1 John 4:8, John 3:16

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So how do I love this little one? Earlier this year, there was a child who came into my life and I had the opportunity to show love to this little one, and I found myself asking myself, where do I draw from to really love this child? I don’t have any history with this child. I don’t have a biological connection to this child. And sometimes loving this child is going to be challenging. So where do I draw from? And asking that question made me realize that many times when it comes to the people in my life, I draw from good experiences. You know, or natural connection I have, you know, my biological daughter, you know she is my daughter, right? She came from my wife and me and, and I have many wonderful moments with her, my wife, obviously, it gives me many reasons to love her. But what about someone that you don’t have any of that connection or that history with? And I really realized that my source needed to be God, that he is love and that he is the source of love.

The scriptures say it right? God is love. (1 John 4:8) And I realize, first of all, that our God, that our God loves us, that he loves me, and then also that this little one I was looking at is a little one that was created by God. Loved by God, who Jesus died for, and rose again and paid for all of his sins. So that this little one could be right with him too, and made me realize where the source for real love is. It’s not experiences we have with someone, it’s not a prior connection. The real source for love is God, and it also made me realize all the more what grace is. We talk about grace as being God’s undeserved love, right? It’s not based on anything someone does on someone deserving it. It’s completely a free gift.

And that’s what our God gives to us when he loves us. He doesn’t love you because you’ve been good enough. He doesn’t love you because there’s some sort of special thing that earns it for him. It’s not even that Jesus, like, makes God the Father love you. I mean, John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. It started with love, and that’s why he sent Jesus. That’s why Jesus came. God loves because he loves.

So today, if you are struggling to feel loved or if you are struggling with your guilt, know this that God loves you simply because he loves you. Jesus came and died for you simply because he loves you. He rose again to set you right with him. What’s his basis for love? Him. That’s who he is. That’s what he does. And that’s how you can know today that you are loved.

1 John 4:19

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When my wife and I began our premarital counseling, the pastor asked us the question that I thought was really, really strange. He asked, why do you want to get married?

Well, that kind of threw us for a loop. We really didn’t know quite how to answer that question, and so we tried answering with what amounted to be cliché type answers. We complete each other. We’re the best of friends. We want to spend the rest of our lives together. And while you could say that none of those answers are wrong. It wasn’t what he was looking for. We were thinking way too difficult.

And so he asked us again, don’t you just love each other? And we looked at each other and kind of laughed because we knew he was right. We were thinking way, way, way too deep, looking for something more profound than just that. And so we answer, well, yes, of course we love each other. And to this day, that question is still in my mind, and I use it at the beginning of any premarital counseling that I do as I ask couples that very same question why do you want to get married?

Why do we want God a part of our life? Oh, we can give all sorts of answers like he is with us every single day. He helps us all the time. He does so much for us every single day. He guides us so that we live a life that is pleasing to him. And none of those are wrong answers, but none of them are the real reason, the real core reason for why we want God as a part of our life.

The answer is really so simple. Much like the question that pastor asked my wife and I, we want God in our life because we love God. First John chapter four verse 19 says,

We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

God loved us first. He saw that we needed him to save us from our sins. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot rid ourselves of them and wash us clean of those sins. And so seeing that need, he loved us. And in his love he sent His Son to take every single one of those sins away. And they were all nailed to the cross. When we see the cross there, we see God loving us. And so we love God because he first loved us. And because we love God, we want God to be a part of our life. We want him to keep loving us by being with us and helping us every day. We want him to keep loving us by blessing our lives in ways that he chooses to bless us. Guiding us and leading us so that we live lives that are pleasing to him.

Why do we want God in our life?

Sometimes the simplest answer is the very best answer that you could possibly give. We love him because he first loved us.

Amen.

Romans 13:8

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Does love save? Will love get me to heaven? Back in the 60s, there was a popular song entitled All You Need Is Love. It’s an idea that still is around today. It’s very popular. You know it’s all about love. Follow your heart. If you love those around you, that is the ultimate good. And so it makes sense that love saves. Love gets us to heaven. That’s the standard by which God judges us. Even Romans 13, verse eight, it says,

Do not owe anyone anything except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8)

So will my love save me?

