October 20, 2013 Church Anniversary & Heritage Festival 10:15 am Living Hope Lutheran Church. Theme: God s Word is Our Great Heritage!

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1 October 20, 2013 Church Anniversary & Heritage Festival 10:15 am Living Hope Lutheran Church Theme: God s Word is Our Great Heritage! 1 Kings 8:54-63 New International Version (NIV) 54 When Solomon had finished all these prayers and supplications to the LORD, he rose from before the altar of the LORD, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven. 55 He stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying: 56 Praise be to the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses. 57 May the LORD our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us nor forsake us. 58 May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in obedience to him and keep the commands, decrees and laws he gave our ancestors. 59 And may these words of mine, which I have prayed before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel according to each day s need, 60 so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God and that there is no other. 61 And may your hearts be fully committed to the LORD our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time. The Dedication of the Temple 62 Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the LORD. 63 Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the LORD: twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated the temple of the LORD. (425) pastortodd@lhlc.org Page 1 of 6

2 Not one word has failed not one word! God s Word is 100% reliable because He is 100% reliable. Whenever you come across one of God s amazing promises in the Bible you can trust it because we re told in the Book of Numbers, God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? (23:19). Jesus prayed about His believing children in the portion of His High-Priestly Prayer found in today s Gospel Lesson: Father... sanctify them that is, make them holy by the truth. Your word is truth (John 17:17). Only God s Word is a truly trustworthy compass for our faith and our life. For centuries, God s Word stood front and center in Lutheranism. Tragically, that s not the case today in many Lutheran churches and synods. Martin Luther, the monk from Wittenberg, Germany was a man after God s own heart (2 Sam.) just like King David. Like David, he wasn t perfect. He had his weaknesses, sins, shortcomings, faults and failures. And he knew it. But he d also been led to believe what the Lord acclaimed through His prophet, Isaiah: This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word (66:2). Luther was delighted to discover the irrefutable fact that God really did love sinners like him sinners like us so much that He willingly sacrificed His sinless Son on the cross so that an absolutely astounding exchange could transpire a swap St. Paul details for us in 2 Corinthians: God made [Jesus], who had no sin, to be sin for us so that in [Jesus] we might become the righteousness of God (5:21). No more works righteousness for monk Martin! What a blessed relief to realize that faith in Christ made him holy in God s eyes not what he d done, or failed to do, but the mere fact that Jesus, his Savior, kept God s commands perfectly in his place. The righteousness God demanded of him was actually given to him as a free gift! He rejoiced at the saving truth that rolled off the Apostle Paul s inspired pen in Romans ch. 1, namely that the gospel... is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes:... For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith (vv ). One little word, of God is more powerful than Satan. One little word of God can fell him, Luther wrote in his most famous hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God. No doubt he based that sentiment on Paul s description of the full armor of God that we Christian soldiers are to don if we want to take [our] stand against the devil s schemes. In Ephesians 6:10-20, Paul lays out each piece of the spiritual armor we re to put on... so that when the day of evil comes, [we] may be able to stand [our] ground. He writes: (425) pastortodd@lhlc.org Page 2 of 6

3 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. In the light of the truth that not one word has failed of all the good promises the Lord has given us, I pray with Solomon that we Living Hope Lutherans would uphold the highest tradition of our heritage and commit our hearts... fully to the LORD our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God and that there is no other. The living, active, powerful Word and the Savior it heralds remains the only rock-solid foundation upon which to build! Timothy 3:14-4:5 New International Version (NIV) 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 4 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. (425) pastortodd@lhlc.org Page 3 of 6

4 The time Paul refers to in our reading has come. There are many who claim to be Christians and who go by the name Lutheran who no longer put up with sound doctrine, but, to suit their own desires, have gather(ed) around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. These wolves in sheep s clothing lead the flocks entrusted to their care far away from the green pastures and living waters of God s Word and into the cesspools of Satan s deceptive lies. They ve caved in under society s pressures and diluted God s Word to the point that what they preach no longer grates on the untrained ears of unbelievers nor resonates in the hearts of those with ears to hear what the Spirit says. As one of my Seminary professors often intoned, they ve turned the Scriptures into a wax nose twisting and turning it to suit their own desires. These false prophets fall under the same censure as the Pharisees Jesus condemned. Quoting the prophet Isaiah, He said of them, These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men (Matt. 15:8-9). They ve abandoned the Bible as their final authority, reducing it to a collection of fables, myths and fairy tales. They maintain that no rational human being with any sense of self esteem or intellectual acumen would ever believe that the Bible is the divinely inspired Word of God and, as such, is inviolably inerrant. Never mind that Jesus called God s Word the truth; forget about the fact that He maintained that Scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35); and disregard the words of this text where the Apostle Paul writes: All Scripture is God-breathed. Godbreathed is the literal translation of the word he uses in the original Greek in which he wrote: theopneumatikos. It s an expression that squares completely with what the Apostle Peter said of the Bible in his first epistle. He wrote: Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (1:20-21). Pastor Mark Jeske Sr. Pastor at St. Marcus Lutheran Church, a WELS congregation in Milwaukee, WI and the voice of the television ministry, Time of Grace puts it like this in his book Straight Talk: Answers from God s Word (CPH, St. Louis, MO, 2012, pp. 7-8): all of [the Bible s] content was motivated, provided, and controlled by the God the Holy Spirit Himself... This is what gives the Bible its power, authority, truth, clarity, consistency, and essential unity, even thought the book was assembled over the course of 1,600 years, from the time of Moses to that of the apostle John. He goes on to add: God used human writes as His channels, and He used their vocabularies, ministries, and experiences to give unique purpose and flavor to each of the Bible s sixty-six books (ibid). Purely by God s grace, we in the WELS still believe that about the Bible, and we strive with the aid of God s Spirit to preach and teach His Word truly and purely. Many of us from infancy have known that the Holy Scriptures... are able to make [us] wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. We also value the Bible as God s incredibly useful tool for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. When we use the Word that way as humble servant(s) the Holy Spirit thoroughly equip(s) [us] for every good work! (425) pastortodd@lhlc.org Page 4 of 6

5 God s charges me: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction... keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. He charges each of us: continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of. Equipped by God s Spirit, we soldier on! +++ John 17:1, New International Version (NIV) After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 13 I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by [a] the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. Jesus Prays for All Believers 20 My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one 23 I in them and you in me so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25 Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you [b] known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them. (425) pastortodd@lhlc.org Page 5 of 6

6 We do not walk alone as we strive to honor the Lord with our lips and our lives! God has promised, Never will I leave; never will I forsake you (Heb. 13:5). In the darkness of Gethsemane s olive groves, on the night He was betrayed, as He struggled to drink the cup of suffering that was being pressed to His lips, He had us on His heart and mind. He prayed for His disciples. He prayed for you, and He prayed for me. He prayed for all who would believe in [Him] through [the] message He commissioned us to proclaim until He comes again. He has called the members of His flock throughout all generations to Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation (Mark 16:15). Our efforts will not be in vain. Some will believe and be saved. Others will reject Jesus and stand condemned. We re not responsible for the results. We re simply called to plant the seed of the gospel whenever and wherever we can, and trust that God will give the increase. It s His Word, not ours. It s His power, not ours. It s all to His glory, and none to ours. God in Christ; Christ in Him; Christ in us; us in Him. Working as His hands and feet, His eyes and ears, His heart and soul we keep on reaching out with His other-worldly love to others. We re no more a part of this world than Jesus was. We have and we long to be with Jesus in our heavenly home. He longs for that, too! And so He pleaded in our behalf the night before He died: Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Dear friends, I can t wait to bask in my Savior s glory! How about you? Amen. (425) pastortodd@lhlc.org Page 6 of 6