Sermon – Reverend Hap 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 forewords above.
Consider these words from the Collect:
… sent to prepare the way of thy Son our Saviour by preaching repentance; Make us so to follow his doctrine and holy life, that we may truly repent according to his preaching; and after his example constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake…
In the Collect, we are reminded that John the Baptist was sent to prepare the world for the coming of the Lord. His primary job was to tell us we were wrong! To tell us, regardless of how wonderful we think we are, as Paul so eloquently put it, There is none righteous, no, not one:[1] The religious chosen of the time, the Pharisees and the Saducees, were convinced they held the keys to their own salvation in their odd perversion of The Law. They were not ready to see The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.[2] John was needed to prepare the way for Jesus to bring that message to them. Just the same, as we receive that message, we are to bring it to those around us so they might be prepared to receive Christ into their hearts and gain the Gift of Life. The Collect warns us that today, just as for John, bringing the Truth to the world can be an unpopular and dangerous line of work. Yet, we are to do so and count the cost later. By the way, bringing the Truth to people does not mean going out to seek a fight, it means answering questions truthfully and honestly without shrinking from that bright light of God.
Isaiah provides the text that serves as the Epistle and continues the same thought. Written long before the time of John the Baptist, it clearly foretells John’s mission, if not his coming. That messenger will cry to the people the Lord is Coming! The Lord is Coming! Pay attention to Him! Our lives are but a flash in the pan, our time here is of no consequence. What we do with that time and who we follow defines who we are and where we will be in time eternal. Probably the key is the very last sentence where Isaiah tells us of Jesus Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. Preparing the way for the Lord was John’s function. Once we join The Church, that is the body of believers, not some building or group or organization, that is our function. To make straight the way of the Lord. That is to prepare the world for Him.
While in the Gospel, Luke relates the simple facts of John’s life, there is more to it than that. John was committed to the Lord from the earliest time. He was an example for each of us to follow. He did not let the cares and worries of this earthly existence keep him from acting on the mission God had prepared for him. His father Zacharias recognized this at a very early age and helped him grow into the mission for which the Lord had chosen him.
John set an example for us to follow. He did not just talk about Jesus’ coming with a few of his fellow believers who were comfortable with the idea. He brought the Word of God to all who would listen so that they might be prepared for the coming and the glory of the Lord.
We have a similar job in the Great Commission to bring the Word of God, the Truth incarnate, to the world around us. Not necessarily to the darkest part of Africa, but perhaps to even darker places, to the hearts of those around us.
Heaven is at the end of an uphill trail. The easy downhill trail does not lead to the summit.
The time is now, not tomorrow. The time has come, indeed. How will you ACT?
It is by our actions we are known.
Be of God - Live of God - Act of God
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 forewords above.
Consider these words from the Collect:
… protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy; Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal…
We desperately need God’s Help, yet paradoxically, God can only help us if we put our trust in Him, we can never be strong, nor set aside to Him, if we do not let Him be our leader. No one can be their own leader, no one. Each of us, no matter our position, must have a immutable directional reference or we become hopelessly lost. For navigation, we have a magnetic compass or better yet the Pole Star, Polaris, which will tell us True North so we can keep headed in the right direction. People have died of starvation in a closely wooded area less than a mile across because they became lost while following their own sense of direction. So it is with our own spirits, that if we rely on our own internal sense of direction we will be come spiritually lost and die a terrible spiritual death.
However if we have the Holy Ghost, we are not separated from God and Chirst and will thus become stronger. If we let the Holy Ghost into our hearts, He will both strengthen us and help us to holy, that is set aside. He can also help us be merciful to other people. We just need to listen to what the Holy Ghost says and act upon it.
We need a leader to follow. We cannot be our own leaders. If we try to become our own leaders, it will not work. Fortunately for us God is that Leader. If we will ollow His lead, we will pass through this world in good order and go on to the next in eternal happiness. This is a very common theme within Scripture, do what God asks, be happy. Don’t do what God asks, don’t be happy. It seems simple enough in theory, but a lot harder in practice. It is a lot easier said or thought about than done. We want to do what we want to have fun, God wants us to do what we need to do to be happy. Fun and Happy do not mean the same thing, sometimes, actually oft times, used interchangeably, their meaning is orders of magnitude different.
