October 31, 2024 • 26 mins
Join us today as we reaffirm our faith and our promises to God, bringing our newest confirmands into the fold. Pastor Guy has some words of wisdom that we can all benefit from in his sermon today.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
For Jesus. The word of God is in your mouth
and your heart. And it is Jesus who has worked
through your parents, your Sunday school teachers, your pastors, to
teach you His word from scripture by the power of
the Holy Spirit. And He has led you here today
to do what you will do every day in faith
from now on, which is to confess with your mouth
that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that
(00:21):
God raised him from the dead. And we we will
celebrate with you because of the last four words of
that same verse that declare for all of those who
confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe
with their hearts that God raised him from the dead,
they will be saved. That is our hope for you,
(00:47):
and that's my hope for all of you. That is
our hope in life, is that in Christ, who has
been raised from the dead, that we believe in our
own hearts. Because of this, we will be saved receive
His blessing. May the peace of God, which exceeds anything
we understand, guard your hearts and mind as you live
(01:09):
in the grace and guidance of our Lord and Savior
of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Christ.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Good morning and welcome to peace. To you from Peace
Lutheran Church in Arvada, Colorado. Today we have four confromands,
which means four people that have given themselves to Christ
through confirmation. Pastor Guy is going to talk about what
confirmation is all about and for all of us that
are living out our baptism and our confirmation. Now here's
(01:55):
Pastor Guy.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Holy Gospels record in John chapter seventeen, beginning with verse
twenty one, that they This is Jesus praying that they
may all be one, just as you, Father are in
me and I in you, that they may be in us,
so that the world may believe that you have sent
me the glory that you have given me. I have
(02:21):
given to them, that they may be one, even as
we are one, I in them and you and me,
that they may become perfectly one, so that the world
may know that you sent me and loved them, even
as you love me. Father, I desire that they, also,
whom you have given me, may be with me where
(02:41):
I am to see my glory that you have given me,
because you love me before the foundation of the world,
Oh Righteous Father. Even though the world does not know you,
I know you and these know that you have sent me.
I made known to them your name, and I will
continue to make it known that the love with which
(03:02):
you have loved me may be in them and I
in them. This is the gospel of the Lord, all right.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
So over the years, I've kind of learned something that
if there's something important to say, I write it down.
I don't know if you've ever done this before, but
in key moments within our life, conflict with my wife
and I, conversations with staff members and the like that
I always find myself writing it down. And so when
I prepared for today, I thought, Okay, what kind of
(03:33):
sermon do you give when your new pastor you don't
know the people as well, especially not the confermands, you
haven't taught any of the classes. What do you do?
And so I was doing my research and I was
writing notes, and then pretty soon I just had nine
pages of things to say to you. And I realized
I had just written a letter to these Confermans who
(03:55):
are about to stand up here and to proclaim their
faith response to what Jesus has done for them to
make these incredible vows. And so I did. I wrote
you a letter, and I would like to read it
to you. No, this is normal, you get used to it.
If there's important things, you're probably gonna get a letter,
but I will sign it. It will not be anonymous. Okay, So,
(04:21):
dear Ella, Andrew Logan and BELLA Confirmation Day is such
a blessed day for all involved, especially this Confirmation Day
paired with Reformation Day, where we celebrate that all of
life is about Jesus and what he has won for
this world and for us as Christians. In some ways,
(04:42):
it's hard to preach to you today because I've not
been your pastor long enough to know what your passions
and joys and struggles and challenges are. But even if
I had baptized you fourteenish years ago in this area
right up here, this is the same message that I
would be sharing. And I want to start by asking
(05:02):
you a question. Do you realize you were brought into
this thing that we call faith? Have you ever thought
about that before that you were brought into this? And
so if let's just do this a little interactive you ready,
I want you to look at the people that brought
you into this. Just turn around, make eye contact and
(05:22):
mouth the words thank you. Did you mouth back? You're welcome. Yeah,
it's true. It was your father, mother, or grandparent, whoever
it might be. It was their will to bring you
to the Lord at your baptism, and then to bring
you everyday since. And it was their will to teach
(05:43):
you the way of Jesus, to teach you to live
by Him. And it was their will to bring you
to church to battle you in the pew. As I've
gotten to know some of the kids, that's a bigger
battle than others. But you teach you to worship, send
you to Sunday school, Confirmation, and youth group. And while
the whole time they were doing this, they were praying
(06:04):
for you earnestly. And their prayer has been the same
as everyone else is here. Their prayer is the same
as mine before I even knew you. For all comfermands,
as I've done this in other churches, that one day
this faith that you were brought into will become more,
that it will become yours. That one day faith in
(06:27):
Christ would become what you confess with your mouth. Believe
in your heart that Jesus's Lord and that God raised
him from the dead. That is why we are so
excited to celebrate with you today. Today is an affirmation
of our hopes and our answer to prayer. And now
our prayers will change. Our prayers for you have been.
(06:50):
May their mouths confess Jesus as Lord, and may they
believe in their hearts that God raised him from the dead.
