Ephesians 4:14-15

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I want a stronger faith. Maybe you’ve thought that before. Maybe you’ve prayed that before. If we want stronger muscles, we got to work out. We got to lift weights. We have to eat, right. We have to push ourselves. If you want to get better at piano, if you want to get better at shooting three pointers, if you want to get better at painting, you have to practice over and over and over. Is faith like that? Is it about grinding really hard and putting all of our effort into being a better Christian, and to digging deep to believing more?

Not quite. Faith is more like hunger. You can’t make yourself feel more hungry. You’re either hungry or you’re not. In a similar way, we can’t force ourselves to be stronger believers.

And yet in Ephesians, Paul says this

The goal is that we would no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching… Instead, speaking the truth in love, we would in all things grow up into Christ, who is the head. (Ephesians 4:14-15)

So how do we grow? How do we do that? How do we get a stronger faith? To strengthen our faith, the answer is never to turn inside. It’s not about trying really hard. It’s not about putting in more effort. The answer really isn’t about you at all. It’s about turning to the things that God says and promises will strengthen our faith. Those things are his Word. His Word attached to water and baptism and his Word attached to the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper.

When doubts come, when questions roll around in our minds, questions like am I good enough? Am I strong enough? Is my faith big enough? Am I Christian enough? Have I done too many bad things? Is God’s grace for me? The answer is never found here [inside you]. The answer is always found here in His word.

And the biggest answer that we find is, no, we are not good enough. But Jesus is. His grace and his mercy are enough. His righteousness is enough. His forgiveness is enough to cover up every single sin, every regret, every single mistake in our life. When you want a stronger faith, remember that the answer is not found inside. Remember, the focus of our faith is always on Jesus. And that’s what Scripture does. It continually points us to Christ. It is through that that we find our ultimate assurance and comfort, and it’s through that that our faith in him ultimately grows. Amen.

Romans 3:23, 2 Corinthians 5:17, John 14:3

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If somebody tries to give you their phone number and they rattle off ten digits really, really quick, it’s almost impossible to remember. But if we break it down into those three sections that we’re so familiar with, it’s a lot easier. Our brain works that way. Where a long string of numbers is hard to remember, but short little segments are easier.

And so sometimes I feel like that with my life of faith as well. God’s word is rich and deep. It’s never ending. We can never find the bottom of it. There’s always more to learn. And that’s a wonderful gift. But it can also sometimes feel overwhelming. There’s so much to learn. There’s so much to remember. So when doubts creep in, or when we have questions, or when life gets confusing or a storm in life comes, break it down. Break it down. Into three simple things to remember.

Number one, who you were.

Number two, who you are in Christ.

And number three, what that means for you today and for your future.

So remember who you were. Scripture says in Romans 3:23,

Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

That’s who we were. We were people who had fallen short of the glory of God. People who don’t deserve good things from him, people who are not good enough for him. People who have sinned.

But remember, number two, who you are in Christ. Second Corinthians five says this

So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. The new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

By Jesus’ perfect life, his death, his resurrection through faith in him. Remember who you are. You are God’s own child. You are righteous. You are holy. You are innocent in his sight. You are an heir of eternal life.

And then remember, number three, what that means for you today and every day. You get to live in the freedom of your forgiveness. You get to live with the knowledge that you are going to heaven. Jesus says in John 14,

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am. (John 14:3)

That’s where he is bringing us. So when life gets complicated, break it down. Remember who you were. That we were lost in our transgressions and sin. Remember who you are in Christ. That we are God’s own children. That we are forgiven and free. Remember what that means for us, that we will be in heaven with him forever.

Three simple truths. Easy to remember. The ultimate comfort for when life gets complicated.

Proverbs 16:18, James 4:6, Philippians 2:8

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The Bible talks a lot about pride. Proverbs 16 says this

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit precedes a fall. (James 4:6)

James four tells us that

“God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” (Proverbs 16:18)

That’s some strong language from God that speaks against the sin of pride. But I have to be honest, if I’m watching my kids and I see them do something kind for someone else when they don’t think anybody is watching, or if they do something amazing. I’m proud of them. And I’m sure you felt this too, that if you’ve worked a long time on a big project and it comes out well, you’re proud of the work that you do.

So why do we use this positive word to talk about something that God speaks against? Is all pride sinful? Here’s the distinction. So even in the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam work. Work is a gift from God. Adam was to care for the garden. He was to name the animals that God had created. And so that sense of accomplishment, that good feeling that we have when a job is well done, that’s not sinful pride. That’s not what God is speaking against here. It’s gratitude. We’re saying, thank you, Lord, for enabling me to do what you’ve called me to do. Thank you, Lord, for giving me this job to complete.

Instead sinful pride is the opposite. It’s taking for ourselves what belongs to God. It’s taking credit for what he has given to us. And saying this instead belongs to me. Pride is dangerous because it takes the glory that belongs to God alone, and it keeps it for ourselves. At its core, pride is self worship. It’s setting ourselves up at the center of the story instead of God. And here’s the thing God loves us too much to let us stay there.

Because if we think that we are good enough for him, if we think that we can prove ourselves to him, we’ll never understand our real need for him. It’s only when we let the law work and remove any sense of self-righteousness from us, that we can truly understand what he has done for us, that we can truly understand the love that he has shown to us. And nowhere is that love more clearly shown than in His Son and our Savior, Jesus.

Now we look at Jesus and there is no pride there. There is no need for self-promotion. There is no need to prove himself. Philippians two says this

He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.(Philippians 2:8)

Jesus came not to take the glory, but to serve. He came in complete humility to dress himself in human flesh, to live for us, and then to go to the cross to die for us. And it’s on that cross where every single one of our sins was paid for, even the sin of pride. So when you feel that sin of pride creeping in, or when you have that question in your mind, is this gratefulness to God over a job well done? Is this a sense of accomplishment or is this sinful? Ask yourself this: am I pointing others to me? Or am I pointing others to my God? Am I giving the glory and gratitude to him, or am I taking it for myself? Am I trying to prove to God that I’m good enough? Or am I resting in the fact that Jesus is enough for me? Because that’s the good news. He is.

Because of Christ all of our sins are forgiven because of him we can live in total, complete gratitude. And the more clearly we see the love and the forgiveness that Christ has won for us, the more we can live not in self glory, but in gratitude and gratefulness for what he has done for us. The Lord’s blessings to you.

Hebrews 13:20-21

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Credit or debit? You’ve had to answer that question thousands of times at the cash register, I’m sure, in the last several years. And it dawned on me recently when I was at the store about how this looks to my children. We were shopping, and my son wanted something expensive, and I said, no, it’s too much to spend right now. And he says, all you have to do is give him your card. When do you give them your card, they’ll let you take home whatever you want. So I understood that from his perspective, it looked so easy. Just hand over your card, put it in the machine, and you get to take home whatever it is you want to buy.

But we know that there’s more to it than that. That there’s the second side. The fact that you need money and you need to make a deposit to back up that purchase, whether it be on a debit card or a credit card. When it comes to us looking at the blessings that Jesus gives, sometimes it can seem too easy. Scripture calls Jesus the great Shepherd of the sheep, and as our great Shepherd, he brings us so many blessings. Hebrews 13 says this.

Now may the God of peace—who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, in connection with his blood, which established the eternal testament— may he equip you with every good thing to do his will, as he works in us what is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21)

So we can look at those blessings that our good Shepherd brings to us, whether they be spiritual blessings like forgiveness and salvation and eternal life and hope and comfort and courage in this life, or physical blessings, everything that we need to support our body in life, we can sometimes look at it like it’s too easy. Why doesn’t Jesus give us more and more and more? But we need to remember that in order to give us these blessings, Jesus had to pay for them. To do that, he makes a deposit. He establishes an eternal testament, an eternal covenant, a promise from him to you. And to do this he gives himself.

