Acts 22:1-16 | Stories God is Writing | Alex Culpepper

If you are new or visiting with us, which we have many of you who are visiting with us this morning. You don't know me, but my name is Alex Culpepper. I am the lead pastor here at Renovation Church. It's my joy to be able to welcome you. We have a very exciting day where we get to see people take a step of faith in following Jesus into the waters of baptism.

And so I just want to talk to you as we get into this morning. Normally, what we do on Sunday mornings is that we open up Scripture together. We look to God's Word. And so if you don't have a Bible with you, that's okay. We printed the passage that we're gonna be working through this morning out in the pamphlet that you received on the way in.

We want you to be able to follow along with us. And that's for many reasons. One of the reasons is I want you to know that as I stand up here, the things that I'm talking about, they're not coming from me, but. But they're coming from God's Word. And God's Word is timeless.

Our God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And he has chosen to reveal himself in Scripture. And it's the same Scripture that the church has been using for the last 2000 years. And so I want you to know that what I share with you this morning comes from things that we have relied upon throughout history since the time of Jesus. So I'm going to talk to you about the power of stories.

Stories shape our lives. They're very informative for us. They not only tell us information, but they catch our interest, right? They pull us in, they get us invested. They have us kind of waiting for the moment when the story gets resolved.

So we all have our own story. If you're new here, I don't know your story. But one of the things that I have been blessed to discover as I've gotten to know people, as I've reflected on my own life, is that life kind of does have a narrative quality to it. Like when you think back on your own life, you do something as you process it, where you fit it into the form of a story, right? You can have a beginning and a middle, and you've got challenges and you've got difficulties, and there may be some failures, but there also are some victories in it.

And part of why you're here this morning is because of the stories of a handful of people who have decided today that they're going to be baptized. Right? So if you Walk through the front door of our building. In our entryway, up on the wall is a phrase, and that phrase says, we are stories. God is writing about Jesus making things new, Right?

Those who what that means. The reason why we put that up there is that those who call this church home, we are a handful of people who have met Jesus, right? And in experiencing the love and the grace and the welcome of Jesus, even though we were lacking in ourselves, Jesus met us in a place where we lacked. Even though we had opposed God, Jesus extended to us grace and forgiveness. And in experiencing that, in experiencing kind of our own need for a Savior, we placed our faith and our trust in Jesus.

We surrendered our lives to Jesus. And what we did is we let God, God start writing our stories through what Jesus does in our lives. And in baptism, we celebrate the stories of people who are deciding to do the same thing to let God write their story. So before we get to the baptisms, I want to share a story with you. This story comes to us from Acts chapter 22.

So Acts 22, verse three, and I'm just going to put it up here on the screen for us. It says, I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, as all of you are this day. This is a guy who is sharing his story. This is the Apostle Paul. He's right.

Now, he has traveled the world. And what he has done in his traveling the known world is he has shared the good news about who Jesus is, the good news about what Jesus came to do. He has let people know that, hey, you are opposed to God. Hey, you have done things that are not in God's interest. But I want to let you know God has done something powerful in Jesus.

He sent Jesus to die. And then Jesus rose from the dead. And he is inviting you to be saved and to have new life. This is the message that Paul went and shared with people all over the world. And.

And as a result, there were people who decided to trust Jesus. And those people were formed into churches. And so Paul started a bunch of churches throughout the known world. But Paul was born Jewish. And being born Jewish, if you're kind of born in this community of people, you come to love the community of people that you're born in.

And what Paul wants is he wants his Jewish brothers and sisters to know who. Who Jesus is. That's what he wants for them. And so he starts sharing his own story with them. He's right now in the middle of Jerusalem where all the Jews are gathered together.

And in the middle of this place, he begins sharing his own story with Jesus. And so what he starts by saying is, he goes to the beginning of the story and he says, hey, I was a Jew's Jew, right? I followed all of the Jewish rules and, and customs. He said, I was educated at the feet of Gamaliel. Gamaliel was one of the foremost teachers of the law of Israel, right?

