Monday, July 24, 2017

July 22-24, 2017 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Luke 7:36-50   “THE FIFTH PETITION: LOOK TO JESUS!”


THE LORD’S PRAYER: 5TH PETITION

July 22-24, 2017

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Luke 7:36-50



“THE FIFTH PETITION: LOOK TO JESUS!”

1.     Who has forgiven you.

2.     Who has forgiven others.

3.     To help you forgive others.





Luke 7:36-50 (NIV 1984) “Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. 39When the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, He would know who is touching Him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” 40Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. 41“Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. 44Then He turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give Me any water for My feet, but she wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45You did not give Me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing My feet. 46You did not put oil on My head, but she has poured perfume on My feet. 47Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” 48Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” 50Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”



          “Grow up!” Have you ever said that to someone in your life? Has it ever been said to you? It’s a phrase that sometimes comes out in frustration when you notice someone who is not acting their age, or is acting immaturely. It seems to me that in the prayer Jesus gave us, the Lord’s Prayer, he is helping us to grow up as Christians, to be more mature in what we are praying for and then how we live. So he has us focusing on spiritual matters first, then needs and not wants. He has pray that prayer that takes a miracle to mean, “Your will be done.” And then we come to the 5th Petition. “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” Hey, wait a minute here. Do I really want God forgiving me the way I forgive others? Humor me for a moment. You have my permission to close your eyes during the sermon. Now I want you to picture the face of someone who has hurt you, who keeps hurting you, whose words and actions just keep getting your goat. OK, what kind of feelings did you have? I’m guessing negative ones. Hurt. Anger. Resentment. Maybe a desire to see them pay. Now I ask again, do you really want God to forgive you the way you forgive others? Do you remember when Peter asked Jesus how many times he had to forgive someone and Jesus told the parable of the Unmerciful Servant who refused to forgive after he had been forgiven? Do you remember how it ended with that servant cast away and then Jesus said, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from the heart.” And we are to pray “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us?” Yes. We are. We can. We can mean it as we daily look to Jesus.

          Look to Jesus who has forgiven your sins. That’s the lesson a man named Simon needed to learn. He was one of the Pharisees. From the way he acted toward Jesus it does not sound like he was being nice in his dinner invitation to Jesus but rather wanted to criticize him. He displays the characteristics of a typical Pharisee. He was better at seeing the sins of others than his own. He was more bothered by the sins of others than his own. All of the sudden an uninvited guest came in. A sinful woman. A woman who had lived a sinful life. No other details are given. Perhaps she had turned to prostitution to feed her family when her husband died. Perhaps her reasons were less noble. She had lived a sinful life. But now she was forgiven. Jesus said so. “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven.” And she knew it. That’s why she came uninvited. That’s why she spent a lot of money so others could see she was thankful to Jesus. If only Simon could know how much he had been forgiven!

          That’s why Jesus told the parable.  “Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.” Now when Simon heard this parable which debtor do you think he would identify with? More importantly when it comes to the Fifth petition which debtor do you identify with? This is the key to practicing forgiveness. You need to see that Jesus has forgiven you, a lot. Like Simon we can also be better at seeing and being more bothered by the sins of others. Like the sinful woman we need to be better at acknowledging our own. We are bothered by others sexual sins like unfaithfulness. God is bothered when we are unfaithful to Him, when something or someone else has first place in our hearts. Seriously how often each day are we really thinking of God first? We deplore the murders and shootings that are happening on a daily basis in our city but we don’t hesitate to murder others with our words and shoot arrows at their character, wisdom and reputation. How big is your debt? It’s zero. Look to Jesus. He has forgiven you. Everything. Even what you haven’t done yet.

          He’s also forgiven others. What do you think Simon felt when he heard Jesus say the sinful woman was forgiven? What would you think if you heard the now famous “Ladies of the Daylight” the prostitutes propositioning our pastors on the southside were forgiven? Would it help if you found out they were forced into prostitution by their pimp who hooked them on heroin and used that to control them? What if they’d gotten in willingly? Does it make a difference? Sin is sin. And forgiveness is forgiveness. What about that person you thought of before? You know the one that has hurt you? Look to Jesus. When he was on the cross He was punished for their sins too. Paid in full does not just apply to you and me, good people, like Simon. Ooh, maybe we don’t want to be included with him. Come to think of it, if we had to be like someone in this account, we’d rather be the sinful woman because she was actually the forgiven woman.

          That’s what moved her to show love for Jesus even though it was hard and it cost her. And that’s what enables us to forgive others too, even though it’s hard and costs us. When you forgive others you are not saying what they did was right. When you forgive others your pain and hurt and memories don’t automatically go away. When you forgive others it’s not always one and done. You may have to keep forgiving them in your mind because you remember. When you forgive others you are not giving them permission to sin against you again any more than Jesus’ forgiveness of us is permission to keep on sinning. When you forgive you are letting go of your desire to see them pay. When you forgive you give the matter over to God to take care of. Hopefully people who sin against us will apologize just like hopefully we are apologizing to others. But even if they don’t we can forgive. Look to Jesus. Look to Jesus who forgave the men who crucified Him. Ask His help. He’s helped others. He helped Joseph. Think of the years of hurt in slavery and prison that those brothers put Joseph through. He was able to forgive. He trusted God who worked it for good. He helped Stephen who forgave the men who were stoning Him. Look to Jesus. The forgiven can forgive and in the way that Jesus always works obedience is blessed. When we forgive others the hurt and resentment that rolls around in our hearts when we don’t forgive and holds us back from following Christ and having peace disappear.

          Brothers and sisters, it was love for Jesus and thankfulness for her forgiveness that moved this sinful woman to do something hard. Go into that room with all those men looking at her with those judging eyes. But she had been forgiven much and so she loved Jesus much. Love and thankfulness for Jesus will help us sinful men and woman to do hard things, things we may not want to like forgiving those who have hurt us. Can we pray “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us” and not be scared and really mean it. Yes we can. Look to Jesus. Amen.

Monday, July 17, 2017

July 15-17, 2017 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Luke 12:13-21   THE FOURTH PETITION: A Prayer of Daily Trust and Thanksgiving


THE LORD’S PRAYER: 4TH PETITION

July 15-17, 2017

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Luke 12:13-21



THE FOURTH PETITION: A Prayer of Daily Trust and Thanksgiving



Luke 12:13-21 (NIV 1984) “Someone in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15Then He said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16And He told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I’ll say to my soul, “Soul, you have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ 20“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”



          When we began our sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer we started with the Address. We pray to Our Father in heaven. It reminded us of the picture God wants us to keep in mind that He is our loving Father in heaven and we are his children. All of us here were children at one point. Some would still be considered children. I have a question for all children here today. How many times did you ask parents if you could please have a meal to eat? I’m not thinking about the times you may have used the hyperbolic “I’m starving! When are we going to eat?!!” I mean when you actually asked your parents for the privilege of a meal. The reality is that most of the time children simply expect that their parents will feed them. They think it’s their right. They take it for granted. To be sure I know of no moms who would even think of not feeding their children and most if not all feel it is a privilege to feed their babies. But if you just take the first sixteen years of childhood and 3 meals a day each of us would have had 17,520 times to say please give me my daily breakfast, lunch or supper. Now the reason I bring this up is because when Jesus taught us to pray He included in that prayer the 4th Petition. “Give us today our daily bread.” Why does Jesus have us praying for daily bread when God just seems to give it anyway? Pastor Luther picked up on that in his explanation to it when he said, “God surely gives daily bread without our asking, even to all the wicked.” That’s true. Just like parents feed their children even though babies can’t politely ask and other children don’t God continues to provide food for man and animal alike. And yes, the wicked, the evil, the god haters and people hurters they get to eat too. So what’s this petition all about?  It’s about living each day with trust and thanksgiving.

          Jesus taught that lesson quite clearly when he told the parable that’s known as the parable of the Rich Fool even though from the outside he looks kind of wise.  Jesus was teaching the crowds, warning them about the importance of faith in Him as Savior when a man in the crowd spoke up. “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But settling inheritance laws was not why Jesus came. “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15Then He said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Jesus came to save and so he warned against the sin of greed, of setting our hearts on things.

          Then he told the parable of the rich fool but pardon me if I’m wrong but doesn’t the guy seem kind of wise? “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I’ll say to my soul, “Soul, you have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” OK, so this wealthy farmer found himself harvesting an abundant crop. Now we all know and most farmers know that they are God dependent for good crops. We all also know and most farmers know that they have to put a lot of hard work in as well to get a good crop. This has to be a hardworking landowner who knows what he’s doing. That sounds wise to me. He’s also a planner. His barns are too small. So he plans on building bigger ones. That sounds wise. He’s even doing retirement planning. He knows his upcoming expenses. He knows his assets. He plans it out and says I can retire, not work so hard, enjoy life. Now if that’s a foolish thing to do I’m looking at a few fools and I’m planning on being one. Financial advisers and retirement planners say it’s wise to save. Healthcare professionals encourage taking it easy later in life and finding enjoyment after employment. Sounds wise to me.

