back to index2018 December Baptism
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Now, for baptism, we don't have a huge banquet, we don't have coordinators, we don't have 00:00:08.680 |
flowers and things like that, but this is on a scale of most grandiose importance, amen? 00:00:16.480 |
Because spiritually, it reflects such an important truth in our lives, that the people being 00:00:21.440 |
baptized today are expressing and recognizing their faith. 00:00:26.800 |
That initially by faith, they heard and accepted and believed the truth that they are in absolute 00:00:33.280 |
need, that they are by definition sinners and destined for wrath. 00:00:38.720 |
And upon that, they also believe that their only way of rescue, their only way of salvation 00:00:47.440 |
And they're going to express today that they have placed such trust on our Lord and Savior 00:00:54.120 |
And therefore, this baptism ceremony is reflective and iconic of the grand salvation that has 00:01:02.640 |
Now, as we think about this salvation, this salvation that we have, the scripture uses 00:01:08.680 |
so many different categories, definition, and emphasis. 00:01:14.280 |
For example, please take a moment to listen to these various terms. 00:01:19.040 |
And I'm going to do a this side versus that side, a comparison, because this is the way 00:01:27.000 |
You go from a state of completely being lost to now being found as we just sung. 00:01:33.720 |
You go from a state of being absolutely blind in darkness to having light shine upon you 00:01:42.260 |
You go from a position where you are unrighteous, evil, sinful, and guilty to a position of 00:01:51.680 |
You go from worthless to redeemed, having eternal value in Christ. 00:01:56.300 |
You go from being abandoned as an orphan to being a child of God. 00:02:00.600 |
You go from being bound as a slave to sin to freedom in Christ. 00:02:05.200 |
You go from absolute deadness to new life in the Savior. 00:02:12.840 |
Now, these are just some of the vast array of categories and definitions of what salvation 00:02:21.460 |
So when we say that this ceremony depicts and pictures for us salvation, we're saying 00:02:31.720 |
Now as I mentioned to you those things, I would like to focus your attention. 00:02:38.980 |
As we take a moment to think about what salvation is, what are we being saved from, I would 00:02:48.200 |
And the truth is this, whether you are a Christian or not, the feeling of being lost is there, 00:02:57.360 |
Many people, especially in our day, have a sense of feeling of being lost, a sense of 00:03:02.840 |
a personal identity, purpose, meaning, value. 00:03:08.440 |
These are things that people search for even if they are not Christian, religious, or affiliated 00:03:17.600 |
But what's more, the other categories that I presented to you about blindness, and then 00:03:23.600 |
moral depravity, unrighteousness, wickedness in the heart, guilt, and shame, I actually 00:03:30.280 |
believe these are also things that people experience. 00:03:34.080 |
What's more, people across the board, if we took a survey and asked, "Have you ever felt 00:03:40.240 |
abandoned, distant, unconnected relationally?" 00:03:44.280 |
I have a feeling and sentiment that many people would feel that as well. 00:03:48.960 |
If we ask people, "Do you feel sometimes bound, like you don't have the power to do what you 00:03:54.360 |
would like, that you don't have the restraint to stop yourself from doing the things you 00:03:58.520 |
hate, doing the things you know are self-destructive and not good for you?" 00:04:02.640 |
You talk to individuals who have addictions, you have talked to individuals who have patterns 00:04:07.120 |
and habits of life that they cannot escape from. 00:04:14.200 |
I'm pretty sure they'll say, "I've had those feelings many times." 00:04:22.240 |
We are in America, the most privileged and vastly wealthy, I guess you can even say not 00:04:29.560 |
just in current time, but across history, we're one of the most privileged nations across 00:04:37.240 |
And yet, when you take a look at the statistic of people who feel dead and who feel the temptation 00:04:44.200 |
to even take their own life, I mean, it's shocking and frightening. 00:04:49.400 |
Now I'm talking a lot about feelings right now. 00:04:53.320 |
Feelings of this one side I depicted for you. 00:04:56.720 |
The feelings of the stuff that we want to be saved from. 00:05:00.720 |
And what I'm saying, it is almost a universal experience. 00:05:08.640 |
And then, we ask the question, "So of those things, what's the worst?" 00:05:15.920 |
Of those things, what is our biggest problem? 00:05:19.520 |
I believe people who are trying to escape all these feelings of lostness, blindness, 00:05:24.520 |