He lives perfectly fulfilling every single commandment, every single law. Then he dies for us innocently on the cross, paying our price. Now he’s able to bless us because he has done this. So now he comes to us and he says, yes, I can give you forgiveness because I earned it. I paid for it with my innocent life, my perfect death. I can give you holiness. I can bless you with holiness because I myself was holy. I can give you hope and life. Because I died and rose again to give you new life. It was through this that he established for us an eternal testament and eternal covenant.

Our checking account, our balance can run out. We can spend more than we have. But there is no amount of sin or guilt or shame or unrighteousness that can overwhelm the grace and the forgiveness that Jesus has won for us. Every single time we turn to him in repentant faith, there is forgiveness. Your sins are forgiven because of what Jesus has done for you. Through faith in him all of those blessings are attributed to your account. So every time we look at him, he is there not in anger and wrath and retribution and revenge, but he is there as our great Shepherd, with compassion and grace and forgiveness and comfort.

Remember the blessings that Jesus brings. Remember what it took for him to win these blessings for you. They’re not just free, but that he went to the greatest lengths imaginable to win them for you. When we view his gifts in this way, it makes his love for us become all the clear. Amen.

Matthew 15:8-9

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When I was young, living at home, I was a middle school boy. And so as middle school boys do, I lost a lot of things. My mom almost always knew where those things were. So I go and ask her, and usually they were sitting right out in the open. So to encourage me to use my eyes instead of just immediately asking, instead of coming out and telling me where that object was, she would do hot and cold with me. I’m sure you’ve played that game, too.

Are you hot or are you cold? Are you going the right way or the wrong way? When it comes to that game, obviously the success of it boils down to if the person giving directions knows where the object is. During Jesus’s earthly ministry, he spoke to the Pharisees about this. They were the spiritual leaders in Israel guiding and directing people to salvation, but they were directing people to the wrong place. They were leading people to the wrong spot for that salvation. Jesus speaking about them, says this.

“These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain, teaching human rules as if they are doctrines.” (Matthew 15:8-9 EHV)

These Pharisees had created rules on top of rules, thinking that it was through obedience, through accomplishing tasks, through their own work that they could be saved. Jesus came to teach people a different way, the right way, the only way to salvation. It is through obedience, but not through ours, through his. He lived and he died, and he earned that righteousness for us as God and man. He was uniquely qualified to fulfill the law perfectly, to go to the cross to pay for those sins in our place. It’s only through faith in Him and His obedience and his sacrifice that we can be saved.

Today, there’s a lot of voices out there giving us directions, telling us which way to go, telling us what’s truly important, telling us what’s hot or cold, what really matters in life. Cutting through all of this noise comes the clear Word of God, which tells us and reminds us of the one thing needful is Jesus. It’s knowing and believing that he has done everything necessary to win for us salvation, knowing that through his life and death he has fulfilled the law. He has paid for our sins, and he has made us his people through faith in him, that’s who you are. You are a forgiven child of God and you will be in heaven with him forever.

When life gets confusing, think about which voice you’re listening to. Go back to the one place where you know it has the answer, where it has the comfort that your heart seeks: the truth of God’s Word. Amen.

John 17:21

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There’s a lot of ways in life that we divide ourselves or separate ourselves into different groups. Maybe it’s based on location. Are you a midwesterner or are you a Southerner? Maybe it’s based on which sports team you like best, or maybe most prevalent, as we go into later this summer and into this fall. Which political party you support?

This division, this separation, when we look at it from a biblical perspective, we understand that separation has its root in sin. Sin is what divides people, divides us from God and us from one another. It divided brothers throughout history and Scripture. You see that it divides Cain and Abel. That had divided Joseph and his brothers, that it created separation between Jacob and Esau. We know it’s that same sin that divides us from one another, that creates that separation and division between family members and friends and neighbors.

Jesus knew that this was the case, and before he goes to the cross, he goes into the upper room and he prays what we call this high priestly prayer. And in that prayer, he prays for unity. He prays for oneness for us as his people. He prays that

May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be one in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. (John 17:21 EHV)

We look to Jesus, we look to our Trinity, the one true God, and we see there a perfect picture of unity, of oneness. The Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit are perfectly united in substance and also in purpose. The Trinity is working as Jesus is carrying out his earthly ministry for one reason, to make it so that God and man are one, are united, once again. So that sin that divides us could be defeated. Jesus is the only one who can make this happen. And so he leaves the safety of that upper room and marches to the cross as he is suffering for sins that are not his, but ours, as he is enduring hell in our place. The temple curtain tears in two, and that’s huge.

That curtain in the temple was a sign of division, a sign of separation. The fact that God’s people could not be in the presence of their God. But now that separation is gone, sin has been paid for, it has been overcome, and that separation has been healed. Man is reconciled with God. That victory that Jesus won is made yours through baptism. When you’re baptized, when faith is created in your heart, the oneness that Jesus prays for here is created. We are united with our God. In all the ways that we divide ourselves and separate ourselves into different groups, remember the oneness that is created. If you are in Christ and your brother is in Christ, then you are united with one another. Defying all that separation Jesus creates this oneness with each other and with him. So let’s celebrate that oneness, that oneness that is created and sustained through the purity, the truth of God’s saving word, the sacrifice of our loving Savior. Amen.

Acts 11:21, 26

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Our name is such an important part of our identity, but it’s interesting to think about the fact that we have no say in what our name is going to be. Our parents don’t ask for our input when they’re deciding what they’re going to call us, whether we like our name or hate it. It’s part of our identity for our entire life. Another name that we wear, that we didn’t choose for ourselves as God’s people is that of Christian.

Have you’ve ever stopped and thought about what that name means, about what it’s communicating, what it tells people about our identity? After Jesus ascended into heaven, the impact of his ministry of his victory over over sin and death, that momentum just continued to build. More and more people were being added to the number of believers every day. Jesus’ enemies obviously hated this, and so they tried to push down this, this momentum by persecution. But this only served to grow the church even more because as people were persecuted in one city, they fled to other cities, carrying with them the good news of the gospel, the good news of salvation by faith in Jesus.

Now one city that they fled to was the city of Antioch, which is about 300 miles away from Jerusalem. And Acts chapter 11, verse 21 tells us what happened there.

The Lord’s hand was with them, and a large number of people believed in turn to the Lord. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. (Acts 11:21, 26)

Now the term Christian, it’s such an important name because it doesn’t just communicate what we are or communicates who we are and who’s we are. We belong to Christ. Now that word Christ, it’s not a name, it’s a title. And the word Christ is the same as the Old Testament word Messiah. They both mean anointed one. So when we call ourselves Christians, we are saying that we know and believe that Jesus is the Christ. He is the Anointed One. He is the son of the living God and our Savior from sin.

By saying that we are Christians, we’re saying that we are building our life and our faith on this foundation, this confession that Jesus is the Christ. We find our identity in this name. We were lost in our sin. We were blind in our sin. We were dead in our trespasses. (Ephesians 2:1) We were enemies of God. But we have been claimed by Christ and have been made his people. Through Christ, the Anointed One, through Jesus, who lived perfectly, who died innocently in our place we have been forgiven. Everything that made us an enemy of God has been removed from our slate forever. We are his holy people. We have been claimed by him. We are his possession.

Nothing matters more than this. Nothing in our life, not our status in this world, not our income, not our nationality. This is the most important thing. We belong to God because of what Jesus has done for us. We have new life in him and in everything about our life now reflects this new identity. The actions that we carry out, the decisions that we make, the words that we speak reflect this new life that is ours through faith in Christ. Our foundation is Jesus the Living Stone, the Christ. We are Christians. It’s not just what we are. It’s who we are, and it’s who’s we are. We belong to Christ. Amen.

2 Corinthians 5:19

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When I was in first grade, I was a little bit mischievous. My parents one Sunday morning told me to go get ready for church, which was fine except for my church shoes. I absolutely hated my church shoes. So one morning I had a good idea, if my parents can’t find my church shoes, I don’t have to wear them. So when they weren’t looking, I grabbed my shoes. I ran downstairs and I stuck them in a box way in the corner and it worked perfectly. My parents couldn’t find my church shoes, and so I got to go to church that day wearing my sneakers, my fast shoes, as I called them.

It just so happened, though, that that morning in Sunday school, my teacher was talking about temptation, about repentance. And so she asked us straight out, has there ever been a temptation that you just could not say no to? My hands shot up and I said yes. Just this morning I hid my church so I didn’t have to wear them. I lied to my parents, I tricked them. Thankfully, that teacher knew the difference between law and gospel and how God wants to use them in our lives. Because she could have told me that is so naughty. That’s a terrible thing to do. But she knew that I had already felt the weight of the law on my heart and was able to tell me I was forgiven.

Even as those sneakers were still on my feet and those church shoes were still hidden in a box in my basement. My sin was not remembered any more by my God. It had been removed from me forever because of what Jesus had done for me. What an awesome blessing it is to hear those words. “You are forgiven” and what a blessing it is to say them too. Second Corinthians, chapter five verse 19 says this

That is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And he has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:19)

So that word reconcile it means to resolve, to reestablish a close relationship. And that’s what God did for us through his Son, Jesus. Our relationship with God was broken because of sin, a sin that exists in the heart of every single person. But Jesus came having no sin of his own, to lay down his life in our place, to pay for our sin, to take the fault and the punishment for what we have done wrong. Through the gift of faith, we have experienced that reconciliation ourselves. We have received the forgiveness that Jesus won for us. Our relationship with God has been reestablished. We have received unity with our God once again through the gift of faith.

What a blessing it is for us to carry with us this good news, this wonderful message that where there is repentance, where there is sorrow over sin, there is mercy, there is the grace of God, and there is forgiveness. Amen.

Luke 19:9-10

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What do you know about Zacchaeus? Maybe because of a popular children’s song, when you think about Zacchaeus, the only thing you remember is that he was a wee little man. And while that’s true, it’s kind of a bummer because the story of Zacchaeus is not just a children’s story. This is a biblical account about repentance and forgiveness, about Jesus seeking and saving the lost. It’s about what it looks like when a life is lived in thanksgiving for what God has done for us through faith in Jesus.

Now, Zacchaeus was a tax collector, and he was a dishonest one, a sinful man, and he was indeed short. So Zacchaeus hears one day that Jesus is going to be passing through his city of Jericho, and he’s excited about this. And to see over the crowd he climbs a tree. He was absolutely floored when, as Jesus is passing through the town, he singles Zacchaeus out and he says, I’m going to stay at your house. At dinner that night, Jesus tells him this

“Today, salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:9-10)

Zacchaeus is remembered as a short little tax collector, but look at his identity through Jesus. Because where Jesus goes, salvation goes to. And so now, instead of a short little tax collector, Zacchaeus, his real identity, is a forgiven child of God and heir of eternal life.

Now Jesus was passing through Jericho that day on his way to Jerusalem, and he was going there to die. He was walking towards Jerusalem carrying the sins of Zacchaeus. My sin, your sin, in order to pay for it with his life. Jesus, who had no sin of his own, he became sin for us. He sacrificed himself on the cross. He laid down his life as payment for ours. Now, through faith in him, salvation has come to us. The same thing that Jesus says to Zacchaeus. He says to you, salvation has come to your house as well, because your sins have been paid for, you are forgiven. Your identity is that of a forgiven child of God. You are an heir of eternal life.

As we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving, remember that this is the source and the reason for our thankfulness. We can go around the table and talk about all of our earthly blessings, every single gift that we’ve been given from our God. But if we are still in our sin, none of those earthly blessings truly matter because none of them last. Everything in this world fades away. So what is the most important thing is a right relationship with our God. And that is what Jesus has given to us. He came to seek and save the lost and that’s us. We were lost in our sin. We were lost in trespasses. We were dead in our sin. But Jesus, through His Word and His sacraments, has found us. And through those means he has given to us this wonderful gift of faith that’s united us to him and has given us new life in him.

Now, in the story of Zacchaeus, we see the impact that this salvation had on him. He says, I’m going to give half of my possessions to the poor. I’m going to repay anyone four times that which I have defrauded them or stolen from them. His thankfulness was a result of the salvation that came to him. The same is true for us. We’ve experienced the same salvation, the same gift from our God, and we cannot help but express that thanksgiving not just in our words, but in lives of faith. Amen.

John 8:44b

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Today I want to talk about temptation and spiritual attacks, especially those of the devil. Jesus, in John chapter eight, he’s talking about the devil. When he says this,

Whenever he lies, he speaks from what is his, because he is a liar and the father of lying. (John 8:44b)

I think this is such a helpful picture as we face temptation to view every temptation as a lie from the devil. Each time that Satan attacks us, it’s usually in one of two ways. It’s either through a temptation or an accusation. And if we can view every single one of these as a lie and identify the lie through God’s word, it makes it easier to resist these things. There’s a famous hymn that was written by the leader of the Reformation, Martin Luther. The hymn is called A Mighty Fortress is Our God. And in this hymn he uses this beautiful, powerful poetry to paint us a picture of the power of Jesus Christ, but also the power of our enemy of the devil.

He says the old evil foe now means deadly woe. Deep guile and great might are his dread arms and fight, and on earth is not his equal. We’re reminded here that if we go against Satan by ourselves, if we try to battle this enemy, we will lose every single time. But thankfully, there’s more verses to the hymn. He continues on, for us, fights the valiant one. He’s pointing us to Jesus, and he reminds us that the fight is not ours alone, but that Jesus took on human flesh to fight for us. And every single day he resisted the temptations of Satan, that every single day he fulfilled the law of God in our place. And that as the completion of this defeat over the devil, he goes to the cross and he wins for us salvation. It’s through his laying, the laying down of his life that our sins are forgiven. He defeated the enemies that we can never beat. He overcame sin, death, and even the devil for us.

Through faith in him that victory is ours and we no longer have to fear the devil and his lies. Verse three of that hymn says this. This world’s prince may still scowl fierce as he will. That devil has been defeated for us. Yet that doesn’t mean that he won’t attack. That doesn’t mean he won’t bring to us his temptations and accusations, his lies. But he can harm us none. He’s judged the deed is done and one little word. Can fell him.

I’ve sung this hymn hundreds of times growing up, and I always assume that that one little word was Jesus. But Luther in his writings, he reveals exactly what he was thinking about when he wrote this line. He says that the one little word that he was thinking of is liar. So when Satan comes to you with the temptation, he comes to you with a lie and he says, look at the things of this world. Look at the things that are bad, that God has said is bad. Look at them. They’re good. Look for material possessions and money and power to fulfill you, to give you happiness, to bring you contentment. Call the devil what he is. Say no, you are a liar. There is one thing needful. A right relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. This is the one thing that can bring us contentment. The one thing that can satisfy. The one thing that can bring us joy.

When Satan comes to you with these accusations about who you are, he says, you cannot be loved by God. You are still in your sin. You have done too many evil things. There’s too much sin in you. You can’t actually think that you are going to heaven. Call him what he is. He’s a liar. Say no, I know that I am not good enough for my God. But I know that Jesus has done everything necessary, that Jesus is good enough, that He has won the victory for me, that he has fulfilled the law, that he has laid down his life for me, that the victory has been won and that I get to share in that victory with Christ through faith.

Each and every time that we face temptations or accusations. Stand on the truth of the gospel. Call the devil what he is calling him a liar, knowing that the truth of God’s word is our foundation, our comfort, our confidence and our joy. Amen.

Mark 4:38

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Jesus, don’t you care? This was the question that the disciples had on their minds as they fought against the wind and the waves of this huge storm that had come upon their small boat. Meanwhile, Jesus slept in the stern. And so they wake up Jesus and they say,

Jesus, don’t you care that we are perishing? (Mark 4:38)

Don’t you care that we’re about to die? How often do we feel like this? We’re going through our life and suddenly a storm of life hits us out of the blue and we’re left feeling like we are floundering. Like we’re drowning in this difficulty and that Jesus is asleep at the wheel like his attention is somewhere else. Maybe it’s a job lost. Maybe it’s a relationship that has been broken. Maybe it’s because we are grieving over the death of somebody that we have loved and lost. Maybe it’s financial issues, health troubles, the list goes on and on. And as we’re floundering, we feel like Jesus’s attention is somewhere else. God, don’t you care?

This feeling in itself is a temptation. It’s a temptation to give in to the worry, to give in to the fear, to let these troubles overwhelm us, to cause us to doubt the promise and the providence of our God, the promises that he will be there for us, that he will lead us through these difficulties, that he will give us everything that we need. The very fact that Jesus was on that boat that day is proof of God’s care and not just for the disciples, but for us.

Jesus, who is God, he took on human flesh in order to come and show us His care. He lived every single day according to the law. He fulfilled God’s law for us because He cares for us. He came to proclaim the good news because he cares. He came to go to the cross and to pay our price, to die for us in our place and to win for us forgiveness as the greatest display in the history of the world of how much he cares for us.

God sees the storms of life that you are facing right now. He sees the difficulties and the challenges that are mounting up. He knows your struggles and your difficulties, and he who never slumbers or sleeps. Hears your prayers. He knows your needs and he promises to supply everything necessary for you.

Because of the work of Jesus in every single storm that you face, you know that God himself is standing by your side. As Jesus calmly wakes up from his slumber, he goes to the front of the ship and he rebukes the wind. He tells the waves to be still. And suddenly calm comes over. The disciples seeing this there, they understand and they learn more about who their Savior is, who this teacher is, the power that he has and their faith in him grows. This is the result of God bringing us also through the storms of our life. Whatever storm you’re facing right now, quiet your troubled heart by hearing again and again the comforting promises of God’s Word and know that they are true.

Every single storm, every trial of your life, God will use for your good. He will use them to empty you of any reliance you have on yourself and to remind you to put your faith and your trust in him. Who is he? The one who even the winds and the seas obey. He is your Savior from sin. He is the conqueror of death and Satan. He is the Son of God and Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hebrews 4:9

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Today I want to talk about rest. Rest is something that I think that we have an uncomfortable relationship with. Rest should be easy. It should be a simple thing. It should come naturally to us. But so often it doesn’t. In America, in our country, half of workers, more than half do not take their full allotted vacation days, which is a shocking statistic to me.

More than half of those people who are given an opportunity to rest do not take that opportunity. They would rather work than than take those days off. Rest feels like it should come natural, but it doesn’t. In our culture, it seems like productivity, busyness is a virtue. And so even those rare occasions, those rare instances where we get a chance to rest, we feel guilty. We feel like we should be more productive, we should be getting more stuff done.

Wouldn’t a little bit of rest be so wonderful right now? And not just physical rest, but spiritual rest. Rest from worries and sickness. The stress of getting things done. Rest from feeling divided from people that we should feel united with instead. Rest from guilt. Rest from fears. Rest from doubts. Rest from the hardness of our own hearts. Hebrews 4, verse nine reminds us that Jesus offers this rest to you right now. Not just at some point in the future, but today.

So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. (Hebrews 4:9)

Jesus won that rest for you and he offers it to you right now. And he won this rest for you by doing everything. By accomplishing everything, by doing all of the work necessary to give you this rest. He came to Earth and then he lived among us. He took on our human flesh and he lived perfectly. He fulfilled the law of God. He never once sinned. He never once fell into temptation. He went into battle every single day against the devil and won. And then he goes to the cross and he lays down his innocent life. And there he wins that victory over Satan through his death, and then makes us heirs, co victors with him through this awesome gift of faith by making us his people.

So now we get to rest in the knowledge that all of the work of our salvation has been completed. There remains today a Sabbath rest for you, for the people of God. Freedom from fear and worry and guilt and sin. This is what Jesus has won for you. Know and believe that the work is complete, that the victory has been won by Christ, and that in his grace, in his mercy, he holds out to you this wonderful free gift of eternal rest, both now and forever. Amen.