Awakening | Rob Pitts | Baptism Sunday | 26th November

Pre Service [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] easy easy take [Music] ity easy take it [Music] [Music] easy [Music] [Music] know easy take it easyy take it [Music] easy [Music] [Music] ah ah ah he [Music] ah [Music] he hey [Music] ah [Music] [Music] oh [Music] good morning everybody it's great to see you this morning welcome if you are visiting we're just going to stand together and sing and praise our [Music] Song: Freedom God step out of the Shadow step out of the Grave break into the wild and don't be [Music] afraid run into Wide Open [Music] Spaces waiting for you dance like the has been lifted gra waiting where the of the Lord is there is fre there is freedom where the spirit of the Lord there is freom there is freom come out of the town just as you are into the fullness of for the spirit is here let there be fre Let There Be freedom [Music] bring all of come back to back [Music] to Wide Open Spaces graes waiting for you dance like the we has been lifted [Music] graes where the spirit of the Lord there is fre there is freedom where the spirit of the Lord where is fre where is freom out of the dark just as you are into the fullness of his love for the spirit is here every fre Let There Be [Music] fre Shake atound of Jesus name made hearts awake at the sound Jesus name CH and fall and shake the sound [Music] [Applause] [Music] Jesus [Music] Jesus [Music] out is freom is freom the spirit of the Lord is freom where is freom out of the as you are into the fullness of his word for the spirit is here let bring let [Music] [Applause] bring like the has beened Force like the we has beened dance like the [Music] Hasting for dance like the way has been lifted graes waiting just like the has been [Music] LIF the has been [Applause] lifted wait where the of the Lord where is fre where is freom where the spirit of the Lord there is freom there is freedom you are [Music] the for the spirit is here let be fre down let be fre come on let's give Jesus some praise we're here to worship Jesus this morning is anybody here to worship Jesus Come On Come On Jesus Jesus wow hey it's great to see you this morning welcome to breathe New Life Church who's up for some baptisms this Welcome & Ways to Connect (Paul Jukes) morning you know we're here to worship Jesus ultimately but we've got some special people in a moment are going to be coming up here telling us why they're choosing to follow Jesus and I'm excited but you know before you take your seat just to turn to somebody say hi to him welcome him it's great to see [Music] us as I said ear it's great that you're joining us this morning thanks for those who are joining online or catch up we're going to have a great morning this morning worshiping Jesus and thanking him for all that he's doing in people's lives just to give you a little bit information if you're new this morning we want to welcome you this morning let's give our guest a round of applause great to see you please make yourselves at home if you've got your slippers put your slippers on honestly this is home right this is home so honestly if this is a little bit on comfortable for you the style of music or whatever it's okay okay this is okay this is normal for some people it's not normal for some people but we'll try and be normal is that okay we are normal people in here this morning but we're going to praise God and worship him just to give you a little bit information if you've got little ones with you and they're not going into kids church the screen will come up for kids church and they'll go out then but if they're little ones and they're not going in there's a baby room to your right you can use that facility for under ones down the corridor there's another room if they're not going in kids kids church and need to a little bit of a break there's some toys down there and also a live feed so you can still watch what's going on in here as well just to help you if your kids need a bit of a break so talking to kids are there any kids in here this morning oh there's a few I can see hands up that's very teacher that is hand up right I used to be a teacher but you don't need to put your hands up you can make a noise in here but kids you've got some parties coming up young adults you've got a Christmas party coming up as well so just to give you those dates kids party is the 8th of December at 6:15 so to book into this you can go to the back or you can go on the website or click scan the QR code and you can boook in that's the 8th of December you're going to have a great time youth you've got one as well on the 1st of December so get ready for that make sure you book in so they can know what they've got to get ready and also young adults as we've said Tuesday the 5th at 7:30 you can come out and have a great night so make sure you book in uh and and and be a part of that so Christmas is nearly here who's who's who's getting ready for Christmas already who's not even started why did all the bloke's hands go up then okay so as I said it's baptism Sunday so we're going to move along and we're going to invite some special people up here I'm sure I'm sure you're going to cheer them on cuz I yeah I remember being here 20 years ago as a 27y old and feel feeling very nervous you know when you publicly confess what you believe on the inside you put yourself out there and that's what these people are doing today they're saying I'm not just doing this privately what I believe in here I'm acknowledging it publicly before all these people I'm making myself accountable to the world to say I am following Jesus so are we ready to cheer them on are we ready to cheer them on cuz you you're not on your own today we're with you on this journey you've got family friends it's great to see them this morning so that you don't do this journey on your own so I'm going to call the names out then you can give them a clap as they come up so we've got we've got Nasha adelene star and leaford come on let's give them a round of applause come on up you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] come okay well done take a deep breath Breathe In Breathe make sure you take lots of air in your lungs CU I know it's good for us when we do that when we're going to communicate so are we ready to tell us why why are you choosing to get baptized today over to you adelene sorry not ad you going adelene at the end or you going okay Nasha sorry okay okay over to you sorry bad awesome better awesome uh God is good all the time um so I I'm one of those that was Nyasha's testimony born in a Christian family and going to church was part of the daily routine and it always happened we didn't question we didn't ask I gave my life to God when I was 16 I had some events that happened in my life and I wanted to get to know more about God back in the day there was um an alpha course going and there was um I don't remember the name but it was a Peno system where where you would learn about the Bible and all but I still continued going to the same church um God has been good in my life when I look at the testimonies in my personal life in my life uh I've been blessed with two beautiful children I've been blessed with um good workmates good good jobs and everything but there was one thing that I knew was missing uh the church that I used to go to did not subscribed to baptism and Holy Communion and um it was more about the service to the community so I knew I needed to do that this year I started I've been battling with with the need to change church but there was always a reason not to be it maybe the kids are comfortable so it was always for the wrong reasons so I I felt like I was now going for the wrong reasons and then I decided to move I moved to a Pentecostal Church in July and um I've been working on forgiveness which is something that has I've done a lot of reading I've done a lot of things and and as I was reading that the topic of baptism and uh my relationship