A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. Denny, Ron, Deb, and Randy, members of St. John’s congregation, family and friends of our departed brother in Christ, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Most anyone who attended worship services at St. John’s Lutheran Church over the last decades probably knew Clarence. Ever since moving back to Trosky, Clarence was our head usher and greeter. He welcomed everyone when they came to church and checked out any visitors. You might say Clarence was the doorkeeper of our congregation. Clarence was baptized into Christ at St. John Lutheran Church in Villard, MN on July 9, 1929. He confessed his Christian faith publicly in the Rite of Confirmation here at St. John’s on April 2, 1944. His confirmation memory verse was Matthew 10:32, “Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven.” Clarence married Lois here at St. John’s on July 7, 1951. Though moving around severa...

Click here to listen to this sermon. [Jesus] went on His way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to Him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in t...

Click here to listen to this sermon. 1 [Jesus said:] “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what He was saying to them. 7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the Door of the sheep. 8 All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the Door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15–16). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The voice came from behind the stall in the men’s room: “So what about the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?” Pete chuckled to find himself in such a significant conversation while standing in a public restroom. Yet he finished drying his hands and stood outside the stall and answered, “Well, that’s the one sin in the Bible that God talks about which won’t be forgiven. It’s amazing to think that God will forgive any sin we could commit, except for the sin of persistently shutting out the work of the Holy Spirit,” he went on. “But when you think about it, you’re shutting out the very One who is able to bring you to faith.” We shake our head and smile when we hear about that conversation. It is true that God works through common ...