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Sermon – Reverend Jack Arnold - Time
and Action
Church of the Faithful Centurion
Descanso, California
Today’s sermon brought
the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and is partly contained in the
Consider
these words from the Collect:
… look upon
the hearty desires of thy humble servants, and stretch forth the right hand of
thy Majesty, to be our defence against all our enemies …
In the
Collect, we ask God look in to our hearts, see our desire to be His children
and defend us against evil. That also
means we are looking for His Help in the form of the Holy Ghost for the
changing of our hearts to actually have “hearty desires” to do His Will and to
be “humble servants”, not our usual and customary self centered selves. Quite a combination of thoughts in a small
bit of verbiage! It is amazing how much we can put in a short sentence if we
use our words right! If we will be follow Him, He will defend us in all assaults of our enemies. [1] If we will not accept His Help, He will not
force it on us. Back to that old, “Thy
will be done.” The question once again
rises, from whose mouth does it proceed, ours or God’s?
As always,
we have a choice. We can only serve one Master, God or Satan. It is a pretty
clear choice to all who have the Holy Ghost in our hearts. With the Holy Ghost
in our hearts, we can spot darkness for many miles away to use a metaphor. The
Holy Ghost is like a really bright flashlight that God gives to us to discern
the right choices to make. He is a tool that we can utilize to further the
Great Commission and spread the Gospel to all nations. Not only that, He is a
tool that we should be using daily in our own lives. He will help us to stay on the path that God
has set for us.
Today’s
Epistle and Gospel share the same theme.
You must not only talk the talk, but you must also walk the talk. This is a very common theme within our
sermons for the reason that it is very true. In order to have faith, you have
to show that faith through living it.
When Paul
tell us to live our lives as we represent our desires to God, he tells us to
make our actions match our stated desires, very much in line with the thought
above. Actions! Not just Dictions, but
Actions! There can be a distinct difference between the two. If you actually believe, you will act. If you just say you believe, you will
not. There is a distinct difference
between the two states, action and in action. Faith requires action, unbelief
is equal to the state of inaction.
Believing and saying you are believing can be
diametrically opposed. Note how many
people claim to be Christian, yet do not actually act on the principles of
Christ and follow His Instructions. This theme is the central theme of the
Christian faith, which was first shown with Christ’s death on the cross and
resurrection. He came to act for us, not just to talk or meditate, but His
great plan involved action, though it was painful, it was His action that
released us from the wages of sin. He gave us an example to live by, that is to
live out our faith through not just the right words, but the right actions as
well. We have to live our lives in a manner that reflects we believe the Gospel
and is consistent with how we should act, which is contained within the same
Gospel.
Think about
the Gospel.
It is very
important to be unified in our worship and maintain mutual support; a team
always beats individuals. That is not to
take away from individuality, but rather to note that we need to remember whose
side we are on and work together with our teammates. Each of us has been given
a specific talent by Our Lord to help further His Cause here on earth. When we
work together, we can chain those talents together and achieve remarkable
things. We need the Holy Ghost’s help to
make us truly work together with our fellow believers. He will help us overcome
any obstacles to working together. The Church of believers is a mighty army
that through the amazing and wonderful leadership of Christ, will achieve many
great things for Him on this Earth. In order to truly serve Him, we must be
willing to put aside our old selves and truly accept the regeneration that He
offers us and become the New Man that Paul talks about.
The
satisfaction of doing a job well done should be enough for our reward. It does
not matter who gets the credit, all that matters to our Lord is that we work
together with other believers to get the job done and to get it done right. All
that matters is that we get the job done, and work as a cohesive team with
other believers to spread the Good News the best we can. If people refuse to
hear the Good News, it is not our problem. We just shake the dust off our feet
and move on to the next group of people.
There are
two phrases particularly worth remembering, “a house divided against a house
falleth” and “He that is not with me is against me.” Middle ground exists, but it is
quicksand. Any feeling of safety there
is illusory. We must take sides. There is no neutral option in this great
worldwide spiritual warfare. Sooner or later we are going to be forced to take
a side. It is very clear to us what side we should choose. The only rational
side to take is that of God, that side that will lead us to eternal life not
that of eternal death.
And, we
cannot keep with those who oppose the side we choose. It is the natural part of the history of the
Bible. We have to choose to follow God, as there is no other reasonable option,
which will give us the result following God will result in. We must decide who
we will follow. One man cannot serve two masters, also fits here I find. We
cannot say we love and serve one side, but serve another truly. We have to
choose which one we are going to love or serve, God or mammon (things of this
earth/Satan). We cannot be wishy-washy
here, we must take a stand and declare it unto the world, and let them know
that we are not for their ways, but we are against their ways. We have to make
it crystal clear in our actions, to tie it into the theme of acting. We have to
let our faith shine in word and in deed to make it count. We do not have true
faith if we do not act upon the words that we speak on our lips, of believing
in Christ and His Father.
Christ
himself came not to unite the world, but to divide it, father against son. He
came to divide, that is that we would choose the opposite side of the world,
which for them is mammon, and our side is that of God and righteousness. He
came to light up the world that was for Him, and that which was against Him, to
identify friend from foe. Through the Scriptures we can easily tell who is for
Him and who is against Him. It is simple, who holds to the principles of
Scripture is for Him. They who do not hold to them are not with Him.
You must
keep constant vigilance against backsliding, for a fallen Christian is in worse
shape than one who was never exposed to The Word. The Epistle and Gospel both talk about the
curious dichotomy; you are saved by faith, Jesus’s faith, and your faith alone
saves you, not what you do; yet if you have faith, you must act on that
faith.
When you
accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and repent of the sins of your
former life, you are forgiven of your sins.
But, you must understand, this is not a signal to keep on sinning and
keep on saying you repent. You must
truly change a new leaf and start on the new course of life with Christ, and
not slip back into the old man. This is one of the most difficult challengers
as a Christian, but with the help of the Holy Ghost, we can do it. You must
receive the Word, hear it, and act upon it and spread it joyously to others, in
order for your faith to have any meaning at all. Otherwise we will have been
for the worse than if we never had heard the Good News. It is not a gift to
selfishly lock up, but to share and give to others. That is the true joy of the
Good News. It is most certainly more blessed to give than to receive in this
case.
You must
grasp that your acceptance of Jesus Christ as your savior and your repentance
is the beginning of your life as a New Man in Jesus.
Will you
slip? Without doubt. But, when you do, will you again repent and
continue to do your best to follow the Word of God, the Light and the
Truth? All that matters is that you get
up and do your best not to do what you did to slip. Life is a continuous
learning process. Indeed, if you are a Christian that is what you must do. We will always slip up in our lives, that is
in our fallen nature. But we have to get up and get back on track, using the
Holy Gospel to guide us like the instruments in an aircraft. We cannot trust our feeling, but only our
instruments (God’s gift of Holy Scripture).
You are called to believe and act on those beliefs to the best of your
ability. If you do not, then prepared as
you were for life, you will so be prepared for the pit. As you read Luke, remember the second half of
the Book of Luke is The ACTS of the Apostles, not thoughts, wishes, prayers or
meditations.
For,
“blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.”
ACT
It is by
our actions we are known.
Be of God - Live of God - Act of God
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