with Christ came um I met a friend that asked me about um the sinner's prayer I did not know what that was I knew i' had given my life to God but I had not done that I read up about it and I in July of this year I prayed the sinner's prayer and when I prayed the sinner's prayer and read Around everything else I knew I needed to be baptized but fortunately or unfortunately the church I joined had just done their baptism the previous day so it wasn't going to happen for another year um and then I heard about breath new life and I thought I'll take this opportunity I wasn't the best communicator and blessed Julie she was so patient with me um yeah it was very last minute but I thank thank God for this for being given this opportunity one of the verses that I read that I was reading and that was uh part of the conviction to want to be baptized was Mark 16:16 he who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved amen so I started seeing the bloodiness of my being saved by not having been baptized and I thought I want to be baptized I want to live right amen amen amen [Applause] okay okay adelene off you go hello Adeline Testimony everyone so hello um I'm getting baptized today because Christ has been my Guiding Light bringing peace and joy into my life so he has given me strength during challenging times and has shown me the path of love and forgiveness through his grace I have experienced transformation and a deep sense of purpose so I'm getting baptized to publicly declare my faith in Jesus Christ and to symbolize my spiritual rebirth it's an outward expression of my commitment and love for Jesus by following his Commandments I show my personal and public identification and Union with his death burial and Resurrection I've trusted Christ for my salvation and I'm committed to living for him because Jesus has been my constant companion what's truly amazing is God's faithfulness in the little things in my life so there have been moments when I felt stressed or worried like for small things very small things like when my laptop stopped working but then I remembered to pray about it and miraculously the laptop that wasn't working started working again so small things like that it's in those moments that I'm reminded of God's presence and his ability to work even in the smallest details of my life looking back I realized that all the prayers I once add are the ones I'm living now and God has been faithful in answering my prayers so guiding me and providing providing for me in ways I couldn't have imagined it's a testament to his love and care for each and every one of us thank you that's wonderful well done well done you did a great job well done over to yourself star hey Star's Testimony guys I'm star I became a Christian one day in the back of my Mom's van when I was six not cuz she was driving by the way my granddad wi who I loved so much spent hours with me teaching me about the Bible and about Jesus's love and then I recommitted my life to God when I was 12 and LZ 7 Gig in Manchester so I want to tell you why I love God I love God because when I was a baby and had open heart surgery he kept me alive and gave me a new heart and gave my Mom and Dad hope I love God because he gave me strength and my granddad died of brain cancer I love God because when me and my mom had nowhere to live he provided us a home I love God because he helped me overcome by anxiety like it says in Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength I love God because he gave me joy when I was at my lowest I love God because he's given me a heart to love people and I love God because he gave Jesus to boss the cross for me my name comes from Philippians 2:15 shine like a star in the universe so the reason I want to get baptized today is because I want to show the world that I'm living and breathing and Shining for God to make a difference in this generation well done star great job over to yourself leaford go for it well done Leaford's Testimony star um good morning my name is leford and I just want to share a little bit roughly of my testimony how I ended up here on this stage now I grew up in a mostly Christian household once again I had good morals growing up my parents used to always take me to church but I used to always go because I was told to go really I never really understood what was going on I just sit at the back of the church letting everything go in one ear and out of the other ear and I never really applied it to my life the morals were there for the majority of my younger life but as I got older I began to get more influenced by the world and it became abundantly clear roughly about when I was 16 is when I started getting into more worldly things that I never thought I would have ended up doing and it became even more dark as I got older 17 18 and especially when I started University my first couple years of University I was I was partying I was drinking I was doing things I never would have thought I would be doing when I was younger from the way I was raised up but then one one day when I realized the dark life that I'd been living when I was lost was last year December end of December last year it was building up to exam season and I was stressing I was stressing over exams and I was thinking oh I need something to calm my mind a bit and then randomly a YouTube video came recommended on my on my phone of a random preacher this wasn't normal because I didn't really watch videos like that but it just came up and I just thought let me watch it why not I used to always claim I was a Christian anyway even though I was not living like it like if anyone asked me at the moment I would have said yeah yeah I'm a Christian I'm a Christian but there's no way you could have tell that by the way I was living my life after I watched that video it was the first time I ever heard the word of God and it didn't just go out of my other ear I actually felt in my heart and that whole day I'll be honest I was in denial I was trying to fight I was trying to fight like there's no way there's no way I don't have to do this but I couldn't keep arguing against it anymore I could tell God was knocking on my heart the whole day I'd become very prideful through my own actions leading up to this point and it was it taken a toll on me mentally as well I became very prideful as a man and I looked at the world in a very different way and that day I could tell that God touched my heart because when I looked at myself in the mirror after spending the whole day arguing with myself it was the first time I'd shed a tear in so long and being as prideful as I was I would have never thought I'm not going to cry I'm never going to cry but as I looked at myself in the mirror I was I saw water coming down my eyes and I knew yeah God is trying to tell me something so obviously at that point I realized yeah I've rather enough of fooling around and just saying his name and in vain I'm going to give my life to him and ever since then this whole new year has been the most amazing year I've had in my life there have been battles of course but I've been keeping my face focused on Jesus Christ and today I'm deciding that yeah I want to be baptized I want to continue following him he told me to be baptized so I'm going to get baptized and he and I give glory to Jesus Christ amen come on [Applause] woo you know what how well did they all do up here come on let's give a massive Round of Applause to all it's not easy to stand up here can confess your faith you know what I love about each one of these that how God works individually with us you know if he came if he came to us the same way as he came to leaford or star or you know it probably wouldn't hit us the same but he knows each of us by name and he knows us individual and he knows what our needs are but ultimately He Loves Us does he not and it's wonderful to hear these stories this morning you know we're going to be baptizing these people we're going to believe when they're baptized