"Our Response to God's Gift"Sermon Transcript for January 14, 2001
By Rev. Mike Beck
We return today to our sermon series on basic Christian doctrines. Prior to the season of Advent and Christmas let me remind you of some of the themes we had been looking at. We looked at the doctrine of sin and how that sin separates us from God. We looked again at the doctrine of grace; God’s unmerited favor poured out in response to our sin. We looked at the doctrine of salvation under the sermon title, "What does it mean to be saved?" And then in the message prior to Advent, the last one, in the sign of the fish and the Greek letters, ICTHUS, Jesus, Son of God, Savior. We looked at the place that Jesus Christ plays in our salvation. And in all of those doctrines we realized our need of salvation. We realized our inability to save ourselves. We realized that salvation is a gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
But the question that I want to explore today and the doctrine that the Christian Believer classes will be looking at this Wednesday is this, What part, if any, do we play in our salvation? Or another way to put it, What is our response to God’s gift? A careful study of Scripture, I believe, reveals a three-fold answer to that question. And we’re going to take a few moments today and we’re going to use a variety of medium to explore each one of those responses. They’re all related to each other. We’re going to look first of all at the response of our confession of sin. And then we’re going to look for a moment at the response of our public confession of faith. And then, thirdly, we’re going to look at the broad profound truth of what it means as our response of God’s gift of salvation to allow Christ to become the Lord of our life.
Confession of Sin: First of all let’s look at this matter of confession of sin. I John 1:9, which is a verse that I hope you have memorized says, "If we confess our sin, God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." There is, my friends, tremendous therapeutic value in confession. If a neighbor or good friend or fellow Christian comes to you at some point with a need to confess, let them do it! Don’t stop them by saying, "Oh, God has forgiven you. That’s in the past. Put it behind you." There is tremendous therapeutic value in confession of sin. When we engage in the act of confession I think there are at least three things that take place. First of all, as we confess our sin, what we are doing is we are taking inventory of our lives. Growth forward always starts by stopping and taking inventory so that we can make adjustments. Secondly, when we engage in confession we feel a sense of release. There is a catharsis within almost as if when there is a wound and there is bleeding often time you need to let that pus and infection get out so that the healing can begin. And then, thirdly, when we confess our sin we are acknowledging our need of God. We are turning to the one who can forgive us our sin.
However, in most Protestant churches, we don’t do a very good job in providing opportunities for confession. The liturgical "confession of sin" either is omitted, and you’ll notice I don’t print the printed prayer of confession very often because more often than not when we do it every week it becomes the meaningless recitation of words. We just kind of go through the motions. But I’m convinced in looking at church history that when the Protestant Reformation came along one of the abuses within the church that they were dealing with was the misuse of confession that had been occurring within the Catholic church through the sale of indulgences and other related things. But the only problem was, we as Protestants never put anything in to take the place of the very real need for confession.
You may have heard me say this is why I believe that when we take communion in Protestant churches we don’t know how to celebrate it. We don’t know how to take communion and make it a joyful time of celebration because communion becomes our time to engage in confession. We get so very little opportunity to do that, that when we take communion and this is why people often like to be able to kneel at an alter to receive communion, because there is that need within us for confession.
Take your hymnals if you will. And you’re going to need them through the rest of the service because we are going to first of all turn to a prayer of confession on page 12. Turn with me to page 12. A wonderful prayer of confession that is a part of one of our liturgies of holy communion. Page 12 down about the middle of the page, the bold print. And I invite you to read it now with me. We’re going to read it slowly that you may reflect upon the words.
Confession and Pardon
Merciful God, we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart. We have failed to be an obedient church. We have not done your will, we have broken your law, we have rebelled against your love, we have not loved our neighbors, and we have not heard the cry of the needy. Forgive us we pray. Free us for joyful obedience, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
In response to God’s gift, confession ought to be a daily part of our lives. It is not the thing that earns us salvation. And I want to keep coming back to that today. These things are not things we do in order to earn salvation. They are our response to God’s gift. But in reflecting on this theme in preparation for the message today, the Lord gave me this simple guide to confession that may be helpful to you. I hope you have memorized the fruit of the spirit--there are nine of them. Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. And self control. As you spend your daily time alone with God, as a means of confession I invite you to take two or three of those fruits of the spirit to reflect upon them in this way. Lord, where have I failed to show love? Lord, where have I not been patient? Is there an area in which I have been unfaithful? Am I exercising the self-control to which you are calling? And as things come to mind where you have fallen short of realizing the fruit in the spirit in your life, may become a vehicle for you to confess those sins to God.
