Mr. Britton Taylor

Sermon Transcript

July 13, 2002

How will I know I'm Ready for Baptism?

I think so many of us ministers — Mr. Kilough as he was speaking, and Mr. Berg in his sermon today and in an excellent sermon last year — I think we feel compelled to try to relate things to you by telling you things of us when we were teenagers. I know Mr. Horchak did that. Mr. Kilough mentioned that. Mr. Berg did it as well. I think a part of that is, whenever you are sitting there as 15, 18, 19-year-olds and you look at someone who is 50 years old, 51 actually, you might think, I don’t think he was ever a teenager.

He probably has no idea what it was like to be a teenager. He probably can’t remember being a teenager it was so long ago. And I think we ministers feel that in mentioning some of those things, when we were your age I don’t think any of us thought that we would ever be ministers. When I was a 12-year-old camper that was the farthest thing from my mind. I thought the ministers who we had would be there forever. I never even considered getting older. I never thought about reaching age 30 or 40. But time does go by, as Mr. Berg said. And things do change. And opportunities are afforded each and every one of us.

Today I have been given the tremendous opportunity and privilege of addressing a subject that I know you have asked about. I have heard it in our questions at our Bible studies at night. Several of you have talked to me about it since I have been here, and last year I had the opportunity to hear some of the same questions. The topic that I would like to address is, how do you know when you are being called to baptism? How do you know when it is time to be baptized? How do you know when you are ready? How do you know if, one might say, baptism is for you? I have been so impressed with the type of questions you have asked this year, and last year, and at our other camps, that I just know your thinking is there, and your desire is there. Your conduct I believe by and large is far superior than any type of conduct that I would really have anticipated in this time and age.

Today through scripture and example I would like to help answer that question as to how do you know when you are being called to baptism? Now I would like to state categorically that it is a wonderful and precious gift from God to be baptized. And when you reach that point in your life, if you reach that point and I hope all of you will, it is a milestone. It is an epic event in your life, an epic event meaning it is a changing event. It will be an event that will sharply contrast your life, your thinking, from how it was before and where you are going to go. It is something to be able to say before God and have the blessing from God to be totally forgiven of your sins. It is just a wonderful event to be totally forgiven, for proper repentance, to be baptized, and then to receive God’s Holy Spirit.

Now as a parent, and I am the parent of three, two teenagers and a girl in her twenties, that whenever from a parent’s perspective to be able to see your son or your daughter give themselves to God and be baptized, that is a joyous event. For me in my life, I have not had that opportunity with my own children as yet, but I have had the opportunity to baptize two young people, 19-year-olds back in my Fort Worth congregation, two elders’ children. One 19-year-old came to me and wanted to be baptized. I counseled with his father who is an elder in the church and I said, would you like to counsel him and baptize him? He said, it is just so emotional for me, would you do it? So after the counseling I said, okay we are going to have the baptism. Would you like to do the baptism? And the father said, I am just too overwhelmed. I don’t think I could give my son the baptismal vows. I said, would you like to do the laying on of hands? He said, if you will give the blessing. The reason I mention that is that the parents are so excited and so pleased to see that, it is such a moving experience, and that was with both elders, two individual young people being baptized at different times, it was the same reaction. They were just overwhelmed to see their child be baptized, to be forgiven of their sins, and to have God’s Spirit.

I have had the opportunity to perform the wedding of my daughter, and that was very emotional for me, and I had all of my friends saying, Brit, are you sure you are going to be able to do this? I said, I don’t know. And I had two elders there, each with copies of the marriage ceremony. I said, if I can’t get through it, one of you come up there and step in for me. And I did find until we knelt down for the prayer which is at the very end of the ceremony, and it was just too emotional, and I, as they say, kind of lost it there, and then kind of recovered a little bit. I don’t remember what I said after that. It was such a joy to be able to do that. And for me personally, I look forward to the time if I have that opportunity to see my children baptized. And that will be something that will be extremely moving for me, as for your parents if that opportunity comes for you.

Now it is without question a lofty goal to seek to be baptized. It is something to desire. For some, it is like lettering in a sport, like lettering in track. You have kind of reached an exclusive level within the church. I now fit in. I am among those who have been baptized. I have kind of risen to the top. Now I am not saying that all of those responses are totally valid. But it is something that is quite special. It does show dedication. It does show a special calling from God and a response to that calling.

