Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
But today, you know, I knew we'd be somewhat limited of time, and I wanted to customize
something for today on what we're going to experience here today. And I thought
talking about our testimony would be a good thing. You know, we're going through the last couple of
weeks of pretty much basics of our faith, back to the basics. We talked about sharing our faith.
Last week, we talked about being alone with the Lord, solitude with the Lord.
And today, I'd like to talk about testimony because, you know, we all have a testimony.
We all have a story, don't we? I hope you do. Because as Paul said, it's my gospel.
You know, the gospel is your gospel. You have been forgiven of sins. You have been washed clean.
You have been rescued from your old self. You have been given a new spirit. You are a new
creation walking in the newness of life. You're brand new. Amen. In fact, I'll tell you,
for losing an hour of sleep, you look bright eyed and bushy tailed, right? You look beautiful.
You shined. I think I needed to wear sunglasses up here this morning because really you look
wonderful, you know? And that's who we are, you know? So we all have a story, a testimonial.
And, you know, I know personally I have several testimonies. You know, I have like the 30 second
one, the five minute one, and I could probably go on for a whole day of one. I know you never
want to hear that one, okay? And I probably don't want to tell it, but really we all
have testimonials because the Lord has done so many things. And so that's what we're going to
look at for the few minutes we have here today. And whenever I think about testimony,
I always envision this picture in heaven when John, the Apostle John, is there experiencing all
these amazing scenes, these celestial beings, the glory in heaven, the apocalyptic future,
you know, before the restoration of the new heaven and new earth, all these things that
John is experiencing, and he's just overwhelmed. And then an angel came to him and said, write
this down. He says, blessed is everyone who is invited to the wedding, the banquet. And that's
us. We are all invited to the banquet with the Lord because the church is the bride of Christ.
And as he's taking this all in, it was probably so much to be able to comprehend. And then as he said
this, John, just for a minute, lost himself. And he, and he bowed down to the ground and started
worshiping an angel, an angel. And when you look at scripture, you could always tell the difference
when there's a messenger, kind of an angelic messenger that comes and shares a message.
When, if someone misinterprets that messenger as being the Lord, they correct them immediately,
right? But if it's the Lord, most people believe it's like a pre-incarnate of Christ,
even in the Old Testament, because they receive that worship. So this angel said to John,
after he fell down, he says, you must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and,
and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. And here's the real crook here.
Worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Think about that.
The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Now, you know what prophecy is.
It's speaking the word on behalf of the Lord, right? And it's also foretelling,
forthtelling, but it's speaking, it's being a mouthpiece for the Lord, right? And so here,
this angel is saying the testimony of Jesus is that, is speaking on behalf of the Lord. See,
because when we speak what happened to us, it's a prophetic message to someone else
who's going through the same things, isn't it? You know, I have been delivered of this,
that, and the other thing. That means you can be too, right? I mean, he doesn't differentiate,
right? He wants all to be saved. He wants none to perish, right? To all. This is the most
beautiful words of all. He says, Luke 23, remember me when your kingdom comes, if you have that.
But we know that's okay. He says, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And you remember
what Jesus said? You know, come on, right? This day, or truly, I say to you, today,
you will be with me in paradise. I mean, praise the Lord. Like as evil and bad as this guy
probably was for being hung on a cross, right? And yet, guess what? He's redeemable.
With the couple of hours left he has before he breathes his last, he is even redeemable.
What a testimony that is to everyone that thinks they are unredeemable. They're still redeemable.
Amen. I love Mark chapter 5, and we won't delve too deep into it, but I'll just paint the picture.
