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As a follower of Christ, one of the most important things that we do when we're growing and becoming

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wholehearted in our devotion to Christ is the importance of baptism. And in the Bible,

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in the New Testament, baptism is seen as one of the first things we do when we're born again.

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We get saved and we've given our heart to Christ. It's so important to get baptized. As a matter of

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fact, Jesus, in giving his last command to his disciples, he said,

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All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all

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the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So not only as a

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pastor, but as a missionary. And then when I first got saved, baptism was a really key part of my

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development and my discipleship in growing in Christ. And sometimes there's some disagreement

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about baptism. Some talk about infant baptism, some talk about believer's baptism, and you may

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not even be aware of the differences. Just in a nutshell, a number of your older, more traditional

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Protestant denominations, say like Methodist and Presbyterian Episcopal, they do infant baptism.

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And the Roman Catholic Church, you may have come out of that background, does infant baptism. And

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the idea behind that is taking the act of circumcision in the Old Testament that Israel

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did, and it's believed, and I think it's really true historically, that the early church did

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practice an aspect of infant baptism. We actually have some etchings on the walls of the catacombs

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in Rome that would indicate that. Because the early church was looking at a sign of the new

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covenant in Christ, and the covenant sign in the Old Testament was circumcision, which was

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done to a baby. So that carried over. Now, what we do have in the book of Acts, which is the fifth

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book of the New Testament, is what's happening there. And that is that 3,000 people get saved

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at Pentecost, and then they were immediately baptized. And the indication there seems to be

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that it was through immersion. And that's actually what the word baptism means. Baptizo

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is dipping. It's actually the same word used for a dye. Like they used to dye cloth back then by

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hand, and they would take the cloth in, say, a red dye or a blue dye or a yellow dye. And I've been

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to Morocco and North Africa before, and you can still see this happening today. But they take that

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cloth, it's a white cotton cloth usually, and they dip it. They dip it into the dye, and it comes

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out with that color on it. That dipping is baptizo. It's the idea of baptizing. So what I practice now

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in my ministry is what we call believer's baptism. And that means that after you come to know Christ

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and have faith in Him, we baptize you through total immersion in the water. So the whole body

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goes under. And where does that come from? Well, that comes a lot from Romans 6. So let me read

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Romans 6, 3 through 8, because I think this is the seminal passage on the importance of baptism,

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and also what baptism does when we are in the actual act of baptism. Here's what Paul says in

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Romans 6. Don't you know that all of us who are baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His

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death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism unto death, in order that, just as Christ

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was raised from the dead, through the glory of the Father, we too may live with new life. If we've

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been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His

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resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him, so that the body of sin

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might be done away with, and that we should no longer be slaves to sin, because anyone who has

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died has been freed from sin. Now if we've died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live

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with Him. So what Paul is saying is that the actual literal physical act of baptism is the

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immersion into the death of Christ. In other words, it's literally we're going under the water like

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we're being buried with Christ. That's the old man, totally covered. When I baptize people,

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I get them all the way down, man, and no little nose sticking up or anything. I want everything

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in the water. You're being buried with Christ when you go through the actual act of baptism,

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but then you're coming out of the water. You're being raised.

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Just that picture of the resurrection of Christ.

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So it is a baptism, as Paul said, into his death,

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but it's then a resurrection into new life.

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So you ask the question, does that save you?

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The answer is no.

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Baptism does not save you, but baptism is an act.

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It's your first steps of obedience.

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And if you've never been baptized this way,

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I wanna challenge you to do that,

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that this is an important part of your discipleship.

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Because here's what you're doing.

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You're publicly, before a church, before a group of people,

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you're publicly declaring, I am now a Jesus follower.

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And when you're standing there, and everybody's there,

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and you're identifying with the life, death,

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and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that's huge.

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I mean, that's huge in your first step

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as an act of faith, of publicly making that stand.

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But it's also a private affair.

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In other words, it's your private baptism.

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It's you being baptized by a pastor

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or by a Christian leader that's there to baptize you

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because it's your private faith in Christ.

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You've made your faith in Christ,

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you've declared your faith in Christ privately,

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but now you're expressing it publicly.

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And that's why a public ceremony of baptism is so important.

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That's why we do it periodically at our church

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in Colorado Springs.

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I mean, we do baptisms because people are getting saved

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and they want to identify that way in a public way.

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And so there's a group of witnesses around

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that were publicly there to acknowledge

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that you are now putting your faith in Christ.

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But the point here is that Paul is saying,

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by being immersed in the water,

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it's like the death of Christ.

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Coming out of the water, it's the resurrection of Christ.

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Does that save you?

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Again, I say, no, it's really important to understand this

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because there are certain traditions in the church today

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that would teach if you have not been baptized,

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you are not saved.

