Baptism Sunday 4/19

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Lead Pastors, Philip & Kayla Keller
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www.versaillesfwc.com
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hallelujah! Give him worship today. Father, we praise you. Thank you, Jesus. You are great and worthy to be praised, Father. So, right now, even though we have things going on in the service and the agenda, so we can baptize these 30-something people that are wanting to get baptized today, God, we want to take a moment to just praise you in your presence, God, to make sure you know you are the king of this house. You are the Lord of this house, Father God, and we praise you today, and we give you all the glory. Church, can we put our hands together and just give him all the praise today? Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. And you may be seated in his presence if you can. And church, we are just so glad to see you today. I want to say welcome to Family Worship Center. I'm Pastor Philip, and we're just so glad that you are here with us today. Can we put our hands together one more time for Jesus? Amen. And I don't know about you. I I I love my wife, and I love my daughter, and I love my family, and I love my friends, and I love this church, but there is one who sits above them all. He is my heavenly father. He's my best friend. He is closer than a brother. He knows the thoughts and intentions of my heart. And you are welcome to live life however you want to. We live in America, we live in the land of the free. But can I tell you something? And I'm just being honest with you today. Every day I wake up and I celebrate Easter all over again because every day when I wake up, I say, Good morning, Jesus, and I thank you, Jesus, for all that you've done for me. I thank you, Jesus, for blessing me and giving me another day. And I know we love Easter, and we love a good concert, and God is so good, but every day is a blessing with Him. Every day is a miracle. Every day we can celebrate the resurrection. Amen. Because He is risen. We don't have to live afraid. We don't have to worry about tomorrow. Come on, somebody. So we're glad that you are with us today. Two Sundays ago, we celebrated the greatest moment in history. The tomb was empty. Jesus was alive. Death was defeated. We talked about because he is risen, you don't have to be afraid. We had around 300 people that day. We had 31 people who raised their hand to accept Christ as their savior. And then last week we had our special guest, The Sound, with us. Who enjoyed that last week? We had several salvations and another great crowd. But I'm so excited because today is Baptism Sunday. And so before service started, we had around 30 people getting baptized today. And so today's message, we're going to get into it kind of quickly because we have a lot to do today. And the message is this. If you didn't get to grab the notes, they're out there on the info booth. And you can also look them up on the Bible app to find our notes. But today's message is titled This, What Happens Next? Look at your neighbor and say, What happens next? We're going to be talking today from resurrection to responsibility. Look at your neighbor and say, Ooh. I hope you know that it doesn't just stop with the resurrection. We don't just celebrate, we respond. And so we're going to go back to Scripture. And if you've been with us, you know that we've been traveling through the book of Matthew the last seven, eight weeks, and we've gone through and followed Jesus all the way to the cross, all the way to the resurrection. And so we're finishing up the book of Matthew, and we're reading one of the most important parts of the whole book, the Great Commission. So we're going to go to Matthew 28, starting in verse 18, and it says this. Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. And when they saw him, they worshiped him. But some of them doubted. Verse 18 says, Jesus came and told his disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. So therefore go and make disciples of all nations. Church, say go with me. And it says, Or all people, baptizing them, say, baptizing them. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And I love this next verse. It says, Teach. Everybody say, Teach. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you and be sure of this. I am with you always, even to the ends of the age. This is what I need someone to grab a hold of today right out of the gate. I want you to look at your neighbor. I want you to tell them this the resurrection wasn't the finish line, it was the starting line. Turn to your neighbor and tell somebody. And that's it. If we believe that, it's like reading the beginning of a book, getting to understand the character's names, and then closing the book and thinking, you know what happens. And I'm afraid so many Christians feel that way when it comes to their faith. They think once we get saved, now we're just waiting for heaven. But God, Jesus, who lived for you, died for you, raised you, raised Himself back to life for you, told us, His