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Showing posts from January, 2025

An Old Man's Prayer

Click here to listen to this sermon. 1     In You, O Lord , do I take refuge;                 let me never be put to shame! 2      In Your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;                 incline Your ear to me, and save me! 3      Be to me a rock of refuge,                 to which I may continually come;        You have given the command to save me,                 for You are my rock and my fortress.   4      Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,                 from the ...

They Spoke Well of Him and Then Drove Him Out of Town

Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today is our Gospel, Luke 4:16-30, which has already been read. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. In our assigned readings for today, we have examples of one of the longest sermons in Scripture and the shortest. Ezra reads the Book of the Law of Moses “from early morning until mid-day”—about six hours. Jesus reads two verses of Isaiah and preaches a one-sentence sermon. When Ezra finishes, the people bow their heads and worship the Lord with their faces to the ground. When the people in the synagogue hear all Jesus has to say, they are filled with wrath, rise up, and drive Him out of town, so that they can throw Him down the cliff. It would seem that in ancient days the longer the sermon, the better it is received by the hearers. But I somehow suspect that would not be the case today, so this one will fall somewhere in between. So, what is going on here? The Old Testament Reading takes us to a...

Good News for the Desolate and Forsaken

Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today is our Old Testament lesson, Isaiah 62:1–5:   1   For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet,      until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. 2     The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory,      and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. 3     You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord , and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. 4     You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate,      but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married;      for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. 5     For as a young man ma...