Description
THREAD
A Common Thread
Ed Young
April 30 – May 1, 2005
If you have your Bibles, take them and turn to the book of John. John Chapter 1:29. Here’s the context: John the Baptist saw Jesus, and he knew it was when Jesus was stepping up and stepping out to begin his public ministry. So, here’s what he said, “Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
Now turn to the book of Acts; Acts Chapter 2:41. This is the beginning of the early church, and you know that the Apostles were preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ—the death, burial, and resurrection of our Savior. And these Apostles, many who had kind of cowered, had slithered through the shadows prior to the resurrection, were now standing up and saying, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” The Bible says many became followers of Christ that day. It says 3,000 were added to their number that day. 3,000 people in this first church came to know Christ at once. So if you have a problem with a big church, you have a problem with the first church, because the first church grew by 3,000 people in the first minute of its existence; 3,000 people became followers of Christ.
There was a guy named Philip and Philip was an evangelist who traveled south of Jerusalem. And he was talking to an Ethiopian eunuch who happened to be reading the book of Isaiah. And as he talked to him, the Ethiopian eunuch became a Christian.
It’s amazing to see how the gospel began to spread throughout the world. Simon Peter thought Christianity was a Jewish thing. He began to pray and God revealed to him that Christianity was a people thing. He talked to a guy named Cornelius. Cornelius was a Roman centurion and Cornelius, a gentile, became a follower of Christ. And Cornelius’ entire household became believers.
What did those accounts have in common? What thread do you see woven through each of those texts? Well, to answer that question, let me ask you another question. What do the following items have in common: a catfish, Starbuck’s coffee, a jet ski, a scuba diver, and a brand new Christian? For those things to work right, you just add water. You just add water.
When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he said, “Jesus, just add water,” and Christ was baptized.
When 3,000 people followed Christ, they looked at the Apostles who had preached all these messages and they said, “What do we do now?” And the Apostles said, “Just add water.” They were all baptized. The Bible says 3,000 were baptized that day.
When Philip began to talk to the Ethiopian eunuch about Jesus, and when the eunuch became a Christ follower, this man stopped his Range Rover Chariot (that’s my translation) and Philip said, “Just add water.” They walked down the banks and he baptized the Ethiopian eunuch.
When Cornelius and his household followed Christ, Simon Peter said, “Just add water.” They were all baptized.
THE BIG FOUR
Baptism is going big. Baptism is a very, very important thing throughout Scripture. When you think about Baptism, I think you need to think about big stuff.
OBEDIENCE
I think we need to think about obedience. Because when people ask me, “Okay, Ed, how do you summarize the Christian life? What’s the Christian life all about?” In one word, it’s about obedience. That’s the Christian life—obedience.
Jesus says, “Do this,” and we do that. Jesus said, “Act this way in your marriage or with parenting or when it comes to our sexuality or what we put into our bodies.” And we do what he says. The Christian life is about obedience. It is a decision followed by a process. And the Lord tells us, he commands us, to get baptized. In fact, after we make a faith decision, Jesus tells us to go public, to go on record, to come out of the shadows into the light. He tells us, “Just add water. Just add water.”
Many of you have made a faith decision. Many of you have stepped over the line, and here’s my question to you. Have you gone public? Have you obeyed Christ’s words and entered the waters of New Testament baptism?
You know, it really messes me up how people will say, “Oh, yeah, you know, I’m trusting Christ with my eternity; I’m trusting Christ with my forgiveness and all that. But I’m going to balk at the first test of obedience. I’m going to balk at baptism.” Obedience. It’s huge. It’s big when you think about baptism.
IDENTIFICATION
Identification is another thing that’s big when you think about baptism. Identification. When we’re baptized, we’re identifying ourselves with Christ. When we go under the water, we’re identifying with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. We’re being submerged. We’re getting soaked, drenched, wet. We’re saying, “I’m on Christ’s team.”
What if I said, “You know, I love the Mavericks. I really do. I love the Mavericks. But I don’t like to see the Mavericks play. I don’t like their uniforms. I don’t like Dirk Nowitzki. Mark Cuban makes me sick. But I love the Mavericks! But I don’t like to, ugh, have anything really to do with the Mavericks.” You’d go, “Wait a minute, man. What are you smoking?”
