December 4, 2013 Sermon on Advent Wednesday
Sermon by Pastor Paul G. Eckert
Text - Hebrews 11:11-12

    Our Wednesday Advent series is about hope and families - today
mainly Abraham and Sarah’s family.  But I will also refer to Zechariah
and Elizabeth, and to Mary and Joseph.  I’ll start out, though, by
reading a poem Alexander Pope wrote in 1733.  Here it is:
                  “Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
                    Man never is, but always to be blessed:
                    The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
                    Rests and expatiates in a life to come.”
    Did you understand that?  It isn’t very easy for me to understand,
especially when it says the soul expatiates.  What does that word
mean?  A dictionary I consulted says that it means “you continue to
hope that something will happen, although it seems unlikely.”
     Does that mean that hope has to stay hope because it never will be
fulfilled?  If so, that is not the kind of hope we ‘ll be talking about in
our Wednesday Advent services.  But I will use the opening three
words of that poem in a positive way as my sermon theme, and then
for each part I’ll use one of those three words.  So here is the theme:
HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL
I    HOPE  (11ab)
    1. Hope was needed.
        a) Our sermon text speaks of the family of Sarah and Abraham. 
        b) They had no children, and both were past the age when they
could expect to have children.  Humanly speaking it was past hoping.
    2. Hope was promised from the beginning.
        a) Let’s go back farther than Sarah and Abraham, back to Eve
and Adam.  They had listened to the devil, fallen into sin.  But God in
His grace promised that a Savior would come.  He said, “I will put
enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring
and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
        b) Was there an answer to their sin?  Yes.  God gave hope with
the promise of an offspring to come to defeat the devil for us.
    3. This seemed to be an impossible hope.  (11a)
By faith Abraham, even though he was past age - and Sarah
herself was barren - .
        a) The Savior’s genealogical line was promised through Sarah
and Abraham.  But physically that could not be expected.
        b) Sarah’s conniving didn’t accomplish anything either.  Listen
to this from Genesis 18: “The LORD said, ‘I will surely return to
you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a
son.’”  Sarah laughed at this, and before this already had shown her
weakness by trying to arrange a child by having her husband have a
wrongful relationship with a maidservant.  Can you imagine that?   
    4. Clearly fulfillment of hope had to come from God.   (11ab)
By faith Abraham, even though he was past age - and Sarah
herself was barren - was enabled to become a father because he
considered him faithful who had made the promise. 
        a) Did a virgin birth finally come about in Bethlehem because of
Sarah’s or Abraham’s conniving to have a child?  Clearly not.
        b) Conniving and doubting were finally set aside by Sarah and
Abraham.  Trusting God’s promises replaced that, as our text says:
they “considered him faithful who had made the promise.”  Now
their hope could be a solid hope, not just an expatiating hope.   
        c) God Himself was behind all of this.  The Savior’s advent
would come according to God’s plan and timing.
II    SPRINGS  (11-12)
    1. Hope still was needed.  (11-12)
By faith Abraham, even though he was past age - and Sarah
herself was barren - was enabled to become a father because he
considered him faithful who had made the promise.  And so from
this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as
numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on
the seashore.
        a) Abraham and Sarah had a son, Isaac.  But Isaac was not the
promised Savior.  He was the next in the genealogical line that led up
to the Savior, a long genealogical line.  If interested you can read the
names in Matthew chapter 1 and Luke chapter 3.
        b) For the many years of waiting hope was still needed.
    2. But the promise continued.
        a) We heard of that in our Scripture reading before at the
lectern.  (Luke 1:5-25)
        b) That spoke of John the Baptist when an angel said to
Zechariah, “Your wife will bear you a son, and you are  to give
him the name John.  ---  he will be great in the sight of the Lord.
--- to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
    3. This promise too was met with doubt.
        a) There is a similarity here with Abraham and Sarah.  Zechariah
said, “How can I be sure of this?  I am an old man and my wife is
well along in years.”  That sounds like doubt, not hope, doesn’t it.
        b) Here let’s see a similarity not only between Sarah and
Abraham and Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth.  Let’s look at
ourselves.  Please don’t doubt what God says about sin and its
consequences.  Please don’t doubt God’s promises of forgiveness of
sins because of Jesus.  Please don’t doubt His promise to be with you
also at times when you may feel abandoned.
    4. Instead know that God will spring into action.  (12)
And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came
descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless
as the sand on the seashore.
        a) Isaac was born, continuing the long line to Jesus’ birth.   
        b) John was born, to prepare the way when Jesus came.
        c) God doesn’t just promise.  At His time He springs into action.
III  ETERNAL 
    1. The fullness of time came.
        a) Time continued for Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, and
Isaac, and so on, until God’s chosen time, the right time, had come.
        b) Galatians 4 says: “When the time  had fully come, God
sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those
under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.”
    2. The goal was and is our eternal life.
        a) Like Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, we will die.
        b) But also like them and all who believe in the Son of God we
will live.  That’s why God sprang into action, to give us eternal life.
    3. Let this hope be certain.
        a) The first reactions of Sarah and Elizabeth were doubt.
        b) May our hope never have doubt but always be certain, like
that of Mary when she was told of Jesus’ coming birth.  She said,
“May it be to me as you have said.”
    4. May we too rejoice in God’s promises fulfilled.
        a) Hope - we have it; it is definite; it is true.   
        b) Hope - God did spring into action to fulfill it.
        c) Hope - it is ours now, and will be enjoyed in eternity.

    Yes, indeed!  In Jesus, whose birth we again are celebrating this
Advent and Christmas season, HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL.

December 1st, 2013

Grace mercy and peace are yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Understand What Time It Is!

I.                    Put aside the deeds of darkness.

II.                  Put on the armor of light.

Romans 13:11-14 And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

In the name of Jesus, the Light of the World, dear fellow redeemed Children of God,

     Has it ever happened to you that you have woken up from a good sound sleep and had to think for a minute about what time it was?  Parents have you ever had to remind a child shuffling their feet slowly of what time it was- that it was getting late?  Sports fans, have you ever yelled at the TV at your favorite player of head coach that they better get going- the clock is ticking?  God’s Word urges us this morning to take a look at the time.   Remember Jesus words, “Behold I am coming soon.”   Understand what time it is!  I.  Put aside the deeds of darkness and II. Put on the armor of light.

     God’s Old Testament Hebrew people had a way of taking when they wanted to emphasize something.  They use all kinds of different words and ways to say the something when something was important.  An example might be Psalm 119 where God tells us how important His Word is.   In the church Year we just finished the season of End Times and today beginning the season of Advent.  Now the reading for today might seem like we are backtracking into End Times again.  But the message is important.  Look around!  Understand what time it is!  Advent is a time when we prepare to celebrate the coming of the Lord Jesus.  Later in advent, the emphasis will switch to getting ready to celebrate Jesus’ first coming in Bethlehem.  But for the first part of Advent our eyes look to the skies to prepare for Jesus’ coming again on Judgment Day.  This message is important so God’s Word puts in a double stitch to urge us to Understand What Time It Is!

     About a block away from where I grew up we had a creek.  As children we would go there and play all the time.  There were places in the creek where you could cross without getting your shoes wet.  Some kids had thrown some big rocks in the creek in a neat little stepping stone path across the water.  But those stones needed to be on solid ground when someone stepped on them or they might slip off and get a “soaker.”   It seems like the Apostle Paul thought of the congregation in  Rome as a solid stepping stone to bring the Gospel to places in Western Europe like Spain.   If this congregation was going to be the stepping stone it would need to be very well anchored in the truths of God’s Word.  So the  letter to the Romans lays out very clearly what sin is and what God has done to save us and then moves on to apply God’s great love to the way we live our lives.  That’s where we pick up God’s Word today,   “And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.  The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness.”   It would appear from what God says to the Romans that they still had some Christian growing to do.   Some didn’t understand the present time.  Some were wallowing in the deeds of darkness.     

     I admit that one of the things I struggle with is procrastination.  Sometime the things I don’t like to do work their way down my to-do list.  Our sinful nature doesn’t like the items on our “to do” list that say we are going to struggle against sin and get rid of the things in our life that make the Devil and his buddies smile and evil smile.   God’s word tells us not to let spiritual things work their way down and out of our “to do” lists.  Now is the time.   Christ will come again.  He will come in power and glory.  And when he does come, all people will appear before him, the judge of heaven and earth.  Those who do not believe will suffer eternal punishment for their unbelief.  Those who have been brought to faith by the power of the Holy Spirit will receive and enjoy the gift of eternal life.  The alarm has sounded.  The time has come.  We must wake up, for the night is nearly over.  Whether Jesus return is 5 minutes or 5 years away,  today is the day to put off the deeds of darkness.  There is work for us to do because Satan doesn’t want us or anyone else in heaven.  So he doesn’t want us in worship.  He doesn’t want us living our faith.  He wants us to have to spend eternity with him in hell.  And so he is going to use every means possible to try and make that happen.  He is going to tempt.  He’s going to try to pull us away from God. 

     That’s why Paul goes on to tell us, "put aside the deeds of darkness" (v.12).  To understand what he means Paul gives us a checklist, a “to do” and “not to do list”  He said, "Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy" (v.13).  At times he will be transparent and blatant, other times more subtle and sneaky.

      I’ve heard it said and repeated it a number of times, “Nothing good happens after 11:00 P.M.”  I wonder if at least part of the reason for that is that people do bad stuff under the shadows of darkness thinking no one will see.   But you know that is not true.   I once heard someone say that God has the best night vision glasses.  God sees everything.   He also sees the sins that are more subtle- sins like the jealousy that creeps into our hearts.   It is a little bit jolting to hear that sin included in the “deeds of darkness” along with dissensions. We might like to look at our hearts and say, “No debauchery here.  I don’t even know what that word means.”  But jealousy and dissension-we know what those words mean.  We feel them in our hearts all the time and if we are honest we see the damage done in our lives.  Again in Ephesians God’s Word has the sweeping command to  get rid of all sin.   “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.  Therefore do not be partners with them…Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” 

     Do we look at a list like that and say, “there is no hope for me”?  The time is getting short and sin finds its way into my heart and life everyday.  The Lord has provided the answer.   In the letter to the Roman congregation Paul writes, “The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”   God has prepared us for the second coming of Jesus by the first coming of Jesus.  He has provided an armor of light   Understand what time it is and more and more put on Jesus, the armor of light. 

     “Put on the armor of light… clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.”   A  hymn writer put it this way.   “Jesus your blood and righteousness- my beauty are my glorious dress.  Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head.”   Jesus lived.  Jesus died.  Jesus rose again for you.  Jesus covers you.  When he comes again, Jesus’ perfect robe of righteousness covers you. 

       That fact changes how we think about sin.  “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”  Jesus changes our mind about sin.  Since Jesus in His mercy covers us, we don’t want to do those foolish sins anymore.  We don’t want jealousy and dissension to set up camps in our hearts again. 

      God’s word tells us about the armor of light we wear by faith.  It says that Jesus “breaks the power of canceled sin.”  So as we live in this evil world filled with temptations we wear an armor of light. 

     Have you ever heard the story of 1,000 marbles?  It’s about a man who loved Saturday mornings and figured out that the average person lives 75 years and has on average 3900 Saturday mornings in a lifetime.  He started doing that math when he was about 50 so he figured that he had about 1000 Saturday mornings left.  He got a big jar and filled it with 1,000 marbles.  Every Saturday morning he would take a marble out of the jar.  As he got closer and closer to seeing the bottom of the jar, he thought more and more about what was really important in life.  Today God’s Word does the same thing.  It shows us what is really important.  Understand what time it is!  Get rid of the deeds of darkness.  Put on the armor of light.  Amen.

THANKSGIVING 2013 November 27-28, 2013 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Deuteronomy 8:10-18 “THE ACTS OF THANKSGIVING”

THANKSGIVING 2013

November 27-28, 2013

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Deuteronomy 8:10-18

“THE ACTS OF THANKSGIVING”

1.     Acknowledge

2.     Confess

3.     Trust

4.     Serve

Deuteronomy 8:10-18 (NIV 1984) “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. ¹¹Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ¹²Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, ¹³and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, ¹⁴then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ¹⁵He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. ¹⁶He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. ¹⁷You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." ¹⁸But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.”

