“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. “ What is faith? Being sure of hope. Being certain of the invisible. The writer of the book of Hebrews lays these words: sure/hope/certain/not seen right up next to each other and tells us: that’s what faith is! But it’s a description, not a command.
What do I mean? Just this, that for someone new to faith, Hebrews 11:1 sounds pretty difficult to attain. If you take this description of faith as a command, as a hoop to jump through in order to be saved, for instance, you might be very hard pressed to be sure that you are “sure” of hope. That you are certain that you are “certain” of the invisible. Every time that you look at your so called “faith”, you might notice that you are not quite sure and certain if it is real faith or not.
Let me explain this another way. When I was in junior high and high school, I was quite interested in girls. Actually, let’s back that up to elementary school. By the time I was ten, I really, really wanted a girlfriend and it only got worse as I got older. But the problem was that the more I wanted a girlfriend, the harder it became to find one! And what did my dad tell me about my dilemma? What were his great words of wisdom? “When you stop looking, you will find her.” So I tried to stop looking and that didn’t work either? If I saw a girl I wanted to date, I would tell myself, “Ok, if I just don’t care for about the next ten minutes she’ll be mine!” Didn’t work. I was told that, “The right one will come along when the time is right.” I waited all day, staring at the clock and it seemed like the time was never right no matter when I asked!”
But then, when I fell in love with Kristy, my wife, and she fell in love with me, the only way I could explain it would be by saying, “When I stopped looking, I found her.” “The right one came at the right time. “ Now I realize what those saying are: they are descriptions of something that is indescribable. Back in school, I thought they were commands or advice, but they weren’t. It’s about letting go of the control, or maybe realizing that there was nothing to control in the first place. They are not commands or directions on how to find love. They are more like a promise that real love is out there and there is nothing you can do to speed it along. Love is a lot like faith in that way.
If someone comes to you and says, “How do I get faith?” or “What is faith?” I would encourage you NOT to tell them Hebrews 11:1. Not that it’s not right, it is right, but it is horribly frustrating to hear for a new believer. How do you get faith? “WELL, faith is simply being sure of what you hope for . . . ah, certain of what you don’t see . . . get it?” Telling someone to : “just believe” doesn’t make sense. Believing something is a lot like falling in love. You can’t make it happen. But I once heard a pastor tell a story about a woman who was looking for faith. And when she asked him how to get it he said, “Just stick around. Come again.” And when she did come back. . . are you seeing it yet . . . when she came again . . . well why would she ever come again, if she wasn’t starting to hope for something, something she couldn’t quite see yet. That may not be a solid rock of faith (yet) but that’s a mustard seed if I’ve ever seen one.
Do you have faith? The kind that’s SURE of everything you hope for? Certain of things you can’t see? Today, the story we are going to study deals with two heroes of the faith that often didn’t act very faithful: Abraham and Sarah. But in order to understand this story, you need a little background information. “The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. ‘I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.” God made Abram a promise: He was going to become a great man with a ton of kids—enough to make a great nation! God made Abram a promise and, according to Hebrews, “By faith he obeyed and went.”
So what was the first thing that Abram, our faith hero, did on his journey? “Now there was a great famine in the land and Abram went down to Egypt to live for a while because the famine was severe. As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ‘I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife. Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.” Wow! What a “hero” of the faith! To make a long story short, Pharaoh was going to make Sarai his wife until God inflicted him with serious diseases until he gave her back to Abram. But why did faithful Abram worry he was going to die? God had made him a promise to be a great nation! Tough to do that when you are dead! But when God makes a promise, God keeps it. God delivered Abram from his mess.
A few chapters later, God made Abram another promise, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield and your very great reward.” Abram said, “What can you give me because I remain childless?” God said, “Look towards the heavens and count the stars—if you are able to count them—so shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, the text says, and God credited it to him as righteousness. Wow! Abram believed. Now that IS faith. But they got tired of waiting. Ten years later, Sarai had Abram sleep with her servant girl so that she could at least have a child running around. His name was Ishmael. Abram believed for sure, but I guess he was also hedging his bets . . . just in case.
Let’s take a time out for a second. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” That’s a great description of faith, but tough to achieve, isn’t it? Are you always sure? Are you always certain? Or do you doubt? Does your faith get challenged? Do you get tired of not knowing enough? Do you get fed up with suffering and heartache? Is ten years of waiting too long? Well guess what: that’s faith too. It’s certainly the faith of Abraham and Sarah. Because our faith is based not on what we can do and on the description of what faith really is, our faith is held together by something that comes from outside of us. Faith needs a promise to hold onto and that promise comes from God.
In our reading for today, Abram is now 99 years old. I don’t know if God had been talking to Abram throughout the 14 years after Ishmeal (the son of the servant girl) was born, but you’ve gotta wonder. I wonder how Abram felt? “I screwed up. I lost my faith. God hates me. There goes my dream. Shouldn’t of done it.” How did Sarai feel? “I messed up. Should’ve waited. Shouldn’t have done it.” And then God speaks. “Abram.” “Oh, God . . . about Ishmael . . .” “Abram. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. As for your wife, I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her.” And Abram thinks. Uh-oh. God’s got a really sick sense of humor. He’s not just mad at me, he’s being sarcastic. The newly named Abraham laughs and says, “Well, how bout we just compromise and you bless Ishmael! Works for me!” God says, “Yes. I’ll do that. AND I’ll raise you another son. Sarai is going to have another child. You’ll name him Isaac. See you then!”
Abraham laughed when God told him his promise. Sarah laughed too when she heard the same thing. If that’s faith . . . well, maybe then there’s hope for you and me! Hebrews writes, “By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.” Abraham trusted God’s promise, in God’s power, in God’s ability to do the impossible! He didn’t understand how. He didn’t understand why. He was leaving it in God’s hands because, honestly, what else could he do! Maybe that’s what faith is: waiting around for the right time, letting go of the control, just sticking around and coming back to see what God’s going to do.
