12-9-2018

Good Morning All,

               Matt. 10:32; “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.”  (NASB)

con·fess- verb (used with object): This word has many meanings but today we are looking at:

-to acknowledge one's belief or faith in; declare adherence to.

     The type of confession that Jesus is talking about is this definition, “to declare adherence to” or to declare one’s belief or faith.  Confessing one’s faith is a constitutive part of the identity and life of a Christian.  We cannot remain silent once we have received God’s free grace for Jesus’ sake and have been enabled by the Holy Spirit to believe in this life-giving gift.  This gift (eternal life) elicits our response in words and in life, a response that also includes their confession of faith.

    Confession of this type takes different forms.  It can be a formalized text, like the Apostle’s Creed; it can be in the form of a written document, known as confessional writings, like the Augsburg Confession.  It also takes another form, one that is personal to each of us.  We can go to church and say the Apostle’s Creed; probably most of us can say it without thinking about it a lot.  If you are a confirmed member of the Lutheran Church you took an oath to die rather than deny the Bible and the confessions of the Lutheran Church (of which the unaltered Augsburg Confession is a biggie).  But there is another that is just as, if not more, important than these; it is your confession.

     It is easy to confess the Apostle’s Creed in church on Sunday; but what about the other six days?  Our confession is more than words; it is actions.  What we do says more about our faith than what we say does.  We live our confession every single day.  How we act to toward our fellow man and who we turn to when crisis or troubles arrive; speaks our confession of faith louder than any words we say. 

     Confession is the result of a very basic truth.  The Word of God, in the hearts of men, changes lives!!  When the Spirit of God lives in your heart, you experience the desire, the need to share this with others.  We need to tell the world our good news and our changed heart enables us to seek to help our fellow man.  This is one way to confess your faith in Jesus.  When someone asks you, “Why are you different than the others?”  “Why do you care about me?”  “Why do you take the time to visit the shut ins or feed the hungry?”  The answer is your confession.  It should be, “because of Jesus” and not, “oh, I don’t know.”  When some good fortune falls your way; our confession is to thank God and not “we were lucky.”  We confess Jesus because of the faith that was given to us and causes us to do so; this faith is our trust in the promise of eternal life through Jesus which he will give us when He confesses us to His Heavenly Father.

Dear Lord Jesus, we are often slow to confess you before men and we ask for your forgiveness.  Give us the courage to speak our faith in you and to live our faith in you and everything we do.  In your precious name we pray, amen.

God’s peace,

Pastor Bret