Today is Palm Sunday. And of course that's the day when Jesus, we've of course been talking about this for weeks now, but that's the day when Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem on the back of a donkey's colt, the people lining the route, some of them through their cloaks on the road in front of Jesus, others through greenery it says in the Gospels.
I don't know how it came to be called from, but in any case, they threw greenery that they cut down from the fields nearby onto the road in front of Jesus, made this kind of impromptu red carpet or tick or take parade for Jesus as he entered the city.
It's a wonderful day to get baptized, to say in effect, I'm going to follow Jesus as he goes down that road.
Now, we have nine people who are getting baptized here at sea to pray this morning, eight of them in the 1115 service.
Now we have one for you guys, so let's welcome him to the stage.
This is Kate, so Kate, you can tell us as long as you want about what you're doing.
Hello, I'm Kate. I'm excited to be in baptism. I let Jesus into my life not too long ago, but I'm getting to know him better. I've accepted him as my savior, so I'm excited to live in certain.
Right.
And this, by the way, is Kate Arolo, who many of you know, who is a quick change artist this morning. She was singing right there just a moment ago.
But you are Kate Smoker's leader, correct? So, Kate said, baptized Kate, before they get white, let's pray.
Father, we thank you that in Christ you have transformed the peril of drowning in sin into the gentle cleansing path of salvation.
We hold Kate before you. She is about to follow Jesus down into the waters of baptism.
She marks this day with her obedience. We pray, Mark her deep in her soul as a Christ follower, now and forever.
We pray in the name of Jesus.
All right, ladies. It's warm. It is warm.
I'm very excited that because of your faith in Jesus Christ, we get to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All right.
As I suspect most of us know, this is the Sunday that Jesus wrote into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey's colt.
The Gospel writers tell us that the people along the parade route, if you will, through coats on the road in front of Jesus' path,
as well as greenery that they cut down in nearby fields, somewhere in the 20th century from then to now that greenery has become palm branches.
Thus it is Palm Sunday.
For us this morning, it's also a day to baptize. I think here in this service to baptize eight people.
Palm Sunday, I think, is a wonderful day to get baptized.
Baptism is a rich symbol. There are layers of meaning there.
But at its heart, in our understanding, baptism is a way of saying, I'm a Christ follower. I'm one of those people now.
You know, I no longer am the boss. I'm no longer going to do it my way. From now on, I'm going to follow Jesus.
I can imagine a better day on which to do that than Palm Sunday.
So, join me in welcoming these folks here onto the stage.
If you're going to get baptized or baptize someone, come on up.
Come on up.
Right over there.
And these young ladies are all with you, Charlie. Am I right?
All right.
Why don't we move down? I don't know. We've got people coming this way. We're fine. We'll meet in the middle.
Okay.
Good-looking bunch. All right.
I am going to start the microphone down here and let you all tell us why you're getting baptized.
What's this about, okay?
It's hot. It's ready.
I want to get baptized in the middle.
Like, ever since I joined the way of the school ministry thing, I just really felt like Jesus called my name.
I just wanted to pray about it.
All right.
I want to get baptized today because I'm really excited to get my life to Jesus and I want to pray for them.
Well, good morning. I actually have a note.
All right.
It's a Bible verse that says, as in Matthew 3.16 says, as soon as Jesus goes baptized, He went up out of the water and at that moment, Heaven was open.
And He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and rest on Him.
Jesus was sinless and needed no baptism for He was God Himself.
But He did this in a way to fulfill our rightness and to leave us an example for us to follow.
Baptism is an act of obedience.
It is an outward sign of an inward conversion.
And just a little bit of my story.
I was baptized eight years ago, but back then my heart and my soul, my spirit was not in it.
I was pressured by a pastor at that time to get baptized, so it was not my own decision.
And so that was by me for a while.
And God spoke to me recently through prayers and through people that prayed for my life.
And I came to the church, I spoke to Pastor Paul, and I prayed that to God that whatever he told me was what I was going to do.
And he looked at me and said, you should get baptized.
And I said, I got those to Jesus today because He just ate from my prayers.
So that's why I'm here.
