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“A Watchman Who Listens”

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Series: Unexpected Truths”

Pastor Nate Walther

15th Sunday of Pentecost (9/6/2026)

This summer our family climbed one of the old fire towers east of the Smoky Mountains along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  These watch towers were built early in the 20th Century as a first line of defense against forest fires.  Someone would man these sites, scan the horizon at all hours of the day, and when they caught sight of that first wisp of smoke, they would immediately phone it in on a dedicated forest service line.  It also made these watch towers the most important line of defense against forest fires.  If you didn’t stop the fire before it spread, it could easily grow beyond containment

            As we climbed this old fire tower, abandoned some 100 years later, it struck me how difficult life must have been for these individuals, and how lonely they must have felt suspended between earth and sky.  They were constantly exposed to the elements, and they wouldn’t see another human for weeks on end.  We got a feel for that ourselves as we climbed it with the wind howling, the tower creaking, and not another no soul in sight.  We agreed we wouldn’t want to live in a place like that, even though we very much appreciated those who were willing to do so!

            Today’s sermon text describes how God called Ezekiel to be a watchman, because there were many similarities between his role and what we just described.  But there was also one key difference: God called Ezekiel to be A WATCHMAN WHO LISTENS.  And we do well to listen also, because God calls us to do likewise, and his voice helps with such a difficult task.

            Ezekiel was originally meant to be a priest, but in our sermon text he is serving as a prophet instead.  The two roles may sound the same to us—pastors today are sometimes called “priests” today, and their work may sometimes be described as “prophetic” in nature—but in Old Testament times these were completely different positions.  Where prophets went out among the people and shared what God had to say with a sometimes unwilling audience, priests performed sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem as people willingly came to them.

At least, that’s how it used to be.  But then God’s people rebelled against him for the hundredth time.  Then God finally made good on many warnings over a thousand years to send them into exile.  Then the Babylonians began to carry away God’s people from Israel.  That’s where Ezekiel found himself: in Babylon, far away from the temple, no longer able to serve as the priest he was trained to be.  But far from his work being over, it was just getting started. God now called Ezekiel to be a prophet, though he had no formal training for it.

It’s because God saw his people needed this most.  Despite their sin, they still weren’t taking their sin seriously.  Instead of repenting, they pinned their hopes on the fact that as long as the temple still stood back at home, God was there, and he would fix things soon. But God knew the temple would soon fall.  News of it comes in the very next chapter of Ezekiel.  God would allow this because his people needed to come to grips with sin and its consequences.  And that’s why he sent them Ezekiel: to call out this raging fire of sin, so that the fire could be contained before it destroyed them.

Our sermon text hammers this point home. Right from the start, God calls Ezekiel a “son of man”.  We’re familiar with those words as a title for Jesus, but there wasn’t really anything special about them. “Son of man” was a basic way that Hebrews talked about human beings.  In fact, it helps explain why Jesus adopted this title for himself! He wanted to highlight that he was truly a human being, but he also wanted to draw attention away from himself (as the son of God) before his time had come.  For Ezekiel, it just highlights how ordinary he must have felt, especially when God called him to be a watchman “for the house of Israel”…  How overwhelming that must have sounded!  Like a watchman would call out danger that approached a city, Ezekiel was to announce such news for the one true God’s chosen nation.  Talk about responsibility!

With that, notice something curious at the end of verse 7, “Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you are to warn them from me.”  In that we find a clue: this task wasn’t just about what Ezekiel saw, nor was it about the difficulties of the job.  It was about listening to God, which would impact everything else. Namely, verse 8, when Ezekiel listened to what God said was evil, and when he saw someone living in sin, he was to warn them about it.  If he didn’t, God says he would hold Ezekiel responsible for their sin as well, just as watchmen are responsible for those under their care. Again, it’s a heavy burden.  But it wasn’t all bad. Verse 10, if Ezekiel warned them, and if they came to grips with the reality of their situation, then as Ezekiel continued to listen to God, he could share a very different message.  Verse 11, Say to them, “As I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from their way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why should you die, O house of Israel?…”

            Now it’s true that despair isn’t enough.  Feeling bad about your sins and feeling sorry for yourself won’t fix anything.  Because if they didn’t “turn” from your sins—which is literally the same word we translate as “repent”—God said the guilt would remain on them.  “Why should you die, O house of Israel!…” But that’s not what God wants. Instead, he wants this: “As surely as I live, declares the Lord – which is God literally swearing on himself! – I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they live…” and then God pleads with his people to repent.  Almost like we might get down on our hands and knees, God repeatedly begs them to come to their senses.  And as he spoke from God, that’s what Ezekiel’s job was ultimately about in the end.

            Like watchmen in a fire tower, those prophets had lonely, difficult lives.  But was it important work?  Definitely.  We’re talking about matters of life and death, where the stakes are literally heaven and hell.   If the people can’t see that clearly—if they can’t see the forest for a few trees—it is vital that they have someone watching over them who can warn them.  And we get that.  It’s why we rightly honor watchmen like those policemen who keep an eye on our physical well-being when we’re asleep at night.  So also, shouldn’t we honor spiritual watchmen even more?

            I know what you’re going to say. You do appreciate us pastors!  I can’t begin to tell you how many people in my short year here have expressed appreciation for all that we do!  Thank you. I know you mean it.  It’s just like how we understand the importance of Christian parents who raised us well, or good Christian friends who have always pointed us in the right direction. We truly see the value of that!…  At least, until we’re being called out. Until we are told that the sin we like is actually endangering us!  And we should be grateful in those moments.  Here’s something that could literally kill us in more ways than one, and somebody cares enough to say something! Yet what is our natural instinct?  Fight back!  That’s how deadly our sinful nature is!  I saw it in my first parish.  I could have 10 years of a really good & really blessed relationship with someone.  But the moment I had to call out a sin that they committed?  Everything changed.

            Don’t we all struggle with that?  Perhaps it’s even why you shy away from this kind of work yourself.  Maybe you see something that doesn’t look right, but you think, “I’m not trained as a pastor.  Am I seeing that right?”  Or maybe you think, “Who am I to judge?  Besides, they won’t respond well to me!”  Those excuses sound very sensible in the ears of the world.  But they blatantly ignore what God tells us in his Word.  There he simply calls out what is right and wrong, and he wants us to do likewise.  I mean, if we hear truth from God but we don’t say anything when we see differently in someone’s life, God makes it clear today: he will hold us responsible for their blood!

            When you think about such responsibility… thank. God. for Jesus.  Because wherever we are responsible for the sin of others, and wherever our own blood should be spilled for staying quiet, Jesus spilled his.  And it meant infinitely more coming from him! For all the lonely moments we have in the wilderness of this life–perhaps feeling suspended between heaven and earth as Christians, like those watchmen in a fire tower–Jesus had it worse.  Not by climbing up to safety of a heavenly watchtower, where he could safely view the fire from a distance and warn us: “Hopefully they’ll listen!”  No, he descended down into the raging inferno of hell where he climbed on to a tree set ablaze by the fire of our sin.  Indeed, he perished on that cross. 

            It couldn’t be more clear. God loves you.  God means it when he says, “I don’t desire the death of anyone but that they repent and live… Why will you die?  Why, when I burned my own Son for your sins, and then raised him to give you life?…  Repent!  Turn from that sin!  Find life through faith in my son Jesus!…” Yes, be thankful for watchmen.  For pastors who have not been trained to do what’s easiest or what will make the most people like us, but we have been trained to listen to God, to scan the horizon carefully for smoke, and to warn people – whether they want to vacate their homestead of sin or not. And be thankful for good parents who tirelessly raised you in the faith throughout your childhood as well – maybe you wandered away at some point, yet here you are back in church, in no small part due to the foundation they laid. Also, be thankful for Christian friends who didn’t give up on you—perhaps even when family did!—but not them, and they also didn’t give up on sharing God’s Word with you.  And especially, in all of this, be thankful for Christ.

            But don’t stop there.  If you’re thankful for this, be someone whom others can be thankful for as well.  Because we all share in this ministry. Whether you’re trained to be a “prophet”, or you’re trained differently like Ezekiel was at first, anyone can be a watchman.  That is, anyone can listen, watch, warn, and love.  (In fact, where someone may not listen to such a warning precisely because it comes from a “trained” pastor, they very well may listen if it’s coming from someone like you – someone they know and trust.) 

Of course, go about it in the right way!  First, when you’re looking to correct someone’s behavior, take the plank out of your own eye—make it clear to others that you’re approaching them as someone who has repented of sin and needs rescue too.  Then, follow Jesus’ pattern in our gospel (Matthew 18:15-20): talk to others first before you bring it to anyone else.  (So often, people don’t do that.  I can’t tell you how frequently people come to me about someone’s sin, but they haven’t talked to the person first!  Is it any wonder that this fire spreads so quickly and so out of control?)  Finally, use tact and be loving as you do this…  But in the end, do point out sin.  Because sin’s fire is deadly.  If you don’t put out that spark quicky, it will spread and grow out of control.  Again, if we’re ultimately talking people being saved from the dangers of sin & the fires of hell, this matters more than anything else you will do in your life.  That’s why it’s not enough to just have a few pastors or a few trained prophets doing this.  This is a calling for all of God’s people.

            So be a WATCHMAN.  A watchman who LISTENS.  Don’t miss the last part.  It helps with all the other difficult parts.  And you’re not alone, we’re in this together.  But even when you feel like you’re alone, there’s still a voice that never leaves you, who promises you good things as you go about this hard work, who never asks us to go down into that fire ourselves.  He already did that, you’re safe.  Just listen, just watch, just warn.  And know that however people react, you’re doing good work.  Amen

“Confessing Faith Saves” (Romans 10:5-13)

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Series: Unexpected Truths”

Pastor Nate Walther

13th Sunday of Pentecost (08/23/2026)

Confession feels like a dirty word.  Maybe it conjures up images of a child squirming before mom or dad with something broken in the background.  Maybe you think about that feeling in your stomach when you know you’re going to have to admit something to your spouse.  Maybe it’s even the kind of thing that can drive people away from church: they don’t like to confess their sins, it makes them feel bad, so they don’t come.  Why, then, do we have confession?  It’s because God simply tells us in his Word today that CONFESSING FAITH SAVES.  Confession is not the negative thing we often make it out to be.  It’s a positive thing that gets at the heart of God’s plans for us.

