FOUNDATIONS FOR PEACE
By FOUNDATIONS FOR PEACE
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Podcast Description
The weekly message delivered at St. Paul's Lutheran Church - New Ulm, MN
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CleanGod: “I’ll Love You Forever!” | Romans 8:28-30 February 11-13, 2012 6th Sunday After Epiphany Pastor Don Sutton February 12, Sermon from Saint Pauls on Vimeo. Romans 8:28-30 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” Introduction As I mentioned in the children’s devotion Tuesday is Valentine’s Day. Did you know that worldwide it is estimated that 1 billion Valentines cards are exchanged each year? The average America will spend $119.67 with men spending twice as much as women. Do you know who receives the most Valentines? It’s teachers, followed by children, mothers, wives, and girlfriends. Hallmark Cards is one of the primary producers of Valentines cards. They have approximately 2,000 different cards in their Valentines collection. But there is one card that in recent years has stood out. It’s card V-330-5 produced in 2006. Here’s picture of it (screen). The message inside states, “Each time I see you, think of you, hold you, here’s what I do …. I fall deeply, madly, happily in love with you. Happy Valentine’s Day.” In Romans 8, through the apostle Paul God speaks to his people, not so romantically, but intimately and intensely: “I’ll Love You Forever!” This is what God goes on to say: … so I work all for your good; … since I worked all for your glory. … so I work all for your good God’s word is good. In the Psalms King David said that it was sweeter than honey (19 & 119). But aren’t there some things in God’s word that cause us indigestion? For example, do the demands of God’s law for perfection always seem so sweet to you? How about the condemnations of God’s law on our failures to obey? What about statements like Romans 5:3, “And we rejoice in our suffering?” Or, how about Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” This pertains to the Christian – the person called by the Holy Spirit through the gospel to saving faith and who as a result loves God. Many of you may know this passage. But aren’t there times when we struggle with the thought? I think of a Christian family who lost an adult child in a sudden and tragic accident. Several months after the accident, I remember talking with the father. He said, “In looking back I am shocked at how angry I was that this happened. And I remember when a well-meaning person quoted Romans 8:28 to me, I wanted to respond, ‘Shut up! Just shut up! What good can come out of this?’” Parents who have lost a child, they may feel this. The same may be true of the person whose marriage is breaking up and it seems like his/or her family and life is falling apart. A person in pain and disabled might relate to this; so too the person in a psych unit or one facing a serious surgery. People who have lost a fortune, a job or a home may feel this. Our heads know the promise of God in Romans 8:28, but because of our grief and/or fear and the confusion caused by our sinful nature we may not want to hear this promise. Or we may doubt it. While we may believe in the Lord Jesus as our Savior we may feel, “I can’t see how this will work for good.” This may be especially true if we have been the victim of someone else’s sin – robbery, rape, embezzlement or the drunkenness of a driver in another car. For those who have lost everything in our recent recession because of the greed and mismanagement of others, there may be doubts that God works all for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. The Roman Christians must have felt this as they und | 2/14/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanWHATEVER THEY DO, PROSPERS | Feb. 4-6 2012 PSALM 1:1–6 Lutheran Schools Week / Fifth Sunday after Epiphany Pastor Tim Smith Feb 5, Sermon from Saint Pauls on Vimeo. Children’s Sermon: Tooth brushing and Bible study should be done every day. 1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. 3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers. 4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. (NIV 2011) “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” I never played Richard III on stage, but I’m told that actors who do find that by adopting Richard’s hunchback almost automatically gives them a limp, and with a little adjustment to their voice, they find out that they’re instantly in character, so that “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” easily becomes: “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” The first Psalm warns us that when we jump into the character of a sinner, it will become easier and easier to fall into their sins. The first verse takes us mentally down a dark ally in a seedy part of town and shows us that when we start acting like a sinner, before long, we won’t be acting anymore. Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked! This is the first step into sin, when we find ourselves “walking in step,” agreeing with the wicked. One of the most famous of our American proverbs is “Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes.” The Psalm warns that when you walk a mile in the shoes of the wicked, you will be judged yourself. The next step from agreeing with or walking with the wicked is to stand in the way that sinners take. This isn’t just a warning about “guilt by association,” it’s a warning about putting yourself in the path of sinners. It’s a lot easier to rob banks when you hang out with bank robbers; it’s a lot easier to commit adultery when you live a brothel. It’s only a short step from there to the next warning: To sit in the company of mockers. At first, the believer was just walking the path of sinners, and could still step back into the life of faith. Then, standing around with sinners, the believer’s defenses are worn away and beaten down, until now, “sitting in the company of mockers,” the believer begins to talk and even to think like an unbeliever. Keep in mind that here in the first Psalm, “sinners” is a way of talking about people who reject God. Of course we’re all sinners, but a sinner who is a Christian, who knows the forgiveness of Christ, will want to live for Christ and not walk, stand or sit—opposed to Christ. Thank God he did what he did through Christ. He sent us the Redeemer we so desperately needed, to guide our meandering steps, call us back from our wandering ways, and let’s never forget that he forgave all of those times when you and I sat in the company of mockers and scorned even him. But he brought us back under his wing, into his family, and made us his own, again. Think back to how we became believers in the first place. We were chosen by God, washed in baptism, united with Christ by faith through the working of the Holy Spirit within us. We didn’t decide to be Christians—no one can—but we were gathered up in the harvest of the Gospel and put to work in God’s service. So I want to say that again:: We didn’t decide to be Christians. But what about all those times the Bible talks about us making choices and decisions about our spiritual lives? | 2/8/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanWHY DOES HE EAT WITH SINNERS? | MARK 2:13-17 January 21-23, 2012 Second weekend after Epiphany Pastor Tim Smith January 22, 2012 - Sermon from Saint Pauls on Vimeo. Summary: The two points to keep in mind here are the grace of Jesus' call—to ask a tax collector to join ... | 1/25/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanJESUS IS REVEALED AS SAVIOR OF THE WORLD | MATTHEW 2:9-11 Epiphany January 7-9, 2012 Pastor Tim Smith Jan 8, 2012 Sermon from Saint Pauls on Vimeo. They went on their way, and the star they had seen in the eastern sky went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. (NIV) ————————— 9 Or seen when it rose. (A) Who were they? The name "Magi" might make you think of "magic," and the words are related, but really the "Magi" are better described a "Wise Men," men of great learning and understanding, men who thought and pondered great mysteries of the universe. They watched and named the stars and the planets, and there was hardly a thing on earth that they didn't think about and catalog and consider. When the prophet Daniel was in exile in Babylon—which became Persia while Daniel was there—he was elevated to being the chief of the Magi, the head of this order. It's no wonder that they were looking for the Messiah or that they understood who and what he would be when he came. Through Daniel, the Magi would have known about the prophecies about the Messiah in the books of Genesis, Isaiah, Micah, and the Psalms. Through Daniel's faith, the wisdom of Magi became true, godly wisdom. We don't know, though, how well that wisdom was passed down from generation to generation for the five centuries or so after Daniel's time. But nevertheless, a few of these wise men did come when the time was right, expecting to find the Messiah born somewhere in the distant West, in the land of Judea by the Sea—from Daniel's own country. And so they came. (B) From Jerusalem to Bethlehem. The first Gospel tells us that the wise men went first to Jerusalem, and our text picks up the story as they leave for Bethlehem. It's worth noticing that nothing at all is said about them leaving gifts with King Herod. They treated Herod more like a passerby on the street, leaning out the car window: "Hey buddy, can you tell me where the King Messiah is born?" Herod shrugged, literally and proverbially, and his own wise men—not nearly as wise as these Gentiles from the East—pointed to Bethlehem. Bethlehem was the birthplace of King David, but even after David's time it never grew into a large or important city. It was a little town, a cluster of houses around a well, but the prophet Micah had foreseen that this was the village where the Savior would be born. The wise men continued their journey, and whether on camel's back, horseback, in wagons, or on foot—we're not actually told how they traveled or how many of them came—they would have traveled the five miles south to Bethlehem in no time at all. That is, after all, just the distance from St. Paul's out to MVL. (C) Guided by the star. The star that led the wise men appeared, as they said themselves, "in the east." Opinions about the Star of Bethlehem have abounded from the earliest days of Christianity, and such notable astronomers as Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler—both Lutherans, incidentally—concluded that the Star of Bethlehem was not a natural star, nor a conjunction of either stars or planets, nor was it a comet, a nova, a supernova, or a meteor. None of these explain the phenomenon described in simple language in the Gospel of Matthew. We are left to conclude—and this is the best conclusion we can make—that the Star of Bethlehem was a miraculous rather than a natural phenomenon, and that the Magi were alerted to its significance by some means unknown to us. Whatever the reason that they followed the star, it led them to the very house where the infant Jesus and his family were staying following his birth. (D) And there, when they found him at last, they were overjoyed. These Gentile scholars and travelers bowed down and wo | 1/11/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanHaving a Redeemer Makes for a Happy Ending | Ruth 4:13-22 New Years Eve/Day 2011/2012 Pastor Don Sutton Sermon - January 1, 2012 from Saint Pauls on Vimeo. Ruth 4:13-22 13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14 The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.” 