Elijah and Depression: 1 Kings 19:1-8 Sermon for Sunday, August 11th, 2024

1 Kings 19:1-8

Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.

Elijah was having a really bad day. You can tell from the reading. He says it pretty much right out loud in as clear language as you can get, without turning to us and saying, Hey guys, I'm having a bad day. What he says is this, it is enough now. Oh, Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my father. Yikes, right? Elijah, he's out in the wilderness all by himself. Seems like no food, no water, and he says, God, I am done. I can't do anymore. This is the end. Kill me. That's a rough day. And it's this, this emotion of Elijah's that I'd like to look at, both in the story and around us and say, How do Christians respond to this kind of depression. So let's back up a little bit and see what is happening. Elijah is coming off one of the best moments of his career. Our reading begins with Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. This is my favorite story in the entire Old Testament, the story of Elijah on the top of Mount Carmel. Cuz it's so cool. Elijah decides that he wants to have a contest between the prophets of Baal and between him, the contest is very simple. They will both set up an altar, ready a sacrifice, and the God that lights the altar on fire is the real God, and both sides agree. The prophets of all they do some dancing and singing, and they work on it, and they even start to cut themselves. Nothing happens. Elijah waits until they exhaust themselves. He even makes fun of them a little bit. And then it's Elijah's turn. He has some people pour enough water on the altar that the trench around the altar is a giant puddle. And then he prays, and fire from heaven comes down and engulfs the altar. How cool, right? Can you imagine? Like, why a guy like me, sci fi, fantasy guy that I am would love fire from heaven coming down and doing this. It's awesome. Following that, Elijah leads a band of warriors to kill off all of those prophets of Baal. And that is the story. Ahab goes to Jezebel and tells her what Elijah has done, and she decides that she wants to kill him. She says, So May the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow. And it's the strangest thing, what happened, this amazing moment. And you gotta say, it's pretty amazing fire from heaven, a clear demonstration that the prophets of Paul are not real, and that that God has no power and nothing has changed. Now, if we looked at that story, we would tell Elijah. Elijah, come on, dude, this is the best moment of your career. Huge victory, and you're still upset. Come on. But nothing changed. We've been looking at the Olympics, many of us watching. The events, lots of people are winning medals, right? I get to see all these clips of people like holding up their gold medals and chomping on them. Pretty cool, right? But one of the things I think we forget is that, what happens when these athletes return home with a gold medal, right? They'll put it on a stand, they'll set it up in their house somewhere, and then they have to go back to their lives. And you know, maybe a month, you know, gold medal, maybe six months before the excitement fades and you're back to your normal life, except this time, you don't have the Olympics to train for, this thing that you've been working for, this purpose that you've had, all of a sudden, it's gone. And if your life was sad before, it'll be sad after. Except you'll have a reminder on your wall that you should be happy.

Nothing really changes except you've got a piece of gold hanging up in your house. And you might say to yourself, I should be happy, but I'm not. The gold medal might actually make things worse, if your life is depressing, if you were sad before, you'll be sad after, and so maybe even this moment, this high point of Elijah's life, he goes and he says, why is they are things not better?

And he's in the same situation. Jezebel isn't overthrown. Ahab is still king, and the soldiers are still trying to kill Elijah. So he runs out into the wilderness. He leaves behind his assistant. He goes off on his own. He's under a broom tree, and he says, Just kill me. God, I'm done. I'm at my lip. I can't do it. We might look at this and say, is Elijah depressed? Like that's what we would think about, right? Is this clinical depression? We can't make that diagnosis, least of all me, I know more about Hebrew than I do about psychology, but he seems pretty upset. Seems like he's at his limit. So he lies down in the wilderness, no food, no water, no protection, expecting not to wake up the next

morning. Elijah. Is the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, right? He is the model for every prophet that came after him. He is so important in the Old Testament that we have prophets predicting he would come back before the Messiah come. He is so important in the Old Testament that when Jesus is on the top of the mountain, Moses appears to next to him, and the other god is Elijah, most famous prophet in the Old Testament, And yet ready

to die. This is contrary to everything we think, about happiness, about purpose, Elijah is at his end. So how does God respond? God sends down an angel to Elijah, and he says, Get up. Be a man. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Oh, wait, I think I read that wrong. Sorry, let's, let's see. How about this, Elijah, pray harder and you won't be upset. I'm really not very good at reading today. What? What about this one? All you need to do is read your Bible more, and you'll you'll live in the healing that God has won for you. No, how about I? Right? One more time you healed others. Why can't you heal yourself? We know that's not what he says. What does the angel do? Taps him on the shoulder, get up and eat. This isn't really a command. The angel has come down and said, Hey, Elijah Here, have some food. We know how big a deal that can be. How many times has someone been in the hospital and a member of the congregation shows up at their house with a casserole, and that's all you need, not just because it's a little bit of food, which you do need, but because of all the love and care and concern that are baked into that pot, right? That's what Elijah needs. He goes to sleep again, and the angel says, Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you. So Elijah gets a little bit more food, and this time, this food is so amazing that he can walk with it on the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights. Kind of miraculous fact. I'd really like to be able to find that grocery store. But here's the thing, God realizes that Elijah needed something. He was at his limit, and Elijah needed more than just a pep talk God provides for him physical food and rest. He sends an angel to show him that he is on his side. And then, once Elijah reaches the mountain of God, God tells him that he is not alone, but there are 5000 people who have remained faithful, and that there is a Prophet that he can go anoint a guy named Elisha who will be with him. He gives him physical, spiritual and emotional support in the face of this difficult now for us, when we face difficult moments like this, maybe even clinical depression, we know God is likely not going to send an Angel to bake us bread, and that bread will not last us 40 days, but I think there's a good number of things we can learn from God's interaction with Elijah about our own mental Health. And I think the first thing is that we have to realize that depression is not a fault in the Christian when you reach your limit, when you have been pushed to the edge, when life is just bad, and maybe even you are suicidal. It is not because you don't have enough faith. It is not because you didn't pray hard enough. Sometimes that just happens. The reason I'm preaching on this today is because yesterday, when I was out running, I heard snippets of a sermon where a preacher said exactly the opposite. This preacher said that God Jesus died on the cross to provide us the promises of the Bible, and if you just walk in them, you will have healing, which, if you look at that, says that if you don't, if You're not healed physically and mentally, it's your fault, and that is crap. Most of us here in this room do not believe the physical part of that you've heard me preach about this long enough, I. It. But sometimes Christians who think that that it's in a little crazy that people would be healed by their faith physically, might have questions about their mental health and faith. And I want to tell you that there is only one person in the history of the world, who had enough faith that he was never pushed to the limit, that he was never questioned, that he never lacks trust in God, and that one person is Jesus Christ, he is the only one who has so much faith that he was never pushed to his limit, and that every moment of his life he had faith that his father would send him to the cross and raise him from the dead. And the only person who can say that is Jesus. And I have to ask you, are you Jesus? We all know the answer. None of us is the rest of us, all of us. We are not God and man. We do not have the Holy Spirit empowering us like Jesus did. We are not perfect in the way that Jesus was. He's the only one whose faith was strong enough to get him through. The rest of us were sinners. We face pain and hurt and loss, and we have limits to our power and strength, means we will face moments like Elijah. We will face pain. We'll face depression and hurt, which is why the gift of Christ's faith is so important. When you were baptized, he united himself to you to make his faith in operation for you, which means that trusting in God is not a thing that you have to build up in yourself. It's Jesus faith at work in you, whether you are happy or sad, whether you will feel like strong today or you're like Elijah lying down in bed at home, the faith of Jesus is a gift given to you that works no matter what to give you the promises of Jesus Christ. And so when you're feeling depressed or the people around you are, we have to say it is not because you are have any special lack of faith. And I think the best example, the best way of saying this is, is Elijah, the kind of guy that you would say wasn't faithful enough. Remember, only a few moments before this, he called fire down from heaven. Kind of cool, big things going on. Prior to that, he raised a man from the dead. I have to say, if anybody seems to be faithful. It might be the prophet Elijah. He even spoke to God, and yet he despaired of his life. Means sometimes Christians hit their limit.

So then, when a Christian is depressed, when we're facing these limits, what do we do? Well, God provided for Elijah's physical needs, his emotional needs and his spiritual needs in this world, and we can see that these things are all important as part of that, all things that God does through his Christian community when there is need, sometimes we just need to take A break. That was actually me a while ago, covid was really hard on me, back when I was in Chicago that very first year when the lockdowns were at their worst, it was rough, and the hardest part for me was that members of my congregation were dying, not from the. Disease, but from lack of personal contact, these people were locked in their nursing homes, and I was prevented from visiting them to give them holy communion, pray with them, just to have somebody who would talk to them, who wasn't the staff of the nursing they were dying because that hit me really hard, so much so that I went to the doctor for my normal checkup. You know what doctors do these days? They run you through the Depression checklist and they ask you, how you feeling? What's your mood like? And I answered honestly, and at the end of it, he said, you want something for that? I said, Whoa. This is worse than I thought. So I took a week off. I really took a week off. Basically sat on the couch playing video games for seven days straight. It was awesome, and it's exactly what I needed, just a break, and I came out of it pretty refreshing, but sometimes we need more than that. Sometimes what we need is emotional care. God has provided all sorts of people to take care of us when we're in that state. That's you, right. The Body of Christ gathered together to love and care for each and so we visit, we offer help, and sometimes that means also professional help, through counselors or psychologists. God also provides for us spiritual aid, the bread of life, Jesus Christ through the word, proclaimed through his body and his blood to sustain us in grace. But I think the biggest challenge that many people face when they're in this time is that emotional problems, depression especially, causes us to withdraw from all of these support we stop going to church, we stop letting people visit us and drop off those casseroles, or when I call up and say, Hey, I hear things aren't going well, I'd love to come over and give you communion, they say, No, my house isn't very clean. Or no, I'm kind of upset, or no, I'm depressed, or I'm injured. And I say, yeah, that's why I call. But the temptation is to turn away from the love and support that God wants to offer. It's okay be in need. It's okay to need help. God has a way of delivering that to you, because every once in a while we will get sick or hurt or depressed, and God knows this, and he has offered us the bread of life to feed our soul and this Christian community to care for our emotions and our bodies. He knows this, and he sends us, today, and we need to be willing to accept in Jesus name Amen. Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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Manna to Messiah: John 6:22-35 Sermon for Sunday, August 4th, 2024

John 6:22-35

On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

Grace, mercy and peace come to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Today we explore Exodus 16 and John six. We started our journey in the wilderness with Moses and the Israelites, who relied on manna from heaven. This story highlights how God satisfies physical hunger that dates back to around the 14th to the 13th century BC. Fast forward to the first century AD, John, the beloved disciple, recounts how Jesus fed the 5000. This miracle led the crowd to seek more from him. They pursued Jesus, desire more physical food, and fish, but he redid directed their focus to the need for spiritual food. through the Scriptures, God reveals His unfailing provision for his people, both physically and spiritually. In Exodus 16, verses two through 15. The Israelites recently freed from slavery in Egypt, journey through the wilderness and begin grumbling against God, and are Moses and Aaron because they lacked food. They reminisce about the abundance in Egypt, where they had their fill of food and response God promised to provide for them, the Lord teaches them to rely on Him. The Lord tells Moses that he will rain down bread from heaven. For the people. This bread, known as manna, appears every morning, and the Israelites must gather it daily, taking only what they need for that day, the daily abundance gathering to test their obedience and trust in God. On the sixth day, they are together twice as much, because on the seventh day, it is the Sabbath, which they must rest. In the evening, God also provides Manna or quail, I should say, to cover the camp, offering meat for them to eat. The next morning, the Israelites find a man on the ground, described as a fine flaky substance. Like frost, Moses explains that is the bread the Lord has given them to eat. This miraculous provision demonstrates God's care and faithfulness in meeting the physical needs of his people in the wilderness. This manner miraculously meets their physical needs. Instructions on gathering mana appetizers, obedience and trust in God's provision. highlighting our day, daily dependence on God for both physical and spiritual needs. Just as the Israelites depended on God daily for mana. We must also trusting God for our needs. Our physical life and sustenance, jobs, homes and daily bread come from the grace his gracious hand. Every meal we eat, and every breath we take is a gift from our Creator. When we pray from Matthew six, verse 11, give us this daily bread. We acknowledge our dependence on God for everyday needs, and trust in His continuous provision for all aspects of our lives. The story of Elijah and the widow of Xero fath powerfully illustrates God provision and faithfulness even in dire circumstances. The story occurs during a severe drought and famine in Israel. A judgment brought about by God because people led by King Ahab had turned away from the Lord, to worship false gods. The false god all Elijah, a prophet of God had declared that there would be no rain except of His Word, causing great suffering. Bring in the land. After a while, the brook zero fats where Elijah had been hiding and receiving food from ravens stopped flowing. God then instructed Elijah to go to the town of zero path inside and outside Israel and the homeland of Jezebel, Ahab's wicked queen. God told Elijah that he had commanded a widow there to provide for him. As Elijah arrived at the gate and Sarah path, he encountered a widow gathering sticks. The widow was destitute, and the family had left her with very little. Elijah ask her for a drink of water and a piece of bread. The widow, likely astonished, replied that she had only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. She was preparing to make a final meal for herself and her son, after which she expected they would die of starvation. Despite the dire situation, Elijah asked the widow to first make him a small cake of bread, promising that God would provide her and her family. He declared that the jar of flour would not be used up, nor would the jug of oil run dry until the day the Lord had set rain up on the land. This bowl request required the widow to use the last of her resources on a stranger, trusting in God's provision recorded in First Kings chapter 17. The widow obeyed Elijah's word, demonstrating great faith. She made a small cake for Elijah, and then prepared food for herself and her son. Just has Elijah had promised the jar of flour and the jug of oil did not run out. They had enough food every day throughout the duration of the famine. This miraculous provision continued unto rain finally fell upon that land, ending the drought. The widow's willingness to obey Elijah's request, despite her desperate situation, exemplifies great faith. She treated God's promise. trusted God's promise through Elijah and her faith was rewarded with miraculous provision. God's provision extended beyond the borders of Israel to a Gentile woman in a foreign land. This foreshadows the includes tivity of God's salvation and care for all people, regardless of nationality, or status. Let us now reflect on what happened after Jesus fed the 5000 with the five barley loaves and two fish. The next day, the crowds sought Jesus and found him on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Like question him about how he arrived there. Jesus responded by putting, pointing out that they sought him not because they saw the miraculous signs, but hunger, but because they ate the lows and were filled. He urged them not to work not for perishable food, but for the food that he endures to eternal life, which he, the son of man would give them. Jesus has declared, I am the bread of life, Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. The emphasis that he is a source of spiritual sustenance and eternal life. Contrast thing the temporary satisfaction of physical food, an enduring fulfillment found in him. Unlike the man that sustained physical life temporarily, Jesus up for eternal life through faith in Him. As we seek Jesus, we must look beyond our immediate physical needs to a spiritual hunger

Christ invites us to believe in Him to true bread from heaven, who satisfies our eternal hunger. Our faith in Jesus, nurtured through the Holy Spirit sustains us spiritually, offering us hope and eternal life. We trust God for our spiritual nourishment found in His Word and Sacraments, which sustain our faith and life in Christ. In Exodus, God's provision in physical manner, meeting physical hunger. This emphasis emphasizes our daily dependence for physical needs. The manner in miraculous food, sustain Israel's physical life. And the response involves physical actions such as gathering mana. Our physical needs are real. Philippians chapter four, verse 19, says, and my God will supply every need of yours, according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. By faithfully, God faithfully provides for them each meal, every breath is a gift from our Creator. As the Israelites gathered daily, we should cultivate a habit of gratitude and reliance on God for our daily needs, trusting his continuous provision. In the Gospel of John, Jesus presents himself as the bread of life, providing spiritual and eternal life. He fulfills and surpasses the provision of manna, offering himself as a true bread from heaven, giving eternal life to believers. The response involves faith and belief in Jesus, which the Holy Spirit brings about. Second Corinthians chapter four, verse 18, says, and we look not to the things that are seen, but the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient. But the things that are unseen, are eternal. Jesus calls us to shift our focus from merely physical substance to spiritual nourishment. Faith in Jesus is paramount. And through him, we receive eternal life. Embrace the Bread of Life participating in the means of grace. The word and sacrament through which the Holy Spirit strengthens our faith and assures us of salvation. Jesus promise of eternal life provides a perspective that transcends our earthly existence. It assures us that despite physical death, we have an everlasting life with God. This hope reorients our lives, encourage us to live with an eternal perspective. Despite God's miraculous provision of mana in the desert, it was temporary, and eventually, those who ate it died. The physical mana sustained live for a time but could not prevent death. This teaches us to prioritize or spiritual nourishment. We are invited to partake in the word and Sacraments where Jesus, the bread of life is present. Our spiritual well being is essential. And in Christ, we find a true fulfillment that goes beyond our physical needs. Just as a Bread of Life offers something far greater than physical food, eternal life. Those who are partaking those who partake in this bread will live forever. For Christ's gift transcends earthly limitations. Jesus promised that eternal life offers hope, peace and assurance beyond this life. faith in Him assures that even though we die, we will eternally in him. Our ultimate god or ultimate hope lives not in earthly provisions, but in the eternal life promised by Jesus. This shapes our perspective and priorities, urging us to seek first the kingdom of God. By trusting in Jesus, the bread of life, we received not just as a sustenance for today, but the promise of eternal life, sustaining us through all life's trials and beyond. As we reflect on God's provision, for manna to the Messiah, let us remember his faithfulness in meeting both our physical and spiritual needs, our daily bread, an earthly salvation or gifts from his gracious hand. We trust in His provision, seek the true bread from heaven and find our ultimate fulfillment in Christ alone. God God's provision often manifests itself through community of believers. Just as the Israelites gathered mana together, let us support one another in our Faith Journeys. The church community provides a space where we share in God's provision, encouraging and uplifting each other. This communal, communal aspect of faith helps us all see God's provision through the care and support of fellow believers. As recipients of God's grace. We are called to be contoured conduits of His grace to others. This means being generous with our resources, showing compassion to those in need, and sharing the gospel message. Our faith in God's provision should inspire us to act in ways that reflect His love and care for the world. In conclusion, God provides both physical and spiritual needs temporary and eternal. Jesus the Bread of Life fulfills our deepest needs and offers us eternal life. We trust in God's provision daily, live with gratitude and support one another in the faith community. Our ultimate hope lies in the eternal life presented by Jesus which shapes our perspective and priorities. Let us pray. Dear God, as we journey from manna to Messiah, remind us that you provide for both our physical and spiritual needs. Our Daily Bread and eternal salvation are gifts from your gracious hand. Let us trust in your probation. Seek the true bread from heaven and find our fulfillment, ultimate fulfillment in Christ alone. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Noah's Covenant and Baptism: Genesis 9:8-17 Sermon for Sunday, July 28th, 2024

Genesis 9:8-17

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. There are a number of stories that are really popular to tell Sunday school children. The stories typically are ones that involve things like animals, or kids. Many of them are pretty neutral or actually kind of cute. I think one of those is the story of the calling of Samuel. Right Samuel is, is a young man, often depicted in Sunday school as a child. And he hears the voice of God and He's excited to be a prophet. And typically the end of the story before it gets to the sad part, where God tells him that his adopted father is going to die. And he has to tell Eli that him and Eli's children, we leave that part out. But a couple of the stories are kind of horrifying. And one of the favorite Sunday School stories is David and Goliath, right? Again, he is pictured not like what he was probably like a 16 year old, but he's usually pictured as a young child, and he runs out, and he's got the sling and God will protect me. And then they like they stopped the story there. Because the story ends with David like, shooting the sling, hitting the guy in the forehead. And then he takes Goliath sword out, and he cuts his head off. And he's like, Hey, everybody, look at this. Not very Sunday school, right? Perhaps the most famous Sunday School story is the story of Noah and his ark. Because we really liked the image like the cartoon image that I'm sure all of you have seen. It's with Noah, on the on the 2d boat, with the lions, like sticking their heads up over and the drafts pop out of the little top right. And then you've got the sheep on the other side, and everyone is smiling and happy and all their cartoon awesomeness. And you know what, they don't draw all of the bodies floating in the water. Right? Because the flood is not a cutesy story. The story of Noah and the ark is a story of God's judgment on the earth. And we're talking about this story. From the very end. Our reading from Genesis chapter nine, is right after Noah gets off the ark with him and his family. They build an altar and they offer a sacrifice to God, and God presents this covenant, that he will never again flood the entire earth to destroy all flesh. And then he puts a rainbow in the sky as the sign of the covenant. So that when we would look up and we see all the beautiful colors of the rainbow, we remember God will never flood the entire Earth. Again. That is the sign of His covenant. But there's a whole lot behind the story. Right? You'd have to go all the way back to the very beginning of Noah's story to get what was going on before. Genesis chapter six, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil, continually. And the Lord regretted that He made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, I will block out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. So the story goes, God tells Noah to build his very famous Ark, the animals get on board, God closes the door, and then it rains. And the floodwaters come up from the deep end, and everything that breathe fresh air dies. And Noah and all of the people on the ark and all of the animals are on there for months and months and months. It rains. But then the floodwaters have to go away. And then they hit the mountain And the floodwaters have to recede, and they wait before the mud turns to grass. And then finally the bird brings back the olive branch showing the plants have grown, and you can get out and eat things that are growing. And they get off the earth is desolate. There are a total of eight people alive on the entire planet. Imagine that you can't Canyon, the destruction, the judgment and the power of God. What we see is that God uses water to destroy and judge the sin of the world. But he also uses water to preserve the faithful family, Noah and his children and their wives. And so God gives them this covenant, so that he would never again do what he just did, and flood the entire Earth and kill everything all. Right. Now you might be wondering, What in the world do Christians get from this other than a promise that God will never have a worldwide flood? And that's a great question. Because on its own, that's all there is. No flood. That's it. Until you get to how the New Testament reflects back on more on Noah and his family. In First Peter, where it says, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in whichever view that is eight persons were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this now saves you not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven, and is that the right hand of God with angels, authorities and powers having been subjected to him. Peter picks up on a theme from the Old Testament about water being used both to judge and to say, both to cleanse from evil and to make alive again, in many Lutherans when we do a baptism, we pray what is called Luthers flood prayer, which really highlights this theme. It says, almighty and eternal God, according to your strict judgment, you condemned to the unbelieving world through the flood. Yet, according to Your great mercy, you preserved believing Noah and his family, eight souls in all of you drowned, hardhearted Pharaoh and all his hosts in the Red Sea. Yet lead your people Israel through the water on dry ground prefiguring this washing of Your Holy Baptism, through the baptism in the Jordan, your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, you sanctified and instituted all waters to be a blessing flood, and the lavish washing away of sin. So the New Testament uses Noah and the flood, as an example, a metaphor for what God does in our baptism. And so what we see and baptism through this lens, is that it one judges the sinner. To makes the saint come alive. And three, gives us a sign of the promise that God gives each and every Christian. Let's take a look at those three things. So first, baptism judges, the sinner in each of us. It's pretty clear how that happened with Noah and the ark, the waters of the flood came down and it judged the whole world the devastation would have been terrible.

