The Most Important Freedom

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, March 19, 2023.  The Bible verses used are John 8:31-36.

One of the things Americans cherish most is our freedom.  And that’s a good thing, of course.  People should be free.  God wants us to be free.  That’s why God created us the way He did, with the ability to think for ourselves and to make choices about how to live our lives.  God wants us to live our lives with freedom.

            But as Christians, we need to be careful about that freedom and how we exercise it.  Because society has a very different view of freedom than we should have as Christian.  Society often claims that “freedom” means “I can do whatever I want to.”  And in fact, society often takes that further, saying that freedom means “I can do whatever I want to with no consequences.”  And these days, we see people taking it further still, saying that freedom means “I can do whatever I want regardless of the law and regardless of how many people might be hurt.”  That’s not freedom.  That’s anarchy.  And you cannot find a society that fell into anarchy and retained its freedom.

            For a Christian, freedom does not mean “I can do whatever I want to.”  For a Christian, freedom means “I can do whatever God wants me to do.”  Freedom means living a life free from slavery to sin.  

            In our Bible reading for today, Jesus said, “The truth shall set you free.”  The truth, like freedom, has become kind of a floating concept these days.  Society tells us that there is no such thing as “the truth”.  We all have our truth.  I have my truth, and you have your truth.  You have no right to tell me my truth is not true, because it’s my truth.  Even if “my truth” has no basis in reality, you still have to accept it and respect it, because it’s “my truth”.

            That’s not a Biblical concept.  Jesus believed there is “the truth”.  In fact, Jesus said he is the truth.  That’s why the truth sets us free--because Jesus is the truth, and it’s Jesus who sets us free.

            “The truth shall set you free” is quoted so much it has almost become a cliché.  It’s a true statement, of course.  But to get the full meaning of what Jesus is saying, we need to look at the full quote.  Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

            So, the truth will only set us free if we know the truth.  We know the truth by being Jesus’ disciples.  And we can only be Jesus’ disciples if we hold to Jesus’ teaching.  So, if we want to truly be set free, we need to hold to the teaching of Jesus.

            Jesus made that point a second time in this reading.  He said, “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”  The only way we can avoid being slaves to sin is to be set free from our slavery to sin by Jesus.  We are set free from that slavery by holding to the teaching of Jesus, by living our lives the way Jesus told us to.

            What are those teachings?  Some would reduce it to a single word:  “love”.  The teaching of Jesus is love.  Therefore, if we always act with love, we will hold to Jesus’ teaching, we will be Jesus’ disciples, and we will be set free from the slavery of sin.

            There’s truth in that of course.  Jesus did tell us to love.  Love the Lord our God.  Love our neighbors as ourselves.  Love our enemies.  It’s absolutely true that love is an important part of the teaching of Jesus.

            The trouble is that, like truth, love has also become a floating concept these days.  We’re told that, if we cite the Bible and say that certain behaviors are wrong, we’re being too judgmental and not showing love.  We’re told that, if we don’t accept behaviors that violate God’s teaching, as laid out in the Bible, then we’re using the Bible as a weapon, and not showing love.  And in fact, we’re told that it’s not enough to accept those behaviors, we need to applaud them.  And again, if we don’t, we’re showing hate, and not love.

            That is not what Jesus said.  You cannot find a place in the Bible where Jesus embraced an “anything goes” philosophy.  Jesus did not say “anything you want to do is okay.”  Yes, Jesus showed love to people who had all kinds of lifestyles.  But Jesus did not tell them, “Do anything you want.”  Jesus did not tell them, “Just keep doing what you’re doing.”  Jesus would not have needed to come to earth, Jesus would not have had to die to save us from the consequences of our sins, if anything and everything we wanted to do was okay.  That was not Jesus’ message.  Jesus’ message was, “Go and sin no more.”  Jesus said he had come to call sinners to repentance.  Jesus’ message was for us to repent of our sins, and follow Him.

            We do not do anyone a favor by telling them it’s right to do things that are against God’s teachings.  Yes, we get forgiveness of our sins from faith in Jesus, but Jesus himself said he did not come to abolish God’s laws.  Instead, he said he came to fulfill them.  In fact, Jesus said that not one letter, not the slightest stroke of a pen, would disappear from the law until all the things written in that law came to pass.

            But, in thinking about that, there’s another of Jesus’ teachings we need to remember.  Jesus told us that, before we start telling someone else about the speck in their eye, we need to take the log out of our own eye.  In other words, before we start telling someone else about their sins, we’d better make sure our own life is in order.  We’d better repent of our own sins, and ask God for forgiveness, before we tell other people they need to do that.  We’d better go and sin no more ourselves, before we start saying that to anyone else.

            Now, most of us have heard that teaching before.  And we know the truth of it.  But--it’s so much easier to see other people’s sins that it is to see our own, isn’t it?  It’s so easy to see what other people are doing wrong than it is to see what we do wrong.  It’s so easy to hold others to a strict standard of accountability, while at the same time making excuses for all the mistakes we make, all the sins we commit, all the times we fail to do what God wants us to do.

            And again, I’m as guilty of this as anyone.  I am not pointing a finger at you.  Or, if I am, I have all the other fingers pointing back at me.  

            It’s not easy to see ourselves as we truly are.  Our pride, our arrogance, our ego, our self-centeredness, those things all get in the way.  In other words, our own sinful nature gets in the way.  Our sinful nature tries to make us focus our attention on other people’s sins, while making excuses for us to ignore our own sins.

            This is not something we can do by ourselves.  Now, certainly, we need to do our part.  But we also have to allow the Lord to do the Lord’s part.  The last line of our reading for today says, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”  

            The truth sets us free.  The Son sets us free.  So the Son--Jesus--is the truth.  We know that truth when we follow Jesus, when we do the things Jesus said to do.

            So, I invite each of us--most definitely including me--to look at our lives and how we live them.  Are we truly following Jesus?  Are we loving our neighbors as ourselves?  Are we loving our enemies?  Are we praying for those who persecute us?  Are we forgiving those who have sinned against us?  Are we repenting of our sins?  Are we loving the Lord our God with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength?  Are we putting our trust in God, regardless of the circumstances?  Are we staying faithful to God, not because we want God to do something for us in return, but because staying faithful to God is the right thing to do?

