Amen. Well, I just want to say thank you so much for being here this morning.
You know, I never thought I would be here. I even remember the first time I saw the
video that announced this church was starting. I was like, what? That's crazy.
You know, another church popping up. This is awesome.
Especially a new IFB church. We need more of them. We need them in every city. Amen.
You know, so for those that don't know me, I'm Brother Segura. You know, first name's
Chris. I work for Pastor Anderson. I've been going to Faithful World for about
10 years. I've been working for Pastor Anderson for a couple years now.
You know, so he pretty much hired me just to take care of the building, order stuff.
Pretty much I'm the janitor down there. You know, in case you're wondering what my
position is, that's what I am. You know, so I'm obviously helping preaching as well.
You know, so when Pastor Anderson can't preach for whatever reason, whether he's sick,
or he has to be somewhere else, you know, I'll help out with the preaching as well.
You know, but once again, I'm just happy to be here, and I'm very excited to see
everyone here this morning. So if you do have your Bibles, go ahead and look at James
chapter number four. We're going to start with that one. That's the verse that I want to focus
on. It says, Therefore to him that knoweth you did good, and doeth not to him it is sin.
So I just give you the title of my sermon. It's called simply this, Ice Cold Baptism.
Ice Cold Baptism. Now I heard that some of you guys heard this sermon already from me.
I preached it about three weeks ago at Pure Words down in Houston. You know, but I figured that this
is probably going to be the only time that I'm going to come here to Oklahoma. Who knows?
Hopefully I can come down here another time and preach again. You know, but I wanted to just
leave you guys with something that I'm pretty positive can help you right away. It's going to
help you for the rest of your life, and it's something that I wish that I had learned when
I first started to go soul winning. How many of you guys have just started soul winning yourself?
How many would say I've been soul winning for less than six months? More than six months?
Awesome. So over a year? Over five years?
All right. So relatively new. New soul winners. That's great. I've been soul winning probably
for about 16 years. So you know what? You just got to keep doing it or you get bad at it. You know,
so practice makes perfect. So I encourage you to just continue to do it. Don't get out of that
habit of going soul winning because that's what we're here on earth to do is win souls for the
Lord. You know, but the reason I'm going to James chapter 4 17, even though James chapter 4 has
nothing to do with baptism, is because if I were to say what is the one verse that got me as an
ex-Catholic to get baptized, I would say it's one of these verses right here that I'm going to go
over. And also what I'm going to talk about is not necessarily baptism, what it is, but necessarily
how I present it in order to help me accomplish a great commission to not just get them safe,
also get people baptized. And I've noticed when I do make an effort to get people baptized,
more people get baptized. But it's not just as simple as telling people, hey, now that you're
saved, God wants you to get baptized. Make sure you get baptized. Just like faith comes by hearing
from the word of God. Just like you get people saved by showing in verses. It's going to be no
different. God's word is powerful. And if obviously you present things well, it can help that person
change their mind. It'll help that person to do good. Because at the end of the day, the fear of
the Lord is what helps men to depart from evil. You know, so if a person is doing something wrong
and you show them clearly that they're wrong, they have a higher chance of getting it right,
repenting and doing what's right. Because nobody wants to get baptized by God. You know, so when
it comes to baptism, you know, really quickly I'll just give my testimony as far as how I got saved.
You know, I ended up getting saved right after I got out of the military. So I did four years in
the service and then ended up getting out. I was only out for about three months. Then they ended
up giving me a call saying, hey, we need you to come back in. So before I got out, the Iraq war
was the big rumor. You know, they were going to go to Iraq because of the lessons of mass destruction,
et cetera, et cetera. So towards the end of my career, I ended up getting out, but there was a
rumor. Three months later, they recalled me back and ended up reporting back in. Well, the day that
I reported back in, they didn't really tell me much. They just said, hey, we don't know what's
going on. My job was infantry. So we knew I had to deal with combat because they wouldn't be
recalling me back unless I had to deal with combat. But we didn't know if it was security. We didn't
know what was going on. So at the time I just kind of went with the flow. But the day when I
ended up going back home, they released me probably about 4.30 PM. I started going home
and I got a phone call from one of my cousins. And she was a janitor. So she just asked me if I
can pick up her kids and drop them off at her apartment because she had to go somewhere else.
Well, I ended up going there and it turned out that she was cleaning the building, a church
building. So I went inside, realized it was a church building right away. You can tell,
it looks similar to this. So I waved at her. She waved at me. I said, look, I'll wait for you
outside. So she's like, no problem. We're almost done. We'll be right out. So I just went outside
and I was just standing in the driveway. And probably obviously about a minute later, I see
a guy walking towards me. You know, he's walking towards me. And I kind of figured, okay, maybe
he's not coming directly towards me. But he started getting closer and closer. And then I
kind of saw him with my peripheral vision. And I noticed that he obviously had a white shirt,
a tie, and something black in his hand. You know, so when I realized that he's coming directly
towards me, I made eye contact. At that point, he waves his hand. He's like, hello. And I'm like,
hey, how you doing? He said, my name is Pastor Cirillo. I'm the pastor of the church. You know,
do you need help with anything? And I said, oh no, I'm just waiting for my cousin. She's cleaning
your building. She's like, oh, Maricela? Yeah. Oh, well, you know what? She's a good employee.
We like her. He said, well, that's great. And I was in my Marine uniform. So he started asking
me about that. So he just asked me if I was in the service. I'm like, yeah, I'm actually in the
Marine Corps. I just, you know, got called back in. You know, I got out about three months ago.
