Matthew 4:19-20

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Our passage for today is found in Matthew chapter four, verses 19 through 20.

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. (Matthew 4:19-20)

What is it that you spend most of your time doing? You spend most of your days golfing, reading a good book by the fireplace, maybe watching a movie? No, I think if you’re like most people, the vast majority of your time is spent at your job, so it’s important to find a job that you enjoy. Now, enjoy can mean a few different things. Maybe you enjoy it because of what it does, because of the community you have at the office. Maybe you enjoy it because it gives you financial security and that’s something important to you, but it’s important that it meets some criteria of enjoyment and providing what you need.

Imagine that you were working your job and you got a phone call at your desk. You answered it, and it was somebody who wanted to interview you for a job at their company. So you go and sit down for the interview and you ask the person interviewing you, what are the benefits? What is the pay? What does this job really entail? And the person interviewing you says, well, you can expect not to be paid. You can rely maybe on your coworkers or the community. Maybe they’ll take care of you. You’re going to work all hours of the night. There’ll be no time off. There’ll be no holidays. And you’re going to be risking your life. It’s going to be a very dangerous job. It might cost you your life. What are the odds that you would say I accept that job? Probably pretty low.

But we see that’s what Jesus is asking the disciples to do. In our lesson today, he is saying, stop what you’re doing and follow me. I will make you fishers of people. Just before our lesson for today, we see the miracle of the miraculous catch. We see thousands and thousands of fish pulled into the boat. And Peter, seeing what Jesus did and knowing who Jesus was, he fell at his knees before Jesus and said, he’s not worthy to be in Jesus presence, but Jesus doesn’t cast him away. He offers him this job. He offers them this position to be his witnesses.

God offers us that same job, that same purpose, that same important, meaningful work, but often were quick to make excuses. Maybe we say, well, I’m not really good at speaking or I don’t have the time to do that. I don’t have the money to do that. Somebody else can do that. But God leaves us without excuse because doing his work, sharing His Word, the weight of it is not on our shoulders. He called Peter to be a disciple, called him to be a witness. But Jesus was with him. Jesus gave him the words to speak when he was with him in person. And then when he was in heaven, Jesus was still giving them the words to speak, just like he gives us the words to speak in the scriptures.

I was a little bit tough on the job description before the idea that serving God means that we’re going to have no money and we’re going to be in danger, and it’s going to be a terrible 24/7 job, but that’s not the full picture. This job does have benefits, not a 401K. It’s probably not going to make you rich, but it’s an investment that lasts an eternity.

God gives us that beautiful picture of that gospel, the gospel that we share with others, but the gospel that we share with ourselves on a day to day basis. Jesus laid down his life for all of our sins. They’re all taken away. So through Christ, through that sacrifice, salvation is ours. What a beautiful thing it is to be a disciple. And again, it may not give us early retirement, but it will give us an eternal retirement, an eternal retirement with Jesus and all of those we have the privilege to share God’s Word with. So God is offering us a job. And how blessed are we to be able to accept it? Amen.

Jeremiah 29:11, 2 Corinthians 5:21

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“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

A few years ago, I had a pastor’s conference that was in Denver, Colorado. Now, at the time, I was serving a church in Nebraska. So to get to this conference, I would have to drive 14 hours each way. 28 plus hours of driving for a 48 hour conference. So I decided the reasonable thing to do, and the more affordable thing to do would be to fly. So I booked a flight, so I would land in Denver about 6 p.m., have time to kind of settle in, have time to visit with some friends in the area. The conference started very early the next morning, so I wanted to get a good night of rest.

So I arrive at the airport and as I sit there at the gate, I get a notification on my phone. I pull it out. 30 minute delay. No big deal. 30 minutes is not the end of the world. But then I got another notification and another notification and another notification until I ended up landing in Denver about 3 a.m.. As you can imagine, I was not in a fantastic mood. I called an Uber, a taxi cab, it showed up at about 3:30 in the morning, and I get in the car with all my luggage, exhausted and frustrated.