followers, to go. Make disciples. You might be thinking, well, this is getting back into that religious thing, and I know you're gonna lose me on this. I've heard this my whole life. Why do you need to talk to me about this today? Because it's very important. I'm not talking about you signing up to be a missionary, okay? So you can take a deep breath. We're not talking about you coming up here and preaching next Sunday or teaching a class. But what I am telling you is that we are called to do something to help reach and teach and make disciples in this world. That can be attending church faithfully. That can be giving your tithes and your offerings. That can be greeting someone when you come into church. That can be driving a van to pick somebody up. That can be purchasing, you know, a stranger's meal or coffee and just telling them, God bless you. That can be sending someone a text or a message. And, you know, the list goes on and on, but God calls us to do something. Amen. And so our first point today is this: that Jesus gave us a mission. And something that I need you to hear me say this morning is this that we're not saved to sit. We are saved to be sent. Go means movement. It means action, not comfort. Make disciples means not church attendants, but followers, living for him. Baptizing them is a public declaration, and it's having confidence and faith. And that phrase teaching them is lifelong transformation, something that lasts, something that they will understand. You see, if Jesus got up out of that grave, then we've got to get up out of our seats. It's as simple as that. I don't know how many athletes we have with us today, but you know, you don't win the game by putting on the jersey. Yeah, that's a big deal to make the team. Some of us have had that experience when you've made the team, or maybe when you didn't make the team. It's a big deal to make the team. But you have to get out there and play the game to win. Had someone tell me this week, man, you must feel so accomplished because of some of the things that God is doing at Family Worship Center, and I am, and we should be, and it's exciting, and to God be all the glory, but it doesn't prove that we did a good job and it's over. It proves that we can fill these seats, and we need to continue to fill these seats, and we need to continue to preach the gospel, and we need to continue to see people get saved, and we need to continue to spread the love of Jesus Christ. There's a city, a county, a state, a nation, a world out there that needs Jesus. And we have to understand that if salvation was the only mission, once we were called on the name of Jesus, it would have been like Star Trek and they would have beamed us on up to heaven. Come on, somebody. If it was over when we got saved, we would have just gone on to heaven. But no, God leaves us here because we have something to do. You're here for a reason. The Church of Jesus Christ is here for a reason. There's a reason you woke up this morning. Maybe you woke up in pain, I don't know. Maybe you woke up and didn't know if you were going to be able to make it through the day, I don't know. But you woke up for a reason, amen. And the reason is to live for Christ, to be a city on a hill, to be a light in the world of darkness. You have no idea how many people want to know what God has been doing here at Family Worship Center lately. And I'm so excited about that. But it's not just because there's something special going on, it's because we serve a special God. We serve someone who loved us so much that they sent their very best for us, his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Because there's people that go to Pizza Hut who need Jesus. There's people who walk Walmart up and down the aisles and they need Jesus. There's people that we rub shoulders with every day. Neighbors, co-workers, people at school that need Jesus. We've been given this mission to make a dent in this world, to make an impact. And I don't know about you, but I'm not gonna give up. I'm not gonna say, okay, we've arrived, let's be done, let's just, we're we're happy, we're satisfied. No, I want to see as many people go to heaven as possible so we can make heaven more crowded. Anyone else think that's a good idea? I don't care what your past was, I don't care about what you did this weekend, what have you done today? The person at the gas station needs the love of Christ. The person picking up your trash on Tuesdays or Fridays or whatever day, they need the love of Christ. The person sitting next to you at the baseball game, they need the love of Christ, and it just so happens get this, how God does things. It just so happens that they have someone sitting next to them in you that has that love inside of them that they need. Is that a coincidence? No. You see, I don't serve a God of chance, I serve a God of intention. We have a mission, and that mission is to reach the lost for Christ and make disciples. I remember the first time that me and my dad and brother went camping when I was probably like eight years old, and my dad probably thought this was some like becoming a man kind