Let Us Teach Our Children God's Word

Let Us Teach Our Children God's Word!

Deuteronomy 6:1-15 During his earthly ministry our Lord Jesus Christ asked a question of those who followed him that I want to put before you today on this Christian Education Sunday:  “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”  We understand that question don’t we? 

Health.  A home.  Work we love.  Family.  All of these are incredible blessings from God—all of them make our earthly life a joy.  But all of them come to an end—all of them, without exception.  And then eternity. 

Every blessing of an earthly life, stacked one upon another over the course of a long, long life is still nothing compared to eternity when the only thing that will matter, the only thing that will count is:  did we live with God on earth through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?  Did we trust that our sins were washed away by his blood shed on the cross?  Did we believe that death was a defeated enemy because of Christ’s resurrection?  Did we live as God’s children in the power of the Holy Spirit?

If we did, then a lifetime of earthly blessings will be magnified beyond measure in the glories of heaven!  If we did not, then every earthly blessing from the bountiful hand of the God of creation will testify against us in the eternal fires of hell.  “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”  And of course, the answer is absolutely nothing!  We understand that about ourselves, don’t we?

But do we understand the same about our children?  We love our children.  It’s hard to even put into words how much we love our children.  We want the best for them.  We make sure they go to the doctor and dentist.  We try to provide good meals.  We take them to dance and music and sports.  We help them study and want them to succeed academically.  We guide them in choosing a college major and a career.  Our lives are filled to overflowing with care and concern for our children so that they can be happy and healthy and successful. 

But the question of Jesus stands:  What shall it profit your child to gain the whole world and lose their soul?  And the answer is the same for them as it is for you:  absolutely nothing.  It is just as critical for your child as it is for you to have a life with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—for that is the only thing that matters eternally.  So it has always been.

In our Old Testament lesson today we see the children of God preparing to enter the Promised Land.  The LORD saved them from slavery in Egypt.  He drowned their enemies in the waters of the Red Sea.  He guided them, protected, and provided for them.  They would enter into and possess a land that they had not earned and did not deserve.  They would eat from vines they had not planted and drink from wells they had not dug.  All of the blessings of their Savior God would be poured out upon them.  They would have it all.

But their heavenly Father knew about his children that, having it all—apart from a life with him—was the worst thing that could happen to them and he wanted to make sure that first things came first in their life.  And so how would that take place?  Having been given the world, how could he make sure that they did not lose their soul along the way? 

They would need to be taught.  They would need to be taught the story of salvation.  They would need to be taught what that story meant in how they lived their day to day lives.  That story would need to be very center of their life together in their families and that story would need to be taught for the sake of those who came after them so that they too would possess the one things needful—a life with the LORD.  The Bible says:

 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 

            This is the great confession of faith of God’s people in the Old Testament.  The LORD is the One who spoke to Abraham and promised to make him a great nation and bless the world through the Messiah who would come through him and then renewed that promise again and again.  The LORD is the One who protected his people from death as they took refuge under the blood of the lamb.  The LORD is the One who delivered his people from slavery and drowned their enemies and cared for them and guided them and provided for them and protected them.

This great, gracious salvation story that is grounded in the person and work of the LORD--the one, true Savior God-- was to be held and treasured in believing hearts and be told and taught again and again.  The great, gracious salvation story was to be the very center of their lives as God’s people and the very center of their lives as families.  So it is for us.

We bring our children to the waters of Holy Baptism so that their spiritual enemies would be destroyed in those gracious waters.  And then we teach them the story of their Savior God—how he shed his blood on the cross so that we could take refuge in it from the powers of darkness and death---how he feeds us with that very sacrifice to strengthen our faith in him—how he abides with us all our days to bring us to the homeland in heaven.

Telling this great salvation story and explaining what it means begins in the home and it is the chief responsibility of parents.  To give your children everything and fail to give them the story of salvation is to fail in the only way that matters eternally.  And so we teach our children.  We tell them the story of Jesus.  It forms the very heart of our homes and our lives together in families.

That great, gracious salvation story is the reason we have a Sunday School and Christian Day School—to assist parents in their solemn responsibility to make sure that their children know their heavenly Father who loves them with an everlasting love and to show them what this Good News means for their day to day lives.  The Bible says:

“Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it,

            When they could do nothing to save themselves—God saved them.  When they had no weapons to defeat their enemies—God destroyed them.  When they had way to support themselves—God provided for them.  Their life with God, from beginning to end—was the story of his gracious love that made them his children. 

