A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. Dear Boston and Hailey, You are standing here today to exchange your vows of love and loyalty to each other. What a miracle is taking place right before our eyes! According to God’s Word, the two of you are becoming one flesh—one in mind, body, and spirit. However, your oneness will be tested many times in the months and years ahead. You will face many challenging situations and issues in your marriage and family life. At those times, where will you turn? Where will you look for strength, guidance, and hope to carry on? Many couples look for wisdom and guidance for their marriage in all the wrong places, and the negative consequences speak for themselves. However, I pray that both of you will always turn to God’s inspired Word for wisdom and will turn to your Lord in prayer for His grace and guidance. These are the lifelines of love we discussed each time we met over the last few months. In the Bible, God provides us with an inspiring story of two p...

Click here to listen t o this sermon. “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:14–21). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!   Almost two weeks ago, LCMS Pastor Jim Roemke received national attention for the benedicti...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Jesus said:] “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (John 15:9-11). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! It’s one of the shortest answers in the list of questions I require our catechumens to answer to be confirmed: “What, in one word, is the summary of all the commandments?” The answer: “Love.” It’s a short, simple answer. But it takes some repetition until they remember it. And even longer until they understand it. Why is that? I suspect it is because we generally use these words with different definitions in different contexts. Love and commandments are not typically associated in our everyday conversations. Love is often seen as a universally positive concept, while commandments can be viewed as strict, authoritative, and overbearing. Yet, in today’s Gospe...

  Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:4). Easier said than done, right? Consider these scenarios. Grandpa takes his two grandchildren, ages three and four, to the park. They just love the playground equipment! It starts out well. There are so many different swings and slides to try that they stay out of each other’s way. Having evaluated all the equipment, Kendra decides that the airplane is her favorite and she heads back to it, intent on spending the rest of the afternoon in the pilot’s seat. That’s when the trouble begins. Jake decides that the airplane is so superior to all the other swings and slides that he’s willing to scream and holler to get his turn immediately. Having witnessed this scene countless times with different casts of characters, Grandpa decides it’s time to go home. It’s lunch ti...

"The Good Samaritan" by James Tissot Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Jesus told this story: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:1–5) Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! It is still the season of Easter. Fittingly, this is a resurrection text. It may not seem so since resurrection is never mentioned, but the whole idea of love, faith, and obedience to the commandments of God discussed in this text are dependent upon the reality of the resu...