The Righteous will live by his faith (Habakkuk 1:1-3; 2:1-4)

November 4, 2012

Dear friends in Christ.

If there is one question that all of humanity has in common, that question may well be, “How am I going to live?”  For, if we listen closely, we hear people constantly asking this very question: “How am I going to live if I lose my job?”  “How am I going to live if I don’t get the job I’m after?” “How am I going to live without that special ‘someone’ in my life?”  “How am I going to live until retirement with all these bills?”  “How am I going to be able to live in retirement if I can’t afford to save?”  “How am I going to live in retirement when I’m on a fixed income and nothing else stays fixed?”  For many people, this is an all consuming question.  It is one that keeps them up late in to the night.  For others it is a question that they seldom worry about.  But for the Prophet Habakkuk, it was a question that he may not even have realized that he was asking.  Yet, it was a question that the Lord answered when he told him, “The Righteous will live by his faith.” 

Now, when we meet Habakkuk in our lesson this morning, he has a serious problem.  He is frustrated and upset by all the wickedness and evil that he saw around him day after day. He couldn’t understand why he saw violence, destruction and corruption everywhere he looked.  He couldn’t understand why the Lord seemed to allow the wicked to prosper while the righteous were struggling to get by.  But on top of that, he was tired.  He was tired of living in a nation that had kings who continued to do evil in the eyes of the Lord by actively worshiping false gods and goddesses rather than worshiping the true God, and in his frustration he cries out to the Lord. “How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? 3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds." (Habakkuk 1:2–3, NIV84)

Though it may have seemed to Habakkuk that the Lord was no longer listening, the Lord heard Habakkuk’s complaint.  But when the Lord answered and revealed his plans for Israel to Habakkuk, Habakkuk was quite surprised; for the Lord’s answer was to prophesy that he was going to do away with the wickedness in Israel by sending the Babylonians.  He was going to send the Babylonians, a people who were known for their ruthlessness, a people who were know for their wickedness, a people who were known for their destruction.  The Lord was going to send the Babylonians in to conquer Jerusalem, destroy it, and take the people off into captivity.  This didn’t make any sense to Habakkuk, because he didn’t understand how the Lord could do away with the wickedness and evil in Israel by sending a nation that was even more wicked and evil to conquer them, destroy them, and lead them off into captivity.

Yet in the midst of Habakkuk’s confusion, the Lord takes an opportunity to teach Habakkuk a very important lesson as he says, “‘Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. 3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. 4 “See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright— but the righteous will live by his faith—" (Habakkuk 2:2–4, NIV84)

When Habakkuk heard this prophecy, he knew that it would come true, because the Lord had declared it. Most naturally, Habakkuk would have been afraid because the Babylonians were the most feared nation on the earth.  He knew that they would destroy the city of Jerusalem just as they had destroyed every other city.  But the lesson that Habakkuk learned through this prophecy gave him strength and comfort; for he had learned that no matter what happened, the righteous would live by his faith.  Though the times were evil and they would soon be getting much worse, Habakkuk had learned the lesson that the righteous will live by his faith, and now that Habakkuk had learned this beautiful lesson, his mission was to spread the news to the rest of the Israelites.  It was his job to let them know that they did not need to fear the coming destruction because God himself had promised that the righteous will live by his faith.

Well, that lesson, which the Lord taught Habakkuk so many years ago, is the same lesson that he is teaching us today, and what a beautiful lesson it is for us to learn in these last days.  Even though we might be separated from Habakkuk’s time by nearly 3,000 years, the times in which we live in are not much different than Habakkuk’s day.  No matter where we look, we see the results of sin on every side.  We see violence and destruction and corruption wherever we look.  Like Habakkuk, we are living in a nation that is falling farther and farther away from the true God each and every day.  We are living in a land where many of our leaders have openly lived immoral lives and yet received overwhelming support from their continuants.  We are living in a land that has been actively pushing God out of the picture every chance it gets. 

We are living in a world where Evolution is taught as a fact.  We are living in a world where absolute truth is no longer valued as more and more people seek to find their own truth in this world.  We are living in a world where more and more people are claiming to be Christian, yet fewer and fewer of those claiming to be Christian see any value in growing in their faith or even revealing their faith through their lives.  We are living in a world where we are continually seeing an increase in the number, scope, and ferocity of violent crimes.  We are living in a world whose lust for blood is on the rise, as movies add bloodier, gorier, and more horrific scenes than ever before.  We are living in a time when violence is a way of life, because it is all around us!  Even here in Le Sueur, there are certain times when we would do better to stay off the roads because of the violent ways in which people drive!  Add to that the fact that we are only days away from election day and candidates and their supporters are fighting tooth and nail to discredit their competitors and gain as many last minute votes as possible.

Just like Habakkuk, we are living in troubled times that often caused us to cry out with Habakkuk, “How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? 3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds." (Habakkuk 1:2–3, NIV84)

Just like Habakkuk, there are many Christians, even faithful Christians who have been tempted to give up, throw in the towel, and simply live like the unbelievers.  Just like Habakkuk, each and every one of us has found ourselves at the end of our rope, angry with God and crying out to him, asking him why he allows the wicked to get away with so much while we who believe in him have to suffer and endure so much.  Each and every one of us has been to that point that we were ready to simply throw our hands up to God and say, “I give up!”  Yet it is in those very moments when the Holy Spirit whispers to us those beautiful words of comfort: “Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. 4 “See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright— but the righteous will live by his faith—" (Habakkuk 2:3–4, NIV84)

Though at first glance these words might not seem all that comforting, when we take even just a slightly closer look at them, we realize that with these words, the Lord is reminding us of all that he has done.  Though we are not waiting for the judgment of the Babylonians against the sinful nation of Israel, we are waiting for the judgment of the Lord Christ against the sinful-unbelieving peoples of this world.  For on that day, our Lord Jesus will separate the believers from the unbelievers as easily as a shepherd separates sheep from goats.  On that day, we who have believed in Jesus Christ as our Savior, will be recognized as his people made sinless through faith in the one who gave his life to free us from our sins and evil.  On that day, we will hear our Savior welcome us to the kingdom he has prepared for us—not because we had earned it in any way, but because he loved us and freed us from our sins by his own blood.  On that day, the Lord our God will declare that we are his holy and righteous people through faith in Jesus Christ, and will lead us to his heavenly home were we will live with him forever because of the faith instilled in our hearts by his Son.