          Either you are thankful or you are not. You can’t just tell someone, “Be thankful,” and they do it. We’ve all seen our own version of the little boy receiving a gift of underwear or socks he needed instead of the toy or game he wanted, hearing the adult say, “Say ‘Thank You’ for the socks,” and know that such thanksgiving is unmeant and meaningless. So is any forced thank you from us to God. Either you are thankful or you are not. Either you are among the group of people who can see that the list of blessings you enjoy from God far outweigh the in comparison challenges and struggles that you have or you aren’t. If you are not among that group of people who sees so many blessings from God then your presence at a Thanksgiving worship service is hypocritical and probably just done out of family obligation. God knows that and I urge you to repent while you can. I prefer however to believe that the people of God who take the time and make the time as a priority to give worship to God truly are thankful to Him, realize that their thankfulness year round isn’t what it should be and want to take this special time to say Thank You, God. With that in mind I offer to you the ACTS of Thanksgiving because thankfulness, like love, is an attitude that wants to be seen in action.

          Moses helps us to discover and put into place the ACTS of Thanksgiving. He spoke the words of our text to the people of Israel before they entered their new home in Canaan. He would not be able to go with them as a consequence of an earlier sin. He wanted the best for them while they lived there without him and so he warned them, “You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." ¹⁸But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.” Here Moses points us to the first Act of Thanksgiving. The A stands for Acknowledge. To acknowledge means to admit to something and what we need to and want to admit to is that our gracious God is ultimate source of all of our blessings. Sometimes in Confirmation Class to help the students see this we ask them what they do when they are hungry, where do they get food from. “The Fridge!” Oh do you have a magic refrigerator that keeps itself full? No, our parents fill it. How? They go to the grocery store? Oh do grocery stores give food for free? Where do they get it from? You see where that goes. Food has to be produced and God is in charge of making things grow. Food has to be bought. God gives us abilities so we can have jobs that provide income. Acknowledge God in this process. Fill up your physical blessing box on the insert. Make them overflow and then praise the Lord for all those blessings.

          And do something else. “Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ¹²Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, ¹³and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, ¹⁴then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” Here is another Act of Thanksgiving. The C stands for Confess. Moses reminded his people to be careful. He looked ahead to a time when the people would get so used to enjoying blessings that they would forget God and His goodness. Sadly that very thing happened. Sadly the same things happen with us. We want God’s blessings and get them and sometimes like 9 of the 10 lepers Jesus healed we forget to back and say Thank you. Let’s confess those sins, own up to our thoughtlessness toward God and in thankfulness for our forgiveness resolve to never do that again. Confession reminds us of spiritual blessings from God. He gave Jesus to be punished for ours sins and so we are not treated as the sinners we are. Each day we get a clean slate. Fill up the spiritual blessing box on your insert and see how it overflows with love, peace, mercy, grace and so many more.

          And seeing those blessings of the past leads us to the T of the ACTS of Thanksgiving.  “He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. ¹⁶He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.” The T stands for Trust. We show thankfulness to God by trusting Him for our future. Moses reminded his people how God led them and protected them on their journey through the desert. He called to mind the past ways God provided for their need with water from a rock and bread from heaven. God was teaching them to be God dependent in their daily living. Moses was teaching his people to look at past blessings to promote trust in the Lord for the future. A day like Thanksgiving gives us a chance to review the past to see how God has led our lives in the past year. Think! What desert did you walk through? What venomous snakes and scorpions were along your way? Yet here you are. How about God’s provision? Budgeting gurus will tell you that the average family should expect to spend about 32% of their income on housing, 14 % on food, 6 % on healthcare, 20% on transportation, 10% on insurances 5% on clothes and personal items, 10% on savings and for Christians we’d add 10% in thankofferings. Now if you add that up you’ve used 119% of your income. Doesn’t work.  But God does. So much for the experts! Somehow God got all of us through the desert and maybe life even looks a little more like the Promised Land. What about next year? Trust, trust the Lord’s provision as a way of thanking Him.

          And serve Him. That’s the S of the ACTS of Thanksgiving. They are many ways to thank someone. Can you think of any? You can say Thank You. That’s good. We are doing that with God right now. You can give a gift as a thank you. That’s the whole idea behind our regular Christian giving also known as our thankofferings. There is another way. You can live your thanksgiving. “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.” Seeing God’s blessings we respond. We feel grateful. We love in return. Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commandments.” Brothers and sisters our willing obedience to God’s commands becomes then a most meaningful way to show thanks to God. And it’s a way we can show all year long.

Charles Dickens once said that we have things mixed up in America. He suggested that instead of having one Thanksgiving Day each year we should have 364. Use the one day for complaining and griping. Use the other 364 to thank God each day for the many blessings He has showered upon you. He’s close. Truthfully we don’t want to use even one day for griping and complaining. With how good God is to us let’s practice these ACTS of Thanksgiving all year long. Amen.

