Faith in The Face of Opposition

But let's pray. Almighty God as we Proclaim your word this morning. May you open our hearts for you? Hey you give us Assurance of Who You Are the rock of our salvation and we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

Faith in the face of opposition this morning is our sermon so we have one more week after this of this sermon series. And so I'm going to have a quite a few pictures this morning. They're really for me to kind of know where I'm at. But feel free you can look at them, of course. So 2017. I had the great honor to be ordained on the 500 anniversary of the Protestant Reformation at Living Word Lutheran Church. And so there's kind of the bulletin for that. I got ordained the Saturday before Pentecost. It was a wonderful day that I am in my wrote. I do own one of those. And this is the store and I was very blessed with it. So I'm not trying to convert anybody this morning. But this is this was Martin Luther was The Man Behind the Lutheran movement the Protestant Reformation. He was on his doctor Luther. He was a priest the month and a master beer maker for those that like beer and so was his wife to 502 years ago, Martin Luther And this this Mosaic here with me by lady named Nina in my last Church. She was Russian Europe in the Russian Orthodox Church the beautiful Mosaic that she made this is Martin Luther. Hang in the 95 Theses to the Wittenberg Church in Germany. You can't read that. So Martin Luther did not intend in starting a movement 500 years ago. In fact, it's kind of over drama drama, you know, it's drama really what Luther did was he went to the back of the door of the church. So kind of like the back entrance of the office area and he put 95 concerns about what's going on in the Church of that time. And somebody got it like social media is today. And they shared it and they shared it and they shared it and then Martin Luther got in trouble by his Bishops and Leadership. And yet the escape and he went to this Castle the Wartburg Castle or Heap in the famous words of a ham called A Mighty Fortress Is Our God if you guys are familiar with it, so I'm wonderful him. I'd kind of like the Lutheran version of oh for a thousand tongues. I sing every Gathering they sing the it's on the organ and it's beautiful. But it kind of opens up A Mighty Fortress Is Our God and its Hawks about how God is the protector and there is in the castle being hunted. They're going to Exile him to roam the B stand before the pope and more than likely be killed for his 95 Theses. What did he do? At his time in that castle. He translated the Bible. from Hebrew Greek and Aramaic the German the language of his people that the whole Bible was done during that time, but a good portion of it. He held people accountable the church for the wrongdoing and you know the church hated him so much that

When he died and was buried correctly and everything. They aren't buried him years later and burned his bones as a symbol of their dislike of Martin Luther. I will say a hundred years later Vatican II of the Catholic church, but you know what he was riding on most it's a reason why he was holding the church accountable and in fact the Catholic church in Germany. And the German Church German Lutheran Church have common communion together where pastors can now share a clergy amongst each other. That's a big step. So again, they hated this guy because he held the church accountable for their own doings. And I kind of reminds me of this verse in Hebrews by faith Abraham when he was tested offered up Isaac.

And he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. And so it's in times of opposition times of trial. I believe that our faith is truly tested when it's easy. It's easy. but when things get difficult What is the famous hymn? There's several that were made and noted and worded during times of opposition deborra-lee for my scripture this morning that our faithfulness requires some form of action. The here in the first three verses Jesus was teaching one of the synagogue on the Sabbath at a woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for 18 years. Remember your your bent over so she was bent over and couldn't stand up straight for 18 years, and then Jesus shows up and when he saw her Jesus calling her to him, but she got up. It's a woman you are set free from your sickness and he placed his hand on her and she straightened up at once and praise God. There she is. Now I kind of think of a few things here immediately.

And the first verse here. We hear that she gets up.

She gets up and goes to Jesus. So she doesn't hesitate. She doesn't think about it. She walks gets up and walks over to Jesus. That's the first thing she does. And he says they're her. You're free from your ailment. You're free from your sickness. Now. I'm actually been sick for 18 years and all of a sudden you're good. You're good to God and what a life-changing. Does anybody have a acre of pain in your body right now to just have been there for years. Okay, so a couple years ago I decided we were moving to West Palm into this apartment and I we had some younger even younger guys have me helping and as to why I have to I have to show that I'm just as strong as they are. So I was helping unload a china cabinet and it fell on my shoulder. And you know, it's been about 3 years now and it hurts all the time all the time. Should I go to a chiropractor and it feels better for a couple weeks, but you know all the sudden back pain going away. What a miracle this woman would have felt.

