Romans 6:3-5
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Service Transcript:
Good morning.
All my high schoolers are assigned there like every Friday night. And now Sunday, are you serious? And if you’re wondering how we’re going to fit a sermon in with 10 testimonies and baptisms, this will be the shortest sermon that you will ever hear. Hopefully,
hopefully, well, good morning, please open your Bibles to Romans chapter six. Mike already stole my thunder with that verse, but if you’re preaching a short sermon, read a verse, that is the sermon itself. So it’s pretty simple. If you’re using a few Bible, it is going to be page 8 86. Um, I was taxed with opening this up before we hear many powerful stories.
Um, for many different individuals. I want to introduce our time before our baptisms, by looking at this passage in Romans chapter six, verses three to five, and a fair warning. If you’re in the first or second rows, I hope you brought your towel because you are in the splash zone. Last joke. I promise. Okay.
Romans six, three to five says this. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized 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 for if we have been United with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be United with him in a resurrection like his let’s pray.
God, thank you so much for bringing all these individuals here this morning. God, there is no one here on accident or by chance God, you have divinely ordained every single individual here today. God. And we know already that your spirit is going to move. We know already that you’re going to work in hearts or through this passage, through the testimonies that we are about to hear Lord.
And we trust you God. And I pray right now, boldly Lord, that you would put off any and all distractions that are hindering us from hearing your truth and having your spirit work in us. God. And even now, Lord, I pray that you would shut my mouth and speak through me, Lord, we pray in Jesus’s name. Amen.
In youth group. I mentioned on the youth pastor here. So we’ve had recently went through a topical study on the two ordinances of the church would be, which would be baptism and communion. We spent two whole weeks on baptism. We learned what it is, what it’s not, and why it’s important. I wanted to read this passage in Romans today because I think it beautifully sums up what the symbol of baptism is.
What we will witness today is not what we read here in the passage, but what has already happened, like Mike said, the reason we’re giving them the shirts before they go in is because they are already forgiven in Christ Jesus. We are witnessing today a proclamation of what has already been done. The each individual we here today has confessed Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior, and is now living in that newness of.
Each individual has been baptized in Christ death, dying to their sin, and now has been raised up with him in his resurrection. We have the privilege of witnessing that today. The beautiful symbol of being dunked under water, dying to our sins, buried in the grave just as Jesus was. And in the same way, getting raised up out of the water, just like Jesus and the newness of life and his resurrection.
There’s nothing special about this water behind me. The act of baptism does not save us. It does not give us some spiritual superpower or get us into heaven. Baptism is a outward, outward proclamation of an inward change. It’s a statement that says I’ve surrendered my whole life to Jesus. And I want you to know about it.
It’s a victory lap showing off what God has already done in my life. It’s his story that he’s invited us in on. It’s the clarinet. We don’t want to live for this world anymore. We want to live for his kingdom, the kingdom of God, it’s saying no to ourselves and saying yes to Jesus. My good friend, Ryan Anderson is reading this book.
It’s called live no lies by John mark Comber. And he’s reading it. And occasionally he’ll just like, hit me. Like, man, you gotta hear this verse. You gotta hear this verse. And this was like two weeks ago. And he read this, this quote to me and I’m like, dude, no way, this is incredible. And it’s, it’s a longer quote and we’re going to have it on the screen for you, but it just gives such a beautiful imagery of what we witnessed today.
It’s such a beautiful imagery of what baptism is of saying yes to Jesus. So I want to read it to us this morning. I’m going to have it on the screen as well, but it says. To say yes to Jesus. His invitation is to say no to a thousand other things. As the monks used to say every choice as a renunciation to say yes to Jesus is to say no to living my own definition of good and evil to spending my time and money.
However, I want to the hyper individualism and anti-authoritarianism and full tilt hedonistic pursuit of our day. It’s a thousand tiny deaths that all lead up to one massive life. It’s not a few tile grasping for control, but the freedom of yielding to love, it’s saying to Jesus, whatever, wherever, whenever I’m yours, we look back on the crusades as a low point in the history of the.
Though historians tell a much more complex story than that of popular imagination. Legend has it that before going into battle, the Knights Templar were baptized, but they would hold their swords above their heads. As they went under the water. As if to say, Jesus, you can have all of me except this, not my violence, not my quest for glory, legend or history, the imagery is piercing.