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Or if you've not been baptized in our church,

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you can't be a member of our church

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and we question even your salvation.

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That's not what I'm saying.

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I believe that you first put your faith in Christ.

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And I've already talked about that in this series

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about it's your personal faith in Christ.

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For by grace, you've been saved is what the Bible says.

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For by grace, you've been saved through faith,

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not of yourself.

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It's a gift of God, not as a result of works,

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even baptism that anyone should boast.

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So it's not your outward work.

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It's your faith from your heart in Christ.

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But then baptism follows that

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because you're entering into a covenant of grace.

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You're entering into a family, the church.

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And I'll talk about that

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in another part of the episode of this,

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I talk about the church and the importance of the church.

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But first of all, it's that identification with Christ,

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identification with Christ's body,

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with the people through baptism.

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And it's really, really important.

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And so even, I mean, look at this example.

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Here in the book of Acts,

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first thing that happens is the Holy Spirit falls.

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People speak in tongues.

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They're baptized with the Holy Spirit.

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Then 3,000 people in Jerusalem get saved.

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And here's what it says.

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It says, then those who gladly received his word

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were baptized.

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And that day, about 3,000 souls were added to them.

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So, I mean, there was like an immediate baptism.

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So if you haven't been baptized,

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I wanna encourage you to be baptized.

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It's really important.

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It's an act of obedience to Christ to be baptized.

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So what happens at baptism?

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Here's what I think happened.

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I think baptism signifies first

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that you're engrafted into Christ

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through the death and the resurrection of Christ.

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So it's that, it's John 15.

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And you should look that up.

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I'm not gonna read it right now.

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But John 15 talks where Jesus says,

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I am the vine, you are the branches.

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He who abides in me bears much fruit.

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So there's an engrafting,

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like a limb that's grafted into a vine.

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We are grafted into Christ.

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And baptism is the grafting into Christ.

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It's a symbol of that.

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Now, you might ask the question,

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well, Steve, if you're talking about it's only a symbol,

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which is fine, is there anything that special

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about baptism other than it being symbolic?

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Now, I'll tell you what I believe.

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I really believe there's actually

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a spiritual power in baptism.

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Now, I'm not talking about salvation again.

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I wanna remind you.

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But I'm talking about the process of these covenants

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and this holy new covenant

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that we have in the New Testament.

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There's power in that.

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And it's like communion.

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It's like taking.

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Lord's Supper.

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When we take the Lord's Supper, God is spiritually present there.

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His manifest presence is there.

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Same with baptism.

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God's manifest presence is there.

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I have had numerous occasions where during baptism people have gotten healed or where

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during baptism people have had demons released over them.

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I was baptizing a guy in a pool, a hot tub in California, Southern California, many years

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ago.

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He came out of a Mormon background.

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When I took him under the water, he just manifested this demonic presence and began to squirm

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and scream.

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I had to call for help.

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Basically, we cast out a demon out of this guy.

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He was set free from that day forward.

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There's something about the baptism that has spiritual manifest presence of God in it.

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I think number two, that baptism is a regeneration within us through the act of coming out of

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the water from sin.

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There is something, again, the spiritual impact of that when we actually walk through the

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act of baptism that begins to set us free in a new way.

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Again, I can just tell you story after story of men and women who struggle with certain

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areas of their life, sin areas of their life, that when they got baptized, it was boom,

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it was gone.

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It was like off of them.

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I don't know if it was demonic.

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I don't know.

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Sometimes it is.

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Sometimes it's not.

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I just know that from that day forward, they were cleansed.

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They were free.

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God chose water.

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I mean, John the Baptist being the first to bring baptism into the New Testament, he came

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and he was baptizing with water.

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Baptism has always been with water.

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Water symbolizes cleansing.

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There is a cleansing aspect to this that's just, it's really supernatural.

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Then I think thirdly, lastly, baptism is a precursor.

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It sets us up for the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

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I've seen, again, I mean, I've done so many of these, but I've seen people get filled

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with the Holy Spirit at baptism, speak in tongues, have this manifest presence of God

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in their life of power that transforms from that day forward.

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Baptism's important.

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It's got power on it.

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The presence of God is there.

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We're commanded by Jesus to get baptized.

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So I want to encourage you, if you haven't been baptized, get baptized.

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If you were baptized as an infant and through this episode, this broadcast, you feel like

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you want to get baptized, then, man, get involved in a church.

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Next time there's a baptism, go get one or grab a pastor that you know or a Christian

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friend that you know.

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Go get baptized on a hot tub.

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It doesn't matter where you do it, but baptism's a key part of your journey with Christ.

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So God bless you, encourage you to get baptized and experience all, everything that God has

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for you, all the power that he has for you as a kingdom of God, revolutionary Christian.

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God bless you.