Into The Deep, Week 5 - All The Way In

Tim Rivers | March 5, 2023

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We've already had 50 people plus go down in the waters of baptism. Somebody ought to be going crazy right now.

My goodness. Y'all see, I done got the handheld out. That means I mean business. I've been so excited all week. Looking forward to this day, we've literally baptized dozens of people. We have dozens more to baptize, and I'm telling you, this is such a phenomenal day because there's something about people making the decision to go public with their faith. And you may be here and you're watching these people get baptized and you're like, man, I didn't sign up, or whatever the case may be. We got you fam. If you want to get baptized, we got the shorts and t-shirts not even been used.

Not recycled brand. Spanking new. We got the towels. The water is warm, I think <laugh>, it's probably warm by now. So if you are on the edge of trying to decide whether or not to get baptized by the time I get through with this message, hopefully you going to be convinced it's time to get baptized. But I'm telling you today is the day. Don't delay. Get baptized today.

I'm not a rapper, but I'm just saying I rhyme every now and then. All right, if you have your Bibles let's go to Exodus 14, the book of Exodus chapter 14. Today we're actually concluding our series into the Deep, and I can't think of a better way to conclude a series called Into the Deep Then by celebrating baptisms. And as we're in this series, one of the things that is very important for us as a church is not just to preach the word to you, but also to equip you to go practice what has been preached. And so as we've gone through this series into the Deep, I've been praying, God, what can we give or how can we equipped our people so that they can implement what has been taught over the last few weeks? What resources can we give them so that they can go into the deep?

And the Lord was like Hey, didn't you write a devotional like a year and a half ago? And I was like, yes. And he was like, bet that's how me and God talk. So I said, okay, I see what you're doing there. So I wrote probably like a year and a half ago, and I wrote a devotional because I kept having people ask me, how can I get into a habit of spending time with the Lord, reading the Bible, prayers, things like that. And I always was struggling with finding resources to give to people. And so the Lord just laid on my heart, Hey, why don't you just write it and give it to the person that asks? So I wrote a devotional, and it is actually called Habits.

So if you add wondering what this book is about, it is about habits. And it's a 14 day devotional and it has everything that you need in. It has scripture, it has a thought for the day, it has a note section, it has question props, it has a prayer and everything like that. And so the Lord said, Hey pass those out on the conclusion of this series to help people's take that step into going into the deep. So if you hear today, you get a free copy as you're on your way out, if you already got a copy, just wave it real quick, make other people jealous. You can use it as a fan today. You know what I'm saying? Just you better preach preacher. But this is a resource that we want to put in your hand so that you can practice going into the deep.

Now, it's one per person. Don't be grabbing stacks for Auntie and I. I'm grabbing one for my husband. Tell your husband to get here and get his own book. It's a good evangelism tool too. <laugh>, invite him. Hey, hey, I got a book for you, but you got to come to church with me. And here's the only thing that I ask from you. If you grab a book is this, use it, start tomorrow and get into it and watch God work. Amen. Amen. All right. Exodus 14, reading from verse number 26. Exodus chapter 14, verse number 26. Here's what the Bible says. Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea that the water may come back upon the Egyptians upon their chariots and upon their horsemen. So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the mourning appeared, and as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.

The waters returned and cover the chariots and the horsemen, all of the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained, somebody say not one, not one, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on the right hand and on the left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and they believed in the Lord end on his servant. Moses, we're going to one more passage, Luke chapter five. If you've been with us through this series, we've been parked in Luke chapter five, this entire series. So we're going to conclude today by reading the last verse of this story. So Luke chapter five, verse number 11. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left some of it just the stuff that they did not want. How might be help me preach. And they left everything and followed him. So today for the next few minutes, I want to preach on this topic all the way in. All the way in.

I'm not going to take too long because we have a lot of people still to be baptized. So I'm saying this to say it's not going to take me long to get into preacher mode. I just need about two or three people that came here ready to have some church. Oh, come on. Where you at? Where you at? Where my, where's my Amen. Corner? Oh Lord. But look at my mom up here. Yeah, y'all mess with me. She been preaching with me for 20 plus years. When I was six years old, she'd be like, preach,

Don't mess with me. Now mom, mom's here. I'll walk different. Look at me. I'm walking different. Let's pray. Heaven, we Father, we thank you so much for allowing us to be here in your house. I pray that you would give us ears to hear a heart, to receive a mind, to understand what the Spirit would say to us. Do what only you can do. Move is only you can move. We thank you for all those that have already made a decision to go down in the waters of baptism. I pray that they would a walk in the newness of life that you will be done here today in Jesus' name. And everybody say amen. One more time. Give Jesus some praise. When I think of the goodness of Jesus and all that he's done for me, my soul cries out.

