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Sermon - Trinity III, 2026 - Luke 15

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The Return of the Prodigal Son , Pompeo Batoni, 1773 The Joy of God to Save the Sinner In compassion God atones for sinful man Yet God desires children who love Him, not servants, so He gives us freedom to get lost God’s compassion brings back the sinner crushed by sin God, the angels, and the church rejoices over every sinner saved We have no need of jealousy, for the sinner saved only receives what we have already also received by grace When the father saw his prodigal son returning, seeing his pitiable state, he had compassion for his child. Such is the compassion of God to seek and save sinful mankind. “ As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. ” St. Paul writes: “ God our Savior, desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all. ” Indeed, Jesus...
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Sermon - Midweek Advent II - Sola Fide

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Last week we spoke briefly about how the Lord saves us by forgiving our sins through Jesus Christ completely as a gift, so in a word, we spoke about grace. We are saved completely by grace, through no merit of our own, only by the free gift of God in Christ Jesus. But how is it that we receive the benefits of God’s grace? Faith. We are saved through faith in the promise of Jesus as the one who dies to give eternal life, not through our works, and yet our works are always present in faith. How is it that we have faith? Is it the result of our reasonableness? Or maybe the fruits of an emotional appeal? Not in the least! Faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit! The Lord, He works faith in our hearts to believe. No matter how reasonable or intelligent we might be, our faith has all to do with God creating and sustaining faith in our lives. So what is faith? The author of Hebrews sums it up, saying “ Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. ” Faith is m...
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Sermon - Advent 2 - Luke 21:25-36 - 2017

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The sound of a door opening and closing, of keys being hung on a hook, of large footsteps drawing near. When my son David hears those sounds, before he even sees my face I hear him call out “daddy!” as he gets up and runs to the door to greet me. He knows the signs of my coming, and with joy he looks forward to my arrival, at least for now.  But those signs of father coming home aren’t always met with joy. One winter afternoon while my dad was at an auction, I was throwing a ball around in the kitchen when it knocked an antique cookie jar off the soffit. My mom walked in the room and told me I’ll have to explain it to dad when he got home. So when the signs of his coming appeared, my only reaction was fear because I knew I was in trouble. Likewise the signs of the Son of Man coming again are everywhere! There are wars and rumors of wars with North Korea, Russia, the Islamic State. Our world is polluted with trash both on land, sea, and air. Mass killings are regularly in the n...
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Sermon - Midweek Advent I - Sola Gratia - 2017

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“ For from His fullness we have all received grace upon grace. ” “ By grace you have been saved. ” “ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” “ But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious. ”  During our three midweek Advent services this year we are going to be unpacking the three solas of the Reformation: grace alone, faith alone, scripture alone. If you haven’t figured it out yet, this evening we’re going to be unpacking the doctrine of grace, especially focusing on the fact that through Jesus Christ, we have found favor in the eyes of the Lord. America has a DIY, a do it yourself mentality. I’ll admit this is my general mentality for most things in life, I like undertaking projects that I can do. Part of this is fueled by my desire to have that feeling of accomplishment after I’ve spent 5 times longer working on the project than I was originally planning. Part of it’s fueled by the sense of adventure you get when problem solving and learning how to repair or bui...
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Sermon: Advent I - 2017

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“ And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! ” “ Behold, your King is coming to you. ” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ: we are just three short weeks away from Christmas beginning. Stores may have had their Christmas items out since before halloween, but now it’s December, Christmas is definitely coming. Thus with Christmas on the mind of our nation, what’s personally on your mind? Do visions of sugar-plums dance in your head? Or like many, is your mind preoccupied with matters you’d rather it not be? Instead of excitement, you feel only anxiety over the long to-do list. Instead of joy, you feel only loneliness. Instead of jubilation, you feel only sorrow about those who you can’t spend Christmas with. The only thing on your mind is that long illness, the winter blues, old memories you wish could be made new again. My dear friends, today marks ...
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