7.20.25

[00:00:00] Good morning, St. Paul Lutheran Church. It's Pastor Wolfmuller and this is the Sunday drive to Church for July 20, 2025, the year of our Lord. [00:00:11] This is a boy. A lot of things, a lot of beautiful, wonderful things happening today. [00:00:17] Noah's baptism, Joshua's confirmation, Farewell Sunday for the vicar who will be preaching to us today. God be praised for that. Dr. Peppercorn here for the, for the pastors conference. We'll be teaching Bible class. Also visitors, John Wolf and his family, missionaries. Beautiful, wonderful day today. Including the. Oh boy, the texts today are just phenomenal. Let's start with the collect and then we'll dive right into it. Let's pray. O Lord, grant us the spirit to hear your word and know the one thing needful, that by your word and spirit we may live according to your will through Jesus Christ, your son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. [00:01:01] Amen. I don't know if you ever cut out the collect, take the bulletin home. You should always take the bulletin home, especially because it has the prayers, the people that we're praying for and you can use those in your daily prayers every week. But I don't know if you ever cut out the picture for like a bookmark or cut out the collect and use it as a bookmark as well. But this is a beautiful one and it gives you already a hint at what's coming up. It's the Sunday of Mary and Martha. [00:01:27] Mary who sits at the feet of Jesus and Martha who's bustling around, which is fine until the devil uses it to cause her to be bitter at Mary and she starts to complain. [00:01:37] Jesus then gets after her a little bit. [00:01:40] Look, Mary's chosen the one thing needful. The picture on the front of the bulletin is where Jonathan's using some of our stained glass windows which are wonderful, beautiful. [00:01:50] And it's the Abraham window. So you can say with the kids, show them the bulletin and say, can you find the window? That'll be your assignment. And that has to do with the Old Testament lesson which is Genesis 18. The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre as he sat. And those are the three golf ball looking trees that are there in the window. You'll notice is it interesting that those three trees, the leaves on two of the trees are going up and on another one they're going down, which is either a mistake or some very important theological meaning. I guess we'll never know. But that's why you can. I think that the Picture is in the bulletin backwards. [00:02:32] It's like looking at. [00:02:34] It's in the bulletin like you're looking in to the church through the window instead of looking out. You can see if you think I'm right about that. Anyway, that's the Genesis 18. There's those oaks of Mamre. That's what's in the window. And Abraham sitting there by his tent in the cool of the day. And he lifted his eyes and looked. Three men are standing in front of him. Jesus, accompanied with two angels. That's my addition. [00:02:57] And he runs to the door and he meets them. Oh Lord, if I found favor in your sight, don't pass by, here's his hospitality. And he brings them and he serves them food and drink and goes to Sarah, quick, make some cakes. [00:03:11] And Abraham runs and gets a calf and he prepares a feast for them. He's taking care of them. It's great. [00:03:17] And then they, these visitors say to Abram, abraham, where's Sarah, your wife? [00:03:24] In the tent. And the Lord said, now we know who it is. Abraham maybe is about to figure it out. [00:03:31] I'll surely return to you about this time next year. [00:03:35] And Sarah, your wife, shall have a son. [00:03:37] And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him, what are these guys talking about? [00:03:43] And Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years, the way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. And so not only could they not have kids normally, but now even that's passed. [00:03:55] So Sarah laughs Verse 12. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, after I'm worn out, my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? [00:04:04] The Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh and say, shall I indeed bear a child now that I'm old? Is the. Is anything too hard for the Lord at the appointed time? I'll return to you about this time next year. And Sarah, Shahavishad the text goes on to say, Sarah said, I did not laugh. And the Lord says, you did laugh, which is why the child conceived, which happened and was born. That child is named. Laughter in Hebrew Isaac. [00:04:29] So great. [00:04:31] What a text now. And this is the thing that's really interesting is that Abraham had this promise that your own child will be your seed for you. And Sarah from that child will be the Messiah and offspring as many as the stars in the sky. [00:04:51] And Abraham believes the Lord and it's accounted to him as righteous. But he's trying to figure out how the promise is going to happen. So he goes in with Hagar and they have Ishmael. And the Lord says, nope, that's not the Way it's going to be with Sarah. [00:05:06] And so Abraham is rebuked here for trying to help God bring about the promise. He says, you just wait for me and I'll keep my promise and you'll be blessed by it. So good. [00:05:18] That has something to do. It's related. All this is related to the psalm which is my favorite, Psalm 27. It's a little bit longer than most psalms when we have the whole thing, 14 verses, but it's so good. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? [00:05:35] That's a great question. [00:05:36] The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? [00:05:40] Another good question. [00:05:42] When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, which is gross. Can you imagine? This is like zombie apocalypse kind of stuff. When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and my foes, it's they who stumble and fall. [00:05:57] Even if an army encamps against me, against me, my heart shall not fear. [00:06:02] This is talking about how faith pushes out fear. [00:06:07] Though war rise against me, yet I'll be confident. And then verse four. Listen to this verse four. If you want to underline a verse in your Bible. Psalm 27. 