“Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.” Have any of you read the book, Lord of the Flies, or seen the movie. That iconic story portrays what happens when people are left up to our own devices, without guidance or rules. They end up trying to kill each other. It’s in our nature, what the apostle Paul calls our sinful nature. God created us good, but we choose to do things that are not good. It’s not that we aren’t able to do good, but each one of us is driven, compulsively, to follow our own desires rather than to follow the desires of God. We want what is best for ourselves—not others.
Paul says that our sinful nature and God’s Holy Spirit, are in conflict with one another. There is an ultimate fight going on within each of us, all the time. Some of you might experience this as anxiety, or guilt, or just plain indecision. God sends us his Holy Spirit in order that we might follow God’s will despite our temptations to do just the opposite. When the Holy Spirit starts working in your life, the effects are what the book of Galatians calls the fruit of the Spirit.
The apostle Paul gives us nine examples of this fruit in Galatians chapter 5. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I will be focusing on three of them this morning. I want you to better understand both how God creates these fruits in you and how you and I can cultivate this fruit in our lives. I intend on planting seeds this morning, seeds of faith, so that you might realize that this fruit comes from God alone for, as Jesus put it, “Apart from me (apart from God) you can do nothing.” But I also want to equip you with ways to nourish this fruit in your life.
Today I will focus on just three fruits of the Spirit, namely: peace, generosity and self-control. So let’s get started.
The fruit of Peace
In the movie, “Under the Tuscan Sun”, the main character, Francis, has recently gone through a bad divorce and is trying to put her life back together. She is struggling especially with how to deal with romance and finding new love. Another woman speaks to her about being at peace in her life until the time is right for love to come her way. She explains, “Listen, when I was a little girl, I used to spend hours looking for ladybugs. Finally, I'd just give up and fall asleep in the grass. When I woke up, they were crawling all over me.” The fruit of peace grows, and it’s impossible for us to know exactly how. Many a couple has explained the fruit of peace in this way when it comes to finding love, “When I stopped looking, love found me.”
Psalm 46 puts this a different way, “Be still and know that I am God.” The fruit of peace starts growing without any effort on your part. People often find peace only when they stop working so hard at finding it. You already have peace with God because of Jesus’ death on the cross. No matter the battle you are fighting in your life right now, Jesus has already defeated it for you. One day you will see that victory face to face. The stress in your life doesn’t get the last word. God says, “My peace I give to you.”
So then, how do we cultivate this peace? Well, to start, it is very difficult to find peace when you are always striving for it. I believe that this fruit is constantly trying to grow on us, but, instead of enjoying it, we find some way to ignore it. I often create stress for myself. Are any of you like that? What I do is, instead of enjoying my life, I keep striving for more. I’ll be sitting at home enjoying my family and then, suddenly, I am in angst about whether I am REALLY doing enough with my kids to be a good father. Am I playing with them enough? Should I be home more? And, soon enough, I’ve got myself and my kids upset about whether I am a good dad or not. One moment I’m enjoying family time, but because of my selfish ambition to be super-dad, our peaceful home becomes miserable.
Cultivating peace is your life is often about just letting God take care of your problems without trying to do his job for him. You’ve no doubt seen the signs in mechanics garages that give the price for labor per hour and then higher prices if you want to watch or if you want to help. God is the master mechanic and cultivating peace often means letting go and letting God do his thing. In the gospel of Matthew Jesus says, “Do not worry. Do not worry about what you will eat or what you will wear, for your Heavenly Father knows that you need these things. But, seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
What are some practical ways to cultivate peace? Take time out at the end of each day to pray. Use one of the Portals of Prayer books or just say the Lord’s Prayer. You could write down your worries on a piece of paper as they come into your mind and stick them in your Bible next to a passage about God’s power and leave them in God’s hands. You might be amazed at how well he does with your problems without your help. Don’t make finding peace into another goal; focus on how God has already given you the fruit you seek.
The Fruit of Generosity
Dave Ramsey, a Christian financial planner explains that the amount of money one has does not affect how one wants to use it. If you are a jerk when you are poor, you will be a jerk when you are rich. Money doesn’t change the heart. In fact, all that will probably happen when you have more money is that you will become MORE of whatever you already are. This fruit of generosity, like the fruit of peace, comes from the Holy Spirit, not from the amount of money you earn or how hard you work for it. AND generosity doesn’t come from being told to give more, but from having a change of heart.
