Confirmation
First Devotion:
Ephesians 2:8,9 “We
walk only because of grace.”
8
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from
yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.
Today is Confirmation
Sunday. It’s a festive day; there are
two young men and two young ladies here wearing white robes. They are here today to stand up for Jesus –
to tell us what they believe about Him, and to proclaim that they would rather
lose their life than lose their Savior.
Since it is a festival day,
instead of having a sermon as we usually do, today we’ll enjoy four
mini-sermons, or devotions, on four verses of Scripture. Each devotion will be based on one of the
Scripture verses that the confirmands picked for
their special day.
The first devotion is on
Emma’s verse, Ephesians 2:8,9. We start
the first devotion with a story about four young teens having a contest. This isn’t a contest of who can say the books
of the Bible the fastest, or who can answer the hardest questions. Those are contests that actually happened,
right guys? But the contest I’m talking
about is made-up. Imagine four young
teens having a contest that, as they are walking across a field of freshly
fallen snow, they want to see who can walk in the straightest line.
The first teen says, “I’m
going to look down and put one foot carefully in front of the other; I’ll walk
slow and take my time. That will help me
walk the straightest line. The second
teen says, “I’m going to keep about an arm’s length away from her. As long as I do that, I’ll walk in the
straightest line. The third teen decides
to do that same thing.
The fourth teen had a
different plan. She found a fencepost
way down on the other side of the field.
She kept her eyes on the fence post as she walked across.
So they all made it across
the field, and then they looked back to see who had won. The first teen’s path wove back and forth,
especially when they had to walk through deep snowdrifts or into a rocky ravine. The second and third teen’s path, of course,
did the same thing because they were following the lead of the first teen. But the fourth teen’s path was straight as an
arrow because she had set her eyes on the goal.
Even when trudging through deep snowdrifts or rocky ravines, that was no
problem for her.
Now what does this story have
to do with confirmation? Today the four
of you are starting a new walk across the field of life. High school isn’t far away, after that, adulthood. The walk across the field has plenty of
exciting things waiting; there are lots of temptations and rocky ravines
waiting too. But don’t be afraid. God
has given you a fencepost to look at the entire way. He has given you His Word. If you decide to look at something other than
his Word… you will drift and stray in life, and your soul will be in great
danger. But if you keep your eyes glued
to that fencepost, you’ll walk through life just fine, even through the deep
drifts and rocky ravines.
As you think about walking
through life with your eyes focused on the Word, remember that it is a gift you
get to focus on the Word at all. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by
works, so that no one can boast. If
it were not for God’s grace, you’d be lost as you try to walk across the
field. You’d never make it to the end;
you’d be walking in circles. You’d
follow this temptation over here; you’d listen to this ungodly friend over there. You wouldn’t know or care about Jesus and
forgiveness if you didn’t have the Word.
But it is by grace you have
been saved. God has told you about
Jesus. Think of God’s grace to you as an
arrow coming down. You did not decide to
love Jesus; he decided to love you. You
did not decide, “Tell Jesus to go into the world to wipe out everyone’s
sins.” No, God decided to do that. You didn’t decide to put God’s Word on a
fencepost to keep you on the right track; God decided to post His Word for you.
It is by grace you have been saved, with
no strings attached.
Let me ask the four of you a
question. Do you earn your birthday
presents? Is this the rule – that every
7th or 8th grader has a long list of chores posted to
their bedroom door, and if you do all those chores every day for a year, you
get a birthday present? But if you don’t
do every chore, every day…even if you’re sick, that’s no excuse…no
present. Is that the rule? No, that’s not how it is. Nobody would ever get a birthday present if that
was the rule. You don’t get a birthday
present for doing chores. You don’t get
a birthday present and then have to pay your parents back. You don’t open your birthday present and then
hear, “OK, Em, now you owe me fifty bucks.” No, you get a gift for free. Your parents give you a birthday gift because
they love you; it is a gift with no strings attached.
Each of the confirmands wrote an essay this past week about “What Jesus
Means to Me.” In each devotion, I’ll
read an excerpt from what they wrote about their Savior. Here’s the first snippet…
“Jesus has done so many things for me I don’t know
where to start. Jesus is life after
death; if you believe Him and that he died to save you from your sins, you will
go to heaven. Jesus means love. It is amazing to me that after all the
sinning I have done, Jesus still forgives me.
I know that I don’t deserve it, but through his grace, I am saved.”
That is what God means when
he says, “It is by grace you have been saved.”
We don’t deserve it, but he has given us a gift for free, the gift of
heaven. Let’s sing about that gift right
now – Hymn 385 “Chief of Sinners Though I Be.”
We’ll sing verses 1,2 and 5.
Second Devotion:
Romans
14
because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
What does it mean to “be led
by the Spirit of God?” At first that
sounds weird, like we are in Star Wars or something. If someone was walking down your hallway and
told you, “I’m led by the Spirit” you would worry about him. But being led by the Spirit is not weird;
it’s not a mystery; it’s not that you are on Luke Skywalker’s team or that the
force is with you. To be led by the
Spirit of God is to know the Bible well.
