Baptismal Service For Kelsey Patterson April 2007

Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
View more →

Baptismal Service for Kelsey Patterson April 2007

Please turn with me to Matthew Chapter 28…

Introduction… Tonight we are here for the specific reason of Baptizing Mrs. Kelsey Patterson…

Kelsey is a wonderful young lady who has been a Christian for years…

But Kelsey was Baptized as a Baby in one of many churches that do infant Baptisms… and she was not Baptized once she asked Christ Jesus into her heart…

She decided that this is something that she should do… and something that she wanted to do… and I agree with her in her decision…

Matthew chapter 28:16-20 is a passage of scripture that we call the Great Commission…

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

This is a very powerful… and very important passage…

And some of you may or may not realize this… but this particular passage of scripture… at least the last two verses of this passage…

Is the purpose of the Church…

I mean… It should be the purpose of ALL churches… but Midway Baptist Church specifically made sure to place this passage in their constitution and bylaws as being the Purpose of the existence of our Church…

You will be hearing me speak much more about this in the near future…

But tonight I am very excited to be focusing on the Baptism aspect of this scripture…

I am always excited to be in Church… but when it comes to us having a Baptism… I just get doubly excited…

Many churches today don’t FOCUS on baptism…

They tack a baptism on to the front of their service…. Or they tack a Baptism on to the end of their service… and in between they just do what they were normally going to do anyway…

   I always like to focus specifically on the Baptism…

I mean… I love to preach… but if we were to just come here tonight and have the Baptism of Kelsey… I would be happy and excited to do that and nothing else…

And some may wonder about that…

Because we are commanded to do certain things as Christians that are extremely important in our walk with the Lord…

One thing that we are commanded to do is that we are commanded to come together and worship God…

Hebrews 10:25 says…

25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Here and in other places we are commanded to meet together… to encourage each other… to worship God together…

And I say to you tonight… that having a time of Baptism does all of that…

   It is something that brings us together as brothers and sisters in Christ…

It is something that helps to encourage us… as we see the willingness of others to openly and publicly profess their love for Christ…

It helps us worship together… as the act of Baptism itself is a form of worship… by a person obeying God… and obeying God’s word…

…We are also commanded to Study Gods Word and proclaim it to the world…

2 Timothy 2:15 says…

15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

Colossians 4:3 says…

3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.

1st john 1:1-3 says…

1     That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

And in many other places we are told to Study and proclaim the Word of God to a lost and dying world…

Our purpose statement tells us to go into all the world and proclaim the message of the Gospel… teaching it to the world…

And I say to you tonight… that Baptism does that…

Because it is a proclamation of our faith… it is a proclamation of the love we have for our savior… it is a proclamation to the entire world that we have studied the scriptures and are acting upon what the scriptures tell us to do…

… and also… we are commanded to obediently follow Christ…

Jesus said in john 14:21…

21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

And then a few verses later He said…

23 …. “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

We are commanded to follow and obey Christ Jesus…

And I submit to you tonight… that Baptism does just that…

Baptism is an act of obedience… an outward proclamation of our love for Christ…

Baptism conveys everything we wish to see in a Church service…

We gather together to proclaim the truth from scripture… and to obey what our savior commands us to do in scripture…

Baptism fulfills the purpose of the Church…

And I pray that we will see our purposed fulfilled more and more in the coming months…

But tonight we are here for Kelsey… to celebrate her decision… her commitment… her obedience to Christ…

And we are about to do just that…

Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more