The Missing Sermon

Introduction

The missing sermon. This is what I advertised on Facebook for this morning. And of course, there was at least a comment or two about my need to find that sermon before Sunday morning at 1030 when our assembly began. The one I found is really long. No, it’s not. No, this is not about a sermon that I have misplaced or lost. In fact, to this day, I still have, I think, every, at least a hard copy of every sermon I’ve ever preached. A lot of them are totally unusable at this point, but the ones written in my earlier days would not dare use those again, but at least I have. This is not about a sermon that was stolen. Nobody steals sermons. They’ll steal a lot of things, you know.

In fact, we had a break in here at the building years ago, and they rummaged through my office, and there was stuff strewn everywhere, and no sermons were gone. People don’t realize the value of things. Interesting, is it not? Now’s where I offer my disclaimer.

Me the way of God in truth. I have been the recipient of tremendous, eloquent, awesome, truthful presentations from God’s Word my whole life. And for that I am profoundly grateful, deeply respectful and overwhelmed by the privilege that has been mine. But I must say to you, as I consider who I was when I was younger, versus who I am now and what I see now. I wish that I had heard the sermon that I’m preaching this morning. Maybe it was preached. Maybe I just was too slow to comprehend it. And you’re all shaking head, but that’s very possible. That’s yeah. Okay, I can go with that. So I’m preaching the sermon this morning as we have a number of graduating seniors who are about to spread their wings and fly.

Some of you who are home who have flown. And so I particularly want to address our young people this morning with this lesson. The missing sermon of which I speak, something that I believe is foundational to faith, religion, and serving God is a lesson about walking with God in every day. Life. We’ve been talking in the auditorium class even this morning about the historical nature of Jesus and our confidence in who he was, our confidence in the Bible as the Word of God. And all of that is wonderful, and all of that’s important. But now what are we going to do with that information? Will it lead us to walk with God every day? This may be the most important point, and it’s really the substance of everything that I’m going to say this morning.

And that is that all the right answers in this world are no substitute for relationship. I read a book years ago that was not as good as another book I read about knowing God, but it was a good book. It was called The Tragedy of Religion Without Relationships.

And now I’m glad I’m preaching the sermon to you. We are sometimes because of our emphasis, a correct emphasis, an important emphasis on getting things right, on understanding, on things that are real and true, as we look into the Word of God and we want to know and understand, all of that’s great. But without relationship, we have missed something extremely fundamental in our response to God. How do you think the Pharisees developed? Was that just a first century problem? When you think of the term Pharisee, what comes to mind? Is it positive? Oh, those bad Pharisees. Jesus was lighting them up on a regular basis. He was giving them what for. Well, what about their origin? Where did the Pharisees come from? Certainly in that intertestamental period between Malachi and Matthew and all that related to the Maccabees and the rise of these religious sects among the Jews.

All of a sudden they appear on the scene in the gospel narratives. And where did it all start? It started from a very great desire to get things right. To dissect the law of God and understand exactly in how many positive commands and how many negative commands, what God wanted, and respond appropriately in every way, and it came out of great fear and respect for God that they had seen God punish his enemies, and they didn’t want to receive the terror of God. So all of that was good. Except something degenerated along the way. Attitudes and motives were neglected. The weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, faithfulness, walking humbly with God. That’s what the Lord required of them. Micah chapter 6 and verse 8. We are to some degree the products of our heritage.

And our heritage, as those who are members of churches of Christ, as much as I can ascertain our heritage on such a broad scale. Our heritage is one of an emphasis upon getting things right. Respect for God, reverence for Him, making sure we get the rules right and teach the rules. And again, all of that is important and needful and helpful, and I am not suggesting that’s not important because it is.

What were the kinds of things that I remember growing up that were emphasized? You know, we need to have knowledge of God’s word. That’s why we sing all those songs about the books of the Old Testament, the books of the New Testament, the Apostles, and all those kids’ songs that we start singing, and all the Bible class instruction that we receive, and all the charts on the wall. We are gaining important biblical information, and all of that is the foundation of our response to God. And then we’re instructed about salvation. I’ve used this point many times. I could teach the plan of salvation before I was a sinner. Well before. Well before I was ever a sinner. And then there was a lot of emphasis on moral purity.

