Your Story Points to Jesus | Mission 2025

Pastor Cameron looks at how our testimonies become a way to glorify God's work in our lives, never to elevate ourselves but to point others to Jesus. Drawing on Paul's reminder that we were once dead in sin and made alive by grace, this is an encouraging word on how God uses ordinary stories to display His mercy.

Ephesians 2:1-10 | additional: 1 Corinthians 1:26-2:5, 1 Timothy 1:13-16

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Creators and Guests

Host

Cameron Lienhart

Cameron is the Senior Pastor of Conduit Ministries

What is Conduit Ministries?

We are all about helping people get closer to Jesus.
Sundays @ 9 AM & 11 AM - 120 Delaware Ave in Jamestown, NY

Good morning, Conduit. How are you this morning? My name is Cameron. I'm one of the pastors here today. I'm one of the pastors here every day. Yeah, it's the way it just came out weird. I don't know. I felt insecure about it immediately. My name is Cameron. I am one of the pastors here today and every day, and I am blessed by that calling and responsibility. Let's pray. Let's pray, and we're going to jump right into our word for this morning.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the way in which you continually demonstrate your faithfulness and goodness to us.

We thank you, Lord, for the gift of your son, Jesus. We thank you that it is his name and his name alone, given to men by which we must be saved.

Lord, as a church and as a believing community, we express our trust and our faith in Jesus Christ above all else, before all else, and in all things.

Lord, we thank you for an opportunity to witness this morning the sacrament of baptism and the way in which you have called men, women, and children to faith in Jesus, who are now making that public profession of that inward decision. We thank you, Lord, that we as a church

Are able to commission that and be a part of that. Lord, I pray that you would help us this morning to remember our own baptisms, the moments where we have said yes to Jesus, and our old self, the self of sin, has been put to death in the water of baptism. We have risen to new life coming out of the water in Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen. We're going to talk a little bit about baptism this morning.

We believe that we believe that baptism is a core practice of the church that comes as a direct commission from the Lord Jesus to the disciples and is revealed to us in scripture. It's important to know why and what we believe about baptism in general, but also in moments like today where as a church we're going to be surrounding the baptismal waters and watching and experiencing those who are expressing their faith in Jesus in a public way. Why do we do that? What is the purpose of baptism? Why is it a core Christian principle? And is it a core Christian principle? We want to go on record to say that at least here at Conduit we believe that baptism is a core practice of the church. And we believe it's a core practice of the church because Jesus commanded his disciples to go out into all nations to make other disciples and to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that he has commanded them to do. We get that from Matthew chapter 28 verses 16 through 20 or 18 through 20

Where Jesus in the last moments of his time on earth, thank you Dario so much,

His last moments on earth with his disciples, he says this to them, he says, "Then Jesus came to them and said all authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age." Now when it comes to baptism or any general theological principle, as a matter of like, as a matter of interacting with theology and biblical belief, there is a way in which like we try to approach theological principles. As a general theological principle, we should hold really tightly and really firmly to beliefs that are clearly and explicitly found in Scripture, like Jesus commands to go make disciples and to baptize them. Clearly in Scripture, really without argument, we should hold tightly to those things and we should hold loosely to the things or to the beliefs that are gained maybe more by like a comprehensive review or inference or a little bit of nuance or are simply just a matter

Of individual church tradition. It's not wrong to believe in those things. It's not wrong to feel very passionate about them. It's not wrong to have them be a significant part of your spiritual life but we should understand how tightly we hold on to some things and how loosely but gently we hold on to other things. Here's an example for you. Very few would argue that communion is a optional practice for a Christian. Very few would say, "Oh, you know, you're like, "Yeah, as a Christian person, I don't believe that participating in communion is important at all." Very few people would hold that type of opinion. But listen, that there is disagreement and therefore kind of reasonable Christian freedom around the way that communion is often celebrated.

If you've ever done like the church tour, a Baptist church, a Methodist church, a Presbyterian church, a Lutheran church, an Anglican church, or an Episcopal church, a Catholic church, an Orthodox church, a non-denominational church, a Nazarene church,

A Wesleyan church, a Quaker church, thank you. All generally have their own kind of individual ways in which they practice communion or they celebrate it. Some are one loaf and one cup or some have lots of little tiny loaves and lots of little tiny cups. And some use bread as a loaf and some use kind of feels like a styrofoam wafer,