God is the only one who we should be concerned about, if we follow Him, then those who really matter will like us for who we are and how we conduct ourselves while following God and those who don’t are of no concern. Doing what is right is a far more important matter to be concerned with then making sure people like you. Do what is right, avoid what is wrong and you will be happy is a basic principle of the Christian faith.
Paul builds on this, telling us that walking God’s path, though it may seem hard at the time, is nothing compared to the reward we receive in heaven for following God’s will. He is encouraging us to envision this everytime we are encountering times of trouble and or sorrow. In the end, our reward will outweigh all of our struggles, if we will but keep the course that the Holy Ghost sets out for us.
At first living with the Holy Ghost’s/Scriptures advice may seem like constrained way of living. However once actually lived the life that God prescribes for us is really perfect freedom. It only seems constrained, because we cannot conceive how following His Word will allow us true freedom. If we overcome temptation to do what we want and do what God wants, we will receive the gift of eternal salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. For until Christ, there was no delivery from the pain of worldly existence; through Christ there is redemption of our souls and our resulting bodily resurrection. This is the great gift that Christ has given us, the redemption of our souls and our entry into Heaven, by his sacrifice made once for all time, He secured our entrance into heaven. This is a gift that we should always be thankful for.
Luke presents a simple message, yet one that is often misunderstood, with majestic language which brings the message to a point of incredible sharpness. We cannot help others until our own problems are on the way to being solved through the salvation offered by Christ. We cannot be the guide to Christ for others until we get the help we need to walk the road to Heaven. We need to follow Him, before we ask others to follow us. After all, if we are not going in the right direction, what positive value is there in others following us? We do not want to be leading others towards The Pit, rather, we want to be sure we are on the right path before we guide others along the path. We should be pathfinders, finding the correct path to travel on the journey of life! We must be honest in our appraisal of ourselves so we can do what we are supposed to. We also must not judge unrighteously, but judge with righteous judgment through the Holy Ghost. This means not judging others for sins yourself are committing.
The point is that without the Holy Ghost, all of our judgments are unrighteous. This is what Christ was talking about, and after it, condemn not, lest ye be condemned. This is the part of Scripture that most people seem to forget about. When He said use righteous judgement, he was talking about judging people’s behavior by the standards of Scripture, not condemnation. He was talking about using the Scriptures as the standard for judging individual’s behavior. He does not mean us to condemn others. This is connected with the parable of the mote. Often times when we are tempted to condemn somebody, we often ignore our own failures and focus on theirs. Let us get our act together first, before we help others. So, how can we, imperfect as we are, be honest with ourselves? The answer is easy, hard to implement, but easy! The Holy Ghost! Let Him into your heart and do what you are told. Simple, yet hard to do. We want to do what we want to do. But yet, it is what must be done, no matter how hard it seems at the time. It will get easier as we do it, but it will never be truly easy. But it is way easier than the alternative, which is not following God’s Word.
Speaking of doing, what we do to others is a good measure of how we follow God’s Will and Direction. This is the reasoning behind action speaks louder than words. Talk is cheap, action can cost more than words. If you want to know where a persons heart truly lies, you check their words against their actions. We are expected to treat others as we would be treated. Our real earthly fortune, as well as are eternal lives, are a reflection of our commitment to God.
We are so ready to condemn the performance of others when our own is even worse. It is common within all of us, especially me particularly. As Paul tells us, “all fall short.” The operative word here is ALL. If we look to condemn and repair our own spiritual lives before condemning others, we will be better suited to help them. Our beam before their mote.
For only when we have taken care of our own spiritual health by looking to God for help to evaluate and improve how we follow His Word, we will be able to effectively spread the Word of His love for us.
And that is our job, to improve ourselves to effectively spread His Word by example; our action, not our diction, is the measure.
Heaven is at the end of an uphill trail. The easy downhill trail does not lead to the summit.
The time is now, not tomorrow. The time has come, indeed. How will you ACT?
It is by our actions we are known.
Be of God - Live of God - Act of God
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