He's done so much for me. I cannot tell it all. I cannot tell it all. I cannot tell it all. Oh Lord, I may be young, but I got high miles. Y'all all right. All right, let me get to this word. So when we talk about the Bible, the corpus of scripture, the Bible, it is comprised of 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament, written over 1500 years by 40 different scribes. Now, some people call 'em authors, but we know that God is the one who authored scripture and there were 40 different individuals who wrote down as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit. Now, I would say that most preaching in the modern church today is really drawn from the New Testament. And there's a lot of conversation around why some believe that the New Testament is more relevant to us or it's more relatable to us.

But I would say that the scripture is very clear in second Timothy chapter three, verse 16, that all scripture is breezed out or inspired by God. And so it's incumbent upon us as believers to make sure we have an affinity for the whole of scripture, especially when it comes to baptism. Because some people would argue that baptism is a New Testament concept. However, I would beg to differ because the Old Testament oftentimes gives us types and shadows that is revealed in the New Testament and types and shadows in the theological realm are called topography. So what you find in the New Testament often is the unveiling or the clarification of things that were alluded to in the Old Testament. And this is no different when we talk about baptism because Paul tells us in one Corinthians chapter 10, verse one through two, he says, for I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses and in the cloud and in the sea, that word baptized means to be immersed in water.

So Paul tells us in First Corinthians chapter 10 that the picture that we see when Israel crossed the Red Sea is a type and shadow. It's a topography of water baptism, which is clarified in the New Testament. Are you following me? Yes. So in order to really understand the correlation between the two, it's important to go see why crossing the Red Sea is so significant in painting a picture of water baptism. Because when we get to the Red Sea, the children of Israel had been slaves to the Egyptians for hundreds of years. For hundreds of years they were subjected to being slaves and servants under the rule, the dictatorship of the Egyptians. They built their houses, they worked in their fields, they carved out their gods, they erected their temples. And for hundreds of years, the children of Israel had been praying and asking God to deliver them.

And then finally God says, alright, it's time. How many know that God gets fed up? God got fed up and he calls a man by the name of Moses through a burning bush, and he says, Moses, I need you to go into Ferrell's throne room and I need you to tell him that it is time to let my people go. So Moses does as he was instructed, and he goes into the throne room of Pharaoh and he says, Pharaoh, I've got news for you. God said, it is time to let his people go. And Pharaoh was having none of it. So Pharaoh says, who is this God that commands you to come in here and demand that I let my servants and my slaves go? And Moses predicted that this would be a question. So before he ever got there, he got an answer from God about what he would say if he was challenged on what God said. And God simply told Moses that if this joker has the nerve to ask who it is, all you do is tell him I am sent you.

Yes. How bad do you have to be? Yeah, that the only answer you need to tell the enemy is, I am. Who do you think you are? I am. I am he. That was he that is. And he that is to come. I am the great one. I am the great physician. I am the king of kings. I am the Lord of Lords. I'm Jehovah Gyra. I am, I am, I am. I am. So Pharaoh in his arrogance and in his pride, didn't believe that the I am had enough power to challenge him. So Pharaoh says, I ain't letting nobody go. So Moses said, all right, your bad. And then God says, you know what? I'm going to deliver my people, but before I do, I'm going to do something to the Egyptians to prove to them that the I am is the great I am.

So he begins to send all the plagues, nine plagues. He begins to send them the water turning into blood, frogs, lice, all types of things happen. And when you look at all of the plagues that came upon Egypt, none of the plagues, at least nine of the 10, required absolutely nothing from the children of Israel except for them just to stand back and watch God move until they get to the last plague. And God says, for this last plague, I'm going to send the death angel into the camp and I'm going to kill the firstborn of all beasts. And man, except I've also provided a way of escape, I've provided a provision within this plague that if you will kill a spotless and a lamb that has no blemish, and you will apply that blood to your doorpost, when the enemy comes in to steal, kill, and destroy, as soon as he sees the blood, he's going to have to pass over. God said, there's a death angel coming and he's going to be destroying and he's going to be killing. But the one who has applied the blood will be passed over. Anybody thankful for the blood?