November 23/24/25, 2013 Christ the King Sunday
Sermon by Pastor Paul Eckert
Sermon text - Colossians 1:9-20

    In our Gospel reading at the lectern before we heard about a scene
that appeared to be far from joyful.  Nor could the people be thankful
as they stood around the cross looking at Jesus.  And what about
Jesus?  He was in agony on that cross, agony beyond what we can
understand because He was loaded down with each and every one of
our sins and the world’s sins.  Joyful thanksgiving on Calvary?  It
would not seem so at all.
    How about us?  Will this coming Thursday be a joyful
Thanksgiving Day?  None of us will have the physical agony of being
on a cross.  But might we have some other problems, like some family
members missing from our Thanksgiving Day table whom we would
like to see with us, like heartaches we are dealing with, like financial
difficulties, like physical and health problems limiting us so that we
can’t do what we want to do?
    But even if we had all such situations and many more, the fact is
that we can - not only this coming Thursday - have joyful
thanksgiving.  Why?  First of all, because even such situations are
under the purpose and control of our heavenly Father.  But above all,
even if now we don’t understand the how or why in our lives, we still
can and should have joyful thanksgiving because of God’s Son who
didn’t look like a king on the cross, but who truly is Christ the King
who has a kingdom which He called Paradise. 
CHRIST THE KING AND JOYFUL THANKSGIVING
I    MARVEL AT WHO HE IS.  (15-20)
    1. Appearances can be deceiving.
        a) Could that possibly be a king one thief saw up on that cross?
        b) Listen to the description the Prophet Isaiah by inspiration gave
about Jesus many years before the crucifixion.  “He had no beauty or
majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we
should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by men, a man
of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.  Like one from whom men
hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
    2. But listen to this description of Jesus in our text.  (15-17)
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all
creation.  For by him all things were created: things in heaven and
on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers
or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  He is
before all things, and in him all things hold together. 
        a) That helpless appearing person on the cross was God’s eternal
Son!  He was before the beginning with the Father and the Spirit.  He
was involved in the creation of our world.
        b) Listen to what Scripture says about Him also in the opening
words of John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God and the Word was God.  He was with God in
the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him
nothing was made that has been made.”  This is the Word, Jesus,
who at the fullness of time was made flesh in Bethlehem.
    3. Look at His total supremacy.  (18)
And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning
and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he
might have the supremacy. 
        a)  Death stops everybody else.  But not Jesus.  He did not stay
dead in the tomb.  He arose from the dead!  He has supremacy.
        b) And He, no church official or other human being, is supreme
as the Head of the holy Christian church, all true believers.  And why?
    4. Look at what He did.   (19-20)
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and
through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on
earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood,
shed on the cross.
        a) Sin separated us from God and all of God’s eternal blessings.
        b) Jesus, God’s eternal Son, removed that curse of sin by
substituting for each and every one of us and with His innocence
atoning for us the guilty, reconciling us to God, making peace through
His blood shed on the cross.
        c) Yes, God’s eternal Son crucified for us, Christ the King, has
given us every reason for joyful thanksgiving.
II    BE FILLED WITH AND LIVE HIS WILL. (9-11a)
    1. We have His revealed will.  (9)
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not
stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the
knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and
understanding. 
        a) For this reason - We have been reconciled to God; we have
the knowledge of His will.  Many, if not most of us, have been blessed
to learn it from little on in our homes, to be filled with the knowledge
 of God’s will in our school, in our church services.  And nobody,
except maybe ourselves,  is keeping us from opening our Bibles at
home to continue being filled there with the knowledge of God’s will.
        b) Yes, let’s be joyfully thankful for having God’s revealed will.
    2. Our lives should make that evident.  (10a)
And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the
Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every
good work.
        a) Look at everything God has done for us, promising us finally
Paradise.  Surely we want to honor Him for that, have His approval.
.          b) But are we doing that by being misbehaving children of God?
Do we do that by despising His Word?  Is it by lives that have time for
everything, especially sitting in front of a television set, but not time for
regularly sitting in church to worship and hear from God?  Do we
consciously strive to live our Christian faith, to bear fruit in every good
work, to thank and please our King with lives following His will?
    3. We need to keep on growing in the Word.  (10b)
- bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of
God, - 
        a) After Sunday school, St. Jacobi grade school, confirmation
instructions and a confirmation ceremony, do we - or some of our
family members - stop growing in the knowledge of God?  Do we
gradually stop going to church?  Do we neglect the Lord’s Supper
which assures us that Jesus’ death is our forgiveness and life?  Do we
spend hours with texting and with earbuds for music and textbooks to
gain earthly knowledge for our jobs, but let our Bibles gather dust?
        b) Sad to say, that probably describes many.  We all are sinners. 
    4. Go to God’s knowledge to be strengthened.  (11a)
- being strengthened with all power according to his glorious
might so that you may have great endurance and patience, -
        a) Nobody says being a Christian will always be easy.
        b) But strength for endurance and patience for living a Christian
life will come from God and His Spirit’s working through the Word.
        c) So be filled with and live God’s will as we wait for Heaven.   
III  JOYFULLY GIVE THANKS FOR HIS KINGDOM. (11b-14)
    1. God’s kingdom is our inheritance.  (11b-12)
- joyfully  giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to
share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.     
        a) This inheritance of the saints, the Paradise Jesus referred to
from the cross, is not yet ours.  We aren’t there yet.
        b) But we are in God’s will, written with Jesus’ blood, that
promises us that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.
    2. God qualified us for this.  (11b-12)
- joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to
share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.
         a) We sinners could never qualify ourselves.
        b) God did the qualifying, did everything necessary, including
giving us His Holy Spirit, so that our names could be written in the
book of life.
     3. He did that to rescue us.  (13)
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought
us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, -
        a) See the climax of  the rescue effort with Jesus’ innocent death
on the cross, a death that God used to cancel out the sins against us.
        b) That rescue from hell’s dominion, guaranteed by Jesus’
resurrection from the dead, promises us the kingdom of Christ our
King. 
    4. Give thanks for what this means. (13-14)
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought
us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
        a) Now we have redemption, the forgiveness of all of our sins.   
        b) Then, at the end of our journey time here on earth, we will
receive the inheritance God has promised.
        c) For that we surely want to bring our joyful thanksgiving.

    May this Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day be a good one for all of us.
But a far more important day is coming.  It is the end of our lives and
the end of this world.  What then?  Not what we deserve, but what
Jesus our Savior deserved for us with His life, death, and resurrection.  
    Knowing that, believing that, let every day be a joyful
thanksgiving day because of Christ our King who has promised us,
“You will be with me in Paradise.”

November 16-18, 2013 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 “STAND FIRM!”

SAINTS TRIUMPHANT

November 16-18, 2013

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17

“STAND FIRM!”

1.     God chose you.

2.     God encourages you.

3.     You’ll share in the glory of Jesus Christ!

2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 (NIV 1984) “But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. 16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.”

          I think I may regret doing this. I understand it is not a good idea to air your dirty laundry but it’s something we need to talk about. It’s my wife. Chris. She cheats! Here’s what she does. She doesn’t want to read a book unless it turns out the way she wants so she reads the last chapter first. She wants to know how the movie ends before watching the movie so she watches the ending before beginning. I guess that’s no big deal if she only does that for herself but I have to draw the line with the Packer games. We don’t like watching all the commercials so we usually record the game on DVR, start late, skip the commercials and half time and try to finish when the game normally ends. But you know what she does? We’ll be watching, it’s a close game at the point we are watching. All of the sudden she has to “go to the bathroom” or something, then she sneaks to another TV and checks the score real time! And when she comes back there’s no poker face. I can always tell how the game is going. All because she has to know how it’s going to end. Are you like that? Do you like to know how things are going to end before you start them? I kind of like the surprise for things that don’t really matter like books and movies and Packer games. But when it comes to what does matter it’s good to know how things will end. I guess maybe that’s why Saints Triumphant Sunday in the church year has always been one of my favorites. I like the readings. I like the hymns. But I especially like the message. We win! With Jesus we win. Saints Triumphant! All the Saints Triumphant have already won. One of them is the Apostle Paul. Through his words to the Thessalonian Christians we can hear this encouraging cry: STAND FIRM!

          The Thessalonian Christians needed that encouragement. One thing they were good at was expecting the end of the world, Jesus to come, at any moment. Something they were bad at was knowing how to live while they waited. Some of them stopped working and expected their church to take care of their needs. Some of them were growing tired of waiting and were kind of giving up. Most of them were going to start experiencing rough treatment for staying faithful to Jesus and His teachings. Kind of sounds like us a little doesn’t it? We believe Jesus will come at any time. We sometimes struggle with the right way to live while we wait. We can grow tired. We wonder where God is and why He is taking so long to come and help us. Kind of looks like the going is going to get a little rougher for Bible believing Christians in America. Hear the cry of those who made it, the Saints Triumphant, Stand Firm. Why?

          Because God chose you for this! “But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 He called you to this through our gospel.” The Bible’s teaching on God’s choosing or election from the beginning of the world can cause us Christians confusion if we think too hard. It’s meant by God to give comfort and joy. God chose us. That we’ve heard the Gospel is proof. It calls us to believe the truth. It tells us we have purpose. Have you ever seen those science fiction movies where the world’s been destroyed and the survivors are trying to figure out what different things were used for? Or the Little Mermaid where Ariel has her gadgets and gizmos? We don’t have to wonder about or figure out our purpose. God chose us to be saved and to be living testimony to His truth. So Stand Firm in that truth. Why leave it behind for the empty promises of sinful pleasures, choosing to be lazy or sexually immoral or greedy. Stand firm because God chose you.

          Stand firm because God encourages you. “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” There are basically two ways to motivate people. You can use positive motivation or negative motivation. Negative motivation is when the football coach says, “You block that guy or I will kick you so hard you won’t sit down for a week!” Positive motivation is when the coach says “Way to go. Good job. That’s just what I wanted you to do.” Now let’s understand something here. God is God. He is just and holy and He has the right to do anything. He could, when we do wrong, kick us so hard we couldn’t sit down for a week and He has the right to do a whole lot worse than that. But He doesn’t. He encourages us. Look at the Sacraments. He wants us know we are His children, that we are able to live as his children, that He loves us dearly so He gives us our Baptism to be a daily encouragement. He wants us know we really are forgiven, to have something solid to chase our doubts away, to be positively encouraged to go out and fight again against the sinful desires that war within us so He gives us the Lord’s Supper for as often as we eat the bread and drink the wine. He gives us His Holy Word in the Bible with the power of the Holy Spirit in them to change us and build us up and lead us to lives of repentance. He gives us the church. You know God doesn’t need us here. If he wanted our pews to stay warm He can do that all on His own. No by providing a gathering place for believers He gives us a place where we can see we are not alone, that there are others with it and as long as we pastors don’t really blow it, you get to leave encouraged, encouraged to stand firm. “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.” Make no mistake about it, the Devil is trying to get rid of Jesus. He wants Jesus out of our country, out of our world. With no Jesus there is no salvation. Just like with the Old Testament people of God and with the Thessalonian Christians we have been chose and encouraged by God to stand firm. To be the ones who hold on to the true Gospel no matter what and hold out the good news to others not matter what. Like them we get to serve as the honor guard for the word and all of its teachings. You may think that the battle is for Biblical marriage vs. gay marriage or the protection of life vs. the right to murder in abortion, but it’s really a battle against the devil’s attempts to get rid of Jesus and so we stand firm and we hold to the teachings passed down to us.

And as if the honor of doing that for the Lord isn’t enough listen to this! “He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” There are many parts of God’s Word that I’m just too feeble to grasp what it fully means. This is one of them. I could understand getting the crumbs of Jesus’ glory, or maybe the leftovers, but God says we will share, yes share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. How can this be? No matter. God says so. It is true. What an awesome future He has in store for us. Shall we give it up because the going is getting rough? Will turn away because it takes going through many tribulations to enter the kingdom of God? Is there any kind of sinful sex, booze or drugs that’s worth turning our backs on Jesus Christ? No way! So stand firm, hold to the teachings, hold to Jesus Christ.

And some day your name will be among those who were blessed to be transferred from the church militant (that’s us) to the Church Triumphant. Since our last Saints Triumphant the following have made it safely home: Robert Drews.  Lois  Guenther.  Earl King. Rhonda Kutz. John Martin. Audrey Matt. Leo Petersen. June Schaefer.  Jim Witt. Clarence A. Zastrow.  Now think of your moms and dads and grandpas and grandmas and whoever else made it. If they could they would look down to you today and join their voice to God’s in Scripture. All the Saints Triumphant cry. Stand firm! Amen.