4. [00:06:19] One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. [00:06:35] For he will hide me in the shelter of His. In his shelter in the day of trouble. He'll conceal me under the COVID of his tent. He'll lift me high up on a rock. This is an amazing thing, is that, you know, if you go. If you want to hide, you normally don't go hide in a tent. [00:06:50] I remember when we were in Colorado and we'd go camping and Carrie never wanted to camp in a tent. She wanted a camper because at least the bears would have to break through like plastic instead of just nylon to get to you. [00:07:03] I told you that story about how the raccoons were scratching the tent one time and Carrie thought it was a bear anyway. [00:07:12] When you want some protection, especially if you go to war, if you want some protection, a tent is not going to do the trick unless it's the Lord's tent. [00:07:21] And then when you're in his tent, when you're in his tabernacle, you're safe from everything. [00:07:25] Not because of the tent, but because of the Lord who's protecting you. [00:07:29] Teach me your way. This is all the Way down to verse 11. Teach me your way, O Lord. Lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Last verse. Wait for the Lord. Be strong. [00:07:46] Let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. [00:07:51] Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful psalm. It's a psalm of courage, a psalm of confidence. [00:07:57] It's great. [00:07:59] The Epistle. We're continuing in Colossians 1. We had Colossians 1 last week. Now again this week, picking up with verse 21. You who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. That's original sin, by the way. [00:08:14] He is now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. [00:08:23] God the Father, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and which I Paul became a minister. [00:08:35] That's twice that he's mentioned now that the gospel was proclaimed in all the earth, which is beautiful to see. [00:08:42] And part of the purpose of the gospel is so that we can stand before the Lord on the judgment day. We're talking about this in the men's Bible study this morning, which, if you're listening on Sunday, would be yesterday morning, Saturday morning, we were talking about how a lot of people are just not even concerned about the judgment day. [00:09:00] They're not concerned that after we die we have to face the Lord. But that's the truth. It's appointed for man once to die and then to be judged. [00:09:07] So that there's a judgment appointed for each person, which is fearful unless we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, unless we have faith in the gospel. And then we realize that everything that the Lord Jesus is doing is to prepare us for that day, to stand before the Lord. [00:09:23] Now Paul says, He continues, Verse 24, I rejoice in my suffering for your sake. In my flesh I'm filling up what's lacking in Christ's affliction for the sake of his body. That is the church of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given me for you to make the word of God fully known. The mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints. [00:09:47] Now, this is. It's pretty amazing. [00:09:51] It's not like there was anything lacking in the suffering of Jesus to win the salvation of the world. [00:09:57] That's not What Paul's talking about when he says what's lacking in Christ's affliction, His suffering was complete in such a profound way that there is nothing lacking for our forgiveness, but that the Lord is pleased to continue to suffer in the persecution of the Church for the sake of getting the Gospel to every little corner of the world and extending his light into all these different places and saving us. [00:10:29] That's what's going on here. [00:10:31] So remember when Jesus called Paul to be an apostle and he said to him, soul, soul, why are you persecuting me? [00:10:40] So that in the suffering of the Christian, Jesus himself is suffering in a profound way. But he's willing to do that even in glory. [00:10:48] He endures the hardships of this life with us because he's with us in the midst of it. [00:10:54] And he does this for the sake of the gospel. [00:10:58] It's amazing stuff. [00:11:00] To them, that is, to the saints God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery which is Christ in you the hope of glory. [00:11:09] So that in us is the Holy Spirit, and in us is God. In fact, the Father also lives in us, and that is God in us is like a down payment for the resurrection, a down payment for the life that is to come. [00:11:24] It's pointing to the hope of the glory that's on the way. [00:11:28] Him we proclaim Christ, Paul says, we proclaim Christ warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. [00:11:38] For this I toil, struggling with all this energy that he powerfully works within me. I love that word energy. [00:11:48] And I have this verse written on a note card that sits on my wall in front of my desk at home, that we are working with the energy of Christ, not the energy of God, not with our own energy and not with our own strength. And I hope this is encouraging to you. It's incredibly encouraging to me when my own energy is running low and I'm tired and I think, I don't know if I have the strength for all the work that the Lord has set in front of us as people. [00:12:21] And he says, well, it's not your energy to begin with. [00:12:25] Paul says, we struggle with all his energy that he powerfully works within me so that the energy just for you to think about this promise, the energy of God is in you. When you think you can't, you know, how can Ione more short night taking care of the kids, one more long day at work, one more difficult conversation with friends and family, one more week of fighting against the illness or whatever. And you think, I just can't. I don't have the strength and I don't have the energy. [00:12:58] Look at this promise. Beautiful promise. Colossians 1:29. I struggle with his energy that he powerfully works within me. [00:13:07] The Greek there is Energias. [00:13:10] It's where we get the word energy. [00:13:12] Really, really beautiful. Where does it come from, this energy? It comes from the word of God. That's the text, Luke 10:38, 42, that we've been driving towards. [00:13:22] Here, I'll read it. It's a short one. [00:13:25] As they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. The village, by the way, is Bethany, which is on the. [00:13:32] If you can. Okay. Imagine two hills. And one hill is to the west, and the other is to the east. And the hill on the west is lower than the hill on the east. Now, that hill on the west is Mount Zion, and Jerusalem is on it. And the hill in the east is Mount of Olives. And. And on the eastern slope of that eastern hill is a little village called Bethany. [00:13:55] So if you go up the hill from Bethany, you're traveling toward Jerusalem, and you're going up to the top, and you watch the sunset down over Jerusalem. So on that little village nestled on the east side of the Mount of Olives is this little village, Bethany, which has in it the home of two sisters and a brother who all lived together. Presumably none were married. Mary and Martha and Lazarus. [00:14:21] And Jesus was dear friends with them. Whenever Jesus and the disciples were traveling in that area, they stayed there. [00:14:30] How they became friends, we don't know. [00:14:32] Why their friendship was so special, we don't know. [00:14:36] Jesus comes down to the area, which was risky for him because everyone in Jerusalem wanted to kill him who was in charge? [00:14:43] But when he hears that Lazarus, this brother of Mary and Martha, he goes there, risking whatever would happen. [00:14:53] Okay, so Jesus goes into this village and goes to the house of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, the text says. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. [00:15:05] And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. [00:15:11] But Martha was distracted with much serving. [00:15:15] And she went up to him and said, lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me. [00:15:22] But the Lord answered her. Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. [00:15:31] Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her. [00:15:37] I hope you hear the tenderness with which Jesus addresses Martha. Martha, because it's not wrong that she was serving. But see how the devil will tempt us in the midst of. Even in the midst of doing good things. [00:15:50] The devil tempts us to compare and to look and to be jealous. And you can imagine it. It's not hard at all to imagine that Martha's there working and looking and Mary's not helping and she's doing the dishes and cooking dinner and doing the wash and trying to put the sheets on the bed. I mean, it's not just Jesus, he always brings with him 12gu. You know, it's a lot to take care of. And she's. And there's Mary and she doesn't even lift a finger. And Martha's getting tired and her feet are getting sore and she finally, Jesus, can't stand it anymore. Jesus, come on, look at Mary. What's fair about this? [00:16:21] Martha. Martha. [00:16:23] The dishes will wait. Martha. [00:16:26] The one thing needful. The one thing that we must give our attention to if we can hear this text every day, because there's so many things that press in on us. All these, oh, here's these emails and here's these texts and here's these, you know, here's the letters and here's the bills to pay and here's the errands to do and here's the things to fix and here's the whatever, whatever, and you got a long to do list. There's one thing that must be done, and that is to hear the voice of Jesus. [00:16:54] That is the one thing Needful, which is the hymn that we're going to sing. [00:16:58] One thing's needful Lord, this treasure teach us highly to regard all else Though at first give Pleasure is a yoke that presses hard beneath it the heart is still fretting and striving no true lasting happiness ever deriving. This one thing is needful all others are vain I count all but loss that I Christ, may obtain. And then we sing about Mary and Martha. How are Mary's thoughts devoted? Her eternal joy defined as intent each word she noted and her Savior's feet reclined. [00:17:30] How candled her heart? How devout was its feeling While hearing the lessons that Christ was revealing all earthly concerns she forgot for her Lord and found her contentment in hearing his word. [00:17:43] One more verse. There's five stanzas, but listen to this third one. Wisdom's highest, noblest treasure Jesus is revealed in you. It's a prayer. Now let me find in you my pleasure and my wayward will Subdue humility there and simplicity reigning in paths of true wisdom my steps ever training. If I learn from Jesus this knowledge divine, the blessing of heavenly wisdom is mine. [00:18:14] So that we want to run up to the feet of Jesus and plop down on the ground right next to Mary and lift our eyes to his lips and receive from him this beautiful teaching. [00:18:27] I've seen the vicar's sermon because, you know, I have to look at the manuscript. And there's one little thing in there that. Well, the whole thing is great. It's beautiful. [00:18:36] It's a wonderful sermon. [00:18:38] But where he talks about. It wasn't just the presence of Jesus that was such a blessing to Mary, but His words. [00:18:46] His words, words. [00:18:50] And we have that. [00:18:52] This is why we come to service. So that we can be with Jesus and hear his words. [00:18:58] What an absolute treasure. [00:19:01] All right, that'll probably do it for today. I got to get back into the continuing ed class over there, so we'll see you in a few minutes. God be praised. We rejoice that the Lord has all these gifts for us today. Confirmation Baptism. This grandpa is pretty happy about this baptism. Farewell to the vicar. Oh, make sure to stay, for we have launch after the second service. Farewell launching for Vicar Krueger and Sarah and the children. So make sure to make plans for that and we'll see you soon. God's peace be with you.