This Really Happened: Christmas Eve 2024

Luke 2:1-7

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, Christ, amen. Christmas is pretty wonderful, isn't it? We have a song. It's the most wonderful time of the year for that very reason. Of course, we decorate our homes in ways that sometimes we don't even my house this year, we got our tree up just in time for Christmas, which is a little unusual for us, given the way things work. Christmas is filled with decorations and excitement and parties and all of that, and we have lots of stories that we tell and retell during this time of year. I grew up with the claymation stories. You probably remember them, the ones with reindeer and the glowing nose. That was a great one. I think it had an island of misfit toys, we learned some good lessons from that. One, all about welcoming others and enjoying the differences. I remember one about Frosty the Snowman. I think there was a hat that was magic. Another claymation special. We've got lots of tales that we tell. Sometimes we watch them over and over on our TVs, and we learn great lessons about them. It wouldn't be a Christmas if I didn't mention National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and the power of family to come together even when your tree burns down lots of stories and legends. Many of these might as well start with that classic thing that we begin the legends or fables that we know once upon a time. It's because they have a status that gives us this almost eternal story that never really has a time or a place or even better, we started them a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. These stories teach us good things, and often we say that they're about things like the spirit of Christmas, spirit of generosity or joy, or some sort of generic Christmas sentiment. And sometimes I think the stories that we read in here can take on the air of legend, fable or myth, when we gather together with our candles, with the lights on the Christmas tree, as we do every year, and we rehearse the story of Jesus' birth, sometimes it seems like, well, maybe it starts the same way, once upon a time, or Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away. And it's kind of amazing. The stories too. They're fantastical. They're out there. You look at the stories that we hear, an angel shows up in a virgin's bedroom in a little town of Nazareth and says, Hey, lady, you're going to have a baby. And she goes, Great. That's weird. That's strange. That's out there, isn't it. The shepherds are out in a field keeping watch over their flocks. By night, they don't get a text message, angels appear in the sky, the whole Heavenly Host singing Gloria enig shall sees deo

and then wise men from the East, they see a star. I see stars every night. I don't travel 1000 miles by foot. They see a star. And they walk likely from Persia all the way to Jerusalem, and then they end up in Bethlehem, and they give expensive gifts to a kid sitting next to a donkey. These stories are a little fantastical, a little out there, a little weird, and sometimes, sometimes I think we treat them like those stories. We tell the legends, the fairy tales, the once upon a time, and we look at the story of Jesus, God becoming a human being, and we start to think this story is really a. About the spirit of Christmas. It's a story to teach us something about, I don't know, maybe about family or generosity, or that generically, we like peace, and that's sort of what it's all about. But one of the readings that we read tonight tells us that this is not a legend or a fairy tale or something that starts a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Our reading from Luke tells us exactly when this story happened, and it's really important. It says, In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Now you never thought your pastor would preach about that, right? It's almost a throwaway line. Sure we've got this guy, Caesar Augustus, most of us remember him from our history classes, but Quirinius, what is going on here? Luke doesn't mention these people by accident. He mentions important and famous rulers from the region to let us know something very simple, this really happened. It is not made up. It is not set in a far away place. Once upon a time, it happened during real times and in a real place. And we know Caesar Augustus was the emperor of Rome who created the Roman Empire, as most of us think about it, and he reigned from 27 BC until he died in 14 ad not just in the Bible. We all know about this guy. We also know from the Bible that Jesus was born during the reign of Herod, the great who ruled until he died in about four BC and Quirinius, famous governor of Syria, one of the most important ones, who actually annexed Judea into his territory and had one of the most important censuses of the time that everybody would have known about. Luke is telling us this really happened. You may have noticed that I said Herod died in four BC, and shouldn't Jesus be in the ad? Now we actually screwed that up in our dating what it means is Jesus was probably born somewhere between six BC and four BC, and it helps us to see this is not a myth, a legend or a fairy tale. It is not a thing that is there to give us a lesson about the good life or help us to learn something about the spirit of the season. Jesus is actually God becoming a human being, God who was sent by his father to join with us, to free us from the curse of sin, so that we can live forever with Him. And it's not only that. The rest of the story really happened too. This same Jesus grew up. He went out to Galilee, where he taught to the crowds. He healed the sick, he cast out demons, he walked on water, he calmed the storm, he fed 5000 people with just a few loaves of bread and fish. He forgave sinners and brought together people who needed the love and grace of God, and then he climbed up a mountain where the father looked at him and said, This is my son whom I love. Listen to Him, and from that mountain, he walked a path straight to the city of Jerusalem, where he knew he would be rejected by the chief priests and the elders, betrayed by one of his disciples, put on a trial for things that he did not do, convicted, arrested, beaten, killed, die on a cross and be placed in a tomb, and then on the third day, Rod and then his disciples would see him, not just the 12 that we know, but St Paul tells us that over 500 people saw. Him after His resurrection. It's not a fairy tale. It's not a story, not a once upon a time, it really happened. Jesus rose and died and rose for you so that you can live forever. Now, if this is a fairy tale, you can come to here, you can sit down, you can sing the songs and learn a nice lesson and then forget about it. You can exit, go about your day and have it mean nothing to you for the rest of your life. It can be just like the claymation movies of my youth. You put them on because it gives you that hit of nostalgia. You get to go, Oh, I remember what it was like to be unwrapping the presents under the tree while they're talking about the Island of Misfit Toys. And it has no claim on our lives we watch those stories because they're nice and they're fictional, and they just make us feel warm. That's not what this story is. It's not a hit of nostalgia. It's not a remember when I was young, or aren't these nice songs that we get to sing every year. God became man and lived and died for you. He did it truly. He did it in actuality. He did it on this earth, in a city in in Israel, we call Jerusalem, at a moment in time and in history. If this story is true, if this really happened, nothing else is more important. If this story is true, if God became man and died for you, nothing matters more, because he came so that you can live forever, so that when you face your death, you know that you will rise with him, so that when he returns on the clouds with power and might, you will rise and greet him with joy. That is why this church exists, why we gather here every single Sunday, not to tell a story about a thing that gives us nice lessons, but to remember that there was a man, Jesus Christ, who lived and died for you. We read about his birth, we read about his ministry, about His life, His death, His resurrection, and we do it every single year because it's the most important event in all human history. And sometimes we come here on Christmas Eve, and this is our annual, or semi annual trip to church to get that nostalgia hit, to say hi to grandma and thank her, because she's really nice and we're here for her, but it's your moment to remember that this really matters. Jesus really came and died for you, and it's more important than anything else. Luke wants us to know this happened. Jesus was born, and he wants you to remember it every day in Jesus, name amen.

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Guarding the Peace of God Philippians 4:4-7 Sermon for December 15th, 2024

Philippians 4:4-7

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Grace, mercy and peace. Be to you from God the Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We have a I have a different title and a different sermon than Pastor huenenk was going to have. My title is guarding peace of Christ. Today we meditate on the beautiful and comforting promise found in Philippians, chapter four, verse seven, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ, Jesus, what is peace for many? It's the absence of conflict or the presence of tranquility. But the peace of God, offered through Christ is something far greater. It's a peace that goes beyond circumstances and human comprehension. It guards our hearts and minds. In this promise, we find assurance that God's peace is enduring, securing us in His love and grace. Let's look at the three aspects of the peace of Christ. First, it is beyond understanding. Second, it guards our hearts and minds, and third, it secures us in Him, God's peace is beyond understanding. Paul describes God's peace as surpassing all understanding. This means it defies human logic and reasoning. It is a mystery to us. The world's peace is often based on circumstances. It may depend on the lack of conflict, on financial stability, on being liked, or on personal success. Yet the peace of God transcends these earthly foundations. The disciples experienced this peace when Jesus spoke to them in John 14 verse 27 he said, Peace I leave with you my peace. I give to you, not as a world gives it, I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Even as Jesus prepared for his suffering and death, he assured them as a piece rooted in his divine authority and eternal victory, the disciples displayed courage when they were beaten, jailed and martyred. Acts five, verse 40, says, they called the Apostles in and had them flogged. Acts 12, verse five says so Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. Acts seven, verse 59 says while they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. This peace is not a vague concept, but it is lived, a lived reality for God's people. Consider, consider the prophet Isaiah, words, you keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in You. Isaiah, 26 verse three, trust in God's promises anchors us amid chaos and confusion, allowing his peace to reign in our hearts. Number two, God's peace guards our hearts and minds. Paul's imagery of a guard illustrates the protective power of God's peace. In the ancient world, guards were stationed to protect cities from external threats. Today, when we see a guard, we may think of safety and security similarly God's peace. Stands watch, stands guard over our hearts and minds, shielding us from anxiety, fear and despair. The need for this guarding peace is evident in our daily lives and struggles we face the pressures of work, relationships, health concerns and spiritual battles. The enemy seeks to sow doubt and fear, but God's peace is a fortress that cannot be breached, as Martin Luther reminds us in his hymn, a mighty fortress is our God. God's protection is unshakable. Verse one says, a mighty fortress is our God, a mighty shield and weapon. He helps us free from every need that hath us now or taken. An inspiring example is Horatio Spafford, who wrote to him, it is well with my soul in 1873 due to business delays, Spafford sent his wife and daughters ahead of him on a trip to England. He expected to follow them in a few days, the family's ship was struck by another ship and sank, and only his wife survived after losing his children in this tragic shipwreck, Spafford found solith in God's peace. Despite his grief, he penned the words, when peace like a river attendeth my way. It is well with my soul, his trust in God's guarding peace gave him strength in the face of unimaginable loss, place our worries in God's hands through prayer and trusting in His sovereignty, as Peter encourages us in first, Peter Five, Verse seven cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you. Third, God's peace secures us in Christ, the final phrase of Philippians four, verse seven highlights the source of this peace. It is found in Christ. Jesus, apart from him, true and lasting peace is unattainable through His life, death and resurrection. Jesus reconciled us to God, removing the barrier of sin and granting us peace with our Creator. Paul beautifully articulates the truth in Romans, five, one, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This peace is not a temporary reprieve, but an eternal promise. It secures us in our identity as God's esteemed children and assures us of our heavenly inheritance. We have practical steps to embrace God's peace. First, Rejoice in the Lord. Philippians four, verse four, Rejoice in the Lord. Always again I say rejoice. Cultivate a heart of gratitude and praise for the goodness for all things large and small. Number two, pray with thanksgiving. Philippians four, verse six, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God. Bring your concerns to God, trusting in His provision and care. Number three, meditate on God's word. Philippians four, verse eight, finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. I fill your mind with his word, focusing on what is true, honorable and pure.

And fourth, abide in Christ, John 15, verse four, Abide in Me and I in you. And the branch cannot bear fruit as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you, unless you abide in Me, remain connected to him through worship, scripture, reading, the sacraments, fellowship with other believers. In conclusion, the guarding peace of God is a treasure that goes beyond all our understanding. It protects us from the turmoil of life, anchors us in the promise of God, and secures us in the unchanging love of Christ. This peace is not dependent on our circumstances, but on the unshakable foundation of God's grace. As we think about Philippians four, verse seven, let the truth sink into our hearts and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, Lord, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ, Jesus, may this peace sustain you in every trial and fill you with hope as you trust in your Savior. This hope is a promise we can count on and have confidence through Jesus Christ, let us pray, Heavenly Father, thank You for the peace that only you can give during life's challenges, remind us of your faithfulness and love, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, and teach us to rest in your promises. May we live as people of peace, reflecting your light in the world in Jesus. Name, Amen.

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What Do Lutherans Think About The Virgin Mary? Luke 1:39-56 Sermon for December 22nd, 2024 (Copy)

Luke 1:39-56

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord,
    and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
    For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
    and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him
    from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
    he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
    and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
    and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
    in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
    to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.

We are on the final Sunday before Christmas. In just a few days, we will be having our Christmas Eve service with the Silent Night and the candles and all of that stuff, Christmas Day with all of the hoopla of the big celebration. I bet many of you have been turning your radios to the all Christmas channel. Do they have one of those here? I figured they I don't listen to the radio, so I, you know, I don't do that, but they had one in Chicago, so I figured there'd be one here. You've probably heard all of the Christmas songs that are getting us ready for the season. We have a number that we might hear that are focused on the story that we're looking at in the Gospel reading, stories that talk about the Virgin Mary and songs that deal with her, one of the popular ones, the song Mary, did you know you've probably heard that. One, it's a frequent song in our choir concert. Two, it asks, Mary, did you know that your son would do all of these amazing things like walk on water or raise the dead? And my Lutheran pastor brothers always like to remind us that, yes, she did know the angel told her right hear songs like Silent Night with round young virgin mother and child. You might hear Ave Maria or the angel Gabriel from heaven came. I heard on on a Wednesday night last week, Mary's song, breath of heaven, another one we might hear. But today we actually get Mary's song, which we call the Magnificat, from the Latin which is where we get My soul magnifies, or Magnificat. Today we get to see a story where Mary comes to Elizabeth, and Mary gets some amazing things said about her. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, says, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb? Also. Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. And then Mary, filled with the Spirit, says, For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed. And I look at some of these things and I say, maybe it's time to address Mary and her role in this whole thing, maybe it's time to ask an important question for us Lutherans, what do we do with Mary? We ask this question largely because Lutherans sometimes break out in hives when we mention this virgin Mary outside of the Christmas season, because we love her when she is holding the baby, as long as she kind of fades into the background. And this is especially true for those of you who've come from the Catholic church into the Lutheran church, we might say, Don't talk about her that sounds kind of Catholic, but I think we Lutherans can give the Virgin Mary some of the greatest titles and honors that the church has given her throughout these years, and use her as an example of the amazing grace that God gives us by His graces. Choice of this poor and lowly girl, Mary chosen to be the mother of God. And we can do that because the very guy who started the Reformation, Martin Luther, did the same. And he did so because the Bible does it right. You look at this Gospel of Luke and Elizabeth, who is filled with the Spirit, says that she is blessed above all women. He calls her the Mother of God, who would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. And so Mary is an integral part of our salvation, because. She gave birth to Jesus. She is truly the Mother of God. Luther even called her the queen of heaven. But what makes her in this position? How can she illustrate the goodness that God gives us. I think that is the important part, the thing that separates us from the Catholic thing that sometimes we get, like, a little itchy when we talk about her, it's because Mary is a perfect example of God's gracious choice, that God chooses her the same way he chooses us for salvation. So Elizabeth says, Blessed are you among women, and Mary herself says, all generations will call me blessed, and we go, why is this? She says, For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. And I think this is a fascinating way of praising it the humble estate. What does that mean? What it means is Mary was lowly, not just humble in her heart, like we talk about humility, but she was actually one of the lowliest people on planet Earth. How do we know this? Well, she was from nowheresville in Israel by the town of Nazareth. Her hometown was even more rural than my hometown out in the middle of Wisconsin, and I know something about being rural. My town where I grew up in, was the big town in the area, with 2000 whole people who that's big we had a stop light and everything. And if you drive down the big highway just a little farther away, you get to places where you blink and you miss the town. That's where Mary was from, Nazareth. John tells us that Jesus from Nazareth was so doubtful that the first apostles didn't believe the Savior could come from there. What a Podunk, hillbilly hick town did Mary come from? We also know that Mary was poor, about as broke as broke can be. We know that because later in the Gospel of Luke, she and Joseph bring a sacrifice to the Temple of two two doves, which was only allowable if you couldn't afford the actual sacrifice you were supposed to give of a lamb. She and Joseph were very poor, unable to afford good things. She is of low estate. Her low estate included being a virgin, because virgins don't have babies, just in case you didn't know. But most of all, her low estate was because she was just like us, a regular human being, sinful and normal. God could have chosen any number of virgins all over the area of Israel. He could have chosen any of the virgins who were who were engaged to someone from the house and lineage of David. He could have chosen any number of women who would receive the message from the angel with faith and say, let it be to me according to your will, as Mary did. He could have chosen 1000s among them. But what does God do? Well, he needs to choose one because God needed one mother, one womb, to be the mother of God to produce the Savior and Martin Luther, in his commentary on the Magnificat, says this about Mary.

He says, note that she does not say men shall speak all manner of good of her, praise her virtues, exalt her virginity, or who her humility, or sing of. What she has done, but for this one thing alone, that God regarded her will men call her blessed because God chose her, not because she was extra specially virtuous or good or holy, because that is what God does. He chooses people and gives them His grace. And we see this all over the Bible. Think about Abraham, the very first person chosen by God to begin the salvation story of Israel. And if you look at only our Sunday School stories, you would think he's just this amazing guy, always faithful, always good. But then you read the Bible and realize he was a jerk who tried to sell his wife twice in think about Moses, one of the greatest figures of the Old Testament. Sunday School stories tell us he is this powerful figure, Charlton Heston, going to the Pharaoh and saying, Let my people who go but that is only if you ignore the beginning of the story where Moses, as a young man, murders someone, and instead of facing justice, flees into the wilderness to hide For 40 years, and then when God chooses him, reveals himself in the burning bush. Moses says, anybody but me, don't send me. But God still chooses him. There's a guy named Gideon who's a whole lot like that. Gideon was chosen to lead the armies of God, and he ended up killing 10s of 1000s of Midianites. You know how he was chosen, not in the front of a recruiting campaign to rid the oppressor. He was hiding in a well threshing grain below visibility so nobody would see him and hunt him down. The angel says to him, hail, mighty warrior, and he must have gone who, perhaps another great example is Saint Paul, one who wrote more books of the Bible than anyone else. When he was chosen. Was it because of his goodness or his virtue, or his amazing gifts to the church, or the power of his his awesomeness? He was chosen and the first words that were spoken to him is, why are you persecuting me? The Bible is filled with stories of God lifting up the worst and the most broken and the terrible and the lowly. Perhaps an even better example that fits with Mary is King David. David was a faithful man chosen to be king by God, but I bet there are a bunch of faithful men that God could have chosen to raise up to be a king, men who would have been much like David, men who could have served and followed as as one with God's own heart, like David is described, and even he Given all these gifts brought to be a king, made ruler over Israel, ended up showing that he was a sinner like us. God chose him because God is a God who chooses by His grace and makes decisions of his own accord. And he chose Mary, a young woman, a sinner from the middle of nowhere, to be the mother of God. And the only reason we can call her the queen of heaven, the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of God, the Holy Theotokos, if you want to go back to the Greek, is because God decided that who he would use. That's a perfect image for God's choice for us, isn't it? God chooses you, not because you. Any kind of virtue. God chooses you not because you come from the most amazing city, the finest city in all of the United States. God chooses you not because you are fighting against your sin or because you have money or power or goodness, God chooses you by His grace, through His Son, Jesus Christ, and He gives you this amazing gift. Because that is how God's work. God works. So we worked with Abraham, Moses, Gideon, David St Paul, it's how he worked with Mary, and it's how he works with us. Luther writes again about the Magnificat. He says, oh, Blessed Virgin Mother of God, who was nothing and despised, yet God, in His grace regarded you and made such great things in you that you were worthy of none of them, but the rich and abundant grace of God was given to you far above any merit of yours. Hail to you. Blessed are you from thenceforth and forever to finding such a God? And isn't that true for us? We are blessed because we have such a God who would give this gift of blessing to Mary and to us, who would gather us into the son Jesus Christ to give us eternal life and bless us only because of his goodness, only because of His grace, only because he loves you so much to save you by his son. And this is the amazing thing about the Blessed Virgin Mary, we can hold her in the highest esteem, give her all of these great honors and talk about her without falling into the error of holding her as greater and better than us, because she herself did not again. Luther writes, she finds herself the Mother of God, exalted above all mortals, and remains so simple and so calm and counts not any poor serving maid beneath her. She is still poor and lonely. Only God's choice, his grace, made her the Mother of God. It is true for us, only God's grace makes us blessed, only God's grace lifts us up from our lowly estate of sinners and makes us heirs in God's kingdom. And the titles and honors that we give to Mary, are examples of that, not distractions from it, but examples of the amazing grace that God gives to human beings, that we might be called his children, that we might be chosen by him in Jesus name Amen.