You’ve each been given a promise, more than one in fact. Things that sound too good to believe mostly. Things like: “Yours sins are forgiven.” You been given a promise. Things that you don’t understand, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” You’ve been given so many promises. Things that might look darn right incorrect at this juncture of your life, “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly!” We feel our guilt and wonder if God could possibly forgive us. We see death and can’t imagine anything beyond that. We look at cancer and infertility and divorce and bitterness and can’t bring ourselves to have faith in anything good. But that’s what faith looks like sometimes. It doesn’t always make sense, or feel good, or stand strong. I don’t want you to put faith in your own faith. For sinners like you and me, that can be very dangerous.
You’ve got to put your faith in the promise of someone greater that you. A God who always keeps his promises, whether to Noah, or Abraham, or you. Maybe that will make sense to you someday, but if not just keep coming, stop striving for faith and let go of your control, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and being certain of what we do not see.” God promises you that he will never leave you or forsake you. That nothing can separate you from His love. If you’re not quite “sure” or “certain” of that yet—just stick around and put your trust in God’s promises—in his power. Not in your powers of faith, but in God’s promise. Amen.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Sermon for October 17th (Abraham-Follow)
There is an old Far Side cartoon where a flock of sheep is pictured. In the middle of the flock, one sheep is standing up with his hands in the air and his mouth open yelling to the rest. The caption says, “Wait! Wait! Listen to me! We don’t have to be just sheep!” We don’t have to be just sheep. Nobody wants to just be a sheep. Not even a sheep! Sheep are notorious for being followers whether it is to the feeding trough, to the shearers or to the slaughterhouse. Most of us fear being labeled “a follower”, being labeled a sheep, because we want to be seen as leaders—as movers and shakers. But Jesus says, “Follow me.” Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice.” “My sheep follow me.” What do you think about that? To be a follower. Jesus says, “Follow me.”
Perhaps another important question is to ask: Well, if I am to follow Jesus, where would he lead me? That answer is very simple: to the cross. To death. And then. To life. To follow Jesus is to follow him through suffering, even persecution, and then to be led to eternal life. Are you going to follow Jesus? Not just with your heart, not just with your words, but with your actions? Jesus loves you and he is calling you. Will you follow Him?
This morning, you witnessed what following Jesus can mean. This morning, a new child of God was redeemed. Karen was baptized this morning. Her sins were washed away in the flood of God’s forgiveness and that promise is hers to believe in, to trust in, forever. Even the very gates of hell cannot hold a candle to God’s Holy Spirit poured out upon this woman. Today is a celebration of faith. A faith that follows.
Faith means to trust. Faith means to listen. Faith also means to follow. In Acts, chapter 2, the apostle Peter said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” Jesus said, “God therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Jesus said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” To follow Jesus by faith alone, is to stand up and confess your faith and to believe that Jesus died for your sins and was raised to give you a new life with God. Just as God called Abram to leave his old life and enter a new land, in the waters of baptism, we are called to follow Jesus from our old life to a new life.
But what if you have already been baptized? Some Christians believe that in order to follow Jesus you must wait until a certain age to be baptized. Baptism, for them, is an opportunity to show your commitment (something that a infant could not do). I would agree that baptism is wonderful way to show commitment to Christ, but it is much more than that.
In the waters of baptism, you die, the old you dies, that is. There is now a new you. One that already has one foot out of the grave and with God in heaven. A new you that, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, trusts in God for life. To follow Jesus means to follow him to death, just as he died on the cross, we die in the waters of baptism. Age isn’t the issue here—God’s promise and power is the same. But to follow Jesus also means to live, for just as he was raised from the dead, by faith in his promises we too are able to walk with a new life. The apostle Paul says in Romans, “For if we have been united with Christ in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his!”
What if you’ve already been baptized? How do you follow Jesus? How do you show your commitment if not through a “believer’s baptism” as it is sometimes called? Well, that depends on how God calls. One example, from my life, was that I had to leave my calling in music that I loved to go to seminary and be a pastor. For Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran theologian, it meant working against Hitler and the Nazis and risking his life, family and future. Following God often means trading in one thing for another. One job for a new one. One and for another. An old way of living for a new way of life. God may have called you to eternal life long ago, but listen . . . listen. How is God calling you back into your life today? I was asked multiple times to go to seminary before I ever went. It’s taken a few months of deliberation before this baptism took place today, right? And Bohoeffer didn’t face the Nazis without much soul searching and trepidation beforehand. So what has God called you to do . . . that you haven’t followed yet? Jesus says, “Follow me.”
Faith means to follow. It’s the natural action for faith to take. Over internship in Harvey, North Dakota, I heard a story that reminds me a lot about how faith involves following. There was a pastor there who asked a little girl after the service one week, “What are you going to do today. “I don’t know!” She answered, “What!?” Little children understand that faith means to follow. This girl didn’t know what was going on that day, she just knew that she could trust her parents and when they led her into the day, she would gladly follow. We cannot forget the importance of following to our faith. Do you trust God enough to follow where he leads? To follow ALL of the commandments? To follow him and forgive? Even the person you do not want to forgive? Even your enemy?
The Lord said to the man Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land that I will show you.” Abram was called to follow. He was told by God, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” Abram could have simply listened to God and trusted him, but that wouldn’t even make sense without following! Do you understand this? The only way to truly listen to God, the only way to trust God would be for Abram to follow. But in our Christian life we’ve almost made following into an extracurricular activity, rather than a necessary part of our faith lives.
As a musician in a symphony, you must follow. First, you had to be excellent at what you did. But, no matter how good you were, you had to follow the conductor. The good of the piece was more important than the virtuosity of the player. We must follow God’s commandments, yes, but the goal of the commandments is love. Without following Jesus, we become lost in our self-righteousness. In fact, it is our tendency to get lost in making ourselves look good at the expense of others. That’s why the word “follow” is so wonderful.
