Sermon Audio
June 21, 2015
Hold firm in your faith!
Have you ever seen a ships captain looking out from the bridge of
a large ship. The best tool the captain
has are his eyes, but like most of us, our eyes can only see a short distance
unaided. This is why most ships carry a
pair of binoculars. The binoculars help
the captain as well as the officers on the bridge to scan with their eyes both
close to the ship and all the way to the horizon. This increased vision allows decisions to be
made by the captain and crew to insure not only the cargo he is carrying on the
ship will be safe, but to insure that others will not come to any harm by
getting in the way of the large ship.
So to on the farm, farmers always when on the tractor or going to
check wells always keep an eye on the horizon in all directions to see if there
is rain coming or if a thunderstorm with hail and high winds is bearing down on
our winter wheat crop or stand of corn that could easily be blown over. Everyone always is looking to make sure what
we have will not be damaged or destroyed.
Since Trinity Sunday we have heard the clear message from God that
“God is love” and our opportunity and calling is to love as God first loved us. The vision that God has of all events far
exceeds our own and He doesn’t need binoculars, but the sentiment and lesson we
can take away from our lesson this morning is that we need to be like the ships
captain and you the farmer here in Northwest Kansas. It doesn’t mean we need to get a pair of
binoculars, but it does mean we need to “be on alert”.
Peter one of the authors of the New Testament lived his life in
love for his brother’s and sister’s in Christ.
He preached and proclaimed, “God is love” and taught constantly as he
travelled and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And His message was clear, “Be of
sober spirit, be on alert”. The
reason for being on alert was that he knew the devil was seeking to ‘wreck’ and
‘destroy’ the life of anyone that would fall victim to his leading them astray. The devil is closer to leading us astray than
we might like to think.
Peter wrote, “Your adversary, the devil prowls around like
a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour”. The devil is trying to get all of us to
question God, question God’s love of us and even question that God is
love. The devil is filling our heads
with lies, deceit, questions and desiring us to lose interest in God. For some he is clearly succeeding like the
young man who took nine lives in Charleston, South Carolina this week. Closer to home, in recent visits members of
the congregation have even noticed how our worship attendance here at Emmanuel
is being affected.
You might say, how can the devil do this? Easily, when we place our own wants and desires
above God’s glory, we fall victim. When
we chose activities that bring us satisfaction to our human longing, or our own
glory instead of God, we fall victim.
When we spread rumors about friends, neighbors or even about our church
family, we fall victim. All of us daily fall
victim, because we are in a constant battle to do what is right. Hence why Peter said, “Be on alert” and why I
began with the image of binoculars.
Peter continues with what we need to hear and do, “But
resist him [that is the devil], firm in your faith”. We need to resist the draw that the devil has
on our time, our talents and even our treasure.
We can resist, but we cannot do it in and of ourselves. We are incapable of resisting the arrows of
deceit, the arrow of want, the arrow of being known and seen as an expert. In and of ourselves we are incapable of
overcoming evil. But God has the cure.
The cure Peter states clearly for us to hear, mark and inwardly
digest and lay claim to because of our baptism into Jesus Christ life, death
and resurrection. God in His great love
for us through Peter consoles us with this truth, “the God of all grace, who called
you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen
and establish you.” That
statement, though a mouthful contains the greatest measure of grace we need to
hear and remind each other of each and every day.
God is a God of grace. God
has called each of us in and through our Holy Baptism into Jesus Christ. We are connected to Jesus Christ for all
eternity and He will not let go of us.
And God makes us the promise to “perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish”
each and every one of us.
We are perfected in Christ, we are confirmed in the faith given to
us from generation to generation, we are strengthened for the daily battle with
the devil and established as God’s children.
When we lay claim to these four truths we then can follow God’s call on
our lives. We can hear clearly Peter’s
desire for us, we can stand “firm in your faith”. God then can work through us and we then can
cast “all our anxiety on” God and as His children trust Him in all
aspects of our lives.
But our society daily questions, how can we trust God? How can we see God at work? Our society even asks if God is real or
exists? And this is what the devil wants
to get us to do, to question God. So I
stand here today to remind all of us gathered here this morning of the
truth. God is love, He loves us
unconditionally. God wants us to ‘hold
firm in our faith.’ And God gives us the
strength to do this. The proof we need
we have from two very distinct places.
First, it comes from God’s Word that we have heard read today in
the lessons. And second it comes from
the meal we are about to partake of from the altar. When we receive Jesus Christ precious Body
and Blood, we receive the food we need to ‘stand firm in our faith’. And God’s gift of His Son, Jesus Christ
promises to each of us to enable us to stand firm in the faith that has been
passed down from generation to generation.
And today we Emmanuel Lutheran embark again upon our passing down
this same faith. You see, Emmanuel
Lutheran Church was one of the founding churches for Sky Ranch just over 50
years ago. Two years ago three members
of our congregation celebrated up at Sky Ranch the Year of Jubilee. Peyton and Powell Sieck and Autumn Mays
joined with youth from across the United States to celebrate the legacy that
Sky Ranch has been fulfilling in spreading the Gospel message. The following week, we as a congregation
joined together with staff from Sky Ranch and our own children here at Emmanuel
to celebrate the year of Jubilee. And
today we embark again on another week of Vacation Bible School here at Emmanuel
with the Sky Ranch counselors.
Today we as a congregation ‘stand firm in our faith’, proclaiming
the love of God for all of mankind, and inviting all to join us in spreading
the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
This is the legacy that our congregation continues to proclaim, because
of God’s grace and love offered by His Son Jesus Christ. May we continue this legacy and be the church
that God can use to reach Goodland proclaiming God’s love for all of mankind,
including God’s love for all of us gathered here today. AMEN.
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