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Reaching Out

All Aboard the Holy Spirit Express

All Aboard the Holy Spirit Express

After eight years of direct military involvement in South Vietnam, the last few Americans were airlifted out on April 30, 1975. There was a mad rush for the airport because the enemy was coming in. This was followed by the fall of Saigon to communist forces. The war took the lives of 58,000 Americans and 2 million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians.

There is a parallel in the spiritual world. We were born into the world; a fallen world ruled by Lucifer, the Father of Lies. The world system is encroaching on us, but we can escape from the world by receiving Christ, who offers us peace, freedom, and a joy of the Lord that the world cannot match. We might envision it in these terms:

Like the Americans who headed for the Saigon airport in April of 1975, we can head for the spiritual airport to take a flight out on United in Christ Airlines on one of its Holy Spirit Express planes. Just as modern travelers go through TSA checkpoints to check for weapons and drugs, we must go through a Holy Spirit checkpoint to make sure we have received Christ as Savior (our ticket), and are not taking any harmful possessions (unconfessed sins) on to the plane. For the Holy Spirit Express is holy, and no unconfessed sin is allowed on board.

The planes that take off are full of individuals who fully embrace Christ, walk in the Spirit, and use their gifts and talents to carry out The Great Commission and the Lord’s will for their lives. The true Holy Spirit Express planes serve communion on the flights, celebrating the sacrifice of Christ on the cross to overcome sin and the fear of death.

Although the ultimate destination of all Holy Spirit Express flights is heaven, they often land in other locations so the Christians on board can deplane to care for the physical and spiritual needs of people in those locations.

The people who don’t go to the airport are non-believers who enjoy the culture and enticements of the world, the pleasures of the flesh, and the schemes of the devil. They have all been invited to fly on the United in Christ Airlines (to receive Christ), but they declined. Perhaps they were busy with affairs of the world and always thought they could receive Christ later. But sometimes time is up and LATER never comes.

Some people get to the airport but refuse to discard their spiritual baggage (unconfessed sin), and prefer other gods or idols. They may take other airlines departing from the airport, such as World Airlines (the world), the Las Vegas Special (the flesh), or Lucifer Lines (the devil). Instead of an extraordinary life in the Spirit, they prefer other destinations, such as Wall Street (for wealth), Washington, D.C. (for political power), Hollywood (for fame and fortune), or the lure of communist utopia (one of Satan’s lies). They don’t realize that these flights are piloted by Lucifer or one of his minions. While they may party through the entire flight, ultimately their plane will crash and burn in the Lake of Fire.

Many Holy Spirit Express planes are churches, with many people on board and the planes painted with different insignia such as Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, or Non-Denominational. But there are also decoy planes that are painted to look like they are in the United in Christ Airlines. They worship other gods, embrace sin as virtue, and are even proud of their vile practices. Once they are airborne, their true destination becomes revealed. (Their pilot is Lucifer or one of his minions.)

For the Laodicean Airlines, people get on the plane, but are having such a great time partying that they forget to invite the Holy Spirit to pilot the plane, so they never get off the ground. Then there are those who are so governed by fear that they get on the Flight for the Fearful plane, but it just cowers in the hangar, so afraid of venturing out.

Once the Holy Spirit Express plane is airborne, it attracts anti-aircraft fire, surface-to-air missiles, and fighter jets from the enemy to shoot it down. We are in a war zone, and the enemies of Christ seek to steal our faith, kill our bodies, and destroy our souls. This is why we need to put on our spiritual armor (Ephesians 6).

The person at the gate for the Holy Spirit Express just announced your flight is about to leave. Will you make it? Will your family and friends also make it? How about the individuals you meet at the grocery store or coffee shop? The enemy is encroaching upon us and time is short. So let us go forth with the love and truth of Christ to witness to all who come across our path, for eternity is forever, and we are not guaranteed tomorrow.

To God be the glory
Board of Evangelism

Categories
Sermon

Sermon for 09.03.23 “Coals for cleansinbg

Pentecost 14 (Proper 17), September 3, 2023
Text: Romans 12:9–21
Theme: Coals for cleansing
Other Lessons: Jeremiah 15:15–21; Psalm 26; Matthew 16:21–28

A. In the Name of the Father…Amen.
B. The Epistle lesson serves as our sermon text for this morning.
C. Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God our heavenly Father through
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
D. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:
Gracious and Eternal God,
We come before You today with minds fixed on Your Son, Jesus Christ, who
set His face towards Jerusalem, knowing the suffering and the rejection
that awaited Him.
As we reflect on His words, may we too be reminded of the path that we are
called to follow, the way of the cross.
Lord, grant us the wisdom to discern Your will, even when it is challenging
or difficult to understand.
May we resist the temptation to see things merely from a human perspective.
Give us the courage to embrace Your divine purpose, knowing that it may
lead us to places of sacrifice and service.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit we pray. Amen.
Introduction
A. There are some people out there that need a whole lot of hot coals
dumped on them.
1. There are folks that need to be set on fire.
2. That meanie, that menace, bury him, bury her in blazing embers.
3. Those bullies and brutes and backstabbing betrayers, drop blistering
anvils and grand pianos on top to feed the flames.
4. The antagonists, the abusers, the culprits and perpetrators, riddle them
with pinpricks and paper cuts.
5. Shower them all with salt and citrus until it sizzles.
I. Not just anyone who irritates or annoys us qualifies as an enemy.
A. But do they qualify as genuine enemies?
1. Do they fit the definition of that of a foe?
B. Let’s remember Paul’s speaking of people.
1. The apostle’s talking about individuals.
2. In our reading from Romans 12, he’s not got in mind inanimate
predicaments or intangible tribulations, but particular figures.
3. And he’s not alluding to just anybody who happens to differ from you in
the neighborhood whether because of background or behavior.
4. His snapshot of enemies inviting vengeance doesn’t depict simply
unpleasant or even obnoxious somebodies.
5. The contours of ones to smother with bread don’t silhouette essentially
anyone who irritates or annoys you.
6. The profile of the ones to suffocate with water doesn’t sum up basically
anyone who interrupts or complicates your day.
7. The nemesis shoes don’t suit just anyone who questions or contradicts
you.
8. The enemy uniform doesn’t belong on just anybody who competes with you
for resources or rewards.
9. Neither he nor we can pin the villain’s tail on every childhood heckling
hellion, romantic rival, workplace counterpart, or political opponent we
come across.
C. So the apostle Paul doesn’t single out any from the lineup of usual
suspects.
1. He doesn’t point to a rogue from the regular gallery, like the emperors
or the centurions or the tax collectors.
2. He doesn’t spotlight the chief priests or Pharisees.
3. He doesn’t target the Egyptian polytheists or the Gentile pagans.
4. All these he names as neighbors, not enemies!
Romans 12:14 (NASB95)
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
5. He recalls Jesus saying:
Matthew 5:44 (NASB95)
“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
6. He echoes Jesus saying:
Luke 6:27 (NASB95)
“But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate
you,
7. In many cases, they occupy one’s own community and family.
8. An enemy, on the other hand, desires your destruction and that of
others.
9. An enemy inflicts the misfortune and savors your suffering.
D. No, St. Paul’s Word of the Lord advises armoring up against another.
Ephesians 6:11–12 (NASB95)
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm
against the schemes of the devil.
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the
spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
1. Ah, yes, the ancient serpentine adversary.
2. But should we share a table with Satan?
3. Should we be serving him supper?
4. Is Scripture really instructing us to have a drink with the demons?
5. Ought we live in peaceable harmony with the prince of darkness?
6. Certainly not, when this epistle says:
Romans 12:9 (NASB95)
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.
7. Certainly not with what all the other texts that are connected with
verse 9, the Gospels themselves, and the entire Bible says.
8. We are to resist and run the other direction as fast and as far as we
can!
II. The real enemy comes from the sin that resides like an infection inside
each one of us.
A. Paul knows a nearer enemy.
1. He warns of an even more sinister one.
2. This enemy looms in the mirror and intrudes upon our own mind.
Colossians 1:21 (NASB95)
And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in
evil deeds,
Romans 7:18–19, 24 (NASB95)
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the
willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that
I do not want.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
B. You see, the real enemy resides inside.
Matthew 7:4 (NASB95)
“Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your
eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye?
Matthew 16:24 (NASB95)
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he
must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
1. In Romans, Paul uses the Greek word anthrakas for burning coals.
2. From this, of course, we derive our English term anthrax.
3. It designates an infection brought about by the bacillus anthracis
bacterium.
4. The typical symptom presents as a section of necrotized (that is,
localized death of living) tissue with vividly inflamed crimson skin
surrounding the blackened lesion.
5. It also enacts the same effects invisibly and internally on lungs and
intestines.
6. The germ feeds on hemoglobin proteins in the blood.
7. It can prove both contagious and fatal among animals and humans as well
as between the two.
8. The pathogenic particles may remain dormant in the environment for
extended periods, years even, only to reactivate under conducive
conditions.
9. It’s why armies illegally employ anthrax as one of the most common
biological weapons.
C. The coals we would eagerly heat smolder already in us.
1. Our own sinfulness kindles and fuels the animosity we can’t wait to heap
on an enemy’s head.
a. The ignited tongues that lick sparks at neighbors,
b. the inflamed fingers that flick flares at anyone around,
c. they eject forth from the spontaneous combustion of our torching
ourselves.
d. We loathe others because we loathe ourselves.
2. Sinful selfishness singes, scorches, blackens us to conscience and core.
a. Our anxiety,
b. our arrogance,
c. our embarrassment,
d. our outrage,
e. All of this scalds us in body, mind, and spirit.
D. We see one another with the seared eyes of an enemy.
1. We treat one another with the charred heart of an enemy.
2. We make enemies out of everybody who has anything we want and all who
even appear to stand, however accidentally, in the way of our taking it.
3. We hurt worse and burn to a deeper degree than that of a literal,
physical inferno.
4. Things we have said, things we have failed to say:
a. we breathe the fire.
5. Stuff we have done, stuff we neglect to do:
a. we do the flame-throwing.
6. We set ourselves as enemy, an enemy even of the Law of God itself.
a. I am the criminal.
b. I am the animal.
c. I am the enemy, and enemies deserve vengeance.
d. We have met the enemy and they are us!!! (Master Commandant of the
United States Oliver Perry writing to Major General William Henry Harrison
after the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812)
III. But He, the Lord, has coals of His own.
A. The Lord Our God Has Coals for Cleansing Instead of Consuming.
IV. Jesus has become the burning coals that render the infection dead.
A. He puts in the apostle Paul’s mind a holy fire of healing and relief
rather than cremation.
Isaiah 6:6–7 (NASB95)
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand,
which he had taken from the altar with tongs.
7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your
lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”
1. The fire Paul stokes glows with the sacrifice from the Day of
Atonement.
2. The hearth God tends radiates the burnt offering on the altar and the
cloud of sweet incense covering the Mercy Seat.
B. He’s thinking of the fire that high priest Aaron knelt at and
disinfected the Israelites.
1. He’s thinking of the fire that Isaiah felt purify him from all sins.
2. He’s thinking of the fire that Peter beheld and warmed himself with the
night before the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
3. He’s thinking of the charcoal fire roasting fish that melted the guilt
and grief of his deserter disciples at the Risen-Again One’s post-Easter
breakfast.
4. He’s speaking of the fire that annihilates the evidence and puts the
past behind.
5. He’s speaking of the fire that cauterizes the pestilence and rot.
6. He’s speaking of the fire that sanitizes the contaminants and toxins.
7. He’s fanning the fire that fell on Pentecost and exhaled tongues and
fingers of flame onto heads and into hearts like an engine powering courage
and compassion for proclaiming the Good News and putting it into practice.
C. Jesus sweat blood in the sweltering hellfire of forsakenness to forgive
you.
1. He tread the feverish distance from heaven to humankind upon the coals
our iniquities set alight.
2. He thirsted beside you in the smelting furnace of abandonment we deserve
but mercifully and miraculously avoid.
3. He eagerly ate the fuming wrath and swallowed the simmering punishment,
on your behalf.
4. Then He returned to the dirty earth from whence we once emerged, ashes
to ashes and dust to dust, and He quenched the curse once and for all.
5. Now out of the cinders like that of a phoenix, He has ascended with:
a. forgiveness,
b. salvation,
c. and everlasting life in his wings.
6. Jesus has become the burning coals that render the infection dead,
drawing out the poison instead of drowning the person.
D. Jesus keeps warm that which is cold.
1. Christ Jesus makes safe.
2. Christ crucified cooks feasts.
3. Christ alive and well takes care and lights ways and holds close and
shares joy.
4. He has emblazoned His shadow over us:
a. our whole selves,
b. our entire lives,
c. our identity
d. our history
e. our destiny.
f. The Lord declares through Paul:
Romans 12:19 (NASB95)
Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God,
for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord.
g. The Lord repays us with vengeance all right, but it is His forgiveness,
gentle and relentless.
5. The Lord goes on to say:
a. Most importantly, you are mine.
b. And I know how to preserve what belongs to me.
Conclusion

A. Receive and rejoice, for you have died with Christ.
1. Believe and be glad, because you are rising with Christ.
2. Repent and release, since you will live and reign with Christ.
3. Help yourself to these cozy coals.
4. Help yourself to the declarative word of Him forgiving your sin.
5. Help yourself to His words promising everlasting resurrection.
6. Help yourself to the assurance in Scriptures and sermons and songs that
He delights to grace you, to favor you, come near you and go with you.
7. Help yourself to the sterilizing coals that crown and halo your head,
you baptized and beloved child belonging to God.
8. Help yourself to the atoning coals that lie upon your lips, you member
of the holy communion and honored guest at the Lamb’s wedding banquet.
B. If it works on you, it also works through you.
1. You have a genuine love in His name.
2. You have a brotherly affection at His house. You have an exceeding honor
in His service.
3. You have a zealous trust and a fervent spirit with His people.
4. Feel it strong enough not only to hold but to wield.
5. If it works on you, it also works through you.
6. No more need you loathe others or be evasive with them, treating them as
if they were enemies.
7. No more must you compare, compete, avenge with anvils, or hurt, burn,
and bury.
8. You may give them the best kind of coals you can give.
9. You may notice and listen.
10. You may assist and embrace and accompany neighbors until they become
brothers and sisters.
11. You get to turn the other cheek.
12. You get to go the extra mile.
13. You get to keep one safe.
14. You get to make another warm.
15. You get to cook feasts for the meanies and menaces in your life.
16. You get to take care of the bullies and hold the brutes close.
17. You may sorrow beside them, unpleasant and obnoxious, irritating and
annoying though they be.
18. You may celebrate together, interrupting, complicating, contradicting,
questioning as they are.
19. Hellions, villains, rivals:
A. look how God’s made it easy to identify who needs coals of kindness.
B. Counterparts, opponents, look how He’s marked where you may witness and
even participate in overcoming our evils with His good.
C. I know some people I’d like to heap hot coals on.
D. And I bet you do too, don’t you? Amen.
C. Let us pray:
Help us, O God, to take up our cross daily and follow You.
Teach us to lose our lives for Your sake, that we might find true life in
You.
Let us not be lured by the fleeting riches and honors of this world, but
rather inspire us to seek the eternal treasure of Your Kingdom.
Forgive us when we falter, and strengthen us by Your Spirit to walk
faithfully with You.
Make us mindful of the promise that whoever endures to the end will be
saved and will be with You in glory.
We pray for those among us who are burdened, suffering, or facing trials.
May they find comfort in knowing that You are the God who understands pain
and walks with us through every valley.
Guide us now, O Lord, as we continue to worship You in Your house.
Let our praise be a sweet fragrance to You, and may our hearts be open to
hear Your Word.
May we be transformed by Your grace, that our lives would reflect the glory
of Your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
In His precious name, we pray,
Amen.
D. The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
E. In the Name of the Father…Amen.

