Galatians 6:14 “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

What makes a restaurant like McDonalds, McDonalds? It’s not the ambiance of their dining room, or the quality of their straws or napkins. It’s the taste of their food: the Big Mac, the fries, the chicken nuggets. You see that in their advertising. That’s what their commercials boast about. What makes a luxury car like a Lexus, a Lexus? It’s not the emergency jack in the trunk, or the owner’s manual in the glove compartment. It’s the features of the vehicle itself: the power of the engine, the comfort of the passenger cabin, the styling of the vehicle’s body. That, again, is what their commercials boast about.

What makes the Christian faith the Christian faith? It’s not a superior set of rules to follow or more stimulating and entertaining worship to attend. It is the central message of our faith, the chief thing that distinguishes it from all others: the saving death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the message of the cross. Other things may be true about Christianity and Christians. But this is their only boast: the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That was Paul’s message to the Galatians. Other teachers were leading them to think that Christianity was about something else. Paul’s own faith had been on a different track at one point in his life. As a Pharisee who opposed Jesus and persecuted his people, he was building a religious career that promised him prestige, power, and plenty of money. Now he had discovered the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That other world had been crucified to him.

There are many forms “the world” can take in our own lives. Many are hard to recognize. We, too, can pervert religion from being God’s means to save us, and a sincere matter of faith, to become a way to give me what I want here and now. We can turn church into an entertainment venue. That’s worldly, not spiritual. It is a wonderful thing for friends to invite friends to church to introduce them to Jesus. It is a worldly thing to choose a house of worship for the chance to be popular with certain people, because it makes me look good, because it means I will be accepted by my peers, or because it puts me in contact with potential customers for my business. There is not a single-minded focus on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ in that. It is kind of worldliness, a sinful focus on tickling my fancies.

Now, Paul says, due to the cross of Christ, that world has been crucified to me. It hasn’t just been demoted to give up part of the time and attention it used to demand. The world and I did not merely come to a mutual recognition that this relationship wasn’t working out very well, and so we politely broke up and went our different ways. The world has been crucified to me. It met a violent, painful death by execution. It is the evil criminal in my life that had to die before it took my life instead.

The irony is that the world is crucified to me by means of another crucifixion, the one that makes me boast. That is a striking concept. The cross was an instrument of shame and humiliation. It is not something one would boast about. No one wants a relationship with a criminal, especially one on death row. It’s an embarrassment. It’s the kind of thing that families keep secrets about.

But this criminal and this cross are my pride and joy, because the crimes for which he dies are mine. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is the only thing that has real value because it is the only thing that can free me from the penalty for my sins. Wonder of all wonders, the cross, an instrument of death, does what I could never do: it removes all sin from my record, reconciles me to God in heaven, and gives me a life that will last forever and ever.

That’s our only boast. And what that cross has done for me crucifies the world to me.

1 Timothy 6:18-19 “Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”

First, let’s point out what Paul is not saying in these words. He is not suggesting that you can buy your way into heaven. You can buy your way into a lot of places, it seems. If you have enough money, you can just about buy your way into public office. They are always talking about which candidates have raised the most money, or which ones are in trouble because they are running out. You can buy your way into prestigious schools or hot ticket concerts and sporting events. If you are jailed, you might be able to buy your way to freedom.

But eternal life is not for sale. In Psalm 50 God reminded his people, “I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills.” We’ve got nothing to give him. It’s all his already. And it has always been his intent and desire to give away salvation for free. “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.” “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” “It is by grace you have been saved through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one may boast.” “My peace I give to you.”

So here is a word to the wise: a life of good deeds and generous giving, a life that doesn’t let riches make us proud or become our idol, lays up treasures for the life to come because it doesn’t get in the way of saving faith. It is not eroding our trust in God or leading us to give up his saving gifts. It keeps us from trading “the life that is truly life,” life with Christ, for the counterfeit “life” we have in this world, the one we are tempted to dress up to look like heaven by buying all kinds of temporary, empty pleasures.

The investment we make in our things–our cars, our homes, even our institutions and civilization–will be worth exactly nothing the day after Judgment Day. But the investment we make in the faith and love of God’s people, what we give to make sure the gospel is heard and shared, will pay dividends in souls saved for all eternity.

1 Timothy 6:18 “Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”

Have you ever seen the musical Hello Dolly? There is a scene toward the end in which the matchmaker, Dolly Levi, is trying to help the wealthy tightwad Horace Vandergelder loosen up with his money a little. “Money is like manure…” She tells him, “It’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around encouraging young things to grow.”

