Just Add Water | Baptisms with Pastor Jentezen Franklin

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] well let's really give him a great praise this morning it's been buried in the grave praise the lord praise the name of jesus praise the name of jesus hallelujah praise the lord smile at someone and you may be seated god bless you i want to take just a few moments this is baptism sunday we welcome all of our campuses that are joining us they're baptizing all over the place we baptized a bunch of people this morning inside and outside about to do it all over again and it's the first baptism sunday that we've had since the pandemic started so this has been over a year and to god be the glory can we rejoice about that it's a blessing so i want to take a few moments i'm going to the book of acts chapter 8 and then we're going to quickly move and baptize about 20 people and you're going to hear some of the greatest testimonies some of the most powerful testimonies in just a few moments but i i want to take a chance and an opportunity to tell you why we do what we do there's a story in acts chapter 8 i don't have time to read it but it's the story of philip and it's the story of how that there was a revival in samaria and the lord spoke to him and said go to the desert leave the revival where miracles were happening and go to the desert and so this this preacher philip the evangelist is in the desert and he doesn't understand why he's there but he's waiting on something and all of a sudden he sees a chariot come in his direction in the middle of all the desert how in the world these two people intersect and find each other it's a miraculous story in acts chapter 8 and there's a man by who is the treasury he's over the treasury of the nation of ethiopia the bible said he was working directly under king queen candace who was over the whole nation of ethiopia he was a very powerful man and he just so happened to be allowing the horse to lead the chariot i guess it was a trail he he couldn't have been using the reins it must have knew the way to go toward water is all and he happens to be reading this man he happens to be reading the book of isaiah in the chapter the third the 53rd chapter where it says that he will be led as a lamb before the slaughter and it goes into the stripes that he'll take on his back and and and the whole story the beautiful crucifixion old testament chapter of isaiah 53 this man who is of another religion is reading the book of isaiah and he does not understand what it's saying all of a sudden philip the evangelist hears the spirit say that is the man i sent you to the desert for join yourself to him he runs and while the horse is trotting along here comes the preacher running right beside here's the chariot the guy's sitting there reading the book of isaiah and here comes this preacher running up beside him it's an amazing story and he says hi how are you what are you doing now i'm going to paraphrase it but this is what happened and he says well i'm reading this book this book of isaiah about someone who will be wounded for my transgressions and bruised for my iniquities the chastisement of my peace will be upon him but i don't understand a thing that i'm reading and philip says in so many words i have a ph.d in isaiah chapter 53 would you like for me to step onto your chariot and explain it to you come on come on aboard he steps onto that chariot and by the time he gets through with him the bible said and he preached jesus unto him i love that he preached jesus he showed him that jesus was the one who had gone to the cross for him he did not preach politics unto him he did not preach economics unto him he preached jesus unto him and the bible said the man believed on jesus christ so much so that he came upon a a pond of water probably the only oasis out in the desert and he says what does hinder what hinders me from being baptized right now and he said do you believe on jesus he said yes and notice they came unto certain water and he said if you believe in your heart in jesus christ he's the this man had never heard the gospel and he just had it preached to him and instantly the bible said they both go into the water and he gets baptized right there on the spot they went down both into the water what a story what a story when it comes to baptism we make two mistakes there are those who say baptism in water isn't that big of a deal because your salvation does not depend upon it i can be saved without being baptized in water but you cannot be obedient to the commandment of jesus christ and then there are those who say go to the other extreme and say you cannot be saved unless you've been baptized in water and neither one of them is the correct way to see it jesus the first thing that jesus did in his earthly ministry was get baptized in water and when he came out of the water the heavens opened and the holy spirit in the form of a dove came down upon him but the first thing that he did in his earthly ministry was model water baptism for you and i the last thing that jesus did after he died and rose from the dead and he's going up on a cloudy elevator to intercede for you and me at the right hand of the father the last words was go into all the world matthew 28 and preach the gospel to all nations baptizing them in the name of the father son and holy spirit the last thing jesus said was i want you to be baptized immersed in water i want you to go down and come up completely in water through baptism we dare not minimize what jesus so emphasized we dare not if it was so important he started his ministry and ended his ministry talking about water baptism we dare not minimize what jesus greatly emphasized why is this important it's important for you to understand what water baptism represents it's important that both of them went down in the water in acts chapter 8 and they found a place where there was certain water in other words a biblical baptism is not a sprinkle it's not a dab of water it's not a little bit of water but there needs to be a certain amount of water if you're going to have a biblical baptism i'm not fighting any other denominations and stuff i'm just telling you that's not in the bible mark chapter 1 in verse 9 puts it like this no one in the bible was sprinkled everyone in the bible in the new testament church was baptized submerged in water and came out of it including our founder jesus christ but in mark chapter 1 and verse 9 now this was the baptism of jesus when he came from nazareth to jordan jordan was a river and it says in verse 10 straightway he came up out of the water now if he came up out of the water guess where he was he was down in completely in and under the water it was not convenient for jesus to get baptized and that's why people don't do it a lot of times it's just inconvenient it's inconvenient it's a little bit awkward it's it's kind of i mean it's it was jesus traveled 60 miles from nazareth to the jordan river 60 miles it was not convenient and he did it for one reason because he knew it was