Monday, November 18, 2013

November 16-18, 2013 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 “STAND FIRM!”


SAINTS TRIUMPHANT
November 16-18, 2013
Pastor Timothy J. Spaude
Text: 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17

“STAND FIRM!”
1.     God chose you.
2.     God encourages you.
3.     You’ll share in the glory of Jesus Christ!

2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 (NIV 1984) But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. 16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.”

          I think I may regret doing this. I understand it is not a good idea to air your dirty laundry but it’s something we need to talk about. It’s my wife. Chris. She cheats! Here’s what she does. She doesn’t want to read a book unless it turns out the way she wants so she reads the last chapter first. She wants to know how the movie ends before watching the movie so she watches the ending before beginning. I guess that’s no big deal if she only does that for herself but I have to draw the line with the Packer games. We don’t like watching all the commercials so we usually record the game on DVR, start late, skip the commercials and half time and try to finish when the game normally ends. But you know what she does? We’ll be watching, it’s a close game at the point we are watching. All of the sudden she has to “go to the bathroom” or something, then she sneaks to another TV and checks the score real time! And when she comes back there’s no poker face. I can always tell how the game is going. All because she has to know how it’s going to end. Are you like that? Do you like to know how things are going to end before you start them? I kind of like the surprise for things that don’t really matter like books and movies and Packer games. But when it comes to what does matter it’s good to know how things will end. I guess maybe that’s why Saints Triumphant Sunday in the church year has always been one of my favorites. I like the readings. I like the hymns. But I especially like the message. We win! With Jesus we win. Saints Triumphant! All the Saints Triumphant have already won. One of them is the Apostle Paul. Through his words to the Thessalonian Christians we can hear this encouraging cry: STAND FIRM!
          The Thessalonian Christians needed that encouragement. One thing they were good at was expecting the end of the world, Jesus to come, at any moment. Something they were bad at was knowing how to live while they waited. Some of them stopped working and expected their church to take care of their needs. Some of them were growing tired of waiting and were kind of giving up. Most of them were going to start experiencing rough treatment for staying faithful to Jesus and His teachings. Kind of sounds like us a little doesn’t it? We believe Jesus will come at any time. We sometimes struggle with the right way to live while we wait. We can grow tired. We wonder where God is and why He is taking so long to come and help us. Kind of looks like the going is going to get a little rougher for Bible believing Christians in America. Hear the cry of those who made it, the Saints Triumphant, Stand Firm. Why?
          Because God chose you for this! But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 He called you to this through our gospel.” The Bible’s teaching on God’s choosing or election from the beginning of the world can cause us Christians confusion if we think too hard. It’s meant by God to give comfort and joy. God chose us. That we’ve heard the Gospel is proof. It calls us to believe the truth. It tells us we have purpose. Have you ever seen those science fiction movies where the world’s been destroyed and the survivors are trying to figure out what different things were used for? Or the Little Mermaid where Ariel has her gadgets and gizmos? We don’t have to wonder about or figure out our purpose. God chose us to be saved and to be living testimony to His truth. So Stand Firm in that truth. Why leave it behind for the empty promises of sinful pleasures, choosing to be lazy or sexually immoral or greedy. Stand firm because God chose you.
          Stand firm because God encourages you. “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” There are basically two ways to motivate people. You can use positive motivation or negative motivation. Negative motivation is when the football coach says, “You block that guy or I will kick you so hard you won’t sit down for a week!” Positive motivation is when the coach says “Way to go. Good job. That’s just what I wanted you to do.” Now let’s understand something here. God is God. He is just and holy and He has the right to do anything. He could, when we do wrong, kick us so hard we couldn’t sit down for a week and He has the right to do a whole lot worse than that. But He doesn’t. He encourages us. Look at the Sacraments. He wants us know we are His children, that we are able to live as his children, that He loves us dearly so He gives us our Baptism to be a daily encouragement. He wants us know we really are forgiven, to have something solid to chase our doubts away, to be positively encouraged to go out and fight again against the sinful desires that war within us so He gives us the Lord’s Supper for as often as we eat the bread and drink the wine. He gives us His Holy Word in the Bible with the power of the Holy Spirit in them to change us and build us up and lead us to lives of repentance. He gives us the church. You know God doesn’t need us here. If he wanted our pews to stay warm He can do that all on His own. No by providing a gathering place for believers He gives us a place where we can see we are not alone, that there are others with it and as long as we pastors don’t really blow it, you get to leave encouraged, encouraged to stand firm. “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.” Make no mistake about it, the Devil is trying to get rid of Jesus. He wants Jesus out of our country, out of our world. With no Jesus there is no salvation. Just like with the Old Testament people of God and with the Thessalonian Christians we have been chose and encouraged by God to stand firm. To be the ones who hold on to the true Gospel no matter what and hold out the good news to others not matter what. Like them we get to serve as the honor guard for the word and all of its teachings. You may think that the battle is for Biblical marriage vs. gay marriage or the protection of life vs. the right to murder in abortion, but it’s really a battle against the devil’s attempts to get rid of Jesus and so we stand firm and we hold to the teachings passed down to us.
And as if the honor of doing that for the Lord isn’t enough listen to this! “He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” There are many parts of God’s Word that I’m just too feeble to grasp what it fully means. This is one of them. I could understand getting the crumbs of Jesus’ glory, or maybe the leftovers, but God says we will share, yes share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. How can this be? No matter. God says so. It is true. What an awesome future He has in store for us. Shall we give it up because the going is getting rough? Will turn away because it takes going through many tribulations to enter the kingdom of God? Is there any kind of sinful sex, booze or drugs that’s worth turning our backs on Jesus Christ? No way! So stand firm, hold to the teachings, hold to Jesus Christ.
And some day your name will be among those who were blessed to be transferred from the church militant (that’s us) to the Church Triumphant. Since our last Saints Triumphant the following have made it safely home: Robert Drews.  Lois  Guenther.  Earl King. Rhonda Kutz. John Martin. Audrey Matt. Leo Petersen. June Schaefer.  Jim Witt. Clarence A. Zastrow.  Now think of your moms and dads and grandpas and grandmas and whoever else made it. If they could they would look down to you today and join their voice to God’s in Scripture. All the Saints Triumphant cry. Stand firm! Amen.

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