No Middle Ground - September 26, 2021 - Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 21) - Text: Mark 9:38-50

A few years ago, rather a number of years ago now, actually it was back in 1978, there was a movie made called, “Scared Straight.” The idea behind the movie was to show how horrible prison is in order to scare people away from a life of crime which would lead to prison. I believe that is one of the ideas behind the death penalty, to scare people away from heinous crimes.
 

When Jesus was taken to the cross He was paraded around town. He was taken on the longest way to the place of the cross. He was paraded up and down the streets, made to carry His cross and with someone leading the way with a sign and telling everyone what this man had done which caused Him to be given the death penalty and this most cruel death. The idea was to scare the people so that no one else did or even attempted to do such a crime.
 

Maybe you have seen or read billboards which say something like, “Read the Bible, it will scare the hell out of you.” Maybe you have heard the term, “preaching hell fire and brimstone.” The idea is to make people so afraid, so scared of going to hell, that they would repent and change their ways. In the “Luther” movie we see a scene in which John Tetzel comes to town and in a great show of intimidation, even giving the illusion of burning his own hand, he frightens the people into buying an indulgence so that, according to church tradition, the soul of their loved one may not be damned to hell, nor stay in purgatory, but be freed to heaven. Today’s text appears somewhat like Jesus is preaching such a “hell fire and brimstone” sermon. Hell is described as a place where “their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” Hell ought to be a deterrent to sin! But it is not always such a deterrent. After all, do we actually stop in the middle of sharing a nice juicy tidbit of gossip and think, “Jesus knows what I am doing and it is wrong. I am sinning”? Probably not. Most of us go on sinning as if it were the natural thing to do, and it is the natural thing to do because we are by nature sinful. Interestingly enough, this is the argument of why such sins and perhaps even all our sins are considered not sin, because it comes natural. If this logic were followed to its ultimate conclusion, then nothing should be considered sin, because, again, sinning is what we naturally do. Very often we go on, as Luther says, and sin boldly. I hope you are getting the idea that temptation and sin are something we battle with each and every day.
 

We want to make sure we get our text in its proper context. To do that we go back to last week where, in our text, Jesus gave us a lesson in greatness. True greatness is not being served, but is serving others. True greatness is not being the first, but being the last and letting others be first. Have you ever chosen, on purpose, to get in the longest line at the grocery check-out? Probably not. Again, in our Gospel reading from last week Jesus reminds us of the fact that true greatness is not found in fortune, or fame, or power, but is in having faith as a child.
 

This week Jesus makes a distinction between those who are saved and those who are not saved, with the downside definitely being that those who are not saved are destined to go to hell. And for those of you who do not believe in hell or who think that this earth is hell, let me encourage you to think again. I may not believe in China because I have never been there, nor have I actually seen it, but I know it exists. I may believe that my life on this earth is difficult and so believe that this is hell, but that is not what God tells us. Hell is real, whether we believe it or not. And hell is a complete absences from God and His love. The best way I can describe hell is to think about the worst day of your life, the day in which you were the most down and depressed, so down and depressed that you hoped the world would end. Now, magnify that feeling a few million times and you will get a glimpse of the torment of hell. Hell is not so much a place of physical suffering as it is a place of emotional and spiritual suffering as well as physical suffering. You really do not want to go there.
 

Getting back to our text, let us look at those who are against God. Those who are against God, according to Jesus, include those who “cause one of these little ones who believe in me to sin.” At first we might think we have never and would never cause anyone to sin, but have we really? We might ask ourselves, do we witness the fact that we are Christians? Do other people know that we are, or at least, profess to be a Christian? And if we do profess and people know that is our profession, then do we act like Christians, or does our verbal and nonverbal witness do damage to our credibility as a Christian? In other words, do others look at us and say, “if that is what a Christian is and does then I do not want any part in being a Christian.” That is causing one of the little ones to sin.
 

Those who are against God are those who allow their foot, or eye to cause them to sin. This is being lead into sin and unbelief, literally being lead by the eye seeing the way and the foot walking the way into sin. We can be lead through our mind and heart as the saying goes, “the eye is the window of our soul.” Sin begins, not in the actual physical act of sin, but in one’s heart and mind, in one’s eye.
 

Here we hear the full extend of the law that sin brings hell, eternal death. Sin is so serious, even what we perceive as little sins, that we should be willing to go through life maimed for the sake of eternal life. Yet, how often would we do anything to hurt ourselves to keep from sinning? What is wrong, we think, with trusting in ourselves or our own judgement, our own finances, instead of trusting, completely trusting, in God? After all, we can, we do, trust in Him too. What is wrong with a slip of the tongue now and then? God understands. What is wrong with sleeping in on Sunday, with missing a worship service or two now and then, after all, once a month can be defined as regular worship attendance. What is wrong with going past the speed limit, with speaking my mind, with exercising my freedom of speech when it concerns those over me in my work? What is wrong with sassing my parents, after all, I am now an adult? What is wrong with a little civil disobedience? After all, we all need to exercise our freedom and God did give us minds to think. What is wrong with calling others names, with belittling others, even hating someone? We are only retaliating for what they have done to us. Do we not have the right to defend ourselves? Certainly God understands that. What is wrong with a little window shopping, checking out the opposite sex? I am not dead? I am not looking for an affair, I am just checking it out. God has done such a good job I want only to appreciate what He has created. What is wrong with working slow? After all I am not being paid as I should. What is wrong with speaking the truth, and speaking the truth in love, or at least according my definition of speaking the truth in love, after all, I did not know it would be hurtful. Every week the pastor gets to hurt our feelings, talking about our sin and all. What is wrong with wanting a better job, higher pay, more benefits, the best for my family? I really do not mean to step on or over others, I just want what is coming to me, what I deserve, my fair share. At the heart of the matter is, where is your heart and where is my heart? Indeed, I must confess, I am right there with you in such thoughts, questions and excuses.
 

Thanks be to God that there is good news. Jesus says, “For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.” This is not work righteousness. Please keep these words in the context of our text and in the context of all that Jesus tells us. Jesus came to our earth, born as one of us in order to live His life for us. He suffered all the temptations we suffer and even more. Remember, immediately after His baptism by John in the Jordan River He went out into the desert to be tempted by the devil himself for forty days. And He did not sin. He resisted all the devils temptations. And what is more, He is with us and will help us to resist the devils temptations.
 

But there is more. Jesus also kept all the commandments perfectly. All those things we are unable to do: not have other gods, not take His name in vain, not despise the preaching and teaching of God’s Word, disobeying our parents and others in authority, murdering, committing adultery, stealing, gossiping, and coveting, He resisted all those temptations and lived perfectly for us, in our place. By faith in Jesus, faith which He gives us through His Word and at our Baptism, His life, His perfect life becomes ours. God looks at us and sees Jesus’ perfection and says, “welcome into heaven.”
 

Earlier we were talking about “hell fire and brimstone preaching” and about hearing the Word of God which might “scare the hell out of you.” My hope, and I believe God’s will, is not that we cling to Him and believe in Him just so we do not go to hell, because that is a negative reason for believing in Jesus. Rather, my hope is that it is the good news of being a part of Jesus’ family, it is the good news of all the great many gifts and blessings that are ours because of our faith which make us want to believe in Jesus and go to heaven.
 

If our only reason for being a Christian is to not go to hell, life becomes just a time to get by. But if our reason for being a Christian is because of all the opportunities and gifts and blessings which are ours, then life becomes a time of joy and true living. Instead of life being a time not to cause someone else to sin, life becomes a time to encourage each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. Life becomes an opportunity to share Jesus’ love with others, to share the good news of heaven with others. Life becomes a time to look for as many ways and opportunities as possible to be about the business of being in the family business, God’s family business of sharing His good gifts and blessings with others.
 

