Pentecost 4 - Matthew 9:35-10:8

My mother, who lives in Wisconsin, has a next door neighbor who’s been very nice to her. This neighbor has a 1 year old great-grandson. My mother was telling me how this one year old was filled with cancer. Anybody who hears about this would say that it’s a great shame that someone so young should suffer from such a disease. In fact, you can find this story repeated many times over if you were to visit the children’s hospitals across the country.

When some people hear about this kind of suffering, they start thinking about why, they might even start questioning whether or not there is a God. Philosophers have been debating the so-called problem of evil for thousands of years. The thinking goes something like this: How can there be a God when there is so much suffering in the world? Epicurus framed the problem in the following manner: “Is he willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then is he malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil?” The conclusion is that since there is suffering in the world, God must be either unable to do anything about it, or unwilling to do anything about it.

This so-called paradox ignores what we see in our gospel for this morning. Here we learn that God was and is willing and able to do something about suffering. We learn that God is a God of compassion.

• We are harassed and helpless. (suffering in the world)
• He send his Son to heal and save.
• He sends workers to spread the good news.

Pentecost 3 - Matthew 9:9-13

What can you get for the man who has everything? This question might be asked around Christmastime, or on another gift-giving occasion. If a man seems to have a lot of stuff already, it might be hard to think of something to get him that he does not have already. You might have to be creative in your thinking.

Let’s turn this question around to God. How can we give God something that he will appreciate? After all, God has everything – literally. There is nothing that God does not own, because he is the Creator of everything. The trees, the gold, the silver, the stars,-- everything belongs to him. Nevertheless, there is something that God does not have unless we give it to him. I believe I asked this question in a sermon a few months ago as a little riddle. The answer was praise. God does not have our praise unless we give it to him. God wants our praise, and he could certainly create robots to praise him, but he wants willing hearts to praise him, and he can’t have that unless we give it to him. Today we learn that there are other answers to the question of what God doesn’t have unless we give it to him. So this morning we consider the question: What does God want from us?

• Sacrifice?
• Obedience
• Mercy

Pentecost 2 - Matthew 7:15-29

Do you know what phishing is? I’m not talking about the fishing that some of us do when we go up to the canal for catfish. I’m talking about phishing spelled with a ph. That’s when a con man sends you an email dressed up to look like an email from your bank. It looks like the real thing, even with the company logos. However, the email is a fake, and it sends you to a bogus website, that tries to trick you into revealing your account number and /or your social security number. That’s why you have to be very careful about the emails you receive. If something looks suspicious, hit the delete key. You don’t want to give your personal information to some crook who wants to steal from you.

I think that most of us take reasonable steps to guard our financial information. We don’t want to lose money. Today we learn from God’s Word to take reasonable steps to guard our souls. Here too there are con men who want to steal from us. In this case, we’re not talking about a few dollars. We are talking about eternal salvation. We need to learn from Jesus the precautions we should take. We learn to: Beware of the Enemy.

The enemy without.

The enemy within.

Note - the enemy without is false doctrine. The enemy within is our sinful nature, our unwillingness to listen to and to practice what Jesus teaches.

Pentecost 2 - Matthew 7:15-29

Have Your Foundation on the Rock
(1) By watching your prophet (7:15-20, 28-29)
(2) By watching your practice (7:21-27)

Introduction can talk about different meanings of "held up": delayed, robbed (Why did the belt go to jail? For holding up the pants!), and supported. The rock of Jesus' words is what holds us up, in the latter sense.
Conclusion can talk about how ironic it is that most of our building foundations are concrete, made in large part from SAND!

Pentecost, Acts 2:14-21

Timing is very important in a lot of different areas. Timing is important for a farmer. If he plants too early, the crops will freeze. If he plants too late, again the crops will freeze, before they are ripe. Timing is important in war. Napoleon said that his generals could ask anything of him except time. Timing is important for your car engine. The spark plugs have to fire at just the right time.

God certainly knows about the importance of timing. He’s the one who invented time. He knows all about making things happen at just the right time. For example, we read in Galatians 4: “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” God sent his Son at just the right time. Today we look at another one whom God sent at just the right time-the Holy Spirit. We see that: God pours out his Holy Spirit

• To enable preachers to preach.
• To enable hearers to hear.

Day of Pentecost - John 16:5-11

The Prince of This World Now Stands Condemned
(1) That's why we get the Holy Spirit
(2) That's what we hear from the Holy Spirit

Intro can be a "same" or "different" game: the day is about the Holy Spirit, but the theme is about the main evil spirit. Name some characteristics of the Spirit or of Satan and have the people say whether that's a way the two are the same or a way the two are different.

Conclusion can explain the name "Pentecost" and the connection between the OT feast and the sermon's theme and parts.

Easter 7 - 1 Peter 5:6-11

There is a book called the Art of War. It is a classic of military strategy that is studied in military academies all over the world. You might guess that it was written in the last 50 years, because anything written before that would have to be out of date. After all, war with jets and bombs and helicopters is nothing like war with horses and chariots and bows and arrows. Nevertheless, there are certain facets of warfare that are the same, no matter what the weapons might be. The Art of War was written in the 6^th century BC, that’s before Christ, by a Chinese man named Sun Tzu.

I’m not going to tell you much about the book, because I never read it. I’m just giving you the Wikipedia summary. But here is a famous quotation from the book: “If you know both yourself and your enemy, you can come out of hundreds of battles without danger.” So an important part of military strategy is to know your enemy and to know yourself as best you can.

By now you might be wondering why we’re talking about military strategy. After all, I don’t think that anyone here this morning is in the military or thinking about serving in the military. Nevertheless, we need to realize something. We are at war. I’m not talking about Iraq or Afghanistan. We are in a spiritual battle with the devil, and the stakes could not be higher. If the devil wins, we have to spend eternity with him in hell. If our side wins, then we spend eternity with God in heaven.

Because this war is so important for our future, we consider the theme: We Are at War. Let’s look at:

The strength of the enemy

The strength of the allied forces

Our strategy.