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February 8, 2024 · 25 min · Patria Sermons
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Adam Mesa is Lead Pastor of Patria Church and speaks to a congregation of 12,000 about how the gospel of Jesus Christ brings purpose to every life. Patria
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The Joy of Baptism 0:01 Welcome to the a l s c podcast. Here at a l s c, we seek the lost, teach the found, and send the disciples. We truly hope you are encouraged by this week's message.0:13 We're so honored that you guys would join us today, and be here today. And if it's your first time here at Abundant Living Family Church, that kind of stuff happens every Sunday. So No, I'm just kidding. It it0:25 rarely happens. But if it is your first time, and maybe you're here because, you've been invited by a friend, and you have a friend that's being baptized tonight, and so maybe they invited you to be here for their0:36 special day. And so, here's what I've known because we've done this sort of mass baptism, and I'm gonna ask pastor Diego come up here right now for a second, because I want I want him to we are talking, and, you know, he0:47 has a baptism story of his own life when he got baptized, but, you know, we've been doing baptisms the way that we're gonna do tonight for 7 years now, and so we're so privileged that what we call mass baptisms, there's0:59 a lot of different ways you could be baptized. You could be baptized in a pool with someone doing it with you, you could do it 1 on 1. There's so many different ways. What we like to do is we like to do a mass baptism1:11 because we believe as a community, God has done something incredible in your guys' life. And we want to celebrate that moment in a in a very celebratory way. There are other churches that are amazing, and they may do it1:22 a little bit more somber, and it may be a little bit more quiet, but because I believe that conversion of faith is something to make noise about. The book of Revelation says that when someone gives their life to Christ,1:34 all of Heaven rejoices. So if all of Heaven rejoices, why shouldn't we rejoice here on earth with our friends and families who make that decision, to follow1:46 Jesus? And we'll talk a few moments about what that baptism looks like. And so, over the years is, as we've done water baptisms for a lot of people that may come, to celebrate with someone. This may be the1:57 first time you've stepped in church in a really long time. And if you if someone you love wasn't being baptized, maybe you wouldn't have come to church in the first place. Whether you're watching online or in this room,2:07 I count out, that you came into church, some of you guys, for the first time. That really means a lot to us that you came here to celebrate someone, because we recognize for some people coming to church, ain't that you2:19 may have grown up with a different type of church, and for whatever reason, you maybe thought you'd never step in church again, but here you are tonight to celebrate somebody. So thank you so much for joining us, and,2:31 you know, we've been on Wednesday nights, we've been studying the book of Mark, which we, we won't stop tonight. We'll share again in something we read at the beginning of this month. We'll we'll share from the book of2:42 Mark as well. And also next week, we have a special day where we're gonna have what's called our mass wedding ceremony, where people are making, marriage commitments with someone that was their boyfriend or girlfriend,2:53 and now they wanna make a commitment before the Lord and get married together. And so we're doing that next week, and we're gonna look at the book of Mark next week as well. And so we'll invite you guys to that. But,3:02 before we jump into baptism, I'm gonna let pastor Diego share a little bit about his story of baptism, and then we'll share a little bit more from Mark chapter 1. So I'll give it to pastor Diego.3:10 Thanks thanks, pastor. Doesn't he look good? He's losing weight. He's looking thin, mean, lean. It's a new season that he looks really good. I don't know who's gonna be cuter now, him or or3:21 Ashley now. It's a real competition now. You know, I don't know what you were like when you were growing up, let's say seventh, eighth, and high high school. But3:33 there's always the in crowd kind of thing. And I don't know how they always come up with this, but you and I know what that's like because we wanna be part of those clubs. There was the good looking club, and there3:45 was the athletic club, and you know what? There was, the smart club, and there are all these groups and clubs that sometimes we felt like we wanna be a part of,3:57 but didn't fit in kind of thing, the rich club. You know, the kids that are popular club. And you I don't know if you're like me. You you felt awkward, you know, because you wanted to belong,4:10 but you just couldn't fit in sometimes. And here's what I know about the kingdom of God. It is a club, but everyone is invited to that club.4:22 And and the reality is is tonight, there are some people that are gonna join that club. It's an eternal club. And tonight, not only through4:34 have they already accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and savior, they're gonna function within that club by being obeying 1 of the commandments of God. As a minister, they're called a4:46 sacerdotal functions that an ordained minister should be able to do to hold to the commandments and the principles and the ordinations that God4:58 has. And 1 of those is water baptisms. You guys are about ready to join an exclusive club that has been around for 2000 years. And there's5:09 been multiplied billions of people that have done what you're about ready to do. And they're cheering you on tonight for this statement of faith to be bold,5:21 to obey the commandments of God, and do everything that God has asked you to do. You did step 1. You accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior. But now you're doing5:33 step 2 and that is to show your salvation with an outward expression that I am dead in Christ and now I am raised in Christ. My old man is crucified, but there's a new5:45 man that lives. I don't identify with that old person and his lifestyle, his behaviors, and his attitudes, and how he functions. I identify with this new lifestyle of being born again.5:57 And so now I can think differently and behave differently. So you're joining that club. You're joining a club, number 1, of millions of other believers6:09 that have declared their faith in God. Number 2, you're joining a club or a group that Jesus participated in. In that river Jordan, he said, John6:21 the Baptist, my cousin, I want you to baptize me. And so you're doing something that Jesus did. And that ought to be huge for you. That man, this isn't just something that6:33 the church is doing. This is something that Jesus did and I get to be a emulator of who Jesus is. And I identify in the richness6:46 of what happened that day when the father spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. God is speaking out of heaven and saying, this is my son and daughter in whom I'm well6:57 pleased. And you may have not done anything for God, but obeyed him by being here tonight. And having the Holy Spirit come upon you, and having the Holy Spirit7:09 indwell with you, will walk with you and live with you in your greatest triumphs and your greatest tragedies, and he'll never leave you or forsake you. And you have Jesus in your life who is your Lord and savior.7:21 You identify with something amazing. I got saved in 19 78, and, I didn't get water baptized, until 197:33 83, so 5 years later. And the reason why I didn't get water baptized is not because I didn't want to, it's because my church never gave me the opportunity7:44 to. And and I wasn't knowledgeable enough in the scriptures to know that this is something that I should be doing. I was trying to figure it out in my head. Why do I need7:56 to do it? I've already accepted the Lord. What what is so special or significant about it? But I'm I'm so grateful that you belong to a church that allows8:08 you to declare your faith in Jesus Christ by obeying the commandment of God to be water baptized. And in in 19 83, when I got water8:20 baptized, I did this I did it for not only the commandment of God that God asked me to do it. I did it by faith, but to believe that something was gonna happen that hadn't happened through my obedience to8:32 Christ. But I did it because I was about ready to marry my wife. And I wanted to be a great representative of in my marriage to8:44 lead my wife. And I felt like I couldn't lead my wife properly if I had not obeyed the commandment of God. And so I wanted to be whole in my faith so that I could have a whole8:56 marriage. And so that's what I did. I got water baptized and a few weeks later, I I would, take the holy matrimony and marry my wife. And so that's what I'm9:08 praying today is that there would be some kind of not only marriage with Christ that would be complete, but there would be a fulfillment of wholeness in your life. So wherever9:20 you're feeling empty, wherever you feel like you're incomplete, whenever you're feeling like lacking, I pray that this is now the seal of the wholeness and the completion. Just the way a product comes9:31 off a manufacturing line and they put a piece of plastic on it to seal it now, I pray that the Holy Spirit would come upon you and bring a wholeness to you. And I want you to9:43 recognize when I walked out of that out of that pool being water baptized, I just don't don't ask me to describe it. I just I just felt something. I experienced something.9:56 And, I I felt it was the power and presence of God. And so when you walk into this tank, just know this, you're walking in 1 way, but when you walk out, you're leaving10:08 differently. And I believe the same thing that Jesus experienced in being baptized is the same thing that you're gonna experience. That when you come10:20 out, you're gonna hear your your heavenly father tell you, this is my beloved son and daughter in whom I'm well pleased. And you're gonna feel the endowment of the Holy Spirit10:32 come upon you to do whatever God's called you to do, and you will never ever be the same. So I just wanna say, in a few minutes, I'll be on the other side of this giving you10:44 a high 5 saying welcome to this amazing club that you are about ready