Faith means to follow. But God has also promised that, for him, faith means to follow. “My sheep hear my voice.” Jesus says, “I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. Nothing will snatch them out of my hand.” Or as Psalm 23 puts it, “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” This morning, Karen, you followed Jesus and surrendered yourself to his mercy. He forgave your sins once and for all. But in that promise of God, there is so much more he gives. He promises that as you follow him, he will follow you. For all those of you who have been baptized, this is the same promise that you each have. Wherever you go, he will never leave you or forsake you. He is always watching over you. Faith means to follow. God knows this. And just as all of us here are called to follow God, he promises to follow us to the ends of the earth, even through death itself, so that he might bring us to be with him.
Faith means to follow. There are so many times in our lives when we are called to follow into the unknown and simply trust in God to see us through. At the birth of a child, when those labor pains become overwhelming, you are called to follow God through the pain and into the face of a screaming newborn baby. At confirmation, you stand up here at probably the most awkward stage of your life and confess our faith not knowing exactly where that faith will take us. Not knowing all the details, but trusting in God’s grace. In marriage, you promise to love and cherish another person till death do you part, trusting in God’s strength to help you keep that promise even when that other person no longer deserves your love. You find a way to follow God and keep on loving.
At death, you are called to trust in God and fall asleep in the arms of your precious Savior. We cannot know the way, we can only know Jesus who IS the way, the truth and the life. We follow Him to a place we cannot find without Him. He follows us into the grave and then into eternal life. God calls you to trust and listen and follow Him by faith alone, knowing that wherever he leads you, he will follow you there. Jesus says, “Follow me. I will follow you.” Amen.
Perhaps another important question is to ask: Well, if I am to follow Jesus, where would he lead me? That answer is very simple: to the cross. To death. And then. To life. To follow Jesus is to follow him through suffering, even persecution, and then to be led to eternal life. Are you going to follow Jesus? Not just with your heart, not just with your words, but with your actions? Jesus loves you and he is calling you. Will you follow Him?
This morning, you witnessed what following Jesus can mean. This morning, a new child of God was redeemed. Karen was baptized this morning. Her sins were washed away in the flood of God’s forgiveness and that promise is hers to believe in, to trust in, forever. Even the very gates of hell cannot hold a candle to God’s Holy Spirit poured out upon this woman. Today is a celebration of faith. A faith that follows.
Faith means to trust. Faith means to listen. Faith also means to follow. In Acts, chapter 2, the apostle Peter said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” Jesus said, “God therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Jesus said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” To follow Jesus by faith alone, is to stand up and confess your faith and to believe that Jesus died for your sins and was raised to give you a new life with God. Just as God called Abram to leave his old life and enter a new land, in the waters of baptism, we are called to follow Jesus from our old life to a new life.
But what if you have already been baptized? Some Christians believe that in order to follow Jesus you must wait until a certain age to be baptized. Baptism, for them, is an opportunity to show your commitment (something that a infant could not do). I would agree that baptism is wonderful way to show commitment to Christ, but it is much more than that.
In the waters of baptism, you die, the old you dies, that is. There is now a new you. One that already has one foot out of the grave and with God in heaven. A new you that, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, trusts in God for life. To follow Jesus means to follow him to death, just as he died on the cross, we die in the waters of baptism. Age isn’t the issue here—God’s promise and power is the same. But to follow Jesus also means to live, for just as he was raised from the dead, by faith in his promises we too are able to walk with a new life. The apostle Paul says in Romans, “For if we have been united with Christ in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his!”
What if you’ve already been baptized? How do you follow Jesus? How do you show your commitment if not through a “believer’s baptism” as it is sometimes called? Well, that depends on how God calls. One example, from my life, was that I had to leave my calling in music that I loved to go to seminary and be a pastor. For Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran theologian, it meant working against Hitler and the Nazis and risking his life, family and future. Following God often means trading in one thing for another. One job for a new one. One and for another. An old way of living for a new way of life. God may have called you to eternal life long ago, but listen . . . listen. How is God calling you back into your life today? I was asked multiple times to go to seminary before I ever went. It’s taken a few months of deliberation before this baptism took place today, right? And Bohoeffer didn’t face the Nazis without much soul searching and trepidation beforehand. So what has God called you to do . . . that you haven’t followed yet? Jesus says, “Follow me.”
Faith means to follow. It’s the natural action for faith to take. Over internship in Harvey, North Dakota, I heard a story that reminds me a lot about how faith involves following. There was a pastor there who asked a little girl after the service one week, “What are you going to do today. “I don’t know!” She answered, “What!?” Little children understand that faith means to follow. This girl didn’t know what was going on that day, she just knew that she could trust her parents and when they led her into the day, she would gladly follow. We cannot forget the importance of following to our faith. Do you trust God enough to follow where he leads? To follow ALL of the commandments? To follow him and forgive? Even the person you do not want to forgive? Even your enemy?
The Lord said to the man Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land that I will show you.” Abram was called to follow. He was told by God, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” Abram could have simply listened to God and trusted him, but that wouldn’t even make sense without following! Do you understand this? The only way to truly listen to God, the only way to trust God would be for Abram to follow. But in our Christian life we’ve almost made following into an extracurricular activity, rather than a necessary part of our faith lives.
As a musician in a symphony, you must follow. First, you had to be excellent at what you did. But, no matter how good you were, you had to follow the conductor. The good of the piece was more important than the virtuosity of the player. We must follow God’s commandments, yes, but the goal of the commandments is love. Without following Jesus, we become lost in our self-righteousness. In fact, it is our tendency to get lost in making ourselves look good at the expense of others. That’s why the word “follow” is so wonderful.
