Hawaii 6 – My Future, My Choice

[music]>> They areI was intrigued [music] to discoverabout the second and the third meal lateat night.When my mother wanted to punish me,a routine punishment was to be sent tobed without supper.If I were a smart boy, knowing what Iknow now,I would say to my mother, "Mother, ifyou want to punish me, insist I eat thethird meal tonight.">> [clears throat]>> But I don't think she would havelistened to me had I said that.So, it's been a blessing learning aboutthe stomach as the washing machine. I'mreally enjoying these health nuggets,aren't you?They're practical, they're low cost,they don't cost us anything, justhelping us live healthier lives. Youknow, Jesus came that we might have lifeand have it more abundantly. And when wefollow God's instructions, then we seean improvement in our health. And so, Iwant to thank the Layon family for theirwonderful ministry of health nuggets.Thank you so much.Thank you.

So, tonight I'm going tospeak about that the sermon is entitledMy Future and My Choice. And as webegin, I'd like to invite you to bowyour heads with me. We invite thepresence of the Holy Spirit. So, shallwe pray?Our dear heavenly Father,we thank you for the blessings we'veenjoyed this weekend. We thank you forfull stomachs.

We thank you for freshair.We thank you forclean water to drink. We thank you forbeds to go home to tonight.Father, we count all these blessingsalmost as if we take them for granted,but Lord, they're many blessings indeed.And Father, in a world in a world ofwant, I thank you that you meet ourbasic needs.Now Lord, we ask you for the greatestgift of all, for the promised gift ofyour Holy Spirit.Fall upon us now, Father, as I speak.Please speak through me. Please speakfor me. Please speak to every heart andhead that is bowed here this evening.And for those who are watching online,wherever they may be, I pray that yourHoly Spirit will move tonight in apowerful way in each of our lives. Thankyou, Father, for hearing this prayer inthe name of Jesus we ask.

Amen.So, this is going to be our journey thisevening. After our introduction, we'regoing to look at what baptism is in theBible, what the baptism says about theBible says about baptism. You might sayin a physical sense. We're then going tolook at the meaning of baptism in theBible, and then we're going to look atGod's part in baptism, and then we'regoing to come to our conclusion. So,this is the journey we're going to go onthis evening.

And so, if we start out,does anybody know who this character isin the center of this picture here?It's a Martin Luther.Here he is in 1521at the Diet of Worms in Germany,speaking before the Holy Roman Emperor,andbehind him and around him are all theGerman princes, the electors of the HolyRoman Empire, and then there's the papaldelegate sitting there beside the throneof the Holy Roman Empire. And thispicture here doesn't really do fulljustice to it, but when Martin Lutherstood at the Diet of Worms, one manstood up and he changed the course ofworld history forevermore.He changed not just the way we think, hechanged the course of Western history,he changedreligious history around the world, hegave birth to the ProtestantReformation, and with the ProtestantReformation, he gave birth to Protestantmissions to the ends of the earth. Andso, Martin Luther, that when he stood upat the Diet at the Diet of Worms inGermany in 1521,he changed the direction not just ofGermany, but of the entire world. Uhthis guy here, does anybody recognizethis picture here on the right?Does anybody know who he is?>> [clears throat]>> Uh well, this guy, his name is WilliamWilberforce. Does that ring a bell toanybody?>> [clears throat]>> So, William Wilberforce, um he was acommitted um Anglican, and he was alsofiercely opposed to the slavery in theBritish Empire.

And he was a member ofParliament from Hull in the northeastcoast of England, and for 60 years, hisentire adult life, he fought in theBritish Parliament so the BritishParliament would pass a law banningslavery. And finally, in 1833, near theend of his life, um the BritishParliament was the first empire in worldhistory to officially abolish slavery.And on the right there, you see one ofhis pamphlets, where he woulddemonstrate to the members of Parliamentjust how the slaves were packed intothose um slave ships crossing theAtlantic. But William Wilberforce gavehis entire life for the abolition of theslave trade, and from that moment on in1833, for the next 70 years, the BritishNavy, rather than protecting slaveships, fought wars all around the worldto prevent slavery, um particularly outof the continent of Africa. Does anybodyrecognize this lady here?Harriet Tubman. Does any Does that ringa bell?Um she was um a lady in the deep southin America in 1840s and 1850s, and shewas opposed to the Fugitive Slave Act.And the Fugitive Slave Act said that ifa slave uh ran away from their owner inthe deep south, and they made it acrossthe Ohio River into the free states ofthe north, then if if you found somebodylike that, you were obligated to returnthat runaway slave from freedom back totheir original owner in the deep south.And she opposed this, and she helped setup what we now call the UndergroundRailroad.

And that Underground Railroadwas a series of of friendly homesrunning all the way from Alabama andGeorgia all the way up to the Ohio Riverto Cincinnati and then beyond that up tothe Canadian border so that peopleescaping slavery and yearning forfreedom could make their way to Canadaand be free not just of the slavery inthe South but the Fugitive Slave Act inthe north of the Americas of NorthAmerica. So this lady changed historyfor a lot of people.Coming from the continents where I'mfrom, they may remember this guy here.He's in the 1980s. His name was LechWałęsa. He was an electrician in theGdańsk shipyards. And he wanted freedomand he wanted the communist regime tofall in Poland.

And he created or he leda trade union called Solidarity orSolidarność in Polish. Andhe umhe led a peaceful revolution andcommunism essentially faded away inPoland and Poland was one of the firstnations behind the Iron Curtain in thelate 1980s to achieve freedom for itscitizens without any violence, withoutany need for a revolution, but he led apeaceful revolution in his country. Soone man stood up and he changed thecourse of history for his nation. Ithink many of us know this picture here.It's a very famous picture.This is of Martin Luther King Jr.uh the civil rights leader at his veryfamous I Have a Dream speech in 1863um in the March on on America. And uh itwas Martin Luther King's dream that hedreams of a day when his grandchildrenwill be judged not by the color of theirskin but by the content of theircharacters.

It was the civil rightsmovement that led to the Civil RightsAct. Um there was a number of other actsthat came straight after that such asthe Fair Voting Act. and so he changedthe course of American history togetherwith the the civil rights movement. Doesanybody recognize this lady here?I I would hope every lady in the hallknows who this lady is. Um this lady isSusan B.