to enter. And I will challenge you now to go out10:56 And just the way after Jesus was water baptized, his ministry began. He did not begin his ministry until he was water baptized.11:08 I wonder what is waiting for you to get into that tank, that when you get out of that tank, now you're launched, now you're propelled, and now something begins in your life out of11:20 this act of obedience. God bless you. I I took too long. Thank you, Pastor Ed.11:26 Thank you. Hey, I want to read this verse for you that pastor referenced. It's found in Mark chapter 1, and, I'm gonna have it up on the screen. It's verses 9, and to 11. It says this in Mark 1 911:38 to 11. It says, in those days we got on the screen oh, there we go. In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan River by11:49 John. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove, and a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved12:01 son. With you, I am well pleased. You know, that's the beauty about what Christ is and what Jesus did for us is number 1, Jesus has led the way for us in every regard. And so what12:13 I appreciate, I don't know if you've ever followed someone's lead before and maybe they've asked you to do something. When I was a when I was a young child, I had, I have 1 of my best friends, Ryan, and over at our old12:25 church property there used to be this bush that was about 4 feet wide with a hill that was at the bottom of it. And all of us always wondered what it would be like to jump over that bush.12:37 And so 1 day, what he would become 1 of my best friends, Ryan, he walks up to us and he says, hey, what are you guys what are you guys up to? And we said, oh, we've been jumping over this bush. He said, oh, that's great.12:49 Mind you, we never we never jumped over the bush because we thought you couldn't survive a bush jump like that. We're, you know, we're 7, 8, 9 years old, and so, Ryan goes, can I try? And and and we13:01 say, yeah, you could try it. And and he runs, and he jumps over the bush, and we hear this loud smack, and we're all of a sudden we don't hear anything from him.13:13 So we all run up to the bush, and we could barely see over the bush ourselves at that age. Now I go over to our old church property, and I think the bush is maybe a foot or 2 feet high, but you know, at that age it just13:24 seems so big, and so we run up, we look over at the bush, and he jumps up and he's like, he's like, Yeah, I did it. And then we all start freaking out because we're like, Oh, he made it, he didn't die, he didn't,13:36 you know. And he starts putting 2 together, he said, What do you mean I didn't die? We said, we said, yeah, we none of us have ever jumped it before. We all were too scared.13:48 We didn't know if you'd get hurt or not or you break something. And he was like, what? You mean I was the first 1 to jump that? Something could have happened to me. So he starts freaking out. Lo and behold, we share a13:58 pack of Skittles, and we become best friends. He's still 1 of my friends to this day, and still comes to the church. And so, what I appreciate about Jesus is Jesus isn't leading us into something that he's never done14:10 before. And lead us will Jesus will never lead you to something that He hasn't let Himself into. The epistles say that Jesus sympathizes with us in all of our weaknesses, because He's14:21 experienced every earthly thing that you and I could ever experience. And so the beauty about Jesus, and that's the beauty for any of us sitting here today, or any watching online, God is never asking you to do14:33 something that He hasn't done Himself. And God is not asking you to experience something that his son Jesus have never experienced himself. And so the beauty about14:44 Jesus, entrusting Jesus with my whole heart, mind, and soul is that I trust that Jesus is completely leading the way in my life. And you want to know the beautiful thing about14:56 Jesus leading the way in our life? Is that when we commit and confess our lives to Jesus, and we radically give our lives to Christ, we can experience this relationship with the Father that we just read15:08 in Mark chapter 1, where the Father looks down on us and He says, well done, I'm pleased with you child. I'm pleased with you. And when we read Mark 1, it's the first instance where the Trinity15:20 is present. The Father, Son, Holy Spirit is there when we led, and so in what we read, and so today, as we go and get baptized, the beauty is God is fully present with us here today.15:32 The Spirit of God is moving in this place. Jesus' sacrifice for our sins is completely active in this place, and the Father watches completely with total assurance to be15:44 pleased in what you guys are doing today. And so what's going to happen is, when we come out of this water, and we profess our faith in Jesus, it's supposed to lead to a boldness in our life with Christ.15:56 Which means baptism is not suitable for the introvert. That I understand. And so if there's anyone being baptized here today, or you sit here and you're like, the only reason why I've never done baptism is because you16:06 gotta stand in front of people, and you have to get wet. It's not an introvert's friend. But to be a believer and follow