Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

The story of Jacob is difficult if we don't keep the big picture in mind. Jacob is NOT a nice man! He buys his brother's birthright. He steals his blessing. How and why would God choose to use him?

Without an intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ, the binding of Isaac is the most difficult moral and ethical dilemma of the Old Testament. However, with Christ, not only do we see an amazing foreshadow of the commitment to life and joy that God has for us, but we also see how we can achieve the type of strength of faith and spiritual clarity Abraham needed to trust that God would keep His promises even if Isaac were sacrificed.

God has a plan for our lives both individually and corporately. God commands us return to the story of His love and His grace, of His promises and His hospitality so we can understand His plan and allow His plans to guide our lives. It is important for us to understand God’s work of Creation was no accident! God’s work of Creation was not a happenstance event or a random act. God’s act of the creation of the world was a very deliberate, very orderly, precisely laid out plan. He reached into the void of nothingness and spoke life where none had existed. He spoke light into darkness and order into chaos. God turned on the light as the ultimate act of hospitality and love.

We live with two realities as we live in the middle of God’s Story (Psalm 1). There are only two ways to live: God’s way and the way of sinners. God's way leads to great reward! We find ourselves raised to live and reign with Jesus in the heavenly city. With this in mind, what does it mean for you to pray, “Come, Lord Jesus”?

What is the ultimate desire of God's own heart? What happens when His heart's desire and our heart's desires align? God has removed every barrier in heaven and earth for us to be one with Him and to live out His and our heart's desires together. So, why do Christians live like the barriers Christ took away are still there? This sermon answers these questions, addresses the challenge of living an unfiltered life in Jesus, and gives a few practical ways that we can get closer to Jesus every day.

The Great White Throne Judgment, described in Revelation 20:11-15, can sound terrifying to us. What is it really about? We get our best clues looking closely at John 3:16-21. Believing in Jesus is not mere intellectual assent. It is trusting Jesus as God’s “way, truth, and life” to save us, change us, mold us, and use us! (John 14:6). If we trust Jesus, we cannot be condemned. If we don't trust Jesus, we have everything to fear as we read about God's judgment!

The Groom is coming and the multitudes of heaven are shouting about what an amazing bridegroom Jesus is. In Revelation 19 we take a look prophetically and practically at how Jesus is “True and Just.” We witness how Jesus shows His love for the bride in what He has done for her and in what He will do for her. We witness the weirdest and best wedding supper and wedding present ever. Then, we talk about how we, the church, as the bride of Christ, “dress the bride.” Why does the church often look like a messy bride? What happens if I don’t dress the bride or if I dress her how I want her to look? How do I show Jesus I love Him by dressing the bride how He wants her to look? And, how does grace and mercy fit into all of this when I make mistakes? Celebrate the wedding supper of the lamb because the bride and the groom are one, the way they should be, forever.

Revelation 12 presents us with the narrative behind our narrative. Really? We learn that our enemy the Devil made war against God and has been cast down to the earth. He tried to kill Jesus at birth, and is doing his worst to mislead all people on this earth.

A close reading of Psalm 107, and especially verse 43 helps us see that our story can only make sense as part of God’s story. This is especially true as we enter deeper into the book of Revelation. Revelation 8-11 raise many questions about our broken human nature... Here is the most important: Why is it that humans would rather die (Rev 9:6) than repent?

The Bible defines the context of today's study: All evil takes place in history bounded by Christ and prayer. Evil is not explained but surrounded. Revelation summarizes the context: Admit evil and do not fear it. Jesus Christ is the good news in the midst of history - wars, famines, murders, accidents - along with sunrises and still waters, lillies of the fields and green pastures.

This week, we meet our King — the only one who is worthy to open the scroll, to act on God’s behalf! Jesus is celebrated as the “Lamb of God.” This looks back to the Passover and to the suffering servant in Isaiah 53, especially verse 7 (and see John 1:29 and I Corinthians 5:7). Our Messiah (King) lived for us, died for us, and rose from the dead for us. Only he is worthy to open the scroll unleashing God’s judgment and mercy!

Revelation 4 sets a scene for the dramatic revelation found in chapter 5. Contrast the throne room described in Revelation 4 to the best the Roman Emperor could manage. He’s a wimp, and his throne room is paltry. We learn in Revelation 4 that we are created for worship!

Everything in the Revelation can be found in the previous 65 books of the Bible. Jonh's Revelation adds nothing of substance to what we already know because the truth of the Gospel is already complete, revealed in Jesus Christ. There is nothing new to say on the subject but there is a new way to say it. The entire book of Revelation is a letter addressed to seven specific churches according to their specific concerns but each is also an introduction to the whole book. Christ is commending, accusing and warning each church that in order to eat from the tree of life in paradise with God we must overcome and we will overcome only by listening. Overcomers will receive the right to sit with Christ on his throne just as he overcame and sat down with the Father on the Fathers throne.

We tell God's story with six "C" words. It is somewhat difficult to dial in on the meaning of our sixth word: Consummation. We keep fudging and using Celebration and “coming again.” What does the consummation of all things mean? Our study in Revelation this summer will help us understand consummation. Let’s take a journey together!

It seems like every day we face changes that bring uncertainty and doubt to our faith lives. So, what do we do when life is in upheaval? What do we do when it seems like the church in is upheaval? What do we do when we face changes to our lives that may radically alter everything?

If God is absolute and awesome shouldn't we have an absolutely awesome relationship with God? My goal this Sunday is to give us all some tools for taking our relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ to a Kingdom level all the time.

We are focusing today on how our Lord Jesus Christ forms us into one community for the sake of his mission in our world. We celebrate that Jesus our Messiah paid for our sins (redemption in verse 68) and equips us with his own righteousness! Only in this way can we serve God without fear and in holiness and in righteousness. All who have been baptized into Christ are clothed with Christ’s own worthiness and righteousness (Galatians 3:27-29). This means that we do not need to do good works to get saved. Instead, Christians are saved to do Good Works!

The Old and New Testaments combine at Pentecost in a summary that reads: Moses went up the mountain ad came down with the law. Jesus ascended to heaven and came down with the dynamic energy of the law to be written on human hearts.

The Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14) completely upended conventional thinking in Jesus' world. No one expected Jesus to declare the tax collector right with God rather than the Pharisee. Galatians 1:13-17, 2:11-21 offers a different kind of contrast, in which the ex-Pharisee understands grace even though Peter reneges on his earlier commitments. Psalm 111 reminds us that God is righteous as well as gracious so we don't have to fear Luther's understanding of the gospel as promoting lawlessness. But the motives for why we do good make all the difference in the world (and eternity)!

Acts 15:1-18 begins with Jewish believers insisting that in order to be saved one must be circumcised, for thousands of years God's people had circumcised as a mark that God had claimed them as God's own. The gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on Gentiles, but believers were told their whole lives not to consort with Gentiles. Paul and Barnabas knew that the strength in the new covenant was not in humanity's ability to live faithfully but in God's faithfulness to humanity.