http://stevebauer.us/wordpress The homepage of Pastor Steve Bauer and his family Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:13:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Copyright 2007-2010 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) posts 1440 http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/Faith_small.jpg http://stevebauer.us/wordpress 144 144 Faith Lutheran Church The weekly sermons from Faith Lutheran Church, in West Newton, PA (WELS) Lutheran,WELS,Christian,sermons,PA,pennsylvania,message,homily,baptism,Lord,s,Supper,sacraments,truth,hope,love,service,faith,confidence Pastor Steve Bauer no no Copyright 2007-2010Lutheran,WELS,Christian,sermons,PA,pennsylvania,message,homily,baptism,Lord,s,Supper,sacraments,truth,hope,love,service,faith,confidenceReligion & Spirituality/Christianitystuff@stevebauer.usPastor Steve Bauer40.218208-79.754391http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/JFX8iGrZY1M/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=383#comments Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:02:08 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=383 This is the sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: James 2:1-13. The sermon theme is: Are Christians Domineering or Doormats? Here is the Written Sermon. If ever there were a place where there should be peace, it should be your church. If ever there were a place where you would [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/JFX8iGrZY1M" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=383 0 18:04 This is the sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: James 2:1-13. The sermon theme is: Are Christians ... This is the sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: James 2:1-13. The sermon theme is: Are Christians Domineering or Doormats? Here is the Written Sermon. [caption id="attachment_385" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The first will be last...The last will be first"][/caption] If ever there were a place where there should be peace, it should be your church. If ever there were a place where you would find people who know you, appreciate you and treat you well, it should be your congregation. But, what if it isn’t? What if it’s a place where people don’t get along? In the opening words of James, chapter 2, James writes these words about the members of his own congregation: “My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,”” (James 2:1–4 NIV) We look at this picture and we say to ourselves: What give them the right? What gives them the right to be domineering bullies? But, we could very well ask ourselves the same question. What gives you the right? Some of the most domineering bullies out there are Christians. And you can tell them by what they say. They use phrases like this: “This is what you’re gonna do.” Where’s the discussion? Where’s the looking at the issue in light of God’s word? No, This is what you’re gonna do. Or maybe you’ve heard that phrase “yeah, but...” So, you speak to a fellow member and you say, “This is what God’s word says.” And their response is “Yeah, but...” What they are saying is “I know that God’s word is clear in this issue, but I’m now going to start bullying you.” But notice where James goes from there. Yes, he brings out the problem. But he also speaks about the solution. Why are people---even Christians bullies? Very often it’s because they need control. They need a safe, manageable kingdom to rule. Notice how James doesn’t just address the problem. He also addresses why the problem is there and what the solution is: “Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?” (James 2:5 NIV) And this morning James says the same to you: ‘there is no need to bully, domineer and carve out a kingdom for yourself.” Why? Because you have a kingdom. He chose you even though you are worth nothing to the world. He chose you by faith, as a free gift. He chose you to be rich, not necessarily with stocks and bonds, but with God’s kingdom. What is God’s kingdom? It’s Jesus delivering us from sin, death and the devil. And how do we know all of this is true? How do we know we don’t need to push, bully and domineer anymore? Because he promised all this to us. James speaks to these dear ones whom he loves as a pastor and his heart is in pain over them. They discriminate and domineer and bully. They give the best places of honor to the rich people. And here’s the huge irony: these are the very same ones who are bullying them. And just look at how evil these rich people were: They exploited these Christians and they dragged them into court. If someone exploited you and sued you for no reason, what would you do? Would you make others stand in corners so that these evil people might sit in the best places? NO. Do you see the point that James is making? Being Domineering is a sin. But so is being a doormat. Just as people blasphemed the name that was called over them, so also do people blaspheme the name that is called over us. It is a sin when people blaspheme Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=383http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Pentecost15.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/6MlkczSILno/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=380#comments Sun, 29 Aug 2010 19:25:01 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=380 This is the sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Isaiah 66:18-24. The sermon theme is: Why is Heaven So Unfair?. Here is the Written Sermon The book of Jonah is a very important book. And, while Jonah is indeed swallowed by a big fish, which is what most of us [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/6MlkczSILno" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=380 0 21:06 This is the sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Isaiah 66:18-24. The sermon theme is: Why is ... This is the sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Isaiah 66:18-24. The sermon theme is: Why is Heaven So Unfair?. Here is the Written Sermon [caption id="attachment_382" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Make every effort to enter through the narrow door"][/caption] The book of Jonah is a very important book. And, while Jonah is indeed swallowed by a big fish, which is what most of us remember about the book. It is nevertheless a minor part of the book. In the beginning of the book the Lord goes to Jonah and tells him to preach the gospel to the people of Nineveh. When Jonah hears this, he instead gets on a boat, heading toward Tarshish (Spain). And as soon as he gets onto this boat, we are asking ourselves: “Why?” Why are you running away from the Lord, Jonah. Finally, everything catches up with Jonah. And he answers the question for us: (Jonah 4:2 NIV) “He prayed to the Lord, “O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” If there is a thread and a theme that we see running through these last words in the book of Isaiah, that’s it. How unfair! How unfair heaven is. In the opening words of our first reading, Isaiah tells us: ““I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations—to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations.” (Isaiah 66:19 NIV) And that leads us to the second thought in this verse. If it’s unfair that God would choose to forgive, convert and cherish his rebellious Jews, just look at what he does with the Gentiles! Even though most of the Jews choose to hate and reject the Lord, nevertheless, he takes these survivors, these refugees and sends them across the globe. Why? He sends them so that they can share in this privilege of sharing God’s word with the pagan Gentiles. And look what happens then. In verse 20, Isaiah says: “And they will bring all your brothers, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord—on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,” says the Lord. “They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the Lord in ceremonially clean vessels. And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,” says the Lord.” (Isaiah 66:20–21 NIV) But, oh, my brothers and sisters, we can fall into the same trap. There might be the day when you go out to a bar and grill to eat. And you see a man there who has drunk way too much. He’s telling dirty jokes and saying stupid things. And then what happens? He shows up in your church the next day. How unfair. Why does he even bother? There might be the member of your church who comes here only a coule times a year. He shows up and pretends everything is just “A-OK.” How unfair! Why does he even bother. There might be that person who shows up to your bible study who hasn’t been there before. And what does she do? She does nothing but ask a bunch of stupid questions and you can’t get anywhere in class that day. How unfair! Why does she even bother? It’s so unfair. It’s unfair that we or anyone would have heaven. And, just when we think that that is the only issue that is unfair, Isaiah changes the subject. In the final words of the book of Isaiah, the Lord tells us: ““And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”” (Isaiah 66:24 NIV) You see, there are so many people today, even many Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=380http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Pentecost14.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/J2Fs5tnilEU/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=375#comments Sun, 22 Aug 2010 19:35:53 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=375 This is the sermon for the thirteenth sunday after Pentecost. Today we had the privilege of hearing Rachael Symons confessing her faith. This podcast includes her examination, the sermon and the confirmation rite. Rachael&#8217;s confimation passage is Psalm 31:1-2. The sermon is based on Psalm 31:1-5. Here is the Written Sermon. Miss Rachael, let me [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/J2Fs5tnilEU" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=375 0 34:42 This is the sermon for the thirteenth sunday after Pentecost. Today we had the privilege of hearing Rachael Symons confessing her faith. This ... This is the sermon for the thirteenth sunday after Pentecost. Today we had the privilege of hearing Rachael Symons confessing her faith. This podcast includes her examination, the sermon and the confirmation rite. Rachael's confimation passage is Psalm 31:1-2. The sermon is based on Psalm 31:1-5. Here is the Written Sermon. [caption id="attachment_378" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Noah Builds the ark"][/caption] Miss Rachael, let me start off with a question: For how long were you in catechism class with me? In all of those months, how many stories did I tell you? This morning, let me tell you one more very true and very important story. A long time ago there was a boy who had a problem. The problem was that his brothers were at war with the evil Philistines and they couldn’t seem to win. They couldn’t win because there was this giant of a man who would come out every day and say nasty words against them, the army and the Lord. And this was an even greater problem for this young man. This giant had no right. He had no right to make fun of the one, true God. So, let me ask you Rachael, where did David put his trust? Did he put his trust in his armor? Did he put it in being able to talk himself out of this situation? Did he put his life in the hands of the Lord. Do you remember what he said to Goliath? He said: ““You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” (1 Samuel 17:45 NIV) And I could go on with this story, couldn’t I, Rachael? I could go on to talk about Absolom’s rebellion and all the trouble and sin and problems that David endured. But, I won’t. Because here in these words we have enough to answer the question. To whom did David go whenever he was in danger, in trouble and in turmoil? He went to the Lord. David had horrible, wretched problems throughout his life. And he turned to the Lord for refuge, for strength and for hope. But why? How did he know that the Lord was the right person to rescue him? How did he know that the Lord would rescue him? In this verse he says: “deliver me in your righteousness.” (Psalms 31:1 NIV) Now here we are, Rachael, knee-deep into this sermon. And you might be asking yourself, what does this have to do with me? If David had problems in his life---deep problems because of his sin and the sin of others, do you think you will? If David put his trust in the Lord to deliver him, where will you put your trust? Will find consolation in the number of your friends? Will you find consolation in the quality of your friends? Will you find consolation in the power of your volleyball serve? Or will you find consolation in the score on your last math test? NO. To all of these we say NO! No, on that day when your sin weighs you down with pain and guilt you will pray this prayer: “deliver me in your righteousness.” (Psalms 31:1 NIV) You will say: “O Lord, make your holiness my holiness. Make your perfection my perfection. Take away my sin and this pain.” And the Lord will hear you on that day and on every day you pray this way. Notice Rachael, this song isn’t just a song of deliverance. It’s a song of death. It is the song that Jesus spoke as he died. It’s the song that Stephen sang when they killed him. And it has been the song that countless Christians have sung with their last breaths. And so, let me ask you Rachael, do you know when you will die? Now do you see what Confirmation all about? Catechism isn’t a pointless tradition. It’s not a fluffy, white cake or pretty dress. It’s not getting God out of the way so that you can move onto more important activities like parties and volleyball. It’s this enduring fact: Just as John Achzehn and Jack Brinker have gone to see the Lord face to face, you will too. And as the Lord calls you ho Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=375http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Confirmation_RachaelSymons.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/f5cqnf74hc8/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=370#comments Sun, 15 Aug 2010 18:52:11 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=370 This is the sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Luke 12:32-40. The sermon theme is: Let God’s Pleasure Be Your Treasure. Here is the Written Sermon. Here is the epub file. What do you do with a gift that you don’t get? What do you do if you get a [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/f5cqnf74hc8" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=370 0 18:56 This is the sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Luke 12:32-40. The sermon theme is: Let ... This is the sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Luke 12:32-40. The sermon theme is: Let God’s Pleasure Be Your Treasure. Here is the Written Sermon. Here is the epub file. [caption id="attachment_372" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The Lord Shows Abraham the stars"][/caption] What do you do with a gift that you don’t get? What do you do if you get a gift---and you have no idea what the gift is or what to do with it? A couple of weeks after my confirmation I received a package in the mail form my aunt. I opened it. It was a bible. It was a massive bible. I was excited to get such a great gift, so I put it on my desk and opened it. I tried to read it. And it was like it was written in a different language. It definitely was not the NIV bible I had used in catechism class. I read the cover and it said “King James Version.” And so, I was in a difficult situation. It was a bible. You’re supposed to treasure that. But, I couldn’t understand it. What was I supposed to do? I put it on my shelf. I took it with me wherever I moved. And still today, I know Latin, Greek and Hebrew. But I don’t understand many of the words in this book. Jesus tells them that their Father has given to them the kingdom. What an amazing gift! They have the kingdom. But, as we move into these words, we quickly realize that they had no idea what that gift meant for them. So, what is God’s kingdom? It’s Jesus rescuing us from the Devil. The second question is just as important to ask. How does God’s kingdom come to us? Luther’s answer is wonderful. He says that God’s kingdom comes to us “(a) here in time through the Word and faith [Matthew 13]; and (b) in eternity forever through revelation [Luke 19:11; 1 Peter 1:4-5].”2 This little trip into Luther’s Large Catechism is a very important lesson to learn. We have God’s kingdom---all of it. We have it every time we open our bibles. We have it every time we remember how God washed away our sins in baptism and put his name on us. We have it every time we come forward to the Lord's Table. There we receive the forgiveness of sins. There we have a little preview of the endless perfect party in heaven. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be. This about that. Wherever you place your time, your effort, your strength, there is where your heart will be. And when your treasure is good, you will have pleasure. But when it fails, so also does your heart. So, what does this look like? How many of you know people who are Steeler’s fans. There is where they place their time, their energy, their hope. And so, when the Steelers are doing great, they are too. But, when they lose, they you don’t want to be around those fans. They put all that time, energy and commitment into the Steelers. And they lost. And we could say the same for the Pirates and the penguins. Now, if you want to see what this should look like, then go to Abraham. If you want to see what it looks like to put your time and energy where it belongs, then listen to the words from our second lesson: “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” (Hebrews 11:8–10 NIV) In all of this we see our sin. We are like a child playing with a toy car---all the while our Father has given to us a real car. So, what is our Father’s solution to this problem? Since the kingdom he has given to us is far from our minds and hearts, what does he do? He brings his kingdom to us. Just think about what happens in the Lord's Suppe Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=370http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Pentecost12.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/I9US3F2QmIE/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=365#comments Sun, 08 Aug 2010 16:42:25 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=365 This is the sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:18-26. The sermon theme is: &#8220;Let Your Breath Go.&#8221; Here is the Written Sermon. Here is the epub file. Time was never meant to be temporary. Time was meant to be eternal. Of all the horrible effects that Adam [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/I9US3F2QmIE" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=365 0 21:25 This is the sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:18-26. The sermon theme is: ... This is the sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:18-26. The sermon theme is: "Let Your Breath Go." Here is the Written Sermon. Here is the epub file. [caption id="attachment_367" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Jesus Teaches the Crowds "][/caption] Time was never meant to be temporary. Time was meant to be eternal. Of all the horrible effects that Adam and Eve endured when they rebelled against the Lord---one of the worst was that time became temporary. They began to grow old. They could see that they would one day die as they looked down at skin that wrinkled and joints that ached. It was from this realization that Abel’s name came. Eve looked at this tiny boy in her arms and she said one word, “breath.”1 “This boy in my arms is like the warm breath on a cold day. You breathe it out. And as quickly as you breathe it out, it vanishes.” Breath---all of us are breath. We are all here now, but very quickly the Lord will take you from this life. And it is that very same word, breath, that Solomon uses in the opening verses here in Ecclesiastes: ““Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”” (Ecclesiastes 1:2 NIV) As Solomon looked back at his life his heart turned away to despair. And if you were listening closely, you heard two reasons why he despaired. He hated all the things he toiled over in this life because he knows that he has to leave them. He has to leave what he worked on and worked for behind. Solomon’s heart was in pain because he saw it coming. He realized that all the work he had put in would be taken away from him---in and instant, in a moment it would all be gone. But there was another reason. It’s bad to have what you work for taken from you. But to give it all to a moron is so much worse. And Solomon knew what he was talking about. When Solomon died, his son Rehoboam reigned after him.2 As he began his reign, he had a choice. He could rule with love, having the people follow him because they loved him as a king. Or he could rule them by force. He could make them fear him. So foolishly, he chose to try and make God’s people follow him with threats. They rebelled. And with one sentence he divided north and south forever. Solomon’s heart was in pain not just because he had to leave what he had worked for so hard for so long---but even worse, he had to leave it to a moron. The lesson we learn from Solomon is to not put our trust in breath. And yet, as we look into our lives and in our hearts we see that we have done just the opposite. We have worshipped our children. We have enslaved ourselves to our parents. We have demanded the government to do things it cannot, because it is breath. We have toiled and worked for thing that will not last. That is our gracious Lord’s solution to our sin. He shows us sins ugly effects. He makes our hearts bleed with pain as we realize we cannot put our faith in treasures and toys and parents and children. Our gracious Lord tears away from us all the things in our lives that are breath. And then finally he takes our breath itself. One day, if our Lord Jesus delays, he will take away your earthly breath and you will die. The one who is good in the sight of God3 is the one who gets wisdom, knowledge and happiness. That is who you are. Because Jesus died for your sins; because the Holy Spirit has breathed into you, you are now good in God’s sight. And because you are good in God’s sight, when you breathe your last breath you can let go of everything that is breath in this life. You can let go of the work you toiled for, the children you served, the parents you honored. You will let go of breath to be with Jesus. 1 ‏הָ֑בֶל 2 1 kings 12:10 3 ‏כִּ֤י לְאָדָם֙ שֶׁטּ֣וֹב לְפָנָ֔יו נָת Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=365http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Pentecost11.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/X9kBpoBlgsY/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=362#comments Sun, 01 Aug 2010 20:34:02 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=362 This is the sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: James 5:13-18. The sermon theme is: How Do You Approach Prayer? Here is the Written Sermon. Prayer is popular. A couple of weeks ago there was the National Day of Prayer. A couple of months ago, our President, Barack Obama prayed [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/X9kBpoBlgsY" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=362 0 18:42 This is the sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: James 5:13-18. The sermon theme is: How Do You ... This is the sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: James 5:13-18. The sermon theme is: How Do You Approach Prayer? Here is the Written Sermon. [caption id="attachment_364" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="An Angel Leads Lot and His Daughters Away from Sodom, But His Wife Turns Back (Genesis 19:15-29)"][/caption] Prayer is popular. A couple of weeks ago there was the National Day of Prayer. A couple of months ago, our President, Barack Obama prayed that “a hand” would guide our nation. Prayer is popular. But how do we, as Christians, approach prayer? In the words we have before us this morning, how does James teach us how to approach prayer? James writes: “Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.” (James 5:14–15 NIV) The question I have for you this morning is this: Is this how it works for you? When you pray for something, do you get it? James makes it seem as if it’s so simple. You pray; Jesus answers your prayer. But, we can find many times in our lives when this has not happened. We prayed that God would take away our flu right now. But he didn’t. We prayed that we would recover from our injury right now. And we didn’t. We prayed that God would take away what is hurting us. And he didn’t. But that leads us to the next question. If faith is trust, then what is that trust in? Faith is trust in the promises of God. What are the promises from God? Ahh, there we find our problem. Why is it that Jesus doesn’t answer your prayers? You aren’t praying based on the promises of God. The prayer from faith is the one which knows what God’s word promises. Are you beginning to see what James is talking about? A prayer which is from faith is one that knows God’s promises and prays based on them. That is one of the reasons why we avoid civic organizations which speak a lot about prayers and oaths. Take for example Boy Scouts. A full quarter of the Boy Scouts are Mormons. When we commingle our oaths and prayers with those who do not know Jesus or his promises, God will not answer our prayers. A prayer from faith knows God’s promises. So, if your prayer is not answered, the first question you should ask is: ‘am I praying for what God promises in his word?’ But, if our prayers aren’t answered, there might be another reason why our prayers are not answered. We find that reason in the words of Jesus in the gospel for this Sunday: ““So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”” (Luke 11:9–13 NIV) In many ways, James is not a fun book to read. He reminds us all the times we have prayed without knowing God’s promises. He reminds us of all the times we have prayed and not trusted what Jesus plainly and clearly promises to us. He leaves us in a place where we realize in the end, that there’s no reason why our Father should hear any of our prayers. For, in all of our prayers we forget his promises. And in all our prayers we carry along with us doubt right along side the trust. James leaves us in the same shoes as one man who came to Jesus4. The man’s son was possessed by a demon. The man said: “if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” “ ‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=362http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Pentecost10.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/_5pOO9wGpnE/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=358#comments Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:17:16 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=358 This is the sermon for the The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Romans 12:9-21. The sermon theme is: How Do You Look At Love?. Here is the Written Sermon. Allison in a Christian in the west. She loves her children dearly. So, she has them in sports and activities. She is so [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/_5pOO9wGpnE" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=358 0 21:30 This is the sermon for the The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Romans 12:9-21. The sermon theme is: How ... This is the sermon for the The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Romans 12:9-21. The sermon theme is: How Do You Look At Love?. Here is the Written Sermon. [caption id="attachment_360" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The Good Samaritan Arrives at an Inn"][/caption] Allison in a Christian in the west. She loves her children dearly. So, she has them in sports and activities. She is so busy that she only manages to bring her children to church about once every six or eight weeks. Aria is a Christian in the east. She loves her children dearly. She didn’t grow up as a Christian. And so, she spends much of her time at church. She teaches Sunday School. She cleans around the church. She is involved in the women’s ministries at church. But, you wouldn’t want to surprise her and visit her home. It is often unclean and unkept. Doug is a Christian in the south. He loves his children dearly. So, he takes his job seriously. He gets up early. He works hard. And he comes home late. And when he gets home, he eats and then sits in his chair. And that’s what his children have come to know of their dad. He’s the guy who comes home and sleeps in the chair in the living room. But that’s about all they know him as. As I was translating these words, I very quickly realized that these words were far more like nails than bandaids. And every time I studied another one of them, it drove another spike into my soul. Paul starts out and he says that love is not a hypocrite. How often has my love been hypocritical? Paul says that true love honors others above myself. And, as I peer into my soul, I see many times and many ways that my love has been self- serving and self-loving. What about you, my brothers and sisters, how often do you repay evil for evil? If someone wrongs you, you may not go out and harm them back. But how often have your really wanted to? How often do we leave room for God’s wrath. So very often, if their’s justice and wrath to be done, our Lord doesn’t have much to do because we have either avenged ourselves in our actions or in our thoughts. Why would God do this? Why would he set the bar so high? Why would he command us to love perfectly? Just look at our gospel for today.3 There we meet a teacher who needed to be a student. He thought that he loved God enough. He thought he loved his neighbor enough. Jesus walks him through a story. And every word must have pierced that expert in the law. The expert learned the lesson that everyone in his life was his neighbor. And if he couldn’t even a good neighbor to his neighbors, then how could he love God perfectly? Jesus demanded his perfect love not because he expected it a price to earn heaven. No, he spoke these words to show him that he had to look outside of himself for salvation. Jesus loved this woman, who was like him. She was a daughter of Abraham. He loved her enough to be persecuted by the Jews. He loved her enough to heal her and take away her sin. But Jesus also loved those who were not daughters of Abraham. In John 4, we meet the Samaritan woman. This was a woman who was very much not like Jesus. And yet Jesus goes to her, searches her out. He exposes her sin. He tells her that he is the Messiah. My brothers and sisters, I mention these facts because, as we look at ourselves it is all too easy to see the old self. It is all too easy to see how impossible it is for us to love completely. But it is difficult to see our new self. It is ever-so-difficult to see the Holy Spirit at work in us. He is there. But he is invisible. How then do you look at love? It is impossible for us. It is accomplished in Christ. It is given to us in baptism. Amen. 2 (Romans 12:16–19 NIV) 4 (Luke 13:15–16 NIV) Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=358http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Pentecost8.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/xo_Id9dSJfs/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=355#comments Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:33:29 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=355 This is the sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Luke 10:1-12, 16-20. The sermon theme is: Know that the kingdom is near. Here is the Written Sermon. Where did you get that from? As Christians who share our faith, that is a question someone might ask you. You say that [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/xo_Id9dSJfs" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=355 0 00:01:01 This is the sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Luke 10:1-12, 16-20. The sermon theme is: ... This is the sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Luke 10:1-12, 16-20. The sermon theme is: Know that the kingdom is near. Here is the Written Sermon. [caption id="attachment_357" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Elijah’s Raises the Widow of Zarephath’s Son"][/caption] Where did you get that from? As Christians who share our faith, that is a question someone might ask you. You say that people are sinners and evil from birth, and what do they say? Where did you get that from? You tell them that Jesus has taken away not just some of your sins, but all of them, and what do they say? Where did you get that from? It reminds us to be in God’s word so that we can give an answer to those around us. God’s kingdom is not laws and states. God’s kingdom is God’s word working on the hearts of us humans. But we ask the question of Luther: where did you get that from? And, as we read sections of God’s word like these, this morning, we see so very clearly what Luther meant and that he was right. Notice and see very clearly what was happening here. The kingdom of God was near. The Holy Spirit was active. God was getting his work done. How did they know this? They knew that the Kingdom was near because they saw opposition. What is going on here? What is going on in their hearts that they hate this Jesus that we treasure so much? For most unbelievers, God’s word is a closed book to them. It is foolishness to them. They don’t care about what the bible says simply because they don’t get it. But, then there is another group too. There is a group who has heard the voice of God. They have heard God speaking to them through his word. But, when the Holy Spirit presses on their hearts, they push back. The idea that we don’t just mistakes, but that we are really, truly evil when we are born---who wants to hear that? Jesus did all the work. He took away our sins. He doesn’t let us earn our salvation by working for him or choosing him---who wants to hear that? These are the thoughts that push the Holy Spirit away. How do you know that God’s kingdom is near? We know it’s near because of the opposition we face. That is what our Savior tells us. How sad and sinful it is then when we conclude the opposite. We talk to our relatives or to our friends about Jesus and they push us away. And what is our conclusion? We conclude that God’s kingdom isn’t here. We wonder what went wrong. We shared good news and they reacted like we were feeding them poison. Or, we are tempted to give up on his word. We tell ourselves: If people do not like to hear all of God’s word, then we won’t talk about the stuff that is truly offensive. We won’t talk about baptism. We wont’ talk about the Lord’s Supper. We won’t say that every breath and sylable of God’s word is true and perfect. We won’t say that because, people get angry with us. When, instead, we should boldly speak the truth because it is the only thing that will bring God’s kingdom to them. Jesus told them that again, and again, and again, Jesus kept seeing Satan fall.5 You can just imagine Jesus talking to the 70. You can just picture him saying: “Peter, when you told them that they were sinners on a one-way road to hell and got angry with you, I saw Satan fall. Philip, when you told them so sincerely and clearly that I am the Christ and they laughed at you, I saw Satan fall. Stephen, when you tried to show them from the Old Testament that I was there, leading and guiding history and they refused to hear you---I saw Satan fall. Matthias, when you said that I came to take away all the sins of all the people and that widow, weighted down by the Pharisees cried with joy, I saw Satan fall.” And so, my brothers and sisters, the kingdom of God is near you and in you. How do we know this? We know this in part because of the opposition we f Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=355http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Pentecost7.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/zC1XW7zhW0A/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=352#comments Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:46:30 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=352 This is the sermon preached last night as we celebrated the minor festival of the The Presentation of the Augsburg Confession. The sermon text is: Romans 10:5-17. The sermon theme is: We Are Lutheran: What Does This Mean? Here is the Written Sermon. On June 25th, 1530 the Lutheran Church had its birth. It was [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/zC1XW7zhW0A" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=352 0 00:01:01 This is the sermon preached last night as we celebrated the minor festival of the The Presentation of the Augsburg Confession. The sermon text is: ... This is the sermon preached last night as we celebrated the minor festival of the The Presentation of the Augsburg Confession. The sermon text is: Romans 10:5-17. The sermon theme is: We Are Lutheran: What Does This Mean? Here is the Written Sermon. [caption id="attachment_354" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="The Diet of Worms"][/caption] On June 25th, 1530 the Lutheran Church had its birth. It was on that day that German princes went to the Augsburg to take care of business. But, more important than that taxes or land or property, the business they had before them was to confess their faith. Their task was to explain the truth of God’s word to their Emperor, Charles V. The Emperor did not want to hear about their faith. He did not want to hear them explain what they knew to be true from God’s word. So, he ordered the princes to stop allowing this “new” Lutheran teaching to be preached. Then, the Margrave George of Brandenburg stepped forward and said: “Rather than deny my God and suffer the word of God to be taken from me, I will kneel down and have my head struck off.”1 The Emperor didn’t know what to do with this. He was used to people rebelling against him. He was used to people saying ‘yes’ to is face and showing ‘no’ behind his back. So, he was utterly unprepared to see a man willingly give up is life, but not give up his soul. And even though he knew very little German, he told this man at his feet: “Nit Ab.” “Not off.” To answer that question we need to understand these words we have before us this evening. In Romans, chapter 10, the Holy Spirit moved Paul to write: “Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: “The man who does these things will live by them.”” 2 That is what the church of his time taught. Have you ever been in a cave that is pitch black and you don’t know the way out? Have you ever taken a test where you and no one else knew the answers? Now, imagine a man who is terrified of death. And the church tells him two, horrible teachings: 1) They tell him that he has to do good works to keep God from being angry. 2) The works that they say are good don’t make any sense. You see, the first teaching that he discovered was the law. Now, when I say ‘law’, I don’t mean taxes and speeding laws. I mean the commands that God gives to us in his word. Luther discovered that God gave us these laws not as a ladder by which we can climb up to heaven. No, he gives us these commands to show us that we can’t get to heaven by ourselves. Earlier on in the book of Romans, Paul writes: “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.”4 The Holy Spirit taught Luther what these words plainly say. We continually fall short of God’s glory. But! God has declared the whole world ‘not guilty.’ And just how is it that God can declare the entire world ‘not guilty?’ Because of his grace--his undeserved love. And where do we see that love? In Jesus who redeemed us. he paid for all our sins on the cross. On that day the Margrave George of Brandenburg was silent. And Luther was alone. But in the years that went by the Margrave read Luther’s New Testament in German--in his own language. And he yearned for the opportunity to stand with Luther. He yearned for the opportunity to stand before the Emperor and gladly give up his earthly life so that he would not give up his eternal soul. One cannot look at the stand that both Luther and the Margrave George took and compare it to today. And, as we do so it deeply saddens us. Last summer the members of the ELCA voted to approve and endorse the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy. We look at this with such great sadness. But, my brothers and sisters, this is the symptom, not the cause. The cause is that they didn’t follow Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=352http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/AugsburgConfession.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/KqSoK111zNQ/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=349#comments Sun, 20 Jun 2010 20:24:20 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=349 This is the sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Luke 7:36-50. The sermon theme is: How Much Do You Owe?. Here is the Written Sermon. Which one of these is not like the other? When I was little, I used to watch Sesame Street. And that was one of the [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/KqSoK111zNQ" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=349 0 00:01:01 This is the sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Luke 7:36-50. The sermon theme is: How ... This is the sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Luke 7:36-50. The sermon theme is: How Much Do You Owe?. Here is the Written Sermon. [caption id="attachment_351" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="David sees Bathsheba"][/caption] Which one of these is not like the other? When I was little, I used to watch Sesame Street. And that was one of the games they used to play on that TV show: Which one of these is not like the other? At a very early age we are used to playing this game. We learn which things belong with others and which things do not. In the words we look at this morning we see a woman who does not belong. We meet a woman who does not fit in anywhere. Luke tells us: “Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume,” (Luke 7:36–37 NIV) Before we get into the details too much at all, Luke answers a question for us. If we ask: ‘Well, why doesn’t she belong there?’, Luke tells us that she was a Sinner. It doesn’t come across too well in the english, but what’s he’s doing here is assigning to her a class1. She belongs to the ‘sinner’ group. She does not belong to the righteous group. She does not belong to the ‘normal’ group. She belongs to the sinner group. This is the sort of woman we meet in these words. And yet, it is this very woman who chooses to go where she doesn’t belong. She takes notice of where Jesus went. Then there is a very important progression for us to take notice of. First, she goes and gets expensive perfume and goes back to the house where Jesus was. She goes in--this woman who had led a sinful life. She goes into the room where the rich and the righteous were. She goes to Jesus and she stands there. She just stands there at his feet, behind him. And then when she drenched Jesus’ feet, she bent over and started to wipe them with her own hair. Now, this is an image we need to see in our brains. Jesus came to this house. And in the words that follow, we find out that no one washed his feet. His feet were dirty. They were sweaty. No doubt, they were sticky. No doubt, they were stinky. And yet there she was, wetting his feet with her own tears and washing them with her own hair. My brothers and sisters, look at this woman! For here is a woman who owed so much and then, with such gratitude in her heart, she went into that room and embarrassed herself. Because it wasn’t enough to receive forgiveness. She, with tears of shame and tears of joy, showed her thankfulness. Look at her! For, if you undertand these words correctly, you will say to yourself: “I am this woman.” And, if you aren’t able to say this, let me introduce you to someone else: “Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”” (Luke 7:44–47 NIV) You see, Simon did not see his sin. So he did not see his debt. He did not see his many, many sins of omission. He did not see how he had treated Jesus as if he were less than a slave, because that’s exactly where he thought Jesus belonged. Simon did not see his sin. So Simon did not appreciate the Savior eating with him. So, my question for you is this: How much do you owe? You can’t get through these words without reaching the con Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=349http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Pentecost4.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/Ltr0xh4AhYo/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=345#comments Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:48:11 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=345 This is the sermon for the Third Sunday after Pentecost. We depart from the normal set of readings for the Third Sunday after Pentecost in order to speak about Marriage. The sermon text is: Mark 10:2-16. The sermon theme is: Let Us Marry Marriage. Here is the Written Sermon. Years ago, when I was at [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/Ltr0xh4AhYo" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=345 0 00:01:01 This is the sermon for the Third Sunday after Pentecost. We depart from the normal set of readings for the Third Sunday after Pentecost ... This is the sermon for the Third Sunday after Pentecost. We depart from the normal set of readings for the Third Sunday after Pentecost in order to speak about Marriage. The sermon text is: Mark 10:2-16. The sermon theme is: Let Us Marry Marriage. Here is the Written Sermon. [caption id="attachment_348" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Jesus Blesses the Little Children"][/caption] Years ago, when I was at our Seminary, one of our professors said this: “Men, you must marry the scriptures.” It was a strange thing for him to say---at least we thought so at first. Then, after we thought about it a little more, it made sense. He was challenging us to think of God’s word as something so important that we were joined to it and it was an inseparable part of who we were. Isn’t it interesting to see that, as Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun. It was easy--too easy to get a divorce back then. And much the same is true today. And so there are these Pharisees who come to Jesus. They try to trap him. They ask him a question that seemingly had no right answer. If he goes along with Moses and says that divorce is just fine, then he would be sinning against one of God’s greatest gifts, marriage itself. If he says what the bible says then Jesus is going against one of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament. Now, Jesus could have stopped there in speaking about marriage. But he doesn’t. And we thank him for this, for there are great treasures of truth in the words which follow: "“But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female." (Mark 10:5–7 NIV) Now, see how this already answers some questions for us. We ask the question: when did marriage start? Notice what Jesus says: From the beginning up till now. Marriage is not something that happened as a result of sin. Marriage is not something that humans came up with. God started marriage at the beginning, before sin entered into the world. When I was in grade school I used to love girls. Oh yeah, I loved them. They were great, because when you pushed them into the bushes they made this delightful squealing sound. But, that’s about all they seemed to be useful for. And then things changed. I still remember the day that everything changed. Our school was on a class trip. And we were all eating in a restaurant. And I offered Tonya Decker my fries--my beloved, treasured fries. And what was her response? She said: “Yuck, I don’t want your germs.” That night I did a whole lot of thinking, trying to figure out why I would give my fries away--and even worse, to a girl. And I still haven’t figured out. But, now at least I know that it’s natural. That is the way God made us. He made mankind. He made us male and female. My brothers and sisters, there are many, many churches today who do not know this simple and profound truth. There was a church years ago which had an organist. The man was an accomplished organist. He on the church council. He was happily married with several children. And the man also had a gay lover. The church was paralyzed. It didn’t know what to do about this situation. Why? Because they didn’t marry God’s word. They didn’t marry this part of God’s word speaking about marriage. Does that picture look familiar? You might say to yourself: I have married marriage. I know what the bible says about marriage. I still remember what I was taught in catechism class. But, if you aren’t in God’s word, you are on the same path as that other congregation I mentioned. The only difference is that they arrived there sooner than you. If you aren’t reading God’s word at home and learning from your pastor in bible study, you are foolish. For Fox News, CNN and Glenn Beck and NPR cannot teach you this. Only God’s word can. What is hideous way for me to speak about marriage. Here I was, speaking about Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=345http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Pentecost3.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/9LiTEdsWR9o/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=343#comments Sun, 06 Jun 2010 21:09:11 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=343 This is the sermon for the Second Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Philippians 1:18b-26. The sermon theme is: It’s Always A Win-Win Situation. We thank Pastor Sam Hacker for sharing God&#8217;s word with us this morning. Share on Facebook<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/9LiTEdsWR9o" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=343 0 00:01:01 This is the sermon for the Second Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Philippians 1:18b-26. The sermon theme is: It’s Always ... This is the sermon for the Second Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Philippians 1:18b-26. The sermon theme is: It’s Always A Win-Win Situation. We thank Pastor Sam Hacker for sharing God's word with us this morning. [caption id="attachment_344" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Elijah’s Raises the Widow of Zarephath’s Son"][/caption] Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=343http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Pentecost2.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/KTzrfDWcjvw/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=341#comments Mon, 31 May 2010 00:38:26 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=341 This is the service for the First Sunday after Pentecost-Holy Trinity. Share on Facebook<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/KTzrfDWcjvw" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=341 0 00:01:01 This is the service for the First Sunday after Pentecost-Holy Trinity. [caption id="attachment_342" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The Baptism of Jesus"][/caption] This is the service for the First Sunday after Pentecost-Holy Trinity. [caption id="attachment_342" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The Baptism of Jesus"][/caption] Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=341http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Trinity.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/rLw0axwN02k/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=338#comments Sun, 23 May 2010 21:12:39 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=338 This is the sermon for the The Coming of the Holy Spirit-The Day of Pentecost. The sermon text is Acts 2:1-21. The sermon theme is: What Does Pentecost Mean?. Here is the Written Sermon. There are parts of God’s word that when we read them, we tell ourselves: ‘I just don’t get it.’ Of all [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/rLw0axwN02k" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=338 0 00:01:01 This is the sermon for the The Coming of the Holy Spirit-The Day of Pentecost. The sermon text is Acts 2:1-21. The sermon ... This is the sermon for the The Coming of the Holy Spirit-The Day of Pentecost. The sermon text is Acts 2:1-21. The sermon theme is: What Does Pentecost Mean?. Here is the Written Sermon. [caption id="attachment_340" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The Tower of Babel"][/caption] There are parts of God’s word that when we read them, we tell ourselves: ‘I just don’t get it.’ Of all the sections of scripture to read, this section above all is a difficult section to sort out. After all, there are howling winds. There are flames of fire. There are people speaking languages in precision with specific dialects. After we read these words, we end up in the same place that the people did on the day of Pentecost “Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”” 1 My brothers and sisters, it is important to listen to this conversation this Lutheran had as he visited with his non-Lutheran friends. Because, at some point you will have the same conversation. Someone will ask you: “If you don’t feel the Holy Spirit inside of you, can you really be sure that you have the Holy Spirit? If you haven’t made your decision for Christ, can you be sure you have the Holy Spirit inside of you? If you can’t speak in tongues, are you really sure that you have the Holy Spirit?” The man without the Holy Spirit does not get what God’s word says. This amazing fact that Jesus died for your sins the unbeliever does not understand. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is the one who converts hearts. The Holy Spirit is the one who brings you out of spiritual darkness into the wonderful light of God’s truth. You see, there so many Christians out there who base their salvation on that word, “I”. They say “I decided for Christ. I have the joy of Christ in my heart. I can speak in tongues.” You base your salvation on the unyielding, unbending promises of God. You remember, in the gospel from a couple of weeks ago, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit. Now here is where we need to clear some details up. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit. But, do not be mistaken, they already had the Holy Spirit. When you believe one member of the Triune God in your heart, you also have the others. Why? Because there are not three God’s. There is one God. They already had the Holy Spirit. What does Jesus mean then by the word, ‘send’? Here in these words from the Old Testament prophet of Joel we find the answer. We hear the words ‘pour out.’ The third member of the Trinity--the one who likes to do his amazing work in the background is now, for a time, going to come into the spotlight. The work of creating faith and sustaining it which is hidden will now be seen. And that’s what Peter preaches about. He let’s these God-fearing Jews who came from the various parts of the world know that they were seeing prophecy being fulfilled. Joel spoke of fire and smoke. And with their own eyes they saw the fire and smoke. Impossible, right? But nothing is impossible with God. The Holy Spirit did the impossible. He brought you to faith. And that’s nothing you could earn. That’s nothing you could choose. That’s nothing even you could feel. And if he did the impossible with you, do not be surprised if can do the impossible with others. Years ago, my professor told me a story about what life was like for him when he was a pastor. He said that one of his favorite parts of being a pastor was adult instruction class. He said that it always seemed to turn out this way: There would be a nice, young woman who grew up in the church as a Lutheran. She started dating a young man. And, then, before he knew what was happening, he was in an instruction class. And you could tell, that for those first few weeks or months, the guy wasn’t buying into this whole Jesus-thing. But then, at some point, everything changed. The light went on. Instead Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=338http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Pentecost.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/7igKmNPskAE/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=337#comments Sun, 23 May 2010 21:05:58 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=337 This is the Christian Wedding of Tony Hamilton and Keri Kimes. The audio file contains the entire Wedding Service. The words that follow are the sermonette. The text for the message is: Psalm 127. The sermon theme is: Let the Lord Be Your Builder. Here is the Written Sermon. Let me start out this afternoon [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/7igKmNPskAE" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=337 0 http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=337 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/BLN-LUgQVgM/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=330#comments Sun, 16 May 2010 21:26:41 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=330 This is the sermon for the Seventh Sunday of Easter. The sermon text is: John 17:20-26. The sermon theme is: Our High Priest Prays. Here is the Written Sermon. Years ago I heard a sermon about the words in scripture we are looking at this morning. And in the sermon the pastor said that what [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/BLN-LUgQVgM" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=330 0 00:01:01 This is the sermon for the Seventh Sunday of Easter. The sermon text is: John 17:20-26. The sermon theme is: Our High ... This is the sermon for the Seventh Sunday of Easter. The sermon text is: John 17:20-26. The sermon theme is: Our High Priest Prays. Here is the Written Sermon. [caption id="attachment_332" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Jesus Prays"][/caption] Years ago I heard a sermon about the words in scripture we are looking at this morning. And in the sermon the pastor said that what we call the Lord’s Prayer isn’t the Lord’s Prayer. No, the words that Jesus speaks here in the Garden of Gethsemane--these are the Lord’s Prayer. What was his point? The Lord’s Prayer is for us. The disciples came to Jesus and asked: “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 1. But, the prayer that Jesus speaks this morning is his prayer. Here was a man who was desperate. Here is a savior who was diligent. Here we see Jesus being tempted by Satan like a walnut being crushed between a vice. And the more he was tempted, the more he focused. And so, the sweat rolled from his face like blood. Likewise, the writer to the Hebrews tells us: “he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” 3 This sweat and these tears speak to us. They speak to us of a brother and a Savior who prayed like we could never pray. So often we are led astray to our own thoughts and feelings. We do not find this weakness in our Savior. Here we find a High Priest who is our substitute. He prays in a way we could never match because our our sin. This example teaches us, doesn’t it? There are times for the careful, thought-out, composed prayers. And of those, there is no prayer that matches the Lord’s Prayer. But there will also be those times of desperation. There will be those times of doubt, those times of anxiousness, those times of worry, those times where we feel like we are being squeezed like a walnut in a vice. At those times, like our Savior, let the words flow. Let them fall from your lips like tears. Let them slide from your tongue like sweat sliding down your face. For, at these times your Father in Heaven wants you to pray. And it’s ok if all the words are not tidy and careful. There are many petitions, many prayers in these verses. But, to get at the heart of the matter, let’s settle in on this verse. Just what exactly is Jesus praying for? He is praying that they would be one--not one person; not one confederation; but one thing, one group5. And in this verse he prays an impossible prayer. The NIV translates this phrase as: “May they be brought to complete unity” 6. And they did the best that they could. If we were to translate this as literally as we could, it would read: ‘I pray...that they have and will reach their goal of unity’7. You see, when we pray, we don’t usually pray for what is in the past. We don’t usually say: “Dear Lord, I pray that the birthday I just had was a good birthday.” No, we pray for something in the future. And from this untenable condition flows a real petition. We might sing right along with the hymn, “Lord, you I love with all my heart”8, but where’s the proof? If I truly loved my Father like I sing that I do, then wouldn’t I pray like my brother and Savior does? I have this true Christian, ἀγάπη love for my fellow Christians. I love them. I just can’t stand to be around them for too long. I love them, but I don’t talk to them---because they are too young to know; too old to care. The real condition of being a sinner/saint moves us to speak a real petition: that we would be one, just as we are already one in Christ. How will we ever reach the unity we already have in Christ? By knowing the great love that our Father has for us. Now, let’s look at a couple of details in this verse. Jesus uses the word ‘know.10 There are several words in Greek for Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=330http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Easter7.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/2yGr8bZ4xjQ/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=327#comments Fri, 14 May 2010 00:43:47 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=327 This is the sermon for The Ascension of Our Lord. The sermon text is: Isaiah 63:1-6. The sermon theme is: There Will Be Blood. Here is the Written Sermon. Good poetry is pictures. Have you ever noticed that? Good poetry has good pictures. The poet paints a picture with his words. He tells a story. [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/2yGr8bZ4xjQ" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=327 0 00:01:01 This is the sermon for The Ascension of Our Lord. The sermon text is: Isaiah 63:1-6. The sermon theme is: There ... This is the sermon for The Ascension of Our Lord. The sermon text is: Isaiah 63:1-6. The sermon theme is: There Will Be Blood. Here is the Written Sermon. [caption id="attachment_329" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The Ascension of Jesus"][/caption] Good poetry is pictures. Have you ever noticed that? Good poetry has good pictures. The poet paints a picture with his words. He tells a story. He draws you into his pictures and his story. Sure, we can talk about how it rhymes. We can talk about how long it is. But, what makes a good poet is the pictures that he paints for us. Isaiah paints for us a picture of a man who is coming out of Edom. And there are two questions we ask. First, where is Edom? Edom was the nation south-east of Israel. They are the descendants of Esau. For centuries Edom wanted and worked for the destruction of God’s people. And Bosrah is the capital of Edom. Second, who is this who is coming out of Edom? As the person gets closer we can not just see that it’s a person. We can also see how he’s dressed. He has bright red all over him. Who is this man? The Lord answers Isaiah’s question: “It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.” 2 That’s not the answer we were expecting, was it? We were expecting the word, ‘grapes.’ Instead Isaiah heard the shocking word, ‘blood.’ And just look at the gory detail that the Lord speaks of. He crushed their bodies as if they were grapes. And the blood stained his clothing. And if you were listening closely, you heard much the same words in our second lesson. John, the evangelist writes: “He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood...He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.4” 5 So, what’s the answer? Why did the Lord have to get the blood of his enemies on his hands? Why did he have to crush their bodies under his feet? No one else could. That’s why. These words are a powerful reminder to us of the effects of sin. As part of the Christian church we face many enemies. The Devil and evil governments have always sought to destroy Christ’s church. And we are utterly-unable to fight for ourselves. Why? Because we are sinners. Adam and Eve disqualified us so long ago. And the result is clear. We cannot avenge ourselves. We cannot avenge the crimes Satan does against us. We cannot avenge the harm evil governments do to us. We cannot. So our Lord took up his own anger and wrath as his companion. And from that then, in our final verse we see the result of our Lord staining himself and crushing our enemies: “I trampled the nations in my anger; in my wrath I made them drunk and poured their blood on the ground.”” 7 All of these are such powerful pictures, aren’t they? And, at this point, you might be saying to yourself: ‘this is interesting, but what does all this have to do with Christ’s Ascension?’ And my question for you is this: ‘Just what is Jesus doing up in heaven now?’ Here, in these words we have the answer. He is ruling on behalf of his church. He is crushing every evil plan--and indeed every evil person right now as we speak. And on Judgement Day he will carry out one, final treading of the winepress. There will be blood on the Last Day. There will be the blood on our Savior--the blood of his enemies. But, what gives us even more comfort is that there will also be blood on us. Let’s back up just a tiny bit and pick up that detail. In verse five, the Lord tells us: “I looked, but there was no one to help, I was appalled that no one gave support; so my own arm worked salvation for me,” 9 And so, my brothers and sisters, as we close, I ask you to ponder and rejoice in this fact: On the Last Day there will be blood. There will be the blood of Christ’s enemies on himself. And there will be his pure, holy, sinless blood on us. Amen. 1 (Isaiah 63:1 NIV) 3 (Isa Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=327http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Ascension.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/PZrlaZJuls8/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=325#comments Sun, 09 May 2010 20:05:36 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=325 This is the sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter. The sermon theme is: John 14:23-29. The sermon theme is: If You Love Jesus, Guard His Word! Here is the Written Sermon. Years ago, when I was in the Seminary, one of my professors preached a sermon. And in that sermon he told the story [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/PZrlaZJuls8" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=325 0 00:01:01 This is the sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter. The sermon theme is: John 14:23-29. The sermon theme is: If You Love ... This is the sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter. The sermon theme is: John 14:23-29. The sermon theme is: If You Love Jesus, Guard His Word! Here is the Written Sermon. Years ago, when I was in the Seminary, one of my professors preached a sermon. And in that sermon he told the story of an aged, veteran pastor. This pastor was on his death-bed. And the pastor looked over to the professor who was a young pastor at that time. He looked at him straight in the eyes and gripped his arms and said: “You be a true Lutheran pastor!” That is the context in which we find ourselves this morning. Jesus is in the upper room with his disciples---just hours before he is betrayed, bruised, beaten and dies. He is leaving them. In our gospel last week, he gave them this charge, this command: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” 1. In the words Jesus speaks to us this morning, it is the same context. If we love Jesus, we will show true Christian love to one another. But, Jesus, before he dies, gives to us this command: “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.” 2 So Jesus tells his disciples: “if you love me, then you will guard my word.” Oh, how these words must have crushed his disciples. Here Jesus was, telling them that if they really loved him, they would guard his word. It must have been a brutal reminder of all the times they knew what God’s word said, but sidestepped it. It must have been a piercing reminder of the times they shot from the hip and pretended that they knew what God’s word said. But, in reality they did not know. It must have been a horrifying command to hear from the death-bed of a loving Savior most of all because he was telling them that the one person who forgave their sins and taught them the truth of God’s word was leaving them. Jesus would soon be gone. And all they were left with is an enduring command that they could never keep. My brothers and sisters, the great weight that Jesus placed on his disciples I need to place on you. For, if you don’t see your sin in these words, then the promises that follow have no meaning and no hope for you. All of us show in our lives that there is one person we love. And that person is not Jesus. It’s ourselves. And we show this in our lives by guarding, cherishing, prioritizing other parts of our lives above his word. Notice how in these words Jesus solves the problem of our sin and the problem of his absence. He sends the Holy Spirit to us. And, if we look at these words in detail, there are three great blessings which come through the Holy Spirit. First, the Holy Spirit will be with us. And he is with us. He takes the salvation that Jesus won for us and through word and sacrament places this forgiveness in our hearts. He gives us strength. He gives us comfort. He gives us peace. I remember a woman in my last congregation. Her husband died. And when she had the dinner at her house after the funeral everyone was crying. Everyone was crying--except her. The Holy Spirit had given her his presence. He was with her to give his strength to her. And that is a good description of our lives isn’t it? There is so much to learn in God’s word. There is so much to apply that we already know. The Holy Spirit opens our minds so that we know. The Holy Spirit teaches us the truth. The Holy Spirit re-teaches us the truth. And what’s the result? We learn to see how much Christ’s love for us is by learning to guard his word. 2 (John 14:23 NIV) 4 (John 14:26–27 NIV) Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=325http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Easter6.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/rsiKE1RA0w8/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=320#comments Wed, 05 May 2010 22:19:35 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=320 God has called to himself our brother in Christ, John Achtzehn. This is the sermon I preached for his funeral. The sermon text is: John 13:36-14:6. The sermon theme is: Written Sermon. A couple of nights ago, Liz showed me the photo album that she put together for John’s 60th birthday. As I turned one [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/rsiKE1RA0w8" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=320 0 00:01:01 God has called to himself our brother in Christ, John Achtzehn. This is the sermon I preached for his funeral. The sermon text ... God has called to himself our brother in Christ, John Achtzehn. This is the sermon I preached for his funeral. The sermon text is: John 13:36-14:6. The sermon theme is: Written Sermon. [caption id="attachment_322" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The New Jerusalem - Alpha and Omega"][/caption] A couple of nights ago, Liz showed me the photo album that she put together for John’s 60th birthday. As I turned one page after another, there was one thought that started out in the back of my mind and then was shouting at my by the time I finished looking at the binder. Here was a man who loved West Newton and was involved in this town. I saw him involved in the Fire Department and the West Newton Pool and potato chips. And you know that John far better than I do. But, long before he died, in speaking about this day, his funeral, John asked me not to speak about those areas of his life. He asked me to speak about this church that you are sitting in. You may know why John was so involved in West Newton. But, this morning I would like you to ponder a different question: Why was he so involved in this church? For, indeed, he was very active in our church. He came to this church Sunday after Sunday for more years than I’ve been living. He taught our children God’s word. He was the president of this congregation for many years. But, why? Why was this congregation not just a part of his life, but instead the foundation of his life? However, I can tell you in all truth and sincerity that John what not afraid. He was not afraid of death. And the question that these words move us to ask is this: ‘you aren’t afraid of death, are you?” Over the years I have heard many people give me many answers to this question. And so very many of them were horrible answers. I have had people tell me that they weren’t afraid of death because, as long as people remember who they were, they live on among them. I’ve had people tell me that they weren’t afraid of death because they tried to do more good than bad in their lives. But these answers and so many more are horrible answers because all of them fail to deal with the problem. When you die, just like John, you will meet your Maker. And the barrier between you and heaven is sin. What then is the solution to sin and death? Is it pretending it doesn’t exist? Is it trying to do better? No, none of that deals with the problem. You see, we have every right to be terrified of death because we are sinners. And for sinners who die there is Hell waiting for them. There is a real answer to this question. Jesus says: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” And he gives us the answer in the words that follow: "You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:4–6 NIV) And so, there is one question left for us to ask: How will you honor the life that you shared with John? On the night that John we honored his memory with a toast. And that’s just what he told us to do. He told us to toast to his memory, because now, he’s in a far better place than we are. He’s in heaven. Rob and Wendy, I want you to know that your spoke about you quite often---and don’t worry, I’m not going to be breaking any Pastoral confidence here. He was very thankful that in this church that he was able to bring you up in this church---this church which was the foundation of his life. He was so very thankful that here you learned the truth about God’s word. And it was his continual wish and prayer that would would be true to what you learned here and grow in it. Continue then to learn and grow in God’s word. And share it with your children. But it didn’t work out that way, did it? Jesus too Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=320http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/JohnAchtzehn.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/P6ZIA-TONro/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=317#comments Sun, 02 May 2010 20:07:32 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=317 This is the sermon for the The Fifth Sunday of Easter. The sermon text is: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. The sermon theme is There is No “Me” In Love. Here is the Written Sermon. There are times in our lives that we think things are important, but they really are not. I remember hearing about the [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/P6ZIA-TONro" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=317 0 00:01:01 This is the sermon for the The Fifth Sunday of Easter. The sermon text is: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. The sermon theme is There ... This is the sermon for the The Fifth Sunday of Easter. The sermon text is: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. The sermon theme is There is No “Me” In Love. Here is the Written Sermon. [caption id="attachment_319" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="David and Jonathon"][/caption] There are times in our lives that we think things are important, but they really are not. I remember hearing about the gold prospectors who came to Montana, back in the 1800’s. There are many stories that people tell. And they all go like this: There was an old prospector. He found a hole in the ground. But, it wasn’t a hole. It was really a gold mine. He went into the mine. He chipped away one gold chunk after another. And, as he continued taking away the gold from the sides and top of the cave, he realized that, the more he dug away at the gold, the more likely the cave was to collapse. But, when he saw the gold--how it glittered in the darkness, it consumed him. He chipped and carved out so much gold that the ceiling of the cave collapsed on him. And, as he lay there dying, he realized that life was more important than gold. Notice what Paul is saying here. What If I have the gift of prophecy and even know all the mysteries--all the hidden things of God and all of his knowledge? What if I have a faith so strong that it can move mountains and give up my body to be burned in the flames like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? What if my knowledge is that great and my faith is that strong? All of that is nothing without love. What good is it to know if no one loves you? What good is it to trust in Jesus if you have no one to share your faith with? First Paul says what love is not: “It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” 2 Oh, there are many details to talk about here. I could spend minutes and hours speaking about these details. But, let’s just focus on one of them. Love is not self-seeking. Literally, ‘Love is constantly not seeking after its own stuff.3’ With this in mind, listen to how Paul describes Christian love: “It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” 5 What word do you hear again and again in these words? We keep hearing that word, ‘all.’ Love keeps all confidences6. Love trusts all God’s promises. Love places its hope in all the words God has spoken. Love endures all things. Jesus has shown this pure, Christian sort of love. He has done so in two ways. First, he kept every secret his Father wanted him to keep. He trusted every truth his Father spoke to him. He endured every punishment that we deserved. That is love--love which does what is best for his Father. But there is a second way he shows this ἀγάπη sort of love. He doesn’t just do what is best for his Father. He also does what is best for you. He showed a love you could never show---even when it meant that he would die in your place. When I was child I had a blankie. It was very important for me to have that blankie. My mom used to try to sneak the blankie away so that she could sew it up and repair it. And I wouldn’t let her. I still have that blankie. We’ve moved that blankie many times over the years. But, Karin knows that she can’t throw it away. I have to admit, I haven’t seen that blanket for years. And I don’t lose sleep over it. Why? I grew up and I put those sorts of things behind me. 2 (1 Corinthians 13:4–5 NIV) 4 Ἡ ἀγάπη 6 πάντα στέγει 8 (1 Corinthians 13:11 NIV) Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=317http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Easter5.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/hR-zheS8Ygk/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=314#comments Sun, 25 Apr 2010 21:11:31 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=314 The is the sermon for The Fourth Sunday of Easter&#8211;Good Shepherd Sunday. The sermon text is: John 10:22-30. The sermon theme is: Jesus Proves That He Is The Christ. Here is the Written Sermon. I love irony. I love it when you expect things to turn out one way, and then they turn out another [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/hR-zheS8Ygk" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=314 0 00:01:01 The is the sermon for The Fourth Sunday of Easter--Good Shepherd Sunday. The sermon text is: John 10:22-30. The sermon theme is: ... The is the sermon for The Fourth Sunday of Easter--Good Shepherd Sunday. The sermon text is: John 10:22-30. The sermon theme is: Jesus Proves That He Is The Christ. Here is the Written Sermon. [caption id="attachment_316" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Jesus, the Good Shepherd"][/caption] I love irony. I love it when you expect things to turn out one way, and then they turn out another way. In the words we look at this morning we see a clear, stark example of irony. Jesus goes to the temple for the festival of Hanukkah. He walks and walks along the columns at the temple--for a long time. Then the Jews surround him and ask him: ““How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.””1 There is such fierce irony in those words. Literally, they ask Jesus “How long will you hold yourself away from us?”2 Jesus wasn’t away from them at all. He was right there, walking along the pillars of the colonnade for hours. He wasn’t hiding. He was right there all along. Twice Jesus says it: You do not believe. And that makes us ask the question: why? Why did they continually, perpetually not believe that Jesus was the Christ? Was it because there was not enough proof for them? Was it because they did not have enough time for them to make up their mind? was it because Jesus didn’t put in enough effort to convince them. To all of these questions we can clearly and safely say ‘NO.” They continued to not-believe because they hated Jesus. Jesus spoke these words about these Jewish leaders: ““Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand...For this people’s heart has become calloused;”4 You cannot prove it to the world out there. And, what’s even worse, you cannot prove it to yourself. You can use all your brain, all your heart, all your time and all your effort and you will never convince that Jesus is the Christ---that he is your good Shepherd. You cannot prove to yourself that Jesus is the Christ. There is a very beautiful and important progression of thought here. Jesus says that his sheep listen to his voice. And then there’s a word missing in the english that is there in the greek6 It answers a question for us. It answers the question how? How is it that we are able to listen to his voice. He knows us. Now, when it says here that Jesus knows us, it’s not a wimpy sort of knowing. It’s a deep knowing. It’s knowing by experience. It’s not like knowing the lady scanning in your food at Giant. You may know her name by her name-tag. But you really don’t know her. But, you do know your family. You know them well. That’s the sort of knowing we find here. Jesus establishes a relationship with us. Through the visible gospel in the sacraments and the heard gospel in his word he gives to us the gift of faith. He knows us. Then we know him. And then after that we follow him. Listen to the promises he speaks to us in these words: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” 7 Three precious promises which do for us what we could never do for ourselves. He says: “I give them eternal life”. That’s a present tense8. He gives to us eternal life not once or twice, but again and again and again in our lives to convince us that we have heaven waiting for us when we die. Then Jesus says: they shall never perish. Here we find one of the most powerful promises in the entire bible. Literally, these words read like this: “And they will never ever ever be destroyed...forever!”9 Our Good Shepherd promises to you that you will never be destroyed. One of two things will happen: either you will die or Jesus will come. And neither is all that bad. For in either scenario you will see Jesus Christ face to face. And finally, Jesus says: “no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”10 T Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=314http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Easter4-GoodShepherd.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/Gy1HvjIEkgc/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=308#comments Sun, 18 Apr 2010 16:11:33 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=308 This is the sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter. The sermon text is: John 21:1-14. The sermon theme is: Jesus Prepares His People Here is the Written Sermon. It’s important to be prepared. Still, to this day, I have dreams about being in High School. And there’s a test. Everyone is sitting down, taking [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/Gy1HvjIEkgc" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=308 0 00:01:01 This is the sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter. The sermon text is: John 21:1-14. The sermon theme is: Jesus ... This is the sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter. The sermon text is: John 21:1-14. The sermon theme is: Jesus Prepares His People Here is the Written Sermon. [caption id="attachment_310" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The catch of fish"][/caption] It’s important to be prepared. Still, to this day, I have dreams about being in High School. And there’s a test. Everyone is sitting down, taking the test. But, I don’t even know if I’m in the right room, let alone prepared for the test. I remember talking to a guy, who for years after he was married had this dream: He was at the altar with his bride-to-be. And the pastor asks for the ring. And he doesn’t have it. He looks in every pocket in his suit and he can’t find it. Finally, he couldn’t get married, because he lost the ring. These sort of dreams make us laugh when we think of them. But they teach to us the importance of being prepared. And what is true in our every day lives is also true in our spiritual lives. It is important that we be prepared. In the words we read this morning we see our Savior working to prepare his disciples for the life they have in front of them. We read: "Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing." (John 21:2–3 NIV) These words are very important for us to ponder this morning. Jesus prepared his disciples with a pause. They needed time to think. They needed time to ponder what it meant that Jesus had risen from the dead. They needed time to put the pieces together and apply this fact to their sins and to their lives. Jesus graciously did this with his disciples then. And he does the same with us today. He prepares us for our lives with a pause. Our Savior prepares us for our lives. He does so with a pause. But he also prepares us with appreciation: "Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered." (John 21:4–5 NIV) Jesus prepares them with a pause. And he prepares them with appreciation. They aren’t the ones who took away their sins. They aren’t the ones who will gather people to hear his word. They aren’t the ones who will give the light of faith to those who are living in darkness. They aren’t the ones who will keep them in this faith. God is the one who does all of this. God prepares them by teaching them to appreciate that God is the one who does it all. Jesus is the one who took away their sins. The Holy Spirit is the one who will call, gather and enlighten the people they will meet and preach to. Jesus prepares his people with a pause. He prepares them with appreciation. And in these words we find yet another way he prepares us: "Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off)" (John 21:7 NIV) John is having this flashback as they are struggling to bring the fish in. And he says to Peter: “It’s the Lord.” The first time they caught this many fish Peter fell at Jesus’ feet, praying that Jesus would go away from him. But, what does he do now? Now, he throws himself in the sea and swims toward Jesus. Why? Jesus is here. The Jesus who was dead and now is alive---he’s here. The Jesus who took away their sins in the open tomb--he’s here. The Jesus who gave them his peace in the upper room--he’s here. Here again, it’s important for us to learn from these words. Jesus prepared them for their lives ahead of them by strengthening them with his presence. An Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=308http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Easter3.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/LMEuKW-khos/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=302#comments Sun, 11 Apr 2010 17:42:35 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=302 This is the sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter. The sermon text is: John 20:19-31. The sermon theme is: Let Us Be Faithful With Forgiveness. Here is the Written Sermon. Easy to say. Hard to do. Anyone can do a Triathlon, right? All you have to do is swim a mile, bike twenty miles [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/LMEuKW-khos" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=302 0 00:01:01 This is the sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter. The sermon text is: John 20:19-31. The sermon theme is: Let Us ... This is the sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter. The sermon text is: John 20:19-31. The sermon theme is: Let Us Be Faithful With Forgiveness. Here is the Written Sermon. [caption id="attachment_305" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Jesus appears to Thomas"][/caption] Easy to say. Hard to do. Anyone can do a Triathlon, right? All you have to do is swim a mile, bike twenty miles and run six miles. Anyone can be a better quarterback than Ben Roethlisberger. You just have to be able to run faster, throw harder and more accurate than you will ever be able to do. Easy to say. Hard to do. In the words we look at this morning from today’s gospel, we find the same truth. Our Risen Savior tells us: “Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”” (John 20:21–23 NIV) Our Risen Savior sends us out with a mission. And that mission is to let go of forgiveness and hold onto it. He commands us to be faithful with this mission. Easy to say. Hard to do. The difficulty with forgiveness is sin. Because of sin, it is difficult for us to ask for forgiveness. It is difficult to ask for forgiveness. But it’s just as difficult to give forgiveness. When I was growing up there was a friend of mine who was so excited. He worked for months to buy a car for himself. He took his test. He bought his car. And several weeks later he was driving through a neighborhood with a school in it. He drove slowly. And on his right, he saw a little girl who appeared out of nowhere in front of his car. He was driving slowly, so he could stop. He motioned the girl to go across. The girl motioned him to go. So, he went. Then she ran out in front of him. He hurt the girl badly. The girls’s parents brought a lawsuit against his parents. He lost his car. And he spent years after that working off his debt to the girl’s parents. It’s hard to give forgiveness. It was impossible for those parents of their little girl to forgive him. It’s hard for us. When people sin against us it’s hard to forgive. And that is what makes it so difficult for us to withhold forgiveness. As Christians we want to give forgiveness, not hold onto it, right? Why would we want to hold onto forgiveness? You see, it is an act of love---love for that person and love for our Risen Savior---when you go to your friend and relative who is continually living against God’s word. It’s an act of love when you say to him or her that they can’t continue to sin against God. It’s an act of love when you pursue that person and say: “don’t you want to be in heaven when you die? Then why won’t you repent? Why won’t you stop this hideous sin? If you don’t repent, then Jesus will not overlook and forgive this sin.” It’s difficult to pursue our friends and family with this sort of message because because it’s easier to pretend than pursue. It’s easier to pretend that sin isn’t that bad. It’s easier to pretend that sin doesn’t burn us from the inside out. But, my brothers and sisters in Christ, look at what our Savior does to our sinful nature. We are terrified to ask for forgiveness. And our Savior says: “I have forgiven all of your sins. Just look at that empty tomb.” We say in response: “yeah, but, if I confess my sin, they will rub my face in my shame. I’ll lose a friend. I’ll lose my job.” Our Savior says to us: “If I conquered sin and death by rising from the dead, do you think I can conquer this too?” And we are terrified to hold onto forgiveness. We say to our Savior: “I know I’m supposed to speak to my sister or brother about his sin. But, if I do, he or she will hate me and never come to church again.” And, in resp Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=302http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Easter2.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/uVZx_T59AAc/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=293#comments Sun, 04 Apr 2010 21:07:52 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=293 This is the sermon for Easter. The sermon text is: Exodus 15:1-11. The sermon theme is Our Savior Has Sunk Satan. Here is the Written Sermon. I like stories of adversity. You know the ones I mean. Stories of adversity are the ones where there is an opponent&#8211;usually a really bad opponent. But, in the [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/uVZx_T59AAc" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=293 0 00:01:01 This is the sermon for Easter. The sermon text is: Exodus 15:1-11. The sermon theme is Our Savior Has Sunk Satan. Here ... This is the sermon for Easter. The sermon text is: Exodus 15:1-11. The sermon theme is Our Savior Has Sunk Satan. Here is the Written Sermon. [caption id="attachment_295" align="aligncenter" width="460" caption="The Armies of Egypt Drown in the Red Sea"][/caption] I like stories of adversity. You know the ones I mean. Stories of adversity are the ones where there is an opponent--usually a really bad opponent. But, in the end the hero conquers. The fisherman tells the story of the fish he caught. He starts out with the fish being about a foot long. And the longer he speaks the longer the fish gets. The more adversity he tries to prove, the more impressed you are supposed to be with his catch. Or, consider the parent. The child complains about having to walk so far down to the bus stop. The parent then tells the child what it was like when he was young. It was a two-mile trek to and from school. It was uphill both ways. There were blizzards and snow storms from August to May. In the opening words it says “then”. Moses says “then.” In response, we say “when?” When did Moses sing this song? he sang it right after the Lord sunk the Egyptians in the Red Sea. And just like any story of adversity, Moses spends time singing about his enemy: "Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he has hurled into the sea. The best of Pharaoh’s officers are drowned in the Red Sea." 2 Now, this is something you have to picture. There you are in your sandals running from the sound of the thundering hooves. Your weapons are rocks and sticks. And there’s a chariot behind you. It has four horses to run you over. If, you manage to get around the horses, there’s an archer to take you down. And if he doesn’t kill you, there’s a third man, an officer with a fancy sword to finish you off. Satan not only threw his best against the Lord's people, the threw his very own bitterness against them. Look at what was in the minds of these men who chases these fleeing Hebrews: “I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoils, I will gorge myself on their blood.” Oh, they hated these slaves. Pharaoh didn’t have to do anything to encourage his army to run these Hebrews down. They hated them. The only thing that was in their minds was to kill them. What happened? The Lord blew. The sea covered them. And they sank like lead. Now, if you think about this, it’s pretty boring, isn’t it? Where’s the epic struggle? Where’s the dialogue where Pharaoh tells him that he’s going to kill him? Where’s the part where Moses says: “No, Pharaoh, I’m going to kill you!” It’s not there. The Lord fills Pharaohs’ lungs with water instead of letting him fill his own lungs with insolence. Moses doesn’t speak. The Lord only acts. In an instant--in a moment it’s all over. Pharaoh thought he had won. An instant later he was dead. Well said, Professor Peters. So, my brothers and sisters, let’s swim across. Moses sings these words: "The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation." 6. The prophet Isaiah sings the same words in his twelfth chapter. And in those words, he’s not talking about Pharaoh’s army and his chariots. He’s talking about sin, death and the Devil and the Lord's deliverance. You see, when Moses and Isaiah sing that the Lord is their salvation, they aren’t just talking about the adversity they see with their eyes. They’re talking about the adversity they feel in their souls. They are talking about the weight of their sins, threatening to sink them to the depths of hell like lead. And it’s vitally important for us to not just know that Jesus sunk Satan. We also need to know how he sunk Satan. The struggle against sin, death and the Devil has always gone like this. If you were there in the sandals of those Hebrews it would have seemed that there would have been no way you would have Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=293http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Easter.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/1OudZfGJjmY/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=291#comments Sat, 03 Apr 2010 02:30:28 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=291 This is the sermon for Good Friday. The sermon text is: Psalm 22:27-31. The sermon theme is: Does His Victory Sustain You? Here is the Written Sermon This evening we are at the end. We are at the end of Lent&#8211;this time of careful preparation. We are at the end of Psalm 22. We have [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/1OudZfGJjmY" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=291 0 00:01:01 This is the sermon for Good Friday. The sermon text is: Psalm 22:27-31. The sermon theme is: Does His Victory Sustain You? Here is ... This is the sermon for Good Friday. The sermon text is: Psalm 22:27-31. The sermon theme is: Does His Victory Sustain You? Here is the Written Sermon This evening we are at the end. We are at the end of Lent--this time of careful preparation. We are at the end of Psalm 22. We have seen our Savior ride the pendulum between despair and deliberate trust. And this evening, the Holy Spirit moves King David to some vital and important conclusions. For in these words we do not just look at the end of the Psalm, we look at the end of Jesus’ life. King David writes: “All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive.” 1 But then, just quickly as we speak about the celebration, we speak about the sadness. David says: “before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,” 2 The Lord said to Adam after he and his wife rebelled against him “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”” 3 What a sad picture. And as sad as it is, it gets worse: “before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive.” 4 All people who have the breath of life in them die in the dust of death. But notice, we aren’t alone. We take our Savior with us. Adam died because of his sin. But Jesus goes to death because of our sin--to redeem us from our sin. They will proclaim that he has done it. That makes us ask the question: done what? What is it that Jesus has done? He crushed Satan. He fulfilled prophecy. He took away the sins of the entire world. Notice how these words are very close to the words our Savior speaks on cross. David says: “he did it”6. Our Savior says “it is finished”7. Jesus kept his promise to his Father to die so that we would have every reason to celebrate. Jesus kept his promise with the full knowledge that his Father would keep his promise to raise him from the dead. That was the promise that sustained him. Our Savior could go down to the grave amidst all that sadness because he knew that his Father would raise him. As a pastor, part of my calling and profession is to conduct funerals. But for me, the most sobering part isn’t the funeral service. It’s the committal. I sprinkle dust over the body of my friend and it hits me: I’m going to die. I will die and return to dust. What will sustain me? What will get me through this life and into the next? It’s not going to be my devotion to the Steelers. It’s not going to be how faithful I was to God when I was younger. It’s not even going to be how zealous I am toward God now. The only thing that will prepare me for death and lead me through dead are these words of David: “he has done it.” 8 Jesus has died in your place so that if you die, God would raise you from the dead. 1 (Psalms 22:29 ESV) 3 (Genesis 3:19 NIV) 5 (Psalms 22:31 ESV) 7 “τετέλεσται”(John 19:30 GNT-T) Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=291http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/GoodFriday.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/2XhKYcUZ9TE/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=288#comments Fri, 02 Apr 2010 01:15:26 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=288 This is the sermon for Maundy Thursday. The sermon text is: 1 Corinthians 11:23-29. The sermon theme is Proclaim The Lord’s Death. Here is the Written Sermon. A couple of years ago I was listening to the radio. There was a guy who calls himself the “Bible answer man”. He said that it vitally important [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/2XhKYcUZ9TE" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=288 0 00:01:01 This is the sermon for Maundy Thursday. The sermon text is: 1 Corinthians 11:23-29. The sermon theme is Proclaim The Lord’s Death. ... This is the sermon for Maundy Thursday. The sermon text is: 1 Corinthians 11:23-29. The sermon theme is Proclaim The Lord’s Death. Here is the Written Sermon. [caption id="attachment_290" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Pharaoh Orders Moses to Leave Egypt"][/caption] A couple of years ago I was listening to the radio. There was a guy who calls himself the “Bible answer man”. He said that it vitally important that there are doctrines that we must both understand and agree on. However, when it came to the Lord’s Supper, he said that it’s ok for us to agree to disagree about the Lord’s Supper because it wasn’t as important as some other doctrines. Paul starts out in verse 23: "For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread," (1 Corinthians 11:23) Now, it is important for us to understand what Jesus is saying here. Jesus took the bread. He said: “This is my body [given] for you.” So, what does it mean that Jesus is giving to us his body? The writer to the Hebrews helps us answer that question. In Hebrews, chapter 10, we read: "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body...let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith," (Hebrews 10:19–22) Paul then moves on from the bread to the wine: "In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”" (1 Corinthians 11:25) In the new covenant Jesus forgives our sins fully and freely. So then, what do we receive when we drink the wine along with Jesus’ blood? We receive the forgiveness of sins. Martin Luther explains it this way: “For this reason we go to the Sacrament: there we receive such a treasure by and in which we gain forgiveness of sins.”2 And yet, as we look at these words from Paul we see that there is another reason why this is a doctrine we need to understand and agree on. In verse 24, he says: ‘this is my body [given] for you. Do this!’ We ask the question: “do what?” Jesus is speaking about the bread in this verse. So, clearly he wants us to do something with the bread. What are we supposed to do with the bread? We eat it. We see same in the next verse. In verse 25 he says ‘this is the new covenant in my blood. Do this!’ Again, we ask, ‘do what?’ He’s talking about the cup and what it contains. So, very clearly we drink it. There are basically two ways we remember people and things, aren’t there? You go on a date and you scratch your nose. And as you do so, you realize that your breath smells like rotten onions. And when you realize this you remember that you had onions earlier. You also remember that you should have brushed your teeth. Now, what I love about reading the words of Paul is that he is so specific here. Deliberately remembering Jesus is a vague statement, isn’t it? Thankfully, Paul goes on in the next verse to give us an example of what it means to deliberately remember Jesus: "For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes." (1 Corinthians 11:26) So, when you come forward to the Lord’s Supper you preach. But what is it that you preach? "you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes" (1 Corinthians 11:26) Now do you understand why we practice Closed Communion? Sure, we practice Closed Communion so that people don’t receive the Lord’s body and blood to their harm. But, there’s another reason. When a person comes forward to this rail, he or she is preaching. And they better know what they are preaching. So then, my brothers and sisters, as we conclude these words, I have one simple prayer for you: that you ma Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=288http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/MaundyThursday2010.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/ewibUEKHS50/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=285#comments Sun, 28 Mar 2010 21:26:03 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=285 This is the sermon for the Sixth Sunday in Lent-Palm Sunday. The sermon text is Luke 19:28-40. The sermon theme is: Is Humility The Best Policy? Here is the Written Sermon You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. I don’t remember the first time I heard that proverb. But it’s the sort [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/ewibUEKHS50" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=285 0 00:01:01 This is the sermon for the Sixth Sunday in Lent-Palm Sunday. The sermon text is Luke 19:28-40. The sermon theme is: Is Humility ... This is the sermon for the Sixth Sunday in Lent-Palm Sunday. The sermon text is Luke 19:28-40. The sermon theme is: Is Humility The Best Policy? Here is the Written Sermon [caption id="attachment_287" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem "][/caption] You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. I don’t remember the first time I heard that proverb. But it’s the sort of saying that stays in your mind, isn’t it. You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. I don’t know if it’s true. When I want to deal with flies, I use a fly swatter. But it makes us stop and ponder the point of the proverb, doesn’t it? When it comes to dealing with problems and people what is the best course to take? When the bully on the playground pushes you down, do you ignore him? Do you speak kindly to him? Do you push him back? How the King of kings enter his city? In humility. Just look at all of these amazing details. As he travelled on the road to Jerusalem, who came to greet this king? Were generals and dignitaries there? Were there kings and nobles there to greet him? No. There were children and disciples. Did he ride in a powerful chariot with powerful cavalry around him? No. He rode alone on a donkey. Did he enter with golden armor and a royal robe? No. He wore the normal clothes he always wore. Satan tempted them with the opposite of humility. He offered them the same knowledge that God had. He said they would be like God, knowing good and evil. He offered them divinity and gave them slavery. For the sin of pride took them. The sin of pride infected them. And through them it has infected all of us. Our humble king travelled up into the Jerusalem. And it wasn’t just the people who wanted to praise him who gathered there. There were people who wanted to persecute and punish him: “When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”” (Luke 19:37–38 NIV) Notice what they called him. While the crowds called him the Son of David and the Coming One, they called him ‘Teacher.’ And, since they refused to believe that he was ever anything more than just a teacher, they commanded Jesus to rebuke his followers. But listen to what Jesus says to them: ““I tell you...if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”” (Luke 19:40 NIV) These words are a powerful reminder to us that our worship is not an act filled with humility and timidity. For here, gathered around God’s word with his saints we proclaim his word. Just think how joyous those children and disciples were. They had the privilege of preaching and proclaiming to all those they passed that this humble man was the Son of David--the Coming One. We too have that same privilege. So then, my brothers and sisters, if creation waits to cry praises to its king; if children shouted “Hosanna, Son of David”; if the crowds sang their praises to their king, what will your response be? Will you preach the creed to each other with timid and fearful hearts? Will you sing the Gloria, the Agnus Dei, the Sanctus as if thousands and millions of saints and angels hadn’t sung these glorious songs before you? Will you sing the hymn of the Day as if it weren’t worthy of being remembered throughout the week? No. Our king erased our pride with his humility. So we will praise him loudly and boldly for eternity. Amen. Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=285http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Lent6-PalmSunday.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/Xfj4uFdzRh8/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=282#comments Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:44:04 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=282 This is the sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent. The sermon text is: Luke 20:9-19. The sermon theme is: What Should I Do? Here is the Written Sermon. People look for a resolution. People naturally yearn for and crave a resolution. I remember when I was just beginning college. I was in a Aural [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/Xfj4uFdzRh8" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=282 0 00:01:01 This is the sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent. The sermon text is: Luke 20:9-19. The sermon theme is: What ... This is the sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent. The sermon text is: Luke 20:9-19. The sermon theme is: What Should I Do? Here is the Written Sermon. [caption id="attachment_284" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="A man planted a vineyard"][/caption] People look for a resolution. People naturally yearn for and crave a resolution. I remember when I was just beginning college. I was in a Aural Skills class. The professor was explaining to us that chords must resolve. And they must resolve the right way. He would sing a scale, Do to Do and then stop on Ti. He would wait for our faces to cringe and our eyes to squint. And then he would finally resolve the chord. As he begins the story we meet a man who plants a vineyard. He rents the vineyard out to some strangers. Then he goes away on a long journey. The time comes when it is just right to harvest the fruit. So, he sends a servant to them. Imagine his shock to hear that they beat the first servant and sent him away. The, master of the vineyard wanted to put the best construction on the situation. Maybe there was just a misunderstanding. So, he sends another servant. They did the same to him. They beat him. But, even worse, they humiliated him. And then they drove him away. At this point the people are starting to conclude to themselves that the master is so patient that he wants to punish himself. It is at this point that the master pauses. He doesn’t know what to do. So he asks a question: “What should I do?” Now, what we need to know is that this wasn’t a quick, passing question. It was a deliberate question2 that he pondered for some time. It is at this point that Jesus pauses. He pauses and he asks the crowd what the master should do? Jesus answers the obvious question with an obvious answer: “He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”” 3 This statement is half a wish and half a demand: may this never be! We expected a strong ‘yes’ and instead we heard a deafening ‘no’. Why? Let me tell you a story: There once was a shepherd, named David who lived in Greensburg. And there once was a Fierce warrior named Goliath. He was a giant. And he lived in West Newton, PA. And he went to Faith Lutheran Church. David went out to meet the wicked Goliath who was a member of Faith Lutheran Church. And he killed him. That’s exactly what was happening here. That is why we expected to hear a strong ‘yes’ and instead we heard a ‘may it never be!’ The crowd of people remembered the story that Isaiah told---the story we heard in our first lesson. They remembered that the Israelites were the bad guys in the story, not the good guys. And here again, their answer is both amazing and appalling. We know what the right answer is. What should I do with the Son of God? Receive him. Rejoice in him. But, no! That’s not their response. They choose to be the wretched tenants in the story. They plan to hurt the Son. And then they carry out their plan. My brothers and sisters, the real question is not: “what should I do with Jesus?” The real question is: “How does our Master deal with us?” Rejoice that he deals with us according to his own patience. You see, he doesn’t just ask the question “what should I do?” to his people in the Old Testament. He asks the same question about us. He asks it. Then when we sin against him, he asks it again. He is ever-so-slow in bringing his wrath. Oh, we have deserved it. We have deserved to be crushed and destroyed many times over. How many times have we promised to obey and rebelled? How many times have we promised to love and then loved ourselves? How many time have we promised to produce fruit worthy of our Lord, but instead there was nothing? Rejoice that when the question is “how does our Master deal with us?”, the answer is: With his own patience. Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=282http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Lent5.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/gR4eAMsordo/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=280#comments Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:14:56 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=280 This is the sermon for Midweek Lent Four. The theme this year is: &#8220;What do you think of Christ?&#8221; The theme this evening is: Does His Ordeal Humble You? The sermon text is Psalm 22:12-18. Here is the Written Sermon. There are times that definitions are useful. What is an ordeal? An ordeal is torture [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/gR4eAMsordo" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=280 0 00:01:01 This is the sermon for Midweek Lent Four. The theme this year is: "What do you think of Christ?" The theme this evening ... This is the sermon for Midweek Lent Four. The theme this year is: "What do you think of Christ?" The theme this evening is: Does His Ordeal Humble You? The sermon text is Psalm 22:12-18. Here is the Written Sermon. There are times that definitions are useful. What is an ordeal? An ordeal is torture to find the truth. That is the original definition of the word. As the years passed, the word simply meant “truth” since it wasn’t a very good way of finding out the truth. And that is a good definition for what we see here before us in Psalm 22 this evening. We see an ordeal. We see torture. We see it through the eyes of our Savior on the cross. And this evening we walk through these words to see this ordeal: "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death." 1 He says: "all my bones are out of joint." 3 This shows us how crucifixion worked---how it tortured and killed. There is a tug of war that goes on. On the one hand, all his bones are being pulled apart by gravity. And when the bones are pulled apart, he can’t breathe. So, he has to pull his bones back together amid so much pain in order to breathe. This tug of war goes on for hours and hours until he slowly dies. The longer the heart goes without oxygen, the more it hardens and feels like hard wax. The more dehydrated Jesus becomes the more his intestines melt inside of him. The more dehydrated he becomes, the more his tongue sticks to the top of his mouth. For there is no moisture to keep it where it belongs. Finally then there is nothing left to endure except death. And as he is there looking down at the people around him, what does he see? "I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me." 5 My brothers and sisters, it is very important that we see this evening what our Savior sees. It is very important that we see his torturous ordeal. It is very important that we see the uncaring, detached apathy of the soldiers. For, it is so very easy for us to act the same way, isn’t it? Now, can you appreciate the words we sung in the second verse of our hymn?:6 Notice what word the writer of the hymnwriter used? Make. O Lord, make me see your pain. Make me see my apathy. But, why? Why should I see all this pain and apathy? Make me see it all so that I would be humbled. Make me see it so that I realize that I was the one who put you there on that cross. Make me see it so that I can thirst for what you give there on the cross. If my sins give me alarm And my conscience grieve me, Let your cross my fear disarm; Peace of conscience give me. Help me see forgiveness won By your holy passion If for me he slays his Son, God must have compassion! Graciously my faith renew; Help me bear my crosses, Learning humbleness from you, Peace mid pain and losses. May I give you Love for love! hear me, O my Savior That I may in heav’n above Sing your praise forever. Does not his ordeal humble you? Does not it humble you so that you see your sin? Does not it humble you so that you sing his sacrifice? Amen. 2 (Psalms 22:14 NIV) 4 (Psalms 22:14–15 NIV) 6 CW 98, verse 2 8 CW 98, verse 6 Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=280http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Midweek_Lent4.m4a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~3/OWfglW4lF3A/ http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=276#comments Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:49:30 +0000 stuff@stevebauer.us (Pastor Steve Bauer) http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=276 This is the sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent. The sermon text is: Luke 15:1-3,11-32. The sermon theme is: What A Foolish Love! Here is the Written Sermon One of my favorite Old Testament books is Jonah. In the book of Jonah we hear of a man sent to go to the east to [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Faith_Lutheran_Church/~4/OWfglW4lF3A" height="1" width="1"/> http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=276 0 00:01:01 This is the sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent. The sermon text is: Luke 15:1-3,11-32. The sermon theme is: What ... This is the sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent. The sermon text is: Luke 15:1-3,11-32. The sermon theme is: What A Foolish Love! Here is the Written Sermon [caption id="attachment_279" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="The Father Rejoices Over His Prodigal Son’s Return "][/caption] One of my favorite Old Testament books is Jonah. In the book of Jonah we hear of a man sent to go to the east to preach God’s word to Israel’s enemy. So, he goes west. The Lord brings him back. Jonah preaches against Nineveh. Then he goes outside of Nineveh and sits on a hill and waits. He waits for hours for the Lord to destroy Nineveh. But, it doesn’t happen. And Jonah is angry. He’s furious---not because the people did not repent. No, he’s angry because they did repent. He is angry that the love the Lord has is full of grace and mercy. He is angry that the Lord is not fair. So, our Savior tells them a story of foolish love: "“There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them." (Luke 15:11–12 NIV) But notice! As foolish as the son is, the father is just as foolish. He lets him. He lets this younger son take his money and leave. Who would be that foolish? Who would foolish enough to let his son go before he’s ready? Who would be so foolish as to give him a big bag of money on top of it? But, our Father is just that foolish. He does not keep us Christians against our will. We have the real ability to go our own way, away from Christ. The son gets his money. He can’t wait to leave. He can’t wait to have a good time. And notice what happens. In a very short amount of time all his money is gone. It’s all gone because of ‘wild’, soul-destroying1 living. He has no money. All day, every day he yearns to fill his stomachs. But, instead he has to fill the stomachs of pigs. The father showed such foolish love with his younger son. And he does the same with the older son. The lost son is home. Everyone is rejoicing---and rightly so. But where is the older son? Is he inside hugging his brother and rejoicing with him? No, he’s outside pouting. In an act of supreme folly, the father goes outside to sit with him and encourage him. Notice how foolish that is! This was a night of celebration for the younger son. But, yet, the father leaves the newly-found son to go out to the older son. Then he says: “I never did anything wrong even once. Whatever you commanded me to do, I did.” What a lie! How many times did he sin against his father. But, he didn’t remember all those times because his father was forgiving? The son then ends with one final accusation. He tells his father: “your son threw your money away on prostitutes and what do you do? You kill the fattened calf for him!” What made the older son so angry? What made him so angry was not that his father let him back into the house. No, what made him angry was that he did not make him a slave. That would have been fair. No, instead his father is so embarrassingly foolish in his love. He kills the calf, and makes him a son again. He deserved to be a slave! The father says: “You say, my son, that you had it so bad. But you didn’t. Everything I had was yours and is yours. And your brother---not my son---but your brother is home. We have to rejoice!” “Oh, I’m keeping all of your commands!” I always transgress and rebel against God’s commands. But because of my father’s love, I, just like that second son don’t see my rebellion for what it is. I tell myself: “If only I could live like the unbelievers do. If only I could go out and not work and spend my time having fun because I know that in the end you will forgive my sin.” Oh what a horrible sin and a horrible lie. For, to think that sin is fun is a horrible lie. Podcasts Pastor Steve Bauer clean no http://stevebauer.us/wordpress/?p=276http://stevebauer.us/audio/2009-2010/Lent4.m4a Pastor Steve BauernonadultFaith Lutheran Church