Sermon Texts

October 14, 2018                                                                       Text:  Hebrews 3:12-19

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

In our Adult Bible Class we are studying the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.  They endured slavery, plagues, Passover, the parting of the Red Sea and wandering for forty years.  Led by Moses they were on the way to the Promised Land.  Along the way many of them lost the faith – fiery serpents and a bronze snake lifted on a pole.  They turned their back on the God who could rescue them.

As we look forward to our Promised Land – heaven – we too are on a journey.  Like the Israelites we endure setbacks, tragedies, and messes of our own making.  We need the Lord’s help to sustain us to the end.  In your daily struggles do you ever question . . .

“IS MY CONFIDENCE WAVERING?”

That is not such a crazy question because we all know people who sat in these pews over the years that in their wandering walked away from the faith.  Was it the influence of the world?  Did their priorities change?  Did they just get lazy?  Did they turn to some other god?  This is the warning this morning, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.” (v. 12)

The people of Israel were partakers of the blessings that God gave.  When they grumbled against Moses they were grumbling against God.  Many died in the wilderness, short of the promised rest.  Had they remained faithful they would have seen God’s deliverance.  They would have seen God raise Joshua, in the Greek – Heseus – Jesus.  In Joshua, the guarantee of God came to its fulfillment; Joshua led the people of God to be partakers of, sharers in, the long-promised land of rest.

Are you remaining faithful?  Is your confidence wavering?  As people of all stripes question Christ and the Christian faith do you find yourselves wondering?  As society turns its back on many of things that Christianity stands for do you teeter on the edge?  As the Law of God is dismissed as ancient or not conducive to this new world thinking do you ever want to go along to get along?

The Israelites instead of encouraging one another in the promised joy that awaited them, inflamed one another in sinful passions, self-gratification, and various sins of wickedness and unbelief.  “Their bodies fell in the wilderness” (v. 17) and “we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.” (v. 19)  St. Paul recounts the sad example they left for us, admonishing us, “Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.” (1 Cor. 10:6)

Hopefully we see them as examples this morning of what we don’t want to be and where we don’t want to go.  We look to Christ but not merely as example.  He is not the occupant of the house, He is the builder.  “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (Jn. 2:19)  “On this rock I will build my church” (Mt. 16:18), and again, “I go to prepare a place for you.” (Jn. 14:2)  Christ is the builder of the house.  He is the righteous substitute who endured all things in order that the promise would be guaranteed.  As the Son He is faithful over God’s house.  He is our confidence and hope as the Holy Spirit helps us to hold to the promise.  So heed the warning of our text, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (v. 15)

This is our encouragement so that our faith does not waver.  “For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” (v. 14)  The Holy Spirit is working tirelessly to bring all that is Christ’s and give it to us.  Christ took all the sin and bondage that is ours, the faith that wavers on the brink, and hung with it on a tree in our place and overcame it and paid for it.  He has given us all the riches and inheritance that are His, that we might be sharers, part-owners, in Him, according to the mercies of God.  Joshua means God saves so Jesus means God saves.  Christ has delivered you from the bonds of greater Egypt and leads you through this world’s wilderness.  He is the bread of heaven and the spring of living water that you need to be sustained.  He keeps the promise.

Do you ever just sit and think about that Promised Land that awaits you?  Could it be forty years?  Could it be tomorrow or next week or next year?  You wander and have your ups and downs but you have a hope.  You have a confidence that does not waver because the Lord has made that promise.  He is faithful and through your consistent worship and prayers and Scripture study the promise will not be taken away.  “Thus the Lord gave to Israel all that the land that he swore to give to their fathers.  And they took possession of it, and they settled there.  And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers…Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.” (Joshua 21:43-45)

Amen.

October 7, 2018                                                                          Text:  Genesis 2:18-25

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

We are living in a time of crisis.  At the core our present difficulty is a radically new understanding of sexuality, marriage, and humanity, with profound implications for our society, as well as our church.  Many of our young people have been led astray.  Sheep and shepherds are confused and afraid.  To those who are still apathetic, Erick Erickson and Bill Blankschaen have famously warned, “You will be made to care.”

It is the Gnostic view that human beings – living members of the human species – are not necessarily persons.  Having a human body does not define you as human.  This makes it easier to justify abortion, euthanasia and the use of human embryos.  If we are not fully human beings we can then define our own existence.  We must play along or get punished.  Sherif Girgis writes, “For the New Gnostic, then, a just society cannot live and let live, when it comes to sex.  Sooner or later, the common good – respect for people as self-defining subjects – will require social approval of their self-definition and approval.”  Whether the emperor is wearing no clothes or a dress, we must nod and smile – or else.

