Sermon Texts

November 10, 2019 – Stewardship Sunday                                  Text:  Psalm 23:1b

Dear Friends in Christ,

            “I Shall Not Want.”  Are you in want?  Are you in distress or dire need?  These are a few of the synonyms for the word “want” in its usage in our text.

            Can we be in want knowing that if you make $40,000 a year you are in the top 4% of earners in the world?  Bump it up to $48,000 a year and now you have made it to the top of the world – you are in the highest stratosphere – the 1% of all human beings on earth who make that much money.  Can we be in want when we find out that there are 52,000 storage facilities worldwide and 46,000 of them are in the United States?  We love our stuff.  We are so rich in so many ways yet we seem to have stress upon stress.  Maybe we are in want but not in the way many of us think.

            Today is stewardship Sunday and the Psalmist has given us a wonderful title for our exploration of this subject . . .

“I SHALL NOT WANT”

            How can the Holy Spirit be so bold as to base His assurance to you that you never need to live in worry and want?  How about this:  “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give you all things.” (Romans 8:32)

            The Holy Spirit is not asking you to believe in something that might happen.  The Holy Spirit’s promise to you is based solidly on a fact of history.  This historic event has already happened.  Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is God’s evidence and guarantee that “You need never want.”

            God the Father gave up His Son publicly for you and your sins.  “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8)  Solid evidence of God’s love for you.  His second act of grace is that He will give you everything else you need.  This is a divine promise.

            Do you have friends who are puzzled at your contentment?  You don’t want this or that.  You have confidence in your future.  The next time it happens point to the cross on your neck or your finger or your lapel or your dorm room.  And then say, “I believe what the Scriptures say.  God did not spare His own Son who went to the cross to pay for my sins.  If He did that great act of love I know He will provide everything I need.”  Speak with joy.  Let people see you are not in want.

            Why is it so important to remember this daily?  Because Satan is working to destroy you and your family and your loved ones.  He works subtly in trying to confuse your thinking.  He wants to confuse what you want with what you actually need.  You may want many things, but you may actually need very few things.  Look to our Epistle lesson where Paul writes, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.”

            Oh, how we need that strength.  Satan is like the spider that uses a web to capture hearts and minds.  On television, on our phones and other media platforms, the Prince of Lies uses advertising and programming to confuse our wants with our actual needs.  Once Satan can twist your mind you are like a helpless fly caught in His web.  Companies spend billions to get you to believe that what you want is what you need.

            Once you get caught in this web of confusion then Satan can really go to work.  He will then tempt you to reject the Christian faith.  Why?  In your confusion of your wants with your needs, you begin to believe that God is not really giving you what you need each day.  You are trapped and Satan moves in for the final kill.  Satan is working hard every hour to destroy your faith and your soul.

            We throw it back at Satan today – “I Shall Not Want.”  Why?  Because “The Lord is my Shepherd.”  As our Shepherd, we His sheep are led to where we need to go.  Green pastures and still waters.  The Lord restores my soul when I get confused about wants and needs.  His righteousness leads our path.  We don’t fear death or evil or devil because His rod and staff comfort us.  Our enemies cannot harm us.  We are so blessed that we are not just given a cup but we have one that overflows.  Do you see the overflow in your life?  The treasure you have been given.  The talent you can use for the Lord’s Kingdom.  The time He allows you to live on earth to make a difference in your corner of the world.  And then once that time comes to a completion you “shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

            What a joy and a blessing.  May your heart and mind see it this day and every day.

            Amen.     

November 3, 2019 – All Saints Sunday                                      Text:  Matthew 5:1-12

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Do you feel “Blessed Beyond Belief?”  Most of us look at our lives and can say we are blessed.  We have hope in Christ and heaven when we die.  Focus on the phrase “beyond belief.”  Do we sometimes act in ways that puts the message of Jesus Christ “beyond belief?”

            A former world-class athlete tells the story of his stepfather, a man who professed to be a Christian.  He would talk a good game but he had a temper that led to whippings for the young boy when he was messy.

            When the young man was 14 his mother had to have surgery.  He had to leave for a swim meet and his father went with.  At the airport his stepfather starting writing notes on a pad.  He would write, ball them up and then throw them in the garbage.  Strange thought the boy.  When his dad went to the restroom he retrieved a few of the notes and stuffed them in his bag.

            Later, when he was alone, he took them out and read them.  They were to another woman.  His stepfather was writing to another woman while his mother was in the hospital recovering from surgery.  What kind of impression of Christ do you suppose that gave this boy?

            Does our conduct ever put the blessings of the Christian life beyond belief for others?  Foul mouth, financial cheating, speaking ill of others, self-righteousness.  Yes, there is forgiveness of these sins, but the point right now is that our sins have consequences – and one consequence is that we sometimes make the blessings of the Christian life unbelievable for others.

            Today on All Saints Day the Gospel is Matthew 5:1-12.  In the Christian Church we call this section of Scripture “The Beatitudes.”  Good news of the blessings God has given us.  But is it all “sugar and spice and everything nice?”  To really understand them as Gospel, listen to them as Law.  “Blessed are the meek,” how often do you turn the other cheek?  “Blessed are the merciful,” but how many times do we withhold forgiveness from others?  “Blessed are the peacemakers” but how many times do we let our anger flow?  “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,” but do we always base our daily decisions on what the Word of God has to say?  Are you getting the point?  The Law accuses.  You are probably feeling “poor in spirit” right now.

            There is only one person who in Himself is in fact accurately described in the Beatitudes.  That’s the Son of God.  Listen to the Beatitudes and think of Jesus.  The perfect Son of God is described, not us sinners.

            Jesus died for those sins on the cross.  There is another way He rescued us and that is His “active obedience.”  Before His crucifixion, during His years on earth, Jesus kept the Law of God perfectly.  As a baby, as a toddler, as a teenager, as a mature man, Jesus did the will of the Father without fail.  Whereas, you and I buckle under the pressure of life and give in to our sinful nature, Jesus has no sin and committed no sin.  Jesus, Son of the Most High, blessed be He!

            Jesus did endure the punishment for our sins.  All those times we had not led the blessed life, all those times when you and I have put the blessings of following Christ beyond belief for others, everything was laid on Him at the cross.  He reached into your soul and mine and removed the curse.  “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’” (Gal. 3:13)  Jesus, Son of the Most High, blessed be He!

            Blessed be He!  What about us?  Can we be blessed?

            After those Beatitudes, Jesus turns to us in the text and says, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (v. 11-12)

            How can this be?  C.S. Lewis wrote:  “Christ says, ‘Give me all.  I don’t want so much of your money and so much of your work – I want you.  I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it.  No half-measures are any good.  I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there; I want to have the whole tree down.  Hand over the whole natural self . . . I will give you a new self instead.  In fact I will give you myself; my own will shall become yours.’”

            How can we empty ourselves so much that Christ completely resides in us?  It is almost beyond belief except for the Biblical teaching that the Holy Spirit works it in us.  Through our Baptism and God’s Word and The Holy Supper.  Christ lives in us.

            The climax will be the day when we are . . .

“BLESSED BEYOND BELIEF”

On that day we will no longer walk by faith, but by sight.  We will see the Savior face-to-face.  On that day we will dwell with God and all the saints in heaven.  We pray for the message to take root on those currently going down the wrong path.  We pray the Holy Spirit will work on their hearts with the Gospel so that Revelation 7:9 comes true:  “A great multitude that no one could count.”  “With them numbered may we be here and in eternity!” (LW 370). 

                                                                                    Amen. 

