Courageous to Live in God’s Love 2 Timothy 1:7 

 

Dear Kaylee and Sara, your parents, your family, your sponsors, all gathered here today, and all who will hear this online, grace, mercy, and peace be with you, from God, our loving Father, and our courageous Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Our message is taken from Kaylee’s and Sara’s confirmation verses, Joshua 1:9, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”. And 1 John 4:8, Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Combined they give us our theme, Courageous to Live in God’s Love.

 In 2 Timothy 1:7, Paul tells us, For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of courage and love. 

It took us awhile, but we made it to this happy day. As the Psalm says, This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. 

How glad we are that Sara and Kaylee will affirm their faith in our Triune God, and promise to be faithful to Him, and to His Word and His Church, throughout their lives. And then we’ll rejoice, as they kneel to receive His blessing, and their verse to live by.

We’re going to talk about fear, love, courage, God, the devil, the world, and us.

My uncle celebrated his 90th birthday last week. I was talking with him and he said he’s never seen anything like this all his days, with the virus and the violence.

There’s a lot of scary stuff happening in our world right now. But scary is nothing new. There’s always been a lot to be afraid of. But in Christ, there’s always more to be confident in. 

As safe as we may try to make things, we never run out of things that we might fear. 

We may not fear for our lives, but we may fear for our livelihoods, if we’ll have or keep our jobs, or be able to pay our bills, or provide for ourselves and our families.

We might fear school, or bullies at school, or sports, or academics or tests, or other things at school.

We might fear for our health, or the health of someone we love.

We might fear for our relationships, if your mom and dad will be happy together; or for your friendships, if you’ll have good friends who will treat your right.

Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t, but you have a friend named Jesus who will always treat you right. With His love in your life, you don’t have to fear any of these things. 

1 John 4:18 says, There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out fear.  

Jesus loves you with a perfect love. He proved that when He never sinned against you, or against His Father, or against anyone. 

Jesus has never done a single thing wrong to you, and He never will. Others will hurt you at times, even family and close friends, but not your God, so stay close to Him, for God is love.

Jesus confirmed His love for you when He died for you. And He demonstrated His mighty power for you when he rose for you. His love is the power to drive your fears away.

So be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go. 

God is pure love, so an extraordinary love will always be with you, surrounding you, enveloping you, when you walk with Christ. 

As you begin your life as a confirmed child of God, and walk with Him throughout life, you can be bold and confident in this saving faith God has given you.

You’ll experience a lot of things in life that will end up being a fraud, but you’ll find that the promises and words of Christ will end up being the truth. I am the way, and the truth, and the life, Jesus promises you. 

We’re promised in Romans 10 that all who trust in Him will not be put to shame. 

In the weakness of our sinful nature, we may sometimes feel embarrassed or ashamed of our faith in Jesus, but He promises to never feel that way about us.

As we sincerely repent and confess our sin, and our selfishness, and our moments of weakness and unfaithfulness, He promises to forgive us, and to give us the courage and love we need to do better.   

Following Jesus and striving to be more like Him, isn’t the most popular thing to do when you’re a teen, nor when you’re an adult, but the way of Christ and the cross, will never fail you.

All your friends will fail you at times, and at times, you’ll fail them, but Jesus never will, because He is the holy Son of God, and God is love.

In your life you’ll go through a lot of distractions designed by the devil to make you forget where your love, and forgiveness, and hope, and strength, and courage are -- in the Gospel. 

The devil has a whole toolbox of tricks to deceive you with. And he pulls out the ones to use against you that you’re the most susceptible to at the time. 

If your susceptibility is the fear that you won’t be accepted by your friends, he uses that. If it’s the love of money, then he uses that. If it’s doubt, doubt that you’re loved, doubt that God loves and forgives you, or doubt that God even exists, then the devil will use that. 

In our secular minded society, that’s one his favorite tricks. Our secular culture likes to label people who believe God and His Word as stupid, unscientific, irrational, or delusional, or even hateful. 

No one likes to be labelled and disrespected like that, so it’s a powerful tool for the devil to use.

But not to worry, not to fear, Jesus, who defeated the devil by his death and resurrection for the world, has even more powerful tools, amazing gifts for you: His Spirit to strengthen you, His Word to make you wise, His Gospel to make your heart strong, His body and blood to show you how much He loves and forgives you, your Baptism to remind you of who you belong to, and His Church to remind you of where you belong, where you’ll always be loved and cherished and cared for. 

The world may not value you, but you will always be valued in the family of God.

So be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go in life.

As a child of God you’ll always be loved, for as John says, God is love. Those three words say it all.

All of this is what you’re saying “yes” to today. In the end, you’ll have no regrets for doing this, for confessing your faith and following Christ throughout your life. 

Others things in life you’ll regret, and God will forgive you, but your faith in Christ you’ll never regret, so never forget the One who loves You with a constant, unshakeable love. The One who makes you strong and courageous to follow Him.

In Heaven, you’ll be so happy that God made you His child. Be happy to be His dear child on earth. Let that joy show as you courageously confess Christ in your life, and as you gladly love and serve others in His name. 

If others reject you for following Jesus and striving to be like Him, then you haven’t lost anything. True friends would never do that. But if you lose Jesus, you lose everything. Hold on to Him, and never let go. 

Your God is your love and your power, be strong and courageous to walk with Him always. And as you do, His peace, which passes understanding, will always be with you, to guard your heart and mind, in Christ Jesus, your loving Lord and mighty Savior. Amen.