We all do this. We might not hold up a sword for us. It could be a debit card, a relationship, a sexual ethic, a wound entertainment habit, a political, or even theological position. It could be anything. But how often do we say, if not in word then by our actions, not this Jesus, not this many followers of Jesus don’t yet realize that the cross isn’t just something Jesus did for us.
It’s also something we do with. Even in church traditions with the high value of the cross, their interpretation of Jesus’ death on the cross is often more transactional than transformational. I’m not remotely questioning the doctrine of substitutionary atonement that Jesus died for. Our sins is central to the gospel.
But think about it. We still die. Jesus, didn’t it to high. So we don’t have to, he died to teach us how to die, how to follow him through death and into life.
I don’t know what you’re holding above the water this morning. I don’t know what part of your life that you’re keeping from the Lord and keeping from Jesus. But this morning, I want to encourage you. I want to challenge you to give it all to Jesus and you don’t have to take my word for it. We’re about to hear from 10 different individuals who have said yes to Jesus.
To have said, yes, I’m going to be fully submerged for Jesus. Let’s pray
God. We want to be all in for Jesus. Lord, take us all the way under help us surrender everything. We have our will, our emotions, our plans, our habits, our addictions, God, you are sweeter than anything this world could ever offer. You are the only one who can fulfill our desires and truly satisfy us, teach us how to die.
Like your son did for us Lord, but teach us how to live in the same newness of life that you’ve given us the opportunity to. We love you Lord. And we give you praise this morning in Jesus name. Amen.
I want to just take a minute to explain this may be different for you. You have not seen a baptism by immersion like we do here and believe it’s a biblical pattern that we’re trying to fall. I want to explain to you what it is. I mean, both Mike pastor, Mike and pastor Jared have done a tremendous job. I think setting the table for this as Mike read from Romans chapter six, the picture of baptism is presenting.
What has a visual of what has already taken place in a person’s life? That’s why it says as we died with Christ and we’re buried with. So we, we are arisen with him to newness of life. And this morning, as we baptize these individuals, we are going to be making a statement similar to something like this, um, in the likeness of his death, as we go below the water and as they come up in the likeness of his resurrection, what we’re saying by that is this just as Jesus died and then came alive again.
So have we in Christ, we die to an old way of life where in my case, mark was the master and on the throne, we’ve been risen to a new way where we have willingly joyfully embraced Jesus as the center of our lives, seated on the throne of our lives and experience. Then through him, the newness of life that he brings.
I want to tell you ahead of time, um, where we’re going. There are 10 individuals being baptized. The uniqueness of this service, is there a for pastors involved? Um, we are, we are letting people choose who has been most instrumental with them that they would like to have baptized them. And so we’re going to have different guys, pastor me, pastor van, pastor Jared, and pastor Josiah will be baptizing.
I’m going to ask Cody to join me.
Cody, have you received Jesus Christ as your savior? Yes. Is it your desire today to publicly testify of that relationship by being baptized? Yes, it is. All right. We’re going to hear.
Hi, my name’s Timothy, Carol. I wanted to talk to everyone today about my baptism and why I think it’s important to me being noticed as a follower of Christ is important to me and something I’m very proud of my need for Christ occurred. When I was young, when I thought I lost a family family member, my dad was in a horrible motorcycle accident that nearly took his life, putting him in a coma for over a month.
I needed a sign of hope. Someone had talked to for comfort and support. I needed a savior at eight years old, I was asking myself, am I going to be the only man left in my family to protect my mom and my sister alone would be difficult and not something I would want to go through. This was the first time I begged for God’s help and forgiveness praying for him multiple times a day is the only thing I could do.
The accident nearly tour a family apart every day. I had to look at my mom and see her sadness and disbelief. She cried all the time. Despite the doctor’s 0% survival chance their efforts pulled through, but not without the hope of Jesus. He saved my family that day from suffering. I am forever grateful.
There’s not a day that goes by that. I’m not thankful for having stolen. My life. The least I could do is prove to him that I’m a proud believer.
Cody. It’s my joy to baptize you in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit in the likeness of his death.
Cody sister, Courtney.
