Are You Passing Along God's Good and Perfect Gifts?

"Say to those with fearful hearts," {4} says the first line of the text. Who has fearful hearts when it comes to spiritual things? Everyone. On my own I am afraid of God. My conscience tells me I am a sinner. My conscience leads me to be afraid of God's anger over my sins.

Who has fearful hearts when it comes to other things? Everybody. What do we fear? Sickness, accident, loss of income, attacks on our ideas, failure in school or on the job, lack of acceptance by people. The list is endless.

{4} Say to those with fearful hearts, "Be strong, do not fear; your God will come." God's presence is the solution to fear. Why? He loves us. He is in control of all things. He has the best interest of our souls in mind. He gives us the strength to overcome the fears. He gives us the strength to overcome the sources of fear.

{4} Say to those with fearful hearts, "Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution." God is a just judge. His justice makes it necessary that He carry out His punishment against sin. He punishes sinners with physical death and eternal separation from him. How does the presence of God who comes with vengeance and retribution take away our fear?

The last line of vs 4 answers that question. {4} "He will come to save you." God has already carried out His vengeance against our sins by having Jesus suffer and die in our place. Since He carried out divine retribution against Jesus for us, His justice doesn't allow Him to punish us again. When He comes into our lives, or when He will come on the last day, He comes and will come to give us eternal life - rescue from the vengeance and divine retribution we deserve. That is the message God has spoken to our fearful hearts. That is the message we are to say to those with fearful hearts.

Are you passing along the good and perfect gift of salvation which removes fear? How do we do that? We do that when we come together here at worship and proclaim to everyone who is here that God gives the good and perfect gift of eternal life to people because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We do that by giving our money to support pastors and teachers and professors and missionaries who teach people about Jesus.

But, I didn't ask, "Are we as a congregation passing along the good and perfect gift of salvation which removes fear?" I asked how you are doing that? When somebody tells you that he is afraid to die, do you tell him that Jesus died and rose again so that he can die and rise again and not be punished by God? When somebody tells you that he is afraid to get sick, do you tell him that Jesus is alive and wants to give him the strength that he needs to handle every circumstance in life? When somebody is afraid of losing friends if he doesn't go along with the group's sinful behavior, do you tell him that Jesus is with him and he will never be alone?

How are you doing passing along the good and perfect gift of salvation? When somebody watches you as you grieve over the death of a Christian loved one, can they see that you are experiencing grief but not fear? When you are sick and facing possible death, can they see that you are experiencing a huge burden, but not fear? Is it obvious that because of Jesus' life, death and resurrection you are strong and do not fear? Are you passing along the spiritual gift of salvation - eternal life - the most important good and perfect gift?

{5} Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. {6} Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. The Old Testament Bible interpreters believed that this referred to the coming of the Messiah, the time He would display His power as God by solving people's physical problems.

Why was this Old Testament lesson picked for this Sunday? Because it fit in so well with the Gospel lesson, the record of Jesus making the deaf able to hear and the mute able to talk. The record in the Gospel fulfills the promise in the Old Testament lesson.

Why did Jesus do miracles? Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, the Son of God who took upon Himself our humanity so he might be the Savior from sin. His miracles were proof for His claims.

Why did Jesus do miracles? Because He loved people. He wanted to help them. Just because He was primarily interested in their souls doesn't mean He didn't care about their physical lives, their bodies and health.

Medical miracles. That is what Jesus did. Have you meditated lately about the medical miracles that are happening all around? Just the evaluative procedures are miraculous. A person can have a scope pushed up through a vein in his leg to up behind his eye so that the medical people can see if the bulge there is an aneurysm. Miraculous that the Lord let us figure out how to do that. Surgeons can shave off a bulge from a person's disc and sent her home walking two days later. Miraculous that the Lord let us figure out how to do that. Another of God's good and perfect gifts

How are you doing at sharing God's good and perfect gifts for people's physical health? You might say, "I am not a surgeon. I don't." Probably true. Did you know earlier in our country there was often a direct relationship between physical healing and Christianity? Christian people were the ones who started the hospitals. We have the remnants of that left. There are a few Lutheran hospitals in our country. There are many Baptist and Roman Catholic hospitals. These hospitals existed because Christian people wanted to pass along the good and perfect gift of the Lord called health.

