought, what I'm wearing. I can't. I can't. I'm not baptized in this." No, I know. That's why we have towels right over there. We have stuff to fit every one of you.
Oh, you know what else we got? We got water. If you're sitting here this morning, I want to talk to a different group of people for just a moment. I want to talk to those people that have never met the one that forgave them what's in the bag.
If you have never come to that place, the first thing you have to do is allow God to forgive you. And he wants to. But I want you to know, if you cannot do that, then the only God you have left is you. How you been doing so far? I can pretty much guess not so good.
I don't know about you, but in my life, in my ripe old age, I don't want to repeat it. Because I've had things done, and I have done things. But I'm going to tell you honestly, I was able to baptize many of the staff members in this church and some of you that went to Israel. And I got to baptize you in the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized.
I got to tell you, when I got baptized in that river, I don't know about you, but when I got baptized in that river, I walk a new life. I've always been saved because God loved me, and I gave my heart to him. And that salvation was there. I didn't get saved in the Jordan River. I got very cold, but I got wet.
Close your eyes. Bow your head. With no one looking around. No one. Honor the moment. This isn't your room. This is mine. Honor the moment. If you're here and you've never given your heart to Christ, I want you to know the new life is available right now for you. But it must begin by submission to him.
And I want to pray with you. I'm not going to embarrass you, but I want to pray with you. If you're here, I want you to look up at me and raise your hand. Yes. Yes, I see it. Yes, ma'am. Raise your hand. Yes, sir. Anyone else? Today is the day of your salvation. Yes. You're going to walk outside this place different. I guarantee it.
But you have to be willing to put him on. Because he loves you. He does. He truly does. Let's pray this prayer together.
Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Forgive me of my sin. I believe in you, Lord. I believe you died for me. And I believe you rose again. You can change me from the inside out. I am willing to change. In Jesus' name. Amen.
God is good. Now, now I'm going to ask you. We're going to play some music. And we're going to have a baptismal service. I would like you to remain and enjoy this. I would like you all to get in line to do it. But it's your choice. And understand this. Choices come two ways. Either you can choose to or you can choose not to. There's nothing in between.
Well, I'll do it maybe next week. This is going to sound horrible, but you may not be with us next week. That's just the truth of it. And if you want to see what a resurrected life is about, we've been watching it for the last week plus down in Los Angeles, where we are from.
And you'll see a couple standing in front of a reporter with a microphone, and they're up to their knees in ashes that was once their whole life and their home. And they'll stand there and look around. And I've seen this so many times. They'll stand and look around, and they'll say, "Well, God protected my children, and we're just going to rebuild." That is a resurrected life.
Well, I've lost everything, and I have nothing anymore. That's a life that that's all they had, and now it's gone. Everyone in this room, I can guarantee you a day will come, everything you have will be gone. They just will. Probably you. But it will happen.
Don't let the stuff of life get in the way. Come and be a part of this. So I'm going to ask if you would make yourself comfortable. If you want to be baptized, we got it ready for you right over here. I'm going to ask you to rise and come.
Okay? You can say, "Well, I don't want to do that. Nobody else is doing that." Okay. See if you're the gutsy one in the room. Let's go. Come on up. Come on up.
Who are you? I'm Travis Russell. You love the Lord, Travis? Yes, sir. With all your heart? Yes, sir. Are you prepared to let that old man die? Yes, sir. We're going to bury him right now. Yes, sir. And then we're going to flush him down the toilet.
All right. All right. You're going to be new as you enter the earth. I am honored and blessed to baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Woo! Bye! Bye. Veronica, do you know the Lord loves you? You're giving your heart to Christ this morning. Welcome her to the family of God.
Like Ruan. I like that. Ben. Do you love the Lord? He loves you, too. Praise God. You ready to be baptized and bury that old self? In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Kara what? Abbott? Mrs. Abbott, we're just blessed to have you here. You love the Lord? You love God? Giving his heart to you. You give your heart to him. Amen. We're going to just baptize you. And all that stuff that's in the basement, it's going to be gone.
There you go. You love the Lord? Yes. He loves you. Are you ready to put some stuff that's down in that basement, put it away where you never have to get it anymore? Yes. Perfect. Hold your nose.
I am blessed and honored to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Lord? Loves you. Can you hear that? Somebody's sweeping out a basement. Hold your nose.
I am honored and blessed to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Woo! Woo! I know you love the Lord. Well, I'm Amanda, a little chub my old skin, Pastor. Good. Good time to be putting it away. Pull down your nose. There you go.
Okay. Well, I am honored to baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Exact. I love the Lord. You know, there's stuff down there that we got to get rid of. I want you to take full arm loads of all that stuff right now. When I put you under the water, you're going to let go of it. Amen.
Hold your nose. Bella Blues? Yes. Okay. That's good. Are you a lover of the Lord? I think she wants to do it herself. Oh, no. Oh, I am honored to bless you and baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Oh. Yeah, you can bounce your head off the back of that. Then we'd have more to pray about. You love the Lord? He is giving you a whole new life. As you know, he's giving you a whole new life. Oh, yes, he is.
All right. Well, what we're going to do right now is we're going to clean out some rooms. We're going to leave it in here. There's a couple of guys back there that's going to drain it into the gutter. Don't take it home with you.
Hold your nose. Hold your nose. Oh, wait a minute. I think I missed your name. What's your name? Blake. Kelly. McCloud. Kelly, you lead us in worship. Now, God's going to lead you to a whole new wire. Put this in here. Leave it alone. Don't pick it up in eight years no more. Yes. Amen?