Make no mistake about it – the Holy Scriptures reveal God’s plan for the human family.  Marriage and family are not a social construct, something we dreamed up.  We don’t get to define them as we choose.  In our text for today marriage wasn’t Adam’s idea it was God’s.  He created the woman to be the helper for the man, so he would not be alone.  God brought Eve to Adam and he received her as a gift.  As people mess with this gift and screw it all up, it’s good to ask . . .

“WHAT IS THE PRICE OF A RIB?”

For God, the price of a rib is the start of the human family.  “Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,” says Adam.  This is the Lord’s plan.  Male and female, man and woman, given to each other.  When the two become one the Lord blesses the union with more gifts – children.  We heard it in our Introit:  “Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a real blessing.”

The Lord reminds us today of this crown of His creation.  Listen to these words from our Epistle lesson:  “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?  You made him a little lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.”  Crowned with glory and honor.  If sinful man can get us to deny God’s wonderful creation and where man should be then the next step is to kill a child or old person while saving an owl or salamander.  If we mess with God’s creation, that beating heart in the womb is not a person.  Young and old forgo commitment and live together.  Divorce escalates because “happiness” is more important than God’s Word.  And the most dangerous of all – when we – in our own churches give tacit approval to some or all of this under a satanic twisting of our Lord’s words, “Judge not”?  What is going on?

All God-given relationships have been ripped apart by sin.  Satan’s angle has always been to have us fight, argue, disagree to those in whom we are the closest.  Adam and Eve against God.  Adam and Eve against each other.  Cain and his brother Abel.  Just in Genesis alone we have Noah and Ham, Abram and Lot, Sarai and Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers.

The most intimate relationship is that of husband and wife.  The only human relationship described as “one flesh.”  The price of a rib today is the sucker punch of Satan and his minions who want us all to turn on our back on this “one flesh union.”

The Lord saw this coming.  From that first rib came all of humanity until a Savior came in human flesh.  As God put Adam to sleep and took from his side that which he made the woman, so our Lord Jesus sleeps in death on his cross and his tender heart is pierced.  Then from that heart flows a fountain of blood and water.  In the church that is a picture of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, by which the Holy Spirit creates the Bride of Christ, the Church, and brings her to the Bridegroom.

And that Bridegroom, Jesus is faithful to you.  Jesus is faithful even when you have been faithless to Him.  He is not giving up on us but His patience goes only so far.  We need the Spirit’s help to turn from life choices outside the bounds of His creation.  We need the Spirit’s help to turn from rib-rocking cohabitation to the sociological bedrock of society – marriage between a man and a woman.  It was important to the Lord in our Gospel.  It is so needed now.  We need the Spirit’s guidance when we want to throw our hands up with “what else can I do?”

This is where our faith in the Lord of creation is such a blessing.  All of this, you see, is pictured in the way God – not we, not Adam, not society – long ago designed the institution of marriage and family.  God established marriage and family to be an image of His own unfailing commitment to you, his people.

Therefore, if there is anything in this sad world that can bring hope and a future to counter the mess we’ve made of trying to do marriage and family on our own terms, thinking we know better than God, it is the open heart of Jesus.  His patience and kindness is upon us.  He sends you forth forgiven and renewed to mirror in your families and neighborhoods the divine love of the Bridegroom, Jesus.  The price of a rib was His life.  Let us live for Him who has become one with you forever.

Amen.

September 30, 2018                                                                        Text:  Mark 9:42-50

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

I can’t tell you who said it, but the quotation is this:  “…the doctrine of hell should be preached in all its terribleness.  It is no kindness to spread a pretty covering of leafy branches over a pit into which many have fallen and broken their necks.  That may be the cunning hunter’s business, as it is the business of him who hunts the world for souls.  But it is not the business of preachers to ruin people’s souls in order to spare their feelings.”

It is not the business of preachers to ruin people’s souls in order to spare their feelings.  If you have been at Good Shepherd for any length of time I am sure I have said something from this pulpit that offended you, caused you to want to crawl under the pew and left you naked in your feelings.  Law and Gospel preaching does that.  The gospel divides, you know that.  You see it in your families; you see it among your friends.  But we don’t want to spare a soul’s eternity over hurt feelings.  The Lord could be brutally honest in His teaching and today’s text is one of those.

“SALTED WITH FIRE”

This first part of our text could be called, “Your Attention, Please.”  Causing children to sin.  Cutting off hand or foot.  Tearing out an eye because of sin.  Jesus then repeats the consequences three times:  “hell – the unquenchable fire…into hell…thrown into hell where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.”  People who think that hell is on earth need to revaluate their thoughts.