He's saying, I learned from the best of the best of the teachers that we have. He says, I was zealous for God. Now you like, well, anybody could say they're zealous for God. You might go, oh, well, how zealous was he? So verse four, this is how zealous he was.

He says, I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness when he says, I persecuted this way. The word this way, it is the vernacular that people in Jerusalem use to refer to the followers of Jesus. This is the word, the phrase that they have come up with to describe those people in Jerusalem who are following Jesus is a movement called the Way. And Paul says, here's how zealous I was. You want to know how strong my zeal for God was?

I carried out the death penalty against Jewish people who followed Jesus. I persecuted them to the death. He says, I hated Christians with a passion. I hated the way that they corrupted our Jewish religion. I hated the way that they corrupted this city, this holy city that God has built for us.

I hated Christians so much. So with the approval of the high priests and the elders and oh, by the way, they're sitting here right now. They're listening to me too. And they can tell you that they gave me this approval. By the approval of the high priests and, and the elders, I murdered Christians and I arrested Christians and I threw them in prison cells.

And this is of course true. The apostle Paul, before he was the apostle Paul had a different name. His name was Saul, Saul of Tarsus. And he was a renowned killer of Christians. That's what he did.

That was his occupation for a period of time. So verse 5, Acts 22:5, it says this. I journeyed toward Damascus to take those who were also were there to Jerusalem to be punished. So what he's saying is this became a multi city event, a multi city occupation that I was given. So now I'm going to a different city.

I went to Damascus. That way I might find the Christians who are in that city and round them up for their punishment, bring them back to Jerusalem. And verse six, he says, as I was on my way and drew near to Damascus about noon, a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? So as he's on the road, as he's going to round up some more Christians for their punishment, a miraculously blinding light.

It erupts out of nowhere to stop Saul in his tracks. And this event, whatever he encountered, was so powerful that he was knocked down by the force of it. So not only does he, like, see something miraculous, a blinding light, but also he encounters a physical force that brings him down, that knocks him over. And from the midst of that light and that physical force, he hears a question ring out. And the question is, saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

So verse eight. It's got to be a terrifying thing. Just. I mean, for what it's worth, I don't know if anybody in here has ever had an experience like that. If you have, please tell me.

I would love to hear that story, just love to hear it. But it's gotta be terrifying, right? Like, something comes out of nowhere. You don't see any kind of object or anything. You just suddenly see this light, and then it knocks you to the ground.

And so he says. I answered, who are you, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting. See, Saul had this encounter with Jesus. So who is Jesus?

Jesus had been killed by the Roman authorities. In cooperation with the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem. They arranged together, they worked out an arrangement by which Jesus could suffer one of the worst possible deaths imaginable. And so Jesus suffered on a cross. And Jesus gave up his life on the cross.

He died on that cross. And then he was buried. And his followers in Jerusalem started saying very interesting things. They said that, well, Jesus death on the cross was a death of forgiveness for sins. That by Jesus death on the cross, we no longer maintain our relationship with God by keeping the law.

Our relationship with God is maintained by the blood of Jesus, by his sacrifice, by what he did for us. Because of his forgiveness, we now have full access to God. We don't have to go to the temple to have access to God. We have access to God wherever we are right now because his Holy Spirit has come to dwell in us. He has made us clean with his blood.

By the result of his blood, His Holy Spirit now lives in us. This is what these Christians said. And not only that, they said, oh, yeah. And the way that we know all of these things are not things that we're just making up that they're actually true is because we saw Jesus risen from the dead after he was buried in the ground. That's what they said.

And of course, Saul didn't believe that any of that was true. They knew that Jesus was killed and that he was buried. And now Jesus is standing before Paul, right? Saul thought Jesus was dead. But right now, Jesus, the risen Jesus, the Jesus who has come up from the dead and out of the grave, is standing in front of Paul.

And Jesus has words for Paul.

Those people that you kill, that is violence that you do against me.

What you are doing to my people, you are doing to me. The suffering that you inflict is violence you do against me, you are doing to me. The suffering that you inflict is violence you do against me. So verse 10. And I said, what shall I do, Lord, in this moment, this is a crucial moment in Saul's story.

This question that he asks is the question that changes his entire life. This is the point where Saul was at the end of his rope, right? What he figures out in this moment, as the risen Jesus stands before him, is that all his life to please God are like trash, right? Everything that he did that he thought was righteous and he thought was the result of. Of zeal for God.

He finds out that it's garbage, right? That he's been pursuing something that is not legitimate, that he's been pursuing a way that is not true, that he has actually been working against the truth in this moment. He figures out just how bankrupt his life is. He's got nothing.

And so he's kind of come to this realization of his own lack and his own emptiness. And he said to Jesus, what do I do?

See, there are people who are gonna come up here today and their stories, I just wanna let you know, like, their stories are not like Paul's story. Like, none of them murdered Christians. I just want you to rest assured in that reality, right? None of them has imprisoned anybody. You're not gonna hear stories today of extreme violence that any of them has done.

But they all do share this one thing in common with Paul. When they came face to face with Jesus, they realized, I've got nothing to bring to the table, right? They've all been brought to the place of asking Jesus this question, what do I do, Lord? I'm out of options. I'm at the end of myself.

I've got nowhere to go to figure out what's. And so for everyone who comes to Jesus like that, I just want to let you know, Jesus always has a response for you. Always has a response for you. And so it goes on in verse 10 and 11 of Acts 22, and Paul says, the Lord said to me, rise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do. And since I could not see, I was led by the hand, by those who were with me and came into Damascus, okay?

So he went to the place that he was already headed to, but he's got a different assignment when he gets there. So verse 12, when I came to Damascus, verse 12. 1. Ananias, a devout man, according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to to me. Here's the thing.

This guy Ananias, if you read, we actually read. Paul is telling the story here. We actually read the story take place in Acts, chapter nine. And in Acts, chapter nine, what we find out is that Ananias actually knew who Saul was. He knew that Saul was the killer of Christians, right?

He knew that Saul was a concerning figure. But in Acts 9, we also see that the Lord appeared to this guy Ananias in a vision and commanded Ananias that he was going to go and he was going to pray for Paul. He was going to lay hands on Paul for Paul or Saul to regain his sight. So Jesus, who Saul had done violence against, sent one of his people who had been actively threatened by the things that Saul was doing, to be an extension of Jesus's grace and forgiveness by healing Saul's blindness. Because that's who Jesus is like, I don't care what you've done, whatever you think you've done, that's like, too much for Jesus to be able to forgive or to be Jesus to be able to cover for you.

Like, Saul killed Christians, right? Jesus died for those sins, and so he can. His forgiveness is rich enough for your sin as well. He died for sins, and Jesus is in the business of forgiveness. And so verse 13, Ananias came to me.

And standing by me, he said, brother Saul, receive your sight. And at that very hour, I received my sight and I saw him. I saw ananias. And verse 14, him I saw ananias. And verse 14, he said, so this Ananias, who gets a vision from the Lord, he didn't really want to go and do this for Saul, but the Lord said, well, hey, I'm telling you to do it, so you just need to go do it.

And so Ananias was like, okay, Lord. So Ananias has a message for Saul. This is what he said to Saul. He said, the God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will and to see the righteous one. He's saying, you saw Jesus.

He appointed you for this, to hear a voice from his mouth. Jesus has a message for you that he has given you, that he is going to give you. Verse 15. For you will be a witness for Jesus to everyone of what you have seen, heard. See, when we come to Jesus, Jesus always has a purpose for us.

And here he made his purpose clear to Saul. He was going to receive instruction from Jesus that he would then share with others as a witness to tell about the things that he had seen and heard. Jesus was going to use this man who had done violence against him. And so for all those who are pursuing baptism today, I just want to let you know, Jesus has a plan and a purpose for you, too. He wants to use you.