People say, “Well, I love Jesus. I love him. But, you know, I’m not a part of a local church. I’m not serving in a church. And, no I’ve not been baptized, you know. I don’t want to wear Christianity on my sleeve.”
You know, a while back, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to someone, and if I called this person’s name most of you would probably know this person. He’s kind of a celebrity type. And this person said, “You know, Ed, I’m a Christ follower. But you know, I don’t wear Christianity on my sleeve.” This guy’s got it all wrong, man. As a Christian, we wear it on our sleeve. Not as a negative thing, but we’re proud to say, “You know what? I’m stepping up. I’m stepping out. I’m going public with my faith.”
Because in the Bible, you publicly professed your faith. In fact, Jesus said, “If you profess me; if you confess me before men, I’ll tell the Father in heaven about that.” So we’re identifying with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ when we’re baptized. We’re showing people, we’re showing the world that our life has been changed.
WASHING
Washing is something else we should think about when we think about baptism. My sins have been forgiven and forgotten. I’m cleansed. Not by anything I’ve done, but because of what’s been done for me through Christ. It’s something I don’t deserve. That’s why we submerge people when we baptize people at Fellowship Church. That’s why we dunk people. It’s because the waters symbolize the fact that Jesus has washed our sins away. He’s already done the work. We either receive the work or not.
JUDGMENT
Judgment is something else when you think about baptism and how big it is. Do you realize water and judgment go together? Think about the Noah-ation flood when God rained and God flooded the earth to judge the people because sin had reached a fever pitched level. It was a wheels-off situation. Yet, God spared Noah and his family, that faithful group.
Do you remember when the Egyptians were chasing the Israelites? The Israelites had left slavery and that whole situation and God drowned the Egyptian army with the waters of judgment and death?
Do you remember Jonah? When Jonah was running from God and they cast him overboard, he sank into the depths of judgment and the big fish swallowed him. And then three days later, he barfed him up on land. And the New Testament talks about that that’s a picture of Jesus Christ.
When you’re baptized, when I was baptized, it’s a picture of identification. It’s a picture of being washed and it’s a picture of obedience, but also it’s a picture of us passing through judgment; passing through the waters of judgment. Because we can’t last under water very long, can we? We pass through the waters of death and judgment because of our mediator, because of the person of Christ. We pass through death and judgment because of Jesus, because we’ve received it. That’s why baptism is so big.
We’re stepping up, we’re stepping out and the Bible says, from cover to cover, when we make a faith decision, we’re to go on record. And Jesus said, “Just add water. Just add water.”
Whenever I talk about baptism, whenever I talk about going public, people always ask questions. Questions, questions, questions. And all the questions I’ve dealt with and fielded over the years about baptism are pretty much lumped into five basic questions.
THE BABY QUESTION
The first question is the baby question. How many of you were baptized, like my wife was, as an infant? You were sprinkled. Lift your hands. I want to show you what the Bible says about infant baptism. Just a second. [Ed begins flipping through the pages of his Bible looking for a verse.] This is what the Bible says about infant baptism. [Another pause as Ed continues to search scriptures.] Nothing!
Now am I saying that you’re baptism didn’t take? No, I’m not saying that. People are asking, “Well, what are you saying?” No, no, I’m not saying that. As I said, Lisa was baptized in the Lutheran church as an infant. Recently, I was at a church in another state and I saw an infant baptism. It was great. I saw the pastor carrying the infant up and down the aisles of the church singing, “Feelings, whoa, whoa…” No! He wasn’t singing that. That was last weekend. He was singing, “Jesus loves the little children all the children of the world….” I thought, “Man, this is a really cool thing for the child’s parents.” But this little baby boy had no idea of his depravity. He had no idea of the fact that God sent Jesus Christ as his substitutionary atonement to pay the price on Calvary for his sins, thus securing victory over the grave, sin, and death. This kid was clueless about that.
When we have a question at Fellowship Church—and we made this decision 15 years ago—we don’t say, “What do people say?” or “What’s popular?” We don’t say, “What does the culture say?” We don’t say, “What do the denominations say?” We say, “What does the Bible say?” The B-I-B-L-E. That’s the book for me. I stand alone on the word of God, the B-I-B-L-E.
