They say that most people would rather die than give a speech. Is that how you feel as you anticipate standing in front of us this afternoon, Daniel? The thing is you’ll be giving more than a speech; you’ll be confessing your faith. In a little while you will tell us that you would rather die than deny that the Bible, every noun of it, every verb, adjective, and conjunction is God’s Word. You’ll say, in so many words, that you’d rather have a stake driven through your heart than reject the heart of the Bible that Jesus died only to rise again…teeth, hair and all (as a recent Forward article stated). Confirmation vows are serious business. I know I had a few butterflies fluttering around my stomach on my confirmation day and you may too, Daniel. That’s why I want you to grasp on to these words from our text like a lifeline: “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.” Say it with confidence, Daniel and live it with competence. That’s what our sermon text will teach and empower you to do.
“I will not be afraid.” What kind of things are you afraid of Daniel? When I was your age I was afraid that no one at school would like me. I was afraid of messing up in band. I was afraid of tripping on the basketball court. I realize now that those things really aren’t worth being afraid of. Do you know what we should really be afraid of? Sure you do. We were reminded last week that we ought to be afraid of God. Why? Because he is holy and must punish sin. We learned how he impressed this truth upon the Israelites by appearing in fire, storm, thunder, and threats at Mt. Sinai. We discovered that breaking God’s commands even accidentally won’t excuse us before him. That means during your two years of confirmation instruction, Daniel, you should have been terrified whenever you didn’t complete memory assignments as faithfully as you could have. No, it didn’t matter that you were busy with schoolwork, 4-H, or work around the farm. The study of God’s Word should have been more important than all those things combined. And I should have been afraid for showing up to class only to think about how I couldn’t wait to get home to put my feet up instead of rejoicing at the privilege of teaching God’s Word to you, Monica, and Vanessa.
Yet in spite of these sins our text teaches us to say with confidence: “I will not be afraid.” Why? Because the Lord is my helper. How do we know that the Lord is our helper? Because “8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Jesus is the Father’s helper. He helped God the Father show his love to a fallen world of sinners when he climbed Mt. Calvary to sacrifice himself for our sins. That makes Jesus more than a good pair of shoes that helps us on our heavenward hike. No, he is our chairlift to heaven. You can count on this fact because Jesus does not change. He loves the two yahoos here today named Daniel as much as he loved the Daniel of the Bible. No, we may not be as bold in living our faith as was that Daniel who opted to be thrown to the lions than compromise his worship of God but Jesus doesn’t love us any less. He doesn’t love us any less because his love is dependant on his changeless promises, not on our ever-changing personality.
“The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.” Say it with confidence, Daniel even when you fall into sin and Satan laughs at your claim that you’re a child of God. Say it when death stares you in the face and you begin to worry about having to stand before God to answer for your life. Remain unafraid because Jesus Christ, the one appointed by God to save, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Like an endless concrete divider that keeps oncoming traffic from plowing into our lane, Jesus will forever keep God’s righteous wrath from slamming into us.
“The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.” The Holy Spirit doesn’t just want you to say that with confidence, Daniel, he wants you to live it with competence. Let’s take a look at our text again to figure out what this means. “Keep on loving each other as brothers. 2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. 4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have” (Hebrews 13:1-5a).
God doesn’t just want you to be unafraid of dying as a Christian, Daniel; he wants you to be unafraid of living as one. And how exactly does one do that? For starters we do so by continuing to love each other as brothers (v. 1). To love someone as a brother means that we desire to see him succeed, so we’re eager encouragers, not caustic criticizers. Unfortunately we don’t encourage as well or as often as we should. That’s because we fail to slam the lid on our self-centered thoughts the way we would on the stench from a buried rotten apple core in the kitchen garbage. As a result where there should be warm cooperation among family and church members there is heated competition. That’s not living like a Christian though is it Daniel? That’s no way to thank God for our salvation, or acknowledge that in baptism he has given us the power to beat that self-centered pride back down to hell where it came from.
But it’s not just people you know that God wants you to love, Daniel. God wants us to “entertain strangers” and “look after those in prison” (Hebrews 13:2, 3). In our Gospel lesson Jesus encouraged us to throw dinner parties for those unable to pay us back. In other words when you have the opportunity to help another person don’t let your first question be: “What will I get out of this?” or “What will this cost me?” You may get nothing out of helping a stranger, especially someone who is down and out. But the sick, the drug addict, the homeless, for example, are not hot spots of contamination that are to be avoided; they are potential reservoirs of God’s mercy (Philip Yancey “What’s So Amazing About Grace?” p. 154, 155). And guess who gets to fill them with that mercy? We do! But we won’t do that; we won’t even show brotherly love to one another unless we continue to rely on our older brother Jesus. Stay connected to him, Daniel. That’s where the courage and power to love others comes from.
You’ll also need that Christ-given courage to do what God wants you to do in regard to your relationship with the opposite sex. That’s because Satan and the world we live in would have us believe that marriage is old-fashioned and outdated. They say that if you love a girl, go ahead and live with her whether you’re married or not. But that’s not what our text says. It warns against sleeping in the marriage bed before it’s been made (Hebrews 13:4). Listen again to the way our text put it: “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral” (Hebrews 13:4). You see human eyes may not see what you do in private, nor will human courts judge you for it but God will see and God will judge. Anyway if you really love someone, Daniel, you won’t start living with her until you promise before others at your wedding to live for her.
It will take courage to do this because some may point out how much money you could save by forgoing the whole marriage thing. But when you’re tempted to reach for gold before God (R. Lauersdorf), turn again to this text and hear the Holy Spirit say: “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you never will I forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5). The Lord is not only our savior, Daniel; he is our provider. And since he provides perfectly we don’t need to let finances motivate the decisions we make. Unfortunately that will be a continual temptation, Daniel. It won’t change even should you become a pastor. I’ve been a pastor for close to ten years now and I still catch myself thinking that if I only had a million dollars in the bank, my life would be set. Do you see the sin there? The sin is thinking that a million dollars will take care of me when God has already promised to do that. With God’s promised provision I can already say with confidence, and so can you: “I’m set for life.”
As this sermon winds down let me just say that it’s been a privilege to teach you, Daniel and I hope you won’t forget your confirmation experience. It’s more than a hope really, it’s God command. For he says in our text: “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13:7). It’s humbling to think that God wants you to consider my way of life and to imitate my faith. It’s humbling because I haven’t always served as God would have me serve him. So if nothing else, Daniel, learn from me the necessity of daily repentance. A day won’t go by in your life, as it hasn’t with mine, that you won’t need to go to the cross. There at the cross unload your sins the way you would clean out manure from the barn, and then walk away from them. Yes, walk away from your sins because at the cross you receive forgiveness. How can we be sure? Because Jesus Christ, your savior and mine, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So say it with confidence, and live it with competence: “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.” Amen.