He has ideas for how you will be used for his kingdom and his glory. So Ananias goes on, and in verse 16, he says this. And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins. Calling on his name here, Ananias, he's gonna baptize Saul.

And Saul is going to experience in that baptism that Jesus truly does forgive the deepest of sins, right? That Jesus truly does love him greater than anyone has ever loved anyone else, and that Jesus is the Lord of his life. So what is baptism? Baptism is a line on the sand. Baptism is a line in the sand.

It's a marker that says, hey, I once lived for myself, but now I'm gonna live for him, right? For Paul, he's saying, hey, at one time, I was a Jew's Jew, right? But now I belong to Jesus. So everybody who's gonna come up here and be baptized this morning, they each have a unique story, but they all share in common one thing. They have come to believe that Jesus is their only hope for life and death.

And they today are going to put that on display that they belong to Jesus and that they are forgiven by Jesus. And so then baptism is two things. When you see what happens up here today, I just want to let you know what baptism is. Baptism is, number one, an act of obedience, right? Because Jesus commanded his followers to baptize people in the name of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit.

In Matthew, chapter 28, he says all authority has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples. Make people who will follow me from everybody, from every nation. And as you do it, you will baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. So baptism is an act of obedience, number one, to Jesus command.

And not only that, I would say it is a powerful act of. Of obedience. Because of number two, baptism is a symbol and a message. Baptism is a way of saying that. I'm making it clear here and now.

My confidence is in Jesus. I am committed to Jesus. I will rely on his forgiveness the rest of my days. My life belongs to Him. I just think it's very important to say that message is not just a message for the human beings who are sitting in this room.

Although it is a message for us, it's also a message to the spiritual realm, because there are demons that are also looking in on this. And what we are proclaiming to those demons is that the life of these people now belongs to Jesus. They're drawing a line in the sand and say, I belong to Jesus. I'm following him. Okay, so what?

So what? This is a question that I ask every Sunday because I come up here and talk, and sometimes I talk for a long time. And so I feel like by the time we get to the end, we may have forgotten, like, what all of it means and how it ties together. So I'm going to try to tie this together for you. And I simply have one question for you this morning.

So what? Are you open to Jesus changing your story? Right? Everybody up here who's going to be baptized, they share the same aspect of their story in common. And myself, I have run out of options, and I need Jesus to forgive me and lead me.

So if you haven't trusted in Jesus to forgive you and give you new life, I would implore you today, place your trust in Jesus. And you're like, okay, well, how do I do that? What does that look like? If you don't know how to do that, there's going to be an opportunity. After the baptisms, we're going to sing some songs in worship.

There will be people up here to pray with you. And I would just encourage you if you're like, how do I place my trust in Jesus? I want to do that. I believe that Jesus has something for me. I would encourage you when the opportunity comes.

God, receive prayer. Seek out prayer. Because there are people who would love to tell you what it looks like to trust Jesus. It would be their great privilege. So this is what I'm going to do.

I'm going to pray, and then I am going to transition us to our baptisms. So would you pray with me, Father? I pray a blessing on all of those who are coming forward to draw the line in the sand and say that they are following Jesus today.

So, Holy Spirit, we ask that you would come, that you would fall on this place, that you would just make your presence very evident to us as there are witnesses here, people who are sharing testimonies of what you've done in their life as they take a step of following you and God, I pray that you would make us all receptive, give us spiritual eyes, give us ears to hear, eyes to see what it is that you are doing and make us receptive to what you want to do in our lives as well. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. So if I could have the Wilson family come forward, you guys can sit right up here at the front.

And then. Yeah, Renee, thank you for helping out. We've got a little bit of shifting around that's going to happen.

Yeah, you're good. So Charles is going to be baptized first. Charles, you can come on around.

Charles and his family got connected to our church through Crossroads. They're all going to be baptized today, the whole family.

And so here we go. Why don't you go ahead and step in?

There you go. All right. So he has. Charles has some words to share with you about his story with Jesus, and I'll let him share those now. I realized I needed Jesus because I knew my life was missing something.

And I knew I didn't have an answer for everything going wrong in my life, I came to trust Christ as my. My Savior. As I was reading scripture and learning more about his teachings and how they can fit into every aspect of my life, I decided to follow Jesus because I realized he alone is the way, the truth, and the life.

My favorite things about having Jesus in my life are knowing that he always wants what's best for me and my family and feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit. I believe that God is perfect and I am a sinner. I believe the Father sent his only son to die for my sins on the cross. I believe Jesus arose on the third day and sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within me. I believe he is coming back.

My faith and trust are in Jesus alone.

So, Charles, do you renounce the world, the devil, and all of their works? If so, say I do with God's help. And will you seek to follow Jesus as The Lord of your life? If so, say I will. With God's help.

I will. With God's help. So, Charles, your words indicate to me that your life belongs to Jesus. And as such, it is my privilege to now baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

It's all right. That's good. We didn't know how cold the water was going to be, so we're just, like, testing this out on the fly. It's exciting. All right, Carrie, you can.

You can come forward so she has some words to share with you about her story with Jesus. All right. I realized I needed Jesus because no matter how hard I tried to be good enough, there was always guilt, brokenness, and a sense that something was missing. I came to trust Christ as my Savior when I realized that no amount of good works, no amount of effort or being a good person could erase my sin or earn me a place with God. I've decided to follow Jesus as my Lord.

Because I had tried running my own life, making decisions based on what I thought was best, but it always left me empty and searching. I now know I'm in God's hands. The best thing about having Jesus in my life is a peace of knowing I'm never alone. No matter what I face, he's with me, guiding me, forgiving me, and loving me without condition.

I believe that God is perfect and I am a sinner. The Father sent His only Son to die for my sins on the cross. Jesus arose on the third day and sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within me. He is coming back, and my faith and trust are in Jesus alone. I believe that God is perfect and I am a sinner.

I believe that the Father. Okay. I believe the Father sent His only Son to die for my sins on the cross. I believe Jesus arose on the third day and sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within me. I believe that he is coming back.

My faith and trust are in Jesus alone.

Carrie, do you renounce the world, the devil, and all their works? If so, say I do. With God's help, I do. With God's help. And will you seek to follow Jesus as the Lord of your life?

If so, say I will. With God's help, I will. Always. God's help. Carrie, your words indicate to me that your life belongs to Jesus.

And as such, it is my privilege to now baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

There you go. Good job.

Yeah, that's good. All right, Casey, you're next. Come on up.

So I'm going to share Casey's words for her. These are her own words that she wrote down, but she preferred that I would read them for her. So Casey says. I realized I needed Christ when I heard that he is the only way to heaven. I came to trust Christ because I realized that all the good things in my life were actually blessings that he had given me.

I've decided to follow Jesus as the Lord of my life because he is the light of my life. He shows me the right path for my life and gives me the strength and the ability to forgive others as he has forgiven me. He helps guide me through life by helping me avoid people and situations that could lead me sin. I believe that God is perfect and that I am a sinner. I believe the Father sent His only Son to die for my sins on the cross.

I believe Jesus arose on the third day and sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within me. I believe he is coming back and my faith and trust are in Jesus alone. Amen.

Casey, do you renounce the the world, the devil, and all their works? If so, say I do. With God's help. I do. With God's help.

And will you seek to follow Jesus as the Lord of your life? If so, say I will. With God's help. I will. With God's help.

So, Casey, your words indicate to me that your life belongs to Jesus. And as such, it is now my privilege to baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Nice job.

That's good, Colton. Come on up. Here are your glasses.

Cannonball. Here we go. That's right.

Oh, yeah. Hey, that's a little high, isn't it? We'll fix that. We'll fix that. There you go.

I realized I needed Jes. Okay, there we go. Good. I realized I needed Jesus because I know I need help making better choices in life. I came to trust Jesus after all the lessons I've learned from the Bible.