Anthony.She was a leading suffragette.And uh she was arrested for voting inAmerica in 1872when the law said that women were notallowed to vote. So, she went to voteand she got herself arrested, and shebecame a national celebrity, butessentially um that was the catalystthat enabled um women in America to getthe vote as well as men. And so, each ofthese individuals here I've just showedyou, each of them decided to take astand for what they believed in, andthey changed the course of history. Insome cases for their nation, and in somecases for the entire world. And so, wewe say today, you know, when nationalelections come up, people say, "My votereally doesn't matter." I say, "On thecontrary, when you believe in somethingand you stand up for something, you canchange not just your life and the lifeof your children, but you can alsochange life of your community, of yournation, and in some cases of the entireworld." So, the question is not um canyou change anything, more fundamentalquestion is, do you believe in anything?The Bible says that at the end of timeand I was discussing this with someoneoverthe evening meal this evening, it saysthe dragon that is Satan was angry withthe woman, that is the pure church,and went off to make war on the rest orthe remnant of her children.Then it describes who those childrenare, those who keep the commandments ofGod and hold the testimony of Jesus.The Bible reveals in Revelation 12, 13,and 14, and we'll look at this onSabbath night this coming weekend,that there's going to be a final crisisof conscience.

It's going to affect theentire world. Nobody is going to beexempt. It will involve coercion ofconscience, economic mandates, socialand economic professional andprofessional cancellation, no buy nosell rules, imprisonment, and ultimatelythe death penalty for those who refuseto yield control of their consciences.And in the struggle that's coming uponour world, just as we've seen in COVIDin the early just in the last fiveyears,there is another struggle coming, butit's of a magnitude greater than COVID.And once again, the question will beover liberty of conscience and trueworship. And in the in the comingstruggle, the eternal the prize iseternal life for those who choose to befaithful to God.So, every person has to make a choicewhere they stand.There is no neutral ground in the battlefor souls. We're either obedient to Godor obedient to the commands of men.The prize is eternal life, not just ingeneral, but for me and for you.And so, it is your futureand your choice.

Each one of us has todeclare our allegiance one way or theother. We're either for God or we arefor or we submit to the fallen powers ofthis world. The Bible describes thosewho are faithful to God in that finalcrisis.We read in Revelation 1:5-6, it says,"And from Christ Jesus, who is thefaithful witness and the first begottenof the dead, and the prince of the kingsof the earth, unto him that loved us andwashed us from our sins in his ownblood, and has made us kings and priestsunto God and his father, to him be gloryand dominion forever and ever. Amen."Now, I'm not going to go any near greatdetail through this verse here, otherthan to say that those who are faithfulto God are God has washed us from oursins in his own blood. And that's areference to the waters of baptism.

So,let's come to what the Bible actuallydescribes about how baptism takes placein in the scriptures. We're going tostart out with the Gospel of Johnchapter 3 and verse 23. There are fourGospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.And Matthew, Mark, and Luke are calledthe synoptics because they see theGospel through the same set of eyes, andJohn is a quite distinct Gospel. Inactual fact, the underlying Greek textof Matthew, Mark, and Luke is about 60%identical.That's why they call the synoptics. Theythey they look at the scriptures throughthe same set of eyes.

But John's Gospelis somewhat different and it focuses onthe signs and the works of Christ. Andhere we have the baptism of Jesus. Andit says there that John, that is theBaptist, was baptizing at Aenon nearSalim because water was abundant thereand people kept coming and were beingbaptized. And so this is the descriptionthe description of John the Baptist, andhe was baptizing in the River Jordan,and he was baptizing in the Jordanbecause there was a lot of water there.You know, when um>> [clears throat]>> when the President Lula of Brazil, Imean anybody remember President Lula ofBrazil?About 15 years ago he visited Israeland he said to the um Shimon Peres, whowas his host, who was a former Israelipresident, he said, "I see the Jordan,the Jordan," he said, "a river rich inhistory."And Shimon Peres responds and he says,"I see thethe Amazon, the Amazon," he said, "ariver rich in water."And [clears throat] if you go to Israeltoday, you see that the River Jordan hasalmost no water in it. It leaves Galileeas a regular river, but then the watergets pumped out with irrigation.

So, bythe time it gets to the Dead Sea, theRiver Jordan is itself a dead river.There's nothing left by the time you getto Jericho. But this passage here tellsus about John the Baptist who waspreaching in the river by the riverJordan and people kept coming to him forbaptism and he baptized there becausethere was much water there.And then we also read then of thebaptism of Christ. It says, "In those[clears throat] days Jesus came fromJordan from Nazareth of Galilee and wasbaptized by John in the Jordan." Andjust as he was coming upout of the water, he saw the heavenstorn apart and the spirit descendinglike a dove on him and a voice fromheaven, "You are my son, the beloved.With you I am well pleased." So Jesushimself was baptized at the beginning ofhis ministry to demonstrate to us what arighteous life looks like.And the text indicates that Jesus wasnot baptized by sprinkling. Is thatcorrect?Because he came up from the waters. Sobaptism for Christ the baptism that hemodeled for us was baptism by fullimmersion under the water.

You know, Ibaptized somebody about 4 weeks ago andit was in a lake in Swedenand umthe the the the the ground under my feetwas was was filled with slimy rockscovered with this green slime and it wasvery very hard to get my footing underthe water there. And so when I when Idropped the man down into the water,um I I couldn't find my footing likewhere where's where's my foot how am Igoing to lift him out of the water?And he kind of realized that I wasn't incontrol so he jerked up out of thewater. I said, "No, no, no, no, no, no."And they caught they captured this onvideo. These are things that shouldn'thappen to a pastor.>> [clears throat]>> So I put my hand on his throat likethis. I said, "Down you go into thewater.">> [clears throat]>> And he had quite a shock when thathappened to him.And but he was well and truly baptizedunder the water and I kind of held himdown there like you're staying downthere.

Now you're coming up. The firstbaptism I did was a young girl. She was14. It was in a big Jamaican church inLondon, and the baptistery was narrow,and there was cement steps down into it.And it was my first baptism. They neverteach you how to do baptisms inseminary.