Jesus means that I have fully walked away from an introvert's lifestyle when it16:18 comes to who saved me and who redeemed me. I love that everyone's an introvert until they're passionate about something. Have you ever noticed that? Like, I've never met an introvert16:30 before that is just an Eeyore Christian. Okay? Or just an Eeyore person. Even an introvert is passionate about something. Get them talking about cars. Get them talking about sports. Get them talking about16:42 food. Get them talking about anything. Ask them what they don't like about the world. They'll they'll start talking, you know? Get them talking about politics. They'll start talking. But for us as believers, the thing16:52 that should excite us the most is that God redeemed me. Jesus saved me, and I've been completely made new. That's something to be excited about. That's something to want to share with some people17:04 and to let them know, man, God has changed my life. That's what I know to be true. And so the beauty about the message of Jesus, and every single year we do a, this is just the launching ones of our17:16 baptism for the year, so every single year, we always release kind of a new t shirt that's annual, so that whenever you wear this shirt around the church, if you ever see someone wearing it, you know that they were17:26 baptized the same year that you were baptized. And so it's something that every single year we change the shirt, and we change the design, and so this year we're calling it the baptism year that's blessed and highly17:37 favored. So as a church, we're believing in the favor of God as we sing God's favor, and there's a passage in Luke where the angel of the Lord is speaking to Mary, and I have it up on the screen and then we're gonna get17:47 started tonight. It says this in Luke it's okay. It was supposed to say, I just think our computers took the day off today is is probably what it is. But there's17:59 passage in Luke, where the angel of the Lord goes to Mary and he tells Mary because God chose her to bear Jesus and he says, You are a blessed and highly favored woman of God. Which means18:11 that when we live our life as God is speaking to you, and wanting to use you, and wanting to move in you, it shows God's abundant favor in our lives. That doesn't mean that once you get18:23 out of here, life gets easy, and there's no difficulties or anything. That's not the case. It means that you and I have every opportunity to rest our faith on Jesus. Like Pastor Herron talked about today,18:35 you have someone regularly that you can tag in to bear the weight that you're carrying. That's the beauty of confessing Jesus. Some people think that you confess Jesus, and they say, but some things got harder, some18:46 things got more difficult. Yeah. That's that's a reality of leaving Satan's team and joining Jesus's team. That can and will happen, but the reality is you have someone fighting for you and with you, and like Romans18:58 chapter 8 says, those that follow Christ and believe the spirit of God is in them, you're more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ. And so I wanna encourage you with that today. And so as we get baptized,19:10 as Pastor Diego talked about, when we get water baptized, it's something that we join that's a 2000 year old tradition, which represents that when I go in the water, it represents my death to my old self. So as Jesus,19:22 when he died on the cross, and he was put in the tomb for 3 days, this going underwater represents that 3 day time period that says, my old self is getting washed and cleansed away. When I come out of this water,19:34 I'm coming out completely a new person. And so when you come out of the water, it represents resurrection. The fact that you've trusted Jesus, that he is fully alive and victorious over death. And so it represents19:46 Jesus' death and resurrection, and it represents what water does. It cleanses me. So there's a spiritual cleansing that took place when you said yes to Jesus, and so all we're doing is19:58 publicly declaring what God has already done. And so for those that may be joining us, and maybe it's your first time in a while to church, or you don't know what we're doing in the water, what's going to happen is our20:09 pastoral team will be in the water and every single person when they get in the water, we're going to ask you 1 question. Do you confess Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior? In which you guys are going to say,20:19 Yes, I do. And then at that moment, our pastoral team is going to say, we now baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in Jesus' name. And at that moment, we'll baptize you. And the reason why we say20:31 that is because we're not baptizing under our own authority, we're baptizing under God's authority. So it never matters what man is baptizing you. It has everything to do with the fact that God is actively present in20:43 this moment of baptism. And so you can rest assured that you're not being baptized even in Abundant Living's name. You're being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and you're being baptized in the name of God who loves20:55 you, has redeemed you, and can do so much more for our life than we could do