A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. “We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints—and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us” (2 Corinthians 8:1-5). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! There are two subjects that many pastors hesitate to deal with in a sermon—sex and money. Not so with the Apostle Paul. In his first letter, Paul warned the Corinthians: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulter...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Don, Steve, Jim, Barb, Brenda, other family and friends of Gwen: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Though each of us wishes we did not need to be here, (or at least that it would be for a different reason,) it is fitting that we are here at Trinity Lutheran Church in Jasper this morning. Though her failing health limited her ability to be with us here the last few years, many of the most important moments of Gwen’s life took place in this church. Gwendolyn Ann Larson was received as a child of God through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism here at Trinity Lutheran Church on August 19, 1934. Here, on May 16, 1948, she publicly confessed the faith given to her in her baptism in the Rite of Confirmation. Gwen and Don were united in Holy Matrimony here at Trinity on August 29, 1954. With her departure to be with the Lord, a wife and mother and grandmother and great grandmother is no longer here—a friend and sist...