Sermon Texts

August 26, 2018                                                                    Text:  Ephesians 5:22-33

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in the presence of God and you witnesses to hear the Word of the Lord.  The topic chosen is marriage and the Lord speaks.

There is perhaps no set of verses in Scripture as informative on marriage as our text.  Yet they are dismissed as countercultural to our times.  Sinful man always has a way of taking what God designed as beautiful and messing it up with his foolishness.  Marriage certainly has to be at the top of our list for this era we live in.  You know the arguments, you hear the players.  Man and man.  Woman and woman.  Human and animal.  I’m waiting for somebody to marry their phone.  Who knows that probably has already happened.  And the devil laughs.  He delights as people live together and mess with the marriage bed.  The world is so far away from the man/woman in marriage being a picture of Christ and His Church.  We are up against and we know it.  How do we answer . . .

“WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT A PIECE OF PAPER?”

When people want to change things they have a way of simplifying it with platitudes – you know trite remarks.  “Who says we need a marriage certificate, after all, it is not worth the papyrus it is written on.”  And the world being the dichotomy it is has the other side arguing to get the piece of paper no matter what kind of sinful arrangement they have made – but we love each other.  Please!

The only voice that matters is the One who instituted and designed marriage.  He is God and what he says goes.  There is no debate.  He says marriage is a lifelong union between man and woman not just a functional arrangement between two persons.  He also says it is for mutual companionship, help, and support.  Husband and wife find delight in one another – sexually and in other ways.  Then for the gift of children if it be the Lord’s will.

Since God is the author it can’t be redefined.  When people do try to amend marriage they are what Isaiah states in our Old Testament lesson, “their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men.”  Get sinful man involved in any of God’s propositions and trouble is soon to follow.

So what should marriage look like from the Lord’s perspective?  The husband is to love the wife as Christ loved the church.  Is this easy?  Men?  When your wife is tearing you down instead of supporting you is the command one you are living?  Again, man fails.  The husband has to confess to the Lord that the honor of being a husband has been tarnished by his sinfulness.  He is unfit for the office.

The Lord knows your failures.  Christ loved the church.  Has the church been perfect?  Far from it.  But the Lord has cleansed and sanctified and made new again.  That is what Jesus does for husbands.  He forgives the neglect, the lack of romance, the silent treatment, the contempt.  He sends the husband back daily strengthened in Word and Sacrament.  He allows the husband to be a Christian leader and voice for his wife and family.

The wife on the other hand is told by the world she is a footstool if she listen’s to this sexist nonsense of submitting to her husband.  The Lord tells this dear daughter that she has given her this man to obey and serve and respect.  But the wife sees this as an impossible task because her husband often plays the fool and she is too proud to listen to him.  I mean look at him, he won’t give me the time and intimacy I need.  He’s on that computer again or cheering on his sports teams.  Really, Lord, you want me to submit to this guy?

And the Lord tells the wife that she can’t do this on her own.  Dear child, hear my Word, partake of my body and blood so that you can go home to your husband and face another week together.  I forgive you for those times you didn’t respect, or you didn’t give or you said, “I am woman, hear me roar!”

Through the Holy Spirit the wife like the husband will be enlightened.  The marriage will grow in love and respect and submission and sexually.  They will give to each other because they are not their own, they were bought with a price.  The husband is the wife’s and the wife is the husband’s.  And that piece of paper will mean something.  Man and woman will honor marriage and it will make a difference in their children’s lives and it will make a difference in society.  The evidence is long – from the time of Adam and Eve – throughout each generation.  When marriage is as God ordained and planned our world is a better place.  Children have fewer problems.  Spouses have smiles instead of frowns.  Counselors have less business.

This is marriage as we see from Ephesians 5 this morning.  God’s Word through Paul.  Not husband and wife alone, but of a husband and wife constantly restored by the forgiveness of Christ.

Amen.

