Each Day in the Word, Thursday, September 1st, 2022

Posted on September 1, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

Philippians 3:1–11 (NKJV)

1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. 2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, 4 though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. 7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

As yesterday’s devotion spoke of the understanding of two natures within a Christian, so Paul is inspired in this text to reveal that difference between confidence in the flesh versus confidence in Christ. The flesh presumes itself to either be righteous or have the ability to earn a righteousness by way of the Law. Paul, in his flesh, could have boasted of how merits and goodness before the eyes of the world. But, instead, because of that new nature given by God, he counts it all as nothing before God. Indeed, he regards all of his deeds as “rubbish”.

Try as you might at being righteous, yet there will always be flaws. Before God the only thing that counts is perfection. To have true righteousness (perfection) before God one must have the righteousness of the only One who is truly righteous, Jesus Christ. So how does one get such perfection, such righteousness? It is yours through faith in Christ, as Paul notes, “which is from God.” In other words, what God expects from you, perfect righteousness, He gives to you through faith in Jesus and for Jesus’ sake. Thus, nothing of Paul and his life is taken into consideration by God regarding Paul’s salvation. God took Paul’s sins and placed them upon Christ as He hung on the Cross. The same goes for you who believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. What a joyful, relieving, rescuing Gospel!

Let us pray: Almighty and Everlasting God, who is always more ready to hear than we to pray and to give more than we either desire or deserve, pour down upon us the abundance of Your mercy, forgiving those things of which our conscience is afraid and giving us those good things that we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Posted in Devotion | Comments Off on Each Day in the Word, Thursday, September 1st, 2022

Faith still comes by hearing

Posted on August 31, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
Sermon (audio)
Download Sermon

Service(video)
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/745242710 w=540&h=360]
Download Service Download Bulletin

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 11

2 Samuel 22:21-29  +  Romans 10:4-18

In the First Lesson you heard David pray these words: You will save the humble people; but Your eyes are on the haughty, that You may bring them down. Very similar to what Jesus said in Sunday’s Gospel, isn’t it? For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Also similar to the Magnificat, the Song of Mary:     He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly. That’s a recurring theme in the Scriptures. God humbles or “brings low” the proud, the one who has lifted himself up. But He exalts or “lifts up” the one who has brought himself low.

Think of David in the Old Testament. He didn’t push his way forward to be anointed king when Samuel came to visit. He showed up last out of all his brothers, expecting nothing. But God chose him and raised him up. Even then, after he was anointed but while Saul was still king, David didn’t try to put himself up on the throne. He didn’t oppose Saul but served him faithfully. And when Saul persecuted him and raged at him and falsely said all kinds of evil things against him, David still didn’t try to lift himself up. He waited for God to do it, and He did. And then David sang the words recorded in the First Lesson, words of faith.

Where did that faith come from? I mean, for years David had to live on the run; he had to live in hiding, in isolation from Israel, gathering a band of stragglers and malcontents and foreigners as his only allies. How could David live like that? How could he remain humble? How could he wait for the Lord to lift him up? He could do all that, he could live like that, because he had a promise from the Lord: that he would one day sit on the throne of Israel as its king. Armed with that promise, he trusted that the LORD would shield him from harm. He had confidence that his enemies would not be victorious over him. He could endure all the hardships he had to. And, of course, his confidence proved to be well-founded.

Now, those were earthly enemies from whom the Lord had delivered David, according to His promise. We have promises of earthly deliverance, too, and earthly rewards as we trust in Him and as we live as those who trust in Him, though the promises we have are not as specific. David had God’s promise that he would survive Saul’s attacks; the Lord hasn’t promised any of us another day on this earth. Here’s what we can say: Our times are in His hands. And we can say that, and live by that, and take comfort in that, because of the promises God has given for an even greater deliverance and for even greater rewards. St. Paul deals with those promises in our Second Lesson.

The Law of Moses made promises of its own: The man who does those things shall live by them. That’s not a promise that comes from grace. Grace is God’s free-of-charge favor. The Law doesn’t include favor, doesn’t require favor or kindness or mercy. It’s a simple transaction, a simple bargain: You do your part, you do everything the Law commands—loving God wholeheartedly, loving your neighbor in all the ways God commands you to love him—and God will do His part; He’ll pay you the wages you earned: You will live; you won’t die. At all. Ever. You won’t suffer. You won’t get sick. You won’t be harmed. Great promises! But good luck fulfilling your end of the bargain. To date, no one ever has, except for Jesus Himself.

