Sermons from Moorpark Presbyterian Church

Amen

by Dave Wilkinson

Romans 4:16-25 Matthew 6

November 5, 2000

Harry Hills lived in a beautiful, old, tree-shaded house in Oroville where I served before moving to Moorpark. He had been a judge but was long retired. When I first met him he was about eighty three years old.

Harry never came to church. His poised and gracious wife, Winifred, was very active in the church. She formed and led the children's choir as she had led choirs at other churches at other times. But Harry never came to church.

As the new pastor, I visited in the homes of every family in the small congregation. Bao Do, Harry and Winifred's Vietnamese housekeeper, showed me into the sunroom and brought me a glass of iced tea. Harry looked at me with a piercing judges gaze for about a minute. Then he growled: "You know that I'm not going to come to church." I paused. Then I growled back: "Then I guess the church is just going to have to come to you." From then on we were friends.

Harry was a good man. But he was not a believer. He was eighty three years old and had never been baptized. But he was a good man--and a financially well-off. I learned that he was planning to sponsor his housekeeper's son -- then in a refugee camp in the Philippines -- as an emigrant to the United States. I stopped by the house and said: "Harry, why don't you let the church be the sponsoring organization with our resources and, if you like, you give the money through the church? That way we can help a family and you have a tax write-off at the same time." Harry looked at me for a long minute and growled: "That's the first time a preacher ever made a suggestion to save me money." I guess he was surprised enough to surprise us in return--giving about eighty thousand dollars to our two building funds. Then, on a very few special Sundays, Harry even came to church.

In 1985, Harry and Winifred moved from Oroville to a retirement community near Irvine. I was very sorry to see them go. But I heard strange rumors out of Irvine -- rumors that Harry had started to go to church -- every Sunday -- week in and week out. Then I heard that at the age of ninety one, Harry had been baptized upon his profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

A few year's ago, at Harry's memorial service up in Oroville, Winifred told me the story of his baptism. Ben Patterson, who was the pastor of the Irvine Presbyterian Church, stood Harry by the baptismal in front of the congregation and asked him: "Harry, do you trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?" Harry looked at Ben and then at the congregation. Then he said: "That's right." Harry died. But he died a whole man. I'm looking forward to seeing him again.

When do we say our "that's right" to God? We say it whenever we pray. Amen means "it is true, so be it, or that's a fact". It comes from the Hebrew word for "rock" or "fortress". When we close our prayers we end with an affirmation of trust--that our prayer, and God's response to our prayer, is solid.

Look at the Lord's Prayer. We pray a prayer--that God's name be hallowed, that God's kingdom come, that God's will be done, that He forgive as we forgive, that He lead us not into temptation but that He deliver us from the evil one. Note that all of the things we pray for in this prayer are things that are already promised to us in scripture. We aren't asking God for anything He hasn't already promised to give us. And the answer to our prayer is assured because He has the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. That's the ground we stand on. So we end the great prayer with the great affirmation; "Amen--that's right".

The reason we can pray this prayer with such confidence -- in fact, the reason we can pray at all -- is because we know that God has already said "yes" to us. In Romans 4:25, Paul writes that Jesus was "put to death because of our sin and raised from the dead because of our justification." Paul is saying that the resurrection of Jesus is God's great "yes" to us. Jesus was raised from the dead because by his death we have been justified before God.

Now justification is one of those five hundred dollar theological word. But let me try to explain it with an everyday example. When you read a book or a newspaper, or look at the scripture in the Bible, you see how the right margin of the text isn't all ragged. It is straight down the page. This is accomplished by inserting spaces between the words in the middle of the page so that the end of each row of words lines up straight. This process of inserting space in the middle to make the margins line up is called "justification." Many word processing programs have this feature. You push control j for "justify" or type some code or hit a button and the computer makes the margins line up straight.

Now the Bible says that every one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In other words, our margins don't line up to God's margins. We fall short. Our edges are ragged. We don't measure up. And the Bible tells us that the wages of this sin is death. But in Christ, through His death on the cross, we are forgiven. Through His obedience even to the point of death, Jesus fills in what is missing in our lives and obedience so that we no longer fall short of the glory of God. Our margins now line up to His margins. We are justified. And the proof of our justification, Paul says, is that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead. In the resurrection, God says His "yes"--God says His "that's right" to our lives.

That is how God says "Yes" to us. How do we say "that's right" to God?

One way is by the way we give -- by the way we sacrificially give of our time, our abilities, and our financial resources for the purpose of God through His church. After we share in the Lord's Supper, you will have the opportunity to say your "Yes" to God by bringing your pledge card--the symbol of your giving -- and placing it here on the communion table--the symbol of His giving.

The other way we say "Yes" to God is by how we mean what we pray. In the words of Ann Kimmel about the Lord's Prayer:

"I cannot say our, if my faith has no room for others and their need.

I cannot say Father, if I don't demonstrate this relationship in my daily living.

I cannot say Who art in heaven, if all of my interests and pursuits are in earthly things.

I cannot say hallowed be Thy name, if I, who is called by His name, is not holy.

I cannot say Thy kingdom come, if I am unwilling to give up my own sovereignty, and accept the righteous reign of God.

I cannot say Thy will be done, if I am unwilling or resentful of having it done in my life.

I cannot say on earth as it is in heaven, unless I am truly ready

To give myself to His service here and now.

I cannot say give us this day our daily bread, without truly expending honest effort for it or by ignoring the genuine need of my fellow man.

I cannot say forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, if I continue to harbor a grudge against anyone.

I cannot say lead us not into temptation, if I deliberately choose to remain in a situation where I am likely to be tempted.

I cannot say deliver us from evil, if I am not prepared to fight in the spiritual realm with the weapon of prayer.

I cannot say Thine is the kingdom, if I do not give the king the disciplined obedience of a loyal subject. I cannot say Thine is the power, if I fear what my neighbors and friends may say and do.

I cannot say Thine is the glory, if I am seeking my own glory first.

I cannot say forever, if I am too anxious about each day's affairs.

And I cannot say Amen, unless I honestly say, 'cost what it may, this is my prayer.'"