Baptism of the Lord

Scripture

Isaiah 43:1–7 NIV

But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead. Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you, nations in exchange for your life. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth— everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

Sermon: You Are Mine

You and I want good things. We want to wake up on the right side of the bed, to have a good hair day, our kids to listen to us, our spouse to appreciate us, our coffee to be just right, the job to be stress free, the bills to be paid, the house to be clean, our health to be good, the clothes to be stylish, the car to be new, and life to be easy. That’s what we want.

But often that’s not what we get. We wake up on the wrong side of the bed, our hair won’t do anything the way we want, our kids talk back, our spouse argues, our coffee is full of grounds, the job is full of stressors, the bills are more than we can afford, the house is a disaster, and we have this constant ache that won’t go away. Our clothes looked good when they were in style years ago, we have to pray everyday the car will start, and if we are honest, life is just really, really, really hard.

Okay, so I might be exaggerating a little. Our lives aren’t always awful all the time, instead, there is a blend of good and bad. Someone has said that life is like a set of train tracks. One track is good and the other track is bad. And sometimes life just seems to lean harder on one track than the other. Now this is true for Christians and non-Christians alike.

Even though at times, it seems pastors, evangelists and others will tell people that if they follow Christ, life will be free from problems, that simply isn’t true. The nation of Israel expresses that very clearly and frequently. Consider the move the Israelites made from Egypt to the Promised Land. From their perspective, there were always problems. There were always obstacles in their path. There were always needs that had to be met. In their mind there was almost always trouble of some sort.

And it’s certainly this event that Isaiah is reminding the Israelites of in the passage we heard read today. At least part of it is included in the words Isaiah speaks to the nation of Israel and there are two promises we find here.

The promise is stated in the very first verse and it’s also the title of our message. Here is the promise, “you are mine”. That’s what God says to each and every one of His children. “I have redeemed you. You are mine.” What an incredible word for us to hear today. In the midst of all that goes on around us, in the midst of life’s ups and downs, we can affirm that we are His because He says so. I don’t have to guess at it. I don’t have to hope it’s true. I don’t have to wonder if He thinks so. He tells me right here in black and white. You are mine.

And the second promise follows right along with the first. If we belong to God, than even when we go through the valleys and the hard times and the struggles and the difficulties and the fires and the floods and the shortages and the needs, He is there beside us. We are not alone.