Turn now in your hymnal to number 348. It’s a hymn of invitation but it’s also a hymn that talks about our response of confessing our sin before God. Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling. Calling for us to come home. And we have a need to do that every day of our lives. And as we confess our sin we are coming home to God. So let us reflect upon the words as we sing together verses 1 & 4 of number 348.
Softly and Tenderly
Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, Calling for you and for me;
See on the portals He’s waiting and watching, Watching for you and for me.
Come home, Come home, Ye who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, Calling, O sinner, come home!
O, for the wonderful love He has promised, Promised for you and for me;
Tho we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon, Pardon for you and for me.
Come home, Come home, Ye who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, Calling, O sinner, come home!
Confession of Faith: The Scripture also speaks of a second aspect of our response to God’s gift of salvation, that being our public profession of faith in Christ. Romans 10:9 says this, "If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
So in thinking for a moment about our confession of the mouth, in this regard we must be careful that such a confession does not become just a mere recitation of words. Words are easy. Words are cheap. And I believe that’s why, here in Romans 10:9, Paul says, "not only confess with your mouth..., but believe in your heart". The heart is the center of the will and the emotion. And God knows our heart. And so our words must be backed up by our actions, or as James 2:17 reminds us, we fall into the trap of "Faith without works is dead".
But our verbal and public profession and confession of faith is important. And I want to suggest a variety of ways in which that confession of faith takes place so that others know that we have received God’s gift of salvation. When an invitation is extended at an altar of prayer and we come forward to pray, are we not confessing our faith in Jesus Christ? When young people go through a confirmation class, friends, the most important thing taking place is not their joining church. That’s very secondary. The important thing that is taking place is they’re given the opportunity to make their public profession of faith in Christ. This is why I ask each of them individually the question, "Do you confess Jesus Christ as your personal savior?" When we baptize adults, it is an opportunity for a person to give public confession to their faith in Christ. Now, what we’re taking about here does not happen in infant baptism. For an infant baptism, obviously a two-year old child can not make their public confession of faith in Christ. We are initiating them into the body of Christ and that is why the confirmation ritual begins by asking those youth who were baptized as children, "Do you now take for yourself the vows your parents took for you at baptism?" But whenever we have the opportunity to baptize adults, they are confessing publicly through that act their faith in Christ. When we share a word of testimony of what God is doing in our lives, we are confessing our faith.
And I want to suggest that our confession of faith continues to take place on a daily basis through a variety of acts when we pray at mealtime, when we witness to others, and when we seek through our actions to follow the example of Jesus Christ, we are giving public confession to our faith. Turn in your hymnals now to number 332, "Spirit of Faith Come Down". And let us sing and reflect on versus 1 & 2. #332, Versus 1 & 2.
Spirit of Faith, Come Down
Spirit of faith come down, Reveal the things of God;
And make to us the God-head known, And witness with the blood.
Tis Thine the blood to apply And give us eyes to see,
Who did for every sinner die, Hath surely died for me.
No man can truly say That Jesus is the Lord,
Unless Thou take the veil away, And breathe the Living Word.
Then, only then, we feel Our interest in His blood,
And cry, with joy unspeakable, "Thou art my Lord, my God!"
And cry, with joy unspeakable, "Thou art my Lord, my God!" Our public profession of faith in Christ. And, again, before we go to the final point, we aren’t talking about those things we do to earn God’s salvation. Salvation is by grace through faith and the Bible tells us that even faith is not something we muster up on our own. It is receiving the gift of faith that God desires to give to us. But we are looking at, in that we have received this incredible gift, what is to be our response? Confession of sin, confession of faith, and then, thirdly, moving toward allowing Jesus to be the Lord of our lives.
Jesus Is Lord: This third response on our part to God’s gift is found in the earliest creed of church, the simple phrase "Jesus is Lord". When the early community would worship together, they would, with loud voice, acknowledge verbally "Jesus is Lord". Three simple words, but profound in their meaning and something, my friends, that we will strive for, with God’s help, throughout all of our lives. To help us in understanding this concept of Jesus as Lord, I want you to turn your attention to the video screen where there are four individuals that will share just briefly of their coming to understand what it means that "Jesus is their Lord".
Video Clip
1st Individual: It means He has control of your life in every area--fully integrated, not compartmentalized. He doesn’t just have one part of you, but He’s Lord of you in your job, He’s Lord of you in church, He’s Lord of you in your free time. In any relationship He has to be the center of that and it has to be out of your relationship in Christ that you react to situations that come up.