That's been our prayer, and now it'll change. May they
confess Jesus's Lord and believe in their hearts that He
has risen every day forever and that's certainly true. You'll
hear me pray this in the years to come. Lord.
(07:13):
May the easier children never know a day apart from You,
but always live and believe in You. And this I
believe again I can speak for all of us, is
all of our own prayer for you from here on out.
For those who gather here today, we all know what
tomorrow and the next day is like after confirmation. Many
(07:34):
of us know what it's like to transition into adulthood,
maybe go to college, start working, maybe get married or
start a family. We know what it's like to be
challenged from the world around us, kind of like you said,
logan right to be challenged by the world around us,
to live and work with those who reject Jesus and
his ways. We know what it's like to not fit in,
(07:56):
to have to do the right thing even when no
one else is doing it. And we know what it's
like to be challenged from within as we struggle to
follow his way, having to reject our own way, as
sin creeps up into and through in all things, and
how it leads to doubt and struggle. The people who
are gathered here today know what this is like, and
(08:19):
so we will keep praying because we know the life
you are being called to is incredibly blessed and yet
painfully hard. So there are few things I want you
to be reminded of before you stand up here and
confess with your mouth what you believe in your heart.
Number one. As you make these vows, remember you are
(08:41):
surrounded by those who have stood where you stand and
have vowed what you are about to vow. So I
want to give you a taste this. Come on up
here for sick, write it down here. We didn't practice this,
You had no idea this is coming right. So stand
right up here and turn and face out look all this,
And I want you to stand out there if you
(09:03):
have been where these guys are and confirmed your faith.
Please stand. It is with this cloud of witnesses that
you make these vows this day, and so I wanted
you to see it. You should probably wave at them.
Everybody wave at them. That's right, okay, So back down.
Good job, you two, good work. Every single person you
(09:29):
guys that stood up here knows what it's like then
to leave this day, this celebration with the robes and
the flowers and all the pomp and circumstance, and then
to head back out into the world. And these people
are one of God's many gifts to you, but an
incredible gift to you, a gift that means that you
don't ever have to walk alone. And this gift right
(09:50):
here has a name. It's called the church. And so
when you had the I'm ad living here, I just
realized I wanted to say this to you. Ready, when
you head out into the world, the world, and you're
tempted to say or you hear other people saying I
don't need to go to church to be a Christian,
just remember that this right here is from who Jesus,
(10:12):
This is where he is. These are your people, these
are your family, and this is where you belong, where
you will always belong number two. There is nothing you
can do, nothing you can say, nowhere you can go,
that will separate you from the love of God in
Christ Jesus. Remember what Paul writes in Romans chapter eight,
What shall we say to these things? If God is
(10:33):
for us, who can be against us? Who did not
spare his son, but gave him up for us all,
How will he not with him graciously give us all things?
And then it continues Paul says, who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, persecution
or famine, nakedness or danger or the sword? Know in
(10:53):
all these things we are more than conquerors through Him
who loved us. Or I am sure that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor the present, nor
things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor
anything else in all of creation will be able to
separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. And these guys' lives are surrounded by loved
(11:15):
ones and living in a kind of a stable world.
But every single person here, we all know what it's
like to live the next days and the years out
in independence and just out of curiosity. You know how
many of you have drifted away at some point from
the Lord. I don't know if you saw that, Maybe
we should have them turned around. You don't have to
come up here, but you should see this. Look around.
(11:37):
How many of you have drifted away at some point
from the Lord. That's a lot of people, isn't it.
And so remember there's nothing you can do that can separate.
You can always return in repentance and turn and follow
the Lord. Just remember to whom you belong. Repentance is
a daily activity for Christians. You are not ever going
(11:58):
to be a perfect person, but you can be a
repentant person. And remember that Jesus does not want even
one to fall away. Remember what he said in the
parable of the Lost Sheep, when the shepherd goes and
leaves the ninety nine to find the one. Jesus's words
of hope at the end of this parable are this,
He says, in the same way, your father in Heaven
(12:19):
is not willing to let one of these little ones perish.
You are the little ones. You are all the little ones,
and so am I. And the Lord wants us in
his hand, in his grasp forever. And so this then
is what it's like to live out life for since
you are the little ones, and we follow in his promise,
(12:41):
and we do it just as Moses said to Joshua.
And when they're about to enter into Israel, and they
prepared to enter in the Promised Land, and he says
to Joshua, who's going to be their leader? It is
the Lord who goes before you. He will not be
with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.
So do not fear or be dismayed. This is the
(13:01):
same promise from the same God that he has for
you here today. And then lastly, number three, you are
going to learn every day more and more as you
grow in faith, that the Word is near you. It
is in your mouth, and he is in your heart.
(13:21):
Just know that your life life live following Jesus is
going to teach you this. It's part of the deal.
I'm not going to do it a third time. But
if I was to ask people to raise their hands
and say, are you the same as you were twenty
years ago or forty years ago? Whenever you stood up here,
you would all say that the Lord has changed you.