Paul’s words imply that he would agree with her, more or less. Money can stink, or money can serve us. For all the dangers money poses to our souls, it also has the potential to do a lot of good. Like so many other Bible teachings, there is a ditch on both sides of the road here. Love it too much, fail to respect its power to take over our hearts, and it becomes poison to our faith. But if we decide that money itself somehow has to be dirty and unholy, then we may miss the special opportunities it gives those who have it to do good.

Wealth may make it possible for some people to be particularly “rich in good deeds.” To hear some people talk about saving for retirement, you would think that work was evil, laziness was a virtue, and that life really is all about making yourself happy. “I slaved away for the company all those years,” they say. “I can’t wait to retire and do nothing.” Or “I worked hard and supported my family. Now I’m going to get to do something for myself.” Is there anything particularly Christian about years of doing nothing or using the last years of our lives to gratify our own desires? Where is that written?

But we can redeem the concept of retirement nest eggs when we turn working less into helping more. Whether in retirement or sooner, if more money means less days or hours at a job, then wealth can be a tool that frees us to volunteer. A doctor friend of mine spent less hours in the office as he approached the end of his career. He spent more hours at a clinic where children could see him for free. A group of retired tradesmen rebuild homes for families who have lost their houses to natural disasters. They can do this because the wealth on which they retired allowed them to donate their time and ability.

Another godly use for wealth is giving it away. “Command them…to be generous and willing to share.” We work hard at teaching our children to share, don’t we? We know it doesn’t come naturally. I have seen infants who weren’t even able to walk in a tug of war over the same toy. A video I saw on Facebook has two little boys pulling the same pacifier out of each other’s mouth and putting it in his own. Each boy starts to cry when the other takes the pacifier away. It’s adorable. So we intervene in our children’s play, and we teach them to share.

Do we forget the lesson as adults? Yes, it’s my money, humanly speaking. I earned it. No one should be able to take it from me by force. And it shouldn’t be used to reinforce someone’s bad habits or self-destructive vices. But maybe if we were a little less eager to upgrade the car, the house, the electronics, or the wardrobe, we could support some legitimate charities, get more mission work done, and improve our communities. Maybe there would be less reason for the government to raise taxes, and more people respecting, even joining, Christian churches.

Maybe we could just love someone. You know what we call the wealthy donors to hospitals, schools, or other institutions that serve the public good? “Philanthropists.” It’s from a Greek word, and the meaning has nothing to do with money. It means “Lover of people.” I know that some of the big donors may be more interested in getting a plaque on the wall, a building named after them, or some other publicity. But the idea of philanthropy is that giving is an opportunity to love people. Loving people is the second main thing God wants us to do after loving him. God’s philanthropy toward us lies at the heart of Jesus’ saving work. He so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.

So generosity and sharing belong to a life rich in good deeds. Don’t let the wealth God gives you pile up and stink. Spread it around. Use it to make love grow.

Deuteronomy 8:18 “Remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.”

In the movie Shenandoah, Jimmy Stewart utters a table prayer that goes like this: “Lord, we cleared this land, we plowed it, sowed it, and harvested it. We cooked the harvest. We wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be eatin’, if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog-boned hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you just the same anyway, Lord, for the food we’re about to eat. Amen.”

The Lord knows that such an attitude is easy to fall into. When the Children of Israel were about to enter the promised land, he gave them this warning: “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you….Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God….You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me’” (Deuteronomy 8:10-17).

What’s wrong with thinking we are “self-made men” if we have worked hard to achieve our goals? The very term “self-made” is a contradiction! Can anyone or anything “make” itself? Everything we have and everything we are comes from God.  This is not limited to the bodies we inhabit. There is not a thing we have ever done or accomplished for which we deserve the ultimate credit. Even the talents and abilities which produce such things come from God.

While this truth may confront us for our conceit, it is also a wonderful source of comfort, isn’t it? It assures us we can trust the God who loves us to take care of all our needs. The burden doesn’t fall on our shoulders. Just as he has promises to supply us with the necessities of life, we can be sure he will either give us the ability to obtain those things ourselves, or he will provide them through others or through his miraculous power.

Elijah once learned that lesson. When Israel came under a three-year famine, there was no possible way for Elijah to care for his own needs. What did he do? He trusted the Lord to take care of him. The Lord sent ravens who brought him food every day. Later the widow of Zarephath was able to provide his daily bread when the Lord miraculously multiplied her little supply of oil and flour (1 Kings 17).

Living in a ravine and eating scraps of food, or eating the same meal of bread every day, may not be our idea of living “high on the hog.” But Elijah had all that he needed. Elijah was not wealthy, but God was faithful to his promise.

Jesus repeated these same promises in the Sermon on the Mount. He assured his disciples, “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:31-33).