Courtney, have you received Jesus Christ as your savior? All right. And it is, uh, your desire today to publicly testify about that by being baptized? Yes. Okay. We’re going to hear about it.
Hi, my name is Courtney Carol. Um, I came to the end of myself when I was about nine years old and I thought I was going to lose my father. He was in a terrible accident. Actually, this church itself prayed for him, which I am very grateful for. Um, my family wasn’t going to be whole anymore without my father.
I don’t know where my family would stand today in the Cooper trauma center, I began praying and my father was always like, you need to pray at night, you know, we’ve had. Now he lay me down to sleep those types of prayers. And in the trauma center, I actually started praying because he couldn’t speak. It was like seeing somebody that you knew your whole life and then he didn’t anymore.
Um, I thought I was going to lose him and God wanted to, it was a punishment that I wasn’t going to have my own father. And he didn’t allow that it was a miracle. And I honestly praise Jesus for that because he would not be here without him. Okay. Now the differentiates has made in my life, the differences.
I still have a family. I still have a mom, a dad, a brother, and we’re still whole, so it’s great without Jesus saving my family, I, or saving me, I should say is, I don’t think I’d be the hard worker that I am in high school. I’d be like, I don’t even know what I want to do now. I know exactly what I want to do, what I want to accomplish.
And I know Jesus has my back throughout that and he’s going to make me accomplish things that I meant to accomplish. Also, the difference I’d say is I’ve noticed that he’s put a lot of good people in my life instead of the bad people that I don’t need in my life. So I’m surrounded by thankfully my family and extremely good friends.
I live free knowing that Jesus hears me, feels me, especially knows me because I know he hears my thoughts. He’s heard my prayers and he’s saved me from my fears. I’ve chosen to become baptized because I want to become closer to God and fully be a follower of Christ.
coordinates my joy to baptize you in the name of the father and the son and the holy ghost. In the likeness of his death,
Carolyn is going to join me now.
Carolyn, have you received Jesus Christ as your savior? And these are your desire to publicly testify to that by being baptized, we’re going to hear about it now.
Good morning. My name is Carolyn and, um, I’ve been a practicing Catholic for the first 37 years. Um, but in 2016, a mutual friend of ours invited me on a trip to Guatemala, um, for the medical mission trip and that we really made a big impact on my life. Um, it was amazing just to be around, you know, the people from FCC that were there, the missionaries from Guatemala, the people of Guatemala that we served.
Um, so I came out of that, having a great week and really feeling that I was, you know, a different person, a better person, um, midway through the trip. Um, I translate our Jordan, um, was, was amazing. And he kind of, for whatever reason, one night after dinner, we were talking, um, and S uh, in talking about God and faith and.
He got me to admit that, um, that Jesus died for me. Um, I always believe that Jesus died for us, but, um, for whatever reason actually saying that Jesus died for me was pretty hard. Um, but, um, you know, but I did, um, you know, he kind of prayed over me and, and I, and I was able to say it out loud and for whatever reason, the next morning, a lot of people were really excited to see me.
And I didn’t really understand why at the time. I mean, I kinda knew, but like, it didn’t really hit home, uh, at the time. So, um, after that trip, uh, I started going to FCC, um, you know, I, I think it was initially, it was. Try to hold on to whatever parts of myself that felt like a better person. When I was in Guatemala, um, you know, I was kind of secretive about it.
You know, I sat in the back, I didn’t really tell anyone that I was going, um, for a couple of weeks. Um, but then, you know, kind of more and more, I felt more comfortable, um, you know, amazing sermons, amazing worship, amazing activities at FCC. Um, that both my son and I were able to get involved with, um, and grow a little bit more, you know, through that, those activities.
Um, so kind of fast forward, a couple, uh, you know, within the last couple of weeks, I’ve really kind of felt it on my heart more and more, that that I needed to get baptized, um, more as a way to acknowledge that, uh, that I did receive Jesus as my savior and as myself. Um, that I am a follower of Jesus and that, uh, and that is what changed my life.
Not, not the volunteering, not the trip to Guatemala, um, but accepting him. And it’s, my heart is what changed my life. And, and that’s what I want to celebrate.
Carolyn and it’s my joy to baptize you in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit and the likeness of his death. Resurrection.