I don't think there's enough preaching been done on the efficacy of the blood. Don't that if it wasn't for the blood, I wouldn't be standing here today. If it wasn't for the blood, I wouldn't be preaching to you today. Some of y'all know you should have been taken out, but the blood,

Oh, I feel like preaching. So God says the death angel is coming in, he's going to destroy. Let, let's read it. Let's read it. In Exodus chapter 12, verse number 13. He says, the blood shall be assigned for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you and no plague will be follow you to destroy you. When I strike the land of Egypt, this day shall be to you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations as a statute forever. You shall keep it as a feast. God said that they're going to be some of your neighbors. They ain't going to make it because they didn't apply the blood. There're going to be some people around you. They're going to be waking up mourning the fact that they lost their next generation, that they lost their legacy.

But because you applied the blood, the death angel has to pass over. Some of y'all ought to be testifying right now that you should be dead sleeping in your grave, but you applied the blood. Yeah, the addiction that was supposed to take you out couldn't take you out because you applied the blood. That horrible instance that happened in your life should have put you in a mental institution, but it couldn't. Wow. Because it saw the blood, the destruction got your grandfather and maybe it got your father, but when it got to you, my friend, it sawed the blood and it had to pass over. Somebody say Passover. Passover. The Egyptians even today have a celebration where they eat and they celebrate and they drink wine and they dance around. Why? Because they remember the day when the death angel had to pass over them. Can I get a witness from somebody that remembers what your life was like before you applied the blood, but since you applied the blood, no devil in hell can stop the work of God from being accomplished in your life. Whatever the enemy meant to destroy you can't destroy you. Why? Because you applied the blood. Oh, precious is that flow that makes me wide ass snow. No other foul. I know nothing but the of Jesus. Somebody give God praise for the blood, the blood IOC could park right there and just talk about the blood. Because if it wasn't for the blood, we wouldn't be here.

So this is what brings us to the Red Sea because when we get to the Red Sea, Israel has been delivered by God with a high and mighty hand. Now, now here's interesting. After the incident of the death angel passing through, Pharaoh had had enough, and he said, you take these people and you get 'em out of here. In fact, the scripture says in haste, get them out. How many know that it don't take God long?

It don't take God 12 weeks? Let me think about it. No, no. When he delivers you, he delivers you. It may say it may take some time for you to realize that, but the blood works instantly. So they get delivered out of Egypt and now they're at the Red Sea. Now, one thing I want you to understand is when they got to the Red Sea, they had already been delivered. They were as free, as free as they could get by the time they got to the edge of the river and of the Red Sea, and they were getting ready to go into the Promised Land. But before they get into the desert to go to the Promised Land, the enemy starts coming behind them to try to retake them and draw them back into slavery. Some of y'all are like, I've been fighting devils. Of course, you know why? Because you've been set free. The devil don't mess with people that are bound up. The devil don't mess with people that he has under his own domain. The devil doesn't fight people that are his people. He only fights people that are on their way to the promised land. The reason why you've been fighting discouragement is because the devil don't want you to get where God has for you. Just because you are saved don't mean that you don't fight devils. In fact, because you are saved you fight.

So they're at the Red Sea. Anybody's coming behind them trying to draw them back, and they look at Moses, they say, Moses, have you brought us out in the wilderness to die? How we going to get to the promised land? And Moses said, don't you worry. He said, in fact, today you will see the salvation of your God. In fact, look back at your enemy because the enemy that you see, you will see them again no more. This is prior to him dividing the Red Sea. He tells them that your faith has got to be on the next level. You've got to understand that what God has already done for you, he's already done for you. You've just got to mentally accept what God has worked in your life. So in there and get to the Red Sea, Moses says, Hey God, what do I do about getting our people who are freed from slavery, who plundered the Egyptians even though they didn't have any weapons?