Right? And then there's not just the practice, but there's also the belief, beliefs around it. Who is invited to participate in communion? Can children take it? Can guests to your church take it? Non-members take it? How often should you take it? Is communion to be celebrated every single time that the community gets together? Is it on the first Sunday of the month like most Protestant Christian churches do now? Is it every single week like the Catholic church does? How central is it to the gathering of the people? In most Protestant churches, the sermon is the central thing to the church service. In Catholic churches, the Eucharist is the central communion. The Eucharist is central to their worship. Is the bread and the cup, is it symbolic? Is it memorial? Is it the actual presence of Christ? Or is it something else all together? As you can see, there is a lot of possibility and a lot of nuance that can be wrapped up in one's belief about what it is when you take communion. And faithful, believing, biblical Christians can have varying beliefs about a certain thing

That the scripture is not perfectly clear on and still have communion, no pun intended, with one another as you hold your personal preferences and beliefs loosely when there is not absolute clarity in God's word. Now when there is absolute clarity in God's word, we stand firm and we hold tightly. Where there is not, we hold loosely and treat other with gentleness and respect. Where there is scriptural ambiguity, we use the measure of love when in relationship with others, recognizing that Christians of various traditions can all be committed to biblical positions and come out choosing different stances on non-critical issues. Now if we were to apply that thinking, that methodology to baptism, here are some things that I think we could faithfully and obediently say about baptism in particular. Number one, baptism is a clearly commanded practice by Jesus, the apostle Paul, and the early church. We see Jesus talking about baptism and like the institution of baptism. We see the apostle Paul talk about baptism. We're going to look at that in a few moments in Romans chapter six. And we see the evidence of the local church or the early church utilizing baptism as a way in which to declare a public profession of faith in

Jesus. We see it very clearly. And then there comes to be like a kind of a, as far as scripture is concerned, there's kind of like a normative process upon which someone is baptized. The first thing that typically happens is the good news of Jesus, the gospel of Jesus, is proclaimed to a person or persons. Peter gets up and preaches a sermon in Acts chapter three and calls people. He proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then he calls people to repent and be baptized for their sins.

This is a kind of a normative experience. And so once the message, the good news of Jesus is proclaimed to a person, individual person would be like the Ethiopian eunuch in the book of Acts. Big persons, big groups of people would be like Paul's, I'm sorry, Peter's sermon in the beginning of Acts. Once the person or persons have recognized and repented of their sin and professed their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord is the second step. Once that has happened, once there has been the proclamation of the good news. And then there has been the repentance of sins in the profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord baptism always followed the profession of faith in Jesus Christ.

Meaning that what we see in the New Testament is that people responded to faith in Jesus Christ right after the gospel was preached. And then baptism soon followed that profession of faith. There is a normative way in which we see baptism happening in the New Testament. The proclamation of faith, the confession of sin, the confession and repentance, the receiving of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And then baptism unto repentance is what the scripture says. Now, if that's the normative, if that's the normative pathway or process, then there are other things to still know about baptism. Baptism both was and remains an outward and visible sign of an inward decision to recognize Jesus as Lord of my life, to repent of my sin and to be sealed, spiritually sealed for eternity by the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life. This is what we would normally refer to in kind of like Christian parlance as what it means to be saved. It's what we what we call being saved.

Now, that brings up a really important point about baptisms, baptisms relationship with salvation itself. And we want to be really clear about this, because this is one of those things that we don't really hold loosely. This is one of those things that we hold tightly to. And firmly,

Baptism is not necessary for salvation. Although the New Testament does not really have a category for an unbaptized follower or disciple of Jesus.

Now, you would say like, well, I mean, the thief on the cross, he wasn't baptized. Yes. And he was correct. And we believe that Jesus proclaimed that he would today be with him in paradise. But there is there is in some circles what we what what appears to be a requirement of baptism in order to be saved, in order to experience salvation. Now, baptism is the normative and prescribed response to the salvation of God that is applied to our lives. It is not the thing that saves us. It is the response that I give to the saving grace of God in my life. God has acted upon my life in Jesus Christ. Through his grace, I have come to receive faith in Jesus Christ. I have professed that faith. I have repented of my sins. I have put my full trust in Jesus. And because I have done that, now I will take the outward step of being baptized so that the whole world may know it is Jesus whom I follow. It is not the other way around. I have been baptized. Now, because of my baptism, I have been saved. That is not correct

