"The King is on His Way"

Mark 13:24–27 ²⁴[Jesus said:] “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, ²⁵and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. ²⁶And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

            How many look for the coming of the Lord, the King of the Jews, the Son of Man, the Christ?  Do you look at the clouds whenever there is an eclipse?  Most likely no one thinks of the second coming of Christ our King, no one really lives their lives or stays awake lying there and thinking the moment could be any second now.  Wait..., do you hear it?  POP!...  Nope, that was just pastor trying to give us special effects to get the point across. No, we live our lives as if Christ's coming is beyond our life span.  You know, in God's time, like this could be another twenty thousand years yet.  Of course sometimes God's timing is faster than we want it to be too.

            Mark 13:28–31²⁸“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. ²⁹So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. ³⁰Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. ³¹Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

            It could be in the spring, Christ coming again, of course not this next spring but one twenty thousand years from now.  Just speculating you know, no prophecy here, just a hopeful guess.  Mark gives us a double meaning here, "this generation" indicative to the generation at the time of Christ, and the generation of Christians living in the grace of God.  Are we asleep, do we live in our dreams, do we cling on hearing we are forgiven?  Let us not be like Sodom and Gomorra who fell asleep in their sin that lead to eternal death. It's not supposed to be that hard.

            Actually, it is supposed to be easy, we are brought into faith, Christ died for our sins, we're forgiven, and we are brought into believing. "pop!..." and we're saved.  There it is, we can go back to sleep now.  Remember to sin boldly because believers are saved.  We don't need to be awake per say Christ has got us covered.  Or, do we abide by our faith?

Romans 3:5-6 ⁵ But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) ⁶ By no means! For then how could God judge the world?

Romans 6:15-16 Slaves to Righteousness

¹⁵ What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

            God is our Father in heaven, Christ is our Savior who returns to collect what is His.  God gave us to the care of Jesus, which was carried out through Christ being with us and then dying on the cross.

John 6:39 ³⁹ And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

            The King is on His way let us constantly look for Him, not to be anxious about His coming, rather we wait in confidence.  Confident that our Lord's word's of mercy, grace, forgiveness, and salvation are true words spoken by the true Son of Man, Son of God, Christ our savior.

Mark 13:32–33 ³²“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.

            We do not know the day, or the hour, but when it comes we can celebrate because Jesus Christ paid the ransom that would have brought death to even the best of us if He had not paid it.  Now we have confidence that while the King is on His way, we know that He died so that we can live.  Christ did the work that we could not, He paid the price for our sin, and we are now adopted into the eternal relationship with our Father in Heaven.  Amen. 

Mark 13:37 ³⁷And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.” (Jesus said this)

"Praise And Thanksgiving"

            Matthew 25:31–34, 41, 46 ³¹[Jesus said:] “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.  ³²Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. ³⁴Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

⁴¹“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

⁴⁶And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

            We claim to be one nation under God, it is in our pledge of allegiance to our flag, and an allegiance we make with our country.  

 

I pledge allegiance to the flag

of the Untied States of America

and to the republic for which it stands

one nation under God

indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

 

            Our children in our preschool learned a different pledge to a different flag. 

 

I pledge allegiance to the Christian Flag

and to the Savior for whose kingdom it stands,

one Savior, crucified, risen and coming again

with life and liberty to all who believe.

 

            We have said these pledges no, but do we know what the flag represents, and do we know what an allegiance to what they represent entails?  We support our country through our taxes yes, but how many of us do it out of joy and allegiance?  Some of you would say you do it because you have to, others will say I do it because I want to support our country, but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy it. Why do you give to the church?  Would you say the same to giving to God as you give to your country?  Giving to either of these, most people tend to think of each as an establishment, and we are supposed to rebel against any establishment.  What would you do if you lost your country and also lost your freedom with it, because you didn't support or have allegiance with it?  What would you do if you lost your church and your worship with it because you did not support or have allegiance with it?

