Consecrated to God

[This message shared with the people of Friendship Lutheran Church, Amelia, Ohio, during worship celebrations on November 18 and 19, 2006.]

Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18
Hebrews 10:19-25

In the Dallas Cowboys locker room before the 1993 Super Bowl, head coach Jimmy Johnson spoke with his players. Johnson later recalled what he said. “I told them that if I laid a two-by-four across the room, everybody would walk across it and not fall, because our focus would be that we were going to walk that two-by-four. But if I put that same two-by-four 10 stories high between two buildings only a few would make it, because the focus would be on falling. Focus is everything. The team that is more focused today is the team that will win this game.” The Cowboys won 52 to 17.

What is the primary focus of your life?

If following the God we know through Jesus Christ isn’t our focus as individuals and as members of the part of the body of Christ known as Friendship Lutheran Church, we could fall.

But if we will put our trust in God and follow Jesus Christ, acknowledging that all of our time, all of our talents, and all of our treasure are God’s gifts to us, we will lead focused lives that accomplish great things for God and God’s Kingdom.

God isn’t looking for perfect people. God isn’t looking for self-righteous people. God is looking for forgiven people who will acknowledge what Jesus Christ has done for them on the cross and from an empty tomb with their whole lives. Today, you and I are being asked to focus--to really focus--on consecrating (or dedicating) our whole selves to God.

The first of our two Bible lessons today recounts an incident that happened at the end of the life of Joshua.

Joshua was the leader of God’s people, the Hebrews. He succeeded Moses and was the one who led the people into the promised land.

Now, he was soon to die. So, he called the leaders of the people together. We’ve given you an extremely condensed version of what Joshua said that day. He spent a long time reminding the Hebrew leaders of all that God had done for them. He recalled how God had called Israel into being with just two people, Abraham and Sarah, a couple who had once lived comfortably in what is today Iraq. He remembered that God had saved them at the time of the great famine through the leadership of a dreamer named Joseph. Then, he recalled that, through Moses, God had gotten His people out of slavery in Egypt and, in spite of their stubborn rebelliousness, led them to the land in which they now lived.

But there was a problem: Even though God had never given up on them or stopped blessing them, the people kept chasing after other gods.

Like the person who claims to believe in Christ, but then spends every waking hour giving other things their highest priority and greatest effort, the Hebrews let other things crowd God out of their lives.

That’s why Joshua tells them: “Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness.”

Frankly, our translation dainties things up a bit. Far better is the rendering of the New International Version, which says, “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness.” No matter how confident we can be of God’s love for us and of God’s desire of the best for us, we never dare get over our fear of God. God is greater than we are. God made us. We are in God’s hands. But Joshua’s point is that this great God Who has done everything for us--and Who is awesome in His power, strength, and perfection--deserves our complete surrender.

It’s also in our interest to surrender to this God. Only those who surrender to the God we know through Christ clear away the obstructions that would otherwise block His grace and blessings from our lives.

The lesson from Hebrews was addressed to a group of Jewish Christians in the first century, many centuries after Joshua lived. The issue in this address was that the Roman Empire was starting to persecute those who confessed Jesus and it was tempting for these Jewish followers of Jesus to renounce their faith in Him. The writer of Hebrews tells the believers to not give up on their relationship with the God revealed to the world in Christ. Just before our lesson, he talks about all that Christ had done for them, enduring the cross to win life for them. He says that because Christ gives us confidence to come before God in our prayers and because Christ is our great advocate--our high priest--Who sacrificed Himself for us, we can approach God with trusting faith, hold onto Him with hope that He’s good for all His promises, and dare to love one another. Because of Christ, we can live in faith, hope, and love.

For twelve-and-a-half years, Friendship Church wandered in the wilderness. Our worship, for most of those years, happened in a building so bad that the West Clermont Local School District is trying to get voters’ authorization to tear it down and build a new school. Bible study, small groups, and other activities happened in homes and shopping malls. We couldn’t wait to get into our promised land. Then, we thought, we could really be a church. We’d be able to be together for worship any time we wanted, even Saturday nights and Wednesday nights in Lent and Christmas Eve. We could have as many Bible studies and service activities as the building would hold. And we would be bursting at the seams.

Funny. Most of that hasn’t happened. Why?

Maybe we lost our focus.

Maybe we got apathetic.

Maybe we took God and our congregation for granted.

Maybe we got so involved in the stuff of being a church that we forgot that growing in the faith, hope, and love of the living Christ is meant to be our focus, building or not.

Maybe we forgot that the only truly happy people in the world are those who are focused on God’s purposes, the people who focus their time, talents, treasures, their whole lives on God. They do it, not to try to get God’s attention or to procure heavenly fire insurance. They do it because of their gratitude to Christ and because of the need that all of us have to give ourselves over to a great cause--the greatest cause: Jesus Christ and His mission in the world.

Joshua knew and the writer of Hebrews knew what we must know: When our lives get out of focus, it’s time to renew our covenant with God, to rededicate ourselves to Christ.

This can be such a day for you.

In a moment, I’m going to ask you to bring your offerings and your completed Time and Talent surveys and your 2007 statements of estimated giving to the Lord’s Table. I ask all of you to approach this as the truly important moment that it is.

If you’ve already filled out your forms, take some time to pray about it and pray that God’s good will be done for Friendship. Ask God if there’s anything He’d like for you to change about your commitment.

If you’re planning on filling out the forms during this time of commitment and prayer, ask God to guide you and our congregation.

As we begin, pray with me for just a moment...

[The true story of Jimmy Johnson and the Dallas Cowboys is told in 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself by Steve Chandler.]