They recalled me. I just checked in today. So he's just like asking me, you know, hope nothing bad
is going on. I'm like, well, I don't know what's the situation. You know, so I just kind of just
had a quick conversation with him. Well, he ended up inviting me to church right away. So I said,
well, look, if you have a free son, they'd like to invite you to church. But I said, look, I'm
Catholic, you know, go to the, you know, go to my Catholic church in my city, even though I didn't
really go, you know, just what I said, you know. But then he said, well, look, more important than
going to church, if you die today, you're 100 percent sure you're going to heaven. And I said,
yes. But I wasn't sure. It just came out of my mouth. I just said, yes. Well, I'm glad he
wasn't experienced so much. He didn't stop there. He simply just asked in the kindest way possible,
well, why is that? And I gave all the wrong answers. Well, because I'm a pretty good person.
I don't do nothing bad. You know, I mentioned baptism. I'm baptized. You know, I even said I
got the pope, you know, so I said I got the pope, you know, and he kept looking at me like, okay.
And then I figured, well, what does he want to hear? So I just said, well, you know what,
I'm a Marine. You know, it's like, I'm sure if I go overseas and die from a country, I'm sure
God will let me into heaven. Well, I'm glad he wasn't experienced so much. And then he said,
well, great. I'm glad you're going to heaven. Well, you know what? You know, I'm glad to hear
that. Well, you have a great day. He didn't do that. What he simply said was this. Well,
can I just show you what the Bible says? And I was interested. I was actually thinking about it
on my way to go pick up my cousin's kids. So when he said, can I show you what the Bible says? I'm
like, absolutely. So 25 minutes later, I ended up getting saved. You know, I already believe I was a
sinner. I believe I deserve hell. At least the Catholic church taught me that. You know, I
believe Jesus died. But one thing I didn't know, the eternal life was a gift. Once he showed me
that, that shocked me. I couldn't believe it. I thought it was a reward, something you have to
earn by doing more good than bad because that's what I was taught, keeping the commandments,
et cetera, et cetera. So afterwards, he told me, come to my office. I want to give you something.
I'm like, sure. So we go into his office. He gives the Bible off the shelf and he gives it
to me. He writes my name inside of it. He puts John 3, 3, you know, and then he ended up putting
my salvation date. So he gave it to me and it's like, hey, if I get a chance to come back, he
invited me back. I'm like, yeah, if I get a chance to come, you know, I believe I'll come. So what
happened is that was on a Monday. So on Friday, we get into our vehicles and we drive down to
Southern California. This was in Northern California where I ended up getting saved.
So we go down to Camp Pendleton and we ended up being there for a year. After a year, we ended up
getting deployed. So we ended up going to Kuwait. And at that point it told us, yeah, we're here
for war. We're going to invade Iraq, you know, so just prepare yourself mentally. So then we started
doing some training in the desert and they gave us a little bit of downtime. But what I noticed is
they had also chapel services with the Protestant chaplain, with the Catholic chaplain. They even
had a Muslim chaplain, believe it or not, you know, that Muslim chaplain as well. You know,
so people just started going to these, you know, services and for good reason, because they don't
know if they're going to die or not. But I already had that settled in my heart. I already knew I was
going to heaven. You know, that was something that just recently, you know, got settled a year
earlier. But I was also trying to like check people's salvation. I didn't realize what I was
doing. I just kind of wanted to let people know that eternal life is a gift. Don't waste your time
going to church. Make sure you have it. You know, so I would do it in the best way possible because
I got saved on a Monday. Friday comes around and I ended up leaving. So nobody's discipling me.
Nobody's, you know, he doesn't have my contact number, nothing. I didn't even read the Bible
for that whole year before we got deployed. You know, but I would ask people, hey, you know what,
if you die right now, where would you go? You know, and they would say, oh, I'm going to heaven. Why?
Well, because, you know, I believe and I repent it. So I remember they had this, this one,
they call him a Catholic lay leader. It was just a Marine corporal. He was the one in charge of
just gathering all the Catholics and taking them to the priest so they could have their services.
So he would go from 10th to 10th saying, hey, we're having service for anybody who's Catholic.
Anybody want to come? But I consider myself Catholic, but I'm like, nah, I don't need that.
But then later or one of the evenings, I ended up going up to him saying, hey, I got a question for
you. You know, I said, what do you have to do to go to heaven? He said, well, you know, you have to
repent. That's the first time I kind of heard that repent thing. You have to repent. I'm like,
repent? So I was confused. And I said, don't you believe in Toronto as a gift? Yeah, it's a gift,
but you still have to, you know, repent, you know, give up sin, et cetera, et cetera. And I
literally just said, well, I don't believe that. And I just kind of left it alone and walked away.
But I heard there was a Christian in our platoon. So right away, I went and seek him out and it was
the last corporal. So I socked him out and I said, hey, got a question for you. You know,
what do you have to do to go to heaven? And he just said, well, look, if you believe in your
heart, Jesus Christ is on the cross for your sins. The Bible says you'll be saved. And I'm like,
that's it? That's it. I said, well, eternal life, is it a gift? Yes, it's a gift to Jesus
Christ the Lord. So he was saved. So I was like, yeah, that's exactly what I believe. High five,
man. You know, but he would go to the services, but I wouldn't go to the services. I just didn't
think I needed it. But I noticed that people started getting baptized in the desert. And I
kind of told myself, well, I'm already baptized, you know, I feel like I'm already baptized,
you know, but what happened is when my pastor got me saved, because, you know,
forward a little bit more or a little to the future, I ended up getting out and ended up just
seeking that church. I found that church. I went actually on a Wednesday night service to that
church and ended up going to the church ever since. But for some reason, just kind of look
back and wish you would have mentioned baptism. At least tell me, look, now that you're saved,
this is what God wants you to do. He wants you to get baptized. Of course, being a Catholic,
I would have just told him I'm already baptized. That's what I tend to hear from a lot of people
that I get saved for a Catholic, you know. But if he would at least told me who knows what would
have happened, I probably would have got baptized in the desert. Not that it would have made a big
difference because I didn't have a church or whatever the case. But at least if I would have
known that there's a danger of not getting baptized, I definitely would have got baptized
a lot quicker. But it might have taken me, I would say, a good three, four months, you know,
before I got baptized after I started going to the Independent Fundamental Baptist Church.
So it took me a while before I was convinced because they weren't really doing a good job.
They're saying, now that you're saved, God wants you to get baptized. Well, in my head,
I'm thinking, well, I'm already baptized. But nobody did a good job of just showing me, hey,
this is what the Bible says about baptism. This is what it is. And here's the danger
of not getting baptized. Once I saw the danger, guess what I ended up doing right away?
Ended up getting baptized. And not just that, I kept telling people, hey, here's the danger
of not getting baptized. And they ended up getting baptized as well. One time I ended up bringing,
I think it was like six people to my pastor. It was my brother and two of my cousins finally
invited him to church. They finally came. And I told my pastor, hey, they're coming. Can you
give them the gospel? Because I wasn't that good at so many. He's like, sure, no problem.
But before that, I brought other cousins that same day. They ended up getting saved. So we were
waiting for my brother and my other two cousins to show up. And they ended up showing up. So my
pastor gives them the gospel. So an hour and a half later, they all ended up getting saved.
And I tell them, hey, tell them about baptism. Tell them about the dangers of not getting baptized.
So when he did that, guess what all six of them did right after he said that? He explained to
them, well, they all got baptized because he had the baptism right there. It is pulpit.
And he got them all baptized. Because I told him, hey, just tell him the dangers of not. And I
remember mentioning to him, look, if you refuse to get baptized, you're disobeying God. So don't
even bother praying. He's not going to listen to you. So the fear of the Lord helps man apart from
evil. So that ended up just causing them to say, yeah, let's just get baptized now. Because they
didn't want to get punished by God. But of course, it wasn't something that I would do a lot because
I wasn't in the habit of doing it. But I'm going to tell you right now that when I do make it a
habit, I do notice that people at least know about it. And a lot of people have responded well to it.
And they've been baptized. A lot of them also the same hour. So what I end up doing is just taking
them. If you have your Bibles, just go ahead and go to Acts chapter number 8. Go to Acts chapter
number 8. We're going to start with verse 37. And I just recently got back from South Africa as well.
And there's a pastor down there that we're working with. He's not an old IFB guy. He's
an Andanam guy. But he ended up backing up Pastor Anderson. That's how we came across him.
You know, when it came to him getting kicked out of South Africa. Well, he didn't know about door
to door so when he. So I went down there just to sharpen him up. But I didn't stop just at
door to door so when I said, look, now that you know a little bit more about door to door so when
you also need to be able to present, you know, baptism so they can, you know, have encouragement,
or at least know the dangers of not being baptized. So I ended up just going down there and
choosing this method. But I learned this method, I would say maybe two years after I started going
to my old Baptist church in northern California. And, you know, I got to give credit where credit
is due. There was a pastor that came by our church. He was just a guest preacher. His name was
R.B. Olette. Has anybody heard of Dr. R.B. Olette from Bridgeport, Michigan? Well, I think he runs
the largest independent fundamental Baptist church in Michigan. But he came by and he wasn't even
preaching on baptism. He just simply said, look, a lot of people ask me about baptism and, you know,
soul winning, et cetera, et cetera. I have a CD in the back, you know, because they sell everything.
The littlest things. So when I heard that, I was interested in also, you know,
becoming a better soul winner, but not just that, helping people to also get baptized.
So when I heard that I went about the CD, went home and listened to it, and it was just him,
you know, preaching for like 30, 40 minutes, how he presents baptism so people can realize the
dangers of not being baptized. And, you know, when I started using that, I noticed that it was
a lot easier to get people to get baptized than if I were to just tell them, hey, you know what now
that you're saved, God wants you to get baptized, et cetera, et cetera. But it only takes about
three minutes after you present the gospel, after you get them saved. It's something to recommend
we try to do. So the purpose of the sermon is just to help everybody tonight, at least to warn
every single convert, at least to warn every single person you get saved about the dangers
of not getting baptized and leave it in their hands. That way they don't walk around in a
says person themselves. And, you know, if we can help them to at least see, hey, this is God's will
for you. This is what he wants. Here's the danger of disobeying God. You know, who knows what will
happen with that individual? Maybe he'll grow a lot quicker because I'm not saying that I would
have grown a lot faster had I been baptized. But once I saw it and it was clear, I would have got
baptized a whole lot quicker when I first started going to church. But nobody really did a good job
explaining it to me. And I just felt I was fine with my Catholic baby baptism. So if you have
your Bibles right there in Acts chapter number eight, verse thirty seven. So after I get an
individual saved, what I like to tell them is, look, now that you're saved, what God wants you
to do is to get baptized. And I'm sure that, you know, if you do that as well, if they're former
Catholics, they're going to say I'm already been baptized or maybe there were people that go to a
non-denim church, they already got baptized. Well, what I try to explain to them is that, look,
the reason you need to be re-baptized is because at first you weren't even sure if you were going
to heaven. You know, but now that you believe with all your heart, now you may be baptized. And that's
what we're going to see right here in Acts chapter number eight, verse thirty seven. And I just simply
read it to them and say, look, it says right here, if Philip said, if thou believeth with all thine
heart, thou mayest. And the answer that said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And
I told them, here's a person who's 100 percent confident in what he believes. You know, when I
asked you earlier, Mr. such and such, you know, you weren't sure, but now you're sure. And not
just that, you just call upon the Lord and ask him to save you. Now you're 100 percent sure you're going
to heaven. Now it's time to get baptized because now you believe with all your heart. Before you
weren't sure, but now you're 100 percent sure. And this is why now it's time for you to get baptized.