For many, the world seems based on a rule of scarcity while God promises that the world is actually full of God’s abundance. A worldview based on scarcity leads to desires such as jealously and envy. When it appears that the world does not have enough money, or food, or housing, or love to go around, it makes us believe that we must take what others have or horde what we have before someone comes to take it away.
Perhaps that is why being rich in today’s society is viewed as a sin to many people—a sin that needs to be punished. Instead of seeing one’s money, no matter how much or how little, as a blessing given by God, wealth is seen as an unequal distribution of limited resources. And so we are tempted to all kinds of sinful behavior when we believe others have what should be rightfully ours. However, the fruit of generosity is planted when you start realizing that all that you have, and all that others have, are gifts from the same God. And he is a God of abundance. God uses all people, rich and poor, to care for his creation.
But how might we cultivate generosity in our own lives? One of the best ways, I believe, is by doing something as simple as making a budget. As the motivational speaker Zig Zigler puts it, “If you don’t tell your money where to go, you won’t know where it went.” Even if the fruit of generosity has been planted in our hearts, it can often seem like we CAN’T give like we want to because we never have anything leftover at the end of the month! But once you see where your money is going, you have the opportunity to cultivate your generousity.
You can decide to spend more time eating at home with the family for instance instead of going out. Or, you can plan to build up money for Christmas gifts all year long instead of putting it all on a credit card as if it were an unexpected emergency the night of December 24th. Most people who want to give 10% to their church can’t find 10% leftover at the end of the month, but, by using a budget, you can plan to give before the month even starts. Often, a simple step like planning a budget can help you cultivate the fruit of generosity that God has already placed in your hearts. It’s a tool that helps you live out your faith.
The Fruit of Self-Control
Richard Wurmbrand wrote this in his book, “Waiting on God’s Will” about his 14 years in a Romanian prison being persecuted for his faith in Christ. He wrote, “I remember the chill that went down my spine when I read the secret formula disclosed only to initiates during the third degree of Masonry, “Let my will happen in all things.” The formula was not new to me. It tapped the huge drive for self-assertion which we all have in us. It is just the contrary of the teaching of our Lord: ‘Whoever desires to come to Me, let him deny himself.’
In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray to God, “THY will be done.” When in all things OUR will is the most important aspect, life becomes all about our wishes, our dreams, our desires. It feels so good to do whatever we want! By ourselves, we are slaves to sin, but when God makes us new creations, He sets us free. When God gives you faith, he also gives you hope for self-control. Not by trusting in your own power to resist but in God’s power to strengthen you.
Self-control is cultivated in two particular ways: learning God’s will for your life and waiting for God to act in your life. You may have heard the story where a little boy gets in trouble again and again for leaving his bike in his parents’ driveway. After being chided one last time for his lack of self-control, the little boy finally cries out, “OK, I’m sorry, but what’s a driveway!” When you read the Bible, you find out how God wants you to live your life and that gives you an idea of where you need to control yourself. If you have never heard God’s laws, it’s tough to follow them.
The second way you can cultivate self control is through prayer. When temptation comes your way, ask for help from God himself, “Commit your way to God, trust in him until he acts on your behalf.” If you’ve ever been to an AA meeting, Alcoholics Anonymous, you’ve heard this exemplified in the opening steps, “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable. Step two: We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” Everyone’s temptations are different, but cultivating self-control is a fight that we all must take one day at a time.
“Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.” The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. When God gives you faith, the Holy Spirit plants the seeds in your heart; however, as long as this sinful nature of ours exists we will have to contend with the temptations to let these fruits die on the vine. But you are not alone.