            We could go on and on with questions like that.  And I don’t mean them to sound accusatory.  I am not trying to imply that anyone here is not doing those things.  Each of us needs to answer those questions for ourselves.  I need to answer them for myself.  

            I encourage you to take some time with those questions.  And I need to take some time with them, too.  Let’s think about them.  Let’s pray about them.  Because those questions are not easy.  And again, it can be very hard for us to see ourselves as we truly are.  We need the Lord’s help to do that.  But asking these questions will do us no good if we don’t do everything we can to answer them honestly.

            And if we answer them honestly, and we’re not satisfied with our answers, we need to do something about that.  It can be easy to make excuses about that, too.  It can be easy to convince ourselves that, even if we have faults, even if we are sinners, we’re basically doing okay, and we don’t need to really change anything.  I know how easy it is to convince ourselves of that, because I’ve done it many times.  And of course, if we do convince that we don’t need to change, then we won’t change.  We’ll continue living in our sins.

            Jesus wants to set us free from our sins.  And He will, if we follow his teachings.  So let’s ask Jesus to help us look at ourselves in the light of His truth.  Let’s ask Jesus help us truly follow Him, and live lives that show we follow Him.

            It’s fine for us to celebrate our freedom as Americans.  But as Christians, it’s even more important that we celebrate our freedom from sin.  Through faith in Jesus, we can celebrate that most important freedom.

 

The Potter and the Clay

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on March 12, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Jeremiah 18:1-11.

            Have you ever wondered what it would be like to get a message from God?

            Maybe some of you have gotten messages from God.  There are times when I’ve thought I have.  Now, I’ve never heard a voice thundering from heaven, the way it happens in the movies.  But there have been times when I thought God was giving me a message in one way or another.

            Because that’s the thing.  God has all kinds of ways of giving us messages.  Sometimes it can be a voice, either an external voice or a voice inside our heads.  Sometimes it can be an inner feeling, a sense that God’s Holy Spirit is prompting us to do something.  Sometimes God uses other people to give us a message.  God’s ways of giving us messages are limited only by God’s creativity, and God’s creativity is completely unlimited.  So God can give us a message in any way God chooses.  And it’s up to us to be alert and recognize the message God gives us.

            In our reading for tonight, God has a message for Jeremiah.  Now, God had given Jeremiah messages before.  God had spoken directly to Jeremiah.  But this time, God says, I don’t want to just use words to give you my message.  I want to give you a demonstration.  So go down to the potter’s house.

            Now, the potter’s house was simply the place where someone, a potter, created pottery.  Pots, cups, bowls, whatever.  Have you ever watched a potter at work?  If not in person, you may have seen a video someplace.  It’s really pretty fascinating.  They start out with just this blob of clay.  It does not look like anything.  And they work with it, and they put it on a wheel, and they spin the wheel, and they shape it, and they keep working with it, and eventually this formless lump of clay becomes something useful.  And in fact, sometimes, it becomes something beautiful.

            God sends Jeremiah down to watch the potter at work.  And God says to Jeremiah, here’s the deal.  The potter, that’s Me.  The clay, that’s the people of Israel.  So what you need to know, and what you need to make sure the people of Israel know, is that I can make of the people of Israel anything I choose to, because I’m God.

            Now God gave this message to Jeremiah as a warning to the people of Israel.  The people of Israel had come to think of themselves as God’s Chosen People.  And there was truth in that, but they had come to believe that this meant they could do no wrong.  They thought that they could do anything they wanted, that God would protect them no matter what, because they were God’s Chosen People.  God wanted to remind them that God was not obligated to protect them no matter what.  They would only be God’s Chosen People if they continued to honor God and follow God.  If they abandoned God, God would be free to choose someone else.  God had created them, just as a potter creates something out of clay, and God could destroy them if God chose.

            But as I was thinking about this passage this week, it seems to me that there are message for us that go beyond that.  This analogy of God to a potter and to us as the clay works on at least a couple more levels for us.

            For one thing, it reminds us that God is the Creator.  Just like a potter has a plan for what he’s going to create when he starts creating, God has a plan when God creates each of us.  God knows what it is that God wants each one of us to be.  And as we go through our lives, God keeps working on us.  God keeps molding us, keeps shaping us. God keeps working to make us into what God had in mind for us to be when God created us.

            Now, of course, the analogy breaks down a little bit, because the clay has no power to resist what the potter does.  You and I do have the power to resist God.  Now don’t take that the wrong way.  You and I are not more powerful than God.  But God allows us to resist God if we so choose.  God will keep working with us.  God will keep trying to mold us and shape us.  Even when we’ve gotten all wobbly and unsightly, God will keep trying to bring us back to what God wants us to be.  But, unlike the potter with the clay, God refuses to force us.  God will allow us to resist if that’s what we choose to do.

            But there’s one other thing about God being the potter and us being the clay.  A potter is a skilled craftsman.  And one of the things that’s fascinating about watching a potter at work is that no two pieces of pottery are exactly alike.  They may be similar, but they are not the same.  And in fact, the potter does not even have the goal of making two pieces of pottery that are exactly alike.  The potter wants each piece of pottery to be different and special and unique.  The potter sees the differences even when the lumps of clay are still just lumps of clay.  To you and me, a lump of clay just looks like a lump of clay.  But not to a master craftsman like a potter.  To a master potter, each lump of clay looks a little bit different.  

A potter can look at that lump of clay and see things in it that no one else can see.  The potter knows things about that lump of clay that no one else knows.  And before the potter even starts to work on it, the potter can see exactly what that lump of clay should be.  All of the ways it’s the same as the others, and all of the ways it’s different.  All the things that make that lump of clay unique.  And all the time the potter is working on that lump of clay, all the time the potter is shaping it and molding it, the potter keeps that vision in mind.