And of course, they're going to look at you like you got two heads. So what I like to show them is
Matthew 28. So if you have your Bible, just go ahead and go to Matthew 28. I'll wait for you.
And I'll just go ahead and go to Matthew 28. And the reason I use Matthew 28 is because
we're going to go into Mark 1. And so they're right there side by side. Sometimes if you have
a Bible with small print, Matthew 28 and Mark 1 are on the same page. If not, if you have a big
print Bible, you'll have Matthew 28 on one page and you have Mark 1 on the other page. And it'll
make it very easy for you to help this individual understand what's going on and to increase their
chances of helping them to get baptized quicker. So in Matthew 28, I started with verse 18. I
simply say this, look, let's look at what we got here. It says, And Jesus came and spake. So I just
point out right away, who's talking here? So I showed the individual, hey, who's talking here?
And of course, they're going to say Jesus. And I tell them that's right. The Son of God got in
the flesh. And look what he's saying. He says, you know, Jesus came and spake unto them saying,
All power is given out to me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations,
baptizing them. Now, I'm not sure how your Bible is set up, but I just have that word baptizing,
nice and highlighted, so their eyes just get glued to it. You know, and I just stop right there.
And I tell them, what did Jesus just tell people to do? To baptize. So I tell them, look, what I
want to show you really quickly is that when a person gets baptized, they're not obeying the
pastor. They're not obeying the church. They're obeying God. They're obeying God. So that'll
probably wake them up a little bit. So I tell them, so if a person doesn't get baptized,
they're not disobeying the church. They're not disobeying their pastor. They're disobeying God,
period. And of course, if they're former Catholics, they're not sure if what you're showing them or
telling them is the truth. But you know what? God can open up their eyes to understand the
scriptures. So then I tell them, look, let me show you what a baptism really is, especially if
I know they're Catholic. That's how I say it. But we go to the next page, which is Mark,
Mark chapter number one, and go down to verse number nine. And I have to show the individual,
look, let me just show you a baptism in the Bible. In fact, I'll show you the best example,
and that's Jesus Christ being baptized. No better example than that. So I take them to
Mark chapter number one, verse nine, and it says simply this. And it came to pass in those days
that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized. And I tell them, who's getting baptized
here? And of course, they're going to say that it's Jesus Christ. So I'll simply tell them, yeah,
exactly, it's Jesus Christ who's getting baptized. And I tell them that he was baptized in the River
Jordan by John. And I'll read verse 10. And it says right here in verse 10, a stray wave coming
up out of the water. So I just stop it there. And I tell them, notice that it says that he came out
of the water. And I explained to them that the only reason that he's able to come out of the
water is because he was underwater. So when somebody gets baptized, it's not a sprinkling.
When somebody gets baptized, I simply explain to them, hey, it has to be underwater. You have to
go under the water. And a lot of people that are Catholic, they'll see that and be like, okay,
so that's where it comes from. Absolutely. And then I tell them, but look, let me show you
something really cool. Let me show you what's going to happen if you were to get baptized
right now. And then we keep reading, and I just skip to verse number 11. It says, and there came
a voice from heaven saying, and thou are my beloved Son, and whom I am well pleased. And
that's exactly how I say it, well pleased, because I want them to follow along. And I'll tell them,
who's talking here? And of course they're going to say, it's God. That's right, it's God the Father.
Okay, Jesus is the Son of the Father, but Jesus has gotten the flesh as well.
And I'll show them very clearly that when Jesus got baptized, God wasn't just happy with him.
He was well pleased. He was very happy with him. So then I tell the individual, look, when a person
gets baptized, God isn't just happy. Or if you were to get baptized right now, God's not just
going to be happy with you. He's going to be very happy with you, because you're a new believer,
and you're stepping out by faith, and you're showing him that you're not ashamed. So guess
what? If you were to get baptized, God's going to be very happy with you, and that's what you
want to do. You want to please God. So then what I end up telling them is simply this.
I tell them, so baptism, is it a good thing or a bad thing? 100% of the time, they say,
it's a good thing. And they say it with cockiness too. Oh yeah, you know, I'll get this answer right.
It's a good thing. So go back to James 4.17. The reason we started 4.17 is just I want to pound on
that verse, you know. Therefore, to him, they know what to do to get into it. They're not to
have sin. So right after I show them Mark 1, and I kind of paint them in a corner where I get them
to confess that baptism is a good thing. Then I tell them, but look, let me show you this verse.
