What Are You Waiting For?
1/17/2024
Written By: Christina Gregory
“Have you been baptized?” my dad asked.
“Yeah, at summer camp.” I replied.
“Oh I don’t remember that.” he says.
Fast forward probably 15 years later. April 29, 2018. A Sunday morning at Victory! Josh gave a sermon called “Greater Than My Past” and he had played the sound of gnashing teeth in reference to Luke 13:28.
That horrible sound was the anthem of my childhood vacations spent sharing a bed with my little sister who would grind her teeth in her sleep. The thought alone still gives me chills. I sent my mom a text during service and told her I was in the market for a new church after this grave offense.
Less than 30 minutes later, after decades in the Church, I was baptized.
“I thought you had already been baptized?” my dad asked that afternoon.
“I lied.”
Yes, I lied about being baptized, ok. There’s enough grace to cover this!
“You just said you were switching churches!” my mom said.
I’m a liar, and I’m dramatic.
The reasons I lied are simple.
If you know me, you know I love attention! But more than attention, I love control! I need control of the attention! You can’t have control under water! And I hate public speaking more than I love attention and control! So basically baptism just did not align with my comfort zone.
Before you tell me that you only have to say like 4 words during baptism, that’s not true at every church! At our old church you gave your testimony while standing knee deep in the very water they were about to dunk you in! Let the amount of exclamation points I’ve used in this paragraph speak for how serious I am about how uncomfortable this still makes me feel!
These vain reasons aside, I also just didn’t think I was holy enough for baptism. I couldn’t recite many scriptures, and I rarely tithed. I didn’t volunteer, and I wasn’t in groups. We had just moved to Franklin and had started attending Victory mere months before, at most. If you were grading me on the 4 G’s (gathering, groups, gifts, generosity) I would have had an F.
I also just wasn’t sure baptism was really necessary. Sometimes it felt more like a notch on the belt of the pastors doing the dunking.
So what changed my heart and mind that day?
The same thing that had changed most of my actions leading up to that point in the recent months. The same thing that changed my marriage and the way I parented. The thing that changed my attitude and my goals.
I wanted to be Christlike. And Christ was baptized.
Not only did God change my heart, mind and salvation status that day…He changed my mission.
“Have you been baptized?” has crossed the threshold of my lips so many times in the last five years, you’d think I’m selling something! And I guess I am. The keys to the Kingdom.
There’s lots of things that happen behind the scenes at Victory, and one of those things are baptisms. Does the idea of standing in a tub of water in front of a few hundred people make your palms sweat? Me too. Guess what! Not necessary!
Maybe you’re more of an elopement or micro-baptism kind of person. There is no minimum attendance required. You don’t even need to do it in a church. My best friend got baptized in a bathtub!
What are you waiting for?
Josh talked about everyone’s favorite sinner turned saint, Paul, during his teaching the day of my baptism. Paul’s daytime job was persecuting Jesus and His followers. Moments after Jesus stiff armed Paul into believing in Him by stripping him of his sight, He sent him to Ananias to be healed and be given further direction. Ananias told Paul in Acts 22:16
“And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on His name.”
Paul was sent to immediately cleanse himself of his sins…of his disbelief, the slander, the bloodshed he was responsible for in his anti-Jesus movement. Immediately. He wasn’t holy. He was hell-bent. But he didn’t wait.
What are you waiting for?
I could list so many scriptures of our call to baptism, and Josh did in his sermon that day. But the scripture that we base our mission on here at Victory summarizes it best.
“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20
It doesn’t get any clearer than that. And come to find out, there is no reward system for our pastors. No SPIFF program, for all you salesmen. Just righteousness for righteousness sake. And obedience. And excitement for our growing Kingdom!
I want to close this out the same way Josh closed out his sermon that day…a call to baptism and a simple question…What are you waiting for?