I can stop and preach right there because can I tell you that when God sets you free, he's not just setting you free with nothing, but he gives you everything that the devil thought he stole from you. He'll give you a joy back. He'll give you peace back. He'll give you deliverance back. He'll give you hope back. Everything that the devil thought he stole, you will plunder the enemy when he delivers you. So you get the red seed and God says to Moses, I want you to stretch out your rod and I'm going to divide the seed so he doesn't, and there becomes a great highway for the Israelites to walk in. There's a lot of debate on how many Israelites were there. Some people say that there were 2 million. Some people say 30,000. It doesn't matter exactly how many. What does matter is there was a bunch of them and they're walking across on dry ground. When they get to the other side, the whole time that they're walking, the scripture says that there is a cloud. The chacan of glory is blocking the enemy from coming any closer to them. God says, listen, I'm going to give you time to get to the other side. I know the enemy's after you, but they can't touch you. I know he's coming for you, but he can't get to you. I'll clog up the chariots. So to get to the other side. And when they get to the other side, then God says, all right, I'm going to deliver. I'm going to set the cloud back so that the Egyptians can follow them. And when the cloud disappears, the Egyptians are like, yes, we about to go get our servants back. We about to go get our slaves back, and they run into the midst of the sea. When they get to the midst of the sea, God says, haha. Gotcha. And he releases the water and it destroys all. The Bible says, all of the enemies that were after the children, oh man, I want to stop here and preach so bad and tell you that when God gets ready to destroy everything that's held, that's that's grasp on you, he will destroy all of it. He'll break it to peace. He won't just afflict it, he'll kill it, he'll destroy it. Every generational curse that you thought was alive in the past when it got to you because you applied the blood, when God got through with it, he demolished it. Your kids don't have to walk in the same type of fear and intimidation that you had to because it's been destroyed.

So they look back and Moses says, all right, now that we've gotten through and we're on our way to the promised land, I need y'all to stop real quick. Why? Because I want you to look back and I want you to see that every enemy that was coming after you, every single soldier that whipped your back, every single person that made you carry bricks, every person that made you mix mortar, all the enemies that were on you for 200 plus years, some say 430 years, you will see them again no more. Why? Because I have wiped them out through the sea. And now that you're here and you see all of this, I need you to give me a praise break for all that I wish somebody would give God a praise break for what God's done in your life. Some of you need to think back over where you should be. If it had not been for Jesus, where would I be? I'd still be locked up, chained up by the grip of sin. But Jesus made way where there seemed to be no way. So God says, I need you to give me a praise break. But while are you praising, I also need you to watch and see me do what I do. See, I already delivered you, but I needed to give you a physical representation. I needed to give you a public manifestation of the freedom that I gave you and that public manifestation, that public display of my grace and my favor on your life is displayed through the waters of baptism and just…

Lord, oh, I want to preach so bad right here, but I got to stop and give you the correlation because just like Israel, some of us were tied up, tangled up and bought into all types of sinful behavior. We were caught up by the master of this world. He was besetting us. He was afflicting us. But God said, now it's time to get rid of the master that's been on you. So God provided a way of escape for us by sending his only son who became a servant and lived among us, and he paid his life on the crosser. He was buried, but he rose again. And when he rose again, he said, if you can apply my blood spotless blemishless blood on your life than whatever the enemy had in mind for you, by the time he gets to you, he'll have to pass over. That's what salvation is. Salvation is when you repent of your sins and you say, God applaud the blood. Go ahead and smear it all over me because when the enemy comes in, when he sees the blood applied to your life, he can try to intimidate you, but he can't take you out. He can try to get on your nerves, but he has no authority in your life. Somebody ought to give God praise

For the blood of Jesus. So the correlation between what Israel experiencing and what we're experiencing today as just like the Red Sea was a physical representation of the deliverance that God showed Israel. The waters of baptism are a physical representation of God's grace and mercy in your life. This water is not magic. If it was magic, we'd bottle it up and sell it to you for $10 an ounce

But this water is not magic. The person baptizing doesn't have an incantation that he's putting on you when you go down, but the waters of baptism is my way of telling you that I'm all the way in with Jesus. I'm all the way sold out to Jesus. When I get baptized, all I do is I come up out of the water and I look back at all the enemy tried to do in my life and I tell everybody, I made it through that God that was with me yesterday is the God that's with me today and he'll take me all the way into the promised land. That's why baptism is so important, because baptism is literally a public confession of what God's done in your life.

You're like, why are you Preaching so hard on baptism? Because I'm telling you, it is more than just something that we do.

It's more than just something that we didn't have anything else to do the Sunday. So we decided to set up a water tank and have people uncomfortably walk up these steep stairs. It's like climbing Mount Everest, get into water that they don't know if it's hot or cold and get baptized in front of everybody. We didn't just do that because we had nothing else to do. We do it because we know that this is a place that God has decided is the place where you make a public confession of an inward faith. So y'all like, well, why should I get baptized? Somebody say that. Why should I get baptized? I'm glad you asked

Because the first reason you should get baptized is number one, Jesus did.

