SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: We're actually gonna talk about baptism this weekend.
SPEAKER_00: So let me kind of remind you of where we are in the series.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about the story of Moses, uh, and uh we start with uh an element of the story of Moses and then use that to connect it to something that's taking place in the New Testament, and it all correlates with our walk with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It all correlates with our journey with Christ uh as we step into salvation.
SPEAKER_00: So the first week we talked about the curse, the curse that we're under.
SPEAKER_00: The next week we talked about the salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That was last week.
SPEAKER_00: This week we're talking about water baptism, and then next week we'll talk about baptism in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And so this follows the path of uh uh of our walk with God and our entry into salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And so we'll get to in a moment uh how uh this story of Moses teaches us these things about water baptism.
SPEAKER_00: But let me remind you as well that what we're talking about is that the the movement of God through the Israelites, as Moses would lead was leading them, was an attempt to help man get back into the garden.
SPEAKER_00: So we remember that in Genesis 3 is the fall of man, that is where Adam and Eve were living in the garden in perfect uh uh harmony with God.
SPEAKER_00: They were living there in that in that garden, and uh they they sinned, but the sin was that they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, we know that we are impacted by that every single day of our lives, that our temptation is to step outside of the authority of God and instead to choose for ourselves what is right and wrong, to choose for ourselves what we want to do and not do.
SPEAKER_00: And that is our temptation that we continue to struggle with, and God's uh movement towards us, his perpetual uh movement of grace towards us, is to pull us back into the garden.
SPEAKER_00: So we want to remember that we we are to eat of the tree of life, which is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We are not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
SPEAKER_00: So uh I I give you in a little example of a way that you could remember that every week.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and this week, the example's a little bit strange, um, but I've got a question for you.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have ever eaten at the cheesecake factory?
SPEAKER_00: And go ahead, it's okay, don't be ashamed.
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand.
SPEAKER_00: I see, I see your hand, sir.
SPEAKER_00: I see your hand, uh, I see that hand.
SPEAKER_00: Um this is this is a safe place.
SPEAKER_00: You could just admit it, okay?
SPEAKER_00: You just say that.
SPEAKER_00: Um uh now, if you've been there, then you know uh that the menu to the cheesecake factory is the exact same length as the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: That's science.
SPEAKER_00: That's just a fact, okay?
SPEAKER_00: It's the exact same length as the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and so I want you to imagine then that um all you all of us, uh we could get in my car real quick, we could run over to Cheesecake Factory, we could sit down to have a meal, and I want you to imagine I tell you, I'm starving.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just I'm I'm dying to eat.
SPEAKER_00: I can't, I'm I I can't tell you how hungry I am.
SPEAKER_00: And when the waiter or waitress comes along and says, What would you like to eat today?
SPEAKER_00: Uh I would my response might be, uh I I actually have been spending a lot of time memorizing this very, very long menu, and so uh I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I feel full.
SPEAKER_00: I I'm I memorized and studied your menu so I feel full.
SPEAKER_00: This is the temptation that we often do.
SPEAKER_00: If I could just learn more of the Bible, if I could just uh memorize more of Scripture, if I could just read it in a better way, then that would make me full.
SPEAKER_00: And the truth is that without the Spirit, without eating from the tree of the life of life, this all can still become the knowledge of good and evil.
SPEAKER_00: So of course we're supposed to memorize scripture, of course we're supposed to read and study, but what we remember in this is that without the leading and the guiding of the Spirit, we are continuing to eat of our own knowledge of good and evil.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible's been used in atrocious ways to victimize human beings because of misreadings and misrepresrepresentations of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: What we need is to remember that Christ is life, and through that our eyes are open to the truth and the revelation of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And so our journey then, our walk in Christianity is our goal in mind is to return to the garden with Christ, to return back to that place of living in the garden, living under his authority, not our own.
SPEAKER_00: So uh today we're gonna talk about baptisms and uh what we're talking about is the water.
SPEAKER_00: The water is the water of life.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh as we talk about the water of life, we remember that where there is no water, there's no life.
SPEAKER_00: That if you compare the desert to the rainforest, the amount of life that can thrive in the rainforest is vastly different than what can survive in the desert.
SPEAKER_00: And at the fall, uh the he tells the serpent, you will eat dust all the days of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Not literally eating dust, but but what what it's saying is you are expelled.
SPEAKER_00: You are in the garden, you are in the dust where there is no life.
SPEAKER_00: This is a reference to being in the desert.
SPEAKER_00: To the man, he said, The ground will produce thorns and thistles for you.
SPEAKER_00: We remember that in the desert, the only plant forms that we often see are ones that are spiny and and and thorny, and they they are difficult.
SPEAKER_00: They are it's a hard land to live in, it's a hard land to thrive in.
SPEAKER_00: And so all of these are pointing us to the fact that life in the desert is really, really difficult.
SPEAKER_00: But if we can return ourselves to the garden, it says in Genesis 2 that there was no life on the earth until God caused springs of water to come forth from the earth.
SPEAKER_00: He's the beginning of life, he is that stream of living water that sprouts forth life.
SPEAKER_00: Adam and Eve are then expelled from the garden and into the desert.
SPEAKER_00: But God, through Abraham, is going to start a new covenant people, and Jacob even meets his wife at the well, at the water, signifying that a new tribe, a new group of Israelites are going to be my covenant people, and they are going to help my people return to the garden.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob's offspring make up the twelve tribes of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And many years later, when Jesus meets the woman at the well, which we've been talking a lot about in this series, he meets her at one of Jacob's wells, and he's telling her there, I am the water of life.
SPEAKER_00: And to pass through the waters of baptism is to pass through his life and be cleansed by it, and then to live through him.
SPEAKER_00: On the cross, we remember that when they took the spear and stabbed Jesus with a spear, outflowed blood and water.
SPEAKER_00: That at the moment of his death, he once again became the fountain of life for us, and we are called to look to him on the cross, the power and the saving grace of what he did on the cross to remember, to pull ourselves back into the water of life.
SPEAKER_00: And hanging from a tree, his blood represents the sanctifying nature that he pours out of his body, and the water baptizes us into a new life.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.
SPEAKER_00: And when the water of life flows through you, you can begin to grow your own fruit of Eden, which is love, joy, peace, peace, patience, kindness, self-control.
SPEAKER_00: All of these things are fruits of living in the water of life and experiencing the water of life that Christ brings to us.
SPEAKER_00: And so the very beginning of the world starts with a river, a river of life that sprouts forth.
SPEAKER_00: And this is found right in the beginning of Genesis, a river of life that we know that God is in that garden where the tree of life is, which is God.
SPEAKER_00: And not only does the world begin in that way, that it also is how the Bible starts.
SPEAKER_00: Right there in the beginning of Genesis, there's water and the tree, but because of the curse, man loses access to those things.
SPEAKER_00: And the water and the tree of life.
SPEAKER_00: So how does the Bible end?
SPEAKER_00: Let's go then to the very last book of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Revelation chapter 22.
SPEAKER_00: This is the last book of the Bible and the last chapter of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And it says, Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb down the middle of the great streets of the city.
SPEAKER_00: On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
SPEAKER_00: No longer will there be any curse.
SPEAKER_00: For me, that's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00: For me, that's pretty cool that the Bible starts with the tree and the water and ends in explaining to us that the curse will be over when we return to the tree of life and the flowing river of water, and that as those things happen, we return to the garden.
SPEAKER_00: That the Bible wraps up in that way, that it reminds us of those things, that after over 40 authors and thousands of years of people writing this, that it culminates and pulls us back to the garden, returns us to the tree of life and the fountain of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That is amazing to me.
SPEAKER_00: So the first thing that we need to understand about the water, the waters of baptism, the first thing that we need to realize about it is that the water brings death.
SPEAKER_00: Now that sounds weird because I've just been telling you for quite a while that the water is life-giving water.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so uh that sounds kind of weird, but the water brings death as well.
SPEAKER_00: So let's go now to the story of Moses, where we have been going through as we've been passing through this uh series, and we start in Exodus chapter 14, starting in verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: It says, But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
SPEAKER_00: That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore.
SPEAKER_00: And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses, his servant.
SPEAKER_00: It says it says that when they saw that that the Egyptians were lying dead on the shore, that that is when they put their trust in God.
SPEAKER_00: When you go through the water of baptism and you get to the other side, and you emerge to the other side, and you see the bodies of all the things that kept you in sin and bondage on the other side of those waters, that is when you will say, God is a mighty God.