Good morning. I’d like to invite Simeon painter to the tank, please.
If you’re from the colleagues with campus this morning, would you just stand up a moment?
These are dear friends from Collins
and our desire. Send me an evening as you give public testimony of your faith. And this is true about our next person as well, is that we give public testimony of what we see happening in your life. Simeon. Have you accepted the Lord Jesus as your king and savior of your life? Yes. Is it your desire this morning to give public testimony to that fact through baptism?
Yes. Let’s see a little bit of.
hi, my name is Simeon. I’m 15 years old. Um, and I’ve been raised in a Christian home. So I’ve been a Christian pretty much my whole life. Um, but I haven’t always understood what that meant. It was only a few years ago that I actually encountered God’s grace closely. I think there were times before that where maybe I would feel I had fallen too far for God, but, um, I would think I was 12 or 13 when I actually encountered guy closely.
When I was 12, I was caught in a cycle of sin. I don’t think I was living for God at all. I’m doing that time. And there’d be times when I try to dig myself out of my, my own sin, but, um, those efforts didn’t work. I really needed Jesus to intervene. It got to the point where I was crying about it. And. Um, shared a quote with me.
Um, I forget exactly who it was, but it went like if you’re disappointed with yourself, it probably means you’re trusting yourself too much. And that was really helpful because I just needed to give a lot of the weight to Jesus, um, and take it off of myself. A few months later, I went through some really tough mental health struggles, and those were some of the scariest moments of my life.
But, um, looking back on them now, I can really see God working through them because it was because of those struggles that I began to meet with my grandfather. And he really, really, I think God spoke through him and showed, um, showed me God’s grace through him. Um, so that was really, really helpful. Um, it was a few months later or during that time when I read Andrew Farley’s heaven is now.
Brennan meanings, the ragamuffin gospel, and both of those books really, really showed me God’s grace and God was working through all of this to show me himself. Jesus has transformed me. Um, he’s transformed my mind where before there was spear now there’s there’s peace. Um, and all of the darkness in the world feels so much smaller because of his presence inside of me and his promise of salvation.
Um, he’s forgiven my sins and helped me to not chase after sins. I would have before I encountered him closely. I want to get baptized because I want, I want to take this step to show that I’m a child of God, because I think it can be easy at times when my faith, well, when I’d be ridiculed or persecuted because of my faith to just hide my faith.
And I D I don’t want to do that. I want everyone to know that I’m a follower of God and the.
St. Media is my great honor to baptize you in the name of the one who holds no fear. We do this in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit and the likeness of his death and the likeness.
going to invite brother justice down. This is Simeon’s brother justice, painter
justice. Our honor to be here with you today to, um, recognize what God is doing in your life. Is it your desire this morning to publicly testify of your faith in the Lord? Jesus Christ? Yes. Through baptism. Yes. Right. We’re going to see a video a little bit more about what’s going on in justices, world.
Hello. My name is justice. I’m 13 years old. Um, growing up in my house, I heard a lot about Jesus and his death and resurrection, and I initially made the choice to follow him when I was only three or four years old. Um, although I don’t remember that. Well, I do know what I believe now. That’s that Jesus is my savior and I need him.
Um, he’s made a big difference in my life and helped me through many struggles. I’ve gone through times of doubt. Whereabouts got him God to show himself fully to me. And he has, I’ve also gone through times where I’d been angry at myself because I thought I never been. But every time I’ve learned more about God’s love and I won’t ever be good enough, but that doesn’t matter because I’ve learned that God loves me with a greater love than I could ever imagine.
And nothing I can do can change that. I want to be baptized because I believe that it’s an important step in my life to declare what I believe about Jesus and that I want to follow him for the rest of my life.
justice. It is my great honor to baptize you in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit and the likeness of his death and in the likeness of his resurrection.
good morning. Everyone’s awake. I haven’t chamber is going to join me in here.
and then have you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior? Yes. Is it your desire to publicly tell everyone here today? Um, that through baptism? Yes. All right. We’re going to.
my name’s Evan Schaffer. I’m a junior in high school. I’m 16 years old. And today I’m going to be sharing with you my baptism testimony, I guess I’ve always known that, uh, I’ve been a sinner. I’ve always been aware of my sins. Um, but for a long, long time, I never really realized just how much I needed salvation.