Theology or belief. If we go back to our theological principle of clarity, things that we are clear on from Scripture, and then we hold tightly to, and things that are ambiguous in Scripture, and then we can kind of hold loosely, this is a good example. Scripture is clear that salvation comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, full stop, period at the end of the sentence, close the book, the end, right? We see this in John, Jesus declares this in John chapter 14, verse 6, that I am the way and the truth of the life, and no one comes to the Father except through baptism, or me, right? Me, right? We see this in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 through 9, right? For it is by grace you have been saved, by faith not of yourself, not by work so that no one can boast, right? It is in nothing and no one else other than in Jesus Christ our Lord, the grace given to us by God in Jesus Christ and our faith expressed in him that we are saved. And they were so moved by the proclamation of the gospel from Peter that they were looking around asking one another, what in the world do we do now? What is happening in us and what do we

Do now? And Peter's like, repent of your sins and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And those who accepted his message were baptized and about 3, 000 were added to their number that day. And so it was immediately following the acceptance of the proclamation of the gospel that these people were saved, or that they were baptized, I'm sorry. Philip, another disciple, baptized the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 9. He says after Philip preached or began kind of telling him all that had happened in Jerusalem and all that Jesus came to do, he began with that very passage of scripture and told him the good news about Jesus in Acts chapter 9 verse 35. And then it was after he had told him everything, the Ethiopian eunuch looked down and was like, well, why shouldn't I be baptized now then? And Philip's like, you should be, let's do it.

And so this gives us kind of a good format to understand that baptism can occur as soon after the act of profession of faith in Jesus Christ as possible. There are deeper understandings of baptism though, not more nuanced and not unclear, but just other understandings of baptism. And I want to share briefly kind of like one of our core scriptures that we use here at conduit to describe what we believe happens, or not what we believe, what the scripture describes as happening in the waters of baptism. That comes from Paul's letter to the Romans, Romans chapter 6 verses 1 through 11. Paul says this, "What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase by no means? We have died to sin, how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with Him like

This in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again. Death no longer has mastery over Him. The death He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." Here's something that Paul, this is essentially a summary of what Paul says here in the first 11 verses of Romans chapter 6, is that baptism is a tangible re-demonstration of the core tenets of the gospel.

Our sin is put to death on the cross with Jesus, so just as Jesus was resurrected from the grave, we may too live a new life.

The act of death and resurrection is modeled in a tangible way in the way a person is put down in the water into the grave and brought up out of the water as if they were being resurrected unto new life through faith in Christ. In verses 1 and 2 here in chapter 6, Paul says, "We died to sin. How can we live in it any longer?" He's asking here a rhetorical question to those who have expressed faith in Jesus already. We can't go on living this way. This is not who we are in Jesus. We have died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? We do not entertain as followers of Jesus the heartbeat of the old person that lives in us chained down by our sin. Listen, Jesus did not just come and inhabit your heart. Jesus came to give you a new one. He removed your heart of stone and gave you a heart of flesh, a heart that beats only for him. We have been saved from sin. How can we live in it any longer? We are not the same person with just some Jesus dressing. We are new

People created in Christ Jesus to do good works that he has appointed before time for us to do. We are made new completely. We have died to sin. We have been put in the grave and this is not an uncommon belief in scripture. Paul in Colossians chapter 3 verses 3 through 7 says, "For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears then you will also be with him in glory. Put to death therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry." Come on, Michael. "Because of these the wrath of God is coming." Listen, you used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived. You used to. You no longer do. The life of sin has been put to death or the life of sin in you has been put to death. You are a new creation in Christ. You have been raised to new life. The things of sin and death that have held you in the grave and in bondage are no longer on you. You have been set free from sin, both its power and its penalty. In Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 5, Paul says a very similar message. We're going to get this one,

Right? As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ. Even when we were dead in transgressions, it is by grace that you have been saved. You were once dead in your sins, but because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy has made us alive with Christ. See, many of us come to faith in Jesus Christ, but fail to put the old self to death and so still struggle in bondage with sin. The old man goes into the grave underneath the water and we are meant to come out of the grave, leaving the body of sin

To be dead and walking out victorious in new resurrected life. But listen, the old guy be comfortable for us a lot, right? So we're always back there in the grave trying to do like spiritual CPR to the things that were destroying our lives before Jesus. Waking that old man up and living with him again. But that man is supposed to be dead and left in the grave. Verse three in Romans chapter six, Paul says that we were baptized into his death. Our sin was put to death by his death, by Jesus' death. And so when we go into the water, when we lay someone down in the water, we are demonstrating a commitment to a life lived in the killing of sin.

My sinful self is put in the grave. I'm being laid down in the grave

Because as Christ went into the grave, we go into the water. Verse four, it says that we are buried with him through his baptism or we are buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, we too may live a new life. If we want to live a new life in unity with Jesus, there are things from our old life that must be put to death.