the will of the father for him to be baptized in the jordan river by john the baptist and it's not convenient if you just had your hair done ladies a 200 hairdo and you got to get in here and mess it up no thank you i don't feel god speaking to me today about that i i get it i get it but i'm just telling you it will never be convenient the it's you go down you come up you wet everything's clingy it's embarrassing but it is what it is welcome sometimes god doesn't want it to be convenient he told name he told naaman the general who had leprosy get in the jordan river and dip seven times and he said there's got to be an easier way i don't want to god said you do it my way you get my results he came up and he had skin like a baby skin that was leprous before and the point is many times god doesn't make it convenient to kill your pride baptism requires biblical baptism requires a lot of water it requires a lot of water and if the word baptism means to be submerged to go under all the early christians were baptized even in the earliest cathedrals that they have found that go back to the second and third and and 14th century christians they had baptistries built in them because they practiced what jesus the role model showed them to do now let me give you this real quick and then we're going to do this in romans chapter 6 this is what it says it says it gives a biography of your future it shows your past it shows this this this baptism tank shows your past it shows your present and it shows your future and let me tell you what i'm what i'm talking about in that because he said in verse 3 that we're baptized into jesus christ and we die look at that he says when we're baptized into jesus christ we're baptized into his death so when you go down in the water you you are baptized into his death what this is is a watery tomb literally in god's eyes and the old you is being buried under the water the old you we are about to have the funeral of about 20 plus people on this stage and nobody will be crying except the devil he'll have his handkerchief out he's going to grieve bad and he's gonna say i lost another one i lost another one there the old goes that drug addict there he goes and he's coming now that's the past and then he says in the next verse and we baptize them and they come out notice the last part in newness of life that's the present so you go down and your past your shame your guilt your your the power of the enemy the defeat you go down in that you come up in newness of life and then he ends the story with the next verse by showing you your future when he says and just as we of all will one day be planted together in the likeness of his death we're all going to die and they're going to put us in the ground like they put jesus in the tomb but we shall also in the likeness of his resurrection and he's all tying that to this baptism place and he says what that is saying is not only is your past taken care of not only have you come to newness of life in the present but i've got your future and one of these days if the lord tarries you die and they put your body in the grave the trumpet is going to sound and you have resurrection power in you that not only will raise your spirit instantly goes to be with god but your body will be raised on that day out of the ground and out of the grave that's the miracle the last thing i want to say to you about baptism and why it's so important is because it proclaims your identification with jesus christ publicly it's like the wedding ring this this wedding ring says i belong to cherise it says i it doesn't make me married the ring doesn't make me married i have a marriage certificate i have we had a ceremony we have 34 years of living together but and we did what we did before god he that's what made us married but here's what it does it doesn't make me married it shows publicly that i am married that's exactly what this is this doesn't make you safe you can go down a dry center and come up a wet center there's nothing magical in this water that will make you save but it identifies with the fact that you belong to jesus christ he is your savior and you're going public with it you're going public with it you belong to him that's what what her baptism is a little boy went to children's church and while he was in children's church he felt conviction and gave his heart to jesus christ and prayed with the children's pastor and the children's pastor hugged the little fella and he said now listen buddy when you go upstairs to the big church you go to the pastor and you tell him i have been saved and now i want to be baptized and so he went upstairs and he went up to the pastor and he was shaking hands and he broke the line and pulled on his coat tail and he said pastor i got saved this morning in children's church i just got saved and now i want to be advertised i like that that's exactly what these people are doing they're saying i i have had something internal but i'm going external with it now and in case there's any devil out there that wants to bring up my past i want you to know i am a new creation the old things have passed away and behold all things are new and you say amen that's what water baptism is and that's what we're going to do right now put your hands together and celebrate come on guys let's go fast [Music] [Music] good to see you what's your name jason nix jason um what made you do this today how long have you been coming to the church a few months before um the church closed for code and then you know before i started coming i was going through some i mean dark times um addiction suicidal thoughts um just deep depression you know and i just lost my way i lost my faith separation from my wife and i put that on me you know i like just hit rock bottom rock bottom and what happened uh the church opened back up you know and um i started coming the first day and haven't missed a sunday during that whole time i was still going through that you know i knew god was talking to me but i didn't know what to do about it yet and yet just totally convicted me i mean i've lost my love for everything you know i've been a musician for 30 plus years and i didn't even want to do that anymore you know and then finally february 14 is valentine's day i was here by myself and your sermon just spoke to me i went straight home and i prayed with my wife god's working with us we're talking we're loving on each other and you know he saved me and i know i know now yes and you're a new man and god's gonna help you god's gonna help you want to say anything else i want to say that i love this church you know i i've been in our church for all my life the love that i feel when i come here is like nothing i've ever experienced just the people that call me at nine o'clock at night when i feel the urge to to drink they're like hey you know that they call it for a reason and they pray with me i've met so many people here that just love on youtube you know for the longest time i had to go to church because i felt this occasion it was easter christmas