Um, I was always trying to just check off the boxes and just try to be the best person I could be. But, uh, I never really looked for like a personal connection with the Lord. And, um, yeah, so one day when I was 10 years old and the Canadian Rockies, I was, uh, it was a pensive time. I was just climbing up the mountain and then with my family.
And, um, there was something like troubling me that day and, um, I wa as I was walking up the mountain and I finally made it to the top, I turned around and I saw just his creation and it was so beautiful and it really just soaking by surprise. And it just struck me that God was first of all, just so powerful and so amazing that he made such a beautiful creation and it just really, um, hit my heart home.
It hit home. I also realized as I was walking down just how much he loved me, just how much, uh, he made that creation just for us on this earth. And, um, it also struck me that he sent down his son. He sent down his only son to die for our sins. I mean, I was fully aware that I was a sinful person and I was always getting down on myself because, uh, I wasn’t a good person and I send all the time and I would, I was hard on myself, so I was aware that I was sinful, but it didn’t really strike me that God really provided a way for us to join him in heaven and just be cleansed of these sins there, his extreme mercy, grace, and love.
And that was through song that Jesus Christ. So when it hit me that day, it really changed my life. He has, I have sinned a lot. Still there have been spiritual lows and spiritual highs, but overall he has still stuck by me. He’s made a difference on how I behave with other people as well. Um, recently over the summer, I went over on a mission trip emission strip to Panther West Virginia.
That was really impactful. And I learned this one verse Matthew, 22 37 39, I guess three verses Jesus says the, um, Greatest commandment is to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, your soul, all your mind and your body. And the second biggest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. So through Panther, I really learned what it was to be, um, really a true disciple and follower of him.
And, um, it has played out in the way my daily interactions. And I really have just been so graciously blessed by the Lord with everything in my life that I’m here on my baptism. And I want to share with you guys, everyone that I know just how much that the Lord means to me. And I want to proclaim and declare that I will be serving him my entire life.
And, um, this is just an outward representation of an inward change. And I want to thank you for your support and, um,
praise the Lord. It is my absolute honor to baptize you. The name of the father, the son, and holy spirit likeness of his death. Resurrection.
Leah Bennett is going to join us down here or join me. There’s only one
that’s one. Yeah. Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior? Yes. Is it your desire today to publicly testify that by getting baptized? Yes. Okay. Let’s hear.
hi, my name is Leah Bennett and I’m a junior in high school. Um, growing up, I was in a Christian household, so I went to church every Sunday and I would go to youth group whenever I could. Um, I said the same prayer for every meal for as long as I can remember, but I dreaded all of it because I believed in Jesus and that he died on the cross for me, but I didn’t know what that meant for me at the time.
For as long as I can remember growing up, I was building a foundation on the acceptance and love of others from elementary school to high school. I cared so much about what people thought of me and I wanted to be liked by everybody. Um, I wanted everybody to be my friend and I wanted to fit in. So whenever I felt like I wasn’t fitting in the way that I wanted to, or I wasn’t liked by certain people, it really racked me because my whole identity was found in other people and who I was trying to be for other people.
I don’t know if I can put it any way. I felt like Jesus was always talking on my heart and telling me to like, get to know him more and see what he was all about. But I just continued to ignore that because I believe that I could find peace and joy from something other than him. What led me to actually seeing my neighbor, Jesus was my brother, because whether he knows it or not, he was my biggest role model.
And he still is, but he got to a point in his life where I think it got really low for him. And whenever quarantine hit, he started getting involved with a community at church. And whenever I say that I saw a change in him. It was almost instantaneous because for one thing, he wanted to start hanging out with me more.
Um, he was always home and he was just talking a lot more. He was more open and he was talking about Jesus, which was very different. And I didn’t expect that coming from him, but you seemed a lot more joyful. And I wanted that for myself because at this time I was just struggling with finding my own place and with friendships and I was very miserable and sad because I couldn’t.
I was just putting so much pressure on myself to be this person that I wasn’t. And I wanted the same joy that he found for myself. So I can’t name a specific day or time, but I think it was just in quarantine. Whenever I finally decided to just give in and see what Jesus was going to do in my life. I feel like Jesus in my life now is just teaching me what it means to be Leah and the burden that he created me to be.
