By Grace I’m Saved

3rd Sunday after Pentecost

By Grace I’m Saved

Text:  Ephesians 2:1-5, 8-10

Intro

It depends on where you look and what you read, but researchers claim that there are somewhere between 10 and 40 new diseases or viruses that are discovered every single year.  That’s a little scary.  Imagine if only 100,000 people out of seven billion caught each new disease or virus.  That would be one to four million people that doctors have absolutely no diagnosis or cure for.  Right now research says that between all seven billion people in the world, 450 million years worth of quality life are shaved off the lives of humans each year due to infectious diseases.  Now add to that new diseases that they don’t know how to cure!  That’s a little scary.

Unfortunately, we know it doesn’t stop there.  In addition to diseases and viruses, there are also plenty of deadly medical conditions out there.  Some are extremely rare and incurable.  Some, like cancer, are very common but very hard to stop.  Sometimes even the best doctors, nurses, and specialists can’t do anything about these medical conditions and people are left helpless.  That’s a little scary.

One condition in particular I know of is very scary.  It’s a horrible condition or disease.  When people become infected with it, it quickly goes to work.  It affects nearly every aspect of a person’s life.  It brings out the worst in people.  It has terrible side effects.  It’s conditions are impossible to stop.  It is completely deadly.  And worst of all, everyone has it.  This horrible condition and disease that we all have is called sin.  And it’s very scary.

Which is Better? Life or Death?

3rd Sunday after Pentecost – Confirmation Sunday

Which is Better?

Text: Philippians 1:18b-26

Intro

Today is a special day for Christ the King.  We haven’t done this before.  Strange enough, in the six year history of Christ the King today is our first ever confirmation Sunday.  We’ve had plenty of adults join our church when standing up here to confirm their unity of belief and dedication to the Lord.  I’m privileged to have taken most of you adults here today through those instructional classes.

We’ve also had plenty of young’uns at Christ the King.  Hence the herd that stampeded down the hallway to children’s church a few minutes ago.  But we’ve never had eighth grade students go through catechism classes and confirmation.  Today, we have our first three.

The practice of catechism classes and confirmation is not something unique to Christ the King.  It’s not even specifically Lutheran.  In fact, the practice is as old as the Christian church itself.  Just before Jesus ascended into heaven he told his disciples, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing the in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  You heard those words this morning and saw that command carried out with Lucy’s awesome baptism.  But Jesus also continued that command saying, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing the in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”  So Jesus’ disciples and the early Christians began to thoroughly teach everything Christ taught.

Daily Devotion on 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

Devotion Text: 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

As a parent of young children, I’ve begun to learn exactly what I put my parents through on all those cross-country trips as a kid. Sure, it was different in those days. Now instead of packing up the eight-seat conversion van like my dad did, I drive my two sons only as far as the airport and let the good people of Delta or AirTran take us the rest of the way. But, whether flying or driving, plenty goes into planning for a trip–especially with children. Luckily, I have my wonderful wife to help me  do all the work herself, otherwise I’d be lost.

When it comes to our life’s greatest journey–our journey home to be with our Heavenly Father forever–preparation is just as important. In his letter to the church in Thessolonica, Paul writes about how earnestly he wants the Thessalonians to prepare, how he prays for their preparation and how he longs to be there that he may help them prepare.

In very much the same way I would be lost trying to take a cross-country trip alone with my two sons, Paul knows that no human could get through this life alone. Our walk Heavenward is too difficult to do alone, so (miles away) he writes to help those people prepare. Thousands of years away, his words still hold true for us.

We still need the prayers of our fellow believes to strengthen us for the way. So too, we pray for others. We still need “God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us” just as Paul did. We still need the love and fellowship of one another to make our journey pleasant and bearable.

It is with this help, this strength, this love–from God and from our fellow Christians–that we enter the Advent season. We focus not only on preparing our hearts and minds for Christmas, but also for Christ’s coming again. May God be with you as you journey home.

