-welcome everyone to this wonderful Confirmation Sunday at NewSong.
-it’s kind of fitting that right after Easter and our day of being Called to Celebrate we have something new to celebrate, young people who want to be a part of the Body of Christ.
-there’s only one stipulation I want to make with this, today is a celebration, not a graduation. Just because someone is getting confirmed in their faith does not mean their faith is over.
-kind of like what James talks about in our Scripture today.
**James 1:22-25 -> 22Do what God’s teaching says; when you only listen and do nothing, you are fooling yourselves. 23Those who hear God’s teaching and do nothing are like people who look at themselves in a mirror. 24They see their faces and then go away and quickly forget what they looked like. 25But the truly happy people are those who carefully study God’s perfect law that makes people free, and they continue to study it. They do not forget what they heard, but they obey what God’s teaching says. Those who do this will be made happy. (NCV)
-I don’t know about you, but I like being happy.
-but there’s a key in there to being happy, something that doesn’t just apply to Confirmation Students, but to anyone that is still living in their faith with God. They don’t forget what they hear and they obey it.
-I don’t know why it happens, but for a lot of people it seems like there’s a point in their faith where they have arrived, like “I’m here, I’m done” type mentality. It could be Confirmation, for a friend of mine it was baptism, once baptized they were done, they're in now.
-sometimes we think merely going through the motions is enough, that if we go to church and hear the Word of God that’s all we need. It’s good, I believe in it or else I wouldn’t be here, but I think there has to be more.
-Warren Wiersbe, who wrote the Bible Exposition Commentary, explained this section of James like this:
-”It is not enough to hear the Word; we must do it. Many people have the mistaken idea that hearing a good sermon or Bible study is what makes them grow and get God’s blessing. It is not the hearing but the doing that brings the blessing. Too many Christians mark their Bibles, but their Bibles never mark them! If you think you are spiritual because you hear the Word, then you are only kidding yourself.” (Bible Exposition Commentary, James 1:22-25)
-ouch. I like it because it’s straight-forward and maybe even a little sarcastic.
-but I wonder, how many people feel that, they come to church and hear the Word of God and feel they are growing. I don’t know, to me that sounds like getting full from reading the menu. If anything, reading the menu usually makes me a little hungrier. Isn’t that what this meeting here on Sunday mornings should do? Make us a little hungrier for God?
-so I was thinking about Confirmation and all that these students have done in the last few months, and a couple of things came to mind that we need to keep doing.
1. KEEP LEARNING
-we need to keep learning the Word of God. We need to keep learning what God has for us and what God wants from us.
-a famous verse that I quote a lot. When Moses passed on and all the responsibility for an entire country of people was suddenly on Joshua, this was the instruction given to him:
**Josh. 1:8 -> 8Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. (NLT)
-the Book of Instruction would be the Law or the Bible.
-as someone who was in charge of teaching people about God, in leading people, he needed to know what the Bible said, he was supposed to not just read it but meditate on it day and night.
-that’s true of anyone in any job.
-I remember reading a few years ago that most people only know about 10-15% of what the programs on their computers can do. Someone had put it in their list of New Year’s resolutions to actually learn more about the programs they use every day.
-now, if you have a job and you use a computer, you don’t need to do that. You can keep going the way things are and keep plugging on, but do you know how much better life is when you know more? I still remember when I decided to learn some hot keys for Microsoft programs, do you remember that day, learning you can copy and paste? Oh man, that was mind-blowing and now I could do things so quickly and have time to do things better.
-I wonder if that’s where some people are in their faith, this is what I know about God and it’s very nice and I’ve figured this part out so I don’t want to know any more. This is good.
-but if they took the time to learn more about who God is, His love for us, what He expects of us so we’re living our lives right it would make us better, it would make us happier because we’d be using this life that God gave us the way He intended us to use it!
-those of you in Confirmation, as students or mentors, you have been meeting once a week outside of church to look at God’s Word and learn more about how to live the life God wants you do live. Why would you stop doing that?
