Rev. Mark A. Loest, Pastor
Immanuel Ev. Lutheran Church of Frankentrost
Saginaw, Michigan
Stewardship 2007 I (September 16, 2007)
Text – Revelation 2:19

“We also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works” (Galatians 2:16 ESV)

Prayer:
Faith clings to Jesus’ cross alone And rests in him unceasing; And by its fruits true faith is known, With love and hope increasing. For faith alone can justify; Works serve our neighbor and supply The proof that faith is living.

I truly believe that if you were to poll most American church goers about what they don’t like about their church/ their number one complaint would be/ that their church is always asking for money.

As a matter of fact, I am certain that if you were to ask most Americans who are members of churches—whose names are on the books—but don’t attend church regularly/ I would safely guess that their main excuse is “my church always talks about money.”

So…as we go into a three Sunday Stewardship Campaign I am glad to begin this morning’s sermon by telling you I am not going to talk to you about money—at least not yet.

Today’s sermon is the free-be. Its theme is faith. And as all good Lutherans know, faith is a gift of God.
Paul describes faith in 2 Corinthians 9:15 as “God’s indescribable gift.” “Thanks be to God,” he says, “for His indescribable gift!”

No doubt you read or heard the startling news a few weeks ago about the faith, or better put, the apparent lack of faith of Mother Teresa.

We remember Mother Teresa as the nun who dedicated her life to impoverished people of Calcutta. These were among the poorest people of the world. As a young woman she went to them and she lived in their squalor. Eventually she was to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

But now we learn in a new book of her letters written over a 50 year period, that for her most of her spiritual life was dark and without God. From her letters we read of her having lost sense of the presence of God.

Of the last 66 years of her life she summed up, “for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, — Listen and do not hear — the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak”

How is it that someone can give up her life to the poorest—and suffer with them: and not know the presence of God? If Mother Teresa was full of doubts, what about us, who give up very little in comparison?

Even the Rev. Billy Graham has expressed doubts about the outcome of his faith. In a January 2005 interview Rev. Graham told Fox News about reaching heaven when he died that he wondered if God might say to him, “You’re in the wrong place.”

Now if Mother Teresa and Billy Graham have doubts, the question is can anyone be sure?

That, my friends, is the question of FAITH. And why Paul calls it the indescribable gift—because FAITH says we can be sure!

Faith is the most precious gift anyone can receive from God. Faith enables Christians to have a positive attitude toward life and the blessed assurance of spending eternity with God.

Faith magnifies the joys of life. Through His gift of faith, God graciously brings light into the lives of His children. Through His gift of faith, God enables believers of Jesus to overcome difficulties, obstacles, persecution, and even death.

Yesterday’s Saginaw News featured a front page article about our Lutheran day school. Along with our congregation’s upcoming 160th anniversary next month, we remember with thanks the blessing that for 160 years the children of Immanuel have been taught the saving Word of Truth. The faith handed down has spanned generations: something that others look in upon and can’t quite understand or grasp. What seems so normal for us is a curious thing in a world that is full of sin and doubt, confusion, hate, and violence.

The difference is here (church) and there (school) we have places of FAITH. God gives us His gift of FAITH through His Word. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ”—Paul tells us in Romans 10:17.

St. Paul emphasizes that the Word which brings faith is no ordinary Word. It Is the Word of Jesus. The faith-creating Word of Christ gives us help and hope for this life and for the life to come.

Martin Luther, who himself was a monk and once tried to please God through his works like Mother Teresa—and was also a famous preacher like Rev. Graham—described faith in the Christian’s life this way:

“True faith does not doubt; it yields its whole heart to the conviction that the Son of God was given into death for us, that sin is remitted, that death is destroyed, and that these evils have been done away with—but, more than this, that eternal life, salvation, and glory, yes, God Himself, have been restored to us, and that through the Son, God has made us His children.”

My dear friends, if you find yourself wondering at times whether you have this magnificent gift of faith in Jesus Christ, then listen to and read God’s Word.

Recall your Baptism when God washed away your sin, gave you new life, and created faith within you. Be comforted in the fact that God feeds you with the body and blood of His Son that redeemed you on the cross once and for all in the wonderful Supper we are about to celebrate again.

Don’t come to church or use the Bible to learn of what you must do for your own salvation. Don’t support this church or do anything here because you think it will earn you heaven.

Rather hear again, learn and rejoice in what Jesus has done for you. Jesus is the Author and Perfecter of faith. Listen to Him. Fix your eyes on Him; for the Bible never speaks of saving faith apart from Jesus Christ.

If Jesus is the “Author…of faith,” as the Bible so clearly teaches, then we need not live in anxiety about whether we have generated enough of our own religious credits to please God.

Living each day with the assurance that Jesus both creates and sustains faith within our hearts is the greatest joy we can experience!

Paul writes,

“Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in the hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:1-2 ESV)

Amen.