My prayer is that, as a community, we might cultivate these fruits in one another. There are portals of prayer books and a sign-up sheet for more in the parish hall if you are struggling with finding peace in your life. There are copies of a budget that you can work through to help you live our your generosity. Finally, there are Bibles to take home if you don’t’ have one and Bible studies between services as well as a list of support groups for those struggling with self-control. Most importantly, as you continue to cultivate these fruits in your life you may trust that God is at work within you, enabling you to both will and work for his good pleasure. He who has called you is faithful and He will do it. Amen.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
Sermon for May 16th (Legalism)
In the last few weeks, we’ve talked about a lot of things. We’ve discussed the Bible, why it’s important and how to read it. We’ve looked at the difference between what you are called to do by God and what God does for you. We’ve discussed the purpose of rules and laws and how they help you to avoid sin and show you your need for a Savior.
But all of this talk is really about one particular thing: giving you faith. God wants you to trust in Him, in His Word and in His purpose for your life. He wants you to hear how His Son Jesus died on a cross for you so that you might be forgiven. But when we start believing all this, it is important for us all to be aware of a big pitfall Christians tend to fall into: It’s called legalism.
When you start believing that Jesus Christ forgave all your sin, destroyed your death and saved you from a meaningless life you find yourself free. The chains are gone. You know that following the rules God gives isn’t going to save you or make you look more holy, but, surprisingly enough, you find ourselves living according to God’s laws anyway. It’s like you can’t help yourself. Once you know that you don’t Have to do anything to save yourself, you have a lot more time to take care of others and love them. As a professor of mine once put it, “now that you know that you don’t HAVE to do anything, what are you going to do?” Once you don’t HAVE to do anything you CAN do a lot of things.
Jesus explained once in the gospels that a good tree must produce good fruit and that a bad tree must produce bad fruit. When God starts working on you and gives you faith, you start following God’s will. It’s only natural. God doesn’t just talk—he transforms. You are a new creation. God has made you into a good tree, so to speak, and a good tree must produce good fruit. So, you may find yourself praying for help even though you never used to pray. You start caring for people in a way you never did before. You might even find coming to church “fun” despite the stories you hear from your unchurched friends.
A good tree must produce good fruit. On the one hand, that sounds very demanding, “What do you mean!? Do I HAVE to produce good fruit?” Well, no, you don’t HAVE to . . . but when you’ve been transformed by God’s forgiveness, you might just end up doing it. A corn plant probably isn’t too offended when a farmer comes at harvest time expecting it to have produced corn because that’s what a corn plant does, that’s what God made it to do. In the same way, a Christian is made and created by God to do good works. It’s not about what you are told to do anymore . . . it’s just the natural thing to do.
But as soon as you are freed from having to trust in your own works and abilities for your salvation, it’s easy to fall into a trap. You start expecting the fruit to come without paying much attention to the tree. It would be like going out into the field at harvest time and getting all bent out of shape when you’ve found nothing growing there (even though, no one ever tilled the ground, or planted the seeds, or irrigated). You can’t expect the fruit to come at harvest without paying attention to all the steps beforehand. But that is exactly what we do at times in church.
Many of you have gone to church your whole lives and you know that, when you come to church, there are certain expectations. Most people don’t think about these things much, but when someone who has never been to church in their entire life comes THEY notice. Maybe a visitor looks differently, or acts differently, talks differently or has a different background from most of the others at the service. Maybe they are struggling noticeably with some sinful behavior that you usually just don’t see much of in a church. And they feel judged because of these differences. Truth be told, they are probably being judged.
But why!? How can this be? Isn’t the church the place for sinners to come and hang out with others of their kind? Isn’t the whole point to be forgiven and to tell others about their forgiveness? I mean, if anyone in here was without sin, there would be no need for Jesus Christ and his cross. So then, how can we, sitting here in the pews, judge others as more messed up than we are?
I’ll tell you part of the reason: We forget that freedom only comes from Jesus Christ. We expect the changed life before someone steps inside the church doors. We expect the good works right away. But people don’t need our unfair expectations . . . they need to hear and experience God’s love, nourishment, and forgiveness. They need to hear God’s forgiveness just like you. A person needs to be given faith so that, according to God’s good pleasure, they might be transformed into a new creation. For apart from Jesus Christ, none of us can do anything..
