The Foolishness of God

[The Ten Commandments] are the beginning of the words of the cross that lead us to know our sin and our need for a Savior--folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

We don’t like that much and we fight it like stubborn children who know what they want and insist on getting it and doing it.

God’s Word doesn’t change based upon what we like, what we think, what we want. The way of life is the way of life—and the way of death is ...the way of death. And we will find that out one way or another—either now by hearing and listening to and believing the Word Christ preaches and teaches and pours over our heads and places between our lips, or on the Last Day when, [as] it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

To hear and/or read the entire sermon preached for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity, click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3350

 

This My Son Was Dead

What better text to have set before us than Jesus’ parable of The Loving & Faithful Father? Yes, we have come to know it as the parable of the Prodigal Son. But if you really examine it, you can’t help but see the love and faithfulness of the Father throughout the story.

...from start to finish this parable is all about the love and faithfulness of the Father who not only provides in the beginning, but forgives in the end.

To hear and/or read the entire sermon preached for the Third Sunday after Trinity, click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3331

Taste My Banquet

From the moment “the water included in God’s command and combined with God’s word” [SC Explanation to Baptism, Part 1] was poured over your head “in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit,” God has been inviting you to taste of His banquet and partake of His heavenly gifts for everlasting life.

 

To hear and/or read the entire sermon preached for the Second Sunday after Trinity, click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3326

Two Rich Men

It is not a sin to be rich.

English is a difficult language for the preaching and teaching of God’s Word. Any human language is really because God’s Word conveys heavenly things in earthly language. Here the word “rich” in the Hebrew is i...ndeed the sinful kind. But it is not in the sense of having wealth—lots of money and stuff and power—which in itself is a gift of God and the economy of His creation. It’s about the heart of the one who has it and how he is disposed, or predisposed, to use it.

Wealth, the stuff, is not the problem. Otherwise why the commandments about keeping your hands—as well as your hearts and minds—off of other people’s money and property?

To hear and/or read the entire sermon preached for the First Sunday after Trinity, click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3319