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What Kind of Church Do You Want? Luke 3:1-20 Sermon for December 8th, 2024

Luke 3:1-20

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight.

Every valley shall be filled,

and every mountain and hill shall be made low,

and the crooked shall become straight,

and the rough places shall become level ways,

and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”

As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.

Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, Christ. Amen. We read these words about John the Baptist, or words similar to them just about every year during this time in Advent, and every time I read them, I am struck by how hardcore he

is. Right. What does he say? He goes, You brood of vipers,

Merry Christmas, who fleeed you from the wrath, who told you to flee from the wrath to come. Right? It goes. It's perfect. Right next to the tree, we've got the candles. The garland is up. The banners beautiful. It just makes you want to sing. It's the most wonderful time of the year. You Earth, right? Yeah, His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear the threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. Welcome to Advent. That's one of the things that makes our pre Christmas celebration different from the rest of the world, is that during this time, we focus on repentance, on discipline, on the words that John says to prepare the way of the Lord sometimes means to look at the harshness of God's law, to drive us to repentance so the gospel can be open. And I look at the words of John and what he says, how he speaks. And even though I'm used to it, it still shocks me every year and today, I actually kind of want to think a little big picture about what John is doing, rather than looking particularly at all the different things he says, you know, the words of judgment, calling, people, snakes, all of these things. I want to ask. What is John doing, actually? Perhaps the better question is, what kind of church do we want, considering the way John approached ministry, what kind of church do you want? One of the models for church has always reflected the way cultures work, if you look back into the the Roman Empire, they structured their church around the Roman imperial system. And so you went from the patriarchs, and it was very hierarchical, and you had like priests who were in charge, and they told you everything. What about us? I think, in America, we are an economic people. We're a commercial nation, which means that our churches often are tempted by thinking about ourselves as a shop like Target or WalMart, your local laundromat, your local car dealer, we sometimes think about ourselves primarily in the numbers, The people in the pews, the money coming in. We think about ourselves as if we are almost selling spiritual services. And I want to think about comparing that to what a church is supposed to and ask that very simple question, what kind of church do you want? Do you want it us to be a shop, or do you want us to be a congregation with the Ministry of the gospel? Now, before I dive into that, I'm not asking this because I want to say that you guys think we should be a shock. I know that's not true. We're here just simply reflecting on this question, because it is often pretty tempting to go in that direction, because, well, sometimes it's easier and sometimes you. It means not offending it. So let's ask that question, do we want to be a shop or a church? The difference in them comes down to a number of different things. The message of a church that is a shop selling spiritual services would be very different from the message that John the Baptist said. Can you imagine him, the Prophet in his camel skin? He's got his sack lunch filled like a little honey and some grasshoppers. And he comes into the marketing meeting. He's sitting down with the PR guys, and he says, Okay, guys, here's what I want to say. Let's let's test this. You brood of vipers and the PR guys go, you know, John, we love you. You're amazing. You've got this powerful message. But nobody likes that. Can't you be more positive? Like the rest of the world really just wants to hear something joyful this time of year. Isn't that what a a shop would do when they send out their message? Like even the Christmas season isn't really about celebrating Christmas, if you're a target, it's about selling stuff. The Christmas sale, 25% off Black Friday. Get your gifts now. And when a church approaches this similarly, the message becomes about attracting clients and not about the spiritual welfare of the people who hear it. We soften it. We we take God's law and we make it manageable, doable. We would never speak about things like judgment or the Devil or the work he does, it would be about becoming better people, about something that you can do to make your life good and right before God, we're not a shock though. We want to be like John the Baptist. Why is John so harsh? Why does John come down with the full power of God's law? Because that's the only way to get to the gospel without i a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto you all my sins and iniquities. That's what the old one said, right or pulled that one up, most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature, sinful and unclean. Without that, you don't get to the message of the gospel, the beauty of the forgiveness of sin, without hearing that I am a sinner in need of God's grace, you don't get the power of God. You get something less, someone who's selling something to you, hoping that you will come in the door, make our attendance numbers go up, and put your offering in the offering plate. The difference between a church and a shop is also different in our relationship, not just to the message, but to you who are sitting in the seats. If we see ourselves primarily as selling something. You are all customers, clients that we have to please. Now you might like that right? If you say the customer is always right, that's what they do out in the world, that would mean that we just do what is necessary to please you. And I know you, many of you know that I run a photography business on the side, just a little something to make sure I can keep buying my own gear right. And whenever a client is upset, I do whatever I can to make them happy. I refund money. I take extra photos. No big deal because I want them to come back. But that's not what a church does. You see, I only give photos if they pay me, right? That's how business works. We only care if you have something to give me, so then I give you something. Is that how you want the church to work with you? Do you want the church to primarily be concerned about your money and your volunteering? And your attendance numbers, and not about your soul, not about your life. You see, we're not like that. You are not clients. You are the body of Christ. And if a fingernail gets bruised, we care if some a part of us gets sick, we care, not just because your attendance numbers,

because Jesus died for you, and we are bound together in Christ's Body and Blood, and we love you because of him, and you love each other because of him. You're not clients. We are members, one of another. And I think the greatest way that I see this in action is when I interact with homebound members. You know that's part of the work that the church does, right? People who can't get out pastors go out and visit them, and we bring them holy communion, and you will net you will not guess the number of times people are shocked when I tell them that's what I do. Most people don't have pastors that do that. I had no idea. I thought that was just what we did. It's not how it works out there. That's because we care. We in the Lutheran church, this is just what we do, because we care about the people, even if their bank account is love, even if they're sad and depressed at home, we care. And so when you can't come to church, church comes to you, and even our own members say, Pastor, I know you're so busy. And then I tell them, This is literally what you pay me for, right? You don't want to be a client. You want to be part of the body. And the last thing that makes us different is the way we see the role of Pastor. If we are a shop like a target, the pastor would be the shopkeeper, the one who's in charge of making sure that we are selling spiritual servants, services to the clients. Keep the customers happy, make sure they get what they expect and will always come here, so that they will continue to put their money in the offering plate, so that we can boost attendance and church numbers. But most importantly, would also mean that a pastor would have focused most of his time on the high value clients, right? Because you want to get the most bang for your buck, you want to make sure that the people who are contributing the most spend the most time. Here are the ones who get the most love and care. You also would give less time to lower value clients. And I even feel uncomfortable saying that out loud, right? That feels weird to me, because that's we all know. That's not how the body of Christ should work. And it also means that when something's going wrong, a shopkeeper wouldn't say anything about if someone is hurt, tempted, going astray, the shopkeeper would not follow John's example and bring it up. See, what does John do when, when he has people come to Him, when the soldiers ask, What should we do? You're perfect, just the way you are. No. He says, Don't extort anyone. When the tax collectors come, they say, What should we do? He says, give me that money you extorted. No, of course not. Don't extort money. Because he's called to bring the guidance of God's word to him. We don't have a shopkeeper. We call our pastors pastor, which means Shepherd, right? We have a flock with a shepherd, and the pastor is the shepherd underneath the one good shepherd, Christ our Savior and the shepherd metaphor makes me think about Psalm 23 right? We talk about it goes, The Lord is my shepherd. And in Psalm. 23 there's this really neat passage. It goes, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort right? A couple of years ago, an African pastor came to a conference, and he brought the rod, and the staff that they use when they're shepherding the rod was this big, bulbous club. It was, it was huge. It was like a this big, and it had a big, giant thing on there, and it was rounded into a point. And he said, the rod, that's what we use when the lion comes for the sheep. It was that point, big, heavy, whack. Sometimes pastors do that when a member, sad or hurt, guilty alone, we use the power of the gospel to defeat Satan's word. We bring them Christ to comfort them with the power of the resurrection when they've lost a loved one. We bring the forgiveness of sins when their heart is broken and they need help. But then he also held up the other one, and this was a little a little reed with a hook on the end, and he said, we use this when a sheep starts to wander off. Was just a little hook. Wasn't going to hurt somebody. You just tap em on the side if they're going off the path of righteousness, and if they're really far away, you kind of grab em with that hook thing and pull em back because the shepherd cares about the sheep, wants to make sure they're safe. And sometimes it means defending them from the attacks of Satan, and sometimes it means defending them from themselves with with God's word. And I think that's what we all want. With a pastor, it's not someone who will think of you as a resource to be extracted,

but someone who is a shepherd, a guy who cares.

And I'll tell you, it's a lot easier to be a shopkeeper. You get to do? You get to tell people what they want to hear. You get to offer them whatever they need. You don't offer them the things they don't like. It's a lot easier on a pastor's heart, but it's not what's best. You see John the Baptist didn't go out to be a shopkeeper. He didn't go out to tell people what they wanted to hear. He called them a brood of vipers. He called them to repentance. And the amazing thing about this is that in the end, Luke says that it is the good news of God, because it's what led them to repentance and the baptism of the forgiveness of sins. I think this is also what we want in our church, to hear the fullness of God's law so that we can get to the gospel, not someone who sees you as a client or a congregation that sees you as an offering plate, but someone who cares about your eternal welfare and your destination in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Blessed is The King Who Comes In The Name Of The Lord: Sermon for December 1st, 2024

Luke 19:28-40

And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’” So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God, our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, Christ. Amen, we are in the beginning of the Church year during the season of Advent, Advent. So everything is about the coming of our King, Jesus Christ. We're preparing for his birth and for his return on the last day, which means we get a reading that we are used to reading during Lent, right? I bet you saw the reading from Luke And you thought, wait a second, didn't we skip ahead? Isn't this the end of the story and not the beginning? Shouldn't we be reading about Mary and the angel or Zechariah in the temple? Why Palm Sunday today? Well, Advent is all about the arrival of Jesus Christ. It's about the coming of the King. And why not celebrate the entrance of the King into his holy city on the beginning of the time that we talk about the entrance of the King into our lives. And so we see Jesus coming into Jerusalem just as He comes to us with shouts of Thanksgiving. And so we celebrate His coming that first time, his coming to us now and his future return, and we use the words just like the people did then, words that the church has sung for 2000 years. They go something like, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. That's what the crowd was doing on the day that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem. Luke records this as he was drawing near, already, on the way down the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen. They used this word, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Other gospels also recall the words Hosanna in the highest probably remember them. We shout that while we wave the palm branches. In a few months, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Now, what were the mighty works that the people had seen that they were celebrating the coming King? You know the Gospels Well, we hear about the miracles in the Gospel of Luke just before this, Jesus healed a blind man who saw him on his way to Jerusalem and cried out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. On Thanksgiving Eve, we read the story about how Jesus healed 10 lepers and only one returned to give thanks. Before that, we see a woman on the Sabbath day who is hunched over and unable to stand up, and Jesus heals her, she can straighten her back. But perhaps the biggest one that happens before this story is found in Luke chapter seven, where Jesus comes to a town called Nain, it reads, as he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her, and when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said to her, Do not weep. Then he came up and touched the buyer, and the bearers stood still, and he said, Young man, I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited his people in. And this report about Him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country. That sounds like a pretty cool miracle, doesn't it? The dead man sat up. What kind of great work could it be? But it wasn't just the miracles. Jesus was the kind of guy who taught sinners and ate with them, much to the chagrin of the Pharisees. He forgave people. That is why the crowds gathered together as Jesus rode in on a donkey, and why they crowd out, cried out, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. But the funny thing is, is they hadn't seen anything yet. They didn't know what Jesus was about to do, the amazing miracle that would be accomplished when he would go to the cross. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord? In the earliest days, the church sang that song. We actually have it coming up in our liturgy today, called the Sanctus. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest we don't know when that song began. We don't have records of the first time it was sung in the church. We do for most of the liturgy, but not that one goes perhaps all the way back to the very beginning, maybe even the apostles sang it about the same time that we do. In fact, it could be that each of the Gospels records this song because that's what they sang. Altogether Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. You see, they were remembering the greatest work that Jesus had done, the work that came after this story, the work that we all know very well that after he entered into into Jerusalem, he was arrested on Monday, Thursday, he was brought before the High Priest and put on trial and falsely accused by false witnesses who said all sorts of lies about him. He was beaten by them and the guards, and then he was taken to Pontius Pilate, where He was whipped and beaten again and had a crown of thorns placed on his head, and he was finally nailed to a cross, an innocent man, where he died. He was taken down and placed in a tomb, and a stone rolled over the entryway, and three days later, when the angel rode the stone back, they discovered the tomb was empty, that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead, the greatest and mightiest work of all. What better work could teach us to sing Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest the church has sung this song all the way back into the earliest of days. It was one of the ways that Jesus encouraged the church when they remembered his great works under the persecutions of the early Roman Empire, the worst of which was done by the Emperor Diocletian. It's pretty amazing to me that the worst persecution happened right before Christianity was legalized, because the next emperor Constantine made it legal. Diocletian was a pretty bad man. He hated us. His big program was to get the bishops and the pastors to give up their holy books, The Holy Scriptures, so they could be burned. And if we refused, the pastors and bishops would be hamstrung. What that means is they would cut the hamstring of one leg and the Achilles of the other. Pretty awesome, right? Sounds great. When the Council of Nicea happened after Diocletian was gone, the most respected names were the ones who couldn't walk to the front to talk, but had to be carried because they stood firm, firm in the Savior.

A firm in the promises and the great glory of the miracle that he did when he died and rose from the dead, encouraged by the great and mighty work of our Savior to remain faithful. And this is why, even through all that difficulty, they still saying the words, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Because they knew the power and the promise of what Christ has done, they praised their god for the great works that they did among them, encouraging and sustaining them through the worst of it all, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord? We too sing that song. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord? Because we have no shortage of wonderful promises and great works that God has done among us too. We certainly remember that great death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but just as much we remember how that has sustained us and kept us as we come forward and receive His Body and Blood, we remember all the times that he has sustained us through the worst. He's forgiven our sins, comforted us when we mourn, strengthened us in loss, encouraged us to persevere through difficult times and temptation. When I got here, I did the thing that pastors do, rummaged through storage units, because sometimes you just gotta figure out what's there and know what's going on. And I found something cool. Wasn't terribly long ago, maybe about a year ago. I found a box of old VHS tapes. They had library slips. I guess you used to be able to check out these VHS. And there were about 11 of them, and we got some really cool stuff in there. One you can see on our YouTube channel. It's a documentary of the building of mackenson, you know, the preschool building. It's about 50 minutes long, pretty cool. We have a concert and an Advent service. So that's unlisted for copyright reasons, but the one that makes me think about this passage today is one called a message to the troops of Desert Storm, which we put together in the 1990s you don't have to raise your hand if you were here. Don't worry. What it is. It's about 20 minutes of recording of our congregation encouraging our members who had to leave and go overseas, reminding them that not only is Christ with them, but their community was too. And it's fun. I watched most of it, you get to see like individual families wishing them well. Our choir sings a song, pretty fun. But this is more than just a a group of people offering good wishes. What it is, is a sign that Christ's Body and Blood have bound us together as a people, because if you look around, most of us don't have a ton in common. Do we? We don't didn't grow up in the same neighborhoods. We're not bound by family, but we are bound by Jesus Christ, as we come together with his body and his blood, and this is the reason we are bound to each other and encourage each other, why we put together that message back then, and why we do it today now too, as we gather together Around Christ in his body and his blood to receive Him and encourage one another. It's not because we're the greatest people of all, but because Christ has unified us in Him to encourage one another, to support one another and to see the amazing works of salvation delivered every single Sunday. And just as Christ preserved his church through the emperors and the persecutions, he continues to do so today through his body and blood. And this is the great. Work that we see among us, the amazing power of Jesus Christ, and why the church still sings when He comes to us with His body and His blood. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, because we praise our great king for the mighty works that he has done among us? Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. What a great song that is, because we're looking forward to a day when we get to sing it one final time. Right? The season of Advent is mostly about getting ready for Christmas, right? You're probably pulling out your your manger scenes, getting the shepherds out and the roof, the little manger with the hay, Mary and Joseph and all that stuff. You might even be decorating your home, getting ready for all of that, but we're also getting ready for the last day, not the day when Jesus came lowly and meek, but the day when he comes with power and might we're getting ready for the day when we sing that song one last time, when we can look up into heaven and sing, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, and we will see the final mighty work of our Savior and King, as he calls all of us out of the ground, every human being who has ever lived and gathers us before his judgment throne to give us eternal life. But better than riding in on a donkey, better than palm branches being waved on high, our Savior will come finally with power and might and give us the life that we have been waiting for. Finally give the fullness of the salvation that He delivers every single Sunday here, on that day, we will cry out one last time Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, Peace in heaven and glory in the highest, in Jesus name Amen. Amen.