As the body of Christ, we are supposed to know better. We know that good works don’t save anyone. But the temptation of legalism is that we expect people to follow certain rules and traditions that we’ve already been freed from. What is very scary, though, is that when we start expecting perfection from others, we are actually putting the chains back around our own ankles. We forget what forgiveness in Christ is all about, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
A professor of mine once explained that if I believe I am preaching to people who are already free to do good works on their own, then I will always end up trying to chain them up with rules and laws to keep them in line. But, if I believe that I am preaching to people who are already bound up in their sins, unable to follow God’s will on their own, then I will always seek to free them with the gospel of Jesus Christ. When people enter this church, shall we blame them for their bad choices or seek to free them with the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ?
In the gospel of Mark, Jesus spoke harshly about some people who had placed more importance on doing something a traditional way instead of following God’s commandment. It is our habit, as humans, to fall into this trap because it is comfortable. Some of you may have heard this old joke, “How many Lutherans does it take to change a lightbulb?” “Change!” And then there’s the story about a woman who was asked why she always cut off the end of the chicken before roasting it. She explained that that’s the way her mother had always done it. When she called her mother, her mother explained that she had learned to do it that way because HER mother had always done it that way. But when they called grandma, they found out that she had needed to cut off the end because her roasting pan was too small to fit a whole chicken. Jesus expects us to always be aware of WHY we do things, not just focused on HOW we do them.
But don’t be fooled into thinking that this just has to do with contemporary versus traditional or old versus new. Legalism has to do with the heart. Humans look on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. We have traditions for a reason and many are still going for a purpose. We do certain things at church each week that we think are important such as reading scripture, confessing our sins, hearing God’s forgiveness, receiving the Lord’s Supper and singing songs of praise—sometimes our traditions follow God’s will for our lives. Some people can get as addicted to changing things are others are to keeping them the same. Legalism tempts us to focus on visible and invisible rules rather than on the heart of worship.
What are you enslaved to? What prisons have you created for yourself and others? Legalism is an easy temptation for you and I to fall into, but, thankfully God has the key to unlock us from this prison. You and I enter the church in chains, but here is your key to freedom: in case you didn’t believe it the first time, I’ll tell you again. You are forgiven in the name of Jesus Christ. It may sound like a simple promise, but it is the power of God. You may trust in God’s power to transform your life, make you new and start producing fruit. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
But all of this talk is really about one particular thing: giving you faith. God wants you to trust in Him, in His Word and in His purpose for your life. He wants you to hear how His Son Jesus died on a cross for you so that you might be forgiven. But when we start believing all this, it is important for us all to be aware of a big pitfall Christians tend to fall into: It’s called legalism.
When you start believing that Jesus Christ forgave all your sin, destroyed your death and saved you from a meaningless life you find yourself free. The chains are gone. You know that following the rules God gives isn’t going to save you or make you look more holy, but, surprisingly enough, you find ourselves living according to God’s laws anyway. It’s like you can’t help yourself. Once you know that you don’t Have to do anything to save yourself, you have a lot more time to take care of others and love them. As a professor of mine once put it, “now that you know that you don’t HAVE to do anything, what are you going to do?” Once you don’t HAVE to do anything you CAN do a lot of things.
Jesus explained once in the gospels that a good tree must produce good fruit and that a bad tree must produce bad fruit. When God starts working on you and gives you faith, you start following God’s will. It’s only natural. God doesn’t just talk—he transforms. You are a new creation. God has made you into a good tree, so to speak, and a good tree must produce good fruit. So, you may find yourself praying for help even though you never used to pray. You start caring for people in a way you never did before. You might even find coming to church “fun” despite the stories you hear from your unchurched friends.
A good tree must produce good fruit. On the one hand, that sounds very demanding, “What do you mean!? Do I HAVE to produce good fruit?” Well, no, you don’t HAVE to . . . but when you’ve been transformed by God’s forgiveness, you might just end up doing it. A corn plant probably isn’t too offended when a farmer comes at harvest time expecting it to have produced corn because that’s what a corn plant does, that’s what God made it to do. In the same way, a Christian is made and created by God to do good works. It’s not about what you are told to do anymore . . . it’s just the natural thing to do.