in water that God's going to do something as they get baptized in the water God going to baptize you if you're not already been baptized in the Holy Spirit and he's going to empower you for life and today he's going to be a day where there's a line drawn for all of you where actually today the line is draw you're forgiven and you move on from the things you've done wrong and God's going to empower you for life amen I'm just going to pray for you let's pray together Church whatever you want to do if you put your hands out or whatever pray in your heart let's pray for these people father God I thank you for Jesus Christ we thank you Jesus for showing the way that Lord when you died you weren't defeated but you overcame and I pray for each of these today as they lay their lives down parts of their lives that they consider as good as dead that Lord you would resurrect them Lord by your power that Lord these would be people who testify all the days of their lives of your love God that there never left them Father I thank you for what you're doing in their lives I thank you for their family their love the words that have been sewn into their lives up to this point but ultimately Jesus we pray that their relationship with you would grow the knowledge of God would grow in their hearts and Minds as they put their faith in you every day in jesus' name amen while on guys let's give him a round of [Applause] applause you know sometimes I think think we could just do testimonies all day long and that's enough as it not CU it does something in our hearts it builds our faith our believe that God is real do you believe God is real this morning you know you might be here you don't know what you believe listen there's a God who loves you who died for you sent his son for you and that's him who we believe is the king of kings so come on let's stand we're going to worship him we're going to thank him for what he's done in their lives but ultimately we're going to thank him for what he's done on the cross let's just focus on Jesus you know what I thought this morning when we started I thought there's two things we can do as people we can participate right or we can be Spectators what do you want to be this morning I want to be a participator of the gospel and we do that as we engage with Jesus as we focus our eyes and our hearts on him and begin to worship Him we've got stuff going on I know we've got thoughts that are you know that are probably not of God but as we begin to worship him together he can speak to our hearts in this place as a people so I want to encourage you open your heart and begin to focus on him let's sing Song: Faithful Now [Music] I am holding on to Fai cuz I know you make a way I don't always understand I don't always get to see but I will [Music] believe I will believe it cuz you make mountains move you make Giants fall you use songs of graise to shake praise and I will speak to my feet I will preach to my town you are faithful there you'll be faithful [Music] now Jes you are faithful we worship you this morning Lord for who you are I am standing on your word calling Heaven down to [Music] earth you will fight my enemies this will end in Victory I will believe it yes I will believe it you make mountains move you make Giants here your songs of praise to shake praise and walls I will speak to my fear I will preach to my town you are faithful then you'll be faithful now you are faithful then you be faithful now I know that I know you never fail yes I know that I know you never win I know I know you never fail I know that I know you never will cuz you make mountains move you make Giants fall songs of praise to shake praison wall I will speak to my fear oh I will preach to my down you willful you make mountains Mo you make Giants for heing your songss of praise to shake Gra and I will speak my Fe I will my you were faithful then you'll be faithful now you were faithful then you'll be faithful now you are faithful then will be faithful [Music] God [Music] Jesus so [Music] faceful [Music] Jesus [Music] Jesus [Music] cuz I know that I know you never fail yes I know that I know you never will and I know that I know you never fail yes I know that I know you never will [Music] and I know that I know you never fail yes I know that I know you never will you make mountains move you make Giants fall you use songs of praise to shake pris and walls I will speak to my fear I will preach to my town but you were faithful then you'll be faithful now you were faithful then you'll be faithful now you were faithful then you'll be faithful now thank you Jesus we thank you God he's so faithful we can trust in you this morning Jesus for whatever we need thank you Song: Mercy God I'm living proof of what the mercy of God can do if you knew me then you'd believe me now turn my whole life upside down took the old and he made it new that's just what the mercy of God can do now one alive to tell the story how I've overcome it's his goodness and mercy and the power of his blood I'm so glad that my freedom wasn't based on what have done but the goodness and mercy and the power of the [Music] blood thought I deserve to be 6 feet beneath the Earth for all the things I've done the things I've said the choices made that I regret oh I would still be L but for the mercy of God now I'm alive to tell the story how I've over overcome it's his goodness and mercy and the power of his blood I'm so glad that my freedom wasn't based on what I've done but the goodness and mercy and the power of the blood but the goodness and mercy and the power of the blood [Applause] power in your was the cross made for me that my savior car now i' been made free by the mercy of God was the Great for me where my sin lay now I stand redeemed by the mercy God was the cross for me let my savior car now i' been made free by the mercy of God was the great B for me where my sin lay be now I stand redeemed by the mercy of God now I'm align to tell the story how I've overcome it's his goodness and mercy and the power of his blood I'm so glad that my free wasn't based on what I've done but the goodness and mercy and the power of the blood but the goodness and mercy and the power of the blood but the goodness and mercy and the power of the blood power of your [Music] blood breaks every [Music] chain it breaks every chain Jesus Jesus was the cross meant for me that my savior car now I've been made free by the mercy of God was the grave manant for me where my sin lay per now I stand redeemed by the mercy of God now I'm alive to tell the story how I've overcome it's his goodness and mercy and the power of his blood I'm so glad that my freedom wasn't based on what I've done but the goodness and mercy and the power of the blood it's his goodness and mercy and the power of the blood it's his goodness and mercy and the power of the blood yeah Jesus Jesus we thank you for your blood we thank you Jesus for paying the price Jesus we recognize this morning it wasn't cheap it wasn't a small amount that you paid God we recognize that you value your people your creation and you were willing to pay a high price in Jesus May our hearts be reminded this morning of that cost but Lord may we all also be reminded that we don't have to pay that cost that you've made a way for us to know the love of of God and father I pray for us all this morning to rest in that goodness to rest in that gift of your son may it bring freedom to Hearts where there's condemnation May there be a release and an acceptance and love in your name we pray amen amen come on let's give Jesus a round of applause he's awesome if you want to take your seats I'm going to introduce in a moment uh someone who's going to come and speak uh but before I do that I need to make Offering & Updates you aware of some things to do with Christmas anybody excited about Christmas you know Christmas isn't always easy for people I remember when I was younger and my my dad passed away I remember them first few years of