When people ask you, “Hey, what kind of church is Fellowship Church?” It’s very simple. We’re a Bible-teaching church. The Bible is our only authority. We have no manmade creed. We have no group in Melbourne, Australia or Manhattan telling us how to do church. When we began Fellowship Church in a small office complex with a 150 people, with one rented typewriter, and with me being the only staff member and pastor, when it came to baptism, because baptism is big, we said, “What does the B-I-B-L-E that’s the book for me, I stand alone on the word of God, the B-I-B-L-E say about baptism?”
So we began to research it. Let’s just see what the Bible says about baptism. There’s not any record of an infant baptism in the Bible. That is why we don’t baptize infants. Look at Matthew 19 for example. Jesus loved little children. He blessed little children. But he never baptized a child. Nor did he instruct someone to baptize a child. He never did. Every baptism in the Bible occurred when someone was old enough to make a faith decision. Following the faith decision, they entered the waters of baptism. First you have the faith decision, then the baptism.
Memorial Day weekend we will pack the front of Fellowship Church four times. And also, we’ll pack the front of our satellite campuses in Uptown, Plano and Alliance with parents, single parents, and little ones. We don’t baptize infants, but we have parent-child dedication services where the parents say, before God, “We’re going to bust it to give our child the opportunity to know Jesus Christ personally. We’re going to be a part of the most important thing out there, the local church that underscores and highlights those transcendent values taught and modeled in the family given to us by God. We’re going to be all up in that. We’re going to be all over that. That is what we’re going to do.”
We do that service every year and it’s a great thing. But we wait until children are old enough to understand what it means to make a faith decision. And then, after that, we baptize them.
So based on Scripture, if you’ve been sprinkled as an infant and you have made a faith decision in Christ, I would challenge you, based on Scripture, to be re-baptized. And we’ve re-baptized many people by immersion, and we’ve never had one to come up out of the water and say, “You know? I wish I hadn’t done that. I wish I hadn’t gone through with it.” We’ve never had that.
THE CLOROX QUESTION
The second question is a question I call the Clorox question. “Is baptism like spiritual Clorox? I mean, are there like supersonic spiritual powers in the waters that cleanse you and forgive you of all your sins when you’re baptized?”
Sometimes I ask people, “Tell me about your spiritual pilgrimage. Tell me about when you met Jesus Christ personally.” And people say, “Well, I was baptized when I was twelve,” or, “You know, I was baptized.” And I say, “Man, okay that’s cool. I’m glad you were baptized. But tell me when you became a Christ follower,” because baptism does not make someone a Christian. If I walk into Whataburger, I’m not automatically a french fry or a hamburger. You know? If there was some kind of baptismal technology that could baptize us a squillion times day, you could still bust hell wide open. Baptism doesn’t do it. Well, what does it then? Well, let’s read it here. Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith– and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
“For it is by grace that you’ve been saved, through faith (plus infant baptism)?” No, it doesn’t say that!
“For it by grace you’ve been saved, through faith (plus being baptized in the Lutheran church)?” No!
“For it is by grace you’ve been saved, through faith (plus being a Baptist)?” Well, definitely not!
“For it by grace that you’ve been saved through faith…”! That’s it! Not from yourselves, it’s the gift of God. Not by works, so no one can boast. “For it is by grace you’ve been saved through faith.” That’s it.
Baptism does not make you or me a Christian. It is a symbol, it’s a sign, it’s packed with spiritual significance. It’s packed with blessing, but it does not make you a follower of Christ. It’s the litmus test. It’s the first obedience test. It’s going public. You’re identifying with Jesus Christ. You’re being obedient. You’re passing through the waters of judgment. You’re showing your sins have been washed and cleansed and cleaned and all that, but it doesn’t make you a Christian. That’s the Clorox question.
THE ATTORNEY QUESTION
How many attorneys do we have in the house? I love lawyers. Lawyers are funny. They really are. And that’s this next question I’m going to talk about. The attorney question.
Lawyer’s can ask some questions. They’ll go like, “Technically speaking, can a person go to heaven without being baptized? I mean can you prove that beyond a reasonable doubt?”
Yeah, I think I can. Jesus was crucified between two common criminals. One of the criminals said, “You know, Christ, I want to follow you and Jesus said, ‘Jump down off the cross; get baptized.’” No, he didn’t say that! What did he say? “From this day forward, you’ll spend eternity with me in paradise.”
So technically speaking, yes, we can go to heaven without being baptized. But I always wonder the motivation behind that question? Why would someone ask that question? Why, why, why, why? Because once again, once we understand the grace and the mercy and the favor of God, the love of God; once we’ve been ambushed by that love; once we’ve received that, we should joyfully and obediently and lovingly enter the waters of baptism. We should humble ourselves and show others, “I am on Christ’s team.”
THE H2O QUESTION
The fourth question is the H2O question. That’s the water question. In Mark 1:5 it says that Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River. I’ve baptized people in the Jordan River before. That’s a great place to get baptized. And I’ve baptized a lot of people there. The last time I was there in Israel, it was during the winter, and the snow was melting off those mountains and flowing down into the Jordan River. The river was so cold, when I baptized people, it sounded like this [Ed sings in a high pitch to illustrate how cold it was]. It was crazy.
Mark 1:5, Jesus was baptized “…in the Jordan River.” This word “in” in the original Greek is spelled “en.” “En” in Greek means “in”! Not alongside. “In” the Jordan River. Mark 1:10 says that “…Jesus was coming up out of the water.” Out of the water. “Eck” in the original Greek means “out.” So Jesus was obviously baptized by immersion. The word “baptize” in the original Greek “baptizo” means to dip, to immerse, to cover. That is why we baptize by immersion. Read church history. For the first 1,300 years, immersion was the universally accepted mode of baptism.
“Well, Ed, why do we have sprinkling?” We have sprinkling because of convenience; because there were shortages of water during certain parts of history. And that’s how sprinkling happened.
We baptize, though, by immersion. That’s the best picture of a burial. If I wanted to bury this Bible, I wouldn’t pour dirt on it. I wouldn’t sprinkle dirt on it. I would dig a big, honkin’ hole, put the Bible in the big, honkin’ hole and cover it with dirt. That’s what baptism represents. We’re buried. The old life, we’re dead to that junk. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus; and now, the new life. That’s the H2O question. That’s why we baptize by immersion. Because of the B-I-B-L-E; that’s the book for me. I stand a lone on the word of God, the B-I-B-L-E.
THE MECHANICS QUESTION
Here’s the fifth question. The mechanics question: “Okay, what happens? I know, Ed, you don’t spritz, you don’t sprinkle, you don’t pour, you dunk.”
Have you ever seen that show that’s real popular called “Punk’d?” If you’re over 35, you don’t know what I’m talking about. “Punk’d” is basically Candid Camera on steroids. And a lot of us have been “punked” when it comes to baptism. Instead of being punked, we need to get dunked.
The Bible says in Galatians 3:27, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” That’s thread, isn’t it? We’ve been talking about that. Jesus is woven into the very fabric and framework of who we are. Today, I’m soaking wet. And this is what happened when I was baptized years ago. And this covering is simply a microcosm of my life, because I’ve been clothed and washed and cleansed and covered in Jesus. That’s how I should live my life. I should have this fashion sense. I should have this passion to be clothed in Christ.
How do I know if I’m clothed in Christ? How do I know if I’m wearing him? I have to look in the mirror. What’s the mirror? The mirror is the Bible. And what does the Bible tell me? The Bible tells me after I become a Christian, after I’ve clothed myself in Christ, I’m to get baptized. So don’t hesitate, liquidate. Don’t get punked, get dunked. Go H2O. I’m rhyming today. Rhyme on the dime, every time!
Owen Goff, come out if you would? [Owen Goff – Fellowship Church’s ministerial care Pastor, comes out on stage.] I want to demonstrate on Owen [how we baptize], because people ask this mechanics question, Owen, all the time don’t they? You know what, we’re going to baptize today. The Bible says in Acts Chapter 2, read it, that 3,000 were baptized when? That day. When? That day. When? That day! So we’re going to baptize at Fellowship Church “that day.” I like that. That day. That day, Owen.
“Well, man, I didn’t come prepared for baptism.” We have prepared for you. We’ve got free shorts, these cool shorts. You know, long shorts are in. It’s not the 80s any more. Those short shorts, no.