That’s how it is with us and God.  God never creates any two people to be the same.  We may be similar in some ways, but no two people are exactly the same.  God does not want us to be the same.  God wants each of us to different and special and unique.  After all, God had told Jeremiah earlier, at Jeremiah Chapter One Verse Five, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

God had a plan for Jeremiah before Jeremiah was even conceived.  Before Jeremiah was even beginning to be formed in the womb, God saw exactly what Jeremiah should be.  God saw all the ways Jeremiah would be like everyone else, but God also saw the ways Jeremiah would be different.  And all through Jeremiah’s life, as God was molding and shaping Jeremiah, God kept that vision in mind, so that Jeremiah could be what God had planned him to be.

God has a plan for you, too.  And God has a plan for me.  Before any of us was even formed in the womb, God had a plan for each of us.  God sees all the ways were like other people, but God also sees all the ways were different.  And all through our lives, as God molds us and shapes us, God keeps that vision in mind, so we can be what God has planned us to be.

Now, that all sounds really good.  But here’s the question:  do you believe it?

Take a look at your life.  Can you see God at work?  Can you see God molding you and shaping you?  Can you see God working to make you into the person God has planned you to be?  Can you see that your life is following God’s plan?  Do you even believe that God has a plan for your life?

As I look at my life, there have been times when I thought God was at work in my life, and there have been times when I did not.  I can tell you that it’s a lot easier for me to see God’s plan for my life now, when I’m sixty-four, than it was when I was fourteen, or when I was twenty-four, or even when I was forty-four.  There have been plenty of times when I wondered what God was doing in my life, or if God was even doing anything at all.  I can look back on it now, now that I’ve seen how some of the things I was dealing with turned out, and see that God was at work, that God was still molding me and shaping me.  I can see it now, but I often could not see it at the time.

If that’s you, I want to encourage you to hang in there.  Spend some time in prayer.  Try to stay alert and see if God might be giving you a message in some way.  But until you get that message, don’t give up.  Keep doing the best you can to love God and to follow God and to serve God.  Be patient.  God is often at work in ways we don’t realize at the time.  Keep trying, keep praying, and don’t give up on God.

But here’s the other thing.  It’s true that, at age sixty-four, I’ve been able to see how some things have turned out.  But not all of them.  There are things that have not turned out yet.  God is still at work on me.  God is still molding me and shaping me.  God is not finished with me yet.  And God is not finished with you yet, either.  God continues to work on us all our lives.

For over twenty years, I was a lawyer.  For about seventeen years now, I’ve been a pastor.  Does God have something else in mind for me?  I don’t know, but I suspect the answer is yes.  Because the one thing I know is that as long as we’re here on this earth, God has reasons for us to be here.  God never stops molding us and shaping us as long as we’re here.

I asked you to take a look at your life.  As you do, keep that in mind.  God is not finished with you yet.  God is continuing to work on you.  Maybe you have something else in your plan.  Maybe you don’t.  But our plans are not what’s important.  God’s plans are.  God is still molding you and shaping you, and God will continue to do that as long as you’re here on earth.

If there’s something else God wants you to do, God will let you know.  Be alert, so you can hear God’s message when it comes.  But if it does not come, keep doing your best to serve God, to love God, and to stay faithful to God.  God knew you before you were even born.  God knows everything you’ve done.  God knows you now.  And God will know you in the future.  God created you to be special and unique, and God has a special and unique plan for you and for your life.  And God is still working on you, so that you can be exactly who God has created you to be.

Saved By Faith

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, March 12, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Romans 3:19-31.

            We say that we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  That’s one of the basic Christian beliefs.  Our salvation cannot come by anything we do.  It can only come through faith in Jesus Christ.

            But why is that?  Why did God set it up that way?  What does it mean for our lives that God did set it up that way?

            In Old Testament times, this was not the way people thought at all.  In Old Testament times, salvation came through the law.  The religious law, of course.  Starting from the Ten Commandments, then going through all the law that came down from Moses, then all the decisions of the rabbis and so forth.  All law was considered to have come from God.  So if you followed all the law, then God would reward you and you would be saved.

            The trouble was that no one could follow all the law.  At least not perfectly.  Maybe some of the Pharisees thought they did, but probably not even them.  That’s why there were all those offerings and sacrifices in Old Testament times.  People knew they had not followed the law, so they would make these sacrifices as a way of asking God for forgiveness.

            That’s why, as the Apostle Paul says in our reading for today, “no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.”  The law was a standard no one could meet.  The law could demonstrate for you all your shortcomings.  The law could tell you all the times you messed up.  But it could not lead you to salvation.

            And so, God sent the Savior.  Jesus Christ.  As Paul says, the righteousness of God made known.

            Paul says that, when it comes to sin, we’re all in the same boat.  It does not matter who you are.  It does not matter where you’re from.  It does not matter who your parents are or what your background is.  It does not even matter how hard you’ve tried to be a really good person.  None of that matters.  We are all sinners.  Each and every one of us.  We fall short of the glory of God.  Probably pretty far short.

            That’s why our salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ–because it could come no other way.  We could not do it by ourselves.  We needed someone to do it for us.  And who could do it for us?  Only a Savior.  Only God Himself, come to earth in the form of a human being.  Jesus Christ, God the Son.  He’s the only one through whom we can get salvation.  It is faith in Jesus Christ that gets us salvation.  Nothing else.

            We say that.  We believe it, as Christians.  And yet–a lot of times, there’s a part of us that thinks that cannot possibly be enough.  That cannot be all there is to it.  We think, well, yeah, but we must have to be good people, too.  We must have to do enough good things.  It cannot just be that if we have faith in Jesus Christ, we get into heaven, with no other questions asked.  Surely, we think, God must be keeping track of what we do.  And God must be weighing our good things against our bad things, to see if we get into heaven or not.  It just, somehow, seems too simple to believe that we get to heaven through faith in Jesus Christ, without having to do at least some minimum number of good things, too.  

            But it’s not too simple.  It’s just simple enough.  You know, that’s the thing about faith–it really is simple.  That’s why Jesus said we need to have faith like little children–children have a simple faith. The reason our faith seems complicated as adults is because we complicate it.  It just seems to be human nature to complicate things.  

That’s why, in Old Testament times, the people of Israel started out with Ten Commandments and ended up with so many religious laws that no one could remember them all.  That’s why the United States started out with the constitution and ended up with so much law that it would not all fit in this sanctuary.  That’s why the United Methodist church’s Book of Discipline started out with a book that you could fit in the palm of your hand to one that’s as big as the hymnal, and then had to add an even bigger Book of Resolutions on top of that.  Human beings love to complicate things.