Especially those first few moments as the the noise that would come outside of the ark, as the people who realized that they were too late to join Noah found the waters rising. As we consider the Florida and reflect on our own baptism, we can see within ourselves some of those things that God complained about when he looked at the whole earth and found that well, their hearts and thoughts were only about evil, as it says, evil continually. And we still have a little bit of that inside of us, don't we wear our hearts and our thoughts, even when we don't like it. Consider evil first. Consider the hard things that we don't like to do. First, until our consciences and the Holy Spirit bat them away and say, No, we're supposed to be doing something else. And yet very often, our first reaction is hostility, anger. And even if we let it go, it would be violence, right? Our life is not, and our hearts are not as pure as we would like them to be. And that is why Jesus came and died on our cross. He came to bring judgments to that kind of sin. Because the thing that we deserve actually is the floodwaters of the earth and even more than that, Death and Hell. And what we see in the cross is not just the salvation that Jesus wins for us. But him taking the wrath of God into his body. He drinks fully the cup of God's wrath on the cross, and takes that punishment for us. The cross is the judgment on sin given to the sinless one, so that we would not have to take. The amazing thing is that in baptism, the judgment that is on Christ is brought into the sinner in us. We Die with Christ, when the water is placed on our heads. That is what St. Paul says in Romans chapter six, when he tells us that in our baptism, we die with Christ, and we rise with him. Which means back when you were baptized, the sinner in you was killed by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came down and nailed that evil guide to the cross with Jesus Christ. Which is pretty cool, right? It means that when your heart has it first reaction to sin, or violence or evil or anger, those things that you hate, and that the Holy Spirit bats away. Those are just the dying gasps of the executed one. He's on his way out. He's been destroyed by the power of God in Baptist. That's the gift that God gave you all that time ago, when he poured the water on your head. He united you with Jesus Christ in the judgment on the sinner. So that the sin in you could die. But he also makes alive, the st. That is in you. Because in baptism, we do not just die with Christ, we rise with him. Peter reflects on this as part of the story of Noah. He tells us that God preserved Noah eight souls and all and it corresponds to our own baptisms that save us. God's judgment on the earth cleansed it and he preserved a faithful family, one that would get off the ark and offer a sacrifice that pleases God. One that would be the father of all the generation. We see it also in Jesus, who after dying on the cross was placed in the tomb. And after three days rose from the dead, as the very first of all of those faithful who would follow him. His new body, the resurrected body is the image of our own body, on the day that we rise, and because he is alive, our heavenly Father gives us life to. So in your baptisms, not only did the sinner die, but the Saint Rose from the dead, to live eternal life for you at that very moment. Which means eternal life is not just a future thing that we look forward to the moment when Christ returns, and he raises our bodies from the ground, but a gift that you have now. Because you died with Christ, and you rose with Him, and His resurrection lives inside of you. So he empowers you to live, as the saint would want you to do, empowers you to walk, as St. Paul says in Romans chapter six, to walk in newness of life. So in baptism, God judges the sinner, and raises a saint to new life. And third, he gives us a sign of the promise that he made in our baptism. God did something like that with Noah, with the rainbow. When God made his promise, he said, I would make a covenant with you that I will never flood the earth and destroy all flash. And he said, his bow in the heavens, the rainbow. And it was supposed to be that anytime the rain fell, and the sun shines through it, we would look up and see a good, God will never again flood the whole earth. A nice reminder, right? And we get beautiful rainbows that are a part of that. Now, it's pretty popular amongst Christians to say, oh, when you look at the rainbow, you can see a sign of God's love for you. Which is not true. At all. Right? All you got to do is look at this. It's just a sign of this promise way back when the covenant with Noah, he's just not going to flood the whole earth. Again. He's got all sorts of other things he could do. Just not this flood, right? If you are looking for a sign that God loves you with sign of his great covenant with you, and his promise, you're not supposed to look up into the sky, no matter how beautiful that rainbow is. You look to the moment of your baptism. Because it is not just the power of God at work in you, to kill you and make you alive. It is also a physical sign of His promise, because when it happened, people saw it. Right? There were people who were there. And if you're like me, it was your parents, who were likely holding you at the time. And then someone was there when they splashed the water on your head and said I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. You might have a certificate that says it happened or photos of people in in white clothes and suits standing next to the pastor, right. If you're really lucky, your parents saved your baptismal candle. Or like me, you have this little silver cross that your parents saved as this tiny little cartoon child kneeling in prayer that I still have in my office, sitting behind my desk is I've had this since the day I was baptized. And what you can do is instead of looking at the clouds remember your baptism because this is an external and physical sign of the inward and spiritual covenant that God made with you. That at the very same time the water splashed on your head, the Holy Spirit killed you and made you alive again, destroyed the sinner and raised the saint and made you one with Jesus Christ forever.

So when you doubt or worry, or doesn't seem like the saints is doing that great a job. All you got to do is look back and remember the covenant that God made with you in that sacrament. Because he made a promise. He made a promise that he would save you that he would give you life. And you can remember that every time you see the photos, look at their certificate, or just think back. Yep, I was baptized. Because God does these things on the outside to give us incontrovertible evidence that you are saved. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Politics and the Good Shepherd: Jeremiah 23:1-6 Sermon for Sunday, July 21st, 2024

Jeremiah 23:1-6

“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. To the prophet Amos comes during a busy time in the Old Testament story. Amos is a prophet of judgment against the northern kingdom of Israel, and understand what's happening in our story, we need to understand some history. So we're gonna go back all the way to King David. So you know, King David, he was the one to basically unite the kingdoms, kingdom of Israel, all 12 tribes, and finally conquer the area that was supposed to be the promised land. He brings it all together under his rule. And then when his son Solomon takes over the kingdom, Solomon begins the long line of kings that start to stray away from God and His promises of Solomon, because of this gets judgment from God, that when his son takes the throne, God is going to split the kingdom into two, there will be the two tribes of the South, and the 10 tribes of the North, the North becomes Israel, and the South is called Judah. This happens under Solomon son, Rafa Boehm, a Prophet goes to another man named Jeroboam, who was promised that if he follows God and His promises and keeps his law, he will get the 10 tribes of the northern kingdom for him and for his family. So, Jeroboam rebels, the 10 tribes go their own way Rehoboam in the south, Jeroboam in the north. And then Jeroboam says, you know, it's not a great idea for me to send all of my people down to Jerusalem, to worship, because they're all going to someone else's kingdom. It's not mine. So against God's law, he builds to sanctuaries. The one that's important for us is the city of Bethel, where the king's sanctuary is, and the priest Amaziah. Comes out against Amos. During this time, King Uzziah comes to power in the south, and we get several prophets. Amos is the one that we are looking at. He is likely around 750 or 760 BC. It's about the same time as Jonah, who goes out to the city of Nineveh, capital city of a Syria, the ones who will be the big bad guys very soon. And then only a little while later is the prophet Isaiah, who comes shortly after Amos after uzawa in Judah dies. And so we what we get are prophets, Amos to the northern kingdom, Isaiah to the southern kingdom, and Jonah to Nineveh or a Syria, who would soon come in and destroy the northern kingdom of Israel, kill off Jeroboam xline, and take them into exile. Those are the characters of our day. Amos, the prophet actually comes from the southern kingdom, a city of Tekoa, which is just on the other side of the border, which means that when he comes into this northern kingdom, he is an outsider. He is from Judah. It's almost like an enemy Prophet, coming into your territory. And that is the situation we get when we get to the beginning of our reading. Amos has been coming out with Oracle's against everybody. But in this chapter, he is now starting to speak to Israel to the northern kingdom. And what I'd like to do today is contrast his message to Israel and the results with Jonah, who goes to a foreign kingdom in Nineveh With a similar message, and different results. So let's look at Amos first. And then we'll look at Jonah. Amos goes to this northern kingdom. And he gives them a message. God says, Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel, and I will never again pass by them, the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. And I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. Now, if you are like me, and have never built a single thing in your life, you read the words plumb line, and you go, Hmm, I wonder what that is. I found out it's a string with a weight at the bottom that you set up so that it goes completely vertical. And that's how you build a straight wall. You compare the wall to the line, and then you get straight. Easy enough. That makes sense, right. And God is using this metaphor as a standard of behavior for the northern kingdoms. He says, I have a standard. And if your wall is curved, it's going to be destroyed. And that is what he then says, about the northern kingdom, the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. And I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. God has sent a message of judgment to this northern kingdom. He says, If you violate my laws and my standards, and continue to do so there will be judgment. For that kingdom, that judgment meant the violence and destruction of the mighty armies of Syria, who are some of the worst conquerors in all of history, in their savagery and anger. Now, you can imagine, what would happen if someone walks into the White House, from say, I don't know Russia, and said, Guess what? God's going to destroy your kingdom and your country. I don't think whoever it was, we would listen to them simply because of their identity, where they came from. And that's a big piece of the rejection of this message. Amaziah, the priest of Bethel sees Amos, and he rejects this message for a couple of reasons. The first reason is, Amos is from Judah, an enemy kingdom. And he thinks the prophet is just there to stir up trouble. He says, Go flee away to the land of Judah, back to your home country and prophesy there. But don't come here with your divisive words and all of your bad news. rejects the message because of who Amos is. The second reason he rejects the message is because it is not in the plan. He says, this is the king's sanctuary. You can't say this about the king. Here we have one message. We support our kingdom. We do not say bad news. How dare you come out against our temple and our sanctuary. And what he says is, but never again prophesy at Bethel for it is the king sanctuary and it is the temple of the kingdom that none of this dis information and and conspiracy theories. We are all on message here. And then finally, he accuses Amos of selling out of doing it just for money. That's what he said. He says when he says flee to the land of Judah and eat bread there and prophesy there. He thinks that Amos is just a professional Prophet, who was there to stir up trouble and get YouTube subscriptions.

Notice what Amaziah doesn't do He doesn't actually attend to the message. He simply says, Amos, you're a bad guy. So I don't have to listen to you. Instead of hearing what God says, judgment is coming. And so they totally avoid the entire thing. God warns them says turn, and they reject it. And we know what the result is. Syria does come, they come with their armies, and they destroy the northern kingdom of Israel during the time of Isaiah. And the people go into exile, Jeroboam his family falls under the sword, and everything that Amos predicted, comes true. Now, you can understand why this might happen. You can understand why Jeroboam and Amaziah would reject a message like this. Nobody wants to hear bad news. And in fact, when news is contrary to what we expect, we find all sorts of ways of getting around it. Explain it away. We talk about something else. And it's even worse when it's an accusation. Jeroboam you have been unfaithful to God's promise. And that's a hard thing to hear. Whether you're a king, or a Christian 1000s of years later, you are someone who is hearing the message of God for the first time. If you are a sinner, and unfaithful. It's hard to hear. And one way to react to that is to do it Amaziah and Jeroboam did. Say, you're totally wrong. I've got it all set. We're all rights, and you're just a bad guy anyway. That's what Israel did. And that's what many people do. Instead of turning, repenting and receiving forgiveness, the bad news of God's judgment, they respond with anger. But there's another way. This is the way that happened with the prophet Jonah. Jonah was alive at just about the same time. And God went to him and said, to go to Nineveh with a very simple message. Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. That's a whole lot shorter than Amos is vision, right? Amos gets this beautiful thing of the plumb line and the wall and all of that. And there's Oracle's and Jonah gets one line. 40 days. That's it. Now, if you know the story, Jonah didn't want to go and after much goings on, and he eventually makes it to the city of Nineveh. And he says 40 days, and Nineveh will be overthrown. And what's amazing about this is what happens next. Nineveh does not have the history with God. The northern kingdom does. They don't have Moses and the prophets. They don't have the great confession that God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love that he forgives those who turned to him. They have none of that. A profit from an enemy city comes to them and says 40 days and destruction. That's it. And what does Nineveh do? These foreigners who do not know the true God they hear the words and repent. In fact, it is such a repentance that the king of the city commands that every person all the way down to the animals to put themselves was in sackcloth and ashes and fast with the hope that this God who only offered one line would turn from his anger and relent. What a different response from people who had no idea who God was just some foreign prophet of a foreign god. And yet they hear the word of judgments, and they repent. And you know how the story goes, and God sees their repentance. And he turns to Jonah and he says, I will relent of the disaster, that I was going to bring them. Which makes Jonah really mad. He wants a Syria destroyed, because they're the big bad. They're the ones who will not so very long from now come in and kill that northern kingdom, with all of their violence, and wrath. And God sends Jonah to preserve this city from His judgment, so we could use them against Israel. What a difference in their reaction is to the message of judgment from God. Jonah comes and says, You will be destroyed if they don't react in anger, or accusations, or accuse him of disinformation to repent. And God, forgive. This message is a good example for everyone who hears a message of judgment from God. Because without a message of judgments about our sin, there is no forgiveness. without accepting the hard news that comes from God's Word, we will never know that we needed a Savior, who would take the penalty for our sins onto his body and give us forgiveness. And we all know this because well, we are here. You have heard this message and believe. But for the Christian, this message is ongoing, and sometimes surprising. Because sometimes the piece of our life that is filled with sin we overlook. And we need to hear the message again. And it's hard. But accepting that means a path to forgiveness. responding with anger means we turn aside from the gospel. hearing the message of judgment, and saying I repent is the only way to move through it to the forgiveness and reconciliation that Christ offers. That's what Jonah helps us to see. And it's the same thing for the world, right? God did not send Jonah out into the world or to the northern kingdom with smooth words and kind offers. He said, judgment is coming. And that always came with the offer of repentance, and forgiveness. And it's only through that message of judgment that the world can have the forgiveness we enjoy. When they run into their sin, and see that they need a savior, just like us. Sure, they may react like Amaziah or King Herod for that matter, with anger with hostility. But it still means it's the only way to bring the people we love to the gospel. It's a hard pill to swallow this judgment. But it's the only way for salvation

because To understand and know that you need a Savior knows that you need to need. It means that you need to know that you lack this message, just like amis, just like Jonah, just like John the Baptist or Jesus. This message of our sin needs to be believed and accepted, even when it's hard. Salvation only comes on the other side of it by the grace of Jesus Christ, in response to our repentance. In his name, amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

He's to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Today we're talking about the reading from Jeremiah, about shepherds. This Sunday is kind of a good shepherd Sunday, we have a couple of them during the church year, where we talk about Christ as the shepherd of his church. One comes during this time in the season of Pentecost, and we have another one during the time of Easter, pointing to Jesus as our shepherd. Both times we read Psalm 23. And look at other Shepherd readings. And so we have one from Jeremiah. And Mark, that points to this Good Shepherd idea. Now you might be looking at Mark and you're saying, there's no shepherd there. You have to read into what Mark is doing. He takes them to a desolate place. They are like sheep without a shepherd. And he sets them down in the green grass, which points us to our song. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul to reading from Jeremiah, though, has some harsh words for the shepherds of God's people at the time. It says, Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, declares the Lord. I think it is likely that Jeremiah the prophet is not talking about the appropriate ways to gather a flock of sheep, and raise them to the best effects that these shepherds are likely metaphorical. Right? Who are the shepherds Jeremiah is talking about? Normally, when we think of the Good Shepherd, we think about this pastoral scene, where you've got this lonely Shepherd out with the flock, he's got the cool staff and the robe. Maybe you've seen the stained glass window with Jesus picking up the lamb over his shoulder, and he's walking them in. It's usually out in the field, right? Or there's a forest or something like that. It's a rural scene. Because we think of sheep, as rural, we often don't get the idea that Shepherd was the predominant metaphor for the kings of Israel. And they're a political class. This is because the great king, David, came from being a shepherd, to being a king. Second Samuel chapter five says to David, and the Lord said to you, you shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be Prince over Israel. Similarily Matthew two verse six quotes Micah, when it says, Oh Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. It's a fun note, that in the old red hymnal, they had Latin titles for all of the psalms that they would read, because it's the old red hymnal and why not? Most of the Latin titles came from the first line, except for Psalm 23. The Latin title for that one is dominate ragged May, which is the Lord rules me. The Lord is my king, is the title for Psalm 23. One of our hymns points that out to the king of Love, My Shepherd is His goodness fail if never. That's the summary a him version of Psalm 23. In the Old Testament, kings were the shepherds of God's people. And their political leaders and rulers were like that. So Jeremiah is pointing to the political class of his day, and saying, Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my past. Drew, and you have scattered my flock and driven them away, and you have not attended to them, the whole, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. This is the kind of proclamation that was going out in the Old Testament at this time, Jeremiah was a prophet during the exile in Babylon had come in, destroyed the kingdom. And he and Ezekiel were around the same time pointing out all of the bad things that those kings had done. And Ezekiel Similarily, comes out against the shepherds of God's people who instead of protecting them, and destroy them, and use them for their own benefit. Jeremiah is saying, Woe to you who scattered the flock and divide them and cause them to fight against each other. Woe to you, who don't treat them like you should, as a shepherd, who should love and care for the sheep. They didn't care about their nation. They didn't care about their people. And most of all, they didn't care about the covenant that God had made with their nation, Israel. And instead, they use their power for their own good, scattered the people, and enriched themselves. Sounds a little bit like politics, doesn't it? It's a little bit like what every political age has ever done. The leaders of the people use their power and their authority and their positions to divide, scatter and consumed. Race for it in today's sermon is about politics. And we're about to head into an election season. And I'm sure that you will hear that it is the most important election in US history, just like the last one, and the one before that. Our politicians, the metaphorical shepherds of our day, and the industry that is around them. They have the same ends and goals, generally, as those great shepherds of Jeremiah's day, their rhetoric. Their message is division, and fear. They want to divide us and put our hope in them. Their goal is to turn us from the bad guys, which is the red or the blue team, depending on who you listen to. And put your hope in there guy, which is the other side, the red team, or the blue team, depending on who you listen to. The problem is that they are so strong in their way of speaking of that our temptation in this season, is to turn our hearts away from our true shepherd, Jesus Christ, the only one who provides the only one who gives peace, the only one who can truly take care of us by His death and resurrection. They want us to think about them as the providers and them as the protectors. They do it in two ways. The first one is they play on our fears. Politics, at least lately has become mostly about the really big problems. Right? If you flip on your favorite or at least favorite cable news station, they will constantly be talking about the big issues. wars on the other side of the world. I don't know if you know that but there are wars going on. Climate change, education, the economy, inflation and don't you know it? Red team

or Blue Team whichever The one is responsible for it all. And this is especially true. If you spend time looking at news media. Their entire goal is to get your eyeballs and your clicks, to get you to spend time really worried about things that are far away. Because then you will read more, then you will watch more. And then they can monetize it. And sometimes that creates huge amounts of anxiety. And it gets us to worry about things that are far away, things that we can't control. And that anxiety turns us from the peace of God that passes all understanding and causes us to fear our human enemies. And that fear. Well, it just can't go away when it's constantly talking about these big things. Because the problem is that all of these really big things that nobody can control. There's simply a symptom of the big problem underneath it all. Sin and death. Because if we solve one problem, another will come up. If we take care of one thing, another big one will come up with wars don't stop. They are always here. Where does the Christian find peace and our Savior, Jesus Christ. As it says, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul. See, we have a shepherd and King, Jesus Christ, who is the only one who actually rules over all of creation. He is the only one who can truly govern all things, who takes care of all things. He is the one who sits on the throne at the right hand of the Father way up in heaven. And all things are under his feet. And we know that he will take care of you. Because he came and he sacrificed his life on the cross for you. And he rose from the dead for you. And it's that love that motivates him from his place in heaven until the day that he returned. Which means we can let God worry about that stuff. Right? All the big things that you and I can't control that the politicians say they can go hand wave away, if you just elect them. That's God's job. He will take care of our job is to focus on what we can control the people around us that God has called us to serve. Don't let this election steal the peace of God that passes all understanding. Put your hearts and your hope and your trust in Him. So that's the fear, right? Our politicians and our political class want us to fear the enemy and the big issues. They also want us to love them. And they do it by turning things into a team sport. Right? You've heard me say red team and Blue Team. Have you noticed that the way people talk about our campaigns is a little bit like they talk about the Super Bowl. They've got like a pregame show. And they talk about this candidate his speaking style and what's this campaign strategy and how are they going to do this and who are they talking to? And it's all like X's and O's on the football field. And none of it is actually policy. They've turned it into team sports. Because we love our teams. We love our tribes. And you know this because some of you are Padres fans. And you love your team, and you're willing to cheer for them, you are willing to put on their clothes and wear their hats because you identify with the place you're from, and you'll love it. And when we turn politics into that, it becomes a little bit about your identity. And about your heart, instead of what will the candidates do. And then they build on that by saying, I am the only one who can save you. elect me, I will take care of you, the other team, they hate you, but I, I alone am your Scion.