Though it may linger, wait for it, because through faith you have been declared righteous.  Through faith, you will live.  Though it may be a long time in coming, know that the Last Judgment will come.  Though it may not appear during our lifetime, we can take comfort that we, who are righteous by faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, we will live at our Savior’s side for all eternity.  Though we have all had days like Habakkuk, we can take comfort in the life of righteousness that is ours through faith.  Though it still may seem that the Lord is doing nothing to hinder the evil of this world, we know that he is prolonging this world so that even those who are evil might have ample time to turn from their evil ways and live.  Thus we can take comfort in the Lord’s promises and our knowledge that once made, they will be kept!

What a comfort!  What a comfort, indeed, to learn the lesson which the Lord is teaching to us as he taught to Habakkuk nearly 3,000 years ago.  What a comfort it is to know that the Righteous will live by his faith!  For it is faith in Jesus Christ our Savior through which we live as his children here on earth, and will live as his children forever in heaven. Though there may still be some in this world who think of this kind of living as difficult as living on a fixed income, we know that it is the richest living in all the world.  Though here on earth we may seem to be the poorest of the lot, as we look forward to the day of our retirement, we take comfort in the wealth of the riches of our Savior’s home of glory, in which we will live forever through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace EvangelicalLutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN

Produce fruits of faith for the Lord (Isaiah 5:1-7)

October 14, 2012

Dear friends in Christ.

A couple of weeks ago, as I was driving up to the cities, I saw a sign for Minnesota Harvesters, and my mind was immediately filled with memories.  It was when I was in grade school, 7th or 8th grade that our class took a trip up to Minnesota Harvesters.  We had the opportunity to ride horses and walk through the apple orchard.  I still remember it because when we took that trip we were in one of the last years of the drought of the 1980’s.  It hadn’t rained much if at all that summer, yet, when we arrived I was amazed to see rows and rows of trees with branches bowing low due to the weight of their fruit. It seemed that no matter which direction I would look, all I could see was tree after tree producing an excellent crop of ripe red apples.  All I could see was trees doing exactly what they were grown to do—producing fruit for the orchards owners.

Well, in many ways, this orchard is a picture of the very thing that the Lord wants to find when he looks at the lives of his faithful children here on earth!  For when the Lord looks at our lives he hopes to see tree after tree, or to use the illustration from our lesson today, vine after vine producing fruits of faith our of love for the Lord our God.  In fact, as we study the lesson before us this is the very thing that the Lord our God will be calling on us to do!  As we hear the Lord speaking to us through the prophet Isaiah, we will hear him calling on us to produce fruits of faith for the Lord!  He will be calling on each and every one of us to produce fruits.  Let’s take a look at what the Lord tells us in our lesson today: “I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. 2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. 3 “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? 5 Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. 6 I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.” 7 The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress." (Isaiah 5:1–7, NIV84)

Fruits of faith are the very thing that the Lord wanted his people to produce.  He wanted to see their faith showing itself in love and action as they lived in the vineyard that the Lord himself had prepared for them.  The problem, however, was that Israel was not producing the fruits of faith for which the Lord was looking!  Though the Lord himself had prepared Israel as his vineyard and planted them as the garden of his delight, they did not produce the fruit that the Lord expected.  But when we think of Israel’s history, this truth becomes extremely sad, because it was the Lord who gave his people every possible advantage.  As we just reviewed in Bible Study, it was the Lord who freed the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt, leading them safely through The Red Sea to Mt. Sinai in Arabia.  It was the Lord who blessed them, even as he led them through the wilderness for forty years, so that their clothes and their shoes did not wear out, nor did their feet even swell during that time.  It was the Lord who fought for his people sending the hornet ahead of them and driving out the inhabitants of the land for them.  It was the Lord who gave them cities that they had not built and fields that they had not planted.  It was the Lord who built up the watchtower of the priesthood and the temple worship which was designed to draw the people ever closer to himself.  He even surrounded them with the hedge of the Law to keep them safe from the ungodly ways of the nations around them.

However, even though the Lord did all this and more for his people, they did not produce the fruits of faith for which he was looking, because in so many cases they were led away from the Lord by the allure of false gods.  For in the same way that the jewelry counter will stop most women, and even some men in their tracks, drawing them in for a closer look the charm of false gods drew the Israelites in.  In the same way that most women will lose their husbands to the mesmerizing glow of the TV during football season, so also the Lord lost so many of the Israelites to their fascination with idols.  Though they had been planted like grapevines in the rich dark earth of God’s Word and regularly received the abundant waters of God’s grace, the Israelites willfully sent their roots out into the gumbo of idolatry and the dry streams of false religion.  Because of this, even though Israel continued to live in the Lord’s vineyard, they were no longer producing fruits of faith for the Lord.  Rather, as Isaiah tells us, “they yielded only bad fruit.” (Isaiah 5:2, NIV84).

While it is true that Isaiah delivered this message to the Israelites nearly three thousand years ago, these words still apply to us today.  Though this section of Scripture clearly speaks of Israel as the Lord’s vineyard, we know that through faith in Jesus, we are living in the Lord’s vineyards even today.  We know that the Lord is looking to us to produce fruits of faith for him.  We know that he is regularly checking our branches to see what kinds of fruit we are producing. But the question is, “What kind of fruit are we producing?”  From this vantage point it’s hard to say, because only the Lord truly knows what kinds of fruit we are producing.