Can you remind me of the snake story here? Awesome, Luke chapter 17 11 through 19 on the way to Jerusalem. Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee Village 10 men with skin diseases approach them. Keeping their distance from him. And they raised their voices inside Jesus master show us mercy, and when Jesus saw them, he said go show yourselves to the priests. And as they left they were cleansed and one of them when he saw that he had been healed return and praise God with a loud voice and he fell on his face at Jesus feet and thanked him and he was a Samaritan. I just replied weren't tank lens. Where are the other nine? No one returned to praise God except this Foreigner.

so I want to really focus on this last verse which I believe parallels to the previous story get up and go your faith has healed you. We have three similarities, I believe and faith in action here and the few stories the person going to Jesus and it requires some effort on us to go before the Lord. That person being healed because of their faith is what the scripture tells us this morning. And the person praised God and so let us not be like the other nine lepers and that story where God does something for us and we just forget about it. That's easy to do we pray for something for years and years. All of a sudden answers our prayer even though we long forgot about it, and we forget to give thank the almighty God for making it happen.

We are afflicted as people. We we

You know often. The God I know I didn't study for this exam. But please help me pass, right? So how many of us have taken a test of the kid or maybe it's an adult we didn't study at all. And we pray to God to help us pass. Now I can't tell you how many times I might have done that while going through Seminary.

I don't know how I got through all the way but I did I did a good job. But stay safe is responding to God. It's a response to our prayers at the response by our actions and our Deeds. Maybe God will help me pass the exam if I don't study but I think he asked for a little after it there. You know, he gave me a brain to use. So faithfulness brings questions. We're just going to focus on one verse insisted that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. I stay in there are six days during which work is permitted. Come on come and be healed on those days. Not on the Sabbath. The Jesus all the time was question for every single thing that he did. As people of faith we should be expecting that people don't understand us. They don't understand why for example, we're giving shoe boxes away the kids in another country that we don't know. They might think that's odd or strange. They might think it's odd that we send millions of dollars to for example, I'm cord. United Methodist committee on relief who gives resources and a to families in need they might not understand why we might stop everything that we're doing the prey with somebody. Are the open our homes are to give food away or whatever. It might be that the Lord is calling on your heart to do expect people to question you. Many times, you know in our own lives we've done things that don't make any sense anyone. We're here here in from Paul. We live by faith and not by sight. We have to we have to turn that question when when the Lord tells us and put something on our heart to just do it. Because if not, well, I always think I might end up like Jonah, you know getting swollen by a big fish and then spit up. I don't want to go to Nineveh. I don't want to go there and got that. So well, you're going to go there if you like it or not. And this is what he does to us. We have to put God's words on our heart. See what we learn here in Deuteronomy these words. I am commanding to you today must always be on your mind. Recite them to your children. Now this is the problem. I think we have here has been going on for Generations. We have forgotten God's word as a society. Talk about them when you're sitting around your house when you are out and about when you are lying down and when you were getting up. We should be talking about God and the word of God to our kids and our grandkids and maybe I'm preaching to the choir cuz we are in church, right? Maybe all everyone in here is doing that. But we have to tell our fellow Christians that they are responsible to raise their children up in the word. That's part of their response as part of their action. That's part of when people question them at school on. I don't know here pressure. We know all those things. Why they're not doing something. Well, they know the word of God. I can't tell you how many times I was the weirdo at school growing up cuz I was the Christian. Oh, yeah, I didn't I didn't drink balloon or not in high school. I did not do drugs. I didn't do any of that stuff. And it was because I stood on the word of God. No judgment on anybody that has but the church raced me the church brought me up. So when it came time for those times a peer pressure, I wasn't with able not to give it to it. But not everybody so lucky and so we have to raise our kids up knowing the word of God a hundred percent because our faithfulness is a living testimony.