guilt and shame, worthless, being abandoned, relationally isolated, being bound, enslaved 00:05:29.520 |
and feeling dead, what they don't recognize is that their greatest plight is not those 00:05:36.920 |
What they need rescue from, what they need deliverance, what they need salvation from 00:05:45.680 |
Because all those things are the fruit of God not being in your life. 00:05:53.800 |
Not having God is the scariest thing in life. 00:05:59.500 |
The most at-risk scenario and circumstance you can find yourself in is being apart and 00:06:12.880 |
Now, as I speak of this, for those of you who are joining us today and you are not Christian, 00:06:19.560 |
and perhaps you've heard elements of Christianity being taught, that people want you to stop 00:06:26.880 |
your habits of sin, you know, the standard stuff, smoking, drinking, partying, whatever 00:06:32.800 |
I am trying to make a different case for you today. 00:06:37.080 |
It is not that I want you to escape from the vices of normal human behavior. 00:06:42.080 |
It is that actually we want to make sure that you understand that what you need salvation 00:06:48.720 |
from is the kind of darkness where the light and life of God is non-existent. 00:06:56.960 |
This is what the individuals who are sharing today are going to speak about. 00:07:02.680 |
When they had their eyes open to see that the darkness in their life is not having a 00:07:07.400 |
moment of, "Oh my goodness, what am I doing?" 00:07:10.720 |
The darkness in their life is not just an absence of meaning. 00:07:13.800 |
The darkness in their life is when they realize God is far because they are far from the Lord. 00:07:21.680 |
You know what Scripture says in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 11 through 13? 00:07:25.680 |
It says this, "Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh who are called 00:07:30.400 |
uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision which is performed in the flesh by human hands," 00:07:35.480 |
remember this, here's the important part, "that you are at that time separated from 00:07:40.520 |
Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant of promise, 00:08:00.200 |
The contrast is in verse 13, it says, "But now in Christ Jesus you who were formerly 00:08:09.760 |
The greatest plight of mankind is your separation, your exclusion, and you being a stranger to 00:08:14.480 |
God Almighty and you having none, none of the promises, none of the goodness that I 00:08:20.240 |
talked about earlier, whether it be being found, having light, having holiness, redeem, 00:08:25.920 |
All those things are a fruit of God being in your life. 00:08:32.240 |
But the sad state of affairs is our biggest problem then is not having God. 00:08:38.160 |
And see, you realize then that earlier when I did this and I did this, although my arms 00:08:43.600 |
are this far, the spiritual reality is I cannot even picture for you with my arms how wide 00:08:53.840 |
I can't show you physically how far it is to be without God and to be with God. 00:09:02.880 |
Scripture goes at length and length to try to make you understand. 00:09:08.360 |
And if anybody in your life tried to make it smaller by telling you, "It's okay, all 00:09:14.720 |
It's okay, all you have to do is read some books. 00:09:16.460 |
It's okay, all you have to do is copy me," they're doing you a huge disfavor. 00:09:29.120 |
When we are separated from God, the chasm is enormous. 00:09:34.680 |
And the reason why I want to make this a case for you is because I find that there is an 00:09:43.440 |
Just as we share in the experience of the depravity of man, feeling, I'm going to go 00:09:48.120 |
down it again, feeling lost, feeling blind, feeling isolated, rejected, feeling sinful 00:09:53.320 |
and shameful, feeling like we're orphans, feeling like we're slaved, feeling like we're 00:09:57.160 |
dead, and feeling like we're going to be judged for it. 00:10:01.560 |
If we all share in that experience, you know what happens next? 00:10:05.600 |
We also share in a common practice trying to get out of it. 00:10:11.640 |
If we all share in the experience of this arena of depravity and darkness, then you're 00:10:18.720 |
going to find that we all also have a very similar pattern of trying to get out, trying 00:10:26.160 |
And what we find are people who are trying their best to say, "All I need to do is find 00:10:36.360 |
All I need to do is find some model that I can follow, find some kind of superstructure 00:10:50.640 |
And what's more, that is an absolutely pitiful state, a great tragedy, if you will, because 00:10:57.520 |
what that would amount to is an individual who is desperately in need, desperately hungry, 00:11:04.280 |
desperately malnourished, dehydrated, thirsty, but all they're doing is chewing on air. 00:11:13.560 |
