July 25-27, 2020 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23 BE A BLESSING TO YOUR NATION!

PENTECOST 8

July 25-27, 2020

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23

BE A BLESSING TO YOUR NATION!

1.     Be the good ground.

2.     Sow the seed.

Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23 (EHV) “That same day Jesus left the house and was sitting by the sea. ²A large crowd gathered around him. So he stepped into a boat and sat down, while all the people stood on the shore. ³He told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen, a sower went out to sow. ⁴As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it. ⁵Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. Immediately the seed sprang up, because the soil was not deep. ⁶But when the sun rose, the seed was scorched. Because it had no root, it withered away. ⁷Other seed fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and choked it. ⁸But some seed fell on good ground and produced grain: some one hundred times, some sixty, and some thirty times more than was sown. ⁹Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”



          At the beginning of this month we celebrated the 4^th of July, Independence Day. So for the month of July in my online devotions I have been focusing on ways we can be a blessing to our nation. And our nation needs us to be a blessing. So much divisiveness. So much contention and discord. We certainly seem to have lost the ability to disagree nicely. Maybe you have found yourself just clamming up. A little frustrated. I mean, what can we do to make things better? Well, there are lots of things. Maybe go to our website and review my devotions. Today Jesus shows us how we can be a blessing in what is often called the Parable of the Sower and the Seed. Parables were teaching tools Jesus used that made a comparison with something the people would easily identify with to teach a spiritual truth that otherwise might be hard to grasp. Jesus was teaching a large crowd of people and the Parable of the Sower and the seed begins a series of parables Jesus used to help them understand how the kingdom of heaven runs. They had a hard time understanding how Jesus worked and ruled because their point of comparison was earthly kingdoms which worked far differently than the kingdom of God. For our purposes today we see how we can be a blessing to our nation.

          You heard the parable. It is simple. Following best farming practices back then farmers would take a sack or container of seed, go out to their fields and spread it by hand. As they walked through fields that did not have the advantage of machine cultivation the seed would fall sometimes on a hard beaten path, no chance to take root. Sometimes on rocky soil so no chance to thrive. Sometimes among thorns that choked out the good plant. Sometimes on good ground where it grew and produced a harvest.

          Often when Jesus tells a parable you have to look for the main point of comparison yourself but not here. He explains the parable for us. “So listen carefully to the parable of the sower. ¹⁹When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the Evil One comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the seed that was sown along the path. ²⁰The seed that was sown on rocky ground is the person who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, ²¹yet he is not deeply rooted and does not endure. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away. ²²The seed that was sown among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but the worry of this world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it produces no fruit. ²³But the seed that was sown on the good ground is the one who continues to hear and understand the word. Indeed he continues to produce fruit: some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty times more than was sown.”

          Well there you have it! The parable is designed to teach about how the Kingdom of God works in this world. It spreads through God’s word. Someone sows the seed, teaches God’s word. Some people don’t grasp or value the word and faith never happens. The path. Some hear word and believe with joy but don’t want to take up the cross and follow Jesus, so faith dies. Rocky soil. Some take in the word but either thorns of worry fill their heart and choke away their faith or they value worldly wealth more than their faith and there is no fruit so in the end no faith. And then there is the good ground that eats up the word more and more and so there are more and more fruits of faith.
          Now what does this have to do with being a blessing to our nation? First, it compels us to be the good ground. Being the good ground does not mean working harder and harder to do what is right. It means making more and more time for the word. What did Jesus say? “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.” And the seed that was sown on the good ground is the one who continues to hear and understand the word.” The ability to produce fruit, do good work, to be a blessing to our nation, is directly tied to continuing to hear and get understanding of the word. God takes care of the rest. The Holy Spirit does the heart changing and value changing. I ask you to take this one simple test. How are you feeling about the future? Angry? Bitter? Scared? Pessimistic? Or calm, peaceful happy, optimistic? Now think back. What have you been continuing to hear? More and more of the word or more and more of the news? “He who has ears to hear the Word, let him hear,” said Jesus. The Good News, not the evening news. The good news of the God who loves people so much He gives His one and only Son. The good news of the God who takes impossible situations like sinners who have doomed themselves to Hell and comes up with a plan to save them through the substitute of His Son. That God is in control. That God is the reason to have peace. That God is why we do not need to fear. That God is why we get to be optimistic. And people whose hearts are for God are at peace, optimistic, happy, trusting and are a blessing to their nation. They don’t sow discord, hold on to bitterness or lash out with angry words. They pull people toward Jesus.

