Michael Todd - Flood Sunday
Y’all, it’s Flood Sunday, and I thought we were at the church today, but we’re not at the church—25,000 people are about to get baptized, and it’s happening at your house, at your pool, at your pond! Let’s go! Let’s see if we can’t get everybody. Hold on, the whole team is here! We are back, we’re out back, the band is here! Y’all ready? Y’all ready? Y’all ready? It’s Flood Sunday! I’m excited for what’s about to happen! Let’s go! Oh, it’s First Sunday! Somebody give God some praise! Hallelujah! Come on, let’s lift up the name of Jesus! Hallelujah!
Hey, listen, if you can’t tell, we are excited because today is unlike any other day. Today is Flood Sunday! Oh yes! And if you’re joining us for the first time, I want you to know that this is not our usual setup, but the beautiful thing you need to know is that wherever you are, God is there. At Transformation Church, we have believed from the very beginning that the church was never an organization; it was all about the organism. So today, I have about 50 of my Transformation Church family and friends, along with Transformation Nation all over the world, and today we’re not letting anything stop us from this awesome opportunity of baptism.
If you are just joining us for the first time, we want to say welcome! My name is Michael, and I am crazy for Jesus! We are excited because our whole mission as a church is to represent God to the lost and the found for transformation in Christ. For the past almost four years, we have been doing this thing around baptism, deciding that we weren’t going to be a church that would just follow the message of the Bible, but we would follow the method of the Bible. I’m going to say that one more time: We’re not just going to follow the message of the Bible; we’re going to follow the method of the Bible.
While we’re out here today at a pool, doing what we’re doing, this is because God tells us in His word that people who follow Him should be baptized. Today, I usually would preach a long message, but today I’m going to give a talk because I don’t know if I’m going to be able to hold it together. Today, there are people who, in front of everybody, are going to make a public declaration that their old life is gone and their new life in Christ has begun!
Oh yeah, y’all better help me! Get this, get this, get this: I put out this call for Flood Sunday about two and a half weeks ago, and as of today, May 23rd, we have over 25,000 people from over 80 countries! Yo, glory to God! And we believe, if you’re watching now, it’s not too late. After I share from God’s word how important this is today, your excuse is not going to be valid anymore, and you’re going to make a decision. I know you just got your hair done, and I know it looks good too, and your nails look good, and you weren’t planning on getting wet today, but I’m telling you that the most spiritual thing you could do today, along with 25,000 plus people, is to make a public declaration that you identify with Christ, and you’re going to get baptized!
We’ve been in a series called The Upgrade. What’s the series called? And today that’s what’s about to happen; we’re about to take an upgrade together! We’ve been talking about the power of the Holy Spirit, and a few weeks ago we discussed three different baptisms: the baptism of salvation, the baptism in water, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We decided as a church, you need all three. You need all three! And today we’re going to take the second step together.
Now, I know some of y’all see a little rain and raindrops and all this other stuff, but nothing will stop—oh, y’all don’t hear me—nothing will stop what God has ordained! What’s a little rain when we’re about to get flooded anyway? It’s so important that we don’t let anything stop us from what God has called us to do. Today, I want to encourage you in that and take you on this journey of understanding how holy, how amazing, and how spiritual the act of baptism is.
Before the sermon today, I was looking at the first Flood Sunday, and I was as passionate on the first Flood Sunday as I am today. I watched it, and it said, «Today we have 40 people getting baptized.» Now, as 25,000 plus are getting baptized today, it doesn’t matter if it was 40 or 40,000. God rejoices over one! And today, I might backflip into the pool—I don’t know what’s going to happen today! And I want to let you know that your baptism, your step, your journey, that step you’re taking is important, even if it were just one person. Because Jesus, our example, His last words, some of the last things that He ever said to His disciples, are found in Matthew 28:19.
It says, «Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.» We have over 80 plus watching right now! And then it says something I wasn’t expecting, Brie. It says, «When you get all these nations together, do this one thing: pray over them, build churches?» No, no, no! «Start worship ministries?» No, no, no! It says, «When you get all of the disciples of all nations, I want you to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.» Somebody say, «You need all three! You need all three!»