Faith means to follow. But God has also promised that, for him, faith means to follow. “My sheep hear my voice.” Jesus says, “I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. Nothing will snatch them out of my hand.” Or as Psalm 23 puts it, “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” This morning, Karen, you followed Jesus and surrendered yourself to his mercy. He forgave your sins once and for all. But in that promise of God, there is so much more he gives. He promises that as you follow him, he will follow you. For all those of you who have been baptized, this is the same promise that you each have. Wherever you go, he will never leave you or forsake you. He is always watching over you. Faith means to follow. God knows this. And just as all of us here are called to follow God, he promises to follow us to the ends of the earth, even through death itself, so that he might bring us to be with him.
Faith means to follow. There are so many times in our lives when we are called to follow into the unknown and simply trust in God to see us through. At the birth of a child, when those labor pains become overwhelming, you are called to follow God through the pain and into the face of a screaming newborn baby. At confirmation, you stand up here at probably the most awkward stage of your life and confess our faith not knowing exactly where that faith will take us. Not knowing all the details, but trusting in God’s grace. In marriage, you promise to love and cherish another person till death do you part, trusting in God’s strength to help you keep that promise even when that other person no longer deserves your love. You find a way to follow God and keep on loving.
At death, you are called to trust in God and fall asleep in the arms of your precious Savior. We cannot know the way, we can only know Jesus who IS the way, the truth and the life. We follow Him to a place we cannot find without Him. He follows us into the grave and then into eternal life. God calls you to trust and listen and follow Him by faith alone, knowing that wherever he leads you, he will follow you there. Jesus says, “Follow me. I will follow you.” Amen.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Sermon for October 10th (Noah)
Today you will be hearing a lot about a man named Noah who was made famous by building a big boat called an ark. But while it’s easy to focus on the animals and the logistics of 40 days and 40 nights of rain, I believe that this story is about something much more relevant to most of us. But first, how about a quick review from last week. The story about Cain and Abel. I know, I know, sorry to bring that back up again, but understanding that story makes a big difference in how we understand this story about Noah. Now, if you weren’t here last week, please feel free to go back and listen to the sermon online (off of our website) or read it on my blog as well at home. But for those of you who were here the pressure is on!
Why did God favor Abel and his offering and not Cain? Just to make it easier I’ll make this multiple choice: God favored Abel because: A. God likes sheep fat more than whole wheat grain. B. Abel brought the firstlings of the flock while Cain brought grain. C. Abel tried harder than Cain. Or D. God favored Abel because of Abel’s faith. The answer is: D. God favored Abel because of his faith. How do we know? That’s what the text in Hebrews 11 says. It wasn’t Abel’s offering that God favored, it was Abel’s faith that mattered.
So, it’s a new week and we’ve got a new hero of the faith to look at: Noah. Now, how did Noah find favor? (We always find a way to get confused at this point. We tend to forget all the lessons we learned from Cain and Abel.) There are two verses that we must line up, one against the other, to figure this out. First, verse Genesis 6, verse 5, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” Every inclination? Every inclination. All the time? All the time! Even Noah? Well, is he part of the earth? Yes. Wouldn’t he have the same inclinations, the same thoughts and the same heart? Yes. “All have fallen short of the glory of God.” Even Noah. So please don’t forget that part when you read what verse 9 says, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.”
“Noah was a righteous man”, correct, but before we ever hear that Noah was a righteous man, we hear that, “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” in verse 7. Noah found favor with God BEFORE we are ever told how righteous and blameless he is! And just like Abel before him, Hebrews 11 says this, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.” It does NOT say that God picks the most righteous man on earth to build an arc. It does NOT say that there was only one good guy left on earth so God had to pick that one. “By faith Noah, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.” God chose Noah just like he chose Abel.
Now, I am sure that Noah was a great guy because the Bible says it is so. “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time”. I hear about these people all the time! Well, sure he doesn’t believe in God, “But he is a great guy!” “I’m not sure if he believes in Jesus, but you’ll never hear anyone say anything bad about him!”
Martin Luther explained that we each have two different reputations. We look one way to the world around us, our community, our family and so on. And we look one way to God. We have one kind of righteousness in the eyes of the world. A “civil righteousness” he called it. So we are good fathers and mothers, or we are awful cooks, or we are shady businesspeople, or we are great athletes, or we are generous givers. “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time.” Good job Noah! But in God’s eyes, we don’t look good because of what we do, but because of faith in God alone. In God’s eyes, he saw that every inclination of the thoughts of people were only evil all the time. Bad job Noah and bad job all of us! “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” Not by how he acted, but by faith in God alone. And this is really interesting. After the text says that “Noah was a righteous man and blameless among the people of his time” it says this, “and he walked with God.”
For the next several weeks, I am going to be focusing on different aspects of your walk with God. Last week, I talked about trust. God favored Abel. Abel trusted in God’s choice. This week, I’d like to talk about another important part of your faith walk, a part that Noah was really good at. Listening. Noah listened to God.
Here’s an interesting tidbit about the story of Noah and the ark. Do you know what Noah said when God called him to build the ark? Nothing. Do you know what Noah replied when God told him that it was going to flood? Nothing. Do you know what Noah said when God made a covenant with him to never flood the earth again? Nothing. That’s because in this Bible story, Noah has no speaking parts. God does all the talking. Does that mean that Noah was mute? No. After they left the ark, Noah got drunk one night and passed out naked. When Noah found out that one of his sons had told his brothers about it, he spoke up very clearly and cursed his son. Pretty messed up, huh? But remember, Noah was not a perfect hero of the faith, he simply listened when God spoke to him.