However, there is something we can say: we have been given just as many advantages as the Israelites.  For we are living in a land where we have the freedom to worship the Lord in whatever way we see fit.  We are living in a land where we have the freedom to speak to anyone and everyone about our Savior whenever we want to.  We are living in a time when God’s Word has been recorded for us in the pages of Scripture.  On top of that, we are living in an area where most of us could walk to church if we so desired, but even if you don’t live that close to church, there are very few of us who have to drive more than ten miles to get here.  Yet, the question is, are we taking advantage of those benefits?  Or are we becoming lax in our own spiritual lives and following the Israelites pattern of producing less and less fruit for the Lord?  Are we making sure that our roots are growing in the rich soil of God’s Word?  Or, are we beginning to send them over into the gumbo of idolatry and the dry deserts of false religion.  It kind of makes me wonder what the Lord would say if he spoke to us right now.  Would he praise us and encourage us?  Or would he say to us, “Now you dwellers in Le Sueur and people of this tri-county area, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?” (See Isaiah 5:3-4). 

What would the Lord say to us today?  Would he encourage us in our fruit producing?  Or would he say that we were beginning to follow the road the Israelites followed.  Sadly, for the Israelites, as they traveled the road of their lives they were producing fewer and fewer fruits for the Lord until the Lord had it in mind, finally, to destroy his vineyard.  Which is exactly what the Lord reveals when he says, “Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. 6 I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.”" (Isaiah 5:5–6, NIV84) 

Because the Israelites had turned away from their God and went off to follow idols, the Lord planned to destroy his vineyard, and that’s exactly what he did less than 150 years later.  He sent the Babylonians who came and destroyed Jerusalem and Judea.  They came and killed anyone who resisted.  They came and led whoever was left off into captivity.  This was the punishment the Lord had decided for Israel because they were no longer producing fruits of faith for him.  This was the punishment that they received because they continued to walk down the road of destruction even after countless warnings from the Lord.  But the scariest part about this is that this could well be the punishment, which the Lord has in store for us for the exact same reason.

For the truth is, even though you and I are part of the Lord’s vineyard, the majority of our country is not.  Though we are part of the Lord’s kingdom through faith, the majority of our world is producing nothing but bloodshed and cries of distress.  And if we should fail in our production of fruits for the Lord, the only thing left would be our own destruction.  But even though our nation and the rest of the world have begun traveling this path, you and I are still able to turn from the road of destruction.  We are able to turn from that road by turning to the Lord in repentance.  We can turn to the Lord knowing that the blood of our Savior has covered those times when we have neglected his Word.  We can turn to the Lord knowing that our Savior’s blood covers those times when we have failed to worship him.  In fact, we can turn to the Lord knowing that every sin we’ve ever committed has been removed by Jesus’ blood.  There is no sin too large and no sin to small, for Jesus blood covers all.

This is the message that shows our God’s great love for us, and this is the message that moves us to respond with our love.  For when we are reminded of how Jesus’ love for us led him to the cross to pay for our sins, our hearts are moved to give him thanks.  When we are reminded of how Jesus died for us even while we were still his enemies, we are moved to serve him with our lives.  In fact, this is the message that moves us to call our roots back from the gumbo and dry streams and drive them deep into the black earth of God’s Word.  This is the message that moves us to dust off at least one of our Bibles and begin reading again on a regular basis.  This is the message, which moves us to make time to read those short Meditation devotions after mealtime or at bedtime.  This is the message, the message of Christ’s love for us that moves us to meet together at the Lord’s house each week.  For here, in the Lord’s house, we have the opportunity to hear the Lord speaking to us in the liturgy, in the lessons, and even in the sermon; and here in the Lord’s house, we have the opportunity to speak to him through our prayers and our hymns.  These are fruits of faith, which are pleasing to the Lord.  These are the fruits of faith produced out of love for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

What a blessing to know that it is the Lord who moves us and enables us to produce fruits of faith for him.  Let us live in our love for him so that our lives may ever produce fruit for him.  May the Lord bless our lives so that our lives are filled with fruit in the same way those trees at Minnesota Harvesters were filled. That our lives may be lives of joy and serves to the Lord, ever producing fruit for him.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN

Fix Your Thoughts on Jesus! (Hebrews 3:1-6)

January 29, 2012

Dear friends in Christ.

How many times hasn’t it happened to you that as soon as you have arranged the covers just right and you are ready to drift off to sleep, you think of something that you absolutely have to remember to do first thing in the morning?  You think of something that the rest of your day simply hinges on to the point that if you forget this one thing, nothing is going to go right.  So what do you do?  Do you get up and write it down?  Do you worry about it and toss and turn all night?  Or do you do what most people do and repeat that thought over and over in your mind so that it is fixed there as the last thought you have as you fall asleep and the first thought you have when you wake up in the morning?  Well in our text today, the writer to the Hebrews is calling on us to do the very same thing.  Now that doesn’t mean we have to go to bed thinking only about our Savior so that he is our last thought and our first thought every day, although that is a very good idea.  But it does mean that the writer wants us to fix our thoughts on Jesus, so that no matter what temptation or hardship we face, he is always first and foremost in our minds.