August 19, 2018                                                                    Text:  Proverbs 9:8-10

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

In life, the Lord always knows when we need things.  I needed an opening illustration for this sermon and the Lord provided, not in a way I would have expected.

By now, most of you know what happened with Holden this week.  Emergency room, pneumonia, and dehydration that was causing his muscle tissue to break down.  This news was coming to us via phone and Karson.  I stayed up late to receive the reports and each one got worse.  He eventually was admitted, given antibiotic IV’s and is recovering.  As many of you know when you face a situation like this you aren’t thinking about the touchdowns he scored, the good grades he received or the teams who won championships.  You thank God that your son has faith and trust in Jesus.  It was this that allowed me later that night to get some sleep.

Our text for today, which I picked over a month ago from the Book of Proverbs are words of wisdom from a father directed to his son.  All of chapters 1-9 are.  Wisdom is our subject.  In our three verses we have wise, wiser, or wisdom mentioned four times.  So which way is it going to be?

“ARE YOU A BUDWISER OR A BIBLEWISER?”

Budwiser represents the wisdom of the world.  And yes, I know I have Budwiser spelled wrong.  Biblewiser is the wisdom we receive from the Lord.

Verse 8 of our text, “Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.”  The pathway to wisdom involves discipline.  Discipline is not a popular word in our society –dilly, dilly!  You may remember this from the Duke of Windsor when asked what impressed him most in his visit to America, he replied, “The way American parents obey their children.”  So many today control their parents or are discipline-free that once they face punishment as adults their budwiser filled world comes crashing down.

It is not just our young charges that need discipline, we all do.  You and I need correction because we are sinners.  Out of His fatherly love for us, God rebukes us when we sin.  His Law cuts to our heart.  He alerts us to the danger that if we stay on this path it will lead to death and eternal condemnation.

When we repent of these offenses we have the Biblewiser words of comfort.  “I forgive you for the sake of my Son Jesus who died to forgive you and give you life.  I now guide you through the Holy Spirit to reflect true wisdom.”

Verse 9 of our text:  “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will still be wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.”  Often budwiser parents and adults pass on the teaching of their kids to society, school and friends and media.  Even in the church there is this danger.  The frontline for religious instruction is the parent.  Martin Luther knew this to be true.  Moses knew this to be true.  We need to increase our learning when it comes to the faith.

No one is the perfect parent.  I just called Holden this week to apologize for something I didn’t do that I should have.  Thankfully there is a perfect parent.  God our heavenly Father.  He loves us with a perfect love.  His Son atoned for the sin of poor parenting, our lack of learning the faith.  Through faith, Christ’s perfection is credited to your account.  The Holy Spirit now strengthens our faith through instruction in God’s Word so that we are each equipped to learn and teach the promises of the gospel.  Become Biblewiser!

Verse 10 from Proverbs 9.  “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”  We are being directed in the faith.  If we aren’t growing in our wisdom and knowledge of the Lord – the Holy One – then we are off in the wrong direction.

Tragically, families are leading their kids down the wrong paths.  They are drinking up this budwiser filled wisdom, which is consuming them as if life is one big party and the kids are the novelty.  Academics, athletics, theater, band and other paths are noble, but they cannot take priority over a faith relationship with the Lord.  Getting those Sunday night phone calls, sitting in that hospital room this week would have been a different experience if the wisdom of the world had prevailed in both of our son’s lives.

Even when we fail to make the Lord the top priority, He makes us His top priority.  When we were going in the wrong direction away from Him, Christ pursued us and placed us on the path of salvation.  In Baptism, He has made the best beginning possible for us and for our children by pardoning our rebellious wandering.  Through His word of the Gospel, God forms in us true and saving faith, which is the beginning of wisdom.

As I was putting this sermon together this week and fighting back the tears, my phone rang and it was Holden.  We had a good chat as we talked about his health, his day and his faith.  I shared with him what the message was going to be about and as I hung up the phone it occurred to me that he had grown up just like me, my boy was just like me.  Not a father neglecting his son like in the famous song, but a Father who loved his children and that Father is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  He has filled me and you and all of God’s children not with budwiser but with biblewiser.  We are blessed by our faith.  Learned in our discipline and teaching and direction.  We are growing in wisdom.  May this message help in that pursuit.

