Hillsborough Reformed Church at Millstone
May 7, 2006 Easter IV
Confirmation Sunday
Hebrews 10:19-25
“What Not to Neglect”
So we have finally arrived at your confirmation day! Wow! Most of you have been going to Sunday School your whole lives. You have moved from upstairs where you sat in the pews for the opening of Sunday School. You were so short your feet didn’t even reach the floor. You learned special songs, gave to the compassion offering, sang Happy Birthday sometimes, and were led with the love of dedicated teachers and with the smile and good cheer of Mrs. Hartzog and Mrs. Webb. Others of you came from other churches. You remember well some of the teachers and leaders there. You moved up through the grades of Sunday School and were at last ready for confirmation. You sat through over two dozen classes with me, did CAPS projects, went on a retreat, ate pizza with your mentor and were biting you nails as your elder examination drew near. You all passed!
Now it is confirmation Sunday and your parents and other family members are here, people who love you. Your teachers look on you with pride. I am proud of you!
You are fulfilling in your own life right now those wonderful things talked about in Hebrews…22let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds,
Every adult in the church appreciates your newness…there is purity about you because of your youth and your taking your place for the very first time as adult members of the church. Maybe you don’t feel it, but trust me, we all feel it about you. You have been cleansed and purified in Jesus Christ. You are brand spanking new! And we are all celebrating that.
I have been doing this a long time – longer than I’ll say, and on Confirmation Sunday, I usually try to give an inspiring and relevant sermon, the upshot of which is that you should live out your faith in the church. I hope you will!
But this morning I want to do something different. I want to address your parents.
I would usually tell our children to fulfill the vows they made this morning, but they know that. When next Sunday rolls around, what will happen? There may be a “yippee! I don’t have to go to confirmation class.”
That’s okay.
But will your child be in church next Sunday? Or let’s say at least one of the next two Sundays. I would normally exhort them, but it occurs to me that we as parents (I have a confirmand here too this morning) can either make it easy for them to go to church or make it hard for them to go to church.
Let me explain. I think most of these ten next week will not be in church. Some will, but not most, I suspect. What will your role be next Sunday at 9:30 AM?
Will you be making it easy for them to go to church, or hard?
That is, will you be coming to church. If YOU are coming, it will be easier for them to be here. If you do NOT come, you are making it VERY hard for them to get here….you are radically reducing their motivation.
Church is just about the last thing left that is truly voluntary.
And let me say here I want to thank every parent of a confirmand in this year’s class and praise your efforts. You made sure they were confirmed. That is no small thing and not always easy. You rearranged schedules and put off things you’ve wanted to do. Everyone of you made contributions to the confirmation effort. What you have done this year is far more significant than you can imagine. You have taught your child that our faith is very, very important – and it is a lesson they will carry right through to the last day of their lives when they go to meet our loving God.
It annoys me no end when I hear that a coach has told one of our young people that if they miss practice for some church involvement, then they cannot play in a game or they are off the team. Excuse me?
In the scheme of things, what is greater, a soccer practice or service to king of the universe?
There’s no contest!
I have long believed that if we Protestants (because the Roman Catholic priests DO stand up to schedulers of things on the Lord’s Day) would all just join in saying no to any activities on Sunday mornings, they’d stop in a heartbeat! We have some of the best players in our churches! If coaches knew NONE of them were coming, you can be sure they’d reschedule. But one family here or there can’t make that difference.
I am asking you – parents – this morning what Jesus Christ means to you. Sunday morning worship is NOT an option. It is simply what we do. As we heard from the epistle to the Hebrews this morning, “. . . not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.”
You cannot be a Christian without the church. That shocks many people. “What do mean?” they protest! “I believe in God, I just don’t believe in organized religion.” Or the new favorite, “I am very spiritual. You don’t need the church to be spiritual.” I dare anyone with these cockeyed beliefs to read the Bible. They are made-up lies. Jesus ALWAYS assumes we will be in fellowship with each other.
And it has never been easier than today. For most of the history of the Christian church, there was one church nearby you could attend and that was it. Each person living in our area today can choose between dozens of churches, even hundreds if you don’t mind gas at 2.89 a gallon. There is no excuse. It all boils down to what Jesus means to us.
Rick Warren, in his best selling book, “The Purpose Driven Life,” in chapter 17 tells us why – from SCRIPTURE we go to church –
“A church family identifies you as a true believer.
“A church family moves you out of self-centered isolation.”
“A church family helps you develop spiritual muscle.”
“The body of Christ needs you.”
“You will share in Christ’s mission in the world.”
“A church family will help keep you from backsliding.”
Any one of those reasons is good enough, but when you put them all together! The Bible says the church is the “body of Christ.” Imagine trying to live without a spleen. Imagine living with only one lung. Imagine having no hearing. When you pull yourself away from the church, that is exactly what you are doing to the body. Will God replace you with someone else. Perhaps. But is that what you want?
And men, I gotta tell you. There is NOTHING masculine about staying home on Sunday morning, sitting at the kitchen table in your pajamas and reading the newspaper. Real men get up, and LEAD there families to worship. Your wife might well swoon if you do! You will make her happy in the deepest part of her heart knowing she has married a man who loves the Lord Jesus Christ and who has made Jesus Lord of his life! In my last church, one of the boys came into Sunday School one Sunday crying his eyes out – sobbing. It turned out his dad had ridiculed his mother as she got the kids ready for church. He did this every week, mercilessly berated the church and mocking his wife for wanting to go. You might ask what kind of a man would do that. You know the answer – this guy was no MAN!
I read an article this week for men in anticipation of mothers day. The article is called, “The Sexiest Thing a Man Can Do.”
Here are some answers from women: “You want to get me in the mood? Help out!”
Watching my hubby cheerfully, without my prodding, take care of household duties totally puts me in the mood,” says another mom.
I’m going to extrapolate…the truth is, trust me on this, once you get married and get past the romance and the excitement and honeymoon and the start of a family and all the adjusting needing to be made, we discover what really matters is the kind of persons our partners are.
And nothing…nothing…matters more than religious faith.
So men, I’m going to say it – and I guarantee your hearing it here first – going to church is sexy!
There, I said it.
Now I say that tongue in cheek…though there are many marriages filled with sadness because one partner is active in the family of God and the other distains it. I have seen the suffering that causes. The wonderful faith-filled, dedicated to Christ youth leader in a previous church married a man who had no time for the church. It grieved this woman as she gave herself selflessly to ministry, and he did nothing – nothing – to help or encourage her. The marriage finally fell apart. I have no doubt that if this man had shared her faith and supported her in her discipleship to Jesus, they would be happily married today. His attitude toward her faith was decidedly unromantic and in the end destructive to their life together.
But please. When you had your child baptized, you promised you would lead them in the way of Jesus.
You are not finished that promise yet.
Pray for the help of the Lord, and tell you son or daughter today how proud you are of them. Tell them how much you love Jesus. Tell them you love the church too.
Fred D. Mueller
A Call to Persevere
19Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, 25not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