This, in fact, is the very thing that the writer to the Hebrews was calling on the Jewish Christians to do in text today.  In fact, I invite you to open your Bibles with me to Hebrews 3:1-6 and see how the Author is urging us to fix our thoughts on Jesus.  Now, when the writer to the Hebrews wrote these words in Chapter 3, Jewish Christians were undergoing a great deal of persecution.  They were being mocked and ridiculed.  They were dealing with raiding parties who came into their homes to haul some of them away to prison, or simply to wreck up the place.  They were being black listed to the point that if you were a Christian, no one was allowed to hire you and you would have no real way to provide for your family.  Because of all of this, there were many who were beginning to wonder if they had made a big mistake by leaving their Jewish religion for the new Christian religion.  There were many who had simply begun to slide back into their old worship lives of sacrifice, offering, and patient waiting for the Messiah to come.  There were even many Jewish Christians who had reverted to their lives of Judaism who were now seeking to lead their fellow Jewish Christians out of Christianity and back into the religion of Moses.  It was because of this that the writer wrote as he did in our text.  Take a look at Chapter 3:1-6:  “Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future. But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.” (Hebrews 3:1-6)

With these words the writer to the Hebrews lays it all on the line as he tells them to fix their thoughts on Jesus their Savior.  He tells them that if they should revert to their former religion of Judaism, they will completely miss out on all that Christ has done for them.  If they should turn back to their Jewish system of offerings and worship, they would lose out on the salvation that Christ one for them, and the comfort of the forgiveness of sins.  If they should fail to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus and instead, turn them toward Moses, they might well avoid the hardship of persecution, but they would, in fact, be taking their eyes from the one to whom Moses pointed, and placing them on Moses himself.  This would not be a good thing for them, as the writers tells them, because even though the Lord gave Moses an important job as leader of the Israelites, Moses’ main job was to point people to Jesus, the prophet who was to come.  Moses’ job was to tell people about the Savior who was to come and encourage them to place their trust in him.  Now that Christ had come, going back to Moses and believing that a Savior was coming would be to no avail. 

In fact, as the writer tells the Hebrews to fix their thoughts on Jesus, he gives them three very clear reasons why Jesus is far superior to Moses. 

The first comes in verse 2:  “He [Jesus] was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house.”  Though Moses was indeed a faithful servant in God’s house, his job, as we said, was to point to Jesus.  Jesus’ job was to come and live a perfect, sinless life for all of God’s people, suffer and die an innocent death on behalf of his people, and rise again from the dead to assure us that his death had indeed paid the price God demanded for our sins. 

The second comes in verse 3 – 4: “Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.”  Though Moses was indeed part of the construction crew that has been at work on God’s house of believers, it was God who planned his house of believers, who sketched out the plans, who ordered the materials needed, and who hired his workers who do their work of proclaiming Jesus, the author and architect of God’s house.

The final reason comes in verse 5 – 6:  “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future. But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.”  This is the final and the greatest difference between Moses and Christ.  Moses, though he was a faithful servant in God’s house, was still a servant.  He was not the son, he was not the heir, he, was not even able to distribute inheritance to anyone because he was a servant.  Christ, on the other hand, is the Son and heir of God’s kingdom.  He is the one who adopted Moses and all believers into his family.  He is the one who has distributed the inheritance of eternal life through faith in himself to all who believe.  He is the one who has taken his believers and built them up as living stones in a house for his glory.

Just as the writer to the Hebrews gave these three reasons for the Hebrew Christians to fix their thoughts on Jesus, he gives them to you and me today.  For today, we seek to keep our thoughts fixed on Jesus because it is through faith in him that we have the forgiveness of sins and the assurance of eternal life.  Though we can learn a great deal from Moses, we do not look to Moses for salvation, but the one about whom he prophesied.  Though each week I stand before you and proclaim God’s Word to you, your faith does not rest in me or what I have done.  Rather, your faith rests in Jesus Christ your Savior. 

Yet how often don’t we fall into the same trap into which the Hebrew Christians fell?  How often don’t we allow ourselves to fix our thoughts on something that seems to be so much more important than our Savior?  How often doesn’t it happen that we avoid persecution by keeping quite when the subject of religion comes up?  How often doesn’t it happen that we ignore sin just so that we can keep peace within our congregation?  How often doesn’t it happen that we allow sleeping in on a Sunday morning or some other activity to come as of first importance rather than gathering together for Bible Study or worshiping the Lord?  How often doesn’t it happen that we sit and complain about anyone and everything and therefore cast sinful judgment upon each other, the church, and our pastor, and yet we avoid God pleasing judgment by not going to the person with whom we are frustrated or by telling ourselves that we have no right to judge a fellow Christians sins according to the Bible?  How often don’t we get all bent out of shape by the way in which the church spends its money and how far in debt she is, but at the same time we hold back our offerings because we are so over extended our selves, or worse yet, are so greedy that we simply cannot or will not give any more to the Lord?  How often hasn’t it happened that each and every one of us has focused our thoughts and our minds on anything but Jesus Christ our Savior?

If we are honest with ourselves, we have to say that it has happened far too often.  Yet even though we have allowed one thing or another to distract us from our Savior, it is our Savior who calling on us today to refocus on him our alone.  He is the one who is reminding us that there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved, other than his and his alone.  He is reminding us that he is the one who forgives our sins and remembers our offences any more.  He is the one who assures us of that forgiveness by building us as living stones into his house, the Church.

So then let us all keep our thoughts fix on Jesus Christ our Savior, for he is the foundation of our faith, and he is our salvation.  Let us change our thoughts so that Jesus is the last thing we think about every night and the first thing we think about when we wake up.  Let us do all that we can to give our Savior the first place in our thoughts so that we are focused on him throughout our day.  Let us keep our thoughts focused on Jesus Christ our Savior, for he is the one who has freed us from our sins and given us the gift and the blessing of life and salvation through faith in him.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN

Let the Religious Read Carefully (Luke 10:25-37)

August 14, 2011

Dear friends in Christ.

Freddie Fender was going to fix his car himself.  He was tired of paying the high repair bills.  But Freddie did not read the instructions carefully, and after he was done with the job, it cost him twice as much to get it fixed right after he had fixed it himself.  Hilda Homemaker was a do-it-yourselfer too.  She was going to make a cake from scratch.  But baking was not her forte and she did not read the recipe carefully, so she left out some of the most important ingredients.  Thus, her cake fell flat in the pan and what was supposed to be an angel food cake, looked more like white brownies instead.  Harvey Handyman picked up a set of plans from the lumber company.  He was going to build himself the bookcase that he had always wanted.  But Harvey only looked at the pictures, didn’t even bother reading the instructions, and started sawing.  Though Harvey did manage to build his bookshelf, when it was finished it looked more like a rocking chair with shelves, rather than a the bookcase he had always wanted.