Christmas being very difficult but you know Jesus is is the one who's given us a wonderful gift at Christmas and we have to remind ourselves at time to focus on him that's what it's about amen um we we're fortunate this year we're going to receive an offering a moment we're fortunate this year we're going to be giving some gifts out we're a we got to be a generous Church haven't we if Jesus this was generous I think we've got a model generosity we're going to be giving 30 ampers out to three local schools of you know they're going to be finding people they've already found people who are in need this Christmas and they they they're going to be going to those families so I think it's great that we can do that we're using our Community Fund that's what you gave into church so we're going to be giving uh those out this Christmas which is wonderful we're also going to make sure every kid in the school local schools are going to get a selection box just as a as a just as a a token of we're thinking about you all right and we're going to be giving those out so if you can help us on that church we'd love to give out I think it's over 500 um selection boxes so there is going to be something that's coming out through social media an email that tells you what selection boxes to buy and if you can bring them and put them on the table in reception that would be wonderful let's give every child in this area a selection box amen just as a as a as a token of our love for those people that we value them all so that's just something that we're going to be doing this Christmas I'm going to ask the host team to wait on us to p the buckets around you know if you want to give this morning that would be wonderful if you're a guest there's no obligation but we believe in generosity we believe God was generous to us and out of that generosity our hearts are thankful and there's an overflow so there's no obligation but if you want to give this morning you can do but I want to thank you for your generosity in all that you are giving talking to Christmas just to let you know we've got a Bible reading plan if you do these we we like to do them together you know if you you're not a part of this church and you want to do a Bible reading plan for Christmas there's loads on you we're doing one from I think it's Rick Warren a hope of Christmas it's 10 days building up to that so please join us on that let's do it together I think it's nice that we do things together corporately ready Christmas are you ready for Christmas you ready these are our Christmas events some of you might know these already you can invite people to these on your seat there's a little flyer for you to give to people take home pray about it give it to people we've got I'm going to tell you the two key ones for us the first one is our event for everyone it's a Sunday afternoon it's the 10th and we won't have a Sunday morning service we're going to have an afternoon service an evening service and we're going to invite as many people as we can to that they're usually a great success there's going to be a grotto there's going to be loads of things activities and craft stuff that's going on beforeand for an hour loads of food that we're giving out then we'll have a fun service for about an hour to celebrate the wonderful gift of Jesus Amen so invite everybody everybody's welcome the second one is a Carol service on the 11th you know people like to come to church at Christmas do they not they feel like this you know if they've grown up in church years ago and they haven't been for years Christmas is the time of year they begin to reflect and think you know what I want to go to church at Christmas it reminds me when I was younger so let's have ears open and look for people maybe just give a fly to someone this week and say hey do you want to come to our Carol service on a Sunday morning there are some other things on there as well but those are the two main ones I want to tell you about first of all the 10th and the 17th let's come along let's fill those and let's enjoy mince pie if you like them I don't all right I got to put it out there I don't so don't buy me a box of mince P for Christmas cuz I'll smile but honestly I'll give him my wife because I won't like her so okay let's uh let's get ready we're going to open the word of God now Rob's going to come and share Rob's a great friend of ours but he's also on our leadership team and him and his wife Becky Ed up our small groups so I think he's been he must have been here now probably over 12 133 years at this church him and his wife moved here cuz she was training at Keel to become a doctor and she's now qualified as a doctor and they moved here while she was training and they stayed here and we've been blessed to have them as friends but also on our leadership team so it's great to Journey with you guys so let's give it up to for Rob as he comes and shares this morning some thoughts good morning don't you just love hearing Message (Rob Pitts) those testimonies for me that that's that's the best part of baptism Sunday being able to hear about what God has done in different people's lives and this morning I'm going to be concluding on our monthly theme that we've been looking at this month on the theme of Awakening and my prayer for us this morning is that each and every one of us would have something awoken within us because the interesting thing about being asleep is you don't actually know you're asleep it's only when you wake up you likee oh did I just have an afternoon nap but I do believe that each of us have areas in our lives where God wants to awaken something in us that he wants to do something deeper within us and today I want to talk about what I wish I'd known when I got baptized and I want to share with you this morning some of the the lessons that I've learned in my life and for those getting back bapti I just want to just help set you on that best possible trajectory of what God has got for your life does that sound good this morning good glad you're on board if you said no I don't know what I would have done so I'm glad that you're with me today so I thought it would be good to start today by answering the question what is baptism and water baptism is a outward expression of your decision to follow Jesus and shows that you've put your belief in him and it is an act of both faith and obedience you see once we accept Jesus we receive this gift of forgiveness that is freely given to us but was paid by Jesus on the cross and we are invited to respond by going through the waters of baptism so I just want to read a a scripture to you from the book of Romans chapter chapter 6 and this really highlights what baptism is and what it symbolizes so you can follow along with me this is out of the New Living Translation and it says this Romans 6 from verse four it says for we died and were buried with Christ by baptism and just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the father now we also may live new lives that's right since we have been United with him in his death we will also be raised to life as he was we know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that may sin may lose its power in our lives we are no longer slaves to sin for when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin and since we died with Christ we know that we will also live with him how awesome is that this is the good news that we have as followers of Jesus and when we go through the process of baptism it's symbolic of the old you your old life the old way of living being buried being laid down into the tomb like Jesus was but is those of you that know the story of Jesus's death and Resurrection he didn't stay in the Tomb but he rose back to life and in the same way thank goodness out of the Waters of baptism you will be raised back up for those reassured we will raise you back up out of the water this morning and baptism signifies this old way of life being put to death and it depicts that old life