Categories
Sermon

Sermon for 090323 “Coals for cleansing”

Pentecost 14 (Proper 17), September 3, 2023
Text: Romans 12:9–21
Theme: Coals for cleansing
Other Lessons: Jeremiah 15:15–21; Psalm 26; Matthew 16:21–28

A. In the Name of the Father…Amen.
B. The Epistle lesson serves as our sermon text for this morning.
C. Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God our heavenly Father through
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
D. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:
Gracious and Eternal God,
We come before You today with minds fixed on Your Son, Jesus Christ, who
set His face towards Jerusalem, knowing the suffering and the rejection
that awaited Him.
As we reflect on His words, may we too be reminded of the path that we are
called to follow, the way of the cross.
Lord, grant us the wisdom to discern Your will, even when it is challenging
or difficult to understand.
May we resist the temptation to see things merely from a human perspective.
Give us the courage to embrace Your divine purpose, knowing that it may
lead us to places of sacrifice and service.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit we pray. Amen.
Introduction
A. There are some people out there that need a whole lot of hot coals
dumped on them.
1. There are folks that need to be set on fire.
2. That meanie, that menace, bury him, bury her in blazing embers.
3. Those bullies and brutes and backstabbing betrayers, drop blistering
anvils and grand pianos on top to feed the flames.
4. The antagonists, the abusers, the culprits and perpetrators, riddle them
with pinpricks and paper cuts.
5. Shower them all with salt and citrus until it sizzles.
I. Not just anyone who irritates or annoys us qualifies as an enemy.
A. But do they qualify as genuine enemies?
1. Do they fit the definition of that of a foe?
B. Let’s remember Paul’s speaking of people.
1. The apostle’s talking about individuals.
2. In our reading from Romans 12, he’s not got in mind inanimate
predicaments or intangible tribulations, but particular figures.
3. And he’s not alluding to just anybody who happens to differ from you in
the neighborhood whether because of background or behavior.
4. His snapshot of enemies inviting vengeance doesn’t depict simply
unpleasant or even obnoxious somebodies.
5. The contours of ones to smother with bread don’t silhouette essentially
anyone who irritates or annoys you.
6. The profile of the ones to suffocate with water doesn’t sum up basically
anyone who interrupts or complicates your day.
7. The nemesis shoes don’t suit just anyone who questions or contradicts
you.
8. The enemy uniform doesn’t belong on just anybody who competes with you
for resources or rewards.
9. Neither he nor we can pin the villain’s tail on every childhood heckling
hellion, romantic rival, workplace counterpart, or political opponent we
come across.
C. So the apostle Paul doesn’t single out any from the lineup of usual
suspects.
1. He doesn’t point to a rogue from the regular gallery, like the emperors
or the centurions or the tax collectors.
2. He doesn’t spotlight the chief priests or Pharisees.
3. He doesn’t target the Egyptian polytheists or the Gentile pagans.
4. All these he names as neighbors, not enemies!
Romans 12:14 (NASB95)
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
5. He recalls Jesus saying:
Matthew 5:44 (NASB95)
“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
6. He echoes Jesus saying:
Luke 6:27 (NASB95)
“But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate
you,
7. In many cases, they occupy one’s own community and family.
8. An enemy, on the other hand, desires your destruction and that of
others.
9. An enemy inflicts the misfortune and savors your suffering.
D. No, St. Paul’s Word of the Lord advises armoring up against another.
Ephesians 6:11–12 (NASB95)
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm
against the schemes of the devil.
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the
spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
1. Ah, yes, the ancient serpentine adversary.
2. But should we share a table with Satan?
3. Should we be serving him supper?
4. Is Scripture really instructing us to have a drink with the demons?
5. Ought we live in peaceable harmony with the prince of darkness?
6. Certainly not, when this epistle says:
Romans 12:9 (NASB95)
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.
7. Certainly not with what all the other texts that are connected with
verse 9, the Gospels themselves, and the entire Bible says.
8. We are to resist and run the other direction as fast and as far as we
can!
II. The real enemy comes from the sin that resides like an infection inside
each one of us.
A. Paul knows a nearer enemy.
1. He warns of an even more sinister one.
2. This enemy looms in the mirror and intrudes upon our own mind.
Colossians 1:21 (NASB95)
And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in
evil deeds,
Romans 7:18–19, 24 (NASB95)
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the
willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that
I do not want.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
B. You see, the real enemy resides inside.
Matthew 7:4 (NASB95)
“Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your
eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye?
Matthew 16:24 (NASB95)
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he
must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
1. In Romans, Paul uses the Greek word anthrakas for burning coals.
2. From this, of course, we derive our English term anthrax.
3. It designates an infection brought about by the bacillus anthracis
bacterium.
4. The typical symptom presents as a section of necrotized (that is,
localized death of living) tissue with vividly inflamed crimson skin
surrounding the blackened lesion.
5. It also enacts the same effects invisibly and internally on lungs and
intestines.
6. The germ feeds on hemoglobin proteins in the blood.
7. It can prove both contagious and fatal among animals and humans as well
as between the two.
8. The pathogenic particles may remain dormant in the environment for
extended periods, years even, only to reactivate under conducive
conditions.
9. It’s why armies illegally employ anthrax as one of the most common
biological weapons.
C. The coals we would eagerly heat smolder already in us.
1. Our own sinfulness kindles and fuels the animosity we can’t wait to heap
on an enemy’s head.
a. The ignited tongues that lick sparks at neighbors,
b. the inflamed fingers that flick flares at anyone around,
c. they eject forth from the spontaneous combustion of our torching
ourselves.
d. We loathe others because we loathe ourselves.
2. Sinful selfishness singes, scorches, blackens us to conscience and core.
a. Our anxiety,
b. our arrogance,
c. our embarrassment,
d. our outrage,
e. All of this scalds us in body, mind, and spirit.
D. We see one another with the seared eyes of an enemy.
1. We treat one another with the charred heart of an enemy.
2. We make enemies out of everybody who has anything we want and all who
even appear to stand, however accidentally, in the way of our taking it.
3. We hurt worse and burn to a deeper degree than that of a literal,
physical inferno.
4. Things we have said, things we have failed to say:
a. we breathe the fire.
5. Stuff we have done, stuff we neglect to do:
a. we do the flame-throwing.
6. We set ourselves as enemy, an enemy even of the Law of God itself.
a. I am the criminal.
b. I am the animal.
c. I am the enemy, and enemies deserve vengeance.
d. We have met the enemy and they are us!!! (Master Commandant of the
United States Oliver Perry writing to Major General William Henry Harrison
after the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812)
III. But He, the Lord, has coals of His own.
A. The Lord Our God Has Coals for Cleansing Instead of Consuming.
IV. Jesus has become the burning coals that render the infection dead.
A. He puts in the apostle Paul’s mind a holy fire of healing and relief
rather than cremation.
Isaiah 6:6–7 (NASB95)
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand,
which he had taken from the altar with tongs.
7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your
lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”
1. The fire Paul stokes glows with the sacrifice from the Day of
Atonement.
2. The hearth God tends radiates the burnt offering on the altar and the
cloud of sweet incense covering the Mercy Seat.
B. He’s thinking of the fire that high priest Aaron knelt at and
disinfected the Israelites.
1. He’s thinking of the fire that Isaiah felt purify him from all sins.
2. He’s thinking of the fire that Peter beheld and warmed himself with the
night before the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
3. He’s thinking of the charcoal fire roasting fish that melted the guilt
and grief of his deserter disciples at the Risen-Again One’s post-Easter
breakfast.
4. He’s speaking of the fire that annihilates the evidence and puts the
past behind.
5. He’s speaking of the fire that cauterizes the pestilence and rot.
6. He’s speaking of the fire that sanitizes the contaminants and toxins.
7. He’s fanning the fire that fell on Pentecost and exhaled tongues and
fingers of flame onto heads and into hearts like an engine powering courage
and compassion for proclaiming the Good News and putting it into practice.
C. Jesus sweat blood in the sweltering hellfire of forsakenness to forgive
you.
1. He tread the feverish distance from heaven to humankind upon the coals
our iniquities set alight.
2. He thirsted beside you in the smelting furnace of abandonment we deserve
but mercifully and miraculously avoid.
3. He eagerly ate the fuming wrath and swallowed the simmering punishment,
on your behalf.
4. Then He returned to the dirty earth from whence we once emerged, ashes
to ashes and dust to dust, and He quenched the curse once and for all.
5. Now out of the cinders like that of a phoenix, He has ascended with:
a. forgiveness,
b. salvation,
c. and everlasting life in his wings.
6. Jesus has become the burning coals that render the infection dead,
drawing out the poison instead of drowning the person.
D. Jesus keeps warm that which is cold.
1. Christ Jesus makes safe.
2. Christ crucified cooks feasts.
3. Christ alive and well takes care and lights ways and holds close and
shares joy.
4. He has emblazoned His shadow over us:
a. our whole selves,
b. our entire lives,
c. our identity
d. our history
e. our destiny.
f. The Lord declares through Paul:
Romans 12:19 (NASB95)
Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God,
for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord.
g. The Lord repays us with vengeance all right, but it is His forgiveness,
gentle and relentless.
5. The Lord goes on to say:
a. Most importantly, you are mine.
b. And I know how to preserve what belongs to me.
Conclusion