Since it is a worthwhile goal there are some individuals who have pursued it for the wrong reason. Now as Mr. Neff mentioned, I believe it was last night at the Bible Study, that sometimes if a lot of people are being baptized at the same time, and he was drawing upon some Ambassador College experience, sometimes it was just kind of the "in thing to do". And I am certainly not discrediting those who were baptized at Ambassador College. I was baptized. I think Mr. Kilough was probably baptized. We were in school together. Mr. Servidio was in school with us at the same time. Mr. Schreiber who is here, we went through school all at the same time. Mr. Welch, I think he was too young to even be there. That is what he says to me on the side. But some may have gotten baptized for the wrong reason. And sometimes individuals fear baptism. Because they feel it is such a lofty goal. It is something that is so special that they just cannot obtain that. It is just beyond them. They view themselves like, I am not near righteous enough to be able to be baptized. And obviously there were those who were baptized for the correct reasons.

Now today I would like for us to understand the calling to baptism, how to deal with that. If you would turn in your Bibles to John 6:44 there are just a few scriptures here at the very first that I would like for us to turn to, to establish a principle and an understanding from the Bible. John 6:44 does say, No man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up at the last day. So no one can come to Jesus Christ on their own. There is a special calling from God. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And verse 65 of the same chapter. Therefore I have said to you, that no one can come to me unless it be granted to him by my Father.

It is a special calling. It is a calling from God that he has given. It is a special invitation by the Father in heaven for us to establish a relationship with Him and His son, Jesus Christ. To know him, to know his way of life, to be attached to the vine, to eat of the bread of life. That is the invitation that is extended to an individual to be baptized. That is the big time. That is a big event. That is a wonderful process that God has done.

When we think of being here, last year and this year as well coming up here, I look at the Grand Tetons, I see the beautiful scenery we have here. And I think of myself, and I think, you know, I’ve got to do better. I can’t, you know, continue in vanity, which all of us have to a degree. I just feel so small up here, in seeing the handiwork of God. It is exhilarating to me, and I believe it energizes my own relationship with God, my prayer life, desire to know God better. But you know when we realize that when God says he has to draw you to his son, that he has to grant that access to his son, he has looked down from heaven through all of the universe, he has focused on planet earth, he has focused individually on your continent, your nation, your state, your city, your community, your block, your house, and you. Out of all the people on this earth, some 6 billion people, he has narrowly focused upon you. And he gives you an invitation to be able to be brought to his son, Jesus Christ. That is no exaggeration. That is no dramatization of the fact. That is what God has done. It is that type of special calling that he has given. And out of all the people on earth, he has opened the door to you to become one of what he calls "one of the firstfruits of the harvest." And I know you are aware of the holy days and what they mean. Christ being the firstfruits, and those who are baptized and have God’s Spirit and have repented of their sins, they will be fellow heirs with Jesus Christ. They will be in that first harvest because they are called in this timeframe. They are called since the time of Adam, up until the time that Jesus Christ returns. There is that first harvest of individuals.

If you read in Hebrews 11, and I won’t take the time to read the last eight verses, but it speaks of individuals who have dedicated their lives to God, who had resisted temptation, who had suffered persecution, who had been put into prison, who had been sawn in half, who had seen their loved ones put to death. And these are the heroes of the Bible. If you read through all of Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, you will see those cited by name. It is not an exhaustive list that he wrote, because it does not list everyone. But God is giving an invitation to you, to me, to those who are drawn to his son, to be able to be a part of those listed in Hebrews 11, the heroes of the bible. And we have that opportunity. Now that invitation does come from God, that calling, and at this time you do have an exposure to God. Your exposure to God is through the faith and the teaching of your parents. It is through the spiritual instruction of the church, and that protective envelope that the church provides for you. That we can be together in this, and we know God’s truth, it is explained to us, and we have that access. And as I believe Mr. Leuke, the other night as he was saying in defining a calling, it is an invitation. And we have that exposure to God initially through our parents because of you being here and your age, probably almost all of us, through your parents, through the protective envelope of the church, the teaching of the righteous things of God, we do know God. We do know of his way. We understand what his plan is. We grow in that. But it is not like someone, say, in China, or India, or Africa, or South America, or even next door, who may not know anything about God. We do know and have exposure to the true God. Now what comes on your part in your life, as it has come upon me in my life, is that you need to respond to that call at a given time. A special individual calling does come from God. Now you have an understanding and a calling through your parents and exposure to God. But there comes a time when, I will call it in my own terminology, a more pronounced call, a call where you feel that within yourself maybe moreso than you did at age 15, maybe moreso than age 20, or that timeframe. And I am not trying to give any specific year. But there comes a time when that call intensifies. It is more pronounced, and what is expected of you, and that is where the individual calling comes in, is for you to respond. And that is where, as they say, the ball is in your court. It is up to you to respond to what you know and what you understand.