And so then, it was BECAUSE they were the children of a gracious heavenly Father that they were called to live in such a way that their lives were a reflection of his own:  not to BECOME God’s children—but BECAUSE they were God’s children—and as God’s children, their heavenly Father had a will for their lives that was expressed in the commandments, statutes and rules he gave them.

We understand this as parents.  We have rules that govern life in our house and our children are expected to obey them.  We have values we live by that we want our children to live by too.  We have ways of doing things that we want our children to follow.  All of this—not so our little ones can become our children—but because they are our children.  So it is with us and our heavenly Father and we need to teach and model this life of obedience to our children. 

There is a great deal of confusion about this among the people of God.  On one side are those who think that their life with God as his children comes about through their obedience to his will rather than by his gracious love.  On the other side are those who mistake his gracious love as a license to live however they please.  Neither are right.

Instead, our lives as God’s children are to be lived in conformity to his will that he reveals to us in the Law.  We no longer see his expectations for our lives as some terrible, burdensome imposition.  We are children of the heavenly Father!  We delight to hear our Father’s Word!  We are blessed to do our Father’s will!  We rejoice to walk in our Father’s ways!  We stand in holy awe of our heavenly Father and we desire the same for those who come after us in our family.  The Bible says that we walk in his ways and do his will so that we

may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly

            By God’s grace the Eckert family have been Lutheran Christians since the Reformation.  Many of you can say the same thing about your Christian family.  A heritage of faith is a precious thing!

One generation after another making it their first priority that their children know and believe the one thing needful:  the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ—helped along the way by faithful pastors and teachers and fellow Christians. 

Everyone assembled here today—especially our teachers—have the same privilege and responsibility in this place and time, among this generation.

What we do in our homes and churches and Sunday Schools and Christian Day Schools in teaching the faith to our children has ramifications far, far beyond the children in our care at this moment.  It affects their children and every generation that comes after them and it affects each of them eternally.  The Bible says:

take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.  You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

            We began our meditation on God’s Word this Christian Education Sunday by hearing the voice of Jesus who asks us about ourselves and our children:  “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”  He ask us to consider that question about the dangers of because it is entirely possible to do so and it is entirely possible for our children as well.

            We live in a world that is actively opposed to everything that we value and hold dear as God’s children.  We live among people who worship and serve false gods of materialism and power and selfishness and sexual immorality.  The culture and word-view and values of this time and place stand in stark contrast to everything we cherish as God’s children.

We and our children are not magically immune from the temptations to go the broad and easy road that leads to eternal life and just as there is incredible blessing from a heritage of faith—there is an incredible curse when just when Christian falls away because they take their children with them and their children with them and countless generation fall under the wrath of God.  May God forbid such a thing happening to us and those we love! 

We belong to God and so do our children for the LORD has brought us out of slavery to sin and death by the outstretched arms of his Son Jesus on the cross so that we might be his for time and eternity.

And so then, we are to stand in awe of him and serve him and trust that we live in his presence in every thing that we do and every word that we speak and we are to teach our children to do the same.  May God grant it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve

Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve!

Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18 In our text today, we find the children of God in the land of Canaan.  It was a long, difficult trip from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.  But God was with them every step of the way on that journey of faith.

The LORD delivered his people from slavery--he destroyed their enemies in the waters of the Red Sea--he provided for them in their desert wanderings and guided them every step of the way with his bright, shining presence--he gave them victory over their enemies in Canaan so that they were now the possessors of the land–just as he promised. 

And so Joshua gathered the people together to remind them of this--to give them an opportunity to remember all that God had done for them–to reflect on their own lives of faith and discipleship-- to repent of their sins--and to renew their commitment to the Lord.

It is in this context--in the remembrance of what God accomplished in their salvation--that Joshua spoke to God’s people and said:  “choose this day whom you will serve”.

It is important that we understand what had transpired up to this point-- because too many people get this passage wrong.  They make these words into a “proof-text” for “decision theology”-- as if this call to serve God happened in a vacuum--as if the Israelites could choose to be God’s people or not—choose to be saved or not.