But as soon as you are freed from having to trust in your own works and abilities for your salvation, it’s easy to fall into a trap. You start expecting the fruit to come without paying much attention to the tree. It would be like going out into the field at harvest time and getting all bent out of shape when you’ve found nothing growing there (even though, no one ever tilled the ground, or planted the seeds, or irrigated). You can’t expect the fruit to come at harvest without paying attention to all the steps beforehand. But that is exactly what we do at times in church.
Many of you have gone to church your whole lives and you know that, when you come to church, there are certain expectations. Most people don’t think about these things much, but when someone who has never been to church in their entire life comes THEY notice. Maybe a visitor looks differently, or acts differently, talks differently or has a different background from most of the others at the service. Maybe they are struggling noticeably with some sinful behavior that you usually just don’t see much of in a church. And they feel judged because of these differences. Truth be told, they are probably being judged.
But why!? How can this be? Isn’t the church the place for sinners to come and hang out with others of their kind? Isn’t the whole point to be forgiven and to tell others about their forgiveness? I mean, if anyone in here was without sin, there would be no need for Jesus Christ and his cross. So then, how can we, sitting here in the pews, judge others as more messed up than we are?
I’ll tell you part of the reason: We forget that freedom only comes from Jesus Christ. We expect the changed life before someone steps inside the church doors. We expect the good works right away. But people don’t need our unfair expectations . . . they need to hear and experience God’s love, nourishment, and forgiveness. They need to hear God’s forgiveness just like you. A person needs to be given faith so that, according to God’s good pleasure, they might be transformed into a new creation. For apart from Jesus Christ, none of us can do anything..
As the body of Christ, we are supposed to know better. We know that good works don’t save anyone. But the temptation of legalism is that we expect people to follow certain rules and traditions that we’ve already been freed from. What is very scary, though, is that when we start expecting perfection from others, we are actually putting the chains back around our own ankles. We forget what forgiveness in Christ is all about, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
A professor of mine once explained that if I believe I am preaching to people who are already free to do good works on their own, then I will always end up trying to chain them up with rules and laws to keep them in line. But, if I believe that I am preaching to people who are already bound up in their sins, unable to follow God’s will on their own, then I will always seek to free them with the gospel of Jesus Christ. When people enter this church, shall we blame them for their bad choices or seek to free them with the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ?
In the gospel of Mark, Jesus spoke harshly about some people who had placed more importance on doing something a traditional way instead of following God’s commandment. It is our habit, as humans, to fall into this trap because it is comfortable. Some of you may have heard this old joke, “How many Lutherans does it take to change a lightbulb?” “Change!” And then there’s the story about a woman who was asked why she always cut off the end of the chicken before roasting it. She explained that that’s the way her mother had always done it. When she called her mother, her mother explained that she had learned to do it that way because HER mother had always done it that way. But when they called grandma, they found out that she had needed to cut off the end because her roasting pan was too small to fit a whole chicken. Jesus expects us to always be aware of WHY we do things, not just focused on HOW we do them.
But don’t be fooled into thinking that this just has to do with contemporary versus traditional or old versus new. Legalism has to do with the heart. Humans look on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. We have traditions for a reason and many are still going for a purpose. We do certain things at church each week that we think are important such as reading scripture, confessing our sins, hearing God’s forgiveness, receiving the Lord’s Supper and singing songs of praise—sometimes our traditions follow God’s will for our lives. Some people can get as addicted to changing things are others are to keeping them the same. Legalism tempts us to focus on visible and invisible rules rather than on the heart of worship.
What are you enslaved to? What prisons have you created for yourself and others? Legalism is an easy temptation for you and I to fall into, but, thankfully God has the key to unlock us from this prison. You and I enter the church in chains, but here is your key to freedom: in case you didn’t believe it the first time, I’ll tell you again. You are forgiven in the name of Jesus Christ. It may sound like a simple promise, but it is the power of God. You may trust in God’s power to transform your life, make you new and start producing fruit. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Sermon for May 9th: Why do we have the Law?
When most people hear the words, “The Law”, I bet they think of this: (cop siren) and recount the image of a flashing light in theirr rearview mirror. You may have only been going a couple of miles over the speed limit, but cops can still write you a ticket. You can fight the law, but the law will win if it wants to. But why do we have “The Law”? Why do we have cops? The cops are there to make sure that you drive the speed limit for two main reasons: to keep you safe and to keep others safe. That’s the point of God’s law as well: to keep you safe and to keep others safe. And for the most part it works.