Jesus sails across or rose across the Sea of Galilee with his disciples. And as they got there,
Matthew tells us, and he said, let me come with you. And Jesus did not permit him, but said to him,
go home to your friends and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and how he has
had compassion on you. And he departed and began to proclaim in the Decapolis all that Jesus had
done for him and all marveled. So I believe he probably went home. He listened to the Lord,
told his family. They're like, they probably didn't open the door for him either. Like
Rawl Reese's wife, right? We're not letting him in here. You know, he looks different,
but that doesn't mean he is different, right? And yet over time, they're like, what? And
this is the guy. Remember that guy? It can't be him. You know, he's transformed, right? But
you know what? This guy didn't stop there. He went in the middle. So that means he had to go there,
there, there, there. I mean, maybe 400 and some miles. Imagine that giving his testimony.
I was the guy, the most animalistic, lost people. The Lord saved me. He cast out the demons.
You know, I really believe all of us have been demonized before we come to the Lord.
We've all been oppressed, maybe possessed. I mean, that's, you know, in fact, the word says
that the world is under the sway of the evil one over the hypnotic trance of the devil.
Whatever that looks like, we're all, until we come to Christ, we've all been lured into a false
gospel, an anti-Christ gospel, right? And it's not good news. It's a bad news, right? But when we
come to Jesus, he sets us free of all of that. And whatever demonic attachments we have had through
the various idols or activities we did, he sets us free from it. I love the story of Mary Magdalene.
You know how Mary Magdalene, you know, was seven demons were cast out of him, right, out of her,
because she followed him around and he cast out those demons. And do you know, she realized how
saved she was because of how desperate and demonic she was, and so much courage and confidence
that she had about who she was now in Jesus Christ, that she had no life apart from him. She
followed him everywhere, everywhere he went, she went. And there she was at the foot of the cross
when many of the men ran away afraid she was there at the cross. Why? Out of grateful like
adoration of what she has become. Born again, a new creation rescued from her old self.
So bold and courageous she was that she was the first one to the tomb after his death
to anoint his body further and to care for the dead body of Christ only to her surprise
she was the first to able to see his risen body resurrected Jesus, right, because the Lord wants
to make a template for everyone that if you think you're too far gone, I definitely want to use you
because guess what? You're an example to everyone else who thinks there's no chance for them,
no future. The Lord gives us all a new life. As Zach was praying earlier, you know, he has,
you know, a plan and a hope and a future not to harm us, but for good things, because he rescues
us from ourselves. I love these pictures. You know, the Samaritan woman sitting with Jesus
at the well, and he's telling her about her lifestyle. We don't know the whole story and
we're not going to embellish, but we know that she was she got around. Okay. And the guy she
was with wasn't even her husband. After five husbands, this guy was another guy. Okay. And
there's all kinds of, you know, theories of like what she had gone through. But the bottom line is
Jesus was telling her what she was really seeking, not man, not a companionship with a man,
but a companionship with God. Right. And she was like so ecstatic when the disciples came and said,
what's he talking to a woman, first of all, by himself and a Samaritan woman? Like what's this
all about? You know, Jews don't talk to Samaritans, right? Especially a woman. And yet as they're
talking about that, she ran back to her town, told everyone they all came out. Imagine how many
people got saved when she went and said, I met a man who told me all about myself,
everything I've ever done. Could this really be the Christ, the savior, you know, and so many
people got saved. Why? Because the testimony of the promiscuous, harlotish woman of the town,
you know, the least likely that's who the Lord chooses. You know, I love what Paul says to the
Corinthian church, you know, in first Corinthians six, nine to 11, he says, or do you not know that
the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God, do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, revilers, thieves, greedy, drunkards,
swindlers, none of them will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. Actually,
the word is any of you that this means like, doesn't that define one of those definitions
probably defines every one of us, right? We were all lost and depraved and the Lord saved us.
That's your testimony. You know, just like in a court of law, they bring in someone to give
witness. And what's your testimony? What did you see? What did you observe? What better proof is
a restored, revived, born again life that sits down in the witness chair and says, let me just tell you
who I was and who I am. I am born again. You know what, sometimes when we go astray,
and when we fall into our old nature, fall into our old self, we start to believe, well, maybe
that's who I am again. Now, the Lord has restored you. Don't believe the lie, you know,
the enemy wants to bring you down. We're like, see, see, I thought you're a new creation. I thought
you're born again. I thought this, I thought, you know, trying to shoot those fiery darts at you.
