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[00:00:00] Good morning, St. Paul Lutheran Church. This is the Sunday Drive to Church podcast. Pastor Wolfmulley here for your drive to Church on October 19, Year of our Lord 2025. For the 19th Sunday after Pentecost, we'll pray the collect for the day and then get into what we can expect at church, including the new sound system installed this week, ready to go today. Let's pray.
[00:00:23] O Lord almighty and everlasting God, you have commanded us to pray and have promised to hear us mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may direct and govern our hearts in all things, that we may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of your name through Jesus Christ, your son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
[00:00:44] Amen.
[00:00:46] Amen. New sound system. Sit wherever you want.
[00:00:50] You should be able to hear us.
[00:00:52] Pastor Davis and I had decided that I was going to get up there and say, welcome to church, everyone. You can finally hear my real voice. And he was going to read the scriptures like Sid the Sloth, but we decided that that would not be a good joke. So I'll just tell it to you now. Now, also, Jonathan warned me. He said, pastor, you cannot preach forever today, especially in the late service, because we got a bus to catch to get up to Dallas for this concert. So. So we'll see if I'm listening. Also, a third thing that's interesting.
[00:01:29] For the first couple or for two of the distribution hymns, we have these two hymns. The Law of God is Good and Wise and the Gospel Shows the Father's Grace. They're a law gospel hymn pair.
[00:01:41] In the early service, we're just singing them normal. So we'll sing 579 and then 580 in the second service. Oh, boy. We're going to go back and forth between. And 579, stanza one and then 580, stanza one and then stanza two, both back and forth, back and forth. It's like a dueling hymn, if you will. And the congregation will sing about the law and the choir will sing about the gospel for some of them. And then all together, it's all noted. You'll see the chart. First time, I think we had a chart to tell you what hymn stanzas to sing in the bulletin, but that's there for you tomorrow. And the bells. It'll be great.
[00:02:18] What a day. And the texts, I mean, unbelievable scripture texts.
[00:02:23] Today it's Psalm 100, Psalm 121, one of the most famous psalms. For our entrance Psalm, it's the second Psalm of Ascents. So remember Psalm 119, this longest Psalm. And then after that, Starting with Psalm 120, we have these. I think it goes from 120 to 130.
[00:02:41] No, I should look 137. These songs of ascent.
[00:02:53] 134. So 120 to 134 are the traditional pilgrimage psalms that the people of Israel would pray on their way into Jerusalem for the pilgrim festivals. Psalm 21 really captures that idea. I'll lift up mine eyes to the hills from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber.
[00:03:18] Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper, the Lord your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil. He shall preserve your soul. Then this last verse is the verse we use in baptism. He shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth and even forevermore.
[00:03:39] Beautiful text. That's the Psalm of trust. Even while we're on the way, it's this idea. We're on the way up to Jerusalem.
[00:03:48] We, the Lord's people, are on our way to our heavenly home. And yet the Lord is with us.
[00:03:56] It's not like we're going to see him when we get there. He's the one who's guiding us along the way, who's keeping us, who's bringing us to that place. Oh, that's phenomenal. And then we have the Old Testament lesson.
[00:04:08] Probably going to preach about this.
[00:04:11] It's one of the most stunning events in the Old Testament. Jacob wrestling with Jesus by the fords of the Jabok River.
[00:04:22] It happened probably in the year 1910 B.C.
[00:04:26] jacob is 97 years old, which is pretty old.
[00:04:31] He lived to be 150something.
[00:04:35] He.
[00:04:37] He's fleeing Laban, his father in law, who's afflicted him tremendously for 20 years.
[00:04:44] But he's coming into the coming back home and he's worried about Esau, who has tried to kill him. That's why he had to leave 20 years earlier.
[00:04:53] And he's sure that he's about to go to war with his brother.
[00:04:57] And in the midst of all this turmoil, in the middle of the night, as he stands there on his own, probably praying, trying to understand how the Lord, you know, the life of Jacob was this extreme version of the Lord gave him the promise, the Older will serve the younger. It's through Jacob the promise he is going to come. And then absolutely everything that happens to him is like it's not going to happen. His father blesses Esau, even though Esau sells his birthright. It's not recognized. They have to deceive Jacob, they have to deceive Isaac so that Jacob will get the blessing. And still it's not recognized. And then Laban doesn't recognize it.
