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The Parable of the Ten Virgins

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Click here to listen to this sermon. “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise” (Matthew 25:1-2). Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! What does it mean to wait faithfully for Jesus? It means receiving His gifts while we await His return—and serving the neighbors He places before us. We do not simply watch the calendar. We live from what Christ gives. Our time, abilities, and possessions belong to God and are entrusted to our care. Christian stewardship grows from this life of faith: receiving from Christ and giving in love. Jesus depicts His Church as ten virgins awaiting the Bridegroom. All know of Him and expect to enter His marriage feast. All become drowsy and sleep. At the midnight cry, each rises with her lamp to meet Him. That picture reaches into St. John’s/St. Paul’s/Zion and congregations elsewhere. It addresses those present ...
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On the Other Side of Glory

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Click here to listen to this sermon. “ After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” ( Revelation 7:9-10). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! St. John gives us a glimpse of the other side of glory. Yet the first thing he wants us to see is not the multitude, the white robes, or the palm branches. Look where they are looking. Every face is turned toward the throne and toward the Lamb. Heaven is glorious because Jesus is there. This certainly is a diverse group, from all economic strata, ethnic heritages, skin tones, and eras of history. Some struggled with this sin and some with that. Some came into the kingdom early and others late in the day. ...
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Grace: God's Gift for Clean Consciences and Godly Living

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  Click here to listen to this sermon. “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:22b-25a). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Five people stand on the roof of a burning building. Their only escape is the roof across a twenty-five-foot alley . One jumps ten feet. Another jumps four . Another reaches twelve. One gifted athlete leaps twenty-two feet. Some go farther than others, but none reaches safety. Every one of them falls short. That, dear people, pictures our spiritual life. By nature, we are trapped in sin and cannot make the leap from sin to righteousness. Human standards may rank some people ahead of others , but God’s Law makes no such distinction: we have all sinned and fallen short of His glory . We ca...
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The Anointed One

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“Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed” (Isaiah 45:1).         May grace and peace be yours from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Cyrus , king of Persia, conquered the mighty Babylonian Empire in 539 BC. The victory was unexpectedly easy given Babylon’s reputation for brutality. As his army surrounded the city, the priests of Marduk surrendered, proclaimed Cyrus Marduk’s chosen ruler , and opened the gates for his peaceful entry . The Babylonians had destroyed Jerusalem and its temple and deported the Jews from Judah and Jerusalem. The prophets explained that this devastation was God’s judgment on His people for disobeying His Word and failing to worship Him faithfully. Scripture does not tell us exactly what happened, but imagine the scene : Cyrus, dressed in royal spl...
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