for ourselves. And that's the beauty of baptism. So that's what we're going to lean into today, and, and I'll say this before I pray, and we're21:06 going to what's going to happen is, if you're just joining us, in a few moments when I pray, we're going to stand on our feet and we're going to worship. The baptisms go relatively quickly, and so, at that moment, we're21:17 just gonna ask if you could with us, stay till the end of the service because it'll end it'll end on a good time. It's not gonna go long or over anything like that. And so while everyone's getting21:28 baptized, we're just gonna sing songs and we're gonna worship to the Lord, because this is a moment where we thank God for the miracle that he's done in your life. And so we sing together, and we worship together, and21:39 then we celebrate those being baptized. At the end of our baptisms, we're going to make an invitation of faith, and we're going to invite, if there's anyone here who wants to make their own public declaration of faith,21:51 that we encourage you at the end of these baptisms to come in line, give your life to Christ, and be water baptized with us today as well. And here's the thing, we've removed that little voice in our22:03 head that says, but I didn't come prepared with the right clothes. Well, if you when you if you get baptized in your clothes, then we have clothes for you in the back room. Okay? So you'll get a whole new change of22:14 clothes. Okay? So we removed that excuse from you. Okay? I'll do it next time. I didn't bring any clothes. We got clothes. Don't worry about that. We got I didn't I don't have a towel. We got towels. Okay? So so22:26 don't worry about that. So we've had people be baptized in suits and everything that they need. Like, people have just came as they were and we celebrate the move of the spirit at that moment. I'll say the last thing as22:38 we worship. 1 of the things our team did, which I encourage you guys to notice on camera, is when you guys go in the water, there's going to be some things that change about your shirt. Okay? And so I'm not going to tell22:49 you what it is, and you can't tell now. But when you come out, there's gonna be something that it will change on your shirt. It will appear on your shirt. And what we want to encourage you with this is in the same way22:58 that when you get in the water and your shirt will change subtly, but you'll notice it, That's the same way that our faith and our walk with Christ looks like. As we said yes to Jesus, it's a radical transformation.23:11 Okay? And so we've never done that before, so it's the first time our team has done it. It's awesome. But you'll be able to see on camera, but you'll really be able to see in the water. So you'll look down at your shirt23:22 after you get baptized. Okay? So can we all do me a favor? Will we all stand on our feet? I'm gonna pray for us tonight, and then we're gonna spend time with the Lord and celebrate God's goodness and his23:34 mercy tonight. God, we thank you so much for your hand and your spirit today, God. I thank you so much for those who have said yes to Jesus that will be publicly declaring their faith in23:46 you, Lord. I pray, Father God, that as they leave here, they won't be ashamed for the work that you've done in their life, Father God. I pray that they be bold to share about your goodness and your mercy, and the riches23:57 of your grace, God. God, we thank you as you move in this place today. May you break chains free, break burdens free, and heal those that need healing today, Father God. We thank you for your move. We thank you for these24:09 lives. In Jesus' name, amen.24:13 We really hope you enjoyed the message. And if you said yes to Jesus, we just wanna say congratulations and give you a free devotional to help you walk out your faith. Click the link in the description or head24:25 over to grow dot faith to download your devotional. Oh, and be sure to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends. Thanks for listening to ALC Podcast, and we hope you tune in again.24:41 My watch says we've gone 3 miles. This app is like having a personal trainer. Yeah. But those apps collect a lot of your personal data. Aren't you worried? Really? That's creepy. How do I stop that? You should go to24:51 privacy dot c a dot gov to learn about your privacy rights and get on the best path to protect your privacy. You think they could help us get up this next hill? 1 step at a time.25:02 Californians have the strongest privacy protections in the country. Go the extra mile to protect your information. Learn more at privacy dot c a dot gov.25:13 See how they're scoring on us? Shots left and right.25:15 I know. They know our next play before we even make it.25:19 We gotta tighten up off the court too. Businesses track and sell our personal information. They dunk on us all the time with that data.25:25 Wait. What do you mean?25:27 You have to exercise your privacy rights. If you don't opt out of the sale and sharing of your information, businesses will always have the upper hand.25:34 The ball is in your court. Get your digital privacy game plan at privacy. Ca dot gov.In this video 0:00 The Joy of Baptism
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