            But God does not.  God says, just have faith.  Just believe.  As Paul puts it, God “did this to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished–He did it to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the One who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

            God knows us better than we know ourselves.  And God knows that righteousness is beyond our ability.  And so God sent Jesus to earth to demonstrate His righteousness.  When we have faith in Jesus as the Savior, God makes us righteous.  God justifies us, because of our faith.

            Now, does that mean it does not matter what we do as long as we have faith in Jesus?  Well, yes, but here’s the thing.  If we truly have faith in Jesus, if we truly believe He is the divine Son of God, then we’re going to try to do what Jesus told us to do.  We’re going to try to live the way Jesus told us to live.  Not because we’re trying to earn our way into heaven, but simply because we want to please God.

            After all, if we believe what we say–that we are all sinners, but are still saved by faith in Jesus Christ–then we realize what an incredible thing God has done for us.  Giving us salvation and eternal life even though we don’t deserve it and can never be good enough to earn it.  And if we realize that, if we truly take it to heart, then we will be incredibly grateful and thankful to God for doing that.  And we will want to try to live lives that are pleasing to God out of our gratitude and thankfulness.  So yes, we can do anything we want to if we have faith in Jesus, but if we truly do have faith in Jesus, then the things we want to do will be things that are pleasing to God.

            Our faith in Jesus Christ makes us want to live lives that are pleasing to God.  But there’s another aspect of this, too.  In Hebrews Chapter Eleven, Verse Six, we read this:  “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”

            We all know people who we would consider “good people”.  People who do good things.  People who work hard, who love their families, who contribute to their community, who help people when they can.  And many of those people, maybe most of those people, do have faith in Jesus Christ.  But do they all?  Do we know?  Because if they don’t, they are not pleasing God.  And they are not going to heaven.  

Not because I say so.  Not because I don’t want them to go to heaven.  I want everyone to go to heaven.  If you really take hell seriously, you would not want your worst enemy to go there.  But what I say, and what I want, is irrelevant.  God has said that we cannot live lives pleasing to Him without faith.  And God has said that without faith in Jesus Christ, we will not go to heaven.  Period.  No exceptions, and no appeals.  

I assume that everyone here has faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  I assume that everyone watching the livestream has faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  If you don’t, or if you’re not sure, please talk to me.  I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I’ll do what I can to help you with your faith.  Because I do want you to go to heaven.  As I said, I want everyone to go to heaven.  And if I can help even one person to get to heaven, that’s about as good as it gets.

But if you do have faith, don’t worry about whether you’re “good enough” to get to heaven.  Just do your best.  That’s all God asks.  Do your best to live a life that pleases God.  Again, not because you’re trying to earn your way to heaven, but just out of love for God. 

And if there’s someone you know who does not have faith, or if you’re not sure about their faith, ask God to help you reach them.  It’s not easy.  I know that.  It’s not even easy for us to get ourselves to try.  But it’s an incredibly important thing for us to do.  In fact, I cannot think of anything more important.  I mean, it comes down to someone spending eternity in heaven or eternity in hell.  I cannot think of anything more important than that.

We cannot earn our way into heaven.  We only get there through our faith in Jesus Christ.  So let’s keep our faith strong, and out of love and gratitude do our best to live lives that are pleasing to God.  And let’s try to reach those who don’t have faith, so they can be in heaven with us.  We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  But even so, salvation and eternal life can be ours, by our faith and because of God’s incredible love for us.

 

The Food We Need

The message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Wednesday, March 8, 2023.  The Bible verses used are John 4:31-38.

            One of the questions we should always ask ourselves, when we read a passage in the Bible, is “Why is this passage here?  What is God trying to teach me?  What am I supposed to learn from this?”

            Sometimes the answer will be obvious, sometimes not so much.  Sometimes we have a hard time understanding why certain things are in the Bible.  Sometimes we wish certain things we not there, because we’d rather not have to deal with them.  But nothing in the Bible is there by chance or coincidence.  As the Apostle Paul wrote to his friend Timothy, “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.”  Everything in the Bible is there for a reason.  There is something we’re supposed to learn from every passage.

            Our passage for tonight is really kind of a sidelight, almost an after-thought.  It comes right in the middle of the story of Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman at the well.  In verses four through thirty of this chapter, we’re told that Jesus is traveling through Samaria, He meets a woman at a well and He starts taking to her–which in context was a really strange thing for Jesus to do.  Ultimately, Jesus tells this woman that He is the Messiah–which is another strange thing for Jesus to do, because He rarely said that publicly–and the woman goes back to town and tells everyone what’s happened.  And right after this passage, in verses thirty-nine through forty-two, we read about the townspeople coming out to talk to Jesus, Jesus spends a couple of days with them, and many people come to believe.

            And right in the middle of this is this little story about the disciples wanting Jesus to eat something.  And Jesus responds, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

            You know, I’m sure the disciples loved Jesus, and believed in Him, and were happy to be around Him and all that, but there had to be times when it was really frustrating to be with Jesus.  Because He so often would say things like this.  Enigmatic things.  Things that made them go, “Huh?  What’s He talking about?”  In fact, in John Chapter Sixteen, when Jesus is telling the disciples some things they need to know just before He’s arrested, the disciples say, “Now You are speaking clearly and without figures of speech.”  You can just hear, in those words, the relief they have that for once, they can understand what Jesus is saying and they don’t have to ask Him about it or wonder about it.

            But of course, in our passage for tonight, the disciples don’t understand.  When Jesus says, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about”, they’re thought is, where did Jesus get food from?  Did someone bring Him food?  And they were probably thinking, why doesn’t He share it with us?  Because, after all, the reason Jesus had been alone to talk with the Samaritan woman is that He had sent the disciples to town to buy food.  So they had to be wondering just what was going on here.

            Jesus, of course, finally tells them what’s going on.  He says, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.”  He then goes on to talk about the fields being ripe for harvest and the harvest being eternal life, and that’s usually where we focus when we read this passage.  But today, I’d like to just stop where we are.  I want to focus on that statement we just read:  “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.”