Isn’t it hilarious seeing these people locked in the 80s? They still wear the short shorts. I’m like, “Brother, shorts are long now!” Lisa has a picture on her screen saver of me in college. I had these ridiculously short shorts on. And my kids say, “Dad, you look like an idiot.” Some people still wear short shorts though, I can’t believe it.
Anyway, we have these long shorts we’ll give you. Give you! And these cool tee shirts with “Fellowship Church” on them. We’ll give them to you. We have robes. We won’t give you the robes, though. You’ll have to give them back. We have changing rooms for the men and the women. A lot of you are hesitating; you’re doing the Heisman pose when it comes to baptism. You need to enter the waters of the New Testament baptism. We’re going to have a spontaneous baptismal service after this service. You’ve heard of spontaneous combustion? This is spontaneous baptism, Owen.
So, our pastors will be in our baptismal pool. Isn’t that a beautiful place to be baptized, out there by the lake? It’s unbelievable, isn’t it!
Owen: It is. I’ve never seen anything more beautiful.
Ed: I haven’t either. I haven’t either. And Owen, we’ve baptized a lot of people. And we’ve not lost, you know, a person yet, have we?
Owen: No.
Ed: No, we haven’t. It’s a great record! 15 years of baptism, haven’t lost one person.
Owen: That’s great!
Ed: So in a couple of moments, many, I believe, will be baptized. And this a very, very special time; a defining moment. And some of the pastors will be in the baptismal pool. It’s warm. The water’s clean. We check it all the time. Everything’s healthy and all that. No water moccasins in there. Okay?
“What if I’m scared of water?” We have people who are scared of water sometimes. Some people are like, “Man, I don’t want my hair to get wet.” I’ve had some people tell me…. That’s probably another question; sixth question, the hair question: “What will people say about my hair?”
Well, look how funky my hair looks today. Anyway, I’ll get you to grab my arm right here and my wrist right here and here’s what’ I’ll say. I’ll say, “I baptize you, my brother…”
Let me stop. Now, Owen and I are brothers because we have the same Father. I’m talking about our Heavenly Father. Really, Owen’s last name is not Goff. It’s Christian. Owen Christian. My last name is really not Young. It’s Christian. And we’ve been adopted. Say it with me, adopted into the family of God. So God’s our Father. We’ve been adopted through Christ.
The New Testament uses the word “adoption,” because back in biblical times, a family could not disown an adopted child. They could disown a biological one, but not an adopted one. How many of you here have been adopted? Isn’t that awesome? You’re a reflection of the doctrine of adoption in the New Testament. We’re adopted, I’m adopted, you’re adopted into the family of God because I was born a sinner, so were you. Owen, all these people are sin, sin, sinners. We’ve been adopted into the family of God by Jesus Christ.
So I say, “I baptize you my brother (or you my sister), in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” That’s the Trinity—three in one, one in three. Co-existent, co-eternal. Remember, I said a couple of weeks ago, God said, “Let us make man in our own image.” Us, our… that’s the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. You’re a trinity, so am I. Body, soul, spirit. Isn’t that cool?
And during the baptism of Jesus, you have all the parts of the Trinity. You have the Father saying, “This is my son whom I am well pleased.” You have the Son being baptized. And you have the Holy Spirit descending on the Son in the form of a dove. That’s why a dove is a Christian symbol.
So, “I baptize you my brother, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
Then I’ll take this wash cloth, put it over your nose, and then I’ll put it over your nose and face and just barely bend your knees. I’ll say, “Buried with Christ unto death…”—he’ll go under the water; then—“Rise again to walk in newness of life.” Now, he won’t hear that. To him it will sound like, “Buried with wah, wah, wah, wah, wah to walk in newness of life.” That’s what it will sound like to him.
And it’s a joyful time, Owen. People are cheering. It’s awesome. But Owen, it’s impossible for someone to get in on the blessings of God if they’ve not been baptized. And for many people here, your failure to get baptized, your failure to obey, is that thing that’s keeping you from going to the next level. God does not want us to be zoned out; he wants us to be, what? Zoned in. He wants to bless us. And God’s a good God. And blessing is simply to be on the receiving end of the tangible and intangible favor of God. That’s right, isn’t it? Baptism is big, Owen. One of the most important things. No one, no one should look at baptism in a casual or flippant manner.