[00:05:42] And then the Lord's preserving him. And now here comes Esau to destroy him.
[00:05:46] It's an amazing. It's an amazing life. And right here in the middle of it, this moment when they're wrestling.
[00:05:55] We'll talk about that. We'll talk about that in the sermon. We have to. How can you not?
[00:06:00] We'll have to. The Epistle lesson. Talk about going from way at the beginning to way at the end. 2 Timothy is our Epistle lesson.
[00:06:10] The last writing of Paul.
[00:06:14] He's left Timothy in Ephesus. Then he went up north to Troas, got arrested. He's in Rome. He writes back to Timothy from prison. He's about to get martyred. Paul is and Peter there in Rome.
[00:06:29] And he writes to Timothy, continue in what you've learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Then this most beautiful passage about the Holy Scriptures. All scripture is breathed out by God. That's one word in the Greek. It's a word that Paul probably invented, theopanoimatos, theos from God, panoima, which means breath or spirit. And so Paul says theoponoima. He puts it together as one big compound word that the Scriptures are God breathed, God spirited, exhaled by God. All scripture is theopanoimata, breathed out by God, and therefore profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
[00:07:23] And then this charge to Timothy as a pastor, I charge you in the presence of God in Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead by his appearing in his kingdom. Preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort, with complete patience and teaching. The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but have itching ears. They'll accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. But for you, always be sober minded. Endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. This beautiful charge from Paul to Timothy, that he would stand in that office there in Ephesus, surrounded by so many dangers and preach.
[00:08:09] And also this warning that Paul gives to Timothy and to every preacher, I suppose every Christian too, that it is not when we go to hear the preaching.
[00:08:19] We are not going to.
[00:08:23] How does he say it? Find someone to scratch our ears.
[00:08:28] The time is coming when people don't endure sound teaching but have itching ears accumulate for themselves, teachers to suit their own passions.
[00:08:37] It's like there's things I want to hear, so I go to listen for those things that I want to hear. That's one of the problems, by the way, in our kind of Internet age with the scattered voices, is that you get to go and listen to the people that you want to hear. You never have to listen to the people that you don't.
[00:08:53] But Paul says this is one of the marks of the end times. People are going to gather up preachers who tell them what they want to hear. That's not why you go to church. You don't go to church to hear what you want. You go to church to hear what God wants to say to you, which is both too hard and also too wonderful.
[00:09:13] We could never ever want to hear the law and the gospel. I mean the law which shows us our sin and shows us how we deserve God's wrath. We could never get there, not on our own, apart from the Holy Spirit and the gospel, which is too wonderful. We could never be so bold to even ask or imagine for something like God's own Son taking on our flesh and bone so that he can bear our sins and carry our sorrows and be our Savior. We could never be so bold to ask for something like that. But that's what God has to say.
[00:09:51] The Gospel Lesson from Luke 18 is great.
[00:09:54] It's a funny story. It's Jesus talking about this certain judge, and he's using the example of this wicked judge who doesn't fear God and doesn't care about his neighbor.
[00:10:05] He lacks both love for God and love for the neighbor. He's probably a miserable judge. And yet Jesus is putting this judge forward as and the widow that he finally at last hears as an example for prayer. This is so great. Jesus told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
[00:10:31] So this is what Jesus wants us to think about prayer.
[00:10:34] Now, maybe that's just already enough.
[00:10:37] We sometimes when we're praying and we don't and our prayer is not answered.
[00:10:46] We sometimes lose heart and stop praying.
[00:10:51] And Jesus is telling us to not to do that.
[00:10:57] We sometimes, I mean sometimes we lose heart just because we're disheartened.
[00:11:02] But sometimes we stop praying because we think, well, the Lord, if he hasn't answered it by now, then he must not want to hear this anymore. He must be getting annoyed by me.
[00:11:12] We have to take that thought that it is possible for us to annoy the Lord with our prayers. We have to take that thought and throw it out in the trash.
[00:11:22] Because listen to this parable that Jesus says.
[00:11:25] He said, in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God or respected man.
[00:11:30] And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, give me justice against my adversary.