He has made you different, He has conformed you to
(13:43):
his will.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
And this is normal. For Jesus is the Word, and
he who has brought you. He is the one who
has brought you here today, and He spoke life into
you at your baptism, has been teaching you and leading you,
feeding you, and sustaining you, and be with you tomorrow
as you head into this world. So if you read
this letter ten years from now, and by the way,
(14:06):
I included this letter in the packet that you got,
and I gave each of your parents a copy of it,
so that if you ever find yourself wandered off in
the wilderness, maybe they could use it to come and
remind you of this day and whose you are. For Jesus,
the Word of God is in your mouth and your heart.
And it is Jesus who has worked through your parents,
(14:27):
your Sunday school teachers, your pastors to teach you his
word from scripture by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And He has led you here today to do what
you will do every day in faith from now on,
which is to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord,
and believe in your heart that God raised him from
the dead. And we we will celebrate with you because
(14:49):
of the last four words of that same verse that
declare for all of those who confess with their mouth
that Jesus's Lord and believe with their hearts a God
raised him from the dead, they will be saved. That
is our hope for you, and that's my hope for
(15:09):
all of you. That is our hope in life, is
that in Christ, who has been raised from the dead,
that we believe in our own hearts. Because of this
we will be saved and so receive His blessing. May
the peace of God, which exceeds anything we understand God,
your hearts and mind as you live in the grace
(15:31):
and guidance of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
Amen.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
So you're ready, Good morning, pastor guy, good morning, great message,
you know.
Speaker 6 (15:51):
And it was such a busy time with Reformation Sunday
of course, and then Confirmation, and we had those four
kids there that just for really excited about being confirmed.
And I know there's a lot of folks in our
listening audience that probably don't really understand what confirmation is
all about. And I was wondering if you just kind
of explained that to us.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, Well, for confirmation as a sacrament in the Catholic Church,
and we are Catholics, you know that wanted to make
it all about Jesus, and so back in the day,
they had to decide kind of what to do with this,
because we defined a sacrament as something that Christ has
attached his grace, his divine work to a visible mean,
(16:34):
and so that leaves us with baptism and communion and
maybe confession and absolution, but confirmation wasn't So they had
to decide as reformers what they were going to do
with this. And they could have gone both ways. When
you do the readings, keep it, leave it. They had discussions,
but it's kind of remained. But it's not a sacrament.
It's not We're not receiving or God's not imparting anything more.
(16:56):
He doesn't need to impart anything more. The value of
conformation is that you are intentionally instructing these children and
young adults and even adults to a place in which
they can make a profession of belief in the Lord.
And so we baptize. A lot of our children are
baptized as babies because we know that they're connected to
(17:19):
God's word through baptism and all the teaching that happens
in the home and all the things moving forward, and
then when you come to kind of an adulthood age
ish thing, you know, then you give the kids an
opportunity to stand up and make these vows to the Lord.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
Oh very good. Well, I know when I was confirmed,
I learned a lot.
Speaker 6 (17:40):
I've got to say that, because you know, I went
to Sunday School and things like that, but confirmation was
really special. I was old enough to really understand, not totally,
but understand what the pastor was talking about and what
it meant, what baptism really meant. And when we made
the profession along with you know, the congregation spoke for us,
(18:00):
but we made that professional faith and confirmation just really
really helped me and helped solidify that what is it
I really do believe?
Speaker 5 (18:10):
And am I ready to die for this belief? You know?
It's that serious.
Speaker 6 (18:15):
And for me, I remember back in that day, it
was really kind of one of those milestones you know that, Wow,
I understand now much better and I.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
Wanted to learn more. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Yeah, And there's value to it, for sure. Some churches
have just said, you know, some of our churches don't
do confirmation. They just don't see the value in it.
The thing that the Lord commands us to do is
to teach our children the word that's his activity. Confirmation is,
like I said, a human tradition. That's kind of how
we treat it. That has value.
Speaker 6 (18:50):
And there's a lot of different ways to look at
that too, because I know that in Bible studies and
Sunday School and Bible studies and stuff like that, we
talk about that all the time. And do you have
to have a special special day for that, you know
where everybody you had mentioned about robes in there, is
that really necessary or we just this is something that
(19:12):
we do every day every Sunday.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
We learn more and more and more. It's like a
constant confirmation.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
I guess, yeah, every day this is a public opportunity
for you to profess your faith in worship, and so
there's definitely value to it. But every day in faith
you confess your Faith's that's that's what we're called to do.
And you know, I always equate it. I always equate confirmation.
It's most closely related in our hymnal. It's on page
two hundred and seventy two, and the right that's right
(19:42):
before that is matrimony. Oh and so I always think
that's right where it belongs, because it's very similar. I
take you as my you know, spouse, for better or worse,
richer and poor, sickness and health until death do we part.
And that's kind of what the vows of comfort are
like too. And just like with the wedding, there's not
(20:04):
one set way. I mean, you've got been to weddings
that are incredibly elaborate and a couple hours long, and
you've been to ones that are in someone's backyard with
a justice of the peace or you know, a best friend.