I'm here today to get baptized again, but now with all my heart and all my spirit and soul.
And to let everybody know that, you know, I declare my faith in Paul and Jesus, my Lord and my Savior.
My name is Beth Herring.
I'm here today to go deeper in my commitment to God and Christ.
To publicly ask forgiveness for my sins and to have them washed away.
But most of all, to thank God for always being there through every season of my life.
He was showing me that He was there, no matter what I had done, no matter what I was going through, He was always there.
Looking back on my life, I have wonderful memories where His hand led me, gifts innumerable and intangible set before me.
And more often than I'd like to admit, He pulled me back towards me with forgiveness and grace.
These wonderful gifts were presented to me at different times in my life, are my friendships with Lisa Wally,
who many of you know as part of the Seathrop family, and Katherine Billington who came down from meeting today to share this special day with me.
They are true prayer warriors.
Among too many other gifts to mention, these two special friends came abundant with gifts from God's heart and continued to do so every day.
Thank you, Father, for sending Your own Son, Christ Jesus, to pour out His blood, the Savior for my sin, and have everlasting life with my King and Savior.
Thank you.
My name is Jochenke.
I want to be baptized with you.
I want God to be in my life to go through it.
I love that.
My name is Arianna.
I want to be baptized because I'm accepted Jesus in my heart.
And when you're accepted Jesus in your heart, He wants you to be baptized.
So I didn't say I'm Arianna, but thank you.
I want to be baptized because I've always loved, like I have a strong connection with God.
I want to follow God for the rest of my life.
I am excited to let everyone know that I love Jesus.
I am accepted God as my Lord and Savior, and I'll have to take the next step.
Hi, my name is Claire.
I want to be baptized today.
That's my name because I want to follow God for my life.
Okay, let's pray for these folks, alright? Let's pray.
Father, thank you that in Christ you've transformed the peril of drowning in sin into the gentle cleansing bath of salvation.
We hold before you those who are about to follow Jesus down into the waters of baptism.
We pray, grant them the courage and conviction to persevere in their pledge of loyalty to Him.
As they mark this day with their obedience, mark them deep in their souls as Christ followers, now and forever. Amen.
Alright, we're just going to start with a water family down here.
So this is Tom and Kim and their kiddos, Claire.
You're going to enter from that end down there, Claire and Thomas Jr.
And you know, I'm going to apologize for the video that is normally on the screen, and we had technical difficulties this morning.
So what you see is what you get.
This video will be on Facebook tomorrow.
So this is Mom baptizing Claire.
Alright, this is Tom and Tom.
Okay, Tom, this is Tom and Tom.
Alright, Charlie.
This is Charlie Dunn.
Here we go.
Why don't you get down in the water, Charlie, and then we'll take these young ladies one at a time.
One of these little gals is Charlie's granddaughter, and the other two are friends of the family.
So I have my name straight.
This is Delaney.
Am I correct, Charlie?
Right behind you.
Okay, so this is Delaney.
Oh, the water's warm.
Thank you.
Delaney, I want to tell you that Jesus loves you, and he has a plan for your life, and I'm so honored to baptize you.
So I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Okay, Ariana.
This is Charlie's granddaughter.
Ariana, truly a gift from God to me.
So I baptize you, and Jesus loves you, and I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
This is Mackenzie, and Mackenzie and Delaney are sisters.
Mackenzie, Jesus loves you.
I'm so proud to baptize you also.
I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Alright, this is Beth Herring, and Beth is being baptized by two good friends.
Please, let me baptize you.
And speak up upon your professional faith that Jesus Christ is your personal world savior. Catherine and I jointly baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And this is Mary Rossi, and she is being baptized by Matthew McCabe, our mission's pastor, who's also standing in the house with Guy this morning.
It's a good name.
Mary Rossi, because of your decision to follow Jesus with your whole heart and your mind and your soul, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
This is Cara Peter, and she is being baptized by her mom, Chris.
I'm so proud to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And this is Kayla Hill. Kayla is being baptized by Taylor Romo, who is your smoker, Taylor Romo.
Kayla, because of your desire to follow Christ, I am so excited to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And let's give all these folks another big round of applause.