By knowing Jesus as the Lord, I learned that Jesus is a loving person that I can trust. I want to be a better person. And I know by following Jesus as the Lord, I can receive forgiveness and become a better person. My favorite parts of following Jesus are going to church and learning about the Bible. I believe God is perfect and I'm a sinner.

I believe the Father sent His one and only Son to die for my sins on the cross. I believe Jesus arose on the third day and sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within me. I believe he is Coming back, my faith and trust are in Jesus alone. Good job, Colton. Good job, Colton.

Do you renounce the world, the devil, and all their works? If so, say I do. With God's help, I do. With God's help. Will you seek to follow Jesus as the Lord of your life?

If so, say I will. With God's help, I will with. So, Colton, your words indicate to me that your life belongs to Jesus, and as such, it is my joy to now baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Yes.

All right, you guys can feel free to walk out the back door and around there. So, Brooklyn, you're up next, so why don't you come forward here?

All right. There you go. You want to read it? All right. You got it.

I started going to crossroads at Sycamore Trails. That's when I started to realize my need for Christ. Then one day, Ms. Deb explained to me that Jesus loves me and that he died for my sins. I know that I'm a sinner, and the only way my sins can be forgiven is by believing in Jesus and what he has done for me. Ms. Deb asked me if I wanted to have Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and I said yes.

I believe in the trinity of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. God is perfect for sending his one and only Son to die for my sins, my sins of today and my sins of tomorrow. I believe Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead and sent the Holy Spirit that lives in me today. My faith and my trust is in Jesus alone. I thank my family and this church for strengthening my faith and helping me grow.

I am very excited that I am getting baptized today, and I am excited to keep seeing my relationship with God get stronger every day in God's inspired word. Amen.

We're very excited, too, Brooklyn. Just want to let you know that. So, Brooklyn, do you renounce the world, the devil, and all their works? If so, say I do, with God's help. And will you seek to follow Jesus as the Lord of your life?

If so, say I will, with God's help. So, Brooklyn, your words indicate to me that your life belongs to Jesus. And as such, it is my privilege to now baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

All right, Julian, come on up, man.

Yeah, Come on.

Yeah. It is warm. That's what everybody says. So that's good to hear. I'm glad to hear it.

All right, so Julian has asked me to share his words with all of you. He says, I'd first like to start by mentioning what made me realize I need Christ. Honestly, it's because I know that he can see things that we can't. And therefore he knows how to guide us down the right and correct path. After many trials and errors, I realized that Christ has saved me and protected me from many bad situations every time that I lived in sin.

Yes, I had fun, but I saw that it always led to self destruction. And so I recently prayed to receive Christ as my Savior. And I know that in Jesus I am forgiven for my sins. The best thing about faith in him is that he makes anxiety and fear fade away. I believe he gave each one of us a goal and a purpose on this earth.

And that attending church and worship and hearing God's word purifies our souls and keeps us on the right path. I believe that God is perfect and I am a sinner. I believe that the Father sent His only Son to die for my sins on the cross. I believe Jesus arose on the third day and sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within me. I believe he is coming back and my faith and trust are in Jesus alone.

So, Julian, do you renounce the world, the devil and all their works? If so, say I do. With God's help. I do. With God's help.

And will you seek to follow Jesus as the Lord of your life? If so, say I will. With God's help. I will. With God's help.

So, Julian, your words indicate to me that your life belongs to Jesus. And as such, it is my privilege. Well, actually, why don't you step forward here? I don't want to hit your head on the back of the thing. There we go.

As such, it is my privilege to now baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

You're good. You're good.

Good job. Stormy, you're up next. Come on up.

Buckle in, guys. Killer testimony, this girl. I mean, yeah, they're all killer, but yeah, I'm excited.

My need for Christ was realized when he visited me in the dream. As an adolescent, Christ provided me with the message in the way of fire of a burning bush in my dream. And made Himself known to me in a physical sense. And I knew for certain he was real and alive within me. I felt all the love that he had for me within my spirit.