They can't do it. They're not our team. They don't have the power. They don't actually care. They don't have the power to take care of the problems. They'd say they do. They don't actually speak for you. They don't love you. They are just using you to get elected. There is only one who can actually fight for us. There is only one who can actually solve the big problems that we are facing. And you guessed it, it's our King, Jesus Christ. He is the one who protects us against sin, death, and the devil. As it says, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me, your rod and your staff. They comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Our King, Jesus Christ is the one who promises to solve the big problem to take care of us both now and on the day when he returned. So if you are worried about inflation, guess what? When Jesus comes back, that will be solved, I promise. If you're worried about things in Ukraine and Israel, and when Jesus comes back, that war will be over. If you're worried about climate, and climate will be iMovie made new. On the day he returned back to all our problems will be over. Because when he does, he will call us from the grave and make all things new. He is the only one who can solve all of those problems. And he gives you a promise that you can trust him with a promise that we know we can keep. When he prepares the table before you here in this place. The table we will eat very shortly. This is God with you. Seal and sign of His presence so that you know the shepherd will never leave you. See, God has established a great shepherd. He says I will set shepherds over them who will care for them. And they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed. Neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord. Our great shepherd Jesus Christ is the only one who can do that. As we consider this election season, vote for the person you want to vote for or not. If that's your choice, advocate for the policies that you want, or not, if that's your choice, but just remember, we have one king who can actually do something one king with real power, who died for you and rose for you. He is our peace. In Jesus name. Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

God's Prophets- Jonah and Amos: Amos 7:7-15 Sermon for Sunday, July 14th, 2024

Amos 7:7-15

This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,

“Behold, I am setting a plumb line

in the midst of my people Israel;

I will never again pass by them;

the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,

and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,

and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

Amos Accused

Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said,

“‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,

and Israel must go into exile

away from his land.’”

And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. To the prophet Amos comes during a busy time in the Old Testament story. Amos is a prophet of judgment against the northern kingdom of Israel, and understand what's happening in our story, we need to understand some history. So we're gonna go back all the way to King David. So you know, King David, he was the one to basically unite the kingdoms, kingdom of Israel, all 12 tribes, and finally conquer the area that was supposed to be the promised land. He brings it all together under his rule. And then when his son Solomon takes over the kingdom, Solomon begins the long line of kings that start to stray away from God and His promises of Solomon, because of this gets judgment from God, that when his son takes the throne, God is going to split the kingdom into two, there will be the two tribes of the South, and the 10 tribes of the North, the North becomes Israel, and the South is called Judah. This happens under Solomon son, Rafa Boehm, a Prophet goes to another man named Jeroboam, who was promised that if he follows God and His promises and keeps his law, he will get the 10 tribes of the northern kingdom for him and for his family. So, Jeroboam rebels, the 10 tribes go their own way Rehoboam in the south, Jeroboam in the north. And then Jeroboam says, you know, it's not a great idea for me to send all of my people down to Jerusalem, to worship, because they're all going to someone else's kingdom. It's not mine. So against God's law, he builds to sanctuaries. The one that's important for us is the city of Bethel, where the king's sanctuary is, and the priest Amaziah. Comes out against Amos. During this time, King Uzziah comes to power in the south, and we get several prophets. Amos is the one that we are looking at. He is likely around 750 or 760 BC. It's about the same time as Jonah, who goes out to the city of Nineveh, capital city of a Syria, the ones who will be the big bad guys very soon. And then only a little while later is the prophet Isaiah, who comes shortly after Amos after uzawa in Judah dies. And so we what we get are prophets, Amos to the northern kingdom, Isaiah to the southern kingdom, and Jonah to Nineveh or a Syria, who would soon come in and destroy the northern kingdom of Israel, kill off Jeroboam xline, and take them into exile. Those are the characters of our day. Amos, the prophet actually comes from the southern kingdom, a city of Tekoa, which is just on the other side of the border, which means that when he comes into this northern kingdom, he is an outsider. He is from Judah. It's almost like an enemy Prophet, coming into your territory. And that is the situation we get when we get to the beginning of our reading. Amos has been coming out with Oracle's against everybody. But in this chapter, he is now starting to speak to Israel to the northern kingdom. And what I'd like to do today is contrast his message to Israel and the results with Jonah, who goes to a foreign kingdom in Nineveh With a similar message, and different results. So let's look at Amos first. And then we'll look at Jonah. Amos goes to this northern kingdom. And he gives them a message. God says, Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel, and I will never again pass by them, the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. And I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. Now, if you are like me, and have never built a single thing in your life, you read the words plumb line, and you go, Hmm, I wonder what that is. I found out it's a string with a weight at the bottom that you set up so that it goes completely vertical. And that's how you build a straight wall. You compare the wall to the line, and then you get straight. Easy enough. That makes sense, right. And God is using this metaphor as a standard of behavior for the northern kingdoms. He says, I have a standard. And if your wall is curved, it's going to be destroyed. And that is what he then says, about the northern kingdom, the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. And I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. God has sent a message of judgment to this northern kingdom. He says, If you violate my laws and my standards, and continue to do so there will be judgment. For that kingdom, that judgment meant the violence and destruction of the mighty armies of Syria, who are some of the worst conquerors in all of history, in their savagery and anger. Now, you can imagine, what would happen if someone walks into the White House, from say, I don't know Russia, and said, Guess what? God's going to destroy your kingdom and your country. I don't think whoever it was, we would listen to them simply because of their identity, where they came from. And that's a big piece of the rejection of this message. Amaziah, the priest of Bethel sees Amos, and he rejects this message for a couple of reasons. The first reason is, Amos is from Judah, an enemy kingdom. And he thinks the prophet is just there to stir up trouble. He says, Go flee away to the land of Judah, back to your home country and prophesy there. But don't come here with your divisive words and all of your bad news. rejects the message because of who Amos is. The second reason he rejects the message is because it is not in the plan. He says, this is the king's sanctuary. You can't say this about the king. Here we have one message. We support our kingdom. We do not say bad news. How dare you come out against our temple and our sanctuary. And what he says is, but never again prophesy at Bethel for it is the king sanctuary and it is the temple of the kingdom that none of this dis information and and conspiracy theories. We are all on message here. And then finally, he accuses Amos of selling out of doing it just for money. That's what he said. He says when he says flee to the land of Judah and eat bread there and prophesy there. He thinks that Amos is just a professional Prophet, who was there to stir up trouble and get YouTube subscriptions.

Notice what Amaziah doesn't do He doesn't actually attend to the message. He simply says, Amos, you're a bad guy. So I don't have to listen to you. Instead of hearing what God says, judgment is coming. And so they totally avoid the entire thing. God warns them says turn, and they reject it. And we know what the result is. Syria does come, they come with their armies, and they destroy the northern kingdom of Israel during the time of Isaiah. And the people go into exile, Jeroboam his family falls under the sword, and everything that Amos predicted, comes true. Now, you can understand why this might happen. You can understand why Jeroboam and Amaziah would reject a message like this. Nobody wants to hear bad news. And in fact, when news is contrary to what we expect, we find all sorts of ways of getting around it. Explain it away. We talk about something else. And it's even worse when it's an accusation. Jeroboam you have been unfaithful to God's promise. And that's a hard thing to hear. Whether you're a king, or a Christian 1000s of years later, you are someone who is hearing the message of God for the first time. If you are a sinner, and unfaithful. It's hard to hear. And one way to react to that is to do it Amaziah and Jeroboam did. Say, you're totally wrong. I've got it all set. We're all rights, and you're just a bad guy anyway. That's what Israel did. And that's what many people do. Instead of turning, repenting and receiving forgiveness, the bad news of God's judgment, they respond with anger. But there's another way. This is the way that happened with the prophet Jonah. Jonah was alive at just about the same time. And God went to him and said, to go to Nineveh with a very simple message. Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. That's a whole lot shorter than Amos is vision, right? Amos gets this beautiful thing of the plumb line and the wall and all of that. And there's Oracle's and Jonah gets one line. 40 days. That's it. Now, if you know the story, Jonah didn't want to go and after much goings on, and he eventually makes it to the city of Nineveh. And he says 40 days, and Nineveh will be overthrown. And what's amazing about this is what happens next. Nineveh does not have the history with God. The northern kingdom does. They don't have Moses and the prophets. They don't have the great confession that God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love that he forgives those who turned to him. They have none of that. A profit from an enemy city comes to them and says 40 days and destruction. That's it. And what does Nineveh do? These foreigners who do not know the true God they hear the words and repent. In fact, it is such a repentance that the king of the city commands that every person all the way down to the animals to put themselves was in sackcloth and ashes and fast with the hope that this God who only offered one line would turn from his anger and relent. What a different response from people who had no idea who God was just some foreign prophet of a foreign god. And yet they hear the word of judgments, and they repent. And you know how the story goes, and God sees their repentance. And he turns to Jonah and he says, I will relent of the disaster, that I was going to bring them. Which makes Jonah really mad. He wants a Syria destroyed, because they're the big bad. They're the ones who will not so very long from now come in and kill that northern kingdom, with all of their violence, and wrath. And God sends Jonah to preserve this city from His judgment, so we could use them against Israel. What a difference in their reaction is to the message of judgment from God. Jonah comes and says, You will be destroyed if they don't react in anger, or accusations, or accuse him of disinformation to repent. And God, forgive. This message is a good example for everyone who hears a message of judgment from God. Because without a message of judgments about our sin, there is no forgiveness. without accepting the hard news that comes from God's Word, we will never know that we needed a Savior, who would take the penalty for our sins onto his body and give us forgiveness. And we all know this because well, we are here. You have heard this message and believe. But for the Christian, this message is ongoing, and sometimes surprising. Because sometimes the piece of our life that is filled with sin we overlook. And we need to hear the message again. And it's hard. But accepting that means a path to forgiveness. responding with anger means we turn aside from the gospel. hearing the message of judgment, and saying I repent is the only way to move through it to the forgiveness and reconciliation that Christ offers. That's what Jonah helps us to see. And it's the same thing for the world, right? God did not send Jonah out into the world or to the northern kingdom with smooth words and kind offers. He said, judgment is coming. And that always came with the offer of repentance, and forgiveness. And it's only through that message of judgment that the world can have the forgiveness we enjoy. When they run into their sin, and see that they need a savior, just like us. Sure, they may react like Amaziah or King Herod for that matter, with anger with hostility. But it still means it's the only way to bring the people we love to the gospel. It's a hard pill to swallow this judgment. But it's the only way for salvation

because To understand and know that you need a Savior knows that you need to need. It means that you need to know that you lack this message, just like amis, just like Jonah, just like John the Baptist or Jesus. This message of our sin needs to be believed and accepted, even when it's hard. Salvation only comes on the other side of it by the grace of Jesus Christ, in response to our repentance. In his name, amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

God's Grace is Sufficient in Weakness: 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 Sermon for Sunday, July 7th, 2024

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

mothers and sisters in Christ. Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you today, acknowledging our weaknesses and seeking your strength. Open our hearts and minds to Your word. May Your grace be sufficient for us in all our trials, in Jesus name, amen. Today we look at a message from the Apostle Paul and second Corinthians chapter 12. Seven through 10. This passage teaches us about the importance of relying on Christ strength in our weaknesses. As we look at this scripture, we will find the great truth that God's power is made perfect in our frailty. As we explore this passage, we'll see how Paul's experience serves as an example, for us today. It encourages us to embrace our weaknesses and depend wholly on Christ, recognizing that it is in our vulnerability, that his strength is most evident, reminding us that our sufficiency is not found in ourselves, but in Christ alone, who won the victory over Satan for us on the cross. Paul speaks of a thorn in the flesh. He calls it a messenger of Satan sent to torment him and keep him from becoming conceited due to the extra ordinary revelations he had received. Scripture does not specify what Paul's thorn was, was. And scholars have speculated about possibilities, a physical ailment, a persistent temptation, or maybe persecution, whatever it was it called Paul significant, it caused Paul's significant distress. He might have seen it as a hinderance to his ministry, a constant reminder hubbas human limitations. It played a key role in shaping his reliance on God. We will learn from Paul's experience that God's strength is sufficient through Jesus Christ, death and resurrection. Even in his and our most trying circumstances, instead of being a barrier, the thorn became came a means through which Paul could most fully more fully trust in God's providence and grace. This has been completely dependent on God, which is ours already in Christ. Paul wanted to get rid of his problem. His Thorn. Paul did what any of us would do in this situation. He prayed fervently three times for God to remove the thorn. Paul shows us the faithful response of a believer facing trials. We communicate with God in prayer, expressing our needs, desires, and sufferings. Paul's prayer and our prayers reflect faith and trust in God's power and mercy. However, God did not grant Paul's prayer request. We might wonder if Paul was disappointed. It's natural reaction to feel disheartened when our prayers are not answered in the way we hoped. Like Paul, we can face disappointment. When our prayers seem to be unanswered. We pray for relief, healing or change. And when it doesn't come. May maybe we feel abandoned or ignored. But like Paul, God may be giving us a much better gift than what we requested. Paul's pride, a manifest station of his and our human nature would have hindered Christ from living in him if he had not for the transformative power of Christ, death and resurrection. Section, Paul learned that God's power is made perfect in weakness. This insight for Paul and for us, reassures us that our weaknesses and sufferings are not in vain, but are opportunities for God to demonstrate His power and faithfulness. We are encouraged to persist in prayer, trusting that whether God chooses to remove our Thorn or not, he will provide the grace necessary for us to sustain us. This reliance on God's grace is central to our faith and hope as believers. With the thorn Paul realized that human efference efforts and adherence to the law was insufficient for salvation. The Gospel reveals God's grace demonstrated most clearly in Jesus sacrificial death on the cross. Instead, it is through God's grace given freely through Christ's atoning sacrifice that believers are saved. He feels Ephesians two nine tells us that He lavished his grace on us. Also, the resurrection of Jesus which followed his crucifixion, confirmed his victory over sin, death and the devil. Paul saw the cross as a turning point in history, where Jesus triumphed over the powers of evil, providing eternal life to all who believe. First Corinthians 15 Verse 57 says, But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. God had a much better gift for Paul than a thorn removal. God gave Paul something far more valuable is grace. The removal of the thorn would have provided temporary relief. God's grace offers something far more valuable and eternal. In our human frailty, God's strength shines through. It is when we acknowledge our weaknesses that we can fully rely on God's strength. God's grace is sufficient for all our needs, no matter how overwhelming or try our trials may be in our times of pain and trouble, God's grace is our source of strength and comfort. The gray supervised can be better than the specific request we make. It equips us to face not just one challenge, but all the thorns that come our way in life. God's grace is not a one time gift. It is continual source of support, available to us in every moment of need in every day. God's power is made perfect in our weaknesses. It's in our moments of greatest vulnerability that His strength is most evident. Paul's Thorn forced him to depend on God. And in doing so, he experienced the fullness of God's power. Through God's strength, Paul was able to endure and even thrive during his storm. God's power is there to carry us through. When we recognize our own weaknesses, all learn to boast in his weaknesses, for it was through them that Christ's power rested upon him. This is a lesson for all of us as well. Rather than lamenting and storm all began to boast in it, knowing that it was an opportunity for Christ's power to reveal be revealed in his words, and his world. When we realize we are broken, God responds with His grace. our brokenness is not a cause for despair, but a chance to experience God's grace more fully. We can then boast about our weaknesses and Christ power resting in us. Embracing and living with our weaknesses means accepting our limitations, and trusting in God's strength. God gives us the grace to accept our weaknesses and to see them as opportunities for his power to be displayed. With God's help we can move from denial and frustration to witnessing his power at work in our lives. God's power is active in our lives, helping us to navigate and overcome our weaknesses. Once we realize what God does for our thorns, we don't need to hide.

When, when we understand how God uses our thorns, we face them openly and competently. God Sufficient Grace is available. It's available to us in our daily struggles. Every day, God invites us to rely on His grace which is always sufficient for our needs. Praying for our date, during our daily struggles, seeking God's Sufficient Grace is pleasing to God. relying on God is pleasing to Him as we seek his strength and grace. We can give thanks and boast about the grace and care God shows each day to us. As we go about our lives and contacts with others. You may have heard of a fellow named Martin Luther, the founder of the Reformation. He often spoke of his struggles, anxieties and feelings of unworthiness. He emphasized that it is not through human strength or merit, that one is saved, but through faith in Christ alone. His writings are filled with acknowledgments of his own weaknesses, and the sufficiency of Christ Grace. Jesus victory over sin, death and the devil is complete and eternal. His ascension to Heaven signifies his ongoing reign and intercession for believers. This belief provides comfort and assurance that Christ strength is not just historical, but active and available in believers today. Take heart, your Christian friends, and knowing that God's grace is always sufficient in our weaknesses. His power is made perfect and God sufficient. Grace, power and grace will come during our thorns and weaknesses. No matter what thorns we faced, God's power and grace will be there to sustain us. Through Jesus death, resurrection and ascension, believers are empowered by a strength that transcends human capability, enabling them to live out their faith with competence in Christ all sufficient grace. God will help us live out this truth in our daily lives every day and all day. May we embrace relying on God's strength and all things. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Sufficient Grace. Help us to accept and boast in our weaknesses and rely on your strength. May your power be made perfect in our lives as we turn to you each day. In Jesus name, amen. Made the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen. Please stand

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Peace in the Storm: Mark 4:35-41 Sermon for Sunday, June 23rd, 2024