The lady who’s driving the Uber is polite and she asks the reasonable question, what brings you into town? And so I tell her, well, I’m a pastor and I’m here for a pastor’s conference. She kind of scoffs when I say that, and she says, “you know what? I could write a book on religion.” And the way she said it would have not been a very flattering book on religion. She asked me, what is it that your church even teaches about the Bible?

So here I am, exhausted, 3:45 in the morning at this point. I look at the app up on her phone I see I have four minutes. I have four minutes to tell her what we as a church believe. So I give her what’s called the Great Exchange. I talk about how in 2 Corinthians 5 it tells us that

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

When God looks at us, he sees righteousness. So through Christ, through that sacrifice, salvation is ours. And it seemed to sink in a little bit as I said that. And soon after speaking, she dropped me off at my hotel. And as I was lying in bed that night, I couldn’t help but to marvel at God and to marvel at the plans that he has, the places that he puts us. When I was sitting late in the night at an airport in Omaha, getting more and more frustrated as she was driving a taxi cab at three in the morning. God saw to it that we came together and that she had an opportunity to hear about Jesus. Maybe it’s sunk in, maybe it didn’t. But God gave me an opportunity to plant the seed.

God promises a lot of things. He promises to give us hope and a future. When we’re going through difficult times, whether they’re minor frustrations like an airport and a delay or major frustrations, major things in life, we can remember that. Now, when God tells us that he’s going to prosper us and give us a future, it’s not necessarily money and it’s not necessarily a long life. It’s something better. It is a closer relationship with him. It is a closer relationship with him here on Earth and a closer relationship with him in heaven.

So when we find ourselves growing frustrated with God, saying, God, why are all of these things, these inconveniences, these difficulties, why are these happening? We can know that they’re not just random, but rather God is using those to strengthen us, to give us opportunity to share His Word and give us opportunity to grow in our faith with him. Amen.

Ecclesiastes 1:14

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Our verse for today is Ecclesiastes one verse 14, which says,

I have seen all things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. (Ecclesiastes 1:14)

I read a story the other day about a man who had always dreamed of hiking through the Grand Canyon, so he saved up money. He got himself in shape. He bought that ticket to Arizona, and off he went. He began his hike. It was a three day hike, going from the top of the Grand Canyon, down into the bottom and up through the top. It was a challenging hike, but he was ready to do it.

Day one of the hike went well. Everything went exactly as he had planned. Then day two there was a challenge. You see, there had been a torrential rain storm that had washed out the trail that he had planned on taking, and suddenly he found himself lost. Very lost. He spent days out in the desert, and after time began to pass, he began to have hallucinations. Began to see mirages. He would see what looked to be rescuers coming to rescue him. See helicopters in the sky that were not there. He saw a table set with the most delicious food. But of course, none of it was there.

Thankfully, a few days later he was rescued and he was taken to the hospital and quickly released. He went home and his family had prepared a beautiful meal for him. It was almost like Thanksgiving time all over again. As he sat there and looked at the food, he thought to himself, man, I really wish I could go back to the desert and eat that food that I saw there.

That would be absurd. That food that he saw in the desert wasn’t real food. It wasn’t tangible. It couldn’t help him or give him life. But the food here on the table was exactly what he needed. It was life giving. It was real.

That seems like an odd example, but that’s kind of what this text here in Ecclesiastes is talking about. When it talks about things under the sun being meaningless. Meaningless is an interesting word. A lot of translations use the word smoke. Well, what does that mean? That everything is smoke? We stop and think about it, smoke looks like something that is there, something that is tangible, something you can reach out and grab. But when you try to grab it, it’s gone. It slips between your fingers. It’s not really there. And that’s how a lot of things in life are. They seem to be important, but when we try to cling to them, there’s really nothing to cling to. But so often we’re tempted to try to cling to those things, whether it be money or happiness or wealth. These things that seem important, these things that seem as if they can give us life and everything we need when we cling to them, they let us down. They slip between our fingers.

The author of Ecclesiastes knows that there is something better. There is something that we can cling to, something that like that real food is life giving and that is Christ. We cling to Christ and Him crucified, and that is real, and that’s tangible. And not only is it not smoke that slides through our fingers, but it’s a foundation. The Bible tells us a firm foundation on which we can stand and be built up. What a beautiful thing we have in Christ. So life isn’t meaningless, but life is temporary. It’s fleeting. And in Christ we have meaning and eternal life. Amen.

Isaiah 53:5, Luke 7:36-50

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Our verse for today is Isaiah 53, verse five.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

My wife and I have been blessed with two children. We have a two year old boy and a one year old girl, and it’s fun, fun to watch them go through the different stages of life. Right now, they’re both in the same stage. They are figuring out cause and effect, figured out that their actions have an effect. Here are some examples of what I mean. My son will have his favorite toy truck upstairs, and he’ll take it and he’ll throw it downstairs and suddenly he’s upset. Now his toy truck, his favorite toy truck, is in the basement and it’s not upstairs. He doesn’t understand that he is the reason that his toy truck is in the basement. He is the problem.

Or my daughter will be having dinner time, and she’ll have her plate filled with delicious food fastened down to the table with a suction cup plate that baby’s use, and she will pull and pry until she tears it up, throws her food everywhere, and she begins to cry because now she has no dinner, nothing to eat. It’s all on the floor. She doesn’t realize that she is the one who is causing her problems.

When it comes to the passion story, which is summarized here in Isaiah 53 verse five, we see, we like to distance ourselves from that. The scene of Jesus died on a cross is a brutal scene. It’s a powerful scene and it makes us uncomfortable because of our sin. But we try to downplay our sin. We have things like our favorite sin or our pet sin. The white lies. The little things that don’t matter. Maybe when it comes to confessing our faith in church, it’s kind of just an exercise that we do. We are confessing with our mouths, but our hearts aren’t into it. We’re just doing it because that’s what everyone else is doing. We’re not grasping our sin.

I think that we try to find comfort in that, in distancing ourselves from that sin. But we’re doing the opposite. The more that we recognize and understand the severity of our sins, the more we recognize and see the profound nature of God’s grace of his love for us. Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about. Jesus was having a meal with a man named Simon. Simon, welcomed Jesus into his house, but he didn’t really go above and beyond. Didn’t wash Jesus feet, or offer him any sort of special treatment because he saw Jesus as an equal. He didn’t see his profound need for a Savior. But then the woman comes in and what does she do? She wets his feet with her tears. She dries it with her hair because she understands. She understands her profound sin, and she understands her profound need for a Savior. And she’s showing her appreciation.

I think sometimes we think of those tears that she is shedding on his feet as tears of sorrow. But they’re not tears of sorrow. They’re tears of joy because she realizes what Jesus is doing. Jesus is there for her. Jesus is there to lay down his life for all of those sins that she has committed. It’s true of us as well. Jesus laid down his life for all of our sins. They’re all taken away. So we need not try to hide away in our sin or downplay our sin, but lay them at Jesus feet with the beautiful confidence that those sins are entirely forgiven. Amen.

Mark 11:9-10

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You’ll never meet anybody more fickle than a sports fan. I spent some time serving in Nebraska, and during that time I became a Nebraska fan. It’s hard to cheer for Nebraska. Their football program has been rough for the past few years. And it’s funny, I’ll look forward to the game. I’ll set aside time so I can watch the game on television. The week leading up to it you won’t catch me in anything besides a Husker t-shirt or maybe a Husker sweatshirt. Every morning I drink out of my Husker cup.

But then, after yet another loss to yet another team that we should have beat. Suddenly those Husker t-shirts stay in the drawer a little bit longer. Those Husker sweatshirts are folded up and in the closet. That mug begins to gather dust as opposed to coffee. It’s fickle thing to follow a sports team. One moment you’re on cloud nine and you’re supporting you’re shouting, you’re cheering, but then the next moment you change.

We see that in the story of Palm Sunday, right?

Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (Mark 11:9-10)

We see Jesus entering into Jerusalem. And the crowd, they’re excited. They’re welcoming. They are shouting praises and adoration, shouting Hosanna! They’re laying down their coats for Jesus. They’re laying down palm branches as a way to honor him as a king entering a city. But something changes and it changes quickly. In that same city during that same week there going to be different shouts, not shouts of praise and adoration, but shouts of anger, shouts of dishonesty, shouts of crucify him!

In our faith we too can be fickle, right? There are times in which we are on fire for God. We are shouting praises to God. Think of an Easter Sunday morning. Think of a Christmas Eve service. We’re so quick to invite our friends. We’re excited to be there. We’re shouting those songs and it’s a beautiful thing. But quickly it can change even just the next week, a few weeks later. Suddenly, those shouts of joy, that eagerness to attend worship, the invitations that we offer to our friends, suddenly those kind of disappear. Kind of a fair weather fan sometimes.

But while we are fickle in our faith. Christ is steadfast. That’s the beauty of Palm Sunday, isn’t it? Christ knows what’s coming. Christ knows why he’s entering Jerusalem. Christ knows how this week is going to end. But he is steadfast, he continues. He knows that those who are shouting praises will later be shouting words of hatred. He knows that times in which we’ll be on fire for our faith, and times in which we hide our faith, but still he is steadfast. He rides in on that donkey. He gives us the Lord’s Supper and he dies on the cross. He lays down his life. He doesn’t trip up. He doesn’t stop, he doesn’t give up. He is steadfast and he dies on that cross. So that all those times in which we are not steadfast, they’re forgiven. We are still loved. We are still his children. We rejoice in the fact that we have a God who is not like us. A God who is steadfast and loving in all that he does. Amen.

1 Corinthians 10:12

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Our lesson for today is First Corinthians chapter ten, verses 12.

So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall. (1 Corinthians 10:12)

It seems as if there is a warning label on everything. My wife’s curling iron, I’ll see it sitting on the counter with a warning tag. The tag says do not use in the shower. If you flip that tag on the other side, it says do not use to straighten your eyelashes. Well, of course not. But the reason they put that on there is because people have done that and people have ignored the warnings.

It can be dangerous if a warning is ignored. We see a warning in our verses today, don’t we? The warning to be careful, to not be confident in ourselves. Sometimes we ignore that warning and you might think to yourself, I don’t ignore the warning. I never think that I have perfect footing. But oftentimes we do.

And this is how it manifests. The times that we skip church because we’ve got something else to do. The days where we go without praying because we’re busy. The days that passed without a single devotion reading because we’ve got too much going on. When we do those things, we are essentially saying, I’m not worried about my footing. My faith is firmly planted. There’s nothing that can shake me. But God gives a warning for a reason. Warnings exist for a reason. That confidence can lead us to have the ground fall out from beneath us.

So where can we find that solid ground? It’s not going to be in ourselves. It’s not going to be in our efforts. It’s not going to be in the things that we do. Christ is that solid ground. Christ is that sure foundation. It’s not up to us to make a foundation to stand on. It’s not up to us to have our faith based on something we’re doing. Rather, we have a sure foundation in Christ, a foundation that no matter what life throws at us, it cannot crumble. No matter what happens, it is always solid.

An important question to ask is how did it come to be that we had this foundation? What’s it built on? It’s built on Christ. He built that foundation as he hung on the cross. He built that foundation as he says, it is finished. He built that foundation when he rose from the dead. So we have a solid foundation because of Christ, because of that sacrifice he made for us. Our footing is sure. We rejoice in that perfect foundation we have in our Savior. Amen.

John 20:24-27

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Our lesson for today is from John chapter 20, verses 24 through 27.

Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” (John 20:24-27)

Have you ever had a sleepless night? The kind of night where you catch yourself tossing and turning for hours on end. Until eventually you just give up and you say, know what? I’m going to go out into the living room and watch some TV. You turn on the television and flip through the channels, and there’s one thing that’s on pretty much every channel, and that’s the infomercial.