Though I realize that Freddy, Hilda, and Harvey may seem a bit comical to us, especially since most of us have had similar experiences in our lives, today these three fictional characters are teaching us an important lesson about being Christians.  And that lesson is simple, as Christians, it is very important for each and every one of us to read carefully the instructions of God’s word, learn them, take them to heart, and follow them carefully, because if we should try to be a do-it-yourselfer when it comes to our Christian faith, not only will it lead to a spiritual mess; it could ultimately lead to the spiritual disaster of eternal damnation.  This is why Jesus is teaching us in our lesson today just how important it is for us to read carefully.

Now, if you haven’t already done so, I invite you to open your Bibles to our lesson in Luke 10:25-37.  As you are opening to Luke 10, let me tell you a little bit about the do-it-yourself expert that comes to Jesus in our lesson.  He was an expert in the law; a religious do-it-yourselfer.  He knew a lot about his Old Testament Bible and he though he knew the way to heaven.  In fact, he felt that he was building his way there by himself through his own efforts at keeping God’s Law in his life.  So, when he asked Jesus for directions of how to achieve eternal life, he really wasn’t asking to find out the answer, he was asking to test Jesus and show Jesus that he, the expert, was already such a great guy who was already building his way to heaven that he didn’t actually need Jesus help.  Take a look at what Luke tells us, “On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:25–29, NIV84)

Interestingly, there are still a lot of do-it-yourselfers who are just like this expert in the law.  They do not read carefully or understand what the Lord has to say in his Word, so what they wind up making is more like devil’s food than angel’s food.  They buy their Bible because it has God’s plan for salvation, but then they do not read it carefully or they only look at the pictures.  They go through a lot of religious motions, but when they are done, they have nothing that will stand before the Judgment of the Lord, and they end up paying a lot more than they would have had to.  Some religious do-it-yourselfers even stay away from church because they feel that their plan is already better than any plan that God can give them.  Though they may sometimes come to church to hear what God has to say, after they spend their hour in God’s house they go back home and keep on building according to their own plans anyway. 

Now, I know exactly what you are doing.  You are mentally going through our membership roster and thinking that so and so is exactly like this.  Or you are thinking how you wish that this person or that person was here to hear what Pastor is saying today.  Though I admit that it would be nice to have those specific people here to hear this message from the Lord as he calls us to read word carefully, understand it, believe it, and follow it, what is most important is that we who are hear carefully read and understand what Jesus is saying to us today.  For the application he gives us is simple.  He wants us to read his Word carefully.  He wants us to study his Word regularly.  He wants us to grow in our faith so that we understand that we are sinners who are saved by grace.  He wants us to understand that we are saved only by the Lord’s plan of salvation and not by any plan of salvation that we may have come up with on our own.  He wants us to read carefully so that we are always seeking to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul, and strength, and mind; so that we are always seeking to live our faith by loving our neighbor as ourselves.

This is what Jesus wanted for the do-it-yourselfer, expert in the Law, and in his love, Jesus was patient with him as he asked the expert to take a closer look at the law he knew so well and read it more carefully.  First Jesus asked the expert what he knew about the law and how he read it.  The expert gave a beautiful summary of the exact heart of God’s law and the purpose of the Christian life when he said in verse 27, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself.”  However, Jesus longed to help him read more carefully and understand more thoroughly.  So Jesus told this man the parable of the Good Samaritan, which Luke records for us beginning with verse 30: “Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:30–37, NIV84)

With this beautiful parable Jesus explained what a life of faith is all about.  It is not about obeying the law point by point to build a ladder to heaven.  It isn’t about seeking to follow a path to eternal life that comes from our own imagination.  Rather, it is about reading carefully the instructions of salvation that the Lord Jesus recorded for us in his word and allowing these words to grow in our hearts.  It is about reading carefully the instructions of salvation so that our faith in Jesus continues to grow and to permeate every part of our lives.  Then when God’s Word so permeates our lives we will naturally begin to put our faith into action as we live and serve the Lord by loving our neighbor.

Though this parable makes it clear that our neighbors are really anyone who is need of our help; anyone and everyone we come into contact with in our lives, it is very seldom that our neighbors are the ones who are beaten and lying beside the highway.  Yet it is interesting how so many religious do-it-yourselfers react to their neighbors like the Priest and the Levite did in Jesus’ parable.  Though they go out of their way to be kind and do good when someone is watching, so often, it seems, that behind closed doors, they neglect their own spouse when he or she is hurting.  They neglect the needs of their children and their family, crossing on the other side of the street, because they simply cannot be bothered to get involved with such domestic situations.  Though they are ready to champion all sorts of causes to send food, clothing, or medical supplies to the starving children of countries ravaged by famine, countries destroyed by hurricanes and earthquakes, even countries ravaged by incurable diseases, their own personal lives are filled with sins that keep them from seeing the needs of those around them or even helping those in need and serving them out of love for the Lord.

But what about us?  How often don’t we act in the exact same way as the religious do-it-yourselfers that I’ve been describing?  How often haven’t we walked on the other side of the living room rather than take time to interact with our spouse or our children when they have been hurting?  How often haven’t we ignored the obvious cries for help from our next door neighbor or our best friends when they obviously needed a sympathetic ear to listen or simply a shoulder to cry on?  How often haven’t we closed our eyes or pretended not to see someone who needed our help in one way or another?  Too often we have acted just like the Priest and the Levite in Jesus’ Parable, which is why he shares this parable with us.  For the purpose of the Parable of the Good Samaritan is not so that we are motivated to be nicer to each other, but it is instead to cause us to read more carefully and understand that we cannot possibly keep God’s Law on our own.  We cannot possibly keep all of God’s commands perfectly as he demands, because we are constantly stumbling and breaking them all.  Even if we should have a good day and keep most of them, as the Bible tells us, as soon as we break even one of God’s commands we are guilty of breaking them all.  Then, in that moment, all of our own do-it-yourself plans for salvation come crumbling down before us and we are left with no hope of salvation but one.

