(Sermon by Pastor Michael D. Schultz 03/18/07)

INTRODUCTION:

Ed Nabors is hanging a sign on his door lately: “Gone Fishin’.”  When you win half of the largest lottery in history, you can pay off your new boat and truck and go fishing as much as you want.  What would you do?  What’s your dream life?

I’ve thought that I would go to school for keyboard performance – get really good at piano or organ.  Or I’d set up a shop for doing all the woodworking and car fixing I could ever want to do.  And it would have all the necessary tools – no more trying to do things without the right tools.  Home base, of course, would be on a golf course, and my fairway shots would take a divot like they’re supposed to, like those guys who play on TV on Sunday afternoon.

Still today people climb over barbed wire or dig tunnels or risk their lives on a flimsy boat to try to make it across the border and into America for “the better life.”  What is it everybody wants?  What is it you want?  What would the better life be for you?  King David wrote a hymn for the Israelite hymnbook (we call it Psalm 32), a hymn that addresses this matter of…

Having The Life That Everyone Is Looking For

…and it’s not out there somewhere.  It’s as close as the nose on your face. 

I was watching a clip from a morning news show Thursday and they were talking about the confessions of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), who after intense interrogation admitted to masterminding 9-11 and 30 other international incidents.  It’s not hard to know how people in this country feel about him.  Hang him high.  Even though he’s not American, his example helps us understand why we hate traitors, why treason is called a high crime.  But if we detest traitors, we’d have to detest ourselves, because our sin is treason, rebellion not against our own country but our own God.  It’s a high crime to covet, to love things, to go your way and not God’s.  David knew all about this.  He came to see himself as the corrupt, twisted, guilty traitor.  Have you?

As I speak, the trucks are backing up to the doors.  As you leave today, everyone gets an 80 lb. bag of redi-mix and a backpack.  Have a good week lugging that around.  Our sin has weight.  It wears us out, because guilt is oppressive.  Till Jesus takes it away.  David knew about that, too.  That’s why he wrote the hymn.  The crushing weight of guilt has been lifted.  The shameful stain of sin has been covered.  What I owe for sin has not been invoiced to me.  My debt was invoiced to Jesus and on a cross he paid it.  The stain of my sin has been covered over by Jesus’ holiness.  The bag of redi-mix, the weight of guilt has been lifted off and tossed aside.  Jesus did it all, and David knew it.

The life that everyone is looking for – David had it.  You have it.  It’s found in the meaning of a single word, the word 'forgiveness'.  “I cannot begin to tell you how blessed I am to not have that weight, to not have that guilt, to know that God counted my sins against Christ.  I’m not even going to try to figure out how he could do that.  I just know that he did. God forgave me.”

If you’re listening to David, you can also get an earful about what it was like to not know that, to not enjoy God’s forgiveness.  He tried to carry the bag of redi-mix around for a long time.  Keeping silent and trying to deal with his sin himself sucked the life out of him.  Is the trite phrase possibly true for you, that you’ve been there and done that? 

Learn from David’s experience.  Holding sin inside is like swallowing acid.  It eats away at you.  Are there any words more relieving than these? I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord” – and you forgave the guilt of my sin.  That’s where it’s at – the life that everyone is looking for.  It’s not in some huge check, some enjoyable hobby or some worldly achievement.  It’s on the cross and in the empty grave of Jesus.  It’s in the absolution, in your baptism, in communion.  If you’ve found something better than freedom from guilt, better than forgiveness through Jesus, then Satan has snared you in one of his lies.  Let it go and look at what makes the world go round, what makes the sun come up in the morning, what cocks your pistol and floats your boat and flicks your switch – no guilt before God because of Christ! 

Take some good advice.  It’s not from me.  It’s from David.  Don’t be like a horse or a mule.  David was dragged into all this kicking and screaming.  He’d been pretending everything was alright when it really wasn’t, putting on appearances to convince people that he was fine when he wasn’t, thinking he could handle his guilt and his sin his own way, and he couldn’t.  David’s advice?  Stop being so stubborn that someone has to beat a confession out of you.  Stop putting yourself through the unnecessary anguish of trying to cope with your sin yourself.  When you’ve sinned, run straight to God right away.  He’ll wash the stain of sin in the blood of Jesus, cut the straps of the backpack of guilt, and send you on your way, relieved, restored and rejoicing.

What’s the better life for you?  A nicer house?  The perfect job?  A stress-free marriage?  No financial worries?  Acquire this skill?  Attain this goal?  What would it take to stop you dead in your tracks today and make you able to say, “I’m fine.  No nicer house, no better job, no perfect marriage, no winning lottery ticket, no skill I’ve always wanted, no goal I’ve always pursued.  Seriously, I’m as fine as a person can be.”  What would it take?

Back in the late 300’s A.D., there was a man who had had an ugly past.  Theft, lust, live-in girlfriend, child out of wedlock, never went to church – you name it, he’d done it.  His mother had been praying for him forever, and as it turned out, the year she died was the year God brought this man into the Christian faith.  His name was Augustine, many call him St. Augustine, one of the “church fathers.”  As his days on earth were coming to an end, it is said that he wrote something on the wall alongside his bed, so that he could see it and read it at any time.   It was the words of Psalm 32.  Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

The life that everybody is looking for is right beneath your nose, in the psalm of the day.  What would it take to stop chasing after everything you’re chasing after and to know that at this very moment you’re as blessed as a person can be?  Three words from God.  You are forgiven.  You don’t need to write the words of Psalm 32 on the wall of your bedroom, but get them out and get them in front of you and get on with the best life there is.

(Top Of Page)

(Back To Archive)

(Current Worship Page)