Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Galatians 6:7-10
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  October 1, 2023

In a song that was popular a few years ago, Katy Perry sings, “Let’s go all the way tonight. No regrets. Just love. We can dance until we die. You and I will be young forever.”  Do you think that’s how it works? No regrets, just love? If they live for the moment and what feels like love, they will have no regrets, right?

Fittingly, the name of the song is Teenage Dream. Because that’s a dream, right? We can’t just live for the moment, do what we want to do, do what feels right and not have any regrets afterwards! Of course that’s a dream. Unlike what the teenage brain sometimes thinks, life has consequences.

Unfortunately, our sinful flesh is very similar to a teenage brain. It tricks us into thinking that if we just live for the moment, live the way we want, we won’t have any regrets. Thankfully, as we continue focusing on the stewardship of our time, today we get some perspective. God reminds us that if we live that way, we will have an eternity of regrets. Instead through his Word God tells us, Don’t (Just) Live for the Moment. Instead, we want to Live for eternity and live for opportunities to do good.

Paul writes to the Galatians, “Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. To be sure, whatever a man sows, he will also reap. Indeed, the one who sows for his own sinful flesh will reap destruction from the sinful flesh. But the one who sows for the spirit will reap eternal life from the spirit.

“Do not be deceived,” Paul begins. It’s a needed reminder because it’s so easy to be deceived about this! “Whatever a man sows, he will also reap.” It’s true–but it’s also so easy to ignore because the reaping is often far off in the future.

“How did it happen? I never saw this coming!” Have you ever heard someone say that? Have you thought it yourself? Often times we don’t see the bad things coming, the bad results coming because they don’t happen instantly. It’s over a long period of time, it’s gradual that it’s almost too late to change. Since bad things happen often gradually, we’re easily deceived into letting them happen. That’s especially true spiritually.

Some spiritual effect may take until Judgment Day to fully see, which is why it’s so easy to be deceived about the effects of living in the moment. In chapter 5 of this letter, Paul had a laundry list of things that our sinful nature is prone to produce, “Now the works of the sinful flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, complete lack of restraint, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, discord, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things similar to these. I warn you, just as I also warned you before, that those who continue to do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

“I warn you!” Paul says. These things are harming your soul! You can pick out any sin in that list, and you can see how we can easily excuse it in the moment and be deceived about how serious it is. Sexual immorality–”What will one small glance hurt, lusting for someone I’m not married to. No lightning fell, no one saw, no one got hurt. It’s fine.”  Outbursts of anger–”What, so I lost my temper once, everyone does sometimes, and they had it coming, what’s the big deal.”  Heresies–”Oh, big deal, why are you so picky about false teachings? As long as I believe the basics, God won’t care.” Idolatry–”I prioritize other things over God all the time, so what’s the big deal if I don’t make worship a priority? My life is still going fine, God doesn’t mind.”  This can be true of the seemingly “big” sins on the list. People get away with stuff all the time, so it must not matter. No regrets, right?

“Do not be deceived, God cannot be mocked.”  We might fool ourselves into thinking it’s no big deal, but we’re not fooling God. God’s judgment is perfect. Sin cannot just be ignored. If we persist in any one of these sins, even if they seem fine in the moment, they will bring destruction in the end. Paul is clear, “Indeed, the one who sows for his own sinful flesh will reap destruction from the sinful flesh.”

Friends, don’t just live for the moment in this life! Instead, live for eternal life! “But the one who sows for the spirit will reap eternal life from the spirit.”  What does it mean to sow for the spirit? Right after that laundry list of sins in chapter 5, Paul has another list for us.  “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful flesh with its passions and desires.”

We don’t belong to the moment–we belong to Jesus Christ through baptism. We don’t belong to our sinful flesh–we’ve nailed it and it’s corrupt desires to the cross with Christ. So we live, not for the moment, but for eternal life. We live to serve God wherever he has placed us. And that can be difficult in the moment, when the harvest seems so far away. But the harvest will come, and it will be worth it! Our proof? Jesus!