SPEAKER_00: That is when you will realize and point to the fact that only God can redeem us, only God can save us from these things.
SPEAKER_00: And when the Israelites began to leave Egypt, believing that they had been released by the Pharaoh, we see that evil cannot resist but continue to chase us down.
SPEAKER_00: Evil cannot resist but to continue to try to ensnare us, to trap us.
SPEAKER_00: If if the Israelites had just gone another way, the Egyptians never would have stopped pursuing them.
SPEAKER_00: If on your own you just try to be more holy or righteous or do the right thing, the enemy will never stop attacking you.
SPEAKER_00: If on your own you remain on the run, you will never be able to defeat the enemy yourself.
SPEAKER_00: But God leads them through the water of baptism so that He can bring death to what it is that's keeping them in slavery.
SPEAKER_00: And as they pass through the waters and they get to the other side, they see the dead, mangled, drowned bodies all over the shore, and they realize only God can save us.
SPEAKER_00: It is only God that can redeem us, that can save us, that can win this battle for us.
SPEAKER_00: And so those bodies, the testament of what we overcome and defeat as we become saved and go through water baptism, that is the testimony of how powerful God is.
SPEAKER_00: Not of how well we learn to follow the rules, not of how well we learn to do the right thing, not because we figured out by our own knowledge of good and evil how to do the right thing and avoid the wrong thing, but by God's almighty hand, he delivered us from those things.
SPEAKER_00: That's the testament of the Israelites as they walk through the waters of baptism.
SPEAKER_00: We're not fast enough to get away, and that's why God needed to make a way for us.
SPEAKER_00: And so he parted the seed for the Israelites, and he parts the waters for you in baptism so that he can close them back on the old man and destroy the evil that chases you down.
SPEAKER_00: The water of baptism, we've been talking about the knowledge of good and evil.
SPEAKER_00: The water of baptism distinguishes good and evil for you so you don't have to.
SPEAKER_00: The water of baptism chooses what is right and wrong.
SPEAKER_00: It allows what is good to emerge on the other side and drowns what is bad.
SPEAKER_00: It's the ultimate redemption from our attempt to know good and evil on our own.
SPEAKER_00: It is the water of baptism that separates those things for us.
SPEAKER_00: It is the water of baptism that destroys everything that is evil and hurting us and keeping us in bondage and allows the good to pass through.
SPEAKER_00: The waters of baptism uh they they undo this curse of living under the knowledge of good and evil.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul addresses uh this idea that that one once we are baptized and we accept the grace of God, should we just go on sinning?
SPEAKER_00: Should we just return?
SPEAKER_00: It's the same as uh the the Israelites.
SPEAKER_00: Uh if the Israelites, uh, as they did oftentimes desired to go back into their life of slavery, it is to say, I enjoyed the curse more than the difficulties I experienced under the grace.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's addressing that in in Romans, and we'll look at that in just a moment, but he's saying, if grace abounds, should we just keep returning to our old life?
SPEAKER_00: Of course not.
SPEAKER_00: Every time that we decide as a believer, as a baptized believer, every time that we decide that we want to go back to living on our own knowledge of good and evil, every time that we decide that God doesn't know best and that we need to take control of our own lives, we need to retake power of our own lives.
SPEAKER_00: Every time we do that, it's as if we put the Egyptian on our back and carry him through the waters and say, I want to keep this one.
SPEAKER_00: It's as if we say, God, no longer do I want to serve you, but I'd like to keep my old masters.
SPEAKER_00: Every time we willingly allow sin to remain in our lives when we know that it is wrong, of course, we will we won't be perfect after baptism.
SPEAKER_00: We'll continue to sin.
SPEAKER_00: But every time we carry around a new master, it is to say that we want to put that Egyptian on our back and carry him through the waters with us.
SPEAKER_00: We ought to be changed beings after baptism.
SPEAKER_00: The Egyptian is dead in the water.
SPEAKER_00: The slavery that ensnared us before is dead in the water, and we emerge as someone who now has the power of Christ to lead us and to guide us into new levels of grace.
SPEAKER_00: And so it says in Romans chapter 6, starting in verse 1, what shall we say then?
SPEAKER_00: Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
SPEAKER_00: By no means.
SPEAKER_00: We are those who have died to sin.