Mark 4:35-41

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

We gather to explore a profound and comforting truth from the Gospel of Mark. Jesus is our peace in the storms of life. We journey with Jesus and his disciples across the lake, a simple trip that turns into a profound lesson of faith and trust in our Savior. In this story, we see the disciples tested, their faith shaken, and we learn a vital truth. Who is with us? Jesus is, even if it seems he is silent, or inactive in our lives. In our lives, we face various storms, trials and tribulation that test our faith and challenge our trust in God. It's in these moments we must ask ourselves, who is with us? It is Jesus. He is with us even if it seems he is silent, or inactive in our lives. Jesus initiates the journey across the lake, leading his disciples into what seemed like a routine journey. However, life often brings us unexpected. Proverbs 27 verse one says, Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. As they sail, a terrible storm arises. The winds howl the waves crash against the boat, threatening to capsize it. The disciples even though they are seasoned fishermen are filled with fear. They are terrified of drowning and feel abandoned in their plight. In their terror, they turn to Jesus who is asleep on a cushion in the stern of the boat. Their fear manifests into an accusation. They say Teacher, don't you care if we drown? They perceive his calmness as indifference, questioning whether he is ignoring their plight. This question echoes the doubts we often voiced when we face our own storms. We cry out, God don't you care about our suffering? This fear just isn't about the thing. physical danger. It's also a spiritual and emotional crisis. They feel that Jesus their master, who sleeps through the storm has abandoned them. When we doubt we have any emotional and spiritual crisis. Doubt can challenge our core belief or faith leading to feelings of uncertainty, anxiety and spiritual turmoil. Jesus comforts our fears and doubts even when we are not aware of his help. Jesus was calm authority rebukes the wind and says to the waves, Peace be still. Immediately the storm ceases and there is a great calm. His power over nature assures us of His divine authority and control over all creation. The immediate stop of the storm at Jesus command is a powerful demonstration of His dominion over nature. Amid the chaos and fear of His disciples, He remains calm and composed. The story reassures us of His presence in our lives, and its ability to bring peace in any situation. reaffirming our faith in His power and love. By calming the storm Jesus is not only fighting immediate relief to His disciples, but also symbolically asserting his mastery over chaos and disorder. The stories encourages us to trust in Jesus control over all situations. Just as he calmed the storm for his disciples. He is capable of bringing grace and peace and resolution to the storms in our lives. This trust is not in a distant, indifferent deity, but in a compra passionate savior who is ultimately and intimately involved in our lives. Have and with us right now. Jesus enter turns to his disciples and question them. Why are you so afraid? Do you still not have faith? Even though they have been living with Jesus, witnessing his miracles, and hearing his teachings, they still falter in their faith. Just like the disciples, we often feel fear in the storms of life. And our faith may falter despite knowing Jesus is with us. This passage presents an insight into the human condition and the nature's of faith. It captures a moment when Jesus disciples, despite being in the physical presence, presence of Jesus, and having witnessed his miraculous deeds, find themselves gripped by fear when faced with a storm. Jesus knew that his father would protect them and see them through the storm. It was an indifference to the disciples. It was confidence by Jesus. His sleep amidst the storm chaos signifies a profound trust in God's providence. The same assures assurance is available to us today. We all face storms in life. These storms are real and can be terrifying. They can take many forms, illness, financial troubles, loss, relationship issues, and more. During these times, we might feel like the disciples fearing and feeling alone, these storms can shake our faith and make us questions God's God's presence and care. In times of crisis, it's natural for faith to be tested. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod emphasizes the importance of turning to God for strength and guidance. During these moments of doubt and uncertainty through prayer, scripture, sacraments and the support of fellow believers individuals can find solace and reassurance in the midst of life's storms. During these challenging times, it is natural to feel abandoned. However, we are called to be faithful and trust in Jesus the Son of God. The same Jesus who called a storm is with us in our struggles. Who is with us? Jesus is even at CMC of silent or inactive in our lives. His presence is constant, and His love is unending. Let me share a few stories. Think of a mother who prays for her sick child, feeling helpless but finds peace and knowing Jesus is with her. Or a man who loses his job and fears for his family's future, but find strength in Jesus promise of provision. These are real stores, storms and then each Jesus is present providing peace and assurance. We have the story of Moses and the Red Sea. Exodus 14 When the Israelites were trapped between the Red Sea and the advancing Egyptian army, Moses trusted God's command to stretch out his hand over the sea. God came through and parted the waters allowing the Israelites to escape, and God will come through for us also. How about Daniel in the lion's den, Daniel six. Daniel remains faithful and continues to pray to the one true God despite a royal decree that forbids it. As a result, he is caught and he is thrown into a lion's den. Daniel is afraid but praise to God. God came through with his mercy and power and sent his angel to shut the lions bounds protecting Daniel so that he emerged on harm. God comes through with faithfulness and deliverance for his people. Showing that he is always present and active in the lives of those who trust in Him. And finally, story of a Roman century It approaches Jesus, Matthew eight, asking him to heal his servant to Centurions afraid for the life of his servant, despite being a Gentile and a soldier of an occupying government, that this demonstrates faith by acknowledging Jesus divine authority and showing confidence that Jesus can heal merely with a word. Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my house in church and Centurion says, but only say the word and my servant will be healed. God comes through and heals the servant from a distance solely through His Word. Who is with us? Jesus is, even if it appears, he is silent and inactive in our lives. God came through for Moses and Israel, for Daniel and for the centurion, God will come through for us also. We have the assurance of Jesus care, protection and peace and every storm through the sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper. Jesus is tangibly present with us. In baptism, we are reminded that we are marked as God's beloved children. In the Lord's Supper we receive Christ's true Body and Blood, strengthening our faith and assuring us that His presence in times of turmoil or distress, participating in the Lord's Supper, can serve as a source of solace and reassurance for us. Through this sacred meal, we encountered the living Christ in a tangible way, experiencing His love, grace and peace amidst live storms. Through these means of grace, we are continually reminded of God's unfailing presence and His steadfast commitment to us. providing us with the insurance we need to navigate the challenges of life with faith and confidence. Who is with us? Jesus is even if it seems he is silent, or inactive in our lives. Whatever you are feeling, fear, doubt, abandonment. Remember, Jesus is with you. He understands your struggles and stands by your side. Jesus still the storms in our lives and calms our fears. He may not always remove the storms, but it gives us peace amidst them. Who is with us? Jesus is even though it seems he is silent, or an inactive in our lives, his promises? Sure, I am with you always to the various very end of the age, Matthew 2820. Matthew encapsulates a foundational truth, the unchanging presence of Christ with His people throughout the ages. It is promised that brings hope, assurance and strength to believers as they navigate the challenges of life and fulfill their mission in the world. Let us pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for being our peace during life's storms. Help us to trust in your presence and your power. Knowing that you are always with us, guiding us and calming our fears. strengthen our faith, that we may always look to you in our times of need. In your holy name we pray, amen. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Tiny Little Seeds: Sermon for Sunday, June 16th, 2024

Mark 4:26-34

And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

tiny little seeds. That is what the kingdom of God is like, what the awesome glory of God looks like feels like acts like every day that what Jesus would have us consider today. Tiny little seeds are actually a great big deal. A farmer plants, his crops or a gardener plants or flowers, they do what they do. The Greek word that is used here is auto Matos, which is where we get the word autonomous, or automatically, Jesus says, while the farmer sleeps in it reminds me that even farmers when they plant their crops can take a Sunday nap during the US Open like I plan to do later today. And the gardener, the gardener can, can come to Sunday morning services and and then go to Costco after church like many of you are going to do and while they do that, the seed still does its thing. The seed still grows because there is power. There is a power in these tiny little seeds. And there is a work that is being done in and through the seeds that have been rightly planted carefully, obediently, lovingly planted. Everything works that way in the fields and in the gardens and also internally in your own body, the respiration in your chest, the beating of your heart, the digestion of your food, you don't even think about it. It happens while you are awake and when you are asleep because there is work being done inside of you. So Jesus says look outward at what you see growing look inward, there is growth happening, there is work being done. There is power in these tiny little seeds. This is the way the kingdom works. And then he uses his favorite parable, apparently, the mustard seed, which is the tiniest little seed, he uses this parable often this tiny little mustard seed that produces the mustard tree, which really isn't even a tree. It's more of a bush, a scraggly Bush not impressive. We would think that maybe Jesus would use something more impressive and substantial. Like you know those cedar trees of Lebanon or those mighty eucalyptus trees of alcohol and something everyone can see and say, Wow, that's something now he uses. His favorite parable says it produces a scraggly bluish not impressive to the eye but still useful, helpful. With a Purpose. It has branches, which shade bring shade, and rest and nesting for those tiny and tired, little birds. This is what the church is to aspire to. Not the substantial and the impressive. I know if you grew up in the Midwest, like I did, but where I grew up. Usually the largest building in the town was the church on the highest hill. The steeple was the highest point in the town. And everybody could point at it and say there's the church. I just wonder if that's true anymore, especially in alcohol. Does anyone even know we're here? Because our largest most substantial structures are no longer our churches. They are banks or they are built other buildings or their stadiums or their whatever else is being raised up in the world but the church not impressive looking not towering over anything anymore. Still aspires to be what Jesus calls us to be this useful, maybe scraggly looking, maybe not impressive. But an important place of rest. Where people are welcome where there's a place for you to find the rest that you need and you're looking for. So the Church of the kingdom of God is not to aspire to these great cedars of Lebanon but to what Christ has called us to do which is to be planting carefully and obediently and lovingly the seeds that we've been given To plant and this is what the Church has always done. Doesn't look impressive on the outside, but you'd be amazed at what comes forth. When we lovingly intentionally, purposely plant the seeds that we've been given. I think about Jonah, in the Old Testament, God called him to Nineveh. Nineveh was a wicked city. That's the way it was described, the closest thing parallel I could probably come up to would be, it's kind of like El Cajon. And I'm only saying that because we're in alcohol, and I'm from Chula Vista. So the I can't really throw stones. But if we were to look around in our own town in our own community, could we not compare it to Nineveh? People are doing all sorts of things that are unhealthy unwise, not, not God's plan or purpose for them and and Jonah was sent with this tiny little seed of a message it was didn't seem very impressive, you didn't think much would come of it. His message was simple repent.

Repent.

Turn from this life that isn't working. Turn from these ways that are harmful to yourself and to others and to to your community. Turn from those things and turn to the Lord repent. What are the odds that Nineveh would receive such a message? Who would have thought that such a harvest could come from such simple words lovingly, obediently, faithfully place? Or in the New Testament, I think about Paul, I mean, excuse me, Peter, in his first sermon, the Holy Spirit inspired Paul who was tentative at best, cowardly, never preached a sermon in his life to stand up before this multitude gathered from all over the world. 1000s of people had gathered on on Pentecost, this festival of Pentecost, from from all over the world, from Mesopotamia from kapha, dosha. From all such a diverse crowd from all over the world kind of reminds me of El Kahan. People from all over the world. And, and and Peter had a simple, tiny little seed, unimpressive little message.

Be baptized,

every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins,

promises for you. It's for everybody.

There's a place for you here that was his message. Who would have thought What are the odds that 3000 People would receive that message and be added to their number that day?

Something awesome, about the power of seeds that we've been given, that are rightfully purposely, carefully, obediently, lovingly planted. Now, what happens here today, what are we doing in these last days to plant these seeds lovingly, purposely, obediently? Where God would have placed them. Think about all the things that we do in the church that align with this parable in this teaching of Jesus of what the kingdom should look like. And everything we do in the church should sort of remind us that it's may not look impressive, but when we plant the seeds, the seeds have power. And there is work being done.

And so we baptize.

We baptized like Peter baptized, we splashed a little water on someone, and we say you are now a new creation. The hold is gone, the new has come. You are a child of God. We speak these words over someone. And if you haven't been baptized, be baptized. We want to baptize you because there's a place for you. In God's kingdom and God's house, there's a place for you in Heaven. And if you have been baptized, we want to remind you of it. So we begin every service reminding you of your baptism, reminding you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that you are who God says you are. Because isn't it True in places like alcohol, that the world will try to define you, and others will say, who you who they think you are or who they think you're not. And maybe the rest you need is just to be reminded that you are what was said over you, by God Himself, in your very baptism. You are a child of God, a son or daughter of the king, you are greatly love and highly prized. We would have thought such little seeds could work such a harvest

in us.

We absolve sin. I don't know about you. But that's the weirdest part of the service for me. Is it weird for you to every week you confess before your pastor that you are poor and miserable sinners, that you deserve present and eternal punishment? And then, and then he forgives you? And that's got to seem weird to like, Who's this little guy up there? Who did you think he is? forgiving me. And we did it again today. And I don't even know how how poor and miserable you guys are. I don't know how wicked you are. But I do know that all of us struggle with sin. All of us need forgiveness more than we need anything more than we need. You know better health more than we need a better checking account more than we need are all of our relationships to be healthy, all the things we may need. But what we need more than we need anything

is peace with God. So we just continue to plant that seed in you

may seem weird that the pastor is speaking on behalf of Christ. He's forgiving your sins as Christ himself called us as clergy to do after his resurrection. forgive sins, if you don't forgive them who will may not be impressive looking but what's needed. In a restless world, we need the rest and peace that comes from the forgiveness of sins. What else do we do here we preach Christ and Him crucified. This is not a self help lecture. You want self help, you can go listen to Tony Robbins or any number of preachers on TV. If you want to get in shape. Go to a gym, or go run with your pastor and his wife. What we do here is proclaim a crucified savior. Which is planting that seed that God has given us to plant. We just proclaim this truth that God the maker of heaven and earth became one of us.

And he knew what he was doing.

When he allowed himself to be crucified on that cross because he said it is finished.

It was with the words of a Savior who knew what he was doing. And he was doing it for you.

It wasn't waiting for you to turn your life around or get everything right. In the sort of self help pull yourself up by your bootstraps kind of worldly says no, I know what I'm doing. And I know what I'm doing for you. And we preach that and we proclaim that because if if if God knew what He was doing and did, what he did, knowing what he's doing, if we have the smallest seed of faith, we can believe that same God still knows what he's doing. And he still knows what he's doing at us. So whatever you're facing, we just proclaim to you this God who so loved you would give himself on a cross. He knew that. He did it for you. And whatever you're facing, he knows what he's doing and he knows the work he's doing in you. Just the tiniest seed of faith placed in the right place can bring rats to a restless soul and hope in a hopeless situation. And a few moments I'll have the privilege of placing into your hands. Something that looks unimpressive. Just a tiny little cracker and a little half a shot glass of wine. And we say this is the very body and blood of Jesus and that sounds weird to.

And we wonder how can this be

we're planting a seed. Jesus Himself told us to do this, he said, Do this in remembrance of me, saying, when you do this,

remember me. You may feel alone, you may look alone, but you are not alone. He is with you.

He is for you. He is before you, he is beside you, he is behind you, He is within you. We simply plant those seeds, as we place those that bread and wine in your hand. And we trust that God is doing the work that he says he's doing. He is with us for the forgiveness of sins. Sow the seeds, this parable of the seeds is descriptive. It describes what the kingdom of God is like what it has it done in the past what we do now, but it's also a promise. It's a promise to us that we have been given seeds.

And, and we can plant these seeds in one another.

And in a world that desperately needs, what we have the rest and the and the place and the acceptance and the words that that we have. And we can do this and you may think I have so little faith. Like I'm just new to this I have so little faith in Jesus and elsewhere said you just have faith this the size of a mustard seed, you don't need a lot of faith, it just needs to be placed in the right place in the Lord Jesus. And you may think I have nothing to give my works, my my obedience, my service. It's just so insignificant, it just doesn't matter. And again, we've been giving the seeds and we simply plant them. And we trust that the one who knows what he's doing, knows what he's doing in you and through you. I want to illustrate this with a story. I don't know if you'll find it helpful. It was helpful for me, it's a personal story from my life. But a couple of weeks ago, so I'm uh, so you guys know, I'm a I'm a military chaplain. I'm an Air Force, National Guard chaplain. And I had to Well, thank you, thank you for your support. I had to attend a training event in Washington DC, at Andrews Air Force Base. And when I got my travel order to go, it had some words on there that are annoying to me. The words were rental car not authorized. That's that was super annoying. Every now and then the government is runs low on travel funds, and they put those awful words on on our orders, which means that we have to take an Uber or a taxi from the airport. I know it's rough, but you know, we have to suffer. But we take Uber or taxi from the airport to to our training event. But I know from my years of experience that most of the time the Uber drivers and the taxi drivers can't get on the the Air Force Base, they don't have the clearance to get on. So most of the time, it works none of the time. So there is a way there is a way that they say it can be done. You have to arrange the Uber ahead of time and you have to tell them that you're going to base and request one with access and I did all of these things and true to form. I got into my Uber and I'm like do you have base access? And he's like base access. What's that? So the the I told them, okay, just take me to the front gate. And I will walk the mile and a half from the front gate to my to my ability. But I've learned over the years a trick that is helpful when you're in that situation and that is when you get out of the Uber at the gate and you start your mile and a half walk to building to walk as sadly and pathetically as possible. Pulling your luggage until someone stops and offers you a Ride, which didn't take long before someone drove by I saw them do a u turn. They came back. And they said, Hey, would you like a ride? It was two young Airmen, two young female airmen. And I said, Of course, I wouldn't love a ride. And they gave me a ride to the presidential end where I was staying. And as as we pulled up, I told them, I said, just so you know, I'm a, I'm a chaplain. And I'm here for a chaplain conference. So when you get to Heaven, you will get an extra jewel in your crown are picking me up. And when I said that, the driver started to cry. And there was a little pause. And when she had collected herself, she told me, she said, My father just died. And I'm trying to live a better life because of him. And that turned into a wonderful conversation with her about fathers, and what a blessing they are. And how, when we lose people like that, and we grieve that that's just an expression of love. Grief, at its simplest form is, is a function of love. And it's, it's important when we grieve. And it's beautiful. We had this beautiful conversation. And as I was talking to write, I learned from her that her father was a Christian man, and it inspired her and she was new to this Christian thing. She wanted to try it. And her first act of trying out this sort of new creation, this Christian thing was to stop and give a ride to this guy that looks so sad and pathetic. On the side of the road. And I told her, what are the odds? What are the odds that your very first act of obedience and love would be to pick up a chaplain? I don't know the answer to that. But I do know that God knows what he's doing. And he knows what he's doing and you and someone planted a seed in you. And hopefully, I planted some more in her. And that is my story. It was helpful for me to see how awesome it is. When people intentionally willingly purposefully plant seeds and one another, she planted a seed in me. And my encouragement to all of you today is to don't underestimate the seeds that you plant those tiny little acts of love and obedience. Those times when you just listen to someone or you take the time to help them or you encourage them or you forgive them. When you decide that you will be with them when you think maybe this is insignificant, but we remember that God can work amazing, remarkable things through the seeds that we plant.

No one may see that

no one in the world may be aware that you planted those seeds certainly the world may not know but Jesus does. And Jesus uses those and Jesus blesses those and there is growth happening when the people of God are obedient and caring and loving and plant the seeds we've been given where we've been called to plant them.

For Jesus is growing his kingdom one seed at a time, one sinner at a time.

Thanks be to God. Amen. Now may the peace of God which train Since all human understanding guard your hearts and your minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord Amen having her

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

What Is Sabbath? Sermon for Sunday, June 9th, 2024

Genesis 3:8-15

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,

cursed are you above all livestock

and above all beasts of the field;

on your belly you shall go,

and dust you shall eat

all the days of your life.

I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel.”

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Our Old Testament and our New Testament readings have a whole lot to do with Satan. And so we get to talk a little bit about him today. The Old Testament reading is the result of the first confrontation. And Jesus talks about binding him binding the strong man and the defeat of our greatest enemy. But before we dig into that, there is something that I always get questions about. And every time we read it, it's good to just go over just a little bit. It's this thing that Jesus says about the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, right? Because we look at that, and we go, what? An eternal sin. I better not do that. Right? Yeah, I bet when you all heard that, you're like, oh, whoa. So let's make sure we know exactly what that is. If you take a look at the passage, let's look and see what's going on here. The Pharisees are there. And they say, he is possessed by be eligible. And by the prince of demons, He cast out the demons. And so Jesus then goes, and says, Every sin will be forgiven except for, except for the blaspheme against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but as guilty of an eternal sin. And then it says, it explains, for they had said, he has an unclean spirit. Now, if you talk to different people, they will come up with different explanations for the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. But this explanation from the Gospel of Mark is rather clear. It's when you call the Holy Spirit, an evil spirit. And the work that the Holy Spirit does the work of Satan is pretty straightforward, right? Because it says, For they had said, Jesus has an unclean spirit. When the Spirit IN Jesus was not an unclean spirit. The spirit was the Holy Spirit, that question answered. So unless you're walking around, saying Jesus is filled with the devil, which I doubt many of you have done. I think you're okay. Now, on to our main topic for the sermon. So we are looking at the conflict between Jesus and Satan. And it goes all the way back to that first conflict in the Garden of Eden. God is walking in the garden, Adam and Eve have just eaten the forbidden fruit. They have the famous conversation, what have you done? It was her fault. No, it was the snakes fault. And then God turns to the snake, the serpent, and curses him. And then there's the famous passage, the very beginning of the gospel promise, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring, he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. And ever since then, there has been a conflict, Satan, trying to get humanity to turn away from God and go our own way to follow Him and be lost and condemned. And the great proclamation of the Christian church in this regard, is that Satan has been defeated. And that defeat began with the very first promise all the way back after the very first sin, that God would send someone to crush the head of Satan. And we know exactly who it is. It is Jesus Christ, our Savior. He talks in our gospel reading about someone binding the strong man. And that is what he did. When Jesus came down to bind Satan, the strong man and defeat his power. And he did it by the strangest method, by death on the cross. Doesn't seem like a powerful way to defeat your enemies going and dying. But that's the kind of thing you do when you're the Son of God. Have you enter into the realm of death, and destroy satan forever. But I don't think that's the best thing about this. I think the best thing about Satan's defeat is that he is so fully defeated by Jesus, that Jesus used Satan to defeat himself. Because who would went into Judas to betray Jesus? It was Satan, right? Who was the one who arranged all of these people and all of the hostility against Jesus, our Savior, and caused him to die on the cross of Satan. Which means that Satan is so fully defeated, and under the crow control and power of our God, that Satan beat himself by killing Jesus on a cross. And Jesus was the one who crushed the head of the serpent, by his death, and resurrection, which means that the devil is the great enemy has no real power over us. He cannot snatch us out of our father's hands, he cannot destroy us, he cannot come at us with a full frontal attack and defeat us, because we are protected by our God, who is so in control. So in power, that he used Satan to destroy satan. Which means the only thing Satan has our tricks can't defeat our God. He cannot stop or overpower or snatches away. All he can do is try to confuse us and cause us to turn away of our own. So we ask, what are Satan's tricks? What are the things that he does? To try to get us so that we don't stay in Christ, but turn away? Instead? think the biggest trick, perhaps the most important one is the one he used on Adam and Eve. The great phrase, Did God really say? Right? That's what he said to them. Did God really say that you should not eat of the forbidden fruit? does? God really say? It's a question that brings doubt into our hearts and our minds about God's word. Did God really say that he created the earth in seven days? Is what everybody else says true? Did God really say the babies in the womb? are human beings too? God really say that I should remain true in my marriage, or that I shouldn't live with my boyfriend. Did God really say that I'm forgiven. When the pastor says I forgive your sins. And there's a lot of doubts and questions that Satan likes to put in our mind. And where it starts then is not turning away. And just like Satan adds a question and all of a sudden we leap off into unfaithfulness. But we start to make a Christianity that is molded after our own minds. Where we can say, well, this piece of the word that I can ignore this piece I need to pay attention to. And it seems innocent enough at first. Until, well, once you start going down that road, all you do is start to knock away the different things that you don't like, until you end up with something that is not Christianity at all. Do we make a religion in our own image, or maybe perhaps in Satan's image? That is mostly just filled with doubt. And when it comes down to it, in the end, you will end up saying, Did God really say that I'm a sinner in need of forgiveness and that you Jesus came and died for me.