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Remaining Faithful In Prosperity: Sermon for Thanksgiving

Deuteronomy 8:1-10

“The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God, our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, Christ. Amen. Happy Thanksgiving Eve. I'm sure many of you have spent some time, if you're already doing the cooking this morning, making sure that dishes and preparation are all in order if you're cooked turkey is not cooked already, because sometimes that's how you do it, right? We are getting ready to celebrate a day of Thanksgiving, and Our Old Testament reading is about a day when Israel was giving thanks for all the goodness that God had given them. Deuteronomy is our reading, and it is a speech that Moses gave the people of God at the end of a long period of difficulty they had been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years as a punishment for their disobedience. God had brought them to the promised land, and the generation said, Thank you God for doing miracles all the way in Egypt, all the way through our trip to the promised land. But we don't think you're strong enough to defeat our enemies. And so God put them in the wilderness until that generation had died off. Now they are back, getting ready to cross over into the promised land, and Moses is looking ahead at the joy they will have in this beautiful, beautiful land. So first, he recalls the goodness of God in the wilderness, he says, And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor your fathers know that you might know that bread man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out on you, and your foot did not swell these 40 years, he recalls the goodness of God in the wilderness, that despite their complaining, which they did a lot. God still fed them. He gave them water from rocks. He fed them with meat from the sky and bread that showed up right outside their their home. They didn't even have to send for Amazon. But Moses knows Israel, and he knows that very shortly, they are going to head into the promised land and faced the most difficult challenge in their history. This is what he says, For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of Brooks, of water, of fountains and springs flowing in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing. This is the big danger for Israel, the most dangerous thing of all for them was not wandering in the wilderness, where they had to depend on God every single day, knowing that only the Word of God would feed them. The most dangerous thing they could face was prosperity they would enter into the promised land, and the trees would produce good fruit. The ground would grow their food. They would enter into homes that they didn't build, but God had provided them with conquering. And he worried that they would look around and see these things and forget God. In fact, that's exactly what Moses says in the next section. Right after this, he says verse 11, take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart will be lifted up and you forget the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the Great and terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your father did not know that he might humble you, to test you to do you good in the end, beware lest you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this. Well, we spend a lot of time in the Christian church talking about the comfort that God gives us in difficult circumstances. We talk about Christ being a rock that we can cling to in the storms of life. We talk about him being someone who can comfort us when we mourn, someone who can promise eternal treasures, when our bank account doesn't have a whole lot in it, someone who can be with us and forgive us, when we feel guilty, but what about When we're feeling prosper, when we sit around a table that has a giant turkey on it, the biggest bird you've ever seen, and the family is gathered around, and they're all the dishes so many that if you had a scoop of everything, You wouldn't be able to eat everything. How do we deal with prosperity? How do we deal with the good times? Because I think those are sometimes more dangerous and more difficult to stay faithful in than the bad times. Cuz when things are bad, you know you need God. You need the rock to cling to. You need a Christ who died for you to promise eternal life, to comfort you when you mourn. But sometimes, like Israel, we can say, my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this well, and you forget the Lord your God and your prosperity turns you away. That is exactly what happened to Israel, isn't it. They got into the promised land. They forgot all about God and everything from the end of Deuteronomy all the way up to Jesus. Is a description of how badly that went. Fortunately, we don't have to work like that. We have a Savior, Jesus, who came to guide us through prosperity and difficulty. And what we're going to do today is ask a very simple question, how do we remain faithful and thankful in a time of prosperity and learn from the mistakes of ancient Israel? I think the first thing we need to think about is to remember that everything we have comes from God. Today, on this day of Thanksgiving, it's actually a day when we set aside to say thank you, God for all the good gifts. It's while it's a national holiday, we have gathered here in preparation for it, to take that time and say, God, all good things come from you, and that is key to understanding how to manage prosperity faithfully, to not forget God. In the Large Catechism, Luther contrasts two characters from the Bible about managing the gifts that God had given them well, the first one was King Saul and the second, King David. Both were alike in that King Saul and King David were chosen by God to be kings and given a wonderful promise. If you are faithful, your kingdom will last. Saul, unfortunately, even though he had been given this amazing promise and made king over all of God's people to guide them in their faithfulness, he very quickly grew unfaithful. He turned to his own wisdom, disobeyed God's commands, and his management of all the gifts that God had given them, ended up turning him away, until finally, at the very end, he turns not to God for guidance, but to a witch to ask the spirit of Samuel to guide him. David, on the other hand, was different. He didn't let the promises of God and the gifts

turn him from faithful. David grew up in poverty. He grew up being chased by King Saul, who wanted to kill him every single day, running through the wilderness, hiding in caves, he knew that he could only survive by God's power. And then when he finally made it to be the king, he grew in wealth and power, and even when he committed some pretty terrible sins, he repented and turned to God, knowing that all of it came from him. And because of this, God gave him a promise that his son would be on the throne of Israel forever, a promise we see in Jesus Christ, in these two figures help us to see that faithful management and Thanksgiving of prosperity is about seeing these gifts not as something that we earned or we trust In, but as things that God has given us things that are not supposed to be ours by right, but blessings that God has meted out, and we must always remember to be thankful for him, because he is the source. Whether these gifts are the prosperity that we feel in our daily lives, or the gifts of salvation that we have in Jesus, it is all from God. And I think the best way, the best habit that many of us have to live this out every single day is that a simple thing we do before our meals is to say thank you. To say thank you to God just a short prayer. And even if you do that, that prayer that we sometimes do, like do you do? Come Lord Jesus, be our guest and let thy gifts to us be blessed, like 15 seconds, right? Or Luthers prayer, Lord God, Heavenly Father, bless us in these your gifts we receive from your bountiful goodness through Jesus Christ, our Lord, it takes no time, but it's just a few seconds of saying thank you to God, then you get to devour the turkey, right? But it is. It is this good gift that we have from God. Think the other thing we can do is remind ourselves that all things remain God's when he gives them to us. When I was a youth pastor, I stumbled across a video that was supposed to be about tithing. The video was kind of clever. What they did is they they started with a pot, and then there was a table, and each table, the table had place settings. And at each place setting was a label where a person sat, and so the first, the first label was housing. They take a big chunk, plop it on his plate, have a little they pass the pie down to the next one, and maybe it was food, little chef's hat, you know, that sort of thing. Take a plop, put it on the place, take the pie, pass it down to the next one. And they all took various things. It was, you know, fashion and whatever, the kinds of things that you would need. And you get all the way down to the end, and the pie gets shrinking smaller and smaller and smaller until you get to the like the video games budget. And the guy looks next to next to him, and there's a gentleman, and his name is God, and he looks at the pie, and he looks at God, and he cuts a big chunk out of it, leaving just the teeny weenies sliver. Plops it on his plate, and he's about to hand it over to to the to God, and the guy next to him goes, dude, he brought the pie and. It's clever, right? But there's a problem with this video, because what it does is it's supposed to tell you leave a peace for God, right? Not a little peace, a big peace. But the problem with this is that all of that was God's how we use it in our in our housing and our our clothing and providing for our needs, and how we use it for friends and family and taking care of people. Every piece of our life belongs to God when people try to make it about giving back a portion to God, as if he doesn't own it all. They're missing the point. Every moment, every part of our life, every good gift that God gives us, in health and prosperity or in not it all belongs to God, Saint Paul in Romans, chapter 12 says that we are to be living sacrifices. A living sacrifice means that we offer up everything that we are because it belongs to him anyway, and we do that in the in the view of the amazing mercy of God, who sent His Son, Jesus Christ, not to be a living sacrifice, but to sacrifice himself on the cross and then rise from the dead. And when we remember that God owns everything, we see all of the things, the joys, the happiness, the goodness and the wealth of life simply as a tool that God has given us to take care of others. Martin Luther writes about that in the Large Catechism. He says, Let us then learn well the first commandment that we may say, how God will not tolerate presumption nor trust in any other object, and how he requires nothing higher of us than the confidence from the heart for everything good, so that we may proceed right and straightforward and use all the blessings which God gives. No farther than a shoemaker uses his needle all and thread for work and then lays them aside. Or, as a traveler, uses an inn, food and his bed only for temporary necessity. Each one in his station according to God's order, without allowing any of these things to be our Lord or idol, all of it is just a tool for our stewardship of God's thing. And when we just see these things as that, we can remember that the one who gives them is really behind it all, who offered His Son to die for us. And I think the final thing that helps us to remain faithful in prosperity is to remember that all these things eventually pass away as we know this life is temporary, but the goodness and gifts that God has given us will eventually fade, whether it is just they disappear because of life's difficulties, or we die and go to heaven to be with Christ, we must always remember the goodness of God's eternal gift, Jesus, Christ and His salvation. This is really the key to understanding our place in prosperity. Is because if you do not know yourself as a creature whom God sent His Son to die for the Creator, for the creation, we cannot truly understand what it means to be thankful and faithful in prosperity. We end up seeing ourselves as the one in charge and God simply as provider. But when we come to hear his word, He guides us and leads us when we receive His sacraments. He focuses us on the gift of life that is to come. We can look around and see everything around us as a temporary thing, like a hotel room that you use when you go on vacation for a tool to take care of the people around us today. It's the word in sacrament that give us something that lasts forever, and we can be thankful for God's goodness and His gifts, both in the temporal things that we have every day, but especially for the goodness. And peace and salvation He provides us through Jesus Christ, we keep these things in mind, whether in poverty or prosperity, sadness or joy, we can remain thankful and grateful to a God who loves us in Jesus name Amen.

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Living With The End In Mind: Sermon for November 24th, 2024

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14

“As I looked,

thrones were placed,
    and the Ancient of Days took his seat;
his clothing was white as snow,
    and the hair of his head like pure wool;
his throne was fiery flames;
    its wheels were burning fire.
A stream of fire issued
    and came out from before him;
a thousand thousands served him,
    and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him;
the court sat in judgment,
    and the books were opened.

“I saw in the night visions,

and behold, with the clouds of heaven
    there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
    and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion
    and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
    should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
    which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
    that shall not be destroyed.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God, our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, Christ. Amen, we are at the close of the Church year, and every year when we do that, we look at the end times. We talk about Jesus's predictions of the return we read from the Book of Revelation. We talk about the signs of His coming. We look forward to the day of the resurrection and the Kingdom that Christ will bring forever and ever. Last week, we asked the question, what will happen on that day? And I did my best to put through the what the Scripture says about the timeline and the things of the Day of Judgment.

And so today, we're not going to go through all of the events and what the Scripture teaches about it. Instead, we're going to ask a question, what does that mean for us now? What does it mean to live now with the end in mind, Christ is coming. His kingdom is secure. What do we do today? Well, the first thing is we look forward to the amazing power of that eternal kingdom.

Daniel. Daniel gives us a wonderful description of the kingdom of Christ on the day of His return. It tells us that He will come and take his seat, and it says a stream of fire issued and came out from before him. 1000 1000s served him, and 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. The court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. Then it skips a bunch of stuff, and our reading continues and says, And behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a Son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Daniel gives us an amazing image of Jesus, the Son of God and His Kingdom. It is an eternal kingdom that will never pass away, where all peoples will serve him. I'm not very good at math because I'm a humanities major, but I think 1000 1000s sounds like a lot, maybe 10,000 times 10,000 he doesn't actually mean a number in particular, but it is all peoples. Jesus, Christ return will bring about a kingdom that is almighty, all powerful and eternal, and a kingdom that will not pass away, one that shall never be destroyed.

How do we live with that in mind? I think the first thing we need to realize is that we are citizens of that kingdom. Now this is not just a kingdom that is for the future, but one that is present through Christ. Now, even though it may be hidden, the apostle John writes in his first letter in the third chapter, he says, Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as he is. Pure. So we have this vision of this amazing Eternal Kingdom, and we look forward to hope with the day that it will be fully revealed.

But you have it now in Christ, it is not something to wait. Christ's kingdom is here on Earth, wherever his people are gathered. We aren't waiting for the for it to come. It is here, but hidden. You. We are citizens of that kingdom now God's children, and we partake of it when the spirit comes to us through these word and Sacraments, our King Jesus reigns on his throne. Now we don't have to wait for that Kingdom to be established. Our task now is to remember it beneath the hiddenness of a fallen world. We have a King Who reigns forever our Savior, Jesus, Christ,

first, Peter, chapter one helps us to remember that he writes, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, according to His great mercy, he has caused us to be born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power, are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

You have this inheritance, you have this gift now, but we are waiting for it to be fully revealed in all its perfection and glory for that day when the Ancient of Days takes his seat and the Son of Man returns with on the clouds with power and glory and is given this eternal dominion. So our job is to remember beneath the hidden, fallenness of this world, the kingdom of Christ is established now, and we are citizens of it, which means we do not need to fear the things that threaten us or seem to even threaten that kingdom. We live in a particularly nervous age, don't we?

We look around and everybody's worried about something, and I think it's easy to see why all the bad things of the world live on a rectangle made of glass in your pocket, right? All the sadness, all the pain, all the hurt, all the hyperbole that our favorite people online say come straight to us with a beep and a notification. So we're all pretty nervous. And I don't know if you know, but we just had an election recently too, and some people are worried we are deluged with depressing, terrible, sad news, some of it true, some of it false, but all of it makes us nervous. That little rectangle in your pocket delivers you all the wars and rumors of wars, the news of famines, earthquakes and all the other stuff that Jesus said would be delivered to us. Perhaps the disciples couldn't imagine a communication network like what we have, but it is still there.

We worry about things like Ukraine, Israel, China, cultural norms and all the stuff that makes the retired people in the room say kids these days, and it gets us worked up and afraid. And sometimes, when people are afraid, they lose sight of the kingdom that is coming, the kingdom we live in now, and turn and try to fix things themselves, or trust in things that seem to be able to say, I can take care of this problem. Trust in Me, human being, but we have a promise that the Son of Man will return on the clouds with power and might and whatever happens now, whether it's on the other side of the world or in your backyard, Christ will make all things new. It doesn't matter how bad the world is or what will happen to you. It doesn't matter if the bad news shows up in your phone or in the doctor's office.

Christ will make all things new. His kingdom is an everlasting. Dominion which shall not pass away. His kingdom is one that shall not be destroyed. We can trust in that. It also means that we need not cling to the things that our hearts desire and we think will give us the joy and the happiness we want right now that are contrary to Christ's desires. Our elders have been working through the Large Catechism, and it's really neat to see their reaction to it. One of the elders has been walking around telling everybody, oh, this is so great. I can't believe this guy wrote this in the 1500s it's like he's talking about now. We were reading through the appendix to the first commandment in the Large Catechism, and Martin Luther writes this. He says, For to you, it is a question either of eternal blessing, happiness and salvation, or of eternal wrath, misery and woe. What more would you have or desire than that? He so kindly promises to be yours with every blessing and to protect and help you in all need. But alas, here is the failure that the world believes nothing of this, nor regards it as God word God's word, because it sees that those who trust in God and not Mammon suffer care and want, and the devil opposes and resists them that they have neither money, favor nor honor, and besides, can scarcely support life. Well. On the other hand, those who serve Mammon have power, favor, honor, possessions and every comfort in the eyes of this world. For this reason, these words must be grasped as being directed against such appearances, and we must consider that they do not lie or deceive, but must come true. We look out at a world that trusts in all of the desires that our hearts put against us, but we know that they pale in comparison to the amazing Kingdom that Christ will deliver. What could possibly be better than living in this eternal kingdom of power and might and glory forever and ever and ever, with the Son of God on the throne, in a dominion that will never pass away, a kingdom that shall never be destroyed. Martin Luther helps to remind us that these things will disappear. Whatever we set our heart on, they are nothing compared to the glory of that eternal Kingdom when Jesus returns, which means, of course, we have to set aside the desires that we chase after, learn to use the gifts that God gives us for His glory and His Kingdom, and often live in a discipline we dislike, but it's worth it. Jesus is coming. He's coming with power and glory to judge the living and the dead, and we are in Christ, citizens of his kingdom now will be revealed for the children of God, we are to live with Him forever in Jesus, name, amen.

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What Will Happen On Judgment Day? Sermon for November 17th, 2024

Daniel 12:1-3

“At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God, our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. You know, I've always thought that the return of Jesus Christ deserves a wailing guitar solo, right? Isn't that kind of a pretty cool thing? We're lucky that I didn't choose my favorite judgment metal band. There's a band called testament, and they they sing something their speed metal amazing. And they sing a song about the Four Horsemen riding with Christ at the lead. It's awesome. Maybe a little too much for Sunday morning, though, today, as we close out the church here, our readings point to the end of the ages, to the judgment that will come when Jesus returns.

We get a reading from Daniel, a reading from the Gospel of Mark that talk about what will happen when Jesus comes back. So I thought maybe that's what we should talk about, what will happen on the last day. The Reading from Daniel gives us the briefest of overviews, it says that on that day, there will be a trouble that has never happened until that time, the people will be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book, and then many of those who sleep in The dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. Like I said, it's a bit of an overview. Doesn't give us too much of a timeline, but it is the big picture answer. When Christ returns, the dead will rise for judgment. Those who are written in the book of life will go into eternal life. Those who are not to everlasting shame and contempt, but there's more in Holy Scripture about what will happen on the last day. And I don't know if I've ever actually heard a pastor from the pulpit walk through what the Scriptures teach about what will happen with all of that. So I thought today is the day to do that. So let's dive in what will happen on the last day before we get to the actual day. It's wise always to remember that there are three views about what will lead up to the end times. There are two of them that we do not believe and one that we do. The first one, the most popular throughout the United States, is pre millennialism, that teaches that Jesus will return, sometimes with a rapture first, and set up an earthly kingdom. It'll be a government like ours, where Jesus is the King. He will reign in that kingdom for 1000 years, and then the judgment will happen that is pre millennialism that is taught by churches like Shadow Mountain and many other non denominational Protestants. There's another one called post millennialism. This one is like Star Trek, but with Jesus that is, Earth will continue to develop and grow until we reach some sort of utopia where everything will be wonderful. Everything will be amazing. That is the millennium, and then Jesus will return for the judgment. This is the philosophy behind many of the Christian nationalists that you have become popular lately, the idea that Christians should transform our culture to be more like what the Church teaches to achieve this Post millennial future, what we teach is called amillennialism, that is, we are currently in the End Times. The 1000 year reign of Christ is a symbolic number, because he is reigning through the church by his word, and then on the last day he will return. And it will happen suddenly. So that is where we begin. How does the last day begin? It'll start like any other. We will wake up do our normal things. Life will be acting just as it has been. There will be normal stuff. Everything will go as it has always. Jesus talks about it being just like the days of Noah, when people were out in their fields and then destruction came. Jesus also tells us that it will come like a thief in the night. You just never know. Now you might point to the signs that Jesus has been giving in Mark chapter 13. What about all those wars and rumors of wars and famines and the gospel preached everywhere? What about that? It's actually pretty simple. Oh, that happened in the first century. Wars and rumors of wars have been happening for 1000s of years. Famines too, and the Gospel has reached the entire world. Jesus isn't giving us some board with all the red yarn connecting all the stuff so that we can figure out the day and the hour. What he's doing is reminding us that when you see these things, remember I am coming soon. He wants us to look out at the world and when these horrible things happen, no he will return to raise us from the dead and give us eternal life. And so we do not know the day or the hour. We can't figure it out. We are just waiting with hope and joy for the day that he comes back, which is why we remain dedicated to his word and Sacraments every single week all our lives, because we know it could happen at any moment and when he comes, we want To greet him with joy and not terror. So what will happen? Jesus gives us some of the first things that we see in Matthew chapter 24 he writes, or he says, Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the heavens, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Yikes, right? I don't think we'll miss that. Will we? No? Then he says, then we'll appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. All the earth will see Jesus returning on the clouds with power and might and great glory. When Jesus came, the first time, he came as a servant, He came to suffer and die for the whole world and to extend the grace and forgiveness of God to everyone who believes in Him. When he returns, it will not be that way. He will come with glory as the judge of the living and the dead, with power and might. That day, it will be too late to change your minds. That day, we will look up and the nations will wail and mourn, because their god will be coming with judgment and not with grace, which is why we stay faithful while that offer is there, why the gift of Christ is received with joy now, so we can receive him with joy. On the day he returns, Jesus continues, he says, and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. Similarly, St Paul writes in First Thessalonians, four

for the Lord Himself would descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them. Come in in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. So after we see Jesus come with all his power and might, He will gather all of the elect together, living and dead, as well as all the others too. Before His judgment throne, we, who are in Christ now will see that with joy, and finally, before we're gathered on that last time, so after the dead are raised, everyone will be gathered before Christ's judgment, Revelation, chapter 20, then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it for his presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them, and I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And books were opened, then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, death. And Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Okay, there's a lot going on there, right? So what happens is, God gathers the entire nations before the throne of Jesus, He will judge the living and the dead. In there we see two kinds of judgment. One is a judgment of works, and the other is very simple. Question, Is your name written in the Book of Life? St Paul also gives us a judgment where he talks about this very similar thing in Second Corinthians five, he writes For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Now we Lutherans, we talk about God's grace all the time, and we shy away from talking about works, don't we, but there is a judgment of works at the end. We don't know exactly what that means, and we don't know exactly how it goes. There are a lot of question marks with that one, but following that, there is only one thing that matters, is your name written in the book of life. And that happens because of Christ, not because of our works. The Augsburg confession talks about our sacraments as a sign and seal of a good conscience before God. That is baptism, Holy Communion and the forgiveness we receive are a sign and a stamp I guarantee that we have a good conscience before God because of our Savior, Jesus Christ, which means our names are written in the book of life. And so whatever relationship is going on between this work of judgment or the judgment of works that happens what matters for our eternal life is that our names have been written in the Book of Life by Christ. So it's likely there are a lot of questions going on in your head right now. You're saying, But Pastor, what about I would love to be able to answer them, but you know what? The Bible doesn't give us a ton of information. And so this is a big question mark here. All we do is trust that our savior has written our names in his book of life, by His grace, and will figure it out when the day happens. So after that, after this judgment of works, then there is the book of life. Jesus divides the people into those who. Go into everlasting life, and those who go into everlasting shame and contempt, or as Revelation puts it into the lake of fire, that's the part we don't like, right? This everlasting judgment part, we don't talk about it a whole bunch in church, and often I I really shy away from trying to preach about it, because I don't like it either. But here's the thing, nothing of what Jesus did actually matters without this judgment, right? Jesus wouldn't need to come and die on a cross and rise from the dead. If there was no judgment in the end, God would not be a just God, either. If God could look down on Adam and Eve and say, Ah, guys, that's alright. Don't worry about it. No one would need a savior. We wouldn't be here dedicating our time and our lives to Christ's word and Sacraments. We wouldn't give up the things we give up. We wouldn't need to do anything, because God would just be like no big deal. But that's not who God is. God is a God of justice, which is why he put out his wrath on his Son, Jesus Christ on the cross, so that we would not receive it, so everyone who believes in Him would not be cast into the lake of fire for all eternity, but live forever with Him in righteousness and it so then the judgment happens, and what after that? We get even less information about exactly what happens after this judgment, with this new heavens and new earth, St Peter in his second letter, chapter three, talks about it. He says, But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. So he talks about the the earth and the heavens kind of being dissolved or destroyed, like in a fire. But we also get things like revelation, talking about a new heavens and a new earth. So we know that there will be something like a destruction of the present and a renewing for the future. Similarly, our bodies, their current state that we are in, will be gone, and a new and perfect state will come made in the image of Christ in First Corinthians, chapter 15, St Paul tells us. He says, Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of eye when the last trumpet sounds and the dead will be raised and we shall be changed in God will make us immortal and perfect in the image of Jesus Christ, everything else is imagery. Isaiah 25 talks about the mountain of God and that in the end, there will be a feast, right? A feast of rich food, a feast of rich food and wine, aged, well, refined, whatever that means, right? It's a nice idea, not exactly detail. Revelation also talks about Jesus being in the center of the New City. It doesn't need any light, because the lamb on his throne is the light. Whatever that means, sounds good. Can't wait. But it's not a lot of detail. We get these images of the new heavens and the new earth to show us that it'll be great. And I think we only get images because we can't even imagine what that would be like in our current state. Can you imagine what it would be like to be perfect.

