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Water baptism symbolizes the believer’s total trust in and total reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ, as well as a commitment to live obediently to Him. It also expresses unity with all the saints (Ephesians 2:19), that is, with every person in every nation on earth who is a member of the Body of Christ (Galatians 3:27–28). Water baptism conveys this and more, but it is not what saves us. Instead, we are saved by grace through faith, apart from works (Ephesians 2:8–9). We are baptized because our Lord commanded it: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).
Several weeks ago the Lord dropped something in my heart to share this weekend that was supposed to prepare our hearts for Thanksgiving. I started working on what I believed to be a spirit inspired sermon called The Discipline of Celebration. I had no idea the events that have unfolded over the last few days would happen. The Paris attacks where scores lost their lives… and the heightened terrorism risk here and around the rest of the world were not on my radar when I began thinking about this weekend’s sermon.
As these events unfolded, I seriously questioned the topic. The mood seems somber not celebratory. I prayerfully asked, “Shouldn’t I be preaching something else this weekend?” But I kept feeling impressed to move forward with this conversation about celebration. The more I prayed, studied and researched the scripture the more I understood wanted God wanted us talking about this today…even with all these things going on. We are not having this conversation in spite of the recent devastation in our world but because of the heartache in our world.