It is in that moment that the Lord our God lifts our heads up and asks us to read carefully the simple instructions of Salvation, “God so loved the World that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NIV84)  These are the simple instructions that our God laid out for our salvation.  Though we cannot possibly keep God’s law, Jesus did it for us.  Jesus loved us so much that he freed us from our sins by his death and resurrection from the dead.  Jesus loved us so much that even when we were his enemies he died to make us his friends.  Now, it is through that love of Jesus that faith grows in our hearts.  It is through that love of Jesus that we seek to live our lives out of love for the Lord.  It is because we have been saved by faith that we can now seek to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength and with all our mind.  It is because the love of Jesus our Savior now lives in our hearts that we seek to live our lives loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.  It is because of that love of Jesus that we now seek to read carefully God’s Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.  For you see, it is only when Jesus love for us permeates our hearts and our lives that we live like the Samaritan did, showing love in our actions.  It is only when the love of Jesus permeates our hearts and our lives that we show love for our husbands, our wives, our children, and our families. 

This is the purpose of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan.  It is not a story to teach us how to live a Christian life.  Rather it is a story asking us to take a closer look at God’s Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.  For when we read His word carefully, we find the story of our inability to keep his commands.  We face the facts that the wages of sin is death.  Yet we are confronted by the unimaginable grace that the gift of God is eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior.  Now, moved by that love, we seek to show our love for the Lord our God by living in love for your neighbor.  Though there are religious do-it-yourselfers who understand Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan as a “how to” manual of a Christian life, because we have carefully read it, we understand what it truly is.  It is a parable to show us how we cannot earn eternal life in our own way.  Rather we must rely on the Lord our God and his salvation.  Then, moved by the grace of our Savior we will naturally live our lives in love, serving the Lord our God, even as we show our love for him in how we love our neighbor. 

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN

Confess Your God before the World! (Acts 17:22-31)

May 29, 2011


Dear friends in Christ.

Have you ever wondered why we take time out of each service to confess our Christian faith with the words of either the Apostles’ or the Nicene Creed? Well, if you ever have wondered why we do this the answer I’m about to give you might surprise you just a little, because the reason we confess our faith in our God is not because our God needs to be reassured that we do truly trust in him. It’s not because our God needs to be encouraged by our faith or have his ego built up by knowing that his followers do truly trust in him and believe in him. Instead, the reason we confess our faith each and every week is so that we might build each other up in our faith and our trust in our God. It is so that we can build each other up in our confidence that we do indeed believe in the all-powerful Lord our God who cares for us and watches over us. It is so that we might assure each other in our belief that the Lord is our God. Well this is exactly what the Apostle Paul is doing in our lesson today; he is confessing his faith in the Lord in front of, essentially, all the world. He is confessing the Lord as his God before the people of Athens who have gathered to hear the “new teaching” that Paul was brining to the people. In short, Paul is confessing the Lord as the God of all and the Savior of all people as he stood before the people of Athens in the Areopagus. Just as Luke records Paul speaking in our lesson today; Paul says, “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.” (Acts 17:22-24).

Now, for the Athenians, to hear that the God who had made the world and everything it was the Lord of all, would have been a bit of a surprise to them. After all the people of Athens, indeed all the people of the Greek Islands had an entire Pantheon of gods who were responsible for any number of the aspects of their lives. In fact, according to the Greek Myths, the gods that they were currently worshiping were not the gods who had made the world. Rather they were the gods who had taken over from the previous godly government of the Titans. So hearing Paul confess that the Lord God was indeed the Lord of all would have been a surprise to them. After all, the Athenians were indeed a very religious people. They were a people who lived in a city filled with shrines, and temples, and statues dedicated to all sorts of gods and goddesses. They lived in a city where every square had its own little shrine and every gate had its own protecting gods. They were a community where every house had its own shrine and each person who lived there in worshiped their own personal protecting god or goddess. But the most remarkable part of the city was the statue of the goddess Athena which had been built in the Acropolis, a hill towering 150 feet over the city. This was a 75 foot tall statue, with face, and hands, and feet carved from the purest ivory. This was a statue that was draped in coverings of glittering gold. This was a statue which the sailors used as a land mark as they sailed near the city. This was a statue that the people of Athens worshipped as one of their many gods and goddesses.

Just imagine the scene as Paul confessed the Lord before the people of Athens. There he was, standing before a group of maybe 500 men who had gathered to hear him. Maybe 50 feet to the South East of where he was stood the Acropolisthe impressive temple and fortress designed to protect the citywhere the great statue of Athena stood. Then, below the Acropolis, the city with all its temples, and shrines, and household gods, and here was Paul making his confession before the people that God is the Lord of all. Here was Paul saying, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ ” (Acts 17:24-28).

In the same way that Paul confessed the Lord before the people of Athens in our lesson today, he is confessing the Lord before you and me today. He is reminding us that the Lord our God is indeed the Lord of all, and he is encouraging us to make the same bold confession before the world today, because we too, are living in a world that is also filled with all sorts of religious ideas. We are living in a world where the teachings of reincarnation are becoming widely accepted. Though this was once an Eastern philosophy, there are many people in America who not only believe that they have lived previous lives, but they also believe that when they do die they will be reincarnated and return to the world in some other form. We are living in a world where more and more people are putting their faith and their hope in angels, rather than in the Lord their God. We are living in a world where people are more worried about being spiritual than they are worried about being religious. We are living in a world where more and more people are turning from the worship of the true God to the worship of false gods like Buddha, Confucius, the Dalai Lamma, Allah (the god of Islam), their own ancestors, the saints in heaven, and yes, there are even some who have such regard for the pope that they essentially worship him as a god on earth. Not only that, but we are living in a day and age where people are looking for guidance from spirits, spirits who they believe come to them and guide them in their lives.

