October 10, 2009

Don't Lose the Wonder of Christ's Love!

Stewardship Sunday, 10/11/09
1 John 3:1-2

Don’t Lose the Wonder of Christ’s Love!
I. Be amazed at your identity!
II. Be amazed at your purpose.

Have you ever toured a mansion here in the United States or a medieval castle in Europe? About the closest I’ve come to doing that is touring the Ringling mansion in Florida. Some day I hope to tour the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina.

But no matter which mansion or castle you’re touring, the reaction is almost always the same. You’re speechless. Your jaw drops. You can’t believe how much money these people spent to have a home like this one. You walk through room after room filled with expensive furniture and creature comforts. The walls are decorated with priceless paintings. The tour guide explains the number of domestics needed to maintain the mansion and serve its owners and guests. And one word to describe it all is "lavish".

Did your God ever take your breath away? Would you describe him as being lavish? Do you see him as sparing no expense for you? Probably not. We don’t think in those terms. Part of the reason for that is we’re so consumed with just making it through our daily schedules with all of our daily problems. We’re too busy and tired to be impressed with God’s love.

But in a very real sense, our God has been lavish towards us. And through his Apostle John our God wants us to realize that because it’s far too easy to take for granted what our God has done for us. It’s too easy to despise how our God showed his love for us in Jesus our Savior. Don’t do that! Don’t lose the wonder of Christ’s love! May our God impress us with his love as he shares it with us through his word this morning.

Part I.
There are many crises in life and one of the more subtle ones is an identity crisis. One way to find out if you’re undergoing an identity crisis is to ask yourself, "Do I know the real ‘me’?" That sounds like a strange question. How can you not know yourself? But it happens. In fact, it often happens when a person has lost a sense of continuity in their life. A drastic change has occurred and now they question who they are. Perhaps you’ve experienced such a thing in your life.

I’ll assume at the moment you aren’t experiencing an identity crisis and therefore I’ll ask, "Who are you?" And I’m not just asking for your name. That’s not so easy to answer, is it? Your mind quickly runs through all the possibilities. You consider your family situation, your occupation, your likes and dislikes, your hobbies and interests. All those things converge to make you who you are and so it might be fairly difficult for you to answer my question, "Who are you?"
I hope I haven’t caused you an identity crisis. I pray I haven’t shattered your psyche. But who are you?

John’s words to us this morning help us answer that question. In fact, he states things so clearly that there can be no doubt who we are. He says, "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" There you have it. You’re a child of God. It’s the result of God lavishing his love on you. Are you impressed?
Not if you listen to Satan’s lies about yourself. One of Satan’s soul-murdering lies is that we’re all children of God by nature. God is everyone’s Father no matter what a person believes about him, even if you believe he’s your mother. Another way of stating this lie is, "The fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man." Makes you feel warm and fuzzy, doesn’t it? But if that’s your identity, then things are going to get a lot warmer for you eternally. In fact, it will get you the heat of hell.

The truth is that we are God’s children, not by nature, but by adoption. God has indeed made us his children, but only because of what Jesus did for us and only through faith in Jesus. Don’t lose the wonder of what he did in love for you! Your child-Father relationship with God cost him no less than the sacrifice of his Son. He put his Son to death so that he could have a relationship with you. Would you be willing to kill one of your children so that you could have a relationship with someone else? I don’t think any of us would. But your God did.

And therefore that is what you are. You are a child of God by faith in Jesus. I want you to know and believe that with all your mind and heart. And the reason I tell you that is because our world emphatically denies it. Whether you’re in a classroom, a workplace or even in your own family room watching your TV, you are bombarded with the message that Christianity is for fools. It’s all a lie and, therefore, you’re no different from anyone else. Don’t think it for a moment! Don’t believe it for a second!

Don’t lose the wonder of Christ’s love! Instead, be amazed at your identity! You are a child of God.

I mentioned a moment ago that our world is a wonder-killer when it comes to being impressed that our God has made us his children by faith in Jesus. But the world isn’t the only killer of that wonder. So are we. That’s right. So are we. And it happens more often than we realize. When we soak up the world’s filthy entertainment, when we adopt the same sinful attitudes and actions of our friends and co-workers, when our priorities in life are barely different from the non-Christian’s priorities, then there’s little to be amazed at. We kill the wonder of Christ’s love. The same thing happens when we adopt the world’s opinion of us. We’re pretty good people, aren’t we? We don’t do the kinds of things that we hear about in the news. Surely that’s worth a smiley face on our report card from God. But that’s simply not true. The truth is we’re God’s enemies by nature, hostile to him, and deserving only of punishment in hell. But behold the wonder of God’s love for us in Christ! Jesus suffered that hell for us. Jesus shed his blood to ransom us from Satan. We belong to him by faith in him. We are God’s children in every sense of the word. What saving good news that is! Don’t lose the wonder of Christ’s love!

Part II.
What should I do with my life? Students in high school and college aren’t the only ones asking that question. People in their 30s, 50s and 70s ask it as well. And the question isn’t so much about what you do to make a living. It’s about your purpose in life. What are you here for?
That can be a rather complex question. And as you move through the stages of life, the answers you give to that question change. And that only adds to the confusion. Is this really your purpose, or should it be something else?

As a child of God, however, the answer isn’t all that difficult. What should you do with your life? Live with God forever. What’s your purpose in life? To live with God forever. What’s your goal in life? To live with God forever. Why are you here? To live with God forever.

John tells us, "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Obviously John is talking about the resurrection from the dead on the Last Day. He’s says we’ll be like Christ. Part of what John means by that is that our eternal purpose is to glorify him. John assures us that after the resurrection we will be like Christ. We don’t know exactly what that means, but we do know that it means our lives will be perfect. We’ll no longer experience any suffering or pain. No more frustration or stress or failure or disappointment. We’ll live in eternal joy.

But that truth has implications for us right now. Our purpose right now is to live with Christ and to be like Christ. It’s bringing glory to God with all that we are, all that we have and all that we do. And that’s where stewardship comes in. Our purpose in life is to make the most of the opportunities God gives us to his glory. Our purpose in life is to honor him at all times.
When we do that, when we live like children of God, we draw others to Christ. In a loveless world, we know the highest, purest love there is—God’s love to us in Christ. That love motivates us to think and feel and say and do the things that are truly loving towards others. It allows us to serve others freely. People who are frustrated with a selfish world admire that in us and are drawn to Christ.

In fact, when we live like Christ the world actually sees Christ through us. Think about that. God’s will is to save all people through faith in Jesus Christ. People come to know Christ through you and me. In other words, God has an eternal, saving plan to carry out and he wants to use you and me to accomplish it. You talk about a high purpose for your life! It has eternal implications! Amazing!

Don’t lose the wonder of Christ’s love! Be amazed at your purpose!

As I mentioned in my greeting at the beginning of our worship, we’re focusing on our calling in life as a result of Christ’s love for us. But what does that have to do with our stewardship, since this is a Stewardship Sunday? The short answer is, "Everything." Our life here is our time here. Our calling in life is to use our time faithfully serving our Lord. That includes how you spend your time at home with your family, at work earning a living, at church and at home as you make your Lord your highest priority. What are you doing that has eternal implications? Growing in your faith through God’s word and sacrament and sharing that faith with others is at the very center of our lives as God’s children. None of us do a perfect job of that. But that’s where God’s love for us comes in. He washes our sins away and makes us clean. He showers us with his love daily in forgiving us and renewing us so that we can fulfill our purpose in life. Don’t lose the wonder of Christ’s love! Instead, be amazed. Be amazed at your identity and your purpose. Amen.