Church Sermon - May 8, 2005

Rev. Mark F. Bartels

Historical Lesson; Acts 1:8-14
Gospel Lesson; John 17:1-11
Sermon Text; 1 Peter 5:6-11

If you were here last week, you will remember that during my sermon, I talked about a kid I knew in high school, by the name of Dave Pywansky. I related the fact that Dave Pywansky was a guy who had an insatiable desire for food. And, he aggressively would go after food. The theme of the sermon was that I wish we could all be Dave Pywanskys, when it comes to God’s Word. I wish we would have an insatiable desire for God’s Word, and that we would earnestly dig into the Word of God.

Today, let’s go a step further. Let’s talk about another approach to food. This, being Mother’s Day, I want to tell you about my mom’s approach to food, when I was a kid. It was a very, very rare day, at our house, when I opened the cereal cupboard and found Lucky Charms, or Captain Crunch, (even though I begged for them quite regularly)! The reason they were seldom found in our cupboard was because my mother was very, very watchful about what we put into our bodies. On those days when I would beg for Captain Crunch or Lucky Charms, if we were at the grocery store, my mom would walk me over to the grocery store’s cereal isle. She would take the Lucky Charms off the shelf, turn the box over, and say, "Mark, read the ingredients."

I would read through it and then she would say, "You see the first ingredient there is refined flour and the second ingredient is refined sugar! And then, look at all of those other things! There are chemicals in there that are not very good for us."

Finally she would say, "Lucky Charms aren’t as good for our bodies, as what we eat for breakfast."

Now, what did we have for breakfast? Well, my mom would make a variety of hot cereals. And so, every morning there was some kind of hot cereal out. One day I would wake up, and we might have Cream of Wheat. The next day I’d wake up, and we might have Oatmeal. The next day I’d wake up, and we might have something called Instant Ralsten. Another day I’d wake up, and we might have Cracked Millet. Finally, my least favorite was cooked Buckwheat. My mom was very watchful about what we ate and it was healthy.

She would also have us take our vitamins. She would sit us down, and explain why vitamin C was good for us, and what vitamin B complex did for our bodies, and what vitamin E did for us. She was very faithful and very watchful about what we put into our bodies.

She even bought organic foods. She would explain to us boys that some farmers put chemicals out on the crops. They did that to keep the bugs and the weeds away. But, some of those chemicals could be harmful for our bodies, so she would buy organic foods that did not have those chemicals on them.

I could go on. My mom was very, very watchful, when it came to what we put into our bodies. And, this was not a passing fad. She was not just like that for a week, or a month, or a year. She was like that from the time I was a little guy, until the time I left home. And, she is still like that today.

Now, while I wish that we were all Dave Pywanskys, when it came to having an insatiable desire for the Word of God and a desire to dig deeply into the Word of God, I also wish it were true that all of us here were like my mom, when it comes to being watchful over our souls, what goes into our souls, and what goes on in our souls. We all have to admit that we are not as watchful as we should be. Jesus said,

"Watch and pray,

lest you fall into temptation."

There our Savior, Jesus, tells us that prayer is an important part of being watchful in what happens with our souls, and what goes on in our souls. We all have to admit that we aren’t as watchful as my mom, when it came to food, as we should be when it comes to our souls. Often we are lax, lazy, careless, and cold in our prayer life. We aren’t concerned, when we pray to God, about being watchful for our souls.

Often times we put ourselves right into situations that could even be terribly dangerous for our souls. We are not careful about what we watch on TV, or what we watch in the movies, or the songs that we listen to over the radio, or the people we associate with. All of which could be a danger to our soul. We don’t watch and pray the way we ought to.

Oh, there may be times when we fall into sin and we feel terribly guilty. And then we commit, in our mind, "Now I am going to be more watchful and prayerful." And, we do it for a while, but then we begin to grow lax again. Oh, how I wish we were all very constantly steadfast and watchful about what goes on with our souls and in our souls.

The reason I wish we were all so watchful is because of what scripture says today.

"Your enemy,

YOUR ENEMY

the devil

prowls around like a roaring lion,

looking for someone to devour."

The devil constantly, from now, until the day you and I close our eyes for the last time, will constantly, relentlessly be after us, presenting temptations before us, trying to devour us, destroy us in our faith, and get us to lose our salvation. And, that is no game.

The catechism prays that we would not be led into misbelief, despair, or other shameful sin and vice. All of our lives, the devil, (by the things we see on TV, the things we hear on the radio, the people we associate with, within education, whatever it may be), is going to try to lead you into misbelief. In other words, lead you away from the gospel of Jesus Christ, into some other philosophy or some false teaching, so that you loose your faith in the gospel. And then, he devours you. Oh, how we should watch and pray. This is no game.

Or, the devil tries to lead us into despair. The devil may, when some great guilt that you are dealing with, or when burdens and trials come into your life, he may begin to relentlessly whisper into your ear, "Oh, there is no God. God doesn’t care about you. He doesn’t love you. He doesn’t want you," in an attempt, a relentless attempt to get us to give up our faith in Jesus, as our Savior, and so devour our souls. Oh, how we ought to watch and pray. This is no game.

Or, the devil tries to lead us into vice, and shame, and sin. He constantly places before us what appears to be pleasures, which would lead us away from Jesus, our Savior. His goal is to get you to love one of those shameful sins or vices, more than you love Jesus, your Savior. And then, to begin to live in that sin and be unrepentant. And by doing so, lose your eternal salvation in Jesus, as your Savior. Oh, how we ought to watch and pray. This is no game.