How are we going to deal with this?  We are in big trouble.  At face value we all leave here blind and limbless.  What is Jesus saying?  He is talking about those things that compel us to such sinful action.  Jesus is warning against running after evil and being unrepentant.

Martin Luther said:  “The world is like a drunken peasant.  If you lift him into the saddle on one side, he will fall off on the other side.  One can’t help him, no matter how one tries.  He wants to be the devil’s.”  How, then, could the world’s ways and thinking be of such important to us?  Where do our hands and feet and eyes take us?  How do we live out our lives as God’s Redeemed?

This stings.  This is upsetting.  Reflect on that opening quotation:  “It is no kindness to spread a pretty covering of leafy branches over a pit into which many have fallen.”

So we come to our theme:  “Salted With Fire.”  From our text:  “For everyone will be salted with fire.  Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again?” (v. vs. 49-50a)

Throughout history man has known the importance of salt.  The Lewis and Clark expedition was in danger because they were running out of salt.  It is one of the reasons Clark exclaimed, “Ocean in view!  Oh, the joy!”  In the Old Testament sacrifices were first salted before being offered.

Salt can lose its saltiness.  Humidity, sun, heat, and constant contact with the earth can dissolved sodium chloride leaving behind only impurities.  We too can lose our “salt” as the world pours it heat down on us.  We can be proud and disobedient, ungrateful and heartless.  We become flavorless, going through the motions, without faith.  We lose our saltiness if we refuse to stand against evil.  Salt must purify, it must preserve.

“Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” (v. 50)  That is still Jesus’ word to you – even though you can lose your saltiness.  Because, you see, Jesus wouldn’t talk about losing saltiness unless you have salt, unless he’d in fact given you salt.  You are the salt of the earth, Jesus says.  And it’s true.  You have been purified, salted with salt, just like those Old Testament sacrifices.  Jesus was your salted sacrifice.  He was the One who purified you.  By His death on the cross, he accomplished what all those salted sacrifices of the Old Testament promised:  Forgiveness of all sins.  Now by God’s Word and Sacraments, that forgiveness, that purity, is given to us.  We are filled with the Holy Spirit.  We have salt in ourselves.

Salted with this fire by the Holy Spirit then compels us.  When we look around our neighborhoods at those who may or may not know Jesus…when we look at those with whom we work or play…when we let our minds examine the faces of family and friends without the Savior…aren’t we compelled?  Does it really make any difference how much we’ve prayed for them, or invited them, or encouraged them?  Does it really make any difference how often they have excused themselves from hearing the Good News about Jesus Christ?  We can’t stop.  Because, after all, the hell fire that has been forever quenched for us through the blood of Jesus burns hot for those without Him!

As we heard at the beginning it does no good to spare feelings when the eternal pit is the trap.  You are salted with fire.  You can flavor the world with your witness.  As Christ preserves you He can preserve others.  Loved, blessed, and forgiven by God now and forever through Jesus Christ.

Amen.

September 23, 2018                                                              Text:  James 3:13 – 4:10

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Are you a peacemaker?  Our immediate reaction is “of course I am Pastor because this is what the Lord wants.”  But then we let that question work a little deeper into our brains and what starts flooding out?  Arguments with a spouse, fights with a friend, yelling between parent and child, and how about that passion you displayed when you got cut off in traffic?

The words of James are not easy for us to hear.  God’s word, true to His promises, speaks to all of us here this morning.  Is there hope in a world where confrontation is a way of life from the top on down?  Can the Christian make a difference when the world is condemning every little thing on social media, taking to task the humble and exhorting the proud?  This world is an enemy of God and the challenges are numerous.  Let’s focus on one.

“PEACEMAKERS – SOW WHAT?”

The Word of God gives us a wonderful picture of what peace is.  Verse 18 of our text, “And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

Never underestimate the power of a seed.  We try hard to sow seeds of peace.  We want to find inner peace within ourselves and outer peace around us in our families, communities, churches.  We try to be like Jesus in forgiving our neighbors and lunching with sinners.  We try to make peace in our families – “can’t we sit down and discuss this?”  We try to make peace in our communities – “can’t we all just get along?”  How many summits have been convened with countries longing for peace?

Then the push and shove of the world gets in our face.  We get worked over and worn out.  In our frustration we are going to let somebody have it.  It leaves us vulnerable to temptation, selfish ambition, disorder.  We try all the tricks the world has to offer.  Yet instead of sowing seeds of peace we are left with weeds and stones.

