Old Testament Lesson; Amos 6:1-7
Epistle Lesson; 1 Timothy 6:6-19
Gospel Lesson; Luke 16:19-31
Sermon Text; 1 Timothy 6:6-19

I will date myself a little bit, by using this movie as an illustration. It was a movie that came out in the summer of 1984. The movie was entitled, Karate Kid. In that movie, a young high school boy, who is named Daniel, moves from New Jersey to California, where he is picked on by a group of boys who know karate. Young Daniel wants to know karate himself. And so, he looks to the aid of a karate master, whose name is Mr. Miyagi. Mr. Miyagi promises to teach Daniel karate under one condition – that he never asks why he is being taught the way he is being taught.

Mr. Miyagi promptly gets Daniel to paint a fence. It takes Daniel several days to paint that fence and he is to do so in a very specific fashion, painting up and painting down. After the fence is painted, the deck needs to be scrubbed. It takes several days, and again, young Daniel is asked to scrub it in a very specific way. Finally, there are several weather beaten cars. Daniel is to wash and wax them, waxing on in a very specific fashion, and waxing off, likewise, in a very specific fashion.

After days of doing these seemingly meaningless chores, Daniel finally says, "You have not taught me anything. You haven't taught me any karate!"

Mr. Miyagi then tells Daniel to defend himself, and he attacks Daniel with karate. He simply tells Daniel to paint up or down, and to wax on or wax off. And, lo and behold, Daniel is able to defend himself! Daniel knows karate.

Now, Mr. Miyagi knew and he expected Daniel to know karate through the skills that he had been taught (painting, scrubbing and waxing).

In similar fashion, a congregation (like Daniel) should expect their pastors (like Mr. Miyagi) to serve them with the skills that they have learned.

I want to share with you this morning three things (from our sermon text) that a congregation should expect from their pastors, based on the skills that they learned, while they were in seminary. I will share them all with you right away, but then I will go back over them, one by one.

A congregation should expect their pastor to live a godly life.

A congregation should expect their pastor to make a faithful confession.

And, a congregation should expect their pastor to feed them with God's Word, so that they can be prepared for the day when Christ returns.

In God's Word there are several places in which qualifications are listed, for someone who sets their desire on being an overseer, or a pastor. I want to read to you some of those qualifications. They are recorded in 1Timothy and in Titus. It says, "The pastor must be above reproach…be temperate…self-controlled…respectable… hospitable…able to teach…not given to drunkenness…not violent but gentle…not quarrelsome…not a lover of money…must manage his own family well…see that his children obey him. He must not be a recent convert. He must have a good reputation with outsiders. He must be blameless, not overbearing, and not quick tempered."

Dear fellow redeemed, here at the congregation of Holy Cross, as I go through that list of qualifications of what is expected of a pastor, I look at that list and I see that I have not kept one of those things that are on that list.

As I look at the expectations that a congregation has of their pastors in living a godly life, I see that I have not kept that on my own.

As a pastor is installed here, at Holy Cross, the very last question that is asked of them is this, "Will you adorn the office of the public ministry with a holy life?"

To which answer is given, "I will, with the Lord helping me through the power and grace of His Holy Spirit."

Dear members of this congregation, not only is it pastors who are not able to live a godly life, but also you are unable to live a godly life. We sink on the sinking sand of an ungodly life, just like the hymn says, (this is a hymn that our children are learning for next week),

On Christ

the solid rock I stand.

All other ground is sinking sand.

If our salvation depended upon our living a godly life, we would all sink. But, we are able to stand, when we stand with the help and power of the Holy Spirit.

The apostle Paul reminds us that we are to flee from all temptation and then to pursue after righteousness, and godliness, faith and love, endurance and gentleness, and fight the good fight of faith.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we are in a fight. And whoever believes in Jesus, as their Savior, is in a fight. We are part of the Church Militant, because the devil is trying in every way to capture us, trying to drag us down, just like he did with the rich man in today’s Gospel Lesson.

May we then with the help and the power of the Holy Spirit, live a godly life and fight the good fight of faith.

A congregation should also expect their pastors to make a good confession. Again, in the instillation service of a pastor, here at Holy Cross, one of the questions asked is, "Do you solemnly promise that you will perform the duties of your office in accordance with the confessions, and all of your teaching and administration of the sacraments will be in conformity with the Holy Scriptures? If so, answer, 'I do.'"

The apostle Paul encouraged the young Pastor Timothy to make the good confession, as he was standing before witnesses. That was probably referring to Timothy's baptism. He not only confessed his sin, but he also confessed his faith in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

I’m sure Timothy was reminded of the good confession that Jesus made. As Jesus was standing before Pontius Pilate, Pilate asked Jesus, "Are you King of the Jews?"

Jesus said, "Yes I am. You are right in saying that I am a King."

Dear members, here at Holy Cross, a pastor is not able to make a good confession on his own. Neither are you able to make a good confession on your own.

Now everything that I have been talking about so far in the sermon is based on us – our living a godly life, our making a good confession. We can't do either of those by ourselves.

We can only do those things with the help and power of the Holy Spirit. This then gets us to look outside of ourselves and see the importance of what our Savior Jesus has done.

It is our Savior Jesus

who has lived a godly life,

for us.

It is our Savior Jesus

who made a good confession

for us, perfectly.

Jesus took his perfect, godly life to the cross for us. Jesus laid down His life, so that you and I, just like poor Lazarus (in today’s Gospel lesson), could have the riches of eternal life with Him in Heaven.

This then gets us to the third of the three things that I shared with you earlier. A congregation should expect their pastor to feed them God's Word so that they can be prepared for the day when Christ returns.

To share the sternness of the Law, but also to share the sweetness of the Gospel, so that we can be prepared in our faith in Jesus, as our Savior for the day when Jesus returns.

Jesus could return (during the Viking - Packer game) today. He could return tomorrow. He could return a week from now, or a hundred years from now, or a thousand years from now.

But, it does not matter. As we are fed God's Word, as we confess our sins, as we confess our faith in Jesus as our Savior, we will be prepared for the day when Jesus returns.

Mr. Miyagi expected Daniel to know karate, with the skills he had been taught (painting, scrubbing and waxing).

In similar fashion, a Christian congregation should expect their pastors, with what they have been taught at Seminary, to live a godly life, and make a good confession so that in turn the congregation may live a godly life and make a good confession. But also, that we may grow together in God's Word, as we are fed as sheep, to be prepared for the day in which Jesus returns, so that we are able to say, just like Lazarus, trusting in God for our salvation,

"To God be honor and might forever."

Amen.