Saturday I slept in, did some house chores I was behind on, and just spent some time relaxing and trying to catch up on rest from the week before. It was a beautiful day though so I went for a drive in the country. In St. Louis I find there are times where I get homesick and almost depressed because I can't just go drive gravel roads with my windows down and see nature and fields and farms. So I went for a drive and enjoyed being in a rural area. I also walked some of our hunting grounds looking for shed antlers, but didn't find any. Then Sunday morning we had sunrise service at 6:30 A.M. The youth served breakfast at 8 and then we have second service at 9:30. We had trumpets and trombones playing with the organist which I absolutely love. It was an extremely joyful service with the beautiful Easter hymns I have been craving for awhile now.
Then I headed home and saw the nephews, Tim, JoAnna, Grandma, and Mom and Dad. It was good to be home even if it was just for such a short time. Then yesterday I drove back up north. We had two softball games yesterday. I sat one because we had too many players, but then played the second one and actually played really well. I love softball and can't wait to hopefully one day be in one place all summer so I can join a league.
Today it's back to work, but much more relaxed and stress free as I do my normal stuff and try to work ahead for VBS and such. Nonetheless, Easter is not over and the joy of Easter continues on into every day as we know and always know our Lord is Risen and living!
Here is my Maundy Thursday Sermon and then I will try to get my two Tre Ore sermons up here this week too. Enjoy:
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text for this evening is Psalm 143, looking specifically at verses 9 through 12:
“9 Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord! I have fled to you for refuge. 10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground! 11 For your name's sake, O Lord, preserve my life! In your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble! 12 And in your steadfast love you will cut off my enemies, and you will destroy all the adversaries of my soul, for I am your servant.”
In the Wartburg Castle, there is a dark stain on the wall in the room where Luther spent his days studying. It is said that Luther threw the ink jar at the Devil who was in the room with him, and the ink jar hit the wall, broke, and left an ink stain that is still there today. Now it is never officially documented anywhere that this is where the stain actually came from. However, Luther did believe and make it very clear that the Devil is constantly around us, tempting us, taunting us, and trying to get us to fall. Both Luther’s morning and evening prayer include the line, “that the evil foe may have no power over us.” Luther knew exactly how dangerous the foe, or the Devil is in our lives.
In our psalm for tonight, our psalmist is also dealing with the foe or the enemy, and he feels completely surrounded, trapped, and crushed by this enemy. In verse three he states, “For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead.” The psalmist is crying out to God for refuge from this enemy that has his crushed and sitting in darkness.
However, I feel that many of you probably do not feel this way on a regular basis. Do you often feel like you are surrounded by the enemy, trapped by his presence, and crushed by his pursuit of your soul? Do you ever feel like the devil is in the room standing right there beside you? In my mind, one of the most dangerous things we as Christians in today’s world do is not acknowledge how real and present the Devil is around us. We know the Devil is an enemy and we know he is able to tempt us, but we don’t think of him as a constant enemy who is always right there lurking around us. We instead blame ourselves for the times when we find ourselves too weak to resist his temptations. We think we are the problem. If I was just stronger in my faith, if I was a more pious person, if I worked harder to fix my bad habits, if I wouldn’t let myself keep making the same old mistakes, I would not give into MY temptations so much. We don’t even acknowledge that the temptation comes from the Devil, but rather simply our sinful nature.
We need to take a lesson from our psalmist and from Luther and realize we are at war, a very real spiritual war. And we are fighting a real enemy. A real enemy who is right there in the room with us, tempting us, whispering doubts and lies in our ears. I am not ashamed to admit I actually have had times much like Luther where the devil’s presence was so strong I swear I could have actually reached out and grabbed him standing right there beside me. I have yelled out loud at the devil to leave me alone. And there have been times where as soon as I fell to the temptation I knew he was standing right there beside me, smiling from ear to ear. I actually have described this to one of my friends before, but every time the devil tempts me to fall into one of those old sins I commit over and over again, even though I know they are wrong, he gets me again, and I can just picture him kicking his feet up laying back in a big easy chair with a big cigar in his hand, smiling and chuckling, and saying to himself, that was too easy. It’s too easy to get you sinners to sin. Except there is one mistake with this picture. The devil never rests, not for one second. You see the devil knows his time is limited here on earth, he knows if he truly wants to do as much damage as he possibly can with the short time he has, he can never stop, he can never rest, he must work 24 – 7 – 365! The devil is our enemy who is always around us, lurking around every corner, waiting for our weakness to show, waiting for us to give him an opportunity when he knows his strike will hit. And our biggest mistake is to pretend he isn’t there, or ignore the fact that he is a true enemy trying to destroy us.
To make matters worse, notice in verse 9 the psalmist switches from the enemy to enemies in the plural. The Devil is our real enemy, but the world around us who hates us for Christ name sake, sin, and death are also our enemies. The secular world, the illogical sin, and the ever presence of death are all as much of an enemy as the devil himself. People who bash Christians and persecute them are obviously an enemy, but so are the ones you may not expect. Maybe it’s a coworker who tries to get you to understand that his sinful lifestyle is actually OK because of the situation he is in. Maybe it is a close friend who tries to get you to forget your faith just for one night so you can have a little fun together. Maybe it is even a family member who isn’t in the faith and makes you choose between your faith or them. These are all real enemies who are either intentionally or possibly even unintentionally trying to lead you astray from your faith. Sin and death are also very real and extremely present enemies. Our sinful world that just never seems to make sense can cause us to doubt our faith or question God. An man who has never been a believer his whole life, but who drinks, smokes, cusses, and is mean to everyone lives a long healthy life, but the single mother who brings her children to church every Sunday and works two jobs to support them gets cancer. A drunk driver causes an accident and he walks away without a scratch, but the people in the other car that was hit are either killed or crippled for life. The loss of a loved one at a young age, or a child who dies as an infant. All of these things that seem to make no sense and have no answer other than sin and death exist in our world can cause us to wonder what God is really doing, is He even there, is He really in control or not?! And the devil will use these opportunities to whisper that much more in our ears, stir up our doubts, play off of our anger, let our emotions get the best of us. These are all enemies that face constantly in our world.
However, our psalmist teaches us how to handle these situations, how to handle all of these enemies. He cries out to God asking God to hear him, he acknowledges that the enemy is too great for him and has overpowered him, but he knows where his help comes from and he knows where his refuge is. In verse 9 the psalmist says, “Deliver me from my enemies, O LORD! I have fled to you for refuge.” God is the one who is able to rescue and deliver us from the enemy and his powers. God is our refuge where we find our relief. He is the one who in His steadfast love cuts off our enemies and destroys the adversaries of our souls.
God knew the devil would always be an enemy to us. From the very moment he tempted Adam and Eve and caused them to sin, God promised to take care of this enemy, God promised to send His Son to not only defeat this enemy, but ultimately destroy him. God kept that promise by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our refuge and deliverer. Jesus was tempted by the devil Himself in His life, but unlike us who fall to the lies and temptations, Christ did not. Christ used the Word to overpower the Devil and resist His temptation. Christ lived an entire life of resisted the devil. He also resisted the other enemies of sin, the world, and death. When the Pharisees and scribes tried to cause Him to stumble with trick questions, He outsmarted them and remained faithful every time. When the illogical sin of this world presented itself, Jesus showed His power over sin by healing the lame, curing the sick, and forgiving them all of their sins. When death took its turn by taking Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, Christ showed His power over death by calling Lazarus back to life with His Word. Then when the devil, the world, sin, and death all joined forces for one final attempt to get rid of Jesus by having one of His one own disciples betray Him, soldiers arrest Him, the Chief priests falsely accuse Him, all of them beat and mock Him, before finally nailing Him to a cross to kill Him, Christ showed His ultimate power over all the enemies of this world. He did die and it looked like for a short time the enemies had won. But Christ did defeat them, He did overcome them all by rising from the dead three days later. He has defeated them, He has the power over all of them, the devil, the world, sin, and death, all enemies we will ever face, Christ has defeated and has control over. And one day He will lock them all up and they will be gone forever, never to tempt us or harm us again. Christ is our deliverer, He is our refuge because by His death and resurrection He shower His power and authority over all of our enemies.
Christ is our refuge and our deliverer, but how does this help us when He is in heaven sitting on His throne and we are done here in the battle zone? Well, Christ is not distant, and He has not left us here to fight on our own. He has given us His Holy Spirit to remain in us to give us the strength we need, He gives us His Word to read and be strengthen and to use both as armor and as a sword. And He even gives us Himself. On the first Maundy Thursday when He spoke the words of Institution to His disciples, the very same words we will hear here shortly in our service, He gives us His true Body and Blood in with the bread and wine, for the forgiveness of sins and for the strengthening of our faith. He forgives us of all the times we have been weak and fallen to the enemies temptations, and He gives us Himself in us to prepare us and strengthen us for the next round of battle. By having His Holy Spirit in us, keeping us in the faith, keeping our baptism alive in us, by giving us His Word to hear and be strengthened in our faith, and by giving us His actual body and blood in His Holy Supper, He is our refuge that gives us the strength to remain in the faith, to cling to Him in times of weakness, and to have the power of His Word to use against our evil enemies. He is our refuge and our deliverer who is with us, protecting us, keeping strong in the faith, not letting the enemies overpower us.
As St. Paul writes in our Epistle for tonight, “If God is for us, who can be against us.” We have the almighty, all powerful, one true God on our side, it doesn’t matter what enemy is lined up against us on the other side, he has already lost! Nothing can separate us from the love of God, because through the death and resurrection our of Lord Jesus Christ, He has defeated all enemies. And by the power of His Spirit, His Word, and His Body and Blood, He is our refuge who is ever present, ever with you, always protecting you, forgiving you, keeping you strong in the one true faith, until the day He calls you home. Christ is your refuge, remain in Him, cling to Him and no enemy of this world can ever harm you!
In the name of our refuge and our deliverer, Jesus Christ, Amen.
In our psalm for tonight, our psalmist is also dealing with the foe or the enemy, and he feels completely surrounded, trapped, and crushed by this enemy. In verse three he states, “For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead.” The psalmist is crying out to God for refuge from this enemy that has his crushed and sitting in darkness.
However, I feel that many of you probably do not feel this way on a regular basis. Do you often feel like you are surrounded by the enemy, trapped by his presence, and crushed by his pursuit of your soul? Do you ever feel like the devil is in the room standing right there beside you? In my mind, one of the most dangerous things we as Christians in today’s world do is not acknowledge how real and present the Devil is around us. We know the Devil is an enemy and we know he is able to tempt us, but we don’t think of him as a constant enemy who is always right there lurking around us. We instead blame ourselves for the times when we find ourselves too weak to resist his temptations. We think we are the problem. If I was just stronger in my faith, if I was a more pious person, if I worked harder to fix my bad habits, if I wouldn’t let myself keep making the same old mistakes, I would not give into MY temptations so much. We don’t even acknowledge that the temptation comes from the Devil, but rather simply our sinful nature.
We need to take a lesson from our psalmist and from Luther and realize we are at war, a very real spiritual war. And we are fighting a real enemy. A real enemy who is right there in the room with us, tempting us, whispering doubts and lies in our ears. I am not ashamed to admit I actually have had times much like Luther where the devil’s presence was so strong I swear I could have actually reached out and grabbed him standing right there beside me. I have yelled out loud at the devil to leave me alone. And there have been times where as soon as I fell to the temptation I knew he was standing right there beside me, smiling from ear to ear. I actually have described this to one of my friends before, but every time the devil tempts me to fall into one of those old sins I commit over and over again, even though I know they are wrong, he gets me again, and I can just picture him kicking his feet up laying back in a big easy chair with a big cigar in his hand, smiling and chuckling, and saying to himself, that was too easy. It’s too easy to get you sinners to sin. Except there is one mistake with this picture. The devil never rests, not for one second. You see the devil knows his time is limited here on earth, he knows if he truly wants to do as much damage as he possibly can with the short time he has, he can never stop, he can never rest, he must work 24 – 7 – 365! The devil is our enemy who is always around us, lurking around every corner, waiting for our weakness to show, waiting for us to give him an opportunity when he knows his strike will hit. And our biggest mistake is to pretend he isn’t there, or ignore the fact that he is a true enemy trying to destroy us.
To make matters worse, notice in verse 9 the psalmist switches from the enemy to enemies in the plural. The Devil is our real enemy, but the world around us who hates us for Christ name sake, sin, and death are also our enemies. The secular world, the illogical sin, and the ever presence of death are all as much of an enemy as the devil himself. People who bash Christians and persecute them are obviously an enemy, but so are the ones you may not expect. Maybe it’s a coworker who tries to get you to understand that his sinful lifestyle is actually OK because of the situation he is in. Maybe it is a close friend who tries to get you to forget your faith just for one night so you can have a little fun together. Maybe it is even a family member who isn’t in the faith and makes you choose between your faith or them. These are all real enemies who are either intentionally or possibly even unintentionally trying to lead you astray from your faith. Sin and death are also very real and extremely present enemies. Our sinful world that just never seems to make sense can cause us to doubt our faith or question God. An man who has never been a believer his whole life, but who drinks, smokes, cusses, and is mean to everyone lives a long healthy life, but the single mother who brings her children to church every Sunday and works two jobs to support them gets cancer. A drunk driver causes an accident and he walks away without a scratch, but the people in the other car that was hit are either killed or crippled for life. The loss of a loved one at a young age, or a child who dies as an infant. All of these things that seem to make no sense and have no answer other than sin and death exist in our world can cause us to wonder what God is really doing, is He even there, is He really in control or not?! And the devil will use these opportunities to whisper that much more in our ears, stir up our doubts, play off of our anger, let our emotions get the best of us. These are all enemies that face constantly in our world.
However, our psalmist teaches us how to handle these situations, how to handle all of these enemies. He cries out to God asking God to hear him, he acknowledges that the enemy is too great for him and has overpowered him, but he knows where his help comes from and he knows where his refuge is. In verse 9 the psalmist says, “Deliver me from my enemies, O LORD! I have fled to you for refuge.” God is the one who is able to rescue and deliver us from the enemy and his powers. God is our refuge where we find our relief. He is the one who in His steadfast love cuts off our enemies and destroys the adversaries of our souls.
God knew the devil would always be an enemy to us. From the very moment he tempted Adam and Eve and caused them to sin, God promised to take care of this enemy, God promised to send His Son to not only defeat this enemy, but ultimately destroy him. God kept that promise by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our refuge and deliverer. Jesus was tempted by the devil Himself in His life, but unlike us who fall to the lies and temptations, Christ did not. Christ used the Word to overpower the Devil and resist His temptation. Christ lived an entire life of resisted the devil. He also resisted the other enemies of sin, the world, and death. When the Pharisees and scribes tried to cause Him to stumble with trick questions, He outsmarted them and remained faithful every time. When the illogical sin of this world presented itself, Jesus showed His power over sin by healing the lame, curing the sick, and forgiving them all of their sins. When death took its turn by taking Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, Christ showed His power over death by calling Lazarus back to life with His Word. Then when the devil, the world, sin, and death all joined forces for one final attempt to get rid of Jesus by having one of His one own disciples betray Him, soldiers arrest Him, the Chief priests falsely accuse Him, all of them beat and mock Him, before finally nailing Him to a cross to kill Him, Christ showed His ultimate power over all the enemies of this world. He did die and it looked like for a short time the enemies had won. But Christ did defeat them, He did overcome them all by rising from the dead three days later. He has defeated them, He has the power over all of them, the devil, the world, sin, and death, all enemies we will ever face, Christ has defeated and has control over. And one day He will lock them all up and they will be gone forever, never to tempt us or harm us again. Christ is our deliverer, He is our refuge because by His death and resurrection He shower His power and authority over all of our enemies.
Christ is our refuge and our deliverer, but how does this help us when He is in heaven sitting on His throne and we are done here in the battle zone? Well, Christ is not distant, and He has not left us here to fight on our own. He has given us His Holy Spirit to remain in us to give us the strength we need, He gives us His Word to read and be strengthen and to use both as armor and as a sword. And He even gives us Himself. On the first Maundy Thursday when He spoke the words of Institution to His disciples, the very same words we will hear here shortly in our service, He gives us His true Body and Blood in with the bread and wine, for the forgiveness of sins and for the strengthening of our faith. He forgives us of all the times we have been weak and fallen to the enemies temptations, and He gives us Himself in us to prepare us and strengthen us for the next round of battle. By having His Holy Spirit in us, keeping us in the faith, keeping our baptism alive in us, by giving us His Word to hear and be strengthened in our faith, and by giving us His actual body and blood in His Holy Supper, He is our refuge that gives us the strength to remain in the faith, to cling to Him in times of weakness, and to have the power of His Word to use against our evil enemies. He is our refuge and our deliverer who is with us, protecting us, keeping strong in the faith, not letting the enemies overpower us.
As St. Paul writes in our Epistle for tonight, “If God is for us, who can be against us.” We have the almighty, all powerful, one true God on our side, it doesn’t matter what enemy is lined up against us on the other side, he has already lost! Nothing can separate us from the love of God, because through the death and resurrection our of Lord Jesus Christ, He has defeated all enemies. And by the power of His Spirit, His Word, and His Body and Blood, He is our refuge who is ever present, ever with you, always protecting you, forgiving you, keeping you strong in the one true faith, until the day He calls you home. Christ is your refuge, remain in Him, cling to Him and no enemy of this world can ever harm you!
In the name of our refuge and our deliverer, Jesus Christ, Amen.
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