You know, I need you to see this. So I'll read verse 17. Therefore, to him, they know what to do
good and do it to not. To him, it is what? And I make him read it. Sin. So of course, they might
understand it just by you reading it, by explaining it again. I simply tell them, look, what this is
teaching is that if you know you ought to do something, and it's something good, and you don't
do it, the Bible says it's sin. So I told them, you just said that baptism is a good thing. So if
you refuse to get baptized, and I mentioned two things, because you're either ashamed or because
you're lazy. And guess what? They're thinking, well, I'm not ashamed. I'm not lazy. You know,
I'm kind of, you know, using those words for a reason, you know. It's like if you refuse to
baptize because you're either ashamed or you're lazy, the Bible says it is sin. And then I tell
them, here's the danger of having sin in your life. And of course, I already have it, you know,
there in my notes. But I take him to Psalm 66. If you want to go to Psalm 66, go ahead. If not,
go to Acts 241. So what I simply do is I tell them, look, you know baptism is a good thing.
If you don't do it, you're committing sin. And I'm sure they're thinking, well, so what?
I say, look, here's the danger of having sin in your life. The Bible says in Psalm 66 18,
if you're there, go ahead and look down. It says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will
not hear me. And so that's what I showed my cousins that day. That's what I tell people.
And it tends to hit them pretty good. Because I tell them, look, the Bible says that God will not
hear you. Now, yes, God is loving. You know, yes, God is a forgiving person. And yes, God is patient.
But his patient will run out. And you know what? You can get to the point where God's not listening
to you. That's what this verse is saying. See, when it says iniquity, that's sin that you know
you have in your life. And you already said that, A, baptism is a good thing. And you already see
what the Bible teaches about doing or refusing to do something that's good. It says that it's sin.
So if you refuse to get baptized, don't even waste your time praying. Because you know what?
If you're like, God, help me. I need protection. I need you to provide for me. Lord, Lord, please
help me here. God's like, why should I listen to you when you're not listening to me? And that'll
help them understand that there is a danger of not getting baptized. And that danger is that you're
on your own. And I just say simple things like, you know what? Life is hard. But it's harder
without God. So don't let baptism get in the way of God blessing you. It's something that's easily
able to be done. And at my church, we baptize for free. The only thing you need to do to be baptized
is to believe with all your heart. And do you believe? Yeah, I believe, you know. Then you know
what I recommend is that you get baptized as soon as possible. And that's what I show them. And then
I show them a few more verses just so they can understand that there's nothing weird that is
biblical. So I tell them, hey, let me show you another verse. You don't have to go there. But
I show them Acts 2 41 that says this. Then they that gladly receive His word were baptized. See,
that's what you did today, Mr. Such and Such. You just received the word. You just got saved. See,
in the Bible, people that received God's word, they got baptized right away. And when did they
get baptized? Look what it says right there. The same day. This is showing there's nothing weird
about getting baptized the same day. Where does that come from? Hey, it comes from the Bible.
Because that's what Jesus said. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them. So they're
obeying God. That's what they're doing in this story. They're all obeying God. And so what I'd
like to just do is just explain that to them and just give them the opportunity as best I can to
get baptized at my church. So I explain how we do it, you know, et cetera, et cetera, whatever
we do. You know, we pretty much have the tub out. And sometimes I have pictures on my phone,
just show them some pictures or videos on being baptized, you know. But this is what I use to
just help people. I guess you can say, you know, encourage them, but it's more like scaring them
into getting baptized. But I'm scaring them to doing the right thing. Bottom line. That's what
I'm doing, you know. So one of my favorite stories, you know, the reason this sermon is
called Ice Cold Baptism because every single time that, you know, I want to show somebody how to
baptism, I bring this guy up, you know. It's a good example of how powerful God's word is,
you know. So I had a co-worker. His name was Jose. You know, he still comes to our church.
So what happened is Jose and me worked together at the store called Fry's Electronics. So what
happened is we got off late one day. It was 11 o'clock. We're just waiting for the manager to
continue his walk through, which is waiting at the door. You know, nobody leaves until everything's
good. Then after everything was good, they opened the door. We walk outside. He's on his bike. My
wife is in the parking lot waiting for me. So then he ended up just asking me, boss, what are
you going to do tomorrow? Anything good? I'm like, yeah, I'm going to church tomorrow, you know. So
I figured, hey, this is a great way to figure out whether or not the guy is saved because he brought
it up, you know. So he asked me. So I answered, hey, I'm going to church tomorrow. Do you go to
church anywhere? No, boss, I'm not going nowhere, you know. So I simply said, well, look, more
important than church, if you die today, you know for sure you're going to heaven. And he looked at
me all serious like, whoa, nobody's ever asked me that before. Of course, he grew up Catholic. So
then the next thing is like, hey, look, if you got a little bit of time, can I show you what the
Bible says you have to do to go to heaven? And he's like, sure. So 25 minutes later, he got saved.
And afterwards, I'm like, well, I stopped there. So I continued, you know, and it was a cold night
too. This was like in December. So I ended up showing him baptism. I'm like, why not? You know,
he's all ears. He's paying attention. And then I invited him to church. Why don't you come to
church? And I told him, think about baptism, you know, because here's the thing. I want God to
bless you. You know, if you don't get baptized, you see the dangers like, yeah, hey, don't even
waste your time asking God to help you. If you're disobeying him, you know, like this, hey, it is
what it is. God cannot bless your life. So it's like, hey, why don't you come to church tomorrow?
He said, you know what? I will come. So he does show up. And he came in the morning and I said,
hey, you know what? Have you thought about baptism? He's like, hey, I want to get baptized,
but I can't do it right now. I got to go do whatever. So I'm like, okay, but I'll be back
tonight. Can I get baptized tonight? I'm like, sure. So he ends up showing up at nighttime,
you know, so it shows up at nighttime. And we baptize no matter how cold it is or how hot it is
because we have a heater back home. So we end up just heating the water. Sometimes we don't pay
attention to it. We just plug it in. And then literally the water is like about 120 degrees.