A. Receive and rejoice, for you have died with Christ.
1. Believe and be glad, because you are rising with Christ.
2. Repent and release, since you will live and reign with Christ.
3. Help yourself to these cozy coals.
4. Help yourself to the declarative word of Him forgiving your sin.
5. Help yourself to His words promising everlasting resurrection.
6. Help yourself to the assurance in Scriptures and sermons and songs that
He delights to grace you, to favor you, come near you and go with you.
7. Help yourself to the sterilizing coals that crown and halo your head,
you baptized and beloved child belonging to God.
8. Help yourself to the atoning coals that lie upon your lips, you member
of the holy communion and honored guest at the Lamb’s wedding banquet.
B. If it works on you, it also works through you.
1. You have a genuine love in His name.
2. You have a brotherly affection at His house. You have an exceeding honor
in His service.
3. You have a zealous trust and a fervent spirit with His people.
4. Feel it strong enough not only to hold but to wield.
5. If it works on you, it also works through you.
6. No more need you loathe others or be evasive with them, treating them as
if they were enemies.
7. No more must you compare, compete, avenge with anvils, or hurt, burn,
and bury.
8. You may give them the best kind of coals you can give.
9. You may notice and listen.
10. You may assist and embrace and accompany neighbors until they become
brothers and sisters.
11. You get to turn the other cheek.
12. You get to go the extra mile.
13. You get to keep one safe.
14. You get to make another warm.
15. You get to cook feasts for the meanies and menaces in your life.
16. You get to take care of the bullies and hold the brutes close.
17. You may sorrow beside them, unpleasant and obnoxious, irritating and
annoying though they be.
18. You may celebrate together, interrupting, complicating, contradicting,
questioning as they are.
19. Hellions, villains, rivals:
A. look how God’s made it easy to identify who needs coals of kindness.
B. Counterparts, opponents, look how He’s marked where you may witness and
even participate in overcoming our evils with His good.
C. I know some people I’d like to heap hot coals on.
D. And I bet you do too, don’t you? Amen.
C. Let us pray:
Help us, O God, to take up our cross daily and follow You.
Teach us to lose our lives for Your sake, that we might find true life in
You.
Let us not be lured by the fleeting riches and honors of this world, but
rather inspire us to seek the eternal treasure of Your Kingdom.
Forgive us when we falter, and strengthen us by Your Spirit to walk
faithfully with You.
Make us mindful of the promise that whoever endures to the end will be
saved and will be with You in glory.
We pray for those among us who are burdened, suffering, or facing trials.
May they find comfort in knowing that You are the God who understands pain
and walks with us through every valley.
Guide us now, O Lord, as we continue to worship You in Your house.
Let our praise be a sweet fragrance to You, and may our hearts be open to
hear Your Word.
May we be transformed by Your grace, that our lives would reflect the glory
of Your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
In His precious name, we pray,
Amen.
D. The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
E. In the Name of the Father…Amen.

Categories
Reaching Out

The Enemy is Near

“The enemy was near, and he watched our every move. He could see us, but we couldn’t see him,” states Jim Marsh, describing his experience in the jungles of South Vietnam. It was March of 1967, and the U.S. was fully engaged in the war in Vietnam, trying to protect South Vietnam from the communists in the north. Trained as a combat engineer with training in explosives and sweeping mines, Jim was assigned to a platoon of thirty men on patrol in the Mekong Delta of South Vietnam, southeast of Saigon.

“Because it was very hot and we did a lot of walking, we tried to lighten our loads as much as possible,” states Marsh. “So one morning we discarded a camera case, a machete sheath, and a poncho. At sundown on the same day, we arrived at a spot where two rivers converged. Right in front of us was the camera case, machete sheath, and the poncho, folded very neatly.

When the point man of our platoon spotted this, I shouted to everyone: ‘Don’t do anything and I will take care of it.’ Around these items were 30 well-camouflaged booby traps – Chinese-made grenades, with almost-transparent fishing line connecting the grenade pins to bamboo sticks. (One for each of us – we had 30 men in our platoon). Fortunately, we recognized this as a trap and I disarmed the booby traps before we entered that place.”

Incredible – the enemy soldiers not only picked up the discarded items, but they anticipated where the platoon was headed, got there ahead of time, and set up a deadly trap with their discarded items as bait.

Reflecting on this experience, Marsh states: “Even though I was a baby Christian at the time, I felt the sovereignty of God was over me. I got pulled back to base camp, and eighteen days later our platoon got hit really hard, with many casualties. I know God was sparing me.
We have to 100% depend on the Holy Spirit, otherwise we will be casualties. The devil has 6,000 years’ experience to develop his evil tricks. God allowed me to go through this, and it expresses Romans 8:28: ‘And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.’”
There is a parallel in the spirit realm:

· The enemy (Satan and his minions) is near, he is following you and me, and he seeks our destruction – to steal our faith, kill our bodies, and destroy our souls.

· Although he is not omniscient and does not know everything, he watches what we do, listens to our words, anticipates where we are going, and sets his traps accordingly, using bait that will attract us, such as money, power, worldly acclaim, drugs, porn, and lust.

· He sets traps – physical and spiritual traps to entice us to abandon our walk with the Lord and come over to the dark side. He promises much, may deliver temporary pleasure, but ultimately delivers suffering and death.

· Our unconfessed sin is an invitation and a portal for him to come in and infect our soul like cancer, which will metastasize if not treated by surgery (confession of our sins) and radiation (by the Holy Spirit).

· Unconfessed sin (and unforgiveness, which is an unconfessed sin) attracts demonic spirits like raw meat attracts flies.

But Satan is no match for our Lord – the sovereign, living God of the universe, who sent His son to overcome sin and the fear of death. He then sent the Holy Spirit to comfort, nurture, and guide us, so that we may live triumphant lives with the joy of the Lord.