I can't, because every part of my life is tainted with sin and aching and sadness. I can't imagine what it'd be like to see Jesus face to face in a perfect body, which is why I think we get. These images, so we can have something that is analogous to it to hold on to, because that's what this teaching about the end is about holding on to a promise that Christ is coming, knowing that there will be a judgment, but also knowing that it is the salvation for us who are in Christ to live forever with Him, in Jesus, name, amen, amen.

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Why Celebrate Our Sanctuary? 60th Anniversary of the Sanctuary of First Lutheran Church

Acts 2:42-47

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Overview of the Windows

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, Christ. Amen. Over the past several weeks, we've been working through a sermon series based on the stained glass windows of our sanctuary. The very first one, we did a quick overview, and so now is time for the test. So I'm going to point No, so we'll do a quick reminder of the stained glass windows that we've been looking back. If you start over in the back on the far left, when you're looking back that way, that is the Bethlehem window. Next to it is Jesus in the manger. Then we have the Jordan river next to that, the one with the cross and the Bible is the one that represents Jesus' ministry of the word. Next to that is Golgotha, the place where Jesus was crucified. The cross with the Crown represents his crucifixion. Right next to that, we see the Sea of Galilee, the blue with a boat on there. It's a boat, if you didn't know that's a sailboat, right? The lily is a symbol of resurrection, and then right next to that, we have the city of Jerusalem descending, as in Revelation on the day that Jesus returns. Let's take a look at the other side. Shall we? We'll go left to right over here as well. On the left side is the Garden of Eden. You can see the flowers and the trees with one great big tree in the front. Next to that is a symbol of God, the Father. He has his fingers up the symbol of the right hand of God is a symbol of power, but he has them in the hand of blessing. We have a pasture scene with the shepherds, with the shepherd's crook next to that is the crown with a cross representing the son. So far we have father, then son next to that, we have the wilderness where Jesus was tempted by Satan. Next to that is a symbol of the Dove, representing the Holy Spirit with the glow over his head, showing us that it is holy. Now what's really exciting is next to that, we have a window that I can't see from here, but I believe it is the tree of life next to a river. The Trinity window is the window with the triangle and the half circles around it, the subject of our sermon this morning. And then finally, we have heaven. That's where the trees are now, that leaves one window, the big one that you may overlook every time you enter the church or every time you leave the church, it's also the one that is right there. I'm going to make you wait to find out about it until we talk just a little more. 

Why This Celebration?

Actually, I think the reason I'm going to make you wait is I have a question to ask you. Why this celebration Now you might think pastor, we have been planning this celebration for months. Is now the right time to ask that question? Maybe that should have been asked 345, months ago when we scheduled the pot luck and we decided to do special music and the choir pulled their stuff out of the filed cabinets to get ready. Still, it's a good question, right? Why this celebration? Why are we here at all, celebrating the 60th anniversary of this sanctuary? Why this celebration? Is it? 

Is This God’s House?

Because this place is God's house. Perhaps in my first church, I did preschool chapel all the time. Every week I would do a number of them, and one of my most embarrassing times was when a young, two year old mistook me for God. I would come in and I would do the chapel, and I would do my stories and the singing, and she would raise her hand and go, God, God. You know that happens often. Usually they think of us as Jesus. They don't think of us and call us God. I quickly told her that I wasn't. Of course, kids believe the strangest things, one of the things they also sometimes believe is that the pastor lives in the church. And so when I told this same girl that I would be taking a call to another congregation and leaving that first church. She said, Where will you live? Right? That kind of understanding is a little bit like calling this place God's house, because God really doesn't live here, does he? If he does, his bed sure is hard to find. We know that God doesn't need a house or a building or any kind of structure to live in. In fact, one of the greatest structures ever built, Solomon's temple. It was filled with gold. It had the Holy of Holies. It had the Ark of the Covenant in there, the place where God said that, that's where he was. You know what Solomon said when he dedicated it first Kings, chapter eight, he said, but will God indeed dwell on earth? Behold, Heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you. How much less this house that I have built. So if the God did not need a temple to dwell in to make his house, I think it's the same now in our sanctuary, if you look at Acts chapter two, the apostles are gathered together. Right after Pentecost, the church is coming together, and it says, And they devoted themselves to a capital campaign so they could build a church. Oh, wait. No, that's not what it says. They devoted themselves to the apostles, teaching the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers. They didn't need a house or a sanctuary for God to come down and dwell with His people and give them his grace. Even the big churches like the one in Corinth, they met in a guy's house. It was a big house, but it was still his house. What God wants to give, what he needs in ministry is His word and Sacraments, the things that have gathered us all here together so that you can receive His grace through the message that He has given us of His Son, Jesus Christ. That's what the apostles gathered around, the teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of the bread, Holy Communion and their prayers. They didn't need a particular kind of building to do it. 

Is It The People?

So we ask, why this celebration? Is it because of all the people we've have a long history here, don't we? 60 years is a long time. We have memories of wonderful people who put the put the building together, who made the plans. We've got the plans and the contract. If you came here this morning, you got to see all that stuff laid out in a display. There's even a design for that great big window in the back already laid out colored pencil. It's kind of cool. We have memories here. Weddings have happened, funerals, confirmations, preschool, sing alongs, all sorts of cool stuff, right? And we're just getting ready for our annual Christmas concert. So much great stuff has happened here. Is it the people? That's not why we built a building like this. Is it because the people who gather here were just sinners, and they didn't come here because the congregation is just filled with amazing people, and we all have stuff in common, right? We came here because there's a message Jesus Christ, who died on a cross for you, and that's what actually made this congregation possible because God took by the power of the Holy Spirit people who are very different from each other, like I don't know a guy born in northern Wisconsin who said that Chicago was too far south and.

People like us, different places and different ideas and different ways of thinking, and he gathered us all together into the body of Christ. It's not because we are amazing, but because the gospel of Jesus Christ has power to save. So maybe it's not the peak. 

Is It The Architecture?

So why this celebration? Is it because of the architecture? Now I have to say, this place is pretty cool. If you tell someone who knows anything about church history, and you bring them to our church, they will walk in and they'll say, oh, yeah, 1960s because it definitely looks like that. But it is built beautifully the way the roof slopes, the way the the symbols of our stained glass window have been designed the effort and love that our congregation put into all of this. It is wonderful. But you know what they call places that we celebrate because of their design. Museums, I've been to churches that are like that, where there are more people walking around looking at the art on the walls, having to be told, No flash photography. There's a service in project process that's not what we want to be, is it where there are more people looking at our windows than worshiping our Savior and receiving His grace? No, we're not here to celebrate the beauty of the building, though it is beautiful, we're here to celebrate that the Holy Spirit has called a congregation out of darkness into the light of Christ by the death and resurrection of our Savior to give us eternal life. That's what our building is for. 

The Ministry of the Word and Sacraments

So we ask why this celebration now we get to talk about that window. See the designers of this church knew exactly what this building was for. They place in the very center of this window, as soon as you walk in, you see it the cross of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and it shines like a light, the light that goes out into the world and gathers people together for eternal life. And right next to it is why we come together on Sunday. One on each side, you see the word right up there, the Bible on the stand, the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed to the whole world for the salvation of everyone who believes. And on the other side the chalice, the bread of Holy Communion that is Christ's Body and Blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. They put that window there to remind you that this is what this building is all about. And if you just miss that, if you walk in and you're just like you forget it, it goes into the background. You can't miss it up here, can you? Because the altar is right there, reminding us that Christ sacrificed himself and offers himself to us through His Word and Sacraments. That's what we're celebrating today. That's why we call this place God's house, not because he needs to live here, but because he comes to us and delivers himself to us through the means of grace. That's why we celebrate this people, not because we are great, but because God has bound us together in the body of his son. That's why we celebrate the architecture, because everything in here pushes our minds and our souls to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for your salvation. You us. We celebrate because this is the place we have set aside for the gospel of Jesus Christ to save souls, you and me. And it's 60 years. Years of God's word being proclaimed, 60 years of the sacraments delivered. That's what we're celebrating, Jesus Christ, who died and rose for you and delivers that to you here every week in Jesus name amen, amen.

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A Simple Triangle or a Call Into God's Love? Isaiah 6:1-8 Sermon for Sunday, November 10th, 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.”

Celebration of God's Blessings and Introduction to the Sermon

Greetings and blessings in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, it is my honor and my privilege to be with you today, and I bring heartfelt greetings from our English district Bishop, Reverend Jeffrey miscus, and also from all of your sister congregations of the English district. We get together, we celebrate this day with you, and we're thankful to our Triune God for all the blessings that He has granted through this building to those over the years who have worshiped or have visited here. It is indeed a good it is good to celebrate God's gifts in our lives. In sharing with me about today's service, Pastor Huenink informed me that your congregation is in the midst of a sermon, a series of Sunday messages focused on the different stained glass windows in your sanctuary, and looking around, they are indeed beautiful and many part of the blessings which is celebrated today, he specifically asked me to focus my message on on that one over there, just a second from the end, on that side, you can rub her neck if you want to look at it, but I think it's also up on the screen right. 

Exploration of the Holy Trinity and Its Symbolism 

The essence of that stained glass I saw the picture, and it was just breathtaking to see it in Live is just even more spectacular when you see the total context of it. This one with the triangle, this symbol and the three half loops intertwined with it. They are Christian symbols. And Christian symbols often are intended to carry with them a meaning and and many times, actually started off as a teaching tool in the early church. I mean, you didn't have to have PowerPoint back in the day when, when the disciples were wandering around, or the early church was around, you could just bend down and draw a triangle in the ground, you know, in the sand, and start talking about it. The triangle in the stained glass window is a graphic representation of our one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And the stylized circles are intended to teach us that there is complete unity in these three people. Now there's many different variations of this. This image in on the internet, you can go look it up. But this complete unity is important because the thought often comes to us that if there's three persons, then there must be three gods. And that's not true, one God. Now there are many other graphics which have been used over the years to help teach about the Holy Trinity, but today I just, I just want to focus on this one, this glass in your sanctuary, because it's something you see on a regular basis. So being here this morning and having pointed out that specific window, I have to ask, is this a simple triangle, a symbol of the Trinity, or can we also see in it a call into God's action of love

Isaiah's Vision and the Concept of Repentance 

In our Old Testament. Reading for this morning, we hear that in the year that king Isaiah died, the prophet, Isaiah saw a Prophet SAW, sorry, saw a vision. I don't mean he saw a vision like a dream. He saw a vision. It was breathtaking. It was overwhelming. Angels and and an earthquake and the Lord himself speaking and smoke and fire and a voice that could bring the house down. You know, not, not a vision, a vision that was huge and breathtaking. And so what is, Isaiah reaction to all this? He is overwhelmed. He is awestruck. He does not take being in God's holy presence as a light, casual thing, nor does he think how special he must be cuz he's there, I get to see this. Aren't I special? No, quite the opposite. In the presence of this holy God. Isaiah becomes keenly aware of his own unworthiness. He cries out. Out. Woe is me. I am lost. 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 Lord of hosts,

Isaiah confesses his sinfulness in the presence of our holy God. This is repentance. This is what repentance is supposed to be. And now Isaiah may have been a better man than most, but, and he probably was, in many ways, but still, still the awareness of his own sin causes him to cry out as he mourns his woeful estate, and what effect does that have on his heart? He despairs. He despairs as we speak of the Holy Trinity this morning, we must share with each other the fullness of what this symbol in the stained glass is really conveying to us. Our God is a holy God, and He calls us to be His holy people, but we are not holy. We are far from it. We come into the presence of our holy God. And are we not condemned? Do not our sins leap up before our eyes. I'm unworthy. Woe to me, and we are like Isaiah. We mourn our sinfulness. Isaiah was moved to confess Woe to me. Woe is me. I am lost from a person of unclean lips. What about us? Have our lips been unclean? Have we been grumbling and complaining? Have we been have we even using our lips to speak about God to our neighbor, or have we been using our lips to speak ill of our neighbor, or to bring into question actions that our neighbor may have been doing, and what about our fellow church members? Do we put the best construction on everything? If not? Maybe we do have unclean lips that are in need of cleansing.

The Role of God the Father and Jesus Christ in Salvation 

For this morning. Let's call that upward corner of the triangle, God the Father. Can you see that title there? It's not written there, but can you imagine it there? God the Father. Is the is the corner at the top, Isaiah was brought into the Father's presence, and he, as well as all of us, become aware of our sins and failures. And we ask, Who will save us, oh Lord God, who will save us from the judgment and wrath that we deserve. Let's name the corner in the lower right hand, Jesus Christ, looking into our gospel reading today from John three verses, 16 to 17 we heard read for us by Pastor. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, whoever that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Good news, great news, it's absolutely amazing. News, God the Father, has given us the way of salvation. He has given us the way out of despair. It's not our own making, nor is it our own ability or power. This way of salvation is his, and it's his gift to us alone. Nothing. Can we add nothing? Can we subtract from it? We are told in in John moved by his deep and profound love for the world, and I just have to stop there, because I I'm the mission executive district as well. And I just want to say, the world everyone, no one's left out, no one's excluded everywhere. There's no geography that God's word is not wanting to work in people's hearts. It. In all time. That's what is meant here.

God gave us Jesus Christ to gain for us forgiveness for our sins, a true love that casts out all fear and the promise of eternal life. Now there are some who would say that Jesus came to teach us the way of holiness, to provide a manual to guide us in performing a list of behaviors intended to obligate God to love us. In other words, we have to earn his love

that is not the witness of Scripture, and clearly not the teaching of the apostle John, nor of our confessions. Jesus was not sent to condemn or judge our actions, but that the world would be saved through Him in

now, while the the window that we are looking at this, the symbol that we're looking at this morning, doesn't specifically have a cross in it, I see that there are several of your windows that do have crosses in them. And that's important, because that is the more of the story that our symbol of the Holy Trinity is telling us, God did not give Jesus to walk among us. Teach us, show us that God the Father's heart, no, he came to be the one to give his life for us. He came to be the one who redeems us from all sin. If you are baptized, all of your sins are forgiven completely, the ones of the past, the ones you can remember, the ones you can't remember, the ones of today, the ones of tomorrow, the ones of 10 years from now, all covered by the blood of the Lamb.

He came to be the one to give his life for our life. He came to be the one who redeems us from our sins. He came to be our Savior. In fact, He is our Savior. He is the one and only Savior of the world. And the only way to accomplish our salvation was for Jesus Christ to take our place to take all of our sins upon himself and make payment for them as he died on that cross, Jesus Christ was crucified for you and still today.

It humbles me almost 30 years later, for me to recall being in a small village up in the northern part of the country of India. I was on a mission trip, and we were sitting in the middle of the village. It was after dark, and we were watching the Jesus film in the language of the tribe that we were at. I didn't understand the language. I knew the delay of what was happening on the screen. It seems that all the people the village had come out to watch this film projected on the large white cloth that has been stretched out at one end of the street. So it was a block party, the story of Jesus. And when the story arrived at the trial of Jesus, something happened that I have never before experienced in my life, the villagers started yelling at the screen, crying out in anger at the clear injustice of the events that were taking place in the trial, and they cried out even more when Jesus was whipped and When the story move forward to the crucifixion. That is when I I first heard the sound of muffled weeping coming from the villagers, not from any of the of the missionaries. The villagers, as a soldier, stabbed the spear into the side of Jesus body. Both men and women were now loudly crying for Jesus.

The Work of the Holy Spirit and the Message of the Stained Glass Window 

So the message of the stained glass triangle takes us from woe is me to tears of sorrow. So to see what our salvation cost Jesus, and it brings us to a place of joy and celebration for the third and final triangle. Corner of the triangle in the stained glass window frame, there are We are, of course, going to name it the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Triune God, the apostle Paul, in our reading from Romans, tells us in verse 16 that the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, that is the work of the Holy Spirit to reveal to us our spiritual condition before God, the Father, like Isaiah, we despair, to reveal to us our desperate need for a Savior, and put into our hearts of faith to know that Jesus is our only Savior, so we know hope and then reveal to us the heart of God for the world. I was visiting a family that had a wall of pictures. I mean, there must have been 100 pictures on this wall. It wasn't that big a wall, but it was just packed with these pictures, all in frames. They all had frames, all meticulously hung on the wall. And it was truly amazing to look at all the different people in the family. They were all family pictures, all the people in the family, all the people in the extended relatives, all the different events they've been to and been part of. And as we looked at the pictures, I asked, How often do you do this? Take the time to really look at these pictures? And I was not shocked at all by the reply. They said, not often they're there. We know they're there, but we don't. We don't like look at them that often. We don't pay attention to them every single day or every time we pass them. We don't stop and say, whoo. Look at that picture. I understand their experience. I I think we can all relate to pictures we have on display in our homes. We see them. Sometimes they catch us. Sometimes they don't, but otherwise, they're just another piece of furniture in the living room or bedroom or wherever. This family also had a digital picture frame. I don't know if you're aware what that is, but it's a basically, it's a screen, and you plug in a memory card into it, put power to it, and it rotates through the pictures on the memory card. Every so often, it changes the picture. It's like a new picture. It's revealed every few moments. And I was sitting in the in the family room, talking to the family, and it was so hard not to look at that screen. It kept changing pictures, you know? It got my attention. It kept my attention. Although I'd probably seen many of those same pictures on the wall, right? It's hard to ignore pictures that that are in motion. So in closing, this morning, I thought that I would share with you the back side of my business card, which also has a Trinitarian triangle on it. So you want to change the picture, there we go. That's my business card, not, not the name, number side, the other side, okay, but it has a Trinitarian triangle on it. So what I would like to try to do here is, I like to have you imagine in your mind's eye that you take the stained glass window and you lay it over the picture of my business card. Can you kind of imagine that?

