Sermon on Sept 7

 12^th Sunday after Trinity

Grace, mercy and peace are yours from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The antiphon of the Introit today had these words from Psalm 70:1: “Make haste, O God to deliver me! Make haste to help me, O Lord!” this is our text.

Hurry up, Lord. That’s what we are saying here.

David the Psalmist leads us in praying this way. Wasn’t it rude of him to talk to God that way? The Lord said of David, “He is a man after my own heart.” So, of course David would sing and pray properly to the Lord.

Is it rude of us to talk to God this way? “Make haste!” which is just a slightly fancier way of saying, “Hurry up!” It’s the same thing.

Let me warn you, that you not pray differently. Here’s the opposite of praying, “Make haste”: You’d say something like, “Dear God, no hurry, but whenever you get a around to it, can you help me out a little.”

“Come to think of it, Let’s not even bother with it right now. You and I, Lord, we’re both busy. Let’s get back to this later.

No. Let’s have your prayers be like this one. “Make haste, O God to deliver me!”

This is urgent.

Later in the Introit, there is this line. “You are my help and my deliverer. O Lord, do not delay.” This attitude of urgency shows what’s important, what’s of highest importance in your mind and on your heart. Your greatest desires and greatest need is for help and deliverance from your Lord.

“Make haste, O God to deliver me!” That’s our urgent thought and prayer. Life will distract you from this urgent concern. It’ll throw unimportant things at you, making you think that the distractions of life are urgent and most needed. But we have here a prayer of wone who has a child-like faith. You just can’t wait. You’re like that child who can’t be distracted (no matter how hard the grownups try) from the one thing they want and need right now.

“Make haste, O God to deliver me!” That’s the prayer you need to pray when you have temptations. When you’re tempted to worry, When you’re tempted to doubt, When you’re tempted to lust, When you’re tempted to go where you don’t belong, When you’re tempted to take what you aren’t to have, stop and pray. Pray urgently. Your Lord Jesus has taught you to pray like this: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

 

“Make haste, O God to deliver me!” That’s the prayer of one who fears death. “Deliver me from all pain and evil that lead up to death.” In the Gospel reading today, some friends brought a deaf man to Jesus, with urgency. They begged Jesus to do this one thing needful for him, to heal and restore his life (Mark 7:31–37).

“Make haste, O God to deliver me!” This is your prayer when you repent. When the consequences of sin have begun to catch up with you, consequences like: Regrets – because there are people you have hurt; Shame – because people have noticed that you are flawed; Guilt – because God knows you have done wrong; the first step to clearing a guilty conscience is to plead urgently for help to Him who judges every soul. Sinners must plead for forgiveness right away. Do not delay.

“Make haste, O God to deliver us!” This can be our prayer when we start to get cynical and discouraged, saying, “What’s the world coming to?”

Sin increases. Righteousness is more and more hidden. “What’s the world coming to?”

Those who should be leading the Church in the years ahead have stopped coming to Church, have stopped praying; stopped giving offerings; their children aren’t hearing and learning of Jesus. “What’s the world coming to?”

We are going to study the Biblical teaching of marriage in our Bible class this morning. So many young people aren’t getting married. Instead they take all the physical pleasures that should be kept in the sanctity of marriage, but don’t provide the stability and the commitment of a healthy home and a nurturing family. “What’s the world coming to?”

Instead of just wringing our hands and fretting, we should pray, urgently pray, “Make haste, O God to deliver us!”

So David sang and prayed. 1000 years later His prayer was answered. Jesus Christ, David’s Son and David’s Lord came from heaven, lived and suffered and died to deliver sinners. Our Lord Jesus took it upon himself to deliver man, that is, to deliver David, and each of you.

“Make haste”, said David, but it took 1000 years. But all the while David believed. The Lord wants you to pray and believe. In Galatians, it says, “When the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son. . . to redeem those” under the weight of sin and guilt, fear and death.

Often when you pray, “Make haste” the answer will be patience and endurance. For God knows the right time for all things. He is not slow to keep His promises. But He wants you to wait, and believe and pray urgently. Amen.