Faith Works – The Word

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A sermon by Matt Fitzpatrick

October 20, 2019

I would like us to start off today with confession and absolution. Let us confess together our sins to our Savior. “Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against thee in thought word and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone.”

“Almighty God, in his mercy, has given his son to die for you and for his sake forgives you all your sins. Amen.” Heavenly Father, thank you for forgiving us. Thank you that we can start off today knowing that we are at peace with you, that we are not at odds against each other, but we are on the same team because you have forgiven us. Thank you Lord. It’s in Jesus name I pray. Amen.”

All right, so I really like what Adam did last week by making you read the scripture passages for the day. It’s really important for us to remember that these words aren’t just something Adam or I are speaking to you, but they’re written for you. They’re your words. It’s really good to hear you all speak these words as if they’re your own. Also, I’m not as nice as Adam. Adam gave you all a heads up on who he wanted to read. I’m just going to call you out and make you read it. Everyone here knows each other, so you better just do it because these are your words. The first reading is Psalm 121, and Meagan, I would really like you to read this Psalm, because this is your song. These are your words.

I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

Thank you, Meagan. Good job. Natalie, you can read Luke chapter 18 verses 1 through 8. This is a story about you, Natalie, so you get to share it with us.

Luke 18:1-8And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Thank you, Natalie. All right, Troy, 2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 14 through chapter 4 verse 5. This is Paul’s letter to Troy.

2 Timothy 3:14-17; 2 Timothy 4:1-5 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom[a] you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

This ends the reading of God’s word. Awesome. Thank you Meagan, Natalie, and Troy. Let me pray and we’ll get started.

Heavenly Father, we receive your words spoken by your people. I ask that you etch your word upon our hearts and that in faith we can receive them. We want to believe your promises. Help our unbelief. Be with us now as we explore what you have for us as us, in the name of the Father, the Son, Holy Spirit. Amen.”

Who here feels like they are just crushing all aspects of their life? Every area, you’re just crushing it, or do you like me feel crushed by it? Are you being crushed by work or the lack of work, by your family or the lack of family, by your relationships, or the lack of relationships?

I look around at your faces, especially this week, and I can see it. Your being crushed. I can see it, because I’m being crushed. We’re all desperately trying to wear these masks that we can hide behind. We pretend everything’s okay, because we’re afraid that if we acknowledge the problem, it’s going to be a lot messier than we can imagine. So, we’re desperately just trying to fake it till we make it. I’m doing the same thing and I know I’m on the edge of being crushed because Monday night my garbage disposal broke and I almost lost my freaking mind. I wanted to use harsher language to show you just how close to the edge I was. But I won’t for your sakes, because I love you.

I went to go clean our cat litter. I grabbed a bag from underneath the sink, and it was soaking wet. I was like, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.” I opened up the cabinet and pulled everything out, and there was water everywhere. Water was pouring out from the bottom of the garbage disposal. It was not leaking from any of the seals. It was just leaking straight from the bottom. This was a problem. I started cleaning everything, and Christina says, “Thank you for not losing it. Thank you for not being angry.”

I respond with a curt, “Okay,” because I was trying not to rip the hinges off of the cabinet door and throw it through the sliding glass door. I’m was on the edge. My garbage disposal broke, and I was ready to freak out. Why? Because the real problem wassn’t the garbage disposal. I’m slowly being overwhelmed by life, by the chaos and the brokenness of life and by my own brokenness. It’s slowly creeping in on me, and it takes a series of crises to make the mask finally slip.

I’m recognizing there’s a problem, but I don’t want to deal with it. There’s a deeper reason for why I was freaking out. There’s something else that’s lurking underneath the surface, and I don’t want to look at it. Instead, I want to take my anger out on the garbage disposal. Tuesday morning, I prepare for the day, and I plan on fixing the garbage disposal. Adam called me to tell me that he’s sick which freed up my whole day to get everything I needed to fix the disposal. I looked for my wallet, and I couldn’t find it. My wallet was in Christina’s car, and she’s at work. My plans for the day are gone. And now a deeper problem bubbled up to the surface, because we have two sinks. The second sink has been clogged for like five months, and I’ve been pouring Draino down it pretending that’s going to help even though I know the real solution. I have to get under sink, open up the pipes, and see what’s in there.

But that’s what I don’t want to do. That’s what you don’t want to do. There’s a real problem in you, and you don’t want to open up the pipes, because you don’t want to see what’s in there. You don’t want to face the grossness in that pipe. You do not want to smell the stench that has been building up in there. You want to ignore it and keep pouring Draino down drain. Turn the TV on, and pretend like it’s all okay. But for the sake of my wife, I have to open up the pipes because otherwise we’re down two sinks. At least I can free this one up, but I don’t want to do it because I’m scared of what I’m going to find. There’s something lurking in us, and we all know it. We can all feel it. When life starts to crumble around us, we try to stay the course and keep on trucking because we don’t want to see what’s inside of us.

