Archives: Sermons

9-11-22 Trinity 13

September 11, 2022
God’s law is simply beautiful. The psalmists says he meditates on it day and night, that he gets up before the sun dawns because he’s so excited about the law that he can’t sleep. God’s law sets before you this amazing happiness that you could strive and strive for all your life and yet never even get close to. It sets unreachable standards and yet they are standards so obviously good and perfect that to…

9-4-22 Trinity 12

September 4, 2022
Of all the horrible things the devil has done to us, all the disease and pain and death he’s made us suffer, by far the worst is his making us deaf to God’s Word and silent in His praises. This was the dignity of man, our honor in the beginning, what raised us far above the beasts and made us sons of God, the envy of angels, that God created us in His image and…

8-28-22 Trinity 11

August 28, 2022
When King Solomon first built the temple and dedicated it to the Lord, it was very obvious what the temple was for. Solomon says in his dedication, “When they pray toward this place, hear o Lord in heaven Your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.” Forgive. That’s the reason for the Temple, forgiveness. Solomon’s prayer is full of it, constant, again and again. “When your people are defeated by the enemy because they’ve sinned…

8-21-22 Trinity 10

August 21, 2022
When we think of Palm Sunday, we usually think of a joyful occasion with the crowds waving branches and praising Jesus. But as today’s reading notes, while Jesus was sitting on the donkey surrounded by the joyful crowds, he wept. He wept when the procession drew near to Jerusalem and he saw the city. And he wept because he foresaw its utter destruction. When we think of Palm Sunday, we usually think of the children…

8-14-22 Trinity 9

August 14, 2022
Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous money, so that when it fails they may receive you into eternal homes. Jesus is provoking us with this parable. He points to the zeal and the shrewdness of the heathen, what they will do, how they will use money, to reach their goals, and asks why do you My disciples lag behind? Yes, it’s true that the sons of this world are more shrewd in this…

8-7-22 Trinity 8

August 7, 2022
The wolf disguises himself as a sheep, Jesus says, but there is one thing a wolf can’t disguise, and that’s his voice. Wolves howl. They don’t know how to bleat. The false prophet, the sham teacher, can look the part, can where the right clothes, smile the right smile, earn the right degrees and have the right credentials, but you’ll know him by what he says. A good tree produces good fruit. And a bad…

7-31-22 Trinity 7

July 31, 2022
Jesus is in Gentile lands when He feeds the four thousand. It’s a deserted place south of the Sea of Galilee, barren because it’s summertime, and in that part of the world nothing grows in the summer. There’s no rain and it’s too hot for anything to grow – it’s like Wyoming in July. When Jesus fed the five thousand you might remember that there was a lot of green grass in that place. Nothing…

7-24-22 Feast of St. James the Elder

July 24, 2022
Today we celebrate the feast of St. James the Elder, Apostle of our Lord. Now it’s been a little while since we’ve commemorated one of the saints, so it’s worth noting first of all why we do so. The Lutheran Reformers explained this well in The Apology of the Augsburg Confession in the Book of Concord: “Our confession approves honoring the saints in three ways. The first is thanksgiving. We should thank God because He…

7-3-22 Trinity 3

July 3, 2022
God is happy when sinners repent and so we should be happy too. Jesus’ picture of repentance is being lost to God and then being found by God. The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine in the wilderness and seeks out the one lost sheep. And this is the most natural thing in the world to us, this instinct to seek something precious to us that has been lost to us. God has implanted it in our…

6-26-22 Trinity 2

June 26, 2022
The world is a dangerous place, but it’s easy to misunderstand where the true danger lies. It’s easy, for instance, to see danger in sickness. When you’re sick, you can feel malfunction in your body and you realize how frail man’s life is. It’s easy to see danger in the rage of unbelievers as they push for communism, as they push for an abortion clinic, as they push against a court that has angered them,…
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