Delighted In

This powerful exploration of Jesus's baptism in Matthew 3:13-17 invites us to reconsider the very foundation of our worth before God. Before Jesus performed a single miracle, healed anyone, or preached his first sermon, heaven opened and declared divine delight in him. This message challenges our performance-based understanding of God's love and reminds us that we are beloved not because of what we accomplish, but simply because of who we are as God's children. The sermon draws a beautiful connection between Isaiah's prophecy about the gentle servant and the dove-like descent of the Spirit, emphasizing God's tender approach to our fragility. We're called to embrace a radical truth: God's delight in us isn't something we earn or can lose. This understanding offers us soul-deep rest in a world obsessed with productivity and measurement. When we truly internalize that we are God's delight, we stop the exhausting work of proving our worth and begin living from overflow rather than obligation. The invitation here isn't to do more, but to receive more deeply, to bask in the unchangeable reality that God has pitched a tent in our neighborhood and calls us beloved.