And it says, «Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you.» And surely—this is the part that excites me—for everybody that knows what we’re doing today, it says, «And surely I am with you always, even to the very end of the age.» As a believer, as a disciple, as a disciplined one, God says so clearly, «All I want you to do is reach everybody you can and make sure they get baptized. Make sure they understand what God the Father has done, what Jesus has paid for, and what the Holy Spirit will empower them to do. You need all three!
Today we’re going to step into water baptism. What is water baptism, you ask? It is an outward sign of an inward decision at salvation. You say, „I am no longer living my life for myself, but now I’m giving control over to You, Jesus.“ And the crazy thing about that is, you can make that decision, and nobody will know! I’m going to tell a story: There was a young lady that I was dating—nobody knows that I dated her, and this was in sixth grade, so they don’t even think about this personality. You don’t have to text or DM or anything like that; in sixth grade we dated for six days! Six days! That was a long time back then!
But we dated for six days, and what ended up happening is nobody knew we dated because we never went public! It didn’t even show up on my relational radar! And some of y’all, you’ve been doing that for six years with people right now! You need to quit it! Stop! That ain’t my message today; go back and watch Relationship Goals! What I’m telling you is, if you do not make it public, did it really even exist? I’m just tired of so many people calling Jesus „Lord“ and „Savior“ in the midnight hour but will not represent Him in front of anybody! He’s your side-chick savior! He’s not the one that you bring out in front of people, but He’s the one you call when you are in need!
And God said, „I was never meant to be something that was hidden! I want to be the God that shows up for you big, and you represent Me big!“ That’s why our church has been called to represent God to the lost and found for transformation in Christ! We’re going to be public with this! You know when somebody’s in love and they don’t care who knows? You can always spot them at the fair! You know those couples that have the big bear, and they’re walking in, sipping out of the same cup, sharing funnel cakes, and then they kiss at the end? They don’t care!
When it comes to my relationship with Jesus, I don’t care! I don’t care what you think! I don’t care where I work and what their beliefs are! He has done too much for me for me to sit here and not represent Him! And what baptism does is it’s a spiritual representation of what has already happened on the inside of you! One of the things that you’ve got to understand is it’s like this wedding ring. My wife and I have been married almost 11 years; June 19th—oh, thank you! We made it!
When I look at this wedding ring, this wedding ring doesn’t mean that I’m committed to Natalie—my commitment had to be made in my heart—but this shows every other person that I am committed to someone, whether they are there or not! There will be many places I walk into that you don’t know what I’ve committed behind closed doors, but when you see this, you know that I have taken a vow and a commitment!
When we get baptized today, and some of you are going to get baptized in bathtubs, in Jacuzzis, in ponds, in pools, and at rec centers, I don’t care where it is—find some water and get baptized! But when you do it, take a picture, take a video, tell everybody, post it everywhere, because it is a sign to the world that you’re saying, „I have been bought with a price!“ Somebody say, „I’ve been bought with a price!“ I’m taken! There’s a sacrifice that has been made for me! And when you make that commitment, it means, watch this: that your old life is buried with Christ just as He was buried!
They thought it was over, but He said, „I’m going to come up, and I’m going to defeat death, hell, and the grave so that everything you did in your past could be buried and stay buried!“ Now, what happens when everything I did in my past? God says, „I choose not to remember that!“ Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve done some things, said some things, and been some places that I don’t want to be reminded of, and God says, „See, when you do this—when you get in Me"—He said, «and you go through this baptism process, it’s just like you’re going down and being buried, and when you come up, you are new!
You are resurrected; you are a brand-new person! Say, 'All things new! '» And what you have to understand is that God, throughout Scripture, establishes this act so that at any moment, everything can become new! Today I’m getting emotional because there are some of you that today are waiting for something to happen, and God is saying, «You can make the move, and all things can become new.» Today you’re waiting for somebody else to do something, and God is saying, «I’ve given you the power! If you would repent!»