It doesn't make marriage any different, right, right, The ceremony
doesn't make it any different. And that's the same with confirmation.
But I must say have been my first confirmation Sunday,
(20:27):
Peace does it up. They'd do it up big, like
they really celebrate, and there was lots of really neat,
neat things that the listeners wouldn't have been able to
see or hear see unless you watch on on our
website watch it live. But there was a very intentional
effort by all involved to make this incredibly special day
for them.
Speaker 6 (20:46):
Well, those you know and all those kids had their
own verses that they that they looked up and they
and they spoke and you could tell they were speaking
from their heart. And and after it was over, Uh,
these confromands were outside outside that the sanctuary, and we
had an opportunity to shake their hand and talk to
him a little bit. And uh, and one girl in particular,
(21:07):
she said, you know, this is just the start for me.
She said, this is just a start. And I thought, Wow,
that's what this is all about. This is just this
is just the beginning. Yes, yeah, you know. And as
old as I am, which is a year old, you know,
every day is the beginning. Every time I open up
the Bible, I see something new and it's like, oh, oh,
where did that come from?
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Yeah, that's that's the life, isn't it. And that's kind
of what I tried to bring out in the sermon,
is that that they hear. They don't know me. I'm new.
I don't have a relationship with those kids yet. But
everyone who's gathered there has been praying for you for years.
A lot of if you were baptized here, A lot
of the people sitting out here remember you when you
were baptized at this altar. And you know that the
(21:52):
people have been praying for you, and they've been praying
that you would get to a place where you could
confess with your mouth Jesus' Lord and believe that that
God raised him from the dead in your heart. You know,
That's what has been their prayer for you. And now
today you're actually doing that, confessing with your mouth saying
you believe in your heart that Jesus has risen from
(22:12):
the dead. Now their prayer is going to change though,
that there would never be a day after this in
which you are apart from Him, right and and so
it's nothing has changed, really, it's just their their focus.
You said, this is mine, I'm going to take this
and live in the Lord and follow him till death
to we part. Yes, yeah, and uh, and I guess
(22:34):
that wouldn't be true for God and till.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
Death, I'm with you, you know.
Speaker 7 (22:37):
And uh.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
And so this, this gift is something that we can
celebrate and this this church family will be praying for
you because we have seen way too many kids confirm
their faith and then just depart from the faith, sometimes
within the same year.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
Oh yeah, I'll understand.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
I'll never forget. At one of the churches I served,
kid who is awesome, just a great kid, came up
to me at the end. It was like a week
before confirmation day and he's like, you know, Pastor, I
really appreciate I really appreciate getting to know you, and
I just want you to know I'll come back and visit.
And I was like what visit? Like what are you
talking about? And he said, well, my mom said that
(23:18):
once I get confirmed, I don't have to go to
church anymore. And I was like, what, you know, what
a weird thing to say, especially when you read the vows,
which one of them is I would rather dwell. Two
of them are is that I will be remain faithful
to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and all I
(23:38):
believe say and do you know? And until death you know?
And then there's when I will remain faithful to this
this catechisis or this confession unto death.
Speaker 7 (23:51):
You know.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
This kid that's telling me before he even takes the promise,
makes the promises, you know. So there's there's a missing
link for sure, that where the faith is taught primarily
is in the home. Yes, yeah, that kid, kid was
following what he was being taught and what he had. Sadly,
what he been taught there was that once you get
confirmed and the box is checked, then you don't have
(24:13):
to go to church anymore. And he was very positive
about it. He just this is how it is, you know,
and it's like, ah, so this is this is our goal.
This is our goal is to equip parents to raise
their children and the Lord provide opportunities for them to
go and serve and be a part of something bigger
than themselves. And then just keep praying like crazy that
they don't get dragged off into whatever the world has
(24:37):
for them, that they can remain faithful and that God
protects them from that.
Speaker 6 (24:41):
And that's you know, we hope that the and we
pray that people would if you don't have a church home,
that they'll come and join us here at peace and
how important that is. And we're going to just just briefly,
I want to say that we're going to be going
to a podcast before too long. Just want to put
that in people's ears right now and we'll talk about
it more in the future.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (25:02):
So again, Pastor Guy, thank you for the message and
God bless you week.
Speaker 7 (25:26):
Thank you for joining us. A peace to you from
Peace Church in Arbatta, Colorado. If you have no church home,
we would be delighted for you to join us on
any Sunday. Our address is five six seven five Field
Street in our Bata, Colorado. Our services are at eight
and ten thirty am. Bible classes for all ages are
(25:48):
at nine fifteen am. You can easily access our sermons
online at www dot p s, Lucrit dot M, or
at Peace Arbata at YouTube dot com. Peace to You
in Part is a listener supported broadcast. If you would
like to sponsor a broadcast in the future, call us
(26:08):
at three oh three four two four four four five four.