You know, baptism doesn’t just happen. Last year we baptized several thousand people, 74% being adults. That doesn’t just happen. That’s God. That’s God! And, Owen, so many of these people out here, man, we need to give them a high five because we’ve already baptized this weekend a bunch of people. And the reason we baptized a bunch of people is because a bunch of these people have invited those people to Fellowship Church. You’ve lived the life. You’ve shared Christ with them. You’ve seen them come to know Christ. And you’ve had a part in them doing that, and we cannot thank you enough for doing that. We cannot thank you enough.
On the other hand, there are some people here who would call themselves mature Christians. But as you think back, you don’t know a soul you’ve invited here. You don’t know a soul that you know who’s come to Christ or who’s been baptized. When we mature physically, what do we do? We go through puberty. What does that mean when you go through puberty? You know what it means? It means you can reproduce. Are you going to sit there and tell others that you are a mature Christian when you’re not reproducing?
That dog won’t hunt, Owen. You’re from Dumas, Texas; and people in Dumas say, “That dog won’t hunt, man.” And Owen, you know, I want to beat my head against the wall when people come to Fellowship Church and they don’t invite their friends, because this is one of the best evangelistic tools out there! This is one of the great moves of God right here in North America. I hope you know that. It’s totally God.
Owen and I, when we began Fellowship Church with about 150 people 15 years ago in a little office complex, we had no clue this church would turn out like this. People ask us all the time, “Well, did you plan on it? What’s your long range…?” We had no clue. We had no clue that Fellowship Church on a good weekend would push 20,000 people showing up. We have over 1,000 churches with Fellowship Connection hooked up with us across the nation and the world. We’re on television nationally. We’re going on television in Europe next week. That’s totally God!
So, man, for someone not to utilize this? I just challenge you to do that. But we’re going to baptize today. Because after a faith decision, that’s what Jesus said, “Just add water.” So here’s my question to all of you. Have you been drenched, dunked, and immersed? I don’t know.
Owen, thanks man. [Owen Goff leaves the stage and heads to the baptismal pool.] That was great. You need to get ready to baptize. Yes, yes, yes. Owen Geoff. Owen, what an incredible guy!
Speaking of incredible people, to my right and to your left…and please no one leave during this time, this is a very, very holy time. Don’t even think about getting up unless it’s a 911 emergency, okay? Would you leave the Maverick’s game if it was a one point deal with two minutes to go when they were playing the Rockets? No. Don’t even think about getting up here and being irreverent when we’re talking about this stuff, okay? I’ll get very, very upset. But more importantly, you’ll disappoint the heart of God and you might mess up someone making a huge decision. So don’t ever leave Fellowship Church early.
In fact, I went to a church here in, well, I won’t tell you the church. I went to a church in this area with Lisa and the service went a long, long time and we had somewhere to go. So we tried to leave to step out early, but they wouldn’t let us out! (audience laughter) I’m serious. I was like, “Man, I’m a pastor. We have a babysitter at our house. We’re visiting.” The usher just told me, “I’m sorry. You can only leave when the pastor stops talking.” Finally he stopped. Don’t be leaving early. That’s very, very rude.
Doris Scoggins is to my right and to your left. Doris Scoggins was one of the original founding members of Fellowship Church. She was our first staff member after me. She volunteered for like a year before we could even pay her. Doris is the first lady of baptism.
Doris Scoggins is going to be over there and if you want to get baptized, here’s what we’re going to do: Vanessa Whitwell is going to come out after I have a prayer, and she’s going to sing a song. It’s one of my favorite songs, called “Baptize Me.” It’s a powerful, powerful song. And while she’s singing that song, you just make your way to the area where Doris is and stand there. And once the song is over, Doris will take you out, show you the changing room—the men’s area and the women’s area—we’ll give you the cool shorts and shirts and the robes; and we’ll have folks out there to talk about baptism with you.
If you have made a faith decision and you’ve never been baptized by immersion, today is your day. And I know you didn’t plan on it; this is spontaneous. But we felt led to do it and that’s why we’re doing it. And you need to do it. You need to step up and step out and just add water, because it’s a great, great thing. You’re identifying with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. So, when it comes to faith in Christ—don’t forget this now—just add water.