Finally, He even gives His children – that would be us – the authority to dispense with Satan: “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you”. James 4:7

So let us start each day with our Lord in His Word, close all spiritual portals by confessing of our sins and forgiving others, put on our spiritual armor, and go forth to reach the lost with the love and truth of Christ. For time is short, eternity is forever, and we are not guaranteed tomorrow.

To God be the glory
Board of Evangelism

Categories
Sermon

Sermon for 08.27.23 “Like a rock”

Sermon outline
Wrongs and Redemption Come with the Densities and Dimensions of Rocks.
I. Rocks have theological value in the Scriptures.
II. Rocks involve disrupting, declaring with honesty the Law that things
don’t work right.
III. Rocks mean sculpting, announcing with hope the forgiveness that brings
purpose to pain.
IV. Rocks imply constructing, inviting with joy people into community.
V. Rocks indicate protecting, proclaiming with peace a bravery and
breathing room.
VI. Rocks cry out persisting, heralding with faith that we’ll end up all
right in everlasting life.

Sometimes you feel like a jewelry showroom. Everything sparkles. Life glows
bright and smiley. The world glints and shines. You’ve even got facets,
clean edges, precision lines. You fit the setting just so. You’re catching
the light in all the right ways. And then sometimes you just feel like a
handful of gravel. It all gets dense and coarse. Rubble heaps up on you
cold and hard and sharp. Things drop down over you and grind you grainy
until you end up broken apart, walked on, and kicked aside.
Resembling a rock doesn’t always amount to flattery. Getting likened to
rocks may not necessarily constitute a compliment. “Sat there like a rock.”
“Dumb as a rock.” “Stoned out of his mind.” So how should we take it when
the Word of the Lord pronounces us pebbles? How shall we interpret what the
prophet Isaiah proclaims: “Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and
to the quarry from which you were dug” (v 1)? Apparently, humanity has a
certain geology. It seems sin comes with a terrain, and salvation brings a
landscape.
Wrongs and Redemption Come with the Densities and Dimensions of Rocks.
I.
Stones speckle the whole Scriptures. Its important events reference rocks.
The fabric of the faith features an uneven texture from fragments to
summits. Babel piles up boulders. The ark settles atop Ararat. Abraham
offers Isaac on Mount Moriah. Jacob settles for a stone when he settles in
for the night. Moses beholds the burning bush on Mount Horeb. He receives
the Law on rock plates at Sinai’s crest and surveys the Promised Land from
Nebo’s zenith. Israel builds a memorial with twelve smooth stones from the
Jordan, and David slings one of five and slays the brute Goliath. Solomon’s
temple anchors its brackets in Mount Zion’s bedrock. Elijah’s fiery
offering embarrasses Baal’s followers at Mount Carmel. Dream-reader Daniel
foresees the future in Nebuchadnezzar’s nightmare statue shattered by a
stone cut sans human hands.
The New Testament knows topography too. Baby Jesus in blessed Mary’s belly,
visiting Elizabeth in Judean hill country, jolts unborn John with joy. The
Baptist grows up to cry out about mountains brought low and rough places
planed. The devil’s temptations lure the Lamb of God to an alpine precipice
and offer him all the earth’s glory for one act of submission. Seeing
crowds around, the Son of Man scales a mountain and says, “Blessed are
those who get pelted with persecutions.” He leads the three to another peak
and ensues transfiguration of magnitude more than the sun. The Savior’s
Passion commences in the grove on Mount Olive. It ends elevated by rocky
Calvary’s cross and giving up the ghost while the curtain tears, the earth
trembles, and the minerals split asunder. And the encore opens in Joseph’s
own unused sepulcher excavated from substratum.
Get you up to a high mountain, herald of the good news! Raise your voice,
lift it up and fear not! How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of
those who bear the tidings! On this mountain, the Lord will spread for all
peoples a feast and swallow up the pall of death forever. And he carried me
away in the Spirit to a great mountain and showed me the holy city coming
down from God. They shall not hurt nor harm in all my holy mountain, for
the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, and God shall wipe
away tears from all faces.
II.
Today we’ve come together with pocketfuls of rocks. And we will leave with
the same. In the meantime, what may we make of them? First of all, rocks
involve disrupting. Almighty Maker designed rocks for disrupting. A stray
stone in the shoe or some strewn across the sidewalk unsettle. One slipped
into a snowball or encountered while cutting the lawn and tilling the soil
unnerves. “For the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like
a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner” (v 6)—yikes!
These rocks of ours declare and confirm everything isn’t okay. It’s not
going as it ought. We don’t work the way we’re supposed to. And it cannot
keep on like this. Rocks have an honesty about them, and they confront us
with it.
Observe the universe invaded, overtaken, and occupied. Look at humanity, as
dismantled as Jerusalem by the Babylonians. How our hearts reflect and echo
the temple demolished. Lives smolder in resemblance to the smoking homes
Isaiah’s intruders left behind. Relationships lie in ruin around us
identical to Old Testament Israel’s uprooted fields and flowers. Spirits
walk shell-shocked about after the pattern of the chosen people’s leaders
and heirlooms carried off by raiders. This land and that of then stretch
out before us blasted loose, cut into, pried away, and shaken out.
You shouldn’t have scorned authority. You shouldn’t have endangered the
neighbor’s body, ignored his necessities, neglected her survival. You
shouldn’t have lusted and coveted daughters and brothers. You shouldn’t
have deceived and defrauded. You shouldn’t have indulged and abused. You
shouldn’t have belittled and abandoned. You shouldn’t have slandered and
grumbled and begrudged and raged. You shouldn’t have blasphemed and
profaned. You shouldn’t have sinned. It hurts. It dirties. It infects and
enslaves, and it deadens, hard as a rock and cold as a stone. You shall
not. You have not. You cannot. You are not, not who you thought or what you
pretended and attempted to prove. The lawful Word of God the Lord makes us
uncomfortable, doesn’t it? Indeed, it must, a stone of stumbling and a rock
of offense, not as an indication of its failure but as a sign of its
irresistible success. We dare not grind away the edges. You see, first of
all, rocks involve disrupting.
III.
But also, rocks mean sculpting. The Lord your God designated rocks for
sculpting. Set fingertips and tools to once useless and otherwise
irritating rocks, and the artisan has exquisite materials for ornaments,
statues, and structures. Chisel and carve. Sand and smooth. Gouge and
engrave. Hammer and cement until the gems take shape and the faces
materialize through the still-settling dust. The master mason scrapes and
dissolves away the former films and accumulated encrustments to give dead
things new life and identity. These rocks of ours announce and assure that
pain, when emptied of any punishment, has purpose.
You have faced the honesty. Now feel the hope. The Creator, our Creator,
your Creator, he fancies himself just such a careful craftsman. “You were
hewn, that I might bless as Abraham. You were dug that I might multiply
like Sarah. The Lord makes her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the
garden of God” (cf vv 1–3). The annexation and exile of Isaiah’s era
refined. The droughts and blights the people brought upon themselves
purified. Turmoil and tragedy, crisis and catastrophe, disappointment and
frustration honed them into a steady preservation and conversion, a gradual
metamorphosis. Through sickness and sorrow, the Holy One holds and molds
the remnant into Jesus, Israel distilled to one.
This One has come also among us. This One suffered punishment in our stead.
Thorns scraped across him. Points and tips slashed against him. Nails
punctured and blades pierced him. His body absorbed the death of it but
reckoned the benefit to us. His Passion flashed the shadow and traced the
pattern perfected upon humankind while leaving our surface virgin and
violence-free—bloodless, fearless, guiltless, deathless redemption. His
crucifixion sacrifice satisfied the wrath. It settled the debt and
reconciled accounts. He atoned for the wrongs, forgave the sins, and
absolved the offenders. We lose only what we never needed anyway.
Now he’s fashioning us for a different setting. He’s shaping us heart,
mind, and spirit for better surroundings: heavenly blessing, everlasting
kingdom, household, and family. In every ache and injury, every ordeal and
difficulty, forgiving grace buffers us. The Savior’s devotion to our
salvation cushions us in the car wrecks and bounced checks, the unmet
deadlines and the unexpected diagnoses. In the backbreaking labors and the
nerve-wracking dangers, the lonely nights and boring mornings, his will and
his Word snuggle and soften the strikes. For everyone who falls on this
rock will break into pieces, and anyone on whom it falls will undergo
pulverization. But we have had our covering-over burial and our digging-out
resurrection already baptized into Christ Jesus with his mine-claim laid
upon us. First, rocks involve disrupting. But also, rocks mean sculpting.
IV.
And then, rocks imply constructing. Heavenly Father identified rocks for
constructing. Rocks make rings. One can massage rocks into charms and
crowns and arrange them into brooches, bracelets, pendants, and necklaces.
Yes, and one can raise porticos and viaducts, sanctuaries and citadels,
monuments and mansions out of the reconstituted crumbs and chunks. These
rocks of ours invite and insist on community, incorporating and configuring
and connecting.
You have faced the honesty. You have felt the hope. Now behold the joy.
“Listen, my whole people, my entire nation. Lift up your eyes, my salvation
goes out and my righteousness draws in. My arms are gathering” (cf vv 4–6).
He dispersed Israel like seed crystals that they might duplicate and
reproduce. Jerusalem becomes Judea and Galilee gives way to Samaria and
Macedonia mushrooms through Egypt, Ethiopia, and Rome toward coastlands,
islands, new world, whole world.
Out of these stones God calls forth children. Not only Abraham cradles them
but I Am himself. Forgiveness orchestrates a relationship. This grace
populates a kinfolk. Jesus kissing, crying, streaming sweat, and shedding
blood is adhering and affixing you securely clasped beside God with his
whole realm and reign. His constant accompanying and communion in your skin
and bone, muscle and guts, unites you to love and to delight, to history
and to destiny, to infinite dignity and eternal glory. The stone the
builders rejected has become cornerstone and capstone of a majestic
architecture.
In this masterpiece, you have a place. Indeed, here you have a sacred
vocation and servanthood. Your salt-of-the-earth goings and doings embrace
neighbors. Your everyday tasks and chats sustain their survival, and along
the way, you get to witness the mighty acts and even participate in the
divine miracles of salvation. Father, Son, and Spirit has positioned you
here precisely for this, to assemble and uphold an “us” that intersects his
own. First, rocks involve disrupting. But also, rocks mean sculpting. And
then, rocks imply constructing.
V.
What’s more, rocks indicate protecting. Jesus Christ appointed rocks for
protecting. Mountain heights and hillside caves provide havens and
strongholds. Brick buildings withstand explosions, earthquakes, and
infernos. Concrete dikes and dams hold back storm surge and deluge. These
rocks of ours proclaim bravery and promise breathing room even amid the
onslaught.
You’ve faced the honesty. You’ve felt the hope. You’ve beheld the joy. Now
have the peace. “The Lord comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places .
. . I will set my justice for a light . . . and my arms will judge” (vv
3–5). Assyrians and Babylonians and Romans pressed hard for Isaiah’s
sixty-six chapters but never crumpled the covenanted few. Pharaohs and
Philistines, idolaters and traitors, pagans and Satan himself assailed
Israel for centuries and millennia but only hardened the coal into tiny,
bright, and knife-like diamonds. The King of kings continually kept Elijahs
and Josiahs, Hezekiahs and Zechariahs, Simeons and Annas, until at last the
prophecies blossomed and the Messiah made it.
He has founded this house upon rock. God’s forgiveness has situated you
safely in a castle, a fortress and refuge against all that would demand of
you. Whoever tempts and threatens your flesh, harasses and haunts your
conscience, Jesus is sheltering you with his invincible mercy and
providence. He has drilled the guilt out of sin and extracted the
condemnation from death. This truth not only resists the enemies; it
reorders all reality in your favor. This love stands sentry for you at the
headquarters of all that happens. Wind and wave may buffet, but they will
not break it, and the weathering will just render you all the grander.
It’s wearing off onto you. Being becomes doing. Father protecting you
prompts you protecting others. Benefit from it, then benefit with it,
because you may not only possess it but use it. Procure, preserve, improve
welfare for the one right in front of you. Share in theirs that they may
share in yours. First, rocks involve disrupting. But also, rocks mean
sculpting. And then, rocks imply constructing. What’s more, rocks indicate
protecting.
VI.
Finally, rocks cry out persisting. The Rock of Ages has dedicated rocks for
persisting. The ridges around and throughout this town have patiently
remained at post thousands of years. The nuggets beneath our feet have seen
generations emerge and evaporate over daybreaks, sunsets, summers, and
winters. Above our heads, asteroids and comets blaze across space as old as
the cosmos itself. These rocks of ours herald and applaud that we’ll end up
all right—since, in fact, our Rock will outlive them!
You face the honesty. You feel the hope. You behold the joy. You have the
peace. Now live the faith. “My salvation will be forever, and my
righteousness will never be dismayed” (v 6). Isaiah ends, but Israel never
does. His prophecy anticipates an evermore. The Lord God of both sorrow and
celebration lets nothing—not their prosperity or their poverty, not their
adversaries’ opportunistic offensives, not even his own prerequisite of
perfection—nothing gets to peter Israel out. He ensures their endurance and
perpetuates them. Jesus immortalizes Israel.
The same Gospel propels us. It draws and drives us into the never-ending.
Christ is risen, physical and visible! Whether anyone knows it or not,
Jesus has vacated the grave. Whether you feel it or not, Jesus has
eviscerated the devil. Whether we like it or not, Jesus has deactivated
sin—yes, even yours and mine. He has commenced the new heavens and a new
earth. The chosen people shall go on as incessant and unstoppable as he.
The promised land, our home, shall linger and last as permanent as he
himself does.
Laugh gladdened! Dance free! Leap in relief! Sing healed, in heart and mind
if not yet in flesh! God Incarnate is fabricating a mosaic from all these
rocks of ours, former things forgotten and all things set right. Spectrums
and symphonies and smorgasbords of textures and tastes await. So let your
compassion have courage and your patience persevere. Let your humility
remain resilient and your gentleness relentless. I know we’ve come here
with handfuls of gravel and pocketfuls of pebbles. And we leave with the
same, but learning to believe differently and delight better in them. May
honesty disrupt, hope sculpt, joy construct, peace protect, and faith
persist. These commands, these promises, they will prevail. So shall we and
so may you, Christ alone our Rock. Amen.