SPEAKER_00: How can we live in it any longer?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm skipping down to verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: It says, in the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this word here, whenever he says, count yourselves dead to Christ, but alive in Jesus, is actually a bookkeeping term.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually uh a bookkeeping term that that uh means tally it up.
SPEAKER_00: Literally count it up.
SPEAKER_00: Count up what took place.
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to imagine for a moment that you are you you own a shop.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe here in town you own a shop and uh you sell uh goods, and so uh you're there running your shop and it's the best day that you've ever had.
SPEAKER_00: Uh customers are in and out all day long.
SPEAKER_00: You can't get away from the cash register because people just keep buying things and buying things and buying things, and you know that it's a really good day.
SPEAKER_00: You know that something really, really good happened, but but the extent of it you don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Now, whether or not you know how much money you made that day or not, that doesn't change how much money is in the cash register.
SPEAKER_00: When you count it up, you realize how much money you made, but it was there for you all along.
SPEAKER_00: When you count it up is when it becomes real to you.
SPEAKER_00: But the funds were already there.
SPEAKER_00: When Paul says, count yourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ, what he means is that every time that temptation arises in you, you should go back to the cash register of grace.
SPEAKER_00: You should count up exactly what God did for you and realize the gift that you got through salvation and remind yourself that you thrive under the authority of God.
SPEAKER_00: Count it up.
SPEAKER_00: This exercise is something we ought to do often.
SPEAKER_00: We ought to realize, we ought to remember just what shape we were in.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what happens to the people, the Israelites who are walking through the wilderness with Moses over and over, is they say it would have been better for us to be back in slavery with the Egyptians, and they lack the ability to count up what God has done for them.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to imagine seeing God part the waters of a sea and wish to go back.
SPEAKER_00: But we do it all the time.
SPEAKER_00: We have to count it up.
SPEAKER_00: The powers of God's grace are profound and powerful in our lives, and this tallies up the mighty work that God has done in us.
SPEAKER_00: It is true all along.
SPEAKER_00: Your salvation is true from the moment you receive Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It is there, it is in your account, it is waiting for you, but you must count it up.
SPEAKER_00: Baptism is the method and the symbol where we die to that old life and are resurrected to a new life.
SPEAKER_00: It is the moment where the old man or woman is buried and a new man or woman is resurrected to a new life in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And more particularly, uh the act of baptism, which uh, as far as Paul was concerned, here was the practical and physical beginning of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: It is not simply a metaphorical act.
SPEAKER_00: When you go down into the waters, the old man is left behind and the new man arises.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus even said in Mark chapter 10, verse 38, Jesus said, Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?
SPEAKER_00: That baptism is his death.
SPEAKER_00: When you go into the water, a place where there is no possible way to breathe, it is as if you participate with Christ in going into the grave, and just as Christ did, you will emerge on the other side.
SPEAKER_00: You will come out of the grave with a new life.
SPEAKER_00: That is the power of baptism.
SPEAKER_00: In baptism, we die, we go into the grave, and we rise again just as Christ did.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the second thing we need to remember about baptism is that the water brings life.
SPEAKER_00: The water brings life, although it causes a death of the old man, a new man arises and new things are going to take place because of the life that it gives.
SPEAKER_00: In Romans chapter six, still, we're just going to read a few of the passages that I skipped over just a moment ago, starting in verse five, it says, For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
SPEAKER_00: For we know that our old self was crucified with him, so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin, because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
SPEAKER_00: For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again.
SPEAKER_00: Death no longer has mastery over him.
SPEAKER_00: The death he died, he died to sin once for all.
SPEAKER_00: But the life he lives, he lives to God.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the verse we read just a moment ago.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to imagine for a moment that you you live in a rent house and you've rented this house and you've done a long-term agreement with the landlord, and uh and and and it looks like a great place, but once you get into the house, uh the landlord uh he he just keeps showing up.
SPEAKER_00: He just he's got a key to your house and he just walks in whenever he wants to.
SPEAKER_00: And then he walks around, he's like, I don't like that you did that.
SPEAKER_00: No, don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I I I have to charge you a cleaning fee.
SPEAKER_00: The dishes were still in the in the sink, and you should do the dishes every time you eat.
SPEAKER_00: And and he just assesses fees constantly.
SPEAKER_00: And as you review the contract, you realize that there's no way to get out of it.