That’s why St. Paul urges people so urgently to abandon the Law as the way to avoid death and obtain life, as the way to satisfy the God who controls the door to heaven. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Stop trying to offer God your supposed goodness, like the Pharisee did in Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Also, stop despairing over your very real badness, like Judas did after he betrayed the Lord and abandoned all hope of forgiveness. Instead, listen to the word of faith which we preach: if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness; and with the mouth a person confesses, resulting in salvation.

The “word of faith.” The message of faith. This is the Gospel in a nutshell, just as much as John 3:16 is. It’s a beautiful summary of everything God has revealed about how He wants to save us, how He wants to rescue us from sin, death, and the devil. He wants us to confess, as Peter did, that Jesus is the Lord, the Christ, the Son of the living God. He wants us to believe that God has raised Jesus from the dead, which means we also have to believe that He was delivered over to death for our sins, and that His was the death that satisfies God, His was the death that fulfilled the Law’s demands for punishment. God wants you to believe that He will justify you freely when you trust in Christ, freeing you, through faith alone, from everlasting death and condemnation.

He also wants you to confess this with your mouth. And if you believe it, then you can’t do anything else. People who say they believe in Christ but hesitate to confess Him—how can they believe in Him? If Noah had said he believed God’s word about the coming flood but hesitated to build the ark, could he really have believed God? If Abraham had said he believed God about his offspring coming through Isaac but refused to put him up on that altar when God commanded it, could he really have believed God? No, faith is certain. Faith is bold. And if we really believe that God gave His Son into death for our sins and raised Him for our justification, and if we really believe He reigns at God’s right hand and is coming back soon, then we can’t be silent about Him when we’re called upon to confess Him.

God wants all people to call upon Christ Jesus as Lord and to know that by believing in Him we’re safe, we’re saved from everything that could harm us. We Christians want all people to believe that. But, as Paul points out, no one can believe it unless they hear the Gospel, and no one can hear it unless a preacher has been sent to preach it. Faith comes by hearing, and the hearing by the word of God.

So hear. And believe. And confess in whatever setting God has placed you in to confess, with whatever people, with whatever audience. Even being here in church on a Wednesday or on a Sunday is an opportunity for you to shine as lights in a dark world, showing the world that, yes, you actually believe the Gospel that you’ve heard, and so you have to keep coming and hearing the voice of your Savior. You have to keep worshiping the God who has saved you by grace alone, through faith alone, which comes by hearing alone. Amen.

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , | Comments Off on Faith still comes by hearing

Each Day in the Word, Wednesday, August 31st, 2022

Posted on August 31, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

Philippians 2:19–30 (NKJV)

19 But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, that I also may be encouraged when I know your state. 20 For I have no one like-minded, who will sincerely care for your state. 21 For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus. 22 But you know his proven character, that as a son with his father he served with me in the gospel. 23 Therefore I hope to send him at once, as soon as I see how it goes with me. 24 But I trust in the Lord that I myself shall also come shortly. 25 Yet I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, but your messenger and the one who ministered to my need; 26 since he was longing for you all, and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. 27 For indeed he was sick almost unto death; but God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. 28 Therefore I sent him the more eagerly, that when you see him again you may rejoice, and I may be less sorrowful. 29 Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such men in esteem; 30 because for the work of Christ he came close to death, not regarding his life, to supply what was lacking in your service toward me.

In the text for today Timothy and Epaphroditus get commended for their service to Paul and the Church in general. We don’t stop often enough and honestly evaluate how we are serving our Christian brothers and sisters within the Church—nor the unbelievers in the world as well. One excuse is because life can get (and usually is) busy and there’s just no time. But the most likely excuse for no evaluation is because service is Law-oriented. Where there is Law we fall short—we never get it done, because we are sinners who concentrate on serving ourselves—and the flesh doesn’t like having failure pointed out to it.

Being Christians, however, changes that because a new nature is given to us from above. This explains the “born again, from above” words that Jesus delivered to Nicodemus. A Christian has two natures, and, thus, the battle between the two commences while faith exists within the sinner/saint. We are actually doomed to hell because we are not perfect but, thanks be to God, there is good news.