If you will turn with me to Matthew 13. This is a parable about the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. But it gives a very vital lesson for us in understanding our call to baptism. In Matthew 13:44 it says, Again the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. The indication there is he just found this treasure. Maybe he was in this field, he saw something, it was treasure, he recognized the value of it, not necessarily that he was looking for it. He goes back and he sells all that he has to purchase it because he knows its value. Verse 45. Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls. Here is a little different example. This person is out looking for beautiful pearls. Who when he found one pearl of great price went and sold all that he had and bought it. He recognized once he saw it, and he was seeking, he was looking, and he realized what he found was of intense value. He sold everything he had to be able to buy that.

Now for us in this example and analogy, that hidden treasure may be (and I believe it may be Mr. Kilough who addressed this today), but say you come here to summer camp in the Tetons, and you may not necessarily be looking for something special. You may not have left home and said, when I get to summer camp, that is when I am going to make a commitment to God. Or, I am going to be moved to do something with my life. But there are those, and I have talked with you, and Mr. Kilough mentioned Elizabeth by name, who in coming here there was something that happened. They realized the treasure that was here. They realized the value of God’s kingdom. Now sometimes there is an individual who is looking, who feels that there is an emptiness within them, that they are not fulfilled. They are not being able to either conduct themselves or have the satisfaction of life that they know that they should, and they look and they seek for God. And then when they find what that is, and they see the value of God’s kingdom, then they themselves go and give all that they have to be able to purchase that. Two different types. One just came upon it and it hit them. The other was looking. But you know, the kingdom of God and that opportunity to be with God and to know God, is worthy of sacrifice. It is worthy of giving up anything that we have.

It is a serious subject, the subject of baptism. Luke 9:62 says, No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is worthy of the kingdom of God. So it is a path that one goes on. It is a decision that is made by an individual in counsel with his pastor or elder to seek baptism. And once we are baptized, we are looked at by God. Now we are before that, and those who know to do good and do it not, it is a sin unto them. But it is the big leagues, if I might put it that way. And just pardon the terminology. But it is a big thing. It is the big leagues when you make that decision.

I would like to maybe give a personal example of what led me to baptism. My baptism, I believe, will not be dissimilar to yours. You were raised in the church. Whenever you come to baptism, when the minister says, do you know about the Sabbath day? Well sure I do, I’ve kept it all my life. You know about the holy days? Well yes, I do. You know about tithing, those type of things. Opposed to someone who never knew that and came to the knowledge of the truth. Then those are all brand new things to them. It is just a totally different way of life. When I came to baptism, I knew God’s way. And to a degree, I was practicing God’s way. But my calling was just as unique an event in my life as the calling of someone who had never had exposure to God’s truth.

When I was eight years old, my mother was called into the church. And that was a few years ago. And there were two things that I remembered when I first went to church. At age eight I met kids, and we were just little kids, and the kids who I met there in St. Louis, Missouri, answered their parents with "Yes sir, no sir, yes maam, no maam." And their parents could speak to them one time, "Stop doing that," and they stopped. Their parents could say, "Now sit down in that chair." They sat down. Now that was foreign to me. Not that I was a horrible child. But my parents did not require yes sir, no sir, yes maam, no maam. And if they said, sit down in the chair, I normally had to be caught first and then put in the chair. And I remember very vividly feeling at age eight I had lived too long in the world. I was too incorrigible to be in God’s church. Too much time had gone by of my lifestyle at age eight. I hadn’t done anything really bad by that time, but in comparison to the other kids who were responsive to their parents.