See, John the Baptist—Isaiah talked about him—he was the one that would be like a voice in the wilderness, crying out, «Prepare the way of the Lord!» His whole job was to tell people three things: repent, turn to Jesus, be baptized! Sometimes I wish that’s all my message could be. Matter of fact, I’m preaching right now; I think that’s all my message is going to be! Repent!
And all repentance means is to turn! If you’ve been going this way, God is saying today, «Turn!» But don’t just turn; He’s telling you where to turn to! Because I could just turn and turn to a lot of things, but He said, «Turn to Jesus!» When you repent and turn to Jesus, then He said there’s one thing left for you to do: be baptized! And today that’s all I want to ask you! No pomp and circumstance! I’m out here getting rained on; I don’t care about it! I want you to understand that God wants one thing from you today: be baptized! No, no, no, no! «Well, I wasn’t planning on it, and I didn’t know—it’s okay!»
At this moment, that tugging at your heart—the Holy Spirit—is saying, «This is the moment! This is why you tuned in! This is why I made you off today! This is why!» And some of you are watching on rebroadcasting, saying, «Well, they already did this!» No, this is your moment right now! The Holy Spirit is talking to you, and He’s saying, «Be baptized!» We can stop right there.
But I know there are some of you right now that, now when you know it’s clear that God said it, and we’ve taught about it, and it’s chewing on His word, what’s coming to your mind right now are excuses! And all I want to ask you is, what’s your excuse? «The weather’s not right!» What’s your excuse? «You’ve never done it before!» What’s your excuse? There was a man in the Bible that I found in Acts 8:26 who had every excuse not to be baptized, and today I just want to read the Bible to you because it’s the only book that you read, and it reads you! It’s alive; it’s living and active. On this Flood Sunday, more than my points and poems, I’m just going to read the story of the Ethiopian eunuch found in Acts 8:26.
Look what it says: «Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, 'Go south to the road, the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.' So he started out, and on his way, he met an Ethiopian eunuch was an important official in charge of all the treasury. It is said this man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home, he was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah. He was reading the Bible, and the Spirit told Philip, just as He told me, „Go to the chariot and stay near it.“
Make Flood Sunday an opportunity for people to do something that is beyond their comfort zone. Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. „Do you understand what you’re reading?“ Philip asked. „How can I?“ he said, „unless someone explains it to me.“ There are many of you watching, and you’re saying, „How can I get baptized? How can I do this?“ unless someone explains it to me. This big Black man, sweating in an orange jacket, is here to explain it to you. This is what happens in the story. So we invited Philip to come and sit with him, and today I’m going to be your Philip.
It says this is the passage of scripture the eunuch was reading: „He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.“ The eunuch asked Philip, „Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?“ Then Philip began with that very passage of scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
What I want to tell everybody before we talk about getting baptized in water is that there is good news that Jesus has provided for you. It is the good news of salvation, and I don’t care how long you’ve been walking on your own; in everything that you feel like you’ve accomplished so far, you’ve not even lived yet until you’ve let Jesus take over your life. See, Jesus was God’s way of putting man back into a right relationship with Him. In the garden, Adam and Eve messed the whole thing up. They were deceived by the enemy, like many of us have been deceived.
You know, Adam and Eve get a bad rap, but if we were in their position, we might have done the same thing. They were in a place where they didn’t listen to what God had told them, and it separated them from God. God said, „I cannot live any longer without my children being in relationship with Me, but I’m holy, and they have invited sin in. So what do I do? I need to pay a price that their sin made.“ The scripture tells us that God made Him, Jesus, who knew no sin, to take on every one of my sins, every one of your sins, so that we could be made right with God. And that’s the good news!
Well, Pastor Mike, I messed up last night. When you believe in Jesus, according to Romans 10:9, you don’t have to jump through hoops or do everything that everybody told you to do. God is telling you, „If you give Me your heart, I’ll help you change your habits. I’ll change you from the inside out. I’ll take what was wrong and make it right,“ but you have to believe in Me by faith. Everybody say „by faith.“ This won’t be something you can explain to everybody; it’s something you’ll have to experience. And it’s the thing that changed me. The guy you’re looking at was a bad person. I was addicted to pornography, I was a liar, I was a manipulator, and the truth is, without Jesus, I’m still all that. See, I know people want to act like once they give their life to Jesus, somehow they became something new, but the only reason I’m new is because when God looks at me, He doesn’t see me anymore; He sees me clothed in His son.