and now it's like i get to i get to go to church sunday morning is like my favorite day you know it's like i get to go to church today i love it you got the real thing you got the real thing i baptized you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit bless him lord raise the newness of life thank god thank god thank god how you doing great how are you i'm doing good why are you crying holy spirit he's just amazing uh uh how long have you been at the church i started coming in november of the uh of last year yeah of this year last year did somebody invite you so interesting story um i got saved in november um november 6th of last year um but i thought i had been saved since i was six raised in the church amazing parents um but i as i grew older i was serving the jesus i had made up in my head that i don't know if it's peter or paul talks about in the new testament another jesus and um to look on the outside people would think i was a christian but last year i was praying and god heard my prayer to send someone in my life as a spiritual mentor and he sent an amazing woman of god and um as i did bible studies with her um i was led to galatians 5 16 through 26 where i talked about the works of the flesh and the works of the spirit and the fruit of the spirit my life looked more like the works of the flesh and it said that you won't inherit the kingdom of god and i realized i wasn't saved and so you would think i would have given my life to god at that moment but you just mentioned pride and i had a lot of that and still being delivered from it but over the next six months jesus worked on my heart and that woman helped me thank god and i gave my life to christ in november and so um i heard you over the summer on hillsong channel preaching and um when i got saved i was talking to her and i was like i think you know that's one of the churches that we're going to go to and she confirmed and said the holy spirit confirmed with her this is where i was supposed to be is she here today no yeah well to god be the glory i'm so glad she sowed into your life this is a miracle i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit bless her lord [Applause] [Music] how you doing what's your name mike what does this mean to you obviously your move mike how how long have you been at the church eight months so what did you start watching online and why why are you getting baptized today god told me to do it have you ever been baptized before probably in the late 70s have you made a fresh commitment to jesus yes thank you don't ever be ashamed of those tears don't ever be ashamed of that brokenness that's god doing work this represents so much more than people can understand they don't know they don't know the darkness they don't know but god does and it's over i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit bless him lord praise god bless you [Music] [Applause] hello bless you is that your husband not yet okay all right god bless you what's your name erica do you know jesus is your lord and savior do you confess him before this congregation today then upon your profession of faith i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] give us your name please abby abby how old are you i'm 21 21 why are you doing this today um so in 2019 i lost my cousin she was a year older than me and i was so um upset like how could god take her away from us we were literally a year apart um and so i was so hurt and so upset in my friend about the college campus ministry and i went and the first thing the pastor talked about was when things happen and it doesn't always end up in your favor and it's not that he doesn't exist or that he's not there but it just that's how it was meant to be um and i have realized that now um and so i would love i have been saved since that first day that i went to my ministry on campus and it was the best thing ever so you felt an immediate peace and you felt an immediate change in your life it was the best thing wonderful upon your profession of faith i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit give us your name please mcroy chuck how long you've been coming to the church since the old church oh really wow well thank you for sticking with us i had a little journey in between i've been out looking for donkeys yeah amen amen you found jesus again right rededication to him referring to a sermon that i preached one time so um so what what what made you get in here today well i kind of lost my walk i got hurt on the job and got hooked on pain pills and kind of lost everything started self-medicating and uh god's put me where i'm supposed to be at well it's an epidemic what you're talking about is an epidemic and it's destroying lives every day every day and you can know that you need out but you can't get out on your own unless you turn to jesus amen and i got a good bunch of guys i'm at north georgia works and thank everybody that supports them uh we're really blessed we're blessed what is that what is that that's the program yes sir um really taking men off the street teaching them about jesus teaching them how to have life skills how to get a job go to work responsibility so how long have you been free from prescription drugs about four years [Applause] and what else would you like to say i love all y'all we love you welcome to the family of god i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit bless him lord that great huh what's your name bonnie long and what's the lord done for you bonnie everything how did you end up at the church um started coming years ago actually you were my niece's next-door neighbor before you had a church so i've seen you for a long time but i've watched church grow and it's just a beautiful place and you're a wonderful preacher teacher and i appreciate that well thank you and and and so uh have you recently made a commitment to jesus a couple of weeks ago i was coming to church here and i prayed all the way and i asked him to please let me be a vessel for the spirit to come into and to let me have a breakthrough and help someone else i've always been blessed but god's blessed me with a lot of lessons well he's he's going to do that he's going to use you for his glory i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit amen [Music] [Applause] [Music] give us your name please my name is alan patton ellen uh how did you end up here today well i've been addicted to drugs since i was like 13 year old um my last little go-round in hawk county jail um i met the lord i haven't come into my life and for his will to be done he put me in the north georgia works ministries over there and i've gotten been here free chapel since then and he's worked miracles in my life man i cleaned from drugs for five and a half months now um got a great job so so what kind of what kind of drugs were you on nothing better means that's better means yes it's killing people now right the it's laced and yeah it is um my family's always had my back but man with doug hansen opening north georgia works really give me my life