Midweek Message from the Mount - July 25, 2012

⁴² They (the believers in the early church) devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)

In our current sermon series and Sunday morning Bible study we are asking ourselves the question, “Why are we here?”  We are looking at what a church that has been made alive by the power of the Gospel is to look like and how they will act.  The verses above from the book of Acts about the early Christian church gives us great insight into what a healthy, growing, vibrant church that has been moved by the Gospel looks like.

The early Christians were devoted to God’s Word, the Lord’s Supper (breaking of bread), and to prayer.  They were hearing the Word every chance they got and they received it with great excitement.  “Every day they continued to meet in the temple courts.”   They craved God’s Word!  They regularly received Holy Communion to be assured that they lived as forgiven children of God and they had his power to live a life pleasing to him.  They spent time in prayer together as they praised God and prayed for others.

They were devoted to fellowship with each other.  They cared for one another.  They shared with those who were in need.  They were a family.  The love they had for their Lord was evident in their love for each other.

They praised God openly and others around them saw their faith was evident in their lives. It must have been said of them, “Those Christians really love each other!”  “Those Christians certainly know what they believe and they are committed to it!”  And simply by the way they conducted themselves and the message they were so eager to share, many people came to believe.  The early church knew what their purpose was and God blessed them significantly.

Why are we here?  For exactly the same reason the early church existed.  We devote ourselves to hearing God’s Word and receiving the Sacrament so that we can grow strong in faith.  We devote ourselves to prayer for God’ blessing.  We share with each other and care for one another, because we are a family.  And when people see we are committed to the Gospel and in our love for each other, we will gain the favor of outsiders.  We keep working and preaching and living faithfully, and we let God take care of results!

Midweek Message from the Mount -- July 18, 2012

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14-17)

These are words of encouragement and instruction from the Apostle Paul to his friend and fellow pastor, Timothy. If it’s important enough for Paul to write to Timothy, a pastor, about being in the Scriptures and using the Scriptures, do you think it’s important for you as well?

Dear friends, continue in what you have learned and what you believe in because the Scriptures are the only way we are made wise for salvation.  It’s in those Scriptures that God reveals his unlimited love for you in Christ Jesus.  Continue in these Scriptures, which are given to us by God himself in order to teach and be taught, to rebuke and be rebuked, to correct and to be corrected, to train and to be trained in righteousness.  Knowing what these Scriptures mean for our life here and for our eternity, how can we not continue in them?  How can we not long for them, cling to them, and thirst for them?

An unknown writer said, "The Bible is the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding; its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, and the Christian's character. Here paradise is restored, heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure. Follow its precepts and it will lead you to Calvary, to the empty tomb, to a resurrected life in Christ; yes, to glory itself, for eternity.”

May God work in you a desire for his Word and then fill you with what he desires to give you there.  Continue in what you have learned so that you may be equipped for every good work that God has prepared for you!

Midweek Message from the Mount -- July 12, 2012

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

 Are you good at making excuses?  I know I am.

God says, “Be in my Word regularly.”

“But God, I’ve got a lot going on in my life right now.  I am just going to have to fit it in when I have time.”

He says, “Bring your concerns and troubles to me.”

“But God, I know what I’m doing.  I’ve got this under control.  I can handle this.”

He says, “Rely on me for your needs.”

“You know, God, just hoping that the bills will be paid or that there will magically be food in the cupboard just isn’t going to cut it.”

He says, “Tell that co-worker of yours about me.  Tell him what I have done for him.”

“Are you serious, God? He’s not going to listen to me.  He’ll just make fun of me.”

I’ve become pretty good at making excuses when God tells me to do something.  My guess is you’re not too bad at it either.

What about Abram? Do you think he was pretty good at making excuses like you and I are?

God tells him, “Abram, I want you to leave your country, your people, and your father’s household and I want you to head out to a land that I am going to tell you nothing about right now.”

You can imagine the list of excuses that Abram may have given.  “But God, my family is here, I can’t leave them behind.  You know, I am not so young anymore, God.  I just don’t know if I am up to all this traveling and living out of a tent.   I am not going to know anyone there, I’ll be considered a stranger.   God, why me? Why did you pick me for this?”

But the Lord immediately overwhelms the excuses that Abram may have spoken, or that he maybe was only thinking.  He gives him a perfect package of seven promises in order to strengthen his faith to do what he wanted him to do. And his final, most important and greatest promise in the list, the “Go out there and get ‘em” of his pep talk, is the promise of the Messiah who was to come from him.  This was enough for Abram, because immediately following this Messianic promise are the words, “so Abram left, as the LORD had told him.”

