Here is my Sermon from this last week on Psalm 51:
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Our text for tonight is from Psalm 51 with selected verses 3-5 and 10-12: “3For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 10Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”
How many of you have ever seen the show “Home Improvement”. I love this show and a couple months ago I was watching some reruns of it. There was scene that I laughed especially hard at and it stuck with me. Tim the tool man Taylor is talking to one of his friends who is fighting with his wife. Tim tells his friend to just go apologize already. Tim’s friend in a huff still worked up from the fight asks, “Why should I apologize?” Tim responds by saying, “You know what I do every morning first thing when I wake up? I look at my wife and say I’m sorry.” His friend says, “Sorry for what?” Tim says, “Just for being a man.” Now to me this pretty comical that he would just say sorry right away before he has even done anything wrong, especially since it plays off of the difference of men and women which is usually worthy of a little laugh. This might especially bring a chuckle to husbands and wives.
It’s good humor when you look at it in the relationship of a husband and wife, however; when you look at it from a Christian’s point of view of their relationship to God, it is not so comical. Maybe we should take this more seriously in this setting. When we wake up every morning, first thing before we even get out of bed, as soon the alarm clock is silenced, open your eyes look up and just say “I’m sorry God.” Now you might be wondering, “Why would I do that, I haven’t even had time to sin yet.” Well actually in my case where I want to yell bad words at the alarm clock, I probably have already sinned before I even opened my eyes. But for morning people who wake up refreshed and ready for a new day, they might wonder what they have done to say they are sorry about.
Well in my mind that is completely the wrong attitude. Why do we think we have to wait until we have committed a sin that we are aware of before we can confess our repentance to God? Why can’t we say, “I’m sorry God, just for being a sinner.” This is how David expresses his view of sins and confession in our psalm tonight. Yes the introduction to this psalm tells us that he wrote this after the Bathsheba incident, so he is aware of certain sin. However, as he writes the psalm he does not focus in on that one sin. He does not confess that has sinned that one time. No he says, I know my transgressions – plural. I know my sin is ever before me. I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. From the point of conception he has been a sinner. Now please do not jump to the conclusion that I am saying or that David is saying that sex is sinful and that’s why we are conceived in sin. This is not at all what David is expressing here. Sex in the right setting and context of marriage is a good thing, a blessing and a gift from God. It is not the act of sex that made David a sinner from conception. Rather, it is because of original sin. Because his mother and father were sinful human beings, living in a fallen state of sinfulness that has existed since Adam and Eve fell, David is conceived and born in this same sinful state of being. He knows his sinfulness, his sinful state of being is ever present in front of him and has been from the moment his life began at conception. And just like David, you and I are entirely and completely in this sinful state of being and are sinners. This is just a cold hard fact, matter of fact truth. As surely as the fact that this pulpit is made of wood, or that those things you are sitting on are called pews, or the fact that you are a man or a woman, you are a sinner. It is as simple as that, as clean cut as that. Everything we do, everything we say, everything we are, is sinful. Even when we thing we are doing the right thing, we are still in this constant state of sinfulness. Isaiah says even our righteous acts, the things we do that we think are our good works, are like filthy rags to God. We are entirely sinful, everything we are, is sinful. It’s just a matter of fact.
So we live in this constant state of being, this matter of fact truth that we are sinners, we are completely and entirely sinful. Does that mean we just give in, accept we are sinful and keep living a life of sin? Absolutely not! Well if we can’t change the fact that we are sinful from conception to the casket, and we don’t just keep living a sinful life, what are we to do? However, notice David doesn’t ask what he should do or ask God if he should do this or that. No, he does not try to put himself as the subject of the sentences after he confesses that he is entirely a sinner. Hear again verses 10-12 and see who David is putting as the subject. “10Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” See he is asking God to do all these things, he is asking God to create a new heart, renew a right spirit in him. He knows he is completely sinful, he knows he can do nothing about it, and he knows that it is not some small change or little switch God needs to do to save him from being sinful, but a major overhaul. A complete revamping. When David says, create in me a new heart, he is saying he understands that he needs God to give him a whole new heart. In other words, he doesn’t need bypass surgery, no not even quadruple bypass will do; he needs a transplant, a whole new heart! The same thing is true with renewing a right spirit in me. His old wrong spirit can’t be fixed, it needs to be started all over again and made new. This is true for you and me too, we need a whole new heart, we need a brand new spirit. And it is nothing I can do but God is the only one who can give me this new clean heart, God is the only one who can make my entire spirit renewed to be right.
So how does He do this, well He makes us born again. He changes us from this state of being sinful and to a state of being sanctified. He drowns the old Adam in us completely killing it. You see He doesn’t just scare straight the old Adam in us by holding it under water for a little bit, He is not trying to just wash clean this old Adam. No, He completely kills it by drowning it dead! Then we are reborn, made a whole new creation. Just as Christ explains to Nicodemus in our Gospel reading, we have to be born again. We are in a state of being sinful from conception of the flesh, but we are in a state of being sanctified from conception of the spirit, from our rebirth in our baptism. We receive the Holy Spirit who David is begging God not to take from him, and we now live in a state of being baptized. I cannot stress this next point enough… It is not correct to say you were baptized or I was baptized, but rather that you are baptized and I am baptized because it is just as much of a state of being as the state of being sinful. We are sinners, cold hard truth, matter of fact, but we are baptized warm hard truth, matter of fact!
God, our heavenly Father, sent His Son to die on the cross for us, to be our forgiveness, and to completely change this state of sinfulness. Christ our Lord died to the same death our old Adam dies every day, and then He rose from the dead, resurrected in the glorified flesh just as we are made a new creation each and every day. Our Father who sent His Son to be our state of righteousness, is the same God who sends His Holy Spirit to us to bring us into this state of being baptized, of being entirely righteous. This state of being baptized means this process of drowning the old Adam in us, killing our sinful flesh, and bring us back to life with a new clean heart and a renewed right spirit in us daily. So when we wake up and say sorry God for being a sinner, we can then immediately say thank you for the fact we are baptized. We know our state of being baptized means the Holy Spirit works this drowning and renewing in us each and every day. God is the subject who completely changes our state of being so that even though we are entirely sinful, we can be entirely righteous. He does keep us in His presence by this work and He does restore the joy of His salvation to us. So in all seriousness we can wake up every morning and say, “I’m sorry God that I am a sinner, but I thank you that I am baptized in your name. I thank you that You do create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit in me. I thank you that you have given me the joy of Your salvation because I am baptized.”
In the same Triune name of God that we are baptized in, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Psalm 38 Lent 3 Sermon
Greetings in the name of our Crucified Christ. I apologize that I am a couple weeks behind. Now that the weather is turning nice again we have been doing a bunch of work to my garage. We got it wired up, insulated, sheeted, painted, and not are doing some trim work now. We built a folding work bench and got the tops done, just have to finish the legs yet. It is now a work garage though and my car sits outside. I also got fancy speakers a guy gifted me wired up. So now I can put on the tunes, spread out all the tools and wood, and have plenty of convenient space to work on my wood working projects. It is a blessing to be able to work on those projects and clear my mind. The problem is I have too many hobbies. I still have this year's deer antlers to mount, I am dying to be out of the golf course, sad ice fishing is probably done for the year, but excited to do some summer fishing with some guys, finish my wooden rocking chair I am building, and thought about starting a cross stitching project. Plus I am on a intermural softball team which will be starting soon. All of that on top of fifty hours of church work and then cooking, cleaning, laundry, and house chores too, no wonder I don't get any sleep. But life is good because God is good!
I saw the movie Noah last week and was as thoroughly disappointed in it as I figured I would be. However, I saw God's Not Dead twice and really enjoyed this one. It has some things that are just to make a drama movie out of it, and there is a touch of bad theology with it; however, for the majority it was a pretty good movie that does teach Christ as Lord and Savior and that faith is important enough to stand up for.
I am going to post two sermons today to make up for the last two Wednesdays. I leave Wednesday night for St. Louis with a high school student. I am taking him down to show him around and give him a tour and feel of the seminary. I will just get back Sunday night and then we have Pastor's conference next Monday and Tuesday. So basically for a week I will be out of the office. So I might get behind again and will apologize in advance. April is going to be so busy with Easter and all the stuff with the college students since they are done the first week of May. It is hitting home more and more that I have basically just over three months of vicarage left. It will really hit home at the end of April when we find out if they will have another vicar next year. But again, God is good and I couldn't ask for more than what He daily and richly spoils me with.
Here is my sermon from two Wednesday's ago on Psalm 38.
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our Text for tonight is Psalm 38, looking specifically at verses 5-8 and 21-22. “My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness, 6 I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning. 7 For my sides are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh. 8 I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart… Do not forsake me, O Lord! O my God, be not far from me! 22 Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation!”
The medical field has made such huge advancements in the last century. From a town doctor who would travel by horse to the person’s house with a small medical bag filled with a few pieces of equipment and a couple bottles of medicine to the hospitals we have now that are filled with numerous electrical devices from heart monitors to MRI machines. They have entire rooms full of supplies and other rooms full of medicines. Pharmacies are filled with thousands of different types of drugs and medicines. Researchers keep coming out with new ones all the time too.