2nd Individual: Well, it means that He’s my Master, my Savior, my friend, and my King. He’s everything; that’s what it means.
3rd Individual: I can look back at my past and living with an alcoholic stepfather and there’s a lot of hurt that I can remember. A lot of tension. Not knowing what to expect from day to day whether he was going to be drunk and verbally abuse anybody in the family or whether it was safe to bring someone into the house because they may end up being verbally abused or kicked out. The tension that was always there. You were always in the form of crises. And I think it took me a long time to be able to look at my stepfather with eyes of compassion. And I just praise the Lord that Jesus Christ did come into my life and have healing take place there. Because I think about how I look at him now and I look at him with completely different eyes than I did many years ago. And it’s only because of what Jesus has been able to do with me.
4th Individual: I see people with different eyes. I see people who used to be a problem for me and I see them in a sense of compassion. I see the kind of way that Jesus would see them, I think.
Those kinds of events happen when we are responding to God’s gift of salvation by allowing Him to be more fully the Lord of our life. If you heard what the first gal said, she said, "Not compartmentalized". In other words, not going to church on Sunday morning and that’s the religious part of our life and then there’s all the rest of the week. Fully integrated. The other gal talked about "it took a long time for me with God’s help to get to where I could love and accept my alcoholic stepfather."
We often use together the words "Jesus is my Lord and Savior". But, I believe there is a very real distinction between Jesus being my Savior and Jesus becoming my Lord. Accepting Christ as our Savior, that happens in an instant. Whenever in saving faith we reach out to God to accept His gift of salvation, He enters in to our lives and we are saved. But Jesus being our Lord, I believe something a little different than that. This awareness, I believe, often takes place sometime after we accept Christ as our Savior. I remember reading in seminary one who said they thought it was almost impossible for most persons prior to the age of 30 to have any real understanding for what it means for Jesus to be Lord of their life. When we talk about Jesus being Lord we’re talking about the Wesleyan doctrine of sanctification which we will look at more fully in a future message. That, my friends, takes a lifetime.
You see, Lord, is a strong word. If someone is my Lord, they are the absolute owner. They are not somebody we just consult with for some good advice. They are the final authority. They are sovereign. When we talk about the Lordship of Christ we are talking about the relationship between a master and a servant. And I’m, as I get older, am learning not to trust cliches, because cliches are often filled with half-truths. Maybe you have been taught this little cliche, "Jesus will be Lord of all, or He won’t be Lord at all". I don’t believe that’s true! Are there any of you this morning that could hold up your hand and say, "Jesus is fully the Lord of every single area of my life?" In other words, there’s not anything that me and the Lord are still working on? This process of coming to know Jesus as Lord, with God’s help, we work on all of our lives. But, hopefully, Jesus with each passing year is becoming more and more the Lord of your life.
So in the coming year, I invite you to give daily attention to these three responses on our part to God’s gift. To take seriously confession of our sin before God, to find opportunities to give public confession to our faith, and then, thirdly, to allow God to work in your life. And that happens as we worship, as we pray, as we fellowship with other Christians, as we study the word to allow Jesus to become more and more the Lord of our lives. Our closing hymn speaks to that Lordship of Christ. It’s number 354, "I Surrender All". Let’s sing versus 1, 3, & 4.
I Surrender All
All to Jesus, I surrender, All to Thee I freely give
I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live.
I surrender all, I surrender all, All to Thee my Blessed Savior, I surrender all.
All to Jesus I surrender, take me Savior holy thine,
Let me feel the Holy Spirit, Truly know that thou art mine.
I surrender all, I surrender all, All to Thee my Blessed Savior, I surrender all.
All to Jesus I surrender, Lord I give myself to thee.
Fill me with Thy love and power, Let Thy blessing fall on me.
I surrender all, I surrender all, All to Thee my Blessed Savior, I surrender all.
Within the Gospel of Christ that we proclaim are so many paradoxes. Have any of you discovered the paradox of that hymn? That when we surrender to God, we win. We discover life as God intends it to be lived. So reflect upon your response to God’s gift. Take advantage for many opportunities for Christian growth and fellowship this week here at Grace. They are there in your bulletin. If there are those who are worshiping with us for the first time here at Grace we welcome you. Stop by the Welcome Center as you leave. We have a small gift we’d like to give to you. And be aware of those around you right now and be the body of Christ to one another following the Benediction. For those of you who might like to take time to pray at the close of the service or for communion, Reverend Dan will be here. Come forward. I will be happy to pray with you and to serve you communion. May the peace of Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit go with you all. Amen.
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