Jesus got baptized. Let's go to Matthew chapter three, verse number 16. Here's the thing, as a Christian, you ought to be a follower of which means that everything that Jesus does, we should. Matthew chapter three, verse number 16, and when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went out from the water and behold the heavens were open to him and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. The reason why Jesus got baptized was it because he needed to have remission of sins. Jesus didn't get baptized because he needed to get some stuff dealt with in his life that were sinful. The reason why Jesus got baptized is he publicly displayed to everybody that he is who he said he was. When you get baptized, it's a public declaration that you are who you say you are and you are who God says you are, are blood bought, you are paid for it, you are released.

You have freedom, you've got purpose, you've got hope. And when you go down in the waters of baptism, when you come up, it is if it is as if the heavens of God are opened up and the voice of God speaks and says, behold, this is my beloved son or daughter and whom I am well pleased. When Jesus went down in the wars of baptism and came up, there was no denying that he was the beloved of the Father. Anyone who doubted who Jesus was, they had to relinquish all of their thoughts at the fact that God confirmed who he was through the waters of baptism. Number one, you got to get baptized because Jesus did. We say, well, I need another reason. I got you fam. Jesus commanded it. Anybody remember the great commission? Matthew 28, verse number 19. So this is the last words.

These are the last words that Jesus spoke to his disciples before he ascended into heaven. What's important? If you are going to have your last speech before you go, it's probably going to be the most important speech, right? So Jesus says, before I leave y'all, I got one more instruction for y'all. He says, go. Therefore, the word therefore means what? Go back and see what it's there for and therefore, in the previous verse, Jesus said, all power in heaven and earth is given unto me, and because I have all power, go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Check this out, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit here. Any English majors in here? Oh, okay, we got one over here. I think I'm right on this, but in this verse, we have a parable, right?

And we have an imperative. The imperative is to make disciples, the parables, the things that we need to do to accomplish the imperative, right? The imperative to make disciples. The parables are to teach and to baptize. In other words, if you want to be a devout disciple of Jesus Christ, there are two things that you need in your life. Good sound doctrine and teaching and water baptism. Oh, y'all want some more word? Okay, I got you. Jesus did it. He commanded it. Here's the third thing, the apostles affirmed it. Why is this important? Because the apostles were right there when Jesus gave them the command. So you would have to infer that whatever the apostles did after hearing Jesus was the right thing to do. So when we get to Acts chapter two and the Holy Spirit is poured out and Peter gets up and he begins to preach the gospel, the death barrel and resurrection of Christ and our participation in it, when those that heard the gospel were pricked in their hearts, the scripture says that they looked at Peter and the other disciples and they said, men and brethren, what shall we do?

In other words, how do I respond to the fact of the gospel? How do I respond to this message that Jesus, he came, he died, he was buried and he resurrected, and now I can participate in that. The church tells in Acts chapter two, verse 38. Then Peter said unto them, repent and be every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he didn't say some of y'all, he didn't say, you get baptized if you are young to get baptized. If you feel like it, he says, repent and be baptized. Every one of you. Who is he talking to? Everyone in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Holy Spirit, for some of y'all charismatics Acts chapter two verse number 41 says, so those who received his word were baptized and were added that day about 3000 souls Acts chapter eight, verse number 12 says it like this, but when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women.

Acts chapter eight, verse number 38 says it like this, and he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he was baptized. He baptized him. Can you see over and over that Jesus was baptized? He commanded us to be baptized. The apostles affirmed that we should be baptized. That word baptism literally means to be immersed in water, but it's also the picture of being buried, literally buried in the ground. Have you ever seen someone get buried? You know what happens when you get buried? You go all the way into the dirt, six foot under and the dirt covers you completely. That's why we do complete immersion here because the word baptism means to be immersed, to go under, to go all the way in and come all the way up. Why am I preaching this?

Because I'm telling you that if you have professed faith in Jesus Christ and the blood has been applied to your life and you haven't been baptized, today is the day for you to go down and the waters of baptism and make your declaration public that you are all the way in with Jesus. That's why I read, read Luke chapter five, verse number 11 because it's not enough to just go into the deep with Jesus, but when they got back, they said, I'm leaving everything behind. I'm not leaving anything on the table. I'm going all the way in with Jesus. You've heard the saying that you won't find a U-haul following a hearst because when you get buried, you leave everything behind and you go get buried. Baptism is a public confession of an inward reality. Baptism is when you confess your faith in your commitment to Jesus Christ. Let me get a little more practical. My wife and I were dating, courting, and when I knew, okay, this is the one I want to get married to, I proposed to her and she said, Ben, we cried. We laughed. Then we talked about a wedding day. Then we set the wedding day, December 8th, 2012. I was nervous in the earlier service about the date, but I got it right