Prayer: Father in heaven, be with me day by day as I do your work here on Earth and continually guide me on the paths you would have me take. Be with more, Lord, as I walk Heavenward hand-in-hand with the Christian brothers and sisters you have blessed me with in my church, in my home and elsewhere in my life. Strengthen me, constantly, that I would not stray and keep me in your loving care here in time and forever in eternity. Amen.

Find Strength to Give Thanks

Thanksgiving

Find Strength to Give Thanks

Text:  Philippians 4:10-20

Intro

This Thanksgiving stuff is a lot of work.  It takes a lot of energy and strength to pull off a successful Thanksgiving.  Hours are spent cleaning every nook and cranny of the house.  After all, it’s been a while since you cleaned the dust bunnies off your ceiling fan and that would be embarrassing if your company saw that!  All the sheets and towels need to be washed and put in place.  All the fine china needs to be unpacked and washed off.

Then there’s the Thanksgiving menu.  How many visitors are we going to have again this year?  15?  Wait cousin Sal has three kids now?  Ok, 16.  How big of a turkey do we need?  18 pound?  20 pound?  Can we trust Jennie-O’s calculations of pounds per person?  Do you think we need a ham too?  What sort of stuffing should we make this year?  Do we need three pies or four?  When am I going to have time to bake those pies, because I need the oven all day on Thanksgiving for the bird.

What time should we eat?  Well, what does the football schedule look like?  Which games do we want to watch?  Definitely not the Lions game.  Boring!  We have to plan dinner properly so we can watch football and so we can also plan when we pass out in a turkey-tryptophan coma.  (By the way, the tryptophan in turkey making you sleepy is not true and just an urban legend.)  Oh, and most important of all—Black Friday sales start as early as 7pm on Thursday now!  Which store do we want to stand in line at first?  We need to finish our Christmas shopping ASAP so we have time to put up the Christmas lights and tree on Friday.

Daily Devotion on Philippians 1:12-18

Devotion Text: Philippians 1:12-18

Sometimes jealousy isn’t just envy and covetousness about what material blessings someone else has. Sometimes, jealousy is about the life God has blessed another person with compared to the trials and temptations God has blessed you with.

The apostle Paul had every reason to be jealous of other people, other believers.

For him, the Lord had a special plan. Paul would be the first Christian missionary to the Gentiles. He would travel from city to city–far from home–and under constant danger. He would be jailed and he would eventually be killed–all for the sake of the Gospel. Other apostles, even those who were martyred enjoyed the relative peace of their homes and a large Christian population in Jerusalem. Many had families and were blessed with long lives with much less trouble than Paul.

Still, Paul did not begrudge his chains or his fellow Christians, he considered himself blessed.

Jealousy at its core, is the enemy of love and it is the opposite of contentment. Paul notes that some at his time were even preaching out of jealousy and envy–may God protect us from this! But, perhaps, Paul’s conclusion is even more apt to the overall point.

In the end, even those who preached to advance themselves, still preached Christ. While we would not laud them as great examples, God still worked through them (and hopefully eventually in them) to advance the Gospel! The Gospel is the cure for these symptoms because it attacks the underlying illness–sin.

With our sins forgiven and the freedom to live a new life, we have the ability to cast off our jealousy and accept our trials along with our blessings as God reveals his greater plans for our lives. All this as we trek onward to the ultimate plan for our lives, an eternal life in heaven.

Prayer: Let me be content, Lord. Let me be content with your plan for my life. Let me be content, Lord, not only for all the blessings you’ve given me, but that you have blessed me at all when I have not earned anything from you. Let me be content, Lord, with the ways in which you have blessed others. Let me rejoice with them and never be envious. Instead, let me always be content, Lord, with your times and your plans. Let me be content, Lord, as I await the much fuller joys you have planned for me in heaven. Amen.