Father, thanks for being such a great God and such a loving Father that you would adopt us as your very own sons and daughters. We just praise you and we thank you for that. And Holy Spirit, we thank you for being our teacher. We ask you this morning that you would just teach each of us, that every single one of us who would leave this morning. And regardless of what I say, that you would translate it into each of our hearts, and we can all leave knowing that you have spoken something for us to us this morning. And Jesus, our Savior and our friend, we just praise you. We thank you for reuniting us with you and the Holy Spirit and our Father. And we trust you and we love you. And it's in your name we pray. Amen. Well, you all dodged a bullet last night and you don't even know it. Um had a couple things I wanted to talk about this morning. We got two really important things coming uh up kind of uh back to back. One is Easter Sunday, next Sunday, and then the following Sunday is uh Baptism Sunday. And so I'd wanted to talk about kind of the crucifixion in anticipation for uh focusing more on the resurrection and and uh and just the great life that uh that Jesus gives us next week. But I also want to talk about baptism because we haven't done that for a while. And in Romans 6, Paul actually talks about both. And he does a pretty good job, um, but I was able to really build on it. And um and so I took what he wrote, which was good, and um added the whole story of Jesus' crucifixion, and I added a bunch of uh verses on on baptism and was able to weave it all together in this uh tapestry. And so last night about 10 o'clock, I'm kind of reading through my notes, and it struck me that uh this is horrible. I mean, I couldn't understand it. It was just confusing, and it was about 25 minutes too long. And um so that actually happens more Saturdays than you would want to know. But um and so I didn't know what to do. So as usual, I just prayed, asked God, you know, all right, what do what do we do? And and I really feel like um what we'd have he would have us to do is take a step back and look at baptism. And I know that many of us have been baptized, um, but I think that you will find it encouraging to talk about it once again and uh just see how great God is and how cool he is that that he gives us these uh these types of things as baptisms and how much he cares about us and um and those types of things. Uh we have a CD on that we give to people who are thinking about getting baptized, and it's the last time I really took a Sunday and spoke about baptism. And we're I was looking at it last week, and it was from uh April 2007. And I thought, wow, that's you know, it's been four years. I was afraid to even listen to it, so I uh I'm not sure exactly what's on there. But uh and we talk about it from time time to time, but it is such an exciting thing, baptism. It is such a cool and powerful and supernatural thing that uh that Jesus has done and given us to uh to follow. And and at the core, baptism really is following Jesus. Uh you know, I think sometimes about how nice it would be to go over to the Holy Lands, you know, and go to Jerusalem and the Sea of Galilee and be different places that uh that Jesus was and walk places that Jesus walked. But in baptism we have something where we get to experience the exact same thing that Jesus experienced. Follow him, do the exact same thing that Jesus experienced, really in the exact same way. In Matthew 3, it says, Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. But John tried to talk him out of it. I am the one who needs to be baptized by you, he said. So why are you coming to me? But Jesus said it should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires. So John agreed to baptize him. After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And that's what we get to experience when we're baptized. Really, the whole thing, including a special gift, a supernatural experience that the Holy Spirit gives us as we're baptized. I was raised in a denomination where baptism was a minor obsession, I guess. I was taught that it was baptism that actually saves us. We were so serious about it, in fact, that we didn't think Baptists were serious enough about baptism. Um which is kind of ironic. Um we didn't talk about being people being saved or people uh being reunited with their Father or be connected with God. It was always was someone baptized, had someone who had been uh baptized. That was how we talked. And the focus was kind of remarkable because truthfully, not that many people ever were baptized. Um it is interesting how looking at everything as a law and as a rule sucks the life out of the beauty and the power and the gifts that God gives us, like baptism. When I turned 15, I decided that I was finally old enough to go to hell. And so I better get baptized. Now my belief in Jesus was real, but the baptism was not a deeply meaningful, powerful experience in my life. Um later I did have a powerful baptism experience that I'll tell you about in a little bit. Um if you were raised that same way, it might be helpful to know that baptism does not save us. It's our faith in Jesus that saves us. It is completely his work. It's what he does. Um baptism is a powerful uh symbol, a sign of that relationship. It's an act of submission and obedience that carries supernatural Holy Spirit uh power with it. But it's our faith in Jesus, Jesus Himself, that saves us, not anything that we do. Um there's a parallel of sorts in the Old Testament. And uh surprisingly enough, it is uh Abraham and circumcision. Oh, just because I said we want to talk about it on Mother's Day doesn't mean I can't talk about it this morning. And so in Romans 4, Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about being made right with God? If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God's way. For the scriptures tell us Abraham believed God and God counted him as righteous because of his faith. And then he goes on to talk about circumcision. And in verse 10 he says, but how did this happen? Was he counted as righteous only after he was circumcised? Or was it before he was circumcised? Clearly, God accepted