This is where the words of Paul break into our lives. He says, “Continue in the faith you were raised up in.” When life starts crushing you, when it’s becoming overwhelming and too complex for you to handle, he says, “Continue in the faith and turn to God’s simple word.” Life is crushing you. It’s overwhelming you. It’s complex, but turn to the simplicity of the faith that you’ve been given. And the simplicity is what Megan read and what Natalie read, which is, “Look to the Lord, your helper, and ask for help.” This simple word is offensive. It offends me. The real reason I want to lose it is because on Sunday night, Christina and I found out that we weren’t pregnant.

We’ve been trying for three years. We did IUI for the third time, and on Sunday night after praying and asking and asking and asking, we found out that we were not pregnant again. Then Monday morning I realized that I had to preach. I read the readings and found out the readings were saying, “My help is in the Lord and keep asking.” Is this a joke? This is the word that I have to turn to. How do I apply this simple word to myself? How does it work on me? And Paul reminds Timothy, “You have people around you that know this word and they’ll speak it to you. You’re not alone. And when you’re crushed and you cannot find any solace in those words, other people speak it for you and to you.”

On Wednesday night, I find out I have to do a youth group by myself because Adam was still sick. So, we are going around taking prayer requests from the kids. Grace asks me, “How are you doing, Mr. Matt?” And I lied. Forgive me, Grace. I lied to you. I said, “I’m okay,” because I didn’t want the mask to slip. But Grace being probably the most emotionally mature person in this room knew I was lying and just shot back real fast, “Just, okay. Not good or great.” I said, “Yeah, that’s right.” And then to really stick it to her I said, “And you’re going to pray for us tonight.” Little did I know she was gonna stick it to me in the prayer, because she goes around, she prays for everyone, and it’s awesome. It’s beautiful. And then she prays for me. That doesn’t happen a lot, so just that fact that she even prayed for me was shocking. But then she said the thing that I did not want her to say. She said, “Lord, help Mr. Matt’s life be more than just okay.” The word of God was applied to me in that moment. It tears through me as a fifteen year old said the words of faith that I couldn’t bring myself to say. It tears through me and shows all of the grossness and the mistrust of God that is in me. It revealed it all to me in that moment. I could not trust God enough to ask that.

But then I was able to very clearly hear the Word of God. As the Word rushed through me, God held my mess with the smell and the grossness of my clogged pipes, my mistrust, rebellion, and accusations against him. God held it all and I could hear Him say very clearly, “I forgive you. I will help you. Keep on asking. And even when you can’t ask, I will surround you with people who will continue to ask for you.”

This is usually the part where I pray and move to offering, but I have to continue and press into the Lord’s Supper, because I know you are broken and you are crushed. I know you are broken and crushed, because I’m broken and crushed. You need the gospel, because I need the gospel. I know in these areas where you’re feeling abandoned and alone and overwhelmed, you are turning to God and saying, “I’ve looked to you for help. I have been asking and asking, and you have withheld your goodness from me. Where have you been? What have you done?” I know, because I have said the same thing. This is what I was asking this week. “What have you done, God?” And as those words leave my mouth, He looks back at me, and he holds out the broken and crushed body of his son and says, “This is what I’ve done. I broke my son so that you can be made whole. I crushed him so that you could be lifted up.”

On the night that Jesus was betrayed and abandoned by his best friends, he took the bread and broke it saying, “This is my body. It’s being broken for you so you can be made whole take and eat of it.” The same way, he took the wine and he poured it out and he said, “This is my blood poured out for the forgiveness of your sins. Take and drink of it. And every time you do this, remember me. Remember to look to me, because the world will crush and threaten you, and you will want to look anywhere else but here. But where else are you going to look?” Who else has broken their own body, poured out their own blood for you and said, “This is the lengths I’m willing to go to make everything better.” Where else can we look? If we can’t look to the Lord who made heaven and earth, then there’s no one else to look to. So for me and for my house, we’re going to continue to look to the Lord. We’re going to continue to ask, and when we can’t, we’re going to be surrounded by people who can look to God and ask for us. We will trust in the simplicity of his Word that says, “I will lift you up. You’re being crushed. I know. I crushed my son so that I can lift you up.”

We’re gonna do something a little different today. Usually we have offering now. But what I want you to come up and receive something from God. Receive the tangible promise of His forgiveness. He will lift you up. And then if you have offerings to give, you will give them up here. I want you to receive from God first, and then you place your trust in him after.

I want to pray this prayer, the prayer for the armor of God, which is super helpful when we are feeling crushed and defeated. We can remember the words of God to us, and we can put them on. I’m going to place them upon us today.

“In the name of Jesus, I put upon us all the full armor of God. I put upon us the belt of truth, which protects us from all lies of the enemy. It reminds us of our true identities as co heirs with Christ. I put upon us the breastplate of righteousness, which is the righteousness of Christ and protects us from all of Satan’s accusations against us. I put on the shoes of the gospel of peace, which enables us to go out confidently into the world and announce the victory of Christ over the seen and unseen rulers and authorities of the earth. I place upon us the helmet of salvation, which is our baptisms. It proclaims that we have been set apart by God as one of His people, and that we are destined to inherit the new earth. We take up the shield of faith, which is the faith of God himself. It extinguishes all doubts and fears set against us. I equip us with the sword of the spirit, which is the active word of God. We do not wield it with our own strength or skill, but with the strength and skill of the Holy Spirit. I announce that we are united in the Spirit and that we pray in the Spirit at all times. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”