They just assume everybodyknows. So, I stood in the middle of thebaptistery, not realizing that the stepswere just here, and all her family stoodin front with their video cameras andtheir phones filming this. So, I droppedthe girl down into the water, but beforeher head could go under the water, shecracked the back of her head on thecement step.Oh, there was a terrible shout of pain.I thought, "Have I broken her neck?" Shegot up. I was so happy she was stillalive.And cuz I said, "When you're baptized,you die with Christ." I didn't meanliterally.And so, I said to the girl, "We're goingto take two steps to the left." And Isaid, you have to say with a verystraight face. I said, "Don't worry." Isaid, "This happens all the time.

We'rejust going to try this again."And she was somewhat skeptical aboutbeing baptized a second time. I said,"Look, turn around, see where the stepsare. You're going to be okay here." Butjeez, when Jesus was baptized, he itsays he came up out of the water, whichmeans baptism as practiced by Jesus andmodeled for us was by immersion. You godown into the water. You also see thispassage that you have um Jesus, the Sonof God.

You have the Holy Spiritdescending upon him, and you have theGod the Father speaking from heaven,saying, "You are my beloved son withwhom I'm well pleased."And so, when we go through the waters ofbaptism today, when people come up, wealso have a prayer for them. We ask forthe infilling and for the baptism notjust of water, but for the baptism ofthe Holy Spirit.We want the Holy Spirit to fall uponthat person. We want them to receive thegift of the Holy Spirit in the present,so that the Holy Spirit continues thework of character transformation that isknown as the fruits of the Spirit, butwe also want the Holy Spirit to givethat person unique gifts becauseeverybody has different gifts in thebody of Christ, and we want people tohave those gifts from baptism onwards sothey don't sit on the pews and justlisten, but they are active members ofthe body of Christ from day one with thespiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit hasgiven them. And so then we come to Actschapter 10:37-38.It says that message spread throughoutJudea. This is the apostles beginning inGalilee after the baptism that Johnannounced.

How God anointed Jesus ofNazareth with Holy Spirit and withpower. How he went about doing good andhealing all who were oppressed for bythe devil for God was with him. So onceagain, we see that Jesus went down intothe waters of the Jordan. As he rose upfrom the waters, the Holy Spirit cameupon him, and he went about serving Godin his appointed ministry.And then at the end of Matthew's gospel,you have the very famous gospelcommission. And this is what Jesuscommanded the apostles to go and do.

Andthis is maybe why you part of the reasonwhy we're here tonight as well. Jesuscommanded his apostles in everygeneration, his messengers, um hisambassadors to go out and this is whatJesus commanded us to do. It's calledthe gospel commission. It says Jesuscame and said to them, "All authority inheaven and on earth has been given tome. Go therefore and make disciples ofall nations, baptizing in them them inthe name of the Father and of the Sonand the Holy Spirit, and teaching themto obey everything that I have commandedyou.

And remember, I am with you always,even to the end of the age." Now, in theEnglish, it doesn't quite come acrosshere, but the imperative in thisThere There are a number of verbs there.Go thereforeum, and make disciples and baptizingthem and teaching them the the theimperative there is to make disciples.And the go therefore and the teachingthem and the baptizing are participles.So, the the the thing that Jesus wantsus to do is not just to baptize people.The focus of this command is to makepeople disciples of Jesus Christ.That is you obey the teachings of Jesus.That is>> [clears throat]>> once you're baptizedyou read the teachings of Jesus inMatthew, Mark, Luke, and John on a dailybasis.And you ask the Holy Spirit to guide youas how do I put this into practice?And so, if um, [clears throat]do you remember the World Cup that'sjust finished in America, the soccer?Um, could you tell who the Norwegianfans were?They go, "Ooh!" Remember that? "Ooh!"And you you knew you knew how the whothe Scots fans werecuz they all wore kilts and got drunkand drunk Boston Dry.And you knew who thelet's say the Argentinian fans werethrough their blue and white stripedshirts. And so forth. You knew who was afan of which country, yes?And so people ought to be able to tellthat I'm a disciple of Jesus even if Inever preach.A famous English preacher once said,"Preach always and only if absolutelynecessary use words."It should be evident to everybody thatI'm a disciple of Jesus because I'mobedient to the teachings of Jesus. Andthe more obedient I am to his teachings,the more I reflect his character.

Andjust to ponder this for a few minutesmore, when Jesus is baptizing them inthe name of the Father, Son, and theHoly Spirit, yes, this is talking aboutbaptism by immersion under water.But, um,the the name of the Father, and the Son,and the Holy Spirit. Does the name ofGod reflect his character? Yes or no?Yes, it does.Uh so, um and God's character issummarized by one word, which islove.So, if you are baptized, not just inwater, but you are baptized into thecharacter of the Father, the Son, andthe Holy Spirit, into the three membersof the Godhead. If you are baptized intotheir character, it means that just asthe go under the water, the waterreaches every part of your physicalbody, baptism also means is that you areimmersed in the character of God.And God's character of love permeatesevery nook and cranny of your character.That God's love reaches those places ofbitterness, and places of anger, andplaces of fear, and parts of anxiety,and it replaces them with a peace thatpasseth all understanding. So, baptismisn't just a physical act, it's also animmersion into the character of God, sothat God's character starts to heal mycharacter, and change me into his image.So, then we come to Acts 8, uh which isthe story of the Ethiopian eunuch.

I'mlooking at the clock here, and Iprobably need to move along with this.But, um we here we have the story of theEthiopian eunuch. I'm going to read itout, it's on the screen. So, uh it says,um this is Philip, he got up and went.And the story says, now there was anEthiopian eunuch, a court official ofthe Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, incharge of her entire treasury. He hadcome to Jerusalem to worship, and wasreturning home. Seated in his chariot,he was reading the prophet Isaiah.

So,Philip ran up to it, and heard himreading the prophet Isaiah, and heasked, "Do you understand what you arereading?" And the eunuch replied, "Howcan I, unless someone guides me?" And heinvited Philip to get in and sit besidehim. The eunuch asked Philip, "Aboutwhom may I ask does the prophet saythis? About himself or someone else? Hewas actually reading Isaiah 53.So then Philip began to speak andstarting with this scripture, heproclaimed him the good news aboutJesus. As they were going along theroad, they came to some water and theeunuch said, "Look, here is water.