If you would like a copy of today's broadcasting, no
charge to you, contact us at the same number three
oh three four two four four four five four. You
can access our sermons at any time by going to
our YouTube channel, peaceharbadatube dot com. Now from the entire
(26:33):
broadcast team of Peace of Them Church and Arvada, I
am Reuben Holiday and may the Peace of Our Lord
be with you today and always
For Jesus. The word of God is in your mouth
and your heart. And it is Jesus who has worked
through your parents, your Sunday school teachers, your pastors, to
teach you His word from scripture by the power of
the Holy Spirit. And He has led you here today
to do what you will do every day in faith
from now on, which is to confess with your mouth
that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that
(00:21):
God raised him from the dead. And we we will
celebrate with you because of the last four words of
that same verse that declare for all of those who
confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe
with their hearts that God raised him from the dead,
they will be saved. That is our hope for you,
(00:47):
and that's my hope for all of you. That is
our hope in life, is that in Christ, who has
been raised from the dead, that we believe in our
own hearts. Because of this, we will be saved receive
His blessing. May the peace of God, which exceeds anything
we understand, guard your hearts and mind as you live
(01:09):
in the grace and guidance of our Lord and Savior
of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Christ.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Good morning and welcome to peace. To you from Peace
Lutheran Church in Arvada, Colorado. Today we have four confromands,
which means four people that have given themselves to Christ
through confirmation. Pastor Guy is going to talk about what
confirmation is all about and for all of us that
are living out our baptism and our confirmation. Now here's
(01:55):
Pastor Guy.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Holy Gospels record in John chapter seventeen, beginning with verse
twenty one, that they This is Jesus praying that they
may all be one, just as you, Father are in
me and I in you, that they may be in us,
so that the world may believe that you have sent
me the glory that you have given me. I have
(02:21):
given to them, that they may be one, even as
we are one, I in them and you and me,
that they may become perfectly one, so that the world
may know that you sent me and loved them, even
as you love me. Father, I desire that they, also,
whom you have given me, may be with me where
(02:41):
I am to see my glory that you have given me,
because you love me before the foundation of the world,
Oh Righteous Father. Even though the world does not know you,
I know you and these know that you have sent me.
I made known to them your name, and I will
continue to make it known that the love with which
(03:02):
you have loved me may be in them and I
in them. This is the gospel of the Lord, all right.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
So over the years, I've kind of learned something that
if there's something important to say, I write it down.
I don't know if you've ever done this before, but
in key moments within our life, conflict with my wife
and I, conversations with staff members and the like that
I always find myself writing it down. And so when
I prepared for today, I thought, Okay, what kind of
(03:33):
sermon do you give when your new pastor you don't
know the people as well, especially not the confermands, you
haven't taught any of the classes. What do you do?
And so I was doing my research and I was
writing notes, and then pretty soon I just had nine
pages of things to say to you. And I realized
I had just written a letter to these Confermans who
(03:55):
are about to stand up here and to proclaim their
faith response to what Jesus has done for them to
make these incredible vows. And so I did. I wrote
you a letter, and I would like to read it
to you. No, this is normal, you get used to it.
If there's important things, you're probably gonna get a letter,
but I will sign it. It will not be anonymous. Okay, So,
(04:21):
dear Ella, Andrew Logan and BELLA Confirmation Day is such
a blessed day for all involved, especially this Confirmation Day
paired with Reformation Day, where we celebrate that all of
life is about Jesus and what he has won for
this world and for us as Christians. In some ways,
(04:42):
it's hard to preach to you today because I've not
been your pastor long enough to know what your passions
and joys and struggles and challenges are. But even if
I had baptized you fourteenish years ago in this area
right up here, this is the same message that I
would be sharing. And I want to start by asking
(05:02):
you a question. Do you realize you were brought into
this thing that we call faith? Have you ever thought
about that before that you were brought into this? And
so if let's just do this a little interactive you ready,
I want you to look at the people that brought
you into this. Just turn around, make eye contact and
(05:22):
mouth the words thank you. Did you mouth back? You're welcome. Yeah,
it's true. It was your father, mother, or grandparent, whoever
it might be. It was their will to bring you
to the Lord at your baptism, and then to bring
you everyday since. And it was their will to teach
(05:43):
you the way of Jesus, to teach you to live
by Him. And it was their will to bring you
to church to battle you in the pew. As I've
gotten to know some of the kids, that's a bigger
battle than others. But you teach you to worship, send
you to Sunday school, Confirmation, and youth group. And while
the whole time they were doing this, they were praying
(06:04):
for you earnestly. And their prayer has been the same
as everyone else is here. Their prayer is the same
as mine before I even knew you. For all comfermands,
as I've done this in other churches, that one day
this faith that you were brought into will become more,
that it will become yours. That one day faith in
(06:27):
Christ would become what you confess with your mouth. Believe
in your heart that Jesus's Lord and that God raised
him from the dead. That is why we are so
excited to celebrate with you today. Today is an affirmation
of our hopes and our answer to prayer. And now
our prayers will change. Our prayers for you have been.
(06:50):
May their mouths confess Jesus as Lord, and may they
believe in their hearts that God raised him from the dead.
That's been our prayer, and now it'll change. May they
confess Jesus's Lord and believe in their hearts that He
has risen every day forever and that's certainly true. You'll
hear me pray this in the years to come. Lord.