          That reminds us of the second way this parable shows us we can be a blessing to our nation. Sow the seed. That’s the picture. With the large crowds that gathered around Jesus were His disciples, the one who would be in charge of the preaching and teaching of God’s Word after Jesus ascended. There was a lesson for them about how the kingdom of God works and what their responsibility was -- and wasn’t. Later they could identify with the farmer. What was the job of the farmer? Sow the seed. Did he try to figure out what soil was best? No, he sowed the seed. Did he go back with regret and try to pick up seed from the path or rocky ground? No! He sowed the seed. Later Jesus would tell them a parable about making judgments on whether someone was a weed or grain and not to do that. Their job was simple, sow the seed. Nothing else was their job.

          This is where we come in today. Sow the seed. Share God’s word. Do that personally where you can in your own sphere of influence, family, friends, co workers, neighbors, blog followers. You are here with a purpose, to be witnesses for Jesus. Sow the seed, Share the word through your church and schools and synod. Pray and support us. We don’t have to try to figure out who would be a good one to share it with. We simply need to share it. Now you might think what good does it do? People won’t listen to me. Or what about when we teach kids God’s word in our school and then shortly after Confirmation or graduation don’t see them again? So? Was that our job? To make sure they believe, listen, continue? Sow the seed. Or you may think what good does it do? I taught my kids and where are they now? So?  Sow the seed. Or maybe in your judgment the nation is just too far gone away from Christianity. So? Sow the seed!

          Did you follow the whole parable? Some will listen. Some will bear fruit, 30, 60, a hundred times. What a blessing for our nation when more and more hearts are changed by Christ’s love to love as we do! Someone sowed the seed in us. We are bearing fruit. It works the same way with other people. How different does America look with more and more believers in it? And you may sow the seed to someone the Lord will use to turn things around. Or that person might or that person. God makes the plans, not us. What did He say? Sow the seed.

          Here’s another parable. A farmer stayed in his house and sowed no seed. None fell on the path. None fell on rocky soil. None fell among thorns. And none fell on good ground. And so nothing good happened. Brothers and sisters, God has granted to us the ability to be a blessing to our nation. He who has ears to hear, let him hear! Amen.

July 18-20, 2020 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Romans 7:15-25a (EHV) “BLESSED WITH REST!”

PENTECOST 7

July 18-20, 2020

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Romans  7:15-25a (EHV)

“BLESSED WITH REST!”

1.     There is no rest without work.

2.     There is no rest without Christ.

Romans 7:15-25a (EHV) “For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not keep doing what I want. Instead, I do what I hate. ¹⁶And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷But now it is no longer I who am doing it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸Indeed, I know that good does not live in me, that is, in my sinful flesh. The desire to do good is present with me, but I am not able to carry it out. ¹⁹So I fail to do the good I want to do. Instead, the evil I do not want to do, that is what I keep doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who am doing it, but it is sin living in me. ²¹So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is present with me. ²²I certainly delight in God’s law according to my inner self, ²³but I see a different law at work in my members, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me captive to the law of sin, which is present in my members. ²⁴What a miserable wretch I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”



          Rest is something all people long for. You can only go so long in a day until your body grows tired. It wants rest. You can only push your mind so far in learning before it gets tired. It wants rest. Emotionally there is only so much stress or heartache you can deal with before you need rest. There is a reason people long for rest. It is a need that God built into us. If you want to right now or at home use a Bible search program and you will find over 500 times where God talks about rest. It is a need all people have. Now, you know God. When people have a need, a legitimate need, what is He going to do? Provide it! He wants His people Blessed with Rest!

          Certainly we see the Apostle Paul proclaim that truth as he wrote to the Christians in Rome. Although at first hearing or reading Romans 7:15-25 does not sound like Paul was getting a lot of rest, does it? He describes a great, spiritually painful, ongoing struggle. It’s a struggle against sin. His frustration is evident. “For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not keep doing what I want. Instead, I do what I hate.” His angst is clear. “Indeed, I know that good does not live in me, that is, in my sinful flesh. The desire to do good is present with me, but I am not able to carry it out. ¹⁹So I fail to do the good I want to do. Instead, the evil I do not want to do, that is what I keep doing.” You can tell how tired he felt. “So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is present with me. ²²I certainly delight in God’s law according to my inner self, ²³but I see a different law at work in my members, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me captive to the law of sin, which is present in my members. ²⁴What a miserable wretch I am!”

