Church Sermon - May 29, 2005

Rev. Bernt P. Tweit

Epistle Lesson; Romans 3:21-28
Gospel Lesson; Matthew 7:15-29
Sermon Text; Deuteronomy 11:18-28

This didn’t really happen, but let’s say that I was having a conversation with one of our confirmation students, a few weeks ago. During the conversation, I asked him or her, "How are your confirmation classes going?"

Let’s say the student answered by saying, "It’s stupid."

I might say, "Well, why is it you feel that way?"

To which the student responded, "It is meaningless. My parents are making me go to these classes."

To which I might respond, something like, "Don’t you know that your parents love you and they don’t want you to go on that broad road that leads to destruction? They want you to go on that narrow road that leads to life, the road that leads to the Promised Land of eternal life in Heaven!"

That might change the way that student looks at those confirmation classes. It might cause the student to look a little bit differently at really how much his or her parents truly do love them, that they want their child to confess Jesus, as Savior and Lord.

At our second service today there are going to be 16 young people sitting here in these first two pews. I am going to remind them that their life is like a journey. Their life is like a journey, on a road to the Promised Land of Heaven. That journey began 13 or 14 years ago, at their baptism, when their parents confessed for them their faith in Jesus, as their Savior. Today these 16 young people are going to be standing up here, before their family, their friends and the congregation, confessing that same faith for themselves.

The road that they are walking on is a road called "justification". I was at their Confirmation Questioning and I know that they know the answer to the question, "What is justification?" At our second service, I am going to put them on the spot and ask them that question again. To which I know they will respond, "Justification is that act by which God declares us to be not guilty, for Jesus’ sake."

It really is a courtroom term in which we look at God, our heavenly Father, being a judge and we, standing on trial, being guilty. God declares us to be not guilty,

Yes, we are on a road called justification, on our way to the Promised Land!

We are still living today, and we won’t be completely sanctified (made holy) then, until we die and go to Heaven. And so, until that day comes, it is a process, as we are journeying down that road to Heaven. That is why today I am going to be making a passionate plea with our 16 young people, a passionate plea to stay on that road to the Promised Land. The reason that I am going to make that passionate plea with them is because Jesus once said, "Broad is the road that leads to destruction, but narrow is the road that leads to life."

In order to understand the words from our text this morning, it might be important for us to know the context of which Moses spoke these words to the Children of Israel. They had been through 430 years of slavery in Egypt. They had been through 40 years of wandering through in the desert, or the wilderness. Now, they were right on the threshold, right across the Jordan River, from the land of Canaan, the land God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Here, Moses was telling them to stay on the road. Stay on the road that leads to the blessings that God promises to give to you.

So today, with our 16 young people, as I make that passionate plea with them, I am really going to ask three things of them.

In our text for today, we hear Moses telling the Children of Israel, to fix in their hearts and minds God’s Word, to bind it on their foreheads and to tie it onto their hands. As we look at those Hebrew verbs this morning, we really see what Moses is telling them (and us) to do. First of all, we are to fix these words in our hearts and our minds. The Hebrew word for "fix" really tells us "to plant," or "to appoint," or "to deposit" God’s Word in our hearts and minds. Then, we are to bind it. It is to be a part of our everyday living.

How is it that we deposit God’s Word in our hearts? That is another question that I am going to ask our young people, this morning. We know that the Holy Spirit works through certain means in order to bring us to faith and to strengthen us in our faith. I heard the answer they gave last Sunday night. God works through His Word, through baptism, and through the Lord’s Supper to bring us to faith and to keep us in our faith.

The only way that we can stay strengthened in our faith is through continuous contact with God’s Word.