my family back so and so did you just move into that program and you and and he did you ever believe you could get free did you ever believe you could stop no not until i got in the program and met jesus christ my father so [Applause] lord thank you for this miracle that i'm touching right now i baptize him in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit bless him lord man fantastic buddy god bless you what's your name sydney dominowski how old are you sydney 17. fantastic are you a senior this year junior junior why are you doing this recently i've been going through some stuff and i was very close to god and this past year has not only been hard for everybody else but me as well and i strayed away from him and i was doing things that i wasn't supposed to do and this past november kenzie thompson actually invited me to a live youth and i went there and i knew that's the place i needed to be and so you got touched in a youth service yes sir and and you're saying today lord i'm home yes have you got parents out there i do um danny's daughter yeah where's danny at i know danny bless you love you guys so i know they're so thrilled to see what's happening in your life what would you say to other teenagers that are going through hard times i i [Music] it's unreal how the enemy is attacking your generation what would you say to him i would say that and you need to stop being afraid and you need to start opening up to god and i know it's hard because he's like you think that he's caused all this pain but in general he's just trying to make you stronger and he's trying to become make you become a soldier that you are so it's not pretend it's not just mind over matter god is not just some something out there you can really feel peace you can feel so much peace and i wish that people my age could just like open up their hearts and stop being so ignorant about it you gotta talk to jesus just gotta let it all out that's so good i'm proud of you i baptized you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit thank you lord praise the lord hallelujah praise god praise god praise god great great great give us your name please catherine o'brien and and how old are you catherine uh 20. 20. now i heard a lot of ruckus out there in the congregation who who's making all that noise um my counselors from new beginnings you're in new beginnings yeah i graduated in um 2020. and so how long did you go into that program if you don't know new beginnings is a amazing ministry that we support and we opened up a home for teenagers there we this church built it i'm actually the door mom for the team dorm [Music] i do okay so you came there addicted and and broken and now you work in the ministry i do um i started working for the ministry uh two or three months ago and you know it's now it's just crazy because you know we have one teenager there right now and you know every everything that i went through you know every night that i just sat there crying every hurt that i went through you know like the lord brought me out of that he brought me through that so i can pour into this girl and to give her the same hope of jesus you know [Applause] and you know when you've experienced it you know it's real they can't tell you what has happened has not happened when you've been there and come out of that grave right there's there's nobody that uh can tell me that jesus is not real like there's nobody who can tell me that jesus is not the one who kept me alive through the times i've tried to kill myself there's nobody who can tell me that jesus isn't the one that held me in his hand when i was on meth nobody can tell me that jesus is not the one that brought me out of what i went through like there's nobody who can tell me that jesus was not that one and you're talking to a whole generation [Music] you're talking to girls that that are they're they're hearing the liar absolutely and and so you're so young you're 20 years old when did you start when did you get into this darkness this dark world um well it started it really took off at age 13. um you know i was just so angry i was angry at the world i was angry at god and um i didn't want any part to do with him or the way he wanted me to look because i was raised in church um you know my mom thought it was very important to have me in church but uh you know my parents had gotten divorced when i was five and i blamed god for that and i just was so angry i was angry at everybody and that just progressed you know i just blew hell wide open really you know i started smoking weed when i was 13 but that um just opened up the door to so it's a gateway you know our crazy nation is legalizing it everywhere but it's a gateway to hell absolutely you know and then that just um there was just other darkness you know i started slitting my wrists and trying to commit suicide you know i tried to hang myself when i was 13 years old and the rope broke you know and that was right there was god's hand over me you know and but even then you know like i i remember the day that i said that um well if god won't let me kill myself i'll just do it slowly and that's when i started really resorting to drugs and you know i ended up on meth when i was 18. and um it all led up to this one this one night you know where i really thought that i was gonna die i thought that this man that i was with was gonna kill me and i cried out to the lord in that moment i was like god if you will get me through this alive i will change i will give my life to you and he did it from that moment on that moment on he started moving everything out of the way and about a month later about a month later um he led me to new beginnings and um i even tried to leave new beginnings because that part of me still didn't want this part of me still didn't really want to surrender everything but i did i tried to leave new beginnings and he wouldn't let me leave from there you know and it was a week later that i got born again and i've been living for him ever since and how long have you been clean about a year and a half that's a miracle that's anything else you want to say my goodness that's unbelievable that jesus that jesus is the only way he's the only one who's ever going to be able to bring you through your problems he's the only one who's going to be able to heal that brokenness that's within you and it's jesus it's only jesus praise the lord lord thank you for this miracle i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit praise god praise god praise god praise god hallelujah hallelujah wow how are you i'm good i'm lauren laura simmons nice to meet you nice to meet you is that your husband beginnings oh new beginnings okay so that's not your husband that's awesome so you you're in the program now yes i am i've been there since may of last year and how how are you doing i'm good i've i'm incredibly happy i've you know being clean is a very freeing feeling it's a very freeing feeling did you think they were crazy when you first went there all that jesus stuff absolutely i did but um