And then we get lost. And what we need to do is simply cling to the promises of God, and hear His word and react with joy. And say, Yes, Lord, this is what you have spoken. We need to hear the promises, and simply say, I believe, I believe that Jesus came to die for me, I believe He sends His Holy Spirit to us. I believe he has saved me, because I have received his word and Sacraments and heard the promise. And he has called me by his voice. And because he has done that, I hear and believe the rest of his even if it doesn't make sense to me. And I know, there's parts of his word that don't make sense to you, that you might struggle with, you might say, Wow, this is really hard for me. I admit, there are parts like that for me too. But what we do is we say, I know I have doubts. I know there are things that challenge but God is greater than me. Satan's accusations, statements, questions, Did God really say can't pull me away from his word. Because I know that my God loves me. He sent His Son to die for me. I will hear His word and believe, even as I struggle with it. One of the other tricks that Satan likes to play is that he likes to tell us that God isn't in control. He likes to tell us that he is just as powerful as God, maybe even off on his own doing his own thing. The gods stops him most of the time, but he can scroll around it. And of course, we know that's not true. Jesus defeated him, He crushed his head. And we see it every time Jesus runs into an evil spirit in the Gospels. He doesn't have to have a spiritual battle with them. Like in some anime episode. It just says be gone. And they flee. That's how much power he has. But St Mike's to tell us that he's in control. He likes to offer people things. And in places where they believe that there is a spiritual realm, he actually shows up and possesses people or comes in hauntings. You might come in dreams. And we see that, especially in places like Madagascar, where they believe in animism. And even their God has an answer. They still given his church the power to cast out demons when they show up. God's still in control. And if you want to hear more about that there's a fantastic book called I am not afraid. Get the info after this. God is still in control. But I think the last trick and one of the ones who uses most on us is not that. But the accusation. The name Satan means the accuser. And what he does in our hearts and our minds so often is play the prosecuting attorney on our consciences. He drags up every little piece of our life, every little thing that you've always done. And he says, You're not good enough for God to love you. Or even worse, he says, Yeah, God forgives all of those people sitting next to you on Sunday morning. But you could never forgive that sin. You remember that one that you did 10 years ago that you've never told anyone about? And you're so ashamed of it, that you think about it every day. That one? Nope. That's not going to work. We've all got a sin like that. thing that lurks in our past or our consciences that Satan can pick out and pull it until it becomes a scar and starts to bleed. And sometimes we try to defend ourselves by saying, I'm really a good person. If you tell people, they're sinners out in the world, they say, No, no, I'm a good person. Absolutely. That's what they're trying to do is cover it up. Sometimes we try to do that we defend ourselves. But if we go toe to toe with Satan, and all his accusations, for every one defense we have, he'll come up with 10 more. He'll always win that battle. Which is why we don't. Every Sunday, we confess that we are sinners, who deserve nothing but temporal and eternal punishment. Every Sunday, we stand up and say, There's nothing good about me. I need Jesus. And the classic Luther quote, applies well, he says, so when the devil throws your sins in your face, and declares that you deserve death, and hell tell him this, I admit that I deserve death and hell, what have it for i No one who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God. And where he is, there is shall be also very simple defense, to Satan's accusations, that you are a sinner, and that no one should love you, and that you deserve nothing but death and judgment. Just to agree with him. Because he's right. That is true. And that's why we needed a Savior Jesus Christ and that's why he came to forgive you to die so that you could live and because he has risen from the dead and ascended in heaven, we too will get eternal life. Not just after death when our souls go to be with him, but bodies to when he returns on the last day. Satan's accusations shouldn't bother us or surprise us. In fact, we know they're all true. Instead, we cling to our Savior, the only one who is good, the one who defeated the serpent himself, by His death on the cross. In Jesus name, Amen. Please stand

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

What Is Sabbath? Sermon for Sunday, June 2nd, 2024

Deuteronomy 5:12-15

“‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. What is Sabbath? It's a difficult question. Actually. It's a question that lots of people ask. And I think many people make mistakes about what is the Sabbath. Reading from the Old Testament is just a snippet of God's law. We have a couple of different places where Moses repeats the 10 commandments, one in Mount Sinai, and one here in Deuteronomy. And our reading just gives us those few verses that are all about Sabbath regulations, which means that no matter how little I want to preach on the Sabbath, I have to today, so we're gonna go for it. What is Sabbath? Before we dive into that, it's good to back out and take a look at the concepts of Sabbath. And the Old Testament. The first time we see it is in Genesis with the creation, and God creates the world in six days. And then he rests on the Sabbath. And that day, becomes the Sabbath, a day of rest, a day a holy day for the Lord, as we see it in Exodus, chapter 20, where God says, again, Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. And it's tied to creation, again, six days of labor, one day of rest. Once again, we see it here, in Deuteronomy, this time, it's not tied to creation. Instead, it's tied to the salvation that God provided in ancient Israel. At the very end of all of the rules that he gives, He says, You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. So it is something marked by both God's pattern of creation in Genesis, and Exodus, and then again, redemption, the salvation that happened in Egypt, when he brought them out of slavery, and took them on this journey all the way through the wilderness, to where they are now in Deuteronomy at the edge of the promised land. But Sabbath is not only commanded every every week, God had some pretty interesting rules for Sabbath. Beyond that. Leviticus 25 gives us some Sabbath rules that God commanded every seven years. The land was supposed to get a Sabbath rest, which meant the farmers were not allowed to farm. The rules were very simple. No sowing your fields no tending your grape vines. The land would just do what it wants. Can you imagine a farming society built on the grain harvest in the vineyards and you go and you tell your farmers every seven years, just take a break for a year. Eat whatever the land produces all on its own. That's a little bit more than a day set aside not to work right. The funny thing is little vague. Leviticus also gives an answer to the question you're thinking about. out, quote, you may ask, What will we eat in the seventh year? If we do not plant or harvest our crops, I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in. It's kind of cool, right? How much you want to bet Israel never did the Sabbath year. Right? Yeah, I take that bet. Now, that wasn't the only year, every 50 years, there was a Sabbath of Sabbath's called the Jubilee Year, when they wiped out all debts freed all slaves. Everybody who bought property in those years would return to their family estate, all the everything would reset in all of Israelite society. If you thought the Sabbath year was unlikely, unless you want to bet they never did that. Right. Can you imagine what it'd be like if you bought property. Without understanding that 20 years from now, it would go back to its original owner, and you'd have to go all the way back to where you were born. It's very different thing, right? The Sabbath or rest wasn't just a day or a schedule or a year, sometimes it was a concept to the Promised Land was supposed to be a kind of rest a kind of Sabbath for God's people. God gave them this land as a way of giving them provision for their future providing for all their needs, and rest from their enemies. The food they would get from God and the protection they would get from him as well. And so when Joshua goes to the promised land, he is supposed to be a way of conquering the land and receiving rest from God. And when David and Solomon finally had peace, after years and years and decades of war, the Bible says that He gave David rest from their enemies, the rest is more than just a day, more than just a schedule. It is resting in God's provision, and waiting for God to take care of you. And so we can see that again, in the ideas that the Psalms sometimes give us, as Psalm 46 says, Be still and know that I am God. It is you rest and wait for God to take care of you. Whereas Psalm 27 says, wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage and wait for the Lord. The Sabbath day, this Sabbath rest was a way to force all of Israel to do that is to say, my work and my behavior, my actions, my life, my activity that does not provide God provides. And we would see that all the more securely, and the Sabbath year and the Jubilee. And you all reacted exactly the way I thought you would write to those things. No way. How would people survive like that was the point, wasn't it? We trust God in ancient Israel did not. So we asked the question then for us with all of this ideas in mind with Sabbath of ancient Israel. What is Sabbath for us? Because that's really what's important. Like it's not all the regulations and rules about what that God gave ancient Israel, that was a people in a country many 1000s of years ago. Now that Christ has come, what is Sabbath? For us? The most common answer that I hear is that Sabbath is Sunday. We gather for worship on the Sabbath day, fulfilling God's command to keep the Sabbath. And our Small Catechism kind of says something like that. And when we look at the third commandment, the explanation is, we should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and his word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. So this connection to the commandment

is all about preaching and God's word. So many times, I have heard and I bet you have heard that we Christians now observe the Sabbath day, we keep the Sabbath day by going to church on Sunday, and sanctifying that day, taking that day as a day of remembrance. Another way of thinking about that is that we took the observances of what St. Jesus did on the Sabbath. Our reading, in the Gospel talks about Jesus going to the synagogue, as was his custom on the Sabbath day, where they would read from the scriptures often have something that sounds a whole lot like a sermon, and then go about their Sabbath rest. But the problem is, what that does, is that ignores what the Sabbath actually was in ancient Israel. It was Friday to Saturday. When do we worship on Sunday, which means that if we want to keep the commandment, the Sabbath as Sabbath, we would have to do it yesterday. Wait a second. That means either we are doing something wrong, or the Sabbath command no longer applies to us, right? At least not in this way. One of the problems is that many people simply assume that somehow the Sabbath just magically got moved, without any passage of scripture or command of God. And if you look up, what day is the Sabbath on our favorite search engine, you will find plenty of articles that will say things like that. Oh, yeah, Sabbath is now Sunday. And they have zero evidence for it. This was a huge conflict between Lutherans when we came to America and the Calvinists who are already here. You see the Calvinists? They said, well, well, Whoa, you're not supposed to do any work on Sunday. And all you're supposed to do is read your Bibles and pray. If you remember, Little House on the Prairie, that's what they had to do, right? And the Germans who got here were like, What are you talking about? We can go out and have a picnic. It's a great day to do that. Was a lot of fighting. A lot of theological division, when we got here. But that's not the real problem. The real problem is that when we talk about Sunday as the Sabbath, and keeping the Sabbath, we are doing exactly the same thing. The Pharisees did. We are making Sabbath a list of rules and regulations that we are doing to make God happy. You have to go back into the Old Testament and parse out all of that stuff and figure out exactly what God wants you to do on this day, to please him. Which turns Sabbath into the same kind of burden and law that the Pharisees did. See, Sabbath is not for God. It's for us. And we gather on Sundays, not because God has commanded a particular day, because but because it's the day Jesus rose from the dead. And I think his resurrection is pretty cool. Right? Like if we're going to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, why don't we do it on the day he did it. That's it, right. And we gather here not because we want to fulfill some law of God, but because we need grace that was enabled and empowered by that resurrection. And we need the forgiveness of sins, we need to hear his word, we need the Holy Spirit delivered to us. And it's not because God has given us a checkbox in his law, and told us, this is what you must do to make me happy. That's Old Testament thinking. That's the law. That's the Pharisees. We're here, because we desire God's grace, and his love given to us through His words, and Sakhalin. Sunday is not the Sabbath day, it's the day of the resurrection the day of the new creation. And when we gather here, we live in that for just a little bit. Now, one of the other ways that I hear the word Sabbath used, is that Sabbath is a day where you're supposed to take a break from working. And usually when I hear this, it's at pastors conferences, and some kind of health expert stands up in front of the pastors and says, Hey, guys, you need to take a break a Sabbath, because we're really worried about burnout. And I bet you've heard Sabbath us that way, as well. Everybody should take a Sabbath a day off, where you're supposed to rest and recover and not work. There's even a little bit of that, in our Old Testament reading, where it tells the people who owned servants or own slaves or hired servants, that you're not allowed to take a break on the Sabbath and make them work. That's not what Sabbath is about. Sabbath and the Old Testament was resting in God's provision, not just taking a day off. Well, I think it's a good idea to recover if you need it. Well, I think it's a great idea for pastors to take their days off, just like it is for you. That's not really the command of God. God did not come down from on high to say, you should have a weekend. Right? The Sabbath was given to Israel, not for that reason. But because it was the pattern in creation, and a way to rest in from God's rest in His grace, and His provision. And so we shouldn't use that word Sabbath, to talk about taking a day off either, because it simply takes the word rest and misapplies it theologically. So what is Sabbath? For Christians? I've given you two wrong answers. What's the right one? Well, our kollect of the day gave away the game before I could get to it. Jesus is our Sabbath rest. You see, because rest in the Old Testament was all about resting in the grace of God, and His protection, whether it was resting from your labors as provision, or taking care of your future, by your work, resting from the enemies who are around you by resting in God's protection. We rest in Christ, because he has accomplished it all. And the place where we see that perfect rest is in the life of Jesus himself. You see, because Jesus went to the cross and He died there on a Friday that was sacrificed for us. And his faithful followers took his body down and placed him in the tomb. And it was there that he rested. And I can't imagine a more perfect or a better way to rest in trust in God's grace. Right Jesus knew exactly what would happen to him. He knew he would go to Jerusalem die on a cross be placed in a tomb. And after three days rise, and what did he do? He allowed himself to be killed and placed in a tomb, and he rested for the Sabbath day. He trusted, that his father would raise him from the dead, and give him life again. That's, that's what I call trust, right?

That's fulfilling the true Sabbath, that is waiting for the Lord, let your heart take courage, wait for the Lord. Jesus accomplished that perfect Sabbath rest, He fulfilled the command for us, so that when he rose to new life, he could give us his righteousness and purity. Jesus is our Sabbath rest. That's what Hebrews chapter four tells us to is that the rest of the Old Testament could not be accomplished by the work of those ancient people, not by Joshua, not by all the Sabbath that they did not keep, or by the broken regulations. It says, So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever is entered, God's rest has also rested from His works as God did from his. And we rest in the grace and peace of Christ. He is what causes us to rest from the need to please God by our works, from the fear of our enemies, sin, death, and the power of the devil. We rest knowing that Christ provides for us by his own death, and resurrection. We know that Christ is all the promises of God, as it says in Second Corinthians chapter one, for all the promises of God find their yes in him. So that means that Sabbath is actually a gift, not a burden, or a law or something that we have to do to make God happy. And it's a gift of grace in Christ. So what it means is you don't have to figure out what all the rules and regulations are for Saturday or Sunday. Sabbath is Christ for you, and giving you grace, protecting us from our sin, and the power of death. It's not something that you have to study or plan for accomplish. It is simply receiving the word and Sacraments. It's not a duty given from God to you as a law that you have to carry, but a gift in Christ, we don't have to impress our God. In Christ, we don't have to fight off all of sin, death and the power of the devil in Christ. We can even rest in our graves as we wait for the day that he returns. Because that's what Christ did for us. The Sabbath is the gift that God gives to you through His Son, Jesus Christ. In his name, amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Law and Gospel in Communion: Sermon for Sunday, May 26th, 2024

Isaiah 6:1-8

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;

the whole earth is full of his glory!”

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Today we are celebrating Trinity Sunday. It is the day that we remember the doctrine and the reality that our God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons, and yet one God, united in divinity and majesty, not three parts, or three gods, or any of all of that stuff. Just Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons, one God. Two of our readings highlight the work of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in the world and in action within the church. Our second reading from X has Peter talking about the salvation we receive through Jesus Christ, with respect to the Trinity, he says that the Father sent the Son with the full plan and knowledge that he would be trade, crucified, die, and then rise from the dead to bring salvation to all, and that the Holy Spirit came to the church on that day, the day of Pentecost, to proclaim this mission to the world. The Trinity in action. Our gospel reading has something similar, summarized in the verse that I think most Christians know, For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life, which may or may not be what the version that our reading has. It's the one that I memorized when I was about that tall. And the Holy Spirit is in this passage as well, when it talks about us being born of water and the Spirit, in Holy Baptism. This is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we know that this, this trinity is at work among us, as the Holy Spirit comes to us through the means of grace, to deliver the salvation of Jesus Christ to you, as we hear his word, and we receive His sacraments. To have these readings talk about our subject for the Sunday, but one does not. And as you know, I am preaching through our Old Testament readings this year, so which means I get to talk about that reading instead. But what it does talk about is the amazing power of God, and the experience of Isaiah. You see, this is a pretty intense moment, for the Prophet. It is his origin story. It's like the radioactive spider that came to Spider Man. And it's the suit that Tony Stark built to become an Iron Man, or the spaceship that flew from the planet Krypton all the way to Earth, and revealed Superman to the world. Isaiah, steps into the Holy of Holies, and sees God. How do we know that? Well, Isaiah gives us some hints at where he is. He says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him the stood the Sarafem. To understand what's happening here, you need to know how the temple was built, and what is going on. So let's start with how the temple was built, all the way back when they first build the tabernacle, and then later on the temple. It was always divided into three sections. The first section was the courtyard. This is the sort of like an outer wall around the building itself. In this area, you found the sacrificial altar. This is where they would have killed the sacrifices offered to God. They also had the Brazen Altar, also known as a really big grill. And then there was what they called the bronze See, which was a vessel law that would hold water for ritual washing that was large enough to make our swimming pools seem small. This was the courtyard. This is where Jewish men and priests only could go and offer their sacrifices. Everyone else had to be outside where the Gentiles or Jewish women would be. The next step was entering into the actual building of the temple. You go into there, they called it the holy place, only priests could go into this section. Inside the holy place, there was a table where they would put the Showbread. This was bread that they baked every single week, and would set out as a display to God. And at the end of the week, the priests would take the old bread and eat it. There were also candelabra. In the in the tabernacle, there was just one, but in the temple, they built more because it was bigger. And then finally, the incense altar, this would have been at the far end of the holy place, place that held burning coals that you would then place incense into as part of the daily worship of God in the temple. That is what Zachariah would have been doing. When he saw the vision of the angel Gabriel, who told him he would have a son named John that we know of as John the Baptist. Now there was a dividing line at this point. And on the other side, was a room called the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies was a simple room with only a couple of things. The most important one was the Ark of the Covenant. If you've watched Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones, you know exactly what it looks like. They did a pretty good job, right. And so it would be placed in the middle of the room, above the Ark of the Covenant, and to the sides were to Sarafem. Angels. And they stood with their wings out. So that one touched the wall. And the other touched the wing of the saref next to him, and then the other, touch the saref. And the wall. The Holy of Holies was the place where God was. And the Ark of the Covenant was his throne, sometimes called the mercy seat. This was the place where God lived among his people. It was also a place where only one person could go once a year, and the high priest would go in on the Day of Atonement, and he would go in with fear and trembling. And the stories are that they would tie a rope around his waist and put bells on his robe. So that just in case, if he saw God and died, they would find out by the lack of movement, and they could pull him out. It was a scary place. Because being in the presence of God, seeing God meant death. Because God was holy, and the people were not. That's the whole reason they had a temple. In fact, when God came to Moses on Mount Sinai and told him to build the tabernacle, he said that he would do it so that he would not lash out with His Holiness and destroy the people. All of the sacrifices, all of the rituals, the tabernacle, and everything else, was designed to keep God's people safe from his holiness. Because if they came in contact with him, they would die. Holiness, and unholiness cannot stand each other. So we see Isaiah, his eye he is either in reality or in a vision. In the Holy of Holies. The Sarafem are now animated, and flying above the throne crying out, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory the Holy God

