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"Always Abounding: Doctrinally Sound"
I want to begin today by reminding you of our goal for multi-site
ministry that I introduced last week. Multi-site ministry is
simply expanding and enhancing an outstanding community of
believers in several locations who cooperate and collaborate
to extend the kingdom of God. So we’re doing something new
these next few weeks by all hearing the same message being
delivered here in Oviedo and at Joan Walker Elementary School
in Chuluota and at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in
Sanford to unite us as one faith community who just happens
to worship at seven different times at four different locations.
Greetings then to Pastor DeWitt and the Redeemer family. I was
pleased to hear my message last week came across effectively and
was well received by you. Thank you for being a partner with us
in ministry.
Likewise greetings to those gathered in Chuluota and to Pastor Roberts
who is leading you in worship today. As you all in Chuluota are aware
but perhaps not in Sanford or even here in Oviedo, Pastor Abel and
Leah are enjoying some time away. They’ll be back this week. Once
again I was very encouraged to hear from Pastor Abel before he left
that everything went well with the message delivered last week.
And finally greetings to those gathered in the Lutheran Haven Nursing
Home chapel.
To get us started today we’ll need to take a quick look at a few
scenes from last week’s episode.
To rally us around our shared passion and excitement for God and
His kingdom, remember what we are trying to accomplish as a
multi-site church: It is our vision that St. Luke’s Lutheran
Church and School in Oviedo and in Chuluota, in partnership
with the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Sanford to be the
most biblically literate, doctrinally sound, actively engaged,
community of believers in the world for the purpose of extending
the kingdom of God throughout Central Florida and to the ends of
the earth.
Last week I spoke to the question, what exactly do we mean
when we say we will be the most Biblically Literate community
of believers in the world?
Well, here is the summary of my whole sermon in one paragraph:
When I say, the most Biblically Literate community of believers
in the world I mean people who have become immersed and engulfed
in the story of God’s salvation of the human race. I mean people
who are convinced and convicted by the truth that - the story
of the Bible is a living, breathing, dynamic story that is
woven into the very fabric of time and space so that everything
that happens in the world is governed by the content of the Bible’s
story. Therefore, Biblical Literacy is not knowing about the Bible,
it is living inside the story of the Bible.
Now, our next step is to try and get our arms around what it
means to be Doctrinally Sound. First of all the word “doctrine”
simply means the teaching drawn out of the Bible that captures
and summarizes the story of God’s salvation. Maybe it will help
to think of it like this: doctrine is the lens through which we
read the Bible so that story’s content becomes useful and
applicable to our daily life.
It is possible to read the Bible and miss the point of God’s
story completely. Worse yet it is possible to read the Bible
and arrive at a wrong, false, even dangerous understanding of
the story – consider examples like Jim Jones and The People’s
Temple cult that he formed that resulted in the mass suicide
of his followers back in 1978. Jesus said, (Matthew 7:15)
"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves."
Therefore, from the very beginning of time God has always
provided teachers to His people to instill in them the doctrine
necessary to live faithfully inside the story of the Bible.
Through Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses and the prophets
in the Old Testament God insured that the story was preserved
and taught correctly from generation to generation. Through
the Apostles, who were the eyewitnesses to Jesus life, death,
and resurrection, who were taught first hand by him, who
received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in a powerful and unique
way God insured that the story was preserved and taught
correctly from generation to generation.
I have a very clear memory of a day somewhere in my middle
school years. We lived in the parsonage (that’s the house
provided by the church for the pastor and his family –
most of you know, but maybe not all of you that my Dad
is a pastor). The church he was serving was seven miles
out in the country from the nearest little town in the
cornfields of Iowa. The house stood right next door to
the church on one side and windows on the other side of
the house (where my bedroom was) had a nice view of the
church’s cemetery.
I was sitting in the living room one day. The doorbell rang,
which was unusual because you don’t have people wandering
around out in the country ringing doorbells very often. My
dad’s office was in the house in those days and he answered
the door. It was two members of a religious group who
proceeded to engage my father in a discussion about the
Bible and what he believed and what they believed. And
at some point, I’m not sure how far into the conversation,
in a tone of voice I knew quite well meant this conversation
is over I heard my dad say:
“Listen to me, I am a Lutheran pastor because I believe
without hesitation or doubt that what we believe, teach,
and confess is as faithful and true to the Bible as possible
this side of heaven.” The conversation ended. My dad went
back to his office. The two who had rung the doorbell
headed down the road to the next house.
