Session 3 / Water Baptism

Hey everybody, welcome to session three. We're going to talk about water baptism and I love this chapter. I love talking about this and I love the act of getting water baptized and it's a powerful experience. It's a powerful next step. If you just made a decision to follow Christ, I want to encourage you to take that step. Let me begin by reading Matthew chapter 28. Jesus kind of gives us this commission. It says, Matthew chapter 28 verse 18, 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 the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. And surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age. That has a powerful few verses and we're going to actually keep diving back and forth into those verses literally through the rest of these sessions. We can see there one of the things Jesus calls us to do is go make disciples and baptize everyone in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And some of you maybe have been water baptized, maybe some of you haven't, maybe even some of you were sprinkled with water as a baby and maybe in some type of kind of baby dedication or baptism as an infant. So let's just talk about it a little bit because water baptism is a powerful kind of demonstration and identification that we have as Christians. And it's one of the first things that Jesus did when he was kind of first going public with who he was and before he kind of got into ministry, as he went out to the wilderness to a man by the name of John the Baptist. And John the Baptist was a cousin of Jesus and he was out there preaching, he was out there preparing the way the Bible says for the coming of the Messiah. So here Jesus comes and before he goes into ministry, his first move is to get water baptized. And he comes, John baptizes him, comes up out of the water and a dove descends on him,

the Spirit of God like a dove descends and there's this voice from heaven that says, this is my son whom I love and whom I'm well pleased. And this begins his journey, this begins his ministry, he launches into it. And for each of us, we follow and suit, we make that decision. Once I've decided, okay, I'm making Jesus the Lord of my life, the leader. Now I make the decision, I'm going to go and get water baptized. And we're called to this and throughout scripture, there's a few different things. I want to talk a little bit about water baptism because it's more than just getting sort of dunked under the water and coming back up and some type of ceremonial deal, it really represents something powerful. Let's read a couple of verses in Colossians chapter 2, verse 12, it says, Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith and the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. And in Galatians 3, verse 27 says, For as many of you were baptized into Christ, you have put on Christ. So baptism is both repentance, and it's also surrender. When I choose to follow Jesus, I am making a declaration, I'm going public with my faith. And I am saying, hey, I am now going under the water represents death to my old self. And you're identifying with Christ in his death and burial. But when Jesus was raised from the dead three days later, that's what coming up out of the water now represents is that I'm dead to my old life, I'm dead to my own old way. Now I'm choosing to come alive in Christ, I've come alive as Jesus has come into my life and has transformed me. I was dead, and I'm now dead to my sin, and now I'm alive with Jesus Christ, I'm alive in him. So when I get water baptized, I'm going public with this repentance that I have to say, Jesus, I repent of my sin, I follow you now. I'm going your way. But it also means that I'm surrendering. One of the biggest things that can be a challenge in the cultures that we live in, is that we

can want to sort of follow Jesus, but on our own terms. And I want to kind of challenge us here a little bit in this moment, that when Jesus was dead and raised to life, and now we get water baptized as a symbolic representation of that same thing, we're saying, hey, Jesus, I'm dying to my old way, and now I'm alive to your way. But what can be really difficult, and really it's hard to follow Christ when you try to, you know, say, I want to follow Jesus, but I don't want to die to my own way. I still want to keep living my own way, I'm still going to make my own decisions. Thank you, Jesus. these suggestions in your Word, but I kinda got my own path I wanna walk. But hey, I still want you to save me, I still want you to take me to heaven when I die, I still want all the good stuff that comes with it, but I kinda wanna live life my own way. You know, honestly, most of us have different areas of our life that we're still working on, that we're still not quite in alignment with God's Word on, and it's a process and it's a journey. But I've heard it said like this, if you try to follow God easy, it's actually hard. But if you follow God hard, it's easy. Basically meaning that the life of a Christian is not meant to kinda try to follow Jesus on my own terms, where I want it to be easy, I wanna have my own life, I wanna still make my own decisions, I wanna kind of still live in my own sin, but I still want Jesus to kinda be the leader of my life. That's hard to live that way, because you're never really gonna find that favor of God,

you're never gonna walk in the peace of God, you're not gonna have that strength that God wants to provide. But actually when I go hard after Christ, or I go all in in my faith and say, Jesus, you're not my way anymore, but actually I want your way in my life, when I do that, I actually find the strength of God, the blessing of heaven, the goodness of God come into my life in a way that is actually, it's easier to follow Christ when I go all in. If I'm trying to still be kind of a little bit distant, I don't know if I want all of it, I don't know if I wanna go all in in my faith, it's actually a bit harder to live that way, it's actually better once I cross over that line and say, Jesus, I'm all in, I'm following you, the old way is gone, the new has come, dead to myself, and I'm alive in you. And one of the beauties of that is that when I'm now alive in Christ, not my salvation is not in myself, my access to heaven, my access to eternity is not about me trying to be good enough, not about me trying to have good deeds that are kind of earning my way to God, I've actually died to that old sinful nature, and in Christ now, I've been made alive, so my life is not just in myself anymore, Jesus has literally paid the price for my sin,

literally ransomed me and redeemed my life, and so because of that, now I've chosen to live my whole life for him, because how could I not? With everything that he's given me, and everything that he's provided for me, I now choose to live for him and go all in in my faith, and when you do that, you will find that your life is transformed, you'll find that that's where the power of God is when I'm all in. Now, I wanna encourage you guys, if you got maybe kind of sprinkled as a child as far as just a little bit of water, kind of a dedication moment, that's great, and it's a little bit like when Jesus as a young boy was brought to the temple and dedicated to God, oftentimes, I really encourage that as parents, when you have a young child, make that declaration, how I'm gonna raise my child in the ways of the Lord, I'm gonna teach and train them to follow Jesus, all that's great, but once a child gets old enough to where they personally go, hey, I'm gonna follow Jesus, I'm all into this, I'm gonna do this in my own life, that's when you wanna get water baptized, when you fully get dunked under the water and come up and new life, every month at a church, we baptize people, and I know so many churches do it, whatever church you're a part of, talk to them, find out the next time that they're doing water baptism,

set up a space and a time where you can get ready to go all in, and here's what I wanna encourage you too, when you're getting water baptized, this is a great opportunity to invite your unsaved family members and friends to actually come and watch you and celebrate with you, a lot of times this is a big moment, and so to be willing and likely to come and cheer you on, and so this is a great chance for them to get exposed to the goodness of God, get exposed to the gospel, and have their own opportunity to respond and say yes to Christ, so I wanna encourage everyone, get water baptized, make that decision if you haven't already, if you have, awesome, then choose to fully live for Christ, and I wanna encourage every single one of us to ask that question, have I been trying to live for Jesus but still wanted to do it on my own terms? What are those things right now? We've all got things we're gonna work on and things that God's dealing with us on, but right now as I'm talking, God's probably highlighting something in your heart right now, maybe one area, maybe two things, that he's saying, you know what, I love you, and I want the best for you, so I wanna encourage you to surrender that part of your life, surrender that area of your life, allow God to begin to heal that, allow God to begin to help you change

the way you're thinking, acting, and living in a certain area to get in alignment with God's word and really say, okay, if I'm gonna follow Jesus, I'm surrendering all of me to go all in for God, and I'll tell you what, The best decision you ever make, go all in for Christ. Don't go halfway, don't go kind of part-time Christianity on it. Go all in in your relationship with Jesus. He loves you. There'll be no regrets when you surrender everything and follow Jesus. You can do it. Go all in. Go all in.