Yes, sir. Hold your nose. I am... I'll let them know. I know you, but they need to know. You ready to leave some stuff here? Don't take it home now. Promise. Okay, hold your nose.
I am honored now to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jessica. It's good to have you here. Thank you. Bless you. You love the Lord? Are you ready to leave some stuff here behind? Hold your nose.
There you go. I am honored to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Nice and warm. What's your name? Good to have you here. You love the Lord? Loves you. You ready to leave some things in the water? Good. Well, you know it. There you go.
I'm okay. What's your last name? Ready to be baptized? You ready to leave a whole lot of stuff in this water and not pick it back up? When you leave this place, you're going to be a different one. Right now, what's your name? Lauren. Pike. Pike, good to have you here. You love God?
Lord's coming to your heart? Think about your life. It's all going to be good. Ready to clean out some stuff in the basement? All right. I am honored now to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
I am Nick. I'm honored to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There you go. What's your name? Yes. Yes. Good to have you here. Bless you. You do know that you're about ready to leave everything that you don't want here. Don't go picking them back up. Amen.
Love the Lord? Yes. Good. I'm blessed to honor and baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. What's your name? Quentin Moore. Quentin, have you noticed that this baptism is just the right size for you? Very.
He loves you. And whatever you have in that basement, you leave it right here. Amen? Hold on to your nose. I am honored now to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
There you go. Full name. Love the Lord, huh? I know you do. You sold out all the way. It's time. We're going to have a seat. Yeah. Come on around this way. Who are you? Praise God. What's your name? Malaya. That's beautiful. What's your last name, Malaya?
Give me your whole name. Malaya is good enough. Thank you, Lord. You love Jesus? Well, he loves you. You're so excited. You want to be baptized? You want to be baptized today? So hold your nose. Huh? You know what, Dad? Yeah, come on. We'll take a picture. You get in here, Dad. Put your hand on her back.
We are honored that you'd be baptized in the name of the Father. Amen. What's that? Oh, okay. We're going to wait for just a second. So you can go ahead and do the backstroke if you'd like. No, we're just going to wait for a minute because they're changing something on the camera, and we want to make sure we get a picture of this. We don't want to miss it. Do we, Dad? No, Mom? No, definitely not.
Okay, we're all good. What's your first name? That's pretty. You like? You love Jesus? Yeah. Well, Jesus loves you. Ready? Hold on to your nose. There you go, Dad. Come on in here, Mom. We are honored to baptize you.
Ready? You love the Lord? Yes. You got a family full of people who love Jesus. Yes, ma'am. Hold on to your nose. Okay, we are honored to baptize you.
A few minutes, yes, hundred. Hey, oh, I'm going to go back and... Life is going to be just absolutely marvelous. There's not a thing that you have in a basement that you need to keep there. Just let it all go.
I'm honored now to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It almost disappeared. What's your name? Declan? Declan, do you love the Lord? Jesus loves you, too. You know that, don't you?
Now, you may not have a basement. If you do go out of place, you've probably hidden some stuff. Let's just throw that away. What do you say? Yes, sir. All right. Hold your nose. Declan, I am honored and blessed to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Okay. Where did he get baptized? Do you believe in Jesus? Do you love him? He loves you. Hold on to your nose. I am blessed to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
We've got to get pictures, folks. Oh, it's FaceTime. There you go. Oh, we've got a daughter. Give us your name. Debbie. Menendal. Do you love the Lord? You know that there's things to get rid of. You've got a basement to sweep out. Hold your nose.
I want you to lift this hand, please. There you go. That right there. I am honored now to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Go ahead. There you go. There you go. Have a seat.
All right. Tell us your name. Patty. What's your last name, Patty? Praise God. You know, there's a lot of things down there that are getting swept out right now. You leave them right here, and we'll throw them away for you, okay? It's an honor. Do your nose. That a girl. That a girl.
I am honored and blessed to baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Heart to Him? He wants to do... You love the Lord? With all your heart. All your heart? Yes. You ready to let Him down in that basement? He's going to clean it out. You won't have one anymore.
You know that. I'm going to ask you, do you love the Lord? But I know you love Jesus. And this is what he is going to do in your life. This is a new life you're coming up. The old life is gone. Amen?
Well, do you notice? I am honored and blessed to have baptized you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. How you doing, Wyatt? You know, I'm holding up an old guy named Wyatt Earp. You ready to be baptized? You love the Lord with all of your heart?
You have a basement you need cleaned out? We're going to take care of it right now. Hold your nose. I am honored now to baptize you. What's your name? My name is Faith Barnes. Faith is such a beautiful name. We all have it. You love the Lord? Ready to get some stuff swept out of that basement?
Hold your nose. I baptize you. If you got anything you want to bring up here, we'll mop it up and throw it away for you. Let's clean out that basement.
Pray with me. Father, I come before you humbly, and I thank you, Lord God, for those who stepped into the waters of baptism. I ask you, Lord, that you will bring conviction and power and clarity into those hearts and minds that they have buried the old and the new has resurrected. It is new, Lord God. We are new. Your word says that if we are in Christ, we become a new creation, and it starts now.
Thank you, Lord, just for being just so gracious that you are. What a wonderful God we serve. Bless these folks. Keep them safe. Bring them back to us next week humbly, filled with joy and ready to rock for Jesus. Amen and amen.
on Jan 19, 2025