We as a culture have grown to put great faith in our medical system. We get sick, we go to the hospital and trust they will be able to make us better. We are optimistic for researchers to cure the incurable diseases. The latest break through being the possibility of stopping or at least slowing down Alzheimer’s disease if diagnosed soon enough. What a miracle that would be to be rid of or at least reduce such a terrible disease. We trust doctors have the cure, the right medicines, the ability to heal our sickness, fix our brokenness, or correct our defects. And this is a good thing that the Lord has blesses us with such advancements to live longer healthier lives.
However, there is one sickness, one brokenness, one defect no doctor, medicine, or surgery can fix. It is the festering and stinking wounds of the psalmist. It is his burning, crushed, feeble flesh. Yes we are all infected with the same sickness and brokenness that this psalmist is describing here in psalm 38. We all have the stinking festering wounds that are causing him so much grief and agony. Sin is the disease, sin is the brokenness, sin is the defect that we all have and are infected with. And no amount of medicine, no team of doctors, no amount of surgery can ever correct, heal, or resolve us of this diagnosis.
So we receive this diagnosis that we are infected with sin, how do we respond, what do we do about it? Well there are three ways that people tend to treat this diagnosis that are problematic or wrong. This first wrong way is to ignore it. We let ourselves think that we are not infected. They tell themselves, “I am still a good person; I haven’t done anything that terribly wrong.” They compare themselves to others saying, “I am not as bad as him or her. I am not a sinner, you want to see a sinner, look at that guy over there, now there is a sinner for you.” They simply ignore the fact that they have any problem at all, and if there is no problem, then there is no need for a cure.
The second wrong way to deal with this diagnosis is to think there is a home remedy. People think there is something they can do to heal the disease and fix the problem. They think they can do the right things to reverse this diagnosis. If I live a good enough life, if I do enough good deeds, it will make up for all the wrong deeds I have done. If I pray just the right prayers or go to church enough times, this disease of sin will be cured. I have a sickness, I have a defect, it is up to me to fix it or heal it. This is my problem, I can solve it on my own.
The third wrong way is to think this diagnosis is incurable, ultimately the end of the end. To think this way is to think there is no cure at all for the disease of sin, there is no solution possible. This way of handling it will drive the person to utter despair. To lose all hope, give up all together, and just let the disease win. If there is no cure, then there is no point in even trying at anything anymore because I have a defect, a sickness that cannot be healed. They have no hope in anything left.
So these are three ways to handle the diagnosis of sin. Nonetheless, I told you they are three wrong ways, so what is the right way to handle this diagnosis? First, accept that you are infected, you are broken and defected, and you do indeed need special attention to cure you of this problem. Secondly, know there is a cure, there is a solution that heals this disease and reverses this diagnosis. However, it is not a home remedy or anything you can do. It is curable but not by you or your actions. So do not ignore that you are infected with sin, but do not let it drive you despair either. Have hope in the cure, not the cure that you can do, but that you receive.
Christ our Lord is the physician who can heal our sickness, fix our brokenness, and correct our defect. He alone is the one who is capable of providing the cure for us. In fact, He has provided the cure for us. Christ our physician, healed our disease of sin by taking the disease onto Himself to remove it from us. He was incarnate in our feeble and crushed flesh, He took our stinking and festering wounds, He became broken, infected, and defected for us. He took all sin into Himself to completely remove all sin from us. As St. Peter says in our Epistle for today, “By His wounds, you have been healed.” He became wounded so we could be healed. By His dying on the cross, we have our cure from the diagnosis of sin. Then after He was wounded, infected and killed by our sickness, after He died to take away all of our sins, He was raised from the dead. He himself was healed, brought back to life, and resolved of all sin that He took into Himself on the cross. We have our cure in His death and resurrection. We have our hope that we are cured, we will live forever, the terminal disease of sin no longer is terminal for us. We have life, a clean, healthy life in Him, in Jesus Christ our holy physician.
So to ignore that you are a sinner is to not believe the Word of God, not to believe the Scriptures that tell us we are indeed sinners and infected with sin. To ignore that we are infected with sin, is to ignore Christ’s command in Mark 1:15 where He says, “repent and believe the gospel.” If we ignore the diagnosis of sin all together, then we have no need for a cure or a savior, holy physician to give us that cure. If we aren’t sinners, we have no need for Christ. However, again His own words confirm that we are indeed sinners and we do need to repent and believe the gospel.
To think there is a home remedy for the diagnosis is works righteousness. To say that Christ’s death, His cure for us is insufficient. It is to deny the gospel that He died for all sins of all mankind. His death was sufficient for all sins of all mankind. The author of Hebrews writes, “When Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.” Christ is the single sacrifice, the single cure, the only solution to the diagnosis of sin and to think we still have to do something to gain that cure is to deny Him as the physician.
Lastly, to be driven to utter despair, to think we have no hope is to deny the Word of God. If we let the Devil whisper in our ear that we are too great a sinner, too awful of a sinner, that God could never possibly forgive someone as terrible as us, then we deny that His gospel is for all people. We doubt that His desire is to save all people. St Paul says in 1 Timothy, “God our savior, who desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” In Mark 3, Christ Himself says, “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter.” Christ’s cure is for you, He offers forgiveness to all men and women. Do not doubt but believe. Do not let the Devil drive you to despair, but know our Great Physician has the cure and He gives it to you.
Don’t ignore the diagnosis, don’t deny the cure is sufficient, and don’t doubt His cure is for you, but believe. Believe God’s Word that you are a sinner who needs to repent, believe God’s word that His death and resurrection in the one and only sufficient cure, believe that His cure is for you because He desires for you to be cured and saved.
See God did not ignore the problem, no He sent His Son to be born into the feeble flesh. He sent His Son to preach the message of “repent and believe” so we would know that we are infected, we have the diagnosis. He sent His Son to be infected by all the sin of all the world, and die to pay for the sin, be brought back to life to be the cure of all sin once and for all. He sent His Son to be the one and only cure and solution to our diagnosis. He sent His Son to be the salvation of the world because He truly does desire all people to be saved.
So believe! Believe His Word that you are cured, you are healed, do not ignore it, do not deny it, do not doubt it, but trust in Him, receive His healing forgiveness and know you are cured. Our Physician who gives us our diagnosis also gives us the cure when He tell us in Mark 16, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” To ignore, to deny, to doubt are all not to believe and be condemned. However, if we believe, we will be saved. Through Christ, our great physician, we have our cure. When we believe His Word, when we believe in Christ as the true Son of God, the great physician, the savior of the world, we truly are healed of our sickness, fixed of our brokenness, and corrected of our defect. Repent and believe in the Gospel, believe that “By His wounds, you have been healed!”
In the name of our Great Physician, Jesus Christ, Amen.
I saw the movie Noah last week and was as thoroughly disappointed in it as I figured I would be. However, I saw God's Not Dead twice and really enjoyed this one. It has some things that are just to make a drama movie out of it, and there is a touch of bad theology with it; however, for the majority it was a pretty good movie that does teach Christ as Lord and Savior and that faith is important enough to stand up for.
I am going to post two sermons today to make up for the last two Wednesdays. I leave Wednesday night for St. Louis with a high school student. I am taking him down to show him around and give him a tour and feel of the seminary. I will just get back Sunday night and then we have Pastor's conference next Monday and Tuesday. So basically for a week I will be out of the office. So I might get behind again and will apologize in advance. April is going to be so busy with Easter and all the stuff with the college students since they are done the first week of May. It is hitting home more and more that I have basically just over three months of vicarage left. It will really hit home at the end of April when we find out if they will have another vicar next year. But again, God is good and I couldn't ask for more than what He daily and richly spoils me with.
Here is my sermon from two Wednesday's ago on Psalm 38.
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our Text for tonight is Psalm 38, looking specifically at verses 5-8 and 21-22. “My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness, 6 I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning. 7 For my sides are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh. 8 I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart… Do not forsake me, O Lord! O my God, be not far from me! 22 Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation!”
The medical field has made such huge advancements in the last century. From a town doctor who would travel by horse to the person’s house with a small medical bag filled with a few pieces of equipment and a couple bottles of medicine to the hospitals we have now that are filled with numerous electrical devices from heart monitors to MRI machines. They have entire rooms full of supplies and other rooms full of medicines. Pharmacies are filled with thousands of different types of drugs and medicines. Researchers keep coming out with new ones all the time too.
We as a culture have grown to put great faith in our medical system. We get sick, we go to the hospital and trust they will be able to make us better. We are optimistic for researchers to cure the incurable diseases. The latest break through being the possibility of stopping or at least slowing down Alzheimer’s disease if diagnosed soon enough. What a miracle that would be to be rid of or at least reduce such a terrible disease. We trust doctors have the cure, the right medicines, the ability to heal our sickness, fix our brokenness, or correct our defects. And this is a good thing that the Lord has blesses us with such advancements to live longer healthier lives.
However, there is one sickness, one brokenness, one defect no doctor, medicine, or surgery can fix. It is the festering and stinking wounds of the psalmist. It is his burning, crushed, feeble flesh. Yes we are all infected with the same sickness and brokenness that this psalmist is describing here in psalm 38. We all have the stinking festering wounds that are causing him so much grief and agony. Sin is the disease, sin is the brokenness, sin is the defect that we all have and are infected with. And no amount of medicine, no team of doctors, no amount of surgery can ever correct, heal, or resolve us of this diagnosis.
So we receive this diagnosis that we are infected with sin, how do we respond, what do we do about it? Well there are three ways that people tend to treat this diagnosis that are problematic or wrong. This first wrong way is to ignore it. We let ourselves think that we are not infected. They tell themselves, “I am still a good person; I haven’t done anything that terribly wrong.” They compare themselves to others saying, “I am not as bad as him or her. I am not a sinner, you want to see a sinner, look at that guy over there, now there is a sinner for you.” They simply ignore the fact that they have any problem at all, and if there is no problem, then there is no need for a cure.
The second wrong way to deal with this diagnosis is to think there is a home remedy. People think there is something they can do to heal the disease and fix the problem. They think they can do the right things to reverse this diagnosis. If I live a good enough life, if I do enough good deeds, it will make up for all the wrong deeds I have done. If I pray just the right prayers or go to church enough times, this disease of sin will be cured. I have a sickness, I have a defect, it is up to me to fix it or heal it. This is my problem, I can solve it on my own.
The third wrong way is to think this diagnosis is incurable, ultimately the end of the end. To think this way is to think there is no cure at all for the disease of sin, there is no solution possible. This way of handling it will drive the person to utter despair. To lose all hope, give up all together, and just let the disease win. If there is no cure, then there is no point in even trying at anything anymore because I have a defect, a sickness that cannot be healed. They have no hope in anything left.
So these are three ways to handle the diagnosis of sin. Nonetheless, I told you they are three wrong ways, so what is the right way to handle this diagnosis? First, accept that you are infected, you are broken and defected, and you do indeed need special attention to cure you of this problem. Secondly, know there is a cure, there is a solution that heals this disease and reverses this diagnosis. However, it is not a home remedy or anything you can do. It is curable but not by you or your actions. So do not ignore that you are infected with sin, but do not let it drive you despair either. Have hope in the cure, not the cure that you can do, but that you receive.
Christ our Lord is the physician who can heal our sickness, fix our brokenness, and correct our defect. He alone is the one who is capable of providing the cure for us. In fact, He has provided the cure for us. Christ our physician, healed our disease of sin by taking the disease onto Himself to remove it from us. He was incarnate in our feeble and crushed flesh, He took our stinking and festering wounds, He became broken, infected, and defected for us. He took all sin into Himself to completely remove all sin from us. As St. Peter says in our Epistle for today, “By His wounds, you have been healed.” He became wounded so we could be healed. By His dying on the cross, we have our cure from the diagnosis of sin. Then after He was wounded, infected and killed by our sickness, after He died to take away all of our sins, He was raised from the dead. He himself was healed, brought back to life, and resolved of all sin that He took into Himself on the cross. We have our cure in His death and resurrection. We have our hope that we are cured, we will live forever, the terminal disease of sin no longer is terminal for us. We have life, a clean, healthy life in Him, in Jesus Christ our holy physician.
So to ignore that you are a sinner is to not believe the Word of God, not to believe the Scriptures that tell us we are indeed sinners and infected with sin. To ignore that we are infected with sin, is to ignore Christ’s command in Mark 1:15 where He says, “repent and believe the gospel.” If we ignore the diagnosis of sin all together, then we have no need for a cure or a savior, holy physician to give us that cure. If we aren’t sinners, we have no need for Christ. However, again His own words confirm that we are indeed sinners and we do need to repent and believe the gospel.
To think there is a home remedy for the diagnosis is works righteousness. To say that Christ’s death, His cure for us is insufficient. It is to deny the gospel that He died for all sins of all mankind. His death was sufficient for all sins of all mankind. The author of Hebrews writes, “When Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.” Christ is the single sacrifice, the single cure, the only solution to the diagnosis of sin and to think we still have to do something to gain that cure is to deny Him as the physician.
Lastly, to be driven to utter despair, to think we have no hope is to deny the Word of God. If we let the Devil whisper in our ear that we are too great a sinner, too awful of a sinner, that God could never possibly forgive someone as terrible as us, then we deny that His gospel is for all people. We doubt that His desire is to save all people. St Paul says in 1 Timothy, “God our savior, who desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” In Mark 3, Christ Himself says, “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter.” Christ’s cure is for you, He offers forgiveness to all men and women. Do not doubt but believe. Do not let the Devil drive you to despair, but know our Great Physician has the cure and He gives it to you.
Don’t ignore the diagnosis, don’t deny the cure is sufficient, and don’t doubt His cure is for you, but believe. Believe God’s Word that you are a sinner who needs to repent, believe God’s word that His death and resurrection in the one and only sufficient cure, believe that His cure is for you because He desires for you to be cured and saved.
See God did not ignore the problem, no He sent His Son to be born into the feeble flesh. He sent His Son to preach the message of “repent and believe” so we would know that we are infected, we have the diagnosis. He sent His Son to be infected by all the sin of all the world, and die to pay for the sin, be brought back to life to be the cure of all sin once and for all. He sent His Son to be the one and only cure and solution to our diagnosis. He sent His Son to be the salvation of the world because He truly does desire all people to be saved.
So believe! Believe His Word that you are cured, you are healed, do not ignore it, do not deny it, do not doubt it, but trust in Him, receive His healing forgiveness and know you are cured. Our Physician who gives us our diagnosis also gives us the cure when He tell us in Mark 16, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” To ignore, to deny, to doubt are all not to believe and be condemned. However, if we believe, we will be saved. Through Christ, our great physician, we have our cure. When we believe His Word, when we believe in Christ as the true Son of God, the great physician, the savior of the world, we truly are healed of our sickness, fixed of our brokenness, and corrected of our defect. Repent and believe in the Gospel, believe that “By His wounds, you have been healed!”
In the name of our Great Physician, Jesus Christ, Amen.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Lent 2 Psalm 32 Sermon
Greetings in Christ's name. Last week was super busy but i made it through. I preached Sunday since pastor was gone, preached Wednesday night for Lent, and then preached my first sermon on Saturday. It went pretty well, and if I get the time I will work with my manuscript to match what I preached and put it up on here. It was an unique experience though since I didn't know the lady at all, but a good experience for me to have on vicarage.
Friday I went ice fishing with a member. We spent all day on the ice to only catch three fish, but it was still a blast. A day of ice fishing with no fish is still better than a day at home or work or anywhere else. We got three crappie, but missed a lot of bites. We might go again this Friday to a different lake for some Perch. I had a different couple drop off some fresh walleye for me too. Being a vicar is good :)
My garage is getting rewired so it has lights and plug ins, then we should be able to insulate and sheet it. We also plan to build a work bench, so it will be very practical. And now that the snow is almost completely gone I am getting excited to pick the 1000000000 sticks out of my yard. I just want to be outside doing stuff again now that it is nice again.
Here is my sermon from Wednesday night on Psalm 32. I got a compliment on it from a guy who I would have bet my life savings he wouldn't have given me a compliment in my life, so that was a huge honor actually. Now I have to go to Bible Bowl, prep for Bible Study tonight, and keep rotating the four tray sof jerky I got going.
March 12th, Lent 2
Psalm 32 (Sorrow/rejoicing)
I think it’s a safe bet to say a majority of high schoolers all go through a similar experience at least once in their high school career. The experience starts by them doing something wrong. Maybe its cheating on a test, maybe its wrecking their car, maybe its vandalism, maybe its stealing something… its something that they know is wrong and no matter how they try to justify it, deep down they knew it was wrong as they were doing it. Most of the time, it takes them getting caught by a teacher, boss, cop, or somebody of authority besides their parents. They have done something wrong, they have been caught and faced with reality that they are in trouble, now they have to go home and tell mom and dad. But of course they don’t just walk through the front door and blurt out that they messed up. They think it’s better to wait for just the right time. So they come in and when mom asks how was your day, they feel the weight of their guilt double and sink inside them. Everything she continues to ask just makes the shame and guilt seem worse and worse. Dad comes home and starts talking to them and it only gets worse. They squirm in their chair as the burden of it all is so uncomfortable, finally they just want to burst and yell out their confession because at this point the punishment of hiding this secret seems worse than any punishment they will get from mom and dad. Have you had an experience like that, or been the parent in an experience like that? Maybe not through that exact experience, but you still know what it’s like to feel the burden of shame and guilt eat you alive from the inside out.
This is the feeling our psalmist is experiencing in our psalm for this evening. He states that his bones are wasting away as he remains silent. The longer he sits there just letting the guilt of his sin stew and stir inside him, the more it eats away at him, draining his strength. He knows his sins, he knows his sins are against his Heavenly Father his God. And the longer he tries to hold them in the more they weigh him down. I love the imagery he uses that his strength is dried up as by the summer heat. Working summers out on the road crew, this hits at home that the summer heat does physically drain you to exhaustion. Holding your sins, trying to bury them down deep, trying to hide them, or fix them on your own, does exactly this it drains you of energy, it eats you alive from the inside out.