It's hotter than a jacuzzi. So then pastor's like, whoa, pastor Anderson always checks it
like, cause he knows we sometimes, you know, are too fast. And it gets that hot. It's like, whoa,
it's so hot. Put some, put some water back in that thing. You know? So this night I'm like,
hey, let's set it up. I tell her, I forgot who it was that was in church of baptism. So I'll say,
hey, my buddy wants to get baptized, you know, can we make it happen? He's like, sure, no problem.
I'm like, all right. So then I told him, hey, we're going to baptize you, give it a minute,
et cetera, et cetera. And then he comes, the guy that was sitting up comes back saying, hey,
I got, you know, I got bad news. We don't, we don't have propane, you know, we don't have
propane to heat it up or anything like that. I'm like, what? It's like, man, he's ready to go.
But I'm like, okay, this is what it is. I don't want him to freeze to death. So I went back and
I told him, look, here's the problem. The problem is we don't have propane. So we don't want to
freeze you to death. He's like, no, I'm fine. I'll do it. He's like, what, what do you mean
you want to do it? He's like, I'll do it. He's like, you know, it's cold outside. He's like,
I know, but here's the thing though. A lot of people think Arizona is just hot, hot, hot all
year long. You know, obviously not everybody, but I looked up to see how cold, cause I'm telling you
that was one of the coldest nights that I've ever experienced. And I remember like, man, this is
just like a cold night. You know, it gets pretty, it gets pretty cold in the winter time for maybe
like a week. Okay. Okay. So it is a week that it gets cold, you know? So I just kind of was
interested just for the sermon. I ended up Googling like, Hey, what temperature does water
freeze? So I got this answer. This is a screenshot just from the internet. And it says that it's far
more complicated, but bottom line, you know, 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Hey, the water will freeze
outside. So there's like a puddle of water. 32 degrees outside is going to freeze. Well,
I'm pretty sure it was between 30 and 40, but just out of curiosity, I Googled, what is the record
for like the coldest night in Phoenix? And you guys are probably going to laugh at us, but remember
this is Phoenix. And so it says that the temperature was back in 1948. It was recorded
by the Sky Harbor International Airport of being 17 degrees Fahrenheit. That's still cold.
All right. I know. I know. I know we're suffering down in Phoenix, but 17 degrees. So it does get
that cold and that's cold. Cause think about it. 32 degrees will freeze water. You'll walk outside
and your windshield is just frosty, but this is half. The record is half of that. So I'm assuming
that night had to have been either 40 something degrees, or it would have been in the high 30
degrees, still cold enough to freeze water. But when we fill that tub up, if it filled up in 15
minutes with the heater, it takes 45 minutes just what it holds. It takes 15 minutes. So that means
for like an hour or probably an hour and a half, that tub is outside in 30 to 40 degree, you know,
weather. So sure enough, he was just motivated to just serve the Lord and obey guys like, no,
I want to beg. I don't want to get baptized. I'm like, okay. You know, it's like, you sure you
want to do this? And we even told him, hey, it's cold. You don't have to do this. No, I want to do
this. I'm fine. I'm ready to do this. I'm okay. Sure enough, he walks out. He's like, oh man,
it's cold. Our pastor says, you want to do it? Let's do it. So sure enough, we had our tub. He
gets in there and he's like, oh, like he starts shocking him. He's like, whoa, I think this is a
bad idea, man. So he starts going in there and he's like a little guy. So he's in there. Pastor says,
all right, you need to get down, down, down. So now he's like freezing in there, you know?
So of course, pastor tries to do it as fast as possible. You know, okay, Jose, my brother,
and I baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. Boom. You know,
buried in the likeness of the deaf, raised in the likeness of the resurrection. Everybody's clapping.
He's like, so it's like, all right, get out, get out, get out. So he gets out. I wrap him up and
we have the bathroom right there. So he's literally in like pain walking into the bathroom. And I'm
like, man, it's like, I can't believe he did that. But I think it was the fear of the Lord that pushed
him to do it. You know, because who knows what was going on in his personal life. Something tells me
that he needed God and he didn't want to lose whatever blessings he can get from him. You know,
but it did, I think, helping him see all these verses to get the faith that he needed because
faith comes right here and here by the Word of God to obey God in that situation. You know,
but I don't know. I'm sure if you obviously do this after every single salvation that you get,
you know, there's a good chance that the majority are just not going to get baptized. It's just the
facts. But just thinking about this sermon and just thinking about the times where I didn't
present, I'm thinking, man, I'm pretty sure that at least warning them, you know, warning them could
have done something for them rather than just leave it out. You know, so that's kind of what
my mentality was, is to try to get everyone who I convert, every single one of the, every person
that I get saved, at least warn them about it as fast as I can. You know, and it won't take that
long either, you know, because obviously if you've got a really receptive person, it's going to take
you about 10 minutes to get that individual saved. I don't know if you agree or not because
the conversation simply goes like this. Knock, knock, who's there? You know, hey, can I help you?
Yeah, my name is Russell Greer. I'm a steadfast Baptist, you know, just inviting people to church.