16 Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son.” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. 18 This, then, is the family line of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron, 19 Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, 20 Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, 21 Salmon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed, 22 Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David. Introduction Among the various types of literature is the tragedy. A tragedy is a narrative poem, tale or drama typically describing the downfall of a great person or describing a conflict between the “good guy” and a superior force ending with a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that elicits pity or terror. William Shakespeare wrote many tragedies – Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth, Anthony and Cleopatra, to name a few. I don’t like tragedies. Why? They make me sad. Sometimes they make me mad. They hardly ever make me glad. So I don’t like them. I like literature with happy endings, don’t you? This New Year’s Eve/Day, as we consider Ruth 4:13-22 let’s focus on this: Having a Redeemer Makes for a Happy Ending … This was true for Naomi and Ruth …This is true for Nate and Rachel. …This was true for Naomi and Ruth Last weekend we were in Bethlehem for a birth - the birth of our Savior. This New Year’s weekend we’re back there for a wedding – the wedding of Boaz and Ruth. To really appreciate this wedding, one needs to know the background behind it. For that we jump back some years to another marriage in Bethlehem. It was that of a woman named Naomi to a man from Bethlehem named Elimelech. They had two sons, Malon and Kilion. Because of a famine the Elimelech family migrated to Moab (east of the Dead Sea). While in Moab, Naomi’s husband died. Her two sons married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other one, Ruth. But then the sons died leaving Naomi with her two daughters-in-law. (It makes a male think twice about living in Moab or marrying Moabite women.) Eventually Naomi decided to return to Bethlehem when she heard that the famine there was over. One daughter-in-law remained in Moab. The other one, Ruth, went with Naomi. Times were tough for the women. Even though Naomi’s husband had land, she was losing it to pay debts. So Naomi and Ruth had nothing. They survived by scavenging the grain left in the fields by the harvesters. But the Lord blessed the women through a relative of Naomi’s husband, a man named Boaz. He let Ruth glean grain in his fields. Boaz also developed a “yen” for Ruth and she, for him. Things worked out so that according to Old Testament laws and customs Boaz ended up with the right and responsibility to purchase any land Naomi lost and to marry Ruth so that the family of Ruth’s first husband continue on. This right and this responsibility referred to as being “goel”, “the kinsman redeemer,” were conferred on the male who was next of kin. Since a relative closer to Elimelech, Naomi’s deceased husband, did not feel that he could carry out this responsibility without endangering his own estate, he passed the right and responsibility to Boaz. So Boaz assumed the right of the kinsman redeemer and carried out his responsibility. | 1/4/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanChristmas Eve Childrens Service | St. Paul's Lutheran School Children Christmas Eve Service December 24, 2011 Christmas Eve Childrens Service from Saint Pauls on Vimeo. | 12/29/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanMary’s Most Memorable Meeting | Luke 1:26-38 December 17-19, 2011 Fourth Sunday in Advent Pastor Don Sutton Dec. 17 - Sermon from Saint Pauls on Vimeo. Luke 1:26-38 26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin... | 12/21/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanHE CAME AS A WITNESS | JOHN 1:6–8 December 10-12, 2011 Third Sunday in Advent Pastor Tim Smith Sermon Dec. 11, 2011 from Saint Pauls on Vimeo. CHILDREN'S DEVOTION: A bright light, and a pretend moon. The moon only reflects the bright light of the sun. John was the moon, Jesus the Sun. We are to be like the moon, too, reflecting the light of Jesus. HE CAME AS A WITNESS - 1. To Testify About the Light 2. So that through him (John), all might believe Please think back with me to a part of the Bible you already know so well, the Gospel for Christmas Day, which is not Luke 2—that's Christmas Eve—but the prologue of John's Gospel. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… These words and what follow are a beautiful and awesome reflection on the divinity of Jesus Christ, God who became man. We need to keep that mind five verses later as the author switches our attention from Jesus to John the Baptist. Listen once again to these three sentences: John 1:6-8, and consider the contrast between Jesus Christ and his forerunner John: 6 There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The Gospel divides our attention on John the Baptist in these verses. With one lens—the lens of the words themselves in these three verses—we have an image of John in contrast with Christ. We think to ourselves: John is not what Christ is. John is a man, he is sent from God (he himself is not God), he is a witness to Christ, not Christ himself, and most obviously in verse 8, "he himself was not the light," so that we recognize that Jesus is the light. But the other lens that we are given as we read this chapter is the lens of the whole chapter—it is the frame of the context and the words we read before and after, that give us another image, but this one isn't of John, it's of Jesus. And this image tells us that Jesus is not what John is. Jesus is a human, but he is more: he is also God. His name is withheld for emphasis until verse 17, but everyone knows who we're talking about, we don't even need to say his name. He is the one to which John and all the others in the Gospel bear witness. Jesus is the not the reflection, Jesus himself is the Light—the Light of the World. But like a pair of glasses, we wear both lenses at once, and through the inspired words of the Gospel we are able to see both of these truths at the same time, and so in the final clause of verse 8 we can read and fully comprehend that "he came as a witness to the light," and know which of them—Jesus or John—is the witness, and which is the light. But there is also the final clause in verse 7 which for some is trickier, because we expect it to mean something else. It says, "So that through him all men might believe." There the Gospel is talking about John. Not that John is the object of anyone's faith, but the purpose of John's ministry was this: He came as a witness to testify concerning the light. Why? So that through him—through John's while ministry, life, and baptism—all people might believe. JOHN CAME AS A WITNESS 1. To Testify About the Light 2. So That Through Him All Might Believe John's testimony about Christ isn't any different than ours. But his was a different point of view, since he came before Christ. We like to categorize things to help understand them, but John defies some of our categories. Was he the last Old Testament prophet? Was he the first New Testament preacher? He is both. Jesus tells us that John was the "Elijah" the Jews were looking for. And John's ministry even reflected the ministry of Elijah in many ways: Luke tells us that John baptized all around the Jordan River valley, and Elijah was fed by ravens somewhere in that vicinity. Both men were powerful preachers who mixed with kings and commoners alike. | 12/14/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanThe Day of the Lord WILL Come! | 2 Peter 3:8-14 December 3-5, 2011 Second Weekend in Advent Pastor Don Sutton Dec 5 - Sermon from Saint Pauls on Vimeo. 2 Peter 3:8-14 8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thou... | 12/7/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanStay Awake! Watch Out! | Mark 13:32-37 November 26-28, 2011 First Weekend in Advent Pastor Don Sutton Sermon for November 28, 2011 from Saint Pauls on Vimeo. Mark 13:32-37 "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only ... | 11/30/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanKing of Kings and Lord of Lords | Revelation 19:11-16 November 19-21, 2011 Christ the King Sunday Pastor Don Sutton Nov. 21, 2011 Sermon from Saint Pauls on Vimeo. Revelation 19:11-16 11 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is ca... | 11/21/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanHALLELUJAH! | REVELATION 19:1-9 Saints Triumphant Sunday November 12-14 2011 Pastor Tim Smith Nov. 13, 2011 Sermon from Saint Pauls on Vimeo. 19 After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2 for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants." 3 And again they shouted: "Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever." 4 The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried: "Amen, Hallelujah!" 5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying: "Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both small and great!" 6 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. 8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) 9 Then the angel said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!'" And he added, "These are the true words of God." (NIV) —————————— 19:5 great and small. 19:8 of God's holy people. 19:9 Write this. I haven't counted how many times the word "Hallelujah!" occurs in the Old Testament, where our English Bibles usually translate it as "Praise the Lord!" However, I do know that in the New Testament, it occurs exactly four times. All of those four times are here in our text. Each of these four Hallelujahs punch out praise to God for four very different but perfectly interlocking truths: 1. Praising God for his righteous justice 2. Praising God for his good and holy judgment of sin 3. Praising God for his mercy in making us his forgiven servants, and 4. Praising God for letting our righteous acts be useful to him. I. First, We praise God for his righteous justice. God demands holiness, because he cannot be approached by anything or anyone who is not holy and without sin. In the Old Testament singers went ahead of Israel's army "to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying, 'Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.'" God's justice is an example of his love: God wants us to be able to approach him; he wants us to be with him. But we must be without sin to do that. Of course, you and I know that we're not without sin. The fact that God punishes sin is not separate from God's holiness and his goodness, however. John heard the multitude in heaven shouting the second Hallelujah! Precisely because God punishes sin, and II. We also praise God for his good and holy judgment of sin. The one being punished in John's vision was "the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries.” We know from chapters 17-18 that this "great prostitute" is a symbol for those who have fallen away, for those who have been misled, and especially for those who have been the leaders who have led others away from Christ—in other words, this is the punishment of everyone who has rejected Jesus Christ. When John sees that "The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever," he sees that punishment is hell is eternal, and never stops. Those in heaven and we, too, still on earth, must remember that even the punishment of hell is a holy and righteous act of God. Paul calls the Day of God's Wrath the eternity "when his righteous judgment will be revealed." LAW: Here is where we see that we deserve the same. To be sinful is to be unable to approach God at all. And remember that in that terrible but holy scene of the judgment and damnation of those who reject God, | 11/16/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanThere’s One Court We Can’t Avoid… | Daniel 7:9,10 November 5-7, 2011 End Times Pastor Don Sutton Sermon for Nov. 5, 2011 from Saint Pauls on Vimeo. Daniel 7:9,10 9 “As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. 10 A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.” Introduction Have you ever had to go to court and appear before a judge? In all likelihood, for one reason or another some here have had the experience. I haven’t and I hope I never do. I believe that many of you share my sentiments. While we understand the need and value of our court system and judges, we avoid them if at all possible. But God’s word for our consideration today reminds us: "There's One Court We Can't Avoid..." ...One where .... God appears in glory ... and … God sits in judgment. …God Appears in Glory One night in a vision the prophet Daniel saw four beasts coming out of the sea – 1) a lion with the wings of an eagle that were eventually torn off, 2) a bear with three ribs in its mouth between its teeth, 3) a leopard with four wings like those of a bird and four heads, and, 4) a fourth terrifying beast with large iron teeth and ten horns among which was another little horn and spoke boastfully (v.8). Through an angel God gave Daniel this interpretation of the vision. “The four great beasts are four kingdoms that will rise from the earth.” The lion, with wings of an eagle that were torn off, is Babylon. Babylon was powerful like a lion and swift like an eagle. But God humbled her and her kings. The second beast is the empire of the Medes and Persians. Like a hungry bear it ruthlessly devoured nations. The third beast was Greece. Stealthy and deadly like a leopard but like a bird able to cover great distances in a short time, Alexander the Great conquered much of the territory around the Mediterranean world. When he died four of his generals succeeded him and divided up his kingdom. The fourth beast, terrifying, with large teeth and ten horns, is the Roman Empire. The ten horns depict the many rulers of Rome. The little horn is the Anti-Christ. Then, as our text reveals, Daniel saw the Ancient of Days – God the father – in glory. His name connotes his eternal nature. His appearance – clothing as white as snow and his hair white as wool – communicates glory. There were thrones, signs of royal authority. The Ancient of Days sat in one flaming with fire with a river of fire flowing from it. This signaled glory. Around him are millions of angels worshiping and serving the Ancient of Days. He is sitting in heavenly glory ready to hold court on the Day of Judgment. But someone is missing in this vision. In John 5:22 Jesus said, "The Father judges no one but has entrusted all judgment to the Son so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father." This someone is Jesus. But as the vision continues Daniel reports, "In my vision at night I looked and there before me was one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed (7:13,14)." So Jesus, the Son of Man, an Old Testament reference to the Messiah and a New Testament reference to the fact that in addition to his divine nature, Jesus is truly human, takes a throne in God’s heavenly courtroom and assumes his position as Judge. ... God sits in judgment In our gospel reading, Jesus said that this is the way it would be - "When the Son of Man comes in all his glory | 11/9/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanTHE LORD IS AT YOUR SIDE | DANIEL 6:16 Reformation (Oct 29-31, 2011) Pastor Timothy Smith Sermon for October 30, 2011 from Saint Pauls on Vimeo. 