Today, I want to give you that opportunity. As this eunuch began to hear about Jesus, he did what you’re going to have the opportunity to do in just a few minutes: accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. This is the one thing that changes everything. God takes all of your wrong, dips it in the blood of Jesus, and then you get to stand before God righteous, in right standing, by your position, not performance—because you’re still going to mess up; you’re still going to make mistakes. But you will become quicker at repenting or turning. This is the season that I believe God wants you to not take another step without.
When this eunuch heard the good news, he said, „Oh, I got to do this!“ Look at verse 36: as they traveled along the road, they came—this is my favorite part. This is where I wanted to get—they came to some water. It wasn’t special water; it wasn’t something that was prepared and curated and planned ahead of time. They were just traveling, and on their journey, after sharing the good news, they came upon some water. I love this! When they came up to some water, the eunuch said, „Here’s some water! What can stand in the way of me being baptized?“ Oh, I feel that thing already! I wasn’t planning on this today. I wasn’t planning on making this decision. I wasn’t planning on jumping in with 25,000 other people, but here’s some water, and what is standing in the way of me getting baptized today? He gave orders— I love this— „Stop the chariot!“ Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
Now, can we talk about this Ethiopian eunuch? He had excuses if he wanted to. Let’s look at it. The Bible tells us he was an important part of the description. This was an important man who had clout and money; he was over the treasury of an entire country. See, so many times we read the Bible, but we miss the details. This man could have said, „I’ve given my life to Christ, and that was enough for today.“ Wow!
He understood something that I need you to understand; write this point down: everything without the King is nothing. Everything! He was in charge of every resource in a country, but he made the distinction that everything without the King is nothing. It doesn’t matter how much money you have—Forbes list—without a loving family, it’s nothing. The mansion without meaning is nothing. Success without significance is nothing. The position without purpose is nothing. The lights without love are nothing. The fortune without faith is nothing. The success without the Savior is nothing. And all the power in the world without His presence is nothing. This man understood that he had a void that could only be filled by doing the things the good news told him to do, and after salvation, the thing he had to do was be—everybody say „be"—baptized.
If God isn’t enough, nothing ever will be. How many hoops have we jumped through to impress people who don’t even like us? And the God of the universe asks for a few simple things of us, and we make every excuse. I’m telling you, if doing it God’s way is not enough, nothing ever will be.
I love that what exposes this Ethiopian eunuch is that he is reading the Word of God. He was in the chariot just thinking, «I don’t understand this; I’m trying to figure this out.» And God sent somebody to explain to him, like He’s sending me today to you, to explain, «This is what God wants for you.» He didn’t make any one of his crowns an excuse. I know all of us have a crown— «Well, I was baptized when I was young.» You didn’t even know what you were doing; you had no clue! That wasn’t your choice; that was something someone else decided for you. But as an adult, God is saying, «Hey, could you cast your crown?»
«I just got my hair done last Thursday! If this would’ve been last Wednesday, I would’ve done it!» And God is saying, «Who gave you the ability?» «Well, I had plans today.» God stopped everything in the cosmos to send His Son to die for you, and your lunch date is more important than doing one of the few things God asks you to do? I just gotta say it that real, because somebody is looking at an excuse as valid when God is saying, «I want to transform your life today.»
He didn’t make anything an excuse. His background wasn’t an excuse; his status wasn’t an excuse; his location—they were in the desert, the Bible says—and God just provided some water in the middle of the desert. His lack of understanding—some people feel like, «I don’t know enough. I need to know more.» That man was reading the scripture, and in just ten minutes, they passed some water. He accepted Jesus, and he was like, «Dunk me!»
See, because he knew that this was a moment of miraculous movement, not calculated movement. Some of you are so calculated that you’ve missed the miraculous. I’m talking to you! We walk by faith and not by sight. It may not make complete sense, but this is where miracles happen. His prior plans—their journey—were somewhere else. He stopped it and said, «No, no. There’s water. Let’s get baptized.» He laid down his responsibilities, and this is a big one for some of y’all. He didn’t even care about his wardrobe!