October 27, 2019 – Reformation                                                         Text:  Daniel 3:17

Dear Friends in Christ, 

            Have you ever been hot?  I mean beyond the usual summer temperature, the raging fire or the hot flashes.  You are sticky and suffocating and sweat is all over your body.  It’s as hot as hell and you can’t find any relief.  All because . . .

“THE HEAT IS ON!”

            Just ask Hannaniah, Mishael, and Azariah.  Maybe you know their VeggieTales names:  Shack, Rack, and Benny.  In Daniel 3 they are called by their Babylonian names – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

            It’s 6^th century BC and these three Hebrews stand on a plain in Babylon in the midst of 300,000.  They had better blend in, bow down and sell out.  King Nebuchadnezzar has made a golden statue standing 125 feet high.  He then declares that everybody better bow down or the heat will be on.

            Surely these three will assimilate.  Peer pressure.  What’s wrong with doing it once?  You know, fellas, I am not a big fan of fire.

            We know, don’t we?  We stand in a culture with millions telling us to conform to the present evil age.  We are called to confess the Son of Man before men and we shrink like a little rag doll.  We think it would be better to be comfortable and compromising then face the heat. 

            When faced with putting the best construction on things, when faced with moral compromise or get along to graduate or get promoted, we fudge a little with God’s Word.  Who is going to be hurt if I do it just this once?  I don’t want to be roasted like a s’more on the campfire of life.

            Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, are ready to take the heat.  “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us.”  Nebuchadnezzar gets so mad that he orders the furnace to be set seven times hotter.  It is so hot that the men who take them up to dump them in the furnace die from the heat just by being in the vicinity.

            What happens when three stand against 300,000?  What happens when the baptized take a stand?  What happens when believers say that “enough is enough and I will not bow down to political correctness and amoral standards of behavior.”  Nebuchadnezzar can answer that in Daniel 3:25:  “Look!  I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth one looks like a Son of God.”  There is always a fourth man in the furnace.  Always!

            He is the same Son of God, Son of Man, who has been given authority, glory, power and the one who all the nations worship.  He writes our names in His book and He delivers us on the last day from the eternal fire so that we have the fullness of everlasting life.

            Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego make a bold stand and the result is hair that is not singed, clothing that isn’t burnt and they don’t even smell like smoke.  Try not smelling like smoke the next you are around a campfire!  Only the Son of God’s protection can save these men from not smelling like a bowling alley.

            This same Son of God enters a furnace once again.  This time He is against the world.  The heat is on.  It is sweltering and sticky and suffocating.  The Palestinian sun is out and the sweat is rolling down His bleeding body.  It is as hot as hell, because that is what He is up against, because of your sin and mine.  He has cracked lips and a parched throat.  “I thirst!”

            Three days later He comes out of this fire alive and unbound.  He makes this promise from His heart to yours:  “When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze; for I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” (Isaiah 43:2-3)

            Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego made a bold confession.  In 1517 there was another bold confessor and then many bold confessors.  They refused to bow down, or blend in, or sell out.  Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, John the Constant were just some of the names.  In 1530, they presented the Augsburg Confession that begins with Psalm 119:46:  “I will speak of your decrees before kings, and I will not be ashamed.”

            It all started when Luther read the Book of Romans.  “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”  “Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.”  “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

            Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were great confessors of their faith.  They said in Daniel, “But even if God does not save us now, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship your image of gold.”  God is empowering us to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and that there is new life in Him.  To confess that the three solas of the Reformation are the true and correct exposition of the Word of God – grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone – and that they all point to free salvation in Christ crucified alone.

            In the name of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, we refuse to blend in, bow down or sell out to any person, ideology, movement or government that would rob us of the Gospel.  When the heat is on, we will take our stand.  God help us! 

October 20, 2019                                                                         Text:  Genesis 32:22-30

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Let’s get ready to rumble!  In this corner we have Jacob (though by the end of this match he will have a new name), son of Isaac, brother of Esau, ancestor of Christ, father of Joseph.  In the other corner is the Supreme Being, Creator of the World, goes by the one-word moniker “God.”