Well, Jesus told an interesting parable about this. (Luke 10:25-37) It’s well known as the account of the Good Samaritan. There was a man, he was traveling on a wilderness road in Israel, and he was attacked by robbers, and they stripped him and beat him and left him half dead. There were a couple of religious leaders that passed by separately, but they each passed by, didn’t pay him any attention. And then there was a Samaritan who passed by. And Samaritans and Jews were arch enemies. They hated each other. But the Samaritan, he did tend to the man. He poured oil and wine on the man’s wounds. He put the man on his own animal, took him to an inn. He offered to pay for him for that night and beyond, and any care that had to be given, he was going to provide for it. And that’s the love that Jesus holds up and says, this is true love, love even for your enemies.

Now, there are a lot of things we can learn from that account, but the one I want to focus on is that God wants us to love our enemies and love all those around us.

Will love save us?

Unfortunately, we haven’t reached that standard of perfection that God requires. We have not loved God with our heart, soul, and mind, much less our neighbor, those around us, our friends, our enemies. Not perfectly. So, no my love won’t save me. Your love won’t save you.

But Jesus’ love does and will.

Jesus saw the mess that we made of the world. He saw that we are beaten down and broken by sin. And left half dead. We’re dead in sin. And even while we were still his enemies. Even while we were still sinners. He came to this world. And he lived a perfect life of love toward all those around him. And then he especially showed his love as he died on the cross for the sins of the world, for your sins, for my sins, for all sins. By his love we are saved.

In his sacrifice he paid for the sins, he bought his membership in his royal family. He won us heaven, eternal life in heaven. So are we saved by love? Yes, by Jesus’ love. And as those who know Jesus’ love as shown on the cross, we want to live in that love as baptized believers we’re rooted in that love. And we want to show a love to all those around us friends, enemies, everyone, because Jesus died for them as well.

We want them to know the love of our Lord. Praise be to our Lord of love. Praise be to our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

John 13:34, John 3:16

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Little over a year ago, following the death of my daughter, as my wife and I were walking around town, as we liked to do, we came across these stickers here and there that said, it’s going to be okay. And whenever my wife saw one of those stickers, she just loved it because we had been going through so much and feeling so down. It was so nice to have that thought in our mind that things were going to work out. Things were going to be okay.

Well, more recently as we were walking, we saw again one of those stickers and my wife commented, I wonder if anyone has ever created a sticker that says Jesus loves you. It got us thinking which one of those slogans is really more comforting? It’s going to be okay or Jesus loves you.

And I think the second one is really more substantial, isn’t it? You know, the first one really is kind of saying this too shall pass, right? But the second one really gives us the reason for hope. Jesus loves you. We know that Jesus loves us. He said basically that in John chapter 13 when he says,

I have loved you… (John 13:34)

And we know, of course, that familiar passage from John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall… …have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Yes God showed his love for us. He didn’t just say, I love you, but he showed it in His Son that he sent to suffer and die for our sins. Jesus ultimately went to the cross to pay for the price of our brokenness and the brokenness of our world that leads to things like disease and destruction and death. Jesus went to satisfy God’s wrath against us for our sins, so that we know because of him we are right with God. And there is hope for the future, especially because Jesus didn’t just die. Jesus also came back again to life from the dead, showing his power to even be able to defeat death.

Talk about an amazing hope, especially for those that are mourning. For those that have experienced a devastating loss in their life. A loved one that has died. To know that Christ has not only paid the price of sin, Christ has defeated death. And so there is hope for you and for them, for all who trust in their Savior, Jesus Christ. That it doesn’t end in death, but in life because of him.

So it’s going to be okay. It’s a nice slogan to think about. I think a better one is Jesus loves you. But a good reminder for us, especially when we’re facing hard things. Jesus loves you, and he’s proved it. Amen.

John 3:17-18

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How do you view God? As a loving deity who cares about you? Or as an egomaniac who demands believe in me or else I’m sending you to hell?

I think there are a lot of people in our world today that view God in that latter way. They view God as demanding that we believe in him or else. And many people would say, well, that’s really unfair. After all, God doesn’t present himself to us directly, right? He doesn’t speak to us audibly in our ears, at least not usually. He doesn’t show his person to us that we can look upon him or talk to him. And so how can God make such demands?

Yes, God’s existence maybe isn’t so overt, and maybe it is found in the shadows, but there is clear evidence of God’s existence. In fact, it is so clear that all peoples and cultures that have existed since the beginning of human history have believed in a god. And the reason is, is because they observe the world around. They see the design in creation and in themselves, and they are led to that logical conclusion that if there is a design, there must be a designer.

