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Stand Firm & Hold Fast

Stand Firm, Hold Fast

December 3, 2006

Text: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17

As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters,   2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction.   4 He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God. 5 Do you not remember that I told you these things when I was still with you?... 

13 But we must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 For this purpose he called you through our proclamation of the good news, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter.  

16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, 17 comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.

NRSV 

Theme: When doom is all around us, "stand firm, hold fast"

Need: We're surrounded by end of world-ers, in many forms.

Action: Stand firm, hold fast, to what you believe is right.

Image: Obituary page; findyourfate.com. 

      I’ve found myself doing something I’d never thought of doing before.

      It’s rather weird. I’d heard of other people doing this thing, and sort of smiled at them, self-righteously. But now, every so often, I do the same thing.

      You know what it is? Not regularly, but on occasion, I find myself reading…

      …the obituaries.

      I start reading about not just who died, but how old they were when they died. I like to see where I am in the grand scale of the life-and-death thing. I like to count backwards from when an elderly person died, to see how much time I have left. “Let’s see, he was 92, I’m 53—about 39 years left.”

      And as I read, I hear… “Tic, tock…tic, tock….”

      Maybe because of this new-found, some-time hobby, I did another unusual thing recently.

      I went to a site on the web called, “find your fate.” It has a deathmeter on it. You tell a little about yourself, and it will calculate how much time you have left on earth. My date with destiny is…

      Oct. 21, 2040.             [http://www.findyourfate.com/deathmeter/deathmtr.html]

      So, I have about 36 good years left, until it’s over. Finished. Kaput.

      Do you ever think about your “end time”?

      Do you ever think about the “end time” of our planet?

      We hear of global warming, terrorism, plagues, earthquakes, and asteroids on steroids crashing into our green-and-blue earth. And if we escape all this, let’s not forget that our sun won’t last forever. It will—in about 5 billion years, give or take a few million—expand to a red giant star, consuming all the planets in a white-hot galactic furnace.

                        [http://www.geocities.com/athens/oracle/9941/]

      Make no mistake about it—the end IS coming. For you. For me. For this planet.

      For the Thessalonians, the end had already come—or so they thought.

      The people in this church Paul helped found were in a panic. The rumor that the “day of the Lord” had already come spread around their community. If Jesus had already come, then were they “left behind”? Were they not really true believers after all? Had they followed the wrong course? Had they sacrificed their possessions—and some even their lives—for a cause that had failed them? Were they going to be persecuted now, without having any hope?

      You can just imagine rumors flying around. You can imagine the front page of the Hebrew Inquirer—People with shocked faces appear under the headline, “Jesus Has Come and Gone, And We’ve Been Left Behind!”

      And these people, facing their end time—facing the last few ticks of their faith clock—Paul grabs by the shoulder. He says, like a good doctor,

      “Hey, get ahold of yourself! Breathe deeply. Calm down. I want you to do two things.”

      The first:

——REMEMBER!

      Paul says,

      “God chose you…God called you.”

      It’s so easy, when bad, ugly things happen, to think that anything good or beautiful in your life was just an illusion. The good and the beautiful we experienced were just a house of cards that a gust of reality blew down. It’s so easy to be sucked into the pit of despair. It’s so easy to think that everything has been chance, with no rhyme or reason. It’s so easy to say to yourself, “Well, I had a run of good luck, but now the dice have rolled snake-eyes. I knew it was only a matter of time. Oh well…”

      And against this spiral-down pessimism, Paul says, “Hey! REMEMBER! God chose you...God called you…You are not an accident! God has plans for you, dreams for you, hopes for you. God CHOSE you…God CALLED you!”

      What Good News for ears that have grown sore listening to news of fear and death.

      When you’ve had to say goodbye to loved ones…when you fear the future…when you’re concerned over family and friends…when you’re not sure how ends will meet:

      And how powerful it is to stop in the middle of this insanity, and REMEMBER….

      Remember that time when you were sitting in church, and Jesus touched your heart, and changed your life.

      Remember that time when you opened the Bible out of a profound sense of confusion or need, and a passage jumped out at you.

      Remember that time when you went on a mission trip, and felt the power of the Gospel as love and resources were shared.

      Remember that miracle that happened in your life, a “coincidence” you couldn’t explain other than it being a profound act of grace.

      Remember that inner nudging you felt that called you to take a chance on something—and in so doing, the course of your life was altered.

      REMEMBER times like those times—

      And you’ll know that God’s not finished with you yet—God’s still directing your life in ways you’ll never understand, but only appreciate.

      Once you remember, you’re then free to… 

—LIVE BOLDLY!

 Paul says,

      “Stand fast…hold firm.”

      These are among the strongest, most forceful words Paul’s ever written.

      “Stand fast” literally means to anchor your feet in the ground—don’t run away, or allow yourself to be blown away. Rather, you feel the solid earth under your feet as if you’re connected to it, and you don’t budge an inch.

      “Hold firm” literally means to grab hold of something with all your strength, and not let go.

      Paul said in another place, “If Christ has not been raised from the dead, we’re to be pitied…BUT in FACT, Christ HAS BEEN raised from the dead!” [1 Corinthians 15:17,20]

      THAT is the truth you can stand on.

      THAT is the truth you can grab hold of.

      Your night of the cross will give way to the dawn of Easter.

      That’s the business God’s in.

      God isn’t in the ending the world business for you.

      For you, God is always in the beginning of life business.

      So, let’s practice this, shall we?

When you hear someone say, “It’s the end of the world as we know it!”

YOU say,

STAND FAST…HOLD FIRM!

When you hear someone say, “Oh, the best of my life is behind me!”

YOU say,

STAND FAST…HOLD FIRM!

When you hear someone say, “I’m scared of what the doctor’s going to tell me.”

YOU say,

STAND FAST…HOLD FIRM!

When you hear someone say, “I don’t know what to do at work—I can make a lot of money, but at the expense of my values and ethics.”

YOU say,

STAND FAST…HOLD FIRM!

When you hear someone say, “I’m being pulled to give up and give in to taking the easy way, the feel-good way.”

YOU say,

STAND FAST…HOLD FIRM!

      You can say this, because you’ve lived it.

      When everyone’s run around with their hands raised in hopelessness crying, “Ohhhh Nooo!” YOU have remembered that there is One who directs your life in ways wiser than your own, and with a strength greater than your own.

      YOU have stood fast…YOU have held firm. And you know that…

      …You can bet your life on the TRUTH!

      In 2003, at the instigation of the Department of Homeland Security, a secure phone line for national emergencies was installed in the office of North Dakota Governor John Hoeven.

      Within a week of installation, the phone rang for the first time. The governor gulped. He slowly picked up the receiver and said, “Yes?” He heard a voice on the other end respond, “Hi—would you like to try our two-for-one pizza special today? Buy one large one topping, get one free!”

      Your phone can ring at any time.

      It might be an emergency.

      Or it might be Domino’s or Papa John’s.

      Regardless, you know what to do.

      God chose you, God called you.

      You can STAND on that solid rock!