Well, that hasn't got much to do with us does it? How are you doing at sharing God's good and perfect gifts for people's physical health? Some of you give money to our Central Africa Medical mission. Yes, we are primarily interested in getting these people to believe that Jesus is the Savior from sin. But that doesn't mean we can't show love and concern for the physical health of these people. Some of you support other agencies which help people with their physical health needs. You are doing that because you love others and want to share with them every good and perfect gift which comes from the Father.

How are you doing at sharing God's good and perfect gifts for people's physical health? How about something less miraculous? How about lining up a health agency to provide flu vaccines to the members of our community? Yes, this is an evangelism activity. But let's face reality. Most of the people who might come from the community know Jesus, or we hope they do. Most of them will have their own congregations. So what will be accomplished by this event? People will be served. We serve people because God says that is how we can love them.

We love people by passing along every good and perfect gift which God gives us.

How are you doing at sharing God's good and perfect gifts for people's physical health? How about providing food for people who can't very easily take care of themselves? How about sharing two plates full of food with somebody who is home-bound in your neighborhood? That is not a miracle. But it is an attempt to pass along one of God's good and perfect gifts.

Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. {7} The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. Did the climate change when Jesus was here? No. Did Jesus miraculously change the desert to a place with abundant water? No.

But He did change some spiritual desert conditions. People without the Lord had no spiritual water to quench their spiritual thirst. They were just as dry as the desert around them.

Jesus called Himself the water of life. When we drink Jesus in, when we trust in Him as our Savior from sin, we have forgiveness of sins, holiness which makes us acceptable to God and eternal life. All our spiritual needs are filled. Spiritual thirst is quenched.

Jesus did do some miracles for people which provided them with earthly resources. He gave some food. He gave some drink. These actions showed He was Messiah. But He did these things because He loved humans and wanted to take care of their earthly needs.

As Christians our primary concern is for people's souls. We want to quench people's spiritual thirst. We want them to trust in Jesus for forgiveness, righteousness and eternal life. We want them to trust in the Lord to take care of their entire lives on this earth. But we can also show love and concern by providing them with the earthly resources they need to live.

There is an interesting change in the attitudes of people who become Christians. We take a unique view of our earthly circumstances. We appreciate all the earthly things which the Lord places at our disposal. We understand that it is our responsibility to manage these blessings from the Lord. How are we doing at managing all the earthly blessings God has given us? How are we doing at research and development which responsibly places at our disposal all of the blessings God wants to give us. How are we doing at protecting and preserving the plants, animals and natural resources God has given us? How are we doing at passing along to the next generation God's good and perfect gift of a functioning and productive earth?

I once heard a presentation by a WELS member who worked for Save the Children. He was sent by Save the Children to teach the people in the sub-Saharan famine belt in Africa how to manage their land as a resource instead of using it up and abandoning it. He insisted that the land could be reclaimed from the desert by proper management techniques and if maintained properly could be given to future generations as a gift capable of maintaining life.

When I view the earth as a gift of God, it will produce a changed lifestyle, which will produce a changed environment which will produce a changed circumstance of life. What changes hearts? God the Holy Spirit working through the Word of the Lord. While we are primarily interested in getting people the Water of life, our message produces the byproduct of getting people to manage their earthly circumstances so that water gushes in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand becomes a pool. The thirsty ground becomes bubbling springs. Are we passing along the good and perfect gift of a well-managed and functioning earth?

Prayer: LORD Jesus, please help us to pass along every good and perfect gift which the heavenly Father gives us.