And Isaiah sees him. So he cries out, Woe is me. Because Isaiah knows the stories. He knows that when the high priest had two sons, who went into the temple and offered a kind of worship, that God did not command, God did not go to them and say, now they're there. Here's what I actually said, Let's try better next time. But that's not what happened. They died. Isaiah knows that when David decided to move the Ark of the Covenant, by placing it on a cart instead of following God's instructions. And when the carts wheel broke, this poor priest who's decided he was going to keep the Ark of the Covenant from rolling into the mud, and he went, put out his hands to stop it. Poor guy died. He knows that even Moses at the top of Mount Sinai, when he said, Show me your face. And God said, I can't do it. You can see my back. So he covers Moses up, and passes by. Sea and God meant death. And so Isaiah says, Woe is me, for I am lost. For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. He's terrified. He knows he's a sinner. And he knows that he is a member of a country of sinners. And that when the unholy meets the holy, the weaker one loses. But something amazing happens when one of the Sarafem grabs the tongues and pulls a coal out of the altar and touches Isaiah with it, right on his lips. This is so hot that the Sarafem actually takes the tongues and yet it doesn't burn Isaiah his mouth. Instead, behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atone for the voice cries out Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? And then I said, Here am I send me. What an experience right? Can you imagine? I can't like nothing could give me the kind of insight to be able to know what was going on for Isaiah, and what he was experiencing in that moment. What a holy experience. Now you may have noticed that going through all of this, we see this, this back and forth of judgment and then there's grace and then ascending to serve. So far, it doesn't really have anything to do with what the title of my sermon is for today. If you've got a bulletin, you'll see that it is Wait a second. law and gospel in Holy Communion. You may have noticed that there's no bread or wine in this passage. It doesn't even mention Jesus Christ, or communion. That's because there is a passage in here that is associated with the experience of God that we have as we come forward at this altar. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. It's the song The Serafin sing. And it's the song that the Christian church has sung just before communion for about 1400 years. The earliest records that I could find of singing this song before communion, go all the way back to 600 ad, in a record of what they call the gallican. Mass. The church from that time has sung, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. And then they add, bless it is he who comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest. The song that the people saying as Jesus entered into Jerusalem So since the very beginning, Christians have applied this passage to Holy Communion, to help us understand what is happening. When the bread and wine that are Christ's body and his blood come to his people in our sanctuary is actually helped to design to help invoke this image to, you may notice that we have a division of two parts. There is, well, there's the world out there, right. And then you enter into what might work is kind of the holy place where you are all seated as priests of God. And then we have a second section where the altar that is a table stands. And Christ comes with his body and his blood. And here is an encounter with the Holy God, whose true body and True Blood are in the bread and the wine. Now, if you've been a Lutheran for long, you have known that this comes to you in this special gift that Jesus offers himself for the forgiveness of sins. And you see the amazing power of forgiveness. And we Lutherans are so comfortable with that, that sometimes we forget about the holiness of God as well as sometimes and that that's kind of a good thing. It's a piece of that says that you are so in touch with God's love and His grace for you, you would never think of an encounter with him as being of one of judgment of a holy God coming to a sinful people in a way that could be dangerous, if done incorrectly. Some of that is good. But sometimes, we lose the fact that it is the same kind of encounter that Isaiah went through. When Christ comes with the bread and the wine, this becomes the holy of holies in every church that celebrates communion with Christ's Body and Blood. And when God comes down to be with his people, there is both grace and judgment available. Grace for those who are seeking forgiveness, for those who are united with us, in this unity meal, in our doctrine, and our teachings, but judgment for those who come without looking for this forgive judgment for those who do not examine themselves, and are not united with us. This is why St. Paul tells the the Corinthians in First Corinthians chapter 11, that everyone who comes to the altar must examine themselves first, or else they may eat and drink judgment on themselves. He says, and that is why some of them were sick, and some had even died. Like Ooza, touching the Ark of the Covenant, like Aaron's sons entering into the Holy of Holies unbidden. That means is, we needed to examine ourselves, as St. Paul says. What that means is, we need to be reminded of this every once in a while. This is why our congregation does not invite our guests to hold the community. We ask them to refrain. Because what is what what kind of host would we be if we ask someone to come forward, not knowing what they do, and maybe eating and drinking judgment. Right. This is why we examine ourselves before taking community. We ask ourselves, Am I a sinner in need of God's judgment? Do I come to Holy Communion, not as a reward for being good but as someone who needs grace? Do I believe that Christ's Body and Blood are there for me

that as my Savior, He died for me and rose for me to give me life am I united with all the people who are here, both in life and in doctrine and not bringing division to this unity meal? We ask ourselves these things, because we are looking for the grace that comes through this, this gift. And we don't want to receive the judgment. And so even though most of us have been doing this well, sometimes for longer than I've been alive, it is still good to remember that when the Holy God comes to us, he can come in grace or in judgment. We want to receive grace. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The Word Gives Life: Sermon for Sunday, May 19th, 2024

Ezekiel 37:1-14

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Today is the day where we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit. The day is marked by the great story of the apostles, they get the fire and the wind and the spectacle. But that's not the important piece of the story. And the important part of the story is the word going out into the world, spoken by the apostles in various languages, spread out to all of the people hearing it in their own native tongue. It's all about the word of God. And we see that in Ezekiel as well. The reading from Ezekiel points us to the power of God's word spoken by the prophet Ezekiel is placed in front of a valley. It is filled with bones, they are very dry. God says to him, Son of man, can these bones live? And the answers, oh, Lord God, you know. Ezekiel tells us from this vision, what these bones are there to represent. God says it. In these words, Son of Man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. The old they say our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost. We are clean, cut off. This recognizes the idea that God's people were in exile, cut off from their land, their soldiers had been killed by an invasion. They were powerless and far from home. But the response is not to fix that problem. And the response that God gives to Ezekiel is a promise. He says, Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, oh my people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, oh my people, and I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live. And I will place you in your own land, then you shall know that I am the Lord, I have spoken. And I will do it declares the Lord. This is the great promise that Ezekiel speaks to us and to Israel. But what I love about this passage, especially on this day of Pentecost, is the means that God uses to gather the dry bones into living human beings. He uses the Prophet when God makes these bones come together. He doesn't speak to the bones directly. He says to Ezekiel, Son of man prophesy over these bones and say to them kind of funny, right? He tells the prophet Ezekiel to speak. And that's when it happens. The rattling the bones come together flesh and sinew. And suddenly, there is a large crowd, an army it's through the word proclaimed, that Ezekiel does this thing by the power of the Holy Spirit. And it's the word of God. And it's power that we celebrate on Pentecost. How the Holy Spirit works through that great and glorious gift. This is why I chose the song thy strong word as our sermon him today, because it is about as good a sermon on the theology of the Word of God as there is in a single him We're gonna take a look at each verse, verse one says, Thy strong word did cleave the darkness. At thy speaking it was done for created like we thank Thee, while thine ordered seasons run. The first piece of understanding the power of God's word is that we see it in creation, that God controls all of creation by the power of His Word, it cut through the darkness, when he said the words, let there be light. And then there was light. And we know that the power of the word didn't end there. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And that same word, Jesus Christ stood up in a boat in the middle of a storm with the wind and the waves crashing around him. And he said, Peace, be still. The waves listened, and the wind stopped. Because the word still orders creation today, by the power of God. And we know that God orders creation, by His power, so that all things work for good for those who love God. All things work together for us, his people, as they lead us towards the amazing resurrection of the dead, and the power of God's word, verse to low on those who dwelt in darkness, dark as night and deep as death, broke the light of thy salvation breathed thine own life giving breath. Not only does the word of God bring things into being and order, all of creation, the word of God also reveals salvation to the world. And this is what we see on the day of Pentecost, the apostles are filled with the Holy Spirit, and they proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone who was there. And all of the sudden, the people who were in darkness, saw the light. The people who did not know they came to faith. The word moves people from the power of death, into the power of life, from the Satan's kingdom, to Christ's. For the very first time the apostles proclaimed the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, for all who believe, and the people heard it, and they said, What should we do? And they said, Believe and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, this promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off. The Word of God brought in 3000 people that day, delivered life and salvation to those who didn't have it. And the whole story of the book of Acts is how the Word of God goes out and gathers people into his church, to reveal the light and life of Christ. And it works the same way here. The Word of God is what revealed Christ to you, that opened your heart that enlightened your eyes. And today, it still delivers salvation. It still gives you the gifts of Jesus Christ. Verse three, thy strong word bespeaks us righteous, bright with thine own holiness, glorious now we pressed toward glory and our lives our hopes, confess. This verse focuses on the active work of God's Word in our congregation. We see it actively giving life just as it did with Ezekiel, giving the breath and life of God but especially as it makes us righteous. This is why we begin our service with I forgive your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

It's not just a pleasant wish, or a hope are just a nice thing that the pastor says. It's the voice of God. Because Jesus said to His disciples that the end of John, he breathed on them and said, received the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven. If we withhold forgiveness, for many, it is with how what a gift that God has given us, that his church can speak righteousness to people, and that the power of the Spirit actually works. When we say, I forgive you. How amazing. Verse four, from the cross thigh wisdom, shining breaketh, forth in conquering might, from the cross forever be myth, all thy bright, redeeming light. The cross is the amazing wisdom and power of God. Now, if we look at it, and we say, without all of our years of Christian training, you might think to yourself, the cross actually is kind of weird. But you know, we're used to it. We talk about it. Many of you have been hearing about Christ in His death and resurrection for years and years, more years than I've been alive. And so we're used to it. But a man on a cross, bleeding and dying, doesn't make a whole lot of sense to the rest of the world. In fact, it seems foolish or silly. The rest of the world wants empowerment. And yet, the word of the cross is the wisdom and power of God. St. Paul dealt with this during his day. He says in his letter to the Corinthians that Jews demand signs and Greek seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, but to us are being saved the power of God, the wisdom of God. That's because the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the proclamation of this gospel is the conquering power of God. It breaks forth in conquering might, and forever casts away all the shadows of death. And it's always done this. When the Roman Empire wanted to kill off all the Christians, send us into the arena and feed us to the lions, is the word of God one conquered, it took over Rome, and defeated the enemies. When the Word of God spread out into all those pagan Viking areas in Northern Europe. One two, all these amazing warriors fighting the great Viking Raider age, the proud, outstanding warriors and yet they were defeated not by swords and spears, but the proclamation of the gospel. They became the heart of Christendom. And the power of the cross, the proclamation of this gospel continues to do just that. It is the power of God to say and I think it's this that many of us have lost confidence in. That the conquering might of the gospel is what gathers people into the church, the power of the Holy Spirit to gather people and deliver salvation. For many of us, we think the only way people will come to the church is if we figure out what they want. And if we market test what they need, if we adapt to their culture, if we just say what people want to hear. If we can just figure out the right kind of program, the right kind of event, or the right kind of whatever. But that's never been the way it is. If you look at the book of Acts, only one thing gathered people into the church. everywhere they went, the apostles just preached the Word. And it was the wisdom of the cross that conquered nations, and gathered people into his church. The only way to gather more is to proclaim this word of God, to those who need to hear it. And that's what the last verse is about. Give us lips to sing Thy glory, tongue design mercy, to proclaim throats that shout the hope that fills us mouths to speak thy holy name. What a gift it is right? That we have this word of God among us. And that we actually can speak the power of God into the world with the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit uses us to do it. And we can speak to each other and share the word that makes us righteous, that builds us up and binds us together, and gives us the hope, the hope of Christ, as we speak the same word to those who need to hear it. To those people around us, who have not yet been enlivened by the word of God, and had faith delivered to them. The joy that God gives it to us. Now, I love this hymn. But I've always felt that it's missing a verse, especially in light of reading this passage from Ezekiel, see, we get creation, we get salvation delivered to those in darkness, we get the speaking of righteousness, the conquering wisdom of God's Word, and the joy that we have in sharing it. And yet there is one more word that Christ is yet to speak. A word that is the most powerful, the most joyful. It's the word of resurrection. When Jesus, the Son of Man comes back, and proclaims, as God says, prophesy over these bones and say to them, oh, Dry Bones, hear the word of the Lord. Behold, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live. And you shall know that I am the Lord. Jesus, the son of men, is going to speak again. This time over all the world. When he came, he spoke, there was a little girl in a room and an upper room who was lying dead. And he went up to her and say, little girl, I say to you get up. He was outside of a tomb. And he looked and he said, Lazarus, come out. But the day is coming, when he will say to all the world, get up. There'll be no first names, no limiting it. He will prophesy to the bones in the graves and make them alive. Now I took my hand trying to write a verse. It was terrible. I'm not going to make you listen to it would be a pretty good one. We won't sing it either. But I think it's missing something. Because Christ is coming, and that voice and the power of God will raise you from the dead. And that's the power at work amongst us now. Not just in the future, but always among us. Wherever the Word of God is preached. In his name, amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

What About Judas? Sermon for Sunday, May 12th, 2024

Acts 1:12-26

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) “For it is written in the Book of Psalms,

“‘May his camp become desolate,

and let there be no one to dwell in it’;

and

“‘Let another take his office.’

So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Today in the church year, we're in a bit of an odd place. We're in between the ascension, and Pentecost. On Thursday, Jesus ascended into heaven, and we celebrated that joyous moment, he is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. And yet, in the drama that we go through every year, the Holy Spirit has not yet come to the church. And so we get sort of a bit of weirdness. That's why our Pascall candle is out. And yeah, it's, I'm not wearing red for the day of Pentecost. And what that gives us an opportunity in the church year is to read about that story in between Jesus's Ascension into Heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts, and talk about what the church did after Judas left the ministry. It's an interesting question right? Now. Can you imagine being in the apostles place? They are looking around with the other believers number was about 120 At that time, and they go, we only have 12. What do we do with Judas? He's gone now. What is next? And they decide that they need to replace him. Because the number of apostles is supposed to be 12. And we could talk about the process. I kinda like the idea of, of casting lots to see who you who the next pastor he gets to be, can you imagine? But what I'd like to talk about today, is what the apostles did with Judas. Right? The fledgling Christian church just went through one of the greatest scandals amongst their pastors, ever. An apostle, betrayed their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and sent him to the cross. What do you do with Judas? As a congregation? Maybe about our size? Right? And it raises a question then, for us many 1000 years later. What do you do when a pastor screws up? Right? That's an important question. What do you do when the guy disqualifies himself from the office? Just like Judas? Let's take a look. I think the apostles help us to see. So the first question I think people have when a pastor behaves badly, what do we do with the memory of his ministry? Right? What do we do with all the things that have happened in the past? Well, the apostles give us a clue. When we look at the words that they say about Judas. He says, he shared in our ministry, and he was one of us. The means is they don't cover up his path. They say Judas was one of our number, and we're going to stick to it. They don't ignore the past. They don't cover up history. He was an apostle. And it was true, and they could celebrate his ministry. This reminds me of an controversy in the very early period of the Christian church. Shortly after the Emperor Diocletian came into power. This is around the three hundreds ad Diocletian decided to do an official and large persecution of the church. What happened was the the method was all about going to churches, and asking the pastors and the bishops to give up the Bible, the scriptures. Some people did, and could get off, go free. Some people didn't and were persecuted. And there were a number of pastors who avoided this kind of persecution by giving up their Bibles and others would do other things, just to get out of it. And then when Diocletian was gone, and Christianity was official and legal, they wanted to come back. And there was a group in the Christian church who, unsurprisingly, were not excited about that. They looked and they saw that some men had been killed for the faith. Some men had been hamstrung, pretty serious. And these guys, they were just sort of got out of it, and wanted to come back. But the real question they did was they said, if these pastors abandon the faith, it meant that their entire ministry was invalid. The sacraments that they administered, didn't work. The Word of God that they proclaimed had no power. And we had to go back, baptize their people again, do confession for them again, and erase their entire ministry. Fortunately, they were wrong, the Donatists because, praise God. The efficacy of the ministry does not depend on the holiness of the pastor, for which I am eternally thankful. Amen immense that when pastors who would later on abandon the faith or flee under persecution, when they did their ministry, it wasn't based on them, but on the power of Christ. And so they looked back, and they said, these sacraments that they did, they are based on Christ's promise, and His word, not on the goodness and the faith of the pastor. Which is quite a blessing for you all, isn't that if the ministry of the gospel depended on being a good and holy person, the ministry of the gospel would not go very far. Not even to that first 120 People that gathered around in our reading, because the apostles themselves weren't all that great. During Jesus's lifetime. Each one of them abandoned him, turned away and fled when they faced persecution. And now that they had been restored, the apostolic ministry, they looked back at Judas and said, Yes, he shared in our ministry, when Jesus sent them out, he cast out demons, He healed the sick. He proclaimed the kingdom of God. And you know what? Those demons were still cast out. The sick, were still healed. And the Word of God was still proclaimed, no matter where Judas ended up. And that is the same thing that we can all do. When a pastor screws up, makes a huge mistake and disqualifies himself from the office. It means that we don't need to cover up the ministry that happened before. When a pastor visits, he still did a visit. Communion still bring is Christ's Body and Blood. baptisms are still valid. Weddings are still wedding. On all the good gifts of that ministry still happen, despite the mistakes that might have been made. And for many, I've talked people through some of this, the conflict of having the memory of the mistake, and the good memories is challenging. All we got to do is say yep, there was a mistake. But there were also good. That is exactly what the apostles did. They say the Judas screwed up. He sent our Savior to die. But even more than that, he went off and he He killed himself.

We just need to move on. Remember that he was one of us and in this ministry, and yet, we know that the ministry must go on. One of the other questions that happens, I think, when this situation presents itself is, what do we do with the men himself? They were honest about what Judas did. They didn't try to cover it up, they did not contract with the local PR agency to make sure that the church looked as good as possible. And what they did was they said, brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago, through David concerning Judas, who served as a guide for those who arrested Jesus. He was one of our number, and shared in our ministry. You know, in a small group of about 120 or so you can't cover up what happens, no matter how hard you try. You can't hide things because everybody knows everybody. And what they did was they just went out and said, Here's what happened, guys. We got to face it. Was it. Judas did what he did. But they also didn't spend a whole lot of time bashing the guy. Right? There wasn't a committee gathered around to say, the official denunciation of Judas committee. Their little groups didn't get together and pass out letters or anything like that. All they said was, we need someone to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go to his own place. That's it. You acknowledge the failure. And then you move on to four churches today, the Lutheran church has looked at three different reasons why a pastor should be removed from the office of the ministry with cause these are the kinds of things that like Judas is to disqualify a person from that office. The first one is persistent, false teaching. What that means is that he has bad doctrine, and he can't be corrected. Because you know, all of us every once in a while, say something a little weird. If we're corrected, that's then we move on. But if it's persistent, false teaching, number two is a refusal to do his duties. That is, he's super lazy. And he wants that. And the last one is the one that I think happens more often. And immoral lifestyle is something that he does that gets him kicked out of the office. These are the three things that the church has identified as valid reasons to remove a pastor from his call. But whatever happens, and however it works out, we say, Yep, it happened. And now we move on. The final question I want to ask is, what do you do with the ministry? The church in the community, after a pastor disqualifies himself? Well, very simply, the ministry goes on. Why? That's because the ministry of the gospel is not dependent on an individual. It is not about a man. It is not about his style or his leadership, or his vision or his purpose or any of those things. It is very simply about Jesus. When a controversy arises in the Christian church, we remember very simply, our loyalty is not to the pastor or to the congregation, but to Christ. And it's his power and promise that our that gather us here. Jesus Christ died on a cross for you. He rose from the grave for you. He ascended into Haven't for you. And he promises to return from there for you. Pastor didn't do any of those things, in case you're wondering. And when controversy or difficulty arise, we have to remember that our loyalty isn't to a man. But to Christ is his word and Sacraments work whether the pastor is a great guy or a bad guy, whether he is a visionary leader, or somewhat inept, because the power is not from him, but from Christ. We have to remember that the ministry is about our Savior. And the power comes from him. And I think the perhaps the best example of this is the scandal that has happened in the Catholic church over the last many years, right. I was in Chicago when all the news broke out about the priests and how they would cover it up. And I met a lot of Catholics who said, I left the Catholic Church because of this. And what I would do is I would ask them, if you think the church was right before the scandal, they would be right after the scandal. They're just bad, bad at doing their job. Because the ministry isn't about whether the pastors or the hierarchy or anything is good are good people. The ministry is about the proclamation of the gospel. Now, I think Catholics should leave the Catholic Church because they're wrong about that. Come join us Lutherans because we got it.

But not because of a failure of the priests. And that's what we always have to remember, like the apostles did, is that it's about Christ and His work in the church, which is why they could just move on and elect a new pastor. Matthias, via roll of the dice are casting of lots to replace Judas in the apostolic ministry. Because the ministry of Jesus goes on, no matter what the pastor has done. The divine call continues as a new person goes into the office of the ministry. The scandal fades into the past. This is what happens in churches. And this is how we treat these things. Because the ministry isn't about a man. It's about Christ. In his name, amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

He Does The Work: Sermon for Ascension Day, May 9th, 2024

Acts 1:1-11

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Good to see you here all this evening. We have a few but faithful people here tonight right? Are reading for Max one today tells a story of Jesus ascension. We learned that Jesus promised the disciples the father would send them the Holy Spirit. And they were to remain in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came to them. The disciples asked Jesus, if Jesus would now restore the kingdom to Israel, Jesus replied, That is not for them to know the time the Father has fixed. Jesus told them they would receive power, when the Holy Spirit comes upon them. And they would be Jesus witness in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and Samaria, and to all the ends of the earth. When he had said these things, as they watch, Jesus was lifted up, and the cloud took him out of their sight. Then two men and white robes appeared and asked the disciples, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven. I will talk focus tonight on Acts, chapter one, verse eight. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. What is the Christian witness? A Christian witness is someone who knows the testimony of Jesus speaks it by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let's look at the first part of the definition. In the first part, we are told that a Christian witness is someone who who knows the testimony of Jesus. We know the testimony of Jesus by bearing being hearers, and readers of the God's word. The apostles and disciples were with Jesus three years, being taught by Jesus. They were watching, listening, and learning from Jesus. They took this knowledge, and after Jesus ascended, they spread the world, the word throughout the known world at that time. We go to church where we listen and learn God's Word through the sermons. The Lutheran witness issue of February 2010, stated, God shows up when his word is proclaimed. And he speaks to His people today no less clearly, and truly than he did through the prophets of old. Jesus teaches us through the words of the sermon, we hear, and we are like the disciples listening to Jesus. Another way we learn about Jesus is through the liturgy, which is directly from God's Word. In the design, divine service. God serves us by speaking his word to us. Wherever Christians gather, God's word is that the center and is his gathering point. By that word, God speaks to us in the service. The heart of the divine service is the word of God. The Holy Spirit instructs us and changes our hearts. You may remember Martin Luther is explanation of the third article of the Apostles Creed, which states I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ, my lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened being with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way he calls, gathers and enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and keeps up with Jesus in the one true faith in this Christian church, when we confess, day after day, he fully forgives all our sins. This is also emphasized in Jeremiah, chapter 24, verse seven, which says, I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. This is a great comfort to us as we know we have a God who loves us enough to send his son to take our sins on himself and die for our sins. What is a Christian witness? A Christian witness is someone who knows the testimony of Jesus speaks it by the power of the Holy Spirit. The second second aspect of the Christian witness is we speak the testimony. That is we talk about Jesus was friends, relatives, neighbors, people we may know, we talk about Jesus and actually use his name in our conversations. Or we may have a chance encounter as Philip did in Acts chapter eight. Philip and the Ethiopian unit are traveling the same road. Phillip overheard the unit reading Isaiah and Philip asking if he stood understood what he was reading. The unit said to Philip, about whom I asked, does a prophet say this, about himself or about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth. And beginning with this, Isaiah 53, verse seven scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. What was the result of this encounter between Philip and the unit, the unit believed and asked to be baptized, then the unit went away on his weight, way rejoicing. What a joy it is to be able to share the gospel with someone. You never know when you'll have the opportunity to witness to. So it is good to have this words ready. So you will be ready. The word comes to another when we open our mouths and speak and they hear the word. What are some possible barriers to witnessing? People may be thinking, I can't do it. I'm afraid of offending someone. Afraid I don't have the right words, and won't speak the words correctly. There is a long list of things to fear. But we only are called to plant that seed. Others may water it as it says in first Corinthians three verse seven, I planted Apollo's watered, but God gave the growth. Some may think I don't know how to witness or know enough to witness. But if you know the Apostles Creed, you know enough to witness. Have you tried and it didn't work? Did you feel discouraged? But God does for us as He gives us the Holy Spirit. So our objection, objections do not matter. We have the backing of the Holy Spirit. What is a Christian witness? A Christian witness is someone who knows the testimony of Jesus speaks it by the power of the Holy Spirit. And third, we go out by the power of the Holy Spirit. And this is the answer to our personal witnessing fears and problems. Halls and Peter's preaching had different results.