The Lord overwhelms all of our excuses with a perfect package of promises as well.

“You have too much going on in your life to find time to be in my Word regularly?  I promise that I will remain in you when you remain in me.”

“You think you have everything under control and you don’t need to bring your troubles to me?  I make the promise, come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I promise, I will give you rest.”

“Do you really think that your worrying about paying the bills or your fretting about food for the cupboards is going to provide for you?  Seek first my kingdom and my righteousness and I promise you, all these other things will be given to you as well.”

“So you are worried that co-worker is not going to listen to you?  I promise you, my word will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I desire.”

There is no reason to doubt the Lord will make good on these promises or any of the others he makes to us in His Word.  The Lord fulfilled all of his promises to Abram, most importantly, that of the Promised Savior.  And because of this Savior, the Lord promises that every single one of your sins of doubt and distrust are forgiven, and you have the assurance that all his promises to you will be accomplished.

There is no need for us to make excuses.  The Lord is faithful. So like Abram, we go, as the Lord has told us to.  Believing, and trusting in his promises.

Midweek Message from the Mount -- July 3, 2012

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:13,14)

Do you ever feel that freedom is misused and abused in this country?  That it’s used as an excuse to do whatever we want?  To say whatever we want?  To allow anything and everything to be permissible, because you know, you can’t tread on anyone’s rights and freedom.  What do you think Revolutionary soldiers who fought for our freedom would say of the state of our country today?  I am guessing they would be appalled at many of the things they saw on television and the internet, revolted at the words and actions of people as they appeal to their rights and freedom.  “This isn’t what I fought for at all!” they might exclaim.

And to, in our freedom as Christians, we are not free to go and do whatever we want and misuse and abuse the freedom Christ has won for us.  Our freedom is not a license for us to sin and live for ourselves.  The freedom from sin we have through Christ moves us to want to, with the Spirit’s power, fight sin and avoid it, so we don’t once again become enslaved by it. 

The Emancipation Proclamation declared that all slaves were free.  The Civil War resulted in that freedom, but yet the Jim Crow laws, the segregation laws in effect for nearly 90 years after the Civil War, literally enslaved them still.  Freedom had been declared, but awfully, they weren’t able to live in freedom.  And so we too, we have heard and believed that our freedom is declared and complete, so why would we continue to be harnessed by our sin, to live as if we were not free from that sinful flesh and the grips of Satan?

It’s only by the Spirit’s strength and counsel that we live in freedom, wanting to submit to God’s will, using his Word as a light for our path, to use the law as a guide for our daily living.  Paul writes that “the entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”   The freedom from sin we enjoy through Christ leads us to make ourselves servants of each other and to love one another, and in that way we show our love for God.  In your freedom, your life shows the fruits of the Spirit as Paul lists, in “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal. 5:22).  This is the fruit that God looks for in our life of freedom, this is the fruit that the Spirit produces.  As we daily drown our Old Man in the waters of our Baptism, and as we arise in our New Man, in our freedom to serve God and each other we seek to serve and glorify God.

We enjoy such wonderful blessings of God as citizens of the United States of America.  Blessings we cannot take for granted.  Blessings that have come with a huge price tag.  Blessings we should cherish. 

But the blessings of God that we have as citizens of Christ’s kingdom of grace are so much greater and so much more precious.  Redeemed and freed from the tyranny of the devil, sin, and our sinful flesh.  Freed and forgiven and declared holy in God’s sight.  Blessings we cannot take for granted.  Blessings that came with a huge price tag.  Blessings we should cherish. 

You are free, you are free indeed!  Let that freedom ring in your lives!

Jesus promises you:  “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31)

Midweek Message from the Mount – June 20, 2012

 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. ³⁴ Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:33-35)

Have you ever thought about how amazing it is that Jesus calls us his brothers and sisters?  Have you considered how remarkable it is that we have been made the sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father? 

Through Jesus, God has taken us, bitter enemies of himself because of our choice of straying instead of obeying, and he has reconciled us to himself.  We were sons and daughters of the Father of Lies, but he has declared us to be the sons and daughters of himself, the Father of Life.  This is nothing we have earned or deserved.  There’s nothing we have done that God should look at us and think we were worth adopting.  But he did it because of his love.  How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1)  And because we are his children we find peace and security in his faithful promises, we find comfort in his loving and protecting arms, and we are happy to obey his commands and to do his will.

And have you ever considered how this relationship with our heavenly Father makes us brothers and sisters of each other?  Not by our blood, but by Jesus’ blood, are we family.  And that’s something that is stronger than any other relationship we have on this earth, because it lasts for eternity.  The brothers and sisters in faith that you have here will be your family forever.  So we care for one another.  We look out for one another.  We help each other when we are hurting.  We rejoice with one another when we have reason to rejoice.  And we love one another.  Not just in words, but in actions and in truth.  We love one another as Christ our brother first loved us.

Thank God that he has made us his family, and he has made us into a family!

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, We thank and praise you for making us your dear children through the merits of Jesus.  Lead us to place our trust in you as you supply us with all our needs. Strengthen us as we live together as a family of believers that we might exhibit our love for you in our relationships.  May we glorify you in all that we say and do together as a family in faith.  We pray in the name of Jesus, our brother.  Amen.

Midweek Message from the Mount – June 13, 2012

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. (Deuteronomy 5:15)

God blessed his people with the gift of the Sabbath Day so that they could find rest for their bodies and their souls.  Here, through Moses, God tells his people that he brought them out of slavery in Egypt and brought them into the Promised Land, which was accomplished only by his almighty power.  Because of that, they were to observe the Sabbath to remember just how much God loved and cared for them, both physically and spiritually.

You and I have been freed from the slavery of our sin.  We were locked away in the prison of our sinful flesh with Satan as our master. But God has broken that yoke of slavery through the life and death of our Savior and our Substitute who took the punishment for us.  We have been forgiven of our debt, we have been freed, and it’s all by God’s mighty hand and outstretched arm, and not by anything we have done or ever could do.  And so we too eagerly desire to remember just how much God loves and cares for us. 

 

But there is no longer that command to observe a certain day of rest.  Christ has cancelled the written code and all the observances and festivals (Col. 2:13-17). We have been set free and we are able worship and find rest whenever we want.  We worship not because we have to, but because we cannot help not to, knowing the grace and mercy God has showered on us through Christ.  That yoke of slavery to sin has been crushed by Christ, and he now gives us a blessed invitation:  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30).

 

It’s in Christ that God’s commandment to keep the Sabbath Day was fulfilled.  It’s in Christ that we find rest from our sin and this sinful world.  It’s in Christ that we have the hope of eternal rest. 

 

Prayer:  Dear Jesus, Thank you for keeping the Law perfectly in my place and dying for my disobedience to the Law, so that I might be set free to serve you in faith.  Continue to lead me to eagerly seek you in Word and Sacrament where I find true rest for my soul.  Amen.

Midweek Message from the Mount – June 6, 2012

  In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;

the whole earth is full of his glory.”

⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

⁶ Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:1-8)

The first lesson for Trinity Sunday that we read this past Sunday is filled with beautiful truths and imagery.  Look at what brings Isaiah to his eager desire to be sent by the Lord.  It’s what the Triune God does for him that compels him.

He knows who he is before a holy God.  A man of unclean lips.  Ruined.  Woe is upon him.  He knows he does not deserve to be in the presence of the almighty God and he honestly admits he should be destroyed for it.

But notice how God responds.  He does not destroy Isaiah the sinner.  He declares Isaiah to be a saint, he takes his sins away, it’s atoned for, his guilt is vanquished.  And for no other reason than God’s great grace and mercy. 

Then comes the call.  “Whom shall I send?  And who will go for us?”  And Isaiah, knowing what his loving, Triune God has done for him, bringing him from ruin to life, from guilt to a pure heart, can’t help but raise his hand high and shout, “Here am I.  Send me!”

God has forgiven your sins and taken your guilt away by the blood of Christ.  Now he calls out to his sinners declared to be saints, “Who will go for us?”  How will you respond to the call?  How can you not see God’s love for you and raise your hand high and shout, “Here am I.  Send me!  Use me for your purposes!  Let me share this love with others!  Let me be the servant of the Triune God!”  The holy God has declared you, a sinner, to be holy.  And now he even calls you into his service.  How awesome is that!  What a privilege you have!

Prayer:  Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I thank you for so perfectly providing for all of my needs, especially for making me your child now and forever.  Lead me to hear your call into a life of service to you and to answer cheerfully, “Here am I.  Send me!”  May I be a light to the world that reflects your great love for all people.  May I give glory to you in everything I say and do.  Forgive me when I fail, restore me with your forgiveness, and give me your strength to live for you.  Amen.