Reformation Sermon: Fortified!

Preached on Psalm 46
Reformation Day (Observed)
27 October AD 2019

Title: Click to hear the MP3 of Fortified!

Summary: Our powers are insufficient for the trials of this world. As the hymn A Mighty Fortress Is Our God declares, “With might of ours can naught be done.” We need fortification; we need the Lord Himself surrounding us.

Only He can protect us. Christ alone is the Gate. He opens to allow us in but closes to keep sin, death, and Devil at bay. The Holy Spirit extends Jesus’ invitation through the Gospel, brings us to faith, and leads us through the Gate into our refuge and dwelling place.

We also need internal fortification: God must dwell within us, strengthening us as we continue on our pilgrimage. He lifts our hearts, raises our heads, straightens our backs, and energizes our limbs. As we take shelter in Him, so He also makes His home in us through Word and Sacrament, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Text: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire.

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Psalm 46

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of Fortified!

NB: For some reason, a few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio if Windows Media is their default MP3 player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Revelation 14:6-7; Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36; alternate Gospel Matthew 11:12-19

Pentecost 13 Sermon: Righteous Planting

Preached on Psalm 1:1–6
13th Sunday After Pentecost — Proper 18C
8 September AD 2019

Summary: Believers flourish when rooted in Christ. As trees in a dry climate only grow strong when they can draw from a source of pure water, so our strength comes when we draw upon Jesus, our Living Water. We find ourselves here not because of our own actions but because the Holy Spirit takes us to the waters and plants us through Baptism and the Word.

Preached at Big Bend Retreat, a care center in Slater, Missouri.

Text: Blessed is the man
   who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
   nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
   and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree
   planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
   and its leaf does not wither.
   In all that he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so,
   but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
   nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
   but the way of the wicked will perish. Psalm 1:1-6

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of Righteous Planting.

NB: A few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio with Windows Media Player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Philemon 1-21; Luke 14:15-25

Epiphany 4C Sermon: Hope and Trust from Womb to Tomb

Preached on Psalm 71:1-11
The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
31 January AD 2016

Title: Hope and Trust from Womb to Tomb (MP3 Audio)

Summary: Whether plagued by demonic forces, physical distress, foes of God and His people, or personal enemies, troubles can fill our days. We find refuge, health, and healing only in the Lord. Even before we ask, He answers.

He knows us deeply and completely. We were in His thoughts prior to Creation. He cared for us before we were born. He took us in His hands from our mothers’ wombs. He holds fast to us through this life and will lay us to rest in our graves that we might awaken to life everlasting.

There is nothing we can do to earn His favor. He loved us before we could or would love Him. When Christ called out, “It is finished, (John 19:30)” it was a sign that He had won salvation for all people throughout all time. As the sermon notes, Jesus’ declaration of forgiveness from the cross is “proactive, retroactive, completely active through all of time.”

Even before we are born, we can hear and be blessed by God’s living and active Word. And long after we die, we will hear and respond to His Word as He calls us forth into eternal glory. Truly, the Lord is the believer’s hope and trust from womb to tomb.

Text: In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame! In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me, and save me! Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man. For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you.

I have been as a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge. My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all the day.

Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent. For my enemies speak concerning me; those who watch for my life consult together and say, “God has forsaken him; pursue and seize him, for there is none to deliver him.” Psalm 71:1-11

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of Hope and Trust from Womb to Tomb.

NB: For some reason, a few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio if Windows Media is their default MP3 player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Jeremiah 1:4-10 (17-19); 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13; Luke 4:31-44