          What he needed was rest. And first of all let’s acknowledge a truth. There is no rest without work. You know how that goes. When you are working all the time, when the day is one meeting after another, one patient after another, one service call after another, you long to be done. You want rest. After a long hard day of sitting around at home and doing nothing it is not rest you want but something to do! Only the work points out the need for rest. Now here is where it is really important that we understand the kind of work Paul was doing, that you and I must do and why it is important. First make sure you understand that the struggle against sin that is vital for every believers is not the struggle to get to heaven. It is not a struggle to please God enough so that you are worthy of heaven. To do that you would have to be perfect and Paul plainly spelled out in the first part of his letter to the Romans that we are righteous apart from the law, apart from what we do.

          So why do all the work of fighting against sin? Since Jesus’ death paid off the debt of my sin what does it matter if I sin or not? And since God’s free forgiveness in Jesus shows how kind and gracious He is why not make Him look even kinder and more gracious by sinning as much as I can? Why do the hard work of struggling against sin. Working to resist temptation first of all is evidence of faith. Faith takes God at His word. When God says something is wrong and we are to detest or hate it only when faith is present will sin be detestable. Secondly working to resist temptation shows love for Jesus.” If you love me obey my commandments,” Jesus said. Not, “in order to get to heaven,” not “to earn blessings,” but “if you love me.” Only with faith in Jesus will we love Him. Thirdly, it shows you value Jesus’ sacrifice. When people say sins don’t matter they are in effect saying Jesus’ sacrifice was a waste. When believers fight against sin in their lives we are saying we understand the great debt each of our sins incurred.

          This is why we work to fight sin. And it is work. To be alone with your computer and the temptation to look at porn comes, to resist is work. To hold your tongue in an emotional discussion takes work. To respond to angry words with kindness is not easy. It’s hard work. To prioritize God’s word and worship when our society has so many things to easily distract us takes work. To keep up a daily habit of prayer and devotion—you got it. Work! To speak up and defend someone getting defamed, work. Work. Work. Work. It’s all work. And then you fail. You resist for so long and you give in. You don’t do the good you wanted to do, no the evil thing you were fighting so hard to resist, that’s what you do!

Failure. Loser. Paul’s words. “What a miserable wretch I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Rest! That’s what you long for. Not rest from seeking to please Jesus. That’s what you live for. Rest from the guilt of failure. Rest from disappointing your Lord and yourself. Rest from the Devil’s voice accusing you, reminding you what a miserable wretch you are. “And you call yourself a Christian!”

Rest is what you need. And rest is what God provides! “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Such simple words. They take the sinners eyes back where they belong, on to Jesus. There is no rest without Christ. God said that before. While many Christians have teased others physically tired Christians by quoting the passage, “There is no rest for the wicked, you sure must be wicked,” the Bible’s definition of a wicked person is someone who rejects their Savior, someone who tries to get right with God apart from Jesus. God speaks clearly on this. To be righteous on your own by what you do you must be perfect. That is impossible. God found another way. He sent Jesus who lived perfectly and everyone who believes in Jesus is counted by God as righteous, holy, perfect. Everyone who rejects Jesus stays imperfect. There is no rest without Christ.

But there is such beautiful rest with Him! You heard His invitation, “Come to me. I will give you rest.” Let’s take that struggle with sin. When you were a child say 3 or 4 years old did you ever help Dad with a chore, maybe moving a heavy piece of furniture or something like that? You did it because you loved Dad and wanted to be like Dad and desired his approval. Maybe he groaned and huffed and then when you helped all of the sudden the heavy box lifted. You know now Dad did all the real work. Jesus has done all the real work in defeating sin. Your work to fight sin isn’t taking care of it all. It has that different purpose: you love Jesus and want His approval. He’s made you perfect in God’s eyes. And there is more rest. Your guilt, your shame, your feeling like a failure when you fall? Jesus has forgiven you already. You may be fighting the same temptation your whole life. Jesus will be with you your whole life. With God’s help you may kick a certain sin. Awesome! Give God the glory! Another sin will try to take its place. Jesus’ forgiveness covers that too. Rest in Christ comes when we look at what He has done, not what we have done.

And one day that rest that is so temporary here on earth will change into the Sabbath rest of heaven, the kind pictured by God on the 7^th Day when He rested, not because He was tired, but because of a job well done. Keep working, keep struggling, but most importantly, keep your eyes on Jesus who has blessed you with rest for your earthly life and one day will welcome you home with the phrase we all can’t wait to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Come and enjoy your Master’s happiness. Blessed with Rest! Amen.