Weeds choke our peacemaking efforts.  They are pulled out and thrown into the fire.  Stones of legalism, oppression, and finally death are stacked upon one another until they imprison us.  All of this happens because we leave out the one needed – Jesus.

Jesus is the one and only way to the harvest of righteousness.  The heavenly Father planted his Seed into the ground – the grave.  God sent His one and only Son into this quarreling, fighting world to suffer for these sins of the world.  He came to forgive you when you want to get in the last word.  He came to redeem you when you tell somebody off without cause.  He came to lift you up from the depths of the world’s criticism party.  He came to wipe clean the seeds of discord you have sown.

Jesus died and was placed into the ground, in order to be raised, just as promised, to a new life.  That which sprouted from the ground was forgiveness and peace, new life, eternal life.

We have been planted (buried) with Christ in Baptism.  We have been sown in the peace of Christ.  Raised to new life through water and the Word.  Nurtured and strengthened in Word and Sacrament.  Now we are able to produce a harvest of righteousness.

Now, like Jesus, we are peacemakers, filled with the Holy Spirit.  We don’t respond to the ridiculous tweet because we add nothing to the discourse.  We don’t take out a job frustration on a spouse or child.  We hold our tongue because many times the less we say the better.  We realize it is a tough, punishing world and if the Christian doesn’t make a change, who will?

Sow what?  Sowing seeds of consideration, kindness, submission, good fruit, impartiality and sincerity.  Isn’t this the world you want to live in?  Help us Lord in our peacemaking duties as we live out our faith in You.

Amen.

Sept. 9, 2018 – Christian Education Sunday                                   Text 1 Kings 21:3

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

“The Lord Forbid That I Should Give You The Inheritance Of My Fathers.”  There are plenty of people who would like us to eliminate from our possession the inheritance of our fathers.  If we would just loosen our grip on the conviction taught by our fathers to “thank and praise, serve and obey” our God.  Their sales talk is so attractive that we are inclined to think the price is right.  Will we be a Naboth or turn our back?

“PRESERVING THE INHERITANCE”

This is a day and age when “under God” is a passing remark about the goodness of “Someone Up There” that qualifies you for a tax exemption.  A deity who sits on the balcony of heaven making the sign of the cross over whatever self-centered activities we should like to carry on in the name of the Church.  The idea behind it all is that God should approve of the things we do in his name instead of our doing, in his name, the things of which God approves.

Give up this God who demands you bow to His will, or we will brand you as bigoted and narrow and call you “peculiar people.”  “Give up the inheritance of your fathers.”

I love the inspired Word of God for stories like Naboth.  Here was a man who refused to give up the inheritance of his fathers for no other reason than this; he wanted to do what was right.  He had a vineyard that King Ahab wanted.  The deal was fair, a dream offer.  But it wasn’t right to Naboth.  He remembered the Lord’s directive in Numbers 36:7:  “Every one of the people of Israel shall hold on to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.”  Naboth was answering the king in this way, “No, because the Lord forbids it.”

We could use a little spirit of the old Naboth.  A spirit that is willing to turn down the attractive offer of modern, popular, politically correct religiousness by which they hope we will sell out the strong Christian conviction we have inherited from our fathers, a spirit willing to say no because it is the will of God.

Care to sell? The offer comes.  Just once admit that as “long as its religion, it is good for you.”  Let children wait until the age of discretion, whenever in life that might be, to choose their own faith; broaden your mind at least this far, we are all religious folks heading for the same place.  That’s all.  What about it?  Are you ready to say no like Naboth?  Is it, “The Lord forbid”?  Will you tell a man, “There is no God but one.” (1 Cor. 8:4)  “No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn. 14:6)  “The Lord forbid that I should give up the inheritance of my fathers.”

You don’t have to give up your conviction, says the old evil vineyard buyer.  Just tone it down.  Don’t get rid of Jesus.  Just leave him at home when you go to college or the office party or the polls.  Pray to him at church and home but omit him at political rallies and commencement exercises.  What do you say?  No.  “The Lord forbid,” says Naboth.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works,” says one of our fathers, the Apostle Paul.  (Eph. 2:8-9)  You have no vineyard that Satan would rather get his hands on than this, your trust “that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” (Rom. 3:28)  This conviction, so much a part of the inheritance from our fathers, has been deeded away by large portions of the Christian Church, until the Naboths, who boldly say no, are a distinct minority today.