It's hard for me to write to the Lord answered him you hypocrites. Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or Donkey from the stall and leave it out to get water. Things should not this woman a daughter of Abram who Satan has kept down for 18 long years be set free on the Sabbath day. What bound her and then he said this all his opponents were humiliated. Why cuz he knew the word of the Lord. Are the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

How many times we as a church are called to hold the world accountable. The other way around I see all these things on social media about what the church is doing and not doing. My favorite one that I see all the time is that the church, you know doesn't pay taxes are the pastor doesn't pay taxes so we can deliver these big lives. I can tell you that is not the case at all. Yeah, not at all. And so I'd explain this yesterday. The point here is the church is the moral judge the moral leader in this world that we live in it should not be the other way around. Sometimes the church needs members of the church the rise up and say, you know what? This is not right? What is going on? And this is exactly what Luther did. But the early church fathers all suffered because of their faithfulness. So we just have a couple pictures here. We know that Jesus ultimately paid with his life as a Young Man. And unfortunately all those who followed him. And so I believe this is Saint Ignatius all of them suffered horrendous deaths. Because no matter what they wouldn't give that they wouldn't bow to the emperor of Rome as God. And if we look at today's world, what can we parallel that with? What do we not want to say is our god? Well, ultimately God is first before anything any commitments that we have any organizations we belong to any of that God is first all the time. We have to we have beers up the early church and and the church triumphant.

It says here teacher. What is the greatest commandment in the law? You must love the Lord with God with all your heart with all your being and with all your mind. And this is the first and greatest commandment is love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets depend on these two commands. And so as a church as people. It's it's sad, you know one thing I forgot to pray about I was online. Oh Friday nights and I'm still part of somebody's youth pastor roots. And one of them said there was seven shootings in the st. Louis area schools around the their Community. I know one. There's one here. And so we have a a society where we have gun violence and racism and sexism and hatred and suicides Galore. I mean addiction issues. I just this week. I think I've spoken to at least four people within our community that suffer with some type of drug addiction for example, and I'm sure there are many more. So the role of the church here in our faithfulness. In our time of opposition is have a voice in those issues to play a key part in bringing God's kingdom to the Earth. To love our Lord Our God with all your heart and my heart mind soul and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

We Can't Back Down You know what one thing that these pillars of faith be that Wesley or Luther or BT Roberts or George Fox or any of these men. We have talked about Susanna Wesley as they stayed the course. They stayed the faith and they fought the fight. And so I don't know what the fight is. But I can tell you that for example on my list here the suicides of young people in this country. I believe we as a church should have an impact and figuring helping figure that out. It's sad to see young people when I was in LaBelle a couple years ago. Are we had a young man whose parents were doctors in our community? Very well-known respected well-off. And he told himself in front of his friends. You know and it's a small town like this. So that the community put it on a lot of different things right the respond you can thank for this is what I would do. This is my game plan A B C D E whatever but you know what they did. They called in the church at the high school. And so it was the very next day. I was there providing counseling. And we had a gymnasium full of kids. Who also we're struggling with suicidal thinking in a small country town. So it's out there and the church responded. By allowing us to go and be a part of that healing process. So this morning? Not the kind of be on a negative. No, but how is the church responding? What are the needs of Chiefland? What is it that is not being met by the community by the resources that we have. And I want us to the church to really pray about that. So you guys have heard me talk about the listening post that's coming up. Not a prayer meeting. It's an opportunity for us to share together. What are these concerns and our community? What are some of the things that the church is doing well, and how can we as a congregation respond best to this world that is in pain? And so I and is hosting the first one I've gotten a few other people that have offered to host it in their homes and my goal is within 6 months. I want to know every single one of you. Well, I mean, we're not we're not a huge place, which is great at this time for me to get to know you but as there hopefully the church grows and we see people on the Congress of the community and the congregation then you all become that person to invest and that next Generation those small groups. And so I just want to get to know you guys even more until we can respond to these issues that are hurting our world. Let us pray.

Oh mighty God. We thank you so much for the opportunity to be a Beacon of Hope and lights to a world. That is struggling. God we we pray for families. That are dealing with crisis. God the young teenage kids God that are turning to the suicide on a daily basis. It is sad and it hurts. God help the church be what the world has not been able to resolve. a Beacon of Hope and light to those families God we pray for

the young moms and dads who are just trying to figure life out. God that you would provide spiritual mentors and their life that have been there and done that. God that help them through that time. We pray for college students across the country who are leaving their homes God. that they know the word of God. Then their hearts and their minds God that they looked at you before making any decisions. We pray for this community God for those that are suffering with addictions drug alcohol abuse, whatever it may be. We pray for those in the community who do not feel welcomed in a church. Got a special we pray for them that a door would open either here or somewhere else where they would feel welcomed and loved and cared about.

Yeah, we we left them to you and their salvation and in your blood. And we pray for our congregation as we continue to move forward as the body of Christ together. alphys help us be your hands and feet. Help us for actions to our faith. And we pray this and you're all Mighty name. Amen.