But that’s not the point at all!  The people assembled at Shechem already were saved--they already were God’s people.  God had rescued them from slavery in Egypt when they could do nothing to save themselves.  God had destroyed their enemies in the waters of the Red Sea when they were powerless to protect themselves.  God had provided for them and guided them when they were lost and afraid and in need.

Joshua did not call upon them to honor and fear and love and serve and worship the Lord so that they could become his people or to save themselves.  Instead, Joshua called upon them to worship and serve and fear and love the Lord because he had redeemed them and set them free and made them his own dear children.

And so the question for the Israelites that day was this: Would they continue to serve the one who had saved them?  Would they, in grateful obedience, do as the Lord commanded?  Would they remember and recognize that it was God alone who was the source of their life as individuals and as a nation?  Or would they abandon him to follow other gods?

For Joshua, the choice was clear: “Choose this day whom you will serve”, as for me and my house--we will serve the Lord!”

If some of these ideas and circumstances and themes that we see in our lesson from the 24^th chapter of Joshua seem familiar to you and applicable to your lives at this moment–it’s because they are!  Everything that I’ve just said about the Israelites at Shechem that day--can be said of you this day. 

The Lord has set you free from slavery to the enemies of sin and death and the devil.  He has done this by one even greater than Moses--by his own Son Jesus Christ.  By his holy life, bloody death on Calvary’s cross, and glorious resurrection, Jesus has redeemed you and set you free from slavery to sin and death and the devil, and through faith in Christ, you are God’s child.

Just as with the Israelites, your heavenly Father has provided for your physical needs every moment of your life’s journey.  More importantly, he has provided for your spiritual needs.  Week after week he has spoken to you from his Holy Word: revealing your sins—and assuring you of his forgiveness- and providing guidance for your life.  He has given you the true manna from heaven, Jesus’ own body and blood in Holy Communion.

It has been a long journey from the waters of Holy Baptism to this moment, but God has been with you every step of the way–just like he promised.

And so then, this day, just like that day thousands of years ago,  is an opportunity for you to remember all that God has done for you–to reflect on your own life of discipleship up to this point–to repent of your sins–and to renew your commitment to the Lord.

Just like for the Israelites that day, this day is important in your lives as God’s children because there is a choice of eternal consequence that lies is before you: a choice to either remain steadfast in the knowledge and worship of the true God and serve him only-- or to slowly but surely give in to the idols of the pagan world that are present all around you.

And so then, the question for you this day is the same as it was for the Israelites of that day: Will you serve the God who has rescued from your sins at the cost of his own Son’s life?  Will you honor the God who has made you a part of his people through Holy Baptism?  Will you fear and obey the God who has conquered death and the grave on your behalf?  Will you love this one, true Triune God who has loved you from eternity with an everlasting love?

Or will you follow and love and serve and honor the false gods of this sinful world in which you live?  “Choose this day whom you will serve!”

That you can make this decision to serve God at all is only because God has already graciously chosen you in Christ to be his child.  Jesus told his disciples, “You did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you to bear fruit that will last.”  Paul assured the Ephesian believers that, “God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world, to be holy and blameless in his sight.”  He told the Thessalonians that “God chose them to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.”  And James reminded his congregation that “God chose to give us birth through the Word of truth.”

The Good News for you today is that God has chosen you in Christ to be his own dearly loved child  in time and eternity, by giving you the gift of faith in Jesus Christ-- and it is only because of God’s choosing you-- that you can choose to serve him as your master.  “Choose this day whom you will serve!” 

These are some of the most inspiring words in the whole Bible.  Many of us have them in our homes in some format–on a plaque or wall hanging.  For thousands of years these words have been a rallying cry for every true believer to re-commit themselves to the Lord. They are a call to all of God’s people–young and old–to remember God’s salvation in Christ and repent of our sins and resolve to serve him more faithfully and follow him more carefully.  “Choose this day whom you will serve!”

No less than the children of Israel, you are surrounded by a pagan world and their false gods.  Not gods of wood and stone and metal-- but the much more subtle, and therefore sinister, gods of materialism and self-centeredness and sexual immorality.  This is the culture of death in which you live.

Satan, the great deceiver, is still at work in this world and would have you be lax in your commitment to the Lord and lull you into sinful, spiritual complacency.  You will be tempted to abandon your spiritual lives by staying away from worship and bible study.  You will be tempted to make room in your lives for sin.  You will be tempted to use your Christian freedom, not to grow closer to the Lord, but to grow closer to the world.