SPEAKER_00: You you can't afford to buy out your contract with him, and and you can't afford to keep paying the the rent on that place and another place, and and he's making your life miserable, and he comes in and he's charging you all of this money.
SPEAKER_00: And he's threatening you and he's pushing you around and bullying you and he's doing all of these things to you, and you have just the worst landlord that you can imagine.
SPEAKER_00: And then one day someone comes to you and says, Hey, uh, I got an idea for you.
SPEAKER_00: I will pay all of the money that it takes to buy you out of your contract.
SPEAKER_00: And I have a new place that you can live.
SPEAKER_00: It's rent-free, but all I ask is that you follow the very simple things that I ask of you.
SPEAKER_00: But it's rent-free, it's an amazing place, it's better than your place, it's bigger than your place, everything about it is better.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to I want you to consider letting me buy you out.
SPEAKER_00: And you're hesitant maybe at first.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Well, I've had a really bad experience, and how much will I owe this person?
SPEAKER_00: Because this my current landlord makes my life miserable, and I can't stand to live like this anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, you just decide that that this life is so bad that you you need to accept this life with the new landlord.
SPEAKER_00: And so finally you say, That's fine, buy me out.
SPEAKER_00: So he goes through all of the legal paperwork and he pays the entire price for you to be free from your old landlord.
SPEAKER_00: He pays all of it, and then he puts you in your new house and says, Here, this this place is for you, this this very special place, this is just for you.
SPEAKER_00: What that's that that would be awesome.
SPEAKER_00: That's an amazing, great thing that could happen to you.
SPEAKER_00: But what if your old landlord kept walking into that house, showing up and saying, Hey, you still owe me money?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you you gotta pay me more.
SPEAKER_00: I I just realized there was more damage to the house.
SPEAKER_00: I just found this, you gotta keep paying me more, you gotta do this, you I I'm requiring you to do this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna show up here every day, I'm gonna pester you, I'm gonna knock on your door until you pay me the new price.
SPEAKER_00: In realizing and reckoning with your baptism, you now have the ability to say, you have no legal authority over me.
SPEAKER_00: All the price has been paid, and I've been released from that contract.
SPEAKER_00: I have a new landlord, and if I have to, I'll call the cops or the angels of heaven will come down and take care of you because I have a new landlord, and he's great, and he paid all the price for everything that I've experienced.
SPEAKER_00: We're afraid sometimes of living this life and not reckoning the baptism that we've been baptized into, but we ought to remember that we have a brand new landlord.
SPEAKER_00: One that is kind, one that will not intrude in the same way that the last landlord did.
SPEAKER_00: You are free from that landlord.
SPEAKER_00: Legally, Jesus paid the price so that you would never have to be under the thumb of the old landlord.
SPEAKER_00: The price has been paid.
SPEAKER_00: You are legally free of everything from the old landlord.
SPEAKER_00: Through baptism, you emerge as a new person.
SPEAKER_00: We remember the story of the prodigal son, uh, how he said, I want to get out, I I want my inheritance early, and I want to get out.
SPEAKER_00: And so he left living under his father's provision.
SPEAKER_00: He left sitting under the tree of authority, the tree of life.
SPEAKER_00: He left drinking from the river or the springs of life-giving water, and he left to go pursue his own things and eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
SPEAKER_00: It's the classic story of every single one of our own stories of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That while we were there in the garden, just like Adam and Eve, and we had everything provided for us, we said, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I think I'd rather make my own decisions and live on my own knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: And so the prodigal son leaves the house and he goes and he lives, and he soon discovers that that life is not very rewarding.
SPEAKER_00: He soon discovers that he's living in the mud with pigs, and that life is not the way that it used to be, that life is not what it was before, and he realizes all of those things and he makes the decision that he wants to go back to his father's house.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes back, and we know the story that a party is thrown for him, that he is received back into the house.
SPEAKER_00: And the story ends there in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: But let me ask you this what would it be like if he said, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Um I think uh I think I remember that it was really cool that there was a party for me when I came back.
SPEAKER_00: And now that I'm here, I'm realizing that life is difficult.
SPEAKER_00: It is sometimes difficult to stay under my father's authority instead of uh being able to make all of my decisions for myself.
SPEAKER_00: And so maybe I'll just leave and if I want to, I'll come back.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Should we just keep on doing what we want?