And then you just lift up the shield of faith and say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
I belong to the Lord. Doesn't mean I'm perfect. But he is, and he is perfecting me.
Over time, you'll look back and say, wow, that was me. Like, I can't, that's, wow. We,
that's what the Lord is doing in every single one of us. I love what David wrote
after one of the horrible sins that he did. You know, he committed adultery with one of his
mighty men who wasn't even an Israelite. I mean, he was serving just out of the goodness of his
heart because he fell in love with the God of Israel. He was a Hittite. And of all people,
one of the mighty men of David, David cheats on with his wife and then orchestrates his death.
Now that would be for me, like, I would say, all right, Lord, like, which way is the
doorway to where I deserve? I mean, that's it. I don't deserve anything anymore ever again
from the Lord. And yet Nathan said, your sins are forgiven. I mean, if he could forgive those sins,
he can forgive every sin. Amen. Amen. He could forgive us of anything. And David writes this in
Psalm 51, restore to me the joy of your salvation, which he did and uphold me by your generous
spirit, that I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted
to you. That meaning, like, look, if you could save me from that, you could save anyone. I want
to tell everyone what you have delivered me from. And that's all of our lives. That's what our life
is for, to be a living testimony, a presentation of his goodness, his forgiveness, his restoration.
You know, the longer we hold on to the past life, right, the more delay in stepping into our destiny,
the more we just cling all the way, but I don't deserve this. I don't deserve that. I don't,
you know, I want to, you know, like, this is who I am. No, no, the Lord says, that's who you were.
You now represent me. I live in you. I'm the greatness in you. That's your testimony
is giving evidence that the Lord has transformed you. What about when I fail? Well, not if, when,
who doesn't fail? We all fail. We all fall short of the glory of God, but guess what? His glory lives
in us. And even when you fail, you can say, can you believe I, you know, it's, it's, it's,
you could say, I did that. And yet, you know what? I still know I'm, I'm, I'm forgiven.
And because I'm forgiven, I'm going to actually make right what I have done. It really inspires
you even more to bring glory to God because you've been forgiven. Amen. So we're going to
have a baptism now. And it is important. I just want to say that for us to remember the past
to a degree, to not forget what you've been delivered from. Now, the longer I'm saved,
you know, I'll be admit, I admit, like I, I don't really look back much. I just, because it, it's,
you know, it doesn't always bring the warm and fuzzy feelings. You know, I'm just so glad I'm
delivered from the person I used to be. Why look back? And so I really do think it's important to
step forward into your destiny and rehashing the past, it's pointless. But if you suddenly see
someone in the situation where you used to be, that's an ideal time to say, yeah, but the Lord,
he could save you from that. He can rescue you from that. Roll Reese in so many of his
sermons talks all about repentance and what the Lord has delivered him from. It's important to
inspire others who are down and out on who they think they are, what they've done,
that the Lord can rescue them, even from what people have done to you. Because, you know,
hurting people hurt, right? And the pain and offenses that we bring to other people's lives
is because we've probably experienced it ourselves. It's like we're just passing it on. Well,
the Lord says, no, it ends here. It ends here. I'm giving you something new to pass along.
And it's the grace of God. It's the salvation of the Lord. It's restoration. Amen. And so that's
what we're going to celebrate right here. And now I love Galatians 3 27 that says those of us
who have been baptized into Christ, put the Lord, the Lord God on us. We dress ourselves
in Christ. And so this water, as you know, represents something that the Lord Jesus actually
demonstrated himself. I mean, Jesus Christ didn't need to be forgiven of any sins.