of uh fun trip. And I remember I was gifted this knife, and it was a nice knife, not like a little kid's beginner's knife, like a real woodsman knife. Anybody know what I'm talking about? I know some of you do. And so my dad was trying to show me, everybody say, show me. It's the show me state. Okay, but listen, he was trying to show me how to use that knife and whittle and how to carve on this stick and to do these things. And I was eight years old, I thought I knew everything. Anybody ever been there? I have a six-year-old who thinks she knows everything. And so as this eight-year-old, I said, yes, yes, yes, okay, dad, let me try. And what happened was I took two inches of skin off of my hand. It's because my dad tried to show me, but I didn't pay attention. Listen, if we want to make disciples, if we want to make a dent in this world, if we want to make an impact for Christ, we have to show people how to be a disciple. We have to love like Christ, we have to forgive like Christ, we have to teach them Christ, we have to lead them to the Father, we have to know that they're gonna mess up. And yes, we should strive to be the best version of ourselves at all times. But cannot let somebody know that needs to hear this this morning. As humans, we're gonna mess up. God's word says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In church, we act so surprised when we hear that someone messed up instead of running to them or asking them or trying to find a way to help them. And so this all brings us to point number two, and it's this realizing we have a mission and we realize that mission is to make disciples, the next point is this that we are to go and baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Because baptism is obedience. Matthew 28, 19 says, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Why is baptism so important? Why is baptism so important? I'm glad you asked this morning. A lot of the answers you're looking for are located in Scripture. And if you have a physical Bible or if you don't, talk to us, we'll get you one after service. But here's why we do baptism and why it's so important. And I want somebody to get excited with me this morning because I don't I don't know how you woke up this morning, but I woke up excited. But Romans 6, verse 4 and 5 say this for we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Come on, somebody. Since verse 5 says, Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. Today, some of these people, some of you, under the sound of my voice, you're gonna go under that water as your old self, and when you come up out of that water, you're gonna be a new version of yourself. But I need you to understand this. I want this to be clear. Baptism is not salvation, but a response to it. It can be private, but it's a public declaration. It's not required, but it's obedient. It's being obedient. Because baptism doesn't save you, but it shows the world that you've been saved. Baptism is this outward sign of what God has been doing on the inside. It's this moment where you've decided I don't care if everyone knows that I'm a follower of Jesus. I'm gonna stand up and I'm gonna declare the old me is gone and the new has begun. But it also represents this cleansing process because of the water. And Drew, if you can help me begin to set this up, we have this illustration I want to show you this morning. How many of you know Jesus wipes away the sin and he cleanses us again? Amen. So we're gonna set this up. And uh for anyone wondering, this is not lemonade or tea. This is water. We have you, and we have sin, and we have Jesus. See, the clear water is God's design for you. And this is the sin that has entered the world, enters our lives, messes things up, it darkens the light in our life, and we have Jesus. And can I just give you this illustration real quick? I might need help to unscrew these lids. Sorry, I should have told you that. One hand with a microphone, it's not easy to do that, but as a lot of us know who have grown up and dealt with things in life, we can make some choices, thank you. And sin can enter our life, and what God had as a great plan for us can become dirty. And the next thing we know, we're not what God intended. We're different, we're we're struggling, we're things are darker than it's supposed to be. It's just not the way God intended for us to live. But today, with salvation, with baptism, what I need someone to understand today, Isaiah 118 says this though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. And this is what Jesus does to someone who completely surrenders to him. He comes into our life, and he turns things around, and he makes it the way it's supposed to be. And how many of you are thankful that one day, once and for all, he's gonna take care of sin? Amen. Somebody give him some praise today. Come on. And baptism is this moment where you say, that old life, that old version of me is gone. I've been washed by the blood of the Lamb. Come on, somebody, by the grace of God, I'm no longer that person. I was messed up, I had fallen short, I couldn't get it right, I had taken what God gave