So, how do we learn to be more watchful and more prayerful over what is going on in our souls? Number one we must be motivated. We must be motivated only by the Gospel. In our scripture reading for today the Bible calls the devil, in Greek, the word diabolos. diabolos is made up of two separate Greek words. Balo, which means "to hurl or to throw". Dia, which means "against". So, it is a picture of someone hurling or throwing something against something else. It can actually can be translated, accuser.

The devil is the accuser and he hurls accusations at us, to try to get them to stick to us. Oh today, today the devil acts as if he is your friend. He may offer all kinds of things to you. But tomorrow, tomorrow, when the Day of Judgment comes, he will turn his back on you. And then, he will begin to hurl those accusations at you, to get them to stick. And, if he can get those accusations to stick, then you will be condemned for eternity. You can imagine on Judgment Day, the devil hurling those accusations saying, "You lied. You cheated. You stole. You lusted. You were greedy. You were selfish."

On and on, he will hurl those accusations at us, all of which are true. And, if they stick we will be condemned. But, the awesome news in scripture is this. As believers in Jesus our Savior, we can boldly, confidently, and daringly say to the devil, "Go ahead. Go ahead and throw those accusations at me. Throw them all at me, because in the Bible, scripture tells me that all of those accusations will miss me. They all have stuck to Jesus. Jesus is the liar. He is the cheater. He is the one who is greedy. He is the one who is selfish. He is the one who lusted."

That is what the Bible tells us. All of our sins lie on Jesus. Jesus became what we are. Jesus was condemned, because of our sin. We can say to the devil, "Therefore you cannot condemn me. Those accusations do not lie on me. They lie on Christ. He has paid for my sins. He has become what I was and I have become what He is. He gives us His holy, perfect life."

Jesus is the one who has freed us. He has freed us from the accusations of the devil. It is only that Gospel message that causes us to say, "I want to live to serve my Savior, Jesus. I want to be watchful. I want to watch over this soul that Jesus has redeemed."

So, how do we become watchful? Our scripture reading says, "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour."

It also tells us to humble ourselves.

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand."

What does it mean to be humble? To be humble means, you do not have a higher opinion of yourself than you ought to. Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, when it comes to the temptations of the devil, none of us in this room should have a high opinion and think even for a moment that I personally am strong enough to stand up under the temptations of the devil, all by myself. The Bible says, "If anyone thinks he stands, let him take heed, least he fall." History and the Bible are filled with examples of people who thought that by their own power, they could stand up under temptation, and put themselves right in the face of temptation, only to fall and to fall deeply and fall hard. None of us here should have a high estimation of ourselves and think that we, by ourselves, can stand up under any single temptation of the devil. If we do that, we will bring everything to destruction. To humble ourselves, means to admit that, when it comes to the temptations of the devil, unless we have the help of God, we cannot, for one moment, for one second, one hour, one day, withstand the temptation of Satan.

Now, when a person has that correct attitude toward himself or herself, and understands that without the help of God we cannot stand up under the devil’s temptation, what is the natural reaction? The natural reaction then is to ask God for help. Which gets us to another passage in today’s scripture reading. "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all of your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you."

There the scriptures tell us to put all of our burdens and all of our weights, (including all the temptations we undergo), into the hands of our Savior, Jesus. Cry out to Him in watchfulness and prayer, "Jesus help me, in the face of temptation."

Martin Luther once wrote a book, a little booklet, a wonderful, little, booklet. I wish all of you could have it in your hands, right now and look at it. It is a little booklet called, How a Christian Should Pray.

Martin Luther used to pray a couple of hours every day. Someone once asked him, "What do you pray about for two hours?" So, Martin Luther sat down and he wrote this little booklet about how he prayed. Last week I talked about our old catechisms and what a wonderful tool they are. In this little booklet, Martin Luther says, "I pray the catechism, every day." Then he gave some examples.

"When I pray about the commandments, I break each commandment into four sections.

So, let me give you an example. In this little booklet Martin Luther talks about the Sixth Commandment,

You shall not commit adultery.

Luther says, "I break that up into four sections. Here is how I pray. Number one, I pray to God about the instruction He gives me in that commandment. I pray,

‘Dear Heavenly Father,

In this commandment you want to protect my wife and my daughter, and other people’s wives and daughters. You want to keep them from shame and harm. You want me to live a decent, chaste life.’"

(I could go on, but we don’t have time today.)

Martin Luther goes on and says, "Secondly, I thank God for giving me that commandment, and so I pray something like this,

‘Dear Heavenly Father,

I thank you that you care enough about my wife and my daughter that you want to protect them by this commandment and keep the world from becoming so unruly that they abuse my wife and my daughter.’"

(And again, I could go on.)

Then he said, "Number three, I confess my sins against this commandment. I pray,

‘Dear Heavenly Father,

I know that I have sinned against this commandment, in my thoughts in my words and in my actions. I don’t deserve to have you love me or care about me. I pray for your forgiveness.’"

(Again I could go on, but we don’t have time today.) "Finally, I pray, fourthly, that God would give me the strength to stand up under the temptations against this commandment. I pray something like this,

‘Heavenly Father,

When I am tempted to sin against this commandment, help me instead, to honor my wife, to honor other people’s wives. Give me strength to live a chaste and decent life, as you would have me live.’"

That is a beautiful way to pray!

So, we look at Dave Pywansky and his insatiable desire for food, who dug deeply into it, and wish that we would do that with the Word of God. And, my mom had a steadfast watchfulness over what happened with our bodies. Oh, that we would all have that watchfulness with what happens with our souls, particularly with all of the temptations that are around. And, like Martin Luther, may we pray the Word into our hearts, pray that Word into our hearts, so that when temptation does come, only by the grace of God, we can stand fast, steadfast and firm, and immovable.

Amen.

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