There were certain kinds of behavior that were things a Christian didn’t do. And it was drilled into me at a very early age. Don’t dance, don’t drink, don’t smoke. I mean, that was sort of the big three. And then as you get a little older, don’t fornicate. I mean, there’s a there’s the purity lessons that I heard over and over and over again, important lessons. And then there were the mistakes of others, the errors of others, where others had gone off the path. And again, some of this is important and helpful in our understanding to know the deviations that people have taken from the truth of God’s word. But I would just say, if I was going to focus on errors, I could probably do that all the time.

I could do that every Sunday, every lesson that I presented. But there’s something fundamentally missing here. Something that’s a little bit more challenging, even, and that is honing attitudes and developing Christ’s likeness. Even in regard to purity, there’s just some behavior that I need to restrain myself from. But it’s an even greater challenge to mold my thinking and affections into the example and likeness of Christ. I think as time developed and we saw homes breaking apart, there were other things that started being emphasized more, even to this day, about how to conduct ourselves in relationships and what marriage is supposed to look like. But I want to issue a warning in some of this. And that is in the vein of what happened with the Pharisees, we can gain all of this knowledge, all of this understanding of truth and begin to see ourselves as better than we know more, we’ve achieved more, we’re doing things right, we’re not improvising, and knowledge can make arrogant, but love edifies.

We know idols are nothing, but let us not be carried away with who we are and what we’ve become. Well, that’s my introduction to this thought that right answers are no substitute for relationship when I ask you this important question. Are you faithful today? Today. Not were you faithful when you obeyed the gospel and became a Christian and you rose to walk in newness of life. Are you a faithful person today? What is the quality? What is the quality of your dependence upon God? And what is your quality in your submission to God? What is the nature of your worship? Is it passionate? Ardent, zealous. So I want to talk to you in a very important way this morning, unequivocally, clearly, plainly about the importance of walking with God in everyday life.

1. Consecration: Daily Devotion to God

And I want to boil it down to three basic things. The first of which is consecration, or another way of saying that, is daily devotion to God. What does walking with God look like? Now that you’re in Christ and you understand the plan of salvation, and you’ve been immersed, buried with him in baptism, our sins washed away, rising to walk in newness of life. Of course, all of that is predicated upon repentance, having turned from a sinful course and confessed with our lips that Jesus is the Christ. But now that you’re in Christ, now what? Consecration. Daily devotion to God. Now, this might ring a bell from a sermon that I did back in August of last year. Well, that was nine months ago. I can’t believe it’s been nine months.

Remember the sermon that had the puzzle and the five puzzle pieces, and all the points began with the letter C, and to make that alliteration work, I had to go with the word consecration. And actually, two of the three points that I’m making this morning, I made in that sermon, and then two weeks later on a Sunday night, several of you guys took each of those five points, and we did it again. Now remember that might jog the memory a little. But I talked to you about consecration then. I like this term, it’s not used a lot. But what are we saying about walking with God in everyday life when we say the word consecration? We are talking about, because I’m a Christian, because I’m in Christ, I am now set apart for special purposes.

Consecration, that’s a religious word. That’s something that’s been set apart for sacred and religious purposes. Because I’m a Christian, I’ve been set apart to God. Another term is the word sanctified or the term saint in the New Testament. You as a Christian are consecrated. I belong to Him.

This is the message of the New Testament. And that should provoke naturally daily devotion to the one to whom we belong. How’s that going for you? Are you faithful today? Will you be faithful tomorrow? Have you fully given yourself over to the purposes of God for your life? That’s what Jesus was saying. He that wishes to save his life shall lose it. But he who loses his life for my sake shall fight. Matthew 16 and verse 25. I mentioned the term sanctify. It’s used a number of times throughout the New Testament. I think maybe in the 30s, as I recall, didn’t look that up. But there is one time in the New Testament where the word sanctify is used of what you do and what I do.

And that one place is 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 15 where it says that passage that talks about being ready to give an answer to everyone who inquires about the hope that resides within you. The first part of that verse says, Sanctify. Here is something you need to set apart. Sanctify the Lord God in your heart. This is the idea of consecration. I read an article from 2008 on Jesus’ example of consecration, which made like six excellent points, but I boiled it down to three. What did Jesus’ consecration look like? As our example. Number one, he delighted in doing the Father’s will. He always did the things that were pleasing to his Father. John 8, verse 29. If we’re going to be consecrated to God, we must delight in doing the Father’s will.

Delight in it. Number two, he sought heavenly guidance. Not my will, but yours be done. He sought heavenly guidance. And number three, he always worked keeping the goal in view. He always worked keeping the goal in view.

Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So, what’s the challenge with consecration? Are we going to walk out these doors today realizing that we are consecrated to God as his people? If the Lord wills that we awaken for another day, are we going to arise for that day? Realizing my connection with God, walking with him. Why doesn’t that happen sometimes? Why is it that religion gets confined to a building to a certain day out of the week? It isn’t real Monday through Saturday. How many people who you do you think who claim to be Christians who worship in buildings like this? Give God narry a thought Tuesday through Saturday. They need this lesson. What’s the problem? Well, there’s some interference.

2. Confidence: Absolute Trust

Agendas, acquisitions of all the material things in this world, either things we’re going to acquire or already have that have to be maintenance and taken care of, all of our stuff. Agendas, acquisitions, amusements of all kinds. I went with the alliteration there too. That’s our problem. That’s it. That’s what stands in the way with walking with God in our everyday life is that we value these things more. Everything we have planned, all that we’ve got going on, agendas, acquisitions, amusements, galore. We live in a generation of agendas, acquisitions, and amusements like never before. And we love our amusements and our agendas and our acquisitions. And it crowds out walking with God, something we think we can live without. Not successfully. You cannot. And flowing out of consecration, there is confidence.

That is absolute trust. You know, when we speak of the demands of the Christian walk, we often think in terms of the struggles that we have.

Here’s a sermon. Got to do better. And we talk about picking ourselves up by the proverbial bootstraps, you know. I’ve got to get it together. I’ve got to pull it together. Would you think about one thing? God did not put us in this position to do all of this by ourselves. As we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, don’t ever stop reading at verse 12. That is not the end of the sentence. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. God’s at work in us. And I would take you to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord. And then in verse 7, for we have this treasure in earthen vessels.

What is that? He’s not talking about a pot of gold or a treasure chest of material items. He’s talking about you, people, us. We’re the treasure in earthen vessels. That we’ve been consecrated to God to serve him, that we are his instruments, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not of ourselves. Now don’t think that means your circumstances are going to be rosy because he goes on to say they may not be rosy. He goes, We’re carrying about in our body the dying of Jesus. But he says, understand something. This is about God working in the world and working through you his vessels. We’ve got to walk with God in this journey. We have to trust in Him.

He gets up here and reads Psalm 103. One of my favorites. Thankfully, I chose another.

And he may do that more than once in our lives. Here’s a psalm I want you to get acquainted with if you’re not. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. You know, when I talk about walking with God in everyday life, I’m talking about abiding in the shadow of the Almighty day in and day out. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. He delivers from the snare of the trapper and from the deadly pestilence, and he will cover you with his pinions. Under his wings you may seek refuge. His faithfulness is a shield, it is a bulwark, it is a buckler, it is that little shield that protects the forearm in battle.

You will not be afraid of the terror by night or the arrow that flies by day.

Verse 11.

But yes, there are heavenly forces at work behind the scenes. You will tread upon the lion and the cobra. He will set you securely on high. Call on me, and I will answer. At the end of this, God speaks and he says, Because he has loved me, therefore I will deliver him. I will set him securely on high because he has known my name. Walking with God in everyday life, consecration, daily devotion, confidence, absolute trust in God.