Not only this, we think about all of the peoples and cultures around the world, even today, that we all have a standard of law of right and wrong. And while there may be are nuanced differences between those codes of law, in general, many of them are the same. Do not murder, do not steal, do not commit adultery. And why is there the standard of law? It’s because it’s a universal law that is written on our hearts. Yet there are so many people in our world today that don’t go to that logical conclusion that if there is a universal standard of right and wrong, there must be a standard giver. God himself.

And yet God’s approach to us isn’t one to demand believe in me or else, but instead his approach to us is one of love. He sees our fallen condition. He sees what we deserve for the things that we have done wrong: punishment and justice. And yet he in love, wants us to be spared from all of that. Consider what Jesus Himself said in John chapter three.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned, but the one who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. (John 3:17-18 EHV)

You see, God has revealed himself to us in his body. The body of Jesus Christ in literal flesh and bones. And God has shown that Jesus Christ is God as he claimed to be, not just by his words, but also by his actions, by his miracles, not the least of which, of course, was his miracle of rising to life again from the dead on Easter Sunday. The fact that the tomb is empty proves that Jesus himself is God, and therefore is able to save, just as he has said. God is not an egomaniac who needs us to feel good about himself. Rather, he is a God of love who cares for you.

So God’s desire for you isn’t believe in me or else, but instead believe in my Savior. Believe in Jesus, the one that I have sent to rescue you from the judgment you deserve. From the guilt that you know in your own heart of the things that you have done wrong. Jesus has come to make satisfaction for that sin, and to give you life, and to give you hope, to give you a future. Believe in him and you will not be condemned. Amen.

Isaiah 42:3

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Our Bible passage today comes from the book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 42, and we read there in verse three.

A bruised reed, he shall not break. And a smoldering wick he shall not snuff out. (Isaiah 42:3)

Many years ago there was a lady in my congregation who was working at a pro-life booth where they would try to talk to people, it was at a big event. And a woman came up to her and admitted to her that she had an abortion. And now she felt so guilty about it. She had actually been involved in a life of prostitution, and she just felt that God could never, ever take her back. This woman from my congregation had a wonderful opportunity to witness to her and to talk to her.

Sometimes it’s very easy for our faith to be bruised or possibly even be extinguished. Isaiah is using kind of interesting pictures about spiritual life inside of us, a bruised reed and a smoldering wick. Sometimes because of the weakness of our faith and the lack of spiritual life inside of us, the lack of sanctification, that we can sometimes feel so crushed and so bruised. And it’s at those moments when we’re aware of our sin that we kind of conclude, I do not belong in God’s house. That woman, when she talked to the lady from our church, expressed to her that she couldn’t come back to church because she just felt that her life had been so bad and so awful. And so the woman from our congregation tried hard to encourage her to come back.

This text that I just read to you from Isaiah allows us to sort of peer into the heart of God based upon the work of Christ, his Messiah, the Chosen One, our Lord Jesus, and his mission to come into the world to save people. And I’ve always loved this passage. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. Think about how delicately Jesus dealt with the sheep that he ran into, some of whom were really crushed by their sin. The woman that was caught in adultery, the thief on the cross. The woman who came crying at Jesus feet and so appreciative of his grace.

The faith that’s been placed in your heart as a Christian is God’s creation. It’s his work, and the Holy Spirit will not work against himself when it comes to that faith. He does not want to destroy even the little embers of faith that might still be burning in your heart. And so God is always going to deal very tenderly with that faith.

I brought along a little illustration that my dad taught me when I was in about sixth grade, and I always liked this illustration. He said he took out a dollar bill one day and he said, how many pennies worth am I holding? And I said, a hundred. So that would be about a hundred pennies. How many pennies worth am I holding? About a hundred. Then he took it like this. He said, now how many pennies worth am I holding? I said, a hundred, and then he held it, just barely by the corner, and he said, now how many pennies worth am I holding? I said, a hundred. He said, right, no matter how I’m holding it, it still has the same value. And he said, think about your hand sort of like faith that God puts in your heart. Sometimes our faith is good and strong, and we’re holding on to Christ, sometimes really firmly. And other times maybe our faith is really very, very weak and we seem to barely have it in our hearts. And yet the value of what it’s holding on to, and that represents Christ and having all of our sins paid for and the hope of heaven, that value doesn’t change.

Now, my dad said, at the same time, you don’t want to walk around with a dollar bill holding it like this because you could lose it. The wind could blow it away, or someone could take it from you. It’s much better to have a firm grip on it. And the same is true, he said. With our faith, we should want to have our faith strong and firm, because there’s less chance of it then being taken away from us or losing it. And so God is always encouraging us to strengthen our faith in Christ through His Word and Sacraments. But at the same time, even a little bruised reed or a smoldering wick that is just hanging on to that wonderful hope of Christ still possesses the full amount of our salvation in heaven. Amen.

Romans 5:20

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Our devotion today comes from Romans chapter five, verse 20. Saint Paul says

Where sin increased, grace increased all the more. (Romans 5:20)

I’d like you to use your imagination today. Imagine that there’s a mom who comes home from work one day, and she finds that all of her clothing are just thrown out in the front yard. As she goes into the house, she discovers that her 14-year-old son, who has kind of fallen under the friendship of some kind of a rough crowd. Her 14-year-old son, for no reason at all against her, has just decided to ransack the house and trash the place, and she finds stuff all over the place. Everything is ripped apart. She sees their family photos stuck in the garbage. There are things written on the walls. The refrigerator is emptied, things have been smeared on the walls and in her bedroom, right on her mirror, there’s a note that says mom on it from her son, and it basically says, I am leaving you. I’m sick of you. I don’t want anything to do with you. Goodbye. She sits down and just begins to cry. As you could imagine, her heart is full of just such sadness. Here’s this child that she brought into this world she’s been taking care of and done such a wonderful job with, and yet now he has fallen under this terrible influence and is showing such hatred and animosity toward her and just decides to desert her and run away.

She has every right to be angry, but the most powerful emotion that she feels is actually love. Her love for her son intensifies at this moment, and so she goes out looking for him and trying to find him. And finally, when she comes upon him and finds him, she comes up to him and just expresses to him her great love and concern. Her number one goal is to win him back into her love, so that he’ll come back home with her.

Think of that illustration is kind of the way we can sometimes be toward God, the very God who brought us into this world. In fact, the Bible tells us he knit us together in our mother’s womb, decided exactly who we would be the very God that gives us life, because of the sinful influence of the devil and his temptations, we have been turned into enemies of God. And just by our various actions and things that we’ve done. We have pushed God away from ourselves and on our own the Bible says we have just deserted God and wanted to run away from him.

He has every right to be angry with us. He has every right to land on us with his justice and his judgment. But instead, God chooses to come to us and to love us. He chooses to embrace us and try to find us with his love. That’s the strongest, most powerful emotion in God toward you and me is his love. That’s what caused him to send His Son into the world to be our Savior. And through the work of that Son, when he went to the cross, and also by the work of His Holy Spirit, God now comes to us and speaks so tenderly to us, trying to win us over back into his good graces through his love.

What a powerful God we have that even though our sin in our lives continues to increase against him, Saint Paul says that God’s grace abounds. It increases even beyond our sinfulness. What a wonderful, gracious God we have. May we always stay in his care by faith in his Son, our Savior. Amen.

1 John 4:8, Psalm 37:22

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A number of years ago, when I was driving along the interstate, I saw a sign for a church that had this passage written on it. 1 John 4:8, God is love. We accept all people from all lifestyles at our church, is what the sign said.

Sometimes when we think about that passage and we’ve probably heard it before, God is love. We can think that that must mean that God doesn’t really care about right and wrong. God doesn’t care about sin. God’s kind of like the elderly grandfather who sees his grandsons come into the house one day just after stealing some candy from the local convenience store, and he kind of has a good laugh. Boys will be boys. No, God is not like that at all.

God is not just a God of love, but he is also a God of justice. God is concerned about right and wrong, and he is concerned about punishing wrongdoing. So how does that even work? How can God be both a God of love? But also, on the other hand, how can it be true? As it says in Psalm 37? The Lord loves justice.

Imagine that there’s this guy who’s committed a murder. His name is Joe, and all of the evidence was laid out before a court concerning what Joe had done wrong. There’s video footage, there’s fingerprint evidence, there’s DNA, there’s eyewitness accounts. It’s obvious that he has committed this murder. But I want you to imagine that day in the courtroom, the judge said it’s clear that Joe has committed this murder. But you know what? Joe’s normally a pretty nice guy. He normally doesn’t kill people on a daily basis. So I think he was just kind of having a bad day. So I’m going to let him go. How do you think the people there in the courtroom would respond?

I think Joe would be pretty happy, right? But imagine everyone else there if they were listening to this. Imagine the family of the victim, if they were there, what would they say? Well, they would say that judge is absolutely unjust. Some people would even go as far as to say that judge is evil for not punishing this crime. The same is true about God. God is the judge of the universe. God cannot simply let sin go unpunished. If he was to do that, God would be unjust. No, God would be evil for not punishing sin, for not bringing evil to justice.

So how, on the other hand, could God also be love then? Well, it all comes together ultimately in the cross. You see, in the cross, God shows his love by sending his Son Jesus. But what does Jesus do? Jesus suffers the punishment for our sins, for your sins and mine. In fact, the sins of the whole world go upon his shoulders and that’s God’s justice. So God’s love is sending His Son for you. God’s justice is that he punished your sin once and for all in Christ who suffered hell for you. And in that way, God is both love and just. What a precious truth to note.

And how does that change our attitude really, when it comes to our sin as well? Not just to think, well, it doesn’t matter. I’ll just do whatever. God will just forgive me anyway, but instead to realize that our sin is serious and someone had to die to pay for that sin and suffer our punishment, and to believe that, and to rejoice in that, and desire now to not live in sin, but to live for the one who suffered your punishment and mine. Amen.

Ephesians 2:4-5

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We like it when people that are close to us tell us that they love us. And sometimes we ask the question, Well, why do you love me? And we maybe want them to say things like, I love you because you’re so beautiful. I love you because you’re smart. I love you because you’re funny. I love you because you’re exciting to be around. We often like to hear those things because they are compliments.

But what if somebody instead said, I love you because I choose to love you or I love you because you’re mine? Well, they maybe seem kind of impersonal and maybe not so romantic, especially if we’re expecting that from a romantic interest of ours. But which is it? Would we rather hear that someone loves us because of all of these traits and qualities that we have that they like? Or would we rather have them say that they love us because they choose to love us or they love us because we’re theirs?

You know, if we think about it, if someone’s love for us is based solely on the way that we make them feel, or maybe some attributes that we have right now, what happens if those attributes go away? What happens if a few decades from now we ultimately lose our beauty? Or what if we’re not so funny anymore, or not so exciting or not as smart as we once were? We might wonder if their love is based on those things. Well, will that person stop loving us? In some ways, it’s more comforting to know that someone’s love is not based on those things, but based on their decision, their choice of loving us.

And I think of a love that a parent can have for a child. Especially think about a mother, a mother who has carried a child in her womb for a long nine months, and the child is born and she is attached to that child completely. She has love for that child not just because she thinks the child is cute when many mothers do, and not because that child is doing so many wonderful things for her, but because that child is hers. That child belongs to her. She has such a connection with this child. And we often will see this even in society too, as we think about a child that maybe grows up and maybe can turn to a life of crime and maybe commits a horrific crime in society, gets so angry and despises that person. Well, what do we see of their mother? The mother still shows love for her son, right? Even in the worst of circumstances, because she has chosen to love this child no matter what.

You know, when it comes to God, sometimes we might think that God should love us because of the things that we do for Him. Well, we’re so faithful to you, God. I regularly go to church or I give an offering to you or I read my Bible or pray to you every day. We think that that’s the reason God should say that he loves us. But instead, God tells us this in His word. In Ephesians chapter two, it says this

But God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved! (Ephesians 2:4-5)

And it reminds us that we had nothing to offer to God. We were dead in our trespasses. That’s the way we come into this world, unable to do anything good for him. But what did God do? Well, because of his mercy. Because he saw our fallen condition. Because his heart went out to us. He had compassion on us and what he knew we deserve for our sins. He loved us, and he sent Jesus to suffer and die for our sins. But furthermore, as the apostle Paul writes, he made us alive in Christ. He brought us to the knowledge of the truth. He created faith in our hearts to trust in that Savior Jesus, not because we earned or deserved it in any way, but because of his grace and mercy for you.

This is incredibly comforting when you think about your relationship with God. You know, if his love for you is dependent on what you do, there’s going to be times when you fail. And you might wonder, well, how could God possibly love me? But because God’s love is based on His decision to love you and based on his mercy and who he is, we can be confident that that love will never fail, no matter what we do, no matter how we hurt him, even though we don’t want to. God always loves us and he always welcomes us back, forgiving our sins when we confess them to him and assuring us that we are his own dear children, not because of what we have done, but because of what he has done for us in Christ. 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.

Acts 16:32-34

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Our devotion today is based on a wonderful story in the Book of Acts, Chapter 16, and I’ll set the story a little bit. St Paul had been thrown in prison, along with Silas, for preaching the Gospel about Jesus. And one night there was a violent earthquake and the jailer who took care of that prison was afraid that all the prisoners had escaped. And so he had taken a sword and was putting it right up next to his chest and was going to run himself through and kill himself because he knew he’d be responsible for all the prisoners who escaped. Suddenly Paul calls out, “Stop, We’re all here. Don’t harm yourself.” And the jailer comes rushing in and drops to the feet of Paul and Silas, and he says to them, the greatest question in the world, “what must I do to be saved?”

How do I get to heaven? Is really what he’s asking. And it’s interesting that Saint Paul doesn’t say to him, well, you got to do this and do this. He doesn’t give him a list of things. All he tells him is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that beautiful message of the gospel tells us that God has taken care of everything. What it takes for us to get to heaven is nothing from us. But it’s entirely God’s doing. And what He has done for us through the work of Christ. So Paul simply puts the gospel in front of this man and invites him to believe.

We’re told that he was so excited that he took Paul and Silas back to his house, and he had them teach the gospel to the members of his house. And then we’re told that immediately he and his entire family were baptized. I love this passage, though, from Act 16.

Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized.

And then listen to this.

The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God. (Acts 16:32-34)

Now, this brings up a point about our families and our family life. The gospel is, of course, primarily about getting us to heaven some day, and we have that through faith in Christ. But it also has a transformational quality for our own personal lives and our marriages and our relationships to our children. When the Gospel is brought into the home, it also brings joy and gladness into the home as well. And so even though the most important thing about learning about our Savior is getting to heaven, when we know we have that, and when we make that the most important thing in our lives, it also has this wonderful earthly impact back into our marriages and our relationships with our children and our parents. And we see that reflected in this story.

So it’s a wonderful thing that the heavenly home we have waiting for us also has such a tremendous impact on our earthly homes here in this life. God be praised. Amen.

Psalm 145:15-16, Psalm 136:1

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The United States, like many other countries around the world, celebrates a day of Thanksgiving. Maybe it begs the question, who do we thank? Now, I know some might say, well, that’s a stupid question to ask, but especially think about this in our increasingly godless world, a world that kind of denies the existence of God, a world that says that evolution is the explanation for why things exist, why we exist. Who do we thank?

Do we thank blind chance that chemicals came together and voila, all of a sudden, there’s all this stuff that exists? Maybe should it be a day that we thank our parents for giving us life and providing for us? Or maybe a day to thank our spouse for putting up with us? Or maybe it should be a day when we simply thank ourselves for making sure that our needs are provided for?

Well if we read through the documents from the founding of our country regarding Thanksgiving Day, from our founding Fathers, you see something very clear that they wanted to set up this day, a national day of Thanksgiving, to recognize the giver of all good things. And they recognized who that was, that that giver is God. And isn’t it obvious? There was one who created this entire world in which we live, one who made us, one who continues to even sustain us by allowing plants to grow and animals to grow, by providing for our foods, by giving us seasons and allowing us to have our home and our clothing and our jobs and so many other things, even our talents and abilities and our intellect that all came from someplace, came from the great giver of all good things. And obviously that giver is God.

For Christians we have another reason for Thanksgiving. That reason is not simply because God made us and God preserves us and preserves our lives here on this earth, because God has also saved us, because God sent his Son to offer his life on a cross to guarantee that our sins would be paid in full, to guarantee that we can live with him forever. You know, God’s plan of Providence wasn’t just to provide for us here on this earth, and then we die, and that’s it. No, his plan was to provide for us eternally, to provide for us here and now, here in this earth, but also provide for us forever in the mansions of heaven. And so on this Thanksgiving Day, really every day, let us say with the psalmist,

The eyes of all look eagerly to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. He opens his hand, and he satisfies the desire of every living thing. (Psalm 145:15-16)

May we also declare

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. For his mercy endures forever. (Psalm 136:1)

Amen.