Listen to these words from (Ephesians 4:11-15) It was he
who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some
to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,
{12} to prepare God's people for works of service, so
that the body of Christ may be built up {13} until we
all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of
the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the
whole measure of the fullness of Christ. {14} Then we
will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by
the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of
teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in
their deceitful scheming. {15} Instead, speaking the
truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him
who is the Head, that is, Christ.
And again from (2 Timothy 3:14-17) - But as for you,
continue in what you have learned and have become convinced
of, because you know those from whom you learned it, {15}
and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures,
which are able to make you wise for salvation through
faith in Christ Jesus. {16} All Scripture is God-breathed
and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and
training in righteousness, {17} so that the man of God
may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Did you hear it? “Continue in what you have learned and
become convinced of…” “Then you will no longer be infants,
tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown there and
there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and
craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.”
Now those of you who know me or have been in any of my
Bible classes can testify I am very careful not to speak
despairingly of other Christian denominations. Those of
you who maybe don’t know me so well can ask those who do.
But believe me when I say that it is not my purpose or
desire to set myself or the Lutheran Church-Missouri
Synod up against our brothers and sisters in Christ
from other Christian traditions.
However, I hope it won’t shock you and might even inspire
you to know that like my father, “I am a Lutheran pastor,
not because the benefits or the retirement package are
better than some other church, but because I believe
without hesitation or doubt that what we believe, teach,
and confess is as faithful and true to the Bible as possible
this side of heaven.”
My point is simply this – each of you must over and over
again put on the lenses of sound doctrine, peering intently
into the Bible and thereby be drawn deeper and deeper into
the story of God’s salvation – to see your whole life and
everything that is happening in it as an integral part of
that story.
Someone once said that the Bible, the story of God’s plan of
salvation for the human race, is shallow enough for a child
to wade in and deep enough for an elephant to drown in. In
order to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Bible,
to be Biblically Literate, to live inside the story successfully
day after day requires that you be Doctrinally Sound.
The class called Explorations is offered to give you the
foundation of sound doctrine so that you can be biblically
literate. For those of you in Sanford, next Sunday Explorations
will begin during your Bible study hour. Yesterday you all
were out delivering door hangers in the community to invite
the neighborhood to attend. I hope every one of you in Sanford
will attend and invite a friend, a neighbor, a coworker to
come with you. Here at Oviedo and for Chuluota we are just
finishing up a round of Explorations and the next one will
start in January. I’d like every one of you to decide right
now that you will attend in January. I have always had a
dream of teaching that class here in the Sanctuary with the
whole room full – bring a neighbor, a friend, a co-worker.
But that’s not the only place you’ll get sound doctrine. Look
at all the Bible classes being offered on the yellow insert
in today’s newsletter. Take any one of them, sign up for
something and you will receive sound doctrine that leads
you into living the Bible’s story, seeing more and more
clearly how your every day life is shaped and formed and
written into the story.
Let me leave you this morning with this – being Biblically
Literate and Doctrinally Sound is simply learning how to
think like a Christian in your everyday life. It’s not
abstract or complicated. It’s not arguing over silly
things like “how many angels can dance on the head of
pin.” It’s not proving that we’re right and everyone
else is wrong. In fact that’s one of the biggest dangers
the church has fallen into in the past – someone called
it “belief-ism” – meaning that we wind up worshiping our
doctrine rather than Jesus.
But here’s the secret – the one central, foundational, doctrine
that you must know and never forget. The one doctrine that is
the measurement of all our teachings, and keeping it primary
determines whether the church stands or falls is this: We are
restored and incorporated into the story of the Bible solely
by God’s action, not by anything we have done or ever can do.
This teaching is called “the doctrine of justification.” It
means that we are forgiven, washed free from all our sins,
and given eternal life freely and solely by God’s gracious
act of taking on human flesh in the person and work of Jesus.
The whole Bible’s story is about Jesus. And the proper understanding
of that story requires that Jesus’ work of living perfectly in this
sin-sick and dying world and then willingly suffering and dying in
our place always, always, always remain at the very heart and center
of everything else that we teach.
Folks, from inside the Bible’s story, keeping the doctrine of
justification central, and growing more and more in our understanding,
there is nothing you cannot overcome in your personal life, there is
nothing that we cannot accomplish in our life together as an
outstanding community of believers.
Forgiven and headed for heaven, Biblically Literate and Doctrinally
Sound is the most excellent and exciting way to live.
Amen.
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