And that this image that I was molding myself into for other people. Um, I think that he’s also teaching you the importance of a community through youth group and the missions trip that I got the chance to be a part of this past summer. Um, I met amazing people and they just keep leading me back to him, which I think is what it’s all about is just constantly running back to the father’s house.
He accepts me for who I am and he doesn’t want me to be any other way. Um, he just loves me for who I am. He admires me and that’s all I need. I feel like Jesus is also just showing me the important. Having him in my life. And I can’t do anything without him, honestly, and I’m miserable without him. And he just gives me so much joy that I know I need with him.
So I just want to start taking my relationship with Jesus more. Seriously. I want to know him deeper and I want to live for him and send it for others. So that is why I’m getting that sides today.
well, it is my absolute joy to baptize you in the name of the father, the son, holy spirit, likeness of his death. Resurrection
Ava Tucker is going to join me down here.
Ava. Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior? Yes. Is it your desire to publicly testify that by being baptized this morning? Yes. Okay.
hi, my name is Ava Tucker and I’m 15 years old. Um, I grew up in a Christian home and environment, so I always sort of knew who God was. And I always grew up knowing about him. I went to Awanas VBS our church, these group, and I asked God to be into to my heart ever since I was little. And that was who I always loved, but I never really established a good relationship with God.
And I don’t know, I always felt a bit more distant with him after the COVID pandemic hit. My parents made a really big decision to fully homeschool. Um, me and my siblings, which really brought me sort of back together with. And it really made an impact on my life because we started every day reading the Bible and having devotions.
I felt like because we were reading the Bible so much, like I’m noticed how much God loves us and how much he’s really there for us. And old Bible story side heard like all the time when I was younger, sort of made like a bigger impact on me. And I sort of understood what they were all over again. Um, the summer of 2021, I dealt with a lot of fear and worry, and God was really there for me.
And I suddenly like, because I had that time with God and I, my relationship with God was so much stronger by then. I was able to more depend on him. Um, so one verse that really stuck out to me was first Timothy, one seven for God, give us the spirit, not a fear, but a power in love and self care. Um, and it became more evident to me that God’s like really there for me.
And I was always able just to sort of relationship with him. And so after that, um, I sort of knew how to deal with all my fear and anxiousness through God and with God. Um, and also with that, God taught me so much patience and how to be, I just felt so much more like, just so much more peace with God. And so at peace with everybody around me.
So like when our youth group first started talking about baptism and I realized that was something that I want to do. Um, I feel like God just sort of was at peace with me and Minnesota. It’s like, okay, like, that’s something that I should do. I wanted to make it as a testimony to show that like I was a daughter of Christ and, uh, I wanted to be with him for this.
it’s my privilege to baptize you in the name of the father, the son, and holy spirit in the likeness of his death.
Jayden Franco is going to join me in here.
you’re wondering why everyone’s making a face when it comes in. It’s very warm in here. They didn’t have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior. Is it your desire today to publicly testify that by being baptized? Yeah, definitely. Let’s take a look.
Hello, my name is Jayden, and I’m here to get baptized today. Um, like I’ve always been in like a church setting my whole life, but like, it wasn’t till like about seven or eight when I was at an Easter play, I looked up and I like saw Jesus there. And I was like, like, I believe this, of course. Cause it was an Easter play and stuff.
It took me longer like 10, 12. So like I really got to know God and yeah, like I put my life and she just hands on. I believe that the Easter. But like I had to really learn and I’m still there now, but it’s giving me, you’re like some awesome family, some awesome friends, and one of them was getting baptized also there.
So that’s awesome. He’s also given me some joy and like really helped me just like with discerning life and stuff through all of that. Like, I didn’t think of getting baptized or I thought of, and I was just like, nah, not today. And then Jared hacking was teaching us a high schoolers at east group and he moves bringing up baptism.
And he was talking about how, like, we used the excuse of not having our life, like putting a bow, like wrapped up as like she’s people use to not get baptized. And I thought like, well, he said like, we should get baptized anyway, because it’s an hour. Show of like what’s on the inside. So yeah, I’m here today and I’m going to get baptized.
So that’s awesome.