An infomercial can be for any product, but it always seems as if they have the same kinds of lines, the same kind of jargon and lingo. You’ll hear things like, don’t wait! Limited stock. We’re running out! Only for easy payments of $19.99, or perhaps one of the classics, “but don’t take my word for it.” Then they go to a customer who is, of course, if you read the fine print, compensated for their time to give a testimony about this product. About how good it is about how helpful and important it is in their lives. Why is it that infomercials cross the board do that?

Well, it’s because there’s something powerful about an eyewitness testimony, right? Somebody saying, I saw it, I experienced I know that it’s important. Now with an infomercial, that might not be true, but with the gospel it is. In our lesson we see Doubting Thomas. What a nickname, Doubting Thomas. Thomas wasn’t there when Jesus appeared and the disciples, they saw Jesus. He appeared to them, they were certain of it. And they were eyewitnesses. And they told Thomas Jesus was here. He’s alive. But Thomas doubted. Thomas didn’t believe.

It’s easy to wag our finger at Thomas and say, how could he not believe? These are the apostles! They’re telling him, why would he doubt? But before we were too hard on Thomas. I think we need to think about ourselves. There are times in our lives where perhaps doubting could come before our name. There are times in which things are happening in our lives. We have struggles in our lives, we have difficulties, and we think, what are you doing, God? We are in that moment doubting his plan, doubting his love, doubting the resurrection joy that we should have.

And we can make excuses and say, well, he had the disciples, we don’t have that, but we do, don’t we? In the scriptures, we have the eyewitness testimony, the same testimony that Thomas had. There’s a tremendous comfort in this lesson. When Jesus enters the room and sees Thomas, what does he say? Does he crush him and say, how could you doubt me after everything I’ve shown you? After the eyewitness testimony? No. He says, peace be with you. Peace be with you. He offers more reassurance. He says, look, look at my hands. Look at the wounds in my side. He doesn’t take Thomas in his struggling faith and crush it. No, with his words, he builds Thomas up in his faith.

So those times when we find ourselves doubting, doubting God’s intentions, doubting God’s plan. Remember what he says to Thomas. He says, peace be with you. Find answers. Find guidance. Find true peace in your Savior. Amen.

Jeremiah 29:11

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Our text for today is Jeremiah 29, verse 11,

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)

When I first began my ministry, I have a very vivid memory of sitting into my office and receiving a phone call. I answered the call, it was from another pastor. He was serving a couple of states over from where I was, and he had a request. He had a woman who was down in my part of the country receiving treatment for cancer. And she had gotten some news. She had gotten some news that her time of grace was about to come to an end, and he asked if I would go and visit with her, talk to her. I, of course, agreed, and as I made my way to the hospital, I found myself becoming more and more nervous. I had at that point all but 6 or 7 weeks of experience as a minister. And I’m going to this woman, what, what do I say? What comfort can I offer her?

My hands shaking, nervous as I make my way down the hallway, I entered the hospital room and I see her. She’s sitting there. Her body clearly has been ravaged by cancer, but she’s reading a devotion and she has a smile on her face. And I visit with her for a couple of hours. And I realized something as I made my way back to church, it was her who had comforted me, her who had blessed me. She had the words that I needed to hear and not the other way around.

So how can it be? How can it be that somebody in this situation that is difficult and painful and messy can have that kind of hope? Well, it’s because she trusted the words that we had in our lesson today, that the Lord had a plan for her to give her a future, and that future she understood was heaven.

Sometimes we find ourselves in a similar situation to that woman I visited. Maybe you found yourself in a hospital bed not knowing if you would make it out. Maybe you’ve had a messy breakup. Maybe you’re struggling with financial things. It’s easy to look around and see that the world is messy. And oftentimes we think, Where is God? Why is God not helping? Why is God allowing for this mess to take place? God can work through messes. He can work through your mess. Think of the crucifixion. Think of Jesus hanging on the cross. Think of of the women weeping and the people hurling insults. That is a messy situation. But God worked through it. He worked through it in the most profound and the most beautiful way. He worked through that mess to bring you salvation.

So we rejoice in the mess with the confidence that God is using it for his purposes and for our good. Amen.