When Jesus showed what it would take to live for eternity in our Gospel, that it meant that he had to suffer and die, Peter rebuked him! To Peter, that seemed like a waste of a life! But Jesus wouldn’t be deceived. “Get behind me, Satan!”  he said to Peter. “You do not have your mind set on the things of God, but the things of men.” Jesus knew that God would not be mocked. Jesus could live for the moment and lose his soul, or he could lose his life for God so he could save the world and enjoy glory forever. With his mind set on the things of God, the choice was clear. Jesus would suffer if it meant he could save us.

Without Jesus we would be mocked forever. You can imagine it, can’t you? “You gave in to that temptation, that sin, for such a brief amount of pleasure, even though you knew it would bring eternal death! I bet you regret that now!” But in Jesus, the God who cannot be mocked allowed himself to be mocked in our place. Jesus allowed himself to reap the harvest of destruction that we deserve. But because he had sown for eternity with his perfect life, he gave that life for us. And he rose from the grave so that we can now reap a harvest of eternal life! That means that every moment, through faith in Jesus, our sins are forgiven, and our life is instead a life sown with seeds of the spirit for eternal life. Because of that, in the end, we can face an eternity without regrets. That’s not a teenage dream; that’s God’s love! And that’s what we’re living for when we resist our sinful desires and live with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.

And here’s the wonderful part about changing our perspective and not living for the moment but focusing on eternity–it does actually help us live in the moment in this life. But not for yourself–for others. Every moment of this life, we live for the opportunity to serve, to do good for others. Paul writes, “Let us not become weary of doing good, because at the appointed time we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who belong to the household of faith.”

On January 15, 2009, US Airways flight 1549 lost power in both engines 100 seconds into the flight. Half a mile into the air, geese had been sucked into the jet engines, which exploded with fire. Captain Sully, the pilot, had 208 seconds until the plane would hit the ground. He made a split-second decision, glided the plane into position, and landed perfectly on the Hudson River. Before the plan sank, he got everyone out safely, and was the last to leave the plane after walking the length of it twice to make sure no one had been left behind. He saved 155 lives, not including the lives of several unborn babies.

In the movie based on this event he says, “Here’s the funny thing. I’ve delivered a million passengers over 40 years in  the air, but in the end, I’m gonna be judged on 208 seconds.”

But that’s not entirely true. He wouldn’t be judged only on 208 seconds–that judgment would come as a result of his entire life up to that moment. Sully didn’t become a hero in those 208 seconds; he had been working towards it his entire life. In real life, Sully said, “For 42 years, I’ve been making small, regular deposits into the bank of experience, education, and training, and on January 15, the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal.” Sully was ready to serve on January 15, 2009, to be judged on that moment, because of how he lived the previous 42 years.

Sully could have grown lax in his hard work over 42 years–he didn’t have any emergencies in all that time after all! We can grow lax in our godly living too. Doing good usually doesn’t give great rewards in this life. It may even seem like it doesn’t make a difference. It’s hard to keep sowing the seeds of the spirit for however many years God gives us on earth. That’s why Paul says, “Let us not become weary.”  We’re not living for rewards now. The appointed time will come when Jesus returns or calls us home to give us the gift of eternal life. You’re here today to be filled with that hope through God’s Word, in remembering your Baptism, in receiving the Lord’s Supper. You leave here today filled to the brim with the certain hope of eternal life. And that allows you to open your heart, to open your eyes to live in the moment, to seize opportunities to do good to all people, especially those right around you.

In our first reading we heard, “For David, after he had served God’s purpose in his own generation, fell  asleep, was laid to rest with his fathers, and saw decay. But the one God raised did not see decay.” That’s what this life is, for the Christian–not me living for myself saying, “No regrets, just love!’” That life ends with eternal regret. No, we serve God’s purpose in our own days and moments with the people around us, and then we fall asleep. Without Jesus, that would be it. All the good we tried to do in this life would decay and be meaningless. But Jesus, the Holy One, did not see decay. He rose again, and like David, after we have served our own purpose in God’s great plan, we too will rise again. That’s an eternal life with no regrets. Just love–the love of God forever. Amen.