i mean i was i was used to it i grew up in church i stopped going when i was about 16. um so i mean i was i was used to it i grew up around people speaking in tongues so really it was it was normal to me really so it just took a little while to get back into the groove of things things i'd forgotten long ago you know and and uh so today is a very powerful day in that it's all that you've gone through to get here and what would you say to someone who's struggling today pray just keep praying keep your faith and you know the prayers of everyone around you it works it really does i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit how you doing what's your name ivan casillas ivan howe how did you end up at free chapel um uh old cold worker i used to work at toyota alfredo briones i think i believe he used to you know work for you he invited me once and it really made an impact on me and i've been here since so the only reason you're here is because someone who was sitting out there invited you to come to church and that was enough to push you to go yes oh yes and what happened um did you get saved here on and off but i guess today makes it permanently and the cross makes it permanently but this is the this is the outward manifestation of what the what the blood of jesus has done and uh absolutely absolutely and you're part of the family thank you i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit him lord amen you're doing good how you doing what's your name karen bc karen how long you been at the church i did the um online class with uh pastor uh kendra so you started watching online it did and i had been watching before and the lord has really put on my heart i've never been baptized i've been right up there kind of like the hair thing it's like but i just never did it so it's just not been convenient yeah so it's the lord says you know it's time you need to open up this yeah you need this and i'm so ready well we're glad you're here so you were you only watched online did you attend church here also the first time i've been in here it's awesome well that's so great that's so great what about that so do you know jesus is lord of your life and savior yes i do then upon your profession of faith i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit awesome god bless you welcome to church welcome to church [Applause] give us your name son uh andrew roberts and drew got a group back there what group are you with uh the jericho house see we support these ministries and and they bring their uh their groups to the church and it's such an honor to have have you guys with us that's larry's group right larry larry mckenna larry are you back there where's larry he might have been in the first service but anyhow so how did you end up in the program um my boss actually went through a similar program so he kind of showed me it and got me in there and i came in july of last year were you a christian nope i was not a christian didn't believe at all and um i actually got saved in november in the program so ever since then i've it's been awesome changed my life how long have you been sober um almost 10 months did you ever think you could quit no it's the hardest thing i've ever done and you're free and now today i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit thank you for that miracle lord thank you for that miracle how you doing what's your name ramon santiago and uh and and where are you from buddy uh lagrange georgia and and how did you end up here today um eight months ago i was sitting in a jail cell waiting to go to prison and um never prayed to god before never was a believer and um prayed to him and he listened he put me in a spot where i had to make a decision what i wanted to do in my life and the next day my lawyer came she said uh we got your place and when i asked where she said it's a geographies program dropped to my knees and um yeah it's amazing you know larry uh larry the founder there he came up in the church and he was at one time um a part of another ministry and and just felt a burden and said i remember when he came to me and he said i'm going to start a rehab and i need i need you know pray for us and help us all that you can help us but god had all of that planned for that day in that jail cell for you and here you sit a miracle what would you say to anyone out there who feels like you just hit the bottom of the bottom like you felt and and is there hope there's there's hope i was young and um alone don't give up did the enemy tell you to give up i feel like i told me a million times a day to give up i listen to him instead of others and what's changed i'm alive and um god's always hugging me you're loved by god god so loved the world lord i thank you for this miracle i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit bless him lord praise god wonderful wonderful wonderful how you doing man good what's your name i'm gregory lycia and are you in a program i was doing next step yes your next steps okay that's a good that's awesome so uh how did you end up at free chapel did somebody invite you or did you just hear about the church yeah uh my wife my beautiful wife right there um we started coming in 2017 and it's just you know god just revealed things to you and it's just been amazing roller coaster ever since did you give your heart to the lord in one of those services yes i did i've been lukewarm you know i grew up in the church all my life and you know it's just seeing the love and seeing how god works you know he works in mysterious ways and i'm just i'm just so humble and honored to be able to be here right now and you know receive it receive his love and everything we love you and we do receive you and accept you and i know god's got greatness in you i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit bless him lord here comes this beautiful wife that's awesome [Music] how long have you guys been married [Music] three years wonderful wonderful and so did you come to church by yourself without him for a while um no we went together it was my dad who told me about this church but he lives in pennsylvania yeah so he in pennsylvania told you to come here yes is he watching today by chance we can send him a cd of this or dvd or whatever they call them okay so why are you doing this um uh i know i know the lord my whole life but i never really opened up the bible and as soon as i read matthew i was like wow i'm missing out on his love and and i want to share that love with other people and it completely changed me because i wasn't that way at all i was different from last year you wouldn't recognize me yes because you're obeying and you're growing and you can't stay neutral you can't stay lukewarm you have to you have to go after god he is he has to be pursued and he said if you draw near to me i'll draw near to you he did all he could do on the cross now he says you come my way and i'll come running you come my way you try you reach out and i won't i won't reject you i will not i will not turn you away he didn't turn you