of sin and death no longer having a hold over us but we are promised a new life in Christ and we have a fresh start in him so I want to answer the question this morning of why do we get baptized I've got five reasons to be baptized so if you've not been baptized take note if you have been baptized it's a great little remember uh reminder so the first reason why we get baptized is to follow the example of Christ we see in Matthew 3 Jesus himself goes through the process of baptism the second reason why we get baptized is to obey the Commandments of Christ in Matthew 28 when Jesus gives the Great Commission he says go into all the world go and make the disciples and he says in them baptize them in the name of the Father the Son on the Holy Spirit the third reason why you should get baptized is to give a witness that you are a disciple of Christ it's not just for you but it's actually for those in your life around you as well and I want to read something out from acts 22 and this is a a a section of a speech that a guy the the Apostle Paul gave and if for those of you know the story of Paul before he was Paul he was known as Saul and he went around literally persecuting and killing Christians and this is what he says about baptism in Acts 22:1 15-6 he says and I think we've got it up here for you are to be his witness telling everyone what you have seen and heard what are you waiting for what a great invitation what are you waiting for get up and be baptized have your sins washed away by calling on the name of the Lord you see we're called To Be A Witness of what God has done both in our lives but then also in the lives of those around us that Jesus has had that influence in and I want to ask you that question this morning what are you waiting for what a great question and we we going to have more baptisms next year and you can sign up for those as well so the fourth reason why you should get baptized and I love this one is to rece receive the promised gift of the Holy Spirit and we're want to read this out from Acts chapter 2 and here we have Peter reading on the the day of Pentecost and he says this in verse 37 it says Peter's words pierced their hearts and they said to him and to the other Apostles Brothers what should we do Peter replied each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the Forgiveness of your sins then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit This Promise is to you to your children and to those far away all who have been called by the Lord our God and what I love here is that we are promised this gift of the person Holy Spirit and it's available to us for generations to come but like any gift we need to be open to receive it would you agree Christmas day someone gives you a gift you say I don't want that you receive it don't you and holy spirit is a person the Bible's clear that that he part of the Trinity and I believe that the person holy spirit that he wants to play a part in each of our lives however we must be open to receiving and embracing him it's a choice on our part and baptism is just one of the ways that we can show that we are open to receiving him and the fifth reason why you should get baptized is to become a new creation and in 2 Corinthians 5:17 it says therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation the old has passed away behold the new has come and when we come to Jesus and we put our faith in him when we put our belief in him we receive his forgiveness and a transformation takes place a spiritual transformation you see you become a new spiritual creation and as we read earlier in Romans 6 it's like our old life is put to death and a new life is found in Jesus and when Jesus died on the cross he broke both the power of death and sin and as followers of Jesus this is why we get so excited when we we sing about the cross because we know that we now have a hope that actually when our lives end it is not the end that there is something beyond that Jesus promises us a eternal life and that's why we like to have a little dance and we get excited because we've got good news we believe in the power of what Jesus did on the cross so I want to answer or ask that question of how do we see Awakening in our lives how do we allow Holy Spirit to come and do these amazing things in our lives and what can we do to partner in this transformation you see I'm quite a practical person and I always sort of when I come to a problem or I'm always like what can I do what can I do to fix this problem and when we look at becoming a new creation in Christ the amazing thing about it is there's nothing that we can do that actually Jesus has already done it that when we put our faith and we put our trust in him we become a new creation it's like bam it's done and I'm like whoa I didn't even play a part in that I just put my faith in him but the morning there is something that we can do there is something we can do to play a part in this and we can feed ourselves spiritually that we can strengthen our spirit and I want to spend a bit of time today talking about that and I thought it would be good to have a bit of fun this morning have a little bit of a game so I've got a prize for you all say ooh all right up here on the stage I've got a chocolate bar and the person that puts their hand up first and can tell me the quickest not you Paul can tell me what the slogan of this chocolate bar is you are going have the opportunity to win it so you ready I want to see hands up no shouting at hands up all right the chocolate barring question is a Snickers who can tell me the slogan of Snickers Steph I'm not counting you over here Dash is it yeah what is the slogan of Snickers that is that is a slogan it's not the one I'm looking for I'll give you half a point you can have that Snickers can you catch we didn't sign off this Alum safety anyone else anyone else slogan of Snickers down here at the front yes you're not you and you're hungry well give it a round of applause I think we've got it up here on the screen for us you're not you when you're hungry can anyone relate to this this morning anyone a bit hungry you can eat them now by the way I'll I'll let you do that but I want to ask the question this morning who are you when you are spiritual spiritually hungry when you're spiritually hung hungry do you find that you're you're full of the spirit in the sense that you're patient with people do you find that when you're spiritually hungry you you're kind with people and you choose to be loving I'm not always I'm not always like that but actually I find that if I'm a little bit spiritually hungry I can become a little bit irritable that I can become a little bit self-centered and Beck my wife and though I can become a little bit prickly and I almost want to ask us this question of who you when you're hungry and I I absolutely love this this sort of uh yeah the marketing that Snicker's got but they I saw this with one as well it says who are you when you're hungry and I want to ask that question of us this morning and I've got a great quote here for you and it says this I'll read this out when the body and soul are hungry they get loud but when the spirit is hungry it gets quiet and this quote really helps make the point that I want to focus on this morning of who are you when you just feed your body and your soul and this idea that that our body and our soul they make lots of noise they get hungry right and as human beings We crave and we desire all sorts of different things and some of those things can be good for us but then some of those things might not be the most healthy and we need to quiet those noises in our lives to be able to listen to what the spirit is saying and Romans 85 puts it like this for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who live according to the spirit set their mind on the things of the spirit and as I said I wanted to share some lessons with you that I've sort of learned over my life that I wish I knew when I got