Whatis to prevent me from being baptized?"He commanded to the chariot to stop andboth of them, Philip and the eunuch,went down into the water and Philipbaptized him. When they came up out ofthe water, the spirit of the Lordsnatched Philip away and the eunuch sawhim no more and went on his wayrejoicing.So, the Ethiopian eunuch's experienceillustrates certain truths aboutbaptism. Number one, the eunuch acceptedJesus as his Lord and Savior. Numbertwo, it was the eunuch'swas baptism was based on faith in Jesusas his Messiah based on what the OldTestament prophecies had said aboutJesus. Thirdly, his baptism was byimmersion going down into the into thewater and his was a believer's baptismbecause after studying the word of God,he was convicted that Jesus of Nazarethis the Messiah of God sent to deal withour sin problems.

And once he wasbaptized, he went on his way rejoicing.Now, the Ethiopian eunuch disappearsfrom the scripture in this placebut the three earliest translations ofthe Biblein the early 2nd century of the Armenianversion, the Aramaic version, and theEthiopian Coptic version.And so we we know that almost from theend of the life of the Apostle John thatin Ethiopia, they were they were alreadyworking on the Ethiopian translation ofthe New Testament. And so whether thisEthiopian eunuch was part of that, wedon't know, but he was one of the firstconverts to Africa and Africa today is aglobal center for the followers of JesusChrist.And then you have the last example I'mgoing to give you here is in Acts 16,and Paul and Silas are in prison, andthey've been put in the darkest dungeon,and they're praising God in there, andthere's an earthquake, and the prisonstarts to collapse, and the jailer isgoing to kill himself because underRoman law, if you lost a prisoner, thenyou're going to be executed. So, thejailer was afraid for his life, and soum it says, "The jailer called forlights, and rushing in, he fell downtrembling before Paul and Silas." Thenthey brought him outside and said, thenhe brought him outside and said, "Sirs,what must I do to be saved?" Theyanswered,"Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you'llbe saved, you and your household." Theyspoke the word of the Lord to him and toall who were in his house.At the same hour of the night, he tookthem and washed their wounds. Then heand his family were baptized withoutdelay.So, once again, you see the samecomponents of baptism in the NewTestament. The jailer was instructed inthe teachings of Christ.

Then he and hisfamily were baptized. There was remorsefor sin. There was a desire to be saved.There was a personal belief in the LordJesus Christ as his savior. So, this wasbeliever's baptism for young and forold.So, what does baptism actually mean?What happenswhen you are baptized? [clears throat]We've just looked at some of the theexamples in the Bible of of baptism, andI just want toI justshare tonight thatum in the Middle Ages, at the time ofLuther, they had they practiced whatthey call infant baptism.

Have you heardof infant baptism?Where when you were born, you wereimmediately baptized into either theLutheran church in Germany, into theCatholic church in Germany and acrossEurope, or in England, you were baptizedinto the Anglican Church. And you say,"Well, why were they baptized asinfants?" Well, the the argument wasthat they would then be saved, um andthen when when they teenagers, theywould have a confirmation process ofsome kind. But there was another reasonfor infant baptism, and it was this: Ifyou were baptized as an infant,then you came under theSorry. [cough and clears throat]Then you came under the ecclesiasticaljurisdiction of that church from birth.It meant that the church hadecclesiastical jurisdiction over you inmatters like marriages and death and andand the sacraments and so forth. And so,um infant baptism was a way for thechurch of your country to gain a lot ofpower over you without even without youeven realizing it.And so, um in the 1840s and 1850s and soforth, a new group arose in Europecalled the Anabaptists.And they said, "No, we don't believe ininfant baptism.

We want to practice whatthe Bible teaches, which is believersbaptism." And those Anabaptists paid aterrible price for that belief, forstanding up for this biblical truth. Andsome of their leaders were martyred. Oneof their most famous leaders was heldunder the water in Zurich, and he wasdrowned to death by some otherProtestant reformers, um because theysaid, "No, we believe in infantbaptism." And so, the freedom we have inHawaii today to practice believersbaptism, where you choose for JesusChrist, you believe in Jesus Christ, youwant him to be the Lord of your life,this isn't a freedom that we should takefor granted.The people died that we might have thefreedom to practice believers baptism,just as people died so that we mighthave the Bible in our own language.And so, we are standing here in 2026with incredible freedoms. And it used tobe in Europe that the Bibles wereliterally chained to the desks in thechurches. The Bibles were in the Latinlanguage which nobody could understand,andno common person was allowed to read theBible for themselves.

And the people whotranslated the Bible into English, suchas Tyndale,when the when the when the King ofEngland discovered that Tyndaletranslated the Bible into English, hehunted him down across Europe, draggedhim back to England, and uh burnt him atthe stakefor the crime of translating the Bibleinto English.And this book has been burnt, has beenbanished, has been banned, has beenburied by governments for the last 2,000years.Why?Because this book points us to a greaterkingdom than anything this world has tooffer.And it points us to a king who is aboveany ruler on this world.And it speaks to the grea- the deepestyearnings of our heart for meaning andpurpose and forgiveness andreconciliation uh with God and thepromise of eternal life. So, let's cometo the meaning of baptism. We're goingto pick it up in Romans chapter 6. Itsays, "Do you not know that all of uswho've been baptized into Christ Jesuswere baptized into his death?Therefore, we've been buried with him bybaptism into death, so that just asChrist was raised from the dead by theglory of the Father, so we too mightwalk in newness of life."So, baptism is commanded by Jesus as away of commemorating his death, hisburial, and his resurrection.But it's immi- it's not just um uh some-something that looks back to what Jesusdid. When we are baptized, we are sayingwe are dying to our old way of life.And under the water, we are buried underthe water as Jesus lay in the grave umbut after his crucifixion, and just asJesus was raised from the dead, so we'regoing to be raised from that waterygrave, and we are going to be raised asthe text says here to walk in newness oflife.I was just chatting with somebody hereat lunch, and she was describing just at6:00 here this evening.