(07:13):
May the easier children never know a day apart from You,
but always live and believe in You. And this I
believe again I can speak for all of us, is
all of our own prayer for you from here on out.
For those who gather here today, we all know what
tomorrow and the next day is like after confirmation. Many
(07:34):
of us know what it's like to transition into adulthood,
maybe go to college, start working, maybe get married or
start a family. We know what it's like to be
challenged from the world around us, kind of like you said,
logan right to be challenged by the world around us,
to live and work with those who reject Jesus and
his ways. We know what it's like to not fit in,
(07:56):
to have to do the right thing even when no
one else is doing it. And we know what it's
like to be challenged from within as we struggle to
follow his way, having to reject our own way, as
sin creeps up into and through in all things, and
how it leads to doubt and struggle. The people who
are gathered here today know what this is like, and
(08:19):
so we will keep praying because we know the life
you are being called to is incredibly blessed and yet
painfully hard. So there are few things I want you
to be reminded of before you stand up here and
confess with your mouth what you believe in your heart.
Number one. As you make these vows, remember you are
(08:41):
surrounded by those who have stood where you stand and
have vowed what you are about to vow. So I
want to give you a taste this. Come on up
here for sick, write it down here. We didn't practice this,
You had no idea this is coming right. So stand
right up here and turn and face out look all this,
And I want you to stand out there if you
(09:03):
have been where these guys are and confirmed your faith.
Please stand. It is with this cloud of witnesses that
you make these vows this day, and so I wanted
you to see it. You should probably wave at them.
Everybody wave at them. That's right, okay, So back down.
Good job, you two, good work. Every single person you
(09:29):
guys that stood up here knows what it's like then
to leave this day, this celebration with the robes and
the flowers and all the pomp and circumstance, and then
to head back out into the world. And these people
are one of God's many gifts to you, but an
incredible gift to you, a gift that means that you
don't ever have to walk alone. And this gift right
(09:50):
here has a name. It's called the church. And so
when you had the I'm ad living here, I just
realized I wanted to say this to you. Ready, when
you head out into the world, the world, and you're
tempted to say or you hear other people saying I
don't need to go to church to be a Christian,
just remember that this right here is from who Jesus,
(10:12):
This is where he is. These are your people, these
are your family, and this is where you belong, where
you will always belong number two. There is nothing you
can do, nothing you can say, nowhere you can go,
that will separate you from the love of God in
Christ Jesus. Remember what Paul writes in Romans chapter eight,
What shall we say to these things? If God is
(10:33):
for us, who can be against us? Who did not
spare his son, but gave him up for us all,
How will he not with him graciously give us all things?
And then it continues Paul says, who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, persecution
or famine, nakedness or danger or the sword? Know in
(10:53):
all these things we are more than conquerors through Him
who loved us. Or I am sure that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor the present, nor
things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor
anything else in all of creation will be able to
separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. And these guys' lives are surrounded by loved
(11:15):
ones and living in a kind of a stable world.
But every single person here, we all know what it's
like to live the next days and the years out
in independence and just out of curiosity. You know how
many of you have drifted away at some point from
the Lord. I don't know if you saw that, Maybe
we should have them turned around. You don't have to
come up here, but you should see this. Look around.
(11:37):
How many of you have drifted away at some point
from the Lord. That's a lot of people, isn't it.
And so remember there's nothing you can do that can separate.
You can always return in repentance and turn and follow
the Lord. Just remember to whom you belong. Repentance is
a daily activity for Christians. You are not ever going
(11:58):
to be a perfect person, but you can be a
repentant person. And remember that Jesus does not want even
one to fall away. Remember what he said in the
parable of the Lost Sheep, when the shepherd goes and
leaves the ninety nine to find the one. Jesus's words
of hope at the end of this parable are this,
He says, in the same way, your father in Heaven
(12:19):
is not willing to let one of these little ones perish.
You are the little ones. You are all the little ones,
and so am I. And the Lord wants us in
his hand, in his grasp forever. And so this then
is what it's like to live out life for since
you are the little ones, and we follow in his promise,
(12:41):
and we do it just as Moses said to Joshua.
And when they're about to enter into Israel, and they
prepared to enter in the Promised Land, and he says
to Joshua, who's going to be their leader? It is
the Lord who goes before you. He will not be
with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.
So do not fear or be dismayed. This is the
(13:01):
same promise from the same God that he has for
you here today. And then lastly, number three, you are
going to learn every day more and more as you
grow in faith, that the Word is near you. It
is in your mouth, and he is in your heart.
(13:21):
Just know that your life life live following Jesus is
going to teach you this. It's part of the deal.
I'm not going to do it a third time. But
if I was to ask people to raise their hands
and say, are you the same as you were twenty
years ago or forty years ago? Whenever you stood up here,
you would all say that the Lord has changed you.
