Monday, November 14, 2022

Nov. 12-14, 2022 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: 2 Thessalonians 1:3-10 “FEELING LIKE YOU DON’T FIT IN?”

 

LAST JUDGMENT

Nov. 12-14, 2022

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: 2 Thessalonians 1:3-10

 

FEELING LIKE YOU DON’T FIT IN?”

1.     Good! It’s a sign your faith is real and growing!

2.     Good! Just wait!

 

2 Thessalonians 1:3-10 (EHV) “We are always obligated to thank God for you, brothers, as is fitting, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love that each and every one of you has for one another is increasing. So we ourselves boast about you in God’s churches in regard to your patient endurance and faith in all your persecutions and in the trials that you are enduring. This is evidence of God’s righteous verdict that resulted in your being counted worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you also suffer. Certainly, it is right for God to repay trouble to those who trouble you, and to give relief to you, who are troubled along with us. When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his powerful angels, he will exercise vengeance in flaming fire on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. Such people will receive a just penalty: eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from his glorious strength, 10 on that day when he comes to be glorified among his saints, and to be marveled at among all those who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.”

 

          So how you feeling about things these days? Do you feel like you belong in your community, state, nation? Are you fitting in? Let’s do a little history review. Some of you grew up at a time when the moral values summarized by the 10 Commandments were held by the majority of Americans. Yes, there was the Roe V Wade thing in the 70’s but overall, law and order was the rule. Most marriages lasted. People backed the police. And parents believed their children’s teachers. Christians fit in. Over time that has eroded. Polls (are you sick of them yet?) polls show more new couples are choosing to live together without being married than are getting married. When most states passed amendments defining marriage as between one man and one they were fairly quickly declared unconstitutional. You may have thought the overturning of Roe V Wade would be a game changer, but it did not change anyone’s hearts. Now we have the whole gender thing to deal with. Apparently, you aren’t supposed to follow the science when the science is biology that clearly shows there are only two genders, male and female. Not that we needed biology to speak. God spoke when He said, “Male and female He created them.” But if you think it’s difficult to figure out what the alphabet soup of LBGQTI+ all means, now you have to figure out what all the other terms mean. One list presented 81 different genders you can choose from. And do you know what furries are? Well, they are people who identify as animals and want to be treated that way even demanding that litter boxes be provided for them in public places. As the kids text: SMH. Shaking my head. Are you fitting in?

          Those are all moral issues. We haven’t talked about what is really important. Jesus. Jesus is God’s Son. The only way to heaven. Only He saves from sin. Only He provides the life of perfection needed to enter heaven. Reject what Jesus has freely done for you and you condemn yourself to Hell. While roughly 70% of Americans believe there is a heaven and surprisingly to me about 60% believe there is a Hell most don’t think Jesus has anything to do with you being there or not. Most say the really, really bad go to hell and most others heaven, if there is one. It’s this marginalizing of Jesus, this Devil trick of removing Him from conversation that gets us most upset. Are you feeling like you don’t fit in?

          Good! It’s a sign your faith is real and growing. Listen to what God had Paul write to the Thessalonian Christians. These were mostly Jewish people who believed Jesus is the Messiah. But because of that the Jews in town who did not believe that persecuted them and made their lives miserable. You can imagine how unfair that felt. How it hurt to not fit in anymore. But God made sure they heard this. “We are always obligated to thank God for you, brothers, as is fitting, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love that each and every one of you has for one another is increasing. So we ourselves boast about you in God’s churches in regard to your patient endurance and faith in all your persecutions and in the trials that you are enduring. This is evidence of God’s righteous verdict that resulted in your being counted worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you also suffer.” Brothers and sisters, nothing new under the sun. This chafing that you feel, this almost daily shaking your head at what’s happening now, is actually good. It’s a sign your faith is real. God has judged you to be worthy of His kingdom. Not that you earned it. Jesus gave it to you, but you are living and thinking the way a believer in Jesus does, bothered by what is evil. Clinging to what is good. Trusting Jesus, Jesus, only Jesus for your salvation. As it becomes harder to be a Christian your faith grows. As it becomes harder to be a Christian our love and appreciation for each other grows. We need to encourage and be encouraged. Are you feeling like you’re not fitting in? Good! It’s a sign your faith is real and growing.