3. Confession: A Bold Declaration of Allegiance to Jesus

He is my rock. He is my king. He is my deliverer. And then finally, there is confession. A bold declaration of our allegiance to Jesus. I was amused by something Bill pointed out about the words of, actually, it’s our author of our book pointed out, and Bill made reference to it, Suetonius on Claudius’ expulsion of the Jews from Rome. There’s such a disturbance going on. They’re continually making disturbances at the instigation of Crestus. And perhaps it was the Jews persecuting the Christians over it, but we got to get them all out of here.

Because I believe it should become something very natural to who we are. It doesn’t mean I have to convert somebody on the spot, that I have to beat them over the head with Acts 2.38. I need to tell people I’m loyal to Jesus.

I walk with him every day. I’d like to show you how to walk with him. Wouldn’t that be a better way of evangelizing people than just talking about the right answers? Let’s show them first that our Jesus is real to us. There could be opposition. But we don’t have to worry about that. That’s the point Jesus is making in Luke chapter 12. My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that, there’s no more that they can do. The worst thing that could happen is somebody could kill you for confessing Jesus. That’s the absolute worst thing. The worst consequence. He said, they can’t do anything else. You know, that’s you think, wait a minute, that’s sort of a total thing. You know, that’s that’s like life here over.

But he says, then I will warn you whom to fear. Fear the one who, after he is killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Don’t be concerned about what they can do to you. Fear him who controls destiny. He says, I know, I know the situation can be severe. Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? And yet not one of them is forgotten before God. The very hairs of your head are all numbered. I tell you, everyone who confesses me before men, the Son of Man shall confess before confess him before the angels of God. He who denies me before men, him will I also deny before the angels of God. My business is simply to confess my allegiance and loyalty to the king.

Tell people about the Jesus that you believe, that you walk with on a daily basis.

Conclusion

Sometimes we are lulled by those aforementioned materialistic concerns. Okay, walking with God in everyday life. The essential peace, the essential peace is faith. All of my convictions about Jesus. And how can I describe that in six ways? Number one, that’s contemplating his presence, his nearness, and praising him on a daily, on a daily basis. But more than that, it is evaluating my thoughts and conducts by his word. It is being anxious for nothing but depending upon him. And I’m slowing down here. There we go. Rejoicing in him, expressing gratitude, and submitting willingly. This is the response of faith, the essential peace in walking with God. Alright, now let’s get to the last verse. Acts 16. What are you going to do with Jesus? Acts 16, 31.

Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved. You know what’s a tragedy. Tragedy is we don’t take the time to stop and revel in that verse. It’s a verse we have to apologize for. You ever done it? Somebody brings up Acts 16, 31, and we’re immediately jumping down to 33 and 34. Immediately he was baptized. Philippian jailer. This is the Philippian jailer story. Immediately he was baptized. Middle of the night. He’s baptized. He rejoiced greatly having believed in God. Oh yeah. Acts 16 is not saying anything different than the rest of the book. Acts says about the role of baptism in salvation. It is essential. The jailer did it immediately. He didn’t wait for a baptism service three weeks down the road. It was immediate in the same hour of the night.

He was baptized, and then it says, He evidenced his belief, having rejoiced, he rejoiced greatly having believed in God. And so we immediately run down to 33 and 34. And I know why we do that. But Acts 16, 31 is talking about the very foundation of our response to God. Salvation is by grace through faith. Let’s not jump over that.

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. I’m not talking about accepting Jesus into your heart as your personal Savior, and that’s how it works. That’s not how it works. But I am telling you that at the foundation of everything, it’s that I believe in Jesus. And he’s not just the answer for my sin problem. He is the answer for my life. He is the answer for my day by day living. And I need him. I need him not just today on the first day of the week. I need him tomorrow. And the day after that. And I need to pursue it in these ways. Is he your king? What are you going to do about Jesus? Let’s stand the same.