Just think of all the possibilities which lay before us as God’s people if we, with the help and by the power of the Holy Spirit, give ourselves, completely, back to the Lord in service to Him in His kingdom. We could reach out and share the gospel message to those right here in our neighborhood and in the new neighborhoods that are being built. We could reach all the unchurched families with the good news of Jesus. We could make all these people a part of our church family. God has blessed us so much, are we going to use these blessings in service to Him in His kingdom, showing that we are for Him, or are we going to squander them so that He will take them and give them to someone else. What a privilege and what a responsibility God has given to us because to those whom He has given much, and I believe He has given us a tremendous amount, much is required. But He does not tell us we have to go it alone, we have His promise, “I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” May the Lord continue to bless us as we continue to be His people in this place sharing the good news with others so that they too might be a part of His Kingdom and our family. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

All Things Are Possible For One Who Believes - September 12, 2021 - Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 19) - Text: Mark 9:14-29

Last week we watched as Jesus healed the demonic daughter of a Syrophoenician woman, and as He healed a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, giving him complete healing so that he could hear and speak. Our text for this week actually skips a lot of material in the Gospel of Mark. Our text skips over and comes after Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain where Peter, James and John watch as Jesus confers with Moses and Elijah in all His glory. After they came down from the mountain Jesus tells His disciples not to tell anyone of this event until after His resurrection and then He sends them off  ahead of Him.
 

As we get to our text for this morning, evidently the disciples had attempted to cast out the demon that had enslaved this young boy, but they were not able to do so. The disciples who had previously done miraculous signs were dumbfounded as to why they could not accomplish this casting out of the demon. And the crowds did not understand why the disciples seemed powerless. Yet, as Jesus approached we can see that the crowds still had faith that Jesus could cast out the demon. I guess logically, most students are not as equipped as the teacher so the same would be true of Jesus’ disciples, that they could not do everything their teacher could do.
 

As Jesus approaches, He found the Scribes arguing with His disciples. We are not told the topic of their argument, but I believe it is inferred in our text that it would have to do with the powerlessness of the disciples, even though the Scribes were truly not in any position to say anything, because we never hear of any miraculous signs coming from them.
 

Jesus arrives on the scene and in Mark’s usual hurry up way he says that “immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him.” When Jesus is told about the demon possessed son and how His disciples could not cast out the demon, Jesus begins by expressing His dismay over the “faithlessness” of this generation and then He goes on to ask how long He has to put up with this unbelieving world. Makes me wonder what He would say about our world today.
 

Next, Jesus addresses the demonic son’s father asking him questions concerning his son. Now, remember Jesus is truly God and so as God you would think that He already knows the answers to the questions He is asking and perhaps He does. Perhaps this is a reminder to us as we are encouraged to pray, that although God may already know what we need even before we ask, and He already knows what we are going to ask for, whether it is according to our real need or not, we are indeed encouraged to pray because we need to acknowledge and articulate what it is we need. In other words, it is not that God needs us to tell Him, but His desire is for us to recognize and acknowledge our needs and bring them before Him. And there might be a different reason Jesus asks as well and that is that as true man Jesus did not always make use of His divinity, in other words there are times He wills Himself not to know certain things, such as the end of the world and the day of judgment and perhaps the struggles of this father.
 

As the father explains the tragic life of his son to Jesus, that his son has been demon possessed since childhood, and here as an aside I would take this as an encouragement to parents to have you babies baptized, which is a miniature exorcism, so this will not happen to them. Anyway, the man explains that his son has been demon possessed since childhood and the demon often casts the boy into fire and water in order to destroy the boy. Again, another aside, in our world today this boys behavior would probably be diagnosed as some form of epilepsy. The man tells Jesus what has been happening and then He confesses his lack of faith, “if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” To which Jesus responds, “If you can! All things are possible for one who believes.” and the man responds, as we might well respond in our own unbelief at times, “I believe; help my unbelief.” We might well make the response of this man our response and there are probably many times in our own lives that we struggle with our lack of faith. I know there are many times in my own life I express this man’s desire as I too ask Jesus, “I believe; help my unbelief.”
 

As all this excitement and conversation is going on a crowd begins to gather. Jesus, knowing that His time to suffer and die on the cross is not yet upon Him, does not allow the demon to speak. You might recall that at times the demons who do recognize and know who Jesus is when they speak they attests to Jesus as the Savior. And so as Jesus rebukes the unclean spirit first commanding it not to speak, to leave the boy, and never to enter the boy again. Like all demons, the unclean spirit did not want to do as Jesus commanded, but being powerless against Jesus, the unclean spirit came out of the boy crying loudly and convulsing and left the boy as a corpse so that people thought he was dead.
 

