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Sermon - Rev Jack Arnold
Church of the Faithful Centurion -
Descanso, California
Today’s sermon brought
the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and is partly contained in the
forewords above.
Consider these words from the
Collect:
… we have no power of ourselves
to help ourselves; Keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our
souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the
body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul …
In the Collect, we acknowledge to God that we cannot
direct our own lives, if we listen to our “inner self” we are without
guidance. Consider the airplane
flying, it orders its movements according to Polaris, the Pole Star of True
North. If a pilot flies guided by
his “inner self” he soon knows only where he is: at the controls, and little
else. Like the pilot who needs to
know where the True North is so he can orient himself, we need God’s guidance
to move towards our goal of eternal life with Him. I had the experience of
flying our Ercoupe N7543C a while back. I had to maintain altitude, heading and
airspeed all at the same time. I then looked outside and re-checked my
instruments. As I was flying along, I thought about how these principles of
flying could be applied to being a Christian. The Holy Scriptures are our
instruments and we re-check our progress in the world by the instruments of His
Word to make sure we are on the right heading and not stagnating in our
progress as pilgrims. God is also our infallible co-pilot, always making sure
that we stay on course. If we are good pilots of our future, then we shall
listen to God and His Holy Word so that we might be on course.
It
should also be noted that our life here will be a lot more pleasant if we stay
on course. Recently, I read
something which said at the end of our lives, the words will be “Thy will be
done.” The question is will it be
us saying it or God? We need to
listen to God and do His Will. His
guidance will bring us on a path to success in our lives, if we listen to His
guidance. We have to initiate the contact/relationship with Him. He does not do
it on His own. He waits for an opening into our hearts. We have to let him into
our hearts in order to let him guide us. If we do not do this, then how can we
expect to have Him guide us, if we are not open and ready to receive Him and
His Guidance? We have to be willing and ready in order to receive His Guidance,
than we have to act upon the information His Guidance gives us.
Thus, when Paul tell us to keep our bodies under
control of our minds and our minds to be guided by God only, he helps move us
on course. We are to be true and
honest in all our dealings, both physical and fiscal and to live our
faith. Being honest with others
and especially ourselves is one of the most important things we can do. If we
are not honest with ourselves to start, how can we be honest with others? For only by living our faith can we
demonstrate that we in fact have faith.
For professed faith with no actions when you are able to act is not
real. You must actualize what you
claim to believe. One must convert their stated beliefs into their actions, in
order for their belief/faith to have any reasonable meaning. Without actions,
the faith that one believes is not truly real, if it is not acted upon. If you
claim to believe one way and act another, you are by definition a hypocrite. We
are called to be as God wants us to be, not as we would be without His guidance
and help. God does this, not that
we would miss fun, but rather that we would enjoy happiness.
Keeping evil thoughts under control can be a
difficult task, but we do not have to face it alone, we have the Holy Ghost in
our lives and other Christians and friends that support us and guide us, that
can help us battle evil thoughts. We have to remain in control of our good
sides. We are in a sense like the character Gollum from Lord of the Rings, who
had a good personality and a bad one. Unfortunately for him, he let his evil
side possess him and it won out. Unlike him, we need to make sure our good side
is winning. To do that we must turn to God and the Holy Ghost and Christ for
help. All of them will help us win our battles, but we first have to listen to
what They say. We must truly be guided by the faith in our Lord.
Matthew gives us a fine example of faith that
demonstrates how we must be guided by our faith in our Lord. The woman who cries unto Jesus is a
Gentile, just like us. Just like
us she longs for His Mercy. In her
case, she asks only for the mercy rejected by others, the crumbs of the Master’s
Table[1]. This is the essence of our faith, we
are not worth to dine at His Table, no more than dogs are meet to dine at our
table. Yet, what is left over is
more than enough for us. And we
are content with that, knowing what miserable creatures we are. And, even more important, even knowing
what miserable creatures we are, Jesus offers to share His Table with us. He is not content for us to grovel for
His crumbs. If he offers his love for us, surely we should love Him back, by
acting upon our faith? If we do not act for Him, then we do not truly believe
in Him. In order to truly believe, you must act upon the faith that you have.
Acting is the key principle, the key cornerstone of the faith of Christians,
and Christ set this example of our faith by doing it, by sacrificing Himself
for our sins on the cross. This was an example of action not just diction.
Action is far more important than diction only. Diction is nice, but it needs
to be paired with Action in order for it to have any sort of meaning.
It is also important to understand that if one loves
God, He still has the exact same amount of love available for any other person
or group. His love is infinite,
even if it wasn’t love multiplies in use!
Recognize how poorly you do with your guidance,
accept His Guidance, stay on course and accept the fruits of that action.
Be of God - Live of God - Act of God
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