But in the third chapter of the book of Galatians, we hear another reason that God created the law . . . this is what it says, “The Law was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.” Now what does THAT mean? Well, transgressions is another word for sins, so the apostle Paul is saying that God gave us laws not just to point out our sins but he gave us laws BECAUSE of sin. But why would he do that? Isn’t that like beating a dead horse?
Here’s the problem with having laws: we want to trust in them. So, when Jillian and Bob, the trainers on the TV show “The Biggest Loser” scream at people about how important it is to eat right and exercise in order to stay healthy and have a long life, I start believing them. I start believing that by running a lot and eating whole wheat pasta that I will live a really long time . . . but the problem is, that this isn’t always true. On the one hand, you’ll hear health magazines talk about how important it is to stay away from fat and to exercise, but one of my great grandmothers lived well into her eighties by eating Lard and sugar sandwiches and never working out. Laws make us want to believe that, if we follow them, we will live better because of them. And while that often works, it is not foolproof, as any number of tragedies you hear of will attest to. People often die, quite young, not because they were unhealthy, but because of accidents, or genetic problems, or rare diseases. We cannot trust in the law to give us eternal life.
So, God gave us laws for two reasons: to point out sin, like when you are speeding and putting your life and other lives in danger, but also to show that we cannot be perfect. There is nobody on the face of the earth who can stay away from sin, even if they try to follow every rule and regulation. And even if you could do everything right, you would start relying on your own strength of character to save yourself and, as God has stated clearly, no one can be made right in God’s eyes just by doing the best that they can. We need more than the law, we need more than ourselves, we need more than rules in order to find peace with God. By ourselves, no matter how good or bad we are, we are cursed—everything we do, no matter how good it looks, is under the power of sin.
Many Christians think of sin as temptations floating around in their world that they can either take in or push away, but God wants us to realize that sin is a prevalent in our lives as the air we breathe. It permeates us as much as the water in the very cells that make up our skin and bones. It is not something we can just choose to stay away from: it covers us completely.
God is just beating a dead horse by giving us rules, it’s more like putting a horse down because it is too sick. God wants to put us out of our misery, so to speak. We are people that not only do sick things, but we are actually sick. We WANT to do bad things. If you are anything like me, it’s not just that you make bad choices, but you often WANT to make bad choices. You LIKE to do it. It PLEASES you. “The good things you want to do, you don’t do, and the bad things that you don’t want to do, that’s what you do.”
I remember speeding through a town in Connecticut once to get some medicine to take care of a bad case of poison ivy when I saw the cops in MY rear view mirror. And you know what my first thought was? Maybe I should put on my clergy collar . . . would I have a better shot of getting out of a ticket if they knew I was a pastor? Should I make them believe that I was off to some important visit? Would I have to outright lie or would silence be the best trick? Well, I didn’t lie, I didn’t put on the collar and I didn’t get a ticket either . . . BUT, just because I didn’t lie, doesn’t mean I still didn’t sin. First of all, I was speeding and endangering lives. AND sin isn’t just about actions, but about thoughts, words and actions. When you start realizing how much you not only DO bad things, but how much you WANT to do them, you may come to the same conclusion that the apostle Paul comes up with: We cannot escape sin. We are all under the curse of sin.
When you realize how incredibly strong the power of sin is in your life, then God’s final purpose for having all these rules and regulations is truly revealed: God’s laws point out your need for a Savior—for Jesus. You cannot please God all by yourself, you need an advocate, a redeemer, a Savior. You cannot please God by following his rules, you please God most by following his Son and trusting in Jesus alone. “The righteous will live by faith”. When you believe that Jesus Christ has died for your sins once and for all on the cross, then you become pleasing in God’s sight.
How does this happen? Doesn’t God still care about those sins of yours? Well, of course he does, but they are not yours any longer. “Jesus Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us”—by becoming a curse for you. Jesus, the only person in the world who didn’t sin, became sin. He died so that you would live. Jesus gets your misery, your guilt, your death and you receive everything he has: life, salvation and forgiveness.