16 So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lion's den. The king said to Daniel, "May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!" As the Lord stood by Daniel's side, and by Martin Luther's side, he stands at our side, too. When's the last time you thanked God for your faith and your baptism? It something to praise God for and to be thrilled about! Whether you've been a believer for ninety days or ninety years, faith is a gift and a treasure. How strong is your faith? Would it stand up to a test? Now we're not talking about how long you've been a believer anymore, are we. Now we're talking spiritual muscles. Setting all our good works and our spiritual gifts aside, does that faith that drives our spiritual engine hold up to rough spots and road blocks? Could we stand a test like Daniel's? Can you imagine being Daniel? In exile in faraway Babylon, Daniel had spent many years serving and getting to know the famous King Nebuchadnezzar. Through Daniel's ministry, the Lord evidently brought Nebuchadnezzar to faith, even if it was a trembling faith, mixed with a lot of the leftover rubbish from his polytheistic beliefs. But now Daniel was an old man—eighty or more. Five other kings had come and gone since Nebuchadnezzar's reign in Babylon before the Medes overthrew them on that night that the handwriting appeared on the wall. Daniel took a deep breath—a new regime, a new king with his new pagan gods. Probably there would have to be another incident like the one that tested the faith of his three friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when they had been thrown into a fiery furnace many decades before. What was the big problem? Daniel and his new King Darius had religions that would have seemed very similar to an outsider. Both of their religions involved animal sacrifices. Both of their religions involved altars and burning incense and prayers in very similar languages—in fact, by this time, both Daniel and Darius had converted their speech to the Aramaic language common in Babylon at this time. They probably went to worship with similar clothes and similar head coverings or turbans on. They probably went to worship with the men segregated from women, children and foreigners. But the biggest differences between religions and even denominations within Christianity today is not what people wear to church or the way they act outside of church. The biggest differences are usually found in the answers to one of two big questions: (1) Who is Jesus Christ? And (2) How do we get to heaven? Through all of his troubles, and even facing death, the Lord stood by Daniel's side and preserved him. Yes, even from the mouths of lions in their own den. Let's slip ahead in time two thousand years, from 539 BC to 1517 AD. The same questions that were putting Daniel at odds with his superiors in Babylon had put the monk Martin Luther at odds with the Christian Church. In Luther's time, there was only one Christian Church in Europe, the Roman Catholic Church. And Luther, a monk and a priest, was concerned that his people were being misled about who Jesus is and what Jesus did for mankind—The whole question of How do we get to heaven? was being muddied by a wandering friar who had been ordered by the pope to do fundraising in Germany for a building project in Rome. The danger in Luther's congregation was that the church was deceiving people into thinking they could buy forgiveness. This wandering friar, whose name was John Tetzel, was selling forgiveness on pieces of paper called indulgences. But besides the sideshow, which was a discussion about whether or not there is a Purgatory or middle ground between heaven and hell—there isn't—was this issue of whether a person could but forgiveness. And if we can buy our forgiveness for sins, | 10/31/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanKeep the Gospel Going! | October 22-24, 2011 2 Timothy 1:8-10, 2:1-2 Pentecost 19 Pastor Don Sutton October 23, 2011 from Saint Pauls on Vimeo. 2 Timothy 1:8-10, 2:1-2 So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me... | 10/26/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanGOD HAS MERCY ON WHOM HE WANTS TO HAVE MERCY | ROMANS 9:6-16 October 15—17, 2011 Pentecost 18 Pastor Tim Smith Sermon for October 15th, 2011 from Saint Pauls on Vimeo. Children's Devotion: (Fall leaves). These leaves all have something in common. They're not all from the same tree, or even the same kind of tree, but they're all (what?) – dead. When I picked these leaves up, I decided to pick them up in a certain way. I picked up all the leaves in a certain area that came when I picked them up (they didn't stick to the ground). And in the area I was in , I picked up every single leaf. I didn't leave any behind. That's what God promises to do for us. Even though we're all dead in our sins, he has chosen us to be his, and he will pick us all up on the Last Day. Those who cling to their sins and sticks to their unbelief, God won't bring into his basket in heaven, but for everyone who knows Jesus and trusts in him, God will bring home forever in heaven. 6 For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7 Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." 8 In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. 9 For this was how the promise was stated: "At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son." 10 Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. 11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad-- in order that God's purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls-- she was told, "The older will serve the younger." 13 Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." 14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." 