Deuteronomy 31:6

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

People of God—rescued from the flaming lake of fire in hell by the innocent blood of the very Lamb of God:

Sometimes it’s fun to be scared! To curl up on the couch with a thick warm blankey—a big bowl of hot buttered popcorn—a big frosted glass of ice-cold soda—to watch a scary movie. I saw the commercial for Jaws the other day. Just that music—bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump—deedalee! It gives you the creeps! Or Jurassic Park—those dinosaurs—the ones that spit blinding poison—the Tyrannosaurus Rex—chasing you—coming closer and closer and closer and closer—with those huge teeth! Read the book—and there’s this whole part about Pterodactyls—swooping down—clawing and scratching and screeching. It’s enough to give you bad dreams! Great white sharks? Not here in River City. Dinosaurs hatching—in Watertown? I don’t think so. That’s all make-believe. That’s all pretend—special effects—available on VHS or DVD—so you can fast forward if you get too scared! The fact is—there are terrible dangers out there. And I don’t just mean walking through the Piggly Wiggly parking lot—and all of a sudden a big dog sitting on the seat of a pick up truck suddenly jumps up—throwing himself against the partly opened window—teeth gnashing—slobbering all over the window—trying to get at you! There is danger from the devil—the lion we heard about in the second reading tonight. There is danger from this world—the powerful pressure this world exerts—to make us just like everybody else! Not just pressure to look like everybody else. But pressure to think and act live everybody else, too. The worst danger of all comes from deep inside. My most dangerous enemy is my own weak and whiney and sinfully self-indulgent flesh. My own worst enemy is me! And how do I escape from myself? Tonight—as we see God’s people graduate our attention is as always focused on law and gospel. Our attention is focused on the precious Bible truth:

The LORD Is My Strength!

The Bible verse we are concentrating on tonight—the class motto you have chosen is a powerful word of Scripture. It is always important to do your homework! So I studied this verse. I looked it up in my Hebrew Bible—the way my teachers at Northwestern College and Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary taught all our pastors. It is always important to study the context. What’s going on around this particular Word of God. Moses is 120 years old. Imagine that! Moses was in round numbers ten times older that the people graduating tonight. Moses is in round numbers twice as old as your grandmas and grandpas. The LORD—the great I AM—the Holy One of Israel is talking to his people through Moses. Moses said, “The LORD your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua also will cross over ahead of you as the LORD said. And the LORD will do to them what he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, whom he destroyed along with their land. The LORD will deliver them to you, and you must do to them all that I have commanded you.” God’s people had been to war. They had been to war with Sihon and Og—kings with armies. They had fought terrible bloody battles. Not with stealth bombers that dropped bombs that weighed 2,000 pounds a piece—from high in the sky—to make terrible craters in the ground. They did not fire artillery shells from literally miles away. They didn’t have tanks that could shoot from hundreds of yards away. They didn’t have mortars and rocket propelled grenades. This was terrible hand-to-hand combat. You had to take hold of your enemy to kill them with your sword or your spear. It was a terrible terrible thing. And yet—they didn’t need to be afraid—because the LORD was with them. Og—the King of Bashan had 60 cities—some of them were fortified—with high walls and gates and bars. But they could not stand against the army of the LORD. They completely destroyed every city—men and women and children—there were no survivors—so utterly complete was the LORD’s victory over them. The same LORD who gave his people physical victory over their political enemies—will surely give you victory over sin and death!

God’s Word says, “Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD God goes with you…” The LORD is with you—all the time! That’s law and gospel. The LORD is with you all the time. There is a man named Eric. He was arrested the other day looking for food in a grocery store dumpster. Eric is accused of a whole bunch of crimes. He is accused of so many different crimes they say it took fifteen minutes straight just to read the list of all the crimes he is accused of. Can you imagine? Imagine if Jesus would stand in front of church here—and read a list of all my sins—for this past school year! Imagine if Jesus would stand in front of church here—and read a list of all my sins for just this past week—just this past day—just this past hour! I shudder to think how long that would take—to read a list of all my bad actions—all the good things I didn’t finish—all the bad thoughts I had. The bad words I wouldn’t dare say—but I could think—and who would know? Jesus knows. Jesus knows what was whispered on the playground—far far away so the teacher couldn’t hear it. Jesus knows what was whispered in the hall—by where you hang your coat. Jesus knows who took their pencil and changed an answer on their paper instead of marking it wrong. Jesus knows who looked a little side-ways and copied an answer—stole an answer from your neighbor because you didn’t know it yourself. Jesus knows each time you talk back to a teacher—each time you argue with your mom—each time your father tells you to do something—and you say you will but don’t. Jesus knows if you stick your toothbrush under the faucet and get the bristles wet—but don’t brush your teeth. Jesus knows when your mom asks you if you washed your hands—and you say you did—but you know you didn’t! Jesus knows. We ought to be ashamed—of all our sins—our painful hurtful mistakes. We ought to be ashamed of the Sundays we didn’t go to church—or maybe even worse—came to church and thought that made us better than our neighbor—or came to church and heard the Scripture readings and heard the sermon—but it didn’t change a thing. It didn’t change our heart—and it didn’t change our life! The LORD is with us—when we pray—“Come, Lord Jesus…” Jesus is with us—listening to what we say and how we talk—when we have breakfast and lunch and supper at home this summer. Jesus is with us. Thanks be to God—he is with us—with his forgiveness and his grace and his unconditional love!