It is because of all of this that the Apostle Paul is calling on us to confess our faith in the Lord our God and confess it to the world. He is calling on us to confess our God to the world lest we be deceived by any of these false teachings. He is calling on us to confess our faith to the world so that we might not be taken in by the generic ideas of God that are so pervasive in our society today! He is calling on us to make a clear confession of the Lord our God and our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior, because there is so much false teaching in the world that wants to group all Christians into one big category, even though there are very clear differences between churches of different denominations. This is why Paul is calling on us to confess the Lord our God before the World, so that all the world might know that Jesus is the Lord our Savior who has freed us from our sins. This, in fact, is the very clear confession that Paul made as he stood before the members of the Areopagus and said: “Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man's design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:29-31).

Though in what Luke records for us, Paul never had the opportunity to specifically mention Jesus Christ as their Savior, he gave a clear confession when he called them to repent. He gave a clear confession when he told them that the Lord has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he appointed. He gave them a clear confession when he stated that God had raised this man from the dead. If Paul had not been interrupted by some of the members of the Areopagus at that moment, you can sure that Paul’s next sentence would have been, “And that man is Jesus Christ, the Savior of us all!” But even though he was never able to say those words, there were many people who repented of their sins that day. Even though he was not able to say those words, there were a number of people who came to faith in Jesus Christ that day. Even though he was not able to mention Jesus as the Son of God, there were many who came to realize that the Lord Jesus was their one and only Savior that day, through Paul’s clear confession.

This is the same confession that Paul is making to us today when he calls on us to repent! For he is calling on us to repent of our many sins! He is calling on us to repent of the times that we have not made a clear confession of God as Lord. He is calling on us to repent of the sins we have committed in being lax in our gathering for worship. He is calling on us to repent of our stubborn refusal to study his Word. In short he is calling on us to make confession of every sin and iniquity we have committed before our God. Then, as we stand before the Lord exposed and naked, Paul reminds us that the Lord our Savior has removed our sins. Though he may have never spoken those words in our text, he clearly brought them to memory when he spoke about the man whom God raised from the dead. For in raising Jesus from the dead, he assured us that all our sins have been forgiven. Every sin we’ve ever committed! Our laxity in attending worship for the strengthening of our faith; it has been forgiven. Our stubborn refusal to study his Word; it has been forgiven. Even our failure to utter a clear confession, it has been forgiven. All our sins have been forgiven by the Lord Jesus who is our Savior. This, then, becomes our confession which we want to bring to the world. Not merely that our sins have been forgiven. Rather, the confession that all sins have been forgiven by the Lord who is our Savior.

What better message could there be for us to carry to the world than the clear message of the Gospel. After all, our world today is not that different from Athens in Paul’s day. As a people we are very religious, or at least, very spiritual. There are many different people who believe many different things. Some people clearly believe and teach that we must live a good life in order to be saved. Others have clearly believe and teach that it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere in your believe. Still others believe and teach that there are many roads that lead to eternal life. Clearly there are many people who need to know what we know. There are many people who need to hear the clear confession of the Lord our God and Jesus our Savior. There are many, many people in our world who are in serious need of the message that Jesus Christ, their Savior, is the only way to eternal life. There are many people who need us to bring this message to them. This is our mission, to spread the message that the Lord is the Savior of all. This is now our challenge, to confess our Lord before the world. So as you step out those doors today and enter the mission field before you, make the most of every opportunity that the Lord gives you to make your clear confession of Jesus as the Savior of all, by inviting someone to worship with us. Go out and make that clear confession, by talking to someone about their Savior. Go out and make that clear confession by talking about your faith when someone asks you about the hope you have. Only don’t be silent! For when we are silent, our confession is not heard. But when we active our confession about the Lord our Savior is heard loud and clear.

Though today we will not be confessing our Christian faith after the sermon, we were all built up when we confessed it together earlier. For it is through our confession of faith that we build each other up in faith in the Lord of God. But it is also through that same confession that we bring to the world that the world may come to know God who is the Lord and Savior of all.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN

Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:12)

October 3, 2010

Dear friends in Christ.

It was a fight that some of you may have seen, or at least read about in the newspapers, or even seen in specials on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. It was a fight that was announced, advertized, promoted, hyped, and talked about for months before and for years after. It was a fight between speed and strength, agility and endurance. It was a fight that boxing promoters named, “The Fight of the Century”—the first boxing match between champion Joe Frazier and challenger Muhammad Ali, held on March 8, 1971 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. By the evening of the match, Madison Square Garden had a circus-like atmosphere, with scores of policemen to control the crowd. Yet, spectators were not disappointed as the fight itself exceeded even its promotional hype by lasting the full 15 rounds. Ali dominated the first three rounds, peppering the shorter Fraizer with rapier-like jabs that raised welts on the champion's face. Frazier began to dominate in the fourth round, catching Ali with several of his famed left hooks and pinning him against the ropes to deliver tremendous body blows. Ali's speed and combinations kept him on even terms with Frazier and the fight was about even until late in round 11. During that round Frazier caught Ali with a crushing left hook that almost floored Ali, sending him falling into the ropes. Ali managed to survive the round, but from then on Frazier seemed to come back in the next three rounds. At the end of round 14 Frazier held a lead on the three scorecards. Early in round 15, Frazier landed a spectacular left hook that put Ali on his back (for only the third time in his career). Ali, his right jaw swollen grotesquely, got up from the blow quickly, and managed to stay on his feet for the rest of the round despite several terrific blows from Frazier. A few minutes later the judges made it official: Frazier had retained the title with a unanimous decision, dealing Ali his first professional loss.