David is my absolute joy to baptize you in the name of the father, the son, the holy spirit and life and stuff is done.
pastor just is going to come down now.
I was a little worried that I would dip below little shorter than Jared. I’m going to invite my dear friend and brother out. Jay Sean Baker.
Sean, have you accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and savior? Yes I have. Is your desire to publicly testify to that truth here today? Yes, it is awesome. Let’s hear about it.
Hi, my name is Sean Baker. I’m 19 years old and here’s my testimony of how I’ve come to know Christ and why I’m getting baptized today. I’m blessed to have grown up in a Christian family and have been coming to FCC close to 10 years. Now, growing up, I knew the story of Jesus and what he did on the cross, but the reality and power of the gospel has only recently made a significant impact in renewing my mind.
In the past few years, God began intervening in my life. When I was in high school, as I was completely living for myself at the age of 15, I started experimenting with. Like my addictive behaviors around the trust and security of the relationships I have with my friends and family. And I distanced myself further from God.
I’d fall into these cycles where I’d get caught, doing things I knew were wrong and only feel remorse out of fear of consequences issued by my parents. I never actually feel the guilt for what I did or let my sin convict me after I’d get caught and undergo consequences for your few months at a time, I’d fall back into the same behaviors as if I didn’t learn a thing slowly but surely the enemy had trapped me and feeling as if I wasn’t welcome or loved in my community.
And I completely isolated myself and became co-dependent on unhealthy friendships and substances as sources of comfort around Thanksgiving of 2020, I’d hit a new rock bottom. By this time I had been over three years into my addiction. I had gotten in trouble with the law and it withdrew myself from all community.
I was in the darkest valley I had ever been in and I come to the end of myself, Thanksgiving that year reminded me all. I had to be thankful. And may real to me how scary my life would be. If I didn’t have God and his mercy and grace over my life, it became clear as day to me that I wouldn’t be where I would be if it weren’t for his love for me, nor would I have been able to identify as a son of his, if I weren’t for Jesus dying for all the same, that brought me to that point.
My heart broke seeing the damage I had done to the body. God gave me how I misused the gifts he’s given me and the hurt I caused through my selfishness. God convicted me that. And to invite the holy spirit into my heart in a fresh way, I’m overjoyed to say that I don’t recognize that version of myself anymore and the word God and the spirit has done in my life to practice any expectation.
I had a year and a half ago, only two months after inviting the spirit back into my life. That conviction to quit. Nicotine came onto my heart and through the power of medicine. And God’s. I’m able to be here in front of you all almost 15 months sober in early spring, I connected with another local community in Pennsauken and it was like a new beginning.
The eyes of my heart were open to enjoy the Lord and fresh ways with an enthusiastic group of people. And I reconnected here with Joe Parker at FCC reconciling with the community and allowing God to heal the relationships I had lost. I had a new found love and passion for music and found beauty, enjoying the gifts that he had given me using it to glorify him instead of myself, through that opportunities to foster a love of music through the power of teaching, came up, allowing my passion for music to take shape and leading me to devote my life to Christ through serving and loving others wherever he has me.
God has also blessed me with a loving community on my college campus of Rowan, where I can live out the gospel and the great commission with other students and be led by his spirit in south Jersey. And hopefully beyond that soon, God’s love for me is so real. And considering everything that he has done is doing and forever will do.
Who’s there for worthy of my praise. And I want to publicly testify today that Jesus is Lord of my life, that he is my heavenly father disciplining me out of love for me and leading me in the ways that are everlasting renewing, restoring and refining
Sean. It is a joy, so great. I can’t even express it to baptize you now in the name of the. The son and the holy spirit and the likeness of his death.
well, um, I have the unhappy pleasure of ending this incredible morning. Um, but you guys just pray with me,
Lord. There’s nothing left to say, but being in awe of you, of the power of your transformational love Lord, I pray that our hearts would be opened to what you were doing, Lord. And if there are any hearts here who are hearing these truths for the first time, Lord do not let them. Lord. We pray for those people, for the specific people in this room, feeling the tug and the pole of your spirit.
Well, Lord, we just pray that you would cling fast to them. And that one day, maybe Lord, they would be up here as well, declaring with all eternity that you have done it and you are good and you are our king Lord. We pray all of this in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Amen. You’re dismissed.