Dear Family at Christ Community,

     This Sunday we will have the opportunity to celebrate God’s goodness as Elowyn Audrey O’Sullivan receives the sign and seal of baptism. Baptism will not automatically save Elowyn. Psalm 95 will remind us that even those who witness and receive the signs of God’s covenant can harden their hearts (95:8-11). Yet this does not mean that her baptism and status as a covenant child make little difference in her life. Psalm 95 also depicts the glorious gift of actively participating in the life of God’s covenant people—a gift that Elowyn will get to participate in from her earliest days! 

     This gift includes the regular invitation to come and sing to the Lord (95:1), to come into His presence with thanksgiving (95:2), and to bow down before our Maker (95:6). It also includes regular teaching on the person and work of our God: He is the rock of our salvation (95:1), He is the great God and King (95:3), He made and sustains all things (95:4-5), and He is our God and Shepherd (95:7). Elowyn’s baptism will serve as an ever-present sign and seal of the redemptive realities we get to gratefully celebrate in worship. Our prayer for Elowyn—and for all our covenant children at CCC—is that the Holy Spirit would make baptism and the regular use of the means of grace effectual for salvation!

     How fitting that we will close our service singing “Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder.” Together we will sing about Christ’s finished work: “He has washed us with His blood.” This is the glorious reality Elowyn’s baptism will summon her to receive by faith, and it is the glorious reality that God invites us to celebrate in song this Sunday. May He be honored by our worship and may He be pleased to use our participation in worship to build up the next generation for His glory, their eternal good, and the life of the world!

Yours in Joyful Union with Christ,
Matt O’Sullivan