The other thing I remember about going to church was everything was long. Everything just went on forever. We had church on Friday night in St. Louis. Dean Blackwell was our pastor. Well known for some very long sermons. And we would leave for church because of traffic at about 5:30 to get downtown. Church started I think about 7 or 7:30. It went three hours. Every Friday night three hours. We met in this top floor of a hotel. Didn’t have air conditioning so they had the window open. And Busch Stadium was right outside our window. And every time the Cardinals would hit a home run, people would shout and it would drown out the minister. And we kids kind of laughed, and always wanted to know how the Cardinals were doing. And it just went on forever. The sermonettes were long. The prayers were long. Everything was long. Even the prayers over meals went on and on. Now my father was not in the church, but we prayed over every meal. But when I would sleep over at friend’s houses, this was a new experience. I mean, we bowed our heads for the prayer over the meal. You know, the mother would bring the food, there would be a hot plate of food in front of everyone, we would bow our heads, and steam is kind of coming up. You are smelling that good food. And the father is praying, and praying, and blessing the food, and blessing it again, and the day, and everything else. And all of a sudden there is less and less steam coming off this food. Finally, he had prayed so long that the food was cold. I found out later I had friends who were 17 who had never had a hot meal! I mean, things just went on forever. And I distinctly remember that as a kid in the church.

Now when I was a teenager I did pray, I think, every day. I prayed every day either in the morning or at night. I believe at that time fasting was probably emphasized more than we do today, and I am not saying that is right or wrong, or that we are right or wrong, but I believe it was emphasized more. And through my whole teenage years I fasted at least once a month. And as I say, that almost sounds as a Pharisee, but I don’t mean it to sound that way. But that was a part of what we did. I paid three tithes in my third tithe year as a senior in high school and a junior in college. I read all of the Bible Story books. I knew all of them from Basil Wolverton. I read the Correspondence Course, did the PT, the Good News, all of those things. I truly believed God’s way of life. I practiced God’s way of life. But I was not perfect. This was my church, this was my way of life. I defended it to my friends. I did those things because I wanted to. But I permitted myself a few indiscretions. Now an indiscretion in this context is a euphemism that I tolerated certain sin in my life, which was not good, which was not appropriate. I honestly, I don’t think I would intentionally at that time, or now, tell a lie, or steal, or take God’s name in vain. I don’t think I’ve ever taken God’s name in vain. I know I’ve never bowed down to idols. I have tried to keep God’s Sabbath day. I don’t know that I have ever worked on God’s Sabbath day. I have honored my parents. I have believed in the one God. However, I did allow myself the luxury of settling any dispute with a fight, with a fistfight. And that’s not right. But I allowed myself that luxury. And I was attracted to the opposite sex as an older teenager. When I grew up in St. Louis, the neighborhood that we lived in, have you ever seen the program, "Little Rascals" or "Our Gang". Now, I don’t go back that far. But we had a neighborhood where all the kids did everything together. We played together. Football, baseball, basketball, kickball, and dodge ball. All the things, we did it together. But in our neighborhood there were about 10 of us guys, all the same age, with an older teenager, and we settled every argument with a fight. And in that group we probably had one fight every other day. And I was probably in a fight once a week, once every two weeks. And that’s just how you did it. In that neighborhood at that time, you got into fistfights. There were fistfights in school all the time. There was no such thing as zero tolerance. I was sent home as a kindergartner for being in a fist fight. A buddy of mine and I, we were the same age, the same height, born on the same day, and we used to either fight ourselves or fight other kids. And that was just the way you did it. And it got so bad in school that my father told me, he said, "Son if I get called there one more time I don’t know what I am going to do with you. But I am going to do something with you. Don’t get into any more fights."

A buddy and I fought ourselves so much, and then other people, that they actually put us in different grades. They put me in the next grade. I skipped a grade, not because I was so brilliant, but because they had to separate me from my friends, because we were fighting continually. By 12 I moved to Kansas City…totally different neighborhood. The kids for the most part did not fight. And I remember up came this argument, and up came my fists. I was just ready to settle it like I had always done. I got in this fight and everybody started pulling us apart. What are you fighting for? They didn’t do that there. But I had that ingrained in me. And I remember when I worked at a service station, I was 15 and I was working after school, and on Sundays and Saturday nights. And I worked with older guys. There was a guy named Herb, and he was 22 years old. I was 15, so anybody 22, I mean he was ancient. He had already been in the Navy and out, and he had a girlfriend. For about two months when I first started working there he would be on the phone to his girlfriend. Like two or three hours at night. And I had to pump the gas and do all of that, and then sweep the floors, and clean the restroom. And finally after about two months he was sitting on the phone with a girlfriend and he hung up. I said, "Herb, we’re not going to do this anymore. I'm tired of cleaning up the place while you’re on the phone." And he jumped out of his chair, and he said, "Why, you…things he learned in the Navy to say to me. He called me a little punk and all of that. And I said, "Well I'm not going to do it any more." He said, "Well, yes you are." I said, "Well, let’s go back in the bay and settle it." There was that same inclination. He was a little bigger than I was, and a lot older. So we went back there, and I kind of squared around to start a fight. And he kicked me. You don’t want to be kicked like that. In all the fights I had ever been in, no one had ever kicked me before. I immediately dropped to the ground. Then he jumped on me. And he started to beat me. Now when he started to hit me, I put my hands up to choke him. I didn’t know what else to do. I still couldn’t get my breath at that time. And my thumb went into his mouth, and he bit my thumb. And he just about bit it off. That really made me mad when he did that. So eventually I was able to hit him, and then I got on top of him. And I lost my temper by then. And they pulled me off of him. And he had a few teeth that were loosened. He had to call in sick the next day. I broke his nose. And his eyes were closed shut. But I wasn’t doing so well myself. But it was just that anger that I had not controlled, that I had learned as a child that you settled disputes with your fists. And that wasn’t right.