To assess the problem in an incorrect fashion is like an individual going to the doctors, 00:11:19.880 |
and the doctor is starting to assess various symptoms. 00:11:29.960 |
Your eyes are horrible and your eyesight is gone. 00:11:32.480 |
Dear goodness, inside your liver are maggots. 00:11:40.880 |
To look at all these symptoms and realize there's decay, there's death, and then to 00:11:55.200 |
What good is it for a zombie to go into the hospital to get diagnosed for problems? 00:12:03.560 |
Well, oftentimes there is an error by which we misdiagnose how far that chasm is. 00:12:12.480 |
Our greatest plight, as my case to you today, is that we have no God. 00:12:17.800 |
To be apart from the Lord is to have no life, and therefore the zombie analogy is appropriate. 00:12:24.760 |
Scripture says in John 1, verses 1 through 4, that "In the beginning was the Word, and 00:12:33.080 |
All things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being that 00:12:39.520 |
Verse 4, "But in him was life, and the life was the light of men." 00:12:53.000 |
Now I say this because what God does for us is he enables us to see this plight. 00:13:01.160 |
And the reason why I bring this up is because I had the sweet opportunity to read all of 00:13:04.320 |
their testimonies, and you are going to see this pattern where God has opened their eyes 00:13:09.640 |
and given them the mercy to see, "I have this need." 00:13:27.920 |
They saw their depravity, they saw the darkness, and what they did was decided, "Well, then 00:13:35.220 |
What they did was they put forth more of their effort. 00:13:37.800 |
What they did is they tried to put a band-aid on that decay. 00:13:40.240 |
What they did is try to pick out the maggots. 00:13:41.840 |
What they did is try, try to follow at least someone else's example for righteousness in 00:13:46.640 |
their lives, only to realize, "I'm still chewing air." 00:13:52.360 |
So here is my encouragement and challenge to you as I conclude this sermon and give 00:14:00.280 |
If you realize you are in the kingdom of darkness, but there is a kingdom of light, you cannot 00:14:05.880 |
demand that this king come over here and make your kingdom better. 00:14:12.560 |
You cannot demand, "Let me still be king over this darkness," but can you make this kingdom 00:14:17.040 |
any better by adding to it a little bit more light, by adding to it a little bit more purpose, 00:14:31.640 |
He says, "Let this completely, completely be broken." 00:14:36.400 |
The individual who will come to Christ is going to say, "Lord, this kingdom is shot, 00:14:44.680 |
I will no longer be king over this dark, dark place. 00:14:48.080 |
I'm not going to try to enter your kingdom of light still as a king. 00:14:51.200 |
I'm going to lay this down and tell you, 'Lord, I cannot improve this. 00:15:00.160 |
And so the scripture says that when you put faith in Christ, you're going to then join 00:15:05.720 |
with him in his death, that your old man is completely done away. 00:15:12.000 |
And that flesh that so bounded us is going to be condemned by Christ. 00:15:16.240 |
Only so that what you're going to have is not simply improved, is not going to be simply 00:15:22.080 |
repaired, but you're going to have absolute perfect value, perfect identity, perfect meaning 00:15:28.000 |
because your life is found in the resurrected life of Christ. 00:15:35.480 |
You are not going from kind of bad to kind of good. 00:15:41.600 |
You're going to go from complete darkness to perfection in Christ. 00:15:46.960 |
And that is the hope that they have, and that's the hope that they're going to share. 00:15:50.240 |
Let's take a moment to pray and invite our first individual to come up and give their 00:15:55.680 |
Lord God, we want to thank you so much that in your grace and in your mercies, you give 00:16:09.440 |
You open our eyes and you convict our hearts. 00:16:14.640 |
And we recognize Lord that that is your love and grace to us. 00:16:18.560 |
Thank you so much Lord for the individuals here who are going to give their testimony. 00:16:22.080 |
God, what we see is just an overflow of your mercies upon them. 00:16:27.660 |
And I pray that with great gratitude in their heart, you will empower them to share of the 00:16:34.200 |
And for all of us here gathered, would you work in our heart that as we hear, we will 00:16:38.160 |
unite with them in faith, we will sympathize with them and be all the more edified and 00:16:46.840 |
So we have seven individuals who are going to be baptized today and they're going to 00:16:55.600 |
Hi, my name is Eunice and I attend UCI and I'll just start on my testimony. 00:16:56.600 |
When I was younger, I went to a Christian school and I wasn't the brightest kid, but 00:16:58.600 |
And I was a little bit scared of the church because I was a little bit scared of the church.