          What would be bad is if you feel like you fit in. If deChristianizing and eroding morals don’t bother you, your faith is dying and may not be real. Young people, I want to address you especially. You face a lot more pressure than grandma or grandpa did. You will have times when you will be called unloving for sticking up for Jesus as the only way to heaven. You will be called a hater if you stick to what God says about who is male and female and how they should act and what marriage is and isn’t and the right and wrong ways for God’s gift of sex. You are going to want to fit in. Don’t do it. Stick to the faith as you are taught. Because at times like these it’s only when you’re feeling like you’re not fitting in that your faith is real and growing.

          And then, just wait! Don’t give into frustration. It’s easy to get angry when you get mistreated or treated unfairly because of your faith in Jesus. It’s easy to be angry when more and more Americans, some your own family members, drift away from Jesus. And I can tell you your anger is right and justified. On this Veterans’ Day weekend when we gratefully remember the sacrifices of those who serve to keep us free think of how a veteran’s family feels when people disrespect the military. On a much larger scale God is angered when people speak and act as though the sacrifice Jesus made is unnecessary.  God is angry when people use His love, patience and grace and permission to sin. God is angry when people defy what He made them to be and claim the right to be their own god and make their own rules. We should be angry about what God is angry at. But remember what He said, “In your anger, do not sin.” Don’t take matters into your own hands like those who bombed abortion clinics did. Don’t let your anger turn you into an actual hater who speaks or posts venom. Don’t get frustrated with God. His allowance of this mess does not mean He does not care. He does!

          Just wait! “Certainly, it is right for God to repay trouble to those who trouble you, and to give relief to you, who are troubled along with us. When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his powerful angels, he will exercise vengeance in flaming fire on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. Such people will receive a just penalty: eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from his glorious strength, 10 on that day when he comes to be glorified among his saints, and to be marveled at among all those who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.” We are coming close to the anniversary of the horrible Waukesha Christmas parade tragedy where a man’s actions caused the death of six people and injured scores more. People had to wait for justice to be done. But it was done. So too, brothers and sisters, God will take care of anyone who has mistreated you for the sake of your faith. On that day we will marvel while others will receive what they earned by rejecting God.

          So, are you feeling like you don’t fit in in your country, community, society, workplace? Good. Because it means you do fit in where it matters most. Heaven. Wait for it! Amen.

 

Monday, November 7, 2022

November 12-14, 2022 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Hebrews 11:32-40 “TOGETHER WITH US!”

 

SAINTS TRIUMPHANT

November 12-14, 2022

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Hebrews 11:32-40

 

“TOGETHER WITH US!”

1.     Saints have triumphs and trials.

2.     Saints get what’s better.

 

          It does not seem to me to be as popular as it once was, but it is still a part of American culture. I’m talking about trading cards. America’s heroes. Baseball cards are still probably the gold standard but many do football, basketball and yes, Pokemon and other fantasy games. Hey, we even got into it here at Jacobi. Look in your bulletin for information on your Jacobi pastor and principal cards and how to use them. I can already imagine it. “I’ll give you 2 signed Spaudes for a Waldschmidt. Are you nuts? You can’t tell whose chicken scratch that is!” Did you know you can get Bible hero trading cards? Might be a good way to review your Bible stories. The word of God before us does that too. It comes from Hebrews 11, the “Heroes of Faith” chapter of the Bible. Check out the names of our heroes. What it reveals to us about them comforts and encourages us as once again we celebrate the All Saints portion of the church year. Remember saints are people who God declares righteous through faith in Christ Jesus. The Saints Triumphant are the ones in heaven. The Saints Militant are us, still stuck in the sin filled world. And God makes it clear that in His plan He wants all of us together.

          Together with us saints have triumphs and trials. Prior to our reading the writer had drawn attention to saints named Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Rahab. An then he wrote this. And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35Women received back their dead, raised to life again.” Wow! Remember the triumphs! Gideon with 300 men defeating the Midianite army. Samson and his great strength defeating the Philistines. David and Goliath. Daniel in the Lions’ Den. Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and the fiery furnace. The widow of Nain whose son was raised back from the dead. The saints of the past had triumphs.