I went to college, AC, when I was 17. I wanted to change. And like I said, I did have a relationship with God. I prayed, I studied, and I did fast. But I wanted to do right in all areas. But I was failing. I was failing in that. Before I went to college I thought I only had two weaknesses. When I got to college, those were behind, and now I saw other things that I was falling short in. I still had a temper. I had the urge to respond physically to certain confrontation. You might think, well at Ambassador College there would never be any confrontation. Well we worked in the transportation department, and we had some confrontation. And I thought, how can I let that guy say that to me? If we were back home, I would knock his block off. But I didn’t then. And thankfully I didn’t. Because I think they would have sent me packing.

Semester break of my freshman year I went home, back to Kansas City. And I had my best friend, Dave Stevenson. A few of you may remember him. He was about my same age, same size, and we did a whole lot of things together. We were there for a week. We were at my house, and we heard this car hit another car. It was obvious what had happened. So we went outside, and I recognized the car. And it was my old buddy Eddie who had gone to another high school. And he stayed in the community. And I had seen him when we first got home from college. And he was kind of slumped over the wheel of his car. He had a 63 Chevrolet Impala Super Sport. I remember that. So we ran down, and I said, "What’s wrong?" And he was bleeding at the back of his head. To make a long story short, he had been driving there in Kansas City, and there was a car that followed him that had four or five guys in it. So he would speed ahead, they would come right up behind him. They would drive in front of him and slow down. I lived on a two block private street across from a golf course. And you could get in at the bottom. So he decided he would drive up that street, and if he couldn’t stop them he would stop at Taylor’s house. And if he needed any help, he was hoping that I would be home. So anyway, when they were coming up the street finally they were right on his tail. He stopped in front of my house and he got out. And the other four or five guys got out of their car. So Ed, he had this road flare — now don’t do any of this — he had this road flare that he took out because there were four or five guys. And he struck the road flare to protect himself. In the car were some older guys, a couple of guys on leave from the Army. And one of them sneaked behind him and hit him in the back of the head with a tire tool. And it split his head. It was broken open like that about four or five inches long. So it kind of half knocked him out. When he got in his car as they were driving away, he floored his car and hit their car to stop them, and then everybody but the driver jumped out of their car and ran away.

So Ed was telling me these things. I said, "Ed, we have got to get you to the hospital." So I got my parent’s car and drove him to the hospital. And they are stitching him up and called his parents, and the parents came there.

So my buddy Stevenson and I went back to my house. And the service station where I used to work was right at the end of our block. So I went in there. And lo, and behold, the guy who replaced me when I went to college, my old buddy Rapid Richard, he was there. And I'm all excited, and I said, "Oh, did you hear what happened to Ed?" And I'm beginning to tell this whole thing. And he is kind of looking at me, kind of shaking his head like this. Because there was somebody else standing in the service station. He was an older guy, and he had some grass stains on his pants. And finally, Rapid (it wasn’t his given name, but we called him Rapid Richard"… he says, "Taylor come here, I want you show you something in the back." I said, "No I got to tell you rest of this." He said, "No come on back here." He said, "There’s a guy who just came in here and I think he’s the guy." So we came out and he took off running. Well, I went after him, and it took me about half a block to catch up with him. Stevenson was a little slower, and he was behind me. And just when I was ready to grab this guy, he turned around and hit me right in the eye. He caught me right in the nose and the eye. Now that made me mad. So here goes this fight. And I started to whale on him. Not unlike what Herb had done to me. And when Stevenson finally caught up, I said, "Dave, hold him for me." Because I was going to thump him pretty good. And Stevenson said, "No, get off of him." So he pulled me off.