Abraham before he was circumcised. Circumcision was a sign that Abraham already had faith, and that God had already accepted him and declared him to be righteous, even before he was circumcised. So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who have faith but have not been circumcised, they are counted as righteous because of their faith. It's the same with us as with baptism, that we are counted right with God because of our faith in Jesus, his son. We simply turn to him in our own words, in our own way, and we say, I want a new life. I want to follow you. Count me in. He takes over. He fills us with the Spirit, He starts changing us from the inside out. You know, it's not instantaneous, it's a process, but he does the hard work. He and his spirit. And part of that process is being baptized. It's a spiritual, supernatural event. In Romans 6, Paul writes, that is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind. When we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace, a new life in a new land. That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we're lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus. When we're raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace, sovereign country. It is spiritually powerful. It's the same as Jesus being buried and raised. But the important thing is he's raised to a whole new life. Same with us in baptism. We die to our old life. We're buried. We're raised to a whole new life with God. And it's spiritually powerful. We saw when Jesus came up out of the water that the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove. In Acts 2, Peter says that when we're baptized, we receive a gift of the Holy Spirit. Something supernatural, significant happens when we're baptized. There's something special that the Holy Spirit does. Now, some of us, particularly if we're raised Catholic, were baptized as babies. There isn't anything wrong with that. I mean, it is a beautiful ceremony where parents dedicate their children to God, and they ask for his blessings on their life. Now we dedicate children here, but but we do that through prayer. We kind of baptize babies in prayer. In fact, we're gonna, Susan and I are gonna do that with a family and and and uh some others, Susan and I and some others are gonna do that with the with the family this morning. Baptize uh a young child uh in prayer. And it's really uh if you are baptized as a baby or if you baptize your children as baby, it's a beautiful demonstration of faith and belief in God. Um the baptism Jesus demonstrated and asked us to take part in was after we're old enough to decide for ourselves. Make a statement. I'm all in. I want all that Jesus has to offer. I want a new life, I want to walk with him, I'm gonna trust him, I'm gonna depend on him. And so sometimes, you know, if you're baptized as a child, the Holy Spirit will nudge you and say, Hey, it'd be great for you now that you've made that choice, to demonstrate that, to follow Jesus, just like he did. Um that kind of leads me to a question I get asked often. Is it okay to be baptized more than once? Um of course it is. And in fact, a couple dozen times would probably not hurt some of us. Um but the point of baptism is not to check it off the rule list, it is to submit ourselves and our lives to Jesus and experience what Jesus experienced death, burial, resurrection, and a whole new life. I mentioned that I was baptized first when I was 15. It wasn't until I was 32 that I learned that Jesus wasn't a belief system, that he was real, and I could have an actual relationship with him. And he really got a hold of me, and he did start changing me from the inside out. He did it a lot of ways. His word, which before I had made myself read, the Bible, you know, is something like I made myself read because I didn't want to make God mad at me, and I knew I was supposed to do that. All of a sudden, it just came alive. And all of a sudden, he's talking to me and teaching me through his word, the reason that that uh he gave it to us. Um and then the miracle of all miracles happened. You know, I started caring about other people, not just myself. A big change in my life, a transformation from the inside out. And I also began to want all of whatever it was that God had to offer. I wanted all of him, all of a relationship with him. And that desire kept building in me. And I know some of you are experiencing that now or have experienced that, where it gets so strong you hardly can stand it. You know, you just want all of God. And that's what I wanted. I wanted to really turn myself over to God, experience all there was to him, to really trust him with my my whole life. And the problem was I didn't really trust him. I mean, I didn't. I hadn't learned how loving he was, I hadn't learned how good he is. And so I had this desire to give myself to him completely, but for some reason I just I just couldn't do it. So one of the things that he put on me to do was just to go away and spend some time alone with him. And I've shared this story before, so some of you know this. But um I rented a cabin up on the Tokoa River for a week. And all I took was a message version of the Bible, uh, some blank notebooks, uh, a bunch of water, and of course my fly rod. Um, because you can fish and fast at the same time. And so, but I had thought that I had given about 80% of myself to God, but it was that last 20%, you know. For some reason I just couldn't trust him completely. And so I had some friends and they're praying for me, and Susan and and the kids, and this was like gonna be a big moment um in my life. And so um I got there and I started praying and just really tried to listen to God. And God showed me the truth, and it was it was tough for me to to grasp at the time, but the truth was I had the percentages backwards. I thought I was about 80% all sold out to God, and I had about 20% if I could just give that, you know. And what he showed me, sort of lovingly, sort of not, um was that it was just the opposite. That I had in fact trusted him with about 20% of my life, and there was about 80% that I had kept for myself, that I had stayed in control of, that I hadn't