All these things will be given to you as well. We can trust our loving Father to provide for us and preserve us for as long as he needs us in this world. It is a natural consequence of his saving grace. After all, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

The One who sacrificed his only Son to redeem us from sin will not fail to take care of every other genuine need we have in this world. He made us. He has every intent to care for the work of his hands.

Acts 17:25 “He himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”

To me, having four children doesn’t make for a shockingly large family. It wasn’t so long ago that such a family would have been on the low end of average. To many people, however, the number of people in our little tribe comes as quite a surprise. “Haven’t you figured out where those things come from yet?” we used to hear.

The answer is, “Yes we do. They come from God.”

When we hear of creation, no doubt we think first of the first chapters of Genesis. God spoke the words and new material objects, new phenomena, and new forms of life suddenly burst into existence. But God’s work of creation still has as much to do with why you and I are here today as it has to do with the origin of our world. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb,” King David confesses in Psalm 139. “I believe that God has made me and every creature, and that he has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members; my reason and all my faculties,” we learned to say in the Small Catechism.

In the Bible, creation is the special work of God. The Hebrew language even has a special word for creating which is used only of the creating work which the Lord does. You and I might sometimes think of imaginative ways to rearrange the “stuff” of which our world is made. We refer to people who are gifted at such rearrangements as “creative.”

But only God himself can literally make something out of nothing. Only he has the brilliance to produce something absolutely unique and original. You and I are living examples of his originality, brilliance, and power.

That God is the maker of all things, that some intelligent being is behind this wonderful and complex world of which we are a part, ought to be obvious to everyone. “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from has been made,” the Apostle Paul once wrote to the Romans.

And yet, there is no way of proving God’s creating work to someone who doesn’t want to recognize it. “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible” (Hebrews 11:3). We can point out that evolutionary theory is more the product of naturalistic philosophy than scientific investigation, but those who have not come to trust Jesus or his word may still prefer to believe that they have apes in their family tree.

While others continue to believe that they are the children of chimps, however, we can revel in the reality that we are the children of God. Not only has he made us the very crown of his creation, but he has also created us a second time. He bought us with the blood of his Son. By water and the Word he not only washed away the sins of our old creation. He made us a new creation—people of faith and the Spirit. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to create us all over again, answering the question, “Where do God’s children come from?”

They come from the same place our children do. They come from God.

Isaiah 55:10-11 “As the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Water is a fascinating substance. It is one of only a handful of substances that expand when frozen. This means that ice floats when the lake or river freezes, insulating the waters below and keeping them liquid, instead of sinking and destroying all the living things below. Those same expansive properties are the reason water seeping into cracks and freezing can split the concrete in our roads, bridges, and buildings. It has also been called the universal solvent. It dissolves more substances than any other liquid, making it the best of all cleaners. And wherever water goes, whether through the ground or through our bodies, it is carrying valuable minerals chemicals, and nutrients (http://water.usgs.gov/edu/qa-solvent.html).

This is why, when we were in grade school, you could grow a bean in plastic cup with nothing more than a paper towel and some water to moisten it. It is why the Bermuda grass in my lawn has managed to establish itself on the hard rubber expansion joints in my sidewalk, and even, apparently, on the concrete in a corner of my driveway–two places you might not expect to be capable of supporting any life at all. It is why those who are looking for life in other corners of our solar system are so hopeful that they will discover water where they search.

The Lord uses the power of simple, humble water as a picture of the power of his word. Even in the desert it has the power to bring life where apparently none existed before. If water can establish life there, don’t be surprised at the power of God’s word to establish life in even the hardest of human hearts.

God’s word is a powerful tool, then, and sometimes you have to be careful with what your tools can do. The sculptor’s chisel makes it possible for him to break off pieces of stone to create something beautiful. But if he isn’t careful, the chisel may remove more stone than he intends. It may even crack the entire block on which he is working, making it useless. The carpenter’s saw may cut the board to short, or his hammer may bend the nail and split the board instead of fastening it.

The power of God’s word is not like that. It does not fail. “It accomplishes what I desire and achieves the purpose for which I sent it.” We don’t always see it. Sometimes it looks like God’s word was a flop, a failure.

But you know what we don’t see? We often don’t see the effect it may have on a person years after they first heard it. I personally know people on whom it took decades for the word to do its magic.

We often don’t see the collateral effects. Maybe it didn’t convert a person today. But maybe it moved them in directions that were important for someone else to hear and believe. Maybe there were others listening we didn’t realize were listening, and faith came to life in their hearts.

Even when it’s just you or me telling God’s word to another person, don’t forget that there are two people hearing the word. Many evangelists can tell you that they have gotten more out of sharing God’s word with someone than the person listening to them.