I won't say whoit was, and she was describing theprofound change that came over her lifefrom the moment she was baptized.The experience she had of a completenewness of life. So, the Bible says whenyou come up out of the waters ofbaptism, you you are going to walk nowin newness of life. That is, your oldlife is dead, your old sins areforgiven, um your your your guilt iswashed away, and you've been you'll begiven a new chapter by God, and you'regoing to ask the Holy Spirit to writethat chapter of life for you. Actschapter 2:38 and 39, this is Pentecost.Um they they said, "What must we do tobe saved?" And Peter said to them,he said, "Repent, and be baptized everyone of you." Now, the word repentancemetanoeo, it means that in Greek. Itmeans that I'm walking in thisdirection, but when you repent, itdoesn't just mean that you stop doingthat thing.

It means you turn around,and now you walk in the oppositedirection.So, it's not just I'm going to stopdoing that thing, it's I'm going to haveno part of that anymore in my life.And I'm going to walk away from the sinsthat trapped me and held me down earlierin my life.And so, Peter says, "Repent and bebaptized every one of you in the name ofJesus so that your sins may be forgiven,and you will receive the gift of theHoly Spirit.For the promise is for you, for yourchildren, and for all who are far away,everyone whom the Lord our God calls tohim."So, when we are baptized, what happens?Well, the first thing is we are forgivenfor our sins. Can you say amen to that?You know, if you're a felon in America,how do you clear your record?You can't unless you get a presidentialpardon.Yes?So, you you you you may be a you maymake a mistake at the age of 18, youhave a felony on your record. Does thatfelony affect every aspect of your life,yes or no?Yes, it does. It affects everything. Itaffects your job prospects, your housingprospects.

It affects umuh how you relate to the localgovernment. The police always know it'son record if they stop you in yourvehicle and so forth. But, the only wayyou can get rid of that felonyconviction is if the president gives youa full pardon.But, the Bible says that when you arebaptized, you are forgiven by God.Your guilt is removed, it's washed awayby the blood of the lamb of God thattakes away the sin of the world. We aretreated by God as entirely innocent ofour past. Can you say amen to that?Like, God doesn't remember.

I willremember your sins no more is hispromise to me and to you. As far as theeast is from the west, which is a long,long way, so far has he removed ourtransgressions from us. So, when we arebaptized, we are forgiven for the sinsof our past. We no longer carry thatguilt. We no longer carry those regrets,those would'ves, those could'ves, thoseshould'ves that everybody carries withthem.When we are baptized, God says your pastis done.It's washed away.It's gone forever.The next thing that happens when we arebaptizedis we receive the gift of the HolySpirit.And the Holy Spirit gives you the powerto leave lead a new life.It's not just on the outside, but theHoly Spirit changes you on the inside.And he changes you day by day into thecharacter of Christ.

The Bible says thisuh speaking of the transformation theHoly Spirit brings into our lives. Itsays, "Now the works of the theare obvious: fornication, impurity,licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery,enmities, strife, jealousy, anger,quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy,drunkenness, carousing, and things likethese. I'm warning you as I warned youbefore that those who those who do suchthings will not inherit the kingdom ofGod. By contrast, the fruits of theSpirit is love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, generosity, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control. There isno law against such things.So, when we are baptized and he actuallyeven before our baptismum when the Holy Spirit is working inour characters, the Holy Spirit isactually leading us away from um umthe desires of our fallen heart and he'sbring putting into our heart a desire todo that which is true and honorable andnoble and pure and worthy of good goodrepute.

So, when we are baptized and wereceive the gift of the Holy Spirit, wepray over people for the Holy Spirit tofall upon them, that person from thatmoment on is collaborating with God sothat the fruits of the Spirit aremanifest in your character.It's a chara- It's not just a you know,we see these programs talk about likemakeovers, yes? Makeover for the face,makeover for the house, makeover for thegarden. But, the Bible talks about themost difficult makeover of all andthat's the makeover of a deformed,angry, hate-filled character to aloving, grace-filled Christian.And the greatest advert for the gospelof Jesus Christis not preaching, but it's the it's thewitness of a transformed life.Someone whose life has been transformedby the presence of the Holy Spiritwithin them and but that produces thisbeautiful fruits of the Holy Spirit.It's a fruit that appears in everyseason of life. It's a fruit thatappears in the winter of life and in thesummer of life, the spring of life, andthe fall of life, God is seeking aharvest of beauty in each of ourcharacters as he transforms us day byday. And so, a Christian is somebody whogets up in the morning and say, "Lord,this is who I am and this is these whatmy struggles are, but Lord, by yourgrace and by the work of your HolySpirit tonight, when I go to bed, I wantto be a different man or woman to theperson that got up this morning."And I'm asking you to perform that workof divine surgery in my heart and in mymind so that I will be changed.And so, umthe the greatest testimony to the powerof God is actually a transfer atransformed life.And then the third thing that happenswhen you are baptizedis you're welcomed into a new family.The Bible says this, "As many of you aswere baptized into Christ have clothedyourself with Christ."So, there is no longer Jew or Greek,there's no longer slave or free, nolonger male and female, for all of youare one in Christ Jesus.

And if youbelong to Christ, then you're Abraham'soffspring as according to the promise.And so, when you're welcomed into thefamily of Godthen you suddenly discover you have aworldwide family.I mean, I've come from Michigan to Kiheiand I've discovered a family here inKihei of fellow Christians, brothers andsisters in Christ. And if anybody herewould go to any city on planet Earth,almost any cityand you do Google search um Adventistchurch close to me, you would walk intothat church and find people who arestudying their Sabbath school lesson,who are studying the word of Godtogether.Um the chances are they're all going tohave haystacks, that's one of thedrawbacks, I guess. I don't likehaystacks.But, you could go if you are anAdventist today, you can go to any cityin the world and you can you have theright to walk into an Adventist churchand receive a warm welcome.When I was a student,my parents were praying for me, therewas a family in the city where I wasstaying and they knew that I was livingon, you know, baked beans and pasta on adaily basis.I wasn't really looking after myself andevery Friday night, because we were in achurch plant, they'd say, "Come and stayat our house." And we did. And there wasalways a proper meal made for us.My parents were so grateful that theirson every Friday had a proper mealand someone was taking care of me.I remember that family with great warmthand great I just have so much love forthem because I was a young man livingaway from home when I was losing weightand kind of, you know, I was a shadowbasically. Andthey saw this need and they took care ofme.And when you enter the body of Christ,it's not just a spiritual concept, yousuddenly have brothers and sisters whotreat you with respect and kindness andsacrificial love in any corner of theworld.