So what are we to do with all of this shame, guilt, and remorse? We do exactly what the psalmist does, we confess our sins, and we do not cover our iniquities. The reason sin causes us so much shame and guilt is because we know we have messed up again, we know we have failed again, we have once again let God down, disappointed Him in the fact that we continue to sin, we continue to fall short of His glory. By going to Him in confession we have to admit that we cannot do it, we have failed again. We hate to have to admit that we failed, it hurts our pride, it hurts our ego, and it makes us feel insufficient. However, when we look at how the psalmist views confession we see it is not such a shameful thing at all. Yes, it is still admitting that we have done wrong, but we see that God does not rub it in our faces or shun us or make us feel like the failures we are. No, He forgives us. I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and then without a doubt, without a pause, the psalmist writes, and you forgave me.
Confession is a gift because we are allowed to go to God and confess our sins, letting all our faults and wrongdoings out of us, the burden, the shame, the guilt that eats away at us and drains us is all taken off of us and replaced by His forgiveness and His love. He gives us Absolution, the forgiveness our of sins, removing those sins from us as far as the east is from the west. He doesn’t hold them against us or keep track of them to bring back up later, He completely takes all of our sins away, gone forever, forgotten, and we are clean little children who have done no wrong again n His sight. He takes all of that burden and shame from us. He took it from us before we were even born and placed it on the shoulder of His Son Jesus as He hung on the cross. He put all of those sins in the tomb with the dead body of His Son Jesus, and when Christ rose from the dead and walked out of that tomb, those sins were gone forever, never to be found again. This is the gift He gives to you and me in our confession, He gives us the newness of a fresh start, a clean life, a perfect child of His again.
When we look at our Gospel reading in the parable of the prodigal son, we see this same idea. The son who leaves the father, thinks he knows how to live best, quickly realizes what a mistake he has made. He has blown his inheritance, squandered it all away on a sinful lifestyle, and instead of admitting his mistake right away, he tries to “fix it” himself. He gets a job feeding pigs, but in envious of the pigs for their food. He waits until he has hit absolute rock bottom, he tried to bury the shame and guilt of his mistakes and keep his pride by trying to fix the problem himself. This eats away at him and drains his strength. Finally, when he hits rock bottom, he realizes that His father can help him. He goes home ready to confess his sins, beg and gravel for the smallest amount of mercy from his father, willing to be a hired man working for him, knowing he no longer deserves to be his son. But the fathers’ reaction is he amazing part. He sees the son coming from a distance, and he doesn’t stand there with his arms crossed and a scold on his face making the son feel his judgment the rest of the walk in, he doesn’t even wait to hear what the son has to say for himself. No, the father runs out to his to meet him, and buries him in love with a huge bear hug.
This is exactly what our heavenly father does for us, he doesn’t want to hear our confession to make us feel insufficient or like failures, He waits for us to confess, to unload that burden and buried guilt so He can bury us with His huge bear hug and shower us with His love. He comes running to us every time we come to Him in prayer. Just as the father was waiting and watching for the return of his son, our Father is always there waiting and watching for us. As soon as we decide it’s time to stop and pray, confess those sins, He is there running to us, hugging us and embracing us in His loving arms.
So why do we wait until we have hit rock bottom, why do we wait at all? If we truly know the love our Father has for us, the gift of absolution that is there ready for us, and that all that guilt, shame, and sin will be complete removed from us, washed away from us, why do we try to hold on to it for so long? Why do we let that sin eat away at us instead of just going to our Father in prayer and letting Him give us His forgiveness and love?
Now if you feel like you have confessed your sins in prayer numerous times and you are not feeling His embracing arms around you, you have confessed your sins in church with the public general confession each Sunday and you still feel burdened by a certain sin, even after receiving the Lord’s supper knowing your sins are forgiven, but there is still a certain sin that will not leave you alone, then its time to go to private confession. Pastor Wurm not only gave me permission but encouraged me to include this in tonight’s sermon, that he will gladly do private confession with anyone whenever they desire to do so. Let the words our Father has to offer, words of absolute forgiveness, entirely cleansing forgiveness be spoken over you from the mouth of Pastor Wurm knowing it is as certain as if our Heavenly Father was Himself standing over you telling you He forgives you and loves you because you are His chosen daughter or son who he will always love and is always there when you need Him.
Then after we have received the gift of absolution, that free forgiveness and complete removal of our sins, that cleansing shower making us completely a new creation again, what is left to do but what the psalmist says in verse 11. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart. You see upon hearing the words of absolution, upon feeling the Father’s loving embrace, His arms bear hugged around you, knowing you are completely forgiven, you are now truly and entirely righteous and upright in heart. He has made you holy and righteous through His Son Jesus. So rejoice, shout for joy, and be glad in the this fresh start, this new life, this amazing undeserved love you receive again and again from your Father. That sorrow we feel in our shame and guilt, that is the sorrows of the wicked and the unbeliever, but we who surrounded by the steadfast love of our Lord, we rejoice! Rejoice because you are a holy precious child of His, be glad in the Lord who loves you so dearly to forgive you again and again.
In the name of our Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the one Triune God who loves us, forgives us, and makes us righteous and upright so that we may rejoice, Amen.
Friday I went ice fishing with a member. We spent all day on the ice to only catch three fish, but it was still a blast. A day of ice fishing with no fish is still better than a day at home or work or anywhere else. We got three crappie, but missed a lot of bites. We might go again this Friday to a different lake for some Perch. I had a different couple drop off some fresh walleye for me too. Being a vicar is good :)
My garage is getting rewired so it has lights and plug ins, then we should be able to insulate and sheet it. We also plan to build a work bench, so it will be very practical. And now that the snow is almost completely gone I am getting excited to pick the 1000000000 sticks out of my yard. I just want to be outside doing stuff again now that it is nice again.
Here is my sermon from Wednesday night on Psalm 32. I got a compliment on it from a guy who I would have bet my life savings he wouldn't have given me a compliment in my life, so that was a huge honor actually. Now I have to go to Bible Bowl, prep for Bible Study tonight, and keep rotating the four tray sof jerky I got going.
March 12th, Lent 2
Psalm 32 (Sorrow/rejoicing)
I think it’s a safe bet to say a majority of high schoolers all go through a similar experience at least once in their high school career. The experience starts by them doing something wrong. Maybe its cheating on a test, maybe its wrecking their car, maybe its vandalism, maybe its stealing something… its something that they know is wrong and no matter how they try to justify it, deep down they knew it was wrong as they were doing it. Most of the time, it takes them getting caught by a teacher, boss, cop, or somebody of authority besides their parents. They have done something wrong, they have been caught and faced with reality that they are in trouble, now they have to go home and tell mom and dad. But of course they don’t just walk through the front door and blurt out that they messed up. They think it’s better to wait for just the right time. So they come in and when mom asks how was your day, they feel the weight of their guilt double and sink inside them. Everything she continues to ask just makes the shame and guilt seem worse and worse. Dad comes home and starts talking to them and it only gets worse. They squirm in their chair as the burden of it all is so uncomfortable, finally they just want to burst and yell out their confession because at this point the punishment of hiding this secret seems worse than any punishment they will get from mom and dad. Have you had an experience like that, or been the parent in an experience like that? Maybe not through that exact experience, but you still know what it’s like to feel the burden of shame and guilt eat you alive from the inside out.
This is the feeling our psalmist is experiencing in our psalm for this evening. He states that his bones are wasting away as he remains silent. The longer he sits there just letting the guilt of his sin stew and stir inside him, the more it eats away at him, draining his strength. He knows his sins, he knows his sins are against his Heavenly Father his God. And the longer he tries to hold them in the more they weigh him down. I love the imagery he uses that his strength is dried up as by the summer heat. Working summers out on the road crew, this hits at home that the summer heat does physically drain you to exhaustion. Holding your sins, trying to bury them down deep, trying to hide them, or fix them on your own, does exactly this it drains you of energy, it eats you alive from the inside out.
So what are we to do with all of this shame, guilt, and remorse? We do exactly what the psalmist does, we confess our sins, and we do not cover our iniquities. The reason sin causes us so much shame and guilt is because we know we have messed up again, we know we have failed again, we have once again let God down, disappointed Him in the fact that we continue to sin, we continue to fall short of His glory. By going to Him in confession we have to admit that we cannot do it, we have failed again. We hate to have to admit that we failed, it hurts our pride, it hurts our ego, and it makes us feel insufficient. However, when we look at how the psalmist views confession we see it is not such a shameful thing at all. Yes, it is still admitting that we have done wrong, but we see that God does not rub it in our faces or shun us or make us feel like the failures we are. No, He forgives us. I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and then without a doubt, without a pause, the psalmist writes, and you forgave me.
Confession is a gift because we are allowed to go to God and confess our sins, letting all our faults and wrongdoings out of us, the burden, the shame, the guilt that eats away at us and drains us is all taken off of us and replaced by His forgiveness and His love. He gives us Absolution, the forgiveness our of sins, removing those sins from us as far as the east is from the west. He doesn’t hold them against us or keep track of them to bring back up later, He completely takes all of our sins away, gone forever, forgotten, and we are clean little children who have done no wrong again n His sight. He takes all of that burden and shame from us. He took it from us before we were even born and placed it on the shoulder of His Son Jesus as He hung on the cross. He put all of those sins in the tomb with the dead body of His Son Jesus, and when Christ rose from the dead and walked out of that tomb, those sins were gone forever, never to be found again. This is the gift He gives to you and me in our confession, He gives us the newness of a fresh start, a clean life, a perfect child of His again.
When we look at our Gospel reading in the parable of the prodigal son, we see this same idea. The son who leaves the father, thinks he knows how to live best, quickly realizes what a mistake he has made. He has blown his inheritance, squandered it all away on a sinful lifestyle, and instead of admitting his mistake right away, he tries to “fix it” himself. He gets a job feeding pigs, but in envious of the pigs for their food. He waits until he has hit absolute rock bottom, he tried to bury the shame and guilt of his mistakes and keep his pride by trying to fix the problem himself. This eats away at him and drains his strength. Finally, when he hits rock bottom, he realizes that His father can help him. He goes home ready to confess his sins, beg and gravel for the smallest amount of mercy from his father, willing to be a hired man working for him, knowing he no longer deserves to be his son. But the fathers’ reaction is he amazing part. He sees the son coming from a distance, and he doesn’t stand there with his arms crossed and a scold on his face making the son feel his judgment the rest of the walk in, he doesn’t even wait to hear what the son has to say for himself. No, the father runs out to his to meet him, and buries him in love with a huge bear hug.
This is exactly what our heavenly father does for us, he doesn’t want to hear our confession to make us feel insufficient or like failures, He waits for us to confess, to unload that burden and buried guilt so He can bury us with His huge bear hug and shower us with His love. He comes running to us every time we come to Him in prayer. Just as the father was waiting and watching for the return of his son, our Father is always there waiting and watching for us. As soon as we decide it’s time to stop and pray, confess those sins, He is there running to us, hugging us and embracing us in His loving arms.
So why do we wait until we have hit rock bottom, why do we wait at all? If we truly know the love our Father has for us, the gift of absolution that is there ready for us, and that all that guilt, shame, and sin will be complete removed from us, washed away from us, why do we try to hold on to it for so long? Why do we let that sin eat away at us instead of just going to our Father in prayer and letting Him give us His forgiveness and love?
Now if you feel like you have confessed your sins in prayer numerous times and you are not feeling His embracing arms around you, you have confessed your sins in church with the public general confession each Sunday and you still feel burdened by a certain sin, even after receiving the Lord’s supper knowing your sins are forgiven, but there is still a certain sin that will not leave you alone, then its time to go to private confession. Pastor Wurm not only gave me permission but encouraged me to include this in tonight’s sermon, that he will gladly do private confession with anyone whenever they desire to do so. Let the words our Father has to offer, words of absolute forgiveness, entirely cleansing forgiveness be spoken over you from the mouth of Pastor Wurm knowing it is as certain as if our Heavenly Father was Himself standing over you telling you He forgives you and loves you because you are His chosen daughter or son who he will always love and is always there when you need Him.
Then after we have received the gift of absolution, that free forgiveness and complete removal of our sins, that cleansing shower making us completely a new creation again, what is left to do but what the psalmist says in verse 11. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart. You see upon hearing the words of absolution, upon feeling the Father’s loving embrace, His arms bear hugged around you, knowing you are completely forgiven, you are now truly and entirely righteous and upright in heart. He has made you holy and righteous through His Son Jesus. So rejoice, shout for joy, and be glad in the this fresh start, this new life, this amazing undeserved love you receive again and again from your Father. That sorrow we feel in our shame and guilt, that is the sorrows of the wicked and the unbeliever, but we who surrounded by the steadfast love of our Lord, we rejoice! Rejoice because you are a holy precious child of His, be glad in the Lord who loves you so dearly to forgive you again and again.
In the name of our Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the one Triune God who loves us, forgives us, and makes us righteous and upright so that we may rejoice, Amen.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Sunday's Sermon
Greetings in the name of our Lord. I have never seen so much snow melt so fast. We went from three feet on the ground to seeing grass in numerous spots in the yard in two days. Pretty soon, only piles will be left. This is the time of the year I do not really enjoy because the snow is dirty and gross looking. The grass is not yet green and everything is muddy. I had a dream about golfing last night so I think even this winter lover is ready for spring and being outside again. I cleaned my garage, fixed the lawn mower that someone (cough*** pastor**) broke. Then yesterday I took my old wooden rocking adirondack chair apart. It is falling apart, so I am going to use the pieces as patterns to build a new one. That is going to be my next project as the weather gets nice, I want to spend some time working on that. I need something like that to free my mind and is just for me.
This last weekend was crazy busy, but I survived the youth lock-in. I ended up covered in chocolate sauce by the kids, but got my revenge when I got to wake them up at 5:45 in the morning by yelling as loud as I could and pulling their blankets off. Then we went to the state dart ball tournament which was a blast. I got on base twice and even had a home run but we ended up losing to tie for fifth. Still a great day of fun. Then Sunday, everything went well with my first services all by myself at Mt. Calvary. I have done other services all by myself but this was the first time here.
I did hear from my field work supervisor that he hasn't retired yet and should still be there when I get back. I am glad about that because I look forward to another year of working beside him and continuing to build our relationship.
Here is my sermon from Sunday, enjoy:
Grace Mercy and Peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our sermon this morning focuses in on the Gospel reading from Matthew Chapter 4 the temptation of Jesus, but our focus text comes from the Epistle reading of Romans chapter 5 verses 18 and 19, “Therefore , as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to the justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”
When I played football in high school I played offensive lineman – big surprise right?! I loved being a lineman, especially being center because got to touch the ball every play. But one thing I had to learn very quickly is that as an offensive lineman, you will get blamed much more often than you will get praised. I can remember one game in the first half the line was playing terrible, myself included. The coach took a timeout to come chew us out, and as he was yelling at us I leaned back from the huddle and realized the entire crowd of fans was yelling negative insults at us linemen as well. Second half, we came out, turn things around and our offense was back to making big plays and scoring. We won the game, but afterward all I heard was, “Man that line almost cost us the game tonight” or “It is a good thing our running back is good enough to play without a line blocking for him”. All we got was the blame for the first half, not the credit for the second half.
I assume there are times we have all felt this way. Maybe at work you make a mistake and get blamed for messing up the whole project, so you work twice as hard to fix it but somebody else still gets the credit. Times when you feel like no matter how hard you try, you are only seen as the one at fault instead of getting the credit you feel you deserve.
In our Old Testament reading for today, we heard the account of the fall of Adam and Eve. This is a story we are taught from a very young age. In order to know why we believe in Jesus, why we need Jesus as our Lord, we have to know the story of the fall. The reason our entire world and all of creation is in the sinful state that it is in, goes back to the garden and those two bites of fruit that would change everything for the rest of time. As Lutheran’s we believe in original sin that goes back to Adam and Eve. Sermons will reference the garden or the fall in the garden trying to preach the whole council of God. This part of humanities story cannot be ignored because it was such a defining moment. It brought sin into our world, and with that sin came all the pain and suffering, tears and grieving, and death. Looking at the curses God gives to Eve and Adam, we see pain in childbearing, jealously, pride, hard work, sweat, and death. All of this, along with all other curses and symptoms of sin, entered our world because the first two humans disobeyed God and fell into sin, pulling all of humanity and creation down with them.
Now it is very easy for us to quickly put the blame on Adam and Eve. They are the ones who brought sin into the world. If they hadn’t fallen we would still be living in the paradise of the garden. We would still have God walking among us and there would be no pain, suffering, pride, jealousy, mourning, or death. The world would still be perfect if they could have just followed that one rule. I mean after all they only had one rule to follow and they couldn’t even do that. It is entirely their fault that we have to suffer because they made one wrong choice. Adam and Eve are to blame.
Or maybe you are willing to forgive Adam and Eve for their slip up, but you blame the devil. If he wouldn’t have tempted Adam and Eve, they would have never fallen. If he wouldn’t have fallen away from God himself first, he would have been evil and wouldn’t have caused all of mankind to fall too. The devil should have remained a good faithful angel and then we would have never had any of these problems. It is entirely the devil’s fault for rebelling against God, tempting Adam and Eve, and bringing sin into the world. The devil is to blame.
Or maybe you even go so far as to blame God. If He would have destroyed the devil as soon as he rebelled, he wouldn’t have been able to tempt Adam and Eve and sin would have never come into our world. If God is all knowing, He had to know the devil would tempt Adam and Eve and they would fall into sin, so why did He let this happen? Why did He let the devil live even after his rebellion, why did he let the devil in the garden to tempt Adam and Eve? Why did He even create the devil in the first place? If God really is all knowing, He had to know the devil would rebel before He even created him, so why did He create him? God knew the devil would become evil and rebel and tempt Adam and Eve and cause them to fall into sin and bring the entire creation into a fallen sinful condition, and He let it all happen. God is to blame for all of this.
