CONFIRMATION
May 14-16, 2022
Pastor Timothy J. Spaude
Text: 1 Corinthians 1:4-9
OUR CONFIRMATION WAY OF LIFE
1.
Built on God’s Confirmation.
2.
Shown in your Confirmation.
1 Corinthians
1:4-9 (NIV 1984) “I always thank God for you because of his
grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5For in him you have been enriched
in every way--in all your speaking and in all your knowledge-- 6because
our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. 7Therefore
you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus
Christ to be revealed. 8He will keep you strong to the end, so
that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God,
who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is
faithful.”
Every once in a while people will ask
me what it’s like to be a pastor. Besides telling them it’s a fun way to serve
Jesus and people actually pay you to do it, I normally add, “Being a pastor
isn’t a job. It’s a way of life.” You don’t punch a clock and all of the sudden
stop being a pastor. You carry that with you wherever you are. It’s an honor
and a privilege that comes with responsibility.
The same thing can be said about being
confirmed. It’s not a ceremony. It’s a way of life. It’s a way of life
willingly chosen by believers in Jesus Christ who have been instructed in the
truths of God’s word. Many of you have already been confirmed and some look
forward to it. So today let’s look into God’s Word to see how being confirmed
is a way of life.
It’s a way of life that is built on
God’s Confirmation. Some might wonder what confirmation is anyway. You already
know. If you book a hotel room or a flight or a rental car you will want to
receive a confirmation of that booking. A confirmation is a notice that tells
you that you really have it. Yes, there is a seat reserved for you on this
plane. Yes, we have a room set aside for you. A confirmation then is really a
strengthening or a reinforcing that something really is true.
God does that for us. He confirms what
is really important for us to know. “I
always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5For
in him you have been enriched in every way--in all your speaking and in all
your knowledge-- 6because our testimony about Christ was confirmed
in you, 7Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly
wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.” The Apostle Paul wrote
these words in his first letter to the Christian church in the city of Corinth.
It was a congregation that had many spiritual troubles. Its people had to live
in a very wicked city, where very few people actually believed in the Lord
Jesus. Sound familiar? It was important for them to know they had what they
needed from God. Paul confirmed it. He thanked God because they had received
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Normally we think of grace as God’s
undeserved love. It’s also a word that means gift. When the Corinthian
Christians received faith in Jesus they received the gifts they needed. They
were enriched in speaking and knowledge. Those folks lived in a city that
valued eloquent speaking and human philosophy. Now they had better. They could
speak words that would lead people to have eternal life. They had the true
knowledge of the true God. They had the spiritual gifts necessary to stay
faithful to Jesus. This was confirmed by the fact that they believed in Jesus.
God has confirmed the same things for
you, my friends. It’s easy to worry and fear when we look to what the future
may hold for Christians in our country, especially our youth. But you know
what? I have read some sermon and papers from Lutheran pastors from our sister
churches that existed over a hundred years ago. Do you know what they said?
They warned about what would happen to the youth because the country was
getting so wicked and there was so much immorality and there was so much
alcohol abuse. Now the young people of that time would then have been in their
fifties and sixties during the time what many people call the good old days.
But at the time they did not seem so good. My point is that in every generation
confirmed Christians will face challenges to their faith. That is nothing new.
And in each generation God is there confirming his people. Confirming you, that
is strengthening and reinforcing you.
He strengthens you by giving you your
Baptism, something you can point back to and rely on that says you really are a
child of God, despite your many sins and no matter what you are dealing with.
He has given you His word, the Bible, so you know you have all the knowledge you
need. Not everything you want, but everything you need. Over and over again He
confirms the fact that you are forgiven all those sins as He has his ministers
pronounce that in weekly worship. He goes further and confirms His love and
forgiveness in the Sacrament of Holy Communion where Jesus’ true body and blood
are present with bread and wine and say again, “You are forgiven. Here is the
proof. I confirm it.”
And while it may happen that you get to
the airport or to the hotel or to the car rental place only to find that your
confirmation is not valid because they overbooked, that cannot happen with
God’s confirmation. “He will keep you strong to the end, so that
you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God, who
has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.”
God is faithful. You can count on Him. He will keep His word and promises. God
is faithful.
And that’s why we want to be too. Which
takes us to our Confirmation. For any of you who are unfamiliar with Lutheran
practice in our churches the preteen children go through several years of
formal instruction with their pastors. We want to make sure they have the basic
knowledge of the Bible’s teaching. There is a lot of repetition. Then we have
this ceremony that announces they have learned those teachings and agree with
them. They get a chance to publicly promise to be faithful to Jesus all the way
to their death, which is so important because Jesus said, “Everyone who
confesses me before others, I will also confess before my Father who is in
heaven.” (Matthew 10:32)
Confirmation was never ever intended to be
the end of anything. It does not mark the end of learning and relearning Bible
truths. It does not mean you never again sit in class with your pastors
learning God’s word. It is meant to mark a new beginning in your faith life. At
your Baptism God made His promise to you that you were His redeemed child
washed clean of your sins. At your Confirmation you promise, “Lord I will do my
best to live like what you made me. I will strive to let the faith you have place
in me on the inside show on the outside.” In other words, Confirmation is not
just a ceremony. It’s a way of life.
As a confirmed Christian you don’t punch a
clock. You aren’t working on faithfulness to Jesus 9-5 and then you are done.
You don’t have a church life, a work life, an at home life. You are a confirmed
Christian wherever you are. You don’t have a church mouth, a work mouth, a home
mouth. You have one mouth that was created to declare the praises of God and to
tell others the great things He has done for you at church, at home, at work.
Being a confirmed Christian is a way of living very deliberately so that
whether you eat, drink or whatever you do you will do it all for the glory of
God. It’s a way of living where you deliberately strive to demonstrate
faithfulness to the one who was faithful to you first, Jesus.
Here again is why it is so important that
we do not view Confirmation as graduating from something. You can be done with
going to elementary school. You can be done with going to high school. You
never want to be done believing in Jesus. Faithfulness to Him is marked by
regular weekly worship and daily devotion to His word. There you will find the
strength you need to live your confirmation way of life. There you will find
confirmation that you are still loved and forgiven by God when you stray and
you will stray. And you will come back. That’s what Confirmed Christian do.
Being confirmed is not a ceremony. It is a
way of life. It’s an honor and a privilege that comes with responsibility. You
are making a commitment to strive to live faithful to Jesus every day for the
rest of your life. And did I mention you get paid? Not money that is here and
gone and loses value due to inflation. But the glories of heaven forever.
Welcome to a way of life. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment