One Baptism

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info visit us at thrive-fl.org. We are in week 8 of a nine-week series. So next week is the last one in this series called Credo. Credo, as we've been exploring the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed. It's a couple more years, Mike and Dick, than you've been married, I think, right? Yeah, yeah, they just celebrated 61 years. Is that amazing? Yeah, I think we've got some people that might even top that. How many over here? 63, okay. Well, just barely, you know. So what do you do, I mean, how do you, you know, how do you beat with it, right? But anyways, maybe we'll get there, hon. I don't know. What? It's God who's doing it, just like this message, just like everything that we talk about, right? You know, we call it a creed, or the word credo means I believe or we believe together. And notice what the creed does. It's a story. It's actually the story of God, how he created the world, how he's redeeming the world through Christ, and how he's going to renew and bring the world to its full and completion. It's a credo. It's a story. It's a narrative. It's not a moral code or a list of stipulations and rules. Is that interesting? We don't have this, here's the rules for church membership, you know, type of thing. That's not what we say, that we confess. That's not the center of Christianity at all. And that's what's amazing. And today we're going to see not only how the story has unfolded, but how now you are incorporated into the story through this part of the creed. It says, we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. Boom. There we go. Now that might be odd to you that that would even be in the creed, but I believe we've got a lot of misconceptions that often happen on baptism. Because we like Passover baptism, even churches that are called Baptist churches talk about it very infrequently. It's fascinating how it's like, yeah, whatever. And then we move on as if it's just a first step or a nothingness. We are, I think, to recall our baptism every day because it's your identity now. You have been incorporated into Jesus Christ. That's why I think Paul Hoffman said, as the ancient church so wisely discerned, baptism is not a magical life-changing event that takes place in a single moment of sacramental washing. Rather, it is an ongoing mystical process with a beginning, a middle, and a never-ending future. You are now part of the story. You are incorporated into the story. And this becomes a center of who you are. Timothy Lane understands the kind of change that we need. Because this is what there's, how do people actually change? Have you ever wondered? Because like, I'm basically so much myself. Like, I haven't changed that much, believe it or not. My body kind of looks older and all, right? That changes, and I don't get much choice on that matter. But as far as who I am, my habits, my thoughts, the way I do things, the annoying things I do, they don't change that much. How do people actually change? That's a good question, right? And I think Timothy Lane understands how we need to change and what we really need to change. It's not my hairstyle that needs to change. It's not my clothing. Although you might go like, yeah, you need a fashion, that's a fashion don't. You need a fashion do over. But Timothy Lane says it this way. He says, the change most needed in our lives isn't a change in our situations and relationships, but in us. The thing God is most intent on rescuing us from is ourselves. That's the hardest part to change. And I think that's why we're looking at baptism and how it fits into the whole change process today. So we're going to be looking at this Romans chapter 6 verses 1 through 14. If you got your Bibles, you can turn to Romans chapter 6. If you don't, you can look up on the screen or use the You version of the notes. And Paul writes to the Romans, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can one who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must co...