But when we went back to the hospital to check on Ed, and by that time Rapid Richard had called the police, and they sent an ambulance and they took this other guy to the hospital. And I had hurt him. I had broken his nose, and a couple of ribs, I found out the next day. Now I don’t tell you that to say, oh boy, here’s this guy. He was pretty tough when he was growing up. I was ashamed of that. Now I wasn’t ashamed of it right then, because I was still mad. But I was ashamed of it the next day. And I don’t believe I have ever told anyone that. I don’t think Mr. Kilough would know that. He can tune out about now if he would like since he’s chairman of the Council of Elders. You know, I didn’t tell anybody at school. But I felt very bad about it. I knew I had to go into the Dean of Students and confess that. Because I had this big black eye when I went back to college. And I believed I would be kicked out of school. I had never heard of an Ambassador College student whooping up on somebody else. It was a disgrace. And I told Mr. Kelly that. And I was sincerely sorry. And he said, well, the short of it was, don’t do again. And I felt reprieved that I could still stay there. I hadn’t represented Ambassador College. I had not represented my walk of life, my faith. Here I came home as a freshman, and my mother said, oh, can you give us a Bible study? And I go out and get in a fistfight. Which I should not have done.

When I was 18 the following year in college, I realized that I could not attempt to be righteous without additional help from God. There came a time when I really realized that. I did feel guilty in being around the faculty and other students who were older and baptized. I knew that I didn’t live up to the standard that was being set. What I had studied in the Bible, what Jesus Christ did, and his turning the other cheek, and the example he set, and what I saw among the faculty, and what I saw among older students there, I knew I did not have that within me. And I felt bad about it. I was far from the standard of Jesus Christ. And I felt an intense need for God’s help. I needed to be totally forgiven of my sins. And I believe without question at that time God was drawing me to his Son, Jesus Christ. And I personally felt an intense need to be forgiven. I felt an intense need to have God’s Spirit. I saw a tremendous value in the kingdom of God. And I realized areas of my life that I may have permitted the luxury of an indiscretion, or whatever, that that was wrong. That for me to tolerate shortcomings was not something that was acceptable to God. And I just came to the point where I realized that I could not do it on my own, of and by myself, even though I prayed, and I studied, and I fasted, and except for that fight when I was home, I don’t believe I was actively breaking any of the rules of the student body. I still felt I fit in there. But I knew where I fell short. And the more I prayed, and the more I studied, and the more I came to classes, I realized how far short I came. Because it dealt with ones mind. It dealt with ones heart. It didn’t just deal with, well did you not hit the person? But were you mad at the person? Was there ever anger or hatred there? And all those are things that deal with ones mind. And I realized how far short I fell. And I knew that I could not change without God’s help. And I needed God’s help. And I felt that intensely.

I had the opportunity to be baptized at the beginning of my second year. I was 18 years old. And campers, I cannot express to you the joy that is involved in being baptized and being forgiven of your sins. It is inexplicable to be able to know that your sins have been absolutely totally forgiven, totally washed away, that God not only forgives, but he forgets. And to know that when you come out of that water after proper repentance and acceptance of Jesus Christ, that your sins are forgiven. And you begin a brand new life.

Now whatever your nest of sins, whatever that is, you may not be guilty of fighting, you might have a problem with lying, you might have a problem with stealing, or you might have a problem with something else. And you know your individual weaknesses that you have. But if you feel a strong need to be forgiven, as God draws you to baptism you will have that sense. You will have that feeling of a need to be forgiven. It is not an academic understanding. It is a proper emotion of God’s Spirit working with you to draw you to that point.

Now, if you will turn with me to Acts 2. Mr. Berg referenced this in his sermon today. Acts 2, let’s notice verse 14 to start. Peter standing up with the eleven raised his voice and said to them, Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. He gave a very powerful sermon. Come down to verse 36. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucify, both Lord and Christ.

Now young people, when that is being stated like that, they were in that generation. They were in that timeframe that they were a part of that crucifixion. It was a part of their generation, their day. But you and I are just as guilty of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ because Christ had to die for our sins. And he had to be put to death because of what we have done as an individual.

Verse 37. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do?