-I remember years ago we did the 40 Days of Purpose, remember that? All these people in small groups meeting once a week for a Bible Study. For some groups, when the 40 days were over, so was Bible Study, back to our normal routine. But for some, they were done, but they didn't want to stop meeting, to stop learning, so they found something else to learn, some other Bible Study to do together.
-I honestly think that’s one of the keys to real growth and understanding of God’s Word, small group study. Yes, this is good and the pastor or the back-up gets up and teaches, but it’s all one way. In a small group you can talk, you can discuss, you can ask questions and not be embarrassed in front of a big group of people. You can learn so much more in that setting.
-and we have tons of those throughout the church. Confirmands, Jr. High Bible Study is Wednesday nights next year for you, or you can keep meeting on Sunday nights with the rest of the students. Adults, we have Bible Studies all over the place here.
-and if the time doesn’t work out or whatever, why not just start one? Get a few other couples, a few nights a month, meet and have a Bible Study. There are tons of curriculum in the library, and I’m pretty sure if you can’t find one there if you tell the church office or a pastor that you want to start a Bible Study, they’ll find something to help you.
-it doesn’t need to be complicated, we just need to be getting together to talk about God’s Word. And I’ve found having a Bible Study with the students every week that I get a ton out of it being the leader and looking up things for the discussion that we never talk about. And then there’s always someone who says something smarter than me because they don’t get that I’m the leader, I get to be the smart one and they’re supposed to learn from me, not the other way around. Oh well.
-we just need to be doing all we can to learn this Book. You can’t tell me you know everything that’s in here, there’s always something more, or maybe even something that didn’t apply to you before or you didn’t understand before, but now it has a whole new meaning.
**Col. 3:16a -> 16Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom He gives. (NLT)
-we let it fill our lives and we teach and be taught. It’s a great system.
-but I think there’s more than just learning the Word. Yes, we need to know what it says and a few weeks of Confirmation can’t cover everything, but we need to remember what James said, and Wiersbe echoed.
2. KEEP LIVING
-we need to keep living out the Word of God.
-go back to our quote at the beginning, to our Scripture from James, we need to be doers of the Word, not just hearers of the Word.
-yes, we need to keep learning what is in the Word so we know what we need to be doing.
-if we are learning God’s Word and we are doing everything we can to follow it then eventually our actions will begin to follow as well.
**Eph. 4:22-24 -> 22Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, 23a life renewed from the inside 24and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you. (MSG)
-I love that translation because of one little phrase, that the Word of God will be working itself into your conduct.
-because I’ve been in church and worked with students long enough to know, we all know how to act at church. We know that when we’re in these four walls we will smile politely, we will use nice language, we will say and do the right things, but it’s not what we do inside these four walls, it’s what we do outside of them.
-again, Confirmation doesn’t mean that I’ve arrived so I’ve done my time acting in a Godly manner, I can finish now and be whatever I want to be. And I’ve seen that happen with adults for baptism too.
-our conduct needs to reflect what we have learned.
-I know the students will hate this, but I use this example all the time. It’s like Upwards. Have you ever watched the younger group play basketball. It’s awesome. Dribbling means picking up the ball and running half the court, bounce once, run some more. There’s no travelling, there’s no double dribble, I mean, come on, they’re four.
-but what do you think would happen if Mark Ogle, our star of the Hamilton Southeastern Boys Basketball team, in the middle of the game just picked up the ball and started running, bounce once, run some more. He’d get called for it. And he can argue all he wants about how the four year old gets to do it, why can’t I, but we all know what will be said. “You know better.”
-the phrase that parents love, you should know better. Once you know something to be true, your actions should begin to follow what you know. Like with the basketball game, if you don’t know the rules and you mess up, ok. Being a Canadian in Indiana, when we play hockey I have to explain the rules sometimes. But once you know the rules to the game, now your conduct needs to reflect what you know.
-when it comes to the Word of God, as we keep learning from it, we will be learning more about how we are supposed to live, how to truly worship God in everything that we do, and how we play the game of life needs to reflect that. There’s not much point to reading it and learning all this Scripture if you’re not going to do it.