To be led by the Spirit is to know, “Jesus, my Savior, washes away all
that I do wrong each day. To be led by
the Spirit is to walk through life like the fourth teen…focused on the Word and
the goal of heaven every step of your life.
These four are led by the
Spirit; they have been studying the Bible.
Wouldn’t you say you know more about the Bible now than you did three
years ago? Wouldn’t you say you know
more about Jesus than you did when you started confirmation classes? Of course you would say that. You have been focused on the Word; you have been
led by the Spirit. And those who are led
by the Spirit are sons of God. You are
in God’s family.
What Jesus means to me is grace and salvation. Jesus saved us from the fiery pits of hell,
sin and death. I know this because it is
written in the Bible that Jesus saved us. From the beginning, it started as a
promise until (the promise was fulfilled when) he was born on Christmas
Eve. In the Bible is Jesus’ death, and
also his rising from the dead and ascending into heaven.
Those are the words of
someone who is led by the Spirit and safe in God’s family. Let’s sing a song about being safe in God’s
family – Hymn 449 “Children of the Heavenly Father.”
Third Devotion:
I Corinthians 1:8,9 “God
will keep you strong.”
8
He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of
our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God, who has
called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.
It is by grace we have been
saved. It is a gift we are in God’s
family. All we have to do is keep our
eyes on the Word – the fencepost at the end of the field. Really, the only thing that can mess this up
is if we get distracted. But, oh, is it
easy to get distracted. The devil comes
in lots of ways and wants to distract us from the fencepost. He helps us think that many things are more
important than His Word. He says, “Hey,
look at this fun thing to try. Come check
it out.” He says, “God wants you to be
happy, right? Live for yourself! You deserve it.”
Those are temptations we fall
for. That’s why the word “blameless” is
so important. If you took a test and your
teacher wrote “blameless” on your test, what would that mean? It would mean zero wrong; one hundred percent
correct. Can God, who knows everything,
really call us blameless at the end of our lives? Can God, who watches all the times we
dishonor our parents, our teachers, our leaders…can he call us blameless? Can God, who knows all of our days of
non-stop sinning, call us blameless? Yes
he can, because Jesus has taken our sins away and given us a white robe of
perfection.
Jesus Christ died on the cross for me, even though I
didn’t deserve it. The least I can do is
give him thanks and praise; but that does not even equal one-millionth of what
he has done for me…He actually gives me the assurance of knowing I am going to
eternal happiness the moment I die. All
of this for the price of nothing. Jesus
means everything that I can possibly think of, including my life. He is the most valuable thing in my life; I
do not know where I would be without him.
Because of God’s forgiveness
through Christ, we are blameless. He
will keep us strong to the end. And
please notice we don’t keep ourselves strong – God keeps us strong, for God is
faithful. Let’s sing a hymn of peace –
hymn 442 “Have No Fear, Little Flock.”
Fourth
Devotion: Isaiah 40:31 “We will soar on eagles’
wings.”
31
but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they
will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
Jesus will keep us strong to
the end. Jesus will renew our strength
so that we soar through life. Have you
ever seen a bald eagle soaring? They are
majestic, they are beautiful; they are smooth and powerful all at the same
time. They seem calm, peaceful and in
control as they soar across the heavens.
It doesn’t always seem like
we are soaring through life. Some
mornings we wake up and don’t want to get out of bed. Maybe it’s because we’re tired; maybe it’s
because we’re afraid; maybe it’s because something awful has happened. Life has trouble – it is not easy. It doesn’t always seem like we are soaring
through life.
So is the Bible lying when it
says, “Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength; they will soar on
wings like eagles?” Not at all. The Bible doesn’t ever promise an easy,
trouble-free life. But it does promise
that Jesus will be with us through all the trouble. It promises that even troubles will end up working
for our good. When we have been saved by
God’s grace, when we are led by the Spirit and adopted into God’s family, when
God has promised to keep us blameless until the end, when we are staring at the
fencepost of God’s promises as we walk across the field…we are soaring. Even if difficult and painful things come
around.
Jesus to me is love, strength, kindness and
protection. He is love in the fact that
he would give up his own life just to save me.
He is strength because he is the wings on which we soar like
eagles. He is kindness in the fact that
we don’t deserve anything we have, and yet we have it. He is protection in the fact that he keeps
the devil from us. We don’t deserve
anything except punishment for our sins.
We only deserve to be in hell with the devil forever. But God loved the world, so he sent his Son
Jesus to save us; and Jesus also is the one who rules over everything.
These four have started to
walk across the field. They are staring
at the fencepost. They understand
falling into temptation; they understand repentance and they know about
forgiveness in Christ. It is real to
them. The promises of God are embedded
in their hearts. Remember, you’re not to
the end of the field yet…so keep reminding yourself of all of God’s promises
your whole life. You will soar through
your days on earth, and God will keep you strong to the end and pronounce you
blameless on Judgment Day.