away did he i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit bless this marriage in jesus name god bless you come on in [Applause] [Music] doing okay what's your name robert wallace nice to meet you robert how long have you been at the church i remember going to the old about the old church and and uh why so it's been a long time why are you getting baptized so late here that's right i've missed many of them uh and i'm here today to but i've to come back home here and yes sir and i've just you know i feel like i abandoned the church i've abandoned my family and murdered just come back to everybody it's time for change it's time for newness of life watch the way the old and bring in the new okay out of it and and it's never too late and you've done nothing that god can't forgive you've done nothing that he can't restore maybe not the way that you would think but he has he has hope for you he has a future for you and your family god it all begins when you put god first yes it does well i'm so glad you're here today and i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit bless and restore his life lord in jesus name bless you come on down give us your name please sandra mancha and uh how did you end up at free chapel um i've been watching online for the past two years um god took me out of miami about three years ago from the city and put me in this little town in florida so i come here once some months i try um to be here in the service my life i started at 17. i was pregnant i was alone i decided to have my child and god gave me a promise on a side of 54 that i still hold on dear to my heart after being in church for the pastor bobby cruz nikki cruz and nick jr i was there for 12 years i got a divorce i have three kids that i jacob and israel and i went into the world i went into the world to be with women and i did that for 18 years a couple of years back i called my friend syda sanchez and i told her i need you to pray for me i'm done i want to go back home and she started praying god immediately started moving in my life he put me in the church of wilkinson junior back in miami and um he told me i'm gonna get you out of here so that's when he moved me from the city to this little town and i stayed there one-on-one the holy spirit is the one that has been over my life teaching me i couldn't put the bible down i couldn't i have like listened to all your sermons it has brought me growth the spiritual growth then i started preaching um friends they were gay accepted jesus christ family members um praise you lord i went back to my dad after 14 years of not talking to him and now we have a very good relationship so um i follow him i am here because of a promise i am here because he's merciful because he took me out of the world that is very hard to leave and i want to tell everybody that if you have members and if you are going through something like that is it's a problem of identify and you identify with that but it's a lie jesus christ is the only one who knows and create you to be and you have a purpose and don't be entertained don't believe lies they're blind have mercy from the people from the church too have mercy with them love is the only thing that conquers all it's powerful powerful powerful power you're moving here now well we we love you we're thrilled you got your church you belong here and god's going to bless you and your family and your testimony and ministry to reach many many more pull them out of the darkness into the glorious love and light of jesus christ i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit we need to shout over that that's a big miracle from god [Applause] praise the lord praise the lord god bless you [Music] give us your name please katina chambers and how long have you been at the church about a year now right before the pandemic and you made it through the pandemic i did i made it through not only did i made it through um just god's grace has been over me ever since and there's been a great level of peace did you find the lord here no i gave my life to christ actually uh 2001 i was baptized raised in a church baptized at the age of 12 but then i strayed away from the lord and then the lord sent me here to georgia all alone and he used i was here all alone and this is where i really count my my true true salvation came right here in georgia 2001 well we're glad you're here and you're not alone anymore are you definitely not i just feel god's grace his call is on my life and he used your book to draw me here to free chapel diamonds across the diamonds good so you preached a sermon right here in the chapel and that book has transformed my life you talked about how the pressure you know god places you through pressure and how much a diamond you know it um it takes you know in order to get that uh out of you and i believe the lord just wants more of me amen you are acres of diamonds in jesus name i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit bless her lord in jesus name how many more do we have we've got seven more seven more praise the lord how many of you know this is worth celebrating this is better than anything going on in the world in gainesville today what's your name buddy james dunlap james how long have you been at the church we've been watching you online for a little over two years i'm meeting our online family today isn't this amazing so have you have you ever been to church here i have not the first time this is an awesome place so welcome let's give him a warm warm welcome first time this is amazing so what made you start watching online we've been kind of searching the last couple years to the right place and we tried different churches and we just started watching on tv you have to you know and at first you know i couldn't listen to you but then for something you know i went back and said what was the problem i guess my ears were clogged up but but then i remember one time i said what do you say so then i started really listening to you and then you know every sunday we turned on facebook put it on tv and we were right there so you do the live service yeah and you had a service i think his land set timber about the importance of the water baptism and that that's that changed my life right there i said next time that's about i got to be there so i'm here so great well welcome we're so glad to have you and you said we is your wife your wife with you or out there somewhere wife and granddaughter way back there in the back we see you back there god bless you guys i know you're thrilled about this are you ready i'll baptize you you want to say something else there's been something missed in my life for years and after that sermon you did there i said i know this is the way we got to get there yes because this is obedience see the blessing of obeying a commandment of the lord is unlimited i mean i re i really believe that when we do what jesus commanded it wasn't a suggestion it was a commandment it releases the blessing of the lord on our life heaven opens up and the holy spirit targets you lord i thank you for this precious soul now baptize him in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit bless him lord praise god [Applause] [Music] give us your name please cathy vargas and how old are you 30. 