Since that March night nearly 40 years ago, sports commentators still say that there hasn’t really been anything like that Fight of the Century. For no matter how you look at it, both fighters can be seen as examples of strength, endurance, and a willingness to keep on fighting no matter how greatly the odds are stacked against them. In fact, even as Christians, these men can be examples to us, especially when we consider the impact of what Paul is telling us in our lesson today! For as Paul speaks to us from more than 40 years ago, he is telling each and every one of us to Fight the Good Fight of Faith! Turn with me to 1 Timothy 6:12. Now, as you are turning to 1 Timothy 6:12, let me give you a little bit of background to this verse. Timothy was in Ephesus. Paul had left him there when he traveled on to Macedonia on his way to Jerusalem. Paul had left Timothy there for the stability of the congregation and so that Timothy might command certain men not to teach false doctrine. Paul, on the other hand had traveled to Jerusalem, where he had been arrested and imprisoned. He had been transferred to Caesarea where he was tried again, appealed to Caesar, and transferred to Rom. Now, as Paul writes to Timothy he is in prison in Rome, waiting for his appeal to be heard by the Emperor. As he writes he tells Timothy in verse 12, “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12, NIV)

What better words could Paul have given Timothy as he served the congregation in Ephesus leading them in God’s Word, and what better words could the Lord speak to us through Paul than these! Fight the Good “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12, NIV) What better words could there be for us to hear than these, especially when we consider the fight we have been in, since the day we were called to faith. Though we don’t have TV crews covering our every move or boxing promoters delivering the play by play action, each and every one of us is involved, not merely in the fight of the century, but in the fight of faith. For the truth is, on the day that we were called to faith, Jesus Christ, who was at one time our enemy, marched boldly into satan’s camp and rescued us from our enslavement there. He brought us into the hospital of his salvation. He laid us on the gurney of his love. He took a bowl of his own blood and began to wash the filth of our sins from our hearts, from our minds, and even from our bodies. He applied the salve of his grace to our small cuts and our deep wounds so that they would heal. He discarded the filthy stinking rags of our sinful lives and dressed us in robes of his righteousness, marking us as his redeemed children and people. Then, he began training us with his word so that we might be ready to fight the good fight of faith.

For you see, ever since the day our Savior rescued us from satan and brought us into his kingdom by faith, we became satan’s opponents. On that very day that our Savior called us to faith, we stepped into the boxing ring of life and began our toe to toe battle with the devil. But unlike the fight of the century that lasted only 15 rounds, the good fight of our faith is a fight that lasts until the final bell rings and our Savior takes us home to heaven. Each morning as we wake, we hear the sound of the bell marking the next round in the fight of our faith. We see our opponent, satan, coming out of his corner ready to deliver blow after blow, hoping that each blow might weaken us or knock us down. Each day we feel our adversary landing blow after blow weakening our resolve to fight back, confusing us into accepting his temptations, knocking us to the mat in hopes that this time he has finally knocked the faith out of us so that he might be declared victorious in this fight of faith.

Yet, even though satan may land some stinging blows and even knock us to the mat on more occasions than we care to admit, we are not alone in this fight of faith. Jesus is in our corner and he is backing us the whole way. Not only is he our coach who has taught us how to fight with his Word. He is the one who buckled the championship belt of his truth around our waists and taped our hands with his righteousness. He is the one who fitted our feet with the readiness that comes from the gospel and gloved us with the word of God. He is the one who equips our faith to defend against the vicious blows of our enemy, and to attack, peppering our enemy with all the power and force of his Word. It is the Lord Jesus who strengthens our arms with his powerful word so that our blows leave welts on satan’s face. When we grow weary in the fight, it is Jesus who refreshes us with the refreshing waters of his grace and salvation. When we can barely keep our gloves up to defend ourselves, it is Jesus who rings the bell and gives us a respite so that we might regain our strength in his Word. When we are so tired that all we want to do is lay on the mat and be counted out, it is Jesus who steps in and fights for us, comforting us with the assurance of his salvation, soothing our wounds with the salve of his gospel, and washing us clean, once again, with the blood of the covenant, the blood that he poured out for you and me when he went to the cross in our place. This is our Savior who calls on each and every one of us to “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12, NIV)

Though he calls us to fight, we do not fight alone. Though we may not always feel ready to fight, he gives us so many opportunities to prepare ourselves with his Word. He invites us to join together week in and week out in this house of worship where he provides his word without cost and without price. He invites us to gather as children to learn the precious truths of salvation from our teachers in Sunday School. He invites us to gather as young adults and delve into the deeper truths of his Word in Confirmation Class. He invites us to gather as adults and examine the precious truths of salvation in Bible Study. He invites us to gather as families to confess our sins, receive forgiveness, to pray to him, to praise him, to hear his Word proclaimed to him and to worship him with all our hearts. He invites us to use the time with which has blessed us to grow in our faith and our knowledge of him so that we are better prepared to continue fighting the good fight of faith against our enemy, the devil.

This is our Fight of Faith. Though we don’t have any sportscasters writing about it or giving play by play commentary as Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali did, we still fight on. Though our fight is much longer than the grueling 15 rounds that they went, we can learn a great deal from their endurance. Though each one had been guaranteed $2.5 million just for fighting, this fight wasn’t about the money; it was about taking hold of the title, Heavy Weight Champion of the World. For us, the same thing is true. We don’t fight the good fight of faith because we are being paid for it. We don’t fight the good fight of faith because we derive recognition from it. We don’t fight the good fight of faith because the world is cheering us on. We fight the good fight of faith because we want to take hold of the eternal life that is ours by faith. We fight because we long for the day when the final bell will ring and we will be declared victorious through faith in Jesus Christ. We long for the day when our Savior will bring us to the halls of heaven and bestow upon us the crowns of victory that he promised when he called us to faith. We long for the day when the faith that God our Savior instilled in our hearts will be fully confirmed as we live by his side forever in heaven.

So as you go from here today, heed the words that Paul wrote to Timothy and us nearly 2000 years ago. “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12, NIV)

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN