In the name of Christ Jesus, dear fellow redeemed people of God,

When President Schroeder accepted the call to be the new President of the Wisconsin Synod, he said these words gave him strength… “Surely it is God who saves me. I will trust in him and not be afraid.” We sang these words as today’s Psalm refrain. What a wonderful theme to carry through life!

We need to know what God has saved us from. Verse 1 says, “Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away…” God was angry with us. Why was God angry with us? You know, don’t you? The answer is “sin.” First, Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying God’s one command for them. Then, they passed that sin on to their descendants, and we too have inherited this original sin. Then, we committed sins of our own. We did not love God above all things. Too often, we put own desires above God’s will. Too often, we selfishly keep for ourselves what belongs to God. God has noticed. Too often, we passed up opportunities to serve the Lord, making all sorts of excuses. Perhaps we said, “Let someone else do it.” Too often, we failed to love our neighbors just as much as we love ourselves. Too often, we failed to consider what that other person’s needs might be, thinking only about our own needs and wants. As we study the Scriptures in Bible Class, we see the sins of the people of old, and many of those sins are sins we have committed. The Lord was angry with those people. The Lord was angry with us too. We sinned. But it said, “your anger has turned away.”

How? God saved us! “Surely it is GOD who saves me!” Underline the word, “God.” God, and God alone, has saved each one of us. The Triune God is the God who saved us. Each Person of the Triune God participated in the work of salvation. God the Father loved us and all the world so much that he promised and sent his Son to be our Savior. God the Son was willing, in love, to put our needs above his own comfort. Jesus, God’s Son, lived a perfect life for us, so that God the Father announced from heaven that he was “well-pleased” with him. Then, Jesus traveled that lonely road to the cross, where he suffered and died to pay for all of our sins, and the sins of the whole world. Jesus rose from the dead, and won our salvation. And Jesus said that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Well, guess what… we don’t even have the power to believe on our own. So, God the Holy Spirit creates faith through the Gospel and through the Sacrament of Baptism. He strengthens and increases our faith as we continue to hear the Word of God and receive the Lord’s Supper. So, in view of all of this, we do well to sing, “Surely, it is God who saves me!” God did it all! I did nothing. Surely, it is God who saves me…

1. I will trust in him.

Trust is a strong word. Trust is complete reliance. It means to completely fall back upon, to completely rely upon. In this case it is complete reliance on God. You can trust Jesus. You can lean on him. Remember our illustration of trust. You are trusting that church pew to hold you up right now, aren’t you? Trust is relying on the Lord to hold us up, to keep his promises, to take us to heaven.

Trust is another word for faith. Hebrews 11:1 defines faith this way, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Faith is being absolutely certain that what God says is true, whether we can see it or not, whether we can feel it or not. Jesus said that he would be with us always, right? Faith says, “I believe he’s here today.” I can’t see him. But Jesus is here. Faith is being sure of that. Jesus says that he saved us. Faith says, “I believe it.” And I believe it whether I feel it, or not. Our faith is based on God’s Word, not our feelings or experiences. Our faith is sure of what we do not see because God tells us these truths in his Word.

There’s this great quote from Luther that was made into a plaque: “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace…” That’s really good, isn’t it? “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace…” That’s what we need more of, don’t we.

As individual Christians, we need a living, daring confidence in God’s grace. Then, we will be sure that we are going to heaven because Jesus saved us. Then, we will be sure that we are never alone because Jesus is with us. Then, we will be sure that we can give a generous offering, that we can serve the Lord with our time and talents, because we have this living, daring confidence in God’s grace. I pray that the Holy Spirit uses his Word to give you a “living, daring confidence in God’s grace.”

That’s what we need as a congregation too, don’t we? If we will only get into God’s Word again, and I mean one and all of us, we will have this living, daring confidence to move forward as a congregation.

As a synod, that’s what we need too. I am convinced that God has definitely given our new President a “living, daring confidence in God’s grace.” We are definitely changing direction, getting back to our priorities. Now we need to stress that every single member of our congregation is a member of the Wisconsin Synod. Those aren’t somebody else’s schools, those are our schools. Those aren’t somebody else’s missionaries, those are our missionaries. It’s not “them” and “us.” We are the WELS. May we all say with confidence, “Surely it is God who saves me, I will trust in him, and…”

2. I will not be afraid.

If this were a Bible Class setting, I would pause here to ask this question, “What makes you afraid?” I imagine we would get some very interesting answers… Death. Aging. Cancer. Being alone. Having to live in a nursing home… Perhaps you could tell me some more later.

The greatest fear of all is the fear of ending up in hell forever. That would be the very worst outcome for any person. There is no exit from hell. Once you are there, you are there forever and ever without end. But, as believers in Jesus, we are not going to go to hell. So we can say, “Surely it is God who saves me, I will trust in him and not be afraid.” I am not afraid of going to hell, because Jesus saved me.

Many people are afraid of death. Death was not part of God’s original plan for us. If there had never been sin, there would never have been death. But now we face death… and sometimes, when we learn that we might die, our first reaction is to be afraid. Have you faced death and found out that you were afraid? It’s easy to say, “Oh, no, I would never be afraid to die,” until you are right there. Then, suddenly, there’s fear. When we get our bearings, when we are reminded of our Savior, we can say with confidence, “Surely, it is God who saves me, I will trust in him and NOT be afraid” of death. Because of Jesus, death is the doorway to eternal life for believers. We don’t have to be afraid of dying.

Whatever our fears might be, may God give us the ability to face them with a living, daring confidence in God’s grace. Some of us have phobias. We might try to hide the fact that we are afraid of something while we struggle with these phobias regularly. There are more than 500 different phobias. Maybe we are afraid of spiders or heights or public speaking. Maybe we are afraid of confrontation or crowds or getting older. When you are afraid, try saying this to yourself, “Surely it is God who saves me. I will trust in him, and not be afraid.” It might not take away the phobia right away, but it does remind us that we don’t face those fears alone. God is with us. He will help us through those fears.

Remember when the disciples were in the boat and that furious storm came up? Jesus was sleeping, and the disciples thought they were going to drown. They were afraid. But, Jesus calmed the storm. Then he told them that their faith was weak. Is our faith too weak?

Remember when Jesus was walked on water, and Peter wanted to walk on water too? Jesus let him do it. He enabled him to walk on the water. But then Peter was afraid and began to sink. He said, “Lord, save me.” And Jesus did save him. Peter was safe, but he had weak faith.

Is your faith weak? Just like those disciples, we can always benefit from a stronger faith. So, gather often for worship. Gather with us for Bible study. Read your devotions at home. And, God will work through his Word to give each one of us a stronger faith. Pray that God would give you a “living, daring confidence in God’s grace.” Just like President Schroeder, may we find strength in these words, “Surely it is God who saves me. I will trust in him, and not be afraid.” Amen