Try this for a moment. We are going to pray to God . . . in silence. We are going to ask God to speak to us and then we are going to listen to him. For all of you in Sunday school, you should know how this works. You’ve been learning about the prophet Samuel. When the prophet Samuel was just a little boy, he heard God’s voice and was told to say this, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” I’m sure that many of you pray and tell all your troubles to God, you ask him for things, you thank him for things, you praise his holy name . . . but have you ever taken the time to listen to what he might have to say back to you? This might be a good time to start. Let us pray, “Speak to us, O Lord, your servants are listening.”
Imagine if you took thirty seconds, a minute or more after you prayed to listen to what God had to say back. Maybe you would hear a still small voice, maybe you would simply have a feeling inside you pulling you in a direction that you couldn’t resist, maybe you won’t hear anything. Your God is a living God, a God who spoke the world into existence and continues to sustain you with his breath of life. He is still speaking. Are you listening?
Noah listened to God. He didn’t just HEAR God, he heard and followed—he listened. Some people worry that they might hear their own voice and their own ideas, or worse, the voice of an evil spirit, not God, when they pray. This is certainly a possibility. How might you know the difference? John 14, “Jesus said, The Holy Spirit will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” And again in John 16, “He will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” Jesus and the Holy Spirit say the same things.
For example, if you ask God for guidance about staying faithful to your wife and you feel certain that you hear a voice say that you should have an affair instead, then you can be 100% certain that this is NOT the Holy Spirit. Why? Because God does not contradict himself by saying “Do not commit adultery” in one place of scripture and then change his mind later on. But when you are struggling with temptation, you may also hear a voice say, “I will not leave you or forsake you.” That might not be the answer you were looking for, but it might give you the strength to stay committed and the assurance that you are forgiven for even strong temptations. Noah was favored by faith alone. But when he listened to what God commanded him, he became a hero of faith.
The story of Noah’s ark isn’t really about animals is it—it’s about God’s mercy and Noah’s listening. How might you involve listening into your walk of faith? Besides having some silent time at the end of a prayer, how else might you listen? Coming to church and staying connected with the ministry of word and sacrament is important. When you hear the forgiveness of yours sins, when you are challenged or strengthened in the words of a faith talk, song or sermon, you are listening and walking with God in faith.
But reading the word of God, studying the Bible daily, might be the best way to listen to God. I don’t mean simply “skimming” the text, but expecting the words to speak to you. Whenever you open the pages of a Bible, you are in the presence of a living God who is still speaking and you have the opportunity to be changed. God loves to hear from you in prayer, but in the words of the Bible, God is speaking directly to you. Comforting you when you are distressed, judging you when you are sinning and warning you of times to come. Noah was favored by God, and God warned him about things not yet seen. That’s great. But I am also thankful that Noah listened. In holy fear he built an ark to save his family. God might have something to warn you about, but you’ve never listened to what he has to say. Take the time to listen.
Listening does not just mean hearing, but trusting and acting on the words you hear. Trusting God is an important part of faith, like Abel, but listening to the words God speaks might save you one day, like it did Noah. In the words of the prophet Nahum, “The Lord is good, a stronghold in a day of trouble; he protects those who take refuge in him, even in a rushing flood.” The Lord promises to speak. He has chosen to be your God and favors you because of faith alone. But remember the story of Noah. When God speaks, you have the chance to listen. It might make a really big difference for you and your family some day. Amen.
Why did God favor Abel and his offering and not Cain? Just to make it easier I’ll make this multiple choice: God favored Abel because: A. God likes sheep fat more than whole wheat grain. B. Abel brought the firstlings of the flock while Cain brought grain. C. Abel tried harder than Cain. Or D. God favored Abel because of Abel’s faith. The answer is: D. God favored Abel because of his faith. How do we know? That’s what the text in Hebrews 11 says. It wasn’t Abel’s offering that God favored, it was Abel’s faith that mattered.
So, it’s a new week and we’ve got a new hero of the faith to look at: Noah. Now, how did Noah find favor? (We always find a way to get confused at this point. We tend to forget all the lessons we learned from Cain and Abel.) There are two verses that we must line up, one against the other, to figure this out. First, verse Genesis 6, verse 5, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” Every inclination? Every inclination. All the time? All the time! Even Noah? Well, is he part of the earth? Yes. Wouldn’t he have the same inclinations, the same thoughts and the same heart? Yes. “All have fallen short of the glory of God.” Even Noah. So please don’t forget that part when you read what verse 9 says, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.”
“Noah was a righteous man”, correct, but before we ever hear that Noah was a righteous man, we hear that, “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” in verse 7. Noah found favor with God BEFORE we are ever told how righteous and blameless he is! And just like Abel before him, Hebrews 11 says this, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.” It does NOT say that God picks the most righteous man on earth to build an arc. It does NOT say that there was only one good guy left on earth so God had to pick that one. “By faith Noah, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.” God chose Noah just like he chose Abel.
Now, I am sure that Noah was a great guy because the Bible says it is so. “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time”. I hear about these people all the time! Well, sure he doesn’t believe in God, “But he is a great guy!” “I’m not sure if he believes in Jesus, but you’ll never hear anyone say anything bad about him!”
Martin Luther explained that we each have two different reputations. We look one way to the world around us, our community, our family and so on. And we look one way to God. We have one kind of righteousness in the eyes of the world. A “civil righteousness” he called it. So we are good fathers and mothers, or we are awful cooks, or we are shady businesspeople, or we are great athletes, or we are generous givers. “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time.” Good job Noah! But in God’s eyes, we don’t look good because of what we do, but because of faith in God alone. In God’s eyes, he saw that every inclination of the thoughts of people were only evil all the time. Bad job Noah and bad job all of us! “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” Not by how he acted, but by faith in God alone. And this is really interesting. After the text says that “Noah was a righteous man and blameless among the people of his time” it says this, “and he walked with God.”
For the next several weeks, I am going to be focusing on different aspects of your walk with God. Last week, I talked about trust. God favored Abel. Abel trusted in God’s choice. This week, I’d like to talk about another important part of your faith walk, a part that Noah was really good at. Listening. Noah listened to God.