30 years old you look even younger than that and that's young um why are you doing this today what happened well um i gave my life to the lord about two years ago here but um i continue to have struggles with myself self-esteem to the point where i didn't value my life and it hurt my um my marriage it hurt my family with my the help of my group leaders and my husband um i i realized how much god loves me so group leaders meaning you're in a in a small group you got in a small group which is a group of believers in the church and they do a little bible study and just hang out together and do life and maybe eat a meal together yes we have some awesome leaders that help me so how did that help you how did that strengthen you to to get around other believers and start connecting and now when you come to church those people they know you you know them it's not just a big crowd of people but it's very intimate right um they helped me and my husband both by telling us their testimonies and showing us how amazing god has been to them and he has been to us too and he's blessed us over and over again so powerful and that's that's discipleship and i baptize you on your profession of faith in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit praise god it's wonderful come on hey how are you good how are you good uh how did you end up at free chapel uh my wife and i've been coming here for about 10 years actually we drive about an hour and a half to get here but uh you drive one way an hour and a half hour and a half yeah from above uh east of athens you come a lot uh we my wife comes every sunday i i try to but uh as much as i can yes that's tremendous and why do you do that uh we love this this church uh she loves you actually um but uh and i like you a lot too but um that's good but uh we we love your sermons and everything we we can connect and all that and so what does this mean to you today did was there a particular moment that brought you to this or or have you recently committed to yourself i did years ago um but i'm 52 and i've never been baptized so this is the first first for me so this is a great day this is a big day in your walk with god and i'm honored to do this i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit real men get baptized praise the lord god bless you that's awesome how you doing buddy all right what's your name patrick roberts patrick uh you got friends and family here i got my family's here and the guys from where i live in proof from where we are living proof we are living proof now i'm not familiar with that who who what is that um it's a program here in uh what's actually in um oh man i got me choked up yeah that's it yeah it's kind of like it's kind of like a rehab but it's like a cyber living community uh why are you did did you get saved here the church or did you get saved in the program um i tried this before but um three weeks ago i came down to the stage and i fully committed my life back to christ and [Music] so so you came in you came to church and you felt the lord say give me your life yeah i felt it stronger than here than i ever have before um i tried this once i met a will graham certain not too long ago but i was still so trapped up in my addiction that my head meant it but my heart didn't and i'm just i'm sick and tired now so how have you been doing since you committed your life to jesus a few weeks ago are you are you getting help yes sir i have um i woke up about a month ago and uh i was still in my aid of addiction and uh the lord just beat me across the head and i told him i told my wife that i said tomorrow i'm gonna pack my stuff and you know i'm going to do something better with my life and you know she said okay and i was on the brink of a divorce and um and the lord brought me through it and brought her through it and today she's sitting up there supporting me and how long have you been clean 36 days how many 36 days can we celebrate 36 days in a big way i'm so proud of you that blesses my heart 36 days everybody say you may if you don't understand that's a miracle 36 days that's a miracle that's a miracle you're gonna get stronger and stronger and we're here as a church to help you all right so are you and your wife are you are you planning on being a part of this church are you planning on being an usher or something in this church in one of these days who knows i might take your spot i would come hear you preach i would come hear you preach i would absolutely come hear you preach i got a good story huh i said i have a good story i bet you dude i bet you do well i feel the lord right now i bet you do what would you say [Music] what would you say to any men or any young people or anybody out there that's just broken and life was just chewed them up and spit them out something's happened that broke everything well at the age of 16 i got hooked on drugs and when i turned 20 it was the first time i got chance for a level 5 prison and i'm 36 now and i've done 13 years in level 5 prisons all over the state of georgia and i've seen it i've witnessed it i've lived through it i've lost and i've won i've been an active gamer since 2008 and when i come home from prison in 2019 i left that mess at the door and i said no more [Music] and um i come home and i got back with one of my lifelong friends her name's selena and um man there's nothing like the love of a good woman it should change your life you can do all things the christ who strengthens you and this is a this is a new beginning for you like you've never known before and you're going to walk it you're going to live it you're going to see it and god's going to bless you you ready i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit can we say hell lost another one praise the lord praise the lord that's a miracle wow what a story god bless you what's your name rochelle preston well thank you for waiting in that line and for being an inconvenience for the name of jesus sake you didn't have to do that why are you doing this um i've i've been running for a long time the lord's been calling me so i just felt like it was time and have you recently made a commitment to the lord um yes i actually started watching you online back in november of 2019 and then i did the 21 day fast in 2020 and then i went to next steps and i joined the church so i'm part of the online campus and i drove here from richmond virginia i had no idea that is amazing let's give her a warm welcome today what a miracle one of our online members well this is powerful this is powerful did you come by yourself yes i did we're so honored to have you and you will not leave like you came in jesus name i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit bless her life in jesus mighty name let's give the lord a mighty praise come on thank the lord thank the lord give