“The LORD your God goes with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you.” The LORD—the Holy One of Israel will take perfect care of you. I heard the other day about a web site called Modest Needs. It’s a place to go if you need just a little help—if you have a modest need. The man who runs this will help you out with say--$26 if you need that much to get your graduation gown and mortar board. He will help you out with as much as $200 if you need help paying for an airplane ticket—to get home for the funeral of your uncle. Modest Needs—a little help for people who need a small hand up. This guy is kind of the forever pay it forward guy. He has received 10,000 requests for help. And each month he spends $500 of his $2,500 salary--helping as many people as he can. That’s pretty wonderful! But at this rate—it’s going to take a long time to help 10,000 people! You can make a contribution to this generous man—but so far he’s received lots more requests than he’s received gifts! The wonderful thing about Jesus is—he is able to do anything and everything to help us. He will never leave you for forsake you.

Be strong and courageous. In Word of God class and in confirmation class you have studied the Scriptures. When you come to Church you hear God’s Word read and preached—and now you have received Lord’s Supper a couple of times. That means the devil is sure to attack you—now more than ever! The devil will tempt you to get a hold of cigarettes—and to breath deep into your lungs deadly poisons and cancer causing chemicals—to suck into your blood stream chemicals that will make you an addict! The devil will tempt you to take pills that promise to make you feel wonderful—that could just as well make you dead. The devil will tempt you to steal—not borrow or swipe or sneak—but to steal alcohol from your parents and drink lots and lots and lots of it—so that you could have acute alcohol poisoning. So that you have to have your stomach pumped—or if nobody notices—you could die! The devil will tempt you to go on the Internet—to places where you will see what is sinful to look at. The devil will tempt you to go to stores and steal what you can’t afford to buy. To steal what you can afford to buy—because the devil says that buying doesn’t give you the same rush—as shoplifting does—the element of danger—about being caught. The devil will tempt you to steal money from your father’s wallet and your mother’s purse. The devil will tempt you to skip church—to stay up so late Saturday night watching movies and playing video games—that you don’t feel like getting up Sunday morning. And the devil will tempt your parents to let you sleep—because you are growing—and you are tired—and after all you went to a Lutheran Grade School! Don’t give the devil the satisfaction. Don’t let the devil smile. Be strong and courageous. Come to Church—if you are the only one—if you have to do like people in Africa—and walk and walk and walk—or ride your bike to Church! Turn off your TV if a bad program comes on. Tell all your friends that those drugs could be rat poison—because they could! That drugs and alcohol could cost you your life—or your brain! Tell your brothers and sisters—that’s a sin and I can’t do that sin with you. Be strong and courageous means Jesus is your strength to fight against temptation and win!

The LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. There is a professional baseball player—famous for hitting lots of home runs. The other day he was up to bat—and his bat broke. Inside was this little piece of cork! Now what? Some people think he’s guilty—some think he’s innocent. Some people forgive him. Some people don’t. This is what happens again and again—if we put our hope and trust in people—sinful people who make mistakes. The world’s most famous cook and decorator and gardener and artist and crafter is indicted—and covers up with an umbrella. How sad. President’s wives are paid an advance of $8 million o describe how it feels to be lied to and betrayed. How sad. How sad—but not surprising—in a nation where those who make laws—and those who sit on the highest court in our land—cannot seem to understand how horrible abortion is! We live in scary times—overwhelming times—were it not for the fact that the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.

We live in scary times. We were at the zoo the other day in Columbus, Ohio. We sat down by a bunch of picnic tables to have a cold soda. And there on a picnic table right next to us was one of those little coolers—one of those soft fabric—padded—slip this cold frozen blue chemical plastic thing inside—and it keeps your soda ice cold. Know what I mean? There was one of these cold packs just sitting there on this table. I watched 1 minutes, 2 minutes, 3 minutes—5 minutes—nobody came back. It just sat there—all by itself. And I thought to my self—I wonder if that’s Mt. Dew inside there—or maybe a terrorist bomb! It could be a bomb—what with all the people—all the children on field trips to the zoo—people everywhere. And security? I looked everywhere—and there was no police officer anywhere! So I went over and opened it—and it was soda and a spare pair of white socks! Isn’t it sad—that you can’t even go to the zoo—without thinking about terrorism? We will not be terrorized! We will not be frightened. We will not be afraid. We will be very careful—but we will not be afraid—because the LORD—the great I AM—the Holy One of Israel is always with us! Amen!

To God alone all glory!