Now, if he’s the Ethiopian eunuch over the treasury of the entire country, he was probably jetted up; he was suited and booted; he was fly; the drip was right; he had the sauce—whatever you want to say. And he did not care about his wardrobe. He said, «There’s some water. What’s stopping me from getting baptized?» He didn’t even allow the excuse of lack of preparation.
«I know my planners, my ones on the Enneagram. Well, next Saturday would be a much better day for me to be able to get baptized.» I would say, «No, no, no, no, no. Today!» Somebody shout at me, «Today!» Show me one more time: «Today.» What’s your excuse? It says, «As they traveled along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, 'Look, here’s some water! What can stand in the way of me being baptized? '» And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
In just a moment, you’re going to have an opportunity to be baptized, and all you need is someone else who believes in Jesus. Disciples baptized! You don’t need a pastor; you don’t need a bishop; you don’t need a prophet or a prophetess. You don’t need someone who studied for thirty-six years in seminary; you don’t need that. All you need is a fellow believer, a disciple. Disciples baptized! I’m going to baptize people here, and you’re going to go find some water! Some of y’all need to start filling up! Johnny, go fill the tub! You need to go do it right now because today we have no excuse.
What if—what if—30, 40,000 people today? No, y’all don’t get it! I’m just speaking in crazy faith right now. What if—what if today could be the largest day of baptisms in the history of the world? They missed it! What if you text your friends right now? What if you got on FaceTime and called them and said, «Girl, we’re getting baptized today! I don’t even care. We’re getting baptized today!» You used to convince them to go to the club with you; now can you convince them to make a step towards the thing that Christ asked you to do?
What if you could call the buddies you used to do things with in high school and tell them, «Today, I led you in the wrong things before, but today I want to lead you to maybe the only right thing I’ve ever led you to.» What’s your excuse?
This is what I found out from this Ethiopian eunuch: where you are going is not as important as what God is doing. This man decided that where he was going, which was probably important, was not as important as what God was trying to do in his life. Today, just like that Ethiopian eunuch, I believe that the Spirit has set up a divine interruption. Baptism is a divine interruption. It interrupts the cycles that have been going on in your life, and it’s new. It’s a marker; it’s a defining moment. It is a moment where you can say everything changed when you went down and were buried with Christ. He said, «Yeah, that’s the divine interruption.» You know what the resurrection was? It was a divine interruption. And today, let’s have a divine interruption! Verse 29: The Spirit told Philip, «Go to that chariot and stay near it.»
The reason I’m even saying «divine interruption» is because I want to tell you the story of how we even got to Flood Sunday. Before we started this entire series, I went to the executive team before the first sermon, I believe it was, and I said, «Y’all, the Holy Spirit has been stirring in me that thousands of people are going to get baptized during this series.» See, the Spirit led Philip to this spot, and I believe the Spirit has led you to this spot because He was speaking to me and the team about this moment before we put it out to anybody. My faith might have been too low! Joe, I didn’t have crazy faith. I said, «What if 10,000 or 15,000 people get baptized on Flood Sunday?»
And y’all, as of right now, over 25,000 people have signed up, and I believe that you’re not going to have an excuse after this, and we might see another 10,500-20,000 people. Everybody says today it’s your day, and I just believe that God, by His Spirit, has made a divine interruption in the depression in your life, a divine interruption in the cycles of perversion in your life, a divine interruption. Oh, I feel the Spirit right now! A divine disruption in the insecurity and low self-esteem, a divine interruption in looking to success to fulfill only the thing that God can fulfill. A divine interruption for every lie you’ve believed. Today, God says we’re starting over. Yeah, when you get baptized, the old has passed away; behold, everything becomes new.