Here’s an interesting tidbit about the story of Noah and the ark. Do you know what Noah said when God called him to build the ark? Nothing. Do you know what Noah replied when God told him that it was going to flood? Nothing. Do you know what Noah said when God made a covenant with him to never flood the earth again? Nothing. That’s because in this Bible story, Noah has no speaking parts. God does all the talking. Does that mean that Noah was mute? No. After they left the ark, Noah got drunk one night and passed out naked. When Noah found out that one of his sons had told his brothers about it, he spoke up very clearly and cursed his son. Pretty messed up, huh? But remember, Noah was not a perfect hero of the faith, he simply listened when God spoke to him.
Try this for a moment. We are going to pray to God . . . in silence. We are going to ask God to speak to us and then we are going to listen to him. For all of you in Sunday school, you should know how this works. You’ve been learning about the prophet Samuel. When the prophet Samuel was just a little boy, he heard God’s voice and was told to say this, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” I’m sure that many of you pray and tell all your troubles to God, you ask him for things, you thank him for things, you praise his holy name . . . but have you ever taken the time to listen to what he might have to say back to you? This might be a good time to start. Let us pray, “Speak to us, O Lord, your servants are listening.”
Imagine if you took thirty seconds, a minute or more after you prayed to listen to what God had to say back. Maybe you would hear a still small voice, maybe you would simply have a feeling inside you pulling you in a direction that you couldn’t resist, maybe you won’t hear anything. Your God is a living God, a God who spoke the world into existence and continues to sustain you with his breath of life. He is still speaking. Are you listening?
Noah listened to God. He didn’t just HEAR God, he heard and followed—he listened. Some people worry that they might hear their own voice and their own ideas, or worse, the voice of an evil spirit, not God, when they pray. This is certainly a possibility. How might you know the difference? John 14, “Jesus said, The Holy Spirit will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” And again in John 16, “He will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” Jesus and the Holy Spirit say the same things.
For example, if you ask God for guidance about staying faithful to your wife and you feel certain that you hear a voice say that you should have an affair instead, then you can be 100% certain that this is NOT the Holy Spirit. Why? Because God does not contradict himself by saying “Do not commit adultery” in one place of scripture and then change his mind later on. But when you are struggling with temptation, you may also hear a voice say, “I will not leave you or forsake you.” That might not be the answer you were looking for, but it might give you the strength to stay committed and the assurance that you are forgiven for even strong temptations. Noah was favored by faith alone. But when he listened to what God commanded him, he became a hero of faith.
The story of Noah’s ark isn’t really about animals is it—it’s about God’s mercy and Noah’s listening. How might you involve listening into your walk of faith? Besides having some silent time at the end of a prayer, how else might you listen? Coming to church and staying connected with the ministry of word and sacrament is important. When you hear the forgiveness of yours sins, when you are challenged or strengthened in the words of a faith talk, song or sermon, you are listening and walking with God in faith.
But reading the word of God, studying the Bible daily, might be the best way to listen to God. I don’t mean simply “skimming” the text, but expecting the words to speak to you. Whenever you open the pages of a Bible, you are in the presence of a living God who is still speaking and you have the opportunity to be changed. God loves to hear from you in prayer, but in the words of the Bible, God is speaking directly to you. Comforting you when you are distressed, judging you when you are sinning and warning you of times to come. Noah was favored by God, and God warned him about things not yet seen. That’s great. But I am also thankful that Noah listened. In holy fear he built an ark to save his family. God might have something to warn you about, but you’ve never listened to what he has to say. Take the time to listen.
Listening does not just mean hearing, but trusting and acting on the words you hear. Trusting God is an important part of faith, like Abel, but listening to the words God speaks might save you one day, like it did Noah. In the words of the prophet Nahum, “The Lord is good, a stronghold in a day of trouble; he protects those who take refuge in him, even in a rushing flood.” The Lord promises to speak. He has chosen to be your God and favors you because of faith alone. But remember the story of Noah. When God speaks, you have the chance to listen. It might make a really big difference for you and your family some day. Amen.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Sermon for October 3rd (Cain and Abel)
It’s time today to talk about everyone’s favorite Bible story: Cain and Abel. What? It’s not your favorite Bible story? What?! You don’t know the story of Cain and Abel?! Well, I’m not surprised. Most people don’t really know the story of Cain and Abel and, even if you do know it, it’s probably not your favorite because the story creates problems for us. Many Christians deal with the problems by trying to explain things away, but it is time to stop that. We need to read the text and stop there without adding or subtracting from it in order to truly understand who this God is that we worship and what that means for you and me.
Genesis 4:3, “In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.” What is your first reaction to this reading? It’s probably to ask a simple question: why? Why did God look with favor upon Abel and not Cain? We want God to look upon us with favor and so we want to end up like Abel and not Cain. Why did God look with favor upon Abel and not Cain?
Read the text. What does it say? Does it say why? No it does not. Read the text! I’ve heard so many explanations that aren’t there! Everyone is interested in judging whose offering was the best: they say that Cain must have brought the chaff instead of the grain, or that an animal sacrifice would have been worth more than grain or that it was the first fruits of the flock rather than the leftover grain or that Cain didn’t really care while Abel did or that God likes meat more than grain. Enough speculation. What does the text say? “The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.” No reason is given here.
You must look at another text, from Hebrews 11, to find your answer, “By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings.” Look again at that text from Genesis, “The Lord looked with favor on Abel AND his offering.” God is looking not simply at the difference between lamb or wheat. The offering is acceptable according to who is giving it. In other words, the offering itself doesn’t make the giver acceptable, the giver makes the offering acceptable. Abel is accepted by faith alone.