            It seems to me that there’s a lot we can learn from that statement.  It seems to me–and I do this as much as anyone, so don’t think I’m criticizing you–but it seems to me that we spend an awful lot of our time on earth worrying about material things.  Food, of course, is one of them, but not the only one.  We spend a lot of our time and effort making sure we have “enough”.  Of course, what we call “enough” varies from one person to another.  And most of the time, for most of us, “enough” is more than what we have now.  And so we have to keep trying to get more, because we need to have “enough” and what we have now is clearly not “enough”.

            Now, obviously, we need some.  We do need to have food, or we won’t live.  And we need clothes, and a place to live, and transportation, and things like that.  But I suspect most of us–maybe all of us–have more than just enough to meet our basic needs.  The vast majority of Americans have more than just enough to meet our basic needs.  And yet, for a lot of us, it’s still not “enough”.

            And yet, for all our worrying about material things, most of us are not happy.  According to the most recent poll I could find, only forty-one percent of Americans say that they are happy.  All the stuff we acquire, all the things we have, all this time spent trying to get “enough”, does not make us happy.  

            What does make us happy is what Jesus said.  Doing God’s will.  That’s the real food.  That’s the food that does more than just keep our bodies going.  That’s the food that keeps us going in every way.  Mentally.  Spiritually.  Emotionally.  Doing God’s will is the food that gives us satisfaction.  It’s the food that bring joy.  It’s the food that brings peace.  

In Ecclesiastes Chapter Three, we read that to find satisfaction in all your work is a gift from God.  That’s what Jesus was talking about when He said His food was to do God’s will.  That’s the satisfaction that kept Jesus going through all the things He had to go through.  Through all the days and nights facing Satan in the desert.  Through all the days walking along dusty roads.  Through all the arguments with the Pharisees.  Through all the days working Himself to the brink of exhaustion healing people and driving out demons.

And that’s the satisfaction that kept Jesus going in His last days on earth.  It’s what kept Him going through His betrayal by Judas.  It’s what kept Him going through the mockery and the beatings and the whippings.  It’s what kept Jesus going when He was hanging on the cross.  It’s what made Jesus able to say, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  

Through all of that, Jesus knew He was doing God’s will.  That was His food.  Doing God’s will was more important to Him than anything else.  It was more important than the pain.  It was more important than his need for rest.  It was more important than comfort.  It was even more important than knowing where His next meal might be coming from.  The satisfaction, the joy, the peace, that came from doing God’s will was Jesus’ food.  It was all He really needed.

And when you think about it, it’s all we really need, too.  Again, we need certain things to keep our bodies going.  But when you think about what most of us really want, it’s the things that Jesus had from doing God’s will.  Satisfaction.  Joy.  Peace.  Those are the things we really want, right?  Those are the things we get when we do God’s will.  Those are the things we get when we live in accordance with what Jesus said and when we put our faith in Him as the Savior.

            You know, when you read the gospels, you never see Jesus worrying about the future.  And you can say, well, He was Jesus.  He knew the future.  And that’s true, but remember what He knew about His future.  We just talked about it.  The betrayal.  The beating.  The whipping.  The painful death.  Yes, Jesus knew His future, but He knew His future on earth was not going to be good.  He would, of course, be resurrected, but He was going to have to go through an awful lot to get there.  

And yet, as far as we can tell in the Bible, Jesus never worried about any of that.  Jesus had peace, because He knew that His future was in God’s hands, and following God’s will gave Him peace.  Following God’s will was all the food that He needed.  It was all of everything that He needed.

            And you know, in a sense, we know our future, too.  We know, just as Jesus knew, that we are going to die.  We don’t know exactly how or when, but we know it is going to happen.  And if we have faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior, we know that we, too, will be resurrected.  And we will have salvation and eternal life with Jesus in heaven.  And that should give us peace, too.  Our future, too, is in God’s hands.  If we follow God’s will, that can give us peace, just as it gave Jesus peace.  It can be all the food we need.  It can be all of everything that we need.

            I like to eat, and you probably do, too.  But the food we really need is the food Jesus had:  to do the will of God the Father.  If we have that food, we will have what Jesus had.  We will have the gift of finding satisfaction in our work.  We will have joy.  And we will have peace, the peace that can only come from following God.

 

How to Be Content

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on March 5, 2023.  The Bible verses used are John 3:22-36.

            What we read tonight could be considered to be the actual start of Jesus’ ministry.  Jesus has gathered disciples and he’s worked his first miracle.  Now he goes out into the countryside of Judea, spending time with people and baptizing them.

            It’s interesting, I think, that when Jesus started his actual ministry, he did so in a pretty conventional way.  Yes, he’d done a miracle already, but if you remember, that was not something that was part of his plan.  That was something he did his mother, Mary, wanted him to.  When Jesus started to execute his actual plan for ministry, he did so in a very ordinary, almost boringly ordinary way.  He did, really, what John the Baptist had been doing for some time.  He went out and spent time with people and baptized them.

            And before we even get too far into it, that could be a lesson for us right there.  I think too often, when we talk about bringing people into the church, we think we have to do something new and exciting and different to grab people’s attention.  And yes, Jesus did do some of that with the miracles and so forth.  But that was not the core of Jesus’ ministry.  Jesus was not about flash and show.  In fact, if you remember, that’s one of the things Satan tempted Jesus to do:  “Jump off the temple and let the angels carry you down.”

            Jesus was not about being flashy.  He was not about putting on a show.  When it came time for Jesus to start his ministry, what did he do?  He spent time with people and he baptized them.

            And don’t jump over that first part.  We’ll talk about Jesus baptizing people in a minute, but note what he did first.  He spent time with people.

            Jesus did not expect anyone to come to him begging them to baptize him.  He spent time with people.  He got to know them.  He let them get to know him.  He found out what was going on in their lives.  He gave them reasons to feel comfortable with him, to trust him.  After he had done all that, then he offered to baptize them into faith.

            In other words, this business of going and making disciples takes time.  I’m not sure we always recognize that or talk about it.  Too many times--and I’ve been guilty of this, too--we act as if going out and sharing our faith and bringing people into the church and making disciples should be quick and easy.  It’s not.  It was not quick and easy for Jesus.  It’s not quick and easy for us.  