You cannot walk in the deadness of your life and sin and in the life of new Christ simultaneously. The life of sin must be put to death so that you can pick up the new life in Christ. You cannot simultaneously live in the grave and walk in eternity. The old self must be put to death.

Verse five, chapter six of Romans, if we are united in death, we will be united in resurrection. Just as Christ went into the grave, we go into the water. And just as Christ came out of the tomb alive, we come out of the water alive.

Baptism is a tangible re-demonstration of the core tenets of the gospel where through Jesus death, our sin is put to death so that through Jesus resurrection, our lives may come out of the grave, living a new life redeemed and changed by him.

The old self with him, the old self crucified with him so that the body of sin, Paul says, will be done away with, no longer being enslaved to it. And he finishes that section by saying, in the same way, count yourself dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

When we enter the water of baptism, we are entering the grave saying that I repent of my sins and the sinful person, the hardened heart,

The darkness of my soul is now being put to death through my faith in Jesus Christ. I am laying it in the grave, never to be resurrected once again. And I have come up out of the water, a new creation,

Living in the resurrected hope that I have in Jesus Christ. This is the proclamation of baptism. This is why it is so incredibly an important part of our Christian life and practice and why we do it in community here. I've had over the course of almost 21 years of ministry now, I've had handfuls of people say, "Pastor, really want to be baptized, but I'm kind of shy."

Listen, I'm not making fun. I understand. A little insecure. I would really just prefer, can you come over to my house afterwards? We got a pool, just baptize me, just like done, and then like make sure we're all good. And as much as I understand that and want to like minister to a person's needs in that moment, my answer has to be like, I'm so sorry. I fear you have misunderstood baptism. Baptism is indeed very, very personal. Okay. But it is not private. The very practice of baptism is meant to be communal and public for the person to declare this is the day. This has become the moment where I want everyone to know

That the old me is being put to death through faith in Jesus Christ so that the new me can be reborn through his power and spirit. And church, you are gathered around that person as witnesses of the gospel in that moment, but also as accountable members of one body.

So like, hey, yeah, like weren't you, you were baptized last year, right? Like, come over here. Like we got, we got some, we got some stuff to talk about. Like some fruit that I'm seeing in your life, right? Let me pray for you. Let me support you. Let me encourage you. Let me challenge you to live in the identity of Christ's work in your life. Because I see you living a whole lot in the identity of the man that you left in the water.

And like, got to remember that he was crucified with Christ. He no longer lives. It was only that Christ now lives in you.

And so even the act of baptism is a way in which we are reminded as the church of our participation in someone else's spiritual growth and life. But it is also a moment for you to remember the moment of your baptism. If you've been given CPR to that guy that you left in the grave too much.

And so this morning, when we go downstairs here in just a few moments, we're going to baptize those who are coming forward this morning. But then at the end, I'm going to ask you if you want to, if you need a moment of remembering your own baptism,

Of remembering your decision, of remembering your commitment, of remembering your public proclamation, not to get in the water. Listen, the Holy Spirit was there the first time and he did it right. Okay. There was no mistakes, but sometimes we need a little bit of a memory and just some water on my hand and then placing it on my head reminds me that I've been set free. I have been cleansed. I've been made new. I'm remembering the moment of my baptism now and I'm recommitting to the same profession that Jesus Christ is my Lord today as I did back then. So we will come to remember our own baptisms as well. Okay. What we're going to do now is we're going to, the worship team is going to come back up. We're going to sing a few more songs. Those of you who are being baptized today, you can be, excuse yourself now to go out and get changed and go downstairs. After the last song, Ellen will pray us out and dismiss us. Okay. So I will be downstairs getting changed as well. Ellen is going to, Ellen's going to dismiss us.

Then what I need you to do is I need you to go get your kids, all of you. If you don't, if you didn't come with kids, go find some, plenty of people could use some help.

Actually don't, I don't like don't cut the recording. That was, that was a test. That is like, violates every policy we have for safety in this church. All right. I'm a child. Let's see how to do that. Go get your own kids, bring them downstairs. We want them to, this is, we want them to witness this as well. They are a part of this family as well. And then and then we will, we will baptize people downstairs. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we pray, Lord, that you would align our hearts with yours this morning. We thank you, Lord, for the gift of your son, Jesus.

We thank you for his death. We thank you for his resurrection. Lord, we thank you for the water of baptism that calls us into both physical and spiritual unity with Christ through his Holy spirit. That our sins could be put to death and then we could rise to new life once again. That is our prayer. That is our song this morning. In Jesus' name, Amen.