He has made you different, He has conformed you to
(13:43):
his will.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
And this is normal. For Jesus is the Word, and
he who has brought you. He is the one who
has brought you here today, and He spoke life into
you at your baptism, has been teaching you and leading you,
feeding you, and sustaining you, and be with you tomorrow
as you head into this world. So if you read
this letter ten years from now, and by the way,
(14:06):
I included this letter in the packet that you got,
and I gave each of your parents a copy of it,
so that if you ever find yourself wandered off in
the wilderness, maybe they could use it to come and
remind you of this day and whose you are. For Jesus,
the Word of God is in your mouth and your heart.
And it is Jesus who has worked through your parents,
(14:27):
your Sunday school teachers, your pastors to teach you his
word from scripture by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And He has led you here today to do what
you will do every day in faith from now on,
which is to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord,
and believe in your heart that God raised him from
the dead. And we we will celebrate with you because
(14:49):
of the last four words of that same verse that
declare for all of those who confess with their mouth
that Jesus's Lord and believe with their hearts a God
raised him from the dead, they will be saved. That
is our hope for you, and that's my hope for
(15:09):
all of you. That is our hope in life, is
that in Christ, who has been raised from the dead,
that we believe in our own hearts. Because of this
we will be saved and so receive His blessing. May
the peace of God, which exceeds anything we understand God,
your hearts and mind as you live in the grace
(15:31):
and guidance of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
Amen.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
So you're ready, Good morning, pastor guy, good morning, great message,
you know.
Speaker 6 (15:51):
And it was such a busy time with Reformation Sunday
of course, and then Confirmation, and we had those four
kids there that just for really excited about being confirmed.
And I know there's a lot of folks in our
listening audience that probably don't really understand what confirmation is
all about. And I was wondering if you just kind
of explained that to us.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, Well, for confirmation as a sacrament in the Catholic Church,
and we are Catholics, you know that wanted to make
it all about Jesus, and so back in the day,
they had to decide kind of what to do with this,
because we defined a sacrament as something that Christ has
attached his grace, his divine work to a visible mean,
(16:34):
and so that leaves us with baptism and communion and
maybe confession and absolution, but confirmation wasn't So they had
to decide as reformers what they were going to do
with this. And they could have gone both ways. When
you do the readings, keep it, leave it. They had discussions,
but it's kind of remained. But it's not a sacrament.
It's not We're not receiving or God's not imparting anything more.
(16:56):
He doesn't need to impart anything more. The value of
conformation is that you are intentionally instructing these children and
young adults and even adults to a place in which
they can make a profession of belief in the Lord.
And so we baptize. A lot of our children are
baptized as babies because we know that they're connected to
(17:19):
God's word through baptism and all the teaching that happens
in the home and all the things moving forward, and
then when you come to kind of an adulthood age
ish thing, you know, then you give the kids an
opportunity to stand up and make these vows to the Lord.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
Oh very good. Well, I know when I was confirmed,
I learned a lot.
Speaker 6 (17:40):
I've got to say that, because you know, I went
to Sunday School and things like that, but confirmation was
really special. I was old enough to really understand, not totally,
but understand what the pastor was talking about and what
it meant, what baptism really meant. And when we made
the profession along with you know, the congregation spoke for us,
(18:00):
but we made that professional faith and confirmation just really
really helped me and helped solidify that what is it
I really do believe?
Speaker 5 (18:10):
And am I ready to die for this belief? You know?
It's that serious.
Speaker 6 (18:15):
And for me, I remember back in that day, it
was really kind of one of those milestones you know that, Wow,
I understand now much better and I.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
Wanted to learn more. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Yeah, And there's value to it, for sure. Some churches
have just said, you know, some of our churches don't
do confirmation. They just don't see the value in it.
The thing that the Lord commands us to do is
to teach our children the word that's his activity. Confirmation is,
like I said, a human tradition. That's kind of how
we treat it. That has value.
Speaker 6 (18:50):
And there's a lot of different ways to look at
that too, because I know that in Bible studies and
Sunday School and Bible studies and stuff like that, we
talk about that all the time. And do you have
to have a special special day for that, you know
where everybody you had mentioned about robes in there, is
that really necessary or we just this is something that
(19:12):
we do every day every Sunday.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
We learn more and more and more. It's like a
constant confirmation.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
I guess, yeah, every day this is a public opportunity
for you to profess your faith in worship, and so
there's definitely value to it. But every day in faith
you confess your Faith's that's that's what we're called to do.
And you know, I always equate it. I always equate confirmation.
It's most closely related in our hymnal. It's on page
two hundred and seventy two, and the right that's right
(19:42):
before that is matrimony. Oh and so I always think
that's right where it belongs, because it's very similar. I
take you as my you know, spouse, for better or worse,
richer and poor, sickness and health until death do we part.
And that's kind of what the vows of comfort are
like too. And just like with the wedding, there's not
(20:04):
one set way. I mean, you've got been to weddings
that are incredibly elaborate and a couple hours long, and
you've been to ones that are in someone's backyard with
a justice of the peace or you know, a best friend.
It doesn't make marriage any different, right, right, The ceremony
doesn't make it any different. And that's the same with confirmation.