A couple days before we were to be married in front of around 300 people and have a beautiful ceremony. I had my tuxedo. She had a phenomenal wedding gown. We went to the courthouse and we got a marriage license, and according to the law, when we signed that marriage license, we could have gone anywhere as a married couple because when we signed on the dotted line, it made us legally married, but we didn't just want to be legally married. We wanted to tell everybody else that we are married. So we set up a wedding and spent lots of money and it was a beautiful wedding. She came walking down the aisle. I cried profusely. She laughed. As I cried,

We get down to the altar. The pastor says his thing, and I can't even remember what all he said, but one of the last pieces that he did, he says, I want you to take the rings and with this ring, I want you to give it to each other as a symbol and a sign of your marriage so that wherever you go from this time forth, everybody knows that you are in a covenant relationship with your wife. This ring didn't make me get this ring, didn't marry me. The license marry me, but this ring is a public declaration that I am a married man, that I'm all in with my wife. When you get baptized, it is you putting the ring on the marriage that you just made with Jesus Christ. When you get baptized, you're saying, he is my king. Here's my Lord. Here is my savior. Here's my El should die. Here's my Jehovah Gyra. He's my prince of peace. I won't deny him. I won't settle for anything less. I won't be a closet Christian. I won't set my faith aside depending on whom I'm with. I go out in the waters of baptism to declare my everlasting love to Jesus.

So who should get baptized?

Everybody.

Everybody. If you professed your faith in Jesus Christ and you're in a covenant relationship with him, it's time to get baptized. If you hadn't been baptized, because baptiz is the wedding ceremony, it's the exchanging of the ring. It's the public display. It's you going public. There are too many closeted Christians out here, can I preach for just a second? There are too many people who are Christian, one minute and not Christian. The next go public. Change your status from, it's complicated.

Are you a Christian? Well, it's kind of complicated. Do you believe in Jesus? Well, it's kind of gray right now. No, it's black and white. Either you are, oh, you not, but if you are, get in this water today. We got everything you need. We got water. We got water, we got shorts, we got T-shirts, we got towels. We just need you to get in this water and go public with your faith, and when you do, we are going to raise the roof in this place and rejoice that you made the decision to go public with your relationship with Jesus.

There's some of y'all right now. We had almost 30 people. They didn't, didn't pre-register in the previous service that said it's time, and I think there's a bunch more here today.

It's time. So you may say, well, I got baptized as an infant. Should I get baptized again? Yes. Here's why. Because baptism is a personal decision. It's a decision that you have to make by your own conscience. Your parents meant well, and I really mean that. And we have something here at Embassy City we call baby dedication, and essentially that is what infant baptism is. It's a dedication, right? But baptism, after you have come into covenant relationship with Jesus has to be a matter of yourself making the decision in good conscience to go public with your faith. So if you haven't been baptized, don't let this moment pass you by. If you have been baptized but you don't feel like your life ever changed, you don't know what your relationship with Jesus really was, let's shore that up and then get baptized because baptism is a public display of what God's done in your life when you committed to him. So here's what we're going to doom. We're going to pray and those that are not or maybe unsure about the relationship with Jesus, we're going to pray in just a moment and we're going to shore that up, and then as soon as that happens, we are going to provide an opportunity for those who are in this place that that want to get baptized, for you to get baptized. Here's what I'm telling you right now. We will be here all day if we need to and baptize people, whoever wants like the disciple, the apostle said, here's water, what death hinder

To be baptized, so all heads bow, all ass closed. If you're in this place and you say, man, I hear you, but I'm a little unsure about my relationship with Jesus. If Jesus were to come right now, if there's any percentage of doubt that you would be with him in his heaven, then this is the moment to shore that up, and I don't say that to scare you or to worry you and to make it a decision. I say that to build your faith and confidence that he who has begun a good work in you will perform it, and it's a very simple prayer. It's just a prayer of the repentance and commitment. If you're in this place and you're ready to take that step, I want you to pray with me. Say, dear Jesus, I acknowledge my need for you. I believe that you came to earth, that you gave your life on the cross, That You were buried and that you rose again, say this with me, friend. You did it all for me, so now forgive me of my sins, past, present, and future. Jesus, come into my heart and be the Lord of my life. I commit myself to you from this time forward and forevermore. Make me a disciple, says, thank you, Jesus for hearing my prayer, and it's in your name that I pray. Jesus name, amen. Now somebody makes some crazy noise right now.