It is unfortunate that in Jesus’ day the Pharisees took these words of Moses very literally. They walked around with little boxes that they had fastened to their foreheads, and little boxes that they had fastened to their hands. They were trying to keep God’s Word in an outward way. But Jesus needed to correct them, when He said about the Pharisees, "Everything they do is done for men to see. They make their phylacteries wide (that is that little box they put on their foreheads) and the tassels of their garments long. They love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogue." (Matthew 23:5)

But, before we come down too hard on the Pharisees, we see how we too can easily become modern day Pharisees. We can become Pharisee-like, because it is so much easier to look at other people’s sins than it is to acknowledge our sins. We are so much more willing to see the speck of dust in another person’s eye (the sin they commit), than the obvious sin, or as scripture says, "the plank of wood," that is extending out of our own eye.

As we see the hands and mind of Christ, it reminds us to continue to study God’s Word. After all, what is it that the hands of Christ have done for you and our young people? Jesus was willing to have His hands stretched out and bound on the cross. Jesus’ mind was willing to submit to the Will of His Father, for your benefit and for my benefit. That encourages us to continue to study God’s Word. We see Jesus (even in His human body, while He was here on this earth) continue to study God’s Word. And, if He did that, how much more shouldn’t we?

This morning, not only am I going to encourage our young people (as a passionate plea) to continue to study God’s Word, but I am also going to encourage them to continue to share God’s Word with other people. After all, God doesn’t want our study of His Word to be just one day of the week, nor one hour a day. He doesn’t want our study of His Word to be something that is done just on a Tuesday or Thursday morning, between 8:00 and 9:00 o’clock, or on a Wednesday afternoon, from 4:30 – 6:00 (which is when we have our Confirmation Classes). He wants us to share His Word at all times. In our text for today, we are reminded of some of those times when we can study His Word.

"When you walk along the road,

when you lie down and

when you get up."

So, even in our homes, we can share God’s Word with our family and with our children, as we tuck them in with prayers and Bible stories, as we wake up in the morning, before and after meals, and even as we walk along the road. I know recently, in talking with a parent here at Holy Cross, they said they don’t have their radio turned on, as they bring their child to school, or as they go home from school. They use that time as an opportunity to talk about what is going to happen in the day to come. And at the end of the day, to talk about what transpired over the course of the day. They said it is amazing, in those 15 minutes to and from school, how often they are able to apply God’s Word to every situation in life, to share God’s Word, even "as you walk along the road."

In Jesus’ day, many Jews took these words literally too, as they put God’s Word on their doorframes and on their gateposts. Don’t we do that too, with the religious pictures we have hanging in our homes, with the crosses that we have nailed to the walls, and with the Christian symbols we have hanging? We could use those as wonderful opportunities, (not only to remind us, as we leave our home, to share our faith with others), but as people come to our house, they may ask us about them. It opens up a wonderful opportunity to a discussion with them of Jesus, as our Savior.

My final plea that I will make with our Confirmation Students, at our second service today, is that they continue to live their lives according to God’s Word. God promises us blessings, if we continue to live according to His Word. He does that, not because of anything we have done, but simply because of His mercy. We are reminded of that in scripture when it says,

"God saved us

not because of anything we have done,

but simply because of His mercy." (Titus 3:5)

As the Children of Israel were on the threshold, to the land God had promised to them, we might say they could have lived easy. They could have relaxed. They could have kicked up their feet. And yet, God wanted them to live their lives. There were people who had left the faith and were walking down that broad road to destruction, and they needed those believers.

The same it is, with us today. That is the reason why God doesn’t bring us Home to Heaven the moment we come to faith. We are here for a reason, to live our lives in the Christian faith, so that we can share with others, (those who are going down that path to destruction), what Jesus has also done for them.

As I started today, I talked about that imaginary conversation, which could have taken place with a confirmation student, and how they responded, "Confirmation classes were stupid or meaningless, because their parents were making them go." And, yet after seeing the light of the reason, (that their parents love them and want them to follow that narrow road that leads to life) they would have a different opinion. Once again these 16 young people are encouraged to stay on the road to the Promised Land of eternal life in Heaven, to continue to study God’s Word, (even though their classes are done), to continue to share their faith with others, and to live their life according to God’s Word. God grant that to them, for Jesus’ sake.

And, may we as family, and may we as a congregation, continue to encourage these 16 young people in their Christian faith.

Amen.

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