Do you guys go to service anywhere? Yeah, I'm Catholic. Well, you know what? More important
than going to church, if you die right now, do you know for sure you're going to heaven
and what they're going to say? Yeah, you know, it's like, do you know for sure if you die today,
where are you going to go? I'm not sure. Well, can I show you what the Bible says? You got about
five minutes for me to show you? Sure, and of course, if you give them the Gospel, it's going
to take about 10 minutes, and afterwards, if you show them what I just showed you guys, you know,
it's going to take about three minutes. You know, that's pretty much what's going to happen at the
end of it all, you know, but what a lot of people tend to think is that, oh no, you know, already
took 25 minutes. I don't know if I can do more, et cetera, et cetera. No, but you can. You know,
you can take a little bit more extra time to show individuals, you know, hey, this is what God wants
you to do. You know, this is what He expects of us. This is what He wants all of us to basically
get done. You know, so of course, when you guys go sowing in this afternoon, you know, whatever
verses you want to use, whether it's just one verse, whether it's all of them, whatever the
case may be, I'm pretty positive that you guys can get all this stuff done, you know, but never know.
You never know what will happen, but I think God will bless you and give you some cool stories.
You know, I'm sure He'll give you some people that'll get baptized even that day. You know,
I had this coworker of mine, same thing happened. You know, we're just talking, whatever, which is
like, hey, what are you doing tomorrow? I am doing this, whatever. I'm like, well, I'm going to
church. You go to church anywhere. You know, her name was Ashley. She's like, no, you know, I don't
know if I'm going to church, but you know, I usually go to Catholic church. So I said the
same thing. You die right now. Do you know for sure you're going to heaven? She said, I don't
know. I said, well, you know, what can I show you? You know, as soon as we get off work, can I show
you what the Bible says? She's like, sure. So straight enough, they, they opened the door. It's
a letter out. It's like 11 at night. My wife's in the parking lot. It's like, yeah, my wife's
over here. Let's go, you know, talk over there. Where's your vehicle? You know, et cetera, et cetera.
So I gave her the gospel. Sure. There's verses. Invited her to church. Same thing. She came to
church the next day and I told her, hey, you know what? Have you been thinking about baptism? She's
like, I have been thinking about baptism. He's like, I'll get baptized. I'm like, okay, no problem.
She ended up getting baptized the next day as well. And I figured, okay, you know, the baptism,
why stop there? Talked about so many and explained to her, hey, this is what so many needs. This is
what our church does. Would you be interested in going so many? She's like, yeah, you know,
I don't mind going so many. You know, can I go today? And I'm like, can you go today? I'm like,
whoa, man. You know, it's like the church van already took off. I'm like, well, if you really
want to go, I can see if I can find somebody. It's like, yeah, I wouldn't mind going. I'm like, okay.
So the only person that was left behind was Pastor Anderson's wife, Mrs. Anderson. So I just said,
hey, Mrs. Anderson, I got my coworker over here. She just got baptized. She wants to go so many.
Can you take her out so many? She's like, sure. I'll take her out so many. So she ended up going
so many with Mrs. Anderson. And then later on, she called me saying, yeah, she got the best of
all worlds. You know, we ran into people that were just un-receptive, this person that was
really receptive. We ran into this guy that just yelled at us and told us to give, you know, the
wet off his property. You know, so this stuff does work. And, you know, my favorite story also is that
one day on a Wednesday night, we're just knocking doors near our church. We're just knocking doors.
You know, we run into a couple of teenagers, actually it was three teenagers. You know,
we ended up talking to the mom and the teenagers and all of them got saved. Well, the mom had to
go to work, but then we explained to them the verses, the exact same method on the teenagers.
I figured, okay, at least warn them of the dangers of not getting baptized.
So I ended up just giving them the verses, et cetera, et cetera. And then they were like, yeah,
you know what? Do you guys do baptisms tonight? We're like, sure. I wasn't even thinking of
baptizing them. They're like, you know, can we get baptized tonight? I'm like, absolutely.
And then one of them was sick, but they still wanted to do it. They're like, I got a question.
Can you get baptized when you're sick? I'm like, of course, but just go last. Okay. Don't get
everybody else sick. You know, but they brought it up like, hey, can we get baptized tonight?
I'm like, sure. Why not? You know, we ended up just doing that. And even one of my church
members, you know, I remember the first day he came, his name is Juan. He showed up and I saw
him just kind of sitting down. I went up to him, asked him if you know the church going to heaven,
didn't know, gave him the gospel. After I gave him the gospel, I'm like, why not continue? You know,
he's all ears. His wife is getting, you know, witnessed you. So I showed him these verses,
same thing. He ends up saying, you know what? I want to get baptized too. He's like,
can I get baptized today? I'm like, sure. I wasn't even planning to get him baptized.
Like, can I get baptized? I'm like, absolutely. So I ended up just baptizing him. And there was
this other guy from Canada. This is a funnier story too. His name is Nar. Who knows Nar from
Canada? You know, Nar? Did he ever tell you how he got baptized? Well, because of these verses.
So what happened is Nar shows up and I've never met him before. He was new to the movement.
So he showed up. I forgot what was going on. I don't know if we were having some conference
or he was just visiting us. So Nar shows up and he's like, brother Segura. And I didn't know who
he was. So I'm like, yeah. He's like, hey, how you doing? You know, my name is Nar. I see you on
YouTube or whatever. I'm like, hey, good to meet you. He's like, hey, can I go so many with you?
I'm like, sure. You know, I'm going at one thirty. You know, we'll go soul winning. He's like,
that's good because, you know, I want to get so I want to get into soul winning. You know,
I want to learn it, et cetera, et cetera. I'm like, I have no problem with that, Nar. Absolutely
not. You know, so then he just happened to ask me, well, how do you start the gospel? Like,
you know, what are you showing? What verses do you use? So I went through the entire presentation.