I get concerned about the cracks in the dike.  The Great Wall of China was a gigantic, expensive means of security.  Within its first few years after completion it was breached three times by the enemy, not by breaking down the wall, but by bribing the gatekeepers.  The convictions we have inherited from our fathers, the worship of the one true God, the life that lives and moves and has its being 24-hours-a-day in Jesus, the faith that centers in what Christ has done for us and not what we have done for Him or men, these are to be tomorrow’s inheritance from us.  We are the keepers of those gates through which these prized convictions pass from yesterday into tomorrow.  What if the gatekeepers sell?  What happens if you give up the inheritance?  Never you say.  The Lord forbids.  I know he does.  But are you certain you are a Naboth?  Doing the will of the Father and preserving the inheritance for your family.

Today is Christian Education Sunday.  On the basis of this sermon, I lay it on your heart.  Will you keep the inheritance and pass it on to the next generation?  Only by diligent study and Christian conviction are you prepared to stand with Naboth.  Through the Holy Spirit the study of the Word of God helps you to preserve the inheritance.  I should point out that this Good Shepherd Lutheran congregation will remain strong and not sell out to the prince of this world as we train ourselves and our young in the faith.

How many Naboths are among us to say, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”      Amen.

September 2, 2018                                                                Text:  Ephesians 6:10-20

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

One of my favorite commentators of all-time was Paul Harvey who died in 2009.  Back in 1964 he gave a radio commentary entitled, “If I Were The Devil.”  Here is just a portion of that.  “I would evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, then from the Houses of Congress.  Then in his own churches I’d substitute psychology for religion and deify science.  If I were Satan I’d make the symbol of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle.  If I were Satan I’d just keep doing what I’m doing.”

We face many struggles in our life from “Is my paycheck big enough for these expenses?”  “Do we have enough health insurance?”  “Can the family get along?”  Add to that cancer that invades your life, depression that you keep hidden and guilt that you just can’t seem to shake.  Life is a struggle in this fallen world.

Those struggles are hard but we face an even greater struggle when we see evil on the loose in our world.  Is the devil having his way?  At times we think he is.  Paul describes this tug-o-war as a wrestling match.  Satan and the Lord going at it for your soul.  Place your bets…you know who wins.

“THE STRENGTH OF THE LORD PREVAILS”

We know the outcome so should we just end the sermon there?  It is not quite that simple and we need some guidance while living the struggle.

Satan is wily and crafty.  He is so proficient in his attacks on us that we hardly notice when we are led astray.  Peter calls him a “roaring lion.”  Jesus describes him as “the father of lies.”  What is Satan telling you?  What path of destruction would he like you to walk down?  How can we battle back?

We first admit that we don’t have the strength or the moves to get out of Satan’s headlock.  We are easy prey as we stumble into his trap of selfishness and greed.  We are not equipped for such brutality as he flings us off the ropes.  We need to be strengthened in the Lord in order to face the devil’s wiles day by day.

While Jesus came in humility and weakness, he alone is our refuge and strength.  He conquered sin by keeping the law perfectly.  He buried death by his death and resurrection.  God’s Son came to crush the head of Satan.

Even in a world of coexist bumper stickers and intolerant demands for tolerance, we can stand for and by the truth of God’s Word.  We put on Jesus Christ in our baptism.  The full armor of God was given in the one garment through the water and the Word.  We are clothed in Christ and He wrestles for us so that we might be saved.

August 14, 1945 marked the end of World War II as Japan surrendered to the United States.  There was one problem.  No one told Hiroo Onada.  When they did tell him, he didn’t believe them.  Hiroo Onada was a 2^nd Lieutenant in the Japanese Army.  He was stationed in the Philippines and his orders were to fight until the end.  When Japan surrendered there were only four survivors in his unit.  They kept fighting because they thought it was American propaganda.  One soldier was killed, two surrendered but Onada kept up the battle.  It wasn’t until his brother and commanding officer went to the Philippines and they convinced him the war was over.  That was in 1974 – 29 years after the Japanese had lost the war!

Satan continues the fight.  He will not be convinced otherwise, like Hiroo Onada eventually was.  His attacks will become more and more desperate as we get closer to the Lord’s return.  He is seeking to destroy as many of God’s saints as he can.  Satan will continue to work in our courthouses and schoolhouses and state houses and our houses.

The wonderful Gospel I share with you today is that when Christ Jesus emerged from the tomb on that first Easter morn, He had triumphed over sin, and death, and the devil.  The Valiant one has won the war.  Be strengthened by Word and Sacrament.  Be strengthened through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Be strengthened through prayer.  We are strengthened to stand firm to the end.  All because our strength is not found in our knowledge, our effort, or even our faith, but in Christ alone.

Amen.