But I must say have been my first confirmation Sunday,
(20:27):
Peace does it up. They'd do it up big, like
they really celebrate, and there was lots of really neat,
neat things that the listeners wouldn't have been able to
see or hear see unless you watch on on our
website watch it live. But there was a very intentional
effort by all involved to make this incredibly special day
for them.
Speaker 6 (20:46):
Well, those you know and all those kids had their
own verses that they that they looked up and they
and they spoke and you could tell they were speaking
from their heart. And and after it was over, Uh,
these confromands were outside outside that the sanctuary, and we
had an opportunity to shake their hand and talk to
him a little bit. And uh, and one girl in particular,
(21:07):
she said, you know, this is just the start for me.
She said, this is just a start. And I thought, Wow,
that's what this is all about. This is just this
is just the beginning. Yes, yeah, you know. And as
old as I am, which is a year old, you know,
every day is the beginning. Every time I open up
the Bible, I see something new and it's like, oh, oh,
where did that come from?
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Yeah, that's that's the life, isn't it. And that's kind
of what I tried to bring out in the sermon,
is that that they hear. They don't know me. I'm new.
I don't have a relationship with those kids yet. But
everyone who's gathered there has been praying for you for years.
A lot of if you were baptized here, A lot
of the people sitting out here remember you when you
were baptized at this altar. And you know that the
(21:52):
people have been praying for you, and they've been praying
that you would get to a place where you could
confess with your mouth Jesus' Lord and believe that that
God raised him from the dead in your heart. You know,
That's what has been their prayer for you. And now
today you're actually doing that, confessing with your mouth saying
you believe in your heart that Jesus has risen from
(22:12):
the dead. Now their prayer is going to change though,
that there would never be a day after this in
which you are apart from Him, right and and so
it's nothing has changed, really, it's just their their focus.
You said, this is mine, I'm going to take this
and live in the Lord and follow him till death
to we part. Yes, yeah, and uh, and I guess
(22:34):
that wouldn't be true for God and till.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
Death, I'm with you, you know.
Speaker 7 (22:37):
And uh.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
And so this, this gift is something that we can
celebrate and this this church family will be praying for
you because we have seen way too many kids confirm
their faith and then just depart from the faith, sometimes
within the same year.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
Oh yeah, I'll understand.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
I'll never forget. At one of the churches I served,
kid who is awesome, just a great kid, came up
to me at the end. It was like a week
before confirmation day and he's like, you know, Pastor, I
really appreciate I really appreciate getting to know you, and
I just want you to know I'll come back and visit.
And I was like what visit? Like what are you
talking about? And he said, well, my mom said that
(23:18):
once I get confirmed, I don't have to go to
church anymore. And I was like, what, you know, what
a weird thing to say, especially when you read the vows,
which one of them is I would rather dwell. Two
of them are is that I will be remain faithful
to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and all I
(23:38):
believe say and do you know? And until death you know?
And then there's when I will remain faithful to this
this catechisis or this confession unto death.
Speaker 7 (23:51):
You know.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
This kid that's telling me before he even takes the promise,
makes the promises, you know. So there's there's a missing
link for sure, that where the faith is taught primarily
is in the home. Yes, yeah, that kid, kid was
following what he was being taught and what he had. Sadly,
what he been taught there was that once you get
confirmed and the box is checked, then you don't have
(24:13):
to go to church anymore. And he was very positive
about it. He just this is how it is, you know,
and it's like, ah, so this is this is our goal.
This is our goal is to equip parents to raise
their children and the Lord provide opportunities for them to
go and serve and be a part of something bigger
than themselves. And then just keep praying like crazy that
they don't get dragged off into whatever the world has
(24:37):
for them, that they can remain faithful and that God
protects them from that.
Speaker 6 (24:41):
And that's you know, we hope that the and we
pray that people would if you don't have a church home,
that they'll come and join us here at peace and
how important that is. And we're going to just just briefly,
I want to say that we're going to be going
to a podcast before too long. Just want to put
that in people's ears right now and we'll talk about
it more in the future.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (25:02):
So again, Pastor Guy, thank you for the message and
God bless you week.
Speaker 7 (25:26):
Thank you for joining us. A peace to you from
Peace Church in Arbatta, Colorado. If you have no church home,
we would be delighted for you to join us on
any Sunday. Our address is five six seven five Field
Street in our Bata, Colorado. Our services are at eight
and ten thirty am. Bible classes for all ages are
(25:48):
at nine fifteen am. You can easily access our sermons
online at www dot p s, Lucrit dot M, or
at Peace Arbata at YouTube dot com. Peace to You
in Part is a listener supported broadcast. If you would
like to sponsor a broadcast in the future, call us
(26:08):
at three oh three four two four four four five four.
If you would like a copy of today's broadcasting, no
charge to you, contact us at the same number three
oh three four two four four four five four. You
can access our sermons at any time by going to
our YouTube channel, peaceharbadatube dot com. Now from the entire
(26:33):
broadcast team of Peace of Them Church and Arvada, I
am Reuben Holiday and may the Peace of Our Lord
be with you today and always
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