Sermons 2025

SERMON OUTLINE 

Introduction: 

Evergreen decorations used for Advent appear in many different forms. 

I. Evergreen decorations used during Advent originated in Europe. 

a. The Christmas tree arose in northern Europe to represent the tree of life. 

b. Evergreen garland arose in England to present life in the dead of winter. 

II. Evergreen decorations serve as a symbol of eternal life. 

a. Green signifies life. 

b. Evergreen signifies life that is eternal. 

III. Evergreens point us to Christ’s first advent. 

a. Jesus came to restore and give us eternal life, which had been lost due to sin. 

b. Christ became human to bring eternal life through His death and resurrection. 

c. God, the source of life, indwells and empowers us with His life.

 IV. Evergreens point us to Christ’s second advent. 

a. Jesus’ return will inaugurate a new creation without sin and death.

 b. Evergreens are associated with eternal life and the tree of life. 

SERMON INTRODUCTION 

Advent is a season of preparation for Christmas and for the coming of the Lord. During this Advent season, we reflect upon common decorations that we see all around us this time of year. We put up a lot of decorations that can help us prepare for the coming of Christ. This first week of Advent, we will focus on how evergreen decorations, especially our Christmas Trees, help us prepare for the coming of Christ. 

Look around this time of year, and you will see greenery everywhere—garland, wreaths, trees, and sprays. We decorate with different kinds of conifer trees—pine, spruce, fir—as well as with broadleaf evergreens like holly and ivy. We love to sing songs that celebrate these evergreen decorations, such as “O Tannenbaum” and “The Holly and the Ivy.” 

As we will during our Advent Midweeks. Indeed, the Christmas tree has become the universal symbol of the Christmas season, trees are displayed everywhere throughout the world: in homes, offices, town centers, shopping centers, public spaces, even on Halmark Christmas Cards. Even here in our church sanctuary, we have decorated our church with an evergreen tree and wreaths and garland.  These decorations have a churchly significance; they point us to spiritual truths. 

Why do we display evergreens in our church and in our homes as Christians? Is it only for aesthetic value—to make the place look pretty and festive? Or is there a deeper significance? 

I. Evergreen decorations used during Advent originated in Europe. 

To help us answer these questions, let’s go back to the very origins of the use of evergreen decorations during Advent and Christmas. Historians tell us that these decorations were first used in Europe during medieval times. The use of the Christmas tree appeared in northern Europe around AD 1000. Usually, a small fir tree was cut from the forest and brought into the house. By AD 1400, Christmas trees were commonly found in German homes. They were decorated with apples, nuts, pretzels, wafers, and gingerbread. 

Furthermore, December 24 was observed as the feast day of Adam, during which a “Paradise Play” was presented. This drama reenacted the events that took place with Adam and Eve in Paradise as depicted in the opening chapters of the Bible. In this play, a fir tree represented the tree of life. Christians associated the evergreen tree with life for this winter festival. Around the same time, garland made of green holly and ivy appeared in England during Advent and Christmas. 

Christians would decorate their churches, houses, and streets with evergreen branches. They even wrapped a pole with evergreen garland as a kind of winter maypole. This was done to present the warm hope of life in the bleak, cold, dark, dead of winter. 

II. Evergreen decorations serve as a symbol of eternal life. 

Green is a symbol of life because living plants are green. In cold climates, many plants lose their green in the winter and appear to be lifeless. But evergreen plants such as fir, pine, and holly trees retain green leaves in the winter. They have become a symbol of life when other plants appear dead. 

Moreover, evergreens are a symbol of eternal life. This is because they are ever green. They prevail over death, even in the dead of winter. Remember that the fir tree symbolized the tree of life for Christians in the Middle Ages. In the Bible, the tree of life offered eternal life to all who ate its fruit. 

Accordingly, Christians since the Middle Ages have decorated their homes and churches during Advent and Christmas to remind them of the gift of eternal life that Jesus’ advent offers. II. Evergreens point us to Christ’s first advent. Christ’s first coming was to restore eternal life that had been lost when our first parents fell into sin. 

In Paradise, Adam and Eve had access to the tree of life, as depicted by a fir tree in the medieval Paradise Play. But they forfeited that eternal life by sinning. Thorns infested the ground as a symbol of the curse and of death (Genesis 3:17–19). 

Jesus, the Second Adam, came to restore life that was lost in humanity’s fall. In His advent two thousand years ago, God the Son came as a human being to give His life so that we sinners might receive eternal life. Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). He brought life to us through a thorny crown and a sacrificial death on the cross, exchanging His life for the death that we deserved. 

The evergreen holly branch is associated with Christ’s death because its thorny leaves remind us of the crown of thorns He wore on the cross. Its red berries remind us of the drops of blood that fell from His head as He hung on the cross. His death destroyed death, and His resurrection restored life. Jesus proclaims, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:25–26). 

Through Christ’s first advent, you and I have the gift of eternal life. God the Holy Spirit indwells us and empowers us with His life. He compares Himself to an evergreen tree in Hosea 14:8: “I am like an evergreen cypress; from Me comes your fruit.” God is our never-failing source of life and fruitfulness. 

III. Evergreens point us to Christ’s second advent.

 But that’s not all. Jesus’ return will inaugurate a new creation in which sin and death no longer exist. In the Bible, evergreens are associated with the new creation, which brings the reversal of sin’s curse and the blessing of eternal life. Recall that evergreens are associated with the tree of life, which we will have access to when Jesus comes again. 

The final chapter of the Bible describes that scene: “On either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed” (Revelation 22:2–3). The tree of life is everbearing, evergreen, bestowing the fruit of everlasting life. This life is ours because of Christ’s first and second advents. 

CONCLUSION 

Evergreen decorations made of pine, spruce, fir, and holly trees are ubiquitous during this season. They convey a powerful message: evergreen symbolizes everlasting life. That’s what Advent and Christmas are all about: the eternal life that Jesus won for us at His first coming, which we will experience fully at His second coming. So, every time you look at evergreen decorations, remember their message: Jesus has come and will come again to give you everlasting life! Evergreen decorations made of pine, spruce, fir, and holly trees are ubiquitous during this season. They convey a powerful message: evergreen symbolizes everlasting life. That’s what Advent and Christmas are all about: the eternal life that Jesus won for us at His first coming, which we will experience fully at His second coming. So, every time you look at evergreen decorations, remember their message: Jesus has come and will come again to give you everlasting life!

Text: 4th Petition of Lord’s Prayer 

Outline 

1. Daily Bread 

2. Thankful Bread 

Sermon 

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 Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer “Give us this day our daily bread.” 

What does this mean? God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. 

What is meant by daily bread? Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors and the like. 

Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. Did you enjoy breakfast this morning? It was pretty tasty and helped to make you less hungry. This is an example of what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer. We pray that we will be given everything that we need for this body and life. Our daily bread includes lots of things in our lives, our clothing, our homes, our money, and much more. How does God give us our daily bread? How can we use the daily bread that we are given to help those around us? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you. 

1. Daily Bread 

We pray here that we may be given our daily bread. We pray not in thanks for what we had yesterday. Nor do we beg for what we will receive tomorrow, or next month, or next year. Rather, we pray for daily, what we need here and now. How do we get our daily Bread? 

Ultimately everything we have and are comes from the beloved Hand of our loving Heavenly Father. If God were not watching out for us and giving us every good gift, we would be able to do nothing for ourselves. 

As one such example, make your own oxygen to breath. How long would you last? At most maybe a few minutes before death sets in. 

We do not even think about our breathing or our hearts beating, they just happen. It just goes to show how we take even the smallest things for granted. Even worse, we fail to give thanks for the good things that we do receive. 

We fall into the prideful trap of Satan and the world around us in thinking that I have everything I have because I worked hard for it. It is the reward of my efforts and dedication. The reason I have money in the bank is because of my hard work at my job. The reason I have clothing, food, drink, a loving spouse, and roof over my head is because of my hard work and efforts. We fall in love with our possessions and things, always seeking to outdo do one another, not in showing love, but in who can have the best, biggest, most expensive and brightest toy, at least until something better comes along that we desire. 

In our pride and arrogance, we are blinded to the fact that there are people out there who worry and wonder where their daily bread is going to come from. Moms and dads, even children, going to bed hungry again. Just here in Montana alone, 67% of households live below the poverty line, with many of them stating that money for food is stretched tighter than ever, to the point that some are like Amanda from Billings. With everything cut already from the budget, “I now am selling my plasma to try and bridge the gaps but we are still struggling.” That comes from a family where the parents are nurses, I am sure that it is even worse for those who are less fortunate….From a survey of 652 people from 2041 households, 60% of Adults have ate less or skipped meals because there wasn't enough money for food. Of these, most (55%) did so almost every month. 

1. Thankful Bread 

Our Lord knew this pain of hunger. In the incarnation, He knew what it was like to be hungry and thirsty, to need to depend upon the Father for every good blessing daily. In His perfect obedience to the Father, Jesus shows us how we can rightly thank God for every blessing that He gives to us as we are in service to our neighbors. When the disciples come to Him after He has taught five thousand people all day, saying, “Lord send them away to find food.” Our Lord replies, “You give them something to eat.” They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” 14 (About five thousand men were there.) But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” 15 The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. 16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. 17 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. (Luke 9:13-17) Our Lord gave thanks to the Father for the daily bread He provided for them, then He broke and gave until all were fully satisfied, including providing for His own disciples from the leftovers!

 Rather than depending upon Himself, Jesus fully depended upon the Father for His daily bread, knowing that the Father would give everything in His time. Even upon the cross, suffering the humiliation, shame, and agony, Jesus still commits Himself into the Father’s care. 

Knowing that our Lord has suffered, died, and risen to forgive us of our pride, arrogance, and worry, we are transformed by His Spirit working in us. We do not need to worry about what the future holds. We do not need to horde food, to be greedy, or wasteful. 

Rather, we can live content, knowing that the Lord will give us everything that we need to support this body, and life, unto life everlasting. Being content does not mean that life will be easy, that we will never want for things upon this earth. Rather, we trust that we will have simply what we need. We look, not to ourselves or to the work of our hands in pride, but simply to the Lord to open His hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. Secure in what our Lord has done for us upon the cross and content with every blessing He provides, we strive to show that contentment in our daily lives. 

We take up collections, like we did this past Thursday for the Rescue Mission that their hunger could be eased. We have blankets, quilts, gas and food cards, to give out to those in need so they and their children can be warm, and full bellies, even if for a night. We help others to find stable jobs so that they can provide for their families and have a roof over our heads. Because being content does not just mean sitting idle waiting for our daily bread to just fall out of the sky. It means we are busy working to provide not only for ourselves, but also for those around us. 

Just think, where does your food come from? The farmer grows the crops, the fieldhands help to plant and harvest them. The rancher cares for the animals, the butcher kills and processes them, the grocer sells them, the cashier make sure that everything is paid for so that no one breaks the Seventh commandment. It is through our vocations, as simple and as varied as they are, that the Lord meets our physical and spiritual needs. Through the work of our hands, the Lord blesses us with daily bread, that we might daily be a blessing to those around us. As we begin this new church year, let us always be hard at work, in thanksgiving for what our Lord has done for us through His incarnation, death, and resurrection from the dead, until the day when all hunger, thirst, and pain shall be no more, forever and ever. 

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

Text: Luke 21:5-36 

Theme: See the Glory through the Haze 

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 Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke the twenty-first chapter verses five through thirty-six. 

Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. What do I have here? You are right! I have a gallon of milk. It says that it is good until last year. do you think I should drink it? No, why not? 

Because a lot of bad things could happen to me. I could get really sick from drinking this milk. Just like milk can go bad, so too does the world. It is filled with sin. There are lots of bad people that do bad things. Jesus says that God has set an expiration date on the world. It will expire when He says it will. In our text for today, Jesus tells His disciples about what the end will be like. Is the end something that we need to fear, just like drinking expired milk? Or can we raise our heads looking forward to the end with Joy? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you. 

1. Hazy Days 

How many of you enjoy foggy days? I enjoy gloomy, foggy days. When it is damp and cold. When it is so cloudy that you’re wondering if the sun is even out because even its warming rays are obscured by the clouds. Those are good days to drink something warm, put on your favorite sweatshirt, and maybe get some work done or just curl up with a good book or movie. There are times when the fog is not so great. Taking the kids to school in the morning with the fog thick on the highway, making it at best slow and at worst kind of dangerous because of poor visibility. When you have to go through the haze and make progress in it, that’s when it becomes a real problem. 

Today’s focus on our text is looking through the haze of this life. it’s looking through the haze of our life here on this earth. Jesus says that in many ways this life will be like trying to travel through the fog. It’s going to be uncomfortable and even dangerous. But by his grace, and with His strength, we will get beyond the haze of this sinful world and be with him in eternal life. 

During holy week, Jesus and his disciples were walking through the temple courts in Jerusalem and those around Jesus were marveling at what was around them. The beauty of everything was overwhelming. The temple had been recently refurbished by Herod, and the disciples were amazed. The stones themselves weighed 2.5 tons and were 41 feet long, 15 feet wide, and 11.5 high. But Jesus didn’t do much marveling. He’s very stark: “These things that you see here—the days will come when there will not be one stone left on another—every one will be thrown down.” 

Jesus’ statement was proven true just a few decades later when Rome would march on Jerusalem and destroy much of the city, including the temple, to get at the gold that had melted between the cracks of the stones. The temple has never been rebuilt. 

What is Jesus’ point in this harsh statement? Don’t get too attached to the world around you. It will not last. It will not endure. The things of this life are temporary—even the good and God-pleasing things like the temple was. Everything has an expiration date. 

That’s a challenge in this life, right? The danger of driving in the fog is that you can’t see far in front of you. So while you’re nervous about what may be looming ahead of you, you’re spending all of your time focused on where you can see, limited as it may be. It’s easy to adopt that approach in our life, to ignore or put off the coming glory of eternity. We can be deluded by our fogged-in vision and think that what’s around us is all that there is and all there is to live for. But Jesus reminds us that it’s all temporary, it will all pass away. Nothing endures.

We need to stay focused on what is eternally coming, not only on what is right in front of us. But what about between now and then? While we’re living in this end time fog, we still have responsibilities. We still have family to care for, a congregation to support, people to share the gospel with. We still have tasks to complete and promises to keep. We still need to do our best in whatever vocations we are serving in. We still have love to show and empathy to be poured out. So we will tend to those tasks. But how do we do these tasks in the haze of this life? 

2. Hazy effects 

It would be tempting for us to think that, as Christians, life should be pretty smooth sailing. Sure, it’s foggy, but our footing is solid and safe, right? We should be able to have the confidence that because God loves us, everything should be great. Life should be good. We should not have a fear, worry, or care in the world. Even when the end comes, we will be fine, right? Well, what does Jesus say? “Watch out so that you are not deceived! For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. Whenever you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be terrified, for these things must happen first, but the end will not be right then… Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be horrifying sights and great signs from heaven. But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, handing you over to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name’s sake… You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. They will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all people for my name’s sake. 

This does not sound good. It sounds painful. It sounds harsh, hard, and difficult. 

First, Jesus says that there will be spiritual, religious leaders that will come teaching messages that are contrary to Scripture. False teachers have come and will come preaching messages that we should just focus on what is here in this life because, they say, God just wants us to be happy. God wants you to be successful and have all the good things in this life. Others teach different messages than we’ve been given, like all you have to do is be a good person and you can get into Heaven. It does not matter what you believe so long as you believe something with sincere conviction. These false teachers may distort Jesus’ words or lead us to put trust in our own work and convictions rather than in what God has done for us. Jesus warns us, “Watch out so that you are not deceived! For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them.” 

But it’s not just false teachers that we have to deal with in this hazy life. Whenever you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be terrified, for these things must happen first, but the end will not be right then… Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be horrifying sights and great signs from heaven.

There are also natural and political hardships in this world. Kind of sounds like the last couple of years, doesn’t it? It also kind of sounds like the time of World War II, or World War I, or the bubonic plague, or almost every moment in every era from the time Jesus spoke these words until now. 

Things are not going to get better upon this earth. We can’t make this fog go away. No election or politician can change the track this world is on. No viewpoint or conviction can stop this life from being clouded from God’s truth and light because of sin. Whether we are nurturing our children or voting in an election, we have to recognize that we cannot change the impact sin has on the world around us, on the people we love, and on our own hearts. We cannot lift this haze. 

3. Haze Lifted, Glory to Come 

Only Jesus can lift this haze of sin. He has lifted the haze of sin by entering this world in the flesh. As John declares, “We have seen His glory, glory of the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus through His incarnation and perfect life has done away with the haze of sin. Because of Jesus’ work, the forgiveness of sins is ours, the inheritance of heaven is assured, but we don’t have it in full right now. We know that heaven is coming in all of its fullness. We see the glory in part, but it’s only like looking for the bright spot on the other side of the fog. Even the sun may be clouded out, but that doesn’t mean it’s gone missing. So too, the promises of God of forgiveness and eternal life stand unmoved, but they’re not our full experience yet. And being stuck in the pea soup of this life can be deeply, deeply unpleasant. I am reminded of the ending scene of the movie The Mist. A town has been surrounded by a deadly fog. Thirty-four people have died throughout the movie. The family of the main character has just killed themselves out of despair only for the fog to break a few moments later, revealing army tanks rolling in to save the day. 

We are looking forward to that Day when the haze of this fog breaks and One greater than the army comes rolling in. Our Lord with all power and might on full display. Yet, Jesus says, that looking ahead to the future glory brings its own problems. Being a Christian in this world will cause its own issues: But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, handing you over to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name’s sake. It will turn out to be your opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand how to defend yourselves, for I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. They will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all people for my name’s sake. Jesus declares that you will face persecution and trouble because of your faith in Jesus. Being a Christian in this world will naturally bring these hardships. But did Jesus say, “Take a stand! Fight for yourself! Defend your rights to your faith!”? No. Did he say we should be loudmouthed, arrogant, and obnoxious, hoping to draw some of these hardships on ourselves, to seek after persecution and suffering? No. He said you will suffer these things, you may even die. 

This suffering will not be the chance to fight, it will not be the chance to cry foul, bemoan the hardships that have happened, and play the victim, it will be the opportunity to testify. Persecution is not an opportunity to show how tough and strong we are. Persecution is an opportunity to share the love of Jesus with people who clearly don’t know it or understand it. So, when you are mocked—or much worse—for your faith, that’s an evangelism opportunity. There’s an opportunity to put into practice what Jesus commanded, to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. You do not need to worry about what to say in that moment. Your time in God’s Word prepares you; Jesus himself promises to give you the words and wisdom you need to witness to the truth lovingly, with gentleness and respect. It’s never about defending yourself—it’s about sharing the love of God with others. It’s about bringing the light of the coming glory to others who are lost in this haze. 

We could leave a section of Scripture like this feeling really, really down and depressed with all of this pain, destruction, and hatred. Jesus is being real with us. He’s being honest about what’s going to happen. None of this, not one harsh word, not one natural disaster, not one financial difficulty will ever change what God has done for you. We know that all of this has happened, is happening, and will happen because of sin. 

But that sin is, of course, what Jesus came to solve. And solve it He did. The whole reason we are able to look through the haze to glory that is approaching is because of Jesus’ work on our behalf. Without Jesus, all the bad things that he describes here would be the best part of our lives; hell will be so much worse than anything bad we can endure here.

With Jesus, because He took all sin on himself at the cross, His death and resurrection means that we’re not stumbling our way through this haze and falling into a pit. It means we walk this life hand-in-hand with our Savior. He leads us through this life, through good days and difficult days, through joy and sorrow, all the way through this hazy, perishing world to the eternal life he has prepared for us. Don’t lose track of how Jesus ends our reading: You will be hated by all people for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By patient endurance you will gain your lives.” And “28 Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Focus in on that word perish, because this is not the same as die. Death may speak of physical separation, the end of one’s life. Our hair, just like the rest of us, will surely die unless Jesus returns before then. But not a hair on your head will perish. “Perish” here means eternal death. So great is the love and victory of your Savior that not even the most fragile part of your body will be lost; not a part of you will see hell even for a moment. For as bad as things are here in the haze, by God’s grace you will reach the coming glory unscathed because Jesus has forgiven every one of your sins. And so, beloved saints, lift up your heads. In joy and thanksgiving to God for his forgiveness, we will continue to do our best in the midst of this haze in every aspect of life. But don’t let the haze bring you down. Don’t let it distract from the glory that is coming. And don’t forget that every step we take through this fog, Jesus is guiding and leading us with his forgiving love. Your redemption is drawing near. Look forward to the glory to come and the Joy to be revealed when Jesus comes in power and glory without end. 

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