baptized and I think one of the things that I really regret when I look back over my spiritual walk is really not doing more to feed my spirit and it's something that I've learned as I've gone on in life that actually this needs to be a priority and I remember when I was younger speaking to my pastor and at the time I was serving on the youth team and I was going out on a Sunday morning and most Sundays was going out and spending time with the youth and this this just sums it up for you really but I sat down with my pastor and I said you know I keep going out on a Sunday I'm missing the preaches this was the days before it was all on YouTube and you could watch back I'm I'm not getting spiritually fed that's what I said to my pastor right and you know what he said to me he turned right he said well who do you think feeds me I'm up here preaching on a Sunday and for me it just really summed it up that we are responsible for feeding ourselves spiritually right it's our responsibility to feed ourselves now don't get me wrong it's it's important that we we get fed and we sit under the word of God but ultimately the job of feeding it's it's down to yourself at the end of the day and my advice to my younger self would be to be more intentional and I love my food you might be able to tell and I'll eat three Square meals a day plus snacks in between anyone else so if that's how much physical food we we eat then you know how much spiritual food should we put in our lives as well and I just want to share a few ways that we can feed ourselves and as I say these won't be new to some of you won't be revolutionary but my prayer for us as I said is that Holy Spirit would come and will Breathe new life into these areas of Our Lives see if we're passionate about Jesus if we love Jesus then we want to do whatever we can to feed ourselves spiritually so ask Holy Spirit this morning what areas do I need renewal so the first way that we can feed ourselves is through prayer sh car right but prayer is one of the ways that we can communicate with God and it's a two-way street like we can talk to God but then God talks to us as well we can listen to him and there's power in prayer and there's power in spending time praying to God because it does feed our spirit and it doesn't have to be over complicated I think sometimes in church we can over complicate things let's keep it simple it's it's about talking to God and listening to God and I read this passage when I was on holiday and it really stood out to me and it's out of one Thessalonians 5 and I've read it before but I just felt like I needed to spend a bit of time on it and I think it'll help some of us this morning it's 1 Thessalonians 5:1 16 to 18 it says Rejoice always pray without ceasing in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you and I must admit when I read that and I read that phrase pray without CE ceasing I thought what does that mean do it mean like I'm having a conversation with somebody and in the background I'm praying in my head at the same time like that's too much multitasking for me but when I did a bit more reading and went a little bit deeper what I found was the Greek word used here for that phrase without ceasing I'll try and pronounce it it it's ad EOS and it's spelled a d i a l e p t o s and it basically means unceasingly and the the description and the example that it gave for praying unceasingly it used the example of a person who has a hacking cough I don't know if you've heard that phrase but a continuous cough okay the other example was a repeated military attack and what I love about this is it's not necessarily to pray without ceasing in the sense that you start a prayer and you never end but actually it refers to a prayer that happens regularly and it's this idea of persistence in prayer just as I continually eat yeah I am going to cons consistently or continuously pray and what I love about this passage when you read that word pray it's in the present tense and it's this idea that throughout your day that you can shoot up prayers to God that it's an active thing and it becomes d damic that it can be at a stated time you can say right well I on PR and have my meals but actually it can be fluid as well it can be at non- stated times and it's this continual conversation this continual back and forth with God and I really believe that that is key for some of you this morning that you can kind of put that pressure on yourself I've got to pray I've got to spend time do this but no it's about this continual just back and forth this Rhythm just speaking to the to our Heavenly Father and listening to what he's got to say to us the second way that we can feed ourselves spiritually is is through getting into the word of God through reading the Bible 1 Peter 22 says in the same way that nurse and infants cry out for milk you must intensely crave the pure spiritual milk of God's word for this milk will cause you to grow into maturity fully nourished and strong for life and you can't get away from it like this book that we have is powerful you know God intentionally has given it to us he promises so much through this and again we can put so much pressure on ourselves to sort of get into it and to grasp it but the reality is it it can start with just something simple for those of you that have got the the Bible app on your phone called U verion on there there's something called the word of the the verse of the day and I love that it's just one verse like just one verse but take that verse and chew on it meditate on it throughout about your day I went through a time in a season where I was really struggling and I found a couple of Bible passages that really spoke and helped me and I set them as a reminder on my phone to every single day to come up so I could read them and remind myself of them get into the word of God because it's going to feed you spiritually there's so many things that we can do you know on a Sunday morning we have our worship you know I love spending time in worship but it doesn't just have to stay here on a Sunday take it home with you put on your worship track in the car be one of those people when you stop to the lights and you look across and they're singing away be that person you know whever it is go out for a walk at home wherever it is but worship God you know it's so important that we spend time together as church as the body of Christ that we come together spend time with likeminded Believers and then the last way I want to just highlight this is to remove impurities from your life and as we've said as we go through this process of baptism we lay down our old life and I really like this in 2 Corinthians 71 it says therefore since we have these promises dear friends let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit perfecting Holiness out of reverence for God and I just wanted to just just kind of park for a moment and just again this phrase Holiness we can get this sort of picture in our mind that Holiness is having a Halo on our head living perfectly never getting anything wrong that's not what this is saying what Holiness is ultimately is I'm going to say no to certain things in my life I'm going to say no to feeding my my soul certain things so that I can wholeheartedly Say Yes to Jesus and that's what it is to purify yourself is it it's saying I'm choosing not to do that those things I want to say no to those things so ultimately I can say yes to Jesus and as we do that we strengthen our spirit that our soul quietens down and our spirit is strengthened and as I said we need to be sensitive to Holy Spirit and ask him what are you saying to me what do you what do I need to you know how can I partner with you in this Holy Spirit what can I do in my life so there's just a few ways that when you're next hungry when you when you're craving some of those things to just ask yourself what am I going to feed myself what am I going to put into my life so I'm just going to invite the band to come back