          But not to God. “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” When God calls someone a fool everyone needs to pay attention. What makes this man who looks so wise on the outside a fool? It’s what’s going on on the inside. He was not rich toward God. Now you might think that his problem was his giving, that he wasn’t giving an honorable amount of his possessions to God. Now it’s true that stingy giving, living in luxury while pitching pennies in to the offering basket is wrong and sinful that’s not what rich towards God means. Rich toward God means giving to God what He really wants, our hearts. Hearts that are filled with thanksgiving and trust. Remember Jesus told this parable as a follow up to his warning against greed. Greed, always wanting more, never having enough betrays a lack of trust in God to provide daily bread. Greed, hoarding for yourself without generosity towards others betrays a lack of thankfulness to God. This is mine. I earned it because I’m so good and smart, not because God is so kind and giving. That’s why this man is a fool. Not because he planned and saved. He did it without a heart that trusted and thanked God.

          That brings us back to the Fourth Petition. Give us today our daily bread. Jesus included that prayer to help us, the children of God remain thankful and trusting, rich toward God. He has us pray for daily bread, not weekly, monthly or yearly so that on a daily basis we will remember who is really taking care of us. It is God who causes food to grow. It is God who gives us the ability to work. It is God who provides us with jobs or other means of income when needed. It is God who established the government that provides assistance when needed. All of those areas are masks that God hides behind to provide but expects the children of God to peek behind those masks and to know He is the real provider. And then to respond with thanksgiving. Not acting like little children who take meals for granted or consider it their right but with turning to God each day with a heartfelt thank you for my daily bread. The 4th Petition also helps us express daily trust in the Lord. It’s easy to trust when the fridge and pantry are full and when income is covering expenses. It’s harder when you are in a drought and ravens are bringing you food like with Elijah or when a job unexpectedly ends. Praying the 4th Petition daily points us to the God who provides, the God who did not spare his only Son but gave Him up for us all. Of course He will take care of us. It might not be the way we would want or expect (ravens delivering groceries!) but the Father will provide.

And let’s never forget the daily bread we have in Jesus, the bread of life. Through faith in Him God sees us as perfectly thankful and perfectly trusting children. In Him our own greed, arrogance and lack of gratefulness have been washed away. In Him we can be more like Him, like grown up children. Have you had that happen where the kids grow up, live on their own then come back and ask for that home cooked meal and say Thank you to boot? Brothers and sisters, praying the 4th Petition helps us to be the grown up children of God who realize how good we have it and why, Because God is good. He deserves our daily trust and our daily thanksgiving. Amen.

Monday, July 3, 2017

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Colossians 3:15-17 “YOUR KINGDOM COME!”


THE LORD’S PRAYER 2ND PETITION

July 1-3, 2017

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Colossians 3:15-17



“YOUR KINGDOM COME!”

1.     To us.

2.     To others



Colossians 3:14-17 (NIV 1984) Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”



          This is what is recorded in Acts 1:6 right before Jesus ascended to heaven: “So when they met together the disciples asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”  Now, let’s get the timeline straight here. These are the men who had spent three years being discipled by Jesus. They had heard Him say many times that he had come to save sinners and that would happen when he would go to Jerusalem, be handed over to the chief priests, killed and then come back to life. 40 days before this Jesus had done just that. For forty days after His resurrection Jesus met on many occasions with his disciples proving he was alive focusing them on carrying out his work. So last question you ask Jesus before he visibly leaves is about setting up a kingdom on earth? Why don’t they get it? Actually this isn’t anything new. God’s people through the ages have gotten sidetracked on what the kingdom of God is all about. We always seem to get tricked into being more concerned about earthly kingdoms than God’s kingdom. Think of the Jewish people before Christ trying to throw off the Roman empire not realizing how God was using that Empire to advance His kingdom, providing safe travel and good roads and how He would use the Roman persecution to spread Christianity. Think of the crusades. A lot of killing in the name of Christ to control a piece of land. Closer to home as we celebrate our nation’s birthday we think of how it was founded by many Christians fleeing religious persecution and then trying to set up a nation based on Christian principles. We’ve enjoyed that influence in our country for a long time but now as it has changed have you noticed how easy it is to think our job as a church or as Christians is to get those laws back that we like? But our good old USA is not the kingdom of God. Modern day Israel isn’t either. Neither was Israel at the time Jesus was here. So just what is the kingdom of God? What does this petition teach us to pray about and be concerned with?

          Nebuchadnezzar knew. After God humbled him great king Nebuchadnezzar who ruled the great earthly kingdom of Babylon, a fabulous empire, knew. God’s kingdom was so much bigger, greater than his. God’s kingdom is eternal, unlimited. Jesus tried to help the Pharisees understand. God’s kingdom doesn’t have borders. It’s not seen like others. It exists inside people. Pastor Luther in his explanation to the 2nd Petition put it this way: “God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly father gives his Holy Spirit, so that by his grace we believe his holy word and lead a godly life now on earth and forever in heaven.”  

          When we pray, “Your kingdom come” we are praying for Christ to rule in our hearts more and more. Just like Paul wrote to the Christians in Colosse. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” The kingdom of God is within you. This petition forces each of us to look in our hearts to see who sits on the throne there. Who is ruling us? Our sinful nature wants to. And when it does we are selfish and mean. We don’t live at peace with each other. If you open your Bibles to Colossians three you will see that is the context, encouragement for Christians to forgive each other, to put up with each other’s weaknesses, to live at peace. But when our sinful natures are ruling in the throne room of our hearts our pride will stop us from doing that. We’ll only see other’s weaknesses not our own, other’s sins, not our own. Yes, we are capable of being just as mean spirited and selfish as the unbelievers in our country.

          But we don’t have to be. Christ can rule in our hearts and God has graciously given us a way to answer our own prayer. “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” Just as a farmer who prays to God for good crops also plants seed, fertilizes and waters knowing these are things he can do but only God can make it grow Christians who are serious about Christ ruling in their hearts use God’s word regularly. Let the Word of Christ dwell in your richly. Richly. How’s your daily Bible reading or devotion time going? Richly or poorly? Do you still try to memorize some passages or is all that hard work from Lutheran school, Sunday school and Confirmation class squandered, wasted away? How can the word dwell in us if we don’t have it in our head so it can sink down to our hearts? Where the word of Christ is Christ rules. God’s kingdom exists. And then it will show on the outside. “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” What a wonderful world it would be if all people did this. But it starts with us. We pray for God’s kingdom to come to us and we show we mean it by devoting ourselves to Christ’s word.

          The Second Petition, “Your Kingdom Come” has also been called “the Mission Petition.” What’s meant by that is our love for other people leads us to think about them and want them to know Christ and be saved. I have question for you and I want you to think about it seriously and to answer it truthfully in your heart. Do you believe that people who die without faith in Jesus suffer an eternity in Hell? I’m not being flip here. We all know what the Bible says, “Whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” That’s what God says. Do you believe it? If so does it show? Just like we can’t make faith grow in our hearts but we can devote ourselves to the word of Christ and use Baptism, the same is true for others. We can’t bring people to faith ourselves but we can get them the word and sacraments. When you pray the Lord’s prayer ask God to get His word to others. Consider if God might use your words, your abilities, your money to make that happen.

          What a wonderful world this would be if more and more people had the peace of Christ ruling their hearts, what a wonderful country this would be. No, the United States is not the kingdom of God. Yes, we do have to be careful that we don’t get sidetracked into thinking it is and that our main work as the Church or as Christians is to change laws and force other Americans to live God’s morality. Our main task in the kingdom of God is proclaiming as Savior. At the same time we do love our country. As we celebrate another Independence Day, another birthday of America as members of God’s kingdom with the peace of Christ ruling in our hearts let’s keep our country in our prayers. Let’s strive to be a blessing to it even if it’s not exactly what we hope it to be. This is not new for citizens of the kingdom of God. When God’s people found themselves in a foreign country he told them through the prophet Jeremiah, “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”  To the Christians in Rome under a very evil government God said, “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.”

          No, this won’t change our country into the kingdom of God. No Jesus is not going to come back and set up an earthly kingdom. There is no heaven on earth. But there is a heaven in heaven. Someday that kingdom will come and by God’s grace we will be a part of it. Amen.