I had it on me. So I must have spoke to him for about twenty five minutes. That's what we know
what afterwards, Nar? He's like, I don't do it all the time, but I'm trying to get in the habit of
just bringing up baptism. It takes like three minutes to show people some baptism verses,
at least to warn them, at least to warn them of the danger of not being baptized.
And this is how I do it. So I showed him one verse, two verses, three verses. Everything
I just showed you guys, I explained it the same way. It's like, that's how I do it, Nar. What do
you think? I think I need to be baptized. That's what Nar basically says. He's like, you're not
baptized? No, I'm not. But he was shy. He didn't want to do it because he was shy. He was ashamed.
But when he saw the dangers, he's like, I need to get baptized. So I'm like, hey, Pastor Anderson,
Nar, why does he get baptized? Have you met Nar? Yeah, I met him already. He's like,
can you baptize him right now? He's like, no, I can't baptize him right now because I got to go,
but we can do it tonight. So I figured, okay, we'll see if he's serious. So sure enough,
we went soul winning, came back at night. After the night service, I'm like, no, you still want
to get baptized? I still want to get baptized. He wasn't even prepared for it. I'm like, all right,
let's get you baptized. And he ended up getting baptized. And then I recorded. So every time he
sees me, he's like, where's my baptism video? Because I accidentally deleted it off my phone.
But I'm like, I got you, Nar. I'll record your baptism. So I was recording him. And I ended up
later on. I don't know what happened. I accidentally deleted it. But he always makes,
he always hits me up on that because he knows I don't have it. So he tries to make me feel bad.
But other than that, I mean, this is all pretty much that I do. It's all I want you guys to kind
of see and just kind of put it in your mind. Like, you know what? I think I can do it. It's
very easy. I believe everybody can do it. You can come look at these verses later,
tab up your Bible, whatever the case may be. I use a tablet when I go out. So I just use screenshots.
So it's one after the other, but I have them at the end to just remind me, just trying to
give myself more focus and to get in baptisms. But even in South Africa, when we were down there,
I used the method on some, on some, a church member of the pastor that met us down there.
You know, he actually, I think he asked me just preach on baptism, if you don't mind.
I think that was like two years ago. I forgot exactly, you know, when it was,
but I ended up doing that. And a girl comes up saying, you know what? I want to get baptized.
But before this, she was embarrassed to get baptized. She didn't want to do it because she
didn't want to get in the water in front of everybody. But when she saw the danger,
she just stirred up, came up to the pastor and said, Hey, can I get baptized tomorrow?
And we're like, sure, absolutely. You know, so that's the thing. And I remember the reason
I didn't want to get baptized is because of shame. I was too embarrassed to be in front of
everybody, you know, with a gown. You guys remember when you guys got baptized, right?
Wasn't a little bit, you know, like you probably hesitated. You didn't want to get baptized.
Who got baptized right away? Like as soon as they got saved, the same month. Who got baptized the
same month? The same month? Brave. The same month. Everybody else? Well, how long did it take you
before you got baptized? Maybe a week. Somebody explaining to you very well? They just called me.
I was young. I was 12. You're just like, all right, no problem. I don't want to get the belt.
You know? But you did it probably out of obedience, right? Hey, it goes back to why
people get baptized today. Fear, right? You didn't want your parents to, you know, punish you.
But everybody else, everybody's here, I'm assuming you're baptized, right? Did you get baptized right
away? Yeah. 15 years, right? What was the problem? Shame. Embarrassment, right? Not really knowing,
hey, you know, what's the big deal about baptism? But hey, you're not the only one. I was exactly
like you. I saw people getting baptized Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, but I didn't get
baptized until four months afterwards because nobody really stepped in and told me, look,
if you don't get baptized, you're not going to prosper. God's not going to use you. You're not
going to be blessed. God won't answer. Once I saw that, I'm like, what? Why didn't you tell me? Let's
get it done right here right now. You know? So then, of course, without even hesitating, hey,
tonight, can we do it tonight? Yeah. All right. Why didn't you tell me this before? I thought it
was like an option. I thought it wasn't such a big deal, but it is a big deal because the last thing
that Jesus said was, hey, go teach all nations, baptize in them, you know? And of course, that's
because that's what he wanted them to remember the most. Hey, this is your job. Go and do it.
So really quick, you know, very simply, baptism, is it a good thing or a bad thing, guys?
It's a good thing. Hey, mentioning it to people out at the door, good thing or bad thing?
Good. Everybody would agree? So remember James 4 17. What does that say? All right. So do what
you want with that information. Let's pray. Dear Father, we thank you so much for all that you've
done. Lord, obviously, I'm only here for a day, but I thank you so much for whatever opportunity
I have to just be a blessing and encouragement to help people grow. And Lord, I'm glad that I
learned these lessons this way. I'm very, you know, very happy that I learned it, you know,
soon after. I wish I would have learned it a lot quicker, but thanks so much for Dr. R.B. Olette
for at least, you know, having a sermon on it just to be able to help my friends, my family,
and also my family have been baptized by me explaining it this way. But I thank you so much
for all that you've done. Thank you for these people that are here, and I hope, dear Father,
that we, you know, always take your last words serious, Father, to go teach nations and baptize
them. You know, not just that, dear God, to disciple them as well, but that's another sermon
for another day. You know, but just for here right now, dear Father, just help everybody here to just
become better soul winners and to do our best, dear Father, to, you know, make a stronger effort
to fulfill the Great Commission. And Lord, I hope this helps them to do it as well. We ask you to do
all this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.