            This match is a little different than most wrestling matches you might catch on TV.  Usually there is a bad guy and a good guy.  One adored, one spit at.  Good versus evil.  As this match begins things are not quite so clear.  Let’s clear away the fuzziness and answer the question . . .

“IS THE WRESTLER FRIEND OR FOE?”

            We know the location of the match – along the ford of the Jabbok, which is a stream.  Jacob is facing a confrontation with his brother Esau and he doesn’t know if he is friend or foe.  Jacob tries his own solution, which is going to be presenting gifts in the form of many animals to Esau.  You know, buy him off, then he won’t be a foe, right?

            Well, right before this happened God had promised Jacob to be with him and bless him.  But instead of trusting God, Jacob goes looking for his own way to appease his brother.  I’m thinking bad move, what about you?

            It’s easy looking outside in, isn’t it?  Why doesn’t Jacob just put his faith in His Creator?  What about us when we are on the inside looking out.  If we sense confrontation, we gird for battle.  Our Lord has promised to take care of us, but we don’t always trust Him.  We think we have to fight our own battle and when we do we are actually wrestling against God.  We have a hard time figuring out who is our friend and who is our foe.  I’m a baptized child of God, but is He really on my side?

            Is Jacob’s mystery attacker – friend or foe?  He has got to be a foe because he just put Jacob’s hip socket out of joint.  Hold it, stop the timer.  Look at this would you; the attacker asks injured Jacob to let him go.  No longer relying on his own craftiness, Jacob by faith realizes his attacker is a friend not a foe.  He then asks the attacker for a blessing and his wrestling nemesis God blesses him.

            So is God our friend or foe?  Being sinful, we sometimes see him as our enemy.  How could he allow me to be in this financial mess?  My wife doesn’t love me and God doesn’t love me.  How could a loving Savior let me lose my job?  I’ve been praying every day and where is the man upstairs, doesn’t He promise to answer? 

            God’s Word encourages diligence in prayer.  God’s Word teaches us that God is our friend and is there to help us in difficult times.  God’s Word teaches us that God sent Jesus to die to deliver us from our foes – sin, death, and the devil.

            Because of Jesus we have prevailed.  Jacob being humbled makes all the difference.  God changes his name to Israel.  God affirms the promise of the Messiah.  Jacob’s sins of self-reliance and lying and cheating are forgiven.  Jacob will no longer fear meeting Esau and Jacob has complete trust in God to be with him.

            God grants us deliverance when He humbles us.  You’ve been there, haven’t you?  So low, wrestling with God in your mind, wrestling with the devil in your heart, all you can do is surrender to the Lord’s will.  We have a new name – no longer children of wrath but children of God.  Our struggles with sin and doubt and uncertainty in the dark nights of our lives are forgiven in the Messiah – Jesus Christ and His Cross.

            The Lord comes to us not to engage in a wrestling match, but to give us grace and mercy in Baptism, in the Word, in the Lord’s Supper.  With faith strengthened and sin forgiven we are able to walk into each new day knowing God is our friend, not our foe.  Someday we will stand in that heavenly circle and the Lord will raise our hand as the eternal victor.

            Let’s stop wrestling with God.  You know who is going to win.  He is the ultimate wrestler who has got your back.  He fights for you, as your friend, and nothing can stand against him.  He has pinned Satan and sin and death so get out of the ring because He has done it all for you.

                                                                                    Amen.  

October 13, 2019                                                                  Text:  2 Timothy 2:8-13

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Do you remember the story about the roly-poly pigs?  If you’ve never heard it, here it is:  “A farmer had a herd of swine that was highly admired by other farmers.  They were sleek and roly-poly.  When it came time for feeding, the farmer would go to the edge of the pasture and knock sharply with a stick on the trough that was filled with grain.  Scattered throughout the pasture the pigs, hearing the farmer’s knock, would lift their snouts and then run in the direction of the sound, squealing all the way.  This went on for some time.  All was well until some woodpeckers began to make their homes in the dead trees scattered all over the pasture.  The pigs mistook the pecking on the dead trees for the farmer’s knock on the trough.  They would run, squealing all the way, from one dead tree to another.  Soon, the roly-poly pigs became weak and scrawny.”