really turned over and felt like I could uh trust him with. So I really wasn't all in, wasn't even halfway in. And so the first couple days, God, through his word and through prayer, just uh showed me that. He also showed me something, this is just a quick aside, but he showed me something else that was kind of life-changing, and that was for me to start talking to him normally. Um before I had always prayed in very a very religious way, you know, uh kind of a formula, and this is how I prayed and that type of stuff. But in the first couple days, he really told me to just start talking to him like I would talk to anyone or to anyone. That was really important because it helped me develop an actual relationship with God where I can just be myself and I can just talk to him and hear from him and that kind of stuff. And so that happened in the first couple days. But the main thing that happened is um I really was confronted with the truth that I had a long ways to go before I was could completely trust God. And um and it really wasn't pleasant. I mean, it's it's hard to describe, but I felt kind of beaten up, and I and and um and it just wasn't those two days weren't that uh pleasant of an experience. But I got the point, and I was humbled, and uh at least I knew where I was. And then God did something kind of interesting, and he does different things with us in different ways, so this isn't something he would probably do with with anyone else. You know, he speaks to all of us in different ways, through music and through art and through other people, and and uh just however he's he's wired us individually. But he did something interesting with me, and that is he prompted me to open up the Bible and just start reading. And occasionally he would ask me to write something down. And by ask me, I meant I just knew that I was supposed to write that down. And so I would go through the Bible and I would just write verses down. And I didn't write book, chapter, and verse, I just wrote the words down. Um and I kept doing that and doing that, and I did that for a couple of days. And um I hate writing stuff down. You know, I know uh many of you journal. I don't journal, I know that would be good for me. Um I'm just not a big writer, so it's kind of unusual that I'd be doing this for a couple days, you know, and so um and so I keep writing and writing, and they're just random verses, and they don't really aren't in any order, and they're from different places. And um and I get the whole thing done, and it's 27 pages of writing. Um and so then I feel like I'm supposed to go back and copy the whole thing over. Um, which made sense because it was I I write very I'm a very messy writer. And so I go back and I carefully cop the copy the whole thing over, and that takes me several hours to do. And I get done and I get the sense, I'm supposed to do it again. And now I'm kind of frustrated because I can read it this time, and it just took me a few hours to copy the whole thing over, and so, and so I do it again. Twenty-seven pages. And I got the whole week, and so I still have you know, I guess, some time. But um and so I get done with that, and I know I'm supposed to copy it over again. And so I'm frustrated with that, but I sit down and I do it for the for the third time, and uh, and I finally get done. And so I sit down and I read it. And actually, this is this is it. Um but I sit down and I read it, and what God had done is he had dictated a letter from himself to me. The whole thing when I read it was a letter from God to me. The whole Bible actually is a letter from God to us. But he had chosen specific parts, and it was a letter to me. And just like a letter from a perfect loving dad, how he would write to his child, you know, encouraging him or her, instructing uh him or her. That's what he did for me. And it wasn't a new revelation. Every single word was a verse written in the Bible. And uh it started like this. He said, I'll give you a new heart, I'll put a new spirit in you, I'll cut out your stone heart and replace it with a red-blooded, firm, muscled heart. That's how he started the letter. And then it just goes on and on. And uh he says, if you make a run for God, you won't regret it. And I just marked a couple uh things. He says, Now, this is just for me. This is a letter from God to me. And so he says, Don't drink too much wine, that cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God. Now, the reason he wrote that to me is because at that time I was drinking too much wine. Okay, and so he writes, Don't drink too much wine, that cheapens uh your life. Drink the Spirit of God, huge draughts of hymns. Sing hymns instead of uh drinking songs, sing songs from your heart to Christ, sing praises over everything. Any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ. He says, uh, at one point, I'm baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. You guys got some time? Yeah. I'll just I'm just gonna keep reading. Um steep your life in God reality, God initiative, God provisions. Don't worry about missing out. He says, These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life. Homeowners' improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. Okay, and so he goes on and on. I've told you these things for a purpose, that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command. Love everyone the way I loved you. So at the end, 27 pages, this was the very end. It's this is what I want you to do. Ask the Father for whatever it is in keeping with the things I've revealed to you. Ask in my name according to my will, and he'll most certainly give it to you. Your joy will be a river overflowing its banks. Okay, so that was the end of the letter. And I look up in the Tokoa River outside is overflowing its banks. I don't know if you know the Tacoa River, but uh there's there's a dam right above uh Blue Ridge and um or maybe to the side of Blue Ridge, but but they generate from the dam, and when it generates the water level raises like three feet. And if you're fly fishing in the river and you know when the dams generate or you sense the water level rising, you got to get out because it uh it goes from uh from a