When I had my first epiphany. Knowing for certain that he is real and dwells within my heart has let me know that I will need him and carry him with me throughout my lifetime. I came to trust Christ because despite of all the pain and suffering I have endured, he provides me with signs and dreams throughout my life, letting me know he has heard me and answered my prayers. The Lord has allowed me to go through the pain of losing everything that I thought I loved to show me that he is the only love I should concern myself with. When I had no one, I had him and he loved me.

I was torn down so he could build me up. I have decided to follow Jesus as Lord of my life because there is no other way. Without him, everything on this earth shall perish. But not my soul. My soul belongs to Jesus.

I can see all the blessings that God's provided me with each and every day. And when you can see these things for yourself, it is easier to love and follow Christ. When you are troubled, there is such comfort to know that the Lord has His eye on me and thinks of me every day when he opens my eyes. My favorite thing about having Jesus in my life is that I have an unconditional love by my side and within my heart. Regardless of what's going on in the world around me.

I have peace in knowing that my pain that I'm going through is only temporary because I am working towards a love that is everlasting. Not only that Jesus and I have a friendship. We speak to each other in a friendship way. I truly feel that he's my very best friend and knows my heart and my intentions. I love to help others and make people laugh.

And my love of the Lord allows me to do so. I believe that God is perfect and I am a sinner. I believe that the Father sent His only Son, Jesus to die on the cross for my sins. I believe that Jesus rose from death and sent the Holy Spirit to live in me. I believe Jesus is to going coming back.

My faith and trust are in Jesus alone.

Stormy, do you renounce the world, the devil and all their works? If so, say I do. With God's help. I do. With God's help.

And will you seek to follow Jesus as the Lord of your life? If so, say I will. With God's help. I will. With God's help.

Well, Stormy, your words indicate to me that that your life belongs to Jesus. And as such, it is my privilege to now baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

All right, we've got one more. Katie, so I'm going to give some context. Our typical practice is to follow the biblical pattern of baptism, which is to go under the water and to come up out of the water. Katie has a back condition where if she gets cold water on her back, her back will seize up and she will be immobilized and in pain for a few days. And so as a result, we are baptizing her, believing that her testimony and this display is effective to still tell you what Jesus has done in her life.

And so now I'm going to let Katie share her story with you. Yeah, you all probably know a bunch of my story. So to sum it up, when I was 18 years old, I was baptized at my father's church.

And it actually took some digging for me to figure out how they baptized people, because I don't remember back that far, but they baptize in the name of the Holy Spirit, only in the name of Jesus and. No, just the Holy Spirit. Just the Holy Spirit. And I spent three weeks with my brother here, the last three weeks, who is a devout Christian or a devout Catholic, and he goes, no, you need to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Beyond a hundred other discussions we've had in those three weeks. So. And this was. Has been weighing on my mind a little since he announced there would be a baptism.

When I was baptized at the age of 18 years, I thought I had the world by the tail because I was full in Jesus. We got this, and he showed me how wrong I was. And I spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness. Sound familiar?

40 plus years.

And then my whole world stopped. But I ended up back here. Not only physically back home, but spiritually back home to a place that was familiar. For I had been here on multiple occasions when I come see my family.

And I knew I was home and I knew how bad I had gone off course.

So with a lot of help and a lot of prayer and a lot of time, I knew it was the only place to turn. There was no other place. And he forgave me. And I believe he forgave me. For as hard as that is to believe sometimes.

And I don't know if that answers all your questions, but so in closing, I know I'm going to say it like everybody else.

I do believe that God is perfect and I am a sinner. I believe the Father has sent his only son, Jesus, to die on the cross for my sins and yours and yours. I believe Jesus rose from the dead and sent his Holy Spirit to live in me. I do believe Jesus is coming back and my faith and trust are in him alone.

Katie, do you renounce the world, the devil, and all of their works? If so, say I do, with God's help. And will you seek to follow Jesus as the Lord of your life? If so say I will, with God's help. Well, Katie, your words indicate to me that your life belongs to Jesus.

And as such, it is my privilege to now baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

There we go. That's good. Amen.