Let me say this in another way through a story told by Jesus in Mark chapter 12, “Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.” Which offering is better in this case? Well, the answer is obvious! A large amount of money is better than a fraction of a penny! If God is interested in you giving him the best of the best then the rich people should be favored over the widow. But that is not how this story ends, “Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, ‘I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” What does this story tell us? Only something we already knew from Samuel chapter 16, “The Lord does not see as mortals see. They look on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart.”
“By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did.” God did not look simply at the grain or the firstlings, he looked at Abel AND his offering. At Cain AND his offering. He looked at their hearts and favored the heart of Abel because of the faith he saw there. Again, should this surprise us? That God cares about faith and not what we bring him? No. Romans chapter 3, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” And Habakkuk 2, “The righteous will live by faith.” Cain and Abel is a story about faith.
But that puts us in a bind. Because faith is not something we own. Faith is not something we can attain as if we can grow a bigger faith muscle to show off to God. Faith is not another work that we can do if we really try hard enough. If God’s favor doesn’t have to do with the gifts you bring to him, whether it be firstlings of the flock, or the fruit of the ground, or a lot of money or a couple of copper coins, then how can we come to him and offer him our faith as if it were something we accomplished. “For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing, it is a gift of God.” Ephesians 2:9. Faith is God’s gift to you.
But if God favored Abel instead of Cain and it wasn’t because of his offering, but by faith alone . . . given to him as a gift from God. Then God just chose Abel instead of Cain! He gave Abel faith and then favored Abel! And that doesn’t seem fair!
Probably because it’s not. It’s not fair. That’s the problem we have with God. And that’s why everyone hates this story by the way. They’d rather change the text and make God look nicer or else change the text to give us a chance to look better. We don’t want salvation to be up to God and God alone. We really do want it to be up to us. We want to be able to choose God and get the glory in the end. But Paul says in Galatians, “The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” If Abel had gained God’s favor with his offering, God’s mercy would have been hidden. It had to be received by faith alone. “For if being made right with God could be gained any other way, Christ died for nothing.”
But Jesus Christ did not die for nothing. He died for you. In this election, God gets the only vote. Yes he chose you. End of story. He decided to save you, though you do not deserve it. Period. According to the first chapter of Ephesians, “In Jesus Christ, we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.” Words like that don’t leave a lot of space for you and your good works to earn salvation. It doesn’t even leave a lot of room for your great professions of faith unless you are praising God for the faith HE GAVE YOU as a gift!
Our tendency, as sinful people, is to say, “no thanks!” when God wants to save us all by himself and argue that we need to do a little something. Maybe “accept God’s gift of faith into our hearts” or at the very least not “reject” God’s love. But once again we are hemmed in by the Bible, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, together they have become worthless; there is no one who does good not even one.” All reject God. Yes, even you. That is what it means to be a sinner. The question is, when you reject God, what does he do?
Jesus said, “You did not choose me, I chose you and appointed you to bear fruit, fruit that will last.” When Peter betrayed Jesus, Jesus returned with the forgiveness of sins and a call to feed his sheep. Our fear of election is that God is taking all of our freedom away by telling us he loves us unconditionally. But the joy of election comes when you realize that you’ve only used your freedom to reject, betray and fall away from God’s love. “No one seeks God. All have turned away.” And yet God continues to pursue you with his mercy and love. There are only two choices left: Freedom or Trust.
If you choose that you want the freedom to reject God then I am sure you will. Congratulations! But if you trust God, then come what may, good or bad in your life, you will never be separated from His love. God favored Abel and Abel trusted God. Abel could’ve argued that God was wrong, because Abel was the second born, an unworthy choice. Abel could’ve argued that he wanted the freedom to choose God. Instead, Abel trusted God’s judgment. God did not favor Cain, but still loved Him enough to warn His beloved child, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?” But instead of trusting God’s choice, Cain decided to use his freedom to kill his brother Abel. It’s easy to trust in God when God is favoring you, when your health is good, when money is coming in, when everyone loves you. But faith is put to the test, when life is hard. But whether you feel favored by God or not, God calls you to trust him.
Your answer to the choice: freedom or trust, will be based on who you believe is more able to raise the dead in the end. We normally enjoy freedom until we are unable to do anything anymore—six feet underground. Then you start needing an electing God who doesn’t just talk in generalities or in explanations, but actually DOES things through an actual choice. Not a God who writes down in a book that he loves people, but a God who sends a preacher to make it clear that God loves you.
Has God simply “predestined” us for salvation or damnation and determined our every step? Here’s my answer to that: God does not care about theological musings. Whether everyone is saved or not, you’ve still got to tell them or else how can they have faith in Jesus? And if you are worried that someone is predestined for damnation, that would be a great time to let them know God’s unconditional love is for them. You can’t put your trust in philosophical explanations like “universal salvation” or “double predestination”. An electing God doesn’t simply “love the world” he loves you in particular. He doesn’t “condemn the world” but came to save through the world through faith in a particular man, Jesus.
No one likes the story of Cain and Abel, but there will come a time, perhaps that time is today, when you must follow one or the other: You must either walk away from God and trust in your freedom like Cain or trust in God and in his power to save you like Abel. The good news is that, because of Jesus, God favors you. You are His chosen one. When you find yourself believing that, trusting that good word from God, you can be assured that, just like Abel, you have been favored by faith alone.
Genesis 4:3, “In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.” What is your first reaction to this reading? It’s probably to ask a simple question: why? Why did God look with favor upon Abel and not Cain? We want God to look upon us with favor and so we want to end up like Abel and not Cain. Why did God look with favor upon Abel and not Cain?
Read the text. What does it say? Does it say why? No it does not. Read the text! I’ve heard so many explanations that aren’t there! Everyone is interested in judging whose offering was the best: they say that Cain must have brought the chaff instead of the grain, or that an animal sacrifice would have been worth more than grain or that it was the first fruits of the flock rather than the leftover grain or that Cain didn’t really care while Abel did or that God likes meat more than grain. Enough speculation. What does the text say? “The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.” No reason is given here.