There's nothing like it thisworld has to offer.It's an amazing thing.And it doesn't matter what your familyof origin is, whether it was good orbad, whether it was perfect or painful,when you enter the body of Christ,you're entering a new family where wefind fellowship, we find people who prayfor us, we find acceptance ofof ourselves based on the fact thatwe're all sinners in need of a savior.And in a world that is torn apart alongracial lines and gender lines and sexualorientation lines and the nationalidentity lines and all the rest of it,the Bible says that when you enter thebody of Christ, what matters is not whatyou have that is different, but whatmatters is that which we share and havein common.And so the Bible says in Ephesians 1,uh 4:1-6, "As I, Paul, therefore, theprisoner of the Lord, beg you to live alife worthy of the calling to whichyou've been called, with all humilityand gentleness, with patience, bearingwith one another in love, making everyeffort to maintain the unity of thespirit in the bond of peace. Then Paultalks about the things we have in commonas Christians, as disciples of Jesus. Hesays there is one body and there is onespirit, just as you were called to theone hope that is the second coming ofyour calling, one Lord, one faith, onebaptism, one God and Father of all whois above all and through all and in all.And so when you join the body of Christthrough the waters of baptism, yousuddenly you find you have an immensenumber of things in common with peoplefrom every nation, tribe, language, andpeople from all around the world.It's an amazing thing.And you can go to Saigon, you can go toEgypt, you can go to Russia, you can goto Europe, you go anywhere in Africa,you go anywhere in the Americas, and youwalk into an Adventist church ofdisciples of Jesus, and you will find wehave one hope, the second coming, andone Lord, Jesus Christ, and one baptism,baptism by immersion in the name of theFather, Son, and Holy Spirit, and oneFather whom we all worship, and uh wehave one faith that we share together,and it's an absolutely amazing,beautiful experience to have.And you know, during the COVID pandemic,my local church family gave so muchsupport for me, it was incredible.People rallied round, we supported eachother, we looked out for each other, andI realized that when when crises come asthey do in life, you want to have bepart of a local congregation that willsupport you, that will encourage you,that will pray with you and for you,will visit you, will provide practicalcare when needed, and you not onlyreceive these things, but it's yourprivilege to bless others in the sameway as well within your localcongregation. I cannot imagine what lifewould be like without having my localchurch.It's an It's maybe the best supportmechanism you'll ever find on planetEarth. So what is God's part in baptism?And uh I see I need to be scooting alonghere.So, let's ask some questions and answershere.

First of all, who are called torepentance? Jesus says, "I've come notto call the righteous, but sinners torepentance."So, Jesus didn't come for the wealth forthe for the sick so for the healthyspiritually. He came for those who aresinners.What accompanies repentance? Jesus saysthat repentance and forgiveness of sinsis to be proclaimed in his name to allnations.And then we say, "Well, actually, whoneeds to repent?"Bible says, "What then? Are we anybetter off?""No, not at all, for we've alreadycharged that everybody, both Jew andGreek, are under the power of sin, forit is written, 'There is no one who isrighteous, not even one, since all havesinned and fallen short of the glory ofGod.'" So, if Jesus came to call sinnersto repentance, and this verse says thatall have sinned and fallen short of theglory of God, that means Jesus came foreverybody in this room here tonight.Because we're all sinners.By what means is sin made known?For through the law comes the knowledgeof sin.Most of us look in the mirror sometimein the morning, yes?Most of us do.And we want to make sure that our hairis nice.If we want to shave, we'll make surewe're not cutting ourselves.And so forth.

Most of us look in themirror. The reason we look in the mirroris because we need an honest assessmentof who we actually are first thing inthe morning, and then we know what weneed to fix ourselves.How we fix ourselves. Is that correct?And the law of God is like that. When welook into the law of God, the TenCommandments, which is a reflection ofthe character of God, we actually see animage of God, and we compare ourselveswith that, and we realize, "Oh, I reallydo need a savior."And there's sins in my life. There'sblemishes here and blots here, andthere's eczema up here, and there's acnedown here.So, that the mirror doesn't save me, butit tells me you need to find a savior.And the law of God, we look in the lawof God in the morning, when we read ourBibles, and through the law comes theknowledge of sin, and the knowledge ofsin points us to our need of a savior.And who awakens our conscience to oursinful condition?The Bible says when he, that is the HolySpirit comes, he will prove the worldwrong about sin and righteousness andjudgment.

So, the Holy Spirit bringsconviction and conversionto our hearts. And what does the trulyrepentant sinner do?Psalm 38:18 says, "I confess myiniquity, I'm sorry for my sins."Now, if you look at if you lookelsewhere in the Bible, it it talksabout how we confess our specific sins.So,if you're dad and you've been you'vebeen on a bad mood all day, and the kidshave been walking on tiptoes around thehouse cuz you're in a foul mood, theydon't want to get a slip of a throne atthem or something like that. When itcomes to the evening prayer, familyworship time, if dad says, "Dear Lord,we're sorry for our sins of today."That doesn't cut it, because the kidsall know what dad's been like during theday. Dad needs to say, "Dear God, I wasI was I was on a knife edge today, and Iwas angry today, and I was hurting mychildren today, and that was wrong. I'masking you to forgive me and to give methe grace never to do it again." Andwhen you ask specific about yourconfession of sin, if you do it in afamily worship, then the entire familyknows that that kind of behavior is notacceptable in the kingdom of God.