However, as we are in the season of Lent, which is a penitential season, maybe this would be a good time to stop trying to blame others and examine the sin of our own life. When we look at our own life, do we really have any right at all to even begin to try to play the blame game? Yes, Adam and Eve sinned first. Yes, through original sin their sinfulness is inherited by all humans. Yes, the devil tempted them and led them into sin. Yes, God knew this all would happen and allowed it to happen. However, God created the devil, Adam and Eve all as good creatures. After He had finished creation, it was all good. The devil rebelled, we are not told how or why but he started as a good angel like all the other angels. Yes the devil tempted Adam and Eve, but God gave them the gift of free will which allowed them to choose whether they would remain faithful to God, or disobey and fall into sin. He made the one command He gave them very clear and told them the consequences of what would happen if they did break the command. The devil tempted them, but they made the choice on their own to listen to him. They chose to break the command knowing full well they were not supposed to. So Adam and Eve sinned first, but can you say with full confidence that if you had been put in their position you would not have fallen? The point is God did allow it to happen, the devil did tempt them, and they did break the command and fall into sin. Stop blaming them! Stop letting your pride puff you up into thinking you would have done the right thing had you been there. In this penitential season of lent, stop trying to figure out why you are a sinner, and admit that you are indeed a sinner. Admit that you are a sinful being, yes because of original sin, but even more so because of the fact that you sin each and every day. In Romans where St. Paul says all sin came into the world through one man, he continues with and so death spread to all men because ALL sinned. We are all sinners and we are all to blame that sin exists in the world. That is what this season of the church year is for; it is set aside for the special purpose of truly reflecting and examining your own life and realizing how much a terrible, rotten, and filthy sinner you truly are. Stop pointing your finger at others and look at yourself, look at your own life, and confess your sins that you know you are guilty of.
We are to blame. We are the ones who deserve no credit but purely the fault. It is your sins, and your sins, and your sins, and your sins, and my sins that put our Lord on the cross. He died to pay for the sins of Adam and Eve, all the Israelites, the Pharisees and scribes, the disciples, but even more importantly He died to pay for the sins of you and of me. We are the ones to blame for Him being born in the flesh, we are the ones to blame for Him living a life in the midst of this sinful condition, we are the ones to blame for Him laying down His own life by being nailed to the cross and hanging there in pain until He breathed His last. After all, we see in our Gospel reading for today that Christ was tempted and He DIDN’T fall. He didn’t make the wrong choice, give into the devil, or disobey the Father. He didn’t sin. The only human being to ever not sin, is the one who dies for the price of all sins. We are the ones to blame, the ones at fault, and deserve absolutely none of the credit or praise.
Jesus Christ our Lord, who allowed Himself to be tempted by the devil to prove He would live the perfect life we never could, Jesus Christ our Lord, who gave His up His perfect life as the sacrifice for all the sins He never committed, the sacrifice for all the sins we committed, He is the one and only one who deserves the credit and the praise. He alone deserves the credit and praise for our life we have in Him, because it is by His actions alone we can ever claim to be righteous or holy. St. Paul continues in the Epistle lesson by saying, “Therefore , as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to the justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” See Christ could not have been the atoning sacrifice to pay the price for all sins, if He had not been obedient. If He had not resisted the devil’s temptations and fallen into sin, He would not have been the unblemished lamb that would be the perfect sacrifice. Christ lived a perfect life resisting the devil, remaining obedient to the Father, knowing this was the only way He could truly pay the price for all sins. This one man’s obedience is how the many will be made righteous. Through the perfect obedient life of Christ, through His atoning death, and His victorious resurrection, now you have been made righteous. Your forgiveness for all those sins you have committed, your forgiveness of your original sin you inherited, your holiness and righteousness your salvation, and your eternal life all are because of Christ the Lord who remained obedient and paid the price for you. He alone is the one who deserves the credit. He alone is the one who is worthy of the praise. All credit and praise be to the one who never sinned, but took away all sin of the world with His perfect and precious life.
In the name of our Savior who is to credit for our righteousness and salvation, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
This last weekend was crazy busy, but I survived the youth lock-in. I ended up covered in chocolate sauce by the kids, but got my revenge when I got to wake them up at 5:45 in the morning by yelling as loud as I could and pulling their blankets off. Then we went to the state dart ball tournament which was a blast. I got on base twice and even had a home run but we ended up losing to tie for fifth. Still a great day of fun. Then Sunday, everything went well with my first services all by myself at Mt. Calvary. I have done other services all by myself but this was the first time here.
I did hear from my field work supervisor that he hasn't retired yet and should still be there when I get back. I am glad about that because I look forward to another year of working beside him and continuing to build our relationship.
Here is my sermon from Sunday, enjoy:
Grace Mercy and Peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our sermon this morning focuses in on the Gospel reading from Matthew Chapter 4 the temptation of Jesus, but our focus text comes from the Epistle reading of Romans chapter 5 verses 18 and 19, “Therefore , as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to the justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”
When I played football in high school I played offensive lineman – big surprise right?! I loved being a lineman, especially being center because got to touch the ball every play. But one thing I had to learn very quickly is that as an offensive lineman, you will get blamed much more often than you will get praised. I can remember one game in the first half the line was playing terrible, myself included. The coach took a timeout to come chew us out, and as he was yelling at us I leaned back from the huddle and realized the entire crowd of fans was yelling negative insults at us linemen as well. Second half, we came out, turn things around and our offense was back to making big plays and scoring. We won the game, but afterward all I heard was, “Man that line almost cost us the game tonight” or “It is a good thing our running back is good enough to play without a line blocking for him”. All we got was the blame for the first half, not the credit for the second half.
I assume there are times we have all felt this way. Maybe at work you make a mistake and get blamed for messing up the whole project, so you work twice as hard to fix it but somebody else still gets the credit. Times when you feel like no matter how hard you try, you are only seen as the one at fault instead of getting the credit you feel you deserve.
In our Old Testament reading for today, we heard the account of the fall of Adam and Eve. This is a story we are taught from a very young age. In order to know why we believe in Jesus, why we need Jesus as our Lord, we have to know the story of the fall. The reason our entire world and all of creation is in the sinful state that it is in, goes back to the garden and those two bites of fruit that would change everything for the rest of time. As Lutheran’s we believe in original sin that goes back to Adam and Eve. Sermons will reference the garden or the fall in the garden trying to preach the whole council of God. This part of humanities story cannot be ignored because it was such a defining moment. It brought sin into our world, and with that sin came all the pain and suffering, tears and grieving, and death. Looking at the curses God gives to Eve and Adam, we see pain in childbearing, jealously, pride, hard work, sweat, and death. All of this, along with all other curses and symptoms of sin, entered our world because the first two humans disobeyed God and fell into sin, pulling all of humanity and creation down with them.
Now it is very easy for us to quickly put the blame on Adam and Eve. They are the ones who brought sin into the world. If they hadn’t fallen we would still be living in the paradise of the garden. We would still have God walking among us and there would be no pain, suffering, pride, jealousy, mourning, or death. The world would still be perfect if they could have just followed that one rule. I mean after all they only had one rule to follow and they couldn’t even do that. It is entirely their fault that we have to suffer because they made one wrong choice. Adam and Eve are to blame.
Or maybe you are willing to forgive Adam and Eve for their slip up, but you blame the devil. If he wouldn’t have tempted Adam and Eve, they would have never fallen. If he wouldn’t have fallen away from God himself first, he would have been evil and wouldn’t have caused all of mankind to fall too. The devil should have remained a good faithful angel and then we would have never had any of these problems. It is entirely the devil’s fault for rebelling against God, tempting Adam and Eve, and bringing sin into the world. The devil is to blame.
Or maybe you even go so far as to blame God. If He would have destroyed the devil as soon as he rebelled, he wouldn’t have been able to tempt Adam and Eve and sin would have never come into our world. If God is all knowing, He had to know the devil would tempt Adam and Eve and they would fall into sin, so why did He let this happen? Why did He let the devil live even after his rebellion, why did he let the devil in the garden to tempt Adam and Eve? Why did He even create the devil in the first place? If God really is all knowing, He had to know the devil would rebel before He even created him, so why did He create him? God knew the devil would become evil and rebel and tempt Adam and Eve and cause them to fall into sin and bring the entire creation into a fallen sinful condition, and He let it all happen. God is to blame for all of this.
However, as we are in the season of Lent, which is a penitential season, maybe this would be a good time to stop trying to blame others and examine the sin of our own life. When we look at our own life, do we really have any right at all to even begin to try to play the blame game? Yes, Adam and Eve sinned first. Yes, through original sin their sinfulness is inherited by all humans. Yes, the devil tempted them and led them into sin. Yes, God knew this all would happen and allowed it to happen. However, God created the devil, Adam and Eve all as good creatures. After He had finished creation, it was all good. The devil rebelled, we are not told how or why but he started as a good angel like all the other angels. Yes the devil tempted Adam and Eve, but God gave them the gift of free will which allowed them to choose whether they would remain faithful to God, or disobey and fall into sin. He made the one command He gave them very clear and told them the consequences of what would happen if they did break the command. The devil tempted them, but they made the choice on their own to listen to him. They chose to break the command knowing full well they were not supposed to. So Adam and Eve sinned first, but can you say with full confidence that if you had been put in their position you would not have fallen? The point is God did allow it to happen, the devil did tempt them, and they did break the command and fall into sin. Stop blaming them! Stop letting your pride puff you up into thinking you would have done the right thing had you been there. In this penitential season of lent, stop trying to figure out why you are a sinner, and admit that you are indeed a sinner. Admit that you are a sinful being, yes because of original sin, but even more so because of the fact that you sin each and every day. In Romans where St. Paul says all sin came into the world through one man, he continues with and so death spread to all men because ALL sinned. We are all sinners and we are all to blame that sin exists in the world. That is what this season of the church year is for; it is set aside for the special purpose of truly reflecting and examining your own life and realizing how much a terrible, rotten, and filthy sinner you truly are. Stop pointing your finger at others and look at yourself, look at your own life, and confess your sins that you know you are guilty of.
We are to blame. We are the ones who deserve no credit but purely the fault. It is your sins, and your sins, and your sins, and your sins, and my sins that put our Lord on the cross. He died to pay for the sins of Adam and Eve, all the Israelites, the Pharisees and scribes, the disciples, but even more importantly He died to pay for the sins of you and of me. We are the ones to blame for Him being born in the flesh, we are the ones to blame for Him living a life in the midst of this sinful condition, we are the ones to blame for Him laying down His own life by being nailed to the cross and hanging there in pain until He breathed His last. After all, we see in our Gospel reading for today that Christ was tempted and He DIDN’T fall. He didn’t make the wrong choice, give into the devil, or disobey the Father. He didn’t sin. The only human being to ever not sin, is the one who dies for the price of all sins. We are the ones to blame, the ones at fault, and deserve absolutely none of the credit or praise.
Jesus Christ our Lord, who allowed Himself to be tempted by the devil to prove He would live the perfect life we never could, Jesus Christ our Lord, who gave His up His perfect life as the sacrifice for all the sins He never committed, the sacrifice for all the sins we committed, He is the one and only one who deserves the credit and the praise. He alone deserves the credit and praise for our life we have in Him, because it is by His actions alone we can ever claim to be righteous or holy. St. Paul continues in the Epistle lesson by saying, “Therefore , as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to the justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” See Christ could not have been the atoning sacrifice to pay the price for all sins, if He had not been obedient. If He had not resisted the devil’s temptations and fallen into sin, He would not have been the unblemished lamb that would be the perfect sacrifice. Christ lived a perfect life resisting the devil, remaining obedient to the Father, knowing this was the only way He could truly pay the price for all sins. This one man’s obedience is how the many will be made righteous. Through the perfect obedient life of Christ, through His atoning death, and His victorious resurrection, now you have been made righteous. Your forgiveness for all those sins you have committed, your forgiveness of your original sin you inherited, your holiness and righteousness your salvation, and your eternal life all are because of Christ the Lord who remained obedient and paid the price for you. He alone is the one who deserves the credit. He alone is the one who is worthy of the praise. All credit and praise be to the one who never sinned, but took away all sin of the world with His perfect and precious life.
In the name of our Savior who is to credit for our righteousness and salvation, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Ash Wednesday
Greetings in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I would love to write a huge long post and fill you all in on everything going on around here, but I simply do not have time. The past two days have been stressful but still rewarding. Tuesday, Pastor got very sick with the stomach flu. So I went out and made his shut in calls which I was happy to do because I love going on calls like that, but it meant over half my day was filled up. Then we had a prayer service at the visitation Tuesday night, but pastor was still sick so I ended up doing that by myself. It was a good experience and felt good to be there for the family. However, then I was worried pastor would still be sick on Wednesday and I would end up having to do the funeral by myself too. We also got 8 inches of snow Tuesday night. So yesterday I got up early to runt he snow blower over the church side walks because I figured the guy who we hire to do it wouldn't get it done before the funeral. However, he had already been there by six and done it. So I did my own driveway and sidewalks. As I was taking the snow blower back, pastor was out scooping his driveway. I was glad to see he felt better. We had the funeral and the luncheon. Then Pastor Naazs who was the pastor here before Pastor Wurm came back for the funeral. I got to spend a week with him last July before he had his retirement service and moved away. So we visited with him for quite awhile which was nice. Then I burnt the palm branches from last year for the ashes for Ash Wednesday.
Luckily it was test day for my confirmation class so that was easy enough. Then I spent a couple hours finalizing my sermon before we had church. Church was packed with 170 people. It was awesome to see the church that full and hear so many voices sing so loud. My sermon went pretty well I think. The crazy thing is, this is just the start to an extremely busy Lent season. Good thing Christ is the Lord of all and the one actually in charge of making everything go round and all I am doing is just serving Him.
Here is my sermon from last night, first one in my series on the penitential psalms.
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text for tonight is from Psalm 6 which we read responsively, specifically verses 4 and 5 which read, “Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love. For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?”
I think there are Christians out there that think just because we are Christians means death is supposed to be no big deal. They think we shouldn’t cry at funerals, be sad at the loss of a loved one, or worry about our own death. In my mind, this is a misunderstanding. Death exists in our world and sooner or later we all must face it and deal with it. “Death respects no one!” Death doesn’t care if you are Christian or not, if you are wealthy or poor, healthy or sick, death comes to everyone no matter who you are. Death respects no one! Death is an ever present reality that is just part of our world.
Death was not part of God’s original creation and it was not part of His plan. He did not want it to be a part of our lives. However, when we fell into sin, we brought death into this world. St. Paul says in Romans 6 that “the wages of sin is death.” So because we live in a sinful world, we live in a world that includes death. And death is an enemy. It is an enemy of God, and it is an enemy to us. Death causes us pain and grieving. We had a funeral here this very morning and the tears running down the faces of the family showed the pain and grief. We see at the death of Moses the Israelites mourn for thirty days. Even Jesus weeps at the death of His friend Lazarus. Death causes pain and it is OK to cry, it is OK to mourn at death. Death also causes us fear. In Hebrews 2, the author states that “all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” We are captive to slavery because of our fear of death. We know it is out there lurking around every corner, just waiting to strike. Because we do not know how or when death will come to us, it is out of our control, and that’s what scares us. We live in fear of death because it is an enemy. Unless Christ comes back first, we will continue to deal with the death.
Now the reason the reason these Christians think we are not supposed to be sad is because they know the Gospel truth. They know death is not the end. They know that in God’s plan of salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, we have life after death. In Romans 6 where St. Paul says the wages of sin is death, he continues that same sentence by adding, “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In Hebrews 2, the author adds, “that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” We have been set free from this slavery of the fear of death, because we have the free gift of eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ. Death no longer has dominion over us. And yet, the death of loved ones still is a cause of pain and mourning. It still hurts to lose a loved one. That is because death has been defeated, but not abolished. And yet part of that Gospel truth that we know there is life after death, we also know death will one day be abolished. We know that on that Final day, when Christ comes back, there will be no more death. Jesus Himself tells us in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” In 1 Corinthians 15, St. Paul says that when the mortal puts on the immortal, then shall come to pass the saying, “Death is swallowed up in victory, O death, where is thy victory, O death where is thy sting?” And in Revelation we see John describing powerful image of God with His people in chapter 21 “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Death will be no more, and every tear will be wiped from their eyes. Death has been defeated, there is life after death, and death will be abolished, death shall be no more.
The problem with taking this attitude of thinking death is supposed to be no big deal, is that it ignores the fact that death is an enemy. If death is no big deal, if death is not an enemy to God’s plan, then it makes it seem like it is a good thing, like it is supposed to be part of God’s plan. If death is what gets us to Heaven, then we should want our death to come so we can get to heaven sooner right? If death leads to the perfection of the presence of our Lord, then death come to me now? Well, when we look at our text for this evening, we see that is not what David is saying. In Psalm 6, specifically verse 5, David says, “For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?” David is languishing and troubled; his foes surround him and have heard his weeping. He fears his death is upon him as his enemies get closer and closer. He is in such distress that he floods his bed with tears and drenches his couch with weeping. Now he might be exaggerating a little here, but I do think that of the many times David had to flee from either King Saul, or his son Absalom, or any of the others; that as he literally fled for the safety of his own life, he probably cried. David is staring death in the face; he is confronted by the fact that because he is a sinful human being, death will come to him. Did David not know the Gospel truth of eternal life? I mean Christ comes after David is already dead, so how could He know that Christ would say, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” Was David afraid of death because he didn’t understand the salvation includes eternal life?
No, David knew the Gospel message very well. We can see that in the numerous ways he explain his salvation in all the psalms he writes. He states that the Lord is his refuge, the one who fills his cup, the one who anoints his head and so on. David knew his salvation was in his God, and the promise of the Savior who was to come. David is not flooding his bed and drenching his couch because he is scared there is no life after death, he is weeping and languished because he knows death is an enemy and that he still has more to do in this life on this earth. David knows every day in this world is a gift, an opportunity to serve his God. That is what he is saying in verse 5. If I die, I am not here to remind the people of Israel all that you have done for them. If I am delivered to Sheol, which is where all the souls of the dead were believed to go in the Old Testament, how can I continue to praise you? He is not scared of the afterlife; he is scared of not having the chance to continue to serve God in this life on earth. It is the same dilemma we see Paul struggle with in Philippians 1, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me….. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.” David and Paul both know that yes, death means they get to be in the presence of God, no more pain, no more suffering, no more tears; however, that also means they no longer have the ability to serve God, to remind others of the Gospel truth they know is certain. To die is to gain the perfection of heaven in the presence of our Lord with no more pain, tears, or sin, but to live is to still have the opportunity to serve and praise God in this life.
So if both King David and St. Paul struggled with this, what are we supposed to do with it? Well, we do the same thing David does in verse 4. We ask God to deliver our lives, and to save us for the sake of His steadfast love. We ask God to bless us with as many days as possible on this earth. We ask God to continue to give us more time here in the flesh, knowing that each and every day truly is a gift. We long to be here serving our neighbor, serving God, and praising Him who continues to give us this life. As Christians we have the Gospel truth that we do indeed have life after death. The perfection of the presence of our Lord is guaranteed, it is there waiting for us, and we will certainly have that eternal life with no more pain, no more tears, no more sin one day. However, we still have this life here on this earth as a gift; we still have work to do here. Each and every day we life on this earth is a gift and an opportunity to serve our neighbor. It is a gift to be able to serve and praise Him who gives us this life. We pray death is a long ways off, appreciating the chance to continue to live this life sharing that Gospel message we know it true. And then when death does come to us, we gain that Gospel truth we already knew. We live life being steadfast, immovable knowing our labor is not in vain. We go make disciples of all nations teaching and sharing the Word of God, sharing that Gospel truth we already know. So as we journey through this Lenten season, knowing that we are sinners who are not worthy, we remember that God has given us the gift of life! Both this life here on this earth, and the life that is to come for all eternity.
Luckily it was test day for my confirmation class so that was easy enough. Then I spent a couple hours finalizing my sermon before we had church. Church was packed with 170 people. It was awesome to see the church that full and hear so many voices sing so loud. My sermon went pretty well I think. The crazy thing is, this is just the start to an extremely busy Lent season. Good thing Christ is the Lord of all and the one actually in charge of making everything go round and all I am doing is just serving Him.
Here is my sermon from last night, first one in my series on the penitential psalms.
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text for tonight is from Psalm 6 which we read responsively, specifically verses 4 and 5 which read, “Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love. For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?”
I think there are Christians out there that think just because we are Christians means death is supposed to be no big deal. They think we shouldn’t cry at funerals, be sad at the loss of a loved one, or worry about our own death. In my mind, this is a misunderstanding. Death exists in our world and sooner or later we all must face it and deal with it. “Death respects no one!” Death doesn’t care if you are Christian or not, if you are wealthy or poor, healthy or sick, death comes to everyone no matter who you are. Death respects no one! Death is an ever present reality that is just part of our world.
Death was not part of God’s original creation and it was not part of His plan. He did not want it to be a part of our lives. However, when we fell into sin, we brought death into this world. St. Paul says in Romans 6 that “the wages of sin is death.” So because we live in a sinful world, we live in a world that includes death. And death is an enemy. It is an enemy of God, and it is an enemy to us. Death causes us pain and grieving. We had a funeral here this very morning and the tears running down the faces of the family showed the pain and grief. We see at the death of Moses the Israelites mourn for thirty days. Even Jesus weeps at the death of His friend Lazarus. Death causes pain and it is OK to cry, it is OK to mourn at death. Death also causes us fear. In Hebrews 2, the author states that “all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” We are captive to slavery because of our fear of death. We know it is out there lurking around every corner, just waiting to strike. Because we do not know how or when death will come to us, it is out of our control, and that’s what scares us. We live in fear of death because it is an enemy. Unless Christ comes back first, we will continue to deal with the death.
Now the reason the reason these Christians think we are not supposed to be sad is because they know the Gospel truth. They know death is not the end. They know that in God’s plan of salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, we have life after death. In Romans 6 where St. Paul says the wages of sin is death, he continues that same sentence by adding, “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In Hebrews 2, the author adds, “that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” We have been set free from this slavery of the fear of death, because we have the free gift of eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ. Death no longer has dominion over us. And yet, the death of loved ones still is a cause of pain and mourning. It still hurts to lose a loved one. That is because death has been defeated, but not abolished. And yet part of that Gospel truth that we know there is life after death, we also know death will one day be abolished. We know that on that Final day, when Christ comes back, there will be no more death. Jesus Himself tells us in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” In 1 Corinthians 15, St. Paul says that when the mortal puts on the immortal, then shall come to pass the saying, “Death is swallowed up in victory, O death, where is thy victory, O death where is thy sting?” And in Revelation we see John describing powerful image of God with His people in chapter 21 “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Death will be no more, and every tear will be wiped from their eyes. Death has been defeated, there is life after death, and death will be abolished, death shall be no more.
The problem with taking this attitude of thinking death is supposed to be no big deal, is that it ignores the fact that death is an enemy. If death is no big deal, if death is not an enemy to God’s plan, then it makes it seem like it is a good thing, like it is supposed to be part of God’s plan. If death is what gets us to Heaven, then we should want our death to come so we can get to heaven sooner right? If death leads to the perfection of the presence of our Lord, then death come to me now? Well, when we look at our text for this evening, we see that is not what David is saying. In Psalm 6, specifically verse 5, David says, “For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?” David is languishing and troubled; his foes surround him and have heard his weeping. He fears his death is upon him as his enemies get closer and closer. He is in such distress that he floods his bed with tears and drenches his couch with weeping. Now he might be exaggerating a little here, but I do think that of the many times David had to flee from either King Saul, or his son Absalom, or any of the others; that as he literally fled for the safety of his own life, he probably cried. David is staring death in the face; he is confronted by the fact that because he is a sinful human being, death will come to him. Did David not know the Gospel truth of eternal life? I mean Christ comes after David is already dead, so how could He know that Christ would say, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” Was David afraid of death because he didn’t understand the salvation includes eternal life?
No, David knew the Gospel message very well. We can see that in the numerous ways he explain his salvation in all the psalms he writes. He states that the Lord is his refuge, the one who fills his cup, the one who anoints his head and so on. David knew his salvation was in his God, and the promise of the Savior who was to come. David is not flooding his bed and drenching his couch because he is scared there is no life after death, he is weeping and languished because he knows death is an enemy and that he still has more to do in this life on this earth. David knows every day in this world is a gift, an opportunity to serve his God. That is what he is saying in verse 5. If I die, I am not here to remind the people of Israel all that you have done for them. If I am delivered to Sheol, which is where all the souls of the dead were believed to go in the Old Testament, how can I continue to praise you? He is not scared of the afterlife; he is scared of not having the chance to continue to serve God in this life on earth. It is the same dilemma we see Paul struggle with in Philippians 1, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me….. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.” David and Paul both know that yes, death means they get to be in the presence of God, no more pain, no more suffering, no more tears; however, that also means they no longer have the ability to serve God, to remind others of the Gospel truth they know is certain. To die is to gain the perfection of heaven in the presence of our Lord with no more pain, tears, or sin, but to live is to still have the opportunity to serve and praise God in this life.
So if both King David and St. Paul struggled with this, what are we supposed to do with it? Well, we do the same thing David does in verse 4. We ask God to deliver our lives, and to save us for the sake of His steadfast love. We ask God to bless us with as many days as possible on this earth. We ask God to continue to give us more time here in the flesh, knowing that each and every day truly is a gift. We long to be here serving our neighbor, serving God, and praising Him who continues to give us this life. As Christians we have the Gospel truth that we do indeed have life after death. The perfection of the presence of our Lord is guaranteed, it is there waiting for us, and we will certainly have that eternal life with no more pain, no more tears, no more sin one day. However, we still have this life here on this earth as a gift; we still have work to do here. Each and every day we life on this earth is a gift and an opportunity to serve our neighbor. It is a gift to be able to serve and praise Him who gives us this life. We pray death is a long ways off, appreciating the chance to continue to live this life sharing that Gospel message we know it true. And then when death does come to us, we gain that Gospel truth we already knew. We live life being steadfast, immovable knowing our labor is not in vain. We go make disciples of all nations teaching and sharing the Word of God, sharing that Gospel truth we already know. So as we journey through this Lenten season, knowing that we are sinners who are not worthy, we remember that God has given us the gift of life! Both this life here on this earth, and the life that is to come for all eternity.
In the name of the one who gives us this gift of life, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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