And yet he purposed to be baptized, to demonstrate to us, this is a process.
Look, I didn't deserve to die for any sins I've committed. I died for your sins.
I got baptized, not for my sake, for your sake. Okay. He came to serve. He came to demonstrate.
And that's why we are baptized. Not that this baptism actually causes salvation,
but we get baptized as a demonstration that we are saved. And really,
when we go into the water, as we just read, it's as if we're dying with the Lord Jesus.
We are resonate, we are tethered to the death of Christ, because when we go into that water,
it's like saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, I died. I died. In fact, the word says you died,
and your life is now hidden with Christ in the heavenlies. You are hidden in Christ, right?
So we die with him, and now we rise with him. When you come out of the water,
you are now being lifted in the resurrection of Christ.
And so we have some visitors, special guests, new friends, if you want to call them.
We have Mary Lou, and Gina, and Kelly. You like to call Lou, right?
That's your nickname. We'll call her Lou today, all right?
But they know Augusta very well, and Augusta has been ministering to them over the years,
and they asked to be baptized. And Augusta reached out to me just a couple weeks ago and says,
hey, can we fit in a baptismal this month? And it's such an excellent timing,
you know, with Resurrection Day coming up, and next week we're having that Seder meal
to demonstrate how the Passover meal is all a picture of Christ being our Passover lamb.
And so this is perfect timing for them to be baptized, and maybe for you too.
If you came in here today and you were never baptized, don't worry about the clothes.
We'll figure that out later. It's not very cold out, and we have some clothes, Debbie says,
all right? So we have some replacement and towels, plenty of towels, all right?
So if the Lord is prompting you today, don't delay. Get baptized, amen?
So why don't you ladies want to do it? Why don't you all come up right now?
Yep. And worship team, if you could come forward as well. And Augusta, do you want to share anything?
You know, if the Lord's leading you, you know, be willing to share that.
Well, praise God, I have been given the opportunity to work down in the city
with the ministry called Joy of Living, and I would go down there every other week.
And so I met these precious ladies on a regular basis. These are very dear sisters.
And I was just so excited when just months ago, this was like before the end of the year,
Lou was like, I want to be baptized. I want to be baptized. And I was like, okay,
we got to make this happen. We got to make this happen. So praise God, today is the day.
Yeah. So, okay. I think we, if you want to see.
Yeah, sure. Yeah. So, so Lou, you want to come up here and you can stay on this side,
probably as best, you know, offer some room and then you'll be exiting this,
that side of the tank. And Lou, do you want to share anything?
What the Lord has done in your heart and what's, why are you doing this here today?
Today I'm doing this because, oh, sorry. That's right. Today, I, I've never been
baptized and I always wanted to be. So this is like a brand new beginning for me to know the Lord
and right. And to follow Him. I feel like I'm being newly created.
Yeah. And I've been waiting for this for a long time. So I'm very excited.
Thank you. Amen. All right. You want to step into the tank, Lou?
No problem. Say that again. Hear that? It's warm. Okay. And what we're going to do, Lou,
if you could walk towards that side. Okay. And then we're going to ask you to sit as opposed
to kneel, because we don't want your knees to, you know, get injured. Thank you. Yeah,
we will. Absolutely. So Lou, have you given your life to Jesus Christ and you're born again
and you are saved and you're eternally destined to be with the Lord Jesus. So now we baptize you
and you want to hold your nose as you go under. We baptize you in the name of the Father,
Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Yes. Hallelujah.
Way to go, Lou. You ready, Gina? All right.
And Gina, would you like to share something about your journey here and what's brought you here
today? And, and remember, it's also to inspire others who have maybe taken this bolt, not
just like to say that I'm excited to start new and, you know, move on with my life.
And that's it. All right. Amen. All right. Step over.
We got you. And just sit down if you would. There you go. You can slide up this way a little
bit if you would. There you go. Perfect. When you go under, you want to hold your nose.