            These are all hard questions and this is a sermon I'm sure you don't want to hear.  To tell you the truth this is a sermon I don't want to give.  I've been in your shoes and Anita and I are still in those shoes.  We struggle each week trying to make ends meet more than you know.  When I was not a pastor I made decisions to give to only the special needs of the church or said I was giving my tithes through physical work as a trade for the monetary giving.  But here is the problem with all of that, don't misunderstand me giving to the special needs above and beyond our normal giving is a very good thing.  And again, please don't misunderstand me physical work in the ministry is very much needed above and beyond the normal giving. And one more time, if indeed the only way you can really give is through your physical works, that you do it all from your heart means much to our God.  But the fact still remains, if the church can't afford to pay its bills the church has to close, and the building and land are turned over to the Synod and though they could use the money to pay their bills and do ministry that is not even a consideration in their minds. 

            Do you know what it is like when you have to as a representative of the church turn away a real starving family?  Monday I had just started to divide the gospel reading to format the progression of this sermon.  I had read all the way through the OT, Epistle, and the Gospel.  As you saw the Gospel reading contained those words from our savior that say we should be the sheep on the right.  It speaks of law and works our Lord is saying should come from our heart.

            Matthew 25:35–40 ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ ³⁷Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? ³⁸And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? ³⁹And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ ⁴⁰And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

            After reading Matthew 25:31-46, I noticed it was time for lunch, and I got up to leave when the church phone rang.  I answered, Peace Lutheran Church, this is Pastor May."  The person on the other end of the phone asked if there was any possible way that we could help his family.  I first answered that we are a very small church and I was not sure if we could help him and his family.  He then told me of his wife and two children and that he was going through an agency that would help him get housing, and that he was a military vet just recently trying to fit back into the civilian world after serving for 15 years and getting a medical discharge, getting laid off from Ryan's Restaurant in Missouri and moving to be with his mother who had just died of cancer. 

            I tried referring him to the 211 number for the Community Funds Partnership, and he said he tried and they told them to go to a shelter for only females and he did not want to split up his family.  I then told him he might try Zion, or Faith or St. Paul because they were bigger churches.  After giving him the numbers to those churches I said I was about to go home for lunch and I would talk to my wife.  He said sir, as he continued to call me through our conversation, all we need is a gift card to purchase some personal items his wife and daughter needed that they cannot get at the food banks, and shelters.  I said I will do my best to see what I could do to help him, but I could not make any promises.  We said good bye, I hung up the phone, and went home for lunch.  Anita and I talked about this and we came up with about 35 dollars to help them out. 

            Anita and I usually have Anita's sister and her husband over for Thanksgiving Dinner, but this year they can't make it.  Most of you have met them as Dave helps us put up the Christmas trees sometimes.  Anita's sister Madonna’s youngest daughter is in the hospital, her name is Mindy.  Please keep her in your prayers.  So Anita said try and invite this family in need to our house to share in our Thanksgiving Dinner.  Well I called this person back up, asked and made arrangements to meet up with him at Wal-Mart, he must have had something else to do because he said he would call me back on Tuesday after he told his wife our offer.  Now I have to wait until tomorrow to finish this...

            Well it is Tuesday and I called them back.  This time his wife answered the phone...  Well, the truth of the matter is unfortunately she gave the appearance they didn't really know what help they needed or wanted.  You might think it was a scam, however they certainly needed help.  I don't know that it wasn't a scam.  But what do you do?  I could have played it safe and just said we couldn't help and hung up, but I had just read Matthew 25:31-46. 

            The problem is that when we read these passages from Matthew 25:31-46 is that we have a hard time finding the gospel through what seems to be a reading of works righteousness.  Our brain and human reasoning takes over and we feel we have to do these things in order to justify our means into heaven.  God is asking us to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned  but to do it because it comes from the faith God put in your heart.  I think that some of you might have thought I was lucky that I didn't give our money to these people.  However I feel unlucky, because I could not help them in the way they needed it.  Some of you might say I think with my heart, but I hope that I am thinking with my faith.  Certainly if our neighbor is hungry, naked, sick, or even in prison we should through our faith and our heart help them.

            James 2:14-18 Faith Without Works Is Dead:  ¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? ¹⁷ So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.  ¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

            Think of the gospel in this way, Jesus did not look at us to see if we were worthy before He chose to take our sins upon His shoulders and then take the brunt of the laws demands and die for those sins, even when He knew we are not worthy.  I think God helped these people I had been talking to, to bow out of being helped, of which they did by thanking me for the offer and saying good bye.  They also said they needed to take care of something else before they could even think about receiving the gift we offered like some people who think they have to be good to come to church.  Church is not for the good, it is for those who need forgiveness.

            I offered to help these people, Jesus does not offer, He gives us the help we need to enter into the eternal relationship with God.  These people turned down my offer, and unfortunately at times people turn down what Jesus gives us too. 

            But!  Here is the good news, we can give Praise and Thanksgiving; though my offer might not last forever to help these people, what Jesus gives us does.  Though we might refuse it today, Christ holds it for you to receive it tomorrow and every day after until you leave this earth.  It comes from the faith and love Jesus has for His Father and our Father in heaven, and Jesus' love for us.  It is forgiveness; it is a gift that you may have; it is eternal relationship and life with Yahweh, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

“FOR THE FRUITS OF HIS CREATION"

1 Thessalonians 5:1–11         ¹Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. ²For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

            The problem with law and gospel is that we might take it as I don't have to follow the law because God will just forgive us or has already forgiven us, so let's go out sinning boldly.   On the other hand without the gospel we would feel that there is no hope and we are all doomed, for the law demands death for all who cannot follow it.  And, on another hand without the law we would not appreciate the gospel because we would all feel like we deserve it.  The truth..., mercy is withholding what we do deserve (LAW), and grace is giving us what we don't deserve (GOSPEL).

            Do you love Jesus? Then feed His sheep.  God has given you everything you have, even those things we want to take the glory for by saying we worked for it.  Yes, we did work for what we have, but we would not have anything if God had not created the materials to make what we have.  We would not even be able to work for what we have if God did not give us the talents to perform our vocation, career, trade, craft, etc...  We were born with our gifts, and God has given us a free will to choose how we use those gifts.  Choose wisely dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

            Matthew 25:14–18 ¹⁴“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. ¹⁵To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.  Then he went away. ¹⁶He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. ¹⁷So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. ¹⁸But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.

            Some will use their talents, and some will try and hide them even from themselves.  When we use and share what God has given us we prosper, and God rewards us “Well done, good and faithful servant."  When we have used in good faith what God has given us we earn the trust of our Lord and he entrusts us with more.   However when we do not use our gifts and talents God has given us, or we use them for only our own gain, our Lord God takes on a whole different view of us and does not always protect us from the impending dangers that lurk about this world. 

            Pick up your bibles tonight and read through the some of the major prophets or minor prophets it really doesn't matter which ones or read the books of 1st and 2nd Kings.  When you read these books of the bible you will see that every time God's people stopped using what He gave them their world came apart and they lost what they had and when they humbled themselves to follow God's plan He rewarded them.

            Do you love Jesus?  Then feed His sheep.  We have many gifts to use both in talents and monetary.  When we work together and everyone pitches in then God has accomplished His will and continues to accomplish great things through us and the reward He will give us will be growth.  

            The question we really need to ask ourselves is do we want to bury our church so it won't grow or do we want to use OUR GOD GIVEN TALENTS and gifts to invest in the growth of God's kingdom of heaven and growth of our congregation?  If you snooze you lose.

            Matthew 25:14–18 ²⁹For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. ³⁰And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

            I am not saying that some do not use their gifts; you do and you know who you are and I and the rest of the congregation appreciate all you do.   I'm also not saying we need to do more.  What I am saying is that we all need to pitch in both young and old because along with God we are it.  And with God on our side we have and can do great things.  We need to be the people that were given the five or two talents.  So we work together to invest what God has given us and put our faith in God that He will help us grow.  If we snooze we lose.  Do you love Jesus?  Then feed His sheep.

            Zephaniah 1:7–16      ⁷Be silent before the Lord God!  For the day of the Lord is near; the Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests.

            What drives me is knowing what God has given me, and knowing people like Pauline Bitonti, who knowing the Lord's gifts to her joyfully praised and thanked God through worship and action, through tithing and giving back to further God's will for this congregation and for God's kingdom in heaven.  Pauline would be the first to say the glory all goes to God.  For the fruits of His creation is to continue building His glory through the Church.

            The glory of God is Jesus Christ who worked through His disciples and spread His good news across an undeserving world.  Not for the sake of showing the world it was not deserving, rather to show the world it has a creator who is higher than just being a higher being who created and then left his creation.  Our Lord Jesus Christ showed us a God of deep love for what He created for Himself, and that is you and me and all of the people on this world. 

