MIDWEEK ADVENT 3           December 17, 2025         Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Luke1:67-79 (EHV)

 

GIFTS FOR US TO BRING THE COMING SAVIOR:     A Praising Mouth

 

          “Do you pray with that mouth?” I hope I don’t in any way diminish your respect for the men who have served you as pastors here and elsewhere. As you already know, pastors are just people and like all people are sinners. And young men in college who are studying to become pastors aren’t necessarily spiritually mature when they start their 8 year journey. They come from various backgrounds and live in the same society you do. So, like happens with you, some of society’s sins become part of their lives too. That was true when I started college and I’m sure it is still true today. One of those bad sinful habits of our society that sometimes get picked up by God’s people is what I call a potty mouth. A mouth that spouts the four letter words. A mouth that uses the foulest and most vulgar words to describe body parts and body functions rather than the cleanest ones. And here is the big reveal, the shocker. Some boys hoping to become pastors but not yet pastors, use them too. When I was in school, we had a way of helping each other get better. If someone slipped and said “offensive to God words” someone else would say, “Hey, do you pray with that mouth?”

          That’s a good reminder for all of us. God listens to everything that comes out of our mouths and He cares what comes out of our mouths. He does not want the mouth that He has given us to eat food with enjoyment and to communicate with others used to spout profanities and vulgarities. And in fact, there is something we can do with our mouths that brings joy to Jesus. It can be another gift for us to bring for our Savior. In addition to the two we have already talked about, a trusting heart and a humble spirit, we can bring a praising mouth.

          To learn about that we turn to a veteran pastor, one who should have been spiritually mature but wasn’t. The priest Zechariah. He and his wife Elizabeth had prayed for a child but so far God had said, “Not yet.” One day when Zechariah was serving in the Temple the angel Gabriel appeared to him and said he and Elizabeth would have a child, a special child, the one we know as John the Baptist who would prepare the way for Jesus. Instead of saying, “Wow! Thank you! This is awesome news! I can’t wait to tell my wife,” Zechariah chose to doubt God’s messenger. He used his mouth to express that doubt. To help him learn to trust God, Gabriel told Zechariah he would not be able to speak until his son was born.

          Then, of course, everything happened just as God had announced and once his son was born and following the Lord’s command Zechariah named him John, Zechariah was able to speak again. What would he use his mouth for? To defend himself and his bad decision? To correct all the misunderstandings that had happened between him and Elizabeth up until this time? No, he used it instead, to praise.

 

^“ Blessed is the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has visited us and prepared redemption for his people. ⁶⁹ He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, ⁷⁰ just as he said long ago through the mouth of his holy prophets. ⁷¹ He raised up salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, ⁷  in order to show mercy to our fathers by remembering his holy covenant, ⁷³ the oath which he swore to Abraham our father, ⁷⁴ to grant deliverance to us from the hand of our enemies, so that we are able to serve him without fear, ⁷⁵ in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

Two things jump out us. Why Zechariah praised and how he praised. Why did Zechariah praise? He knew he had received grace and mercy from God. Two words in the Bible that are very close in meaning but slightly different are mercy and grace. If you have to split them, grace is the love of God that moves Him to give us gifts we don’t deserve and cannot earn. Mercy is the compassion of God that moves Him to free us from the punishment we’ve earned for ourselves. God gave Zechariah mercy when he allowed him to talk again. God gave Zechariah grace by giving him and Elizabeth a child.

 

GIFTS FOR US TO BRING THE COMING SAVIOR:     A Praising Mouth

 

How did Zechariah praise? Praise tells others the great things God has done. Look at all the great things God has done that Zechariah highlights. He praises God for redemption. He praises God for salvation. He praises God for keeping His word. He praises God for His mercy. He praises God for allowing people to live without fear, rather serving God because they want to in righteousness and holiness. Zechariah’s gift to the Christchild? A praising mouth.

Like Zechariah we have received grace and mercy from God. God made Zechariah unable to speak when he used his mouth to doubt God. What has God done to you and me for the times words have come out that should not have? Did God give you your mouth to gossip, to tear others down? Did God give you your mouth so you could talk like and fit in with the unbelievers in our country? Do you pray with mouth? What God gave us is mercy. He has not given us the punishment we have earned. Instead we have received grace, the gift of a Savior and free forgiveness for all our mouth sins and every other one.

That puts us in the same position Zechariah found himself in, able to bring our Savior the gift that he wants. It seems to me that gift giving in our country has changed quite a bit. When you read the stories of what life was like in America in the 1900s, especially at the beginning of that century but still somewhat toward the end, a lot of gift giving was based on needs. Socks and undies were appreciated gifts. A warm coat or new dress also appreciated. We live in more affluent times so many people in our lives truly have everything they need and more. Gift giving shifts to giving something they want. What do you give to the Savior, Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords who has everything? Something only you can give. Your praising mouths. If we put our heart into it, every word we say or sing in every worship service is something Jesus wants. It’s coming from a praising mouth. Every “Thank you Jesus,” that we let slip when we recognize God’s help with anything in our lives is a gift from us Jesus wants. Every time we get a chance to tell others of the hope and help we have because of Jesus is a gift that Jesus wants and other people need. Do you praise with that mouth? Absolutely I do, and so do you! Amen.

December 6-8, 2025 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Matthew 3:1-12 (EHV) “A TALE OF TWO…”

 

ADVENT 2

December 6-8, 2025

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Matthew 3:1-12 (EHV)

 

“A TALE OF TWO…”

1.     Sinners.

2.     Servants.

 

Chances are that if you hear the name Charles Dickens this time of year your mind automatically jumps to his book made into musical and movie, “A Christmas Carol.” It probably does not think of another one of his famous books, “A Tale of Two Cities.” And that’s OK because neither of the those books has anything to do with what we need to talk about today other than his book title provides a framework for what we heard in the Gospel lesson from Matthew and what we need to focus on in our Advent worship. It is a tale, a true tale, of two types of sinners and two kinds of servants.

The Church Year season of Advent is designed to help Christians examine themselves to see that they are living their lives prepared for Jesus to Advent. Last week Pastor Langebartels reminded us that Advent comes from the Latin word Advenit meaning “He comes” or “He is coming!” Jesus is. Open your Bibles to the last chapter of the last book, Revelation, and you will see that as the final thought God leaves you with. Jesus is coming soon and what better way to prepare for Him to come the second time as King than to look at how God prepared people for Jesus to come the first time as Savior. And who better to teach us how to be ready than the one God Himself picked to prepare people the first time, John the Baptist. You heard about him in the Gospel lesson.

This was his message: “In those days, John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, 2“Repent, because the kingdom of heaven is near!” And this is who heard it: “Then Jerusalem, all of Judea, and all the region around the Jordan were going out to him. 6They were baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins. 7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8Therefore produce fruit in keeping with repentance! 9Do not think of saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. 10Already the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

There we see it, a tale, a true tale, of two types of sinners who came out to see John. There were sincerely sorrowful sinners and spiritually smug sinners. What were the sincerely sorrowful sinners like? They heard John’s message to repent and knew he was talking to them. Repenting is a peculiar to the Bible term these days. Literally translated it means to have a complete change of mind about sin and what to do with it. Practically speaking it means taking ownership of your sins without minimizing or excusing, feeling shame and remorse over sin, realizing only Jesus fixes sin through forgiveness and the striving to turn away from future sinning. That’s what the sincerely sorrowful sinners did. They confessed, owned their sin and received John’s baptism for the forgiveness of sins. In another Gospel account they asked John what they should do to show their repentance.

How about the spiritually smug? What were they like? John’s words exposed their hearts. They were coming for baptism but they didn’t think they needed forgiveness. They figured they were saved by who they were, offspring of Abraham. John revealed they were really offsping of a viper. A viper is a snake. With these words John revealed that the Pharisees and Sadducees were the offspring of Satan identified in Genesis 3 as those who would be hostile to the offspring of Eve, Jesus. Their repentance was fake, looked good on the outside but rotten on the inside. “We do our duty. We are good with God and God is lucky to have us sticking up for him.” Spiritually smug.

A tale of two sinners, the sincerely sorrowful or the spiritually smug. Which one are you? Now remember this is self-examination time, not think of somebody else time. People like me, who have had the blessing of growing up knowing the grace and goodness of God are at risk. We can become spiritually smug. Here’s the sign, look good on the outside, rotten on the inside. A professional church goer. Show up to do our duty but the rest of the week act like God does not exist. No word time. No prayer time. No thinking of God time. Sing God’s praises in worship, curse like a sailor and tear others down the rest of the week. Confess to being a poor miserable sinner in church but gritch and complain about any injustice we have to face like we deserve good and not punishment from God. And the sins that really bother us are other people’s sins. Not our own. “God I thank Thee that I am not like other people…” The Lord knows. The axe is at the roots. The fire is stoked.

How much better to be the sincerely sorrowful sinner! No prodding needed. The sincerely sorrowful already know. Might put up a bold face in front of others but already know God already knows. Baptism and worship and Communion are never for show. Needed and comforting Good News from God. “You are mine. I have forgiven you. Let’s work on getting you better.” Acts of contrition don’t need to be prescribed. They flow freely from heart that is desperate to show, “I’m thankful, Lord Jesus.” The Gospel lesson presents us with a tale of two sinners. Only one is ready for the Advent of Jesus. Which one am I?

But look again and we also see a tale of two servants. John the Baptist was one of the servants. What was he like? “Yes, this is he of whom this was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: A voice of one crying out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.” 4John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.” John didn’t care much about fitting in with his society. His different clothing, different diet and different place to live made it clear he was one of God’s prophets. He took the attention people gave Him and redirected it where it belonged, on Jesus! “I baptize you with water for repentance. But the one who comes after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Jesus is the second servant. He is the one who did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom to pay for the sins of the world. Jesus served perfectly. He obeyed perfectly. He suffered for sin perfectly. He is the Servant.

Now, obviously as we try to see ourselves in God’s word, none of us can be Jesus, the Servant. We can however be like John the Baptist, a servant of the Servant. What jumps out at me about John is how he knew his place and he knew his purpose. John did not try to be more than he was. He did not make everything going on around him about him. It was about Jesus. John was the Forerunner, the preparer of the way. He was not the Way. He knew it and lived it. He knew his place. And he knew his purpose. Point to Jesus. Connect people to Jesus. Uphold Jesus.

You and I can serve this way too. Do you want to show thanks to the Savior who came the first time to win your forgiveness? Know your place. Know your purpose. When we know our place and stop acting or talking like everything is all about us, making ourselves the center of attention, the victim of any injustice, the innocent party in any fractured relationship, people will actually start to listen to us. Then with eyes and ears open we will find opportunities to redirect attention placed on us to put it on Jesus. Inquires about our health, a chance to say, I trust Jesus. Moral question. What do you believe about…? A chance to acknowledge we are a nation of sinners who need Jesus. Servants of the Servant. That’s what John teaches us to be. And as we, like him, keep our eyes on Jesus, not only will we be ready for Jesus to come for us, we’ll help others do the same. Happy Advent! Amen.

November 26-27, 2025 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Genesis 8:18-22 EHV “GOD’S THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION: “I KEEP MY PROMISES!”

 

THANKSGIVING

November 26-27, 2025

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Genesis 8:18-22 EHV

 

“GOD’S THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION: “I KEEP MY PROMISES!”    

 

          So, how much of the bulletin do you actually read? There’s this old church saying that if you want to keep something secret, put it in the bulletin. Top secret? Put it in the newsletter! Now I’m not chiding you about your reading habits but I do want to suggest that when you have the chance that you do read this service’s bulletin in full, in in particular the different Thanksgiving proclamations made by our nation’s leaders in the past. The United States is a peculiar nation in many respects. Some good. Some bad. But among the good I would have to list how our early leaders, at least publicly, gave God his due. For instance, from the 1777 Thanksgiving Proclamation made by the Continental Congress:

 

For as much as it is the indispensable Duty of all Men to adore the superintending Providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with Gratitude their Obligation to him for Benefits received, and to implore such farther Blessings as they stand in Need of:

 

Then from President George Washington in 1789:

 

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor,

 

And finally from President Abraham Lincoln in 1863:

 

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

 

To me those are some powerful Thanksgiving proclamations. They humbly acknowledge God dependence and every blessing an undeserved gift. But as powerful as those Thanksgiving proclamations are, today we focus on a more powerful, yes, the most powerful proclamation. The one made by God Himself. The one that makes our ongoing Thanksgvings possible. Not every country celebrates a national Thanksgiving Day. We do and its placement in our calendar is not by accident. It comes at a time when across the nation, harvest has happened.

And our harvests only happen because of God’s Thanksgiving Proclamation made many years ago after the great worldwide flood.

 

In the book of Genesis we are told that after Adam and Eve’s fall into sin the people of the world had gotten more and more wicked. So wicked that to preserve the promise of the Savior God did a reboot. A complete worldwide flood. People in the Milwaukee area learned the power of a little flood this past summer. This one was worldwide. All the creatures that needed land or a place to land and all the people of the world died except those on Noah’s ark. Noah and his family, 8 in all, endured the 40 days and 40 nights of downpouring rain (can you imagine?) and existed for a total of 370 days on the ark. Some people like cruises but that is ridiculous and it was no cruise. It was work. 370 days of bringing food to all the animals watching precious resources dwindle. 370 days of mucking out their pens so the smell didn’t get too bad. 370 days when certainly they doubted their own survival despite the promises of God. And then they settled on Mt. Ararat. And then the test birds didn’t come home. And then God said it was safe to come out. And then the first Thanksgiving Day happened!

          “Noah went out with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives along with him. ¹⁹Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever swarms on the earth went out of the ship, species by species. ²⁰Noah built an altar to the Lord and took from every clean animal and every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. “ (Genesis 8:18-20) True or false? “Noah took just two of every animal on to the ark as God commanded.” FALSE! While God had Noah take two of must kinds of animals, He also had Noah take 7 of the “clean” animals, those that could be eaten and sacrificed. In thanksgiving to God Noah sacrificed only the clean animals. Can you imagine the consequences of an accidental sacrifice? “Shem, I said sacrifice the calf not the cat!” Be a different world we’d live in. No lions or tigers, but still Bears. Oh my!

          Noah’s sacrifice of thanksgiving was pleasing to the Lord. But as is always the case, more important than what people do for God is what God does for His people. ^“The Lord smelled the pleasant aroma. The Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the soil anymore because of man, for the thoughts he forms in his heart are evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike every living thing, as I have done. ²²While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:21-22) Did you pick out God’s powerful proclamation? He made a promise. Until He ends the world on Judgement Day the normal cycles of weather will continue. Day and night. Summer and Winter. Planting and Harvesting Time. Sorry to disappoint all the sci fi and conspiracy fans. Global nuclear winter can’t happen. Deadly meteor strike that makes earth a dead planet. Nope. Not even a zombie apocalypse! Oi! All propositions run smack into the promise of God and fall flat. There is no mother nature or mother earth. There is God and God has made a promise. Planting and harvesting will continue. And God keeps His promises.

          That leads us up to our Thanksgiving. In our country Thanksgiving was carefully planned in an agrarian society to give people a chance, when the hard work was done, to thank God for His provision. For us the people of God in America then each harvest and subsequent Thanksgiving stand as proof. God keeps His promises! Every time harvest happens again, as it does every year, hear the voice of the Lord. “I keep my promises!” Every Thanksgiving we get to celebrate after another harvest, hear God’s voice. “I keep my promises!” Read a little further of the Noah saga and you will find out that every rainbow in the sky you see is another loud visible sign from God “I keep my promises!”

          And how good it is to know this. The Flood happened, the saving of Noah and his family happened because God was keeping His greatest promise, the promise of a Savior from sin. The Savior was promised first in the Garden of Eden and that promise was repeated over and over again in the Old Testament. And then when the time was right God kept that promise. Jesus our Savior was born. Starting next week we will prepare ourselves to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus with the Advent season. We will have a Christmas focused on Christ because we have a God who keeps His promises. And because He kept that most important promise of a Savior we have more promises that Thanksgiving proclaims our God will keep. Look outside, the trees look dead, not quite yet, but soon with the cold, the grass will be dead. But then as the seasons endure as God promised He will bring them back to life. All of us have had loved ones die, their earthly life end. We will miss them at our Thanksgiving table. But God keeps His promises. They live, even though they have physically died. We will too and we will be with them again enjoying the heavenly feast that will make our Thanksgiving feasts and gatherings seem pitiful in comparison. How do we know? God keeps His promises.

          Which brings us full circle to our founding fathers and our own Thanksgiving. Enjoy your turkey or whatever you like to eat. These are blessings from God. Watch some football or take a nap if that is what you like to do. But in all things give thanks to God and let this Thanksgiving and all others fill you with confidence and peace for your future because you belong to the God whose Thanksgiving proclamation declares, “I keep my promises!” Amen.