Andthe kids know that dad knows that thisshould not be happening, rather thankind of glossing over it and justsaying, "I'm sorry for my sins."What promise is made to those whoconfess their sins? Famous verse, "If weconfess our sins," says the Bible, "hewho is faithful and justwill forgive us our sins and cleanse usfrom all unrighteousness." And that verbto cleanse, catharizo,we get the word catharsis from that.When Jesus healed people, the verb isnormally therapeuo. We get the wordtherapy from that or therapeutic. So,Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law of afever.That may be the reason that Peter deniedJesus at the end of his ministry. Thenmaybe not, who knows.That's a joke, everybody, okay?

Hehealed his mother-in-law, he wasn'thappy about it. Never mind.When Jesus healed lepers,he didn't The verb is never therapeuo.The verb is catharizo.Because leprosy was a disease untodeath. And when Jesus cleansed a leper,he was removing all trace of thatdisease from their body.And when Jesus when God forgives us ofour sins, he cleanses us of ourunrighteousness because it's that sinthat is a death-dealing disease, and hecleanses it from our beings as well.Is God ready to forgive?It says, "For you, oh Lord, are good andgood and forgiving, abounding insteadfast love to all who call you."And how full is God's forgiveness? DoesIs he stingy in his forgiveness? No.

TheBible says there in Isaiah 55:7, the bitin red says, "He will abundantlypardon."That's good news.You know, when I had I've got a twinbrother at home, and when we werefighting, my mother would say to me,"Conrad, who started this fight?" AndI'd say, "Well, Mom, it all started whenhe hit me back."And cuz [clears throat] we're alwaysfighting like cats and dogs, myself andmy twin brother, andum so my my mother would say to mybrother, she'd say, "Now, I need you toforgive your brother."And he'd look at me with like daggers inhis eyes, and through gritted teeth, hesays, "I forgive you."I knew that wasn't genuine forgiveness.I knew that I was late to that night, Iwas going to pay a price.I'd be fast asleep, and a pillow wouldsmash across my face or my my sheetswould be smack jerked off my pit my bunkbed and thrown to the ground. I knewthat forgiveness was not full and free.But when God forgives us, he willabundantly pardon.Like this is your sin and God'sforgiveness covers everything from everypossible angle. God is not just going togive forgive the sin but also theconsequences of those sins and thedamage we brought onto other people. Andwhy is God ready to forgive likehighlighted it in red there on thescreen. It says he delights in showingclemency.So what do you delight in?

Like icecream?Sunday morning is free time and what doyou most people do what brings them joy?But God what what brings joy to ourheavenly father is he delights inshowing clemency.Praise God. What a God we serve. Hedelights in showing mercy to me and toyou. It's what brings him joy. He's notangry.

He's not trying to catch us out.He's not wanting to strike us down withlightning bolts. He delights in showingclemency to every penitent sinner. Toeverybody that says sorry for my past.And why is God long-suffering towardssinners?It says the Lord is not slow about hispromise that is the second coming assome think of slowness but he is patientwith you not wanting any to perish butall to come to repentance. And when youhave a child, do children mess up somedays? Yes or no?Yes, they do.

If your children mess uptoday, do you just kind of like throwthem out on the streets at night and saydon't come back again?No, why? Because as a parent, you youalways hope that tomorrow will be abetter day for your son or yourdaughter.You always have that hope as a parentthat tomorrow things will be different.Tomorrow they won't show the samebehavior again. Tomorrow they're notgoing to make the same mistakes. And soGodJesus is not returning as soon as we'dlike him to return because he is notwilling that any should perish.Part of the reason for the delay ofChrist in coming back is he wantseverybody in this whole here to be inhis kingdom.And he's waiting.And he's patient because when Jesuscomes and you're not in his kingdom,that's it forevermore.Like there we only face eternaldestruction.And so God is not willing that anyshould perish, but that all should cometo repentance. And we saw this promiseearlier on last week.

This is theMessiah's promise to anyone tonightcaught in the shame and the guilt ofsin. Jesus himself says this, "Andanyone who comes to me, I will neverdrive away."That's a beautiful promise.It's a promise to me.And it's a promise to you."Anyone comes to me," says Jesus, "Iwill never drive them away."So what do we sayin conclusion tonight?Well, the sermon tonight, the talk isentitled your futureand your choice. [clears throat]How important is baptism for yourfuture?We'll hear the words of Jesus. Jesusspeaking to Nicodemus,who came to him in the middle of thenight. It says, "Jesus answered him,'Very truly I tell you, no one can seethe kingdom of God without being bornfrom above.' Or some versions saywithout being born again.'Very truly I tell you,no one can enter the kingdom of Godwithout being war born of water and thespirit.And just as Moses lifted up the serpentin the wilderness, so must the Son ofMan be lifted up that whoever believesin him may have eternal life.For God so loved the world that he gavehis only begotten Sonthat whosoever believeth in him shouldnot perish, but have everlasting life.Indeed, God did not send his son intothe world to condemn the world,but in order that the world might besaved through him.So, Jesus said that no man can enter thekingdom of God without being born ofwaterand of the spirit.We are to go through the waters ofbaptism, number one.

Number two, we areto receive on a daily basis the baptismof the Holy Spirit.We ask God to change us every morning,and guess what?He does.He transforms us.And our spouses tend to be happier whenas we're going through thattransformational process. And ourchildren are happier when mom and dad gothrough that transformational process.And our employers tend to be happierwhen we go through that transformationalprocess. And when we look in the mirroreach day,we can say with John Newton, wrote thesong Amazing Grace, that converted slavetrader, he said, "I'm not the man that Iwant to be, but by God's grace, neitheram I the man that I used to be." And so,as we follow Christ and we go throughthe waters of the baptism of of waterand the baptism of the Holy Spirit, wefind that Christ does a mysterious workinside us and he changes us day by dayso that we reflect the character ofChrist.It's your futureand it's your choice.This is the promise of Jesus to ustoday.Jesus says at the end of Mark's gospel,he says, "The one who believes and isbaptized will be what?Saved."This is a promise.It's not made made by a preacher. It'snot made by a bishop. It's not been madeby a denomination.This is the promise made by the one whodied on Calvary.This is promised to us tonight.