When you give up trying to save yourself, you die, you lose hope, you give up. God keeps piling up the rules until he finally puts you out of your misery (because trying to be perfect is, after all, a very miserable experience, isn’t it?) Yet amazingly, it is in that moment, when you stop trying to win God’s affection, and surrender, when you despair of doing it on your own, that you can finally believe that God loves you free of charge. It was never about what you could do, Jesus loves you—you can trust in that love, not in your own power.
Every once in awhile, one of my older children will start throwing a temper trantrum. And, depending on the situation, sometimes Kristy, my wife, ends up holding a kicking and screaming little person tightly in her arms while they do everything that they can to escape, or hurt her or burst her ear drums. But when, after a minute or two or crying out in despair and anger, they give up, they soon realize something else . . . they are in the arms of their Mother who loves them and would give up anything and everything for them. That’s a mother’s love, you see. A mother loves her children with a passion that few people can fully understand and still, a mother’s love is nothing, absolutely NOTHING compared with the loving passion that God has for you, each one of his children.
There may be a few of you here this morning that have spent your life kicking and screaming against God. You want nothing to do with him. Christianity embarrasses you. You just can’t believe that all this could possibly be true. You might even be angry with God. You seldom come to church and you are certainly not interested in committing your life and lifestyle to Jesus Christ. What might happen if you just gave up and surrendered all that anger and frustration into his loving arms, for he is already holding you with hands that will never let you go.
In some churches, they have something called an altar call, where people are called to confess their sin and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, but Lutherans have never been much for that kind of thing. That’s because it happens already each Sunday morning when you confess your sin to yourself and to God, and receive the promise that God forgives you completely. Some of you have done this so many times that you cannot remember. But for some of you, this may be the first time that you truly admit to yourself and to God your need for forgiveness and your need for Jesus Christ. No doubt you have done much that is wrong in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of God. But, I want you to be assured that God’s forgiveness is for you. Jesus already has you in his loving arms. He has been knocking on the door to your heart for a long time. I invite you to rest in his arms, now, and to believe that God can transform your life today, and give you eternal life forever. The curse is no longer yours to bear. Jesus became a curse for you. Come to Jesus and live.
But in the third chapter of the book of Galatians, we hear another reason that God created the law . . . this is what it says, “The Law was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.” Now what does THAT mean? Well, transgressions is another word for sins, so the apostle Paul is saying that God gave us laws not just to point out our sins but he gave us laws BECAUSE of sin. But why would he do that? Isn’t that like beating a dead horse?
Here’s the problem with having laws: we want to trust in them. So, when Jillian and Bob, the trainers on the TV show “The Biggest Loser” scream at people about how important it is to eat right and exercise in order to stay healthy and have a long life, I start believing them. I start believing that by running a lot and eating whole wheat pasta that I will live a really long time . . . but the problem is, that this isn’t always true. On the one hand, you’ll hear health magazines talk about how important it is to stay away from fat and to exercise, but one of my great grandmothers lived well into her eighties by eating Lard and sugar sandwiches and never working out. Laws make us want to believe that, if we follow them, we will live better because of them. And while that often works, it is not foolproof, as any number of tragedies you hear of will attest to. People often die, quite young, not because they were unhealthy, but because of accidents, or genetic problems, or rare diseases. We cannot trust in the law to give us eternal life.
So, God gave us laws for two reasons: to point out sin, like when you are speeding and putting your life and other lives in danger, but also to show that we cannot be perfect. There is nobody on the face of the earth who can stay away from sin, even if they try to follow every rule and regulation. And even if you could do everything right, you would start relying on your own strength of character to save yourself and, as God has stated clearly, no one can be made right in God’s eyes just by doing the best that they can. We need more than the law, we need more than ourselves, we need more than rules in order to find peace with God. By ourselves, no matter how good or bad we are, we are cursed—everything we do, no matter how good it looks, is under the power of sin.
Many Christians think of sin as temptations floating around in their world that they can either take in or push away, but God wants us to realize that sin is a prevalent in our lives as the air we breathe. It permeates us as much as the water in the very cells that make up our skin and bones. It is not something we can just choose to stay away from: it covers us completely.
