May 26, 2024 Text:  Acts 2:14a, 22-36

Dear Friends in Christ,

Roll the dice and take your chance.  When your numbers up, it’s up.  Do feel lucky?  Well, do you?  Is that how we live?  Is that how God operates?  Is life random, or . . . .

“DOES GOD HAVE A PLAN?”

It has been my experience as a Pastor that people answer this question in three different ways.  Some feel that their life has no direction.  They do not see God leading them and that things just happen randomly.  Life has just evolved and whatever happens, will happen.  They don’t have a God direction and they may have a hard time seeing heaven and hell and judgment.  A fellow by the name of Haywood Broun noted this little nugget, “Nobody talks so constantly about God as those who insist there is no God.”  And why does this happen?  The 17^th century mathematician Blaise Pascal said it correctly:  “Men despise religion; they hate it and fear it may be true.”  And this scriptural teaching that God is one God in Three Persons?  Well, it is beyond the human mind.

Does God have a plan?  The second answer from people is yes, He does but they do not have the spiritual awareness to see it.  Someone once remarked to me, “I know God has an answer, I just wish He would write it in the sky.”  These folks have a hard time understanding who God is.  We tend to fit Him into our thoughts and ideas.  When that happens, we want Him to be a skywriter and give us the plan.  Come into my office, Mr. and Mrs. Christian and I will lay everything out for you.  Is that how God works?   

The third way to answer this question is the Spirit induced way.  Yes, God does have a plan.  Yes, He does reveal it to us.  No, He does not always do it in ways that are expected.  I see my life as one God-ordained journey.  I tell my family over and over that God has put me exactly where he wants me to be.   In my socialization over the years, it has led me to see the reasons for events in my life that have taken place.  The Lord has always given me signs.  What career path to take.  Who to marry.  What call to take.  There are more big decisions in my future where He is going to lead me.  Do you see it the same way?  Which of these three ways do you find yourself?  No-direction God?  Some direction God?  All direction God?  Does God have a plan?  Or is it all random?

There was nothing random about your salvation; God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have a definite, gracious plan for you.  In God’s work, we know him and his character, and we see the three persons of the Trinity in action.  Why did God need a plan?  Sin.  It separated us from God.  We deserved death.  But God had a plan.  Peter proclaims this wonder:  God knew what was going to happen.  He knew that we would sin, and He knew what redemption would cost.  It was the price of His Son.  Yet He still went forward.  He created. He redeemed.  

The entire Trinity was involved in God’s plan.  The Father foreknew and sent His only-begotten Son.  God allowed Jesus to be crucified.  He preserved Him from corruption and raised Him from the dead.  Jesus was exalted to God’s right hand.  Jesus’ saving work was complete.  God declared His Son Jesus both Lord and Christ, Master and Savior.

The Son submitted to the Father’s will and came to earth.  He took on our flesh, assumed our nature and shared in our weakness.  He did mighty works which showed His identity.  He resisted all temptation and took our sin upon Himself.  He became obedient to death on a cross.  He faithfully carried out God’s plan.

The Holy Spirit was poured out on Pentecost.  The Spirit gathered the crowds to hear the message in their own language.  The Spirit testifies to Jesus through the Gospel.  We are born again of water and the Spirit.  He speaks to us through God’s Word.  Continually calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies, and keeps us in the one true faith.  

This is God’s plan.  The Father, Son, and Spirit are one God, and each person works in grace and mercy to make us His own.  What a plan!

So, if He knew you from the creation of the world and He had this wonderful plan that He made your soul a part of, doesn’t it figure that He is giving you some direction in life?  I think you know the answer to that.  No need to roll the dice or feel lucky.  You are blessed because this Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has made you a saved soul.  Now may the Trinity help you to live like one.

Amen.

May 19, 2024 Text:  John 15:26-27; 4b-15

Dear Friends in Christ,

We all have things about us that we don’t want to face.   For me, it is my age.  My whole life I have been the young whippersnapper.  Kindergarten at age 4, high school graduation at 17, the youngest in my class at seminary.  Recently at our joint Ascension Worship with Christ Lutheran one of their members came up to me and asked, “How long have you been here?”  I answered, “25 years.”  She replied, “I still remember when you came, we all thought you were 15.”  I feel great, can still compete athletically, and God pulls the strings of life and laughs, “Lueck, you are going to be a grandpa.”  What?!  All of us have things we don’t want to admit.  It can be hard to handle the truth.

Today we celebrate the coming of the Spirit of truth – the Holy Spirit promised by our Lord.  Are you happy about the Spirit’s appearing?

‘HOW DO YOU HANDLE THE TRUTH?”

Our fear of the truth has pretty much put its meaning up for grabs.  According to apologist Greg Koukl, truth in our age is so nebulous that we are living with our “feet firmly planted in midair,” with nothing absolute in which to ground ourselves.  Truth suffers everywhere.  In our politics, in our education, in our business dealings, in our sports, in our institutions, even in our churches.  It is easy to see in others.  Do we see it in ourselves?

A biblical great had a hard facing the truth.  He was a King.  Went by the name David.  Had an affair with a bathtub beauty named Bathsheba.  Got her pregnant.  Had her husband killed.  Takes this war-widow as one of his wives.  David hopes no one knows – but God does.  Sends in a man on a mission.  Went by the name Nathan.  He tells David a little story and David gets enraged.  David wants justice.

David goes so far as to say, “The man who has done this deserves to die.”  What follows is one of the great dramatic moments in the Bible.  Nathan looks the king in the ye and says, “You are the man!” (2 Sam. 12:5, 7)  Ouch.  The ugly truth has to be faced.  David would repent and write in Psalm 51:3, “I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.”

The Spirit of truth is not sent purely for us to see the truth in our lives.  The Spirit testifies and points to the Word, revealing that God is truth, Jesus is truth, the Spirit is truth.  God is true to his Word.  The Spirit of truth comes convicting the “world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” (v. 8-9)

We know the long, dark shadow of David’s sin, covers us in darkness.  We like to keep our sins hidden.  We can spin some pretty good yarns to ward off suspicion and keep our reputation.  Whether forced to or confronted, the Spirit pierces our hearts and opens us up to reality.  He comes and says, “You are the man!  You are the woman!”  Not someone from the news channel or the internet or the great evil that is out there.  You.  You have been convicted.  How are you handling that truth?

There is another truth.  We can praise God for this truth.  Jesus promises, “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.” (v. 26)  God’s Word convicts of sin and judgment, but this same Spirit will also convict us of righteousness.  

The Spirit delivers this righteousness that our Savior has won for us by shedding His blood on the cross.  The Gospel delivers the beautiful truth that, despite our sin, God is for us.  God is true to His Word.  This Jesus died for us, rose for us, reigns for us, prays for us.  “God is faithful and just and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 Jn. 1:9)

I have a hard time facing my age.  The gray hair in the mirror gives it away.  I could try to cover it up with some chemicals, but the gray is always going to be there.  Much like sin.  We can try to hide it, but it is always there.  It isn’t going away until Jesus welcomes us into heaven.  I am probably always going to compete against my age.  It is who God made me to be.  I ask for his help in handling the truth.

What about you?  Where do you need to do some soul searching?  What truth do you have a hard time facing?  Remember this, in God’s household, there is life.  It is the life of Jesus Christ for the death of this world.  When you make the wrong choice, recognize it and repent.  The Spirit gives each of us this beautiful truth:  righteousness in exchange for guilt, forgiveness in exchange for shame, and life in exchange for death.  

The Spirit of the Truth, the Helper has come.  The Father takes what is His and declares it to you.  You can handle it right – Life and Truth?

Amen.