16 It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. (NIV) 1. God's mercy isn't up to us 2. God's mercy means eternal life Back in 2006 a woman named Rebekah was in labor. She knew ahead of time that she was going to have twins; but she didn't need a sonogram to tell her that. The boys, she later revealed, had been jostling, fighting in the womb. They were fraternal twins, not identical. The older one had red hair, and was just the hairiest baby his parents had ever seen, and they even nicknamed him "red." That was the physical difference between the boys. When I say "Back in 2006," please understand that I'm talking about 2006 BC, and that the two boys were Esau, whose name means "red," and Jacob his twin brother. There was also another difference between them. God had chosen the younger brother, Jacob, to be the father of the nation of Israel, and God even changed Jacob's name to "Israel." And this had nothing to do with anything in those two babies. The Bible says that this choice of God's wasn't about anything the babies did or didn't do. It wasn't about how they looked. It wasn't about any special potential that God foresaw in their future. It was simply God showing that his grace, his undeserved love, is exactly that—undeserved. He chooses because he chooses, and this is a teaching of the Bible that's there for your comfort. It's like the TV set and the clock and the window and the wallpaper and the artwork in a hospital room. None of those things have to be there for the doctor and the nurses to do their work in healing you, but they're there for your comfort, and to help your recovery. So it is with the doctrine in the Bible we call "Election," which Paul describes in this passage. We need to talk more about election, and we will, but before we do, let's look at the point Paul is making so that we don't just see what election is, but also why Paul brings it up here. God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy. | 10/19/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSermon for October 8-10, 2011 | Genesis 50:15 Pentecost 17 Professor Ross Stelljes from Martin Luther College There was no printed sermon for this weekend. Instead, please enjoy either the podcast or vodcast of the sermon. October 9, 2011 Sermon from Saint Pauls on Vimeo. | 10/12/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanDID CHRIST DIE FOR NOTHING? | GALATIANS 2:11–21 October 1-3, 2011 Pentecost 16 Pastor Tim Smith Sermon - October 2, 2011 from Saint Pauls on Vimeo. 11 When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12 Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. 14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? 15 "We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' 16 know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified. 17 "If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. 19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" DID CHRIST DIE FOR NOTHING? Paul didn't write this chapter of Galatians because he wanted to prove to everybody that he had stood up to Peter one time back in the day. Paul wrote this because the sin that Peter and Barnabas and everybody else had slipped into in Antioch was the exact same sin that the Galatians were slipping into. If you think about it, it was an easy mistake to make, because it was the mistake of slipping into old habits that had once been the Laws of the Church. Those are hard habits to break. Imagine that you are not a Gentile, but a Jew; you are one of the Apostles. You know the stories about Jesus—you were there! You saw the miracles; you were in the boat when he calmed the storm. You ate your share of the fishes and the loaves and you helped collect the leftovers and laughed with Peter and John at how much really was left over—much more than the Lord started with in the first place. Now, after his ascension, the gospel has been going out, and you find yourself north of Galilee at the city of Antioch in the far north, farther even than Damascus, up in the upper right-hand corner of the Mediterranean Sea. So many Greek are getting sick and tired of the filthy, sinful lifestyle of some of the Greeks, especially the tabloid lifestyle of the Corinthians, and these Greeks are looking for a philosophy or a religion that will guide them in a new direction. Maybe some of them tried Judaism but the rules were too strict, and maybe some of them tried the Roman occult but the Roman Caesars were even more revolting than the Corinthians, if that were possible. And there, somewhere in Antioch, there were followers of the Way—people that in Antioch were now nicknamed "Christians." Many of the Greeks were now looking into this Christianity, and you and the other apostles and disciples of Jesus are baptizing and teaching and there are more and more people coming every week. That's when some formerly Christians came from James. When Paul says "From James," he doesn't necessarily mean that James sent them, but that they were from James' congregation in Jerusalem. Churches didn't yet have names like "St. Paul's" or "St. John's" or "The Chapel of the Christ, | 10/5/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanThe Lord Has Done Great Things! | Psalm 126:1-3 September 24-26, 2011 Pentecost 15 Pastor Don Sutton Sermon -September 25, 2011 from Saint Pauls on Vimeo. Psalm 126:1-3 1 When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. 2 Our mouths we... | 9/28/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 19 Episodes |
