Never Satisfied Sermon Sept 27 2020

If The Lord Wishes

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.” Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15 NRSV)

When I was first married, my husband insisted on not making long term plans. At least, if we did, he did not want anyone knowing about them. He didn't want anyone thinking that we failed at doing what we planned to do.

Forty some years later, he likes to plan. I suppose I would like to, as well. The problem is that I really don't know what I want to do and is what I want to do even feasible. We are not getting any younger. I am at retirement age and I'd like to do some traveling and enjoy some time together. But, the reality is that I have been working for 50 years and as much as I think I'd enjoy retirement, I think I would be pretty bored not having something that I am absolutely committed to do every day. Howard has retired twice and now works part-time just for something to do.

So, we have been making plans for what we ought to do beginning this summer. Is it time to do some traveling around this country? Or, should we just stay put? Who can tell! We don't even know what tomorrow will bring, let alone a day six months from now.

As my husband would say, "Whatever happens, happens." All we can really do is love the Lord and one another and live the life that God has given us one day at a time. God has a plan; a good plan.

God's Peace - Pr. J

Listen To His Voice

So, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you hear his voice,
     do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
    during the time of testing in the wilderness,
 where your ancestors tested and tried me,
    though for forty years they saw what I did.
 That is why I was angry with that generation;
    I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,
    and they have not known my ways.’
 So I declared on oath in my anger,
    ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

                                                                                                              (Heb 3:7-13 NIV)

It was not only Israel that has seen and heard what God had done for them. If we are honest with ourselves; we, too, have seen and heard what God has done for us. God has done great things for all people. Yet, many refuse to see. They refuse to hear. They harden their hearts as in the great rebellion. They refuse to follow in "the way." Sadly, those who continue to rebel against the Lord our God will never enter His rest as He has promised. Sadly, some of those people who reject Him are people that we care about and love. It is up to those who do believe to continue to encourage others and remind them that it is a privilege and a blessing to hear his voice. It is up to God's children to remind all people to listen to Him.

May God open our ears to hear and our eyes to see and our hearts that we might desire to listen and follow in His way. 

God's Peace - Pr. J

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

THE LORD's PRAYER

The Fourth Petition.

Give us this day our daily bread.

What does this mean?--Answer.
God gives daily bread, even without our prayer, to all wicked men; but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to know it, and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.

What is meant by daily bread?--Answer.
Everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as meat, drink, clothing, shoes, house, homestead, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful magistrates, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.

(http://bookofconcord.org/smallcatechism.php)

 

There was no bread in the desert.  There was no meat to eat in the wilderness.  The Israelites were hungry and complained saying it would be better to be slaves in Egypt rather than following the Lord through the wilderness to the promised land.  The Lord heard them complaining.  He provided daily bread. But, he provided no more than they needed except for on the day before the Sabbath so that they would have enough to sustain them on the Sabbath.  He proved bread in the morning and quail for meat each evening.  But, some people tried to hoard it.  They did not understand that the Lord was trying to teach them to trust him and not the rulers of this world for their daily bread.  The extra bread that they tried to collect and save up for themselves spoiled so that worms lived in it.   For forty years the Lord provided this daily bread to his children.

Give us this day our daily bread. We pray it all the time. I remember Howard and my first few years of marriage. Wow! Talk about broke! He was a young Marine and I will tell you that at that time; even though I worked as well, there was not much of an income.  I had a budget of $20.00 for groceries for the month. Before I went shopping, I would do a whole month's menu just so not a penny would be wasted. Sometimes we ended up short. For some reason, I didn't think about applying for food stamps. I think I may have felt that they were for those who had less than we had. I actually felt quite blessed at the time. After all, there was always something to eat on the table. Suppers on those last days of the month sometimes were pretty sparse. They consisted of things like pancakes without eggs, basically flour and water with a  little margarine and sugar sprinkled on top or homemade bean soup. We ate a lot of homemade bean soup. But, we ate. We were provided for. Even though at times there was no meat for the table, there was always bread - sometimes homemade. God provided for our daily needs.

God provides for all that we need; not just the food which sustains our bodies. Do we really trust Him to take care of all of our needs or are we busy striving for more for ourselves? Are we willing to sell ourselves back into the bondage of people, places, things?  In whom do we trust to care of us:  God or the world? 

 

May God teach us to depend on Him above all others and then to use the gifts that He gives to us that others may also not be in need of life sustaining daily bread.

God's Peace - Pr. J