It’s something that takes time.  It takes patience.  And it takes love.  It takes loving people enough to spend time with them.  It takes loving people enough to get to know people.  It takes loving people enough to find out what’s going on in their lives.  And it takes showing love to people, so they can feel comfortable with us and trust us.  Then, we can offer to bring them into faith.  But it won’t happen overnight.

But it does happen eventually.  And it happened eventually for Jesus.  Jesus was gathering more and more followers.  And people noticed.  The people who’d been following John the Baptist noticed, too.  And they appear to have been kind of upset about it.  They come up to John the Baptist and say hey, you remember that guy who was with you on the other side of the Jordan?  That guy you testified about?  He’s stealing your thunder!  He’s baptizing people and everybody’s leaving you and going to him!

Now, think about who John the Baptist was.  He was a famous man.  People from all around were coming to him to repent and be baptized by him.  Even Jesus himself came to be baptized by John.  John the Baptist was a Big Deal.  And now here comes this new guy, this interloper, this upstart, taking people away from him.  Jesus is now the Big Deal, and John the Baptist is becoming yesterday’s news.

It would’ve been easy for John the Baptist to be a little envious of Jesus.  It would’ve been natural for him to resent Jesus.  It would’ve been easy for John to want to try to do something to get the crowds back, to do something to draw attention back to himself, to once again be the Big Deal that he had been.

But John did not do that.  Why not?  Because John was fully committed to doing God’s will.  And when we’re fully committed to doing God’s will, we’re not concerned with whether anyone thinks we’re a Big Deal.  We’re content to play whatever role God has for us, whether it’s a big role or a small one.

You see, John knew who Jesus was.  When Jesus came to be baptized, John said “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him...I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”  And later, when Jesus was walking by, John said, “Look, the Lamb of God.”

John knew that Jesus was the Messiah, the Divine Son of God.  And John knew that he, John, was not the Messiah.  He was merely the one who was sent to prepare things.  That was God’s will for him.  That was the role God had for him to play.  So when these people came to him and said hey, this Jesus guy is taking over from you, John said, well, of course he is.  I told you he would.  He says, “You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but am sent ahead of him.’”  He used the analogy of being the best man and your friend’s wedding.  You get things ready for your friend.  You’re there for him.  And then, when he comes and they have the wedding, you’re happy.  You’re happy that you did your part, and that things are ready for your friend to have his day.

John knew that, now that Jesus was here, this was Jesus’ day.  He gives that wonderful statement of humility:  “He must become greater, and I must become less.”  John says, in effect, I’ve had my time.  I’ve done my job.  I’ve followed God’s will, and I’ve played the role God had for me to play.  Jesus will take it from here.  I’m not jealous of him.  This is how it’s supposed to be, and I’m happy that things are going the way they’re supposed to go.  

John knew that, when he was preparing the way, he had been doing God’s will.  And he knew that now, by stepping aside and watching Jesus become greater than he was, he was also doing God’s will.

It’s not an easy thing to do what John the Baptist did.  It’s not easy to step back and let someone else get the glory.  It’s not easy to let someone else get the credit for things.  That’s especially true when you have every right to feel like you deserve some of that credit yourself.  It’s not easy--but it’s worth it.

Think of the peace of mind it must have given John the Baptist to react that way.  Now, John did not just go into retirement at this point.  He continued to preach his message of repentance.  In fact, it appears that he continued to baptize.  But he knew that the one he had been preparing people for was already here.  He could relax, knowing that God had done what God had promised and that it was all working the way it was supposed to work.  He could relax, knowing that he had followed God’s will and that he was still following God’s will.

If John had not done that, if he’d tried to get the crowds back, if he’d tried to get glory for himself, he’d have made himself miserable.  He could not have succeeded--he was not going to win a popularity contest with Jesus.  He could’ve gotten really frustrated and really upset trying, though.  But he did not.  John had followed God’s will and he was content with that.

That’s what following God’s will does for us.  It keeps us from getting frustrated and upset.  It helps us feel content.  When we follow God’s will, we don’t need to feel like we’re in competition with anyone.  We don’t need to worry about who gets the credit.  We know that, really, all the credit belongs to God, anyway.  Following God’s will lets us just focus on the job at hand, not worrying about what might happen as a result.  If that means we have to accept a change in circumstances sometimes, that’s okay.  If it means that sometimes we’re out front, taking a prominent position, that’s okay.  If it means that we have let others be out front, while we take a lesser position, that’s okay.  It’s all good as long as we’re following God’s will.

John the Baptist had been a famous man.  But when the time came for him to take a lesser role, he did so graciously and willingly, with no complaint.  He continued to play the role God wanted him to play, even though it was now a lesser role.  He was content, even happy, because he was following God’s will.  May we, too, play the role God wants us to play, whether it’s a big one or a small one.  And may we find contentment and happiness in following God’s will.ermon

 

God's Temple

The print version of the message given in the Sunday morning worship service in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on March 5, 2023.  The Bible verses used are 1 Corinthians 3:3-17.

            We read several verses out of the Bible today, as we do every week.  But while I included other verses to give context, today I really want to focus on just one.  First Corinthians 3:16.  ”Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?”

            It seems to me that this one little verse--just one sentence, seventeen words--says an awful lot to us.  The first thing it says, at least to me, is that each and every one of us is very special and very important to God.  I mean, think about this.  You are God’s temple.  Not just your physical body, but everything about you.  Your mind, your heart, your body, your soul.  Your hopes, your dreams, your fears, your desires.  Everything about you, everything that makes you you, is God’s temple.

            That’s pretty cool, you know?  Because the temple was a really special place.  Especially the original temple, the one built by King Solomon.  The Bible goes on and on about that first temple.  It gives the exact dimensions of it, which were directed by God.  It gives all the materials the temple was made out of, which were also directed by God.  

And this first temple was made out of the best, the most expensive stuff available.  It was made of cedar and juniper.  It was made of special stone from a special quarry.  There were all sorts of ornate carvings.  And everything was overlaid with silver and gold and gold and bronze.  There were tens of thousands of people who worked on that first temple, and it still took them seven years to build it, that’s how incredible it was.  And of course, the cost of it was enormous.  It’s been estimated that it would cost over two hundred billion of today’s dollars to build that temple.

            And the thing is, the Apostle Paul, and the people of Corinth that he was writing to, would’ve known all that.  What Paul was telling them, and what Paul is telling us, is that each one of us, you and me, is just as valuable as that temple.  Each one of us is just as beautiful as that temple.  Each one of us has been created out of the best stuff available.  And each one of us has been made according to exact specifications that came from God.

            That’s pretty awesome to think about.  If that does not make us feel good about ourselves I don’t know what will.  To think that we were made to God’s exact specifications with as much care as it took to make the most beautiful, most expensive building that has ever existed on earth.  That’s pretty good.

            But of course, there was a reason the temple was made the way it was.  Maybe you know what it is.  The temple was not just a place of worship, the way the church is now.  The temple was thought of as, quite literally, the house of God.  The temple was where God lived.  That was not just a metaphor or something--they believed in it literally.  The temple was where God physically lived.  That’s why it was so important that it be built the way it was.  They were not just building a house of God.  They were building a house for God.  And they wanted to build a house that was worthy of God, to the extent that it’s possible for humans to build a house that’s worthy of God.

            So when Paul says “the Spirit dwells in your midst”, that was not just poetic license.  That was not just something Paul was saying because it sounded good.  Paul meant it literally.  Paul was saying that just as God lives in the temple, the Spirit of God lives in each of us.

            Now that’s a pretty awesome thing to think about, too.  To think that God’s Spirit physically lives in each one of us.  That God’s Spirit lives in me.  That God’s Spirit lives in you.  That the Spirit of the Almighty, all-powerful God would live in us.  That’s quite an honor.  That’s pretty good, too.

            But while it’s a pretty awesome thing to think about, it’s also a pretty awesome responsibility.  Because just as the temple was made to be a house worthy of God, to the extent it’s possible for humans to do that, you and I need to make ourselves worthy of God, to the extent it’s possible for us to do that.  If you and I are God’s temple, if God’s Spirit is going to literally live in us, then we need to do everything we can to be that perfect, beautiful temple that is worthy of having God live in it.

            What does that mean?  Well, it means we need to take a look at every aspect of our lives.  Because, as I said, when Paul says that we are God’s temple, he’s talking about every aspect of our lives.  Our physical body is part of it, but only a part.  Our thoughts are part of it, too.  So are our feelings.  Our minds, our hearts, our bodies, our souls, our hopes, our dreams, our fears, our desires, everything about us, everything that makes us who we are, is part of God’s temple.

            That means we need to make everything about ourselves worthy of God, to the extent that we possibly can.  Our thoughts need to be worthy of God.  Our words need to be worthy of God.  Our feelings need to be worthy of God.  Our emotions need to be worthy of God.  Our hopes and dreams need to be worthy of God.  If you and I are God’s temple, then everything about us needs to be worthy of God.

            That’s a pretty tall order.  I certainly have not done it.  I’ve had my moments--I suspect each of us has had our moments--but I certainly am not worthy of having God dwell in me.  I don’t know anyone who is.

            But maybe that’s the point.  Because you know, as great and fantastic as that first temple was, for all the billions of dollars and all the man-hours it took to build it, it still was not really worthy of being the house of God.  It may have been the best, fanciest, most expensive building that ever was or ever will be, but it still was not worthy of being a place for God to live.  It’s simply not possible.  No building built by humans, no matter how much it costs or how long it takes to build, could ever be worthy of being the dwelling place of the almighty, all-powerful, awesome, perfect, holy God.

            And no human being, no matter how good, no matter how righteous, no matter how generous or loving or caring they are, can ever be worthy of being the dwelling place of the almighty, all-powerful, awesome, perfect, holy God either.  It’s simply not possible.  That is, it’s not possible for us.  But it is possible for God.

            See, God takes our best efforts and makes them better.  That first temple, as great as it was, was not worthy of God.  But God took the best efforts of the people of Israel and blessed them and made them worthy of God.  And that’s what God will do for us.  God will take our best efforts and bless them and make them worthy of God.

            So our part in this, what we need to do, is make sure we’re giving God our best efforts.  Our thoughts are not going to worthy of God--but we need to make our best effort to make them that way.  Our words--certainly my words--are not going to be worthy of God--but we need to make our best effort to make them that way.  Our feelings, our emotions, our hopes, our dreams, are not going to be worthy of God--but we need to make our best effort to make them that way.  If we do, then God will take our best efforts and bless them and make them worthy of God.

            And the best way I know to do that is to spend time with God.  That means prayer, of course, and it means reading the Bible, but it also means just spending time in God’s presence.  Spending time thinking about who God is.  Spending time thinking about all the things God does.  Spending time thinking about all the times God has been there for us.  Spending time thinking about all the gifts God has given us.  Spending time thinking about all the times we did not get what we wanted, but later on got something better.  Spending time thinking about how everything we have and everything we are comes from God.

            If we spend that kind of time with God, we’re more likely to give God our best efforts.  Not out of force or obligation, but because we’ll want to.  When we think about how awesome, how incredible God is, when we think of everything God has given us, we want to give God our best efforts.  It does not feel like an effort.  It feels like a joy.

            We are in the time of Lent.  A time for self-examination.  A time when we look at who we are, and who God is, and how far short we fall.  A time when we ask for forgiveness and resolve, with God’s help, to change our lives.  And not just to make minor changes–to make important, permanent changes in our lives.

            So in this period of Lent, spend time with God.  Think about who God is and what God does.  Think of all the gifts God has given you.  And then give God your best efforts.  God will bless those efforts and make them worthy of God.

            You, and I, are God’s temple.  God’s Spirit dwells within us.  That’s an incredible honor.  Let’s do all we can to be worthy of it.

 

Encourage One Another

The message given in the Wednesday night Lent service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on March 1, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Hebrews 3:12-19.

            It’s not easy to be a Christian these days.  Society in general does not hold Christianity in very high regard.  We may not notice it here, living in a small town in north-central South Dakota.  But we see it when we watch the news.  And while we can pretend that it does not affect us here, it does.

            But you know, things were not that different for the early Christians.  In fact, things were worse.  They were subject to persecution.  They were subject to ridicule.  Things were not easy at all for the early Christians.

            And in fact, you could make the argument that things are not supposed to be easy for Christians.  A lot of the things Jesus told us to do go against our instinctive human nature.  We talked about some of them last Sunday.  “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gauge it out and throw it away.”  “If anyone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also.”  “If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.”  “Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.”  “Treat others the way you want them to treat you.”  No matter what the circumstances are, it’s not easy to live the life of a Christian.

            In our reading for tonight, the letter to the Hebrews gives us some encouragement to live that life.  Our reading starts this way:  “See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.  But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today’, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”

            Let’s look at that, because there’s a lot in it.  First of all, it gives us, as Christians, responsibility for each other.  “See to it…that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart.”  Don’t just see to it that you, personally don’t have a sinful, unbelieving heart.  See to it that none of you does.  Each of us is called to do whatever we can to make sure that none of the Christians around us drifts away.  We are responsible for each other’s faith.

            Now, I’m not saying that my lack of faith in Jesus can keep you out of heaven.  We’re responsible for ourselves, too.  But the point is that, as Christians, we need to keep an eye on the faith of our fellow believers.  If we see someone starting to waver, if we see someone starting to slip, we should not just sit back and allow it to happen.  We need to do something.  Not in a judgmental way, but in a loving way.  In an encouraging way.  And it’s not enough to just do this when we happen to notice it.  We need to pay attention to how others are doing, so we can step in and provide that love and encouragement.

            That’s not something that comes naturally to us.  We tend to think of faith as a private thing.  We don’t ask other people about their faith.  And I’m as guilty of that as anyone.  I mean, because I’m a pastor, once in a while someone will initiate a conversation about faith, and I’m happy to have that conversation.  But I don’t initiate it myself.  

It's just not something we do.  We don’t ask people how their faith is.  We don’t even ask, as John Wesley used to do, “How is it with your soul today?”  The closest we get is to say, “How’s it going?”  To which, nine times out of ten, people will respond “Fine”.  And on those rare occasions when someone really does tell us how it’s going, we’re kind of stunned.  We don’t know what to say.

But that’s not the way it’s supposed to be.  Faith is not supposed to be a private thing.  Faith is supposed to be a public thing.  We’re supposed to talk about our faith.  We’re especially supposed to talk about faith with our brothers and sisters in faith.  

And in fact, we’re not just supposed to do that, we need to do it.  And we need others to do it with us.  Because, what’s the next thing the letter says?  It says we are to encourage each other daily, as long as it is called “Today”.

We need that.  We need to encourage each other.  But not just encourage each other in our daily lives.  We need to encourage each other in our faith.  Because, again, our society, our popular culture, discourage us in our faith.  Our popular culture mocks and makes fun of God.  Oh, they might, sometimes, pay lip service to the idea of serving God.  But even that is becoming less prevalent than it used to be, and usually it’s used to further some sort of political agenda.  Let someone actually take their faith seriously, let them actually go public with their faith, and see what happens.  They’re criticized if not totally ostracized.  And the rest of us see that, and it can make us even more reluctant to go public with our faith.

We need to encourage each other in our faith.  We need to support each other in our faith.  We need to be vocal about our faith with each other.  Not just assume that everyone is “fine”, but really encourage each other in our faith.  We need to know that, no matter what the popular culture says, we are there for each other and we can trust God to be there for us, too.

And look at the reason our reading gives for this.  We need to encourage each other “so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”

Sin’s deceitfulness is out there.  It’s everywhere.  Again, it’s all over the popular culture.  And it can look very appealing to us.  If it did not, we would not be tempted by it.  

And one of the things that makes sin’s deceitfulness so appealing, and so tempting, is that we see people who are going along with sin appearing to succeed.  And not only do they appear to succeed, they get praised by society.  They’re held up as role models for us to look up to and to try to be like.

It is really tempting for us to, as they say, “go along to get along”.  If we see people of faith being mocked and criticized, and we see people who appear not to have faith lauded and rewarded, what are we tempted to do?  We’re tempted to go along with the behaviors that are rewarded.  We might not agree with them, but we keep our disagreement to ourselves.  Again, we keep our faith private, rather than being public about it.  And by keeping our faith private, we make it more likely that others–even our brothers and sisters in Christ–will fall for sin’s deceitfulness.  They won’t know that we disagree privately.  All they’ll see is that we’re going along with it publicly.

Again, we need to encourage each other.  We need to encourage our fellow believers.  We need to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ.  And we need them to encourage us, too.  If we don’t, we may all fall for sin’s deceitfulness.

Our reading says that we have come to share in Christ, “if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.”  That’s one of our goals as Christians–to stay firm in our faith until the very end.  To resist sin’s deceitfulness.  To not have the sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

But as we said at the beginning, that’s not easy.  It never has been easy.  It’s not supposed to be easy.  It takes courage.  It takes determination.  It takes perseverance.  It takes reliance on God, of course.  But it also takes reliance on others.  Those of us in the church, those of us who are believers in Christ, need to encourage each other to stay strong in our faith.  If we do, it’s much more likely that we will all stay firm in our faith.  If we don’t, it’s much more likely that some of us–maybe all of us–will drift away.

This is the period of Lent.  It’s a time when we try to draw closer to God.  Receiving encouragement from others to keep our faith strong will bring us closer to God.  And giving encouragement to others will keep their faith strong and bring them closer to God.  And if all of God’s people are closer to God, we might be able to bring others closer to God, too.  

It is not easy to be a Christian.  But it is worth it.  No matter how appealing sin’s deceitfulness may be, we have a reward that is greater.  If we hold our original conviction, our faith in Jesus Christ, firmly to the end, we will have salvation and eternal life.  And there can be nothing on earth that is better than that.

So let’s be more vocal about our faith.  Let’s be more public about our faith.  Let’s encourage each other and support each other.  Let’s resist sin’s deceitfulness and hold firm to our faith.  Let’s do all we can to make sure we all share in that reward of salvation and eternal life.