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Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

July 08, 2024
By Rev. Joshua Reinke

July 28th, 2024

Mine!
Sermon Theme: God’s covenant says mine, mine, mine of us, his treasured possessions.
Text: Genesis 9:8–17


Other Lessons: Psalm 136:1–9; Ephesians 3:14–21; Mark 6:45–56


Goal: That hearers grow secure knowing God is always in action for them, because he is jealous for them, his treasured possessions.


Sermon Outline
    3.    We know the jealousy of mine, mine, mine, but God is also jealous over us.
    2.    We think the covenant is mine, mine, mine, but God is in charge.
    1.    We are the mine, mine, mine of his covenant, for God treasures us.
GOD’S COVENANT SAYS MINE, MINE, MINE OF US, HIS TREASURED POSSESSIONS.

 

Sermon


Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.


Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, the text for our meditation today is the Old Testament lesson of Genesis chapter nine verse eight through seventeen.
Mine, mine, mine. In our text today, God says the covenant he is establishing is his, and he says it three times: v 9: “I establish my covenant”; v 11: “I establish my covenant”; v 15: “I will remember my covenant.”


3.
Mine, mine, mine. We know these words, don’t we?
A room full of toddlers, all having fun. In the corner is little Billy with a fire truck. He’s happy and content, having lots of fun. Sam notices and runs over. “My truck.” Mine, mine, mine . . . a treasured possession.
The Black Friday sales will soon be here. The line just to get into the store is long. Then the doors open. The store clerks say, “No running,” without effect. The crowd pushes and shoves to get the greatest deal of the season. That TV, that new phone, that gaming system is . . . mine, mine, mine . . . a treasured possession.


A couple goes to a bar for drinks and dancing. He goes to the restroom; when he returns, another guy is talking to his date. Mine, mine, mine. He’s jealous.
Two people are up for the promotion. They started at the company at the same time. Both have been successful, leading various projects. One gets the promotion, and the other cries, “Mine, mine, mine.” He’s jealous.
Oh, we know these feelings well! A treasured possession! We love it! A jealousy because we love it! Mine, mine, mine.


God certainly knows it too. He knows a treasured possession when he sees it. Who is God’s treasured possession? You! Yes, he becomes jealous when you go off and about. Never thought of it that way?
Then hear the Word of God! God calls you his treasured possession! (Note: the next four verses are paraphrases.) Ex 19:5: Out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Deut 7:6: The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. Deut 26:18: And the LORD has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised. Ps 135:4: For the LORD has chosen [you] to be his own, to be his treasured possession. Mal 3:17: “My treasured possession.” Titus 2:14: “For his own possession.” 1 Pet 2:9: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.”


God calls you his treasured possession, and he is jealous for you! Ex 20:5: “I the LORD your God am a jealous God.” Ex 34:14: “You shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” Deut 4:24: “The LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” Deut 5:9: “You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God.” Deut 6:15: “The LORD your God in your midst is a jealous God. Nah 1:2: “The LORD is a jealous and avenging God.”


God calls you his treasured possession, and he is jealous for you! It is his covenant.


2.
Yet there are times when we think it’s ours. Mine.


How many times do we think we’re in charge? Mine. How many times do we think we’re in control? Mine. How many times do we think we can change it? Mine.


During the summer of 2013, travelers boarded a Las Vegas to Phoenix flight. The plane left the gate but wasn’t cleared for takeoff due to mechanical problems. So it sat on the tarmac, and it sat for hours. Hours on the hot tarmac. Hours without air conditioning, without food, without water. People were stuck for hours on the plane. Two people even passed out.


And then something happened. Whether it was a joke or a subliminal message or the person thought he was in charge, in control, could change things, a man held up his portable music player and belted out the song “I Believe I Can Fly” by R. Kelly. The passengers banded together in song, but it didn’t change the situation. As sinful human beings, we think we’re in charge, in control, can change things. Mine.


Here Luther’s explanation of the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed is helpful, as we covered last month: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me.” We aren’t in charge, in control, able to change it. But God is!


Consider the flood. It was unlike anything mankind has seen before or since. The flood was, without doubt, a holocaust of enormous and exceptional proportions. One day everything was normal, and then . . . the deluge! The water rose for 40 days and nights, and the whole earth remained flooded for 150 days. God is in charge.


1.
So as God created the world, he then re-created. He set the rainbow in the cloud. He established his covenant with you, plural—that is, all of you! He established his covenant with every living creature. He established his covenant with all flesh. He established his covenant for all future generations. And he remembers the covenant everlasting.


His covenant that endures. His covenant with Noah. His covenant with Abraham. His covenant at Sinai. His covenant with David. His covenant with Israel. God’s covenant. His covenant with you. Mine!
Yes, without a doubt, you are God’s treasured possession. God said so himself. He said, “When the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant.”


What was the covenant? That he will never forsake us. And he hasn’t! Jesus Christ will never, never, no way ever, never leave or forsake you (Heb 13:5). That’s like saying, “You are mine, mine, forever mine, mine, mine.”
Oh, he prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Mt 26:39). Jesus, as the Obedient Son, did the will of the Father. Jesus did the will of the Father and stood before Caiaphas, stood before Herod, stood before Pilate. Jesus did the will of the Father. He took the beating, the scourging. Jesus did the will of the Father and endured the weight of the cross. Jesus did the will of the Father and willingly gave up his spirit on the cross for you. But more than that, he rose on Easter morn for you. So that you can be his. So that he can possess you.


So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph 3:17–19)


Yes, you are God’s treasured possession! Our God is jealous for you! In our text today God says it is his covenant, and he says it three times: v 9: “my covenant”; v 11: “my covenant”; v 15: “my covenant.” Three times? He must really want you to know it. 


GOD’S COVENANT SAYS MINE, MINE, MINE OF US,
HIS TREASURED POSSESSIONS.


“You are mine, mine, forever mine, mine, mine.” 


The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus Amen!

 

Third Sunday after Pentecost

June 09, 2024
By Rev. Joshua Reinke

Video

 

Text: Genesis 3:8-15
Theme: God, it’s all your fault!


Outline:
1.    God it’s all your Fault! (You gave me this woman, you created this serpent, all your fault) Pass the blame
2.    God, you alone save us! God passes our blame onto Christ, seed of the woman, crushes head of the serpent


Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.


My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation is the Old Testament Lesson from Genesis chapter three verses eight through fifteen.

 
Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well. What happens if I go like this? Poke. Pretty soon we would start a poke war right? We would keep poking each other constantly. Eventually we would get bored. We would get annoyed with each other. Then the complaining begins. Stop it! She started it! No I did not! It is her fault! For as much fun as we had at the beginning, eventually we try to place someone else as the one who has all of the blame. We see something similar in our text for today. Who does Adam blame? Who does Eve blame? What does God do for them after they broke His one command? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.


1.    God it’s all your Fault!


You had one job. One solitary, easy job. It is so simple. Yet that one job was not done. You were not able to do even one simple thing. You failure. Have you felt like that? I am sure you have. Adam and Eve had one simple command to keep, do not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Sounds easy right? You can eat from every other tree, but not this specific one. Alas, as we know, Eve was tempted by Satan. She ate the fruit and gave some to Adam who was with her. He ate and all of the wonderous grace of Eden is undone.


This is where our text for today picks up. Adam and Eve have made clothing for themselves from fig leaves. They are afraid of every single rustle of a leave in the heat of the day, thinking that it could be the Lord coming to punish them for the transgression they have just done. For humankind the fall is not enough; its flight cannot be fast enough. This flight, Adam’s hiding away from God, we call conscience.  Adam cannot hide from God. The Lord God does come. The Hebrew word is YHWH, the personal name of God. God comes as a personal Creator to His creation to walk and talk with them as He has done before. He knows where Adam is, and yet He asks where he is. “Here is a call of anxious love. The Savior-God was moving to restore his fallen children to himself. But these words are also a call of stern justice. The Creator was demanding an answer from his rebellious creatures. “What have you done that you should be hiding?”  He calls Adam and Eve to repentance. He calls where are you? To give them an opportunity to turn back to Him in love and forgiveness. 


What is Adam’s response? It is not, “I am sorry God, please forgive me and restore me back to the way things were a few moments ago.” Rather it is one of blame. The woman whom you gave to be with me.  He says God it is all your fault. If you had not made Eve, none of this would have happened. He does not even admit that he sinned when he should have told Eve not to have anything to do with that snake. He places the blame solely upon God. When Eve is asks, she says it is the snake’s fault. “The serpent deceived me, and I ate  It is not my fault. It is his. It is her fault. It is your fault God.


Has much changed? When convicted of our own sins, we follow the same pattern as old Mom Eve and Dad Adam. We pass the blame onto others just like they did. It’s not actually my fault.  It is the devil’s fault. He tempted me. He made me do it. It is the world’s fault. If the world was not so beautiful then I would not have given in. We hear it often when it comes to the actions of others as well. If she was not so attractive, nothing would have happened to her. She must have been asking for it. If he was not so rich, maybe he would have been fine. We love to blame anything or anyone, anything to take the blame away from ourselves and admit how sinful we really are. We do not want to admit that we too have fallen. We too have broken the Law of God, more than one simple rule! We have sinned in thought, word, and deed, and who do we have to blame? No one but ourselves.


2.    God, you alone save us!


God’s justice demands His action. He must do something. So, what does God do? He could just destroy everything, start over again. Yet instead He hands down curses for the snake, Eve, and Adam. 
“Adam’s and Eve’s pitiful attempts to excuse themselves didn’t deserve an answer from God and didn’t get one. Instead, God turned to the serpent and announced a curse. The serpent’s method of movement was henceforth to be changed; from now on he would crawl on his belly.


If this seems unfair, remember that God was doing this to teach the two people who were still blushing from the first sin. The snake’s unusual method of moving along the ground was to serve as a constant reminder to them and to us that this is the animal Satan used to drag down the crown of creation to his level. Crawling in the dust would also symbolize Satan’s defeat and humiliation. Adam and Eve heard the words God spoke to Satan; they were to know that although Satan had won his little victory here, he would not triumph permanently.”  


Within God’s condemning speech to Satan there is a promise given to Adam and Eve: 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”    There is salvation given and it is all God’s action. It’s all His fault, His doing. “These words are spoken for the sake of Adam and Eve that they may hear this judgment and be comforted by the realization that God is the enemy of the being that inflicted so severe a wound on man. Here grace and mercy begin to shine forth in the midst of wrath which sin and disobedience aroused. Here in the midst of most serious threats the Father reveals His heart…Who points to deliverance, indeed who promises victory against the enemy that deceived and conquered human nature.”[4]


Adam and Eve were given to trust the promised Gospel of Genesis 3:15. As Luther says, “Their consolation against sin and despair was their hope for this crushing, which was to be brought about in the future through Christ…[Adam and Eve] are full of sin and death. And yet, because they hear the promise concerning the Seed who will crush the serpent’s head, they have the same hope we have, namely, that death will be taken away, that sin will be abolished, and that righteousness, life, peace, etc. will be restored. In this hope our first parents live and die, and because of this hope they are truly holy and righteous.”[5] Adam and Eve are saved from death and hell by faith in the promise of God.


They put their trust and faith into the same One that we do. One from the seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent. One who will undo everything that Adam and Eve have done. One who will restore Eden again forever. Who is that One? The Only-begotten Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He took on our flesh. He became one of us. He was tempted in every way, just as we were. His heel is bruised upon the cross where He suffers, bleeds, and dies for us. By His death, Jesus takes Adam’s sin, your sins, my sins, upon Himself. He suffers the full weight of our punishment, of our guilt and blame. He pays the price for them by the shedding of His holy and precious blood. Satan thinks he has won. Nothing could be further from the truth. Victorious, Jesus rises from the dead on the third day. The head of the serpent is crushed beneath Jesus’ nail scarred feet forever. As we will sing, “He can harm us none. He’s judged, the deed is done. One little word can fell him.” Ascending to the right hand of the Father, Jesus has given to you Eden restored. Everything that Satan has done, Jesus has undone and made everything new again.


Con: God it is all your fault! In a way it is. It is not His fault that you give into your own sinful flesh, the sinful world, and the temptations of Satan. That’s fully your fault, but thanks be that He is rich in grace and mercy. He alone has given us the forgiveness of our sins, the salvation of our souls, and life with Him forever purely by His love and almighty power, promised all the way back in the Garden that you may have Eden restored once again.

 

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. 
 

First Sunday in Lent

February 15, 2024
By Rev. Joshua Reinke

Video: Click to view

 

 

Text: Genesis 22:1-18
Theme: The Lord will provide


Outline:
1.    The Lord provides Isaac, Abraham’s beloved
2.    The Lord provides Jesus, His Beloved

 

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.


My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the Old Testament lesson of Genesis chapter twent-two verses one through eighteen.
Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. What do I have here? I have a lamb. Lambs are used throughout the Bible, usually a person kept lambs as a sacrifice. During Lent, we normally give up or sacrifice small things. We sacrifice our love of chocolate, or Television, or coffee, or soda. Abraham is called by God to offer a sacrifice. Who is Abraham called to sacrifice? What does the Lord provide in Isaac’s place? What does He provide in our place? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.


1.    The Lord provides Isaac, Abraham’s beloved
 

It has been around twenty-seven years since the Lord blessed Abraham and Sarah with a son in their old age. Isaac has grown into a strong and handsome man. The Lord comes to Abraham, tests him, and says, God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.  Imagine the pain of Abraham’s heart. He is commanded to take his only beloved son, the son of the promise though which kings of nations will come, and give him to the Lord as a burnt offering. Isaac is not only the one promised to Abraham and Sarah in their old age, and thus very beloved of them. He is also the one that the Lord has promised the Messiah will come from. If he dies, what becomes of Abraham’s salvation? Luther accurately described Abraham’s predicament in these words: “To human reason it must have seemed either that God’s promise would fail, or else this command must be of the devil and not of God.” To Abraham it must have seemed that God’s command was destroying God’s promise.
 

And what further complicated the situation for Abraham was that God’s command seemed not only to violate a father’s love for his son but to cut off his hope of ever being saved. If Isaac was the link between Abraham and the only Savior he would ever have, how could Abraham cut off that link and hope to be right with God? And how could he ever hope to live with God forever? 
 

After a sleepless night, Abraham gets up in the morning and gets everything ready. He cuts the wood, saddles his donkey, and takes Isaac as well as two servants with them. This is no spur of the moment decision either. Moriah is about a three days journey from where they are. Three days to ruminate over what action he is about to do. Abraham bears it all in silence. When they reach the site, Abraham tells his servants to wait there. Isaac and him will go worship, “And then we will come back to you.” The Hebrew word translated “we will come back” is an emphatic verb form expressing the speaker’s determination. It hints at the answer Abraham had reached to this awful question that was torturing him: “How can a merciful God cut off the  messianic line?” Abraham’s faith answered, “If God commands me to kill Isaac and I obey him, then God is simply going to have to bring Isaac’s ashes back to life, and the two of us are going to come back down this mountain.”  God’s promise must prevail, somehow some way.
 

As he bears the wood for his own sacrifice, Isaac realizes the strangeness of what they are doing. He said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.  We have everything, wood, fire, knife, but the most important thing is missing. Father, where is the lamb? Abraham could have told Isaac the harsh truth, spilled everything from his hurting heart. Yet, in fatherly love, he does not. He simple says, The Lord will provide. Abrahm holds to this, even as he builds the altar, binds his beloved son, lifts him onto the altar, and raises the knife to slay his beloved. 
 

Graciously his hand is stayed. The Lord says, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.  The Lord stops Abraham’s hand and provides a ram as a substitute in place of Isaac.
 

3.    The Lord provides Jesus, His Beloved
 

A Ram in place of Isaac, what does this mean for us today? Every single one of us are akin to Isaac. We lie bound upon the altar, not by ropes, but in the bondage of our sins. We are born under the power of Satan, under his control. We deserve for the knife to be plunged into us. We deserve physical death, as well as spiritual death in the fires of hell forever.
 

For our salvation, “The Lord provides.” God sends to us His own beloved Son, Jesus Christ. One beloved even more than Isaac. One beloved by all the host of heaven. Jesus lives a perfect life in our place. He perfectly keeps the Law. As Isaac obeyed Abraham to the point of being bound and placed upon the altar, Jesus perfectly obeys the will of the Father to be abused, bound, and nailed. He asks that the cup be taken from Him if possible. While God provides a ram in place of Isaac, He does not provide a substitute for His own beloved Son. Jesus dies a horrible, agonizing death upon the cross. He is not given a substitute, rather He is the substitute for us. Jesus sheds His holy and precious blood as our substitute bearing the punishment for every single one of our sins.
 

The Lord will provide indeed. A substitute ram for Isaac. Jesus Christ, His own beloved Son, for us and for our salvation. Can we make similar sacrifices for others in our lives? The one supreme sacrifice for us all has already been made by Christ. Thus the only “supreme sacrifice” we can make to God is to offer ourselves, the entire self (body, mind, and soul; Deut 10:12–13; Ps 51:6, 10, 17; Micah 6:8) and all possessions in full devotion and obedience to God (Dent 6:5; Mt 16:24–26).
 

Recently in China, the police drove up to the worship service of 600 Christians in a house church, led by evangelist Li Dexian. When they destroyed all furniture and furnishings, the Christians blessed them. When Mr. Li was arrested, he asked them to pray for him. They all dropped to their knees and prayed. The police were amazed that he could have such power over so many people by only saying a word (The Voice of the Martyrs, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, Feb. 1999). Such is the power given Christians who are willing to sacrifice themselves for his sake. 

 

Whole-life sacrifice can be shown in a wide variety of ways. It could be being a faithful wife or husband, a faithful mother or father bringing your children to church even when the world does everything in its power to stop that action. A faithful student learning in spite of bullying and abuse from peers.  In some whole-life sacrifice leads some to full-time church or missionary service or allowing a child so to serve. Or this may mean devotion to the service of others beyond the normal call of one’s duties through sacrificial service in one’s occupation, in one’s spare time (e.g., service clubs, church or missionary organizations), in one’s family, in one’s circle of friends, and neighbors, or in the nation or world.
 

The Lord grant us the strength and faith to sacrifice our very selves in service to others, just as He sacrificed a ram in place of beloved Isaac, and His own beloved Son in our place.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
 

Ash Wednesday

February 14, 2024
By Rev. Joshua Reinke

Let now these ashes make their mark, upon our foreheads and our hearts; from dust to dust we see decay that only God can take away.

 

O Lord may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer.

 

As I look our today, I see a lot of crosses. Crosses made with Ash. Why? How does this remind us not only of our mortality, but also of what Jesus Christ has done for us? 


Black of ash made their mark upon our foreheads. Why? As a reminder of what we are made from. All the way back in Genesis, when God creates Adam and Eve, He forms Adam from the dust of the earth. He forms Eve from Adam’s rib as a helpmate fit for him. When they sin against God. When they violate the one command that God gives. That command is to not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, they are rightfully punished. Eve is cursed with pain in childbearing. Adam bears the greatest of the curses, because he did not speak up, rebuke the snake, and tell Eve to stop talking to him. Because of Adam, the entirety of creation is doomed for death and decay. For dust you are and to dust you shall return.


A death and decay that extends to us still today. The ashes are not only on our foreheads, but also to mark the darkness within our own hearts. Every single one of us have what we call original sin. The desire to break every single one of the commands of God. Sin that we have inherit ate by the fact that we are humans born of humans. We are sinners. We lie, cheat, steal, and covet.  We put other things and people in the rightful place of God in our lives. We are deserving of present and eternal punishment.  We are dust and to dust we shall return. Eventually, we will die. We will die because every single one of us has violated the Law of God in thought, word, and deed.


Black, dusty ash to remind us of our mortality. Yet where do these ashes come from? They are made from the palms of last year’s Palm Sunday. This is done to remind us that our King has come, not in the terrors of judgement, but to redeem us. A King who answers our cries of Hosanna, save us! In the most unlikely of ways. While we are deserving of eternal punishment, astray from God, violating His commands. The Creator of the universe enters His creation to save us. The seed of the woman through the womb of the blessed Virgin, Jesus lays aside His divine power, glory, and authority. He assumes the form of a servant. He assumes our sinful dust, yet was without sim, that our sinful black ashy self may be reconciled to God once again.


How is this reconciliation done? Look at how the ashes have been applied to you. They are applied in the shape of a cross. Why a cross? That is how Jesus reconciled us to God forever. By the wood of the cross, we are saved. Jesus saves us by living the Law perfect on our behalf. He bears our punishment when He dies a brutal death upon the cross. He covers our sinful, black dust, with His innocent blood. By dying He destroys death forever. By rising again from the dead, Jesus gives to us newness of life with Him forever. 


Black ash to remind us of our dustiness, our sinfulness, and mortality, yet in the shape of the cross to remind us that we are redeemed dust because of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.


In Jesus’ name. Amen.
 

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