me and I dirtied it up. But because of what Jesus did, I am a new creation, I am a new person, I am forgiven, I am restored, I am washed clean, like that scripture says: white as snow. Church says white as snow. And our next point is this: you are a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5 17. This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone, a new life has begun. Thank you, Jesus. Not a new version of the old you, but a new creation. Not fixed what was broken, but transformed. Not patched, healed. God didn't clean up your past, He gave you a brand new identity. So when something or someone tries to bring up what you've done or who you used to be, you tell them. That because of Jesus, you are a new person. The old is gone, and the new has come. Buried with Christ. Old life dead. Raised with Christ, new life, and new identity. When you go under the water, it's a funeral, and when you come out, it's a resurrection. The new life comes with a new purpose. God didn't just save you from something. Catch this, He saved you for something. We have a job to do as Christians, as followers. Luke 15, 4 through 7. So Jesus told them this story. If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won't he leave the 99 and go after the one? Go search for the one until that one is lost, though that is lost until he finds it. Verse 5, when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep. In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over 99 others who were righteous and have strayed away. Trying to get through this quickly, hang with me. Listen to what God is saying. The same Jesus that came for you and came after you is now sending you. So are you looking for the one? Are you only worried about yourself? Or are you worried about the one? Jesus talks about the shepherd leaving the flock to go find the one. Once again, we're looking at movement, action. We are called to go. I want you to take this question to heart today. It's not to offend anyone, it's not to upset someone, but it is to prick at your heart and to tug at your heart. If we don't go, who will? Growing up. I heard it said so many times in church. Well, I'm just praying that God sends the right person to my loved one or my friend who's lost. Church, can I be honest with you? God sent you. Yeah, he can use others. But he can use you. If we don't go, who will? This was so important to Jesus. It was one of the last things he told his disciples to go into all the world and find the lost, reach them, teach them, love on them, show them Christ, baptize them. This leads us to our fourth point. And that's there's no gatekeeping with the gospel. You might say, well, I don't really understand what that means. Gatekeeping is a new phrase in today's culture. You could say the kids say it, but it's older than that, you know, people say it, but it's describing someone who is trying to control access to someone or to something. If you have a farm and you have cattle, you put up a gate to close that gate to keep them in and keep others out. There's no gatekeeping with the gospel. Well, I don't want my church to grow any more than it already has, because then it's going to be different and it's not going to be the way I like it. But how does God like it? Sometimes God is calling us out of our comfort zone so that He can do something bigger. I want you to think about this gatekeeping thing for a minute. I don't know if any of you had moms who could bake, but I had a mom who could bake. And she would make some killer cupcakes. And I would always hope that she'd ask me to taste test them. And you could see I probably did a couple times. But listen, I would always try this old school thing. My brother, my sisters, or my dad would come up and say, Hey, those cupcakes any good? And I'd say, nope. Because I was hoping to keep them for myself and eat more for me. Listen, I'm gonna get serious again with somebody. I love to laugh, but sometimes the gospel hits us hard. Imagine if the disciples kept the gospel to themselves. We love Jesus, and we don't want the rest of the world to know him. This gospel's for us, not for everyone else. What if they did that? There would be no church today. There would be no gospel reaching people across the world. No you or me in this room today. Most of the world wouldn't have morals or no good and evil, light and darkness. Think about it from the Ten Commandments to love thy neighbor and the good Samaritan. Most of the good in the world, most of how we decide what's justice and injustice is because of the spread of the gospel and the word of God. We can't keep this to ourselves. The gospel needs to be shared. And this is where it comes all together as the worship team comes up and just begins to play something softly. Maybe you're here today and your life looks like that colored water, stained and messy and overwhelmed. I need you to hear me today. Jesus can wipe away your sin. He can make you whole. Just call on him. Just ask him to be your Lord and Savior. Some of you are saved, but you've never taken that next step of baptism. Maybe God is talking to you this morning