Immediately after Saul was converted to Paul, he preached that Christ is the Son of God in the synagogues. All who heard it were amazed and said, Isn't this the man who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem? But Paul confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus, proving that Jesus is the Christ. After many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him. But Paul learned of the plot, the gates were watched day and night to capture and kill Paul. But at night his disciples lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall. On another occasion, Peters preached the gospel and got him arrested and he spent the night in jail. And this account Peter and John were speaking to the people teaching about Jesus and proclaiming His resurrection from the dead. The priests, the captain of the temple and the Sadducees were greatly disturbed by the message The Sadducees laid hands on Peter and John, and put them in prison until the next day. Despite this, many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of men who believe came to about 5000. We speak the words about Christ, who he is, and what he has done for us. As Peter did, we don't worry about the results. And we let the Holy Spirit do the work of the Holy Spirit works through the words, even if you feel like you don't know enough. Don't feel good. No, he does the work. We say the words about Jesus, the Holy Spirit is responsible for the result. We use the power of the Holy Spirit to plant the seeds and rest in the promise that he will complete the work. We do not try to convince another we speak the Word and the Holy Spirit takes over the Holy Spirit does the conversions in the hearts of the here's the here's my believe, or not believe. You also may remember Peter sermon at Pentecost in Acts chapter two, when many did believe we hear so those who received his word are baptized, and there were added that day about 3000 souls. In conclusion, I made three points about a Christian witness. A Christian witness is someone who knows the testimony of Jesus speaks it by the power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Scripture Is Difficult: Sermon for Sunday, April 28th, 2024

Acts 8:26-40

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter

and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,

so he opens not his mouth.

In his humiliation justice was denied him.

Who can describe his generation?

For his life is taken away from the earth.”

And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. During this Easter season, we continue to talk about the passages from the book of Acts as we explore the expansion of the Gospel throughout the world, beginning in Jerusalem, and then going out to all sorts of people. The reading for today from Acts Chapter Eight is a prime example of that. The Holy Spirit's takes Philip sends him out to see an Ethiopian eunuch, who was along the road reading out loud, a passage from Isaiah. And the gospel is being brought to a man that would have been considered outside normal worship life of Israel, because of his status as a unit. And this passage could be all about talking about the expansion of the gospel in Acts and in our churches. But we're not going to talk about that this week, because we've got another story about that next week, where the gospel expands even further to the Gentiles. Today, we're going to take a look at something that Philip does, because he hears the Word of God read aloud, the Ethiopian is reading Isaiah the prophet, and he says, like a sheep was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearers is silent. So he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him who can describe his generation, for his life is taken away from the Earth. This is the passage famously that we read on Good Friday, about the suffering servant, Jesus Christ, who bore our sins, so that we can be saved. But we only know that because we've been going to church for a really long time. And you've heard people tell you about that for well, a really long time. If you're like me, I have been attending Good Friday worship services for well every year since I was born. Which means that's a lot of times reading this passage and having it applied to Christ. But this Ethiopian, he goes, What in the world is this guy talking about? Makes sense, right? Because if you are reading these words, like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter like a lamb before it's yours is silent. So he opens his mouth. How in the world, would you know who that applies to? How could you possibly come up with the right interpretation? Especially if you are riding around outside of Jerusalem, only a few weeks, maybe a month after Jesus died? And rose? I think it'd be pretty tough, right? And so it's natural. When Philip runs up to the guy, he says, Do you understand what you are reading? And he says, How can I unless someone guides me? So he invited Philip to get into his chariot, and explain it. He asked Philip, about who am I ask you? Does this prophet say this about himself or someone else? Philip opened his mouth. And beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. And what it makes me think of whatever it reminds me of the challenges that we have when we read Holy Scripture, because scripture is hard, isn't it? Like, we read it, and we go, what? Almost as often as we say, Oh, I know what that means. Some passages are really easy to understand. When Jesus says things like, I am the Way the Truth and the Life No one comes to the Father except through me. Think I got that. But there are harder passages to like the Gospel of John, when you read Jesus's discourses on the Gospel of John And he goes on for chapter after chapter talking to His disciples or praying. And there are passages in there where I go, huh? Me. I went to seminary for five years, I spent full time studying the Bible. I know Greek. I have a wall of books designed to help me understand it. And there are still times when I go. What? What in the world? Does this mean? Because scripture is hard. There are passages that are difficult to understand. There are places that you go, what, in fact, there are places where all the best and brightest minds in the whole world have no idea what they're talking about. My favorite example is from First Corinthians chapter 15, where St. Paul writes about being baptized on behalf of the dead ones. And we go, what? This is the only reference to that. And we simply just move on. And it's okay. Script scripture can just be hard. Wouldn't it be nice to be like the Ethiopian and have the Holy Spirit come down and say, Hey, you, why don't you go over there and tell that guy what it means. It doesn't happen as much as it used to be. But God has not left us alone. To read scripture, and wonder if God has given us many gifts to help us understand God's word, and apply it to ourselves so we can be saved. I think the first thing that we should understand is that even when scripture is hard, Scripture is difficult to understand. That's okay. We don't have to know every line, every word, every passage to be saved. Because we are not saved by our understanding of Scripture. We are not saved by interpretive skill. We are saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Scripture may be difficult, but salvation is rather easy. Believe in Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. In fact, we don't even need scripture to get that do we? All we need is the proclamation of the gospel. Jesus died for you. He was row rows for you. And through faith in Him, you have eternal life. If every Bible on every shelf, all of the sudden disappeared, the Christian church would not disappear with it. Because we still have the gospel. We still have Jesus Christ through the proclaimed word. Which it means that even when we have trouble understanding God's word, and even when we pour through it and read it, and we say, well, we still are saved. But that doesn't mean we give up. We still read and try to understand. God has given us many gifts to help us. The first of the gifts I want to talk about that helps us to understand scripture, when scripture is really difficult are the historic creeds, confessions and theologians of the church. Now, we all speak a creed. Every every time we gather together on Sunday, in fact, ours is coming up right after the sermon, the Apostles Creed. This is the baptismal creed of the church. When we are baptized, we speak this creed. The reason we say it every single Sunday or others do the Nicene Creed is because this helps us understand. The core and the heart of God's word is always pointing us back to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, working in creation, in redemption, and in the holy Christian church.

And so we read God's Word, and the Old Testament or X, epistle and gospel. We hear a sermon. And then we're reminded Everything points to this. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How does this help? When you read God's word, and you understand it and interpret it? You should bounce it off our Creed's. If you say, Does this fit in the creed? And if you say no, then you gotta go, Well, that means my interpretation is wrong. Right? Because the message of Jesus Christ death on the cross and resurrection for you, and how he works by the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. That is the core of the gospel. That is what the Bible is all about. And that's what our confessions, the Lutheran CONFESSIONS also teach us that as we gather together, and we hear God's word, and fashions point us to the truth of it, and help to guide us so that we don't end up going off the reservation, going crazy with our interpretations. Because there are church bodies that do that. There are groups of people that are like that. Because many people have gathered together and said, I know what we will do, we will eject all of church history. We will eject the Creed's and the theologians and we're just going to start with the Bible and go from there. And we call them Jehovah's Witnesses.

We need these people are creeds. Our confessions are great theologians like Luther and Chrysostom. And Augustine and Ambrose and Aaron ES and all the people of our past. And they don't just write in treatises or Creed's, or in dusty old Tomes. They live in hymnals to, we can sing their words to help us understand. These are not the only gifts, that historic church and the great theologians, God gives us the present church as well. That is why we gather to read God's work. We gather together as God's people. The present church is both pastors and congregations. Right? We need them both. St. Paul writes in Ephesians, chapter four. So Christ Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith, and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. What that means is, the ministry of the church is there, to build us up as we hear and read God's word, to help guide us together as we interpret it, so that we're not pulled off the path, cast about it. God gives you a gift. And that gift is pastors. Not me, in particular, I am not God's gift to the church, just the office of the ministry, wherever you go, whether it's this congregation or another, this pastor or another. God has called these people to guide and help you understand this proclamation of the gospel, that you're not pulled astray or turned away or tossed about but every wind of doctrine, but so that we can all gather together. And it's also you. You are here to help us understand God's Word. We gather together, we read it together, we discuss it together and you have great ideas. One of the things they tell me told me when I left the seminary, I graduated, and I went out into the world as they said, Pastor, you're gonna run into people who have read the Bible more times than you have. You're gonna run into people that have read it and interpreted for more years than you've been alive. Maybe you should keep that in mind. And me as a 27 year old pastor who looked like a 16 year old pastor. When I went out into my first church, I found that to be true. There were people who knew the Bible way better than me, who had been Lutherans several times longer than I had. There is part of our congregational job is to guide and help each other. We hear and understand God's word, part of your job is to help each other as we hear and understand God's word. His Holy Spirit fills you too, and has called you to help and guide and work together. And just as importantly, to keep me in line, right? Because every once in a while, I don't know if you know this every once in a while. Pastors are sinners. I mean, not this one. Other ones, right. Every once in a while pastors say crazy things. And we need to be challenged. We need to have have a conversation where you say, hey, Pastor, you said this. Can you explain that to me? Can you help me understand? Because the Holy Spirit needs you to keep me in line two, no one else is going to do it. And God has given us the church, one another, to help us understand the word. But I think the most important gift that we all get to understand God's word is the Holy Spirit himself. We who have faith in Christ are filled with the Spirit. And the Spirit testifies to us about the word. The Spirit speaks to us about the gift of God for us. There is no way to understand God's word to truly get it. Without the Holy Spirit. There are lots of people who try lots of smart people who write books about the Bible, and what it's saying. And they all get it wrong. Unless they are Christian. And Jesus says, but they advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of everything I have said to you. It's the Spirit, who is truly at work when we read and understand God's word. And the Spirit who builds our faith and guides us as we do. So. Jesus gave those disciples the spirit, so they could recall his words and write them down for us. And it's just as much a gift, the Holy Spirit helps us to understand them when we read them. This gift receives through the Word, and the sacraments is the key at the heart of all of this, for us to read and hear God's word, and truly get it. Without it, we cannot know that Christ is the center of the scriptures. And it's not just Jesus, but Jesus, for me, Jesus for you, it drives everything that is written. It's the key to understanding it all. And truly living in Christ. So, yeah, scripture, it can be difficult, and it can be really hard. And in fact, there are some places where we go, I still don't get it. But God has given us a number of ways to help guide us through this difficult time, both with the historic church and the current church, but behind it all is the power of the Holy Spirit working for you. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Jesus Welcomes All: Sermon for Sunday, May 5th, 2024

Acts 10:34-48

So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We have been working our way through the book of Acts during this season of Easter, our first reading has been seeing the expansion of the Gospel throughout the world. The thesis statement for the book of Acts is, when Jesus says that to the disciples, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. So we see, that happens. Amazing, right? It begins first with the apostles at Pentecost, in Acts chapter two, the Holy Spirit comes on them and they proclaim the message of the gospel, speaking in tongues, of the languages of the people who had been gathered, and the church grows to 3000. That day, 5000 A few days later, when they enter into the temple, and heal a man, we begin to see it expand even more. When Philip the evangelist, who is scattered after the killing of Steven, he goes to Samaria. The apostles follow it up to show that even though Samaritans get the Holy Spirit, and become one of us, X eight, we also see Philip go off to another person who would have normally been excluded from the power of the gospel, the Ethiopian eunuch, someone who wouldn't be allowed to enter into the temple. But someone who had received a promise from Isaiah, many centuries before, who says in Isaiah 56, to the Unix who keep my Sabbath, who choose the things that please me, and hold fast, my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters, I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. So this Ethiopian unic now becomes one of the fellowship with an everlasting name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in his baptism. And now, we come to the final barrier. The Gentiles in Acts, chapter 10. Now, we cannot read in this in our church service, the entire story, because it's pretty long. Now, if you went to our Bible study right before this, we actually did read the entire story, but you get to hear it again, like you you. So here, here it goes. Peter is in Joppa, where he begins to believe he gets a vision. This vision is preceded by a man named Cornelius. So Cornelius is praying. And an angel appears to him and says, Cornelius, your prayers and your gifts to the poor go up as a memorial offering before God. I want you to send for a man named Peter, who is living at the house of Simon the tanner in Joppa by the seat. So Cornelius sends a couple of messengers and a soldier to go to Peter. These messengers while they are on the way, Peter is hungry, and he falls into a vision, a trance. In this vision, a cloth drops from the sky, and on it are all sorts of animals clean and unclean. And the voice says, Get up Peter, kill and eat. Peter says no horrid. I have never eaten anything that is unclean. And the voice says do not call unclean what God has called us clean. has happened three times. Each time Peter says no. I would never the vision fades. Peter is wondering what is going on. And all of the sudden messengers show up at his house outside the door crying is this where Peter is staying? He finds out that these are Gentile messengers from a man named Cornelius and he goes down and he talks with them. They say we've been sent by Cornelius a God fearing man that all the Jews like he says Come with us. Peter invites them in. Later, Peter heads out with the men and goes to the house of Cornelius. Now, there are a lot of barriers that would be raised to keep Peter from doing this. The first one is the one that we already have seen. Peter does not want to be unclean. He has a good and faithful Jew doesn't eat anything unclean, doesn't touch anything unclean, and going to the house of a Gentile would definitely make him unclean. This is why the Pharisees and religious leaders would not go into the house of Pilate, when they were telling, asking Pilate to condemn Jesus. So the same thing would be true for Peter. But it would be more than that. It wouldn't just be the uncleanliness. It would also be Cornelius as a Roman soldier. an oppressor is one of the ones who was there to conquer and keep Israel out of its own control. We don't know whether Peter was the nationalist or not. But it certainly would have been on the minds of the the circumcised believers who went with Peter. But sometimes it's even more than that. Maybe this Roman soldier would just be a little weird, right? His food would be different. His home would be a little different. His clothes, his styles, his accent, pretty weird. He might even be hard to understand. It says he's from the Italian regiment, which means he came straight from Rome, probably. The barriers would not just be clean, and unclean, might be cultural, practical, maybe language, all sorts of things that would make it really uncomfortable to cross through and enter this house. And that's what Peter says right before the passage, we read this. Quote, he said to them, you yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation that God has shown me that I should not call any person common, or unclean. So when I was sent for I came without objection, I asked you, I asked then why you sent for me? These barriers were so high and so strong, that Peter needed a vision from God, and a word from the Holy Spirit to say, go tell them the word. Otherwise, he would have said no. That's a big deal, right? Can you imagine saying no to someone who wanted to hear the Word of God. But that's how powerful these barriers were. So what he does, is he travels with these men, he enters into the house of a Gentile in an uncomfortable and difficult situation. And he begins to speak the words that we read. He talks about Jesus, about his work, how he was killed, died on a cross rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and that forgiveness is given to everyone who believes in Him. As it says, To him, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him received forgiveness of sins through his name. Peter did it. Put aside his discomfort is cultural barriers, spoke the word of God and watch what happens. The Holy Spirit comes down on these Gentiles and they start to praise God and speak in tongues. Hello, may amazing,

powerful word of God brought the Holy Spirit to them. And now, instead of being foreigners and stray jurors divided by culture and religion. They were brothers and sisters in Christ. How amazing. And it was simply the word of God. Peter spoke the message of Jesus Christ. Jen Gentiles believed they were saved, gathered together as one family. The Word of God still works the same way among us today gathered us. Carl, California is one of those places where people come from all over the country. Right? People come from crazy places like Chicago and remade one. We're gathered from all parts. In fact, it's pretty rare that I meet someone who was actually born and raised here. Right? You came for all sorts of reasons. And yet the Holy Spirit's with the Word of God has bound you together as one, and it works the same way. And it works the same way, with the people who are around us. And through the word of God, the Holy Spirit can make people who are different from us, one with us. It's through this message. Others become our brothers and sisters in Christ. Whether they are from the United States, or Cambodians, or fans, or Chinese, or any part of the world, the message of the gospel brings together people and makes us brothers and sisters in Christ. One of the great things about our church and our denomination that we send missionaries all over the world to make this happen. Our former pastor, Pastor Feder, that's what he does, right? He goes all the way over to Europe to establish Lutheran churches in places where they are not there to build and grow and spread the message of the gospel. And what a wonderful thing it is. And our congregation has a history of sending people on mission trips, all over the world, to share the message of Jesus. But sometimes, the world comes to us. Sometimes you don't need to board a plane and fly to another continent, to share the message of the gospel with people who haven't heard it before. Sometimes they land in our backyards and spend 1000s of dollars to come right to our door. Pretty cool, right? And that has happened here in El Cajon, Afghans, Kurds, and arrows. People from the Middle East have been flocking to our community for a couple of decades. Right? Now, many of them are Chaldeans and they go to their really big church right over there. And their other really big church right over there. Good for them. Well, let's, we don't need to reach them already believers. But there's a whole group of Muslims who have come to our community under the oppression of Islam, because that's what it is, can be freed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the power of God's word, does the same thing with them, that it did with the Gentiles, that it's done throughout history, to gather people together and make us one. For us, it's a challenge because there are a lot of barriers. There is a religious barrier. They believe something different than we do. There are cultural barriers and habits and clothing, and foods and things and just ways of being that are different from us. They are a language barriers. That's a big deal, right? That's huge. When you can't speak the same language. And yet, we know that the power of God through the word Word of God by the Holy Spirit. We can take people who are different from us in all those ways and make them one. God has decided in his infinite wisdom to drop them on our doorsteps. What an amazing opportunity. And the word does it. Now you might say, okay, Pastor, I get it. The Word of God goes out and it does its work. But Peter had some help. Right? There were visions, Cornelius was already primed as a god, fear of follower of God, before he heard the message of Jesus Christ. There was all these cool things that happened that made this take place. That's not happening now. A lot more work. Or is it? There's an article published in 2016, called, where Muslim dreams may lead by a journalist called Ooh, a seaman Neto, he writes about an interesting phenomenon that is happening all over the world. At the time. Muslims are seeing a vision of a figure in white, who calls himself Jesus and tells them to go to church. Kind of cool, right? There's a pastor, Pastor Gottfried Martins, who is the Pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Berlin, one of the independent churches in Germany that we are in fellowship, and the article says that he has 600 converts from Iran and Afghanistan making up two thirds of his parish in one of the most secular cities in Germany. And you know what they do when they gather in worship? They it says, quote, they lustily chant 16th and 17th century Lutheran hymns that they have learned in Berlin. Pastor Martin says, former Muslims are particularly attracted to these hymns and our high liturgy because they are established in intimacy with God. They are not known in their previous faith. Another pastor, Pastor Michael Stone avec says, about an experience that he had, quote, I stood at the exit, still vested, bidding worshipers goodbye. When a veiled woman approached me. I fumbled through a slit in my robe for my wallet thinking she was a beggar. No, no. She said, I only have a question. Are you the Imam here? I answered, well, in a way I am. I am the pastor. She went on. In that case, you are the right man. God commanded me in a dream, to go to the big church on the market square and ask the imam for the truth. What continues, I taught her the catechism and baptized her several months later, as I have baptized many other Muslims in my ministry. Maybe just maybe, God is working. He worked there. Maybe he can work the same way in our community. This is happening all over the world. God is calling Muslims to the freedom in Christ, turning away from where they were, to the truth and everlasting life. Perhaps God won't send visions to the Afghans in our community, though I've begun praying that he would. Perhaps all we have to do it as the old fashioned way to open our hearts to them and proclaim the gospel and wait for the Holy Spirit to do its work. But what that means is, it'll be uncomfortable. Right? There will be people who wear different clothes, and eat different foods and speak a different language and don't know anything

about our practices and behaviors and activities might not know the ways of how we're polites or not what you do when a group or not these are big barriers. yours that we may have to deal with as the people who have freedom in Christ to share this amazing message. And it will take time should this happen for us to get used to it? But Isn't it worth it? Isn't the work and the the discomfort worth sharing the message of the gospel with people who so desperately need to hear it? I think so. We will have opportunities in the near future. I think, as the Afghan community begins to grow, continues to grow as the Kurdish community grows, the Arab community continues to grow in our neighborhoods, to build connections with people who are different from us. And the Holy Spirit will be there. Just like he was with Peter and Cornelius, just like he was with Gottfried Martins and Pastor Michael Michael Stone with Eric. Good German names. Holy Spirit will be with us as well. Because God is at work behind his word, gathering people who are different from us into one fan. In Jesus name, Amen. Please stand up