Can I show you where the Bible says that? Second Corinthians 5:17, because it’s about to change for you. Oh, I feel this! There are people right now who are changing—somebody say it changes. It says this means, thank you, Lord, anyone who—oh God, I can’t move past anyone, because anyone means you were in jail last week, anyone means you were in somebody’s bed yesterday, anyone means you lied to your spouse this morning, anyone—come on, I just need to bring it all the way down. Anyone means that you committed adultery, anyone means that you did lie on your taxes, anyone means that you have just thought God wasn’t real. Everybody say anyone—that means you! Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.
The old life is gone; behold, voila, abracadabra, a new life has begun. You will be able to say after you get baptized today, when they try to label you by what you used to do, you can say these three simple words: It’s different now. Somebody say, it’s different now! Yeah, yeah, I know that’s what I used to do, but it’s different now. See, something happened to me in that water, and it’s different now. I used to talk differently; I used to speak differently; I used to act differently, but it’s different now. I feel that thing! Somebody shout, it’s different now! You can go back to the husband or the wife to whom you handed divorce papers last week, and you can say, I want to try again. But what makes you want to try again?
It’s different now. I’m a new creation. I wouldn’t have asked for forgiveness back then, but today I’ve repented to Him, and He’s softened my heart—it’s different now. You can go back to those children that you’ve written off because you said they’re too disrespectful, and you can go back and say, hey, I want to start again. Why should I trust you? It’s different now. You can look at yourself in the mirror, and all of the pills and all of the drugs and all of the pain you caused yourself—you thought it was okay because it was just happening to you—and you can now tell yourself, I’m gonna take care of you. I’m not gonna mistreat the temple of the Holy Spirit. Yeah, and when the lie of the enemy comes to try to tell you there’s no way you could stick to this, you can tell him, it’s different now.
Today marks a day of change in your life. Or can I say it a different way? A day of transformation. Yeah, it’s different now. This Ethiopian eunuch did not have an excuse, and neither do you. It’s time for us to get baptized; it’s different! As soon as you get baptized, in just a moment, I’m gonna go down here, and I’m gonna baptize some people. I know there are people at beaches right now gathered around cell phones—oh, y’all can’t give it up for them! There are people at apartment complexes right now—I’m so proud of you, Transformation Nation! Make some noise! Come on! The whole world just started worshiping. I said the whole world started worshiping!
As we go into this moment, I want to offer you the first baptism. I want to offer you salvation. And today, if you’ve never given your life to Jesus Christ, if you’ve never made Him Lord and Savior, in just a moment I want you to pray this prayer with me. This is not a prayer of defeat, this is not a prayer of death, this is not a prayer of regret; this is a prayer of new life. Today, all you have to do, according to Romans, is believe that Jesus lived, died, and rose again just for you, and you are saved. If you want to give your life to Christ, I’m telling you, it is the best decision I ever made. It did not make me a perfect man, but man, it has made me progress! And I’m telling you, whatever you walk through, you never have to walk through it alone—God will be right there with you!
If you want to give Jesus Christ your life today, I want you, on the count of three, to lift your hands and say, Pastor, include me in this prayer. I want you to know that everybody behind me has already made this decision, and there are thousands of people around who are going to make this decision this year—over 30,000 people have made the decision for Jesus Christ! And this is the key: God’s not just rejoicing over the ones who’ve already made the decision. Heaven stops over one person! And today, are you the one that heaven will rejoice for? You’re making the greatest decision of your life! Two, I’m proud of you! But forget that, your name will be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life and your eternity secured forever.
If you want to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, three, raise your hand all over the world! Can we give God glory? The reason they’re cheering is just heaven; it’s turning up right now because of one person! And you know, Transformation Nation, this is what we do every Sunday—we pray together for the benefit of those who come into Christ. So would you just pray this out loud with me? Say, God, thank you for sending Jesus just for me! Today, I give you my life. I repent. I believe you lived, you died, and you rose again just for me. Change me, renew me, transform me; I’m yours forever in Jesus' name. Amen! Can we give God—oh, y’all can do better than that—can we give God a shout of praise all over this world? Glory to God! Glory to God!