Amen.

August 12, 2018                                                                            Text:  1 Kings 19:1-8

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Have you ever heard of these two women – Elisabeth Lammerhirt and Margarethe Lindemann?  They married, bore children and kept house.  They lived hard-working and rather ordinary lives.  Like women of their day they didn’t write books or poetry or build cathedrals.  You probably don’t know who they are.  Yet, without them, you wouldn’t be a Lutheran, and you wouldn’t sing many of the hymns that you love.

You see, Elisabeth was the mother of Johann Sebastian Bach; Margarethe, the mother of Martin Luther.  They didn’t know their sons would change the world.  Elisabeth died when Bach was nine years old.  Margarethe didn’t know what would become of her son until late in life.  They thought all their hard work, sacrifice and love wouldn’t amount to much.  They were wrong.

Elijah in our text for this morning thought he was a failure.  He didn’t see that the Lord would bless his hard work and sacrifice.  Like the prophet we can become discouraged with our lives.  The Lord of life helps us to see this day that we too are blessed.

“DISCOURAGED?  BE ENCOURAGED THROUGH CHRIST”

Elijah thought his work had been rewarded.  The 450 prophets of Baal had been slaughtered and the three-year drought was over.  It was going to rain.  But it didn’t work out that way.  Jezebel was not repentant, but angry.  She threatened to kill Elijah.  The people had forsaken God’s covenant, broken down his altars.  Elijah thought he was alone.  He crawled under a tree, and asked God to take his life.

Do you ever want to crawl under a tree because of your discouragement?  We pray.  We attend worship regularly.  We volunteer.  We give a portion of our income.  But the congregation may not grow at a pace we think it should.  Sometimes the finances can be tight and there is always something that needs to be fixed.  It can leave us frustrated.  And we ask, “why bother?”

What we forget is that we can’t make the congregation grow by our own efforts.  Our energy is not endless.  Both people inside and outside the church are sinners.  God does not call us to be successful, but to be faithful.  It is Jesus who saves.  It is the Holy Spirit who calls us by the Gospel and enlightens us with his gifts.  He calls us to hear God’s Word, to love our neighbors, to witness about Jesus and to cherish the Sacraments He gives us.

Think of how discouraged you can get when you try to change a person.  A spouse, a child, a grandchild, a friend, a co-worker, a neighbor.  Your efforts may help but the person needs to make the changes needed.  And more than that they and us always need the leading of Christ in our discouragement.

This is what the Lord did with Elijah.  God had fed the people in the desert with the manna and God the Son would feed 5,000 in the wilderness.  So now God feeds his prophet.  God did not grant his prayer to die.  Instead, the angel of the Lord, the Son of God came to him and brought him bread and water.  This meal and subsequent meals gave the prophet the strength to go on.  God would later tell Elijah that he was not alone and his work was not in vain.

Jesus comes to you and I in the same way.  Our discouragements are many but we cast our cares upon Him.  He took our sins upon himself and bore them all to the cross, where he died the death we deserved and paid all the debts we owed for them.  He won for us there forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

And I think you also know the other way we are encouraged like Elijah.  God feeds us not just bread and water, but his own body and blood in the bread and wine of his Supper.  This assures us that Jesus is with us personally.  We are refreshed and can move forward in the strength of the Lord.

Elijah did that for forty days and forty nights.  The number forty is often used in Scripture for a period of testing, judgment, preparation and discipline.  The great flood lasted forty days and nights.  Moses spent forty days on Horeb, while God gave him the Ten Commandments.  The people of Israel spent forty years in the wilderness.  God gave Nineveh forty days to repent.  Jesus wandered in the desert and fasted for forty days prior to his temptation by the devil.

Where have you had your forty days and nights?  Are you living through them now?  The testing, the discipline, the discouragement.  Be encouraged through Christ Jesus your Lord and Savior.  In all of the situations listed above, the people came out on the other end of it better off and blessed.  The Lord rose spent forty days and nights among his people and ascended to heaven.  Because of this we are not alone as the Lord looks after us.

God has called you to labor for His Kingdom.  He encourages your sacrifice and your gifts.  Come out from under the tree, there is work to do.

Amen.

August 5, 2018                                                                            Text:  Exodus 16:2-15

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

All right people of Israel, what are you going to do next?  You’ve been enslaved in Egypt for 430 years.  You heard Moses cry to the Lord, “Let my people go!”  Pharaoh has told you over and over no.

People of Israel, what are you going to do next?  You’ve seen the plagues from hail destroying to frogs inhabiting.  You’ve heard the wailing throughout the night as the firstborn died.

So, people of Israel, what are you going to do next?  You’ve followed the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.  You’ve walked on dry ground with the wall of water to the right and to the left.  You’ve seen the Egyptians who pursued you swept into the sea.  So, people of Israel, what are you going to do next?

They are going to . . . grumble!  “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (v. 3)  Grumble, grumble, grumble.  Moses and Aaron have to be thinking, “You bunch of whiners!”  The Lord heard the grumbling too.

Of course, you don’t grumble.  No, never you.  But you do!  You grumble when the price of gas is too high.  You grumble when it rains too little.  You grumble when it rains too much.  You grumble when your spouse won’t have sex on a regular basis or when they won’t listen to you.  You grumble when your kid won’t pick up their room.  You grumble at the four-way stop when the person whose turn it is won’t go.  You grumble when you are bored and you grumble when you are too busy.  I could stand in this pulpit all day with this little exercise.  Shall I go on?  Goldilocks, hello.  Our porridge is too hot.  Our porridge is too cold.  We would make wonderful Israelites, wouldn’t we?

So, what does the Lord do with these ungrateful complainers?  “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you.” (v. 4)  Later in the chapter, “When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another.  ‘What is it?’  For they did not know what it was.  And Moses said to them, ‘It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.’” (vs. 14-15)  Feeling a little sheepish about your grumbling?

“OUR GOD RAINS . . . FOR YOU!”

Would you look out the window?  Why, it’s raining…pitchforks!  Never heard that one.  Why, it’s raining…stair rods!  Never heard that either.  Why, it’s raining cats and dogs!  Ahhhh…I’ve heard that one Pastor.

In the early 1700s, Jonathan Swift published a satire in which one of the characters fears that it’ll rain cats and dogs.  We don’t know the origin.  We do know that the other phrases – pitchforks and stair rods were popular at the time.

Wherever it comes from, we do know the meaning.  The rain is really coming down.  The Lord used an equally strange line:  “It’s going to rain bread.”  I wouldn’t mind hearing that from the Lord, how about you?  Any chance of cinnamon and sugar on a loaf?  See, we still want it our way.  Israelites, we are right there with you!

Not only did the Lord provide the Israelites with bread he made it a meal by covering the camp in quail.  God provides so much from the skies above.

God brought angels who filled the skies and proclaimed, “Fear not, for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Lk. 2:10-11)

God commands the skies there on Calvary’s hill.  “It was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light had failed.  And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.  Then Jesus calling out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’  And having said this he breathed his last.  Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, ‘Surely he was the Son of God!’” (Lk. 23:44-47)

God commands the skies above.  As the darkness lifted from the skies, the morning of the third day, the women went to the tomb and found it empty.  “Why are you looking here?  Jesus is among the living!” (Lk. 24:1,5)

God commands the skies above.  Our God rains . . . for you.  He still rains down daily bread in spite of our grumbling.  He rains down clothing and a place to live.  He gives us money and possessions.  He blesses us with spouses and children.  In spite of our grumbling . . . good government and faithful rulers and good weather and peace and health and friends and neighbors.

Even more than that, He gives us the Bread, the Bread of life, the Bread “who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (Jn. 6:33)  He gives us Jesus.  So see, you have nothing to grumble about, for God says, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you.”

Amen.

July 29, 2018                                                                          Text:  Ephesians 3:14-21

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Whenever we know someone who is going through difficult times we may something like, “You are in my prayers” or “I’ll be praying for you.”  We have probably had a Christian brother or sister say this to us.  But what about those folks who say this to us, “you are in my thoughts.”  Does that help you at all?  Do they have any power to change things?  Of course not.  Does their thought make the chemo easier?  Does it make your trip feel safer?  Can it change the challenge with your children?  Does it give you the words to talk to the obnoxious co-worker?  Their thoughts are really meaningless.  We need more.

This section of Scripture, which is our text for today, is entitled “Prayer for Spiritual Strength” in my Bible.  Isn’t that something we all need?  Where can you use added strength from our Lord in your life?  Isn’t it a spiritual pick me-up when someone says to you . . .

“YOU ARE IN MY PRAYERS”

The Apostle Paul spent more time with the Ephesian congregation than any other mission church so he has great concern for their spiritual welfare.  He is telling them, “You are in my prayers.”  He prays that the Ephesians “be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts.”

The people needed to be renewed in their Christian nature so that they could battle their sinful nature.  Paul is praying that Christ would continue to dwell in them through their baptism and that they would trust in the Lord.

We need those same things in our prayers.  We battle our sinful nature.  We need the reminder that Christ is dwelling with us.  In Baptism His indwelling took root and we are his children.  Pray for one another that we can trust the Lord and His direction.  Christ brings peace, forgiveness, life, and salvation to those who are troubled by any fear or anxiety.  “You are in my prayers.”

Paul then takes it a step further.  He prays these brothers and sisters in Christ “may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (vs. 18-19)

Knowledge of Christ is praised in this Letter, but the human mind cannot fully comprehend Him.  This is how sinful man always gets into trouble.  Everyone wants to figure out who the Lord is.  They think they can completely know Him.  Some think they can be Him.  Some feel He doesn’t exist even though in their argument they are proving just the opposite.  Why fight so hard against something that you say isn’t even real?  God must laugh and laugh at the foolishness of His creation sometimes.

The more important thing than knowing Christ is Christ knowing you.  There may be times in this vast world that we feel insignificant but you are important to the Savior.  It was for fallen humanity that God sent Jesus to set things right between himself, all creation, and us.  The fate of all human history reached its climax when Christ died in that little insignificant patch of land called Israel.  His love didn’t end there.  He sent missionaries throughout the world to get the word of life out.  He saw to it that faithful parents, grandparents, or friends spoke that love to generations of people.  “You are in my prayers.”

With these bold requests, does Paul exceed the limits of prayer?  Is he asking God for too much?  Should we be cautious in what we expect?  That is not how the Apostle Paul sees it when he writes, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.” (vs. 20-21)

God is not limited in how He can answer our prayers.  He is God and we need to never forget that.  We limit his help when we aren’t taking our problems to Him.  Talk to Him and tell him about that ache in your heart that won’t go away.  Bow your head and explain the help you need to get out of a tunnel where you see no light ahead.  Hit your knees and give the Lord that hurt that won’t leave your thoughts.  Then also ask your Christian brothers and sisters for their help and with it their words to you, “You Are In My Prayers.”

Amen.

 

July 1, 2018                                                                            Text:  2 Corinthians 8:1-9

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Larry Hurtado has written a book entitled, “Why On Earth Did Anyone Become A Christian In The First Three Centuries?”  These are some of the reasons he gives for not becoming a Christian back then.  Persecution.  St. Paul notes in our text, the churches of Macedonia underwent “a severe test of affliction.” We know of the martyrdoms of Stephen and James, Polycarp and Ignatius.  These weren’t just physical costs.  Early Christians encountered tensions with families and acquaintances and co-workers.  People paid a heavy price for their beliefs.

We must remember that pagan culture permeated every aspect of life from sports, social clubs, the arts, military membership, political groups, trade associations.  Hurtado writes, “Indeed, practically any formal dinner included ritual acknowledgement of deities.”  Christians were rarely asked to denounce Christ but they were expected to raise a cup to the god or gods of the day.  Failure to do so could result in social death, political banishing, and family discord.

What god or gods are we expected to raise a toast to in our day?  The god of political correctness?  You may be bad mouthed for a stand you take.  The god of money?  Who wouldn’t want the American dream?  The god of family?  What is wrong with you why don’t you have your kid in every activity known to man?  The god of celebrity?  Did you hear what so and so said on Twitter?  No, and I don’t care.  The god of “you can’t tell me what to do”?  “I can use whatever language I want.”  What other places are you expected to bow at the altar that may compromise your Christian faith?

It is enough for members of God’s family to start asking . . .

“WHY ON EARTH WOULD I WANT TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN?”

America has long been nominally Christian.  Even those who promote abortion and same-sex marriage tout their Christian credentials in doing so.  Most politicians don’t get in trouble by ending their speeches with, “God Bless you and God Bless America.”

But the landscape is changing rapidly.  Secularization has won the day, and the persecutions have begun.  Early Christians were tempted to offer a toast to the pagan deity.  If you did this you could expect upward mobility and a higher social status.  Are our own challenges any different?

In almost every profession and walk of life, Christians are being challenged on their biblical view of marriage and their truthful stand on the LGBT agenda.  Being a member of a certain orthodox church these days could carry a stigma.  The Christian gets labeled a “hater” if they don’t fall in line.  Christians already are being fined and even some are driven from their business.  Sportscasters have been taken off the air, judges off of their benches.  Day by day we are learning that Christianity comes with a cost, sometimes financial or social.

I was recently asked a similar question by someone outside our church who wanted to know if my position as Pastor ever had someone berating me for a biblical position when I am out in the community.  I said no.  But I also am aware, as some have stated in our Adult Bible Class that you are expected to toe the politically correct company line.  Certain freedoms you should have are being taken away.  We don’t live on either coast but how long before the vice grip entangles us?  “Why on earth would I want to become a Christian?”

Our text gives us the answer – verse 9.  “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”

In the early church they became Christians because Christians preached a loving God.  They became Christians and remained Christian because the church spoke about eternal life.  These brothers and sisters had hope.  Indeed, the troubles of this present time pale in comparison to the joys of the life to come.

We find love in the person of Jesus Christ.  In the crucifixion of Jesus we find the deepest problems of humanity and sin and isolation.  He overcame all of these for us.  God sacrificed his Son so that we could be forgiven and have a future home in heaven that lasts forever.  The early Christians knew the persecutions were temporary.  We too know that we will be taken from this vale of tears and live in perfection for eternity.

Doesn’t that keep us going?  God is in control.  God as Creator sees our world and his plans and his timing for world events come to pass with his knowledge and foresight.  Satan has his victories no doubt, but our Lord has won the war between good and evil.  By becoming poor through Christ he has made you and I rich.  Rich in grace.  Rich in love.  Rich in Christian fellowship.  Rich in trust.  Rich in hope.  Rich in the Lord’s strength.  We can stand boldly because God’s Word is truth.  He promises that.

So, how will you respond?  Will your keep your mouth shut, or will you speak the truth?  How will we navigate these waters if the persecutions hit our pocketbooks, our social status, and our reputations?  Will we remain faithful, or offer that toast to the gods?

The early church grew exponentially as the Christians remained faithful.  We don’t know the future but we do know that our Lord holds the future.  “Why on earth would I want to become a Christian?”  Because God loves me through Jesus Christ.  I am forgiven and I have hope.  Nothing can separate me from the love of Christ Jesus my Lord.

Amen.