and this is your time. Maybe you need to make a decision to be spontaneously baptized today. That's okay. We'll do it. If Jesus went public for us on the cross, why would we stay private about him? I say it all the time. If he died for you, the least you can do is live for him. Today isn't just another Sunday. Today is a celebration of new life. We've got all these people who are going to be getting baptized. And they're saying and declaring today, the old me is gone and the new me is here. I want you to listen to me. I know a few people are moving around, that's because they're starting to get ready for baptism, but I want you to listen to me and try to focus for a few minutes. Jesus didn't come to make bad people good, but he came to make dead people alive. So what happens next? Want to go back over these points with you real quick. Jesus gave us a mission. Baptism is obedience. Point three, you are a new creation. He didn't just rise so you could be saved, he rose so you could be sent. It's our responsibility. That's what happens after the resurrection. Our responsibility is to go. So I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes, and if we can keep the moving around to a minimal, because we are going to be praying and we are going to be asking people if they don't know Christ to accept him. So if we can kind of keep the moving around to a minimum and distractions to a minimum, I'd appreciate that. But as you bow your heads and close your eyes and begin to pray, I want you to hear this. He's calling us to go with his authority, he's calling us to preach his message, to call for repentance, to make disciples and do it all through the power of the Holy Spirit. So with every head bowed and every eye closed, I wonder if you're here today and God is speaking to your heart and He's saying, you know what? It's time for you to accept Jesus as your personal Savior. Maybe you're here and you've done it once before, but if you were to be honest, just between you and God today, you're far from Him. I'm just gonna make this one call out, and we're gonna pray and we're gonna get ready for baptisms, but with nobody looking around, no one judging anyone, everyone just praying and focusing on God. If you're here this morning and He's talking to you, He's speaking to your heart, and you say, Pastor Philip, I need to ask Jesus into my life. I need to ask him into my heart. I need to ask him to forgive me, be my Lord and Savior, to make me clean from my sin so that I can go to heaven. If that's you, nobody looking around. Would you slip up your hand and say, Pastor, that's me, I need Jesus today. Pastor, that's me, I need to ask him into my heart. Thank you for those hands. He sees you today. I want to give you just another moment. If that's you, just slip up your hand and say, That's me. Thank you for those hands. Here's what I'm gonna do, and I know sometimes for those of us who've been coming to church for a long time, this kind of just seems like something we go through the motions of, but I want to do it because I know people who are maybe scared or feel lonely or feel singled out. I don't want them to feel like that they should be embarrassed to say this prayer. And so I'm gonna say this prayer and I'm gonna ask for you to repeat it after me so we can pray this prayer with those who raise their hands. And can I just give you something exciting to know? Probably six or seven people raise their hands. I'm not telling you that for numbers or hype, I'm telling you that for your heart. Some of you want to doubt things when God starts to move, and I'm I'm just here to tell you, I'm not a professionally trained pastor. God is doing this 100%. I don't know what I'm doing. So don't doubt what God is doing and just trust. Let's say this prayer together. Can we do that? Jesus, I believe you died for me. I believe you rose again. Forgive me of my sin. Come into my life, fill me with your spirit. I choose faith over fear because you are risen. I don't have to be afraid. In Jesus' name, amen. Can we put our hands together for Jesus? Here's what we're gonna do. Any of our leaders, Pastor Jeremy, if you don't mind, our prayer partners come up here and line up across the front. They're gonna begin to sing something softly. And for the next two or three, four or five minutes, this is just gonna be an opportunity. If you need prayer for anything, you can come up here and and and these prayer partners will agree with you in prayer. You guys can spread out just a little bit across the stage. That way we have plenty of people covering all sections of the seating. Thank you so much. If you need prayer for anything this morning, come on up and let these people agree with you in prayer. Amen. They're gonna sing, they're gonna begin to worship, and I'm gonna go get ready to baptize some people. So let's just continue this atmosphere of worship. Don't get too excited. We've got a little ways left to go before we're done this morning. So let's just dwell in the presence of God, okay? Let's put our hands together one more time for Jesus. And if you need prayer, go ahead and begin to come forward.