So Gina, you've given your life to Jesus Christ. Amen. Now we baptize you
in the name of the Father, Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Great. You ready, Kelly? Yep. I had the privilege of meeting these amazing ladies
this past week with Augusta, and it was great just getting to know you a bit and
hearing about your story and what the Lord's doing. Amen. I know Peggy wish she could be
here with us right now, but next time next time she'll come up and share. Yeah. Yeah.
But so tell us if you would, just to let them know
what leads you here today to be baptized. I was baptized as a child, but I've had a very dark
past couple of years that I need to start a new beginning because it was a really dirty
town now journey, and I want to go back there. Amen. Amen. You got them. And when you go under
this water, it's like just picture all of your sins once again, just being washed off. You know,
so you are clean in your core. It's just that we all pick up dirt from the road. I mean,
this world can, can you throw some dirt at us and we can collect that dirt. But you know,
as you're going in, just picture all those sins being left behind you rising out of the water
as a new creation once again, rescued. Amen. Does that sound good? Amen. Amen. All right. Come
on, Kel. Let's get in and you want to sit. Yes. There you go. So Kelly, you gave your life to Jesus
Christ to be your Lord and savior. Yes. Amen. So we baptize you in the name of the father,
son, and in the Holy Spirit.
Now Lou, Gina, and Kelly, make sure you stick around after the service because I'm sure there's
a lot of people who want to congratulate you. Can we give the Lord a round of applause?
So I just want to give this invitation. You know, if the Lord's drawing you to the water of
baptism today and you just sense that the Lord wants you to also proclaim your freedom in Jesus
Christ. I just want to invite you, if you want to do that now, to come on up.
I also want to say if this has inspired you, but you're not quite ready for one reason or another,
you know, come on up and share with, you know, tell me and we can talk about it. And
we don't mind like this. This is just an impromptu baptismal with only a couple of weeks
to prepare, not even about a week and a half, but we can do it again. But just want to
invite you if you want to do that. I don't know. The Lord hasn't really impressed on me one way or
another if there's someone here, but. Let's just worship a little bit here.
In the name of Jesus.
Jesus is calling.
Have you come to the end of yourself?
Do you thirst for a drink from the wind?
Jesus is calling.
Amen.
This is my wife Abigail.
Yeah, that's great.
So folks, this is David and Abigail. Abigail is his wife. We've seen you here for several
weeks, right? Here, let me give you a mic. Have you been here a while?
No, not super long, but we're really glad to be here.
Yeah. Well, it's great to have you. Amen. Yeah. And Abigail, just if you want to share
just a couple of words about your journey and what's going on here today,
why the Lord is inspiring you if you don't mind.
Sure. I've always believed in God since I was a little kid, but I've never been baptized.
It always felt like maybe something that would feel awkward or embarrassing.
I don't like being in front of people and things like that, but I want this to be a
new beginning for me in a way of not just believing in God, but showing that I believe in Him and
giving my life to Him and wanting Him to work and move through me. I don't feel like I've done
that very much before or opened myself up to do that. So I want to start. Amen. Amen.
So we're going to help you in and your hubby is going to be part of this.
And, uh, yeah, if you could sit down because you don't want to mess your knees up.
Oh yeah. Yeah, good idea.
Yeah. So Abigail, you've given your life to the Lord. And so we baptize you
in the name of the father, son, and of the Holy spirit.
Yeah, hallelujah.
Amen. David Abigail, thank you so much for letting us be part of this.
You know what the Lord has done here today. Anyone else?
Yeah, why don't we could, if, uh, if you have children, we don't want to burden, uh,
the children's ministry too much. So we would invite you to get your children and bring them
back in because we don't know what the Lord might do here today. But I know he's doing
something. Amen. We asked for the presence of the Lord. I think he answered our prayers.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss His Word. Don't forget
to join us for Worship Lives Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube. Be blessed and have a great day.