This is the spiritual battle that you will face–and you should be aware of it.  It is a serious thing the Lord asks of you today–to commit your lives to his service–to promise your faithfulness to Him above all others–to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from your confession of faith and your allegiance to Christ’s church. 

“Choose this day whom you will serve.”  The Israelites, to their credit, despite their failures of the past and uneven track record in obedience, joined with Joshua in resolving to follow the Lord.  With one voice they affirmed all that Joshua had said and they promised their obedience to the LORD.  “We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God!”

There will be challenges in your walk of faith.  There will be times when you stumble and fall.  But the God who has known and loved you and chosen you from eternity to be his own–the God who lived, died, and rose again to save you—the God who called you to be his own in Holy Baptism--will be with you-- moment by moment and day by day–lifting you up–forgiving you–strengthening you-- and guiding you by his abiding, living presence in Word and Sacraments.

This is why it is so critically important to attend worship services regularly and hear and study the Word of God and receive the Body and Blood of Christ and be absolved of your sins.  These are the gracious means that Jesus has lovingly provided to keep you strong in your faith and resolute in your commitment to serve him.  

In light of this never-ending love that God has for you in Christ Jesus, I invite you, to join with all of God’s faithful people past and present and make this solemn resolution in your heart today: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”  To this end may God grant you his grace for Jesus’ sake!  Amen.

Be Imitators of God, as Beloved Children

Be Imitators of God, as Beloved Children

Ephesians 4:17-5:2 When Caroline’s dad was a young man he loved to race anything with wheels and an engine—from motorcycles to cars.  Unfortunately, he had a major wreck--lost a leg-- and went through life with an artificial limb—and because of this, had a very distinctive walk.  He was also a photography buff and so from the day she was born, he was taking pictures and making 8mm movies of Caroline.

And in one 8mm movie, made when she was only about two or three, there is this little brown-eyed girl walking with the same distinctive walk as her father.  She’s not making fun or being cruel of course—this is simply the way her father walks-- and so imitating him, this is the way she walks.

In God’s Word today, the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to tell us that we are to be imitators of God, as his beloved children—that we are not to walk as the world—but to walk as Christ and make him manifest in our words and deeds to a world that very much needs to hear and see him.  The Bible says:

You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.  They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

            A question that has always haunted me as a pastor and a Christian husband and father is this:  Is my life as a Christian really, noticeably, discernibly different from the unbelieving world around me? 

In other words is my daily life and that of my family different from the nice family who lives next door or down the street who are not Christians?  Different in how I view life?  Different in my priorities?  Different in my values?  And if it is not—why not?

The Bible says that we MUST NO LONGER walk as the Gentiles do.  In other words, our lives as Christians are to be radically different from that of the world’s. 

Our worldview—our way of viewing the world around us and interpreting what is valuable and good and true must be different—for the world’s view of these things is distorted.  Paul says that their minds are futile—they are darkened in their understanding—and they are ignorant.  And these intellectual problems stem from a common spiritual cause:  they are alienated from God.

Paul puts his finger on something that we have all wondered about:  how when it comes to such basic issues as the right to life, and the value and dignity of the human person, and the sanctity of marriage—how people who are just as intelligent as we are—can see things so very, very differently than we do? 

It’s because the unbelieving world does not really don’t think about these things like we do because they are alienated from God.  And alienated from God, they not only come from a totally different starting point and perspective—but the trajectory of their lives away from God grows more and more pronounced over time. 

A life devoid of God will always give itself over to sensuality because that it all it has.  And by sensuality, Paul is not just talking about sexuality, but about all manner of satisfying and catering to the flesh.  Sensuality is always a downward spiral at an ever-increasing speed for no material things can ever truly satisfy mankind-- for we were not made for them—but for God.

That is why I asked the question that I did about our lives being noticeably different than the world’s-- and why I am so concerned about the answer-- for we cannot, without great spiritual peril to our life with God, adopt the thinking of the world on marriage or money—career and children—without also adopting a worldview that is totally alien to the Spirit of Christ.  The Bible says:

This is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 

            This section brings up another question and concern that I often wonder about both as an individual Christian and as a Christian pastor:  have I clearly, consistently, and without compromise taught the truth about what it means to be a Christian to my family and congregation?  Or having I downplayed the importance of a true and living faith that results in a changed life?