Young people, when you have that feeling, and a deep understanding that our sins caused the death of Jesus Christ, that our sins need to be forgiven, then the question is, what do we do now? Now that we know that, and we understand that, what do we do now?

Peter said to them in verse 38, Repent and every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call.

And that calling is there. And that promise is there. That if one repents, does totally change, and be baptized, and goes under the water, which pictures putting your life to death, your past to death, and accepting Jesus Christ, then you will receive the Holy Spirit of God. Your transgressions will be forgiven. You will be totally forgiven of any sin that you have ever committed.

Now over a page in my Bible, chapter 3, verse 19, it says, Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. So that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Repent and therefore be converted, or be changed.

Now what is involved in being baptized is a total surrender to God. That is why, as I mentioned before, it is the big leagues. It is a big event. It is an epic turn in your life when you totally surrender to God.

I believe in Matthew 19 there may be something here, I believe that there is, it kind of parallels us in the church today. Matthew 19:16. Now behold one came and said to him, Teacher what thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life. So he said to them, why do you call me good? No one is good but one, and that is God. But if you want to enter life, keep his commandments. He said to him, which ones? Christ reiterated several here. In verse 20 the young man said, All of these I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack? Christ said to him, if you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Come and follow me.

So I think probably the vast majority of this group today, if Christ had a conversation with you and said to follow him, to keep his commandments, I think most of you would be able to say, I haven’t killed anyone. I don’t practice stealing. I don’t lie. I do honor my parents. I don’t commit adultery. Those things you are able to say. But what is it that one lacks? What area is it that we permit ourselves the luxury or luxuries of doing things the way that we want? What sins do we tolerate and say, well that’s really not that bad. I'm not as bad as this guy in school, or that girl in school, and I do all of these things. But here is this little nest, or bag, or pouch of things that I permit myself. In this case, verse 22. But the young man when he heard that saying went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

He would not give what was required of him, to give everything to the poor. That was his treasure. That was what he guarded. That was what he coveted, his treasure. What God is looking for, and draws you to the point, is when you are willing to totally surrender, when you are willing to give up those areas that you know that you fall short in, and you desire to give them up, you desire to face the fact that I can’t overcome this on my own. I have struggled with it. I have tried to overcome it, and I just can’t do that. And you will feel that need. You will answer that where you realize that you have to surrender to God. You have to give up those areas.

Notice with me in Acts 7:51, here it says, "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in the heart and ears. You always resist the Holy Spirit. As your father did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute. And they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one, of whom you now have become betrayers and murderers. Who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it. He told them they were resisting the Spirit of God. They had the prophets that came to them, who preached the truth of God to them, but they resisted that.

And young people, a point I would like to get across. Whenever you feel, whenever you know that you want this way of life, whenever you know that you can’t overcome the areas that you struggle with, and you come to the point where you feel the intense need to be forgiven, and if God is calling you to baptism, you will feel a need to be forgiven. You will want to be forgiven. You will want to change. And don’t allow yourself to be in a situation as those being addressed here of resisting the Spirit of God. Because God does give you an individual calling when the time is right for you. And in that calling are some of those feelings that I have tried to address with you today. Of wanting to be forgiven, of realizing the futility of our continuing the way that we are doing things, that we do fall short.

Now in Matthew 20:20 and in Matthew 22 it talks about, many are called but few are chosen. You do have to answer the call from God. You do have to respond to that. That is where the ball is in your court. You have to respond. It doesn’t matter what your friend has done in church, or maybe a brother or sister. Or if everybody is getting baptized, or no one is getting baptized, you have to individually respond to being called by God. And when you respond, you are asking God to come under his grace. You are asking him to totally forgive you of your sins. And in response to coming under God’s grace, your response is to repent, change, to keep his laws.

Romans 12:1-2 talks about giving your full life over to him, to be transformed to him, to becoming a servant of Jesus Christ where you yield yourself to him totally. And that is what God is looking for. He is looking for that yielding of you to him. And God is going to honor your efforts. If you express those things to God, God is going to honor that. Now sometimes an individual will say, now I know I am not perfect. And I don’t believe I have the faith of my parents. I don’t have the full belief of my parents. How am I going to do it? I analyze myself, I look at the way I live. I want to do this. I desire to do this. I see others in the church who are willing to serve all of the time. I hear sermons that are motivating. But sometimes I am not motivated. Sometimes I don’t change. Sometimes you feel, well I just don’t have the faith.