up we're going we're just going to pray to finish and I want to give an opportunity that if you sat here this morning you might have been invited here today you might have been brought along you know someone is getting baptized you might not be used to being in church and you know seeing us lot clapping our hands and raising our hands might be a bit different from what you used to but listen we're passionate about Jesus because of what he's done for us on the cross and this spiritual transformation this eternal life this good news that we've talked about today is available to every single one of us and to receive it all we have to do is say Jesus I choose you I will put my belief in you I'm choosing to put my faith in you and listen we want to go on that Journey with you we want to go on that spiritual walk and we'd love to to partner with you in that so if anything's spoken to you today don't go without speaking to someone talk to the person who's brought you come and we've going to have people available red lanyards come and speak to them and say listen can you tell me a bit more so let's get to our feet I'm going to pray to close and then with a band going to lead us let's just stand and we'll get ready for our next song I think we'll we'll have some key pleas please Tim so yeah Heavenly Father we thank you for this opportunity that we've had to celebrate what you've done in our lives and father and holy spirit we we just want to pray for those getting baptized today that just as you Jesus as you went down into those baptism Waters that Holy Spirit you descended like a dove Upon Jesus and I pray for those four that are getting baptized today the Holy Spirit that you would rest upon them that you would fill them a new today and we ask that in our lives as well holy spirit would you help us when we get hungry when our souls cry out for the things that they cry out for would we listen to you would you help us on our daily walk and would we look to you to be our source that we would consume you and all the good things that you have for us as we go out today Holy Spirit would we go knowing that we're full and we've been fed on you we thank you amen amen thank Song: King of Kings [Music] you in the darkness we will waiting without hope without light till from Heaven you came running there was Mercy in your eyes to reveal the Lord and Prophets to a virin came the word from a throne in finless glory to a cradle in the praise the father praise the son praise the spirit three in one God of Glory mesty praise forever to the King of Kings [Music] in the darkness we were waiting with our without hope without light till from Heaven you came running there was Mercy in your eyes to fulfill the Lord and Prophets to a virgin came the word from a throne of endless glory to a crad in the [Music] dir praise the father praise the son praise the spirit three in one guide of Glory [Music] mesty praise forever to the King of Kings to reveal the kingdom coming and to reconcile the lost to redeem the whole creation you did not despise the cross for even in your suffering you saw to the other side knowing this was our Salvation Jesus for our sake you [Music] die praise the father praise the son praise the spirit three in one God of GL mesty praise for forever to the King of [Music] Kings the morning that you Rose all of Heaven it bread till that stone was moved for good for the lamb had conquered death and the dead rose from the tombs and the angels stood in all for the souls of all who come to the father I restore and the Church of Christ was born and the spirit with The Flame now this gospel Tru of shall not shall not F by his blood and in his name in his freom I am free for the love of Jesus Christ who has resurrected [Music] me praise the father praise the son praise the [Music] spirit one God of Glory [Music] mesty praise forever to the king sing [Applause] praise praise the father praise the sun praise the spirit three in one God of Glory JY praise forever to the King of Kings praise forever to the King of Kings come on Jesus we love you you're the King of Kings you deserve all our praise we love you in our hearts we thank you for your love your forgiveness God we come to you we acknowledge and give honor to you this morning is the one who first loved us amen amen so Rob thanks for your message very practical very helpful for people getting baptized but also all of us we we need reminding that we need to feed our Spirits yes we're made right through faith but actually we got a responsibility to walk in what God has done and become the new creation that he promises and we have to do that by faith as well but through obedience so that was a great teaching I thought very helpful to feed our spirits and learn those disciplines on a daily basis but um thanks Rob let's give Rob a round of applause they're just getting ready at the B thanks [Applause] Rob okay if you want to take your seats I mean immediate family first of all I'm aware there's quite a few guests here but if first of all immediate family if you want to go make your way to the [Music] back I think most of you are there so if there's some other family members there's still a bit of room at the back other family members if you want to go to the back as [Music] well thanks Janet for moving everybody in putting everybody in places everywhere needs a Janet don't we everybody it's like she was born for this I mean she's like it's like she should have worked on an airplane she's doing that and left look that that directing planes at the back Janet is it helps when you're tall as well you can so that's enough about Janet for now it's a bit dangerous when they put me up here when there's a bit of room for conversation in between so I think we're nearly ready are we on the screen sorry I didn't realize Janet was actually on the screen so we've got Ben give us a w Ben and R where's R there we go there's R if you're know doing what re re is short for r I'll just make you where she won't like me tell we've got re in there and we've got Ben so they're both on staff but they're also you both on the on the youth team so they run the youth team so it's nice for them to go on there and Ben's also on our core team as well one of our elders so ready are we ready then have we got people ready Janet I'm looking for I'm looking Janet's pointing over there but actually she's pointing over here right okay thanks Janet we're ready so have we got Nasha first of all is she ready come on let's give it up for Nasha as she comes in let's give her a round of of [Applause] [Music] Nyasha's Baptism Applause we're going to pray for Nasha first before we uh we go through the waters father we thank you for this wonderful woman God we recognize that you are smiling over her that you rejoice over her with singing Lord God that you love her deeply and I pray she goes through these Waters right now she would come out different from this day for forward she would never be the same again may she go deeper in love with you may her roots go deeper into you Lord Jesus and I pray God that she would walk out of this baptism tank differently because of what you've done Holy Spirit would you fill her and baptize her not only in water but in the SP spirit of God as well in your name amen amen Nasha on confession of your faith in Jesus Christ we baptize you in the name of the Father the Son and Holy Spirit Well Done guys well done [Applause] Nash well done you really you did really want it's always a bit disconcerning is it when you someone's throwing you underwater it's not a natural thing is it someone to it's almost like you throw you always throwing you down at times it's like someone's trying to drown you it's not a natural thing to go through so well done first person second have we got adelene now let's give it up for [Music] [Applause] Adeline Baptism adelene let's pray father we thank you for this daughter this daughter of the king of kings and the Lord of lords we thank you that you