us your name please uh kayla estrada and uh how long have you been in the church um i've well i started coming um last year during like right in the middle of the pandemic and um so obviously it was just online and then um i was hospitalized last year and i saw you come on i was flipping through the um channels in my hospital room and i saw you come on the tv so i started watching you and um i i just knew that this is the church i wanted to belong to and that i wanted to get baptized here praise the lord so you watched on television and and one thing led to another and here we are yes and um it's just it's been a long road here i mean i was baptized when i was a baby and um i you know kind of fell away and didn't you know go to church for a while and then i you know last year i just knew that that this was meant to be and that um i'm rededicating myself to the lord well welcome home and i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit bless her lord praise god praise god praise god praise god praise god and give us your name please lisa estrada is that your daughter yes wonderful wonderful so uh did you come with her uh did you start watching online uh yes actually um we'd again we were both uh baptized in the catholic religion and very loyal to the catholic religion for 60 years and then when the pandemic hit i realized i was watching mass online and i realized it was obligatory not fervent lukewarm and then i saw you online and when i heard the word from you it touched my soul [Applause] so have you ever been baptized in water like this oh no we get the little sprinkling and boy i thank god for our catholic brothers and sisters in christ i know many of them have been born again and filled with the holy spirit there's a real revival going on and there's some precious things about that but there's also the tradition that without the spirit of the lord it's lifeless and what you have found is life and life more abundantly in jesus christ not religion not in even a church not even in free chapel or a preacher it's only in jesus and he's heard your prayer and you are forgiven and we celebrate that with you today that testimony touched me welcome we're glad you're here and i baptize you in the name of the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit bless her lord bless her lord that's so great god bless you i'm going to ask you if you will in closing to stand to your feet no one moving just for another two minutes i have never had a baptism service where i gave the invitation for people to receive jesus and people did not get saved [Music] because there's something about hearing personal stories of redemption that the holy spirit can take and target that to the lost and we interrupted regular scheduling program today to show these testimonies and celebrate these lives but i also did it with the mindset that i know the lord is going to speak to backsliders and people who are lost and say come home every head bowed every eye closed if you're in this room today and something somebody said in this water has touched you something about what you feel now feels like exactly what you're ready for and you're in desperate need for you've come to an end of yourself and you know you need jesus you know you need forgiveness you know you need hope beyond this moment in this life and you want to know where you stand and you want to know that you're forgiven and saved pastor pray for me i want to get right with god if that's you boldly raise your hand as high as you can get it right where you're standing right now that's fantastic keep it high raise it high and unashamed because you you hear you wouldn't do that you know you better than that you would never raise your hand and draw attention to yourself in a big church like this unless the holy spirit was speaking to you through somebody you heard today keep that hand high 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 keep your hand raised 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 anyone else anyone else 30 way up there in the balcony anybody else 30 30. can we say praise god for 30 souls all right let's pray this prayer together here we go here we go everybody say these words jesus i believe in you i believe you died you carried my sin to the cross you shed your blood and it washes me clean and right now i believe that you rose from the dead and i believe that you are savior and i receive you as my lord and savior today my sins are forgiven say this and soon i'm going to get in that water tank and i'm going to bury my shame and my past because of jesus can you say man somebody let's give the lord the biggest praise of the morning now i want to i want to say this in closing how many of you when we're still gonna baptize that's all we could get to we're still some people gonna be baptized down at the pool in the amphitheater we baptized over 50 outside in the last last service to god be the glory they're baptizing at every campus and thank you for being here we'll see you next sunday i'll be preaching and by the way we have a miracle fund of four million dollars a family said if the people will match the resources and they said they got to give above whatever your finances were for this sunday we will match if we give five dollars over what we did last year this time they'll give five dollars if we give i said how quick can you do that he said if you get a million dollars we'll give a million dollars as quick as you can so what i'm saying to you is if you ever were going to give to this church do it now because we're doubling and by the way we've already done that in the last four weeks we have seen a miracle happen and i'm gonna give you some big news next sunday about that but be faithful in your giving thank you so much we love you all may the lord bless you and keep you make his face shine on you be gracious unto you lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace this service is dedicated today to our amazing volunteers that make those testimonies happen the way you volunteer and serve in this church and we love you and we appreciate you so much have a great week everybody be blessed what a powerful word that was if today you made the decision to be saved first off we want to say we are so proud of you and we are so excited for you please feel free to text amen to 313131 so we can get connected with you and help you out with some next steps in your spiritual journey also we want to get you connected into the online family so please go to freechapel.org slash online you can connect it right there also please feel free to put your prayer requests in the chat we've got a team of people praying with you praying for you and praying over you so that's all for our time with you this sunday we pray you have a blessed sunday and we'll see you next week [Music] is you

Channel: Free Chapel

Views: 42,847

Rating: 4.9239001 out of 5

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Id: gJxHV8Cq7qM

Length: 75min 53sec (4553 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 11 2021