-one day when Jesus was teaching this woman yelled out to Him saying His mother was blessed for giving birth to Him, but Jesus said this:
**Luke 10:28 -> 28He replied, “Yes, but even more blessed are all who hear the Word of God and put it into practice.” (LB)
-it’s not just hearing the Word of God, the blessing comes from putting it into practice.
3. THE FIRST CONFIRMATION CLASS
-I want to end with a story from the first Confirmation class. The twelve young men who hung around with Jesus as He taught them about how to live and continue the Church after He was gone.
-if you want to read along this story is found in John 21. I like John because it is the only gospel that gives us some stories from after the resurrection.
-so we pick up the story a little while after the first Easter. Some of the disciples had decided to go fishing, one of them being Peter. They go out and fish all night and catch nothing. In the morning Jesus goes to the beach and asks if they have caught anything, they say no, Jesus tells them to try once more, they do it, catch a ton of fish. Peter is so excited that it’s Jesus he just leaves, he jumps out of the boat and swims to shore leaving the rest of them with all the work. The others bring the boat in, they cook up some fish for breakfast, and Peter and Jesus have the famous conversation where Jesus asks Peter “do you love Me?” and tells Peter to “Feed My sheep”.
-I’ve heard that story many times and heard about how God is a miraculous God and how Jesus shows who He is through this miracle and how He loved His disciples by providing fish for them, all good stuff, but I have one question. Why are they fishing?
-three years before Jesus had asked them to leave everything, including fishing, and follow Him. He had poured three years into them so they could take over the work of the Kingdom when He was gone. So why are they fishing? Did they just miss it? Did they need the money? Either way, if they were supposed to leave it behind because they had a new life, why are they back in their old life?
-it’s like Easter happened, so we’re done, and we’re back to our old way of life. Then Jesus pulls Peter aside and reminds him, do you love Me? Then feed My sheep. Do what you were called to do. Do what I have intended for you.
-I was talking to my brother-in-law last weekend about his band, he teaches at a high school a few hours from here. And he was saying how he gets frustrated by some students, they join as freshmen and they don’t really know what they’re doing, but he sees how this works. The seniors who do know what they’re doing will be gone soon and in three years these guys will be in charge, they’ll be the seniors so he pours all sorts of time and effort into them so they can be the leaders they need to be. And when some of them become seniors, they come up to Mr. Nelson and say “I don’t want to be in band anymore.” On the outside he’s saying, “Well, good luck, I wish you well, you’re welcome back anytime” but on the inside he’s saying, “What? I just put three years into you because I need you and I want a return on my investment here!”
-I wonder if Jesus was thinking the same thing with Peter. Peter’s looking at the situation going, “Easter happened, we’re all good. I’m done so I’m going back home,” while Jesus is thinking, “You haven’t even started yet. I just invested in you so you would keep living this life, not so you would be a good Christian for a few years then back to the old way of life. I got plans for you.”
-I wonder if Jesus thinks the same thing about us sometimes. We put in all this work and time and prayer and learn God’s Word and we become good little Christians, and then something happens, we finish Confirmation, we are baptized, we move, it could be anything and suddenly we leave where we were behind and go back to our old thinking, to our old conduct, and Jesus is thinking, why? I’ve invested in you because I have better plans for you, you will be a part of building My Kingdom.
-I don’t know where you are with God today, but Jesus has a place for everyone to build His Kingdom. Every single person can be a part of God’s plan. We’ve all been designed to be a part of that plan, and when we’re living out what we are designed to do, there’s nothing better. But to do that, we need to keep learning about who God is and what He wants for us, we need to keep living out the life He created for us. We just have to commit to it.
-maybe you’ve never committed to getting to know God more, to living for Him, or maybe you want to start that commitment over, that’s up to you, in a second we will have silent prayer and you can talk to God about that. If you want to talk someone here about it, there are a couple of us who would love to talk to you.
-but just be sure that you make today not a day of endings, not a day of reversal, but a day of moving forward with God, a day where you commit to keep on keepin’ on.