Oh, I just saw people’s lives snap down; I just saw people’s families turned around. Thank you, Lord! What I want you to do is I want you to text «SAVED» to the number on the screen, and we’re going to send you some information and give you some next steps, okay? But we have a next step you can take right now. Today, you can get baptized. Somebody say, be baptized! This is your call and there’s no excuse—not, I wasn’t prepared! Not, I don’t know where! No, we make happen what we want to happen. And today, there are thousands of other people all over the world who are making the same decision. If you want to be baptized spontaneously—that’s what this Ethiopian eunuch did! He was baptized spontaneously; he was on his way somewhere and he was like, hold up, water! Baptized! He did the thing right there—it was spontaneous!
Today, there are people that are watching, and your heart has been beating, and your spirit is like, you, you, you, you can do this! Let’s do this! Let’s make it happen—don’t ignore the Spirit of God on the inside of you! If you want to be spontaneously baptized today, text right now, «BAPTISM,» to the number on your screen, and I’m telling y’all, in five minutes, we’re about to turn up—we’re about to celebrate! We are about to—oh, y’all better help me—we’re about to give God praise with you and celebrate with you as you come alive in Christ! I just want to let you know that we’re not just here for the big moments; we want to walk with you every step of the way! After you do this, go find a church in your city, a life-giving one, so that somebody can know your name. We want you to get in community!
As a matter of fact, I don’t know if I’m even supposed to say this, but next week we’re opening up B Groups at Transformation Church, and you’re gonna be able to get in community with people from all over the world. If you’re in San Francisco, you’re going to be able to meet with people. If you’re in Texas, you’re going to be over online. If you’re in a different country—because if you enjoy Transformation Church, you only get to see a portion of what we do if you tune in on Sundays. But the real secret to what God is doing here is in community!
So next week, we want you to come back and sign up for all of the amazing small groups that will be happening! And then I just want to ask you to watch this whole series. Somebody say you need all three! Many of you just took the step and were baptized into salvation; in just a moment, you’re gonna get baptized in water! But there’s one last baptism—it’s the baptism of the Holy Spirit! And I’m telling you, this is the one that empowers you to live life. And next week, we got one more week of the upgrade, y’all! You do not want to miss next week—it’s gonna change everything! Okay, well, go back before next week, this week. As your assignment is, go back—everybody! Everybody—not just the people getting baptized, everybody!
Go back and watch messages one through five and come ready next week as we see God give us His Holy Spirit without measure! Yeah, in the upgrade! Hey, can I just say one last thing? When you go to get baptized, wherever you go—because some people are going to have to make a drive somewhere; some people set a time; you’re on a different time zone—you decided to meet up with people—make no excuse! When you go, know that the Holy Spirit is there with you! Just like Jesus, our example! Y’all remember in Matthew when Jesus got baptized?
If anybody could have walked this earth without being baptized, it was Jesus! But He told John, no, this must be done! No excuse! And I believe the Son of God was baptized to make sure all of us knew that we had no excuse! And when He was baptized, you can go read it, when He came up, it says the Holy Spirit, like a dove, descended on Him, and then the skies opened, and the Father affirmed Him publicly and said, this is my Son! And I feel this is what’s going to happen when you get baptized: chains are going to fall off, old ways are going to fall off, and He’s going to say, this is my child in whom I am well pleased! And do you know that after the baptism of Jesus is when all the miracles that we read about happened? I believe that there is a miraculous season coming to your life after you take this step of faith. Can I pray for you real quick? Hands lifted all over the world, hands lifted.
Father, I thank you for what you’re about to do, and I thank you, Father God, that as we go into this moment—the spiritual moment, the life-changing moment, the miraculous moment of identifying with You and Your burial and Your resurrection—I thank you, Father, that You would touch the hearts, the minds, and the lives of Your children. I don’t know what they’re going through and what they need, but You do! You’re right there with them! And Father, I thank you for a Spirit-filled encounter with You right now, God! Thank you, Father, that the testimonies of healing, the testimonies of depression falling off, the testimonies of joy coming back into people’s lives—Father, let them ring out from all over the world! And Father, for everything that You do in this time, we give You all the glory, we give You all the honor, and we give You all the praise in Jesus' name! Everybody said we agree, we expect—Amen!