The Movement of God's Love and Salvation 

So there's connection to the two, for ref, for reference. Remember that the three corners still have the same names we've already given to it, but now there's motion. There's movement, starting with the Lord left, Holy Spirit corner. We were in the world. We still are, but we were in the world before we came to know Christ and God and the Holy Spirit drew us in to relationship with God, the Father. And of course, that first place we came to was a recognition that we are sinners and we cannot save ourselves. You. We were convicted, and we were in live, and we were enlivened within us the need for a Savior. And that's a green line. The green line arrow moving us from from that corner up to God the Father at the top. And when God, the Father, then gifts us with faith again through the Holy Spirit, but he draws us into relationship through the Word and the sacrament, he draws us to recognize not only knowledge that we are sinners and that we can't save ourselves, but also that Jesus was the one who died for us and paid for our sins. Again, it's God's action in us, and we are drawn along. So now you'll see that green line, that green line arrow moving us from the to to the lower right hand Jesus Christ corner and drawing us into himself and into unity with his body. And that's why I have a cross on my card, because I want people to know it's Jesus. That's that's our Savior. Jesus is the one who we walk with each and every day, he also draws us into relationship with each other as the body of Christ. So in Jesus, you are my sisters and my brothers. I used to joke with my guy friends. I'd say you're just a brother from another mother. Well, true enough, you are my brothers and sisters from other parents, from another place, but we are one in Jesus,

Conclusion and Call to Action 

God's desire is always and has always been, that all the people the world come into relationship with Himself. And so there is a third green line. And this green line arrow moves us where back out into the world by the power of the Holy Spirit. Being the children of God, we get to bring his love to all the people we have relationship with in the world, neighbors, fellow employees, people that we we know even stranger. And of course, our message, it's about Jesus. He is, of course, our message for all the people around us, all the people who are broken, all the people who are in sorrow or despair or poor or tormented or lost or and you can go on forever here, because there's so many variations of being broken, and that's why I have this cross on my business card, because we have movement from the Trinity, and we are God's movement. We are the ones who now participate with him and taking his message and his salvation into the world, brothers and sisters, we have so much to celebrate today, and I and I encourage you, do not allow that stained glass window to become one more static picture in your life, taking the time, taking notice of it only occasionally see in that image, that triangle, the movement of God, first for you and then for everyone, everyone around you, without exception, hear the call of God, the Father, upon your life, and take what you have received here in the divine service out into the world with you. This symbol is not just a triangle. It is a message of God's love for you and the world, amen. And now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ, Jesus, our Lord, amen. Amen.

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The Holy Spirit Bears Witness to Christ: John 15:26-27, 16:12-15 Sermon for Sunday, November 3rd, 2024

John 15:26-27

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

John 16:12-15

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Our Grace, mercy and peace to you from God the Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we often admire the stained glass windows surrounding our sanctuary. The three today I'll talk about briefly. Are three moments the exalted Christ crowned with glory and honor because of the death he suffered. The Spirit descending as a dove when he was baptized, and Jesus in the Jordan River when he began, began his earthly ministry. Each of these shows us how God works as a Father Son and Holy Spirit. Today, we look at our text. In the Gospel of John, Jesus gave us a promise about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the life of the church. In our passage, Jesus is speaking to His disciples just before his crucifixion, preparing them for what lies ahead his death, resurrection and ascension. He promises that He would not leave them alone, but would send them a Helper, the Holy Spirit, to bear witness to him, lead them in all truths and glorify Him. Today, we see how the promises apply to us and to how the Holy Spirit actively works in our lives, even in the church, even now, the first role of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus explains, is to bear witness to Christ. The Holy Spirit is a great testifier of Jesus, always pointing back to Him as our Savior and Redeemer. In this the Holy Spirit is unique. He doesn't draw attention to himself, but always directs our gaze to Christ through the Word and Sacraments. The Holy Spirit is constantly revealing Jesus to us, affirming our faith and enabling us to believe and confess that Jesus is Lord, as it says in First Corinthians, chapter 12, verse three, when the gospel is preached, it is the Holy Spirit who opens our hearts to receive it, drawing us to faith in Christ. Think about the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. The Holy Spirit led Philip to the man in the chariot. He was reading the book of Isaiah, but didn't understand it. Through Philip, the Holy Spirit opened the eunuchs eyes and heart to see that the prophecy pointed to Jesus, and the eunuch was eunuch believed and was baptized. It's recorded in Acts chapter eight. The spirit continues to work the same way today, revealing Christ through the scriptures and through the preaching of the gospel. But this witness isn't something that we passively receive. It's something that we want to actively join. The Holy Spirit invites us to be a part of bearing witness to Christ through our words and actions, we are called to testify to this saving work of Jesus, the witness isn't done by our own strength, but through the power of the Spirit. Luther Small Catechism tells us that the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth equips us to share the gospel in confidence, knowing that he is working through us. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would teach and remind the apostles of all things, and this promise extends to us as well. When we share Christ with others, we can trust that the Holy Spirit is guiding us, helping us and working. In the hearts of those who hear in our passage in John chapter 16, Jesus acknowledges that his disciples were not ready to grasp all that he had to say. There were still things they couldn't understand, especially about the necessary necessity of His death and resurrection. There are mysteries for us, also mysteries of God that we cannot fully comprehend. But Jesus assures us that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth will guide us. He does this through the Scriptures, helping us to see Jesus in every page and understand God's will for our lives. The spirit guides you and I into all truth through the means of grace, the word and sacraments in baptism, the Spirit enables Christ's death and resurrection to give applies Christ's Resurrection and death to us, cleansing us from sin and making us heirs of eternal life in the Lord's Supper, he brings us Christ's true Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sins and strengthening our faith. And through the preaching of the Word, the Spirit works faith in our hearts, Bringing the truth of the gospel into our lives. Through these means, the Holy Spirit not only calls us to faith, but also sustains and strengthens our faith. We don't have to rely on our own understanding or strength. We trust that the Spirit will keep us rooted in the truth of the gospel. One of the special aspects of the Holy Spirit's work is that he does not speak on His own authority. Jesus tells us in John, chapter 16, verse 13, that the Spirit speaks only what he hears from the Father and the Son. This reflects the perfect unity that the Trinity has. The Spirit's role is to direct us to Christ, not to create new doctrine or teaching everything he reveals to us points back to Jesus, confirming the truths that Jesus has already given us. Finally, the Holy Spirit's role is to glorify Jesus. Jesus says in chapter John, chapter 16, verse 14, He will glorify Me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to to you.

Spirit. Doesn't seek His own glory, but points to us to Jesus, helping us to see the completeness of his redemptive work. The Spirit continually draws us to the cross and to the empty tomb, where Christ glory shines both brightly, most brightly, we are reminded of Paul's words in Philippians chapter two, where Christ is exalted because of his humanity and obedience, even to death on the cross, the Holy Spirit doesn't just give us knowledge about Jesus. He brings that knowledge to life within us. He takes the grace, forgiveness and salvation that belongs to Christ, and applies them directly to our lives. This is not just head knowledge, but a transformative work of the heart. As a Spirit makes us new creations in Christ through the Word and Sacraments, the Spirit brings Christ's salvation to us personally, making us recipients of His grace. We are constantly sanctified by the Spirit who leads us to live holy lives in response to Christ's love. In verse 15 of John. 16, Jesus speaks of the deep unity within the Trinity. He says, All that the Father has is Mine, therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. This shows us that the Holy Spirit is not working independently, but in perfect harmony with the Father and the Son. Everything the Holy Spirit does points us to Christ. As believers, we are called to project this unity bearing witness to Christ in all that we do and trusting that the Spirit will guide us in truth and empower us to live our life in faith. The Holy Spirit is our personal helper and comforter who bears witness to Christ and guides us to all truth, glorifies Christ in all things, and draws us closer to Jesus and strengthens our faith in Him. As we leave today, let us remember that we are never alone. The Holy Spirit continues to work within us and within the church, pointing us to Christ and grounding us in His truth and empowering us to live lives that glorify Him. Amen in.

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The New Jerusalem: Revelation 21:1-8 Sermon for Sunday, October 27th, 2024

Revelation 21:1-8

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God, our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, Christ. Amen, today is Reformation Day, but we're not talking about the readings we would normally do or doing a sermon on that theme, because we are in the middle of a series based on the windows that you see up in our sanctuary. We've worked through a number of them, and I have the photos of some right up there that we're talking about today. Two of them are over there. One is the lily, and then next to it is the New Jerusalem descending from heaven. And then the last window is the one that you see all the way in the back on the other side, it's the one with the really tall kind of tree Bush thing. So that one back there represents heaven. That is the scene that is heaven. The scene over on this side is New Jerusalem, descending down to earth. And the lily represents the resurrection. And we have all seen the symbolism of the lily representing the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I think every church I have ever been to on Easter gets a whole bunch of lilies and puts them up front and and we get to see their beauty, and the people who are allergic to them get their noses filled, and they're glad that they don't they only last a couple of weeks. The lily represents the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a reminder of the joy that we have that after Christ died on the cross as a triumph over sin, he rose to new life to bring light and life to light for all of us that it leads us to the resurrection, our own resurrection. Today, I want to focus in on the window that is the scene, however, the New Jerusalem descending from heaven because it is the resurrection of Christ and His ascension to Heaven, which means that he is coming back. And John gives us this vision of the city of Jerusalem descending from heaven onto a new earth and from the new heavens as the final resting place for us all eternal life and the joy that we have to look forward to. He writes, then, I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven, and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. This is the promise that we look forward to as Christians, the new heavens, the new earth, and the city, Jerusalem descending to create eternal life for us in this majestic thing that we have a promise of in the resurrection. I'm going to take a look at a couple of those promises and a couple of those things and highlight some of what John says. The first one I want to see is this phrase, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. This is the goal of the entire plot of the Bible. If you go all the way back to the very beginning with Adam and Eve, the goal is, God will be with his people. He will live with them, and they will be his, and he will be theirs. And Adam and Eve had that. When they were walking in the garden, until they ate from that forbidden fruit. And the rest of the story is about God trying to be with his people. You can see it in the story of Moses. When God brought them out of slavery in Egypt, he brought them out into the desert. He gave them the 10 Commandments, and he said, I will be your God, and you will be my people. And he tried to dwell with them. He had them build a tabernacle for his presence, with the Ark of the Covenant in the center. And when He wanted them to move. He would lead them by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, and he gave them a very complicated set of rituals that needed to be done to make sure that his holiness would not destroy them because of their sin, he wanted to be with his people and live and dwell with them. But it just didn't work out, because a holy God and an unholy people don't mix. So we tried it. We see it failed over and over again. Solomon tried it too. He took the tabernacle and turned it into a temple this big and beautiful and impressive building. Not even that would work. God's people continued to sin. They treated him like the pagan gods around them, and so God sent prophets. He sent prophets to go into the land of Israel to tell them, return to the Lord your God. He is faithful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. They repeated the promises of the law. They called the people to faithfulness. God wanted to be their people, and they refused. And so the place where God dwelled was destroyed and the people ejected from the land, which is why God sent a new temple His Son, Jesus Christ, who entered into Herod's temple and said, Destroy this temple, and I will rebuild it in three days. Meaning his body. He lived among them. He died for them. He rose for them, just as he does for us. And yet, that beautiful vision that John has, that God will actually come down and dwell among us, has not been fully realized has we cannot shake Jesus's hand or give him a hug. We have something though that calls us to mind of his presence among us. God still wants to dwell amongst his people, which he does through Holy Communion, as we eat his body and drink his blood, we become temples of him where his presence is, but even that is just a shadow of The amazing beauty of Christ dwelling with his people on the last day. Later on, in Revelation 21 John writes, And I saw no temple in the city for its temple. Temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. When the New Jerusalem descends from heaven, we won't have to look for these small earthly signs of God's presence. We won't have to take his body and his blood to be reminded that he is among us with power and grace and mercy. We will actually see him in all his glory and dwell with Him in perfection, all our hoping, our yearning, our believing and trusting that he is coming will finally be realized.

What a glorious day. Can't wait God among us. Forever.

There's another thing that I think it reminds us we have to take a look, and especially as we are heading towards November of 2024 is that it is a city descending from heaven, right? I saw the whole holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. How many of you have been receiving texts 50 times a day telling us who to vote for. Initially, I started with the rule, if you text me, I won't vote for you. But that rule, pretty much means I don't vote. Now it's stressful and annoying. What's going on with our election, especially as much as the people keep playing it up and telling that everything depends on this moment. If you're like me, you wish there was a registry that could say already mailed in my ballot. Stop bothering me, but this passage helps us to remind us that our true citizenship is not in the United States or California or El Cajon lakeside, la mesa, wherever it is that you call home, our true citizenship is the New Jerusalem as Paul says, but our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever your opinions on the politics of today, whoever happens to get elected, my vote is that they all lose. Whatever happens. Just remember, the end is the New Jerusalem. What we have now is temporary. The final thing I want to take a look at is this phrase, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. I love the image of God wiping away every tear from every eye. We just think about that. What is it? What does it depict? You see the hand like coming up to a face right. And to do that, you have to put your your thumb or your finger right up intimately with every single individual person. That's a closeness that you don't get very often. How many times does someone actually have your trust to put their hand on your face and wipe away the tear from there, much of the time we in the Lutheran church, emphasize the communal relationship of God, that we all gather together and we receive the same body and blood of Christ. We hear the same word proclaimed, and hear the joy and promise is God will wipe away every tear from every eye. It's this intimacy, this individuality of God coming down and soothing every person, and each one of us has something that makes each of us cry individually. As I get older, I find that I tear up more at the weirdest things, you know, that's kind of a thing guys do. As we get older, we start to tear up at certain things, but it's always the weirdest things, not the things that are supposed to be, the tear jerkers, they make me roll my eyes. I remember watching this movie. It's called Brittany runs a marathon. I'm sitting there in the movie theater with my wife. We're in the final scene. It's the marathon scene. They've gone through all the training and the difficulty, and Kristen sitting there, and she's like, Yeah, isn't it great? And I am bawling like a baby. It was so bad, I didn't even try to hide it, just like

and we all have things that are. Are putting tears in our the pains and the hurts that each of us face. It's individual to you. And John chooses this image to show that individuality of God's care in the community of the saints. He says, I will wipe away every tear from every eye, whatever it is that you're facing that makes your heart swell with pain and sadness brings that tear to your eyes. When the New Jerusalem descends from heaven, God himself will wipe away every tear from your eyes, every tear from every eye. And that's the promise of the resurrection, when our Savior returns, all things will be made new in Jesus. Name Amen. You.

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The Crucifixion: Colossians 2:8-14 Sermon for Sunday, October 20th, 2024

Colossians 2:8-14

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Amen, Grace, mercy and peace to you from God, our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, Christ. Amen, we're continuing in the sermon series that we've been working on for the past month or so, talking about the symbols of the stained glass windows that we have lining our walls behind you, and then the big one, that's what we're going to finish with all the way in the back. These windows were put in in the 90s, and each one has a meaning and explanation, one that sometimes we don't know about and so each Sunday, we're taking a look at a couple of windows. Today, we are looking at two windows that you'll see right over there. Hopefully there is a slide with them on them too, so you can see them right up in front. So we have a scene window and a symbol window right back there, if you want to see them, are up here the window with the big tree on a rock that is the scene of Golgotha, the place where Jesus died on the cross. Golgotha means the place of the skull, which is, you know, where they killed people, the Romans, the other one, the symbol window is the cross with the crown of thorns around it. We all know what the cross symbolizes. It's the crucifixion of Jesus, but it's a specific color up there. It's the color black. They did this on purpose to show us that the cross isn't just a wooden object, but that all our sin is there paid for on the cross. The black color symbolizes that sin. This is actually very similar to the Luther Rose who has the He who has the cross black as well, to symbolize that the sin of the world is there on the cross. The other thing that you'll notice is that the crown of thorns is also the wrong color, right? It should be wood, it should be brown. It will not surprise you that this has symbolism too, because the crown of thorns is not just an instrument of torture, but the crown of the King of the universe, who was enthroned on the cross. And so it's not brown, but gold to show that the cross of Christ is the glory of the salvation of God and something that we celebrate rather than being sad about. And today, as we consider this symbol, what I'd like to do is look at a short passage of Colossians, chapter two, where it says and you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with all its legal demands, this he set aside nailing it to the cross. The cross is the place where our sin was defeated. St Paul tells us that Jesus nailed our sin to the cross, the debt, our trespasses, all of that, all of the legal demands, nailed there. And this has a couple of implications. The first one that I want to talk about is that the cross is a triumph and not a thing of sadness. The Crucifixion is how Jesus disarmed the rulers and powers and authorities and destroyed the power of sin over us. His crucifixion means that sin and death were nailed to the cross for us, and we don't always think about the cross. Cross this way. Sometimes we think about the cross as just a declaration of judgment on the sinner. Now I know that this has been preached to me many times when I was growing up in the church. The idea behind that is you. You, especially on Good Friday, you all get together, and the pastor stands up and says, God had to do this for you. You made him. It was your sin. You ever heard that before? Yeah, and I think the idea is to to give us all of the fields right to be like, Oh no, I am a horrible sinner. This window reminds us that it is not just a thing that is there to cause us pain and repent, but the cross is primarily the triumph of Jesus Christ and the Bible talks about this all over the place. I've got a couple of places that I want to point out to you. John. The Gospel of John especially shows the cross of Jesus Christ as the place of his glory. John, chapter 13 is right at the beginning of Jesus's movement to the cross in Jerusalem, and he says this, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. It is during that moment of this beginning of the journey to the cross that he finally declares, now is the time for glory or elsewhere. St Paul says in First Corinthians, one, but we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. But I think my favorite example of this comes from the Gospel of Mark. Is it on the way to Jerusalem, James and John come up to come up to Jesus, and they do that thing that happens in all the Gospels where they say, Master, we want you to do whatever we ask. And Jesus goes, What do you want? And they say, I want. We want to sit one on your right hand and one on your left when you come into your glory. And Jesus lets them know that they don't know what they're asking for. Because in the Gospel of Mark, when Jesus comes into his glory, we read that he is crucified with two thieves, one on his right and one on his left, because that is the moment where Jesus was crowned king. That is the moment when he came into his glory. The throne was the cross, and it was his triumph, not a defeat. And we sang about that too, in the cross of Christ I glory towering over the wrecks of time, all the light of sacred story gathers round its head, sublime the cross we glory in, because this is where sin, death and the devil were defeated. What that means then is that we have some comfort that can come from the defeat of the trespasses, sin, death and the devil on the cross, means we don't have a debt to pay back to God. We actually don't owe God any amount of payment for what he has done for because what he did on the cross was take away the debt that we owed and instead nail it there. What does that mean? When Jesus nailed our debt to the cross, it means that God loves us for the sake of Christ, we don't have anything to pay back to him. We don't have to impress God by our works or our actions. We don't have to try to fill up some sort of empty Treasury or get God to love us. God does it because of Jesus.