God is just beating a dead horse by giving us rules, it’s more like putting a horse down because it is too sick. God wants to put us out of our misery, so to speak. We are people that not only do sick things, but we are actually sick. We WANT to do bad things. If you are anything like me, it’s not just that you make bad choices, but you often WANT to make bad choices. You LIKE to do it. It PLEASES you. “The good things you want to do, you don’t do, and the bad things that you don’t want to do, that’s what you do.”
I remember speeding through a town in Connecticut once to get some medicine to take care of a bad case of poison ivy when I saw the cops in MY rear view mirror. And you know what my first thought was? Maybe I should put on my clergy collar . . . would I have a better shot of getting out of a ticket if they knew I was a pastor? Should I make them believe that I was off to some important visit? Would I have to outright lie or would silence be the best trick? Well, I didn’t lie, I didn’t put on the collar and I didn’t get a ticket either . . . BUT, just because I didn’t lie, doesn’t mean I still didn’t sin. First of all, I was speeding and endangering lives. AND sin isn’t just about actions, but about thoughts, words and actions. When you start realizing how much you not only DO bad things, but how much you WANT to do them, you may come to the same conclusion that the apostle Paul comes up with: We cannot escape sin. We are all under the curse of sin.
When you realize how incredibly strong the power of sin is in your life, then God’s final purpose for having all these rules and regulations is truly revealed: God’s laws point out your need for a Savior—for Jesus. You cannot please God all by yourself, you need an advocate, a redeemer, a Savior. You cannot please God by following his rules, you please God most by following his Son and trusting in Jesus alone. “The righteous will live by faith”. When you believe that Jesus Christ has died for your sins once and for all on the cross, then you become pleasing in God’s sight.
How does this happen? Doesn’t God still care about those sins of yours? Well, of course he does, but they are not yours any longer. “Jesus Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us”—by becoming a curse for you. Jesus, the only person in the world who didn’t sin, became sin. He died so that you would live. Jesus gets your misery, your guilt, your death and you receive everything he has: life, salvation and forgiveness.
When you give up trying to save yourself, you die, you lose hope, you give up. God keeps piling up the rules until he finally puts you out of your misery (because trying to be perfect is, after all, a very miserable experience, isn’t it?) Yet amazingly, it is in that moment, when you stop trying to win God’s affection, and surrender, when you despair of doing it on your own, that you can finally believe that God loves you free of charge. It was never about what you could do, Jesus loves you—you can trust in that love, not in your own power.
Every once in awhile, one of my older children will start throwing a temper trantrum. And, depending on the situation, sometimes Kristy, my wife, ends up holding a kicking and screaming little person tightly in her arms while they do everything that they can to escape, or hurt her or burst her ear drums. But when, after a minute or two or crying out in despair and anger, they give up, they soon realize something else . . . they are in the arms of their Mother who loves them and would give up anything and everything for them. That’s a mother’s love, you see. A mother loves her children with a passion that few people can fully understand and still, a mother’s love is nothing, absolutely NOTHING compared with the loving passion that God has for you, each one of his children.
There may be a few of you here this morning that have spent your life kicking and screaming against God. You want nothing to do with him. Christianity embarrasses you. You just can’t believe that all this could possibly be true. You might even be angry with God. You seldom come to church and you are certainly not interested in committing your life and lifestyle to Jesus Christ. What might happen if you just gave up and surrendered all that anger and frustration into his loving arms, for he is already holding you with hands that will never let you go.
In some churches, they have something called an altar call, where people are called to confess their sin and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, but Lutherans have never been much for that kind of thing. That’s because it happens already each Sunday morning when you confess your sin to yourself and to God, and receive the promise that God forgives you completely. Some of you have done this so many times that you cannot remember. But for some of you, this may be the first time that you truly admit to yourself and to God your need for forgiveness and your need for Jesus Christ. No doubt you have done much that is wrong in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of God. But, I want you to be assured that God’s forgiveness is for you. Jesus already has you in his loving arms. He has been knocking on the door to your heart for a long time. I invite you to rest in his arms, now, and to believe that God can transform your life today, and give you eternal life forever. The curse is no longer yours to bear. Jesus became a curse for you. Come to Jesus and live.
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