Sermon on August 24

 Trinity 10 

it is written,“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” Romans 9:33

 

This section of Romans starts with a question, a rhetorical question: “What shall we say, then?” Paul has been talking about the differences between Jews and Gentiles. Why are so few Jews believing in Jesus Christ? While others are coming into the faith and into the Christian Church, but the Jews have rejected Christ and his Church. Paul notes that the Jews have a zeal for God. They were religious, devout, righteous in the sight of everyone. But instead of believing in Jesus, they took offense.

        Jesus taught righteousness. That’s a big word that comes up again and again in Romans, meaning, to be right, alright, not wrong, especially with respect to God. We are righteous by faith. There is another couple of words that comes up often in Romans “by faith”. Paul says it a couple times in these verses here before us, especially comparing “by faith” with “by works”. The Jews were pursuing righteousness, by works, by their own merits, saying righteousness is my merit, what I deserve. Righteousness by faith was a stumbling block to their ego.

By faith – that is, what you believe, and what is it we have to believe? Christ saves sinners, He picks up the one who stumbles. He makes right the one who was dead wrong.

In the Gospel reading today, Jewish leaders in Jerusalem were seeking to destroy Jesus, But others were hanging on his words.

That rhetorical question at the start is asked because of this glaring irony. Those who should believe, who should be all about “by faith”, don’t have faith in Jesus, but faith in themselves. They believe in themselves, in their merits, their works and think their good qualities make them righteous.

When a person thinks that all you need is your own self, your own strength, and your own remarkable goodness you come to the Stone laid in Zion and you stumble on it. The Stone was meant to be the foundation. Now it becomes a tripping hazard if you are so preoccupied looking at your own abilities and amazing qualities.

God wants all to be saved. God’s people pray such. Paul says, “my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved”.  The irony is God (who wants all people to be saved) lays down a stumbling block for those who don’t believe. The hear that Jesus, the Son of God, died to redeem sinners, and they are offended at that, “Ach, I’m no sinner. You don’t need to redeem me.”

For all of us sinners who at any time love and trust ourselves above all things, God lays “in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”  In our reading today, those words are in quotation marks. Paul’s quoting from Isaiah. There’s this promise in Isaiah of what God is doing in Zion. Zion is the place of the temple in ancient Jerusalem. It’s the house of God, the throne of His Kingdom. And there God lays a foundation stone, His Holy Son, Jesus sacrificed on the cross, to forgive all unrighteousness. And it’s offensive to those who take offense.

You ever heard it said, “Don’t take offense”? Now of course, there are often times when the sinners you are surrounded with, that you have relationships with, offend you. They offend you by what they say, what they do, what they don’t bother to do. When you take offense, think about what happens in your head, the annoyance, the pain, caused by those who trespassed against you, just repeats on a loop. Proverbs 17:9 – “Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.” When it’s possible, and it’s almost always possible, cover an offense with love and forgiveness. Don’t keep it playing in your head. Don’t let it be your narrative. Colossians 3:15 “bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you”.

Consider this, you probably don’t have a clue what that so and so is going through. They have burdens on their shoulders, torments in their souls that you don’t understand. They’re busy with their own responsibilities and problems. They just can’t provide you with the care and the service you expect. They are suffering in ways that prevent them from being all things to you.

You ever take offense because so-and-so didn’t treat you like you deserved? They didn’t respect you as they should. They don’t give you what you’ve got coming. Instead they say things that are unfair, even disrespectful to you. And you deserve better because you’re righteous, you’re in the right. And this keeps playing in your head.

Do you ever take offense because so-and- so didn’t treat you like you deserve? When you do, then you can understand: That’s what the Jews of old, and many today, do with Jesus. They say, “He doesn’t treat us like we feel we deserve. He’s not going to give us what we feel we have coming. He doesn’t respect our righteousness.” As soon as you start glorying in your own righteousness, you will hear offensive things from the Lord. He will tell you are a sinner. You are falling short of righteousness by what you think, say and do. You are failing to do what you should do in life. You aren’t believing in Jesus Christ the rock and foundation of life and eternity. The Lord Jesus Christ, dying on the cross, seems offensive. Your self-righteousness will lead you to look away from it saying, I don’t need that. It’s a scandal, an offense.

And He lays before you “in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense”.  This tripping hazard makes a violent action. It’s not like tripping over a stone out of place on your path, the kind you hit on unexpectedly, but can quickly recover from and keep walking, looking around to see if anyone notices your clumsiness. This “stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense” will give you a bruising. The fall can break and even kill.

It's kinda comical when people trip and fall, their first instinct is to look around and see if anyone noticed. Before they think about what’s broken or where they might be bleeding, they think “I hope nobody saw what I just did. I hope they don’t laugh at me for being foolish and clumsy.” Embarrassment and shame hurt the mind more than the breaks and bruises hurt the body.

Well, what’s even more shameful is to be standing in the judgement hall of heaven with all people and all angels watching you and Jesus Christ comes to judge the living and the dead and He lays out the charges against you of all your sins and your unbelief.

Then the Lord says this: “whoever believes in him will not be put to shame”.

Your self-made righteousness has to get knocked down, bruised and broken. And then Zion’s stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, which is Jesus,  becomes the foundation of your faith and life and your eternity.

Jesus who died for the shameful, the clumsy, the bruised and broken, takes away your shame. On the last day, He will remove all your shame, all your embarrassment, all your regret, and replace them with glory, righteousness and eternal joys. Amen.

Services at 9:00 am

 Starting in July, our Sunday services begin at 9:00 am.

Sermon for 4th Sunday of Easter

 

May 11, 2025

Mothers' Day

21When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”

 

Normally, it is awkward, to say the least, to hear a man describe what it’s like for a woman to go through childbirth. But this is no ordinary man. Jesus our Lord, knows all, understands all, and shares all with His people, men and women. He understands the and sympathizes even with the pains of a mother giving birth.

Birth pains are one part of the curse on creation because of sin. Adam began calling his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living – a play on words because in that ancient language, “Eve” sound like the word “living”. She is our universal mother. Jesus too, who took on human existence, had Eve as his mother. But He is also her savior, taking her sins, and her sorrows.

In Isaiah 53, Jesus is called the Man of Sorrows. It says, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows”.  Jesus died for you. On the cross, He knew exactly what He was dying for:  your sins of thought, word, and deed – your actual sins and your original sin, that you are by nature sinful and unclean, by nature, by birth, by your lineage that goes back to Eve. Jesus forgave that, by taking it away from you and taking it on Himself, bearing all your guilt, all your punishment, all your sorrows and all your curses.

By baptism and by faith a Christian mother is united with Christ. In the pains of child birth, He is there, with her, in union with her. Not as a coach, but as the suffering Servant of God, serving Mothers.

When a women desires to be a parent, but it is not to be, the Lord bears the grief and carries the sorrow.

At the bedside of a sick child, Christ is with the Christian mother, sharing in the grief and the fear.

When a mother has a child that is failing, falling short of the marks for development, or the grades at school, and Mom and Dad wonder what will be the future for this daughter, this son? It’s not like we planned, what we hoped for. The Lord Jesus participates in that grief.

We are all failing children. By what we’ve done, and by what we have left undone, we’ve let our mothers down. We have all been disappointments, delinquents, and derelict in our duties. And when there is grievous sins, it can shame the whole family and mothers feel that shame the most. Jesus Christ has borne our mothers’ shame and sadness.

Jesus is the Savior of Mothers. Jesus is the Savior of us sinful children.

But hear Jesus Gospel promise in the 16^th chapter of John:  “You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy”.

Here on the night before He would be betrayed, arrested, and crucified, Jesus told His disciples they would no longer see Him. There’d be sorrow for a time. But then, in a little while, they would see Him and there would be joy. Our life is just like that, grief and sorrow, but in Christ, there is joy. And joy wins out.

He takes our griefs and sorrows and replaces them with His joy.  Here is Christ’s joy, as spelled out in Hebrews 12: “for the joy that was set before him [Jesus] endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Jesus went through His sorrow and suffering, with joy set before Him. His joy was that He would ascend and sit at the right hand of God the Father almighty. His joy is continually increased every time one of His loved ones believes and is saved. That’s His greatest joy, not in His own glory but in bringing you His dear ones into His life and glory. His joy is complete and perfect when we are with Him and love Him and share His blessings of peace and love and joy.

Have you noticed, That’s a Mother’s true joy, also. When her children are happy and healthy, loved and loving.

As some of you know, I’m part of the Camping World. It’s interesting how the camping culture is a microcosm, an example of the world in general. When campers get together they talk about  their equipment. They compare the size and even the expense of their campers, how many feet, how many pullouts. They brag about the gadgets and the toys that go with it. They strive to have more, cooking better meals, more amenities, as if more frills equals more fun and more joy. That’s the way of the world – pretending that money can buy happiness and seeking joy in the accumulation and exploitation of earthly, material things

Last night I got to watch a mother’s joy at the campground. She exuded true joy as her children and grandchildren had fun, laughed and played. Lasting joy is when you love others, more than yourself. Eternal joy is when you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Mother’s Day is not a church holiday. You don’t come to church to idolize Mom, but to worship the Lord. Today Mother’s Day aligns with Jesus words about a mother’s sorrow turning to joy. We need to listen to Him, because we live in world with messed up ideas about who we are as men and women, male and female. There are so many with messed up ideas about what is a woman. There are confused men who try to pretend to be women, but only focus on the outward and exaggerated shape and mannerisms, while despising the true beauty of women, seen in our mothers’ love and joy.  There are many who despise motherhood, because they despise babies, considering them a burden on their pursuit to selfish joys.

But hear how our Lord honors mothers, using their joy to describe our life in him:

“Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you”.

Amen.

 

Sermon for Palm Sunday

 Let everyone confess.

Philippians 2:5-11

10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).

 Let every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!

Aubree, Cashton and Jax intend to do jut that on this day of their confirmation. Those of us who have been confirmed in years past, had this opportunity to confess our belief that Jesus Christ is Lord. That becomes one of the most important memories of our youth.

But the way it sounds in Philippians 2, this is not a one day, one time thing. This is life of faith, a life of confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord. It says in Philippians “Have this mind among yourselves” – This is a daily thing; it is a constant state of mind.

Jesus Christ is Lord! This is our statement of faith.

Jesus Christ is Lord! To a lot of people this sounds burdensome, oppressive even. “We’re Americans. We don’t have lords, or dukes, or kings.” So many picture this statement “Jesus is Lord” like he’s got all the power, and that he forces us to bow the knee to his law. He, as Lord, demands our obedience.

But this is a Lutheran Confirmation. So let’s have our clear Lutheran confession of the beautiful Gospel of Jesus Christ. One of the jewels of the Lutheran Confession of the faith is the distinction of the Law and the Gospel, and the Gospel is always prominent. A good example of the value and truth of our Lutheran Confession is here in the way we confess Jesus Christ is Lord, as we have it in the catechism’s explanation of the 2^nd Article of the Creed. “Jesus Christ is my Lord, who has redeemed me, purchased and won me from all sins, from death and from the power of the devil.” We say that he has done this with “his holy precious blood and innocent suffering and death.” He rescued us out of the dominion of sin, the dominion of death, and the power of the devil. He took us out of sin and brought us into His Kingdom of forgiveness, righteousness and goodness. He took us away from death and placed us into His kingdom of resurrection and life. He took us out of the devil’s control and brought us into His Father’s love. We say Jesus Christ is my Lord, because he is my Savior, my Redeemer, my Friend who died for me.

On Palm Sunday the crowd of pilgrims sang “Hosana to the Son of David” and shouted, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”

Prophet Zechariah foretold this: 9Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
            Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
behold, your king is coming to you;
            righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
            on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Rejoice! Shout aloud!

When Christians confess Jesus Christ is Lord, it is the natural response of their faith and salvation. It is a function of honesty and integrity – integrity meaning that oneness of head and heart and mouth and life.

It comes from a confidence that outweighs fears and the apprehension of what other people might think. It comes from the joy of salvation that outweighs laziness and apathy and the distraction of this world’s cares.

We confess Jesus Christ is Lord with our words. And we confess with our actions, when we do what shows our Love for God with all our heart and our love for our neighbor as ourselves. We confess with our lives, with our “walk” as the Bible often calls the manner of our doing things at work or at play. We confess with our posture, our body language: “Every knee should bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

A person’s posture and body language show what’s on their mind and what’s in their hearts. Experienced investigators can get a hint if someone’s telling the truth or lying, if they’ve got something to hide by the shift of their posture and the movement of their head and eyes. They can’t prove anything in a court of law by it, but it lets them know what questions to ask next and where to look next in the investigation. Even subconsciously we get hints from others about what they’re thinking and what they’re feeling by their position and movements.

Examples of bad body language could be turning a cold shoulder to someone who needs you, versus extending a helping hand.

Every knee should bow. We do so in our worship in the presence of Jesus Christ, especially at the altar where we confess that He is really present in the body and blood of His Communion.

It’s a posture of prayer. Jax, Aubree, Cashton, aspire to be God’s people of prayer. You might from time to time feel guilty for wasting time with screens, or other bad habits or laziness. But there is no guilt for moments spent in prayer. You have time every day.

Philippians 2:5 “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. . .“ Our mind and our heart is in Christ Jesus. We find the mind of Christ in the words He says, words of grace, like “Come to me” and “I forgive you all your sins”; words of salvation like “whoever believes will not perish but will have eternal life.”

But consider also His body language: , though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2).

For us and for our salvation Christ our Lord came down from heaven and was made man. As such he had a body and so He used posture and body language. He had hands that reached out to touch the untouchable leper and heal him. He had arms that stretch out on the cross, as he was obedient unto death, even death on a cross.

His words and actions show what is on His mind: His love for you, his care for your salvation.

The mind of Christ is in the sacraments. He commanded Baptism where he forgave you your sins and made you His own.  And Holy Communion where you will receive that true body broken for you and the life-giving blood shed for you. This communion, we now invite you to. Amen.

Sermon for Lent Service

Mark 14:43–65

THE SECOND ARTICLE

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

 

What does this mean?

I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary, is my Lord,

 

who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death,

 

that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.

 

This is most certainly true.

 

We confess in the creed that we believe that Jesus Christ is true God and also true man. These two natures in the one person Jesus Christ is the key to understanding the interrogation by the high priest in the Passion reading tonight from Mark 14.  “Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” ⁶² And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

The Jews were very careful, you might say hypervigilant, about the 2^nd Commandment, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord.” So the high priest doesn’t ask if Jesus is the Son of God, but refraining from using the word “God” says, Son of the Blessed.

These antagonists see Jesus standing in front of them, with his hands bound. He’s powerless, so it seems to escape the armed guards. He doesn’t look like the Son of the Blessed, His only Son our Lord, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity. They only see his humanity, He who was about to suffer under Pontius Pilate, be crucified and then do that very human thing, that mortal thing, die.

But this One person, has these two natures, divine and human. these two natures are joined in Him such that, it will be the human being, the Son of Man whom these his enemies will see when He is glorified, exalted, seated at the right hand of Power, coming to judge the living and the dead.

For those of us who believe, this is beautiful to hear, our Savior Jesus, crucified and killed by evil men will come again in glory. We love to hear it. We love to confess it, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.

But those chief priests, elders, and scribes, who didn’t believe, when they hear what Jesus says, their hatred is irrational and intense. Our Lord’s words are powerful, no denying. To us who believe, powerful to give life and salvation. To those who refuse to believe, the words of Jesus are powerful to produce hatred, violence, and eternal damnation.

Notice that this Jewish counsel is building their whole case against Jesus around the accusation of Blasphemy – what Jesus said, His words. Blasphemy is saying something against God, something contrary to the Hallowed name of God, something that would hurt His reputation.  They hated Jesus because they hated what He said. They condemned Jesus because they chose to believe that His words were lies.

C.S. Lewis was a Christian writer in the 1940s. In his book Mere Christianity, he wrote:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Such a big distinction between those who hear what Jesus, the Son of the Blessed says, and believe it, and those who hear what Jesus says and think He’s lying.

Today the words of Jesus are still heard. And by the blessing of the Holy Spirit, still believed. Words like, “Come to me.” And “leave behind your sins, follow me and live.” For the believer these words are joy and peace. But we can’t be surprised when unbelievers in our world hear what Jesus says and respond with anger. They don’t want a Lord, they want to be their own lords. They don’t want to leave their sins. They don’t want to follow Jesus. They want Him to leave them alone. Sometimes we Christians can get caught in that hatred and the hatred gets turned toward us. It’s like the young man in the Passion reading tonight who was following Jesus  and the mob grabbed his robe and he had to leave it behind and flee naked (Mark 14:51-52). The anger towards Jesus, caused this young follower to suffer.

So let us keep hearing Jesus Words and confessing Who He is, True God, True Man until He comes again. Amen.

Sermon for February 23

Sufficient Grace

2 Corinthians 5:9

 

2 Corinthians 5

7So to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

 

“My grace is sufficient for you.” That’s what the Lord said to Paul, and what He says to you.

Paul had this thorn in the flesh. He doesn’t say exactly what type of ailment it is, but you can easily imagine it, can’t you. It’s a very visual turn of phrase. Most of us know what it’s like to get a thorn in the flesh. The smallest thing, a speck, can be so debilitating. Paul prays for relief. He prays that it be taken away, repeatedly he prays, three times. But the Lord is working on Paul, to keep him from being too elated, too proud, too self-sufficient. So He answered Paul’s prayer with a “no”, saying instead, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

There are other things that could be said about God’s grace.

·         We say it’s amazing, “Amazing Grace. . . that saved a wretch like me.” When we grow in it, the more we learn of it the more we appreciate it, the more we are amazed by God’s grace, His amazing love of sending His only Son to die for us to save us.

·         We could say it’s extravagant. More than I deserve.

·         We could say it’s surprising grace. Surprising that God would be kind to us, human beings and not just condemn us all out, as justice should demand.

·         It’s refreshing grace, life-changing grace, giving us new birth and renewed hope.

There is so much to say about grace that it might seem underwhelming to just hear “My grace is sufficient for you.”

Well, sufficient is a very useful word. “That’s sufficient” – is what you tell someone who wants something more or something else and that something would be too much for them or wrong for them. It’s what you should tell a rebellious child who despises the healthy food that’s set before him. “I don’t want this, I want . . . “ No, this is sufficient.”

Sufficient, it means, just right, just enough.

Consider how God made you. Your body is sufficient. Sufficient enough for you to still be alive today: Not too strong – to crush everything you touch; Not too weak as to be unable to lift the fork to your mouth.  Just sufficient.  When you think, oh, I wish I were different, better, stronger, prettier, something else, Stop and remember: you are sufficient.

Consider the world the Lord has made for us. It is sufficient for our lives. There are other planets around. Some are too hot. Some are too cold too cold – our earth is sufficient.

Mars has no atmosphere. There’s no air to breathe there, no cool breeze to cool you on a hot day. Jupiter on the other hand is too windy. You couldn’t even stand up. Well, there’s nothing to stand on anyway, it’s just a ball of blowing hydrogen and helium.

Earth is sufficient, tilted on the axis just so, sufficient for seasons.  with a ratio of land and sea, that’s just right allowing for weather: evaporation, condensation. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater”  (Isaiah 55)

I suppose, We could complain about the weather, but we also ought to remember that it’s sufficient, just right.

Sufficient: that’s a word that should be spoken to a husband tempted to lust someone who has not been given to him. “Love your wife. She is sufficient. Now he’s gotta work on saying other things about her – She’s beautiful inside and out; she’s helpful; she’s probably the best thing he’s got going for him. But at that moment of temptation, he needs to say to himself that the wife of his youth whom the Lord provided for him, is sufficient.

Likewise a wife, who gets to feeling “I wish my husband were more communicative, more aware, more successful, smarter.” That stuff is probably all true. But can you also say, he is sufficient.

The Lord says to you,“My Grace is sufficient for you.”  Not too little  -- not too much.

Too little grace and God comes off as constantly angered by our failings and flaws.

Too much and we have this picture of God as the white bearded permissive Grandpa, who just overlooks all that’s wrong with us.

“My grace is sufficient” – just enough, just right.

Paul prayed for a life that’s easy, free from pain, free from trouble, free from thorns. He wanted something other than grace, something more than grace.

That’s the thinking one has who says, “Yes, I have God’s grace, someday He will take me to heaven. But in the meantime, there’s bigger fish to fry. There are some other favors I need from heaven.” – and these other favors are ultimately less than grace.

“My grace is sufficient for you.” You hear that sentence differently at different stages of you life. A person on their death bed hears their Lord say this and they find peace and rest.  But a young person full of dreams and ambition and self-sufficiency hears this and pays only minimal attention. Be careful. Don’t be too self-sufficient.

Jesus tells a parable today in the Gospel reading, of a sower who goes out to cast his seed (Luke 8:4-15). In this parable, He explains His evaluation of your abilities and potential. There are a number of items in the extended symbolism of this parable. First there’s the sower. As you can usually expect in the Lord’s parables, the subject of the story stands for the Lord Himself. Then he explicitly says, “The seed is the Word of God” (vs. 11). Then all that’s left to decipher the symbolism. What part do you play? The seed is cast into various types and conditions of soil. That’s you. You are the dirt. The Lord Jesus just called you dirt. Not the most flattering comment you’ve ever gotten, is it? What potential does dirt have? If left to itself dirt produces weeds, thistles and thorns. But if tended, if planted with good seed, then it has great potential. Unlike what the environmentalists may believe, dirt is not sufficient in itself. It must find its sufficiency from somewhere else. So you, on your own are not sufficient. You need grace from outside of yourself and that grace comes from the holy life and innocent death of our Savior Jesus Christ.

He plants His invigorating word into you where it sprouts faith and grows to produce fruit a hundredfold, now and forever. Amen.