[00:11:36] For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, though I this is funny, Jesus every now and again will give us the inner thoughts of the scandalous characters of his parables. And here's one. So here's this wicked judge and he's talking to himself.
[00:11:52] I neither fear God or respect man. At least he knows it. He's got that self awareness.
[00:11:57] Yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I'll give her justice so that she'll not beat me down by her continual coming.
[00:12:07] That's it. So here's this parable. Here's this judge. He doesn't fear God, he doesn't fear man, he doesn't care about anybody. But he's just the sick of this lady who's annoying him. So he's going to give her justice just so she'll so be quiet.
[00:12:24] The Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says. Will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.
[00:12:36] Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth so that we we are to be persistent in our prayers. We are to not lose heart in our prayers. We are supposed to consistently bring to the Lord those things which we need, which we long for. To pray for justice, to pray for those who need help.
[00:13:01] To pray for those who don't have faith in the Lord Jesus, that the Lord would work faith in their hearts and give them that great treasure.
[00:13:10] We are supposed to pray. That's what Jesus is teaching.
[00:13:15] Our hymn of the day is 7:34 I trust, oh Lord, your holy name.
[00:13:22] The tune is Nor let me be confounded, it might go to something else. It's an old Reformation era hymn about Prayer.
[00:13:39] Listen to the second stanza. Bow down your gracious ear to me and hear my cry, my prayer, my plea. Make haste for my protection, for woes and fear surround me here.
[00:13:52] Help me in my affliction.
[00:13:55] This is the third stanza. You are my strength, my shield, my rock, my fortress that withstands each shock, my help, my life, my tower, my battle sword, all might, Almighty Lord, who can resist your power? It's a beautiful hymn of simple faith and trust in the Lord Jesus who has promised to hear our prayers and to answer them. Really? This is a prayer?
[00:14:26] This is a prayer Sunday and when we see Jacob wrestling with Jesus on the fords of the River Jabbok, we see what it means to be.
[00:14:35] To pray.
[00:14:36] To pray is to wrestle with God.
[00:14:39] That's what Israel means, wrestles with God. And we are Israel. We are set in this life to.
[00:14:49] To wrestle, to cling on to the Lord and to say, I'm not letting go until you bless me.
[00:14:58] Now this. This sermon always hits home for all of us because it is just our Christian life to be weary in prayer.
[00:15:09] Every prayer starts as an unanswered prayer.
[00:15:13] I mean, if we had the thing that we were asking for, then we wouldn't ask for it, because we would have it already.
[00:15:18] We might thank the Lord for it, but every petition begins as an unanswered petition. And the Lord will leave those petitions unanswered as long as they need to be for our own good. Which is hard to remember because his assessment of our own good is oftentimes not the same as ours.
[00:15:36] But we are waiting on Him. That's what it means to be a Christian. We're waiting on the Lord, waiting for him to hear and answer our prayers. But we trust the whole time that he is cry out to me in the day of trouble, and I will hear you and I will deliver you.
[00:15:50] That's the Lord's promise.
[00:15:53] So this will be a great Sunday to be encouraged in our prayers, to go back to our prayer lists and remember that we need to pray this to bring the people and the things that we need before the Lord. And to remember, too, that there's something. I mean, it's not like the Lord doesn't hear us when we're praying while we're driving to church, or when we're laying in our bed at night, or when we're walking the dog in the neighborhood, or whenever the Lord hears our prayers, whenever.
[00:16:19] But there is something special about gathering to the Lord's people and offering our prayers and petitions before his altar. There's something really wonderful about that as well.
[00:16:28] And so it's good to bring those worries and cares and concerns and the people that you're praying for, the people that you love who don't know the Lord Jesus, to also carry them with you in your prayers into the Lord's house every Sunday and to lay them before the Lord. Like the friends who laid the paralyzed man before the Lord, or like the people who run to Jesus with prayers for their family back home.
[00:16:52] We come to the Lord and we petition, and we know that he loves to hear our prayers.
[00:16:57] And we're encouraged in the waiting that the Lord will bless us.
[00:17:02] All right. Drive safe. That's Sunday Drive home. Wait. Sunday Drive to Church podcast. I'm Pastor Wolf Mehler. We'll see you soon. God's peace be with you.