SPEAKER_00: Just because we have grace, just because we were welcomed back into the house, should we just keep living however we want?
SPEAKER_00: He says, of course not.
SPEAKER_00: You've been changed, you've been received back into the house, and every time we stop living under that authority, we are tempted to go back out on our own.
SPEAKER_00: And the the reality of it is you have already been welcomed back into your father's house.
SPEAKER_00: There's no reason to go anywhere else.
SPEAKER_00: There's no reason to do that.
SPEAKER_00: When we make a marriage vow, we make promises, and those promises can be broken, but they cannot be unmade.
SPEAKER_00: When you receive Christ as your Savior, you enter into a covenant with him.
SPEAKER_00: You can try as hard as you may to break that covenant, but the covenant he made with you cannot be unmade.
SPEAKER_00: The power of Christ through the waters of baptism pulls you in, and of course you can try to shirk it off or shrug it off, to get rid of your new responsibilities.
SPEAKER_00: You can pretend that you don't, after all, have a new status, but you what you cannot do is get unbaptized.
SPEAKER_00: Don't even think of trying to go back to Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: You are now on your way to the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: Look forward.
SPEAKER_00: Count up the gift that God has given you.
SPEAKER_00: Set your gaze on Christ and Christ alone.
SPEAKER_00: All the other things will fall away.
SPEAKER_00: But when we are baptized, we set our face forward and we say, we are on a journey to the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: You know that the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard estimates that say that the reality of how long that journey should have taken is around two and a half months.
SPEAKER_00: Set your eyes on the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: You've been saved.
SPEAKER_00: Your salvation is there for you.
SPEAKER_00: That is a work that has been done and cannot be undone.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've never been baptized, get baptized.
SPEAKER_00: It is not a symbolic act, it is the reality of the salvation that Christ has offered us.
SPEAKER_00: And then set your face forward and move to the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: Return to the Garden of Eden and eat of the fruit of the tree of life.
SPEAKER_00: Martin Luther, it is said, when he was tempted, would uh shout out, baptizate us, and it means I have been baptized.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that one day we can be in a store and maybe someone's thinking about spending money they shouldn't spend, or we can be in a location and somebody's thinking about doing a sin that they should not do, and you would just hear someone yell out, I have been baptized.
SPEAKER_00: Remind yourself today, I have been baptized, and I no longer live the life of the old man.
SPEAKER_00: I have been baptized.
SPEAKER_00: Would you bow your heads and close your eyes with me if you will?
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, maybe you are realizing today that maybe when you were a child, maybe at some point in your life, maybe you you felt the conviction during uh a message or at camp or something like that, and you knew something needed to change, and so you you prayed to receive Christ, but maybe you're realizing today that you never left your own authority and stepped back into the house of your father.
SPEAKER_00: You can do that today.
SPEAKER_00: Today, you can return to the garden, to the tree of life, you can eat of the fruit, be baptized through the water of living water.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've been saved, but you didn't get around to getting water baptized, maybe you experienced it at uh a different church and it was done in a different way or something like that, and you say, I'm not sure I've really been baptized, it's just a few weeks away.
SPEAKER_00: For others of you today, maybe you're a believer and you've been baptized, but you say, I really need to count it up.
SPEAKER_00: I keep trying to go back to living under my own authority.
SPEAKER_00: I keep questioning God and his goodness.
SPEAKER_00: I keep wondering, because of the difficulties that I'm going through, if he really has my best interest in mind.
SPEAKER_00: You've been baptized.
SPEAKER_00: Count it up.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, today we receive your grace all over again.
SPEAKER_00: God, we remember that you paid the ultimate price through giving your only begotten Son, who was tortured, beaten, crucified, who died and rose again, so that you could pay the price and release us from our old landlord.
SPEAKER_00: And we receive that powerful gift of grace today.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, may we walk in your presence, live under the authority of the tree of life, and drink from the fountain of life.
SPEAKER_00: We praise you today, God, and we pray that Lord you would give us strength and courage to keep moving forward, stepping our way one step at a time to the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: And God, we know that the only reason we can do that is because of your powerful grace, and we thank you for it.
SPEAKER_00: We pray all these things in the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining us today.
SPEAKER_01: If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.
SPEAKER_01: We hope you have a great week.