Christ has finished the being perfect, ‘meritorious-works-to-get-into-heaven’ part for you! That is the Gospel that sets you free from the Law. Not free as in having a license to sin and not serve your neighbor. But free, and inspired by that Gospel, to love and serve your neighbor without keeping track of it in a meritorious way. Where faith is, good works (service within all vocations) necessarily happens.

Let us pray: Almighty and Everlasting God, who is always more ready to hear than we to pray and to give more than we either desire or deserve, pour down upon us the abundance of Your mercy, forgiving those things of which our conscience is afraid and giving us those good things that we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Posted in Devotion | Comments Off on Each Day in the Word, Wednesday, August 31st, 2022

Each Day in the Word, Tuesday, August 30th, 2022

Posted on August 30, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

Philippians 1:12–2:4 (NKJV)

12 But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, 13 so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; 14 and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. 15 Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: 16 The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; 17 but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. 19 For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 20 according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. 24 Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. 25 And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, 26 that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again. 27 Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. 29 For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, 30 having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me. 1 Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

What a blessed exhortation St. Paul was inspired to deliver not just to the congregation in Philippi but to every Christian congregation and generation thereafter! Having a steadfast desire that Christ be preached (whether in pretense or truth)—that Christ would be magnified in his body (whether in life or death)—to be conflicted on behalf of Christ (whether in belief or in suffering)—and in consolation in Christ (whether in self interest or the interests of others)!

Paul is inspired to deliver the Chritocentric (Christ-centered) message of God’s Word. He reveals how everything is always about keeping Christ in the forefront of a Christian’s thought’s, words, and deeds. This is what it means to be a slave to Christ. I once heard it put this way: In moving forward in life (as if driving a vehicle), Christ needs to be in the windshield of the vehicle — not in the rear view mirror (as some event in the past, that is glanced at every once in a while).

When Christ is placed in the rear view mirror (and remembered, or glanced at, every once in a while, then being a Christian is reduced down to simple moralism (being good or bad). With Christ in the windshield, then everything is viewed through the justification that is accounted to you as a believer! Now it makes sense that St. Paul Christ would engulf every aspect of life. Thanks be to God!

Let us pray: Almighty and Everlasting God, who is always more ready to hear than we to pray and to give more than we either desire or deserve, pour down upon us the abundance of Your mercy, forgiving those things of which our conscience is afraid and giving us those good things that we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Posted in Devotion | Comments Off on Each Day in the Word, Tuesday, August 30th, 2022

Each Day in the Word, Monday, August 29th, 2022

Posted on August 29, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

Ephesians 6:18–24 (NKJV)

18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—19 and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. 21 But that you also may know my affairs and how I am doing, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will make all things known to you; 22 whom I have sent to you for this very purpose, that you may know our affairs, and that he may comfort your hearts. 23 Peace to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.

St. Paul asks the saints to pray for him—even as he serves others. And then he sends word of his activities so that they may learn and rejoice in God working through him. Why would St. Paul be moved to extend such a request and such words to other Christians? Because Fellowship matters! It’s simply part of the character of our Lord’s Church, which is the very Body of Christ Jesus at work in this world. It is truly sad when individuals take on a more individualistic mindset when thinking of the Church. Even congregations can get this mindset. Participation, tithing and other areas get affected because faith is being affected.

Communication between Christians is part of the public confession that Christ commands and accomplishes through His Body. Some folks think fellowship is a social gathering (i.e. potlucks or events outside of worship). But the proper fellowship of Christ’s Church is our catholic unity in what we teach, confess, and do by His Spirit according to all that our Lord has commanded in His Word, to the glory of Christ crucified.

The catholic (universal) Church is a Body of people connected in many places, and throughout many ages. As St. Paul reveals in this text (and it’s revealed in many other places throughout holy Scripture) it’s “in the Spirit” through which these spiritual things get accomplished. Therefore, when we boast, we all the more confidently ever boast in the Lord.

Let us pray: Almighty and Everlasting God, who is always more ready to hear than we to pray and to give more than we either desire or deserve, pour down upon us the abundance of Your mercy, forgiving those things of which our conscience is afraid and giving us those good things that we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Posted in Devotion | Comments Off on Each Day in the Word, Monday, August 29th, 2022