- 00:00
- Good morning.
- 00:03
- It is a blessing to get to worship together as the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ here at Sovereign Grace and to begin our worship by seeing a young person receive the sign of baptism.
- 00:18
- Now, we have had the opportunity, Trinity and I, to have many weeks of counseling to bring us to today and in the midst of this, I asked Trinity if she would be willing to share a testimony, but I allowed for her to do it via video.
- 00:40
- And so we have a two-minute video to share with you before we will be doing the baptism.
- 00:53
- Hi, Trinity.
- 00:54
- Hi.
- 00:55
- I wanna ask you a few questions, okay? Okay.
- 00:58
- How long ago did you come and tell me that you had repented and trusted in Jesus? It was like four months ago, and it was October 3rd.
- 01:09
- Oh, awesome.
- 01:10
- You know the date.
- 01:11
- That's great.
- 01:12
- So it was like a Saturday morning.
- 01:15
- We went to church here.
- 01:17
- We had morning service, I think, and so we came back home and it was a couple hours later, but I talked to my mama and I asked her a couple questions because I was thinking about it a lot.
- 01:30
- I think Miss Cindy said something and it really stuck to me.
- 01:33
- So I came home and I asked mama a couple questions and she showed me a little card that had some gospel stuff on it.
- 01:41
- And so she talked to me about that.
- 01:42
- And then something that you said on Fridays was would you give everything up for Jesus? And so I was thinking a lot about that.
- 01:55
- And so I came back down, I was really crying a lot.
- 01:58
- And so me and her went in the front room and we started talking a little bit and she prayed to Jesus and I prayed, too.
- 02:04
- And then I just had to ask him if I could be saved and he saved me right there.
- 02:11
- Trinity, when you came to Christ, did you repent of your sins? Yes.
- 02:15
- And what does that mean? It means to ask him to forgive our sins for everything we have done, every law that we've broken.
- 02:27
- Do you know in your heart that your sins have been forgiven? Yes, I do.
- 02:33
- Do you trust that Jesus will save you? And has saved you? And what did you do the first time that you believed that? What did you feel was important to do? I went and told my mom and dad.
- 02:47
- How did they respond? Well, mama was right there, too.
- 02:51
- So she was really happy, but I went and told dad and he started crying.
- 02:54
- Like, you're making me cry.
- 02:57
- You know that throughout your life it's not always gonna be easy to be a Christian.
- 03:01
- Yes, I know.
- 03:02
- In fact, with the world changing the way it is, it may one day be really hard.
- 03:07
- And Jesus tells us that we have to be prepared not only for the times that are good, but we have to be prepared for the times that are difficult, which is what he meant when he said, take up our cross and follow him.
- 03:18
- By taking the sign of baptism, you understand that you are showing the world publicly that you believe in Jesus and that you're ready to follow him.
- 03:27
- Yes.
- 03:28
- So you're ready to do that.
- 03:30
- Yes.
- 03:30
- You're ready to tell the world.
- 03:32
- You're ready to follow Christ and to show that you want to be in relationship with him and with his church.
- 03:39
- Yes.
- 03:40
- Amen.
- 03:53
- When we bear witness to a person receiving the sign of baptism, it is a time to celebrate, but not to celebrate the action or the decision of the recipient, but rather to celebrate God's gift of sovereign grace, because salvation is of the Lord.
- 04:12
- In the First London Baptist Confession of Faith, it says this, baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament given by Christ to be dispensed upon persons professing faith or that are made disciples who upon profession of faith ought to be baptized.
- 04:34
- That the way and manner of dispensing this ordinance is dipping or plunging the body underwater.
- 04:40
- It being a sign must answer the thing signified, which is that interest the saints have in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
- 04:50
- And that is certainly as the body is buried underwater, risen again, so certainly shall the bodies of the saints be raised by the power of Christ in the day of the resurrection to reign with him.
- 05:05
- Trinity, I have a few questions.
- 05:07
- I want you to affirm before the congregation.
- 05:10
- Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God? Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for the remission of sins, that he was buried, that he rose again on the third day, and that he lives forevermore to make intercession for his people? Have you submitted to Jesus as both Lord and Savior through repentance and faith? Jesus taught that to be his disciple, we must be willing to give up all things, to separate from the world, and count the cost.
- 05:41
- Have you prayed about these things and made the decision to receive the sign of baptism? All right, I have one other part that I want to share, and you didn't know this, but I wanna read the First London Confession, a portion that's important for today.
- 06:01
- The person designed by Christ to dispense baptism, the scripture holds forth to be a disciple, it being nowhere tied to a particular church officer or person extraordinarily sent the commission in joining the administration, being given to them as considered disciples.
- 06:24
- Do you know what that means? That's okay, it's kind of hard.
- 06:28
- Basically, what it means is a person doesn't have to be a pastor to do a baptism.
- 06:34
- So today, your dad is gonna baptize you.
- 06:39
- Chuck, come on up.
- 06:54
- Is that okay? I'm gonna baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
- 07:18
- I wanna invite you all to stand and welcome your neighbor, and when you hear the music begin, we will continue our worship together.