That's what the black cross represents, right? Sin is there and not on us. We don't have to make up for it, or try to earn it back or get out of a hole we dug for ourselves. Jesus has done it, as Colossians says, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, this he set aside, nailing it to the cross, our God and King Jesus Christ paid for every sin you have committed and every sin you will commit, the cross is like a sin black hole, right? You know how black holes work. There's so so much gravity. There's so dense that not even light can escape it, and it all gets sucked in. That's the cross for our sin. There is no sin too powerful or too exciting or too scary to escape the cross. Jesus paid for it. There. He took everything so you don't need to impress God. You don't need to try and work your way towards his love. It has already been done for you. But that leads us to the third implication. If the cross is the defeat of sin in the world, it has been nailed there, it also means that sin has been defeated in your life, too. And so it gives us a new way to look at how we can live as Christians, because our service to God is not about paying a debt, because it is not about impressing God. It means that our our lives, our life of service in the world to serve each other. We don't have to impress God. We don't have to to do things that simply because we think he wants them. We do things to love and serve our neighbors. It isn't about earning because our sin has been atoned for. As St Paul says, We were buried with Christ and we were raised with Him, all of that is taken care of. So sin does not rule our lives. What it means then is, instead of serving under threat. We serve for the joy of helping one another. I have two cats. They're pretty great, but when I first got cats, I went about disciplining them the wrong way. Lots of people do this, you think you can tell cats what to do with a spray bottle, right? That's what that's what you do the first time. Until you realize how wrong you are. You go up the cats like, jump on the counter, and then you spray them. They're like, get out. They have no idea. They just know that somebody sprayed them because they're not they're not like dogs. You can't train them that way. And so what ended up happening is the cats would see me, and they would hop down, but as soon as I went away, they were back up on the counter, right or anything that I didn't want them to do. They were just scared of me not of doing the thing I didn't want them to do. And I realize you have to set up your house so the cats will naturally do the things you want them to do and not do the things you don't, because that's the only way to keep your your cats behaving, because they just don't listen. And I think the Christian life is actually a lot like that. Not that you are cats and don't listen, you're actually a whole lot better. But punishment isn't the way to love and serve. Hitting people every time they sin, like spraying the cats isn't the way to get us to be joyfully, loving and serving the way our Savior wants us to. It's only for the joy of Christ looking at the love he gives. Us that changes us, that motivates us and drives us to live as people who are not ruled by sin, but whose sin is nailed there to that cross. It's not guilt that drives us, but the Holy Spirit through Christ's sacrifice that causes us to love our neighbor and serve our God, and what that means when we look at the sin nailed to the cross is we don't have to look at it and say, Oh no, I'm so guilty. I better go out and do something. What we can say is, what a joy that Christ nailed our sin to the cross and gave me the freedom to love and serve my neighbor when he buried me with him and raised me to new life with him, so that I can live freed from sin, no longer bound by to love the way Christ has loved Me In Jesus name, amen. Amen.

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Jesus' Ministry: Mark 1:29-39 Sermon for Sunday, October 13th, 2024

Mark 1:29-39

And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Jesus ministry, stained glass is our theme today, and we'll be working with the text of Mark chapter one. The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are eyewitness accounts of the life of Jesus, they were written down when the first generations of eyewitnesses were dying off so that we could have forever access to the real Jesus. The first of these books is Mark. Is the first biography about Jesus that we have in Mark is very to the point, very straightforward and focused on showing Jesus unfiltered and in action. In Mark, we see Jesus on the move from one place to the other. Here in the first chapter, we have what someone called a typical day in the ministry of Jesus, what his calendar looked like, if you will. And as we examine these things that Jesus did in a regular basis, we learn a few things, beautiful things that Jesus was engaged for us every day. First of all, take a look verse 35 where we learn about the richness of Jesus, Imperial life with God. It says very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed, Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed, everyone is looking for You. When people learn that Jesus had miraculous power. The response was overwhelming. Everybody wanted an appointment. Peter says, Everyone is looking for you, Jesus. Response to a time of extreme business, a time of tremendous opportunity. Jesus response to that time is very different than what most do, because when you and I come into a time of incredible popularity, opportunity to get so much done, to do so many things we always wanted to do, the first things that go are quiet, solitude and prayer squeezed

out. Am I right?

Jesus? See, the busier he gets, the more he prays. That's a lesson on prayer, right off the bat, the priority of prayer in Jesus ministry. Early in the morning was still dark. Jesus got up, went to a solitary place, to a desert place, and from the time that he went out there to the time that the disciples woke up, realized that he wasn't there, and went on a search and found him. We're talking at least a couple of hours. That's something. What does that mean to begin with? If you and I are full, weak people, and he's the son of God, and he taught he needed prayer, the busier it got, how much more we would need it. Or put it another way, when you and I when, when we come into those seasons where we have all of these opportunities in front of us, maybe families coming to visit, maybe it's a business opportunity, maybe it's a church event, and it's so busy and everybody want a piece of us. What are we accomplishing in those seasons. Maybe, maybe we are building more relationships, maybe we are making some money, and that's great. Maybe we're helping people, and that's all great. Jesus was standing in the middle of the opportunity that was going to change the world. So his opportunities were literally going to change the world, the course of history, and he still taught that prayer was too important to let

be squeezed out to

one degree or another. We all need to pay attention of this beautiful interior life of Jesus with God, the beautiful prayer life of Jesus. Why pastor? Because our fast paced world demands it. We now have computers in our pockets and purses, and they're always there close to us with a new sports score to note, a new status update to be read, a picture to be taken, an urgent text or email to address our culture has long venerated business and freneticism, we even humble brag about how busy we are, don't we, sometimes. And here's Jesus, the busier he gets, the more he pray the supreme priority of prayer in his ministry, it seems to him that nothing else is more important to This encounters that he has daily with God in prayer. Not only Jesus had this beautiful and rich interior life with God, His prayer ministry where he prioritizes spending time with God, not only for his own sake, but especially praying for us on our behalf. There is also on Jesus, a beautiful external life. There's beauty in his external ministry. And as you can see in the text, he ministers in both word and deed, Jesus had been doing miracles in Capernaum. He's healing the sick. He's driving out demons. He's doing incredible things. The people of the area were asking, stay here, don't leave us. Meet my needs through your miraculous beads. Just get up after prayer and says, No. First, I have to keep moving. I have to go to other places, to everybody else too. And secondly, what he says is, I am not here just to meet your needs or to meet the needs that you know you have in your body through my deeds. I'm also here to meet the deeds that you don't know you have through preaching of the Word, and that's why we have a Bible in the Jesus ministry stained glass right there, I am going to preach the gospel, says Jesus, I am going to call people to repent. I am not go. I am not just going to feed the hungry and heal the sick. I'm also going to minister and preach God's word. We recognize easily our physical needs in Jesus cares about them, but we don't always realize our spiritual need, how much we need God, how much we need grace, how much of a sinners we are. We don't like to hear that, but Jesus was like I came to help with that too. I want to you will not be loving for me not to try to I have to go after your soul, not just your body, but then again. Look at the text after he says, Let us go somewhere else so I can preach for that's why I've come next thing you see him doing? He heals a man with leprosy. What does that mean? No words without deeds. No deeds without. The word, look at the richness, look at the fullness of the salvation. The work of Jesus. He insists on calling people to personal repent and to believe in the gospel. Yet he also pour out himself and call his disciples to pour themselves out sacrificial love through deeds to meet and heal all other needs someone has. That's what Jesus did. There was ministry to him. He preached the gospel, and he helped people too. It does not have to be one or the other. It can be both, and that's what Jesus have done all the way to the cross. Your physical needs, but also, and most importantly, your spiritual needs. Do you know what's that? It's absolute beauty, absolute commitment, absolute sacrifice. That's the ministry of Jesus to these people, but also to us. You know, when Peter says in verse 37 Jesus, everyone is looking for you, he spoke more truth than he knew, because in the end of the day, everyone in the world is looking for Jesus, whether they know it or not, because the world is craving for this type of ministry, for this type of character, for this type of beauty and richness of a life of someone like Jesus, for a kingdom of God that comes this way. And if the world miss Jesus, they will not find it this beauty

anywhere else.

Pastor, okay, now us. What do we do with that? And I will leave you with these two things. How do we respond to that stained glass, to Jesus ministry. What we do with that first, my brothers and sisters, we keep receiving daily from his ministry, from his love, grace and mercy, everything that Jesus did back then. He did it for us, and he continued to do so prayer. He continued to pray for us. His prayer was not only back then, if you continue reading your Bible, you see that one of the ministries that Jesus do for us right now is that he's at the right hand of the Father, real close to God, the Father doing what, speaking on your behalf, interceding on your behalf, you can count on that, that you when you pray, you are not praying alone, and when you forget to pray, Someone, the Son of God, is praying for you. Word. He didn't only preach the gospel back then. He continues to preach the gospel today, every time our Bibles are open, every time you are listening to a message on radio, on on your computer, on YouTube here at the church. Why? Now, through my voices in weird, thick accent, Jesus is ministering to you. He is talking to you, preaching that love and grace and calling you to examine your life and keep walking with him, so keep receiving that, and know that he also ministers to us, indeed by blessing us with the Father and the Trinity. He's our Prophet teaches us. He is our priest. He intercedes to us, and he feed us with His Body and Blood. Work for us, and He is our king. He continue to rule and govern and lead us to. Eternal life. The second so first thing we do, we respond. We appreciate this. We say, Thank you, God. We sing in the choir for him. We embrace that, and we keep feeding ourselves again and again to everything that Jesus did and does for us. The second thing, we grow in it. We grow in Jesus. Ministry in Jesus work for us. Paul has the audacity to say that we can be formed in Christ, that He can be formed in you and me. Mark has the audacity to say, follow him, learn from him, imitate him. And you say, How in the world can I do that? I believe that we have a hint right in this chapter of Mark, right after we finish the reading today, we see Jesus healing Peter's mother in law. You know the story. We don't have many details. We have only two verses to tell us what happened. But it was. It must have been very important, because not only mark, but Matthew and Luke also give us that account, and maybe that's why the series The chosen made a big deal of that story, you know, and what happened to Peter's mother in Law after being healed by Jesus, being saved by Jesus, the fever left, and she began immediately to serve them. She began to wait on them, the serious the chosen. Imagine her waking up after the fever is gone, and immediately asking everyone around if they would like something to eat or something to drink. Peter, mothers in law responds to Jesus. Ministry is our model. How can we grow in Jesus ministry? We embrace it, we give thanks and we respond. We wake up every morning a fever or not fever. We wake up to serve, to bless others, to ask, What can I do to serve you? We respond to the healing that Jesus brought into our life, to his sacrifice on the cross, we were also sick. Actually, we're more than sick. We were dead in our sins. And Jesus did not only stretch his hand to lift us from a fever, he stretches his arms to be nailed so we could have been forgiven. And because of that, we respond as Peter mother in law, did we respond serving whoever shows up in front of us, in our workplace, in our family, in our circle of friends, we will not do it perfectly. We still live with sin and sickness. As followers of Jesus, we have to grow that day by day. But here we have it. Jesus ministry to us, beautiful, and we respond, and we go with him to serve others. Easy, not always, but God's people, these are the instructions. I'll

finish with that. Amen. Let.

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The Birth of Jesus: Micah 5:2-5 Sermon for Sunday, October 6th, 2024

Micah 5:2-5a

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
    one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
    from ancient days.
Therefore he shall give them up until the time
    when she who is in labor has given birth;
then the rest of his brothers shall return
    to the people of Israel.
And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,
    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
    to the ends of the earth.
And he shall be their peace.

We thank you for gathering us here today. Open our hearts to Your Word as we reflect on your promises fulfilled through the birth of Jesus. Help us to understand the deeper meanings of the stained glass windows, symbols that draw us closer to you. May Your Holy Spirit guide us so that our faith grows stronger as we reflect on your love and grace in Jesus. Name we pray amen.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, together today, we gather to reflect on the beautiful stained glass windows that adorn our sanctuary. These windows are more than just art. They are a visual representation of our faith and God's word. Each symbol, each color, speaks volumes about God's love for his unfolding plan for salvation. Let's take a moment to observe some recurring symbols in the windows at the top of each theme window, the theme window is the one with the circle that to the top we see a symbol familiar to many, a fleur de lis history, historically has been represented the Virgin Mary and Church's nature. It reminds us of Mary, chosen by God to carry Jesus, and it points to Christ, who took on flesh to dwell among us and to redeem us. Below the Florida lay we see vines and branches. This imagery comes from John 15, verse one where Jesus said, I am the true vine and you are the branches. The green symbolizes life, growth and nourishment we seek we receive from our Savior. Jesus is our life source, and through him, we grow in faith and in grace. Finally, we notice a red circle in the center of the windows. The circle with no beginning or end, represents the eternal nature of God. The red color symbolizes the sacrifices of Christ, the blood Christ shed for us, and the fire of the Holy Spirit that enlivens us and sustains our faith, the circle is divided into seven parts, and that may represent divine perfection, God's perfect plan for redemption. Each of these symbols speaks to us about the core truths of our faith, but today we focus on the windows that point us to Bethlehem and the Beth and the birth of Jesus. So let's turn our attention to the Bethlehem window. It is up on the screen, or if you want to turn around, look to your right, back behind most of you, there is the Bethlehem window. The window portrays Bethlehem, the birthplace of our Savior. It depicts a small, dark, domed, humble city hidden in the hills, almost too insignificant to notice. This imagery reflect the words of Micah two, verse five, but you O Bethlehem, ephrathah, who are too little to be among clans of Judah, from you shall come forth from me, one who is to be ruler in Israel. Ephrata means fruitful. Bethlehem, a small town surrender surrounded by Brown hills, much like the hills we see here in Southern California might seem insignificant, but through this humble town, God chose to reveal His great plan for salvation. Micah's prophecy spoke of a ruler whose origins are from ancient days. Bethlehem was the chosen place where the long awaited Messiah would be born, a reminder that God works through the humble and the lowly. Above Bethlehem, we see a shining star that guided the three wise men to Jesus, the newborn king in. The star represents God's revelation, the light that shines in the darkness, leading all nations to the Savior, just as a star shone brightly over Bethlehem, the light of Christ shines in our lives, guiding us to the truth. The light of Jesus shines in the darkest places of our lives today. Now let's look at the window of Jesus birth, which is beside the first window. In the center of the window to is the Bethlehem. We see the babe Jesus wrapped and lying in a manger. Surrounding his head is a halo symbolizing the holiness and Divinity of Jesus, though born in humble circumstances, Jesus is no ordinary child. He is Emmanuel, God with us, even as a babe, Jesus is set apart as holy, marked as the promised Savior. The prophecy from Micah five two points to the humble origin of Jesus. Micah lived hundreds of years before Christ, but He foretold the coming of the ruler whose origins were from ancient days rooted in eternity. This ruler would come from Bethlehem, a place of seeming insignificance, but chosen by God to be the birthplace of the King of kings, this prophecy reminds us that God's plans often defy human expectation. God exalts so lowly and brings salvation from unexpected places. Matthew confirms the fulfillment of this prophecy. In Matthew, chapter one, verses 18 to 22 he traces Jesus' lineage back to David and Abraham, establishing him as the Promised Messiah. The birth of Jesus occurred just as the prophets had said, fulfilling God's promise made centuries before. Matthew also recounts the story of Joseph, who initially wanted to quietly have Mary or leave Mary when he discovered she was pregnant, but an angel appeared to him, telling him that the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The angel confirmed the prophecy from Isaiah, Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a child, and they shall call his name Emmanuel. This is in Matthew one verse, 23 God's promise to save his people was coming to pass through the birth of Jesus. Jesus is the fulfillment of all the prophecies in the Old Testament, in all these windows and word of Scripture, we see the faithfulness of God. God is sovereign. His plans cannot be thwarted, and his promises never fail. God's sovereignty is displayed in his perfect plan of redemption, bringing salvation from a small town like Bethlehem through humble beginnings to the ends of the earth, from the ancient days of the prophets to the miraculous birth of Jesus, God orchestrated history to bring about our salvation. What God says He will do this is the assurance we cling to in our lives. When we face uncertainty or doubt, we remember that God is faithful. His promises to you are true, and his problems plans for you are good. God remains faithful to all his promises to you today, Micah, five states, and he shall be stand and shepherd his flock and the strength of the Lord in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now, He shall be great to the ends of the earth, and He shall be their peace. These verses show Jesus is a shepherd king who leads his people, provides them with security and brings true peace and. What does the prophecy of Micah five and the scripture of Matthew one mean for us today?

It shows that God promised. God's promises never fail, just as Micah foretold, Jesus came as a ruler who would Shepherd his people bring peace and security. Micah five tells us that he would stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, and they would dwell securely because he's he is great to the ends of the earth. This means that Jesus leadership, care and protection over his people are constant and unfailing. You can count on his promise of forgiveness and eternal life. This brings great comfort. Jesus is not just a ruler. He is our shepherd. He cares for each of you, individually, tending to your needs, guiding you and protecting you with divine strength, just as a Shepherd leads his sheep to safe pastures. Jesus leads you through the uncertainties of life. When you feel lost, burdened or overwhelmed, remember that Jesus is your shepherd, standing watch over you, guiding you through every valley and challenge. Micah's prophecy also tells us that Jesus will be your peace. The peace you seek is in this chaotic world comes only through Jesus as a prince of peace, Jesus doesn't offer a temporary peace, but a lasting one, rooted in reconciliation with God. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus has made it possible for us to dwell securely, knowing that nothing can separate us from His love and care. In this peace, you find the security to face life's trials without fear, even when the future feels uncertain or when the burden of sin weighs heavily upon you. You can trust in Christ. He stands firm as our shepherd and King, offering us peace that surpasses our understanding. His peace is for you, and his presence bring calm in every storm. If you feel weary or burdened today, know that Jesus, your Shepherd, offers you rest. He brings peace to your soul, securely for your future. In conclusion, as we think about the stained glass windows depicting Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus, we are reminded of the fulfillment of God's promises in the coming of the shepherd King Micah's prophecy. From Micah five points us to a ruler who would not only come from the humble town of Bethlehem, but who would also stand as the shepherd of his people, bringing them peace and security. The rule that ruler is Jesus Christ, as you look upon these windows, let them remind you of God's faithfulness and his deep care for you. Just as the light shines through the stained glass windows over here, bring your the light also shines in your heart, bringing you peace and security. Trust in Him, rest in His promises and let his peace guide you every day. Jesus is not the only the holy ruler who came from Bethlehem, he is the shepherd who cares for your soul, lead you to dwell securely in his love.

Let us pray, Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of your son, our Savior, Shepherd and our peace help us to trust in his care and to rest. His security he provides. May he remember your faithfulness as his face. Let life as we face life's challenges, and may your peace fill our hearts and guide us daily in Jesus name we pray amen.