I oftentimes get the idea that many, many Christians do not understand or ignore or want to downplay—the connection between their faith in Jesus and their day to day life of discipleship—and so I want to make sure that everyone here understands that necessary connection.

We ARE saved by grace alone through faith alone by Christ alone—but that faith is never alone—it is always accompanied by a changed life-- and the fruit of the Spirit-- and good works that serve our neighbor. 

In other words, the cause of our salvation is always God’s grace alone and the content of our salvation is Christ alone—but the consequence of saving faith for God’s children is a holy life like our God’s.  This is the teaching of Holy Scripture and the teaching of our church.  And so then…   

The entirety of the Christian life consists in putting off the old self and putting on the new self—in other words, repenting in sorrow over our sins and trusting in Jesus for salvation—and living out that reality by imitating God.

The point is this:  repentance and faith are infinitely more than just words—but they are as dramatic a change within a person—in their heart and minds and lives--as being raised from the dead to life—for that is exactly what they are—spiritually speaking. 

This divine dynamic of dying to sin and rising in Christ is worked in us by the Holy Spirit through Word and Sacrament and it is not just a once in a lifetime thing-- but a daily renewal in the life of a child of God and a sure sign of a true and living faith. 

The new person within each of us, recreated in the image of God in righteousness and holiness, desires to please God in all that it does.  Paul goes on to show us some concrete examples of what this new self looks like as we strive to imitate God.  Paul says:

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

            The list that Paul gives are examples of what imitating God looks like in daily life but it is not meant to be exhaustive.  Rather it deals with some broad categories of behavior:  our daily vocations and speech and emotions.

            Regarding our daily vocation, Paul says that dishonest ways of making a living must be avoided—that there is no shame in working hard for our daily bread. 

Work is one of those gifts like marriage and sexuality that was given to mankind BEFORE the fall into sin—it is a good thing (marred by sin into more hardship than God intended) but a good thing:  a good thing because it is the way that God has provided for caring for ourselves and our family—a good thing because it is the means that God has provided for caring for others who genuinely cannot care for themselves.  Our heavenly Father is at work in this world and so his children work.

Regarding our speech Paul says that we are to speak honestly with one another.  This admonition to honest speech is needed in our day.  We live in time and place where honesty is in short supply.  Politicians on both sides of the aisle make promises they have no intention of keeping.  Husbands and wives lie to one another about what they spend and children lie to their parents about where they’ve been. 

But as Christians we are called to speak the truth in love.  Paul says that our speech as Christians is to supposed build up those we speak to rather than tear them down—that it is to convey grace and blessing to others just like the words of our heavenly Father.

And Paul closely ties our speech to our emotions.  Bitterness, malice, wrath, and anger are emotions that often times show up in our speech.  How many times have we truly forgiven one another after some disagreement but the harsh words that were spoken in the argument linger for years? 

These kinds of emotions hurt one another-- but they also hurt our relationship with God.  The Bible says that they grieve the Holy Spirit—because they are a denial of the God of love who lives within us AND within that other person that we are angry with.

Instead, we are to be “kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”  Anger and malice and bitterness are what idolatry looks like as it is expressed in human emotions. 

We sinfully stand at the center of the universe and are angry that everyone else doesn’t recognize it and let us have our way.  And when that anger continues on without repentance and faith-- it takes hold over our whole lives in bitterness and a malicious intention to hurt others as they’ve hurt us.  All of this—from beginning to end—is a denial of who we are as children of God’s love in Christ.

There is only one person in the universe who has a perfect right to his anger and that is God in his holy, righteous anger at our sins.  And yet God loved us-- and his heart was tender towards us-- and he sent his Son into the world to take upon himself that righteous wrath over our sins—so that now there is forgiveness and peace for us and a right relationship with God. 

God wants that same thing in our relationship with others.  That we have received his forgiveness MEANS that we will share that forgiveness with others in the same way it was given to us—freely and without condition. 

Everything that we’ve talked about today—what our life with God is supposed to look like and how that is done--can be summed up in the last verses of our text.  Paul says:

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

            In Jesus Christ, God has forgiven us and loved us and given us new life AND he has shown us how we are to live our lives:  that we are to imitate him and love others.  May God give us strength to live this out day by day!  Amen.

Equipping the Saints for the Work of Ministry