          And trials. “Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37They were stoned ; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-- 38the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.” Suddenly being a saint does not look so cool any more. Jeremiah put in prison. The Apostles flogged. Stephen and Paul stoned. Tradition says it was the prophet Isaiah who was placed inside a hollowed out tree and sawed in two. That’s not pretty. But it is real. God’s saints have had trials even leading to their deaths.

          Together with us saints have triumphs and trial. I don’t know Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel but I do know other saints in heaven personally. So do you. For many of us that’s mom or dad. For some it is son or daughter, childhood friend or niece. Time seems to help us forget their whole package. We remember them fondly. But actually they had both triumphs and trials. They had times in their life that they were great examples of faith and times where they stumbled. Maybe they didn’t defeat nations but they fought for God’s truth in their own church and prevailed. Maybe they held the family together in tough times. Maybe their love for Christ moved them to sacrifice for you so you could have Christ in your education. Maybe they also had a drinking problem. Maybe anger led them to sin. Maybe they were not literally sawn in two but maybe you know how they agonized over some past sin and it had their guts tied in a knot in shame and guilt until the Lord released them from sin for good at their death. They had triumphs and trials together with us. And that’s where Gods’ word encourages us. You too will have times of great spiritual triumph. You and the church will triumph. Things will go well for us. And you will have trials. Things won’t go well. That’s OK. You are not alone. All the other saints went through similar things. You are not alone. God is with you, watching and guiding all things with His love. Together with us saints have triumphs and trials.

          And together with us saints get what’s better. “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” The saints, the believers of the past lived by faith. They believed what they did not see. They did not receive what had been promised. The Savior. Jesus did not come in their lifetimes. So they fought and they triumphed. They fought and they failed and never saw the Promised Savior come. Just like the saints you know personally, mom and dad and all the rest, fought their good fights of faith, had triumphs and trials and did not live to see Jesus come the second time. Why not? Because God has something better in mind for them and us. Together with us all saints will get what’s better.

          And what is that? An eternity together, with Jesus, and with them. The reward in heaven Jesus promised in the Gospel lesson. The new heaven and the new earth. Sin has royally messed up everything. Bodies break down, get cancers, vision goes, hearing goes. Minds slip. Dementia assails. Relationships suffer. People hate. Kids are mean. Spouses acted selfishly not selflessly. Kids rebel. Parents don’t care. There’s a lot of hurt you experience in life. Species God created have gone extinct. The world winds down. God’s solution is a Savior Jesus. He sends Him not to restore this broken world but to save people from it and for something better. What is it going to be like to have a new heaven and a new earth? If we enjoy the company of our pets now, what will it be like when the lion lies down with the lamb? If we enjoy the warmth of the sun on our face on warm fall day, what will it be like when we need no sun because we are in the glory of God Himself? When God tells us that he has something better planned what He is really saying is something perfect and did you hear what He said? Only together with us.

          Together with us. All saints. If there is ever an emphasis of the church year that brings truth to us in a way that digs deep into our emotions it is today. If you ever wonder whether your faith is worth it, all the time devoting to God’s Word, coming to worship Jesus, fighting against sin, feeling like the outsider; if you ever wonder whether whole hearted and full walleted support for the work of your church is worth it, if you ever wonder whether it’s worth it to witness for Jesus in your personal life or if devoting your life to full time church work matters, it is today. All saints. We may have to be separated for a time but not for an eternity. “Only together withs us” says the Lord. Who jumps from your heart to your mind. Who are you missing? Look ahead. Together with us. God has planned what’s better. Today we recognize with thanksgiving to God those associated with our church family who were transferred from the church militant to the church triumphant since last we gathered for this observance.

 

Barnard Nowak, Eddie Rivera, Marilyn Kloke, Gary Blahnik, David Mierendorf, Donald Doepke, Gary Anderson, Ryan Jeske, Joyce Hertig, LaVerne Denlinger, Louis Dominguez, Arlene Barber, Laurell Nommensen, Kenneth Price, George Schaser, Shirley Witt.

 

Together with us. Amen.