Sermon Manuscript from February 28, 2016

1. [Stand on the temporary handrail. Failing that, stand on a folding chair or something.] Things like this are a bad idea. It may look impressive, but odds are that you’ll fall down if you try to stand on things like this. Even a tight rope walker has to get off of the tight rope eventually and stand on level ground that does not take all his concentration to keep him from falling. No matter how much balance you have, you will eventually fall from precarious positions such as this.
2. We need to stand on sturdy and level ground. It is just such sturdy and level ground that our God gives to us to live on when He calls us to life in His Son Jesus. This ground is the rock upon which we build our lives. We can stand on this sturdy and level ground that God puts underneath us in Christ.
3. But watch how you stand! You do not want to be like my nephew Andrew! When he was just learning to stand and walk he came crawling into the living room where my sister and I were watching television. I do not remember what we were watching, but I remember we had the television trays out. I leaned forward from my seat, put my elbows on my television tray, and started to babble at my wonderful little nephew…who is now a freshman at the U of M. He stands without incident now but not then! He comes over to me and pulls himself up on the TV tray and smiles at me and bites on the edge of the tray and it is all fun and games until someone gets hurt! Here’s how and I should have seen it coming: I grabbed my cup off the tray and went to move it out of Andrew’s reach. When I lifted my weight from the tray, Andrew fell backward like a cut tree and bonked his head hard on the floor. Since he was so young, I’m not sure he learned his lesson. I know I did: do not let your nephew hold onto a flimsy television tray to stand up. It and he will fall over.
4. Also, you do not want to be like my children. I cannot count the number of times they’ve fallen because they tried to stand in a precarious position. They stand on a rocking chair. Surprise! They fall. They stand on a wood pile. Surprise! They fall. They stand on a skateboard. Seriously, why do I even have all of these things for them to fall off of? But they stand in all these precarious positions and of course, they fall!
5. In that way, they are much like the Old Testament people of Israel that Paul writes about to the Corinthians. If I have told you metaphorically not to be like my children, do not stand in precarious positions, then Paul tells you literally not to be like the Old Testament people of Israel, do not stand in precarious positions!
6. God had put the people of Israel on solid ground, so to speak. He had delivered them from their misery of slavery by mighty deeds, namely the 10 plagues. He had saved them from slaughter by the Egyptian army by parting the Red Sea before them. He had fed them miraculously from heaven lest they starve. He had watered them miraculously from rocks lest they die of thirst. All of this Paul reminded the Corinthians and I love how he did that! Notice that Paul sees what God was up to for the Old Testament people of Israel during their Exodus from slavery to freedom through the lens of what God is up to for the New Testament people of Israel when He brings us from slavery to sin to freedom in Christ. You are baptized in the water in the name of God to free you from sin and death like Old Testament Israel passed through the water of the Red Sea to save them from sin and death. You are fed the miraculous meal of Jesus’ body and blood in the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper to keep you alive in the faith like Old Testament Israel was fed miraculously the manna from heaven and drunk miraculously the water from the rocks to keep them alive in the wilderness. If ever there was a people walking closely with God on the solid ground He provided for them, it was Old Testament Israel.
7. Yet, what do we see then from Israel? We do not see a people living in righteousness and faithful worship of God. We see a people fall away from standing with God to worshipping idols and false gods in ceremonies that fulfilled their wildest desires. We see a people never minding the marriage vows they took and that supported their community but getting up to engage in whatever sexual activity enticed them. We see a people complaining that God does not have their best interests in mind. In short, we see a people living as if they knew best and that whatever they wanted the people should have. If ever you join me in worrying about our “power to the people” society, Israel is one of the reasons. They fell. They did not stand on the ground God had put them to stand on.
8. As you heard from Paul, how God made the Old Testament people of Israel His people is a foreshadowing of how God now makes you His people. God brings you through the waters of Holy Baptism in order to save you from death and free you from the bondage of sin. God then feeds you with His Son’s ever-living body and blood in the Lord’s Supper to strengthen you in the faith that will endure beyond this world and into the next. God now makes you His people in Christ.
9. But what did we see happen to God’s Old Testament people? The same thing we can see happen to us, God’s New Testament people. So, Paul shouts to us as he shouted to the Corinthians, “Take heed! Lest you think you are standing and fall as they fell!” They were tempted to false worship that seemed good to them and fulfilled their desires. We are tempted the same to ignore God’s revelations and worship gods of our own choosing in ways of our own designs. Israel was tempted to sexual immorality. Your pastor blushes about the extremes to which we are tempted to sexual immorality. It is shameful to say and think on the temptations to sexual immorality that exist among us: pornography, sex before marriage, sex outside of marriage, open marriages that encourage spouses to bring other people into the marriage bed, and leaving behind and breaking marriage vows for selfish reasons. Israel was tempted to test God and question His plans for them. We are tempted to think we know better than our maker. All that Israel was tempted to do and to fall away from standing on the solid ground God gave them to stand on; we are tempted even more to fall away from standing on the solid ground that God has given us!
10. Many times we hear the stories of the people in the Bible and think we could do better than they did. Paul is telling us that we wouldn’t. He tells us to look back at the Old Testament people of Israel. These are the ones who saw God’s might displayed in the 10 Plagues that freed them from Egyptian slavery. They saw the waters pushed to the right and the left and walked through the sea bed on dry ground. They woke up morning after morning to sweet, sweet manna all around them. They watched in wonder as water for their thirsting throats flowed into a growing torrent in the desert. If anyone was ever witness to the power and grace of God it was Israel! And they fell away when they were tempted by false worship, sexual immorality, and the like! How do you Corinthians think you will do better? How do you Manawans think you will do better? All you have to go on of witnessing God’s power and grace are the words of someone who came to you as a stranger telling you that God has raised some guy from the dead outside Jerusalem in AD 33! So of course you are more likely to fall away into temptations! That is why you must take heed of the temptations to fall away!
11. But what do you take heed of? What should you notice most? You should notice most that God is faithful to hold you up! You stand on solid ground because God gives you the solid ground of His love and mercy upon which to stand. You stand because God breathes His Holy Spirit into you in order to make you stand. You stand because God puts the strength in your legs and in your faith to stand! God is faithful to hold you up! That is first and foremost what you must notice in the midst of temptations: God holds me up and in Him I will stand at the end!
12. Also, take heed of the way out that God gives you. Notice the way of escape that God provides for you. God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can endure. He will give you the way out. He will rescue you. And this is more profound than that burst of resistance to temptation that the Holy Spirit works in us when we are tempted to sexual immorality and the like. This way out, this way of escape is the forgiveness and mercy that God has won in Jesus. Jesus said, “I am the way.” Jesus said, “I am the door.” Jesus Himself is your way out! Remember this again, He stood in your place to receive the punishment for your sin. The guilt and punishment of your sin is already paid! In the midst of temptation that Jesus has already freed you from sin is your way out! He is your way of escape!
13. Upon Him we stand and will never fall. When we stand on temptation we build our lives and houses on sand. The lives built on temptations will collapse like a house whose foundation breaks. We stand on the rock God gives us in Christ. The lives built on this Rock stand firm now and forevermore.