Notice in Mark 19. For lack of time I won’t go through the whole account. But it is talking about them bringing to Jesus Christ someone who had been possessed by a demon who the apostles could not cast the demon out. In verse 23 Jesus said to him, the father of the son who had the problem with the demons, If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord I believe. Help my unbelief. I believe we can learn from that. As you are praying to God, and if you analyze yourself and say I don’t believe I have the full faith, I don’t believe I have the full belief in God, you can ask God to help you with your unbelief. Notice in verse 29 when it comes to the end of that account it says, he said unto them, this kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting. Seeking God’s help and drawing close to God through humbling oneself by fasting. And if you ask God to help you with your unbelief, ask God to grant to you faith, ask God to grant to you belief, and a way of life, he will do that. And a part of doing that is you are turning to God through prayer and through fasting. And if you feel you look at your life and say, well, yeah, I do want to be baptized sometime. And say if you are old enough to be baptized. And you say, I just feel I lack too much. You can begin regular prayer to God. And regular fasting to humble oneself before God, and ask God to grant you, to help you with your unbelief, to help you with the lack of faith which we all have from time to time.

I won’t take the time to turn to these two next scriptures. But in Romans 2:4 and in 2 Timothy 2:25, it shows that God grants repentance. Repentance is not something that you work up on your own with emotion. Now you can be motivated by an occasion, an activity, a sermon, a life event. There is nothing wrong with that. But God grants repentance. And a part of responding to a call of God is to ask God to help you to repent, to ask God to give you a spirit of repentance. And Mr. Berg addressed this tremendously today in understanding on motivation, understanding how our heart is, and how we think of things, and how sins starts in the mind, and how we don’t have control over that naturally. And that we have to have help from God to begin to overcome that, and to realize the difference between God’s way, his pure way of life, and where we fall short.

So if we will pray and ask God to grant repentance, he will give that. If that timing is correct and we ask God to grant repentance, he will give that. We have to realize that Jesus Christ died for every sin, and I will direct this toward you if you will permit me, every sin that you have committed. Jesus Christ had to die for every wrong thought that you have committed. Jesus Christ had to die for every wrong action and habit that you have committed. And he had to give his life for that. And when we understand the fullness of that sacrifice, and we feel the need, and understand the need, to have that applied to us, then God is drawing you to be baptized. When you understand that and you feel that need to have that forgiveness from God, and know that Jesus Christ gave his life for us, for not only the big major sins that we can think back and remember, but every evil thought, every wrong habit, every "indiscretion" that we have permitted ourselves.

In conclusion, God does know our frame. God knows that we are weak. And God knows it is so hard to be good all the time. He knows that. He will add what we lack. He will give what we need to have. The Bible says it is his pleasure to give to us his kingdom. So God is pulling for us. He is not a God keeping score to punish for the sake of punishment. He is a God who observes and knows what we do. But he is in our corner. He is pulling for us. Young people, how do you know when you are being called to baptism? When you know that God’s way is right and you sincerely want to surrender to Christ. When you know you can’t overcome your sins on your own. When you feel a strong desire to be totally forgiven of your sins, and a strong desire to have them totally washed away. When you feel so strongly that you want to change, you want to be a new person, a new man, a new woman. And when you feel that, when you feel those things, that is the Spirit of God drawing you to his son, Jesus Christ. And at that time, that is the time to call your pastor and begin to counsel for baptism, when you have that drawing and that feeling. And you know that you are inadequate and you need that help from God to overcome, and you want to be forgiven. You feel the need to be forgiven.

I think at this time, since it is a little late, and it’s a little warm, maybe we could save questions that you would have to maybe some of the fireside chats that we have, the Bible studies and the give and take. Any of us ministers will be happy to talk with you about anything that was brought up. I guess if I could just leave you with one thought, I know the ministers who are here, I know that each and every one of us are very concerned with love for all of you, that we want the very best in your lives. We want your lives to go well. We want you, when the time is right, to totally repent before God and have God’s Spirit and be totally forgiven of your sins. And when that time comes, it is a joyous time. It is a time that your parents will be just ecstatic. It will be like the birth of a grandchild. And I look forward to that. I don’t have one yet. The marriage of a child. It is a time in your parents’ lives when they are just so filled with appreciation to God, and so pleased with that action and that drawing close to God, that it is indescribable. So we certainly do wish you the very best and ask God to guide and direct your lives and be with you and always watch over you.