            You are wondering, where is he going with this?  He’s not calling us pigs, is he?  No, but we can act like the pigs.  Our spiritual lives can be weak and scrawny as we chase after things or deal with things.  A serious illness, the death of a loved one, a threatening national or international catastrophe, a marriage upheaval, and family dysfunction can all test our spiritual health.  This morning then . . .

“ALL SQUEALING ASIDE”

            The text begins, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel.” (v. 8)  Paul says, “Remember Jesus Christ.”  Some might say, “How could we forget?”  Friends, there is along line of people who have become or are becoming, so distracted that Jesus and what He gives fades. 

            The only people who can fall away from the faith are those who were in the faith in the first place.  Many who identify as atheist or agnostic today were people who at one time were part of the Christian faith.  Oh, how the devil works.  Remember Jesus.  We need this each and every day.  We need constantly the reminder that God did and does everything for us in Christ while we were and still are sinners.

            We spend a lot of time squealing for our wants and desires.  We have our moments as weak and scrawny Christians.  “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.”  It needs to be a constant in our lives.  A reminder of guilt removed, love that died for us and the promise of eternal life.

            Look where Paul is writing this from, “I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal.  But the word of God is not bound!” (v. 9)  Paul is not under house arrest like he was in the Book of Acts.  He is in a dungeon, shackled, movement restricted.

            Paul suffered for the gospel.  How far will you go in your suffering?  American Christians will suffer up to a point.  We read the books and see the movies but we can’t really relate to the martyred Christians in other nations.  We may be heading to being homeless in our home sweet home.  Could it happen to us?  History says it could be coming. 

            The streets were lined with crowds, cheering the marching troops about to leave for overseas.  A recruit, who had watched the crowd for some time, asked, “Why are all these people cheering?”  A veteran standing next to him replied, “They are the people who are not going.”

            We are not cheerleaders for Jesus, brothers and sisters.  We are part of His army.  You know, “Like a mighty army, moves the church of God.”  Not an army to spill blood, but the army proclaiming the love of God in Christ to a world headed for eternal darkness.  The moment is now.  Paul goes on to say . . .

            “The saying is trustworthy, for:  If we have died with him, we will also love with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself.” (v. 11-13)

            Biblical commentator P.E. Kretzmann wrote this:  “If we are faithful to the Lord, even unto death…then we shall also become partakers of the reward of mercy which he has reserved for us in heaven…if we are faithless, if we are not true to him…if we lose the faith of our hearts by neglecting the Word and Sacraments, God will be faithful to His threat of punishment, for He cannot be untrue to His essence; He is the Eternal, Immutable (that is, without change).”

            Salvation is ours.  We suffer the consequences of bad decisions, hasty words and actions with little thought of the outcome and a lot of squealing about nothing of importance.  Yet, Jesus has paid for our debt of sin on the Cross.  Removes our guilt.  Forgives and loves us.  Quells our squealing and shepherds us to eternity.

            As God’s forgiven children, the Holy Spirit lets us love others regardless of how they see us or understand us – regardless of their hatred of God’s Word.  We’ve spent much of our lives running and squealing for this world’s trough of grain.  It’s passing away.  God help us.  All squealing aside!

                                                                                    Amen.

October 6, 2019                                                                                       Text:  Luke 17:6

Dear Friends in Christ,

            We hear a lot of talk these days how difficult it is to be a Christian, but is it?  Many in our world would laugh at our idea of difficult.  Was it hard to come to worship?  To pray?  To do devotions?  It may be a little harder to share the faith, but that is always a challenge.  I still see respect for the office of Pastor in our community.  Why do people say it is harder today to be a follower of Christ?