Jesus heals the boy showing His power over demons. Here again, logically speaking and you would think that the Scribes and the people present would pick up on this fact that only God can cast out demons. Jesus is casting out demons. Logically, Jesus must be God. The people could not figure this out, they were blinded and were only looking for this worldly physical, felt needs blessings from Jesus. The Scribes could not figure it out they were simply looking out for what they believed to be their own positions of power and so logically, in their minds, thinking that if Jesus kept doing the signs and wonders, the miracles showing Himself to be truly God, others might actually believe in Him and they would lose their positions of authority.
 

After healing the son, Jesus entered the man’s home with his disciples and answered more questions, especially questions concerning why the disciples could not perform the exorcism.  Jesus explains how it was their lack of faith which was seen in their inability. And no, this explanation does not mean that anyone who has a big enough faith in our world today can cast out demons. This thinking that if anyone has a big enough faith can do miracles is a false teaching and can lead people to despair, especially if they cannot do miracles and thus think themselves as having insufficient faith. The miracles of Jesus and His disciples served a purpose, to validate their teaching, and as the apostles died out so did the ability to do such outward signs as miracles. And although God can and may do direct miracles and healing in our world today His usual way of working with us is through means, in particular the means of doctors and medicines.
 

Jesus calls the people of His day a faithless generation. I am sure He would have just as harsh words for our world today. Much like the world of Jesus’ day, so our world today continues to be a world chasing after its own desires. What was once wrong is now right and what was once right is now wrong. People continually find those who preach what their itching ears want to hear. Faith in humanity rules over faith in God.
 

What does this mean? First and foremost I would say that this narrative shows us that Jesus is truly God in human flesh as only God can do the miracles Jesus does. Jesus shows Himself to be truly human because only as a human being was He able to substitute His perfect life, suffering, death and resurrection for our imperfect life. Jesus had to be truly God in order to be perfect, which would fulfill God’s demand of perfection, “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
 

Jesus shows Himself to be truly God through the signs, wonders and miracles He performed. As God, in the beginning, He is the Creator with the Father and the Spirit with power over all creation, thus He is able to do the signs, wonders and miracles, casting out demons, walking on water, feeding five thousand, even fifteen thousand, healing, raising from the dead and the like.
 

At this miracle Jesus mutes the demon so as not to have to deal with his confession of belief and knowledge of who Jesus is. Remember, very often the demons, Satan’s minions knowing who Jesus is confessed their faith calling Him the Son of God. The fact that the demons know Jesus reminds us that head knowledge is not what saves, but it is faith in Jesus alone, His trading His life for ours, that saves us.
 

As true God Jesus has power over the demons. As the Savior, the reason Jesus came to earth was to defeat sin, death and Satan. On the cross Jesus did defeat Satan so that Satan, a fallen angel and creature of God, truly has limited power over us even to this day.
 

Jesus came to save all people through His life, suffering, death and resurrection. After living a perfect life, for us, in our place, as our substitute, Jesus took all our sins upon Himself, He who was without sin became sin for us and on the cross Jesus shed His blood, the price for sin, death, human death, physical death and apart from faith in Him, eternal death and hell. Jesus paid the price for sin on the cross. Jesus earned forgiveness of sins on the cross.
 

The gifts Jesus purchased and won on the cross are not distributed from the cross, but are distributed through our Lord’s Means of Grace. It is Jesus who gives faith through the means of grace; His Word, confession and absolution, Holy Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. As we make regular, each and every Sunday, and diligent, yes, even each and every day, use of these means or instruments of God’s grace, it is through these very means that the Lord gives to us forgiveness of sins, faith, strengthening of faith, blessings upon blessings, life and salvation.
 