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

No One Else: Sermon for Sunday, April 21st, 2024

Acts 4:1-12

And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. To our first reading, we have been going through the book of Acts for a while now, the Easter season assigns readings from from the book to show us the life and progress of the Christian church during that season. And in particular, we have been following up on a story that is about a miracle, what happens outside the temple, and then the fallout from that experience. And so several weeks ago, we read about Peter and John coming to the temple, and there was a paralyzed man begging outside, he asked them for money. And Peter says, silver and gold I do not have but what I have I give to you, in the name of Jesus, get up and walk. And of course, the man does. Not surprisingly, a crowd gathers, because that would be pretty amazing, right. And so Peter takes the time to proclaim a sermon to all of the people who have gathered in front of him. And it's basically, I didn't do this, Jesus did it. And then you killed him, and he rose from the dead. And lots of people hear and believe, as it says, In our reading, but many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about 5000. I think it's pretty amazing. That in four chapters, the number of Christians goes from about 120, to about 5000, men, not counting the women. Now, this large crowd, and all of the activity of the disciples leading up to this moment, draws the attention of the authorities. And they arrest Peter and John, they gather together with the high priests and all sorts of other people. And Peter gets the chance to do one more sermon. He says, It's not us. It's Jesus. And he ends his sermon with this, saying, and there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved. There is no other name that no one else can save. That is because our God, Jesus Christ, is the only one who can bring about the resurrection of the dead. Right. As Jesus said himself, he has the authority to lay down his life, the authority to take it up again. And he promises that all who are in his flock will be raised to new life on the last day, called out of their graves. And the Sadducees are really mad, because Peter is proclaiming this resurrection, in the name of Jesus. There is no other name. Salvation is in no one else. Because only Jesus can raise us from the dead. This proclamation of the truth and power of Jesus's name, often comes across a number of objections in the hearts of people who were once part of the church and leave. Often they have various like moral and emotional objections to the church and the world that pulls them away. And today, what I'd like to do is have those objections confront this most powerful message that no one else can say. So the first objection that I hear a lot when people leave the faith and a Christian church is very simple. The people are mean, or they're hypocrites. Right? I'm sure you've heard that before. I went to a church, they said mean things about me. The pastor was kind of a jerk. He said things I didn't like to hear. They didn't welcome me. They were cold. And, you know, you've heard those things before, right? And, in fact, there was a time when congregations were famous for having knockdown, drag out fights in congregational meetings over things like the color of the carpet. Right? And what a surprise, a place that says, We are all sinners is filled with sinners, right? The people are mean, they're kind of jerks. And what this really raises is a question. Why do you join a congregation? Why do Christians gather around Christ and His Word? Is it because you need a place where everyone knows your name, where they shout NO HARM when you walk in? That's for all you old people, right? That's cheers. Now if you want that, there's a bar down the street. They're happy to take you in, they'll smile. And if you're a regular, they'll really like you. Especially the bartender. You can join a Lions Club, they meet every week to they'll welcome you and love you. Because you need a mentor. There's all sorts of people you can pay to do that. life coaches have become a thing. You can go online and pay someone to tell you what to do with your life and mentor you. That's what you need. There's no reason to go to a church for that. Why don't we join a church? Why do we gather together? It's not because the people are great, is it? It's very simple. Peter said, and there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. That's what we keep our eyes on. Right? Only Jesus can forgive our sin. Only Jesus can raise us from the dead. Only Jesus can give us eternal life on the day that he returns when he calls us out of our graves and makes the whole world new. And I don't know about you. But I don't know. I don't care how many jerks I have to live with to get that. Right. And you guys aren't jerks. It's pretty great here. But if you were, isn't it? Isn't Jesus worth it? Isn't the resurrection worth it? That's why we gather to receive the grace of Christ through His Word and Sacraments to have the Holy Spirit delivered us to confirm us in our faith and guide us and gather us until the day he returns. Because no one else can save. So that's why we're here. Another objection that people have when they look out at the world as they think, wow, there is so much pain and injustice and hurt in the world. Natural disasters, earthquakes, floods, fires, starvation, children getting sick and dying of shrapnel falling from the heavens and hitting a poor little girl who could never believe in a God who allows fill in the blank. Have you heard that one before? What this is, is people look at the world and rightly see it is filled with terrible stuff. Bad things happen to relatively innocent people. Good things happen to relatively evil people. And it's an affront to our sense of justice. We look at it and we go this is wrong. Somebody should fix PSpice

right, and God could come down, right? He could come down and end the wars on the earth, he could come down and hand food every starving child, he could knock away every disease amongst the children of the world and get rid of all the terrible things that happen to all the nice people, he can do that right? Why doesn't he was because the people who are looking at it this way, actually want to fix that's too small. They want salvation from the everyday hurts and pains. From that one sickness, that one disease that one earthquake, but in the end, everyone's still going to die. In the end, we're still gonna grow old bodies are gonna fall apart just a little bit at a time. And even if we breathe our last surrounded by family and friends at the ripe old age of 350, we still breather elapsed. That's not the fix, we need. The everyday stuff. We need a cosmic solution, one that will solve all problems, defeat all sin and destroy death forever. And that's what Jesus did. Right? On the cross, He invaded death, he entered into its realm and destroyed its power so that when he rose from the dead, he could raise us from the dead to let's not settle for a small solution and ask God for the tiny thing. Let's keep our eyes on the cosmic salvation, that God includes us in Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead on the last day. Yeah, and I mourn all of the problems that I see out in the world. And just as you do, it upsets me when I see injustice, it makes me sad when I see the hurt and the pain. But you know, we all know that there's a solution that God has chosen away, to bring all injustice all hurt to an end, in Jesus Christ, as Peter said, and there is salvation in no one else. But there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. It's only Jesus. The final objection is one that is related to that one. Often what I see is something terrible happens to you. And to a person is not out there in the world, and not far away place or down the street, but in your own life. And it sort of knocks you loose, and then people just slowly or quickly, stop coming to hear God's word. Stop gathering around his grace, and his peace. a loved one dies, and the memories just are too much. The kids start going through a crisis, and you're so focused on that that point, everything else turns away. And then you just start thinking, you know, God was really good. Why would he allow my life to be like this? Why isn't he fixing this? Somewhere along the lines, we started to think and believe that that's what God is for. fixing things. The God is there to provide the nice things we want in life. And if we pray hard enough, or work hard enough, or believe hard enough, his job is to give us that American dream. A good family, a nice house, a full bank account, and happy life, happy children. And the really surprising thing is that actually contrary to what God's Word says, it's all over the place where Jesus tells us Study, it's hard to follow Him, and that maybe even your life will get worse. Certainly got worse for Peter and John. And Jesus rose from the dead ascended into heaven and they got arrested a lot. And why? Very simply, there is salvation in no one else, as Peter says, and there is salvation and no one else, for there is no name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. And it's that salvation is what God promised. That's it. And what a gift that is, isn't that worth going through? Whatever? Isn't it worth crawling through glass beating on the church doors and let me in? Going through terrible things like the apostles did. Because it's eternal. It's resurrection from the dead. It's life that lasts forever. There is salvation in no one else. There is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: John 10:11-18 The Gospel Reading for Sunday, April 21st, 2024

John 10:11-18

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Gospel reading for Sunday, April 21, comes from John chapter 10, verses 11 through 18. Jesus says, I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold, I must bring them also. And they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it up again, no one takes it from me. But I lay it down of my own accord, I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my father. Here ends the reading. John chapter 10, points us again to Good Shepherd Sunday, where Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. How does he define what a good shepherd is? Well, here we go. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Now that seems kind of ridiculous, doesn't it? A shepherd gets benefit from the sheep by using them as his animals. Right? So the shepherd keeps the sheep because their wealth. And so he keeps them for wool, and he keeps them for food. And if he lays down his life for the sheep, then well, the sheep don't really do much for him if he's dead. Which means that this Shepherd is good, not because he knows how to take care of the sheep, so that he can use them. But because the sheep are considered more valuable to him than his life, which is really weird, right? So your hired hand does what any normal shepherd would do. Jesus says, He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep sees the wolf coming leaves the sheep and fleas. And the wolf snatches and scatters them. He flees because he has a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. And so if you, if you protect, if you hire someone to protect something, pretty often, they're going to say, this isn't worth risking my life for I'm only making money here. And who cares whether the sheep live or die. Jesus is the crazy kind of Good Shepherd, who is willing to fight to the death to protect his sheep to lay down his life when the wolf comes, so that they will not be scattered. But the weird thing about this Shepherd is it's actually laying down his life when the wolf Satan comes, that defends them and protects them and destroys the wolf. The wolf attack seems like a victory for the wolf. until Christ returns to life and destroys them. Jesus says, again, I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as a father knows me, and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. So once again, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. And this time he defined it by saying, I know my own, and my own Nomi. I don't know about you, but every time I look at a photo of a sheep, they all look alike. I could not tell you one sheep from another. I bet shepherds can know that maybe even that sometimes they have names for all the different ones and can keep track of it. While Jesus the Perfect, good shepherd, doesn't treat his sheep. Like they're nameless and faceless. He knows His own and His own, know him. Right. He calls them all individually through baptism and gathers them together into his flock. And he is so intimate with them by being one with Him in baptism. Just like himself and the father, as he says, just as the father's knows me, and I know the Father. And then he repeats, and I lay down my life for the sheep. Jesus continues, and I have other sheep that are not of this fold, I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. So Jesus is letting the people know and us know that after his death and resurrection, there are lots of people to be gathered into the flock of the Christian church. And this gathering is ongoing, isn't it, that God wants all people to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. So he gathers all through time and space, a whole flock of people to be part of this one holy Christian Church, under one flock, and one shepherd. It says, For this reason, that is for the flock, the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it up again, no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord, I have authority to lay it down. And I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my father, what an interesting way to talk about his death on the cross, right? Jesus is going not as a victim, not as someone who will be attacked and betrayed and those things will happen. Sometimes we look at Christ, and we act as if, oh, if only that hadn't happened, like he was such a victim of the circumstances. But Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen. He knew what was going on. And he went, and he did it, with full knowledge, fully intending for this to be the outcome. He goes, not even just hoping or expecting the people but intentionally laying down his life for the sheep. And because he is not just a human being, but he has also got, he has the authority, the power to give up his life, and to take it back again. How nuts is that? Like, I will lay down my life, that I may take it back up again. I can't do that. You can't do that. But Jesus could die, and then bring himself back to life, how nuts but this is exactly what he came to do. And it's because he can lay down his life and take it up again, that he can be our good shepherd, even through the valley of the shadow of death, to bring us up from our graves and give us eternal life. Wow, what a shepherd we have. That's all I have for today for First John chapter 10. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: 1 John 3:16-24 The Epistle Reading for Sunday, April 21st, 2024

1 John 3:16-24

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Epistle reading for Sunday, April 21, is from First John chapter three, verses 16 through 24. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. By this, we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask, we will receive from Him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases Him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us, whoever keeps His commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this, we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. He runs the reading. John begins with an example of love. He says, By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. So this is the the idea of love, that Jesus came, lay down his life for us on a cross. That is the perfect example of love that our Heavenly Father gives us through His Son, Jesus Christ. And it's the beginning of love. God loves us, and saves us. And so then he says, Because of Christ's great love for us, we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Now, this doesn't mean just the men of course, in in New Testament speak, men and women in Christ are all brothers, because we are heirs of God, like Christ. And in in those days, women couldn't be heirs. And so to be an heir of the promise of Christ and one of Abraham's offspring, all of us get to be brothers, through adoption as sons in Jesus. So we ought to lay down our lives for one another. Now, does this mean that we run around like throwing ourselves in front of bosses hoping to die for other Christians? No, John explains. But if anyone has the world's good, and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him. So what he's saying is, we ought to love and support our community, of following Christ's Gift of Love by laying down His life for us. And so if we have worldly goods, and others are in need within our church, our brothers, we should help them. And this raises a really important thing to understand about what the early church taught about charity and love, is that the it was first and foremost for the Christian church, it is that we loved our brothers in Christ. And so that's why he says, If anyone has the world's good and sees his brother in need, it's not if anyone has the world's goods and sees anyone in need. And so the primary thing of the congregation in love is to love fellow Christians and support each other. This does not mean that Christians should not love those who are of the world and help them. In fact, the overflow of love for one another is one of the things that led to the growth of Christianity as we cared for not just our own poor, but the poor of the pagans, as well. And so, God calls on us to love with the world's goods and with what we have, and says little children, then let us not loving word or talk but in deed and in truth. And that's the thing, right? Love is not a, a an emotion, or a word or an idea. Love is an action. We do love, we show up, we act we give. It continues. By this, we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything. Now, I think this is wise to follow what John just said, We know we're supposed to love one another, but we can never love with the love that Jesus has. Right? Jesus's love is perfect. We Christians are imperfect. And so John follows up with some comfort, because he knows that if you if he writes, you ought to lay down your life for one another. Then that's gonna say, but I don't. So he says this. Whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything. So when our sin comes up before our face, and we feel the guilt, know that God is greater than guilt. God's love and forgiveness is greater than our sin, and He knows everything. Then he goes, Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases Him. Now, in the Gospel of John, Jesus says something similar, whatever you ask him, my name, it will be granted to you. And we say, really, whatever we ask. And I think it's pretty clear that that's not the promise that God will give us anything as long as we tack on in Jesus name, or as long as because we are faithful. It really has to do with the gifts that God promises us. If we ask God for His grace and His mercy, he delivers it. He sends us the word to be proclaimed to us. He sends us pastors to forgive our sins, He gives us His holy body and blood through the bread and wine of communion. God promises to give us richly in His love and His grace. And he also gives us all the other things we need. Because most of us have just about everything we need, and maybe way too much more. So let's continue. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. So the commandment is interesting here, he has a commandment one, to believe in Jesus and then to, to love one another. And so it's funny that in here we see as a command, one is the gospel, right? Jesus died for you trust in His salvation. And the other is the law, that because Jesus died for you, we need to love one another. And this is he combines those two as a commandment, a gospel promise, and a law action. Whoever keeps this commandment abides in God and God in him. And by this, we know that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us. Now, when we hear about the love that we owe our brothers in Christ, I think it's very easy to point out all the areas where we lack it. And it is sometimes difficult to see all of the great ways that Christian congregations do love and support each other. Because the nice thing about Jesus is that when he fills us with the Spirit, all of the love that we're supposed to have just comes out and we actually start to not notice it. All the different ways we love, we talk to each other, we pray for each other, we care for each other, we give we and it's it almost becomes background noise. And then when somebody misses something, we're just like, Oh, we've got all this background love, but you did one thing wrong, and we're gonna be so mad. Or maybe even just we're gonna feel so guilty. I think we need to sit back and recognize all of the love that comes in a congregation is people that are accepting and loving and gathering and hoping and praying for each other. There is so much and that is a result of the Spirit work that God has given us. That's all I have for First John chapter three. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 23 The Psalm for Sunday, April 21st, 2024

Psalm 23

A Psalm of David.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
    He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
    He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
    for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for Sunday, April 21, comes from Psalm 23. A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 23. It's so beautiful, right? So many people know this song and love it. It's just a wonderful image. And we're going to try to take a look at it and break it down. Psalm 23, begins the first part of a number of readings about being a shepherd. Sometimes this is called Good Shepherd, Sunday, and we hear God being our shepherd in Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. This first statement is a statement about God's role. And mine. In in our relationship. God is a shepherd, which means I must be a sheep. And so he is the one who's in charge. I am the one who follows. He takes care of me, I let him and you know, you laugh about that, right? That's kind of a funny way of thinking about God, because many of us think about God as a relationship where we're constantly trying to do something, right. Like, we need to praise him, we need to shower him with our prayers and our love and devote our lives to Him and all of that. But the shepherd motif is really different. Right? The shepherd takes care of the sheep, because he wants to, and the sheep in its natural and normal state really can't do anything for the shepherd, the shepherd cares for the sheep, because he finds the sheep valuable, and the sheep, let him there is nothing the sheep can do for the shepherd, to cause the shepherd to love them. And that really important in understanding this, this little Lord is my shepherd thing is that the shepherd is the one who is active. And the next section is I shall not want. Now, when we read this, I think we often think about that as a thing of desire. Whereas I think it better said is I shall not be in want, I shall lack nothing, I will not be in need. And that's a statement of trust, rather than a statement of desire. It trusts that the shepherd will give the sheep everything that the sheep needs. And I think sheep are like that they're not smart enough to worry about the future or to wonder where the grass will grow or to think, I wonder if the shepherds gonna give me water, they kind of just eat. And that's about it. Right? And so it's a trust statement to say the Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing, I shall not be in want, I will not be in need. And it continues with support for that. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. And so the Shepherd leads us to places where we can eat. He gives us water where we can drink. The Shepherd is the one who's concerned about providing for us. And then it flips out of the out of the shepherd and sheep metaphor and goes directly to God's role with the human being. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Now sheep don't care about paths of righteousness. And, and it doesn't matter if a sheep is righteous or unrighteous for anybody, but for the human being for Christians righteousness is a big deal is that God restores us and leads us down the Path, our job is simply to follow, we go where our shepherd tells us to. And this path of righteousness can lead us to some pretty dark places, as other people might see it. And that's what this next section is, says, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me. So now, it's even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, because God is with us. And so this could be sheep metaphor, again, or human being walking through a difficult time. When God is with us, we don't need to worry, even when we enter into death itself. And so the joyful thing about being in Christ is that when we enter into the grave, we actually don't need to be afraid of it. We don't have to fear the evil of satan, trying to grab us and pull us out of God's grasp and dragging us down into hell. Because God, our shepherd, our protector, is with us. And there's more, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. I was once at a pastors conference where an African pastor demonstrated what they called the rod and the staff in shepherding. And I forget which one was which. But one was a rod, he had two things. One was a rod, one was a staff. One of them was this club that had a point that it came to. And he said that when the lions came to attack the sheep, you use the club, and you're whack it on the lion on the nose. And that's the one that you go and just like defend the sheep with. And the staff, or the other one was this thin little reed with a hook at the end that you could use to gently guide the sheep, or give them a little whack if they needed it. And it's interesting that with the rod and the staff, one is made to fight off the enemy, and the other is made to guide the sheep onto this path of righteousness, the way we're supposed to go. For Lutherans, we can easily see that the the club, the thing that you whack the roaring lion that is looking to devour the sheep, Satan himself, that is the gospel of God, His might and His power is used to destroy Satan by dying on the cross and rising from the grave. And the little staff is there as the law to gently guide the sheep when they start to go astray. And if they really start to go astray to grab them by the neck and drag them onto the path of righteousness, right. And what a joy it is that God used his big and beefy staff to knock down the devil and save us. And he's gentle guiding, to just draw us back to where we're supposed to go. And both of these are necessary, right? If we leave the path, we need to be pulled back. If we're attacked, we need to be defended. But both provide comfort when we go through the valley of the shadow of death. Because both are gifts of God, the guiding function of the law that tells us how we should change and pull away from our sin, and the gospel that destroys the power of the enemy. The next section, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. So now we've left behind the sheep metaphor all the way. There's no shepherd or sheep, because sheep don't get to sit at a table, and they don't really have enemies. They just have predators. So now it's talking about God, preparing a feast with all of these enemies around and it's, it's the person being honored the Christian being honored by God. What a joy that we can have, have a God who gives us this feast of Holy Communion. In a world that is filled with hostility. We can feast with God and be honored by him. Even as the enemies surround us. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. That anointing with oil is a kind of choosing. And God anoints all of us with the Holy Spirit by the power of Christ. And so we get to be filled with this choosing this anointing and have a full cup.

The psalm continues, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell on the house of the Lord forever. Because the Lord is our shepherd, goodness and mercy come from on him, they will always be with us. Jesus Christ, our God and shepherd constantly gives us goodness and mercy all the days of our life and beyond. With the promise that on his return, we will dwell with Him in eternity in heaven and on earth in a new creation, forever. That's all I have on Psalm 23. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai