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Showing posts with the label Trinity XXII

Sermon - Trinity XIII, 2026 - 2 Chronicles 28:8-15

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The Good Samaritan, Joseph Highmore, 1744   God’s People are Those Who Have Faith in Him We typically think my people are those who are like me externally History of the two kingdoms The Faithful Remnant of Samaria was more faithful than Judah We are God’s people through faith The lawyer asked Jesus: “ Who is my neighbor? ” That’s another way of asking: “Who are my people?” We ask this question because like prefers like and we want to love those people who are like us more than we love those who are not like us. This is a generally true principle in many facets of life. We do this in mostly playful ways with sports, where we greatly prefer our team which we identify with and we do not like the rival teams. This happens more seriously between countries, sometimes even to the point of war. This happens with some seriousness between political parties, sometimes leading to political assassinations. This happens in families when one family member defends another even through criminal be...
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Sermon - Trinity XXII 2022 - Matthew 18:21-35

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Parable of the Unforgiving Servant,  Claude Vignon, 1629 The Abundance of God’s Grace God’s forgiveness is boundless Our forgiveness must also be boundless As we approach the end of the church year we begin to think about the end times and the last day when Christ shall return to judge the earth. Whenever you are nearing the end of any long and difficult project you need two things: encouragement and sobriety. You need encouragement so that you don’t give up and quit. You need sobriety so that you don’t get sloppy and ruin everything. Since the end of this life is so near Christ does those two things for us: He encourages us and He warns us to keep us sober. Jesus assures us of His grace, and He warns us of dangers that may lead us astray from His grace. Indeed, today is about the abundance of God’s grace , and so we’re encouraged to hear that God’s forgiveness is boundless, and we’re warned that our forgiveness must also be boundless. This is a crucial reminder for us Christians i...
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Sermon - Trinity 22, 2020 - Matthew 18:21-35

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There’s a lot of talk about debt in our lives. We talk about the $27 trillion US national debt, the student loan debt, credit card debt, mortgages and car loans. Politicians use debt as a means to get you to vote for them, promising to lower your debts. Men like Dave Ramsey are very popular because they give common sense advice to help people get out from under their debt.  But Jesus today talks to us about a different kind of debt, a debt due to our sin. “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.” That debtor who owed the master 10,000 talents, that’s us! It’s not an insignificant debt, either. One talent is the equivalent to 20 years’ wages. Thus, a debt of 10,000 talents is the equivalent to owing 200,000 year’s worth of wages. It’s an impossibly huge burden from which you could never hope to escape. No politician could make that kin...
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