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Christian Community: James 3:13-4:10 Sermon for Sunday, September 22nd, 2024

James 3:13 - 4:10

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

We continue in James this week a book that explores how the message of Jesus impacts our everyday lives, while the text talks about all kinds of things, it's central message focused on the relationships and commitments that we are called to practice as the church. Some I wonder, Is it really necessary to focus our message on this? But if you really think about it, we realize that true connection real fellowship in a church or in any community, no matter how nice it looks on screen or in theory, isn't always easy. It certainly doesn't happen on its own. It requires effort and willingness to commit to what it takes to nurture that connection, and that's what we're going to be talking about this morning. Let's start by remembering the importance of Christian Fellowship. Verse 18 says in a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. What is James talking about here? Righteousness is a special word in the Bible. To be righteous, justified is to have been declared reconciled with God, and this righteousness, this reconciliation with God, also affects our relationship with our neighbors. Now that we have been reconciled with God by Jesus, we seek reconciliation with others. We try to make peace with our brothers and sisters. In Christ, to make this point, James uses this metaphor of a crop in seeds, in fruits, in harvest, the harvest of our righteousness, He says, The fruits the consequences of being reconciled with God becomes a seed called peacemaking. Christ for us, Christ in our lives, generates a seeding that makes us work for unity, harmony, building bridges, dialogs and relationships. Again, the importance of this we live in individualistic societies today. It's ingrained within us, me, me, me, I am. I decide the problem with this is that it doesn't work because we have been created by God to be social, to live in community, to depend on others. Nobody is isolated. No one is an island. How many of us maybe haven't said, especially as teenagers, I won't be like my father, I won't be like my mother, like this family, like these people, and for a while we live this illusion. The older we get, the more we realize the profound influence they have on us, how community impacts someone, and it's the same in our faith, after God's word and after the sacrament and alongside them, nothing has more powerful power, according to Luther, than the fellowship we experience here. Here someone could raise their hand right now and say, But Pastor, I've been going to church since I was I was a child, and I haven't felt this power of fellowship. I don't think I have why. I could say that it may just be our superficial perception that deep down, and sometimes we don't realize it, but we have, we have experienced the power. We have been tremendously influenced and blessed, and we also have influence and bless others. Uh, or I could say too that maybe, if we haven't experienced this, maybe we write, but the problem lies with us, because when the Bible talks about fellowship in the body of Christ, in the church, and the Bible talks a lot about it. The Bible doesn't talk about coming to church, sitting down, getting up and maybe having a coffee and living and that's it. Oh. The Bible talks about confessing our sins to one another, encouraging one another, investing your time and your life, in your care, in your love, on one another, counseling one another, eating with one another, sharing our blessings with one another, honoring one another. And the list goes on and on. There's no There's no single book in the New Testament without his expression one another. Maybe you've seen every page, and we cannot do that just by coming to church. It's more than that. It takes commitment, it takes generosity, it takes courage, it takes risk. And I know your pastor and your pastors have always invite you to this kind of community. And I know that this congregation facilitate as more as she can these things, and this is what the sacrament of holy supper is all about too. As we allow ourselves to practice this type of fellowship, it's impossible not to be blessed by the power and the beauty and the grace of fellowship, Christian Fellowship. So what hinders Christian Fellowship? According to James in chapter four, he talks about two main causes. The first one we see in the very beginning, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you. It is not this that your passions are. Are at war within you you desire and do not have. So you fight and Quarrel. James is talking about us when we want something only for ourselves. We are obsessed with our pleasure, my comfort, my convenience, my preferences, my control is more important than anybody else. My needs are more important than the needs of the people around me. I am here to get the music that I want, the coffee that I want, the type of Men's Ministry that I want, the type of preaching and pastoring that I want. I am here to get what I want, and you are here to serve me your life for mine. And we fall into this all the time, because it's in our sinful nature, my brothers and sisters, and because it's in our sinful nature, trying to fight this, putting the needs of other people in front of ours feels like a sacrifice, like a small death, death death of my time, death of my privileges to let someone else. Preference be prioritized, when we forgive someone in church, when we volunteer our time, when we are part of our team trying to organize something when we don't insist on getting on our own way. These are like small deaths, like sacrifices, the number one barrier to Christian Fellowship, according to James, everybody is fighting like the disciples in the Gospel to be number one, to be the greatest, and the second cause is what James talks about here in verse six. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Pride is our pride

that makes us more aware of other people's fault than our own. Is our pride that leads us, when we speak of the sin of others, to have an air of satisfaction and disdain you kneel. Reality means that when we speak of someone else's fault, we do that with compassion and mercy. Is our pride that leads us to distance ourselves from the people we criticize or who criticize us. Humility makes us to remain close, even when the relationship is difficult, because we don't want to give up on them. Pride is the first enemy of true fellowship, says James, pride can make us too convinced that we know everything about everything is pride that makes us want to be right every time and win every argument, and all of us have those tendencies. How can we repeat of this daily and let the Holy Spirit in us so we can bear the fruit of peacemaking and be someone who comes to church and is a member of a church eager to fight for peace and unity and fellowship. How can we face these barriers? That's my last point, there are two things in our text that help us to fight these barriers. First of all, right, after James talks about pride and humility, he says, submit to God, but resist the devil, and he will flee from you, the devil. You heard me right. The devil does not only attack us individually, but he attacks Christian Fellowship. He is involved in fights, in quarrels and misunderstandings in our communication with one another and grudge he is on he the devil is on provoking our snobbish attitude. He is on provoking our hypersensitivity to being offended by anything he is the middle of provoking us to come to church, demanding, where are my rights? Resist sister, resist brothers, because this comes from hell. Have no doubt when you are struggling to get involved in the church, to relate with one another. The devil is behind it. He knows how powerful community can be. He knows that is much harder to keep you off the path if you are connected, surrounded and protected by the body. Resist the devil. Resist the devil because he's not greater than the Holy Spirit who lives in you. Resist the devil and watch this Holy Spirit produce in you, the fruits that James talks about, humility, gentleness, patience, courage, commitment, a desire to participate and contribute in the church, resist the devil and witness the Holy Spirit. Produce the fruit of repentance daily, that, as James says, makes us to weep for our sins, that we cause against communion, for the toxin that we spread when we fail to spread the perfume of Christ. The other thing that James is going to tell us, in order to face these barriers, the most important thing that prevent Christian communion, is to remember that the source of our strength is God's love for us. Where does James says? Says this pastor pay attention to this verse is the hardest place in the text of all the serious words that James uses to encourage us to live our lives in peace with one another. He gives a severe rebuke to the church. He calls the church, you adulterous people. You see that James is touching in one of the greatest. Themes of the Bible, how God loves us, not just the way a shepherd loves his sheep, how God loves us, not just the way a father or a mother loves their child, how God loves us, the way a husband loves his wife. God is our husband, spiritually speaking, and when we sin, when we are harmful in the church, when we don't create fellowship, that is spiritual adultery, we are the unfaithful wife towards our husband. That's why God is jealous of us, by the way, it says in the in the verse, and he's jealous of a husband who longs to have the love of his beloved. The Holy Spirit has called us, through our baptism, to be part of God's family, and when we don't value this family. When we don't show peace in this family, we are saying to the Holy Spirit, to Jesus, to the Father, to the Trinity, I don't want this relationship. I don't want to be in the family. I don't want this marriage. I am alone, not married to God alone. We are not married to God. I am not God's bride. Together, we are God's bride. The church is God's bride. Together, we are also the adulterers. We have all sinned against the family. We all have failures in communion, fellowship. We all deserve to be abandoned, divorced. But what has our groom done? Has he divorced us? What did the love of God, our husband do for us. James says it came from heaven. James says the wisdom comes down from heaven. Jesus is the Wisdom, you see, our bridegroom came from heaven, embodying sacrifice, the death that is necessary to create community. He lost control, he lost his independence, he lost his preference and privileges and his power. He lost his life so that we could have ours back, so that we could have been forgiven by our spiritual adultery. Here we are. It's my life. Where are my rights? And then Jesus looks at us and says, Oh, that's it. No, he says, it's my life for you, and that's how you should live your life, as well as I gave my life for you. That's the size of the our guru's love. Now you go and you come to Sunday worship service, or you come to every meeting and every thing that you have with your brothers and sisters. You show up with this attitude, my life for yours. Before Jesus, Christ died on the cross on mounted Thursday, Jesus prayed to God, knowing how difficult it would be. He prayed, and he still prays today, for us to live in fellowship, to live as one in the prayer. He said, John, chapter 17, I have done, Father, the work that I needed to do. Now, Father, may the disciples be one as I and you are, so that the world may know that you send me in that you love them as you love me, the beauty of that may they know, Father, that because of what I have done, you not only love me, you love them. We are treated by God, adulterers as we are as faithful,

because Jesus died in our place. That's the extent of God's love for you. That's what you get when you trust him. Let this soften your heart. Let this renew your commitment to first Lutheran Church. Church. Let this renew your seeds of peacemaking among one another. Let it take fruit the blessing of being together.

Amen,

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The Power of Words: James 3:1-12 Sermon for Sunday, September 15th, 2024

James 3:1-12

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

James three is our text for today. Last Sunday, James two, we heard that faith without works is dead. James wants to help us live out our faith in love, in ethics, in practice, and today he talks about the use of words, the power of words, how the gospel affects the way we communicate. Interestingly, when we go to the doctor, the doctor often examines our thong to see what's inside. That's what we're going to talk about. It in a way, our tongue reveals a lot about what we have inside of us, inside of our soul. There are some things that the text tells us about words, and let me begin just pointing to the power of words, because that's how James starts. In verse one, he says that the teachers, especially the teachers of faith, will be judged more harshly the more we talk, the more we're held accountable by God. God takes very seriously our use of words. Verse two points out that we all struggle with our speech. None of us can control it perfectly. We can try for a week, not complaining about anyone or anything, not bragging about anything, not gossiping, not cursing, not manipulating, just encouraging and uplifting others. How would that be, right? And then in verse three, four and five, James used three metaphors. He compares our speech to a bridle on a horse, a ruler on a ship in a tiny spark that can ignite a huge fire. Our words are much more powerful than we realize, and where does that come from? This power? I think we can trace it back from God, from the beginning, from creation. If we look at the beginning of Genesis, we see how communication started. God said, Let there be light. And there was light. God's words create reality. And since we are made his imagey, our words also have some sort of creative power. For example, our self image, how we see ourselves in how it shapes our lives. It's built from words. It's shaped by all the things people have said to us over the years, like feedback from our parents, from our teachers, from our friends, if children are told they are stupid, those words can have a profound impact on them. We all know how words can deeply affect our self esteem. We often spend our lives dealing with consequences of what others have said to us, the power of words. Words have a huge impact on a society too. If we can trust the words of our leaders, the media or experts, it can create big problems for us. A country can fall apart when trust breaks down. A great example of this is that Oscar winning film the lives of others, 2006 which tells the story of the last days of East Germany. No one trust anyone back then, because people's words meant nothing. When words mean nothing, there is no society, there's no relationships, because they depend on words. A well placed compliment can get you a friend, it can get you a date, maybe, or it can destroy your chances, because words have power that is almost irre. Parable once you utter them, if you stab someone with a sword and then apologize, you might remove the weapon, but the wound remains. If you cut someone with words and say, I'm sorry, well, you're sorry, it's okay, but the wound doesn't come out. It stays there, hurting. Proverbs says that life and death are in the power of the tongue. Then we understand Jesus in Matthew chapter 12, when he told us that on the Day of Judgment, people will give an account for every useless word they utter. Jesus wasn't exaggerating. Every word will be considered on the Day of Judgment. It is a serious matter. Let's press a little bit on that. My second point the poison of words. Words definitely have the power to build up or tear down, they kill or make live. James refers to the tongue as poisonous in verse eight, highlighting how damaging words can be, and the Psalm 140 already spoke in these terms, rescue me from Lord, from evil doors. Protect me from the violent who devise evil plans in their hearts. They make their tongues as sharp as serpents. The poison of vipers is on their lips. That's where it comes from. This idea of the poison on a tongue. So what? Exactly? What exactly makes words poisonous? James does not dive into specifics in chapter three, but he does give us some clarity in chapter five, James identifies two main types of harmful words, lying and unloving speech. In verse 12, James says that it's absolutely critical to tell the truth. He's recalling Jesus on the sermon of the mouth, don't swear. Let your yes be yes and your no be No, like in a courtroom. As followers of Jesus, we're always under a commitment to tell the truth, nothing but the truth. And in verse nine, James writes, do not complain about one another. He's talking about not being compassionate to others, unloving words, words of criticism. Paul captures the essence of what James is talking about, but he frames positively. If the poison is lies in hatred, then Paul writes, you know this, you speak the truth in

love like two wings on an airplane. Truth and love both are essential for balance and flight. Truth is essential because lies are damaging. They distort reality, they uphold information. When we lie, which we exploit others by keeping them in a false reality. And why is love important? Because the poison is not just in the lie, but in the insensitive, angry, hateful words, words that are not loving. We are called to speak the truth always, but always in love. Proverbs 2515, tells us that a soft tongue breaks bones, which is a fascinating way of saying, that gentle, loving words can penetrate even the toughest defense. If you're trying to say something to someone that they do not want to hear, and you come across as harsh or ironic, this attitude will only increase. Their resistance. What Proverbs is telling us is at the best way to break down a person. Resistance to the truth is being kind, finding the best time to speak. Sometimes we say things to someone, you know, we can help. We can solve and they and then we say, I told the truth. I try. I did my part. No, we did it. We didn't do enough. If we didn't, if we didn't speak the truth in love. Truth without love is poison. Loving, but lying words are poison too, only when our words are true and loving at the same time, we can rest assur that we have done our part, that we have created life in healing with them. Now let's find a solution for this dilemma, the here for the poison. What are we going to do? How can we control somehow, somewhat our tongue? James doesn't give us a recipe, but he points the way at the end, once again, James points to the teachings of Jesus, my brothers can the fig tree produces olives or divine figs. Likewise, a spring of salt water, cannot yield fresh water. Remember how Jesus spoke about the relationship between the tree and the fruit. A good tree bears good fruit. Before thinking about the fruit, we need to think about the tree before James said that the tongue controls the body, but now he says that the heart controls the tongue, the tree controls the fruit. The mouth speaks from the heart. The key is the heart. Guard your heart. The mouth speaks what the heart is full of, and that raises the question, what fills our hearts? We all have something that fills our hearts, what we love in life, if it is our reputation, our name, then when someone criticizes us, we won't know. We do not know how to react with our words, we will strike back. If what fills our hearts it's people's approval. Then that I want to people to like me, then I will be a coward. I will not open my mouth to say something for the fear of hurting someone. If it's money that fills my heart, if it's status, we'll go around and around and exaggerating with our words to get that contract. It won't be real if what fills my heart is to be right, to always have the last word on a debate, then I will never know when to shut up. I will not let others speak. I will not abstain from any discussion, because I have to have to have to give my opinion the world deserves to know my latest tweet, that discussion people are having on social media or out there will not go unanswered. They will have to listen to me if what fills our heart is not God, His kingdom, His grace, His commandments, we will always find ourselves at a dead end, because we will fall again and again into the error of using our words for evil. How can we fill our hearts with God's love? The answer is simple. It's all over the Bible, but it's kind of hidden in the text. At one point, James tells us that the tongue is a fire. The tongue is a fire that has been set ablaze by hell itself. In other words, James tells us that the devil feels our tendency to sin with our words, what James doesn't say, but we can add from another text. Is that our tongue is not only set on fire by hell. There are two kinds of fire, two kinds of fire that set a tongue on fire. One is the fire of hell, but the other one is the fire of heaven. Our tongues can be set on fire with a fire that worms not burns, that enlights not frightens, the fire that comes down from heaven. That's how it was for the first disciples. It's been that way since that day. Pentecost, remember, in Acts chapter two, fire came down from heaven in the form of flaming tongues that rested on the heads of each of this Jesus followers there, their tongues were healed. They were enabled to speak so that everyone could understand words that didn't kill but saved, brought life healing to people, and they spoke the truth about everything, about our sin, about our our need for salvation, about what God had done through Jesus Christ, how Jesus was the only way the truth and the life and they also the disciples spoke of love. Pentecost filled their hearts with faith, courage, understanding, moderation, self control, gentleness, kindness, meekness, patience, Pentecost hear the poison in their tongues, And from that day on, disciples, the church, us. We live our lives to use words to bear witness of the gospel, how to fill our hearts with God's love. The cure for the poison of words is called the Holy Spirit. He is our counselor, our teacher, who can fill our hearts with God's love and heal our tongues, the fountain that James speaks of, the fountain of fresh water, water of life. It's the Holy Spirit. It's another symbol for the Holy Spirit. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, you don't know what you were saying, but when you drink from that fountain, you will learn you will be different. Jesus was announcing the Holy Spirit, the source of good, the source of life, and he is yours. You have received him abundantly since the day that you have been baptized. How does the Holy Spirit do this on us? He does that through the word that you are right now hearing,

and he does that through the Holy supper every time we receive, on our mouth, on our ears, bread and blood and the word of God, the Holy Spirit is filling you, feeling your hearts, feeling your tree. He's highlighting the word of Christ, the work of Christ, because he's drawing us closer and closer to the love of Jesus, and making us little by little with ups and downs more and more, like Jesus, the Holy Spirit is producing as we speak, the fruits according to the tree. They speak according to what it is what lives in your hearts. Look again and look always to Jesus, how he uses words. He's the perfect example of keeping quiet when is necessary to keep quiet and speaking when it's necessary to speak, and how to speak and why to speak, and look to at the most dramatic and important moment of Jesus life, when Jesus was on Good Friday, being judged and condemned, how Jesus uses words, how he didn't respond with. And they attacked him and accused him unjustly how he didn't strike back with his tongue in the face of the worst insults. Why? Because, as well as being our example, Jesus was also being our substitute. He was paying for our mistakes, for every nasty, ignorant and stupid word uttered out of our mouth, for our silence when we should speak, for every poison. Jesus is our model. Let's imitate him, but Jesus is our Savior. If any sinful word escape us, let us run into him in sincere repentance and open our mouths to do the most important thing there is to confess. Lord, have mercy on me, forgive me, and he forgives you, and He forgives us. With our tongues, we bless our Father, and with our tongues, we curse other people. Blessings and curses come out of the same tongue, my brothers and sisters, says, James, this should not be the case with you, because Jesus lives in your hearts, because the Holy Spirit is at work in you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Amen.

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The Garden of Eden: Genesis 3:1-15 Sermon for Sunday, September 29th, 2024

Genesis 3:1-15

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the coolof 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. Today, we are beginning our series on the windows, the stained glass windows of our church. So I figured I'd get started with an overview many of us, these windows sort of fade into the background, and they just become a part of the scenery. They're here and beautiful, but you don't really notice them. So I'm willing to bet most of you don't know exactly what they depict. So we're going to do an overview today. Our windows are divided into two different kinds. Some of them are scenes, and the others are symbols, or what they called theme Windows starting from the back, right over there, you can see the first window is the scene of Bethlehem. There's some roofs of a town, and then the night sky, and with a star right up above that is Bethlehem, the city where Jesus was born. Next to that is a symbol well known. It is the birth of Christ. You can see the manger, and there's a little child's body with his head, and then the halo that marks the sacred Son of God. Right after that is the Jordan River. That is the scene where Jesus was baptized and began his public ministry, the one with the cross and the Bible represents Jesus's ministry of preaching. This is when he went out into all of the regions of Galilee and beyond, proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. Next that, you see some rocks and a tree that is Golgotha, the place of the skull where they crucified Jesus. Then is a cross with a crown of thorns. This represents Jesus's crucifixion. Next to that is the Sea of Galilee. You can see the blue water. And then there is a boat of brown and a sail made out of gray with the sun coming up. That is the site of many of Jesus's miracles and much of his ministry. The lily, the Easter Lily, is a symbol for Jesus's resurrection. And then right next to that is the holy city of Jerusalem coming down from heaven like a bride ready for a groom, symbolizing the coming of our eternal life on the last day from Revelation, chapter 21 now if you switch to the other side, starting all the way up in The front, we have the Garden of Eden. There is a tree with a number of trees in the background are the explanation does not tell us whether this is a particular tree or not, but it is the Garden of Eden. Right next to that is the symbol for God the Father. The Hand of God is commonly the way they depict God, the Father. You can see it is His power and His might the right hand of God. This hand is in the form of a blessing. You can see there are three fingers pointed up and two fingers pointed down. If you notice, that is the hand sign I use when I bless you. The three fingers pointed up represent the Trinity Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And the two that are down are the two natures of Jesus Christ, both God and man. The scene with the shepherd's crook are the grazing lands of Palestine. They help us to see that Christ is the Good Shepherd and reflect Psalm 23 the next theme window is the cross with crown. This is God, the Son, representing Jesus Christ and His His death on the cross and the crowning that happened there as he was raised onto a throne, not of gold, but of wood. Next to that is the wilderness where Christ resisted temptation. After that is the Holy Spirit, where we see as a dove that came down on our Savior when he was baptized. After that is the river and the tree of life from Revelation chapter 22 in the center of the city of the New Jerusalem is a river of life and the Tree of Life in. The triangle is the Holy Trinity, representing our Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three and yet one. And the final window is heaven, the holy place. And last, of course, but not least, is the largest of our stained glass windows, which is behind the central doors. You can better see it on your way out, where we see the cross of Christ and the means of grace, baptism, God's word and Holy Communion. Over the next few weeks, we are going to take these windows individually, culminating with that final window in the back. Today we're taking a look at two of them together, the Garden of Eden all the way in the front on this side, and the hand of the Father over against the cross. So like I said, we don't know what tree is represented there in the Garden of Eden, whether it is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the tree of life, or any random tree. We just know that that represents the scene of God's creation and his goodness. God, the Father, made the Garden of Eden and the two humans that he put in it, and it was a perfect place for his people. They were provided with every need, everything that they could possibly want. It was beautiful. The father then is represented by that symbol of the hand up against a cross, a hand of blessing, and that blessing is there with the cross, because it's only by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross that the Father's hand is blessing and not judgment. And we can see this in the comparison of the trees that I think are the most important trees in all of Holy Scripture, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden and the tree of the cross on which Christ died. There is a prayer that we often pray in in the season of Lent that helps us to see how these two trees are so important in our life. In Christ, this prayer goes, it is truly good, right and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to you holy Lord, Almighty Father everlasting God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who accomplished the salvation of mankind by the tree of the cross, that where death arose, their life also might rise again, and that the serpent who overcame by the tree of the garden might likewise by the tree of the cross be overcome. This prayer helps us to compare these two trees. That the tree in the garden of Eden was the place where the serpent won a battle, and the tree of the cross is where Jesus Christ won the war and delivered us eternal life, that from the fruit of that tree we may live forever. So I'd like to take a look at this tree in the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and it begins with a well known story of temptation. God placed Adam and Eve in a perfect garden. Food was all around them. Their only job was to take care of this place that was so wonderful and magnificent, so innocent that they didn't even know that they were naked. They had no cares, no concerns. God took care of everything. And when we look at the Garden of Eden and this temptation story, we often want to talk about placing ourselves in this and what lessons can we learn about temptation, what lessons can we learn about sin? But it's not just that. What we see is the beginning of a conflict between Satan and God over humanity, because the serpent comes in, not just as a tempter, but as an enemy, a rebel trying to take God's creation away from him, trying to claim us as his own.