beautiful uh river to a rushing uh uh torrent um pretty quickly. And so that's what was happening. And so I look out, and the river is literally overflowing um its banks. And I knew at that point that God had given me what I went to the cabin to get. That I was gonna go all in with God, that I knew that he knew me, I knew that he loved me. Um, I knew what I needed to kind of work on and trust him with. But most of all, I knew that I was gonna go all in. And so I decided that I was getting baptized in that river. And so I walk out clothed, you know, I don't remember what I had on, probably shorts and a t-shirt. And, you know, I kind of wade out into the stream. And there's a little bit of a dock that's over in the river. But the, I mean, the funny thing is this water is rocking. And uh, you know, and so I say a prayer and I and I and I just thank uh thank God and I tell Jesus that I'm just as best I can at that time, I am gonna trust him. I'm really gonna turn my life over to him. And so I go into the river and I kind of baptize myself, and at this point I'm holding on to the post because this current is so strong, I'm like horizontal, you know, and so I'm like baptizing myself in the uh in uh in the river. But it was not some stuffy old ritual to me that I checked off a to-do list from God. It was a meaningful, impactful experience that I had with God, where I was following Jesus, where I was saying to him, Lord, I am all in. I'm gonna trust you. I need you. Here I am. And I will say that since that moment, my spiritual life has kind of been on fast forward. I mean, as far as how much I've changed, how much he's transformed, I got, as you probably know, I've got a long ways to go. And it's gonna be a lifelong process. Um, but so much has happened. I can hear him so much better. And he's just shown me his love and changed me so much since that day. And to me, that is the essence of what baptism is. It's making a statement. I'm going to trust you. I'm going all in with you. I could have trusted him from the start. I wish I could have. You know, I think that the reason I did it is because I'd been lied to I'd been lied to about him for so long. I've been told that God was mean, that he was harsh, that he was difficult to please. When the truth is, Psalms 103, 8, God has sheer mercy and grace, not easily angered. He's rich in love. I could have trusted him. I've been taught that if if I really loved him, he was going to make life hard on me. I just knew I was going to end up swabbing babies' butts in Africa. And uh I ended up in Africa, ironically enough. But I didn't swab a single baby's butt any time I was over there. Even though by then I would have been happy to if he'd asked. But uh I thought he was gonna make life so hard on me if I trusted him. Matthew 7, Jesus says this if your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn't think of such a thing. You're at least decent to your own children. Why don't you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better? He is. He is better. You can trust him. You can trust him, you can go all in. You will never regret it. I hope that the Holy Spirit will use, I guess, my experience to encourage you right where you're at this morning. If you've never been baptized, go for it. We'll experience it together in a couple of weeks. Maybe you were baptized when you were younger, but you're ready to make a statement, kind of like I was. You know what? I'm all in. My whole life's gonna change. From this point on, I'm gonna trust you. I'm gonna be with you. If that's where you're at, go for it. Go for it. You'll never regret it. You can sign up for that at the lobby or in the lobby at that table, and then uh two weeks from today, we'll experience the joy and the excitement and the presence of God together that morning. It's gonna be a great uh, it's gonna be a great, great day. Now, for others of us, I think that this morning perhaps we can just be reminded that we can trust God. You know, because maybe there's just something. Maybe it's not the all-in thing. Maybe there's just something, some part of your life you're afraid to turn over to God. That you that, you know, it's like the 80% I was hanging on to. Maybe there's just a small thing that you're hanging on to that you feel like you've got to keep for yourself, that you can never trust God to take over in this area of your life. You can trust him. You can trust him with your whole life. Turn it over. Ask him to help you. Give it to him. He won't let you down. So if the worship team wants to come up, we will uh we'll stop there. We'll sing one last song together. And I'd like, if you could, to stay, everyone, for that last song. Sometimes there's I say that, sorry, I make a few people feel bad. But uh sorry, Kim. Um see they're heading out to volunteer because they got stuff that they uh they got to do. But uh for the rest of us, this song is is is uh gonna be, I think, kind of an anthem. An anthem that we can just make a declaration uh to God together. In fact, if uh let's stand, we'll get ready to uh to do that. Dying to ourselves, buried with Jesus, raised to a whole new life. You know, that's really what Jesus came for. That's what next Sunday is going to be about. We'll talk a little bit about the crucifixion and what Jesus went through, but but next Sunday is about the resurrection. It is about being raised to a whole new life. Jesus said that I came to give you life, more and better life than you can ever dream of. Let's pray. Father, we praise you. We thank you for being such a great God that you, who are so wonderful and marvelous as we sang about, would adopt us as your very own children. We love you and we thank you for that. Holy Spirit, we praise you. Just stir up our hearts. Give us the strength, give us the ability to turn our lives and our whole selves over to you. And Jesus, we thank you for going first, for giving us the example that we can follow. We thank you for dying, being buried, and being raised. So we too can die to our old life, be buried, and then just like you, raised to a whole new life. We thank you, we praise you, we love you, we trust you, and it's in your great name we pray. Amen.