Grace Lutheran Church 13th Sunday after Pentecost, September 3, 2006

The Rev. Evan Gaertner
13^th Sunday after Pentecost "In the World"
September 3, 2006 Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9

Aid in preparation for sermon: Homiletic Helps, CPH

Goal: Hold fast to God by keeping his word

Malady: Adding or subtracting and letting it slip from our heart.

Means: God reveals himself as savior to the world through the word of God made flesh Jesus Christ.

Chaplain Dave Reedy, a Lutheran chaplain in the Air Force, recently told the story of a well-deserved promotion for an officer where he was present to provide the invocation. It is customary for the officer to give his wife a bouquet of flowers, but this officer gave his wife something else that spoke volumes: he pinned her with rank one grade above his newly earned rank, to symbolize her importance to her.

Whether it was his goal or not, those that witnessed what this officer did, now know the relationship that this man has to his wife.

Our Lord desires that our relationship to him be clear to those that we meet. We can show to the world the relationship we have with our Lord when we obey the commands and trust in the promises of the Lord. When Moses spoke to the Israelites before they entered into the Promised Land he was instructing them to keep the statutes and rules that the Lord had given them.

St. Paul encourages the people of God to live in the fruit of the spirit. In Galatians ch. 5, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."

Both St. Paul and Moses instruct the people of God to live according to the Spirit of God. It may seem like a no-brainer that a Christian would live like a Christian. But when we live in this world we must recognize that we are strangers to this world. Our God is a stranger to this world. Even in our country where so many profess to be Christians Jesus Christ as the savior is a stranger to too many people. We have an opportunity in our witness to make known the kind of God that we have in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

St. John the Evangelist wrote in his first letter that " By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome."

Why do St. Paul, Moses, and St. John all encourage us to keep the commandments of the Lord? Is it so that by doing so we can redeem ourselves? Is that by keeping the commandments we will find ourselves rich and famous? No, neither of those options is the answer in Scripture.

Moses says in Deuteronomy 4:6-7. "Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?"

The people according to Moses would be living witnesses to everyone that met them of the wisdom and glory of God.

The call of Moses is for the people to hold fast to God by holding onto his word. When we hold onto God even in a strange land we are witnesses to the people of who is our God.

In this world we are pulled by the devil into becoming residents of his kingdom, but we are citizens of the kingdom of God, people of the promise.

We are strangers in this world. There are Christians in this world that face physical persecution on account of their faith. But even in America where the threat to the Christian is not nearly so physical or violent, we still must be honest. We are strangers in this world. No matter the possible Christian foundations of our country, we are strangers, sojourners in this world.

Recently a book by two theologians about Christian culture in America commented that we should consider each congregation as a colony in a foreign land. As outposts of the kingdom in a foreign land we can respond by giving up and completely blend into the world surrounding us, we can withdraw bunker style and put up as many fences, rules, around us to prevent the encroachment of the world into our lives, but there is also a third option. We can live according to the word of the Lord and the world will see our God at work.

It is this third option that Moses directs the people to in the book of Deuteronomy. Live according to the word of the Lord and let the people see your God at work. But there is a warning. Moses says, "You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you make keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you."

Through the power of the Holy Spirit we hold fast onto God. The evil one continually tries to break our concentration, to distract and confuse us about what is truly the word of the Lord. In the Garden of Eden the serpent said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?"

Deuteronomy 12:32 says, "Everything I command you, you shall be careful to do, you shall not add to it or take from it."

Proverbs 30:6 says, "Do not add to his words, lest his rebuke you and you be found a liar."

And in the closing words of the book of Revelation we find, "if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book."

The greatest danger when adding to or subtracting from the Word of God is that we will block the view to the promises of God. God desires us to hold onto him by holding onto his word because it is in the Holy Scriptures that God reveals himself as the savior of the world.

Islam believes that Jesus is a prophet but in the Koran they have so altered the message of God that salvation is no longer found in the mercy of God revealed in Jesus Christ. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints they have added to the Bible the Book of Mormon. Jehovah's Witnesses alter the definitions of words and blatantly pull words out of context. Modern day liberals inside Christian churches dismiss St. Paul's New Testament prohibition on homosexual acts because they think he is too judgmental. But in dismissing St. Paul's words of law they demote the inspiration of Scripture and cause people to dismiss the gospel.

Moses in verse 9 warns us by saying, "Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from you heart all the days of your life."

Beyond the very blatant and obvious concerns of adding to or subtracting from the Word of God, Moses is also concerned with those that would allow what they had seen slip away from their hearts.

For the people in the wilderness he had delivered them manna. He guided them as a pillar of fire at night and a cloud during the day. He had delivered to Moses at Mt. Sinai the commandments. Our God has come even closer to us. The Letter to the Hebrews opens, "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son."

Jesus Christ is the Word of God born in the flesh to be the one that takes away the sin of the world. We cling to God and his word because it is in his word that we find our deliverance. St. Paul told the Romans, "Since we have been justified by the father, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

God's word and deliverance is not far and distant from you even in this world that the evil one is prowling around. You can go boldly, even as a stranger, into this world and know your God is with you.

Soli Deo Gloria

Grace Lutheran Church Sermons