And this war begins with a serpent going to the woman. And offering this well known temptation. We're not going to rehearse the whole story, but one thing I want to point out is something I think is interesting in verse six. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired, to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. It's interesting to me that the Bible describes the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil as something beautiful. It is a wonderful tree, a part of God's good creation. The food looked delicious and tasty, and it was part of making things, making Adam and Eve wise, what Satan did was he took part of God's amazing creation in this beautiful garden, and he wanted to twist it for his own use, to turn us away from a God who loves us, an almighty Father who gives us life, and by eating the fruit of that tree, Adam and Eve brought sin and death into the world. This beautiful garden where nothing was wrong, where they had everything they could possibly want, brought about the worst things, sin and death in our lives. And yet, God offered a 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. This is the promise of a coming Savior who would defeat the enemy, the serpent, destroy his power and give God's people eternal life. Let's compare that, that scene of beauty and perfection and wonder turned to death and sin with the scene that we see Jesus in on his journey to the cross. In Matthew chapter four, we see a different kind of temptation. Satan uses the same playbook that's all he knows, headlong run into the guy and give temptation. But where is Jesus in a wilderness, no trees, no fruit, nothing to provide for him. He has fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, and he is hungry, alone in this terrible place, and Satan does his old game, no trick plays. He uses the goodness of God's creation and tries to tempt Jesus with it, with food, with God's protection and Christ's reign and rule over all the earth. He attempts to tempt our Savior, but Jesus, without all of the things that Adam and Eve had on their side, he defeats Satan in the wilderness. And then he goes to another tree, to the tree of the cross. Now this tree is not beautiful. This tree is ugly and terrible. It is not like the sanded down wooden crosses that we have, or the golden ones that sit in the front of sanctuaries. This is a rough cross filled with splinters threatening death. Its leaves are not green. Its leaves are nails, and its fruit a crown of thorns. It is horrifying. It is death. But the amazing thing is that this terrible, sad, excruciatingly miserable image of a man nailed to a cross is the death that brings about life. This is how Jesus crushed the head of that old serpent. This is how our Savior defeated the enemy Satan, not with something beautiful, not with an amazing new tree, but with something horrible, a death on a cross. That tree is now the tree of life. That tree is what won us the victory over sin, death and the devil, and gives all of us life everlasting. And it's the fruit of that tree given to us in the church that makes us steadfast and faithful and feeds us on this journey toward that everlasting life that we receive here in worship. This is why we can have a hand up there in blessing. This is why the Father is not in a fist, one of judgment and pain, why he does not threaten to kill us and drive us from His paradise. He can put his hand up in blessing, because it's on the cross that Jesus won us this blessing and gave us life. That is why Christians have, for centuries, centuries, used the crucifix as the image of salvation, not an empty cross, but a cross with a Savior who died there. Because it's not a defeat, it is a victory. It is not shame. It is glory. It is the tree of life that our Savior erected for us that we might live forever. It's the reason we can have life forever, and the Satan is defeated in Jesus name, amen. Amen.

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God Is Coming: Isaiah 35:4-7 Sermon for Sunday, September 8th, 2024

Isaiah 35:4-7

Say to those who have an anxious heart,
    “Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
    will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
    He will come and save you.”

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
    and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
    and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness,
    and streams in the desert;
the burning sand shall become a pool,
    and the thirsty ground springs of water;
in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down,
    the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

Mercy and peace to you from God, our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, Christ, Amen, Our Old Testament reading has some words in it that may well we don't normally associate with God, and may make us a little uncomfortable the words vengeance and recompense. Let's take a look. It says, Say to those who have an anxious heart, be strong. Fear not behold your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God, He will come and save you. Those words are not words that we typically like to associate with God, especially when we're talking about salvation. That is what's going on here, right? It's vengeance and recompense, those things he will come to save when I saw that, I thought for a moment. I figured it would be a good idea to dive deep into those words and see what they actually mean. So I pulled out the old dictionary and looked up all the Hebrew and found out, yep, that translation is pretty good. Vengeance means vengeance paying back for a harm. Somebody has harmed you. You harm them. Recompense is paying back what is owed. It is evening the scales. If an injustice has been done, justice is done right. These words exact mean exactly what you think they mean. One of the ways that we're used to seeing them, well, we used to see them in the old westerns, right vengeance and recompense when things are set right. In the end, these old westerns, you always knew who the bad guys were and the good guys were, because one would wear the black hats and the other would wear the white hats. And the white hat guys were the good guys and the black hat guys were the bad guys, and the white hat guys would always shoot the black hat guys. In the end, things were made right. Justice happened. Vengeance was done. This is the vengeance, the recompense that this is talking about. An injustice has occurred and things are made right. We don't usually associate that with God. We like 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. There's no vengeance in that, no recompense. We're used to hearing things about love and salvation and forgiveness. How do these words from Isaiah fit into into our faith. Well, first we need to look at the situation in isaiah's day. Isaiah, chapter 35 is right in the middle of of a couple of things that are very important in the passage. Right before this, Isaiah has just finished doing an Oracle against all of the nations. He is telling the people of Israel and especially the nation of Judah, those nations do not have power, not Egypt, not Assyria, not Babylon, not Nineveh, not Syria, none of the none of the Big Bad guys around have any power. God is the one who will win in the end. Then we have this section about God coming and making things right. And the very next chapter is a story about King Hezekiah, and the story opens with Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, coming down with his massive armies. Assyria is the really big bad guy of the age. They have been going around, conquering empires, taken down countries, and they are expanding the largest empire in the region. And they keep going, and Hezekiah has made the mighty error of trusting that God will protect Judah, at least according to what Sennacherib thinks. He thinks that it is a huge. Error. So what you get sennacheribs armies have destroyed the fortified cities of Judah. They have come against everybody, and now they are just outside the walls of Jerusalem, and you can see Hezekiah looking out over a field filled with hundreds of 1000s of soldiers, and Sennacherib sends a messenger, and the message is this, hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. Thus says the king, do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for He will not be able to deliver you. Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, Surely, the Lord will deliver us, for this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Do not listen to Hezekiah, For thus says the king of Assyria, make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat his own vine and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water in his own cistern until I come and take you away to a land like your own, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, The Lord will deliver us. Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who, among all the gods of these lands had delivered their lands out of my hand that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? Do you hear what he is saying. He's saying, I am stronger than your God, Jerusalem, none of the gods of the nations have prevented that. Prevented me from conquering. None of the gods have stopped me before. Why should your God be any different if you trust Him, you trust someone who can't save you. In response to this, Isaiah comes to King Hezekiah and tells him that the king is going to leave. He will hear a rumor and go off and fight elsewhere. And this is what happens. He goes off, fights elsewhere, and as he is getting ready to return, this story happens in Isaiah 37 and the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians, and when the people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Can you imagine what that would be like to be in the camp of the Assyrians? You go to bed an army, you wake up a graveyard. God was defending his people. But it doesn't stop there. Then Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh and as he was worshiping in the house of NIS rock his God, adramalek and sharizar, his sons struck him down with the sword, and after they escaped into the land of Ararat s hardan, his son reigned in his place. Where was he when he died as he was worshiping his false god in nizrok, it's funny, Sennacherib came against the city of Jerusalem, insulted the one true God, said he could never save and what happened? Well, the opposite God defended his people by striking the enemy down, and he killed the king while he was worshiping his God. It's pretty easy to see the vengeance and recompense of God here as he defends his people from an army and keeps them safe from the mockery of this king and shows them that He is the one and true God. They were defended by God's mighty power, saved by this recompense and.

But for us, we're in a different situation. We don't have a Sennacherib coming at the doors of our church with spears or swords or guns or anything like that. None of us are fighting a military that is out to conquer the church. There is no messenger that is saying the things that the messenger of the king of Assyria came to say. How does this work in the life of the church today? One of the places that is most like that is Revelation chapter six, and we can see it rather clearly. Revelation six says, When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the Word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete who were to be killed, as they themselves had been,

for the martyrs, those who had been killed, hearing About the salvation of God as recompense, writing injustice, this would certainly make them feel better, strengthen their anxious heart. For those who were walking into an arena in the Roman days hearing the roar of the lions that would eat them and the crowds that would jeer at them, the recompense of God was good news. Things would be made right. They would be raised from the dead, and those who are on the side of the enemy would be judged. Good news, the same is true for those who face persecution today. If you go to the underground churches in China that get bulldozed to the Christians in places like Iran, the recompense of God, the vengeance of God, is their defense. They cling to the idea that when Christ returns, He will make all things right, the suffering, the face, the pain they see. That is not the last word. They can trust in the might and power of God. He will come and save them. He will pay what is owed, and then on the last day, all things will be made right. The people who trust in the Lord for their salvation will be saved. But what about us? We're not in a situation like that. Are we our congregation? This building has been standing here for 60 years with no threat of bulldozers coming from the government. No one is coming in to kill us, but many of us, we are in a world where sometimes our God gets insulted. I talk with you and I hear you tell stories about this. We see it on the news. We see it on TV commentators. We hear it on our radios or podcasts or whatever, all sorts of people will say things about our God that is well, sometimes insulting sometimes they'll even say it to our face. Just the other day, I was going over to do a nursing home visit, and I walked past the door of an elderly gentleman, and he saw me in my clerical collar. I walked up, I said hi, and his face scrunched up in anger, and he started shouting all sorts of crazy things at me. I think he thought I was a Catholic. So he started telling me about how the how wicked and horrible the people were there, how they were like doing terrible things to other people, just so that he would shock me and. Then finally I as I was leaving, he said, you know, there is no God. And what did I say? You'll find out, right? That's what this says. Well, you'll find out the recompense of God, salvation that Christ promises us, means that we don't need to fight guys like that, right? I didn't need to challenge him or tear him down, or say, ah, you've insulted my God. God can take care of himself, right? He can handle it all on his own. He will take care of his own name, just as He will take care of you when he comes. He will make all things right so we don't have to fight when our God is insulted or get our hackles up or be angry. We can do what the apostles did when they were arrested or imprisoned. They didn't go out and shout or yell. They just served, preached the gospel, proclaimed it to the very people who hurt them. And we can do the same because we're actually no different than the people who shout the insults. Right? We're not chosen by God because we're extra good, or because we did faithful actions of love and service, or because we're better people. The only thing that makes us different is that we are Christians, that we have faith in Jesus, Christ and His death and resurrection, that his work on the cross rescues us from sin and makes us right with God, and because of that, we know that They can just as easily become one of us, so we leave it up to God to defend himself, to protect his name, to bring about the vengeance that he calls for on the last day, and make all things right. Because we know he's better at it than we are, isn't he? So we can just keep our heads down and love and serve, knowing that Christ is coming and that he will do all the things that he promised to do in Jesus name, amen. Amen.

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Armor of God: Ephesians 6:10-20 Sermon for Sunday, September 1st, 2024

Ephesians 6:10-20

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

Heavenly Father, we come before you today. Help us realize the reality of the spiritual warfare that surrounds us. We ask for your guidance and strength as we delve into your Word. Equip us with your armor so that we may stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Grant us wisdom, courage and faith to rely on your protection and to live out our calling as your children in Jesus name, amen, the battle is real. Ephesians 610, through 12 says, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, for we do not wrestle against the flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over which this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places live. This passage is part of the Apostle Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus. In these verses, Paul emphasizes a need for Christian Christians to recognize the spiritual nature of their struggle and the importance of relying on God's strength. Ephesians six is Paul's exhortation to believers to put on the whole armor of God, a metaphor for spiritual preparedness and defense against the evil with saving protection from God. The reality of the spiritual battle is often overlooked or underestimated. How many of you wake up each morning and think of the spiritual battle ahead for you that day in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it is easy to forget that you are constantly amid a spiritual struggle. The demands of work, family and other life responsibilities can distract you from that reality that every day you are in the battle for your soul, faith and witnesses. As Christians, our enemies are not merely physical or visible. They are spiritual forces that seek to undermine your faith and lead you astray. Thankfully, the ultimate victory over these spiritual forces has already been won through Jesus Christ, first, Corinthians, two, verse 15, says, says His death and resurrection defeated the power of sin, death and the devil with God's armor and the victory won by Christ, we are equipped to stand firm, trusting in his protection and provision as we navigate The challenges of this spiritual battle, my hope is that you remember two things from today's sermon, the first that you recognize that there is a spiritual battle going on, and second, that God saves you From the devil's schemes with his armor Satan's attacks are real. Think about the many ways the devil tries to attack you, through temptations that entice you to stray from God's path, deception that distorts the truth, discouragement that causes you to doubt your worth and God's promises. We see spiritual blindness and resistance to God's truth manifest in both individual lives and cultural influences. Persecution and cultural shifts try to lead you away from your Christian values. Your battle is not against people flesh and blood, but against spiritual powers. God is your saving protection. God's protective armor is. Crucial in your battle, it is God's strength and protection that empowers you to withstand the spirits Second Corinthians, chapter 10, verse three to six, tell us, For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh, For the weapons of our welfare are not the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lot of opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete, God fights for you and enables you to remain steadfast in your faith. Let's take a closer look at the six pieces of the armor of God. Number one, the belt of truth. Truth is the foundation of the life of a Christian. The belt of truth represents the certainty of God's Word and Christ's teachings, which ground believers in reality, not dreams, wishes, thoughts or feelings, and protect against deceptions in a world where Subjective Truths are promoted, the objective truths found in Scripture provides provides clarity and stability. God's truth enables you to discern and reject lies coming from the devil and the world number two, breastplate of righteousness, the breastplate of righteousness protects your heart from guilt and accusations. This piece of armor represents the righteousness of Christ, which is imputed to believers through faith. It guards the heart the center of emotions and desires against the accusations and temptations of the devil, your righteousness is secured not by your own efforts, but by Christ's perfect obedience and sacrifice. This reminds you that you are justified before God, through Jesus work, not your own work, and helps you to live in alignment with his standards. Number three, choose of the gospel of peace. The gospel of peace provides stability and confidence. The gospel of peace gives the Christian a firm footing in the midst of spiritual battles, in moments of anxiety or fear, you are reminded that God's peace, given through Christ, surpasses all understanding. This peace assures you of your reconciliation with God and replaces fear with hope. Number four, the shield of faith. The shield of faith is your defense against the attacks of the devil. As Psalm 18, verse 30, says this God, his way is perfect, the word of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him. Our faith, grounded in God's promise and his word helps you maintain, remain secure in God's protection. Faith acts as a shield, protecting believers from the fiery darts of the evil one, such as temptations, doubts, fears and spiritual attacks. Number five, the helmet of salvation. The helmet of salvation assures you of your identity in Christ. It guards against the doubts and despairs that the devil may try to instill in you. Your salvation is secure, not in your fluctuating feelings, but in the objective reality of Christ's redemptive work. This assurance protects your minds from doubt and despair, affirming your place as children of God. Provide. You with hope and confidence to withstand any mental or spiritual assault.

And finally, number six, the sword of the Spirit. The sword of the Spirit, this is the word of God. It is our only offensive weapon against the devil's lies. Just as Jesus used scripture to counter attack the Satan's temptation in the wilderness, you are empowered to confront and overcome falsehoods with the truth of God's word the living and active nature of the word brings conviction, guidance and strength to in advance, to advance. The scripture spiritual battle, the word is powerful, serving as both defense and offense in spiritual warfare, allowing Christians to counter the lies and of the devil and to proclaim the truth of the gospel. Let's consider God's protection and actions. Let me share a personal experience to illustrate how God's protection works in our lives. One Wednesday afternoon, I was driving home after going with pastor to hold a church SERP to hold a church service at Stillwater post acute care facility on Washington Avenue over here. As usual, I had my clerical shirt on and just came from the service. The traffic was stopped over here on avocado Avenue, going south, where it goes from two lanes to one lane. I was sitting there with the car or with the windows down, waiting for the traffic to move, I started hearing a voice from the car beside me. The car had about four people in it, maybe in their 30s. Anyway, a young man was making rude comments about God, I think he saw my clerical shirt. The other men and women in the car. Thought his comments were very funny. I didn't know what to do, other than to become afraid of where this encounter might go. I thought, number one, should I ignore them? Number two, should I reply from a lesson from a Bible or number three possibly go over to their car and show them their ways with words and physical action. Just Just kidding about number three, even in seemingly mundane situations, God is present and actively protecting his people. My experience on avocado Avenue illustrates that God watches over us and provides guidance in how we respond in challenging situations, in moments of confrontation or ridicule, the natural human reaction might be to respond in anger or fear. However, in trusting in God, I was able to exercise restraint. Sometimes the best witness is God to God's love and protection is how we conduct ourselves, even in difficult situations. The situation also underscores the reality of spiritual warfare, where believers face temptations to respond sinfully to provocation. God protected me from what could have been a serious outcome. Thank you, God, recognizing God's hand in your life deepens your faith and encourages others to trust in His protection as well. In conclusion, standing firm in faith, the spiritual battle you face daily is serious and demands your full attention. To stand firm in this battle, you must rely on God's strength and put on the full armor he provides by equipping yourselves with his truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation and word, you were empowered to resist the devil and remain steadfast in your faith. An interesting thing about the armor of God is. There is no mention of what kind of protection we have if we are retreating from the spiritual battle the armors is situated toward some threat always attack, because that is where God's protection is located. Again, please remember the two things from to God from today's sermon. Number one, the serious spiritual battle is going on. And number two, God saves you from the devil's schemes with his armor. Let us pray, Heavenly Father, we thank you for the armor you provide to protect us in this spiritual battle. Help us to put on each piece of your armor daily and to stand firm against the devil's schemes. Strengthen our faith, grant us wisdom and protect us with your truth, righteousness, peace and salvation. We trust in Your strength and protection, knowing that you are our field, shield and defender. In Jesus name, we pray amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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