The onewho believes and is baptized shall besaved. It's the promise of Jesus to you,wherever you may be watching onlinetonight or here in this hall.And none of the promises of Jesus haveever fallen flat. They've always comethrough.You can trust him on this. The one whobelieves and is baptized will be saved.And so we paraphrase or we go back toActs chapter 22.The Apostle Peter Paul says, "Now why doyou delay?Get up, be baptized, have your sinswashed away, calling upon his name."The Bible goes on to say today is theday of salvation or to put it anotherway, it's your futureand it's your choice.It's your futureand it's your choice.So our time is up here tonight.The Bible describes those in the book ofRevelation who indeed are baptized ofwater and who are baptized of the HolySpirit and we're coming to a finalcrisis in our world where we must allchoose loyalty to God and to his eternallaw, the Ten Commandments, or loyaltyand submission to the mandates of men.We're coming to that final crisis. We'regoing to discuss it later on this week,the final crisis just before Jesus comesagain.But we if you look at YouTube thesedays, it's full of channels of preppers,isn't it?Food preparation, gun preparation, housepreparation, country life preparation,all the rest of it.

But the mostimportant preparation we can do for thefinal crisis that is coming upon ourworld is to be right with God.Is to be born again of water and of theSpirit and to be filled with the Spiritand to be led by the Lamb of God on adaily basis. The Bible talks about thosewho are prepared for the final crisis,who live through the final crisis. Itsays, "Then he said to me," this is theangel speaking to the Apostle John,"These are they who have come out of thegreat ordeal that is the final crisis onplanet Earth. They've washed their robesand made them white in the blood of theLamb.For this reason they are before thethrone of God and worship him day andnight within his temple, and the one whois seated on the throne will shelterthem.They will hunger no more and thirst nomore. The sun will not strike them norany scorching heat.

For the lamb at thecenter of the throne will be theirshepherd and he will guide them tosprings of the water of life and Godwill wipe away every tear from theireyes. What a beautiful promise, yes?For those who accept Jesus as theirsavior,for those who are born of waterand are born again of the Holy Spirit.They are ready for the final crisis.They're not caught unawares, they're notcaught unprepared, but they are preparedand their characters are formed in thein the likeness of Christ before thefinal crisis bursts on our world andevery man, woman, or child has to chooseloyalty to God or submission to thefallen authorities of this world.And we all need to make that decision.It's not just my future and my choice.It's your future and your choice. So,maybe there's somebody here tonight whosays, "I want to make that choicetonight."Maybe there's somebody here tonight thatsays, "I want to choose for God."I want to be born of waterand I want to be born again on a dailybasis with the Holy Spirit.I want to receive have my name put inthe lamb's book of life as we saw twonights ago.I want to know that the Holy Spirit willlead me and fill me and guide me andmold me and transform me every singleday until the day that Jesus comes inthe clouds of glory.Is there somebody here tonight thatwould want to go through the waters ofbaptism or prepare for baptism?Is there somebody here tonight who cansay, "Yes, I want to give my life to theLord Jesus Christ."You know, I it's a it takes a lot ofcourage. Maybe you want to raise yourhand and say, "Yeah, I want to preparefor baptism."But I gave my life to Jesus when I was13 and it was the best decision I evermade.And he has never let me down.And I've lived in war zones, I've beenin South Sudan, I've been inAfghanistan, I've been in the Balkans.I've seen terrible things, I've seenlots of killing and this I know, life ischeap and life is fragile, but eternallife is the most precious promise youcan have.So is there somebody here tonight who'dsay, "Yeah, I would like to go throughthe waters of baptism. I want to be bornagain."I want to have the guilt of my pastwashed away and I want a place in thekingdom of God.So somebody tonight wants to make thatdecision.Merrick, praise the Lord.

Come to thefront here Merrick, would you with me?Ladies here, you raise your hands.Maybe Pastor Vasily, could you comeforward here as well?Okay and sister Dina.Yes.So Pastor Vasily is one of our localpastors. Pastor Ramal, if you want tocome forward here.Um>> [clears throat]>> So what's your name sister?>> Erica.>> Erica.>> Yes.>> So this is sister Erica everybody andwhere are you from?>> From here.>> You're from here, all right. Okay. Andthis is sister Dina.And you're from this area as well.>> Yes.>> All right. And here we have brotherMerrick.Our new brother in Christ.

He serves inthe Coast Guard.And he his job is to save people'slives. And my prayer that one daybrother Merrick, you'll not just besaving lives on the seas, but you'll besaving lives for eternity.And God has a plan for you in your life.And we have sister Judy.May God bless you sister Judy.Sister Judy was on church this lastSabbath and it was wonderful to see youwith your husband here.Andjust seeing how God has been beenworking in your life. Sowe're going to have a prayer around ournew baptismal candidates here and maybepastors can you stand behind and put ourhands on our brothers and our sisters.You can all bunch up here everybody.>> [clears throat]>> We want to thank God for his work in ourlives and in the lives of our preciousbrothers and sisters.Our dear loving Father,I thank you for each of these precioussouls.Father, I thank you for sister Dina.I thank you, Lord, for sister Jackie.Erica.Lord, I'm sorry for my bad memory.But thank you with sister Erica. Thankyou for brother Merrick.And thank you, Lord,for sister Judy, as well.Father, you know that past.You knit them together in their mother'swomb.They're fearfully and wonderfully made.And you know that you have You know theplans you have for themto give them a future with hope, to givethem purpose in their life today,to guide them and lead them and shapethem and mold them so that in the inEarth's darkest hours, they will shinebrightly for you.That they will be pillars and and heroesof faith in the final generation.That when men and women see the thisyoung man and these ladies,they will see a living manifestation ofJesus Christ, the Son of God.So, Lord, as we go through this process,as we prepare for the waters of baptism,I pray, Father, that your Holy Spiritwill fall afresh on our new sisters andour new brother.I pray, Lord, that they will see yourguiding hand in their lives.That they will recognize your voice andthey will follow you all the days oftheir lives.Father, thank you today that Satan isrebuked. That Jesus is lifted high.And that's we today there is rejoicingin heaven above over every sinner thatturns to God.Thank you, Father, for hearing ourprayer tonight.

May your hand ofblessing rest upon our new sisters andour brother. May your angels surroundthem and may the love of Jesus be seenin their eyes and heard in their voices.In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.Amen. Amen.Amen. God bless.God bless you.