Although we live in a sin filled world which still has many doubts and although we may ourselves from time to time have our own doubts, our Lord would speak to us, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes” (Mark 9:23b). Through the very means of His Holy Word, Jesus shows us and gives to us the gifts we need, gifts of forgiveness of sins, gifts of strengthening of faith which squelches doubt. By faith in Jesus, which He gives to us, our sins are forgiven so that when our last hour arrives He will gather us and all the saints and robe us in His robes of righteousness and take us to heaven to be with Himself and all the saints who have gone on before us and we will stand before the Lord’s throne reveling in His victory and saying to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Are We Listening? - September 5, 2021 - Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 18) - Text: Mark 7:(24-30) 31-37

Hearing is just one of our five senses, along with sight, smell, taste and touch, and yet it is a very helpful and useful sense. If we could not hear, we would not be able to hear the beauty of the birds singing, the beauty of songs of praise being raised to our Lord, and for us here at St. Matthew that would certainly include the beautiful sound of the train whistles out on the track in front of the church. Hearing is an important part of our lives. Maybe you have heard it said before, hearing is twice as important as speaking, that is why we have only one mouth, but two ears. Yet, we all like to talk. We all like to hear ourselves talk, and all too often, our own talking gets in the way of our hearing. Paul reminds us of one of the most important aspects of hearing as he says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). And still, there is another important part of hearing. It is only after we have spent much of our time hearing that we can begin to imitate the sounds we hear in order to be able to speak. Someone who is deaf has a difficult time learning to speak, because they cannot hear the sounds they need to imitate in order to speak.
 

Our text for this morning consists of the narrative of the healing of the demonic daughter of a Syrophoenician woman, and the healing of a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. In the first narrative of the Syrophoenician woman, we are told that she came seeking Jesus and we are most certainly informed of the fact that she was not a Jew, but she was a Gentile. She was a Gentile seeking help from this Jewish Rabi, Jesus. Accordingly she had no right to do what she was doing, yet, she came and I would say, she came in faith, believing in Jesus and knowing that He could heal her daughter. As the narrative plays out, even after being insulted by Jesus, being likened to a family pet, she shows her faith, her great faith. And Jesus indeed healed her daughter and as the Gospel writer Matthew, who also includes this account in his Gospel makes note “Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly” (Matthew 15:28).
 

In our second narrative the first thing we might notice is that we are not told the man’s name, we are simply told that he could not hear and because he could not hear, he could hardly talk. Evidently he had been deaf for a long time and either had forgotten how to make the sounds which we know as talk or he had only learned a little how to talk. This man was deaf and yet he had some friends who were concerned about him. His friends had either heard Jesus or had heard about Jesus and they were confident that Jesus could help them and him. They too had faith which moved them to bring their friend to Jesus.
 

These friends brought the deaf man to Jesus and they begged him to “place his hand on the man.” I would suppose that they believed that all that Jesus needed to do was to touch their friend and he would be healed. Jesus took the deaf man aside, away from the crowd and we are told that Jesus put his fingers in the man’s ears. Here I would caution us not to think too much of Jesus’ means of healing. Time and again Jesus healed simply by saying the word, as we saw in the first narrative of the casting out of the demon of the woman’s daughter. Jesus did not touch the daughter, He simply told the woman what had been done. We saw that He was able to heal even when He was a far way off. This time He chose to heal in a different way. First He healed the man’s deafness by putting His fingers in the man’s ears.
 

Healing of the man’s hearing, however, was only a partial healing and this Jesus knew. Remember, we learn to speak by imitating the sounds we hear. If we cannot hear then we cannot speak, or at least we cannot speak well. When Jesus heals, He heals completely, thus Jesus also heals the mans speaking. We are told, in our text, that Jesus then spit and touched the man’s tongue. “He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!,” which we are told means “be opened.” And what happens? Just what Jesus says. The man’s ears are opened and his tongue is loosed and he can immediately speak. He speaks plainly and intelligibly. Jesus brings complete healing.
 

This text speaks specifically about physical healing and I would suppose if we went around and asked the members of our St. Matthew family we might hear such responses as, “I wish the Lord would heal my spouses hearing,” or “I wish the Lord would help my children to listen better,” or even “I wish the Lord would make my parents listen to me.” We probably accuse each other of not listening more than once in a day. We live in a world which is filled with sound and I might even suggest is filled with noise. I think the term which has used is that it is called noise pollution. Yes, our text speaks about physical hearing, but as we look at this text in the context of the other readings we have this morning and in the context of how Jesus often describes the hearing of people and especially of the Pharisees we will come to a deeper understanding that our physical hearing has a lot to do with our spiritual hearing.
 

Most of us here can probably hear. But, do most of us here always hear when God speaks? Or do we tune Him out? God would like to speak to us everyday and He would like to speak to us many times in a day. He would also like for us to speak to Him, yet, how can we speak to Him if we do not listen to Him so that we will know how to speak to Him?
 

God speaks to us. He speaks to us through His Word. As we read our Bible, God is speaking to us. Of course, we can let our minds wonder as we read our Bible and thus not listen to Him. We can simply not take the time to read our Bible and in so doing we are not listening to Him. He speaks to us through the reading and preaching of His Word here in Divine Service. Of course, we can refuse and reject His Word by staying away from Divine Service and Bible Class. He speaks to us most especially at the beginning of almost every service as we confess our sins and hear His most beautiful words of forgiveness through the words of Absolution. Of course, we can deny our sin and not confess and so refuse His forgiveness. And even more, He also speaks to us through His sacraments, through Holy Baptism and through the Lord’s Supper. As we remember our Baptism God speaks to us. As we come to the Lord’s Supper to celebrate and participate in His life, death and resurrection, He speaks to us. When we neglect to remember our Baptism, when we neglect to attend the Lord’s Supper, we cannot hear Him.
 

In much the same way in which we carry on a conversation with each other and with family and friends, so we can carry on a conversation with God. He speaks to us through His Word and Sacraments and we speak to Him in prayer. This is a two way conversation, and it does have a specific rhythm. The rhythm is very much like the rhythm of learning how to speak. First, we must listen to God. Only after we have listened to God can we imagine how to speak to Him. And, after we do listen to Him, He does give us the words to speak to Him.
 

Each one of us has friends. We have close friends and maybe some friends we count as acquaintances. Let me ask you this, if you spoke to your close friend only once a week and only listened to them for a few minutes once a week, how would that affect your friendship? Or if you only spoke to your friend when you needed something and yet never listened to your friend, how would that affect your friendship? Jesus is our best friend. He has shown that He is our best friend through the giving of His own life for ours. His desire is to be in constant communication with us. He is always there ready to listen and through His Word to speak. As we look at our efforts at communication with Him, how would we evaluate our relationship with Him?
 

In the case of our earthly relationships, I would suggest that if we spend more time way from our friends than we do putting time into our friendships, then we will eventually lose those friendships. The same is true with our relationship with Jesus. Spending time away from Jesus strains our relationship with Him and ultimately it could lead to losing that relationship with Him which translates into separation from God and could ultimately lead to eternal death.
 

In our text we heard the account of the healing of the demon possessed daughter and the deaf and mute man. That was physical healing. As we think about our own lives we know that we too need healing. We are conceived and born in sin and we daily add to our sin, sins of omission and sins of commission, sins of thought, word and deed. We need spiritual healing. Our greatest sickness is sin and our greatest need is forgiveness of sins.
 

Thanks be to God that just as Jesus brought healing to the daughter of the Gentile woman and to the deaf man in our text for today, He brings healing for us as well and that healing is what we call forgiveness of sins. However, that healing did not come without a price. The price for sin was set at death, human death for human sin. The cost of sin included the shedding blood. Jesus shed His blood for us on the cross. Again, thanks be to God that for us the price is free. He gives us forgiveness and His salvation, freely to us without any cost on our part.
 

In our text for today, after healing the deaf man Jesus charged the crowd to not tell anyone, yet that is exactly what they did, they told everyone. Today, Jesus encourages us to speak out to tell everyone what He does for us, ironically today we have a tendency to not tell anyone and that is too bad. I know we live in a world in which it is harder and harder to be a Christian, yet, what a wonderful friend we have in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. How excited we are that He has given His life for ours, that He has given us eternal life, that He continues to give us forgiveness of sins, what better friend do we have to share with others, to get excited about our relationship with Him and tell others about that relationship.
 

In our second reading James reminds us to not simply listen to the word, and so deceive ourselves, but to do what the word says. My prayer for each one of you this morning is that you will be hearers of the Word, that you will take the time to read your Bible, to come and confess your sins and hear God’s Word of absolution, to remember your Baptism, to come to the Lord’s table and that through these times of listening that you might be strengthened in your faith so that you might be a doer of the Word so that ultimately, ultimately you might be able to share your faith with others so that they too might be a part of God’s kingdom, so that praise and glory may be given to His holy name. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.