Categories
Reaching Out

My Brother Max, Air Force Pilot

My brother Max was an Air Force pilot who flew RF-4C reconnaissance fighter jets during the Vietnam War, a war to protect South Vietnam from communist North Vietnam. He would take off from a base in Udorn, Thailand, then fly over enemy territory, including Hanoi, with his plane equipped with high-resolution cameras to capture images of critical areas of strategic military importance. He was stationed over there for five and half months and flew 150 missions.

The RF-4C could fly 1,922 miles/hour (2.5 Mach), but the communist North Vietnam government could detect them coming by radar. They knew that these flights were critical to the war effort, so they did everything they could to destroy these flights by anti-aircraft fire, shooting surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), and attacking with Mig fighter jets. During the 5½ months he was stationed in Thailand, HALF of the 24 planes and their pilots in his squadron were lost.

This was WAR, and he was well aware that any mission could be his last, his career and life over – forever. Let us express our deep appreciation to Max and all men and women who have and continue to risk and even give their lives to protect our nation from harm.

When he was flying, if the red light on his radar detector lit up, it meant that a surface-to-air missile, which flies much faster than the plane, was fired, his plane was the target, and he had to evade it or perish. He described surface to air missiles as white telephone poles coming up at you at high speed. (How would you like to have a white telephone pole missile coming at you at high speed?)

There is a parallel with our spiritual journey. The Word of God says we are at war, but it is a war against the culture and enticements of the world, the temptations of the flesh, and the snares of the devil. Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus describes how our greatest enemies are spiritual:
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:10-12

Paul then goes on to instruct us to put on the whole armor of God, which includes the belt of truth buckled around our waist, the breastplate of righteousness, our feet fitted with the readiness for action that comes from the peace of God, the shield of faith, (with which we can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one), the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

Finally, we are to pray in the Spirit on all occasions with prayers and requests, being alert, always praying for our brothers and sisters in the Lord, that we may speak boldly the love and truth of Christ, without fear or concern.

Some parallels:

· We at war, a spiritual war. Those who do not realize this, or are sitting it out (like the lukewarm Laodiceans – see Revelation 3), are not fulfilling their mission on earth, and will be held accountable by God.

· We are called, equipped, and sent into battle – to battle for the souls of men and women who don’t know our Lord.

· We can expect to be attacked – by non-believers, by Satan and his minions, and sometimes even by Christians who hold non- Biblical beliefs.

· Unless we have our spiritual radar on so we can discern evil and the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit, we will not be successful, and can be shot down by the forces of evil.

· But we are not alone, and are supported by the true church – brothers and sisters in the Lord, and by our Lord – the sovereign, living God of the universe. He has our back, He is cheering for us, and He promises to be with us forever and ever. The safest place in the world is in the center of God’s will.

So let us spend time each day with our Commander in Chief Jesus Christ in His Word, put on our spiritual armor, and go forth into battle to reach the lost with the love and truth of Christ. For time is short, eternity is forever, and we are not guaranteed tomorrow.

To God be the glory

Categories
Reaching Out

Someone is Trying to Steal Your Identity

On June 15, 2023, I received a phone call from a representative of our bank, stating: “SOMEONE IS TRYING TO STEAL YOUR IDENTITY.” I was taken aback, because I didn’t know what that exactly meant or the consequences of this statement. Besides, identity theft (like heart attacks or cancer) is always something that happens to the other guy, not to me (or you). But it was for real.

Somehow this crook got my name, date of birth, and social security number, created a fake passport card with my name and date of birth on it, and tried to cash a fake $3,400 check at our bank for “rent”. Fortunately, the bank teller smelled a rat, checked his (fake) ID against my ID on file, and refused to cash the check. Otherwise he would have stolen $3,400 from our account.

Identity Theft in the Bible
Identity theft has been around a long time. There are even examples in the Bible:

· Tamar portrayed herself as a prostitute to seduce Judah when he refused to give his son Shelah to her as a husband. Genesis 38

· Rebekah and Jacob conspired to gain Isaac’s blessing for his first-born son Esau by disguising Jacob as Esau. Genesis 27

· Judas presented himself as a loyal disciple to Christ at the same time he was making arrangements to betray Him for thirty pieces of silver. Matthew 26

· “Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.” II Corinthians 11:14

Who We Are in Christ – Our True Identity
We Christians are children of God, redeemed from sin and the fear of death by Christ on the cross. Created in the image of God, we were knit together in our mother’s womb and now serve as ambassadors of Christ, led by the Holy Spirit. We have even become new creations, transformed by the renewing of our minds:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
II Corinthians 5:17
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2
This transformation is like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly. We are not a minor alteration of the old person, but we become completely brand-new.
Someone is Trying to Steal Your Identity
I have some bad news for you: SOMEONE IS TRYING TO STEAL YOUR IDENTITY. He is Lucifer, that sly old devil, who wants to steal our identity as children of God, kill our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and destroy our souls in the Lake of Fire.

Called the Great Deceiver, he:

· plants seeds of doubt in our minds, starting with Eve in the Garden of Eden: “Did God really say…?”

· pushes the theory of evolution as science, so we are not human beings created in the image of God, but merely animals that evolved from lower life forms,

· attacks the notion that life begins at conception, and instead claims that life – real life – often doesn’t emerge until perhaps 30 days after birth, thus justifying abortion and even infanticide,

· attacks our identity as males and females, claiming that gender identity is merely a social construct, and we can choose whichever gender identity that we like,

· promotes mRNA injections with lucifer-ase that alter our God-given genes, and

· comes as an angel of light, while he is really an angel of darkness, spreading lies, doubt, and fear wherever he goes.

The devil wants to eliminate God from our lives so we do not fulfill our calling, but find our identity in our work, money, status, or a false belief system. So the ultimate identity theft is Satan taking away our status and identity as a child of God, which happens when we stray off the narrow path onto the broad path that leads to the Lake of Fire.

Those who steal our identity – crooks or Lucifer, are stealing something vital from us – not just our stuff, but our very being. So let us spend time with our Lord, stay in His Word, and gather together for fellowship, worship, and sacrament. And let us go forth with the love and truth of Christ to help others become children of God and preserve their identities, for time is short, eternity is forever, and we are not guaranteed tomorrow.

To God be the glory

Categories
Evangelism

Time to Register for Workshop: Healthy, Low-Cost Meals Are a Snap

The increasing cost of food and need for healthy meals is becoming a huge issue for many people at this time. So we are delighted to announce that a workshop on this topic is set for Wednesday, September 6, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Luther Building at First Lutheran Church, 8th and Rock Street in Little Rock.

Our guest presenter is Ms. Laura Anne Warren, a Family and Consumer Science Agent from the Pulaski County Extension Office with expertise in the areas of nutrition, cooking and gardening. She  will be providing a cooking demonstration as well as key insights on how to create healthy, low-cost meals and reduce food costs, an important issue that emerged in our recent survey of the congregation.

This promises to be a very informative workshop, so be sure to put it on your calendar and let the church office know you are coming by clicking the Contact Us button below, so our presenter can plan accordingly: firstlutheranlr@gmail.com, 501-372-1023. We look forward to seeing you there.

contact us
Categories
Fellowship

September First Sunday Fellowship Potluck

Join us Sunday, September 3rd immediately after our 10:30am worship service for an end-of-summer potluck!

A dish sign up sheet is available in the Luther Fellowship Hall by the coffee maker.

Members and guests are welcome!

Categories
Sermon

Sermon for 08.13.23 “God rules”

Pentecost 11 (Proper 14), August 13, 2023
Text: Job 38:4–18
Theme: God rules
Other Lessons: Psalm 18:1–6 (7–16); Romans 10:5–17; Matthew 14:22–33

A. In the Name of the Father…Amen.
B. The Old Testament lesson serves as our sermon text for this morning.
C. Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God our heavenly Father through
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
D. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:
LSB 760:1 What God Ordains Is Always Good
What God ordains is always good:
His will is just and holy.
As He directs my life for me,
I follow meek and lowly.
My God indeed
In ev’ry need
Knows well how He will shield me;
To Him, then, I will yield me.