love her dearly we thank you Jesus that she that you have a plan for her life plans to prosper her not to harm her God plans God for a future of Wonder of beauty of strength God of Adventure and we pray today for her she as she gets baptized as she publicly declares her faith God that pleases you but Lord I pray God as she does this publicly God something would happen externally and internally within her Lord God God internally God that she would go deeper into your love externally that people God around her her friends family neighbors would notice the change in her in the name of Jesus we thank you for her we bless her in the name of Jesus Amen adelene on confession of your faith in Jesus Christ we baptize you in the name of the Father the Son and Holy Spirit Well johnene oh bless it come on well done amazing you did really [Music] well oh what a joy a come on well done Adeline okay so we got star next let's give it up for [Applause] Star let's pray for Star's Baptism Star I'm reminded of her tesy where she gave a list God let me get this right I love God because and I believe believe that God is saying I love star because I made her because she is wonderful she has a future and a plan I love star I love star I love star I love star for that list is long God we thank you for her God we pray God as she goes through these Waters right now that it would be more than just a moment God it would be her eternity would change God her future would change father we thank you God that that this decision is a made is is one that she has made herself Jesus because of experience God and I'm believing God for future experiences future Tes future moments God in her life where she can hands down say that was God that was God that was God God loves me God loves me God loves me God loves me so Jesus I just pray for her right now God as she leaves this pool God would she be different go Holy Spirit would you fill her from head to toe right now baptize her in your Holy Spirit In The Name of Jesus amen amen star on confession of your faith in Jesus Christ we baptize you in the name of the Father the Son and Holy Spirit Well Done [Music] St woo a mom again love them mom don't we a okay last but not least have we got leaford come on let's give it up for leaford I think he's one of these that maybe sometimes we have to have him diagonally just cuz we need a little bit more space no he's okay he's going right I Leaford's Baptism think they've got you measured mate you're okay so over to you guys yeah let's pray for leford God what a story God only only known you deeply God for around about a year God that decision God made on his own God but I thank you that he was never alone God he's never been alone but God that you used that YouTube You've used his upbringing and his past God to bring him to this point and God this point isn't the end God this is the beginning and he's a new creation in you Lord God and as he comes out of this water God would he be different God th we use this phrase no turning back God may this be a no turning back moment for leaford baptize him in water and baptize in the spirit of God right now in the name of Jesus Amen leaford on confession of your faith in Jesus Christ we baptize you in the name of the Father the Son and Holy [Music] [Applause] Spirit Well John [Music] leaford did all his air go on day he's was he making sure his hair didn't go under day well done you know we used to do this in church we used to say anybody want to get baptized you can get baptized today you know you can hear the gospel believe in Jesus and get baptized now we stopped doing that in church because we realize some people were a little bit clever because they could just get baptized without standing up here and saying why they get baptized right so we stopped doing it but I am going to put this out there if anybody wants to get baptized not today but next year we can have a convers ation cuz you might have the urge now you know what I want to get baptized I want to acknowledge as Rob said if that's you come and speak to us after go to the welcome area there'll be some people in there or come in there's some people who are offering prayer this morning come here and we can sort that out so that you can get baptized so I'm just looking at the team at the B they're thinking we don't do that anymore don't do it ah no Janet it's okay I'm not telling them come to the bat for baptism there you go stop worrying you're okay so have we had a good day we're not quite finished we nearly finished we got something to celebrate amen come on let's give them a round of applause for doing that today they're obedient to Jesus we know we're going to sing a song and I really like this song it says look how he lifted me and I like sometimes we fix our eyes on ourselves but I like to fix it on Jesus and say look how God lifted Jesus look how happy G God Wills with Jesus in his sacrifice I want to encourage you right now begin to give thanks for the gift of Jesus into your life and as you do that you'll realize you don't have to sit in the dirt anymore you don't have to stay condemned but you can sit with Christ through faith that you have been lifted come on let's Song: Look How He Lifted Me [Music] celebrate my world was shaken my heart was broken My Hope was fading the walls were closing in but now I'm singing look how he Lifted Me my life was sinking my days were numbered the waves were crashing the flood was coming in oh hallelujah look how he lifted me look how he lifted me his grace and mercy is my testimony for every victory I've got a song to sing look how he lifted [Music] me he turned my morning back into dancing he turned my weeping into a shout again and now I'm singing look how he Lifted Me hero my sorrow away of Calvary heroes in triumph over by on me oh hallelujah look how he lifted me look how he lifted me his grace and mercy is my testimony for every victory I've got a song to sing look how he lifted [Music] [Music] me when nothing El could help your love Came Down Your Love Came Down when nothing else could help your love came down and lifted me when nothing else could help your love Came Down Your Love came down when nothing else could help your love came down and LIF me look how he Lifted Me come on his grace and mercy is my testimony for every Victory I've got a song to sing look how he lifted me his grace and mercy is my test for Every Victory I've got a song to look how he lifted me look how he lifted me look how he Lifted [Music] Me come on let's give Jesus some Praise Jesus has anybody been lifted is anybody lifted this morning come on we've been lifted we've been lifted by faith in Jesus Christ this morning come on anybody feeling a little bit more lifted than when they came in I feel like I could take on the world because Jesus is with us amen well I hope you've enjoyed your morning thanks to everybody all the guests that have come in and it's great to see you whatever you're up to this afternoon enjoy your time as a family if you're going to go and have a special celebration enjoy that um it's been a wonderful morning can I can you give the people who've who've got up here and shared this morning another round of [Music] [Applause] applause and I just want to give you one final task I've I've told you already but there's these leaflets on your seat don't just sit on them take one with you put it in your car put it in your window put it on your desk pray about it and be thinking who can I invite come along and who can I who can I invite to this event and let's believe for a great event so if you need prayer this morning there's a prayer team over here please come up and have some prayer but all I'm going to do is bless you and send you have a great rest of your day have a fantastic week and we'd love to see you again thank [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] get [Music] [Music] a [Music] n [Music] he [Music] a [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] w [Music] [Music] n