            Much of it comes from biblical principles that are being challenged in all walks of life.  Values and practices that we hold sacred because “thus saith the Lord” are not held on to as tightly as they once were.

            This was happening with Jesus and His disciples in Luke 17.  Jesus was always teaching about everyday values and practices.  Here He is telling the disciples they need to forgive others even up to seven times a day.  If they were wronged they need to confront another with the sin and voice forgiveness.  This is the stuff of everyday relationships.

            But oh it can be hard to forgive at times, can’t it?  Bitter feelings run deep like the roots of the mulberry tree – stubborn, strong.  We can understand the disciples reaction to this challenge of Jesus – “Increase our faith.”  Jesus the great teacher doesn’t say, “Uh, ok . . . you have greater faith.”  He does say, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” (v. 6)  On this LWML Sunday let’s see what can be done about . . .

“MOVING MULBERRY TREES”

            Now Jesus doesn’t really explain what He says, but you have to admit it is quite the image.  With just a little faith – faith you have right now – Jesus is saying you can uproot a twenty-five foot mulberry tree and plant it at the bottom of the sea.  Have you ever tried that?  Well, let’s go take a stab at it, anyone ready to follow?  Maybe we need a little more teaching from the Savior.

            One thing Jesus is saying is that it is not helpful to quantify our faith.  This was what the disciples were asking.  Give us heroic faith.  We want a faith that will stand up to hard things and hard times.  But quantifying that does not help us.  Yet we still do it, don’t we?  “If I only believed enough.”  “If my faith were stronger I wouldn’t be curled up in my pity.”  The weight of these statements is upon us.  Do we believe enough?  Do we trust enough?

            So if we don’t quantify faith, then how do we understand the words of Jesus?  How can faith send mulberry trees flying into the sea?  “Faith like a grain of mustard seed” is simply trust in Him.  A faith that trusts and abides in Him.  A faith that lives every day in Him.  It is only in Christ that we move mulberry trees, even the deep ones like bitterness or a lack of forgiveness.  It is possible only as Christ lives in us.

            Latin has two words for faith.  The first is fides, a faith that says certain things are true like “I believe…that God created the world…that Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead…that the Holy Spirit keeps me in the true faith.”  Our creeds are examples of fides.  The other Latin word for faith is fiducia.  This is relational faith.  It is trust in the Lord, being rooted in the power of God.  This was Luther’s preferred word for faith.  Fiducia is at work in Paul’s words of Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through him (Christ) who strengthens me.

            So this faith says that I can forgive not so much because I have enough faith to do it but rather because I live and make decisions inside a strong relationship with Jesus Christ.  I have Christ or better, Christ has me!  The One who came and died for me.  The One who broke through death and came to life for me.  The One who called me in Baptism and made me His own.  I can move mulberry trees because of this One – Jesus my Savior.

            In Christ, then, we can confront the person who has wronged us and offer forgiveness.  When can share our faith when it is not easy or convenient.  We can drop our coins and dollars in our mite boxes because we know they make a difference.  We can hold the hand of someone in the hospital we might not be that warm with.  We can reach out to that friend who has drifted from our life.

            Our community is not the enemy, it is our mission field.  You hear mulberry trees moving – hard things, impossible things, happening because Christ lives within me, because Christ lives within us!

            Since 1942 the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League has lived mustard seed faith.  Little gifts, small coins and dollar bills put in mite boxes, combined across our synod, make things happen.  Big things.  Mulberry trees are being moved

            Don’t believe the hype that we have such a difficult road in front of us.  What appears to be hard may just be what we each need as we live with Christ day-in-day-out.  Because Christ abides in us, the difficult thing can be done with joy.  May it be said of us, “Those were the days when Christians moved mulberry trees!”

                                                                                                                                    Amen.