Introduction

A. The Old Testament lesson from Job, which is our text for this morning,
is in that portion of the book in which God is speaking to Job.
1. Job, as you recall, had been struck with horrendous calamity and had
been experiencing terrible suffering.
a. He had lost everything!
1. The Sabeans (merchants and given to war) took all of his livestock and
slaves and slaughtered them all.
2. The fire of God fell from heaven and killed the sheep and servants.
3. The Chaldeans slaughtered more servants.
4. His sons and daughters were killed by a great windstorm.
b. Job’s response?:
Job 1:20–22 (NASB95)
20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the
ground and worshiped.
21 He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return
there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of
the LORD.”
22 Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.
2. As a result of what happened, Job has done some complaining and
questioned whether God is always just.
3. In response, God emphasizes His role as Creator and Sustainer of the
world, and that His ways are far above man’s ways and His power far
surpasses man’s power.
B. Our text, then, makes us think of how God rules over the world, and
specifically over the human race.
1. We are led to consider that…
C. God’s Rule in This World Is Total and Good and Affects Both Unbelievers
and Believers.
I. God’s rule is total and good.

a. God has total rule and control of all aspects of his creation. God
reminds Job of this reality.
1. This means that what God plans does indeed take place.
a) Nothing can stop His will from being accomplished.
2. This is because God is almighty.
a) His power exceeds any other power.
b) Our text emphasizes God’s omnipotence.
b. God’s rule is good, because He has infinite, perfect wisdom. God’s
wisdom is far above our wisdom and understanding, a truth which God
highlights for Job.
1. This means that God does not make mistakes.
a) He rules in a holy, just, righteous manner.
2. This means that God does not reign in a unstable or changeable manner.
a) He has a wonderful master plan.
3. This means that God is ruling everything for the welfare of His Church,
as Scripture reveals time and time again.
II. How does the total and good rule of God affect the unbeliever?

a. God wants unbelievers (that is “the wicked” in our text) to repent and
be saved.
1. Because God is merciful and patient, at times a wicked man continues on
in his sinful living, and could even prosper.
a) This is one of Job’s many complaints.
2. Put yourself in Job’s place for a moment:
a) Why is it that I, a good and blameless person, is suffering, while the
wicked are having fun, living the good life, and nothing bad ever happens
to them?
3. But the wicked will get away with nothing before the holy, all-seeing,
all-knowing God.
a) According to His timetable, God will send His righteous judgments
against the unbeliever who persists in his rebellion against the Almighty.
b) They will get what is coming to them!
b. Yet even in these judgments there is a distinction, which highlights the
mercy of God.
1. With some unbelievers, God’s righteous action will affect them
negatively in this life and will result in their destruction in the life to
come.
2. With others, however, the judgments will work to shatter their
stubbornness and self-righteousness and make them ready to hear the Gospel,
through which they will be brought to faith and salvation.
c. In all of his dealing with unbelievers, God is acting ultimately for the
good of His Church.
1. Elsewhere in the book of Job, Job says:
Job 12:23 (NASB95)
“He [God] makes the nations great, then destroys them; He enlarges the
nations, then leads them away.”
a) After the Israelites conquered Canaan and settled in the land, many
began to practice the idolatry of their pagan neighbors.
b) God let various Gentile nations and peoples conquer and rule over
portions of Israel.
c) These rulers treated the Israelites in a harsh manner.
d) This made the Israelites cry out to the Lord for rescue, in sincere,
proper repentance.
e) God in His grace would then deliver His covenant people and end the rule
of the pagan nation oppressing the Israelites.
2. This is the cycle that happens in the book of Judges (and we must admit,
in our lives as well):
a) The people sin.
b) God judges the people for their unfaithfulness.
1) The Lord allows suffering to take place
2) For the Israelites, suffering at this point was in the form of serving a
foreign king.
c) Crying out to God.
d) Deliverance
1) For the Israelites, that deliverance came in the form of a judge
(Hebrew: yawshah: a savior, in order to bring about victory on behalf of
the people)
3. Fast forward to the time of the Southern Kingdom of Israel, God raised
up the Babylonians and made them powerful so that they could conquer
unfaithful Judah.
a) Many from the Southern Kingdom were taken into exile, but as a result of
this subjugation, there emerged a purified remnant of true believers,
zealous for the Lord.
b) Then, when God ended the power of the Babylonians by means of the Medes
and Persians, this remnant was able to come back to the homeland, to
Palestine, and from that group the Messiah would one day be born.
c) God’s handling of history will often elude our understanding, as it did
Job’s (Job 38:4–18):
1) especially when we suffer, for we live in a fallen world.
2) but we can be certain that He is always guiding it for our ultimate,
eternal good.
III. How does the total and good rule of God affect the believer?
a. God blesses his people richly, with both physical and spiritual
blessings. And God also allows trials, calamities, and sadness to come into
the lives of believers.
1. These afflictions are blessings in disguise.
2. If in all things God is working for the good of His Church, and the
Church is made up of individual believers, He is so working in the lives of
those individuals, including you and me.
b. You might be asking yourself: How can suffering and sadness be for our
good?
1. The Lord can use tribulation to give His children chastening, or
corrective discipline, when they need it.
a) This will have the effect of driving them to the Word and Sacrament,
through which they will be led to confess their wayward behavior,
b) comforted with the Gospel assurance of forgiveness
c) and strengthened to straighten out and do what is God-pleasing.
c. One example of this is seen in the life of David (2 Samuel 11–12).
1. He committed grievous sins and was brought to repentance and spiritual
restoration through the Word of God spoken by the prophet Nathan.
2. Still, he had to endure chastening from the Lord, and this corrective
discipline benefited David so that he grew spiritually (see Psalm 51).
3. David became the golden standard by which later kings in Israel were
measured.
d. Another example: Some of the Corinthian Christians were going to the
Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner (1 Cor 11:17–34).
1. What were they doing?
a) Meeting together for worship that was doing more harm than good.
b) Treating the Lord’s Supper as a party.
c) In a state of drunkenness, others going hungry.
d) Living the high life while a fellow brother or sister is hungry and has
nothing.
e) Not seeing the Lord’s Supper for what it truly is:
1) The body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, given and shed for us!
2. They were disciplined by God so that they would repent and not be lost
spiritually and condemned to hell.
3. It can always be said that trials in a believer’s life will work for the
refining of one’s faith, again through the Means of Grace.
a) All believers on earth are constantly in need of refining.
e. Think of the life of Job.
1. The Book of Job emphasizes, at the beginning, that he was a righteous,
godly man.
f. But as the book unfolds, we see some rough edges to his faith.
1. He protests a bit too much of him being innocent of any wrongdoing
2. and gives evidence of being tainted somewhat by a theology of glory, the
belief that a godly life means earthly prosperity.
g. By the end of the book, however, after God has spoken to him, Job has
been properly humbled.
1. He is a wiser man, and he is stronger in the faith.
h. A key message of the Book of Job, though, is that we might not know, at
least at first, the full reason, or all the reasons, why we or other
believers suffer.
1. Job was unaware of the dialogue between God and Satan at the start of
the book, of the contest between the two, and of how God’s purpose
prevailed, with Job standing forth as a trophy of God’s grace.
2. Job’s life continues to present powerful theology to believers today.
i. Perhaps Job learned the full story of his situation at a later point in
his life.
j. Often, however, a child of God will not have the complete answer to the
question “Why?” until he or she enters heaven.
1. Therefore, when you ask “Why?” you can tell yourself:
a) Somehow this suffering has its place in God’s good master plan for this
world’s history, in His wise governing of all things.
b) With that, keep on trusting in the Lord.
2. But if in response to that, the further question should arise in your
heart, “Why should I trust the Lord?” then may you always firmly answer,
a) Because of the cross of Christ!
k. That is God’s clearest revelation of his nature
1. and the undeniable, everlasting proof of His tremendous love for all of
us.
l. Because of the cross and the empty tomb:
1. we can be absolutely certain of our salvation,
2. that God is for us, not against us,
3. and that we can trust His rule.

Conclusion

A. The rule of the almighty, wise God in this world is total and good.
1. It is good and wise in itself,
2. good for the Church,
3. and good for each of us individually, as children of God. Amen.
B. Let us pray:
LSB 760:6 What God Ordains Is Always Good
What God ordains is always good:
This truth remains unshaken.
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
I shall not be forsaken.
I fear no harm,
For with His arm
He shall embrace and shield me;
So to my God I yield me.
Text: Public domain
C. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
D. In the Name of the Father…Amen.