God’s word is powerful, and in that power we find an invitation to trust the God who gives it.

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

If God thought and acted the way that I would if I were God, he would have made me a couple of inches taller, a lot more athletic, with a better memory than I have now. I wouldn’t need glasses, wouldn’t have occasional pain in my back and my knees. In fact, I wouldn’t be aging at all. I would be young in body and mature in mind.

That’s a rather self-centered way of looking at things. We can do better than that. If God thought and acted more like us, Ukraine and Russia would not be at war. Neither would Israel and Gaza. There would have been no assassination attempt on former President Trump. Our country wouldn’t be so divided politically and economically and morally. As a species, we would all get along. If God’s thoughts were our thoughts…

Now here’s the problem with all that thinking. We are putting the blame on the wrong set of thoughts and ways. This is the world that we humans have refashioned for ourselves against God’s thoughts and ways. He planned a perfect paradise for us to enjoy. We spoiled it with our fall into sin. We keep making it worse with our selfishness.

It’s true that if we had our way we wouldn’t have to suffer the consequences of the mess we have made. But what good would that do? That would only teach us to be content to be separated and estranged from him in this poor counterfeit paradise we try to construct for ourselves. The way that we think apart from God ruins everything now. Even when we think we are making progress, it eventually leads to death and hell.

Because God is a good Father, he doesn’t go with our ideas. He has a better idea. He lets us feel the consequences of our sinful mess. I should probably visit the doctor or the dentist on a regular basis, whether I am feeling well or not, just to get a check-up. More often, I don’t go until I am feeling some kind of symptoms. There is a pain somewhere that tells me something isn’t right.

People tend not to seek the Lord until they feel some kind of discomfort–an uneasy conscience, a broken relationship, a nagging illness, a personal tragedy. Author C.S. Lewis was fond of saying, “Pain is God’s megaphone.” It makes us aware of sin, a broken relationship with God, and leads us toward repentance. That’s not necessarily because the pain is the result of some specific sin in our lives, though sometimes it might be. Rather, it wakes us up to our brokenness. It sends us looking for God until we hear him speaking in his word.

But here is the real reason his thoughts, his ways, as contained and explained in his word, are better: He is the God who saves. The whole context of this chapter of Isaiah is God’s invitation to the feast of salvation. Even if we have been wicked and are guilty of evil, he invites us to turn to the Lord “and he will have mercy on him,” and “he will freely pardon.” Mercy, pardon, forgiveness freely given–This is the way God thinks. This is the promise God makes when we listen to his word.

This isn’t the way that we naturally think. When someone has done wrong, we want to see them pay. Especially when someone has done something wrong to me, we want to see them pay. We intend to establish blame. We demand justice. Somebody has to take the blame.

That is not the first thing the Lord looks for. He is looking for whom to forgive, not whom to blame. He has already blamed his Son. Jesus paid everything for everyone with his death on the cross. God wants to reconcile with us, not punish us. He wants to be our friend, not our Accuser and Judge. He has made receiving his grace effortless and free.

That’s not how we think. That’s not our way. It’s better, higher than the heavens are above the earth. It’s an invitation to trust, to trust the God who offers such grace in his word.

Romans 7:22-25 “For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

When Jesus came to rescue us from sin by paying the debt with his life, he was not a team player. He was more of a lone wolf. His disciples all said that they would never leave him the night he was arrested. They were even willing to die with him. But Jesus didn’t want them to stay with him and die with him. He wanted to die alone. This was not a project to which they could contribute. This was not a situation where they could be any help. He, and he alone, could pay for the sins of the world. He is the Savior from sin, the one who rescues us, not the leader of some other worldly special ops unit, not a divine project manager overseeing a team of heaven’s employees. Rescue is something he does by himself.

When we are wrestling with our own sinful flesh, trying to pin down our thoughts and feelings, trying to get a grip on our behaviors and hold our reactions in check, now Jesus is happy to fight side by side with us. He wants us praying for help, growing in his word, resisting the devil, actively putting faith and love into practice. He is the real power in our fight all the way. But we are with him in this war against our own sinful flesh for control of our body and soul.

It’s a long war. Along the way we lose a lot of battles. We will experience a lot of misery in the struggle. In the end, we will need Jesus to rescue us again and give us the final victory. Only he can take this body, so infected with sin, pull out the soul at our death, strip it of all evil, and put it all back together at our resurrection renewed and perfected and ready for eternity. That, again, is a rescue job. Jesus does all the work. That is what he promises to do.

I really want to be good at this holiness and godliness thing. Even though I don’t have a shred of natural talent, and the struggle gets dark and desperate, God has given you and me a Savior. So don’t be surprised that our struggle ends free from sin.