            In today’s sermon text from Romans, the Apostle Paul approaches this topic from the question of righteousness.  What makes us right in the sight of God that we might be saved?  He lists two possibilities. Verse 5 explains the first: there is “righteousness that comes by law”, which means you have to do all the things the law says to be righteous, as the remainder of the verse explains.  So how about that one?  Would you bank your salvation on it?  Keeping God’s law all the time? When he’s not just some cop where you can speed up again once you’re out of sight on the interstate?… Of course not!  That’s why it’s a good thing God has revealed a second possibility in verse 6: “righteousness that comes by faith,” which doesn’t require any heroic deeds, as the following verses demonstrate. It doesn’t mean going to places we cannot reach (like heaven, verse 6), or coming back from places we cannot come back from (like the grave, verse 7). All it requires is faith.  And let’s make sure we define it correctly.  This is faith that is about more than a feeling. This is faith based on something concrete and real. 

As an example of it, Paul describes faith that is grounded in God’s Word (verse 8).  That means it is ultimately accessible to all people—regardless of who they are or what they have done or any limitation—because anyone can pick up a Bible and read it.  Then, Paul additionally describes such faith going hand-in-hand with confession (verse 9).  The thing about confession is: there’s actually something real there to identify and, therefore, confess!…  But it’s not just sin.  Paul ultimately directs our attention to the message of Christ. This is about confessing what Jesus did for our sin. Jesus, who brought heaven down to us as the son of God. Jesus, who conquered death for us as a son of man.  And that’s why Paul concludes these verses (10-13) by making it clear that everyone who confesses Christ and calls upon him will be saved.

So… confession.  It’s true that there’s a “negative” side to confession.  Take the positive things we just heard. How can we be saved unless there is something we need to be saved from?  How can Jesus rescue us from death unless there’s something to kill us?  And today, even as we talk about the most basic topic of faith, we see such sin clearly.  1) We see it when people turn faith into an empty label, almost like a good luck charm.  As long as they can claim faith—as long as they’re on the membership roster at some church, somewhere—they may assume God is OK with things.  But they don’t really worry about what God says. They don’t worry about doing what he says is right, or believing truths he says are important in the Bible.  Do you realize that God condemns this viewpoint here?  It’s still about righteousness that comes by faith – you don’t just throw out what is right and embrace the opposite!  And faith still confesses the truth – it depends on real, quantifiable things!  But if faith becomes little more than a feeling?  It’s great when it feels great.  It’s not when it doesn’t.  And if that’s all your faith is—not based on anything real, right or true—it will fail you when you need it most… 2) By the way, that’s not the only pitfall.  Faith can become an empty label just as much in the opposite way, when people makes faith all about heroic deeds that ultimately reel salvation in.  Yes, they would agree that God saves them “by faith”.  But don’t you have to be good enough? God wouldn’t let some bad sinner into heaven, you have to clear some bar!  Except, where will it end?  No matter how high you climb, you still haven’t reached heaven, even if you clear every other human obstacle in the process.  And then you’ll still die, there’s still something inside of us that kills us and puts an end to the life God intended to last forever… Which of these two pitfalls do you struggle with?  Do you go back and forth between the two?… In our sermon text, God describes all needing to be saved from this sin.  So confess it!  We need to confess our sin!!  Not confessing it will not change the fact that this is a problem!!!

But don’t stop there.  Because although we do this every church services—although we make a big point of talking about sin in every Bible study and counseling session and in what we teach kids in our school—it’s never the last word.  It wasn’t in our sermon text.  That’s because the highlight of confession isn’t law but the gospel.  Now we can see what makes Jesus so good.  Jesus, who literally brought heaven down to us.  Jesus, who brought God’s presence to people in a way they could endure their Maker face-to-face.  Then he cleared the bar we could never clear.  Even confession: though he had no sin of his own to confess, Jesus always perfectly confessed his Father in heaven before others.  Then he went to the cross.  Jesus suffered for every time we have failed to confess our sin or failed to confess God’s truth before others when the situation called for it.  Then he went down to the depths.  And Jesus defeated the gravest consequence that sin would ever wreak on our lives: death itself.  It’s why Jesus could suddenly talk about the kingdom of God being near people when he was near them!  And it’s near to us too.  Jesus is the Word made flesh, and we find him in the Word as well, in this message of all that he does for us.

Finally, that’s what we confess.  Faith is not some passive thing where you are just taking in a performance.  It’s active and it claims something immense for oneself.  But we don’t swing too far in the opposite direction.  No strenuous heroics are required here, just standing on the already bold claims of Christ.  It’s why we end each confession of sin with an announcement of Christ as Savior from sin, because that’s what makes that confession complete.  It’s also why also why we confess our faith after the sermon, after hearing about the good things God has done for us.  Fittingly, we even stand for these confessions.  Think about that, the only other times we usually stand in the service are to honor Jesus himself: in the Gospel lesson which highlights his words and works, and in the Sacrament which gives us his very body and blood.  Confession isn’t about being left with sin.  Confession is about being left with Jesus who frees us from sin.  So confess that!  We need to confess our Savior from sin!!  Not confessing it will not fix the problem!!!

So now, let me ask you this: what does this actually look like?  I ask the question because the Apostle Paul isn’t describing Sunday morning worship in our sermon text.  Rather, he’s describing Christian living and righteousness as a whole.  Which means it’s not just about confession for one hour on a Sunday morning. Confession is for every hour of this life.  What does that look like?…  Take the example of Wisconsin sports teams.  They matter to me. I care about them, probably more than I should. So what goes hand-in-hand with that?  I talk about it!  I confess it!  (A few of you may have heard me talk about that 22-0 drubbing the Brewers gave the Marlins the other night!) That’s just it: if a sport or a hobby matters to you, you talk about it, you just can’t help it!  So also, if faith matters more to us than sports or hobbies, than our jobs or even our families—all things we quickly and gladly talk about!—talk about faith too.  Confess it…  What if we normalized that?  What if you’re struggling with a sin, so you went to your pastor and privately confessed it, all so that he could help you and personally assure you of forgiveness for that sin in Jesus?  Or, what if you know you’ve messed up with your family, so you didn’t just hide it or ignore it – you confessed that sin to your spouse or to your children, and then you made a renewed effort to live in the righteousness to which God has called you?  Or, what if you have a friend who’s caught up in a sin, or they’re struggling with some of the truly bad thing of this world, so you made a point to talk to them about how God addresses these topics in his Word?… If we don’t, it empties our faith and weakens it.  If we do, we’re so much better off. Haven’t we all experienced it?  Those times where the guilt is eating at you, yet you don’t want to confess your sin.  But then it gets out into the open always, and you are forced to confess it!  Except, that’s where somebody actually forgives that sin, and only then do we realize we’re finally move on. What better feeling in the world is there than that?  It’s exactly what God has designed our faith to do!  And it’s what he always offers us freely through the blood of his Son Jesus

Let me ask you again, does confession feel like a dirty word? I hope after hearing God’s Word today, we would all say, “No! We’re glad our church does this!”  Because confession is a hallmark of saving faith.  It’s faith’s fingerprint – faith’s indication that there is something real and consequential and transformative here.  To be sure, it can be hard.  But that doesn’t make it worth avoiding.  Not when confession goes hand-in-hand with salvation, with righteousness, with all the good God wants to give us.  That won’t come by holding on to our own sin.  It will only come by letting go of sin, letting Christ take hold of it, and then holding onto him.  That’s what confession is all about.  Sin is the lesser part of it.  And the moment we talk about sin, Jesus gets the last word.  It’s why confession is only good. Amen. 

“Christians Don’t Doubt What Happens Next”

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“Christians Don’t Doubt What Happens Next” (Romans 8:28-30)

Series: What Makes Christians Different?”

by Pastor Nate Walther

Eleventh Sunday of Pentecost, 08/09/2026

Do you like puzzles?  Some people do, some people don’t.  What’s interesting is that whether you do or you don’t, it may be for the exact same reason: puzzles are hard to figure out. Some people like that, some people don’t.

This relates to the Biblical topic at the root of our discussion today.  Predestination is a Bible teaching we were introduced to in our sermon text next week: that before time began, God chose people to be saved and go to heaven.  And many people think of predestination as a puzzle because it is a difficult teaching with a number of pieces that seem hard to piece together.  For example, some churches teach that only 144,000 are predestined to go to heaven because they take John’s vision in Revelation quite literally when he talks about 144,000 in heaven.  But are you one of the few who can reach this lofty standard?  There are well over double that amount of people in just the WELS alone, not to mention many other solid Christians!  (Don’t worry about that one too much.  We’ll see today in a clear section of God’s Word that this is about more than just meeting a quota, and God never meant Revelation to be interpreted so literalistically as a series of visions.)   Perhaps in reaction to that, other churches teach that predestination is more “open”, that God simply chooses those whom he saw would have faith in the future.  But why does the Bible so often make a big deal of what God chooses if it’s really just about what we choose?  That doesn’t make sense.  Perhaps that’s why still others say predestination is simply a matter of what God decides, it’s secret, and therefore it is a puzzle.   But with so much at stake, how can you be sure it includes you?  If you have committed a really bad sin, for example, is there any hope for you?

As we conclude our series today about WHAT MAKES CHRISTIANS DIFFERENT, God tells us something to address these concerns. CHRISTIANS DON’T DOUBT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.  And if you appreciate a good puzzle, you’re going to love how these puzzle pieces come together.  But even if you don’t, you’re going to appreciate how God has already put this puzzle together so that you & I don’t have to.

Our sermon text has so much we could talk about.  It’s one of the most beloved sections of the Bible, and perhaps any number of these verses speak to you.  But let me just focus on the first few verses.  In verse 29, we’re told “those God foreknew, he also predestined…”  However, for as much as a puzzle as we can make predestination to be, it’s clear whom God is talking about.  The “those” mentioned in this verse?  We were already introduced to them in verse 28, it’s “those who love (God), who have been called according to his purpose.”  (In the language in which this was first written, the rules of grammar dictate that the people who love God in verse 28 are the same as those who are predestined in verse 29.  In the original text there’s essentially an equal-sign there!)  To put that in a tangible way, do you love the God who sent his Son Jesus for you?  If so, you are one of the elect, you are chosen.  If you think to yourself, “it can’t be that simple…” it is! That’s exactly how God talks about predestination here. 

Now it’s true this is still a “puzzle”, because there are several other pieces that must fit.  For example, in verse 29 we were also told “those God foreknew he also predestined.”  That’s where some people get the idea that God knew in advance people would be worthy or come to faith, so he chose them.  But that’s not how the first listener would have heard this. The word that’s used for “knowledge” here is not so much a word that denotes “head” knowledge but rather “heart” knowledge. i.e. This wasn’t just a matter of cold calculation of God’s part, this was God knowing us on a deeper, more meaningful level.  This is God knowing who we would be—knowing your hopes & dreams, your faults and failures also—and even with those ‘pieces of the puzzle’, still he predestined us, he chose us long ago in the past. 

Notice how that leads to subsequence ‘pieces of the puzzle’. Verse 30—now in the present as we think of it—the same “those he predestined, he also called.”  God did that when he called us to faith by the Holy Spirit as he worked through the means of grace, the Gospel in Word & Sacrament!  Then,the same “those he called, he also justified.”  God did that when he took away our sins and declared us ‘not guilty of sin’ through the work of His Son Jesus!  And finally, the same “those he justified, he also glorified.” The last of that sequence we may think exclusively in terms of the future, as the perfect glory awaits us with God in heaven. Certainly it is that, but it’s also something the Bible says we begin to experience already by faith.

            In conclusion, the so-called “predestination puzzle” we’re discussing today?  It spans across time. Some pieces we see clearly now, some we don’t.  But in the end every piece is connected to the next.  If we’re confident in any one of these pieces, we can be confident in all of them.  (Even such future-oriented glory is described with a past-tense verb!) And when we ask, “How can that be? How can we be so sure of it?” We’re simply told it’s because God pieces this all together, God controls every step—past, present, and future.  And finally for us, that means if we see Jesus now, we no longer have to doubt what happens next… If we have heard that calling of the Gospel, if we have heard in that good news the truth that God has justified us in Jesus, if we love God for that, if we have that one piece… then God says it’s connected to all the other pieces, then we can say just as surely that God chose us for glory and we’re going to heaven.  That’s not just my take on it as some pastor of some church with its own twist on this.  That’s precisely how God talks about it here in his Word!

            When you see how well this all fits together, it just illustrates the point.  I mean, here God basically tells us, “your eternity and your salvation are secure in my hands.”  That’s such a good thing!  Yet how quickly do we take matters into our own hands and think, “Am I really chosen if I have committed certain sins?  What must I do to be sure I will go to heaven?” As if we could ever do enough to supplement what God has perfectly decided in eternity, or what Christ has perfectly accomplished for us at the cross and empty tomb!… That attitude is sin.  We take beautiful things God has given to us and we ruin them.  Whether it’s something like good food or drink that we use to excess, or a meaningful friendship or relationship that we abuse, or we squander the good opportunities God provides to us through work or education – sin makes so many things in our lives less than they could be.  But then comes salvation, then comes eternity, and God says, “No. I love you too much to allow you to make it something less… I do this. I choose this.”  Predestination is the first piece of that puzzle.  It’s just not a piece we need to worry about.

            Which leads to the question, why even mention it at all if we aren’t responsible for this choice?  To be fair, the teaching doesn’t come up all that often in the Bible.  Furthermore, it’s interesting precisely where electiokn does come up.  Take our sermon text as an example.  The Apostle Paul is speaking to Christians in Rome know how they are saved, that much is clear from the rest of the book.  They had that one critical piece of the puzzle. Yet they were still struggling.  Their lives were hard and they lived in pain.  They were being attacked by others for their faith, and they faced the temptation to fall from faith.  And that’s precisely where Paul brings up predestination.  It’s intended to be medicine for such an ailment.

            Think of powerful medicine.  If you use it as prescribed, it can be such a tremendous blessing to help ease a medical condition.  But if you use it to treat something else, it will not help at all.  In fact, it very likely may hurt you in the end, and at worst it could even kill you!… Similarly, predestination was never meant to treat the concern, “how can I be sure that I’m saved?”  For that ailment, the Bible always points you to the cross.  If you want to know whether you’ll be in heaven, look to Jesus’ work.  Did he die for your sins?  Do you believe in him?  That’s the only answer you ever need…  But what if you have another concern, “how can I be sure my faith is strong enough?”  For that ailment (and really, only in that context) does the Bible ever brings up predestination.  If you are worried you’ll be able to hang on until the end—when your life is falling apart; when that person you love has abandoned you or been taken away from you; when you’re diagnosed with cancer or living with chronic pain; when you’ve messed up and you don’t feel worthy of anything good let alone heaven; finally, when you think you might just give up on faith—look to God’s strength.  He chose you.  It’s why you believe right now, and it’s why you’ll be glorified as well.  It didn’t happen because you were strong enough in your convictions.  It happened because God was.  Again, that’s predestination.  It’s God’s way of saying, “Even if you’re not strong enough, I won’t let go of you.”

            Dear friends in Christ, even if what you see now causes you to doubt, do not doubt what happens next.  Just keep looking at Jesus.  He’s the one thing you can always see, even in tough moments.  After all, when we look at Jesus we’re also looking at a cross.  Whenever we’re in pain, he always responds, “I know, I’ve been there too…” And that is finally coming from the same God who says in predestination, “Still, I chose you, and I won’t let go of you.”  It’s one more thing that makes Christians different.  It’s why, among all the other things we learn from God’s Word every week, our goal is still to see Jesus every week.  Because if we have that piece of the puzzle, we have it all.  Amen.

“God’s Blueprint to Bless Us” (Ephesians 1:3-10)

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Series: What Makes Christians Different?”

by Pastor Nate Walther

Tenth Sunday of Pentecost, 08/02/2026

How much life insurance should you have?  What should health insurance provide for your family?  How much should you have invested at a certain age?  What salary should you be making? Experts have varying opinions on these questions, insisting you should do this or not take a job if it fails to provide that.  And maybe you think about all these things often.  Or maybe you don’t.  But even if you don’t, is it only because God has blessed you with so much, and your mindset would quickly change if you suddenly lost your job, health, or savings? 

It all leads to another question today as we look to learn from God’s Word: do we trust God to provide?  We probably all struggle with that more than we would care to admit. But wherever we doubt him, God still has a BLUEPRINT TO BLESS us, and also to forgive that sin too.

Our sermon text from Ephesians 1 is so good…  If you wanted to go to just one place in the Bible to understand God’s “master plan” for life, salvation and really every blessing, it’s hard to beat this!  Again, 3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” And what does that blueprint look like to bless us?  It boils down to two things:

1) Verse 4, “(God) chose us in Christ, before the foundation of the world, so that – which really indicates a “cause and effect” in language in which this was first written – so that we would be holy and blameless in his sight…”  This is why, if ever we begin to think, “You know what, maybe I have to do something to be saved. I mean, you have to be a good enough person to get to heaven, right?” God replies, “NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT!”; rather, verse 5, “In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons…”  We didn’t earn this.  We weren’t just born into it, with enough good in us to make it happen.  God loved us enough to make it happen.  Long before we ever came onto the scene or did anything, God says this was “his good will.”  That’s why in verse 6 he gets all “praise” and “glory”, ifwe make it about anything we must do, we are actually taking away from him and what he did for us. 

2) Which leads us to the 2nd part of the plan, how did God accomplish this? 7 “In him we also have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in keeping with the riches of his grace.”  That can only be talking about Jesus, who shed his blood for us.  Several times in the opening verses, God made this additionally clear when he said we’re “blessed”and “adopted” as “God’s sons”… “in Christ,” and “through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Verse 8, this is what God “lavishes” on us.  Verse 9, he planned this good purpose “in Christ.”  And verse 10, it happened “when the time had fully come.” If those words sound familiar, it’s because the Bible uses them elsewhere to describe how Jesus came into the world at Christmas.

In summary, what is GOD’S BLUEPRINT TO BLESS US? Step one: he chooses us entirely by grace, not based on anything we do (right or wrong).  Step two: he sends Jesus to pay the price for sin, to earn what we could not…  It’s a great blueprint.  It’s the message we Christians cherish…  But did you notice one thing we didn’t hear?  There’s nothing here about God’s plans to bless us in this life. 

We didn’t cut it off either, the following verses don’t get into it.  And it’s not just that things were going so good for the Ephesians there was no reason to talk about it.  Very few Christians in the New Testament had much material blessing, and most struggled mightily.  Ephesus was no exception: in that city the book of Acts tells us people rioted against these Christians for their faith.  There’s nothing in the Bible to suggest they were living an easy life.  But instead of focusing on whatever problems they were facing at the time, God’s blueprint to bless them started and ended with something that superseded all earthly things.  God’s plans simply revolved around salvation, and everything else was meant to fall into place after that.

How quickly do we overlook that?  So many people in this world worry so much about what they must provide for themselves.  They even want to attribute some aspect of salvation to themselves: “Don’t I need to choose the right Savior? Don’t I need to be a good enough person for God to let me into heaven?”  And that’s where we may smugly think as Lutherans, “That’s not us, we’ve got this figured out!”  But what about all the other things we worry about providing for ourselves?… Do we really we trust God to provide?  Or do we ultimately look to insurance, to money, to ourselves to provide (and if it doesn’t work there, we don’t imagine things can work out)?… It’s a common theme in all hearts with sin.  Whenever we fall into that mindset, God says to us just as surely, “there’s no room for you to fit into this, my plans don’t depend on you to make them happen!”  Yet, when we live as though they do, how much might we actually be getting in the way of what God wants to accomplish for us?

That’s why it’s remarkable for as often as we fail to trust God will bless us – and for as often as we get in the way of God’s plans! – still, God provides.  In fact, God’s blueprint fully takes it into account!  Because he knew we would only mess things up.  I’m not trying to be a downer by saying that, it’s just that we’re ultimately talking about getting to heaven.   You know, the place we want to be perfect in every way: no trouble, no sickness, no sin at all, everything always provided. Can you really achieve something like that through the work of your hands?  I know I can’t!… So God carefully calculated and executed a plan that would work for us.  Way back in eternity before we ever lived or did anything or made any decision, God existed.  And God loved you.  So God chose you and he promised his Son in just the right way: to live the perfect life that we could never live ourselves, and to pay the price for sin on the cross we would never want to pay for sins we have committed.  Not only this, but God then sent his Son into the world at just the right time & place so that this message would perfectly spread before arriving at the doorstep of your heart & mine 20 centuries later… With that, should we ever doubt God or think we can provide better when he gives the most outstanding of blessings in the eternity to come, carefully planned over the course of eternity past?

It goes to show, there’s a better way to live life.  Let’s be clear about a couple things first. Today we are not saying that investment, insurance, healthcare, or good-paying jobs (or anything like that!) are bad.  But there’s a difference between being blessed by these things, and making these things themselves the blueprint for blessings. Along those lines, neither are we today saying that our needs on earth don’t matter.  In our other two readings earlier (John 6:1-15, 1 Kings 17:1-6), we heard that God will provide for our basic needs. After all, Jesus specifically tells us to pray for that in the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer, which we’ll pray later in the service!…  And yet, with that being said, that’s the only one of seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer asking for material blessing, which kind of leads to the main point today…

Christians, you’re going to want good life, health, auto, or home insurance – that’s just good stewardship in a world like ours! – but realize you don’t have to max out every insurance for everything that could go wrong.  Otherwise, when will it stop?  No, you can trust God to provide!  Additionally, you’re going to want to work hard to provide for your family, earn enough money, save for retirement, and have an emergency fund – that just makes sense given bad things that do happen, plus the money God has given to us! – but you don’t need to have a plan for every last contingency the financial gurus say you need to have figured out.  Again, when will it stop?  You can trust God to provide!  Or how about this one: you’re going to want to raise your kids right, get them baptized, teach them God’s Word as they grow up, and continue to have a good relationship with them – God commands you to do these things! – but in the end you can’t believe for your kids or make every decision for them along the way.  No, you do what you can, and then you trust God to provide! 

If you live your life in this way, not only may it relieve some stress and anxiety, but think of how it will free up some of your time, your talents, or your treasure for other things God also says he wants you to do.  For example, in the Old Testament, God only told his people to give 10% of their wealth to offering, and he doesn’t even command a specific amount today!…  So what if instead of stressing over all the insurance we need, and what we should be investing, and how little money we earn, or how much we should have in our emergency funds – and you’ll still never feel like it’s enough! – what if we just made sure to give a small but generous portion of that back to the Lord, as I way of saying, “I trust you to get me through everything else that could happen… this is me investing in the best insurance policy there is!  Might God bless that? Provide more for us than we could ever provide for ourselves through that money? Help us find a little bit of peace along the way?…  Similarly, what if we gave up some portion of time we could be using to work overtime or on yet another DIY project, and instead used our talents to serve others, be more involved in our families, or get more involved in our church? (You read the same bulletin I do, there are needs that aren’t being met here!) Might God bless us and cause us to be even happier for it?

God. Will. Provide.  Believe it.  Better yet, live it.  Again, GOD HAS A BLUEPRINT TO BLESS US…  It just starts and ends with Christ. Start and end with Christ.  Then you will see that he has already taken care of the biggest and most eternal problems.  He’s going to take care of the little stuff that you and I face this day as well.  That’s the peace we’re missing.  Amen.

What’s it Worth?

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Pastor Horton

July 26, 2026

Imagine stopping by one of those weekend rummage sales on a whim.  And as you are looking around on one of the tables hidden behind some dusty and dated kitchenware, is that one priceless object of immense value to you.  What would that object be?  We might have differing ideas…for me it would be a Michael Jordan autographed rookie card (I don’t know if any autographed rookies of his even exist).  But I would sprint to the car to get my wallet or race as fast as legally allowed to the nearest atm so that I could hurry back and purchase it.  

What about you?  What is worth the most to you?  We may very likely have an answer depending on our situation in the moment.  And, truth be told, our answers may not always hold up what you might expect a believer to answer.  At least that has not been the case over the history of the Bible.  Think for a moment of Korah and the 250 familiar, yet feisty, leaders of Israel who did want power and authority and who did not want to listen to God or to his representative, Moses.  Rebellion brewed in their hearts.  They valued control so much that they stood against the Lord, only to be swallowed up by the ground.  Think for a moment of Saul looking upon David as after God’s defeat of Goliath, women came out and sang “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”  And Saul’s jealous heart turned into fury “what about me!  I’m the king!  I’m the commander!”  Praise of the people was of the highest worth to Saul.  Think for a moment of Ananias and his wife Sapphira, who together sold a piece of property but that wealth was of greatest worth in the moment.  So they both lied about their greedy actions – and they both died.  Think for a moment of the Apostle Peter in Jerusalem during the time of the New Testament church, when he showed favoritism to certain people over others (and was corrected by Paul).  He had been finding worth in those he publicly associated with.  

The Bible contains a lot of these examples – yet the examples continue on even into our own lives.  We have often misplaced values and chased after those things that have no worth.  Like Korah and friends, we also often place worth onto our own thoughts and opinions as if God should take note and act according to our will.  Like Saul, it doesn’t take much in the classroom, or on the sports field, or in the workplace to be hurt and jealous when someone else gets great praise and acclamation.  Like Ananias and Sapphira, we also tend to find worth in wealth – not in giving to God but in getting for ourselves.  And like Peter, we also often find worth in petty popularity games, rather than showing grace to others.  The connecting line through all these examples is me and it is you and our sinful sight.  We want our own kingdom designed our own way and we chase after comfort, control, approval, and wealth to fill it.  And yet Jesus comes to us today, and raises our eyes to a better kingdom that is ours entirely through him.

To help us better understand worth, Jesus gives to us three parables in our reading concerning the kingdom of heaven…and it’s absolutely essential worth.  Since we have three of them to discuss, it would be worth having a word of reminder: a parable is a type of speech Jesus often uses to help us understand an important point or truth from God.  It’s why we know parables to be an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.  And today, as Jesus speaks about the kingdom of heaven, to what is he referring to?  The kingdom of heaven is not an earthly kingdom with borders, battles, and forced conquest.  Nor is the kingdom of heaven of which Jesus speaks exclusively heavenly operations or inclusive only of believers.  Rather, the kingdom of heaven in today’s comparison is the great realm of gospel activity: the message of salvation in Jesus, proclaimed, believed, and shared.  It is God’s saving work.  It is truth that you know by faith.  And so see yourself today in the kingdom of heaven.

The first parable, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid again.  In his joy, he goes away and sells all that he has and buys that field.”  Back in Bible times, people didn’t have the luxury of investing in a diversified portfolio.  Some of their wealth might go into purchasing precious jewels or in buying livestock.  Some of their wealth might be kept on them in case an invading army marches through the land (remember Israel’s location there in the crossroads of the Middle East).  And some wealth might be hidden on the property, in a field, and maybe known only to the owner.  And if he perishes, it stays hidden.  What a find!  Better than a rummage sale score, this man eagerly and joyfully obtains this great treasure.

You have such a treasure with Jesus.  Born into sin – and still plagued by those daily selfseeking desires and misplaced obsessions, what we have in Christ is of the greatest worth – for with him there is forgiveness.  It’s like God breaking open the treasure chest of his eternal word, and we get to marvel at the good news that we have been saved especially since we could not save ourselves.  Instead of seeing shiny goblets and jewels, we get to hold in our hearts the great gospel message.  Instead of hearing the clinking of coins, we get to hear a holy God say, “you are forgiven”, and stand at a casket and hear Jesus proclaim, “because I live your loved one will live”.  To know that Christ acted at the cross to pay for every person’s sin, and gives life and eternity to those who believe, is to know that which is of greatest worth.  Even if a person could possess the entire world itself with all its wealth and wonders, the gospel is still of greater value – because it matters into all of eternity.  But you know, it also matters today.  Because in this message we find our worth to God in the saving work of Jesus.  And that causes us to feel joyful, appreciative, valued, and motivated to live for God.  It helps us reevaluate what is truly worthwhile.

The next parable is similar,  45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls. 46 When he found one very valuable pearl, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”  I can’t help but compare this man to one of those individuals who come through the gym doors in the first wave of the June Jumble Days crowd – each person a treasure hunting specialist looking for particular items of worth.  This man in our parable is a one of them!  He is a merchant and knows what he’s looking for – at least he will know it when he finds it.  He is similar to those who search the world over for different teachings and beliefs.  Sometimes they even extensively church-shop for what is real and relevant.  God’s word is special.  It causes us to stop in our tracks.  The law pulls no punches in convicting us.  The gospel reassures us that God has completed what is needed for our salvation.   Knowing this causes us to give up everything else in this fallen world around us.  Jesus becomes our focus and our joyfilled obsession in life.  We want others to have what we have in Christ.  We want to hold on to what is of greatest worth, for with Jesus we have heaven.

And the third parable, in which Jesus brings home the eternal relevance,   “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.  When the net was filled, they pulled it onto the shore.  They sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but threw the bad ones away.  That is how it will be at the end of the world.  The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous who are among them.  And they will throw the wicked into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  The picture of sorting fish, bad from good, was familiar to his listeners and to his disciples.  The lesson?  Not all in the church are there for the correct reasons, or have a saving faith.  God knows and thankfully uses exposure to the gospel to work on converting hearts and bring more to believe.  Hell, however, is a reality, as is the joy of heaven.  This sorting of unbelievers from believers on the basis of faith will happen on the final day.  How then does God give us faith?  Faith comes from hearing the message of Christ – making this message of greatest worth. 

Think about what that means as you live in this realm of gospel work.  What is the greatest gift we can give to our children?  An active and living knowledge of what God has done for them.  We are encouraged to treat the sharing of Jesus and the gifts of forgiveness and eternal life not as some depressing duty but as a delight.  Knowing the value of the gospel, we can even (as said yesterday in our workshop by Mr. Eric Duve) become comfortable with being uncomfortable when sharing Jesus.   Eternity is coming, and every soul matters to our Savior.

And maybe one final parable, since Jesus is on a roll with parables in this chapter of Matthew.  “He said to them, ‘Therefore every expert….who has been trained as a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his treasure both new things and old things.’”  What’s next for us?  Imagine that you have been so richly blessed that at your next rummage sale you are able to throw open everything in your house and freely give items away and meet specific needs of those in want.  God’s word is like that.  We have an abundance of riches in its truth.  We have so much love of God’s love to share with others.  We have old and new insights in the storehouse  of his word.  When those we know and love have problems in this sinful place – we can run in again and again and share these priceless treasures of truth with them freely.  “You are going through this?  You need clarity on that?  I’ve got just the thing in the reality of God’s message.”  We can do that for others at our door, in our life, and in our families.  And as one commentator remarked, the more a believer gives away the gospel, the more richly he or she has it!

Dear brothers and sisters in the faith….What is the gospel worth?  Everything!  Because Christ gave up everything for you and for your salvation.  Let’s…Recognize the value of the gospel.  Treasure it’s worth.  Share it freely as Jesus does.  Amen.

“Don’t Confuse Weeds with Wheat”

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“Don’t Confuse Weeds with Wheat” (Romans 1:18-27)

Series: What Makes Christians Different?”

by Pastor Nate Walther

Eight Sunday of Pentecost, 07/19/2026

            Don’t confuse weeds with wheat.  That might sound like strange advice, as if there’s some epidemic of people weeding out fruits and vegetables from their garden instead of dandelions and thistles!  But back in Jesus’ day, a certain kind of weed could easily be mistaken for wheat, especially if it was still some time before harvest when the wheat produced its full head and could be identified.  And there’s truth in that picture for us today as we consider the harvest God wants to get from us.

            Our sermon text provides an example that hits home for Christians living in the Madison area. I didn’t have to look hard for this topic, it’s right there connected to our regular, three-year set of readings that samples the entirety of the Bible’s teachings: homosexuality. Having just completed “pride month”, it’s the kind of thing that lots of people excuse: “this is how God made me, and there’s nothing wrong with love!”  It’s also the kind of thing that lots of churches excuse: “the problem with homosexuality in Bible times was that it was practiced in a loveless way, and it was associated with idolatry.” 

            The only problem with those excuses?  As we return to our sermon text, it’s clear God does not excuse it.  To be fair, God does talk about idolatry in verse 23, but notice how it’s something that leads to such sins in verse 24.  That tells us this isn’t a matter of guilt by association where “it’s only a problem if it’s practiced lovelessly”; rather, it’s a matter of cause and effect where “one bad thing leads to another.”  In fact, there’s no other way to interpret it when God goes on to call homosexuality in verse 26 a “disgraceful passion”, where “natural relationships” are given up.  To put it in another way, what we’re talking about today isn’t a case of “this is how God made me” but the opposite.  God is the one who calls it “disgraceful”.  God says it goes “against nature.” God calls it an “indecent act” that earns a “penalty.”  Those aren’t words the Bible ever uses to describe God’s good creation. They are words the Bible uses to describe sin. And anyone who says otherwise is equally perverting God word. 

            Dear brothers and sisters in the faith, there’s no doubt about it: homosexuality is sin. God doesn’t make people this way—just like he doesn’t make someone violent or impatient or an addict—the fall into sin led to all of this.  Which makes it equally sinful to downplay it or excuse it.  It’s one of the surest signs of our fallen world: that mankind celebrates this today, that they confuse weeds with wheat. 

            Yet it’s only one example of idolatry that people place before the Lord.  How often do people place other created things and what they want above God and his will?  Because the sixth commandment isn’t just about hot-button issues like homosexuality or transgenderism.  Just because a young Christian couple consisting of one man and woman is sleeping together outside of marriage does not somehow make it sanctified.  So also, whether it involves the sixth commandment or any other commandment, what might someone place above the will of the creator?  How often do we also worship and follow other things as idols, rather than the Lord?  How often do we likewise confuse weeds with wheat?

            That’s the real problem here.  Where we are so quick to pin problems only on certain people or certain situations—So you just need a special month to bring awareness to the matter, that will finally solve it! But at best the issues are never solved, and at worst the approach is totally misguided (as it is in this case)—No, the real problem runs deeper with all people.  You and I deserve just as much penalty from God for sins that run just as contrary to his will.  Finally, what makes us different as Christians?  Do we realize, by nature and because of our sin, the answer should be nothing. 

            It’s why only one answer will do: the answer perfectly found in God’s plans to save the world through his Son.  Think of how Jesus didn’t just do what would have been easiest, or what he wanted to do, or what would have felt good.  He followed his Father’s will to the end, even though it meant death on a cross where he suffered hell.  For every time we have committed sin or excused sin, for any time we have raised an idol above God and what he wants, Jesus suffered for that too.  It’s why we can ask that question again, what makes us different as Christians?  And although the answer should be nothing, because of Jesus and through faith in him, the answer is actually everything.

By the way, as we think of what Christ was willing to sacrifice to save us from God’s judgment which we heard about in each of our readings, it is all reflected so well in God’s plans in the sixth commandment.  In the end, we’re not prudes as Christians.  Sex itself isn’t the issue.  That’s why God had to label this is a “disgraceful” passion, because there is such a thing as a good passion!  But that doesn’t automatically excuse every passion.  Case in point, when it becomes all about getting what you want and what feels good, that’s idolatry.  But anything can be a good thing if it’s about getting what God wants and it leads to good things for others.  Likewise, when this is found in the right context – where kids whom God uniquely gives by this union will benefit from having mom and dad both be there for them, where husbands and wives are meant to sacrifice for each other and be there for each other until death parts them – can you see how reserving this gift for marriage will serve those purposes? On the other hand, every other sexual sin ultimately works against God’s plans to build up the family and the blessings he wants to protect there.

As we think of God’s blessings – whether that’s in the sixth commandment or any other commandment that we struggle with – how might that make a difference in our lives?…   First, we repent of our own sin and live our lives differently!  If God has truly pardoned these same sins and made such a difference for us in eternity, we want to live our lives differently here on earth!… Then, unlike our world that condemns anyone for not sharing in their viewpoint, we do things differently there as well.  To be clear, we still condemn sin.  That’s just saying what God is saying, and there is nothing wrong with that, don’t let anyone tell you there is!  But even more ardently, we do what God did for us and share forgiveness for that sin as we seek to rescue a soul, and we continue to love them.  It’s why you don’t disown a child for cohabitation, a friend for homosexuality, or anybody else for any other sin.   Sure, you talk to them and warn them about their sin, but then you love them more than anybody else.  That includes those who affirm their sin!  As Christians we should be better friends and do more for those caught up in sin than those people who say their sin is OK!

Like Jesus said in our Gospel, we live as wheat among weeds.  We don’t rip ourselves away from others at risk of tearing them up.  We live peacefully with those around us.  So much so that we may even look like those around us at times, but as people closely examine your fruit they will be able to see that you’re different.  In other words, it’s OK if people glance at you and don’t immediately think “Christian!”  We don’t have to wear our faith on our sleeves like that.  But what’s not OK is if people get to know you and they’d still never know you’re a Christian.  So speak and act according to the truth, but don’t feel like you have to rain down fire and brimstone on them. That day will come, but God will worry about it.  You and I only need to concern ourselves with being wheat in his fields.

Or, perhaps an example we can relate to a little more than weeds which look like wheat is the example of salt & sugar.  Think of how the two can look exactly the same, but once you get a taste of them you realize they are completely different! (You’ll know that if you’ve ever confused cups of salt for cups of sugar in a cookie recipe!)  Similarly, even as you and I share strong viewpoints in a world of strong viewpoints, they should taste something sweet that comes from us.  They realize that both sides have their viewpoints, their thoughts of what’s right and wrong.  But where one side attacks me for not sharing in their viewpoint, the other still loves me even while disagreeing with my viewpoint. 

That’s what we’re talking about today.  It’s  heavy stuff, but we need to hear it.  If we don’t, Satan will try to convince us that it’s ok, that God’s wrong on this one, just like he’s convinced people in many other places.  Only he won’t stop sowing weeds there.  He’ll eventually try to get you to doubt everything God ever told you, including that you’re a sinner who needs a Savior, and that only Christ will do. To be clear, he’s done that elsewhere too… So don’t confuse weeds with wheat.  Just like it would be foolish to confuse the two in your garden, the same danger is possible here.  It doesn’t change just because something looks good or sounds loving on the outside.  The world’s ways and God’s ways are completely different.  One promises a good life here, but really fails to deliver.  (Those political initiatives never work!)  But the other delivers eternal life, and through it a better way to live here.   It’s just one more example of what makes Christians different… any why that’s such a good thing.  Amen.

“Failing Flesh, Faithful Father”

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“Failing Flesh, Faithful Father” (Matthew 10:21-33)

Series: Say it Out Loud!

by Pastor Nate Walther

Fourth Sunday of Pentecost, 06/21/2026

                This weekend’s holiday gets us thinking about fathers, and one of my favorite things about being a dad over the years has been building the “legend of dad”.  When my boys were little and they were afraid of monsters under their beds or hiding in their closets, I assured them that the monsters couldn’t possibly get them: not when monsters had nightmares about little boys’ dads under their beds and hiding in their closets!  Along those lines, I always told my boys growing up that dads were the strongest force on earth, and that’s why Jesus gave dads to families: to take good care of them. 

            The thing about legends is they aren’t always accurate, even if they contain some semblance of the truth.  It’s why, as my boys have gotten older, they have seen their father’s failures.  One small example of it?  For all the things I’ve managed to fix around the home, they’ve also seen many things I’ve failed to fix with our vehicles.  For as much as my heart swells with pride when they call Menards our second home, it deflates with disappointment when they call the mechanic’s our third home.

            It’s a minor example of what we see in our sermon text today: FLESH FAILS.  Massively, in fact.  Issues “home & auto” are the least of our concerns when we think about all that we’re up against.  In those moments we need a FAITHFUL FATHER, who can do for us all the things we cannot do for ourselves, including us dads.

Jesus describes just such a father in our sermon text today in Matthew 10.  Before he does so, he gets into a serious topic.  If home & auto are the least of our worries in this world, verse 21 is about as bad as it gets: relationship problems among flesh and blood.  And we’re no strangers to such issues.  But notice that Jesus doesn’t really describe a case of common family feuds – involving the budget, or chores, or who left the toilet seat up.  No, in verses 22-23 Jesus makes it clear that these are divisions caused by faith.  When some people don’t accept Christ or follow what comes from him, that itself becomes reason for division.  Jesus made it clear his Disciples would face that in the future, and in verse 24 he makes it clear we should expect this too.  If ever we think we must be doing something wrong when we have turmoil in our own lives and in our own families, remember that Jesus experienced it too.  One of his own disciples—the closest thing he had to family—betrayed him!  As he adds in verse 25, if that happened to the master of the house, it will happen to those under him also.

All of which makes verse 26 striking. Still, Jesus says, “don’t fear.”  Don’t let this stop you!  In fact, Jesus continues by encouraging us to embrace our faith and to be even more bold with it.  The reason for it is simple. Verse 28, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”For as much as our flesh may fail, and for as many problems we face in this word, there’s still the soul and there is only one “threat” to that.  Who alone can destroy both soul and body in hell?  You might think of the devil, but remember that hell was actually created to destroy him!  No, this is talking about God the Father.  As we think of our struggles, what’s most important is that we’re square with a Heavenly Father who alone can save body and soul in heaven.

Fortunately, that’s exactly what God wants for us.  It’s what this whole bit about the sparrows reminds us in verse 29.  Think of it, God takes care of birds.  Sometime when you’re out hunting, or mowing the yard, or working your garden, watch the birds fly around.  See how they have everything they need.  Then think, “Those are birds!  I matter more than birds!!!”  So, no matter the cost, follow the Lord.  He will take good care of you, no matter what problems you face.  Finally, he proved that in his Son Jesus, to whom the final verses direct us.  Everyone who confesses Christ’s name, He will confess before his father in heaven. 

            There’s so much in these words we could dig into—there are a million sermons I could preach here—but as we consider Father’s Day this weekend, it focuses our attention uniquely.  How often do we see what Jesus describes among families?  Kids not in church.  Siblings not getting along.  Family members no longer interested in doing things God’s way; maybe you know you will invite their ire if you try to talk to them about it… And dads, maybe you bottle it all up.  These and other failings eat at you.  You feel like you should be doing more to correct these issues among your families and for those under your care.  But you’re not sure what to do, so you just try to keep the peace and remain silent.

            Is there any greater proof of sin in this world?  Seriously.  We see sin in all the small things that go wrong, but at least we can find refuge in family and in our relationships with others.  So when that’s not right?  What a serious problem our sin is if it can lead to conflict among flesh and blood!  Especially if that conflict is caused by faith itself!  It’s a powerful reminder that sin is an issue beyond our ability to fix.  Sin infiltrates all good things in this world, even family, even faith.   It proves all too well the first half of our theme today, FLESH FAILS. 

            It’s why the second half of our theme is so important.  We need a FAITHFUL FATHER.  One who handles not just the little stuff – like sparrows, like home & auto – but one who handles all the big stuff too.  That leads to the end of our sermon text about confessing Christ…  I can’t even imagine it.  Let’s say sacrificing one of my two boys would save the world?  If I gave one of them up up—to suffer body & soul in hell—I could redeem everyone from sin, from conflict, from all things that are wrong?  I don’t know how I could ever do it!  Wouldn’t I instead sacrifice the whole world if only I could rescue them?!… But God did it.  Our Father sacrificed his one & only Son to save us from our flesh.  It’s why, when we confess Jesus as Savior, God delivers us from sin, death, and hell – from every problem and conflict that we face.

God was faithful, even when we have failed.  Now in thanksgiving, he asks us to mirror his faithfulness in lesser ways.  And there are so many ways we can all do that.  I think of you women out there, for example, who so often pick up our slack as guys – thank you for your faithfulness!  But today, let me speak especially to you guys: dads, grandparents too, and you men that God has placed into various callings in this fallen world…  While there’s room to use some of your strength on hobbies, on hunting, on yourself – spare the largest portion of your strength not in personal pursuit but in service to those God has placed under you.  Be present for them. Act for them when they cannot act for themselves.  And maybe the hardest thing to do—but Jesus emphasized it for us today in his Word—speak up for the truth, even when it’s hard, even when others don’t want to listen.

Here’s an example that may resonate with you, either directly or indirectly. I think about raising my boys and all they’re up against in this world.  The thing is, my wife can provide 90% of what my boys need, the majority of it in far better manner than I ever could!  But for the remaining amount?  They need their dad.  They need a strong figure in their lives who is wired differently, yet who still love them unconditionally.  When they have both in their life–gentle, compassionate love like that of a mother and strong, unyielding love like that of a father—it will irresistibly draw them to a Savior who more perfectly demonstrated both.  That’s what will set our kids up for success in this life, and in the life to come.  And indeed, if you were thinking earlier that our Christian families so often don’t resemble the mess that Jesus described in our sermon text, this is why.  When we faithfully follow the example of our heavenly father, it can overcome our failing flesh.

This makes a real difference in our lives! More than that, it makes a bigger difference when our flesh still fails.  Because despite the “legend of dad”, there’s plenty I can’t do for my family.  I may be able to provide for their flesh–even then, I can’t protect them from everything–but what about their soul?   So, more than anything else we do, lead those under your care to the faithful Father… Do you know what’s not a legend?  God gave his Son on a real, wooden cross 2,000 years ago, and he died to rescue those under him by making make the ultimate sacrifice of strength.  That is what our loved ones need even more than us.  And that is why I’m so glad you’re here, because that’s what this place is all about, pointing people to Jesus. But let me add: if regular church attendance is a little more of an exception rather than the rule—all of you, but especially you men—work hard to make regular church attendance the standard for your family.  And if going to Bible Study or Sunday School in addition to worship is more the exception rather than the rule for those under your care—all of you, but especially you men—take steps to correct it for you and them.  And if prayer and a devotional life at home is a little more the exception rather than the rule—all of you, but especially you men—speak up! Finally, if we don’t do these things, we’re really trying to take God’s place as the Father.  Then, we’d have to provide all things, body and soul for those under our care.  And we can’t it.  You don’t have it in you.  I don’t have it in me either.  But if we use our limited strength to lead others to their Heavenly Father and to his Son Jesus, we will be found to be faithful fathers too…

Dear brothers and sisters in the faith, there’s truth here for everyone today, but especially you men: God has made us guys differently.  Despite what the world would say, that’s not something to be ashamed of, nor should you apologize for it.  Instead, it’s a call to faithfully reflect the strength, love and sacrifice of the greatest father ever.  Do so.  Do so especially by leading those under your care to Jesus and what he teaches.  Amen. 

“What do you think of your Pastor?”

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“What do you think of your Pastor?” (1 Corinthians 4:1-7)

Series: Say it Out Loud!

by Pastor Nate Walther

Third Sunday of Pentecost, 06/14/2026

                What do you think of your pastors?  I don’t mean to brag, but at my first call in North Dakota I was a pretty big deal.  Some people literally said I was the reason they were there, and why the church was growing when it was growing! Now, just to burst the bubble of that big head of mine, I should also add that I was told the opposite at other times.  Others literally said I was the reason they were leaving, and why the church was shrinking when it was shrinking.

            Now that I’m a little bit older & wiser in my second call, I’m wary of the matter of what people think of their pastor.  Oh sure, I still think about it.  I want you to have positive feelings about me, and I’m sure Pastor Horton would say the same!  But do you think about your pastor, “He’s a good preacher”?  Or do you think, “He puts me to sleep”?  Do you feel like your pastor really cares about you?  Or do you wonder whether he even knows your name?  Do you see the church heading in the right direction under our leadership?  Or does it seem things are falling apart?

            Today, the Apostle Paul addresses the topic of what we should think of pastors, but not by looking at any of these things we tend to look at.  Because even for a famous pastor like him, or leaders like Joshua & Moses in our first reading, or the Twelve Disciples in our Gospel reading, it wasn’t about that.  As we revisit our sermon text from 1 Corinthians, we’re stepping into a bit of a situation.  It’s why Paul mentions not just himself but a pastor by the name of Apollos in verse 6.   Like us they were a larger church that had multiple pastors, and they also had their favorites!  Some proudly followed Paul, others Apollos, still others Peter.  And I’m sure they had their reasons.  Maybe those reasons even made sense.  But how does Paul instruct them to think about their pastors? Verses 1 & 2, “This is the way a person should think of us: as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries.”  In this connection, moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful….”   As I study God’s Word,I often find it beneficial for myself to ask what’s not there, so notice what’s not in our sermon text.  There’s nothing about how innovative a pastor is, no hint of how captivating his preaching style, not a whisper of his talents, not any mention of his ability to make people laugh.  Instead, it’s all about being faithful to God and being a steward over his affairs.  That’s just it: a steward doesn’t focus on his own affairs; rather, he manages what has been given to him.  It’s all about his master’s business.

            It mirrors our first reading (Numbers 23:15-23).  Joshua had basic qualifications for being a leader—just as a pastor must meet basic qualifications, the Bible is clear about that elsewhere–but what was the substance of Joshua’s leadership?  Did you catch that curious passage about the Urim?  That was how the leader would make important decisions back in those days.  He would consult the Urim (& Thummim) that the high priest possessed, which essentially meant casting a lot.  i.e. It wasn’t about the leader’s decision or knowledge, it was about leaving things in God’s hands and following God’s will. That’s really what we heard in our Gospel reading too (Matthew 9:25-10:8).  Jesus chose simple fisherman who had no wisdom of their own–to whom no one would listen on their own–and they preached a basic message about sin and grace that could only be effective if God’s power made it so.

            Now I’m sure we’d all nod along with this, but let’s be honest with ourselves: we don’t want to hear this.  I don’t.  In my heart of hearts, I want ministry to be all about me.  Of course I do!  I’m a sinful man. I want people to like me and be impressed by me, which leads to the temptation to act and speak in a way that will yield such a result.  Don’t be surprised by that.  In fact, you want this too.  You want to be able to think highly of your pastors, perhaps because that’s what will naturally happen if they give you what you want.  We all want to choose leaders and decide what they would say & do based on our criteria, not God’s. 

Paul highlights a couple of ways we struggle with this in our sermon text in verse 5. For one, he reminds us that we are to wait until Judgment Day for God to make all things right.  That’s fair, of course God is going to make everything right in the end.  Yet don’t we want all of our problems figured out now and sorted out long before Jesus returns?  So maybe we don’t want our pastors to be patient with others, or we don’t want to show grace to others if it gets in the way of what we want… Along those lines, as the verse continues, it is implied that since we cannot know what’s on a person’s heart we should really just let some things be. Yet how often do we assume we know what a person is thinking, we assume we know all they know, and then we assume the worst –whether it’s with pastors or others above us? 

            So often we’re just wrong as we go down these paths.  There’s a reason the Bible is constantly calling us sheep—we heard a couple examples of that again in our readings earlier! God doesn’t mean that as some throwaway expression, it means something.  Sheep tend to wander, and we wander too.  My soul and your soul were born into sin, which means we tend not to choose what is best for ourselves, but what will ultimately harm us in the end.  That’s why God sends us shepherds: pastors to lead us—even us pastors have pastors above us as a circuit or district level—because we all need to be led.  There are things we need that we will not hear unless someone else says it.  There are dangers that threaten us which we simply don’t see.  Jesus put it bluntly in our gospel: we face the effects of sin, we face demons, we face death itself.  Even when we don’t see these dangers, God sees them! 

            It leads to a reminder in all of this: forget what we’re thinking.  What does God think of us?  God, who can see our hearts & who knows our every intention?  God, who sees that we do things only for ourselves, no matter what it may look like to others?  God, who sees every way we wander when nobody else sees it?  God, who judges sins and who can save or condemn—no pastor has that power, no matter what you may think of them!—no, what does God think of us?… It’s a mystery he has since revealed in his Word.  Despite all of our sin:  “I love you.  I forgive you.  I sent my Son, the great shepherd of the sheep, to die for your sins!  You are mine.” 

That’s where your pastors come in.  More than anything, we are stewards of this great mystery revealed.  Our job is nothing more and nothing less than sharing such good news with you and your loved ones.  That’s the standard by which God wants us pastors to judge ourselves, and that’s what you should judge us by too. That we freely give what has been freely given to us: that although we are sinful, selfish, wandering creatures, God loves us always in Christ.

 By the way, that explains exactly why we treat the ministry as we do.  Take as an example the call system: this is why our churches don’t interview candidates like other businesses, and we don’t just try to fill a spot in our church or school with the most convenient option. (At least, we shouldn’t do this!)  Likewise, us pastors shouldn’t just go where we want to go.  (If we did, I imagine I’d be a ski bum living out west and Pastor Horton a beach bum living in Hawaii!)  But no, this is a calling, which means it’s about trusting and being faithful to the one who calls.  As another way of looking at it: this is the same reason why, when I was ordained into the ministry at Grace in Minot, and then when I was installed here at Eastside, I had hands laid on me (like our first reading).  That’s our tradition as a church body to show we don’t possess this on our own as pastors, it must be given to us. Finally, it all reflects what we heard today in God’s Word.  The ministry is about following God’s will.  It’s not about a pastor’s whims or will.  It’s not about Apollos or Paul, Walther or Horton, your favorite pastor ever or your least favorite. It’s about following Jesus & his Word, period…  And that’s why your pastors are delighted when you do catch Pastor Mike on Time of Grace, or if another pastor is able to baptize, confirm, or marry someone.  However you can get more of Jesus as Savior from sin, that’s a good thing.  But make no mistake, that’s what this is all about – not the pastor who’s doing it.

As I think back on my ministry, if I could be doing the same things and people could have such varied opinions on it—mutually exclusive viewpoints, mind you: that I’m such a phenomenal pastor OR that I’m such a bum!—they can’t both be right.   In fact, neither is the right approach.  Instead, say it out loud: “I follow Jesus!… and that’s why I love Pastor Walther.  That’s why I love Pastor Horton.  That’s why I loved Pastor Schmiege, or Pastor Mike, or any other pastor I’ve ever had.”  Think of us in terms of whether we lead you to the shepherd, Jesus.  Because if all you had was Pastor Walther, or Pastor Horton, or Pastor so-and-so, you’d be lost. You’d languish in hell for ever along with us.  None of us can save you from your sins or get your kids or grandkids to heaven.  But Jesus did.  Think of Jesus when you think of us, and then (only then) we can be of some good to you.  Amen.

“The Only Requirement is Thirst”

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“The Only Requirement is Thirst” (John 7:37-39)

Series: What Difference Does It Make?

by Pastor Nate Walther

The Festival of Pentecost, 05/24/2026

            Happy Pentecost!  Today we celebrate the birthday of the Christian Church.  It’s a day that gets us thinking about the church growing with all those amazing events in our reading from Acts.  It’s a day that especially gets us thinking about the work of the Holy Spirit…  How does all of this compare to us and to our lives?  How does it compare to Eastside and whether our church growing like it should be?  Finally, how can we be sure we have the Holy Spirit, and that our faith is in the right place? 

            In answer to those questions, some churches pour everything into programs that promise to transform your life, or into numerical growth, or into miraculous signs like healings or tongue-speaking.  It’s a tangible way to say, “My faith is solid! We’re doing something right as a congregation! We’ve got the Holy Spirit!”  It’s why some of these churches even emphasize that they are “Holy Spirit”-driven, or “Pentecostal” churches.  But what’s really important for our faith?  What are the true requirements for faith? 

            Today in his Word, God shows us that faith isn’t really about what we see physically in our lives or in our church.  Nor is it even about some obvious, outward way we can see the Holy Spirit at work.  We certainly adore and worship the Holy spirit as a member of our Triune God—it’s why we have a special day like today to focus on him!—but at the same time, we don’t focus on him like some churches do, often to the exclusion of other members of the Trinity.  In fact, today we hear something curious from Jesus himself: the only requirement for our faith is thirst.

            That’s what Jesus effectively says in our sermon text from John chapter 7.  Like he often did in Parables, here Jesus uses physical images to describe spiritual realities.  Particularly, Jesus uses “thirst” as picture of spiritual need.  And did you notice how Jesus encourages us to resolve our thirst?  It’s not a matter reforming your behavior or doing things a certain way, nor is it a matter of how your life looks.  Instead, it’s simply a matter of drinking deeply from Jesus, and that’s where Jesus also says you can find the Holy Spirit is at work.  Granted, by this point Jesus hadn’t yet sent the Spirit to the Disciples—that’s because he was still with them at this time, and they didn’t yet require additional help from the Holy Spirit—but Jesus was prophetically looking ahead to that time after his Ascension when the Holy Spirit would come upon the church at Pentecost.

            As for us, we tend to think of thirst as a bad thing, because thirst is a lack of what you need.  It’s why we naturally long to resolve the thirst of our souls.  But how do we do that?  Some people look for “signs of the Spirit” – something big or powerful to assure them they’ve done so.  Others try to work harder to be better people and overcome their problems – all in an effort fill them up! But does that fill us with the right thing?  For example, when you’re thirsty there’s nothing quite like water to quench your thirst. Sure, you can get out of the heat and stop sweating, but you’ll still be thirsty.  Or you can have a drink of iced coffee or a cold beer as a substitute to quench your thirst, but you’ll only end up dehydrating yourself further in the end. Or you can try to work even harder to overcome your thirst and push through it, but you’ll just get thirstier… OR you can drink water and actually quench your thirst.

Don’t miss the simple lesson in that picture. Jesus offers the only thing that overcomes the thirst of sin.  Jesus once said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”  We can be so quick to move past thirst that we don’t realize there’s blessing in it.   That’s what we mean today when we say the only requirement is thirst. Spiritual thirst leads us to the one thing that will satisfy our spiritual needs: Jesus, the “water of life.” Because you can have the biggest, best church yet still have problems.  Or you can avoid all sorts of sins yet still struggle under the burden of sin.  Or you can enjoy all sorts of gifts & blessings yet still face depression because it’s never enough…  That’s because you’re still dehydrated.  You still need forgiveness as only Jesus provides it from the cross, meaning that is uniquely found in the resurrection of the dead that will be ours someday as well, and a sense of contentment like no other that is found in Word & Sacrament in a restored relationship with the Lord Almighty of the Heavens. 

            That’s what Pentecost is all about. And that’s what the Holy Spirit is all about.  He’s all about leading people to Jesus as the water of life.  Or, to put it another way, think of the Holy Spirit like the operator behind the spotlight in a big Broadway production.  If he’s doing his job, he doesn’t want anyone looking at him–in fact, he doesn’t want anyone thinking about him at all!–he only wants people looking where he directs their attention. Similarly, the Holy Spirit intends to make a difference in our lives, just maybe not the one we think.  Sure, on Pentecost that resulted in tongues of fire and miraculously speaking in languages.  But if we read farther in Acts 2 we realize it was all about putting Jesus in front of others.  Peter used all these miraculous signs to call the Pentecost crowd’s attention to Jesus.  And today, the Spirit makes that same difference through whatever means ot may be–miraculous or mundane–all to connect more people to Jesus.

            Thirstis the only requirement.  You lack nothing if you have a thirst that drives you to Jesus as the water of life. As Jesus said in our sermon text, that’s where the Spirit is at work.  The Spirit is not found in those obvious things that fill our lives (that’s just the spirit of this world).  He’s found absence of something so important in our souls that we’re driven to the only one who can fill it (that’s truly a Spirit that comes from God).  Yes, he may be accompanied by other things too—the disciples were able to speak in tongues and perform miracles–but in the end it’s all about more people finding good news in Jesus.  Then, like Jesus said in our sermon text, we become springs of water: where these things in our lives point other people to Jesus as the water of life.  On the other hand, when the focus turns to those gifts and those signs and the measurables themselves, it’s no longer about Jesus and we’ve completely lost his Spirit.

            As we return to our sermon text once more, I want you especially to consider the background of these words.  Jesus is celebrating the Festival of Tabernacles for the last time during his life on earth.  It was a holiday that recalled how the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years after the Exodus, relying on God to care for them while they dwelled in tents.  Additionally, by Jesus’ time the priests celebrated each day of the festival by going down to the pool of Siloam in Jerusalem and drawing water, which they would then return to the temple and ceremonially pour out.  It became a powerful image of God providing for his people as they were about to enter the rainy season and prayed that God would bless the crops they had just sown…  Now, can you imagine Jesus watching all of that, then crying out—as our sermon text describes him doing on the final day of the festival—saying something like, “Don’t you see?  This is all a picture of me and what I can do for you!  I am the water of life!”  So also, Jesus cries out to us in his Word and says, “Don’t you see?  As you sojourn on this earth, as you thirst for something more, as you pray that the Lord to bless your labors as a congregation… it’s all about me and what I can do for you!  I am the water of life!”    Never forget that.  Your lives, the work of this congregation, everything about our faith… it’s about Christ filling us up.  If we have that, we’re doing everything right.  If we have that, we have the Holy Spirit in full measure.  Amen.

“Justice for All”

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“Justice for All” (2 Thessalonians 1:5-10)

Pastor Nate Walther

Sunday, November 16th, 2025

How do you like it when they get away with it?  Maybe it’s an “open and shut” court case where everyone knows who did it, but there’s a technicality and a key piece of evidence is rendered inadmissible, so the judge throws the case out. Or perhaps it’s at the scene of a grisly crime, but it’s a matter of “he said, she said” with no concrete evidence, so the police can’t arrest anyone.  In either case the end result is the same: a crime was committed and nobody pays the price…  It’s the kind of outcome that leaves us outraged!  It’s why crime series like Law & Order or documentaries like Making a Murderer suck us in.  We want justice.  It’s just how we’re wired.  And do you realize we want this because God has hardwired this into our hearts?  In fact, he wants it so much that he promises in our epistle reading there will be JUSTICE FOR ALL.

Before we dig into our sermon text, let’s make sure we’re on the same page with the difficult topic God has placed before us today.  As we think about things like justice and punishment for sin: hell is a real place, where real people will go, including some people we know.  And maybe that needs to be said.  Perhaps you struggle with that thought, even though you know it’s what our churches teach; or even if you agree with it, perhaps you just don’t like to think about it!   But regardless of how any one of us may feel, God clearly says hell it is real, and he clearly puts it before us to think about.  Today’s readings mentioned hell in a couple of different ways.  There are even times where Jesus talks about it more directly. So, if we want to dispute what Jesus himself says or don’t want to think about something God certainly wants us to think about, we may as well throw the whole book away, we obviously aren’t interested in what it has to say!… On the other hand, if we’re not ready to do that, can we take it a step further with our theme of justice and see that hell is a necessary, even sensible teaching?  Again, we live in a world of justice!  Actions matters. Everyone feels there should be consequences for sin!  Finally, we all know deep down, that must mean hell.  When pressed, who wouldn’t agree that a serial killer, or a child rapist, or a genocidal racist dictator like Hitler should go to hell?  If not, we are really making the case that these horrible crimes don’t really matter – not in the grand scheme of things, not if you could just get away with them and there are no lasting consequences for them.  If you believe in any kind of afterlife, that will just never sit right with you. And the God who created our eternal souls agrees.  He wants JUSTICE FOR ALL!

With that in mind, consider what we heard earlier.  In verse 6 when God talks about justice, he clearly describes it as something that is earned by evil deeds.  It’s not just something God arbitrarily dishes out.  Rather, to use the example of the Thessalonian congregation, those who troubled these Christians would earn trouble for themselves.  However, verse 7 talks about such justice being handed out on Judgment Day.  We miss that sometimes.  We crave justice, and when we don’t see it we figure something must be wrong!  But God doesn’t promise justice today.  Instead, he promises it will be “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his powerful angels.”  That’s when, verse 8, He will exercise vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. That’s critical to our understanding of hell.  Hell is earned as retribution for things done wrong, but that’s not the only reason God says some people will go there.  What other reason is there?  God doesn’t say it will be because the people here persecuted Christians of all people, or because their sin was bad enough.  Instead, God says they would suffer hell because they didn’t follow the instructions of the gospel, which is to believe in Jesus; and they didn’t have a relationship with God the Father where they really knew him and what he wanted: namely, the salvation of their souls. 

Moving ahead to verse 9, we are given a definition for hell.  This just penalty, as it is called here, is ETERNAL destruction away from the PRESENCE of the Lord and from his glorious strength.  First of all, hell is a place of destruction.  But we see some destruction already in our world, so it has to be more than just that.  What sets hell apart is that it is everlasting destruction, and everlasting destruction where you no longer have the presence of God with his glorious strength to curb sin.  Under those circumstances, what will prevent sin from getting worse and worse?…  Finally, verse 10, God describes people who will avoid this fate – people like the Thessalonians, and by extension, you and me! – and why do we avoid it?  Again, notice what God doesn’t say.  He doesn’t say it’s because they avoided particularly bad sins.  In fact, he doesn’t talk at all about their deeds.   He doesn’t even talk about them being wronged more than others.  Really, the only difference?  They believed.  They believed the Apostles’ message, whom Jesus had sent out to testify about him.

Some of this lines up well with our sense of justice, but there’s one thing that doesn’t line up: how can this be justice for all? Isn’t it a double standard if some can just believe and receive a “get out of hell free”-card, no matter what they’ve done?  Except, whom are they believing in? It’s Jesus. Jesus who already paid the fiery penalty of everlasting destruction that God requires for sin.  It’s why there is justice for all.  This is no double standard. God agrees in his Word that sin must be punished.  The only question? Will you believe in Jesus so that he may receive that punishment for you?  Or will you take punishment for yourself?…

What we so often fail to see is that JUSTICE FOR ALL does not just mean justice for others and their sin in hell… what it should also mean is justice for me and my sin in hell.  And that’s exactly where we try to find the same loopholes we hate that others find when they try to get away with it.  “My sin is not so bad.  I had a good reason for what I did!  I didn’t know it would turn out like that…  I didn’t mean to hurt anyone, and at least I didn’t kill anyone, others have done so much worse!”  As we think this way, we think our sins don’t warrant hell.  But what we cannot deny is that we still have sin, and what happens if that sin remains unchecked? 

The thing about sin is that it only makes things worse, even if it doesn’t seem so bad at first.  I’m just getting to know you as my new congregation, and I don’t know what sins each of you struggles with.  But one example I can imagine from 11 years of ministry experience is that some of you have struggled with sexual sin.  Think of how that one works. It only gets worse.  Lust leads to pornography, which is such an ugly addiction, it can take even a blessing like sex within marriage and destroy it!  In other cases this particular sin can lead to sex outside of marriage, which people may excuse as “consenting adults” or (a slightly more “sanctified” viewpoint) “trying things out” before you make such an important decision, but what these loopholes actually do is devalue the blessings God wants to give to bind husband and wife together, or they even make marriage based on something other than an unconditional promise.  Studies even show this mindset can make divorce or adultery more likely.

Granted, maybe you don’t struggle with that particular sin, but where do we see this sin in our lives?  Is it laziness, which may not seem like a big deal until it destroys a job and a means of providing for a family? Is it drunkenness, where “it’s only a few beers!”, but we’ve all seen how the bottle can ruin people themselves or destroy their relationships with others?  Is it in greed, whichis never content, and the pursuit of which can prevent people from being around for their families when they need them even more than the money they are providing?… Whatever sin that is for you and for me, perhaps we still think, “Yeah, but I’ve got my sin in check, it hasn’t turned out so bad!” Even if that is true, why is that?  Isn’t it only because God graciously stepped in?  Maybe he led you to repentance and new life in Christ so that your marriage, your addiction, your vice – whatever may be! – wouldn’t turn out so bad.  Or, maybe he simply had pity on you and spared you these consequences without the repentance! In other words, it’s kind of like a governor on an engine that prevents it from going too fast or too hard.  So also, God only lets our sin spin so fast and go so far in this world.

Consider the alternative.  What if God just let that engine go until it overheated, until we threw a rod, until our soul was destroyed?  Do you realize, that’s hell?  That’s exactly what we heard in our sermon text! Hell is the removal of God’s gracious presence and power, which means there’s nothing to keep our sin in check.  Hell is not God unfairly punishing people, gleefully throwing the book at them as some people imagine.  If anything it’s the opposite: it’s God saying, “If you don’t believe in me and you reject me, then I’ll give you what you want: I’ll leave you alone so that I won’t help you with your sin at all… though, I will have justice for that sin.” In other words, hell is simply our soul with sin, on a trajectory that goes into eternity.  And that will only get worse and worse. No one with sin – which by its very nature only grows and consumes and destroys – is somehow immune from this. 

But God tells us a solution. We heard it in our sermon text: the difference faith in Jesus makes.  Not as a loophole or a code; just real justice, really met. The only question is where and when?  Will justice have been met for you on a cross on a dark Friday afternoon 2,000 years ago, where a man at Golgotha died for your sin?  Or will it be on another day to come at some point in the future, when that same man returns to bring judgment on those who rejected the brand of justice that he wanted to offer them all along?… Dear fellow sinner, see it today: our day of Judgment has already passed.  Jesus has suffered your hell already.  That’s no exaggeration, just everything sin would do to you and to me and for all eternity, only crammed into three miserable, wretched, unfathomable hours on the cross.  No governor on it for Jesus, just God turning his gracious presence away from him.  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, and do you know the answer to that question?  It was so that God wouldn’t ever have to ever remove his gracious presence from YOU.  That’s how much God loves YOU. He made sure justice was met for all people, so that he would save YOU too. 

Now, since there is JUSTICE FOR ALL, how can we settle for having it when others don’t?  Whether it’s those we know and love dearly, or others we don’t know at all (but they don’t know Christ), we must do whatever we can to bring the good news of Jesus to others.  Then, they can find justice already met for them on Judgment Day as well, just like us.  May that always guide what we do as Christians and as a church!… And after we do that, if people still persecute us, if we are still wronged, if this world still lacks justice, God tells us today what he tells the Thessalonian, “Be at peace…  Judgment Day is still coming.”  Because this isn’t like one of those situations where a cold case doesn’t get resolved.  Rather, this is like one of those situations where the murderer is caught, and he’s brought to justice, and the family finds peace in that.  Even better, this is the only situation where your dead family member will be returned to you alive in the end, or your destroyed property will be fully restored, or whatever wrong you could possibly incur will be made right – in fact, it will be better than you had before. That’s God’s idea of justice.  And is it fair?  No!  It’s actually, completely unfair that God would give us so much more than we ever deserve.  So don’t ever look at hell, see the justice there, and let anyone tell you God is being unfair. But do look to the cross, see the justice there, and tell everyone how unfair God is as he brings JUSTICE FOR ALL.   Amen.