You must look at another text, from Hebrews 11, to find your answer, “By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings.” Look again at that text from Genesis, “The Lord looked with favor on Abel AND his offering.” God is looking not simply at the difference between lamb or wheat. The offering is acceptable according to who is giving it. In other words, the offering itself doesn’t make the giver acceptable, the giver makes the offering acceptable. Abel is accepted by faith alone.
Let me say this in another way through a story told by Jesus in Mark chapter 12, “Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.” Which offering is better in this case? Well, the answer is obvious! A large amount of money is better than a fraction of a penny! If God is interested in you giving him the best of the best then the rich people should be favored over the widow. But that is not how this story ends, “Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, ‘I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” What does this story tell us? Only something we already knew from Samuel chapter 16, “The Lord does not see as mortals see. They look on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart.”
“By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did.” God did not look simply at the grain or the firstlings, he looked at Abel AND his offering. At Cain AND his offering. He looked at their hearts and favored the heart of Abel because of the faith he saw there. Again, should this surprise us? That God cares about faith and not what we bring him? No. Romans chapter 3, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” And Habakkuk 2, “The righteous will live by faith.” Cain and Abel is a story about faith.
But that puts us in a bind. Because faith is not something we own. Faith is not something we can attain as if we can grow a bigger faith muscle to show off to God. Faith is not another work that we can do if we really try hard enough. If God’s favor doesn’t have to do with the gifts you bring to him, whether it be firstlings of the flock, or the fruit of the ground, or a lot of money or a couple of copper coins, then how can we come to him and offer him our faith as if it were something we accomplished. “For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing, it is a gift of God.” Ephesians 2:9. Faith is God’s gift to you.
But if God favored Abel instead of Cain and it wasn’t because of his offering, but by faith alone . . . given to him as a gift from God. Then God just chose Abel instead of Cain! He gave Abel faith and then favored Abel! And that doesn’t seem fair!
Probably because it’s not. It’s not fair. That’s the problem we have with God. And that’s why everyone hates this story by the way. They’d rather change the text and make God look nicer or else change the text to give us a chance to look better. We don’t want salvation to be up to God and God alone. We really do want it to be up to us. We want to be able to choose God and get the glory in the end. But Paul says in Galatians, “The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” If Abel had gained God’s favor with his offering, God’s mercy would have been hidden. It had to be received by faith alone. “For if being made right with God could be gained any other way, Christ died for nothing.”
But Jesus Christ did not die for nothing. He died for you. In this election, God gets the only vote. Yes he chose you. End of story. He decided to save you, though you do not deserve it. Period. According to the first chapter of Ephesians, “In Jesus Christ, we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.” Words like that don’t leave a lot of space for you and your good works to earn salvation. It doesn’t even leave a lot of room for your great professions of faith unless you are praising God for the faith HE GAVE YOU as a gift!
Our tendency, as sinful people, is to say, “no thanks!” when God wants to save us all by himself and argue that we need to do a little something. Maybe “accept God’s gift of faith into our hearts” or at the very least not “reject” God’s love. But once again we are hemmed in by the Bible, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, together they have become worthless; there is no one who does good not even one.” All reject God. Yes, even you. That is what it means to be a sinner. The question is, when you reject God, what does he do?
Jesus said, “You did not choose me, I chose you and appointed you to bear fruit, fruit that will last.” When Peter betrayed Jesus, Jesus returned with the forgiveness of sins and a call to feed his sheep. Our fear of election is that God is taking all of our freedom away by telling us he loves us unconditionally. But the joy of election comes when you realize that you’ve only used your freedom to reject, betray and fall away from God’s love. “No one seeks God. All have turned away.” And yet God continues to pursue you with his mercy and love. There are only two choices left: Freedom or Trust.
If you choose that you want the freedom to reject God then I am sure you will. Congratulations! But if you trust God, then come what may, good or bad in your life, you will never be separated from His love. God favored Abel and Abel trusted God. Abel could’ve argued that God was wrong, because Abel was the second born, an unworthy choice. Abel could’ve argued that he wanted the freedom to choose God. Instead, Abel trusted God’s judgment. God did not favor Cain, but still loved Him enough to warn His beloved child, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?” But instead of trusting God’s choice, Cain decided to use his freedom to kill his brother Abel. It’s easy to trust in God when God is favoring you, when your health is good, when money is coming in, when everyone loves you. But faith is put to the test, when life is hard. But whether you feel favored by God or not, God calls you to trust him.
Your answer to the choice: freedom or trust, will be based on who you believe is more able to raise the dead in the end. We normally enjoy freedom until we are unable to do anything anymore—six feet underground. Then you start needing an electing God who doesn’t just talk in generalities or in explanations, but actually DOES things through an actual choice. Not a God who writes down in a book that he loves people, but a God who sends a preacher to make it clear that God loves you.
Has God simply “predestined” us for salvation or damnation and determined our every step? Here’s my answer to that: God does not care about theological musings. Whether everyone is saved or not, you’ve still got to tell them or else how can they have faith in Jesus? And if you are worried that someone is predestined for damnation, that would be a great time to let them know God’s unconditional love is for them. You can’t put your trust in philosophical explanations like “universal salvation” or “double predestination”. An electing God doesn’t simply “love the world” he loves you in particular. He doesn’t “condemn the world” but came to save through the world through faith in a particular man, Jesus.
No one likes the story of Cain and Abel, but there will come a time, perhaps that time is today, when you must follow one or the other: You must either walk away from God and trust in your freedom like Cain or trust in God and in his power to save you like Abel. The good news is that, because of Jesus, God favors you. You are His chosen one. When you find yourself believing that, trusting that good word from God, you can be assured that, just like Abel, you have been favored by faith alone.
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