            Christ died to save us all through forgiveness knowing that those people in the world will follow Him and crying over those in the world who choose not to.  But the Hope is this, that Christ leaves the door open so that all become believers and salvation can be shared among all of God's children.

            Christ suffered and died for the hope that we will know that He also gifted all believers with not just eternal life but an eternal relationship with our God producing in us eternal joy.  Amen.

"Just A Closer Walk With Thee"  

Amos 5:20–24 ²⁰Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it? ²¹“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.  ²²Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them.  ²³Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.  ²⁴But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

            "Just A Closer Walk With Thee," putting the word "Just" in the front of the title makes "A Closer Walk With Thee" sound so simple.  But we know differently because we make walking with our God a difficult endeavor to accomplish.  Why do we make it so much more difficult?  We like to put our own twist on everything we do.  Our world wants us each to be different and celebrate being different, as chartreuse is the new yellow or green, different is the new norm.  We mark ourselves, come up with our own philosophy, beliefs, and try to change ourselves to something we are not to justify an identity that rather defies our being instead of defining it. 

            What is the old saying?  "You can't fit a square peg in a round hole."   Well, through our great reasoning, if we get a small enough peg it will fit in any hole.  And therein lies the problem, we always go smaller; instead of real progress we slip back and repeat history justifying that fulfilling our desires is moving forward and advancing our species.  I suppose if you are an evolutionist we are evolving into something we can't really become but have fooled ourselves into thinking we can.

            We are most likely the square peg and we are most likely small in a world of conflicting desires.  God looked at His chosen people and watched as they claimed to be God's people in name only.  They said they believed in God, and desired the coming of the Lord.  Their actions that were told to Amos by God, spoke differently to God then what the two Hebrew nations wanted them to portray.  God's people rebelled against Him instead of following His statutes (following God's word, law), they acted upon their erroneous desires. 

            Amos was an angry prophet; angry with God and God's people of whom Amos was kinship to also.  Amos was angry with God for choosing a shepherd to prophesy to His people, and claimed that he had no experience in this.  Amos was angry at His people who refused to listen to the word that God had given him to pass on to them because God was getting ready to punish them. 

            God wanted the people of Judah and Israel to follow His Word His way.  God's wisdom is greater than man's, but man's desires seemed to trump God's ways.  If the citizens of God's kingdom on earth did not follow God's word His way, the day of the Lord coming would not be a glorious day, but rather a day of reckoning. Reckoning in the form of rejection and punishment His people would be separating themselves from God.  It is called sin and sin is missing the mark, and missing the mark is separation from God.

            We say we desire the coming of our Lord, but we do little to nothing to prepare ourselves for that day.  The coming of our Lord will be glorious for some and for others...  We are like the bridesmaids who came unprepared and did not know enough to bring extra oil.  If we are not prepared we might miss the door opening to come in out of the bad weather we live in.  The bad weather is our wrong desires beating away at our light and diming it so we can no longer find our way to the light of Christ.

            Matthew 25:6–13 ⁶But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ ⁷Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. ⁸And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ ¹⁰And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. ¹¹Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ ¹²But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ ¹³Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

            What is a closer walk with our God, it is being in His word, and His word being in us.  We are to be the light unto the world but how can that happen when we rebel against God's word because we refuse to be in it.  We can desire everything but that does not mean that it will be handed over to us. 

            Do you love Jesus, than feed His sheep.  Are we not His sheep, do we not need the nourishment that only comes from God?  God gives us His law not to just be a mirror, but also as a guide to repentance and His word for the knowledge of His love for each person on this world.  For we who are believers are not to be in the world but to be only on this world. 

            Christ has a closer walk with us, and He performed that walk to the cross.  This is the love that God our Father in heaven gives us.  It is never too late while we have the breath of the spirit in us to listen to the Holy Spirit who is leading us to turn to God and to return to God.  It is the grace and mercy of God through Jesus that is the bread of life that God wrote us through the hands of St. John.  This bread, this truth, His way, and His life to give is for the forgiveness of our sins that breaks the separation we have with God.  Listen to the word and the Holy Spirit, they are telling us of this love of God for us.  God actually and dearly wants to have an eternal relationship with us, and this is why He gives us believers eternal life, that we too might want to have a true eternal relationship with Him.  Amen.

            1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 ¹⁷Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. ¹⁸Therefore encourage one another with these words.